Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.
Damon was irritated. He had tried to sneak out of the hotel room before Tabitha woke up from her post-coital nap but unfortunately she turned out to be a light sleeper and woke up as soon as his feet hit the floor. She sat up in bed silently and watched with a dejected expression on her face as Damon threw his clothes in his lone bag, showered, and slipped on a fresh pair of black clothes.
She had asked if they'd see each other again. He said no and that after today she wouldn't remember ever meeting him. But Tabitha boldly dropped the sheet to show her gloriously naked body as she slithered over to him on her hands and knees and said saucily she could never forget the man who made her orgasm for fifteen complete minutes.
As "touched" as he was by the compliment, when Damon woke up with his arm wrapped around a warm body, a big Kool-Aid grin was on his face, and he brought the body closer. His eyes were still closed for a movie was being played out behind his lids of a caramel body riding his dick, head thrown back in ecstasy, bleeding from the bite in her neck, his bite, tasting her exquisite blood. Damon's body had begun to stir and he wanted her again, but when he finally opened his eyes, he was greeted with a stranger's face; he frowned and wanted to kick the imposter out of his bed.
Last night it had been Bonnie who moaned his name in his ear, Bonnie that he rode from the back, whose ass he slapped, whose breasts he sucked.
Waking up to see the demented trick his warped mind played on him, Damon was not only disappointed by the results but with himself.
Why was he repeating history for a third time?
He wasn't in love with Bonnie that he knew with absolute certainty, but he cared about her, and hell he was a man so a little fantasizing about seeing her naked came with the territory.
But to go so far as to ask another woman who really looked nothing like Bonnie to call her by Bonnie's name, said more about his mental state than hers despite agreeing to his request.
Damon wasn't sprung. He was sprung out.
Rejection had a way of making him feel like less than dirt and running to the first source of attention someone of the female species paid him.
Bonnie offered her friendship like the hag presenting the shiny red apple to Snow White. He took it, bit it, and was now being poisoned by it.
So when he strolled through the front door of the boardinghouse, of course the first thing he would see was Bonnie and Stefan napping on the couch.
Bonnie was sleeping on Stefan's chest. They looked so content and in love it was disgusting. Damon snorted, dropped his bag on the floor as loudly as he could to see if it would wake them up. It didn't. They continued to sleep like the dead. Ignoring them he headed over to the bar to pour himself a drink.
He stared out the window and sipped his drink trying his best not to breathe in the air because it was saturated with Bonnie's perfume and natural scent.
When he turned around to head up to his room, the cat had jumped up on the coffee table and eyed him contemptuously.
Damon said nothing only headed to the staircase with Sheila's eyes following him the whole time.
Valentine's Day
6:35 a.m.
Bonnie was nervous about this day. Not because she wasn't unsure about what gift to get Stefan or if he'd get her something. In fact they had agreed not to exchange gifts since they had been more than generous to one another during Christmas, and not to mention the fortune he spent on their trips to Seychelles, Dubai, Australia, and New York. They had agreed to have a quiet dinner at the boardinghouse and skip any and all parties. Their luck at social gatherings was not good.
Besides, Bonnie was partied out.
But the reason she was feeling nervous was because the stalker might strike again and leave her another "gift".
Two weeks after she received the finger in the white gift box, the body of the women it belonged to was found on the side of the highway. The coroner reported she had been strangled to death and brutally mutilated. Bonnie didn't want anymore details on her demise.
And of course going against Stefan's objection Bonnie attended Vanessa Pinkston's funeral. Bonnie felt responsible because if it weren't for this Psycho Derek's obsession with her, Vanessa never would have been kidnapped and she wouldn't have died, so Bonnie felt she owed not only Vanessa an apology but her family as well.
In the interim, Bonnie applied for scholarships and awaited either a rejection or acceptance letter from the three schools she applied to. The acceptance letters of her peers were slowly starting to trickle in, and as each day and week passed and Bonnie hadn't heard anything, she grew nervous.
But to keep her mind off of that she signed up for a kickboxing and self-defense class. When Caroline and Elena found out about it, they too joined up. So every Wednesday from seven to nine they carpooled to the only gym in town, perspired to the point they could fill up a garbage can, and beat the crap out of each other and punching bags until their knuckles, knees, and wrists were burning.
The door to her bedroom flew open and Bonnie laughed.
Stefan entered her room wearing a Chippendale's stripper costume, black spandex shorts, white cuffs around his wrists, black bowtie, and combat boots completed the look. His naked torso glistened because it looked as if he hosed himself down with half a bottle of baby oil.
Bonnie screamed. And wished she had a stack of one dollar bills.
Balanced on his fingers was a small silver serving platter. "Your breakfast, milady," he said and bowed before her presenting Bonnie with a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
"Thank you," she said between her giggles and took the bowl off the serving platter. "Happy Valentine's Day."
"Happy Valentine's Day to you as well," he kissed her forehead. After Bonnie ate a few spoonfuls of cereal, Stefan sat the platter down on her night table, and from behind his back he presented a box to her.
She almost chocked on the mouthful of cereal as she looked from the box to Stefan's eyes.
"We promised we wouldn't exchange gifts," she complained and sat the cereal aside.
Stefan shrugged his shoulder. "I know and I cheated but I just couldn't resist. When I saw it in the store I knew I had to get it for you. My conscience wouldn't allow me to leave it behind."
"Right," Bonnie said skeptically. She took the box out of his hand and opened it. "Oh," she gushed and pulled the necklace out of the case.
Stefan sat behind her on the bed, took the necklace out of her hands, and placed it around her neck.
"It's an Algerian love knot," he told her.
Bonnie ran her fingers over the intricate knot and felt her heart flutter. He had to stop being so sweet and thoughtful.
Bonnie angled her body until she could face Stefan. "Thank you," she said. They kissed until Bonnie needed air. "I love you."
"I love you, too. Now hurry up and finish your cereal. As much as I would love to skip today, I know you have to make an appearance at school," he made a face to which Bonnie laughed.
"Yeah, because there's this small thing called graduation that requires I attend a certain number of days and complete all assignments to get this little, tiny piece of paper commending me for my effort," she quirked.
Stefan shrugged. "I could just compel the principal to give you your diploma and we can blow off the rest of the school year and…pass the time doing our own special brand of extracurricular activities."
"Uh-hun, sure," Bonnie mumbled and resumed eating her cereal.
At school the day went by without much fan fair. The halls looked as if there had been an explosion of Pepto Bismol. There were pink and red cut out hearts, balloons, and streamers everywhere. Bonnie had a morbid thought about the halls resembling the inside of Jabba The Hut's stomach.
While she was unloading her books in her locker, Bonnie spotted Jeremy talking to the red-headed girl she saw him with on the day she broke up with him. Well it was clear from the girl's body language that she was feeling Jeremy a lot, whereas Jeremy was walking in the gray area of if he should attempt to talk to her or not. Suddenly Bonnie remembered what Alaric shared with her over Christmas break, about Jeremy and his frequent talks with Anna. She meant to ask Elena if Anna still had a foothold on their side, but it completely slipped her mind.
Besides she had enough problems to fix and dealing with Jeremy's Casper the Friendly ghost ex-girlfriend was the least of her worries.
"Hey, Bon."
Bonnie turned at the sound of the familiar voice. She smiled and leaned in to give Matt a hug. She felt like she hadn't seen him in ages.
"Hey, Matt. How you been?"
"Busy like crazy working on a couple of extra credit assignments to get my average up. I'm still waiting to hear back from UVA's athletic department about that scholarship."
"How could they turn you down? You have the third highest passing average in the region."
Matt grinned and may have blushed. Not many girls kept up with player's stats only who was banging who and who was hot.
"You've been following me?"
Bonnie smiled and closed her locker. "You're my boy of course I keep tabs on you. I know I don't look like I speak jock, but I know a little bit."
Matt chuckled and the two began to head down the hallway. When they walked past Jeremy and his friend, the glacial look he sent her way would have withered her. If Jeremy was still bitter over their break up that was his problem. He tried to murder her boyfriend so that made them even in the hurt department.
Of course this didn't go over Matt's head. "He's still raw about y'alls break up and the fact you're with Stefan."
Bonnie held up a hand. "I know all about that and I don't care. It's been three months, and he needs to move on," she said unsympathetically.
They turned the corner and were now officially in the science wing of the school. Matt looked around covertly. "Ah, Bon I gotta talk to you about something."
Bonnie understood his tone of voice to mean he had to speak with her about something of the supernatural nature. They walked over to a small alcove.
"What's up?" Bonnie folded her arms over her chest.
"I think Jeremy's a little…he told me he can talk to Anna, and has been talking to her a lot, and that's she been helping him deal…with life. But the other day I caught him…I guess talking to her at the Grill, and it sounded like he was trying to talk her out of doing something bad."
"Bad like what?"
Matt shrugged and looked extremely uncomfortable. "Well, when I asked him about it, at first he tried to blow it off, but then he confessed. She told him there's a way for her to come back, but she has to tie up a loose end. I don't know what she meant by that, but she said there's a witch on the other side who can bring her back if she did one little thing."
Bonnie did not like the sound of that. Anna was making a back door deal to come back to their side but she had to tie up a loose end. What loose end? And what would this entail and who would it affect?
Bonnie cleared her throat and hoped to tramp down the goose bumps wanting to crawl over her skin. "Did he say he would help her…crossover?"
"He looked like he hadn't made up his mind because he doesn't know what Anna would have to do in order to comeback. But he does look like he's seriously considering it."
Bonnie looked away. "That idiot," she said under her breath. Matt heard her anyways and agreed. "Okay, if he talks to Anna again, let me know."
"Yeah, but what are you going to do?"
Bonnie nibbled her lips. "I won't know what to do until something happens, unfortunately. I guess this is just another consequence I have to pay for bringing Jeremy back."
Matt wasn't completely heartless and wasn't going to say: "Yeah you should have just let him die", but he was pretty sure anyone making a deal with a ghost no matter how benevolent they might appear just didn't sound like a smart thing to do. Death was invented for a reason.
The bell for class to begin ringed and Bonnie and Matt took off down the hallway to get in their classroom before the door slammed shut.
Salvatore Boardinghouse
2:45 pm
Sheila had decided not to use her liter box and pissed on the Persian rug. Damon sighed as he bent down and rolled up the priceless now worthless rug. That cat was gonna end up as fancy feast for the pit bull he had every intention on buying if she kept this crap up.
Something shattered in the living room and Damon sighed again and stomped his way inside to investigate.
There was a broken vase on the ground. Damon looked around expecting to see that smug gray cat glaring at him as if wanting to say "Die muthafucka", but he didn't see hide nor hair of that damn cat.
"Sheila I am going to skin your ass and make a pair of gloves when I find you," Damon threatened and began to pick up the broken pieces of the vase.
When he got to his feet, he felt something move past him at a speed even he couldn't keep up with. Then something akin to a sledgehammer was slammed into his cheek, and Damon went flying. He didn't remember landing because it had been lights out for him.
3:10 pm
When Damon woke up he was hog tied to a chair and not just any chair but the chair he ripped Mason Lockwood's heart out in.
There was a burning pain in the middle of his chest. When he looked down he saw the fireplace poker protruding from his body.
How fitting, Damon thought sardonically and attempted to wrench his arms free but was unable to do so. Sheila couldn't have done this unless she was a were-cat and shifted into human form. So that left one possible suspect, but Damon hadn't done anything to piss Stefan off, at least he didn't think he had.
"Oh, you gotta to be kidding me," Damon groaned and tried to break the chains again. Nothing moved except the chair which thankfully wasn't bolted to the ground.
Of course while all of this was taking place there was an ominous presence silently observing him with a glare marring his handsome features.
It took a minute for Damon to realize his day-walking ring had been taken off. "Low blow," he muttered.
Approaching footsteps caught his attention and in walked an amused looking Stefan who leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.
"What the hell happened to you?"
"Whatever twisted Ripper game this is, leave me out of it."
Stefan approached his brother and looked him over and saw the poker sticking out the back of the chair. Damon had been stabbed clean through.
"I didn't do this," Stefan chuckled. "That is messed up though." Sobering, Stefan, pulled the poker out of Damon's chest, broke only a single link in the heavy chain around his wrist, and tapped Damon on the shoulder. "Happy Valentine's Day, brother," he said and strolled out of the room.
He was still tied to the chair with wire. "Yeah, not to worry. I'll just untangle myself," Damon grimaced and then, the curtain magically opened, sunlight poured in, and his skin started burning.
Gilbert Residence
1:50 p.m.
Today Jeremy decided not to finish out the rest of the school day. What would be the point? He didn't want to walk around and glare at all the couples that seemingly popped up out of nowhere with their smiles and their euphoria with being young and in love. All day he wanted to do nothing more than rip the heads off defenseless stuffed animals, or shred greeting cards with his teeth. No he didn't want a heart shaped sucker, or an Edward Cullen Valentine's Day card telling him how "sweet" he was, and no there was no one special enough on this planet for him to buy a one-dollar carnation for.
This holiday was stupid for obvious reasons, Jeremy grumbled to himself.
He was lying in bed with his hands crossed behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. He had the comfort in knowing that Elena would be home and the two of them could compare notes on who had the most miserable day.
This time last year he didn't have a reason to celebrate Valentine's Day and it would seem history was repeating in this regard. Jeremy figured he should consider himself lucky that he didn't catch Stefan and Bonnie making out while exchanging gifts, but seeing her this morning was still painful in its own right.
She didn't give them a chance, his mind blatantly kept reminding him, but he guess he couldn't fight against a hundred and sixty-two years of experience to make any kind of impact on her. The five months they were together Jeremy didn't feel it had been a total waste and he learned things about himself he might not have otherwise discovered. But none of it seemed to matter to Bonnie.
But then…there was Anna. Somehow, someway, he could not only see her, but talk to her, and when he really concentrated he could touch her. Anna said there was a way for her to come back. In order to do so he'd have to perform a spell and essentially invite her back in, but there was a condition to that as well.
And it was the condition which had him worried.
When he and Anna were together things weren't sunshine and rainbows. Jeremy had been in a dark place and Anna fed that darkness but also tried to add a little light. She loved him and he loved her, if he were honest she was probably the only girl he loved, but Jeremy rudely reminded himself she wasn't only a girl either.
There had to be something in the water if everyone he knew and/or associated with could only intensely love vampires.
Which posed the question of how did Bonnie not remain immune to all of this when it was her job to protect the balance, not screw it all up by screwing a vampire?
He should bring Anna back just to throw it in her face and say, ha you aren't the only fangbanger in town.
Not like that was something his parents would be proud of.
"Jeremy."
He should have expected her arrival at the onset of thinking about her, but it still gave him the willies to have Anna "appear" out of thin air lying on his bed next to him.
Jeremy catapulted out of bed and blinked his eyes while Anna merely stared at him like he grew a second head.
"Anna," he said over the roar of his pounding heart.
She offered him a tiny smile and patted the bed as invitation for him to return. Jeremy did so tentatively.
"You were thinking about me," she stated the obvious.
"Yeah, that typically happens when I'm alone."
"And you don't have to be alone, Jeremy. It's Valentine's Day. We never got the chance to celebrate when I was still…undead," she smiled. She reached for his hand and her smile widened when she was able to grab a hold of him. Their fingers immediately intertwined.
"Anna…you don't know how bad I want you to come back…but you won't tell me what you have to do in order to stay."
Uncertainty flashed in her eyes before they became calm and serene again. "It's just a condition and nothing for you to worry about. I don't have much time before the offer is taken off the table. I'm so lonely here, Jeremy. I just wonder around waiting for you to think about me or call me. It's the only way I can communicate."
He was tempted, so tempted to just bring her back and deal with the consequences when they inevitably arrived, but Jeremy couldn't take that risk because of everything else that was going on. Besides, he's watched enough Ghostbusters movies to know that when a door was opened not only one ghost may walk through. It could lead to an invasion of those who simply had chosen not to move on or had unfinished business to walk right through.
"I know what you're thinking, but the witch promised me only I would be able to cross over."
"And you believe her?" Jeremy was skeptical.
Anna nodded her head.
"Anna…look if I do this…will you promise me you're not gonna hurt anyone."
"I promise. I just have a loose end to tie up and then everything will be the way it was before only better. We can have a future." Pause. "I love you, and I want to be with you. You deserve happiness, too, Jeremy. I want to make you happy."
Jeremy was silent for a while. The only time Anna really hurt someone was because she wanted to rescue her mom from the tomb. But still…no good deed went unpunished. But only being able to see her and talk to her when he thought about her wasn't enough and he'd have to spend the rest of his life doing so. And if the offer that was on the table for her to come back was about to expire he might lose even having this much contact with Anna. And he wasn't ready to move on. He needed her.
"All right," he relented and Anna smiled again leaned over and kissed him.
He was flooded with memories, with feelings, with dread and apprehension, but he wanted her back.
When they pulled apart, he ran his fingers through her hair, delighting in the fact he could touch her and that it felt so real.
"What do I have to do?"
Town Square
4:43 p.m.
Bonnie couldn't figure out how she was sucked into hanging up lanterns in Town Square for the annual Valentine's Day dinner, but here she was standing on top of a ladder talking to Caroline on what Matt shared with her about Jeremy talking to ghosts.
"You know I have to comment on this," Caroline said as she held the ladder steady for Bonnie as she put up the last paper lantern.
Bonnie climbed down and didn't address Caroline until she was safely back on the ground. It was frigidly cold outside and all she wanted to do was get a cup of hot chocolate and curl up with Stefan.
"There," she said, "you commented."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Jeremy is going to attempt to bring her back because that boy makes stupid decisions like that."
"Yeah, I know. And I guess that leaves it up to me to find a way to stop it. If only I knew what Anna had promised to do for that witch, it would make handling this problem a little easier. And as long as he keeps seeing her, she'll have a foothold."
"Yeah."
Just then the angry roar of an engine caught their attention. They saw Damon speeding towards them with the top down on his convertible despite the temperature. His face was stern, unpleasant, and downright pissed. Something had happened and they were going to get ripped a new one because of it.
Damon stopped the car but didn't put it in park. He wasn't intending this conversation to be long.
"Blondie…Witchy…" he greeted them calmly enough.
Caroline and Bonnie cautiously strolled over to his car.
"I think you got your voodoo wires all crossed when you brought Jeremy back to life."
Bonnie looked perplexed. "What do you mean? Why?"
"Because I'm pretty sure I just got spit roasted by Mason Lockwood's ghost?"
"What?" Bonnie was surprised.
"Why would you think that?" Caroline asked.
"Because he chained me to a chair and shoved a hot poker up my chest. Let's just say I'm having déjà vu."
The girls began to bicker back and forth and Damon so wasn't in the mood for their shit.
"Look," he said sharply interrupting their ra-ra moment, "I don't have time for vengeful Lockwood. When I kill someone I want them to stay dead," he looked pointedly at Bonnie. "Whatever you screwed up…fix it."
And with that salutation he peeled off down the road.
"I wish I was there to see it," Caroline giggled. "That would have gone up as my profile pic on Facebook."
"You need therapy, Caroline," Bonnie teased as she bent down to retrieve her purse. Instead it flipped open spilling her grimoire and lip gloss on the sidewalk. Moaning, she reached for her grimoire but it magically opened to a specific page.
Caroline who witnessed this asked, "Did your…?"
"Yeah," Bonnie interrupted. She looked over the words scribbled on the ancient paper. "It's a manifestation spell for uncovering veiled matter."
Caroline didn't speak witch. "Veiled matter?"
Bonnie looked over to her. "Ghosts."
5:15 p.m.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. I'm am such a fuck up. Elena's gonna kill me. Alaric's gonna kill me. Everyone in this town is gonna kill me when they find out what I've done."
Jeremy pressed his foot harder on the gas as he sped through town looking for his sister. Elena had mentioned something about volunteering downtown for the Valentine's Day dinner. He wasn't sure if she was still at the community center decorating, but he had tried calling her cell and it kept going straight to voicemail. Oh, he wouldn't be all flustered about bringing Anna back no matter how temporary it was, but the fact she cold cocked him and disappeared, leaving him in a pool of his own blood pretty much let him know she played him.
Why she would do such a thing, he had no answer for, but he just knew with every fiber of his being that he needed to find Elena and fast because he had the sneaking suspicion that this unfinished business involved her.
He breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw her walking with Alaric out of the community center. He double parked his car and ran across the grassy knoll to reach them.
Elena's eyes widened when she saw the blood dripping from his head. "Jeremy what happened?"
"It's Anna."
Alaric and Elena, "WHAT?"
"Look I-I-I messed up. I did a spell to bring her back…"
Alaric swore loudly and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I need a drink," he said and walked off. Elena and Jeremy watched him shuffle in the direction of the Grill.
Jeremy continued. "And she cold cocked me and disappeared. I have no idea what's going on."
"Well you need to call her or poof her into existence or whatever it is you do to get her attention. Jeremy do you have any idea how dangerous it is to do a spell without knowing the consequences, and what could have happened," she looked at his bleeding head. "What can happen when you mess with stuff you don't understand? I can't deal with this right now."
Elena attempted to walk away but Jeremy grabbed her by the arm detaining her. "Elena you might be in danger."
"What else is new," she said flippantly. "Did she tell you that?"
He shook his head ignoring the pounding coming from his temple. "All she said was that she needed to tie up a loose end for a witch in order to stay. And I can only think of one loose end." He stared pointedly at her.
Elena snorted and felt like her brain was about to explode. Things had been semi-calm for so long she thought that life in general was getting back to the way it used to be. Wrong. The drama never ends.
"Did she give you any hints or clues about what she'd have to do?"
"No."
"Well, this conversation has turned into a complete and total waste of time. I'm going to go drag Alaric from the bar, and you need to get your head examined. If Anna pops up, please let her know I'd like to have a word with her."
"Elena I don't think you should be alone."
"And I'm not going to be alone. I'll be with Alaric. Get to the hospital, Jeremy. Matter of fact, give me the keys to your car and I'll drive you myself. You might have a concussion."
Just as they turned around to head back to Jeremy's Mini Cooper it was being towed away.
Elena sighed. "Well, looks like I'm going to have to borrow Alaric's truck. Wait right here. I'll be back."
Old Mansion
Caroline wasn't a scaredy cat by nature. She only turned into one when she watched gore filled horror movies, and clowns she absolutely hated clowns, but none of that could compare to the feeling she got as she followed Bonnie down the dilapidated stairs of the old witch burning site.
The inside had the charm of the Addams Family estate with the warmth of the Bates Hotel. She had heard what happened to Damon when he first walked through the door. That his motor functions were frozen as he was trapped in a prism of sunlight, his day-walking ring ceased to work, and his flesh started roasting. Caroline was glad that the sun had officially set half an hour ago so there was no danger of her spontaneously combusting, but still she didn't like being here.
Bonnie set up shop and did her thing as Caroline took in the surroundings. She wasn't sure what was going to happen but what did happen surprised the hell out of her.
Someone had grabbed a hold of Bonnie's outstretched hands. When her eyes flew open she wanted to scream but instead blinked several times to make certain that what she was seeing wasn't a figment of her imagination but was real.
"Grams?" tears burst forth from her ducts and she couldn't stop crying. "I can't believe you're really here."
Grams looked the same as the day Bonnie walked into her bedroom and found her dead. Now that was a memory she didn't like visiting, but from the smile on her grandmother's face Bonnie was comforted by the knowledge she had found peace.
"Now stop all that crying," Miss Sheila admonished. "We have business to take care of. When you brought Jeremy back you opened a door, a door to the other side to anyone with unfinished business to walk through. You upset the balance and it's your duty to make it right. The original witch has used you to gain power to her talisman. It needs to be destroyed to close the door."
Bonnie sucked up her tears and put her game face on. Caroline hopped on the phone to ask Elena where her necklace was.
"Damon has it somewhere," Elena said as she walked towards the emergency room doors with Jeremy in tow. "Text him. Right now I'm at the hospital with Jeremy."
"What happened now?" Caroline asked exasperatedly.
Elena rolled her eyes. "Jeremy invited Anna over and she attempted to crack his head open so she could run an errand for a witch."
"That seems to be happening a lot because Damon was tied up S&M style by Mason Lockwood's ghost."
"What? Mason attacked Damon?"
"Yep, this is why we need the necklace. Once it's destroyed the ghosts will get sucked back up in it and the door to the other side will close."
"Is he all right?" Elena felt panicky for a second.
"He's fine."
"Look I can't use my cell phone in the hospital so I'll call you when we're done. Or text me to let know Bonnie was able to destroy the talisman."
"All right."
The two girls hung up. Jeremy who only heard Elena's side of the conversation gently touched her by the elbow to get her stop walking.
"Bonnie needs your necklace to close the door?"
Elena nodded her head. "I know how much you wanted Anna to come back for good, but she's proven she can't be trusted. And if she's come back and Mason has too I don't want to think about who else might be wondering around out there looking for revenge. I'm sorry, Jer, but she can't stay here."
Strolling through Town Square to meet up with Bonnie, Stefan had walked past a parked SUV and caught a reflection in the window. There was something familiar about the person he saw, and at first he ignored it but then stopped suddenly because the woman staring at him curiously reminded him of his best friend.
Stefan spun around and came face-to-face with…
"Lexi?" he jumped back. "You're dead."
"Not anymore."
"How is this possible?" his eyes looked her up and down unbelieving she was standing right in front of him.
Lexi shrugged a shoulder. "I haven't figured that part out yet, but I see you're up to your old ripper tricks again and I feel it's my duty to bring you back."
"I don't need or want your help," he attempted to walk away, but Lexi grabbed him by the arm. He stared down at her touching him.
"You say that every time," she reminded him with an edge in her tone, and then began to mock his voice. "I don't need saving, I don't want your help, leave me alone."
"Then you should listen to me," Stefan hissed.
"Or I could just do this."
She slammed his head into the window of the SUV and watched unsympathetically as he fell to the ground unconscious.
Lexi looked around with an eyebrow raised in the air.
"Oh, man I miss whiskey," Mason Lockwood said as he picked up Damon's drink and threw it back.
Alaric and Damon merely sat there and watched him with stupefied expressions on their faces. And then the next thing Damon knew, the shot glass was being rammed into his forehead.
"Ow," he complained and turned "I told you so" eyes to Alaric who didn't believe him when he told him about Mason Lockwood coming back to torture him. "See, I told you," he said petulantly.
Damon turned to face Mason who was looking more than smug. "So what do you want? Revenge?"
The sandy-haired man shook his head. "No. I want an apology."
Alaric chuckled sarcastically. "Yeah, good luck with that," he mumbled and tossed back his shot of whiskey.
"How bout you just torture me instead," Damon suggested. "If not, tell me what you want or find Whoopi Goldberg and Demi Moore and have them ghost your ass away."
"There's more to life than seeking revenge, Damon. I'm here to help Tyler."
Damon snorted. "You must have missed the short yellow bus because Tyler can't be helped. There's no weapon to kill Klaus."
Mason gave him a look which caused Damon's eyebrow to hike. "What if I told you there was?"
Damon could only blink.
"My apology," Mason reiterated.
Yeah, right, Damon thought and wondered how he could skirt around this. He didn't apologize to anyone. "Look, sometimes I do things I don't have to do." And the look he tossed Mason's way loosely translated into "There are you happy? Because that's all you're gonna get".
Rick and Mason stared at each other. After a moment Mason laughed.
"Meet me at the old Lockwood cellar," Mason rose from the stool. "Bring a shovel." He flicked his eyes briefly to Alaric. "Come alone."
"You gonna bury me there?" Damon asked after Mason began to walk away.
The dead werewolf swung back around. "Don't tempt me."
Well Bonnie learned more things about Damon than she cared to know by snooping through his room looking for Elena's necklace.
Caroline was rummaging around in his soap dish only to come up empty. She growled. "It's not here!"
"Well it has to be somewhere," Bonnie said.
Caroline thought for a minute. "Or maybe someone took it."
The two girls looked at one another. "Anna," they said in unison.
It was nightfall by the time Elena and Jeremy strolled out of the emergency room. In all, he needed ten stitches to close the gash on his head. Armed with two prescriptions for pain killers, he was more than ready to go home and lick his wounds with his tail tucked between his legs.
"I'm going to go get the car," Elena said to Jeremy who sat down on the outside bench. He was a little high from the morphine they gave him for the pain.
He was seated by himself wondering about the new mess he made when he felt a presence beside him. Of course it would be Anna trying her best to look repentant. Jeremy rolled his eyes and sat up a little straighter despite his body feeling disproportionate.
"What are you doing here?" he asked her.
"Jeremy I'm so sorry," she eyed his bandaged head.
Jeremy snorted. "Yeah, right. You can cut the bullshit right now, Anna and be real with me. What do you have to do for that witch?"
"I explained that to you."
"You didn't tell me shit!"
"It's almost over."
He looked at her coldly. "Yeah, you're right about that because as soon as Bonnie and Caroline find that witch's talisman and destroy it you'll be gone."
Anna didn't look alarmed. Not in the least and this Jeremy realized should have worried him.
"They won't find it."
"How do you know?"
She held up the necklace and then like the wind she was gone.
Jeremy shot up from the bench screaming her name and then realized that Elena should have pulled around the front entrance of the hospital by now.
"Elena!" he yelled and ran to the parking lot despite feeling dizzy and nauseous. He spotted Elena struggling to get out of the truck while a line of fire was headed straight towards it.
"NO!" Jeremy yelled and ran towards Alaric's truck. He attempted to open the door but it wouldn't unlock.
"Jeremy I can't get out!" Elena's face was ashen and frightened.
The boy looked around frantically for anything to break the window before the truck was engulfed in flames. Luckily he spotted a rock about the size of a football and shattered the back windshield with it. Elena hastily climbed out and the two ran as far from the car as they could and not a minute later it exploded.
They went tumbling the ground.
Peeling themselves off the pavement, the brother sister pair looked at one another.
Anna stood some distance away staring at them. Jeremy slowly rose to his feet and winced. He might have popped a stitch already.
"So tying up your loose end was killing Elena?" he accused.
"Her blood is the key to making more hybrids; with her dead it stops all of that. It's what the witch has been trying to prevent from the get go."
"And you agreed to it. Anna, that's not you."
"You don't know what it's like, Jeremy. To wonder around being alone…"
"I do know what that's like, Anna, but I'm not going to agree to become a murderer in order to get my life back. I'm sorry you're dead and alone, but taking my sister from me, I never would have forgiven you for that, and I can't love someone who would do that to me."
Anna sobbed and looked down at the necklace. "I don't want to be alone."
"Then find your mother, Anna," Elena interjected. "If you've come back she might be out there somewhere. But you need to let Jeremy go. He can't love a ghost for the rest of his life."
The blare of the fire truck was drawing closer.
"Give him the necklace, Anna," Elena ordered and walked away.
Mystic Falls Jail
His head felt foggy as if he drank too much or got the snot punched out of him. Knowing it was the latter, Stefan slowly became lucid and looked around his dismal surroundings. Movement to his left caught his attention and he saw Lexi holding up the wall, arms crossed over her chest, staring at him. He attempted to move only to find out he was chained to a chair.
Stefan laughed humorlessly as Lexi moved out of the shadows and stepped into the lone light coming into the room. Her blonde hair glowed milk-white and her dark brown eyes nearly looked obsidian.
"Rise and shine, sleepy head," she kicked the chair which earned her a scowl from its occupant.
"Cute. Are you done with your Dungeons and Dragons fantasy? Unchain me, wench."
Lexi leaned down until she was eye level with Stefan. "I missed you, too pumpkin, but no I can't unchain you. Not until I fix you."
He scoffed. "You've wasted your whole life taking care of me, and you're dead and you still have nothing better to do."
"Because you are my life, Stefan," Lexi replied sarcastically. "And when you make a mess I'm the one who has to clean it up."
"I don't need you. I have Bonnie."
"Right, Bonnie. Great girl. But…does she know you've been binging?"
Guilty.
Lexi tsked. "I didn't think so and I'm sure that when and not if she finds out you will know exactly what your brain looks like. Now cooperate please and this will go a lot smoother for the both of us."
Stefan squirmed around in the chair. How ironic he would end up in the same position as Damon.
"The first step is to burn away the hunger. Dry you out. Take away the temptation."
He did not like that feral look in her eye as she gazed into his. Stefan began to squirm in tandem. "What are you doing?"
"What I do best," she said.
His throat immediately went dry and felt like sandpaper. His stomach cramped violently to the point he figured he had the strength to rip the chains apart and free himself. All he could think about was getting blood, blood, and more blood and never stop drinking.
"Lexi STOP!"
She only continued the onslaught of her hallucination.
When Stefan looked down at his right arm it was gray, vein-lined, and desiccated. He roared against the pain of the hunger.
"That's two months without blood." Lexi stood up and began to pace around the chair. "Six months." She did another revolution as Stefan squirmed and roared with hunger, thirst, and pain. "Two years."
"Lexi," he growled like a wild animal.
"Five years."
Out of nowhere she produced a stake and stabbed him in the shoulder with it. Tears rolled down his cheeks as his mouth hung open in disbelief.
"You're going to feel again, Stefan. If it's the last thing I do."
"I do feel..." he sobbed past the pain of the thirst."I love Bonnie."
Lexi cocked her head to the side contemplating his words. "But you love blood more, Stefan. And at the heart of everything that's been your biggest problem and your greatest downfall. As much as you may love each other, it'll never be enough to get you to stop hunting humans, from drinking their blood."
He coughed. "That's not true."
"What did you do last week?"
Stefan couldn't answer her question. Last week while Bonnie was asleep he slipped out of the boardinghouse and nearly drained three people.
"Bonnie deserves to be with someone who's going to put her first, and above all that be honest with her. I don't think you're completely capable of doing that in the condition you're in."
"I'll change," he cried and felt his insides shrinking like a prune.
"I'm sure you will with time, my love, but for right now...you need to hit rock bottom before you lose everything." And with that Lexi stabbed him again.
This continued for what felt like hours to Stefan.
Just as she was about to deliver yet another blow she felt the air shift. The door was closing and she was being sucked back in. She needed more time with Stefan because she had him right where he needed to be.
She studied him for a moment, bleeding, broken, and listless. Having pity she broke the chain that held his left wrist captive, but that's all she'd do for him.
"Fight for your humanity, Stefan, because if you hope to have a future with Bonnie you're going to need it for what's coming next."
Before he had the chance to ask her to explain what she meant by that, she disappeared.
Woodenly Stefan broke the rest of the chains and slowly rose to his feet. As much as he wanted to feed, there was a much larger part of him that simply wanted to crawl into a hole. Lexi was right as she always is. If Bonnie found out about his late-night activities she would be more than displeased, he envisioned her kicking his tail left from right. And Lexi was also right about him loving blood, but he didn't love it more than Bonnie.
Did he?
Hours later...
All Bonnie wanted to remember about this Valentine's Day was waking up to find Stefan dressed like a Chippendale's stripper and hearing her Grams tell her she was stronger than all of this and that she was proud of her. Stripping out of her cobweb infested clothes, showering, and dressing for bed, Bonnie fell face flat on her mattress.
As much as she wanted her mind to go blank it refused. Anna had attempted to turn Rick's truck into a brick oven and cook Elena like a deep dish pizza. Lexi showed up out of the woodwork and tried to torture the ripper out of Stefan. Mason led Damon into a cave that had the history of the Original family immortalized on the walls. And Caroline had to whoop ass and take names of the tomb vampires who were set on getting revenge on members of the founding families.
See, nothing but a regular Tuesday night in Mystic Falls.
Her cell phone chirped. Bonnie groaned as she leaned over to her night table and picked it up. Stefan was calling.
"Hi, baby," he said. "Caroline told me she dropped you off at your house."
"Yeah. I'm emotionally, and physically exhausted. How are you holding up after Lexi's hazing?"
He chuckled dryly. "I've been put through worse," which was an unfortunate statement of fact. "I'll be over there in a little bit. The Scooby-Doo gang has assembled to formulate the next plan to stopping evil."
Bonnie wanted to laugh but didn't have the heart to go through the motions. It was a struggle for her to stay awake right now and it was barely ten o'clock.
"I can't promise you I'll be awake when you do make your way over here," Bonnie yawned into the phone.
"Go ahead and go to sleep, and when you wake up I'll be there."
"Okay," her eyes were falling.
Stefan chuckled because he knew in about five seconds Bonnie would be out like a light. "Did you remember to lock the door and set the alarm?"
"Yes," she yawned again. "I'm safe."
"I'll see you soon. Love you."
"Love you, too. Bye."
Bonnie blindly pressed the end button on her cell phone and dropped it. As she turned over again she felt the love knot necklace Stefan gave her choking her. Grumbling, Bonnie sat up and unclasped the necklace. She gingerly placed it on the night table and she was snoring loudly before her head hit the pillow.
Sometime later Bonnie's eyes spontaneously opened. She wasn't sure how long she might have been asleep, but she knew someone was in her room. Bonnie stared up the figure looming over her.
"Stefan?" she asked hoarsely.
The man didn't respond and as her vision began to clear Bonnie knew without a doubt that this man wasn't Stefan.
She was wide awake then and attempted to scramble out of bed, but hands reached and grabbed for her…
To be continued…
A/N: Thank you guys for reading! Love you!