"For the first forty days a child is given dreams of previous lives. Journeys, winding paths, a hundred small lessons and then the past is erased."
― Michael Ondaatje, Handwriting
Mystic Falls, Present Time
Caroline stared out at the Lockwood's shimmering lake, the sun shining perfectly on the still water. Caroline felt a wave of peace wash over her anxious body as she regarded the perfect view. She had been worrying all day. Her job as Miss Mystic Falls' coordinator had stepped up to a whole new level this year. She not only had to keep the pageant running smoothly, but also made sure something even more important ran just as perfectly. Caroline was one of the many vampires in town working together to find the cure for vampirism. Caroline didn't want the cure for herself but she did want it to be found, if not for herself then for Elena. A plan had been drawn up to get information out of the furtive Atticus Shane. Shane apparently knew everything about Silas and so he was everyone's closest bet at finding the cure.
Caroline took a deep breath and ran through the plan once more in her head. Her job was simple, keep the pageant running smoothly so that everyone could do their part without being noticed. So far she had performed her role perfectly, but just one distraction and everything could be ruined. "Everything seems to be under control," a voice said from behind Caroline, dragging her out of her nervous mind. "But how am I doing?"
Caroline turned with a sigh, knowing exactly who was behind her. Klaus stood with a defiant smile on his face, his eyes shining brightly with mischief. Caroline had agreed that Klaus may accompany her to the pageant as long as he went along with 'the grand plan'. Caroline took one look at him and couldn't help but smile. "You're perfect." She sighed out, "Which is so beyond annoying I can't even look at you."
Caroline constantly felt strange around Klaus. She had always known his as the forbidding original hybrid that staked his siblings and killed anyone who got in his way. But over the last few months she had found herself slowly pealing back his lays to find a true gentleman who actually cared for her. Alas nobody saw Klaus the way she did, everyone was always on edge around him waiting for him to make his next destructive move.
"Shouldn't you be somewhere?" Caroline asked the Original. "Don't you have a role to play in this grand plan?"
"I do, but I've never been once to stick to the rules, love," Klaus replied, his mischievous smile appearing once more.
Caroline didn't respond, she merely shook her head lightly and headed back up to the Lockwood's lavish home. She could hear footsteps following her, but she ignored them knowing that Klaus would only be the distraction that could turn the pageant on its head and ruin her part in the plan.
Damon stood leaning against a tall stone pillar. He scanned the Lockwood's lawn, watching as the pageant went on around him. Atticus Shane sat at a large white table in the middle of the lawn, chatting with a dark-haired girl who wore a short green dress.
"There he is, the guy who just happens to know everything about everything," Damon said, pointing down at Shane.
Stefan shifted next to his brother. "So, we just let Bonnie bring him to us?"
"Yep," Damon replied. "Soon enough Bonnie Bennett will have Professor Know-It-All wrapped around her little finger and as soon as she brings him to us…Bam! We let him know who is boss."
Stefan stared at his brother with doubt. "You really think it will be that simple?"
Damon smiled mysteriously. "Sure it will! Mr. Professor down there knows enough about vampires to understand that when we want something, we get it. He'll spill eventually, even if I have to let out every vampire in town to get it out of him."
"I saw you speak at the college a few weeks ago. Your story on Silas, it was extremely fascinating. Do you really believe in all that stuff?" Bonnie asked in her most captivated voice. The young witch had been trying to engross Professor Atticus Shane in conversation since the beginning of the pageant.
"I think the real question is, do you believe?" Shane asked.
Bonnie sighed. She hadn't been able to get a thing out of Shane and he was beginning to realize who she really was, a Bennett witch. "I did once, but now I'm skeptical. Could a warlock as powerful as Silas really be defeated by something as simple as love? Surely there are more factors to the story," Bonnie replied."
"But, you see, Bonnie, love can defeat even the most powerful of creatures. We are all blind in love. Silas is a prime example of this. He was so in love that he naively missed the flaws in his plan and ended up spending thousands of years regretting them."
Bonnie narrowed her eyes at the professor. It was as if he was hiding something. Was there a part of the story she didn't know about? "What aren't…?" Bonnie began to ask, but she was cut off by the arrival of an uninvited guest.
"Bonnie, so nice to see you," Damon spoke with sarcasm as he approached where Bonnie and Shane sat. "It seems your time here is up." Damon tapped his left arm and Bonnie noticed that she had indeed run over time with her part of the plan.
Shane looked from Bonnie to Damon in confusion as he asked, "Time for what?" But Damon merely ignored his comment.
"My name is Damon Salvatore. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr.? …" Damon asked, shoving a hand in Shane's direction.
The professor apprehensively shook the eldest Salvatore's hand. "Shane, Atticus Shane," he replied.
"Bonnie, wouldn't you like to show the professor the Lockwood's collection? I'm sure he would be quite interested to learn a little more about the town of Mystic Falls," Damon said, pushing Bonnie and Shane up towards the Lockwood's home.
"Sure," Bonnie replied critically. Bonnie knew Damon wanted to speed up the plan and move Shane inside the house, ready for interrogating, but she was still curious to know what aspects of the Silas story Shane was really hiding.
"They've moved inside," Caroline verbally noted as she watched Bonnie, Damon and Shane enter the Lockwood's home.
"Their little plan might actually work after all," Klaus replied.
The pair sat on a small stone seat overlooking the Lockwood's stunning lake. The party went on perfectly around them, but up on the small hill, they felt miles away. "What will you do?" Caroline asked. "If this all works out and they do find the cure? Who would you give it to?"
"Caroline, my dear, you really do see the good in me. Why do you think that I would give the cure away? Why wouldn't I just take it myself?"
"It is not that I see the good in you, Klaus, it is actually the exact opposite. I know that you would never take the cure because that would mean giving up your status. You would no longer be the most powerful hybrid in the world and I don't believe you could handle that." Caroline knew her words were harsh, but they were true, both her and Klaus knew that.
The hybrid lowered his gaze away from Caroline as he answered her statement. "You speak the truth, Caroline, but to answer your first question, I would give it to the person who needs it the most, the person who could finally be at peace after a millennia of torture." Caroline thought hard for a moment, wondering who Klaus was speaking of, but before she could ask, the Original spoke up again. "I believe we are both meant to be somewhere," Klaus reminded Caroline and she immediately knew what he meant.
Caroline gasped slightly and quickly made her way back towards the Lockwood's home, Klaus following close behind her. As they reached the large abode, Caroline went immediately towards the sounds of fierce conversation. She entered the living area and found herself in the middle of an aggressive scene. Professor Shane stood exceptionally close to a hostile-looking Damon. Damon's hands gripped Shane's shoulders as he spoke bellicosely to the defensive professor. "Bonnie knows you're hiding something, so tell us! What part of the Silas story are you hiding?" Damon yelled as Bonnie cringed beside him. Shane merely glared at the aggressive vampire, not letting out the slightest bit of information. "What are you hiding?" Damon asked again. This time, he flipped the professor into a tight headlock.
At this point, Stefan and Elena, who had been watching the scene unfold, stepped in and calmed the older Salvatore. "You don't want him dead, Damon; that wouldn't help any of us," Stefan said.
Damon listened, but still tightened his grip on Shane's neck. "Okay!" the professor finally spoke up. "There's an ancient Bennett grimoire which tells the legend of Ayla, a daughter of Silas himself. The legend states that Ayla is the reason Quetsiyah found out about Silas' infidelity. It is said that Ayla knew about her father's infidelity, so one night, she snuck out and followed him to Quetsiyah's home. When Ayla arrived, she secretly watched as the witch transformed her father into an immortal being, but when the spell was complete, Quetsiyah found the young girl and realized that Silas had a daughter, meaning he had been unfaithful to the witch. But Quetsiyah didn't just kill Ayla's mother, she also transformed the young girl. Quetsiyah used a modified immortality spell on Ayla, thus creating a new kind of immortal. Ayla was indeed eternal, but only for 20 years at a time. Once her time was up, she could indeed be killed."
"How does this have anything to do with us finding the cure?" Damon asked, tightening his grip around the professor's neck.
"That's not where the story ends," Shane wheezed. "Quetsiyah wanted to make sure Silas suffered for eternity, so she made sure that Ayla wouldn't just live one immortal life, but many. Every 500 years, Ayla's body is reincarnated and the 20-year cycle begins again, forcing Silas to watch his daughter die over and over and over."
"So, she is an immortal doppelganger?" Elena asked, with a confused look on her face.
"Not quite," Shane replied. "You see, when Ayla is reincarnated, she isn't a new person; her soul is the same. That means that she is still the same girl, she's just reborn into a different time period."
"So, she's a 2000-year-old recurring super vamp?" Damon asked as disbelief spread over his words.
"Exactly," Shane replied, trying to pull himself from Damon's grip.
"I still don't understand what this has to do with the cure," Stefan said as Damon began to loosen his grip on the professor.
"Find Ayla," Shane replied, "and you will undoubtedly find Silas."
Hey everyone! Thank you so much to the 16 reviewers from last chapter! I'm so happy! I am going to try and update this story once a week…maybe even more regularly. I have got one or two chapter lined up for this story so this will make updates quicker! I'd like to thank my beta Katie for her amazing work, thanks so much! Anyway…what did everyone think of this chapter? What does everyone think will happen next? Please review and give me your thoughts! :)