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Music

Later Into the Night - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (Searching/Finding)

Human - Civil Twilight (Kol)

Freedom at 21 - Jack White (The Grill)

Avery threw her purse on the couch and headed straight toward the closet where she'd found the secret compartment. The first time she viewed all the medical files, she wasn't looking for anything specific. Her search had just been driven by curiosity then. But now, she understood there was something special to look for. She may not know exactly what, but there was a secret waiting to be discovered.

Even though there a significant amount of time before Meredith came home, Avery couldn't stop all of her quick and panicked movements. Her hands roughly pushed the coats aside again to get the box out from the compartment. Everything was still where she had left it. She assumed Meredith hadn't looked at it lately.

Avery's eyes skimmed over all the medical files once again. But nothing stood out more than last time. She couldn't find anything new except Meredith had been the medical examiner that signed all the cases except for her parents and brother. Avery hadn't realized she was the person to do that in town.

She kept viewing the files over and over again for over half an hour when she finally gave up. Avery put the lid back on the files, and stood up to place it back in its hiding spot. That was when the beaten leather gym bag caught her attention again. She had almost completely forgotten about it. Her hand shook as she grabbed for the strap. Somehow she knew that whatever was inside would reveal what she had been searching for. She unzipped the top to find a stack of Polaroids sitting on top of a leather jacket. Her hands started flipping through the photos.

All of the Polaroids were pictures of what looked like a cave wall with drawings on it. Avery recognized the writings as Anglo-Saxon. She'd read about the specific writings in history class once. As she got deeper into the stack, there were post-it-notes stuck on the wall, labeling things. Her heart started racing when she saw labels such as "wolf attack" and "witch". But Avery stopped breathing when she came across a symbol that had been labeled "vampire". How could this be Meredith's bag? She wondered. But she kept flipping through the photos. Now there ones of names engraved onto the wall. The first photo read "Klaus" and "hybrid". The next few read Mikael, Ester, and Elijah. Avery slowed her search when she reached Rebekah. That was Kol's sister's name. She told herself it was a common name and that it happened to be a coincidence. But the next photo had a picture of three symbols spelling out a name. Avery dropped the stack when she read the note that had been placed next to it. After catching her breath, she picked it up off the floor from the pile that had now scattered. It read Kol. Whoever was the crazy person that took these photos was evidently stating Kol was a vampire.

As Avery tried to breath and pick up the photos she dropped, there was something on the bag that caught her eye. Initials were sewn onto the bag; they read A.S. The two letters seemed familiar to her. She went back to the files and found what she was looking for. Alaric Saltzman. He was the one that did not have a single photo to document his death. This must have been his bag.

But the idea of vampires, werewolves, and witches sounded like this man had gone crazy. Maybe Meredith was trying to protect him by taking the bag. But there was a significant part of Avery that believed what she was seeing. Her thoughts wandered to Kol. She told herself to think about, just for a moment, if he were truly a vampire. It would explain why everyone in town told her to stay away from him. They all must know his secret. Then she remembered when Meredith seemed panicked while asking her if Kol had been inside the house. She had been asking if he had been invited in. But he hadn't been invited it. Then Avery realized the first night he had been in the house was when she was drugged. She could have invited him in and never would be able to remember it.

Avery's eyes filled with tears when she thought of how all the victim's deaths were similar. All of them had been attacked at their necks. Her family too, but someone had cut across the bites to try and hide it. The only victim not to be killed by blood loss from the neck was the man who had been stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake. Had he been a vampire? She speculated.

The tears were streaming down her chin and dripping from her chin now. Avery didn't want to believe the absurdity. It was too strange to understand completely. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't deny that it all made sense. It was why no one took her family's death seriously. Someone had known it was a vampire. And they did everything to keep it a secret.

Avery had made up her mind. Meredith was keeping her away from Kol because he was the one that killed their family. She wasn't going to change her theory. As her crying continued, she shoved the stack of Polaroids back into the gym bag. She realized that the bag went deeper than just the leather jacket. Avery slowly removed it; scared she couldn't handle any more discoveries.

When the jacket was removed, Avery gasped. The bag was filled with weapons. She assumed they were specifically for killing vampires. There must have been over a dozen stakes. She picked up one of many glass darts. It was filled with a slightly tinted and transparent liquid. She wondered what the substance was. And a couple grenades of some sort sat in wooden cases. Avery was too scared she would set them off, so she left them alone. But the crossbow was what caught her curiosity. There were skinnier and longer wooden stakes resting next to it. She was mesmerized as she placed one of them in the holder of the crossbow. She notched the string to the latch, loading the weapon.

There was a creak in the floorboards behind her. By some instinct, Avery grabbed the crossbow, holding at the ready in front of her as she turned around. Kol stood calmly, watching her. The weapon was pointed directly at his torso. Avery's finger lingered over the trigger.

"Who told you?" Kol asked evenly.

She still hadn't stopped the tears from dropping. "Nobody told me. I figured it out myself." She didn't want to speak to him, knowing it would make killing him even harder than it already was. "You murdered my family. It was you. That's why you have such an interest in me. It's all just a sick game to you, isn't it? You want to finish what you started." Avery sobbed. She didn't bother trying to stop the shaking in her voice. Her grip on the crossbow was trembling. She wished Kol's face showed some sign of fear, but there was none. He doesn't think I'll do it, she thought.

He took a slow step toward her. "Avery, you are quite smart for putting it all together…but you still do not fully understand. I did not kill your family. You must recognize, I am not the only vampire in the world. Why do you believe I am the only one capable of killing them?" He questioned her quietly.

"I don't believe you!" Avery snapped. "Meredith kept telling me to stay away from you. She knew it was you that killed them." Avery still hadn't put down the crossbow yet. Her mind was telling her she should kill him but her heart trembled at the thought. Before either of them could persuade her to the put the weapon down, Avery pulled the trigger and released a stake.

But Kol caught it in his hand effortlessly. In a flash, he was standing inches in front of her. He placed the stake above his chest, hovering over his heart. "Go on. Do it. If you are so sure I murdered your family, kill me." Kol commanded. Avery only stared at him in horror. He was crazy, wanting her to just murder him right there. With his free hand, Kol grabbed hers and forced it to grasp the stake. Avery tried to pull away but he was uncommonly strong.

"I told you it would change the way you think of me." Kol finally murmured as he let her hand go. With it, the stake fell to the ground.

"You lied to me! Everyone lied to me! You're… a vampire, the same monster that killed my parents and my little brother." Avery couldn't continue. She backed to the wall and slowly slid down until her chest was hugging her knees. Her hands wiped away the tears as fast as she could. She could see Kol's feet take a step toward her. "Stay away from me. Just stop pretending." Avery begged. She was too upset to see the hurt in his eyes.

"Did you hurt Sheriff Phillips?" She asked him in between sniffs.

"Pardon? No. I was not even aware he was attacked."

"And what about the Chase?"

"Who?" His confusion caused her to finally look at him.

Avery sighed. "The boy who you saved me from that night in the forest." She clarified. Kol looked away from her when he realized whom she spoke of.

"I killed him." He affirmed nonchalantly.

"You act as if it doesn't mean anything!" She disputed.

"That is because it doesn't! His life meant nothing to me. I did what I wished and for some reason, I saved you in the process." His words seethed out. Kol was becoming angry now. Her reaction to his secret put him in a dark place. Instead of showing the hurt she caused him, he replaced it with rage.

"Now you know how people perceive me. You are just like them, Avery…only seeing what you want. I am a vampire. And I expect you will ignore everything you feel towards me because of it. You will dismiss all that you discovered of me before everything clouded and misled you." There was no sincerity in his voice, only fury. He had started revealing a side of himself no one had seen before, only Avery. And now, she resented it all.

Avery looked up to see that Kol had disappeared.

The Grill was understaffed for the night. It forced Matt to attempt bartending. Thankfully, it had been a slow day. But he knew that would all change when he saw Kol Mikaelson storming in. The vampire looked as if he was about to kill someone at any second, even more than usual. His eyes caught Matt's as he walked to the bar.

"Absinthe." He hissed at Matt.

"It's two o'clock in the afternoon." He reasoned.

Kol grabbed the neck of Matt's shirt quicker than any human could. "I don't believe I asked for the time. Give me the Absinthe before I decide to rip out your spine and drink you instead." Matt stumbled backward when he was finally let go. He didn't disregard any part of Kol's threat. He quickly poured him a glass.

"Leave the bottle." Kol ordered. Matt didn't argue, as he moved to the other side of the bar, avoiding any more death risks. He cleaned glasses and glanced over at the original vampire, wondering what could have possibly happened to put him in such a mood.

A couple hours later, Kol had gone through the entire bottle of Absinthe. Matt started getting worried, people were beginning to come in for dinnertime. With a drunk and unstable vampire, that also meant dinnertime in a different way.

"Hey Donovan! You're cut for the day. Have a nice night." Matt's boss came out of his office to tell him. But the last thing Matt wanted to do was leave and feel responsible for whatever trouble Kol caused.

"Are you sure? I feel like a rush is heading over soon." He tried to say.

"Donovan if you're not out of here in five minutes, you're fired. I don't really mean that…but… just go home." Before Matt could argue any more, he was back in his office already. Matt sighed and took of his apron before grabbing his backpack from the back room. He had to walk past Kol, no matter what, in order to leave. Matt tried not to make eye contact, as he got closer to him. Just before he got to the door, Matt looked up to see the very person he was trying to avoid was blocking it.

"Going outside?" Kol questioned before dragging him out into the alley. He slammed Matt down onto the cement ground, standing over him.

"I really don't see the point in any of this." Matt said as he tried to get up.

"I'm quite bored and very irritated. As I recall, we never finished what we started the other day. And I've been itching to kill something. I guess you were just at the right place at the right time." Kol didn't slur his words but he could barely stand straight or take a step without losing his balance. Obviously, he was drunk after downing an entire bottle of some of the most potent alcohol.

"Look man, they're already planning on how to end your entire species. Killing me will only make matters worse." Matt said as he tried to get up, but Kol kicked him back to the ground. He groaned in pain, sure that one of his ribs had been cracked with the blow.

"He's right, you know. Matt has no part in this. Leave him alone." A voice said calmly behind them. Kol turned to see Stefan Salvatore watching them with his arms crossed. Kol sneered at him. He was just another toy to add to the game.

"You think I am worried about a few cops who know how to kill a vampire?" Kol said mockingly as he moved away from Matt to walk toward Stefan.

Stefan looked over Kol's shoulder at Matt. "Go home, Matt." The human struggled to get up with his broken rib. Slowly, he made he way past the two vampires. He kept waiting for Kol to burst into speed and finish him off. But the original didn't break eye contact with Stefan.

Once Matt was gone, Stefan continued talking. "The new sheriff in town was just the beginning. He's part of a family that's been around for centuries, a family that trains their entire lives to be vampire hunters. Unlike you, we actually care about staying alive. If you continue going on a human killing rampage, you're going to force them to act with their plan that we don't know about yet. So stop being an idiot and stop drawing attention where it doesn't need to be."

Kol grinned. "Are you telling me I am supposed to be worried about Sheriff Phillips?" He laughed a little at the idea. Kol had already had multiple chances to kill the young officer, but he passed them up. He made a note that he would be less merciful in the near future.

"Maybe, but I'm more worried about his family that is supposedly coming into town in a few days." Stefan paused a moment. "If your mother can think of a way to kill an original vampire, I'm sure they can too."

Kol narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "And why are you telling me all of this? None of you are part of my bloodline."

"No, we're not. But none of us know where exactly Klaus is. I thought maybe you could pass the word on. Like I said, we prefer to stay alive." Stefan started walking away but paused after a few steps. "And I'm assuming Elijah would want to know also, seeing as the girl he loves is connected to your line."

Thoughts? Ehhh?