Casting Shadows

Prologue - Silas

It's been two thousand years since I have gazed upon that lovely face. Two thousand years trapped on an Island, starved until I had calcified, waiting for the moment I could be set free and reunite with my beloved Amara, and have long overdue revenge on my ex-fiancée Qetsiyah.

I saw her beautiful face briefly in the memories of the Bennett witch as I played with her mind, manipulating her to follow my version of Sheila so that she would come to me. The hunter whom followed her could see the lost souls of the Other Side, and he knew that which the girl saw was not true. She did not listen to him and soon found where I lay entombed.

It amused me greatly as they tried to pry the cure from my calcified hands. I have held this box for near on two millennia and I will not let it go; however briefly, until blood runs through my veins anew.

The smell of the witch's blood started to awaken my senses, oh the smell alone would not revive me but my starving body cried out for the taste of it. I paid no attention to the hunters discussion as I felt the mind of another approaching, one whose mind was filled with nothing but treachery and survival.

I was proven right as not long after arrival, the woman pretended to be the boys sister before growing bored of the act and offering his neck to me.

The first drops of blood hit my tongue, rushing through my parched veins like it was nothing. I needed more, much more, to quench an unquenchable thirst. I tore savagely into the hunter, tasting his delicious blood as he screamed in terror. I could finally move my arms after so long of stillness, so I reached up and held his neck. I greedily took all he had to offer me, feeling my whole body shake off the hard stone-like exterior that had covered me for far too long.

The boys incessant screaming began to pain me, the sound annoyingly loud in my sensitive ears. With one twist of my wrist I broke the hunter's neck, his screams ending instantly and his body fell to the ground. The boy had served his purpose and I no longer wished to keep him alive.

I felt relief at the mask that covered my face. In the minds of those I'd searched, I had not only seen the face of my long lost love, but that of my own. I can't have anyone know who I am before I want them to. So I will keep those little secrets to myself, to be revealed as I saw fit, after a touch of torture to the doppelgängers that walked around with faces that should have never been given to them.

There was only one Silas and Amara.

In my hunger I drained the other hunter they had trapped, the curse attached to their deaths afflicted me, but it was no more than a momentary distraction, I beat it within minutes. The magic contained in their death moment not enough to sway me from my goal; to get off this Island and begin playing with the mind of the witch so that she would finish my expression triangle.

All the others had fled from the Island leaving only the Bennett witch and a lone vampire. I appeared before Bonnie as Atticus, starting to penetrate her mind, to break through the weak protection that could not beat me for I had thousands of years of mind control available to me.

I held myself back and watched at a distance as the vampire found Bonnie and proceeded to get her off the Island. I followed.

I watched and waited for weeks. Slowly working on Bonnie, convincing her that the only way to bring back her love was to kill the twelve witches. I watched from a distance as the witches tried to purge my influence from her, the pain she felt very real, and he could sense her resolve weakening.

I was prepared to intervene when I caught sight of the face that haunted my dreams for eternity, followed closely by the self proclaimed immortal hybrid; one I could so easily crush with hardly much effort, and my shadow self. I was caught aback by her, she was even more lovely than what he had seen in the others mind. Her blonde locks mesmerizing to his eyes, her scared and concerned eyes made some long dead part of his heart jump with the need to comfort her. He read her intent just moments before she moved.

My loves shadow had just killed the twelve witches and completed the triangle.

I... did not see that coming.

I took immense pleasure in playing with the hybrids mind. He may be a thousand years old but his defences were no match for me, I am more than twice his age and far superior to him.

As I made him believe that I had stabbed him with the tip of the only weapon able to kill him I could not help but find satisfaction. This worthless creature fancied himself in love with the face that belonged only to me. I took great pleasure in torturing him for that grand mistake, any girl who wore the face of my beloved would never love a monster like him. In fact, after reading his thoughts I saw that only recently he had stabbed and bit her, almost letting her die before swallowing his pride and giving her the cure. I clearly saw that she manipulated him, using his feelings for her to get him to heal her.

I tortured him some more, appearing before him wearing the face of his obsession, playing into his fantasies before Klaus realised who I was. As if Amara's shadow would ever touch him with love and tenderness.

When the hybrid called her over to help him, I was pleased to see that she did not just fawn over him because he was injured. In fact, she left him to his pain to spite him for expecting her to help him with nothing in return. She wanted to save the life of the younger hybrid, whom Klaus swore to hunt down and kill, in exchange for her help. It vexed me that she had yet another suitor after her heart, one whom she was lovers with.

The doppelgänger prophecy should have never allowed such an affront to happen. Our shadow selves always end up together, are drawn together by the power of my everlasting love for Amara. Why was this newest pair the exception?

I couldn't allow myself to form an attachment to her, my plan was almost complete, and I would be reunited with my true love in death. But I could not leave her truly alone despite my sound reasoning so I tortured her for information on Bonnie as she hid from me.

I first appeared as Matt, and then Klaus. Planting the seed in her head that I had, and would continue to, hurt her mother if she did not do what I wanted. And I would, no matter whose face she wore, or how much she reminded me of the woman I loved, I would kill everyone in my path until that dream was realized.

Bonnie was the one to warn Caroline that I was actually in her house, and not her mother as I had pretended to be. Talking to her and gazing closely at her face had a been a rare treat I scarcely allowed myself to indulge in.

I let myself take on the visage of Klaus again, talking to her as we walked in the woods, calling her out on all the thoughts she never allowed herself to have about Klaus. I made a mistake by using the line Elena used, she was smart and realised instantly who I was. I made her think that I hurt her as I left her alone in the woods. She was more perceptive than I gave her credit for, she knew her friends; and enemies, so well that she could tell if they were acting differently.

I would have to get rid of her for the final part of the plan.

I cornered her in the grill, told her to keep cutting her wrist and to never stop, before leaving to check that all was in order. The spell was soon to be, Bonnie thought she was fooling me but I have been steps ahead of her this whole time. I knew she would betray me, I just let her think she had the upper hand so that she would perform the ritual.

Ghosts are roaming Mystic Falls. Some with thoughts of revenge, others with wants of reuniting with loved ones. I cared for neither as I walked amongst them. They were but a step in my ultimate endgame, the showdown soon approaching.

I am stone once again. I had just enough strength to make sure my face was covered as I became stone once again. It mattered not, I had waited a long time for this moment, I could wait a little longer.

That longer turned out not to be as long as I thought. Barely a day had passed when I felt the spell wear off and I became my true self again. Something must have happened to the witch, not that I cared. I am free, and I can work on the next part of my plan to destroy the Other Side.

But first I have something I must take care of.

I watched from a distance as Amara's shadow hugged her mother, the pure joy and love on her face brought an unbidden smile to his face. For being a vampire she was so happy and full of life. She reminded me of my love, yet she was still so different.

She was achingly beautiful.

Amara's doppelgänger.

Her shadow self.

Caroline Forbes.

I waited for the opportune moment to reveal myself to my doppelgänger. I first appeared as Elena, making him think that I was just another copy of her. I soon showed him my real face; his own face.

"Hello, my shadow self."

I approached him and stabbed him in the gut with a stake. I pulled him to me and hissed, "Do you have any idea what it's like to starve for two thousand years?" I let him go and he fell to his knees.

I put him into the body-sized safe, locked him in there and tipped it over the edge of the cliff into the quarry.

It was only fitting as he was prepared to do the same to me if Bonnie's spell would not have failed.

I watched satisfied as the safe containing Stefan Salvatore; my shadow self, sank beneath the water.

I would not allow Stefan nor Caroline to find their soul mate with one another until I was with my Amara and we had our own happy ending.

TBC

AN – I hope you all enjoyed it. This will be a multi-chapter fic, I'm not sure how many chapters as of yet.

Here's the prompt -

drabble - they are all helping silas get amara back but then one by one they all find out (exsept caroline and stefan) that amara may not look like elena after all so when they finally find amara they all see she looks like caroline then they all put it together that maybe caroline and stefan are meant to be together but then damon starts to see how awkward they have become round each other and try and make it right for stefan by showing them there true feelings