Dear Diary,
Things are different—a lot different—since the last time I wrote you. New place, new plan, new friends… and a new me. I'm happy, and being happy has changed me so much.
And it doesn't stop there. If everything works out the way it should, then Klaus is going to be out of our lives forever. Like, really forever. I can't imagine what it's going to be like without him, but I know it will be better. We wont have to be afraid anymore, even taking a step out of the house to get the paper. And now I have forever. I have forever to be with…
"Elena?" Damon called, walking into the room. Elena looked up from the paper and saw him smile at her. "Hey. You ready to come down?"
The hybrids were waiting for her in the backyard. Every since that first successful session, Lucy had been pushing Elena to train the hybrids almost every second of the day. It took a lot out of her, and although Lucy had assured her that there were not any harmful effects of constantly channeling Klaus, something still felt weird inside of her head even when her eyes were back to normal.
"In a second. Tell Lucy I've just got to finish this real quick and then I'll be all hers," she responded.
"Are you sure everything's okay? Lucy's been working you like a dog all week. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted a day off to maybe sleep for once."
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." She smiled at his worrisome expression and watched him turn around and go back downstairs. She leaned back over her green leather diary.
Anyway, like I said, things are going to be better now. And if wearing me to the bone is what it takes to earn everybody's freedom back, then I'll do it, even if it means having black eyes almost all of the time.
Everything's going to be fine.
Kol Mikaelson stared at the slightly burnt drawing of the old white oak tree that used to be the tallest thing he had ever seen as a young boy. And now it was ash, swept up by the wind and scattered all over the world over hundreds of years, or so they had thought.
He ran a finger along the blackened edges of the paper, then crumpled it up and tossed it into the corner of the room, his mother's study. Then he angrily stomped out of the house dialed Klaus's number.
"Ah, brother Kol, so nice to see you haven't been killed by that wretched stake yet," Klaus immediately greeted him as he picked up. "I expect you have good news as to its whereabouts."
"Actually, that is the purpose to my calling, Niklaus. You see, I don't plan on running circles around the continent again from whoever might have the power to end our family, so I'm doing what neither you or Rebekah, or Elijah or that bloody Finn would do. I'm taking action against these thieves, and I'm not stopping until they are dead."
Klaus didn't seem surprised, or emotionally affected at all. "Now, now, Kol, let's not be hasty. Remember that running has never let us down in the past."
"Maybe not to you. But as for the rest of us, we have obligations," he explained. "I'm going to give our sibling the peace we have deserved for so long. So I suggest you either help me or don't stand in my way."
There was a long, pregnant pause. Kol knew Klaus was weighing his decisions, but in the end, he really didn't have a choice.
He sighed. "Where do we start?"
Jeremy sat down at the table farthest from the rest of the Grill and opened up his laptop. After clicking on a several buttons and a few moments of patience, Bonnie's face popped up on his screen, and his own face appeared in a little box in the corner from his live web cam.
Bonnie was grinning from ear to ear. She waved at him with her pixel hand. "Hey, Jeremy! How are you?"
"Missing you."
"I know. I've been missing you so much too. But I hear if all goes well, we may be back in a couple of weeks. So we just have to hold on till then."
"How's everything over there. Is Elena doing well? It's still early for her in the transition and that problem with her blood and all…"
Bonnie nodded. "It's so great, Jeremy. I wish I could show you how perfectly it's all going. Soon enough, Elena will have unsired all of the hybrids so that they can be on our side. And the stake has been transformed into a dagger, so we can put it in Klaus and be done with this whole thing."
He smiled. "Somehow, I don't believe that it's going to work out just the way we want it to."
"Stop worrying," she waved him off. "Anyways, let me see the Grill. Does it look good?"
"See for yourself." He picked up the laptop and spun it slowly around the room, giving her a good panoramic view of the inside of the restaurant. "Just goes to show that hard work pays off. This is what long hours of construction looks like."
"Good to see you took the opportunity to improve," she giggled, sarcastically as he set the laptop back down on the table.
He shrugged. "I figured it was best just the way it is, right now."
Bonnie nodded, not disagreeing with him. There were a lot of great memories that went along with the Grill. Considering it was basically Mystic Falls' only hangout, Jeremy had spent the better part of his life playing pool in the corner or waiting on tables with Matt. It felt rewarding to know he had a part in building it back up.
Then Bonnie focused on a spot over Jeremy's shoulder and squinted. "Wait a minute. Is that…Kol over there?"
Jeremy turned around to see that, sure enough, the dark-haired Original Kol was standing at the bar across the room, tapping the bottom of an empty shot glass against the surface of the countertop. He glanced over to where Jeremy was sitting, and he quickly ducked his head so that Kol would not notice him.
Bonnie was waiting anxiously. "Well?"
"What the hell is he doing here?" he wondered.
"Is Klaus with him?"
"No," Jeremy answered, looking at Kol again. "No, it's just him. I'm going to go check that out. I'll talk to you later tonight, okay?"
She frowned. "Jeremy, be careful."
He smiled, reassuringly, and snapped the laptop shut.
Jeremy stood up observed Kol for just a moment. As his eyes swept the rest of the restaurant, he caught sight of Sheriff Forbes who had just walked in and was also staring at Kol. She turned and saw Jeremy, and they shared a worried look.
He nodded as if to say that he would take care of it, and then walked over to stand next to Kol at the bar.
"Nice to see you again, mate," Kol said immediately, obviously having heard Jeremy come up to him. "Finally want to get back to those batting cages again?"
"Actually I was wondering what brings you back into town," Jeremy responded, coldly. "And when you were planning to leave."
Kol beckoned the bartender over, and he uncapped a beer and slid it before Jeremy. He didn't take a sip, but Kol emptied another shot glass. "Well, I was hoping to talk to someone a little taller, but I guess you'll do for now. You see I'm having a bit of a problem, Jeremy old pal. The only weapon that can kill me is missing, and I know you know where it is. So why don't you just fess up before this gets ugly?"
Jeremy tried to keep his face smooth like Stefan or Damon would. He understood that since neither of them was here right now, he would have to step up. And yes, he knew that that the stake was with his sister and Bonnie and the rest of them in Memphis, whether it was still a stake or a dagger now. But he wouldn't give that away to Kol.
"Look, I have no idea where the stake is, but it's definitely not here. So just leave Mystic Falls and take you're search with you."
"You know it could stay between us," he murmured, persuasively. "If that's what you are worried about. No one would have to know that you were the one who gave me the location of the stake."
"I don't know where it is," he repeated, emphasizing each word.
Kol sighed, and looked down at his hands, which were folding and unfolding at his stomach. Then, all of a sudden, he reached out and grabbed Jeremy's collar tightly in his fist and lifted his feet a few inches off of the ground.
The entire room went silent as every face turned to look at the pair of them.
"Find me that stake," he whispered, menacingly. "Or there is going to be hell to pay, and every day that goes by that I don't have it is another innocent body you will find on your doorstep. Are we clear, Gilbert?"
He dropped Jeremy to the floor and stormed out of the restaurant.
"Daisy Patterson, fifteen," Stefan said, solemnly as he tossed the newspaper onto the kitchen table. "Found dead from extreme blood loss in the middle of the woods yesterday."
Damon sighed. "Looks like Kol wasn't screwing around with us."
"I knew I shouldn't have let Jeremy confront him," Bonnie murmured, regrettably. "He's lucky to be alive."
"Well now he's Kol's little errand boy," Damon reminded her. "Like that's any better."
"What are we going to do?" Elena demanded.
Lucy shrugged. "There's nothing we can do. We simply can't let Jeremy reveal the location of our hiding spot, or Kol will come here and kill all of us."
"But if he doesn't give Kol anything, then he'll be dead."
"Can we lead him on a false trail?" Stefan offered.
"Maybe," Lucy answered. "But that will only occupy him for so long till he finds out that Jeremy lied to him, then he'll come back for blood. On the other hand, it is the best shot we have of keeping Jeremy alive the longest and Kol from killing a person a day."
"Then we'll do it," Elena decided.
"Hold on," Damon objected. "Why give Jeremy just a few more weeks when we should just get down there and stop Kol ourselves?"
Elena glanced to Lucy. "Can we do that? Will you help us?"
"There are some spells I can do to give you the upper hand long enough to bring him back here where we can contain him until after we take care of Klaus. Then we'll get our hands on a dagger and some white oak ash and box him up with his brother."
"Then we'll head out as soon as possible," Damon nodded. "Until then, we should keep in touch with Jeremy. Little Gilbert doesn't say one word to him unless we've told him to."
Elena looked at Damon, worriedly. Of course, she didn't like the idea of Jeremy being so close to Kol, especially since they didn't know if he was working with Klaus. But if they were going to monitor him closely and constantly, then she was just going to have to have faith in Damon. Besides, she told him that she loved him, so trust is pretty much implied.
She walked forward to get a closer look at the newspaper that Stefan had dropped onto the counter. It was a Mystic Falls paper, and on the front page was the headline YOUNG GIRL FOUND DEAD: ANOTHER SERIAL KILLER ON THE LOOSE?
The article went on to explain how the girl's death was the cause of an animal attack, as was signed by Dr. Meredith Fell. But despite this, the citizens of Mystic Falls are skeptic that this might just be part two of the murders performed by the late Alaric Saltzman, who has passed his work down to his apprentice.
Her stomach twisted. It was bad enough that Alaric was dead, but that the town that he lived in and the people in it still believe that he was a murderer. It was terrible to think that they didn't get to know him like Elena did. They didn't get to see him as the incredibly loving father figure that he was, or that he died for the sake of everyone else.
Elena was staring at the smudged words on the newspaper so hard that they began to blur together creating one big black jumble of letters. The harder she tried to concentrate to make out the different words, the more strain it put on her eyes. It wasn't until after her skull began to throb in the effort that she realized something was wrong.
She wasn't normally a queasy person or susceptible to fainting, so there had to be another reason for the fact that she could no longer feel her legs.
Then it suddenly occurred to her that she was extremely worn out when Stefan had called everyone into the kitchen and was ready to rest in her room. She had just finished a rather long training session and it took a lot out of her. Could her dizziness be the result of her not resting?
A pair of arms wrapped around her wait and she recognized Damon's familiar and enticing scent.
"Whoa there," he murmured into her ear. "Let's take a seat right here."
He lowered the two of them to the floor, which was cool against her skin. She leaned her pulsating head onto his shoulder and rode out the headache with her eyes closed.
When the pain began to subside and she realized she could focus on more than just a filmy mist that clouded her surroundings, she opened her eyes and saw that the kitchen was empty aside from her and Damon sitting on the floor.
He watched her slowly sit up with eyes so glazed that it seemed like the room would never stop spinning. His arms were ready in case she was to fall again.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
Elena held her hand to the side of her head, hoping to somehow hold her brain in incase her skull decided to explode. "I think so. What was that?"
"Well, uh…" he helped her lean back against the bottom of the counter. "I've certainly seen my fair share of hangovers, so I can sure as hell tell you that that wasn't one."
She giggled, but it only made her dizzier. Somehow, she remembered a time when she was younger and her gym coach told her to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth whenever she felt faint. It worked, but only a little.
Damon lifted his hand to stroke her perspiring cheekbones. His eyes flickered to her mouth. "I think you've been working too hard lately. It's taking a lot out of you."
"That can't be the reason why I passed out."
"Lucy said this might happen," he explained. "I should have listened to her."
She reached up and placed her hand over his on her face. "Damon, if anything, this isn't your fault. It's mine. I…bit off more than I could chew, I guess."
He looked deeply into her eyes. "Just promise me you'll take it easy from now on."
"I promise."
Elena cupped her hand around the back of his neck and kissed him softly on the mouth. It was so casual, so normal, that she hardly understood why they hadn't been doing this before. In fact, thinking back over her time with Stefan made it clear that every second before she confessed her love to Damon had been the strange and unfamiliar, and this was right, and it was right now.
Caroline paced the living room, back and forth in front of the fireplace.
She couldn't—she wouldn't—be able to keep this kind of secret to herself. Caroline wasn't one to hold in anything, which was why people considered her a gossip in high school. Every word that went in through her ears came out through her lips. It wasn't exactly something she could control, but t had never really been a problem before. But now…everything was put in perspective.
Finally, right on schedule, Lucy came downstairs in her pajamas in direction of the kitchen for her morning coffee; she always woke up earlier than anybody else. But then she saw Caroline, and walked toward her with a pleasant smile.
"Caroline? What are you doing up? Usually, I'm the only one awake at this time."
Without hesitation, Caroline ripped the leather diary off of the top of the mantle and held it up so Lucy could see it. "I know. I know everything."
The color drained from Lucy's face like someone had uncorked her. Every muscle in her body stiffened, and Caroline could see the goose bumps rise on her arms. Her eyes widened to the size of golf balls, and her mouth formed an o.
She swallowed. "Um…that wasn't my decision, and it's not what you think."
"Really?" Caroline spat. "You think I read it wrong? You know, there actually aren't many different ways that this can be construed as."
"Would you stop looking at me like that, Caroline? You don't know everything. There's no way that you can fully understand this. But you have to swear that you will never tell anyone about what you read."
Caroline sighed, and threw the diary onto the coffee table. "Then start talking."
Sheriff Forbes waited as Mrs. Lockwood went to open the door for her. As soon as she walked into the lavish foyer, Mrs. Lockwood was explaining the situation.
"They only gave me fifteen minutes notice before they all just showed up at my doorstep. Liz, what happened? Their faces…they were so angry."
She looked around. "Where are they now?"
"In the family room."
Carol followed the sheriff into the large living room, where the entire Mystic Falls town council was gathered in a loose semi-circle, and all eyes were on Liz as she entered the room. They were definitely not happy, except for Dr. Fell, who she could pick out from the rest of the crowd. Her face was worried and terrified.
"Thank you for coming, sheriff," the town treasurer immediately addressed her. "Take a seat."
"I'm fine," she replied, rather tersely. "Just tell me why you called this urgent meeting."
He sighed, and took a hesitant step forward. "I heard that you were present during the incident at the Mystic Grill with the ancient vampire Kol. He threatened Jeremy Gilbert. He said that if Jeremy didn't give him something, then the people of Mystic Falls would pay. And since then, a young girl was found dead of a vampire attack in the woods. As you can understand, Liz, this is why we formed the council, for problems like this. We can't just sit by and watch more innocent people get killed over this. So just tell us. What does he want from the Gilbert boy?"
Sheriff Forbes sucked in a tight breath. Of course she knew what Kol wanted. It was why her daughter was in Memphis and not here with her. The stake. But this was confidential information. She was sure Caroline probably wasn't even supposed to tell her. She couldn't even imagine what Damon would do if he knew that she knew where the stake was, and that it was a dangerous dagger that worked on Klaus.
So there was no way she could tell these people, the absolute haters of vampirism, what she knew of the White Oak stake. There was no way that they were going to let them carry on with their plan, at least not without finding out about who they really are. And that was hard enough to erase from their brains the first time.
The treasurer waited for her response, but none came. "It's about the indestructible White Oak stake, isn't it?"
She balked. "How did you know?"
He turned around to glance at Meredith, and Liz understood.
The doctor whimpered, and her eyes widened. "I'm so sorry, Liz," she pleaded. "But I had to. They gave me no choice."
Sheriff Forbes just shook her head at her, disappointedly.
Then the treasurer rubbed at his chin, then closed the distance between him and Liz. He leaned in very close till she could feel his breath on her face. "This matter is no longer your problem, Sheriff Forbes. As of now, the council will take over. Don't worry, sheriff, mayor. We've got this under control."
Then he started to walk away, but just as he reached the front door, he whirled back around. "Oh, and anyone who tries to get in our way will be…handled."
The slam of the door resonated in the air long after he was gone.
AN: Please let me apologize for the very very long time it took for me to post this chapter. I pinkie promise that this is the first and last time that I will ever be late in updating! I'm really sorry!
Anyways, hope you liked this chapter. It wasn't much, I know, especially after such a long wait, but the tension is about to rise. And for those of you wondering about the secret that Caroline discovered, it will actually not be revealed for a while.
But for now, here's the synopsis for chapter thirteen (which WILL be updated on time, scout's honor):
I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE SOMEBODY'S WATCHING ME- Everyone's allegiances are tested as the members of the council take action against the situation, and it is up to Jeremy to fix things back at home. Damon and Elena's plan to capture Kol is compromised when they come face to face with someone unexpected. Caroline continues her struggle to uncover the truth of Sheila's diary.
