Wish you were here

Wish you were here

(contest entry, fandom: The Vampire Diaries)

- The Salvatore Mansion, Damon is pacing in his room and throwing around things in pure anger-

Damon (angry): I can’t believe she hid the fact she is a half blood for us!
- He is about to throw a book across the room when his eyes fall on the title: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare. Damon halts his movements as memories of Hope invade his mind.-

Hope: Go on Salvatore, throw it. It’s not like it’s my favourite book or anything…

- Damon turns startled on his heels only to lay eyes on Hope while her eyes roam over the large room that looks as if a tornado just passed through it.-

Hope (sarcastic): I love what you’ve done to the place. It basically screams ‘angry bloodsucker living here!’.

Damon (slightly irritated): I’m not in the mood for jokes right now Hope. Not when I just found out my own sister isn’t really my sister to begin with.

- Hope glares at him and smacks Damon on the back of his head. –

Damon: What the hell was that for!

Hope: For claiming Dahlia isn’t your sister.

Damon: She’s a hybrid Hope! Half vampire, half werewolf!

- Hope smacks him again on the back of his head. –

Hope: Yes, and half Lockwood, half SALVATORE. And all of that doesn’t say a thing about Dee, but everything about your mother. It was she who started an affair with a Lockwood and caused that the DNA of her unborn twins got all jumbled up.

- Damon glares at the ground, not knowing what to say. –

Hope: Faith took a gamble and rolled the dice. For all we know, Stefan could have been the hybrid of the two. Or they both could have turned out to be wolves with fangs. Remember what I always used to say about destiny?

Damon (sighs): That we have to play with the cards we are getting dealt. Which game we play however, that’s all up to ourselves. Our destiny isn’t written in the stars or on some old stone with blood. We choose is ourselves.

Hope (grins): And here I thought you never listened to me.

- Damon smiles and looks up at Hope. –
Damon: You thought wrong.

- A silence of a few seconds falls upon the duo before Damon sighs. –

Damon: What now Hope? How do we move on from this?

Hope: As I said Damon, Dahlia being a hybrid doesn’t change anything about her, you or Stefan. True, life as a vampire isn’t easy and when you have a hybrid in the family it tends to get even more complicated. There is a chance people will come for her…

Damon: If they do, they’ll have to get through me first.

- Hope smiles brightly. –
Hope: And that’s the Damon Salvatore I know and love.

- Damon sighs and walks closer towards Hope before he brushes some strands of her brown hair behind her ear. He lets his hand rest on her cheek and leans his forehead against hers. –

Damon: I wish you were really here Hope. You have no idea how much I miss you.

Hope: Why would you think I’m not really here?

- Damon closes his eyes on which a few silent tears escape.-
Damon (whispers): Because you’re dead.
- He opens his eyes again only to see Hope has disappeared. His hand, previously on Hope’s cheek, drops to his side on which he sighs sadly.-

- The door opens and Stefan appears in the doorway. –

Stefan: Were you talking to someone?

Damon: Just… To myself.

Stefan (frowns): You do know that talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity, right?

Damon: No Stefan, it’s the first sign of intelligence.

Stefan: And who told you that?

- Damon gazes at the spot where Hope’s ‘ghost’ stood only a few seconds ago. –
Damon: A smart little witch once told me so.