"What?" "Oh my god..." They both let out.
"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?" She asked of me, catching up to my heels. I stopped and turned around to face her saying, "I need to finish this, Caroline. Stay with Matt, I promise this will be quick."
"Yeah, your death will be quick. Do you honestly think I'll let you go through with this? It's suicide! No one has ever succeeded, and the ones that came close ended up dead. You said so yourself." She reminded me. "Then I guess it's a risk I'll have to take." I told her, taking a step back. She narrowed her eyes at me and scoffed.
"Don't you dare." She warned me. "Tell them... tell them I did it for the team. That I actually thought we stood a chance." I quickly apologized, before I raised up my hand and telepathically snapped her neck.
"Crystal! Crystal, open up! Open the fucking door, Crystal!" Hannah screamed out, pounding her fists against the door.
"What happened?" She asked, staring at all of us intensely with a stern look. As if we were to blame. As if it were our fault.
I stood there just staring in awe of the destruction. How could something so small, so meaningless could cause such an uproar?
"You know what? Fuck you! You knew exactly this would happen. You knew. Like hell, you knew!" I bursted out.
Please pick up... please pick up...
"Ken?" I heard his voice ring out.
"Damon, where are you? I need you. I messed up this time. I really messed up this time." I chocked out.
"Qu-? Where are you? Where are you?" He asked of me.
"Of all places, I'm at the school. Please hurry." I said, hanging up. I then allowed myself to cry a little knowing what was yet to come.
"Watch your tone. I will not tolerate this idiocy any further. As long as you are my blood, live in my house, and are apart of this cult, you will obey me and follow my rules." She stated.
"Screw the cult! You made her blow up the school! Do you have any idea how many people are dead because of this?" He informed her.
"Jesse! Jesse! Jesse!" She called out. She sounded more desperate the more she noticed the lack of response she received. Hell, I was a tad more desperate than her, given our circumstances. "Oh my god, finally! The hell were you?" She broke out in relief to give him a hug than pulled away. "I was with Stefan and Elena. What happened?" He asked her. "Shit happened." I answered him. "Stop being vague. Seriously, what happened." He asked us. His face shifted into bitterness, anger and disbelief when he read the expression on my face and connected the dots. "Don't tell me you did it." He stated with repulse. "I didn't have a choice." I informed him. "I said don't tell me... god, how could you be such a moron?" He said outraged. "You think I'm the monster? I didn't have a choice. There was absolutely nothing I could have done. I did the best I could have done at that moment." I reminded him. "By slaughtering half our classmates, letting him get away, and then blowing up the school? Oh yeah, I can definitely see the genius in that plan!" He informed me sarcastically. "Oh yeah? Let's see how well you'd do in this situation if it were your precious little girlfriend's life on the line. Don't be such a hypocrite, you would have made the exact same decisions I made." I told him. "Stop it, both of you, this isn't the time to act like 4 years old, we need to get out of here." She finally intervened as he was about to take a threatening step forward. I simply narrowed my eyes at him and scoffed.
"Silence! I will not hear anymore of this." She demanded, so deep in her own denial she couldn't see her own ray of terror was tearing this family apart. Was tearing me apart.
"Shut up! All of you, just shut up!" I yelled in shock. How could they even say that? "I'm sorry, but we have no other choice. We have to leave." Hannah informed me. "And go where? This isn't something we can run from, Han. We have to do something about this." I told her. "Do what exactly? Do you honestly think your little friends will still defend you after what happened today? After knowing what you're really capable of? They will kill you the first chance they get." She informed me. "No. No, that's... that's not true..." I stated. I tried my damn best not to tear up. "The vampires will break you, that witch will burn you from the inside out... and as for your little boyfriend, he'll be the first to spit on your grave." She continued on. "Screw you." I muttered to myself. "Curse me all you want, but deep down you know the truth. It's happened since the beginning of our bloodline and it will keep happening as long as history repeats itself." She told me, "Here's the compass. You can find us once you've made your decision. Because at the end of the day... this is your life, honey. And that makes it your choice. Be it right or wrong, it's yours and hopefully it's for the best." She reminded me, before giving me a tight hug. Once she released me, she quickly whipped off her one tear and walked off deeper into the woods.
There I was.
Alone surrounded by a puddle of fire.
A fire of lies.
I was torn between two lives.
My fantasy and my reality.
If I kept running, I'd forever be living a fantasy that I no longer wish to be apart of.
If I stayed, I would suffer the consequences of the harsh reality of my life.
If I kept running, I would remain with my chaotic dysfunctional family.
If I stayed, I would be alone and most likely never loved.
This was my choice.
This was my life.
My fucked up life.
And it all started 4 centuries ago.
But in all fairness, it'll make sense to start this all from the beginning.
When we first moved to Mystic Falls. Officially.
"This is the last line here. This is the last line again. Watch as it disappears. And the last line, the flat line goes here at the end." She started to sing out as the Linkin Park song slowly ended on the car radio. It was also on her Mp3 player which she hooked to Hannah's car radio to play that particular song. Why? Beats me. She probably just liked that song. "So, what do you girls have planned after school?" Hannah asked us, trying to make small talk. "I plan on sightseeing around town and getting to know as much people as I can." Kendell told Hannah. "I'm sorry, I tuned out. Did you say you wanted to go sightseeing around town and screw as much people as you can?" I quipped. Kendell glared at me and gave a half smirk. "Oh my god, you're so funny! But in all fairness, there better be some really cute boys in this town, or I will rage." Kendell informed us. "And what are you going to do, Quinn?" Hannah asked me. "I don't know and I really don't care. I might meet people; I might not. Who knows?" I shrugged off the question. Hannah glanced up at me in the rear view mirror, but quickly reverted her eyes back to the road. "Jesper, MarySue, you two haven't said a word this entire ride. What's the problem?" Hannah asked them. "What's the problem? My problem is fitting in. I'm so gonna be out of place at this school." Mary commented. "What are you talking about? I thought you didn't care what people think of you?" I reminded her. "Yeah, well I was like, what, 9? Yeah, being a 13 year old sophomore will be pretty weird." Mary stated. "Trust me, you'll be fine. Just lay off the drugs, K?" Hannah warned her. Mary rolled her eyes and said, "As if."
"Jane, you don't know what you're missing. Once you get high, you don't ever want to come down." Jesper quipped. "Jesper, shut up." Kendell told him. "Well, excuse me, Kendull, but I'm just trying to break the obvious boring tension in this car." Jesper told her. "What did you call me, Taco breath?" Kendell asked of him, glaring at him with disdain. "You heard me, Broomhilda." Jesper responded back. "Are you two finished?" Mary asked of them in annoyance. She always found their company, for lack of better words, beyond tedious. "We're done, but I don't think her libido is." Jesper smirked. "You piece of...!" Kendell nearly growled until Hannah intervened. "Enough! Jesus, we haven't even arrived to the school yet and you two are already acting up." Hannah stated. "It's not my fault this little troll hates on me. I can't help being close to perfection." Kendell went on. At this point I tuned out of our conversation until we finally arrived to the school. "Talk about a ride that needed an hour cut." Mary mumbled to herself. "Okay, now before I drop you all off to defend yourselves, what are the general guidelines of our bloodlines regulations?" Hannah asked us. The majority of us groaned in agony not wanting to spend any minute longer in the already stuffed car. Hannah cleared up her throat, showing she was seriously waiting for us to spew out the answers.
"Regulation Number 5#: Keep Up the Lie; Own Up to the Lie." Kendell recited.
"Regulation Number 4#: Don't Make Promises You Can't and/or Won't Keep." Jesper recited with a sigh.
"Regulation Number 3#: Stick as a Pack. Family Above All." Mary recited with pure boredom in her voice.
"Regulation Number 2#: Do Not Tell Anyone Where We Live or Bring Them Home." I quickly recited.
"And don't forget the most important guideline of all." Hannah informed us.
"Regulation Number 1#: Do Not Under Any Circumstances Reveal Yourself, Your Family, or Your Cult." We all recited at once. Hannah turned to look at all of us and nodded in approval. We were then allowed to leave the car under further notice. "I'll pick you up later. Have a good first day!" Hannah told us all, before she drove off.
There we were. The four of us at Mystic Falls High. Boy, was this school in for something.
"I better present myself to my new people, they do after all need to know who's running things. Catch ya in PE!" Kendell stated, before waving at us and walking off. Jesper squinted his eyes at her as she walked off. "Yeah, with a head that big so far up an ass that small, she's gonna need all the PE she can get. Peace out." Jesper commented before walking towards his own path. "Welp, I better start getting used to the upcoming painfully unfunny unclever horrendous nicknames of me being short coming from some snot-nosed moronic pricks. Also, is it me or is that guy extremely hot?" Mary stated the obvious. I looked in her direction and nodded in agreement. Aside from knowing he was this town's Mayor's son, I didn't know a damn about him other than he was damn fine as hell.
"Ironically enough, he's probably one of those pricks." I quipped. Mary scoffed and rolled her eyes, before walking off going straight into the school. I stood there studying my surroundings.
There was my sister, Kendell, and being the center of attention she is, she already has built a crowd of followers around her in less than 3 minutes. Sure it wasn't a big crowd and consisted in only maybe 6 people, but it was still pretty impressive as a start in that amount of small time.
My brother, Jesper, was already talking football with the Mayor's son and his groupies and I was pretty certain I briefly saw him hit on some poor blonde cheerleader before he conversated with the guys.
My little sister, Mary was probably suffering inside. Overall, I think she'd be fine, but there would be a few comments thrown at her from at least two or three dickheads.
As for myself, I was trying to figure out on what my first impression should be like. I thought it over the entire time this morning and still didn't have a clue. Did I want to appear nice? If so, I don't want to be too nice. Did I want to appear distant? If so, I didn't want anyone to thing I was a snob. That I could leave to Kendell, the queen of righteousness herself. Then it finally hit me. I'm a junior and I'll only have 2 years left before I go off to college. Nobody cares about your reputation in college, as long as you get good grades. As far as I know, I shouldn't care about what first impression I'd leave on my future classmates, considering I'd most likely never see them again after graduation. Instead, I'll just try to be me. The other me.
Blinking back to reality twice, I soon walked past the school front yard and entered the school.
As I passed countless students down the hallway, I kept my eyes sharp for the secretary's office.
So far, so good... Keep it up, Stacy.
Finally arriving to the office, I enter to find Kendell sitting across from the secretary, filling her sharp narrow nails. I rolled my eyes in disbelief that she actually brought a nail file to school. Yep, you just never know when having a nail file can actually be a lifesaver...
"Can I help you?" The secretary asked me. "I don't know, can you?" Kendell questioned the woman. She ignored Kendell and kept her eyes on me, awaiting my reply. "I'd like to transfer into this school. I'm sure my parents made you aware of that a couple days ago. My name's Quinn Jones. I'm a junior and... well, here are my transcripts." I informed her, while handing over my last school's record. The woman accepted the transcript and looked between it and another transcript, that most likely belonged to my sister. "Interesting. You both have close to perfect grades in almost all subjects. But I do recommend the both of you to have your shots from our school's nurse. You're both long overdue for it." The secretary told us both, "Welcome to Mystic Falls High. Good luck."
"We don't need 'luck'." Kendell stated, before grabbing her purse, getting off the chair and storming out of the office. I shrugged my shoulders lightly having no clue what her deal was, and headed off to class. Checking my school scheduled, I had to take History.
Great.
I swiftly followed the students into the classroom and took a seat near the back and far center of the class. Just as everyone else found their seat, or didn't even bother to show up since there were a few empty seats up front, a man most likely in his mid to late 30's entered the classroom presenting himself as our teacher.
"Good morning, class. Today is a special day for this town. On this exact day, this town was founded by the Salvatore, Lockwood, Fell and Gilbert families in 1860. So in tribute to today, all classes will be cut short just for today, since we will be having a parade party to celebrate this town's anniversary. Everyone's invited. Now, can anyone name the actual men that founded this town off the top of your heads?" The teacher soon told us.
"Giuseppe Salvatore, Benjamin Lockwood- founder and Mayor of this town in 1864, Johnathon Gilbert, Thomas Fell along side his wife, Honoria Fell. You also neglected to mention that the Forbes are also apart of the Founding families, with William Forbes as this town's founder and first sheriff in 1864. In fact, the Forbes family still continues having one member of each generation working within the police force, to keep the family tradition alive. Almost all the founding family members were also apart of a council, whether secretly or not. Because of that council, their children, grandchildren and so on, have passed down journals from them of their time being on the council. It will forever be apart of their families heirloom." I pointed out. The teacher looked over at me with an almost surprised expression. "Well... thank you, Miss..?" He started out. "Jones." I answered him. "Miss Jones? I've never seen you in my class before." He said. "I just transferred here...sir." I told him. "A newbie, huh? Yet, you seem to know so much about this town's history." He stated. "I do a lot of research on the places my family decides to move to." I simply told him. "Interesting. Alaric Saltzman, but you're free to call me Rick." He told me. "Quinn Jones. Saltzman is from Germanic origins, if I am correct?" I said. "And you are correct, Jones. Now back on to last week's assignments..." Alaric soon went on, as I indistinctly drowned the sound of his voice along with all the other students out of my head all the way through until the class bell finally rang allowing us all to leave. Alaric passed over all the students their homework for this week. When it was my turn, he hesitated as if to rethink something I wasn't aware about. Soon enough, he hands it over thinking he was over analyzing something.
Once I finally got out, I made a quick B-line towards the girls' bathroom. Placing my homework inside my backpack, I laid the backpack on the surface near the sink. I used the sink to wash my face and made sure to take my lip-balm out of my purse onto the sink side. Staring at myself in the mirror, I tried grinning.
That looks obvious.
I tried again.
That looks painful.
I tried again.
That looks atrocious.
I tried again.
Are you even trying? You're not trying hard enough.
I sighed and tried once more.
Now you're trying way too hard.
I groaned slightly in frustration. I really need to work on my grin. Smiling with all my pearly white teeth out is easy. Laughing out loud to the point of tears is easy. Forming a genuine small grin is out of the question. While applying my lip-balm, two girls soon entered the bathroom to freshen up. One ignored me, while the other full out glared at me with pure jealousy. "So, you're the new buzzing bee in the hive?" The girl that first ignored me started a conversation out of the blue. I'll call her Perilloux. "Pretty obvious, I suppose." I let out. "You suppose? What, you're not confident about that? I thought you were Little Miss Confident back in class." The girl that glared me to death soon broke out. I'll call her Riley. "I'm sorry, do we have a problem?" I asked her. "I don't know, do we?" She tested me, taking a bold step forward. "Listen Jones, if there's anything I can't stand is someone who shows off to the teacher on the first day. So far, pretty bad first impression." Perilloux told me. I was basically sandwiched between the two girls. One was behind me, while the other was in front. Though we still had some clear personal space, it was obvious they were planing on harassing me. Maybe I did showoff a bit too much and I probably did give everyone a wrong impression of me. But in all honesty, screw those girls. I showed off and made a lame first impression because I felt like it. Why did they want to make such a big deal out of it?
Before anything else could happen, we all noticed somebody coming out of the bathroom stalls. It was revealed to be my sister, Mary. "Will you please leave my sister alone." She didn't request but demanded. "Go sit down somewhere, Polly Pocket. This doesn't concern you." Perilloux told off Mary. "My sister, my business. Once again I will politely ask you to stop tormenting my sister." Mary said once more, reaching her maximum limit. "Buzz off, shorty." Riley 'riled' her up, either intentionally or not, while grabbing me by the collar. Regardless, she was about to unleash her wrath.
Almost instantly, both girls went pale and ran towards the inside of the bathroom stalls to vomit. Mary smirked smugly, before twisting her hand to the right to make their vomit taste and smell even worse. Then with a snap of a finger, both doors were slammed shut behind the girls and locked. I then sighed in relief. "I thought you were going to do much worse than that." I said, as low as possible in case the other girls could somehow eavesdrop on use while vomiting. "I was. Then I remembered, I'm still pissed at you. I just need to figure out why." Mary told me. "Thank you, anyway. But you seriously need to keep it low key as possible. This incident must never happen again. Do you hear me? Never." I informed her. "Relax, we can just erase their memory." Mary said simply with a shrug. I shook my head in disagreement. "No. That spell hasn't been perfected yet, and you know it." I stated. Mary rolled her eyes and sighed with agony. "Fine! They were food poisoned. I'm sure everyone will believe that, even themselves."
Mary insisted. "I hope so. I hope so." I stated, "You know what Mary... why did you protect me if you were pissed at me?"
"For one obvious reason. You're my sister. After all, us sorceresses need to stick together." Mary clarified, with a grin. "Don't call me that. You know I'm a witch." I tried getting through to her one more time. She narrowed her eyes at me once more in disbelief and displeased by my choice of lifestyle. "I don't understand Quinn. What's the point of denying it any longer? We both know what you're capable of. You need to embrace it." Mary tried to sway me. "You have no idea what I'm capable of." I reminded her. "Yeah, neither do you. We won't know what your strength or what your weaknesses are, if you don't embrace it. You have great potential, Quinn. You just need to have the self confidence to embrace it, like I have. A little push is all you need." Mary stated. "Stop it. I'm done. I said I was done. I am. If you don't like it, there's a door to your left. I suggest using it." I sternly told her. She gave me a cold look before shrugging it off. "Whatever you say, Quinn. You know you're going to regret that. We both know it." Mary simply added, before she's about to leave the bathroom.
"Hey. Can you make them stop before they start vomiting blood?" I asked of her. She thought it over, as if she was considering it yet wouldn't do it for obvious reasons. Eventually, she snapped her fingers to cause both girls to stop puking. They both gasped and struggled to receive oxygen within the bathroom stall. With that Mary left, and I remained wanting to see if the girls were alive. I unlocked both doors, and took a peek within each crack. Vomit was nearly everywhere and even some went on them. They looked extraordinarily tired and were on the bridge of passing out. After another minute passed by, Riley ended up breaking into tears. Perilloux soon followed suit in 30 seconds. By that point, I picked up my backpack and left the bathroom to head for my next class. I did inform the janitor on my way there that there was a slight spillage in the girls' bathroom stall. The money I would pay right now just to see the look on his face...
"So... are you going to go to the event?" Jesper soon asked me. After my first couple of classes were over, lunch time had finally come around. Right now both my brother and I were waiting in line in the cafeteria. "By myself? Maybe. With you? Not even if it meant I'd get 2 billion dollars out of it." I simply answered him. "Come on. This event screams family bonding time. Plus we'll need the publicity, so this town knows we're just as normal as they are." Jesper told me. We were talking relatively quiet to one another for obvious reasons. "The point of us moving in general is for us to not have publicity, remember?" I reminded him. "It sounds fun though. It'll only be one time, I swear." Jesper insisted. I rolled my eyes at his statement. "Why are you interested in this event all of a sudden? Is it because your friends are going? Is it because you'll try to pick up chicks from there?" I asked out.
"All the above. Mainly the last part. But aside from getting laid, I think this will be a blast for everyone." Jesper said, with a playful smirk. He was clearly up to something. I just didn't know what. Once I got as much cafeteria food on my tray, I walked out of line and tried to figure out where to sit. Kendell was sitting at a table to the far right surrounded by her new groupies. She apparently got new members since there was a total of 11 around her. Mary was sitting in the far left and back of the cafeteria. She was alone, had a pudding cup and was reading a book. Jesper eventually got out of line and sat with his 'friends'. I quickly walked passed Kendell's table and found a table nearby that only had three girls sitting with each other. "Mind if I sit here?" I asked them. They all looked at me considering the thought. "Sure, that's fine." One of the girls told me. She was dark skinned with light green eyes. I sat down across from her, next to another girl who was blonde.
"So, you must be the new girl. I'm Caroline, these are my friends Bonnie and Elena." Caroline informed me, pointing towards the other two girls. I made an awkward grin and lightly nodded my head. "So.. what's your name?" Caroline asked me. "Um.. uh. Quinn. My name's Quinn." I answered them. "So, Quinn, are you going to the Founder's Day parade after school?" Caroline asked me, out of curiosity. Geez, this girl can talk. It hasn't been 2 minutes yet and she was already interrogating me. I hadn't even eaten yet.
"I'm not sure, I mean, public events aren't really my thing..." I started off. "Well, that sucks. Are you shy or something?" Caroline interrupted me. "Caroline. Please excuse her, she can get carried away sometimes." Elena apologized. "I'm not shy, it's just... I don't do very well in crowds." I tried to explain. "That's fine. I get it." Bonnie told me. "How long have you been in Mystic Falls? If you don't mind me asking." Elena asked me. "I've been here for four days. It's my-obviously my first day at school here." I told her. "I assume then that those are your siblings? You all transferred here at the same time." Bonnie stated, referring to Kendell and Jesper. "Yeah. All three of my siblings are here." I told her. "Three?" Caroline asked, confused. "See that young girl near the far left corner burring her face in that book. That's my little sister." I stated, "She's a sophomore."
"Wow, she looks so young." Bonnie observed. "Yeah, she skipped a grade or two." I clarified. "And the others?" Caroline asked me. "Jesper is my only brother and Kendell is only 2 years older than me. I have another sister, but she's an adult nearing her 30's." I told them, "Enough about me. What about you guys?"
"Only child." Bonnie and Caroline both clarified. "I have a little brother, Jeremy. He's a sophomore too." Elena told me. "Well then, I'm sure he and my sister will get along just fine." I said. "Maybe. He's kind of older than her though." Elena stated. "Hey, don't let the looks fool you. She's quite a mad genius in disguise." I joked out. Elena grinned, before pulling out her phone to check something. As Bonnie and Caroline continued talking about the Founder's Day parade and how everything should be perfect, I finally ate in peace.
School was finally over and as expected, Hannah had picked us all up. "How was your first day?" Hannah asked us, as she made a turn and left the school parking lot. "It was okay." Both Jesper and Kendell said, not impressed by the school. "It sucked." Mary stated. "It wasn't... as bad as I thought, which isn't saying much." I stated. "Perhaps the next day will be easier for you guys. Did you meet anyone new?" Hannah claimed and continued asking. "I met so many people. Can't remember any of their names though." Kendell stated. "I met this kid, Tyler Lockwood. He's an ass, but he's not bad to hang around. This chicks at this school were hot though." Jesper said. "I met people, I didn't talk to them though." Mary stated. "I only met three people that were worth talking two. The teacher, Caroline Forbes and Elena Gilbert." I said, purposely leaving Bonnie out knowing how she'd lecture me about how untrustworthy the Bennett family is.
"Han, can we go to the Founder's Day parade?" Mary asked. I turned to look at her surprised. Since when did she want to go to the parade? "Why do you want to go?" Hannah asked her, perplexed as well by her statement. "It sounds fun. I heard there'll be fireworks too, so that's a plus." Mary clarified. "I want to go too. Can we?" Jesper nearly begged. What was it about this parade that Jesper really needed to go to? "Uh... I don't know. We're going to have check with Mom first." Hannah stated.
"NO!" We all begged her.
"No, Hannah, Mom doesn't need to know about this." Jesper and I started out. "It's only this one time, please. If she asks, just say we're at the Grill." Mary stated. "Hannah, we won't have time to tell Mom, because the parade will start in 15 minutes. Just call her when we get there." Kendell suggested. "Han... please." Jesper nearly begged again. "Hannah..." I purposely trailed off.
"Fine." She admitted.
"What?" We all nearly said with the same confusion and astonishment. "On one condition, we head back home before 11. I'll tell her we went sightseeing around town and ended up at the Grill for the most part. This is the last time I'll cover for all of you. Do I make myself clear?" Hannah informed us. More or less, we all agreed to that deal and drove towards the destination of Town Square where the parade was being held.
Finally arriving to Town Square, Hannah reminded us again she'd pick us up around 10. In the meantime, she said she'll drive around town for an hour and park the car by the Grill in case Mom had bugged her car. With that in mind, she left 2 minutes after informing us of our deal again. "Well, who wants a corndog?" Jesper asked no one in particular. "Ew, no thank you. I'm trying to watch my figure." Kendell stated. "Oh, so you can eat a burger and slice of pizza within the same day without a single complaint, but corn dogs are where you draw the line?" Jesper pointed out her hypocrisy. "Vege burger and vege pizza. Big difference. I highly doubt there's a vege corn dog." Kendell informed him. "Yes, because clearly putting the word 'vege' over a food means it's entirely healthy in every way. Gothcha." Jesper stated sarcastically. Kendell rolled her eyes at him before stating, "I'll be up front." and then walking off. "I think I'll take that corn dog now." I admitted. All this talk about food, made me hungry. The food from the cafeteria was just not satisfying. Jesper grinned and stated, "I knew someone would give in. Come on."
"I'm not going anywhere with you. I'll be at that bench over there. I'll take a pretzel though." Mary stated, before taking her book out of her backpack to read as she went towards the bench. As Jesper went to order for us, I went nearby the crowd to see what they were looking out. There was a marching band and cheerleaders passing by as entertainment. I guess the parade has yet to pass. "Hey." I heard a familiar voice say behind me. I turned around to look at her grin at me. "Bonnie." I said, remembering her name. "Hey. I'm surprised you came after all." Bonnie stated. "Yeah well... my siblings dragged me into it. I didn't really have a choice. Why are you here?" I asked.
"To support my friends. Caroline and Elena are going to be on one of the parade floats." Bonnie informed me. "Well, that's... cool, I guess." I said. Soon enough, Jesper walked up to me with two corn dogs. "Here you go, it's a buy one get another one free deal." Jesper told me, handing over the wrapped up corn dog. "So, who's your friend?" He soon asked me. "Jesper, this is Bonnie. Bonnie, this is my impulsive and antsy older brother, Jesper. Make of him of what you will." I introduced the two. "My god, you are beautiful." Jesper announced. I was just as shocked as Bonnie by that statement.
I tried to think of when Jesper has ever used the word beautiful to describe a woman? I couldn't think of anytime he has used it without the word body coming right after. "Eh-Thank you. That's really sweet of you to say." Bonnie accepted the complement, trying her best to not blush too much. "What can I say? I guess I'm a sweet guy. Corn dog?" He said and asked her, handing over a his wrapped corn dog. "No thanks. I'm fine." Bonnie told him. "Suit yourself." He said, before leaving.
"Okay..." I stretched out trying to change the subject and the awkward tension between us. "Where's the rest of your family?" Bonnie soon asked me. "They're not here. It's just me, Jesper and Mary. The rest of the family stayed home. They're not... they're not feeling so well." I simply lied. "Oh. Well, I'll see you around." Bonnie simply said, before making her way through the crowd.
"Let's give a big hand to Mystic Fall's high school marching band and cheerleaders. And for a little local history, Mr. Saltzman's students have recreated Virginia's Battle of Willow Creek." The Mayor's wife soon announced, as the crowd started to applaud and cheer. This has got to be one easily excited crowd, but giving how little happens in this town I wouldn't entirely blame them. Soon a float passed by with Tyler Lockwood shooting at a brown haired student. As that float passed another one came by with Caroline and Elena dressed in mid 1800's attire with their suitors behind them. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our stunning Miss Mystic Falls Court and their handsome escorts. This is Caroline Forbes, Miss Mystic Falls. Aren't they beautiful?" Mrs. Mayor Lockwood went on as the float was passing. The girls waved at the audience, as their male escorts had their one arm wrapped around the girls waist. I had to admit the blonde guy being Caroline's escort was really cute. For some reason, I waved back at Elena and Caroline. I doubt they even noticed me out of the crowd. I soon turned to notice Bonnie waving at them as well. Looking back at the float, some guy was blocking my way. Irritated, I did my best to get through the crowd.
Just breath, just breath.
I kept reminding myself to keep calm, until I finally found an area where I had more personal space. "What do you want?" I heard Bonnie say. It wasn't directed to me. I turned my head to the left to see her talking towards this tall dark haired blue eyed man. "Just watching the parade." He told her. Bonnie tried walking away from him, but he followed. "Where are you going?" He asked her. She stopped to turn at him stating, "Away from you." "I wanna say something." He started out. "Just leave me alone!" Bonnie demanded. I wanted to intervene in case he'd hurt her, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions yet. "Thank you. The device that Emily spelled could have killed me. I don't take what you did lightly so... thank you." He told her with gratitude. "I did it for Elena." Bonnie informed him. "I know that, but I'm still grateful. And... I owe you." He told her. They looked at each for a moment, before he broke out and said, "Enjoy the parade." then left.
As Mrs. Mayor Lockwood kept reminding the crowd to cheer for every float that passed, I finally escaped the crowd and sat down by the same bench Mary was sitting on. "You know who that was?" Mary asked me, referring to who Bonnie was talking too. She most likely overheard with her supersonic hearing. "Yes, Damon Salvatore." I admitted. "You know what he is?" Mary asked me. "Didn't we all read the same book in 2nd grade? Of course, I know." I stated and then asked, "My concern is the device Emily made. Which one is it?"
"I believe it's the one that takes out vampires. Think about, why else would he be grateful to Bonnie if she didn't somehow deactivated it to no longer work?" Mary stated. "It doesn't make sense though. She's a witch, he's a vampire. By nature, they should hate each other. Why would she allow vampires to be safe in this town? Last I checked, they were a menace to society." I reminded her. "I don't know. Who knows, maybe she lied to him. Maybe the devise is still working. Who knows?" Mary thought outside the box for a moment. I thought about the possibility as well, until I noticed Kendell flirting with Damon. "Oh, you got to be kidding me..." I muttered with a groan.
Getting off my seat, I walked towards them and tapped my sister on the shoulder. "Hey." I started off. "Hey." She repeated. "What do you think you are doing?" I asked her. "What do you think I'm thinking about doing?" Kendell started. "Don't start this with me. Do not start with me right now. I'm sorry if she bothered you, she can be quite the nuisance." I apologized on my sister's behalf. She scoffed and stated, "Ignore my bratty sister, she doesn't know any better." "I don't know any better? You should look in the mirror more often... oh wait.." I stated. She grimaced at me about to say something, but Damon intervened. "Ladies, I'm flattered. But there's no need to fight over me. Kendell, do you mind? I've had a long week." Damon informed her. Kendell rolled her eyes in annoyance but didn't hesitate on giving him space. "Don't forget Sunday." Kendell reminded him. "I won't." He stated, as she left.
"What's Sunday all about?" I asked him. "You're new here, right?" Damon changed the subject. "Quinn Jones. Kendell's my sister. What do you two have planned on Sunday?" I said and asked him once more. "I guess you could call it a date. Don't worry, she'll be back before sunrise." Damon joked, or at least I hoped. "Listen here, Salvatore, if you harm my sister in anyway.." I started to warn him. "Why would I harm her for? She's funny, she's cute, she's seductive... what's not to like?" Damon stated. "Just keep in mind, I'm watching you. One wrong move towards my sister and you'll wish you never met her or me. Got it?" I enforced. "Got it." He repeated. I looked into his eyes to read him one last time, before walking off. He seemed to be telling the truth, but there was still something he was holding back. It was probably still something to do with him being a vampire.
Night broke out and it was only 9. Only a hour to go before Hannah picks us all up. Mary had snacked on a few things, but remained reading on her bench with her reading pen that would illuminate. Kendell was still socializing as well as flirting with every young guy she came across. I was only observing people left and right from safe distance and occasional started up a conversation with a few that were curious about how the new girl was like. At some point, I had realized something.
I hadn't seen Jesper in nearly 4 to 5 hours. The last time I could recall actually seeing him was when he was briefly conversating with Bonnie while I was intervening between Kendell and Damon. I hadn't seen him since.
"Hey, Kendell." I tried to get her attention away from one of the guys she was flirting with. "Oh my god! Is this going to be a new thing with you? Like, what the hell, Quinn?" Kendell expressed her frustration with me today. "Have you seen Jesper?" I asked her. "No, I haven't seen the little asshole. Why did he finally get abducted?" Kendell told me. "I haven't seen him either. I think he's missing." I stated. "Relax. He's probably went off to bang some dumb broad 10 years older than him. He'll turn up eventually." Kendell informed me.
"For 4 hours straight? I highly doubt that. There's a reason why he wanted to come here, and it sure as hell wasn't for the parade, for his friends, or for the corn dogs. He's up to something. We need to find him. Now." I insisted. "Now-now?" Kendell couldn't help but whine. "Yes, Now-now." I stressed out. "Sorry. I'll see you on Sunday." Kendell told the guy, before she walked off with me. "What is it with you and Sunday?" I couldn't help but ask. "You can never be extra cautious when it comes to dating. If I end up getting stood up, there's always a back up plan." Kendell stated. "What if you don't get stood up?" I questioned her logic. She then proceeded to smile when saying, "Two's a company, three's a crowd, five's an orgy."
Walking over to Mary, she looked up at us sensing something was wrong. "What happened?" She asked us. "Jesper is missing, apparently. Have you seen him?" Kendell asked her. Mary shook her head. I sighed in frustration. "I can't believe this is actually happening right now." I said in disbelief. Sudden the fireworks exploded into the air and it finally hit me.
"What's that?" Mary asked out, cupping the side of her head in pain. "What's what?" Kendell asked out, confused. "There's this light noise that's just... it's really obnoxious." Mary stated, covering her sensitive ears. "The device. She lied about the device." I said. "What device? What are you talking about?" Kendell asked me. "Damon was talking to this Bennett witch earlier about a device her ancestor made. It's suppose to be a weapon against vampires. She told him she deactivated him. She lied. It's starting right now." I told her.
"Where the hell have you been?" Mary soon called out. We both turned to notice Jesper walking towards us. "Where were you?" I asked him. "There's no time to explain. Just know, there are some vampires we need to kill tonight." Jesper dropped on us. "Fine." Mary didn't hesitate on accepting that statement. "Hold on. Wait a second. What's even going on?" Kendell asked out. "Yeah, for once I agree with her. What's happening here, Jesper?" I asked him. "We don't have time for this. There are some vampires that are going to take out the founding family members. My assumption is, we're screwed unless we take them out, because they're going after all of the founding families." Jesper tried to explain.
If by all he meant what I think he meant then yeah, we were screwed.
"Well, shit." I muttered. "Now come on, grab your imaginary broomsticks and wands and let's hocus pocus our way through this." Jesper stated, while handing all of us wooden stakes he either made, stole, or did both. Mary placed her book back in her backpack and hid it underneath the bench. Kendell tied her hair back, complaining on how many hours it took her this morning to keep it straight. I held on to my talisman and chanted under my breath a protective spell in case this all went to hell. Opening my eyes, I looked at all of them and nodded. "Let's do this." I simply said, and we walked off towards the crowd. The people that dropped to their knees were obviously vampires.
People were freaking out as the other 'people' dropped to the ground and screamed. Deputies were coming in to inject the vampires, but a simple injection wasn't going to stop them. They needed to die. Jesper was able to snap a few of their necks and then stake them. Mary would give them an even worse headache then they already had to the point where their brains literally got fried and they dropped to the ground brain-dead. Kendell did the same, but instead on continuing, she'd wait until they were completely weak before lighting them on fire. As for me, I continued chanting to enhance the protective spell on all three of my siblings. I stabbed a few in the back with a stake, but left them alive for the deputies to take. Eventually, we walked off leaving a few alive so the deputies wouldn't be suspicious. As we continued to retreat, I checked my watch.
10:09
Shit.
"What on earth did you just do?" Soon enough, we were greeted by Hannah looking at all of us in disbelief.
"Jesper." On instinct, we all blamed him.
"Of course. What were you thinking?" Hannah scowled him. "Hey, for once I do a good thing. Those vampires were going to go through with killing the founding families. We were going to die in between that conflict. We had to do something. We had to kill them." Jesper told her. "You didn't have to do anything. You could have called me to pick you up earlier. I would have taken you all some place safe away from Town's Square." Hannah stated. "I would have wasted my time doing that. This needed to be done." Jesper stated. "No, it didn't. Ever since you became a sorcerer, you've been bloodthirsty. You don't care about protecting the founding families, you did it because you wanted to feel the rush of killing. Admit it." Hannah stated. "I'll admit it didn't feel terrible snapping that guy's neck and stabbing his chest. It felt... natural." Jesper admitted, smiling at the thought. I took a subtle step away from him, seeing as he was now tapping into his psychotic side.
"Answer me this though, how did you know they were going to attack?" Hannah soon asked, for all of us that still didn't know how. "There was this hot girl I met, Anna. I knew what she was and told her I was a warlock and that if she wanted a good time, she can call me anytime she'd want. Of course she was dating some Gilbert boy, but I didn't care. I liked her. So today she told me about the attack 2 hours before it happened. Within those hours, I was able to get enough stakes for us to use against them." Jesper told us. "So what were you doing those other first 3 hours you were gone?" Kendell asked. "I talked to Bonnie, then overheard about something about a device against vampires, I found out where it was, then there was this other older hot girl I tried to persuade over. Then sure enough, Anna showed up to warn me and here we are." Jesper informed us. "Told ya." Kendell said to me, referring to what she said earlier on what Jesper could be up to.
"Look, it's over now. It's done. Get in the car, I'm taking you all home." Hannah insisted. "Wait. Where's Damon?" Kendell started out. "He wasn't in the crowd. I'm sure he left okay as well as his brother." Mary assured her. "Damon? As in Damon Salvatore?" Hannah asked her. Kendell nodded and Hannah cursed to herself. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "Nothing. It's just.. oh...when we get home I'm going to have a serious talk with Mom." Hannah said, shaking her head in disbelief. We all looked at each other for a moment, then turned around to look at the destruction behind us.
There was very few people left and a firetruck had come by to extinguished the fire we made. Both the Mayors were gone, and everyone was focusing on putting the flames out. We turned around to look at Hannah, who held the back car door open for us. I soon walked towards the car. Mary went to her bench to pick up her backpack and went in the back seat with Kendell and Jesper, while I sat up front with Hannah. The whole drive home was in silence. Driving down the crooked road deep within the forest, we stopped a few feet away from the house.
"Before we enter, do you know what our story is?" Hannah asked us all. "We left school early to go sightseeing, we visited Town Square, we went to the Grill and we visited Town Square again because Mary forgot her book." I made up on the top of my head. "We need to focus. If our story doesn't add up, she will be suspicious of us and if she finds out we lied to her..." Hannah told us. "We got it. We won't screw up." Jesper stated. Hannah sighed and turned to look at all of us. "You're clean. You're all clean." She said to herself.
With that mindset, she continued to drive up to the driveway. Parking the car outside, we all got out and walked down the pathway towards the front porch. I swallowed back any sense of doubt and inhaled calmly, as Hannah opened the front door with the main house key. One by one, we walked into the house ready to face the lion. "Mom? Mom, we're home." Kendell started out.
Nothing.
The house was too quiet. Unnervingly quiet.
"I guess she went to bed." Jesper assumed. That's not a good sign. "Whatever, I'm going to bed. We have a long school day tomorrow." Mary stated, before walking up the stairs toward her bedroom. "Goodnight guys." Hannah told us all. Kendell soon retreated towards her bedroom upstairs along with Jesper. I went upstairs towards my room and quickly changed out of my outfit for today.
Wearing only a top tank top, I locked my bedroom door and placed a spell on the outside knob that would burn anyone's hand if they touched it. Just for extra precaution. You never know when someone could murder you in your sleep. Especially in this case since no one knew how Mom's mental state was like now. Was she mad at us and planning to do something or did she really just go off to sleep? It was really hard to tell. That spell alone took a lot out of me, which made sense considering what I did earlier. Laying down on my canopy bed, I closed my eyes shut trying to get some rest and dreamed the same dream I always conjured up.
What would my life be like if I were adopted?