A/N: sorry it's been so long, but thought it was time to at the very least get Clara out of that damn chair.
Boarding House:
Damon has been struggling to get free for nearly 10 minutes now, wanting nothing more than to rip Lexi's head off and race to save his Clara.
He's not sure exactly how Lexie is alive right now but he plans to take great pleasure in killing her all over again.
Lexi looks at her watch
Damon narrows his eyes at her, "got somewhere you need to be?" he snarkily asks,
"Think what you want about me Damon but I am a woman of my word," the watch seems to tell her what she needs to know because she approaches Damon and unlocks one wrist before zooming out the window.
Damon breaks his own headboard in order to free his other wrist and races down to save Clara but by the time he gets to the parlor Katherine like Lexi has disappeared.
He sees Clara is tied to a chair covered in blood and sweat with a fireplace poker skewered through her stomach.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, it's alright, I'm here now," he tells her gently moving her hair behind her ears and cradling her head. He brings her forehead towards him and kisses it fiercely wanting more than anything to erase the last 10 minutes for both her and himself.
"I don't understand... she was dead," Clara mutters weakly from her torture.
Damon shakes his head, "I don't understand either, lets just get you out of this okay?" She nods and grits her teeth knowing this is going to hurt.
Damon grabs the poker and quickly pulls it out of her throwing it across the room.
She screams and it kills him to have caused her pain.
"It's done, it's out, here bite," he says offering her his wrist,
she shakes her head, "No, just get me a blood bag,"
"I'm not letting you out of my sight for a single second, now bite!" he orders.
Clara complies and slowly her injuries start to heal, once she feels like she's taken enough she starts to pull back but Damon stops her forcing her to take more from him.
Mikaelson Mansion:
Rebekah had to admit she was tempted. The desire to be human again was overpowering but no matter how mad she was at Nik, she couldn't kill her brother to make it happen.
"I'm sorry Kol, I can't. We'll find another way to bring you back, I promise."
"Sorry sis, but I'm still liking plan A," Kol says before he goes to attack Klaus, Klaus is stunned when the ghost is actually able to make contact with him.
Klaus shakes himself out of his head and immediately gets into the fight.
Boarding House:
Jeremy and Bonnie have arrived at the boarding house and are telling everyone what they've learned.
Elena walks in sees Clara in Damon's lap her face buried in his neck and across the room she sees Stefan looking weak like he's just survived a fight.
"What the hell happened?"
"In a word, ghosts," Bonnie says and her and Jeremy begin to go over everything in more detail.
"Elena the only way to end this is by destroying your necklace."
"I left it on Stefan's bed, I'll go get it," she says and runs upstairs,
unfortunately, she's unable to find it anywhere,
"I swear I put it on his bed,"
"Well, which ghost of Christmas' pasts visited you this night Stefan?" Damon asks.
Everyone turns to look at Stefan waiting for him to answer,
"Vicki," he finally says.
"Great," Bonnie mumbles thrilled to now dealing with 2 of Jeremy's exes.
Elena forgets about the difficulties between her and Stefan for a moment and rushes over to him.
"Are you okay, what did she do?"
Stefan is pleased to have Elena worry over him, it gives him hope for the two of them.
"It's okay, I'm fine," he tells her.
"So how do we find Vicki, how do we end this?" Caroline asks.
"Matt," a tiny voice is heard in the back of the room, Clara pulls her head out of Damon's neck and speaks again, "she was Matt sister, right? Who else would she want to be with here."
Tyler nods, "she's right."
"Okay," Elena says, "so where's Matt?"
Treehouse:
Matt still can't get his head around all the shit he just learned about, not to mention the fact that literally everyone besides him has known about and kept him out of it, it makes him feel completely alone.
"Matty?" Matt looks up confused having thought no one other than Damon and Clara were able to find this place.
What he sees when the tears clear from his eyes is impossible, "Vick?"
"Hi Matty." She says gently.
"Y yyou can't be here, your dead." he tells her beyond freaked out.
"Yeah I'm a ghost, it's kinda freaky right?"
Matt shakes his head, "this is so fucked up."
"haven't you missed me," Vicki asks her brother,
Matt's eyes start to tear again, "of course I have, it's been hell since I've lost you. I'm alone here."
"You won't be for long, I promise, I found a way to come back."
"What do you mean come back?"
"I know this sounds crazy but I have help from the other side," Vicki starts to explain.
"The other side?"
"It's like supernatural purgatory, right now there's this crack in the veil and a few were able to sneak over to this side but it won't last much longer. The witch I've been talking to says that there's a ritual. She can do magic from my side to push me over to yours I could stay here with you, I wouldn't have to go back."
Matt is actually starting to feel hopeful, if vampires and werewolves get to walk around town living their lives why can't he get his sister back, maybe there really is no limit to what is possible in the world.
"What do you need me to do?" he asks.
"Hide this, don't give it to anyone, it's what's holding the crack open it needs to stay that way until i've finished my end of the bargain," she tells him giving him the locket.
"What bargain?" he asks.
"It's best you don't know Matty," she tells him knowing he won't like the answer.
The house sways and the two siblings look at each other, "someone's coming up, you have to swear you won't let anyone know you have that."
Matt nods, "I swear."
Vicki disappears as Damon arrives, Clara on his back.
"Donovan," Damon says in greeting
"Thought you said I'd be left alone here," Matt complains
"Yeah well, things have changed, strange question but have you seen Vicki?" Damon asks
"Vicki? I'm not going through enough right now you need to bring up my dead sister."
"We're sorry Matt," Clara says stepping out from behind Damon's back, "ghosts are here and they are hurting people,"
"What do you mean they're hurting people?" Matt asks causing Damon to narrow his eyes
"Really? that's your question not why are you talking about ghosts, are you out of your mind?"
Matt gulps nervously and tries to avoid Damon's stare, "yeah well I thought that part was implied."
Damon sighs, "look kid I've had a monumentally bad night so it would be very smart of you to stop lying to me,"
Matt sighs, "fine I saw her, but she disappeared when we felt you coming up the tree."
Not knowing what else to do they take Matt back down to the Boarding house with them hoping Bonnie might be able to do a locator spell.
Boarding House:
Elena is sitting on the couch with Stefan
"I'm sorry you were hurt tonight and I wasn't there," she tells him
he reaches out and holds her hand, "it's not your fault."
"No nothing could ever be the great Elena's fault." They turn around at the voice and see Vicki,
"Haven't you hurt him enough?" Elena says and Vicki smiles, "oh i'm not here for him."
she races up to Elena but Stefan intercedes and pushes her away, unfortunately, it was a distraction and Katherine now has Elena in her clutches.
"Elena!" Stefan shouts, Bonnie Caroline and Tyler come into the room having heard the commotion.
Katherine bites her wrists and shoves it into Elena's mouth, "think ghost vampire blood will still turn someone, one more step from any of you and I snap her neck and we all find out."
Everyone freezes as Matt Clara and Damon walk in,
"Well, I guess the good news is we don't need that locator spell Bon Bon."