Chapter 2: Miss Mystic Falls.
"Hello, Elena," She says melodically.
"Cass, hi!" Elena smiles at her. "How are you?"
It's been four days since the party and Elena, Caroline and Cass have spent a lot of time together. They've become friends easily; Elena doesn't even want to know her past anymore and, for that, Cassandra is grateful.
"I'm good." she shrugs. "Where's…?" she asks but her voice fades when she sees a red car, which was blasting music, park right next to them. Stefan comes out of it and walks nonchalantly toward them. "…Stefan?" she finishes, baffled.
"Nice car." Elena compliments once he reaches her. "I didn't know you were coming today."
He leans down and kisses her. "I was feeling great this morning so I decided to come."
That's just plain wrong. He wasn't fine yesterday or the day before that, he can't waltz in here and pretend he's perfect. Cassandra has been where he is and she knows it doesn't go away that fast. She eyes him up and down suspiciously but doesn't say anything, not wanting to upset Elena.
"And you're okay… with the cravings." Elena states.
"The worst part is over." He nods and Cass shakes her head.
They kiss again and again, which annoys here greatly. Seriously, get a room or leave, either way, just don't waste her time.
"I'm over here you know." She jokes, making Elena flush a little bit.
They walk to class but then Stefan says he forgot something in the car and goes back, none of them stop him.
…
"Okay, class. Today we'll forget about our current schedule and focus on founder's day. Apparently our town is more important than World War II but what do I—"Alaric stops talking when the door opens to reveal a dark-skinned brunette.
"Sorry I'm late." The girl apologizes and hurries to her seat, the one two seats down Cassandra's.
"It seems like we'll have full assistance. Welcome back, Bonnie." Alaric smiles and goes back to the board.
Suddenly Cassandra gets a little dizzy and she's not in school anymore, she's in the middle of the woods and Emily is right beside her.
"I want you to help her. That's why I summoned you here." She demands. "Help her and your debt will be paid, you'll be free to leave."
The next moment Cass blinks, she's back at school and Mr. Saltzman is asking her a question. She frowns; Emily didn't even let her talk. That witch certainly is temperamental.
"Cassandra, Cassandra, Ms. Woodhouse!" Mr. Saltzman raises his voice, making her look at him.
"Are you all right? You were staring off at space," He says worriedly, it wasn't normal for a vampire to simply look like they were in shock.
"I'm fine. Were you asking me something, Mr. Saltzman?" she asks sweetly.
"Yeah, when was Mystic Falls founded?"
"Mmm…1859." She answers automatically.
"Right."
The rest of the class continues with a very long very pointless lesson on Mystic Falls.
…..
"I just can't believe Bonnie is finally back." Caroline chimes as they walk around the parking lot. "Her grandma just died so she was away for a few days, around two weeks actually and well, she's probably with Elena right now because Elena always comes first."
"Be careful, Caroline. That sounded strongly of bitterness." She warns as they get near Bonnie and Elena.
"…when you told me that the tomb spell failed I just didn't want to come back." She could hear Bonnie speaking.
So she's a witch and her grandma probably died when they opened the tomb and by her looks she must be a Bennet. Meaning, she's the one Emily wants her to help which makes sense because if her grandmother was the one who taught her and now she's dead, she's mentorless.
"Oh, there they're." Caroline beams. "Bonnie, Bonnie!"
She runs to Bonnie and hugs her tightly. "I've missed you so much, how are you?" She asks her and Bonnie smiles lightly.
"I'm better; I just need to keep myself busy." She answers smiling, her eyes glancing at Cass.
"Oh, how rude! This is Cassie. Cassie, bonnie." Caroline introduces with her usual bubly tone.
"Cass, not Cassie." She corrects as she shakes Bonnie's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Bonnie."
Bonnie's eyes go wide as she touches Cass' hand but then she furrows. "Yeah, nice to meet you."
Cassandra doesn't pay attention to Bonnie's expression and, instead, directs her attention to the other two girls. She knows Bonnie felt she's a vampire but she must have felt she's a witch, too. The young witch must be feeling a little confused about it, so she decides to give her some time to get around the idea of there being a witch who is also a vampire.
"Anyway, I need your help ASAP. You've to help me find the perfect dress for the founder's court." Caroline babbles like nothing happened. It's not like she realizes Bonnie looking at Cass like she has two heads.
"Founder's court? What's that?" Cass asks.
"Miss Mystic Falls? They announced it today and Elena and I are on it." Caroline explains to her redheaded friend.
"We signed up so long ago I totally forgot," Elena says sadly.
Her mom had convinced her to sign up, she wanted her to become Miss Mystic Falls and the idea had seemed so fascinating to Elena that she had agreed immediately. But now her mother is dead and she won't have her to help her choose a dress or her make up or hairstyle and suddenly, the idea of competing isn't so fascinating anymore.
"Oh! So are you dropping out?" Caroline asks, not hiding her excitement at Elena's dropping out.
"I can't. Mom wanted me to enter, so…" Elena's voice fades as she obviously thinks of her mother and Cassandra feels a pang of sympathy for her.
"Oh, well. So, Bonnie, Cass, are you helping me?" Caroline asks excitedly and gets even more excited when Bonnie nods.
"I'm not helping you." Cassandra shakes her head and takes a step closer to Elena. "Sorry, Caroline but if Bonnie helps you I think it's only fair I help Lena."
"Oh, fine." Caroline pouts, making Elena giggle.
…
"Okay, so what should we do with your hair?" Cass asks as she sits Elena down on her dresser.
They had gone to her house after the little incident with Caroline because Cassandra wanted to help her right away. Elena had refused, saying that the contest wasn't until next week and that gave them a whole five days to decide anything but Cass wouldn't have it and here they are.
"I don't know, I was thinking maybe an up-do?" Elena asks, as she passes her fingers through her long hair.
"No, absolutely not." She shakes her head and starts thinking.
How can she make Elena look different but at the same time pretty? Her plain straight hair style is a little boring and an up-do will make her look a little old. She's looking for young and fresh but at the same time refined. There's only one look that can make Elena look like that so she'll have to pull a Katherine real quick and go get her curly iron.
Once she has it, she starts to comb Elena's hair and make perfect curls with the iron as they talk and laugh and for the first time in a long time she actually feels like a teenager.
"Ok, so Bon Jovi was there looking all cute and everything, totally hitting on me when this guy, who I had never seen in my entire life, comes up and—"she stops telling the story when her phone stars ringing.
"Ugh, you've got to be kidding Me." she grumbles, making Elena's smile fade away. "Hello, Damon." She speaks into the phone.
"Have you lost your mind?" he barks back at her, furious.
"What do you mean?" she frowns, putting the curly iron down.
"If you're going to steal from the hospital's blood bank at least compel the guy so he changes the records." Damon explains sarcastically, obviously not wanting to talk.
"Okay, pretty boy, newsflash: I haven't gone to the hospital's blood bank since I arrived and trust me, I didn't leave anything off," Cass says, insulted that he suggested she'd do such a stupid hazing.
"Then who did?" he asks, now curious. "Any visions, you half-witch half-vampire?"
"How did you find out about tha—?" she starts but the answer comes to her quick enough. "John." She growls in annoyance. "Anyway, I don't know! Maybe some of the tomb vampires you allowed to go out did it."
"I didn't let them go out, the witches did." He replies, making it obvious that he doesn't care.
"Right, but you wanted fucking Katherine out and in the process pushed too far, costing Bonnie a grandma and giving me a new student," she says sarcastically.
"What? It doesn't matter, it's not them. I talked to Ana." Damon shoots back.
"Well, but it isn't me," Cassandra says, tired of this already. "Find out who it is and let me know. We'll talk later." She hangs up after than and turns to Elena who is still sitting in the dresser with half her hair curled and the other straightened.
"Is everything okay?" Elena asks, worried.
She walks to the dresser and starts curling the other half of Elena's hair, the mood slightly darkened. "Yeah, it's cool."
She continues to curl Elena's hair in complete silence and Elena starts to get more worried and worried by the second. Her friend isn't the same anymore and something tells her it's not just because she was just accused of robbery, which gets her back to her ever-present question: what did happen between her and the Salvatore brothers, especially one dark-haired blue-eyed brother?
"Cass, why do you refuse to be called Cassie? It's a pretty name." Elena asks, making her freeze and curse herself for doing so.
Why does she have to let him affect her so much? It was 145 years ago, for heaven's sake! And still she couldn't shake him. No matter what she did, who she dated or how many times she tried to switch off the flip.
"Damon calls me that. Called me." She corrects herself, closing her eyes. "I hated it with all I had, at first."
She doesn't understand why she's saying this, why she's going into touchy subject with Elena but when she remains quiet, Cassandra knows there's no coming back. She'll tell her past to Elena and maybe even bawl about how she fell in love when she shouldn't have.
"But then it simply amused me so he kept it up." She adds, still focusing on Elena's hair.
"That's why?" Elena asks, amazed.
"I know it's stupid, okay, Elena? I know but it's just—and it's not like it's something only he can call me because, honestly? That's something really ridiculous and I've had people called me that before, back when I was human but it brings back memories and pain and—" and she shuts up because by now the only thing she's doing is babbling and not really making any sense.
"It's okay, really. I'm sorry I asked." Elena mutters, putting a comforting hand on her friend. Although she doesn't really know why she's comforting her.
"Katherine turned me in 1498; I was 18 years old and staying with my fiancé in Spain when she found me. She gave me the possibility to not marry the idiot if I agreed to go with her." She keeps talking, this time actually thinking what she's saying.
Elena nods, understanding what her decision was seeing as though they're talking right now.
"And then you guys eventually came here, and met Stefan and Damon." Elena fills in the blanks.
Cass nods and stays silent for a few seconds, turning the curling iron off and sitting in the bed. She can't stop thinking that if maybe, just maybe, she had stayed in New York back then instead of depending on Katherine she wouldn't have suffered so much. But then she wouldn't have met them, him, and she wouldn't be here and she did spend some good times back in the time.
"Katherine liked games and toys, at first I was one of them but I learned her game pretty quick and she made me a player. She had all kind of toys, I guess you know what category Damon and Stefan were in." she lifts and eyebrow and smirks when Elena shudders.
"I wasn't part of the game; originally I was simply a friend. But one day Stefan appeared in my bedroom, saying something about being my turn." She explains, getting lost in the memory.
Cassandra was moving up the big wooden stairs in the Salvatore residence, hoping to be able to get to her room after such a long day. She had been meeting practically every person in town for the entire day and was tired of having to behave perfectly.
Opening her door, she started to undo her hairdo and tried as hard as she could not to rip her heavy long dress off of her; suddenly she felt a presence near her bed and turned around, cursing herself for not noticing earlier and relaxing when she realized it was only Stefan Salvatore.
"Stefan, you startled me," she said, looking at him.
He was wearing his trousers and white shirt which had some of the buttons unbuttoned and his hair was a little messy. In that moment she realized how half of her hair was down and the other up and how half of her dress was also almost off. How incredibly disrespectful this was.
"I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention, Miss Cassandra," He said, walking towards her.
"Katherine's room is the one next door." She informed him, taking a step back.
"I'm here for you, tonight's Damon's turn with Katherine." He answered her, taking another step towards her and confusing her. "And it's yours with me, you have to have fun."
Stefan was acting so out of character, she immediately knew he had been compelled to do this, to try to seduce her into their twisted game. Was it wrong that it was working? Since the start she had found both brothers incredibly handsome, of course Stefan seemed a little innocent at first, and now she had the opportunity to find out what Katherine's fuss was all about. One night, only one night with Stefan. They'd kiss, maybe go farther and she'd taste his blood and then compel him to sleep. The exact same thing Katherine did every night with one of them. Then maybe one day Katherine would send Damon to her and she'd do the same and once she had fulfilled her fantasy she'd get out of the stupid game. Just one time, right? No more.
"Well, I'll tell you something." She smirked, deciding to go on with her train of thoughts and Katherine's wishes.
She started to close the distance between the two and once she was only a few inches away from him, she stood on her tiptoes so she could reach his ear.
"I'm nothing like Katherine." She whispered before kissing him.
"But one night turned into another and then I couldn't get out." She finishes looking at a very shocked Elena.
"You slept with him?" Elena gasps.
Somewhere in her mind she had always imagined Cass sleeping with Damon, never with Stefan. Maybe it's because they're both very similar, dark, mean and hide their pain—although she doesn't hide it that much.—and Stefan was just Cass' friend. Apparently, she was wrong.
"Once or twice." She shrugs. "I mean, it was all games and fun. There was no T.V. back then, you know? Or, internet. And there was so much sewing you could do before wanting to stab yourself in the eye with the needle." Cassandra laughs at Elena's expression but then sobers up, remembering she's talking about Elena's actual boyfriend. "I do know it was wrong." She adds, looking Elena in the eye so she knows she's not lying.
"The way you say it, 'all games and fun'… you slept with Damon as well, didn't you?" Elena asks. "That's why things are so tense and weird between you now, isn't it?"
"Yes and no." she shakes her head. "I slept with him, all right. Not all the time, he was in love with Katherine, after all. But, sometimes, we kissed and then couldn't stop. Or didn't want to stop? I don't know. And... We exchanged blood a few times, too. Damon's was okay with it, though. I didn't use compulsion." She points a finger at Elena, who nods.
"Then what happened? Why do you treat each other so badly?" Elena asks, confused.
The way she talks about Damon is like they got along fine, perfectly actually, and Stefan did say that even though she was friends with Katherine, she had defended both of them. What happened to make those two hate each other so much when Stefan welcomed her with open arms?
"Katherine chose Stefan almost everyday, leaving Damon with me and we became best friends." And I fell in love with him in the process. She adds in her mind while absentmindedly biting her lip. "We argued all the time over Katherine, about how bad she was for him. At one point it got so bad we had to stop talking about her. As you saw before, she's still a touchy subject."
"I still don't understand. You treat each other like that because of Katherine? Someone who's not even present in your lives," Elena says, obviously starting to judge her.
"No, Elena, that's not why." She snaps. "I watched them get killed, watched them turn, knew they needed me and yet, I did nothing." She frowns, looking outside the window.
"I simply left, allowed them to think I was dead and 145 years later I appear at their town. Can you really blame him for hating me? Admit you'd have done the same." She admits, her voice breaking at the end.
"Stefan forgave you." Elena mutters, not really knowing how to deal with the close-to-tears vampire.
"Yeah but we both know Damon's not Stefan." Cass clears her throat and cleans her eye with her finger, making sure the tears don't mess her make up. "Anyway, let's keep talking about your hair. All right?"
"Sure," Elena says as they walk back to the dresser where Cass starts to finish her hair.
The story about her past doesn't come up again, but it's okay because Elena is going to observe for a few days before bringing it up again.
…
The days passed by quickly and Cass helped Elena with the dress and everything and, before they know it, it's the day of the competition to know who will be this year's Miss Mystic Falls. Damon kept true to his word and had informed her that the one who had robbed the blood bank had been Stefan and had actually apologized from blaming her. With that piece of information, she'll try not to lose sight of Stefan through the night.
She walks inside the Lockwood's house in a beautiful knee-high dark green dress with her hair down her back in soft curls and some black high heels that are so high they kill her. It has been five days since Emily had talked to her and, yet, she hasn't been able to talk to Bonnie alone. She is kind of hoping to find her here. Right when the thought of having to drag Bonnie by the hair so she can be able to talk to her, said girl walks past her.
"Bonnie, wait." She calls, making Bonnie stop.
Cassandra walks towards her until she's next to her and opens up her mouth to speak but Bonnie beats her to it.
"Let me warn you, I know what you are and if you as much as try to threaten me I'll burst your brain with one look." Cass lifts an eyebrow at the threat.
This is the girl Emily wants her to help? She looks pretty experimented to her.
"I'm a witch too, Bonnie. And I'm here to teach you." she goes straight to the point, ignoring her useless threat.
"What?" Bonnie's completely face changes into confusion.
"Emily appeared to me a week ago and told me to come here; she said I needed to teach you because your grandmother died." She explains and touches her arm. "When you touch me, you feel death but also, comfort because I'm like you. You can trust me, Bonnie."
"Thanks to your friend grams is dead." She mutters.
"I'm not like him." she shakes her head.
Bonnie remains quiet for a few seconds, thinking about what she's told her and thoughts of her grams fill her mind, making her eyes glitter with tears.
"I don't really know what I'm doing." She admits, looking at Cassandra.
If Elena trusts her, she can trust her too. And she truly looks like a nice person, like she cares.
"I know, I've been there and I'll help you. No, don't cry, please." She hugs her lightly.
"Can I think about it?" Bonnie asks, accepting the hug.
"Of course, you just let me now when you're ready."
"Elena's being called." Bonnie sniffs, looking towards the staircase and they walk there.
Walking down the stairs in a beautiful blue dress, one Cass chose, is Elena and she looks incredibly troubled. That's when she realizes that Stefan is nowhere near the stairs. Making her way through the crowd, she finally reaches Damon.
"Where the fuck is your brother?" she hisses, low enough for only him to hear.
"I don't know, I haven't seen him since I told Elena he's a blood junkie." Damon mutters back.
"You weren't supposed to tell her tonight, Damon!" she exclaims, by now Elena is almost down the stairs. "Go take Stefan's place, go." Cassandra starts to push him to the bottom of the stairs, where Stefan's supposed to be.
"What? no." he protests but she won't have it.
"She can't not have an escort, so go now. Please." She pushes him a bit more until he starts to walk to where Elena is, just in time too because she just reached the bottom of the stairs.
Elena takes his arm, confused and starts to walk to the patio where the competitors and escorts will dance.
"Where's Stefan?" she whispers.
"I don't know." He whispers back.
As they stand in their positions and the crowd goes to stand around them so they can watch, Elena glances around everyone trying to find Stefan.
"What do we do now?" she mouths to him as they do a little bow.
"We'll go through with this, first." He mutters and they start to dance.
Cass looks at them dance from the first row of people, with Bonnie to her right and Jenna and Alaric to her left, and tries as hard as she can not to be jealous. But fails, miserably. Because even though she has seen him kiss Katherine more than once, even though she's in full knowledge that he most likely still loves Katherine, that he doesn't even like her as a friend anymore and that he hates her and won't even look at her in the eye, she used to be the only one he danced with. Not Katherine, not the rest of beautiful girls, her. And she always wished it'd stay that way. You force him to do it. She reminds herself and lets out a sigh.
"Are you okay? You look… depressed." Bonnie tells her.
"I'm fine," She says, tearing her gaze away from the dancing couple and looking at the young girl. "I had a déjà-vu, that's all." She shrugs, looking back at them, who aren't dancing anymore, to find Damon's blue gaze on her.
…
"…and this year's Miss Mystic Falls is… Caroline Forbes." the Mayor announces.
Elena hugs her tightly and then walks to where Damon and Cass are standing, muttering things to the other agitatedly.
"What's going on? Did you find him?" Elena says when she reaches them.
"There was a broken mirror with blood on the bathroom; we haven't seen Stefan in a long time." Damon starts.
"And Amber is still missing." Cass cuts in.
"He wouldn't do it." Elena shakes her head in denial. "He won't do it, Cass."
She steps forward and puts a hand on Elena's shoulder. "Lena, I think he already did. Listen, I know it's hard to accept it but Stefan on human blood is a real monster." She says, and lifts her hand of Elena's shoulder when she flinches.
Okay, so maybe saying he's a monster wasn't exactly a good thing but she had to stop defending him so blindly, without knowing the whole story.
"Let's just find him, okay?" Damon tells them, directing them outside.
It takes them about ten minutes to find Stefan and when they do, Elena has to admit that maybe Cass was right. He has Amber pinned to him while he bites her neck; Amber looks extremely pale and about to collapse.
"Stefan, stop!" she exclaims, a little scared of her boyfriend.
The minute Elena's voice reaches Stefan he lets go of Amber who falls to the floor, and he turns around to face them, blood still dripping from his mouth and eyes wild. He looks like a cornered animal and Cass knows that is not good.
"Oh, my god." Bonnie mutters once she finally reaches them. She had been following them, feeling that something was wrong but she didn't expect this.
"Stefan, come on man. Get control." Damon tells him slowly, as if talking to a wounded animal, as he starts to walk towards his little brother.
Although he hates to admit it, it hurts him seeing Stefan like this. So out of it, so not himself. Stefan takes a step forward, towards the group and Damon takes another step to his brother at the same time Cassandra does the same.
"It's ok, Stef. Come on, fight through it. This isn't—"but he is cut off by his brother launching at him and throwing him away to a tree where he collides and makes a very ugly sound.
Damon stands up immediately, holding his hands out so Stefan knows he means no harm and tries to talk to his brother again.
"Stefan, stop it!" Elena yells again.
Stefan doesn't seem to see her, for him Elena is nothing but food, and he starts to stumble to where she is. Damon takes action and is about to grab Stefan but is suddenly startled when Stefan starts to cry out in pain. Cassandra couldn't just keep watching how her friend hurt his girlfriend and Damon. That simply wasn't going to happen so she had to step in.
"Bonnie what are you doing to him?" Elena shrieks, realizing her witch friend is there and figuring it's her who's causing her boyfriend pain.
"It's not me, Elena, I don't even know how to do that spell right." She throws her hands in the air in surrender.
Cass is slightly angry at Bonnie for lying about the spell to her and that only makes her hold on Stefan even more painful. She admits giving a vampire an aneurism is bad for both her and the vampire receiving it because, seeing as though she's a vampire as well, it also hurts her but it is the most effective for crazy-with-blood-lust vampires.
"I think that's enough," Damon says a little bit shock; Elena and Bonnie look at him while Stefan falls to the floor and grabs his head.
"I told you it's not me." Bonnie shakes her head, not knowing what to do.
"Cassie, stop now." Damon tells Cassandra, ignoring Bonnie and taking a step towards Cass.
That's when the two girls look at the other vampire to find her glaring at Stefan with such intensity one would think she's trying to make his head explode with one look. The moment Damon talks to her she looks down, effectively pulling Stefan out of his misery.
Stefan looks up with fear written all over his features, he glances over at Elena with regret and then his eyes travel to Damon. He's scared his older brother will attack him for losing control, so he starts to back away.
"Stef, it's fine," Cass says softly, suddenly ashamed of what she did to him. "Please, let's just—"but she stops talking because Stefan disappears into the woods.
She drops her head into her hands, trying not to lose what little control she has left. How could she have done that to him? He's her friend, he trusts her and she just cold-bloodedly tortured him. Well, maybe it wasn't cold-blooded torture—because if it had been, she sure as hell wouldn't have let him go.—but having an aneurism over and over again hurts a lot and she simply stood there not even thinking about stopping. If Damon hadn't called her Cassie and, in the process, snapped her out of her deep concentration, she'd probably still be there giving one of her closest friends an almost unbearable pain.
"Are you okay?" a hand touches her shoulder and she looks up, meeting a beautiful pair of icy blue eyes.
"I'm fine." She whispers.
He examines her whole face and frowns when it becomes obvious that she isn't fine, if anything she's far from fine. Her green eyes are a little wide and are lighter than usual, which if her remembers correctly only happens when she's upset, her brows are furrowed and her chin is quivering.
"You aren't." Damon shakes his head.
"I can't believe I hurt him," she says, her voice wavering a bit at the end. "I've never hurt him."
"I know," he tells her as he grabs her arm and pulls her towards him.
He doesn't know what compelled him to do it; it wasn't like him to go around hugging people. The human Damon didn't do it, the vampire Damon didn't even think about doing it; but she looked so sad, he had to do something and hugging her was the first thing that registered in his mind. He's about to pull her away because he had promised himself he wouldn't open that door, not now, not ever, because he's supposed to hate her now, when she starts crying and that's all it takes for him to hug her tighter.
"Elena, why don't you and Bonnie go find sheriff Forbes?" he asks Elena, making her stop staring at the both of them like they're aliens. "Tell her I'm looking for her."
Elena nods her head and starts to walk away, she looks back once in a while to find Damon still hugging Cass.
"I've never seen him treat someone like that." Elena mutters to herself as she and Bonnie make their way to the house where Sheriff Forbes is.
While Elena and Bonnie are away, Cassandra is trying to stop crying. But it's like someone opened a faucet in her eyes and now they won't close it.
"I'm sorry." She sobs. "And I don't just mean tonight."
He frowns but doesn't say anything. Wasn't this what he wanted? For her to apologize for everything? For faking her death, for running away, for not looking for him, for not telling him she is a witch and the list goes on. But somehow the fact that she's apologizing over Stefan being hurt bothers him, because it's always about Stefan, right?
"I know." He clears his throat.
He decides to at least fix things between them, even if it won't be the same and if they won't be as close as before—because he doesn't have friends, not anymore, and he doesn't feel anything else than hate and anger.—and even if she really is apologizing over Stefan's pain and not her real regret, he wants thing to be fixed because he can't stand the hurt that flashes across her eyes every time he insults her and if they're even he won't have to insult her anymore.
"It's okay." he mutters, trying to convince her.
After a few minutes, he sees Sheriff Forbes walking to their location and forces Cass out of his hold.
"Listen to me, Sheriff Forbes is coming and you have to help me cover for Stefan. Can you do that?" Damon asks her, pushing her hair out of her face.
Cass nods and is about to open her mouth when Sheriff Forbes beats her to it.
"What happened?" the sheriff asks, rushing to Amber and calling an ambulance in the process.
Elena and Bonnie are not that far behind and rush to Cass, who Damon has at arms length and still looks a little shaken up. Damon lifts an eyebrow and Cass nods, stepping away and turning to the sheriff who, when she sees she's crying rushes to her side as well.
"This is Cassandra, she found the girl," Damon tells the sheriff.
Elena and Bonnie share a look of confusion but look back towards the scene when the sheriff asks Cass exactly what happened.
"I was joking around with the girls, running into the woods when I saw Amber on the floor." She starts to speak but pauses for emotional effect, making tears stream down her face.
"I went to see what was wrong when I saw all the blood. My scream made Bonnie and Elena come see what was wrong and she said it was better if we called him… Damon. What happened to her? Is she going to be all right?" she rushes as she looks over to Amber who is now being treated by some paramedics.
She could be an actress. Elena can even imagine her acknowledgement speech as she receives her academy award, is it possible that she's been an actress a long time ago? Maybe in the 50's, she was.
"It's an animal attack but she'll be all right, maybe a few stitches," The sheriff says, trying to calm down the scared girl in front of her. "It was very wise of you girls to call Damon."
"Now you look a little shaken up, why don't you go home and have a cup of tea? I want to speak with Damon." Cass gets the hint and nods.
Still crying and shaking a little, she turns around and starts to walk towards Elena. The moment she hears the sheriff start to talk to Damon, she drops the act and stops crying, rolling her eyes at how easy that was.
"It was incredibly easy." She scoffs once she reaches Elena and wipes the tears away from her face.
The girls follow her, not knowing what to do. They walk to the parking lot where Cass' car is next to Bonnie's, when Cassandra suddenly stops and turns to face them.
"I understand you've gone through a lot and at least one of you is freaked out about what I did back there. Never the less, my offer still stands, Bonnie. I'll teach you everything you need to know about witchcraft but right now, I feel you two should talk, because once you've agreed to be part of this there's no going back," She says, speaking majorly to Bonnie but directing the last part to both of them.
Things are about to get more difficult and maybe Elena can still get out of the complicated life someone who belong to their world has to live. Both of them nod and she gets inside her car, ready to go home. As she's nearing her house her phone starts to ring and she sighs as she picks it up.
"How may I be of help to you, Mr. Salvatore? I'm being incredibly generous today." She comments.
"You think you can come to the boarding house for a second? I'm dealing with a troubled Elena," He says and she immediately starts to head towards his house, speeding.
"What did he do?" she says, knowing it has to do with Stefan.
"Nothing…yet." He pauses for a second and by then she's already outside his house. "She wants to put him in the cellar for a while."
"And I agree," Cass tells him, getting out of the car and walking to where he is outside.
"Where is she, anyway?" she asks once they're inside and Elena is nowhere to be found.
Right as if on cue, Stefan yells at someone upstairs and she nods, knowing it's Elena he's yelling at probably because she's trying to make him feel better. She sits down on the couch and looks around the living room, realizing she's never been inside the boarding house before. Something about the place gives her the impression of snotty fancy and old-fashioned people or maybe that's only because she knows the place is old. The fireplace has a small fire that gives the room a warm feeling, which the warm colors of the furniture and the wood heighten. It feels familiar and alluring.
"Why am I here, again?" she asks Damon, snapping him of whatever thoughts he was thinking.
"… In case the plan doesn't work and you have to step in with your witchy trick." He improvises quickly.
The truth is Damon doesn't know why he called her. But when Elena said what was best they did and he agreed, he felt like Cass had a right to be there as well so he called her. In fact, he wasn't even aware of what he was doing until she picked up the phone and telling her to come was the first thing that left his lips; maybe he wanted her to do it herself, or maybe he just didn't want to be alone while Elena literally tricked his little brother into unconsciousness.
"It's going to be okay." they hear Elena say upstairs and then a groan and a thud when Stefan falls to the floor.
"Well, my help wasn't needed." She shrugs and gets up, following Damon upstairs.
He doesn't answer her because he knows she's right. Instead, they make their way silently into Stefan's room where they find Stefan completely knocked out and Elena standing awkwardly next to him. She distracts herself for a bit by studying the room; it actually reminds her of Stefan and it's got nothing to do with the fact that she knows it's his. The furniture, the colors, the way the books are scattered everywhere but somehow the room doesn't look messy at all, it all shouts out Stefan's personality, his aura.
"You're sure about this?" he asks Elena who silently nods.
He takes his little brother and throws him over his shoulder without effort. The three of them walk down to the basement where the cellar is without a word and Cass takes Elena's hand supportably while Damon puts Stefan in it. He spends more time than necessary inside, watching Stefan carefully while he thinks about something. Cass observes this closely, trying to figure out if she'll have to step in now and finish the job herself; right when she's letting go off Elena's hand and taking a step forward, he finally turns around and goes out.
"There's no guarantee that it'll work." Damon explains to Elena as he closes the cellar door.
"It has to work." Elena shakes her head and sits down on the ground, right in front of the door.
"He won't wake up any time soon," Cass says, looking at Stefan's unconscious form through the bars. "You should go home."
The only response she gets from the brunette is a shake of her head as she brings her knees towards her and hugs them. The two vampires share a look before sighing and sitting down on the hard floor. Looks like is going to be a long night.