Normal had died that night, that was all there was to it. And she had always tried so desperately to hold onto it. Dances and homework. All the while dating a vampire because he couldn't die on her. It wasn't healthy. But she'd been so afraid of losing someone else and that was exactly what her life had turned into. A never ending cycle of death and loss and fear and stress and no amount of pretending could make the normal ever return. Even in Lawrence. She got those moments, Anakin had given her those moments. But people got pulled to and from, with memories, without. Demons and hell hounds and Lucifer and the Horsemen.
Normal was an illusion. The illusion was a cage. And yet, she still wanted it. She still just wanted a normal life. She just had finally accepted that it was never meant to be. But when you offer up your brother to help hunt down a Reaper on the chance his seeing ghosts would help with that....
Hearing that Matt had heard through the grapevine that things had gotten intense for her for a few months, Elena just nodded and looked down at her hands, placing the plate on the table. Most likely it had been Damon or Jeremy. They were the only ones from home who really knew Matt that had been around at the time. Caroline had been a different one. And while she had all her friends here, she doubted they would have said something on the matter. Damon and Jeremy though? They were more likely to have said some things.
"Yeah. Maleficent decided to curse me because I'm friends with Jacen and he managed to trick her so she cursed his family and those he cared about. It wasn't the first time I'd dealt with ghosts from home, they were just more intense..."
She tried to make it not be that big a deal. It had happened. She was dealing with it. Of course, she didn't realize that she'd gone through the Hunter's Curse here, just for a different reason. She didn't realize how similar the two were and how could she? She hadn't lived it. She just knew that if a vampire killed a Hunter, they would be cursed. She didn't know the specifics.
But guilt and all of them versus a very angry Alaric ghost who wanted to kill her but couldn't because of Death's rules? That was different.