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27 years, that's all that Maya Alexis Carson had before she met her end. It wasn't anything gruesome, nothing terrifying or unnatural, in fact it was a positively mundane ending to her short life. A car accident, they happened all the time, every day even, but she never expected it, what she expected even less, was her rebirth, sure she believed that maybe souls got recycled, that they were given another chance to live, but she was fairly certain that they weren't supposed to be able to remember their previous lives. She could, however it wasn't until she was three that the memories of her previous life came rushing back to her, and with it, the realisation that she wasn't a normal child, in a normal world. For Maya Alexis Carson, 27 year old woman, only child, dead before her time, was now Maya Alexis Sommers, three year old daughter to Jenna Sommers, cousin to three year old Elena Gilbert and one year old Jeremy Gilbert. The morning she woke up with her new 'old' memories, the three year old said her first curse word, "Fuck!"
She was five when she first met Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennett, as much as she hadn't wanted to, she tried to befriend Elena, but the two of them could never get along, so she had decided not to even attempt to befriend the main character's best friends, but it seemed like fate had a different idea. It was the first day of kindergarten that she met Caroline Forbes, the little blonde girl was a bubbly ball of light and had latched onto Maya almost the instant that they met, and Maya, who had been wallowing in a pit of darkness and despair since she got her memories back, was enamoured with the girl. Caroline was the sunshine to Maya's endless night, and she couldn't help but love the girl's light, after all, if Maya was going to be stuck going through everything in her life again she needed to make friends and Caroline was a delight.
Her meeting with Bonnie, however, did not go well, the baby Bennett Witch was already friends with Elena so didn't like Maya out of principal, but then when she had touched the Bennett Witch's hand the girl had yelped as if shocked and accused Maya of hurting her on purpose. Maya had stared at her hand with wide eyes, when she touched Bonnie, her palm had glowed red, just for a moment, and she realised that she would never be able to be normal. Her five-year-old brain was overcome with emotion, and she burst into tears, it did not endear Bonnie and Elena to Caroline, who thought that they had made her new bestest friend cry, and from that moment, there was a fracture in the plot line that she knew of. Caroline Forbes was not one of Elena's or Bonnie's friends, in fact, she didn't like them much at all, but she loved Maya because Maya was her best friend.
She was seven when she met her first vampire, of course, she was looking for him, so it wasn't a shock…or rather that much of a shock when she found him. She cursed herself for not remembering Enzo sooner, but she was only young, and it was difficult to process old and new memories at the same time. It seemed that the universe tried to help her out with this and on occasion would send her a dream to remind her of something, or even show her something that she didn't know to begin with.
She and her mother Jenna were staying over at the Gilbert's for the weekend, but right now they were all out, Jenna, Miranda and Grayson were at the Mystic Grill enjoying a child free meal, while Elena, Jeremy and Maya were playing in the nearby park, with a teenage babysitter watching them. Elena was playing with Bonnie, who was there with her Grams, and five-year-old Jeremy was being watched like a hawk by the babysitter. So Maya used this as an opportunity to sneak into Grayson's medical practice, to the basement, where she knew in her gut that Enzo was.
Maya made her way downstairs as quickly as she dared, she knew she wouldn't have much time, and she couldn't let Enzo out, it was broad daylight, but she couldn't let him waste away, without any hope of being free. Even though she knew what was happening for Enzo, nothing could prepare her for the actual sight of the poor vampire, strapped to a table, with an IV of what was probably vervain slowly being drip fed into him to keep him down. Enzo's head shot up when he scented the newcomer and she let out an involuntary squeak as his eyes landed on hers. Maya's hand shot up to cover her mouth, lest any other involuntary sounds slipped out, Enzo looked so much worse than she remembered, he was deathly pale, his face was gaunt, he looked like he wouldn't be far from actual desiccation.
"No, no, no," Enzo moaned as he saw the little girl, how could his captors do this, she was just a child, putting her in the room with him, if they released his bonds then he'd kill her, "Sweetheart you need to run," he whispered in a panic, he didn't want to hurt her, "you can't be here!"
Maya ignored him, walking up to him, "You're a vampire," she whispered, almost afraid to say it out loud.
Enzo was shocked, was Augustine training children now? Her hand reached up and he flinched, it was involuntary, he'd long since trained himself not to react to his torturers, but this child had thrown him for a loop. "It's okay," she said quietly, her fingers gently brushed the hair from his eyes, "I'm not going to hurt you."
"But I could hurt you!" he replied, momentarily stunned by the gentle touch, it had been 60 years since he'd last felt a gentle hand upon him.
"No, you can't," she replied, it had been two years since she'd discovered that she was a Siphon, the first thing that she'd gotten her hands on was the Gilbert pocket watch and she'd drained it of every last bit of magic it had. It was a powerful creation and had more magic than she thought inside of it, terrified to go to Sheila Bennett for help, because she wasn't a normal witch, she trained herself. She started off small, little tricks that shouldn't have taken much, but she didn't know the words to the spells so she exerted more magic than necessary. It turned out that fundamentally magic was a force of will, incantations helped channel magic into what the witch wanted, and ultimately there was a lot that she could do without the use of words, it just took longer and drained her tiny body faster. When she'd exhausted the magic of the pocket watch she'd stalled in her training. She couldn't use Uncle Grayson's ring, she knew John Gilbert would need it in the future, she didn't know where the Gilbert device was and even if she did, she was only seven, she couldn't go out on her own and get it. "I'm Maya," she said, "What's your name?"
Enzo sighed; the little girl didn't look like she was going anywhere, hopefully talking to her would distract him from the fact that he could practically feel the blood running through her veins. "Lorenzo St John, at your service Sweetheart, how can I help you?"
"I found one of Uncle Grayson's diaries, it- it said he was hurting someone, I had to know," Maya admitted.
"So, you're the doctor's niece then?" Enzo tried to be nonchalant about it, but it came out flat, and harsh.
"I'm sorry," Maya whimpered, tears were starting to fall from her eyes, "I'm sorry he's hurting you! I want to make him stop but I'm only seven! My powers don't work right yet, I'm so sorry!" she was full on crying, she was technically 34 now, but this torture was not something anyone should have to go through, and it upset her greatly.
Enzo was startled out of his dark thoughts by her tears, no one had ever cried for him, not once in his almost century of existence. "Hey sweetheart, it's alright love, don't cry for me." He couldn't reach out to comfort her, but he didn't want her to cry.
Her little hands roughly scrubbed at her face as she tried to calm down, she didn't have long and Enzo needed blood before he desiccated, reaching out, she grabbed a scalpel from the tray next to him and made a small cut on the side of her hand. "What are you do-" Enzo was cut off by the bloody appendage being shoved into his mouth. He tried to stop himself, he really did, but the taste of her blood was too much for him and his fangs came out, sinking into her hand deeper she let out a small whine that went unheard by the vampire that hadn't had fresh blood in 60-plus years.
Maya knew that it would hurt but she wasn't expecting the strange rush of something else that shot through her, she knew in the books if a vampire fed on someone willing it felt good, but she didn't realise that it would be the same here. She looked at Enzo and realised that he'd gotten some of his colour back and his cheeks looked a little fuller, she put her other hand on his face and started to Siphon him, to get him to stop feeding. When Enzo felt the odd stinging pain he pulled back, letting go of her hand, "What, what was that?!" Enzo felt a little woozy, "I could have killed you!"
"It's ok," Maya replied, "I'm a witch, I stopped you."
"What if you hadn't!" he almost yelled, he did not want to be responsible for the little girl's death.
"I know how to hurt you," she responded, "I'm not like normal witches, I have to take magic from people to work, so I took a bit from you to stop you."
"I don't have any magic, I'm a vampire," he said angrily, unable to believe that the girl had just risked her life for him.
Maya sighed and looked at him like was stupid, "Vampires are full of magic, it's the only thing that keeps them alive, I took a bit of yours, that's why it hurt, it's not permanent don't worry." She shrugged and looked down at her bleeding hand, furrowing her brow, she focused on the injury and placed her other hand on top of it, waiting a moment she pulled her hand away to find the injury gone. Maya showed Enzo her hand so as not to worry the vampire further, "See, all healed."
Enzo was amazed but wouldn't show it, "Never do that again," he ordered.
Shaking her head, Maya knew that he wouldn't budge on this, but she'd figure out how to feed him something, "It's daytime, so I can't let you out, but I promise I'm going to figure out how to free you Lorenzo," she said, and in lieu of a goodbye she kissed him on the cheek quickly, before darting up the stairs and out of the building before the babysitter could notice she was missing.
Getting back to the park she curled up on a bench away from Elena and Bonnie, she wished the Caroline was there, but her Care-Bear was on a weekend trip with her dad. She felt eyes on her and stiffened, looking around she saw Sheila Bennett's eyes on her and fought her instincts which were telling her to run. A Bennett Witch had created the Prison Worlds that Kai and the Heretics were in, which meant that the Bennett line thought that Siphoners were unnatural. Maya didn't want to go anywhere near Bonnie's Grams.
She was ten when she finally figured out where to get a steady source of magic from, for the past three years she'd managed to accidentally stumble across bits and pieces that were imbued with magic so she could keep practicing, but nothing so she could do it all the time. But at ten, her mother Jenna had moved them into the apartment above Grayson's medical practice, which was good for her because it made it easier to visit Enzo. After her third visit the Augustine vampire had finally told her to call him by his nickname, and by the time she was ten he had come to not only trust her, but to rely on her visits to keep him sane and to keep his hope alive. But the move also meant that Maya was close to one particular magical hotspot, the place where Esther Mikaelson had died, the Original Witch had left a huge magical signature there and it was close enough that Maya could cut through there after school, on her way home.
It was because she'd found a steady magic source that she'd felt that it was time to tell her mother the truth about her abilities and enlist Jenna's help in getting Enzo out of the torture factory below. "Mum can I talk to you?" Maya asked, one weekend.
Jenna looked up from her computer, working on completing her bachelor's degree and taking care of a child as a single mother was hard, but she wouldn't trade it for the world. "Sure baby, what is it."
Maya sat down in front of her mother with all the seriousness that she could muster, "Mum I'm going to tell you something and I need you to believe me, okay? It's really important."
"Ok honey, lay it on me," Jenna was a little amused at how serious her baby girl looked.
"Mum I'm a Witch."
Jenna tried not to laugh at her daughter, clearly her imagination was running wild, "Ok," she said with mock seriousness, "Are you a Witch like Hermione in Harry Potter? Do you have a wand? Did you get your Hogwarts Letter?"
"Mum!" Maya exclaimed, "I'm telling the truth! Look!" She raised her hand and pointed it at the candle sticks on the table between them, "Phasmatos Incendia!" She spoke clearly and all three candles lit up.
Jenna jumped in surprise at that and then looked round the apartment as if looking for whoever else was in on the prank "Honey how did you do that? Playing with fire isn't a joke."
"I'm not joking Mum!" Maya said frustrated, grabbing a pillow off the couch she ripped it open and let the feathers all drop to the floor.
"Maya!" Jenna exclaimed getting up to grab her daughter. But Maya moved away from her and concentrated, the feathers all lifted up around Jenna a just floated there. Jenna looked around in shock "Oh my god!" she whispered, feeling her legs give out she collapsed on the floor staring at her daughter.
Tears pooled in Maya's eyes, "Please don't be afraid Mummy, please," she whimpered and Jenna came back to herself.
She pulled her daughter to her in a tight hug, "I'm not scared of you baby, this is just a lot to take in." Standing up with her daughter in her arms, Jenna settled on the couch, "Now how about you tell me everything."
It took a few hours but, Maya told Jenna what she could, about the magic, about the 'visions' that she would get whilst asleep, she didn't go into too much detail there, but she'd been having terrible nightmares of the Witch House and she knew her Mum would ask questions about the little girl waking up screaming in the middle of the night. She also told her about the Sheila and how Jenna could never tell her about Maya, even though Sheila was an actual practicing witch herself. "Why not?" Jenna asked, "You can't just learn this all by yourself."
"You can't Mum, Miss Sheila hates me!"
"Honey I'm sure she doesn't hate you, and you need help."
"No, she told me to stay away, she said I was an abomination, she'll hurt me Mum!"
"Maya-"
"No, when we were at Bonnie's house with Elena, Miss Sheila said that I was unnatural, that I shouldn't exist, and to stay away from Bonnie. I told you I'm not like normal witches."
Jenna's face hardened at the thought of her daughter being threatened by another person, who the hell did Sheila Bennett think she was! "Then we'll just have to find you someone like you."
"The other witches kill them," Maya whispered, "or worse, I don't know where to find someone else to help."
Maya's voice trembled as she spoke about others like her, and Jenna did everything she could to keep her own terror from showing, the thought of her little girl being murdered by witches that didn't like that she was different, had her wanting to snatch up her daughter and hide away where no one could find them. It was then Maya moved on to her most pressing concern, the vampire in the basement.
"WHAT!" Jenna yelled, when Maya told her about Enzo, "You're telling me that Grayson is torturing someone, in the goddamn basement!"
"Mum that's a dollar in the swear jar!"
"Maya this is a situation that needs swearing, and don't think were not going to have a conversation about your lack of self-preservation! Feeding a hungry vampire! What were you thinking?!" Jenna threw herself back onto the couch, "We can't just leave him there," she muttered to herself, "It's not right."
Maya smiled, Jenna was the best mum, she didn't hate her for being a Siphon, and she didn't want to leave Enzo in the basement. "Well…" she started, almost guiltily, "I kinda have a plan." She looked up at her mother with a sheepish smile.
Jenna's eyes narrowed at her daughter, "Tell me everything!" she ordered.
"Well… I've been practicing enough that I could blow the power on this street, it'll turn off the cameras and the locks in Uncle Grayson's clinic, we could get some blood bags and feed Enzo, and then let him out before anyone sees!"
Jenna gripped the bridge of her nose in frustration and then looked at her daughter, "We are doing this, and then I am going to figure out your punishment for putting your life in danger."
Maya knew that there was no way she could get out of this, so just nodded silently and let her mother process all the information that she'd been given.
It was three days later on Saturday evening that Jenna gave her daughter the go ahead for the plan, closing her eyes and concentrating, Maya reached out with her borrowed magic, she could feel the electric current running through the building and followed it outside to the powerlines, frowning she muttered a few words under her breath before there was loud crack and one of the electrical lines fell, cutting off the power to the whole street. "Lets go," Jenna said, holding onto her daughter tightly, she hadn't wanted to bring the young girl, but Maya had pointed out that Enzo wouldn't trust her on her own and she didn't want the vampire to hurt her.
Maya waited patiently for Jenna to find the blood bags in the Clinic, the woman grabbing all ten of them because she didn't know how much the vampire would need, "Let's go Mum!" She grabbed Jenna's hand when her mother got close and pulled her to the basement door, "Ok hang on," Maya grabbed the door handle and concentrated her magic on making the door fragile and then she pulled towards her, the edge of the door warped and swung open, "to make it look like it broke from the inside," she shrugged at her mother's questioning gaze.
Jenna was so not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole tonight. The mother daughter duo headed downstairs and Jenna gasped at what she saw, Enzo was in a cage that looked to be bolted to the floor, "Oh my god!" she whispered, she was hoping that at least this part of her conversation with her daughter was make believe, but her brother-in-law really was cutting up a person down here.
"Sweetheart," Enzo spoke warily, "What are you doing down here?"
"We're breaking you out!" Maya replied excited, she hated that it had taken her this long to come up with a way to free her friend.
"Love I haven't fed, you can't let me out," he replied, not taking his eyes from the other woman in the room.
"It's okay Enzo, we brought you food! Mum!" she said calling to the woman who was frozen in place, "Mum!" she hissed again, finally getting Jenna's attention. "The blood!" Jenna startled and handed the purse filled with blood bags to her daughter, who in turn happily supplied them to the man in the cage, "See Enzo, blood bags!"
Enzo looked at the bags warily, not yet willing to give in to the feeling that was rising in his chest. "What?"
"Enzo hurry, we don't know when Uncle Grayson is going to come back!"
The vampire shook himself from his stupor and started draining the bags, he finished all ten, not willing to chance being even the slightest bit hungry around his saviours, when he was finished, he handed the purse back, "Alright, move aside sweetheart." Maya grabbed her mother's hand and pulled her to the side of the cage and they both watched as Enzo kicked the cage door open, finally at full strength after 60 years. Jenna squeaked in surprise when she saw the door fly across the room, "We need to leave," Enzo said, "Who knows if someone heard that." He grabbed both girls and whooshed out the clinic and landed them outside of their apartment upstairs. Jenna wobbled on her feet not expecting or being used to such a feeling, but Maya was practically jumping up and down in glee, that was the single most fun thing she'd ever felt! Enzo looked at the little ten-year-old with a soft smile, she was his saviour, his hope, his little sister, he bent down and wrapped her in his arms, "Thank you sweetheart, I'll see you soon," he whispered and then whooshed out of sight.
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