˖*°࿐chapter sixteen.
xvi. THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT JANELLE

———

janelle

one week later

As you could probably tell by the time skip, I don't want to talk about it. And by 'it', I mean the encounter I had with Kai and don't even get me started on Klaus.

Just know that the conversation we had about my situation, didn't exactly end with a kiss, or a hug goodbye. Which also means that I didn't go back to New Orleans with him either. I'm just so stressed out right now and I don't want to deal with him anymore.

Yes, we're still together. I'm just choosing not to talk to him at the moment. And if you're wondering, I didn't tell Klaus the entire reason as to why I had Elijah erase my memories of Kai. I may have been mad at him, but that doesn't mean I want him to hate me for basically lying to him for the last 18 years.

So I covered that up with another lie.

Yep, a great plan, Janelle — note the sarcasm.

My thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on the front door. I got up from the couch and went to answer it. And there stood Elena.

"Damon's not here. And even if he was, I still wouldn't let you in the house," I said in an annoyed tone.

"I'm not here to see Damon. I came here to talk to you," she said.

"I'd rather be put in a tank full of flesh-eating piranhas than hear you speak," I told her with no emotion, shutting the door behind me.

"All I'm asking for is five minutes." I jumped back in surprise as she stood right in the living room. "The faster you let me talk, the faster I'll leave."

"What could you possibly want to talk to me about?" I asked.

"I want us to be friends again," Elena replied to me slowly.

Of course, I hate to admit it, but Elena and I were friends at one point. It was around the time she was still human. Then, the relationship she had with my brothers got way too complicated and she practically pulled them apart, so I was just done with her.

"Why?" I asked her, utterly confused.

"Because Damon is your brother and my boyfriend," she stated. "We are eventually going to be starting a life together, which means I'm gonna be around a lot. So it's not gonna be fun for either one of us if we're fighting all time, especially since you're pregnant now."

Oh, just pull the pregnancy bit.

Footsteps entered the room and both of us looked up to see a tired Stefan. "What's going on here?" he asked.

Just as Elena was about to answer, I cut her off, "Nothing. Elena was just leaving."

I walked past them and went up the stairs to go to my bedroom. I plopped down onto the bed and grabbed my phone off the charger. The doorknob twisted, letting Stefan and Elena in.

"Yeah, sure. Just come right in," I said, sarcastically.

"Janelle, there is no good reason why you and I shouldn't be able to sit down with each other and have a conversation."

"I got a good reason," I mentioned.

"Which is?" she asked.

"I don't like you," I smiled sarcastically.

She put her hands on her hips. "Really? You can't think of one thing you like about me?"

"I like when you're sad," I commented.

"Janelle," Stefan shook his head.

I ignored him and continued to scroll through my phone. Elena started speaking again, but I was only semi-listening. "We had a good friendship, Janelle. Don't you miss that?"

"No," I answered. "In fact, I like the way things are. You know, I make your life a living hell, while you sit back, not being able to do anything because I'm your boyfriend's little sister," I smirked. "Isn't that fun?"

"No. It's not," she said.

I wasn't going to be easy on Elena about this. If she wanted to be friends with me, she was going to have to work for it. Plus, it's also highly unlikely that I would even consider being friends with her again, so this should be interesting.

"All right. Just calm down," Stefan said to Elena, placing a hand on her shoulder when he saw how angry she was getting.

"Why should I calm down?" she asked Stefan. "I've done nothing to her."

"Uh, correction, missy. You have done everything," I snapped. "You tore my brothers apart. They couldn't even stand to be in the same room together, let alone speak to one another. Honestly, you're no better than Katherine."

"Okay, I admit that I did play a big role in that, and I apologize," she said sincerely. "But since then, everything's been fixed."

"Because of me," I emphasized. "There wouldn't have been anything to fix if you never came into their lives in the first place."

Stefan and Damon both came to the point where they couldn't even stand to be in the same room as each other. At the time, I was still angry with Damon for what he did years ago, so I didn't care about them fighting. But it got way too far for me, so after I forgave him, I forced them to talk it out.

"Janelle, that's enough," Stefan spoke sternly as I narrowed my eyes on him. "She's not the only one to blame here."

"What are you even talking about?"

"You constantly try to sabotage anything that involves Elena. There's no one here that wants to kill her more than you do, and you know it."

"Beg to differ, baby bro," I said. "Rebekah wants her dead just as bad as me." He sighed deeply. "Oh, come on. Whatever I've done to her has been nothing, but completely harmless."

"You almost burned me alive once," Elena mentioned.

I whipped my head in her direction with a hard glare. "Yeah, and I almost drove a stake through your heart. But are you hurt? No."

Elena seemed to become frightened by my words because she took a step back. Stefan walked closer to me with a worried expression. "Janelle."

"God, what now?" I harshly spat at him.

"Your eyes. They've completely blacked out." He reached out to touch my face, only to have me smack his hand away. "Does that happen often?" he asked urgently.

"Only when I get pissed off," I glared at Elena. "Cassandra said it's a possible side effect from the spell."

"That's no side effect," Stefan disagreed. "You don't even look like yourself."

"Quit panicking. It'll wear off soon," I dismissed. "Are we done here?"

"Janelle, wait," Elena called as I tried to leave.

"Ugh, what?" I turned around to face her, even though I really didn't want to.

"I understand that you've been under a lot of stress lately, and you've already gone through so much from coming back home. But I just want you to know, no matter what differences we may have, I am still willing to help you with whatever you may need."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, "Are you serious? Even after everything I've done to you, you still want to be friends?"

"Yes," she replied. "The last thing we both need is negativity in our lives."

I hesitated a bit and blew some air through my nose. "Fine."

Elena's lips curled into a smile as she stuck her arms out. My gaze shifted to Stefan in confusion as he mouthed, "Hug her."

I mentally groaned but hugged her anyway. This was gonna take some getting used to, but hopefully, it won't be too torturous. I soon remembered something and pulled away from Elena.

"Well, this has been amusing," I said, "but I have somewhere to be in the next hour. So if you'll excuse me."

I shooed them out of my room and went into my closet to get dressed.

I nearly forgot that I was supposed to see Cassandra today at the meeting grounds. She said it was urgent, so I couldn't just drop it. Unfortunately, she didn't say what it was about, but I assume it's important.

———

"Cassandra?" I called out for her, but no one showed up. "Come on, Cassandra. I didn't come here for nothing."

This is stupid. She was the very one who told me not to be late, yet she's not even here.

"She may be a while," a voice said.

I quickly turned around to be met with an unfamiliar guy. He stood at least a few inches taller than me with brown hair and light blue eyes.

"Who — Who are you?" I questioned before taking a step back warily.

"Relax," he chuckled. "It's not like I'm a murderer."

"Only a murderer would say that," I commented.

The boy sighed, "I'm Chris. Chris Warren. I'm sort of from the future."

I let out a dry, humorless laugh "Of course you are... Cassandra!" I yelled, even more angrily this time.

"I already told you, she might be a while," he repeated.

"Well, how far exactly into the future are you from?" I asked.

"About 20 years, or so," he replied nonchalantly.

"So why did you come back?"

"I can't answer that," he stated. I could see it in his eyes — Chris was ready to answer my question, but he hesitated.

"Why not?"

"Because anything I tell you could risk changing the future in ways we don't want," he informed me.

"Okay, you've obviously been hanging around Cassandra for way too long because now you're starting to sound like her."

"Look, all I can say is, where I come from, this place isn't exactly picture perfect. Nearly every single magical creature you can think of has ceased to exist, Phoenixes included. So I'm here to alter history — to help save the future."

"And what does any of that have to do with me?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Everything." Cassandra's voice echoed around us before she appeared in front of us.

"Finally," I said.

"Patience is a virtue," she smiled.

"Well then, can you please explain what this is about? More importantly, why this guy is here?" I asked her.

"I asked Chris here to watch over you," she simply stated.

"Watch over me for what?" I asked.

"This will just take a minute." Cassandra took my arm and led us farther away from Chris. "Could you at least try to be decent?"

I shook my head at her, "No, because this is ridiculous. There is no reason for me to have a babysitter."

"Need I remind you of the events that have happened in the past week?" she inquired.

"I'm fine," I assured her. "It not's like anything major has happened."

"For the moment," she commented, "but as time progresses, we don't know what your child will become capable of. If something were to happen, I can't guarantee I'll always be there, Janelle. It's better to be safe than sorry," She explained in a softer tone.

I sucked my teeth and looked away from her. "Okay, I see your point. But, why him? What even is he anyway?" I nodded towards Chris, who was just leaning against a tree, staring off into space.

"He's a witch, Janelle," Cassandra laughed, lightly.

"He's a guy." I corrected. "They're not exactly the ones that we usually trust when it comes to magic.

"I trust him," she told me.

"And I don't." I retorted.

"Well, that's too bad because, for the next nine months, Chris is going to be your guardian. And that's final."

"There's just something sketchy about him," I mentioned. "I mean, he travels back 20 years to help save the future? Not to mention, he's back just in time to become my new guardian. Don't you find that the least bit odd?"

"Quite the opposite, actually," she disagreed, making me confused by what she meant. "There was one part that Chris left out of his story. In his future, the magical community gained a new leader that turned the world into a veritable dystopia. They were ruthless and driven by power. And that's when things took a turn for the worst. It was more than just vampires and witches becoming extinct. They were killing innocent people — mortals."

"How does something like that just happen?" I asked incredulously. "Why didn't anyone do anything to try and stop it?"

"No one could do anything," she replied. "Even if they tried, they would just end up dead. Her magical abilities were very rare and too powerful for people to go up against."

"Her?" I questioned as Cassandra's turned sympathetic.

I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I looked down, placing a weary hand on my stomach.

"Wait. Are you saying that this child that I'm carrying, my daughter, i-is —"

"The future of all evil."