Free The Vampire Diaries: Out of my Mind (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Jenna Elliot Page A

gone, he is gone, he is gone.
    Rebekah stands at the shore. I am nine and weeping.
    “Kiss me,” Rebekah says. I close my eyes. This is not happening. Please let this not be happening. “No? Fine.” She slices through my carotid artery and licks the knife clean. I tell her I shouldn’t have taken advantage of her with Sage. She throws the knife at my chest and it nicks a little triangle; the blood rises and overflows. Then she goes upstairs and sings in the shower.
     
    The fire crackles. Elena’s face again, her breath, closer and closer. She is here, she is actually here, she wants to rescue me. She cannot fathom the pain and I won’t tell her. Rebekah will kill her, I am certain of it, but I am too weak to resist so I tell her how to undo the traps. Do I know how? When she opens the left one I dangle from the right. She tries to catch me but she’s not prepared for it so my hand almost rips off. I’ve never seen a one-handed vampire but it must be possible; mending and regenerating are not the same. She’s supporting my weight while I hobble down the hall. I have never been big but still she carries my weight too easily.
    I am exhausted. She can’t carry me all the way to the car. I collapse in the middle of the room; I just need a minute. Isn’t this the same room? Where is the tarp? Elena insists I go on but I have nothing left. She has to leave, she’s being an idiot. Rebekah is near, I can feel it, she will stick her like a pig and I will be powerless to stop it. I won’t be able to save her and I can’t take it, Elena, get out of here. She is coming.
    I search my hollow mind for some way to make Elena leave, but she holds her wrist at my lips. I need it so badly I can’t find the strength to refuse. She doesn’t flinch when my fangs puncture her skin and she tastes like the sun, she tastes like salt and meat and love. I suck and suck, my eyes locked with hers. They tell me she loves me, clear as words. Now she can’t spare much more blood and I can make do with this, but my lips ache for more of her and she wants it too, she’s leaning in to kiss me. I can’t kiss her with her blood on my lips but where is the blood?
    The pain roars. Elena is gone. Rebekah is here. “You bitch.”
    Dreams are perilous. They show anyone with the power and will to eavesdrop exactly what you fear, what you want, who you are.
     
    I want that dream again.
    Elena’s face, her breath, she is here to rescue me. She has no idea what this kind of pain is like but she would take it on herself, for me, I see it. Rebekah is coming but I am too weak so I tell her how to undo the traps. I forget, remember next time to prepare her for the weight, but I forget so my arm almost rips clean off. She nearly carries me down the hall. I collapse in the middle of the room; give me a minute, the pain, I can’t think. Isn’t this the same room? Elena insists I go on but there is nothing to compare to this pain and Rebekah is coming. Elena has to leave, she’s being an idiot.
    She refuses to leave, to leave me, and now she feeds me, fills me with light and lust and love. I have to be careful, I have to be careful, I have to be careful. Not too much, if I kill her I can’t kiss her, but the blood comes rushing into me and she is wilting in front of me. I am killing her, stop, stop, STOP. She is gray, she topples like an old building.
    Rebekah grins at me, traces an old wound with her knife. She is a snake.
     
    It is too much but I want it. The dream comes back to me and I am powerless to stop it. I want it, I think I can change it, but it gets worse every time. Elena is stabbed, staked. Tortured in my place, beheaded. Beheaded while kissing me.
    Rebekah grabs my hair and I’m back on the tarp. The pain is intolerable. How is it possible that I am still alive? She tugs my head to the side and blood spurts from the wound in my neck and I wonder when there will simply not be enough blood to bleed. It has to be soon. She points my face at