The next morning, Margret was getting ready to head to school. The second she stepped into the hallway, she bumped into Elena. "Sorry, Lena."
"It's okay." Elena told her. She turned back to Jeremy. "You're up early. Where are you going?"
"Police station. They're organizing the search party for Vicky, so..."
"Wait. Shouldn't you be going to school?" Elena pointed out.
"What? You're kidding me, right?"
"I know you're worried, but ditching school is not a good idea, Jer." Margret pointed out.
"If they find her, we'll know." Elena told him. "That's what cellphones are for."
"Yeah, you're lips keep movin'. I don't know why." They just stood there in shock as he left.
"This looks serious." Margret said.
"I'm going to be running late today." Elena told her. "You go on ahead. I've got to run an errand."
At the school, the guys were talking. "There was no sign of her?" Alex asked as they walked down the hall.
"She didn't even return last night." Rob told him. "I know if it were Mel, I'd do whatever it takes to find her."
"Yeah, but this is different." Matt pointed out. "It's like…something's off, but I can't tell what. She called, but wouldn't tell me where she was."
"Now that is weird." Alex agreed.
"Hey, guys!" Tyler came over to the group.
"Hey!"
"I heard they're putting together a search party for Vicky."
"She just called. She's okay." Matt told him.
"That's great. I figured you must have been goin' out of your mind." Tyler said.
"Yeah."
"I was just gonna offer. You know, if there's anything I could do."
"You know, we're all willing to help with this problem." Rob added.
"I appreciate it." Matt told them.
"Maybe we could look after school." Alex suggested.
"Sounds like a good idea, but knowing the girls, we'll probably end up dressing in last year's costumes again." Rob pointed out.
Meanwhile, the rest of the girls were talking in the hall. "So, my cousin wants us to dress like the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus." Amy told them. "And she's even forcing Bonnie in on it."
"I don't think she's going to like that." Margret said. "She hates the whole witch thing."
"Yeah, what's up with that anyway?" Melody asked. "I mean, not like witches are real or anything, but she seems to really dislike the idea of magic in general."
"Please, like you're not skeptic about healing properties of crystals." Margret pointed out.
"Okay, you've made your point." Melody said.
"I planned on going as something else instead." Amy told them. "I mean, not that witches aren't cool, but I feel bad about having to return it."
"Why don't I wear yours?" Margret suggested. "I mean, I don't really have anything to wear to the dance besides the jewelry I made."
"What about that psychic thing you planned on?"
"I'd never wear something like that." Margret told them. "Besides, the skirt got torn up last Halloween during that fight."
"You're a great friend, Margret." Amy said.
"I still don't know how that got started in the first place." Melody said.
"None of us were expecting a ballroom blitz to happen, Mel." Amy pointed out. "By the way, what are you going as?"
"I don't know. I was thinking of dressing as a DJ, but I feel like it's too personal. Maybe I'll go as a guitarist or something." Melody told them.
After school, Alex was at home getting ready. Then his phone rang. "Yeah?"
"Matt just called." Rob told him. "Vicki just got back."
"Is she okay?"
"He said she seemed a little unstable." Rob admitted. "And then that Salvatore guy showed up."
"Why was he there?"
"Who knows? He was probably trying to help, but Vicki wanted him gone, so he made him leave."
"Now that is weird. Do you think Vicki's still high and thinks that he's the one who..." Alex lowered his voice so no one else would overhear. "…hurt those guys?"
"Anything's possible." Rob said. "Considering she's really unstable, she probably thinks that. I gotta go. I'll meet you at the party."
At home, Margret looked at the outfit on her bed and sighed. If she had known what Amy had planned on going as, she never would've agreed to this. But it was too late to back out. She headed downstairs to see how Jeremy was doing.
"You gotta call me ,Vic. I don't get it. What's going on with you? Just...just call me please." He said, eventually hanging up the phone.
"He's really worried about her." Margret said as Elena walked in.
"I know." Elena told her. "If there was only some way to…" She cut off and went over to Jeremy. "Hey. So, um, do you wanna hang out tonight? We could go to the ,uh, Halloween thing at school."
"Cool. Sure. Sounds uh... sounds fun. Can't wait."
"Okay, enough already." Margret said. "You've been moping over her all day."
"I know you're upset about Vicky. I heard she called Matt. But you can't be with her. She needs to get better." Elena continued. "The best thing you can do for her is let her go."
"What does that even mean, "let her go"? Oh ,okay, sure. Since we're such experts on letting people go, right?"
"Hey, leave them out of it, Jer." Margret said, defending her sister immediately. "They've got nothing to do with Vicki."
"I know you may not see it, but trust me Jer. It's for the best." Elena said.
"Look, for month after mom and dad died, I felt like crap, like "nothing really even mattered" crap." Jeremy told her. "Now all of a sudden, I get these moments and things started to feel just a little bit better, and Vicky was in every single of 'em. So you may not see it, but trust me. Keeping me away from her is not for the best." He left the room.
"He really isn't taking this well." Margret said. "I'm starting to get worried about him, too." She seemed concerned. "Why do you think they should break up? I mean, she makes him happy, even though I personally don't like her."
"Yeah, but she's very unstable, so it's better if they just…" Elena shook her head, having trouble explaining. "I'm not trying to be unsupportive, but I'm worried she may lose it and hurt him. But he's so hung up on her, he can't see the risk."
"I get it." Margret said. "I wish I could help, but I promised to meet my friends."
"After last year?"
"Amy loaned me a costume." Margret explained. "I should probably go change." She headed upstairs.
At the party, Amy was talking with Melody. "Can you believe this?"
"Hey, if it makes you feel better, you make a cute witch." Melody told her.
"What are you supposed to be, anyway?"
"Remember when I thought of having that band?"
"The pop star look always did look good on you, Mel." The girls turned and saw that Margret had shown up. She was wearing a light blue dress and a hat to match.
"Oh, that didn't turn out as well as I thought." Amy said.
"You're telling me." Margret said. "This is your idea of a costume? I don't see how anyone can wear this. And you know I don't look good in blue."
"It was the only color they had when I got it." Amy told her. "Besides, I'd have worn it if Caroline hadn't forced me into this. Oh, and by the way, she gave the crystal to Bonnie. If you want, you can talk to her about it."
"Thanks."
"Hey, Melody." Rob called a short distance way. The girls turned. "They ran into another problem."
"Look, just have them fix it. I'm taking the night off from singing or being the DJ." Melody told him.
"Excuse me?" Someone tapped Margret on the shoulder. She turned around. "Margret? Wow, I wasn't expecting to see you dressed…"
"As a princess?" She finished. "I suppose it beats wearing the hockey uniform."
"Yeah, at least you got an actual costume." Alex told her. He was wearing his football uniform.
"Still, it's not like we get tired of seeing you in uniform." Melody told him.
"I'm going to see how Matt's doing." Rob said. "He seemed kind of upset earlier."
"So, where's your cousin?" Alex asked Amy.
"Knowing her, probably getting drunk somewhere." Amy said. "I should probably get back to the rest of my 'sisters.'" She put air quotes around sisters. "Margret, want to come?"
"Yeah."
"I'm going to help Rob." Alex told them. "This seems like a girl thing."
"I'll go, too." Melody told them. "Tell Rob I'm going to be with them. I don't need a repeat of last year." The group went their separate ways.
The guys found Matt with Elena. "Didn't you guys do this last year?" Rob asked, noticing their costumes.
"Neither of us knew we were coming until the last minute." Matt told him. "It's better than the vampire outfit Vicki's wearing, anyway."
"Hey, have either of you two seen Jeremy?" Elena asked.
"No, I just got here." Alex told her.
"I'm sure he's around somewhere, Lena." Rob said. "Try not to worry about it too much, okay? Besides, last I checked, I saw her wandering around in the building."
"Thanks, man." Matt said. Elena had already taken off. The guys decided to go with her. After a few minutes, they found her and Vicki with Stefan. "What's going on?"
"Everything's fine." Stefan told him.
"I told you to quit bothering me." Vicki said.
"No, Vicki. Don't do this." Elena told her.
"Matt, he won't leave me alone."
"You need to back off."
"Matt, it's okay." Elena tried talking to him.
"I'm with Lena on this one." Rob said. "There's no way Stef would do anything bad to her."
"I think she might be…"
"She's gone!" Elena interrupted.
"I'm trying to help her." Stefan explained. The two of them ran off to find Vicki.
"Look, from what I can tell, Vicki thinks that he's the guy who was in the cemetery that night." Rob explained to Matt. "Considering how high she'd been the past few days, it's no surprise."
"Let's just try and find her, okay?" Matt told him. "I'm really worried about her now." The guys took off in separate directions.
It didn't take the girls long to find Bonnie. "Hey, what'd I miss?" Amy asked.
"Not much. Caroline's been trying to find her date." Bonnie said. Margret noticed the pendant around her neck.
"Is that it?" She whispered to Amy. Amy nodded. "You know, that really does go with your costume."
"Thanks, I just wish it didn't look like such a piece of junk." Bonnie said.
"You know, they say that amber protects against negative influences." Margret told her.
"Really? That's kind of cool."
"Makes it seem like less of a piece of junk now, doesn't it?" Melody pointed out. "Though it does look kind of old."
"Well, Caroline got it from Damon." Bonnie pointed out.
"Speaking of which, I'm outta here." Margret said. The other girls noticed him. "I don't know about you two, but I'm heading back home. This night has been very weird."
At home, Margret noticed Stefan outside. "Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I took Elena home." He told her. "Something happened with Jeremy and she wanted to check in on him."
"I'm going to go talk with him." Margret said. "I'm sure Elena will be back any minute." As she headed inside, her sister was headed out. "How is he?"
"It's pretty bad." Elena said. "Can you stay with him? There's something I need to do."
Margret went into her twin's room. Jeremy looked like a wreck. "Are you okay?"
"No."
"What happened?"
"I can't explain it. I know what happened, but it's impossible to explain."
"Look, I'm going to be right here until you feel better about whatever happened." Margret sat down next to him. She hated seeing him like this. The last time she'd seen him so upset was when their parents died.
"Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you, twin." Jeremy told her.
"Hey, it's nothing." Margret pointed out. A few minutes later, she noticed a figure in the doorway. She looked up to see who it was and got defensive. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm not here to see you." Damon told her. "Your sister asked me to talk with your twin over there. You can ask her if you don't believe me."
"I'm not leaving him." Margret told him.
"Some things are better left between guys, got it?" Margret left the room, not wanting to put up with him. She was too tired and emotionally drained to deal with Damon right now, so she headed back to her room. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.
