Previously...

"She approached me at the Lockwood wake and said she wanted to talk…" Klaus continued to explain what happened.

"And so, you kissed her- thinking it was me?" I asked quietly, not looking at him.

He didn't say anything so I glanced over at him, and I saw that he was nodding.

I scoffed, mumbling under my breath, "What is it with so many men suddenly trying to kiss me?"

Klaus laughed, and I looked curiously at him. He was smirking, as usual.

"History, it repeats itself," He simply said, suddenly turning to glance at Zach. "He's waking up."

Klaus and I got to our feet and I went over to Zach's side.

I turned around to thank Klaus, but he was already gone.

"Zach?" I murmured.

My godfather groaned and started to sit up.

"No, no, no, stay laying down." I chastised, gently pushing him down.

"What happened?" he rasped, rubbing his jugular.

I explained to him the whole situation about Chandra and Damon and Klaus.

Zach frowned deeply and gave me a serious look. "Care, this is why I moved us away from here. Damon is bad news."

Despite Damon's actions, I felt the need to defend him. "He was drunk and hurt. I think Klaus and Chandra have more history and hearing Klaus say that we kissed set him off completely."

"It doesn't excuse his actions."

I took a deep breath. "I know."

Caroline's POV

Dear Diary,

It's me again. Sorry it's been a bit. Things have been… crazy to say the least. Chandra is back in town and she seems so intent to stir up drama and chaos in our lives. She kissed Damon AND Klaus - and of course both of them thought it was me kissing them.

I stopped writing for a moment, chewing lightly on the end of my pen. Zach and I were home now, I was tucked away on my bed and I assumed Zach was somewhere, asleep.

I don't know if I can even wrap my brain around everything I've been feeling. I don't even know if I'm capable of knowing what I feel.

I continued writing, deciding to write out my feelings more.

I know when Damon kissed me, I was scared…but was I scared because it was a forced kiss, or was I scared because it was our first kiss? I know I wish that him forcing himself on me wasn't our first kiss. I'd much rather our first kiss be something special/consensual.

Not having a really serious relationship or crush on anyone ever kind of makes it hard to figure out what I'm feeling too. Damon is handsome, yes, but he's also ageless and rash. I could honestly sit here for hours and write out how amazing he is, but sometimes I worry the pros and cons wouldn't balance out.

A little voice in my head told me that I still wasn't being honest with myself.

Future self reading this, I'm resisting the urge to just scribble out everything above this.

I hovered my pen over the old entry, resisting the urge to scribble out all my confusion.

It's not like it would make the feelings go away.

I'm still young. Our friendship is still growing. Mom always said not to get ahead of myself when it came to boys.

I slammed my diary shut, frustrated and sleepy.

~0~

A couple of days passed and before I knew it, the day of the carnival was here.

Although I hadn't been planning for it as neurotically as usual, I was glad for the distraction. Damon and I seemed to have a mutual, unspoken agreement to avoid each other; and I was happy for that. I had more important things to focus on then Damon or Klaus and my awkward relationship with them.

Bonnie and I stood in the sunlit hall of Mystic Falls High, boxes piled outside the storage room in front of us. Elena had sent us both to collect the stray decorations and supplies needed to set off the carnival with a bang.

Bonnie was rambling on about how creepy it was that Chandra and Katherine looked exactly like us.

"Your vampire ancestors didn't just resemble you all like a family member! It was like they were you!"

I sighed, shutting the door. I'd figured Bonnie wouldn't take the whole doppelganger thing well. She didn't do well knowing that there were vampires in town – and now these new vampires looked just like her best friends? Not good.

Before Bonnie could continue on about how scary it was, I picked up two of the boxes and turned my body partially away.

"Bonnie, I know it's scary and it sucks not-knowing when they're being me, but I have to get these prizes to the ring toss," I readjusted the weight in my arms. "Life goes on."

My witchy friend seemed to get the picture on the whole doppelganger front, but didn't seem to want to move away from the topic of drama in general. The school bell rang and we hurried to get out of the hallways. Bonnie, Elena and I had gotten a free 'get out of school' pass to help with the carnival, but all the kids not associated with it had to stay in class. It was just a normal Friday, after all.

We got to the side door and Bonnie piped back up.

"Have you talked to Damon since he almost killed Zach?"

I pushed open the door leading to the courtyard surrounding the gym, back parking lot and main building.

I sighed. "No, Bonnie. I haven't," we passed by a group of people, thankfully giving me more than a few moments to collect my thoughts. "I haven't even seen Klaus either. I just want to avoid them both right now and focus on doing all the mundane human stuff I can."

We went down the couple of stone steps that descended from the side of the gym to the parking lot by the fields where all the carnival stuff was already set up.

"Okay," she said, finally seeming to understand I wanted a distraction from all of it. "I'll help you focus on carnival stuff then. Just let me know if you need anything or someone to listen, okay?"

By now, we were already at the backside of the ring toss booth.

Walking around the side, I set the box full of corny stuffed animals just inside the little door leading into the back half of the booth.

"Thanks Bonnie," I smiled at my friend, knowing she did mean well. "I might take you up on that."

It was nice knowing that she was back to being friendly, seeming to finally have taken a break on being weird about vampires.

~0~

Third Person POV

Inside the high school, Stefan met Jeremy at his locker. Elena had requested that he give Jeremy vervain after the crap Damon pulled on Zach. Stefan couldn't have agreed more with his girlfriend - with both Chandra and Katherine in town, Damon suddenly going after Caroline and Zach…

Stefan had just gotten done explaining vervain to Jeremy when the younger boy piped up.

"You know, you must be pretty confident in yourself, since you're giving me so many different ways to kill you."

Stefan chuckled. "We'd be having a much different conversation if I thought that you wanted to kill me."

Jeremy eyed his sister's boyfriend, shoving the little vial into his jacket pocket. "If anyone deserves it, it's Damon."

Jer slammed his locker shut. "Is it bad I wasn't surprised when Elena told me what he did to Caroline and Zach?"

Stefan sighed, raking a hand through his brown hair. "Not really. Damon's in a weird mood right now. Chandra coming back into town really threw him off balance."

~0~

Meanwhile, Damon was busy worming his way into Carol Lockwood's trust.

"I promise that I'll get to the bottom of the John Gilbert attack, okay?" Damon said reassuringly. "Sheriff Bennett asked me to take lead on it."

Damon and Carol were sitting in the Lockwood's living room, chatting about how John had left town due to the vampire cutting off his fingers.

While Damon knew for a fact that it was the ever so vindictive Katherine that did the chopping, Carol was none the wiser.

"Oh, Damon," Carol said, happy that she didn't have to deal with it. "Be careful, okay?"

He patted the older woman's hand and nodded.

Damon went to stand up, only to have Carol stop him.

"One more thing before you leave."

The man sat back down, turning to look at the lady curiously. "Of course, go on."

"I have to act as interim mayor with Richard gone," she explained, although Damon already knew this. "Since I'm going to have that new role to fill until elections, I would love it if you would spearhead the council for me."

Damon pretended to be shocked. Of course she would want him to be in charge of the council, he had made sure he was one of the only people suited for the job.

The vampire smiled handsomely. "Oh, Carol, whatever you need me to do, I'll do. As a founding family member, it's something very close to me. I would be more then honored to keep this town safe from vampires."

The front door slammed shut and Carol got up to shut the glass doors leading into the living room.

"Is it safe to talk?" Damon asked, knowing who had come in.

"It's just Tyler and my brother-in-law, Mason." She explained to him. "He's still visiting."

After Carol shut the doors, she turned around to lean against them. "I just don't want him to hear us. He didn't want anything to do with it when he lived here, so I don't see any reason to bring him into it now."

Damon wasn't listening much to Carol at this point. He had his hearing trained on the two men from the moment they came in.

They had been talking about their workout when suddenly something Mason said piqued his interest.

"So all this anger and aggression you've had, is there a difference when you exercise?"

"Dude, I play three varsity sports, workout four times a week and run three. I'm gonna say no." Tyler said, stretching out his legs.

"Do you have episodes, what happens exactly?"

Damon, meanwhile, frowned to himself.

Why was the uncle so concerned about Tyler's apparent mood swings?

"Starts out normal," Tyler explained. "I get angry over nothing."

He shrugged, thinking for a beat before continuing. "I'm an angry guy, it know it just amplifies and I just go off."

"You black out?" Mason asked.

Damon personally thought that something was up with Mason. He seemed too interested in something as simple as a teenage boy's emotions for there not to be something else at play.

Tyler agreed with Mason's question and Mason went on. "Is there a pattern? Like once a month, only at night?"

Damon frowned deeper, though Carol didn't even seem to notice.

"All I know is that I lose myself, you know? For a little while I'm something else and I hate it."

Damon's name being spoken made him snap back to the room he was in.

With a quick glance at the tea kettle in Carol's hand, Damon assumed she was asking if he wanted more tea.

"Oh, yes please. Thank you Carol."

~0~

The school day was over and Elena and Caroline stayed behind to work on the last finishing touches. However, Stefan headed home to change clothes and check in on Damon.

Stefan managed to walk into the living room just as Damon was pouring a blood bag into a glass.

The smell hit Stefan's nose and he resisted the urge to indulge in the smell. Although Stefan had just ate, he still hated the allure of human blood.

"Care for one?" Damon asked, already knowing Stefan's answer would be no.

Damon smirked as Stefan shook his head. "No thank you. I'm not hungry, just ate."

The elder brother swirled the blood around in the glass before taking a sip. "Aren't you worried that one day, all the forest animals are going to band together and fight back? I mean, surely they talk!"

Stefan smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm just happy that's a blood bag and not some sorority girl supplying your dinner." He came to rest on the arm of the couch in front of Damon.

Damon chuckled, taking another drink.

"I like this," he walked around the side of the couch, stopping to lean on the back of the chair across from Stefan. "You, walking on egg shells around me because you think I'm going to explode." He jutted his eyebrows up, smirking. "Is Blondie worried too? I'm bet I'm her every conversation with you."

Stefan clenched his jaw, changing the subject. "Have you spoken to Chandra or Katherine?"

Damon didn't answer his brother's question and instead decided to tell Stefan about the Lockwoods.

"You know, I think the Lockwoods have a family secret…the Gilbert device affected them, but vervain didn't." he turned his head to the side, still smiling. "So they aren't vampires…they're something else."

Stefan snorted. "Oh good, you have a new obsession."

"You'd rather some unknown supernatural element run rampant upon our town?" He mused. "Fine. I'll drop it, but then my attention is going to…" he paused for a moment, grinning devilishly. "Care-o-line."

Damon sung out every syllable of the blonde's name and Stefan worked his jaw angrily.

"You know we haven't seen the last of Katherine and Chandra, right? We don't have a clue why they're here." Stefan said, forcing himself to be calm. He knew Damon was just trying to work him up.

"Sure we do! Katherine came back to profess her undying love for you and Chandra came back to be a bitch and finally push me over the edge and explode," Damon stood up, raising his glass to his brother. "Cheers."

~0~

Bonnie and Elena stood outside one of the booths, clipboards in hand.

They were chit chatting about what stalls needed what refilled when Caroline popped up.

"Hey ladies!"

"Hi Care," Bonnie chimed back.

"This is a huge success!" Caroline said, grinning widely. "Thank you two…really. Thank you for letting me help with this. I know I've been dealing with a lot of stuff recently and I kind of threw myself into the carnival last minute- but thank you. Really."

Elena forced a smile onto her face. "It's okay Care."

Bonnie bobbed her head in agreement.

Suddenly, a man caught Elena's attention. A college aged student was up on a ladder, fixing a speaker.

"Hey," she called. "Carter right?

~0~

Back at the Lockwood mansion, Mason was waiting on his nephew to come down from his room so the pair could go to the carnival together. Mason lingered outside his deceased brother's office for a moment.

He could hear Tyler still rummaging around upstairs, but he was still nervous. Swallowing his nerves, he quickly entered the office and started rummaging around, looking for something.

Mason was so engrossed in his search, he didn't even hear Tyler descend to the ground floor.

He lingered outside for a beat, curiously watching his uncle rummage through his father's things, which hadn't yet been touched.

"What are you doing?"

Mason jumped at the sound of Tyler's voice and he whirled around, straightening quickly.

"Nothing!" he said, a little too quickly. "Just killing time, waiting for you to get done."

Tyler frowned, staring at Mason for a moment. "Are you looking for something?"

Mason paused, running his fingers against the barely dusty bookshelf. After briefly weighing the options, he decided to be honest. Maybe Tyler would help him.

"Yeah, actually," he went over to where Tyler was standing by the large desk. "You know where I can find any family artifact stuff? Heirlooms?"

Tyler's face instantly softened, his defenses dropping. "You drain your trust fund already?" he joked.

Mason grinned, shrugging. "I did that when I was 22."

Growing a bit more serious, he continued. "No, I'm just looking for this old piece of my mom's. My dad gave it to her when they first got married. It's sentimental value. She probably passed it down to your dad. I thought it could maybe still be in the house somewhere."

Mason's nephew furrowed his brow. "I can't think of anything like that. What's it look like?"

"It's a moon stone, maybe hockey puck sized. Old, ugly, minimal value…"

At this point, Tyler had stopped caring. "Hey man, whatever. Try asking my mom I guess."

~0~

Back at the carnival, Zach and Caroline were moseying around, enjoying the atmosphere. The pair split up; Caroline went to the restroom while Zach bought popcorn for them to share.

"Good ole' Uncle Zach!" Damon's voice cut through the chatter of the carnival and Zach's head whipped around to see Damon.

Zach took a few steps away from the popcorn cart, warily eyeing the crowd. He partially wanted Caroline to show up and give Damon a piece of her mind, yet he also wanted her to stay far away from Damon.

"Hello, Damon," Zach greeted evenly. "Aren't you a bit old for a high school carnival?"

Damon smirked. "Heh. A hundred and fifty years too old, my dear great-nephew."

The vampire reached over a snagged a handful of Zach's popcorn, already popping a few pieces in his mouth.

"Can't you just leave me alone? Haven't you tormented me enough?" Zach grumbled, debating walking away.

Damon hummed for a moment. "Nope."

"Don't make me tell Carol what you really are, Damon." Zach said before he could stop himself. He knew it was an extremely stupid idea to threaten Damon, yet what did he do? Threaten Damon.

Damon gripped Zach's arm tightly, leading him over towards the restrooms, where there was less people. "This is what we aren't going do to," he started. "We aren't going to threaten the one person who has already almost killed you this week."

~0~

Caroline's POV

Wiping my still damp hands off on my pants, I exited the restroom. My eyes widened when I saw Damon and Zach standing there, both tense.

"Damon," I said, breaking their suddenly silence. "Let him go."

Damon's wild blue eyes my mine. "Caroline," he murmured. "Please tell your godfather it isn't a good idea to threaten me."

I studied Damon for a moment, the memory of his lips on mine playing over and over in my head.

"Let Zach go, Damon. Haven't you done enough damage yet?"

Damon's fingers uncurled from around Zach's arm and my godfather took a step back.

"Damage?" Damon snorted, although he had listened to me. "Don't tempt me to create some real damage, Caroline."

I swallowed and took a couple of steps over to Zach.

"C'mon Zach, let's go."

~0~

Third Person POV

Damon wandered over to the arm wrestling booth, where Tyler was winning left and right. He was curious as to how the human was winning so much. At first he wondered if it was rigged, but upon further inspection from different sides of the ring, he decided that there was no way. Damon recalled Mason and Tyler's conversation from earlier and frowned.

"You're lurking," Stefan said, approaching his brother.

"I'm observing," Damon responded, still fascinated at the teenager's winning streak.

"More like obsessing," Stefan watched alongside his brother as Tyler won, yet again.

"He has strength, I'll give him that much." Damon murmured.

Part of him wanted to go into the ring and go against Tyler, but the other part of him didn't want to risk giving anything away. It wasn't like he expected Tyler to instantly know that he was a vampire, but with his uncle poking his nose into everything…

"Tyler is a triple letter varsity athlete, of course he's strong. You're reaching."

Damon heard Stefan's response, but he was more interested in Mason's suddenly arrival into the arm wrestling ring.

"I bet I can take you!" Mason exclaimed, sliding into the seat across from Tyler.

"Enter the uncle," Damon said quietly to his brother, still enthralled at the Lockwood's strength.

When Mason won, Damon knew something had to be up with the Lockwoods. The device effected the mayor and Tyler, but they weren't vampires…

"Okay, he's the champ!" Tyler announced, admitting defeat. "Who wants to go next?"

"Stefan wants to go!" Damon chimed in, pushing his brother forward before he could protest.

Normally, Stefan wouldn't want to risk any kind of exposure, but he had to admit that he was intrigued, just like his brother.

"Sure, I'll give it a shot." Stefan took a seat across from Mason as Damon cheered him on.

"My brother over there things I can beat you," Stefan murmured to Mason, who smirked.

"Your brother is wrong."

They started to wrestle and after a few tense seconds, Mason won, forcing Stefan's arm down onto the table.

Stef eyed the winner for a moment before smiling and nodding and rejoining Damon.

"You didn't put in any effort at all!" Damon growled, a bit annoyed.

Stefan frowned. "Actually, Damon. I did."

Damon looked taken aback. "Come with me."
They slipped into the empty hallway of the high school.

"Is he…?" Damon asked, trailing off.

"No, no," Stefan said, trying to think of how to describe Mason's strength. "It wasn't that kind of strength…it was more than a normal human's though…"

"What is up with that family?" Damon wondered aloud, mostly to himself.

His mind still went back to Mason's weird questions about Tyler's anger.

Stefan was joking about what they might be when Damon saw a kid just outside working on the back half of the wrestling booth.

"What, what are you up to?" Stefan asked, following Damon outside.

"This is reality and there's no such thing as werewolves or…combat turtles." Damon said offhandedly.

"I said ninja turtles, actually," Stefan replied, wary of Damon's sudden interest in the human.

"Hey you!" Damon called to Carter, the same boy who had helped Elena and Bonnie earlier.

"I have a name," Carter said, cocking an eyebrow as he came over to Damon.

Yeah, I don't care." Damon caught the boy's shoulders and began to compel him. "I need you to pick a fight with someone, a kid named Tyler Lockwood."

"Damon!" Stefan exclaimed, watching with horror. "Don't do this."

He released Carter with his hands, but continued talking, ignoring his baby brother. "It's just an experiment. Get him angry, don't back down no matter what, ok?"

Carter repeated, "I won't back down," almost robotically.

Damon smirked, clapping Carter briefly on the shoulder before he left

I know you won't, kid.

"You do realize that someone is gonna get hurt, right?"

Damon snorted. "No, someone's gonna get mad, as in rage."

The younger Salvatore frowned. "What's that going to accomplish?"

"That Tyler kid is physically incapable of walking from a fight. Let's see who decides to intervene; maybe it's the ambiguous, supernatural mystery uncle!" Damon wiggled his brows, leaving his brother to follow Carter.

~0~

Damon was leaned against the wall, still inside the high school, when a familiar blonde came inside.

"Damon," her voice was full of distress as she stumbled into the dark hallway. The light from outside shined in through the windows, casting black shadows over her face. The sharp smell of iron hit Damon's nose and his eyes widened.

"Blondie?" Damon asked, catching the girl as she went into his arms. "What?"

Although Damon was kicking himself for sounding so worried and so human, he honestly was concerned for the usually fiery girl.

"Why do you smell like blood, Care?" Damon's arms were wrapped around the blonde as he stared down at the top of her head. She didn't answer, simply remained in his grasp, strangely quiet and still.

She looked up into his face for a moment, her skin a strange, pale, gray. Damon's eyes searched hers, noticing that they too, were a strange color.

"Caroline?" Damon felt the girl go limp and he quickly bent down, setting the blonde's body to the ground. The moment she was laid down, a bright light flashed and the body morphed into a pile of hay, caked in blood.

Damon frowned, quickly stepping away.

"What the?"

A stopwatch was laid in the middle, where her heart would have been, counting down minutes. A few blonde strands were seemingly fused around the loop at the top of the watch.

Something smells witchy to me.

"Game on, Damon."

A disembodied voice floated to Damon's ears and he leapt to his feet.

He had to find Caroline - and fast.

~0~

Stefan trailed Tyler, knowing that Carter couldn't be too far off. The Lockwood was walking through the parking lot, mostly paying attention to his phone.

Carter intentionally came from the opposite direction and bumped into Tyler roughly as he passed.

"Watch where you're going, man," Tyler called to the guy.

"You got a problem?" Carter retorted, the compulsion taking over.

Carter stopped and turned to walk back towards Tyler.

"Yeah," Tyler said in disbelief. "You walked right into me."

"What are you going to do about it?" Carter challenged, staring Tyler down.

Stefan knew he should probably do something, but deep down, he was curious. It's not like the compulsion could be taken away or anything anyway.

Just like Damon suspected, right as the fight started to get serious, Mason leapt into action.

~0~

Caroline's POV

"Caroline!" Damon's voice cut into the conversation I was having with some of my friends from my chemistry class last year.

"Hold on a second guys," I said to the group. "Let me deal with Damon."

The group nodded and went back to chit chatting.

"What do you want, Damon?" I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest. I looked up into Damon's face and frowned, not liking the look I saw.

Damon looked spooked, yet also relieved.

Spooked and relieved at what, I couldn't tell.

Damon studied my face for a moment, still acting strange. "I know I'm probably the last person you want to see or talk to right now, but I need you to come with me."

I snorted, shifting my weight to my other food. "Well it sucks for you, because we don't always get what we want."

I turned away, only to have Damon reach out and grab my arm, just like he had done to Zach earlier.

"Let me go, damn it," I grumbled under my breath, tugging at his grasp.

"Caroline," he said, urgently.

When I still resisted, he sighed, fishing his phone out of my pocket. He pulled up a picture and showed it to me.

I peered at it skeptically. "Okay, so it's a pile of hay from the haunted house, fake blood and a stop watch. So what?"

Damon explained to me what he had seen and heard and my eyes widened.

"What's going on?"

"C'mon," Damon simply said, leading me away.

"Where are we going, Damon?" I asked as he tugged me through the crowd.

I had partially expected for him to let go of me, but whatever he'd seen had obviously spooked him enough to not want me out of his grasp.

"Damon!" I protested again as he opened the side door to the school and led me down the dark hall.

We entered Alaric's classroom and Damon shut the door behind him.

"We're going to wait for Stefan to get here. Then we're going to figure out what the hell this all means."

I stared at him, trying to get a read on his emotions. "Damon, am I in danger? You still haven't told me what's going on!" he was silent. "What do you think is going on?"

"I'm not sure what's going on, but the voodoo doll that died in my arms looked just like you, okay?" Damon said, staring out the window, his back to me. "I had flashbacks of Chandra."

I almost missed the last part of what he said. I was just about to say something when Stefan came into the room.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked almost immediately. "Caroline?"

I shrugged, looking to Damon for explanation. He explained what had happened in the hallway and Stefan frowned.

"If I'm not mistaken, it would have to be Caroline's blood for it to be anything serious."

I looked to Damon and then to Stefan, waiting for one of them to say something.

"Would someone please tell me if my life is suddenly in danger?"

Damon stared at me for a moment.

"You won't be in any danger if I do this," he suddenly was in front of me, his eyes dark. He ripped into his wrist and before I knew it, he was shoving it again my lips.

I pressed my lips together, not wanting what he was trying to do. I screeched, lips still tightly shut.

It took Stefan a half a second to react, suddenly at my back, pulling me away from Damon.

"For the love of Christ!" I exclaimed, wiping the blood off my lips. "What is it with you trying that all the damn time?"

Damon had that crazy look in his eyes again. Deciding to stop fighting the urge, I stepped forward and smacked him as hard as I could.

"Coming back after death is my choice, Damon fucking Salvatore. You do not get to make that choice for me."

He stared at the floor, expressionless.