"Love me for my monsters and I'll love you for yours."
In which Holly Gilbert learns just how thin the line of love and hate is.
(THE VAMPIRE DIARIES)
(KLAUS x OC)
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Holly studied the shelves glumly, picking up a packet of sour patch kids. Jeremy's go-to movie snack. It had been over two months since she had set foot in Mystic Falls, nearly three. As time wore on her teachers were becoming less sympathetic at her absence, and the dreaded day of returning was coming closer and closer. Her phone had been switched off the entire time, the greatest social detox she had ever accomplished. The idea of seeing all the missed calls and texts was draining.
"You ready to go?" Hayley walked out from the bathroom as Holly paid for the sweets and a pack of gum.
"Sure am," Holly threw her change in the tip jar, following Hayley out of the truck stop.
They had been moving about the place, constantly on the run as Katherine sent vampires to kill Hayley. Their first stop was Atlanta, were Holly had slumped in a cafe booth as Hayley explained her side of the story.
"Did you know?" Holly stirred her coffee with a teaspoon, watching as the sugar dissolved. Her hair was messy and her eyes were strained and puffy. She still wore Damon's jacket, her clothes stiff and heavy as they hadn't really dried but frozen in the Canadian cold nearly two days ago. The smell of her brother's rotting corpse, the smell of the rubbing alcohol, the bourbon, the smoke, it all lingered, sticking to her clothes and skin, smothering her until she could hardly breathe. Her lungs hurt from all her crying, hollow and bruised as she had hacked out what felt like an entire lake. Something must have gone wrong with the vampire blood because here she was alive, yet she felt like she was dying. A pit of rage burrowed in her stomach, her need to scream and cry still very much there. She wanted to stand out in the pouring rain and yell up to the heavens, begging for someone, anyone, to turn off her humanity too, to take away her pain too. But as the storm outside reflected her internally, Holly remained numb, a blank look on her face.
"No," Hayley shook her head, her eyes glistening as she took in her best friend, "Holly if I'd have known that you or anyone you cared about would get hurt... I wouldn't have told her anything."
As Holly finally met Hayley's eyes, she felt a shimmer of relief. She could feel Hayley's guilt, her horror, her regret. Holly wasn't losing another person today.
"Ok," Holly whispered, turning back to her coffee. "So where are we going next?"
50 miles outside of Nashville, Holly and Hayley began to walk back to their car. In the past week, three vampires had come for Hayley, all ending up on the side of the road with a stake in their hearts.
"Ok, so I'm thinking, we go to the coast," Holly opened the map as they walked past the parked trucks, "hit the Carolinas. I know how to drive a boat, vampires can't get to us at sea."
"Actually," Hayley turned back, clasping her hands awkwardly, "I've been meaning to talk to you. I think it might be best if you go home."
Holly deadpanned, "I'm not going home, Hayley, not yet."
