Chapter 73: Stand By Me
"How'd this happen?" Damon questioned.
Once he and Rebekah had recovered enough to rejoin the others, they descended the well. Shane was still passed out, but Phoebe, Jenna, and Stefan were nowhere in sight. They followed the tunnels until, finally, they found them.
Phoebe had been doing her best to keep calm, as she held her best friend's dead body in her arms. Jenna was sitting next to her, with a comforting arm around her.
Stefan had gestured to speak to them both in private out in the tunnels. They followed, which lead to where they were now.
"It was Katherine," said Stefan. "She must've been following us this whole time."
"What about Silas and the cure?" Rebekah asked.
"If there was anything in there at all, it's all gone."
Damon made a face. "Where the hell is Bonnie?"
"I have no idea. She went looking for Matt this morning, and never came back," said Stefan. He glanced back towards the room where Phoebe and Jenna were. "She's in there waiting for the necklace that she gave Matt to bring him back to life."
"I'll wait with her." Rebekah began to move past Stefan, but he stopped her.
"No, listen to me." Stefan had to take a breath to brace himself for the next bit of bad news. "…Matt was one of the Five, a Hunter."
Damon understood, but Rebekah did not.
"So he was supernatural. What of it?" Rebekah asked.
"The necklace only protects humans from supernatural death," said Damon. "The necklace won't work anymore."
All three of them sat in silence, processing.
"Phoebe will never survive this," said Rebekah. "She's still learning to control her emotions, even without her added empathy."
"I know," Stefan agreed.
"I'll stay here and look for Bonnie. You three get her back home," said Damon.
He wanted to be there for her, he really did; and this wasn't just the opportunity that he'd mentioned to Stefan earlier – that he'd wait for her to break her sirebond to Elijah, when she'd feel so bad she'd have to flip her switch.
Damon wanted to stay behind, because Phoebe would only see him being there for her as an attempt to win her back. In a way, it might be good to distract her from her grief by being someone she could be mad at. But this was the time for grieving. Later would be the time for distraction.
"I'll stay with you," said Rebekah.
Stefan and Damon were both confused as to why she'd want to do that. She didn't care about Bonnie or Damon.
"In case you've forgotten, there's still another Hunter on this island somewhere, that you can't kill; and the last time you fought him, you ended up in vervain ropes. And let's not forget Silas is out there somewhere," she said.
The brothers shared a look, then nodded in agreement. Stefan would help Jenna get Phoebe back home, and Damon would stay with Rebekah to find Bonnie.
When they returned to Mystic Falls the next morning, Phoebe insisted that they take Matt back to his house. That way, he could wake up in his own house, and after all the excitement, his Hunter side should feel more comfortable in a place no vampires could go. The problem was, when they got there, Stefan and Jenna were able to enter, proving that Matt wasn't coming back.
Phoebe excused it as the ownership contract being nullified by him having been a supernatural, until recently. She said it was probably like when a human becomes a vampire – their home becomes fair game, because vampires can't own property. The flaw in that logic was that rule didn't apply to witches, werewolves, or Phoebe when she was human. But she, of course, refused to listen.
Once Matt's body was on his bed, and Phoebe desperately waiting by his side, Stefan and Jenna began calling everyone to break the bad news. At least, everyone who cared about Matt.
Bonnie woke up and took stock of her surroundings. Where was she? She reached a hand back to feel where Vaughn had stabbed her.
"Don't touch it," came Shane's voice. "I used some of the islands herbs and berries to heal you up."
"How did we get out here? Where are the others?" Bonnie questioned.
"Silas. He brought you and me out here, because he needs us to continue our work," said Shane happily.
Bonnie refused to help him continue with the mass murders he'd been orchestrating since before they met, to help him kill 12 more people; but when she heard what Shane had to say, her tune quickly changed. If completing their work for Silas meant she could bring down the veil to the Other Side, thus bringing back every supernatural being that's ever died, then she'd do it; because, not only could they have Matt back, but Bonnie could have her Grams back.
Everyone raced to Matt's house as fast as they could, the moment they heard what had happened. Without even meaning to, they all gathered in the kitchen to talk. How did this all happen? How was Phoebe dealing?
"How long has she been like this?" Hayley asked.
"Ever since we found his body," said Jenna.
"She hasn't said anything except that she's waiting for him to wake up," Stefan added.
"But he's not going to wake up," said Jeremy.
Stefan made a gesture for them to keep quiet, as he turned on the kitchen sink tap to cover their voices from Phoebe.
"Look, deep down, I think she knows that, but we're talking about Phoebe here," said Stefan. "She feels things more deeply and stronger than anyone else, because she's an empath."
"Remember how she was when John died," Jenna reminded them.
"This is gonna be a hundred times worse, with her heightened vampire emotions," said Hayley.
"I think her denial is the one thing protecting her from letting it all in," Stefan agreed.
They all sat there in silence for a moment, thinking. Not only was this hard on them to lose Matt, but they were all worried about what this would do to Phoebe.
"I'm not in denial," said Phoebe appearing in the doorway.
All eyes turned to look at her. Stefan reached over and turned off the sink tap.
"I know that he was supernatural," Phoebe began. "But didn't you see? The tattoo is gone. The tattoo had the spell that opened Silas' chamber. Maybe it being gone means that he's fulfilled his supernatural destiny. Maybe he's back to normal. Maybe the necklace will work on him again; it was made by completely different witches, so it may just take longer than the Gilbert ring. It's possible, right?"
Elena moved towards her sister. "Phoebe…"
"It's possible, Elena," Phoebe snapped.
Caroline reached out to stop her friend from moving closer to Phoebe. Anyone who was a vampire knew how aggressive one could get the first time they experienced anger and loss as a vampire. It didn't matter that it was Phoebe, she could still snap at any moment.
"There's a chance. It may be miniscule, but it's hope, and I'm gonna hold onto that hope with everything that I've got because there's no way that—" Phoebe struggled to say the words. "…There is absolutely no way that my best friend is dead."
Phoebe looked around at all the faces staring back at her. No one knew what to say.
"I'm not in denial," she declared once more, then left to return to Matt's side.
Hayley took out her phone and began making a call.
"Who are you calling?"
"Someone who might be able to help," said Hayley.
"Who?"
Hayley held up a finger, as someone answered on the other end. "Hey, it's Hayley. I'm sorry to ask again so soon, but I need your help. It's Phoebe…"
Back on the island, Rebekah and Damon aren't having any luck finding Bonnie. What they did find, however, was Vaughn. The pair tied him up and began asking questions.
"Torture me all you want, you can't kill me," said Vaughn. "The Hunter's Curse will torment you forever."
Rebekah smiled wickedly. "You're right, we can't kill you. But that doesn't mean we can't tear you apart piece by piece, nerve by nerve until the pain is so severe, that your brain shuts its off to give you one tiny moment of blessed relief, and then we'll heal you and do it again and again and again."
Even Damon was taken aback by her statement. "You are creepy."
"Thank you," she beamed.
Vaughn took a moment to think, before answering. "I was tracking a den of vampires across Colorado. Katherine found me, said she could help me find Silas. She already knew about the Hunter's Mark, the cure."
"How?" Rebekah asked.
"Oh, she had someone on the inside," said Vaughn. "Apparently it sent up a red flag for her, when your professor began looking for a Hunter."
"She must've been the one to find that Connor guy, and send him Shane's way," Damon guessed. "But that doesn't explain why she needed you. Shane would've told her that we already had Matt. So where exactly do you fit in?"
A light bulb went on for Rebekah. "He was a distraction. Your distrust of Shane wouldn't have allowed him to get Bonnie and Matt away from the rest of us, and get to the cure before we did. She needed him to distract the rest of us, and divide us more than we already were."
Damon looked at Vaughn again, his face bitter at the realization of just how much Katherine had played them. "Let's throw him down the well. When he starves to death, it won't be our fault."
Denial or no denial, there was still plenty to be done. Matt needed a funeral, they needed a cover story for how he'd died, etc. Most of them were glad for the distraction. Elena and Jeremy, however didn't like being forced to leave with Caroline and Jenna; but they were mortals and it wasn't safe for them to be around Phoebe right now.
Stefan and Hayley waited anxiously for their arrival. They weren't terribly far from Mystic Falls, and they didn't seem to hesitate to drop everything to help Phoebe. Still, Stefan and Hayley felt like they'd been waiting an eternity for them.
When they arrived, Hayley and Stefan ran outside to greet them.
"Thank you for coming," said Hayley.
"Anything to help Phoebe," said Agnes.
"Stefan, this is Agnes and Zoie," Hayley introduced. "They're the ones that made the memory potions for Phoebe."
"Among other things," Zoie added.
Stefan flashed a smile. "It's nice to meet you."
"They also made the necklace Phoebe gave to Matt. I figured she might listen to them when they tell her that it won't work anymore."
"Where's Phoebe?" Agnes asked.
"This way."
Hayley and Stefan lead the two witches inside, and showed them to Matt's room. They didn't need supernatural senses to tell that Matt was dead. This wasn't the kind of dead that the necklace would revive him from, this was a permanent dead.
The witches shared a sad look, confirming what Stefan and Hayley already knew.
"Phoebe?" Agnes called out.
Phoebe turned around in surprise. It wasn't that they'd scared her; it was that she hadn't been expecting them to be the ones entering the room.
"Agnes? Zoie? What are you two doing here?" Phoebe asked.
"Hayley called us," said Zoie.
Phoebe looked at Hayley suspiciously. Why had she called them?
"May we?" Agnes gestured to the body.
"Sure." Phoebe stepped aside to let them do whatever it was they were there to do.
Stefan, Phoebe, and Hayley watched the two witches examine Matt's body and the necklace they had made. They shared a grim look, as though mentally playing rock, paper, scissors to see who should break the bad news to Phoebe.
Phoebe could sense the tension in the room. She could sense the fear everyone had, and their worry of how she would react to what they had to say. She suppressed these feelings the best she could, and fought away the tears that were threatening to come out.
"Um, I can remember…There was one time when Rick died that he, uh…it took him nearly an entire day to come back," said Phoebe.
Agnes and Zoie shared another look with Stefan and Hayley.
"Phoebe," Agnes began. "Your friend was a Hunter of the Five."
"Was," Phoebe emphasized. "The tattoo is gone, so he's—"
"No, Phoebe," Zoie interrupted.
"The tattoo being gone doesn't mean he wasn't still a Hunter," said Anges.
Phoebe began to grow angry. "Stop talking about him in the past tense, he isn't dead."
"But he is, Phoebe," said Zoie. "That pendant only protects normal humans from supernatural deaths. Matt was a supernatural when he died, so that pendant—"
"No!" Phoebe's eyes flushed with blood, and she charged at Zoie.
In a flash, Phoebe had the witch by the neck, pinned against a wall. Zoie could have easily gotten free on her own, but she understood that Phoebe wasn't really intending to hurt her.
Stefan flew across the room, and pulled Phoebe off of her friend. "Phoebe, stop it."
"He's not dead, okay?!"
Phoebe freed a hand to reach back out towards Zoie. Stefan took it back, and held both of her arms to her chest to make it harder for her to get free.
"Phoebe, that's enough! It isn't her fault," said Stefan.
Zoie gestured to Hayley and Agnes to stand down, then turned her eyes back to Phoebe. "I know you're hurting, child, and I would do anything to ease your pain if I could, we all would…But I'm afraid there's nothing that can be done for your friend. He is gone."
Stefan felt Phoebe's emotions flare again. Pain and sadness washed through her, but then plateaued at anger. Now he understood. She wasn't clinging to denial, she was trying to stave off her sadness for as long as she could; and them telling her constantly that Matt wasn't coming back was only forcing her to bury herself in her anger.
"You know, I hate to suggest it, but do you think we should call Elijah?" said Stefan, watching the two witches drive away.
Neither of them held any ill will against Phoebe, they knew she was hurting, and thus wasn't in control of herself right now. But there was nothing more they could do there, and sticking around would just end in one of them having to hurt Phoebe when she lashed out again, which they didn't want to do. In all, it was better if they just left.
"He might be able to help her handle this better, once she finally accepts the truth," he added.
Hayley shook her head. "I already thought of that. It wouldn't be fair to Phoebe to play the sire card."
"I get she might see it as we couldn't be bothered to be there for her, but—"
"That's not what I mean," Hayley interrupted. "Think about the kind of things you say to a person that's grieving. 'It'll be okay' 'You'll get through this'. Coming from friends and family, it's fine. Coming from her sire…?"
"It's a command," Stefan finished.
Hayley nodded.
"We'd be denying her the right to grieve for her best friend."
"We can't call Elijah," said Hayley.
"Then what do we do?"
"I don't know."
As the day came to a close, everyone slowly trickled back into Matt's house. They'd finished arranging a funeral, coming up with a cover story; and Damon and Rebekah had found Bonnie, and were on their way home.
Bonnie insisted they take her to Matt's house, so she could talk to everyone about her plan to bring Matt back. Her plan consisted of killing 12 more people to complete, what Shane called, an expression triangle. Once that was complete, she'd bring down the veil between their world and the Other Side; and Matt, being supernatural, would be alive again.
"Bonnie, you are talking like a crazy person," said Caroline. "You are not killing 12 people, and you sure as hell can't invite every monster who has ever died back into this world!"
Damon and Rebekah said nothing, as they'd heard this all the way home from the island.
"No, I can do it. I have the power," Bonnie argued. "I can bring everyone back. Matt, Alaric, Vicki, my Grams."
"Bonnie, stop it. You can't just say these things," said Elena.
Bonnie opened her mouth to argue once more, but she was cut off.
"Get out."
Everyone looked at Phoebe. Like earlier, she hadn't been a part of the conversation initially, but then heard enough to feel it necessary to leave Matt's side to add in her two cents.
"Take your crazy, and get the hell out," Phoebe repeated. The look she gave Bonnie frightened them all.
"I know it sounds crazy, but it can work," Bonnie argued. "You've had plans that were just as crazy."
In a flash, the kitchen door to the outside was open, and Bonnie was outside. She looked up at Phoebe from the ground.
"I said get out." Phoebe closed the door on her face, ignoring everyone's comments as she returned to Matt's room.
With there now proof of how angry Phoebe was growing, it was time for Jeremy and Elena to leave too. The two of them, plus Caroline, took Bonnie home.
Hayley followed her best friend back to Matt's room, while the remainder revisited the option of calling Elijah. She stood in the doorway and watched Phoebe sit on the edge of the bed next to Matt's body. Phoebe knew she was there, but didn't care.
Phoebe touched her finger to the scar on Matt's upper lip. "I remember the day he got this. We were playing Princess Bride in the back yard. I got a little too vigorous, and swung my sword too hard. Split his lip open and knocked out a tooth."
She smiled at the memory, as her eyes began to water. "He wasn't even mad at me. He just shrugged it off, and kept playing – said it was more realistic. Our moms, though, they weren't so chill about it. Matt had to get stitches, and it left a scar."
The smile left her face, and tears began to fall freely down her cheeks. "But this isn't a game. He can't just get up and keep playing. Our biggest issue isn't going to be our moms scolding us for being too rough."
Hayley became wary of her sudden change in tone. She wanted to call for the others, but before she could even decide if she should, strange things began to happen.
There was a sudden crack of lightening in the sky, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Rain began to pour like crazy. It wasn't as severe as when she had died, but it was still familiar enough to tell everyone that this was Phoebe's doing. That, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky not five minutes ago.
Jenna, Stefan, Damon, and Rebekah joined Hayley and Phoebe in Matt's room.
Phoebe stood up, looking at Matt's body in shock.
"Phoebe?" Hayley took a step towards her friend.
Phoebe spun around to look at all of them. "He's dead. He's dead, and he's been dead this whole time!"
They all watched her, sadness and pity filling them all.
"Oh, my god." Phoebe looked at Matt's body again. "I can smell him. How long has he smelled like that?"
No one knew what to say to her, despite her eyes pleading them all for answers. This was like John all over again, only with extremely heightened vampire empath emotions.
Phoebe seemed to come up with an idea of her own, as she pushed past them all to search the kitchen for something.
"What are you looking for?" Jenna asked.
Phoebe found the lighter fluid she was looking for, and began pouring it all over the house.
"Phoebe, what are you doing?" Stefan asked.
"We need a cover story, right? You think I didn't hear you guys talking earlier? Matt's dead. So is Vicki, and god only knows where their parents are." Phoebe continued to pour.
Hayley tried to take the bottle from Phoebe, but the look she gave Hayley scared her a little. At the same time, there was another crack of lightening outside.
"Matt always wanted to be cremated, and since no one's going to need this house anymore, we might as well use it as a cover story. High school quarterback dies in tragic house fire," Phoebe explained.
"Phoebe, stop it!" Stefan commanded.
"Or what?! You'll call Elijah and tell on me?" She paused just long enough to look at their faces. "You think I didn't hear you talking about that too? Debating on whether you should call him to come control me, or not?"
"That's not what we said," Stefan argued. "We're just trying to help you."
"How? How are you gonna help me? How?" She was becoming frantic. "Caroline hates me for taking Klaus' side and only convincing him to let Tyler live on the run, instead of here with her. Damon's too busy being jealous of Elijah. Jeremy, Jenna, and Elena have no idea what to do for me, because they're used to me being the one to take care of everyone else. And all you wanna do is call Elijah to come control me."
Hayley reached out and grabbed Phoebe. "Hey, we are all here for you, Phoebe. Don't you think for one second that any of us wouldn't do whatever it took to help you."
Phoebe shrugged her off, and walked away to grab the matches. "You don't understand, none of you do."
"So tell us, make us understand."
Phoebe struck a match and looked at Stefan. "When you got your humanity back, you said you couldn't let everything in all at once, because it was too much."
Stefan nodded. All eyes were on that match, their bodies ready to run over and snuff it out at any moment.
"Well, for an empath there is no middle ground, there's no grey area, there's no dimmer switch; there's only all or nothing. You can't imagine what it feels like to feel everything, all of the time. To sense what everyone else is feeling, all the time. It's already too much, and now th-"
Phoebe winced in pain and dropped the match. It had burned down enough to reach her hand and burn it.
Before anyone could make a move to catch it, another hand caught it before it hit the ground. Though they were relieved that Phoebe wasn't holding a burning match anymore, and that it hadn't landed and set the house a blaze; they were all a little confused as to what he was doing here.
Klaus stood up and looked Phoebe in the eye. "Phoebe, I need you to calm down."
Phoebe shook her head, and spammed the word 'no' over and over again, as she sank to her knees. She held her head in her hands, as she cried.
"It hurts. It hurts. Just make it stop." She looked up at them all with pleading eyes. "Please make it stop. It hurts."
Klaus knelt down next to her. He took her face in his hands and made her look at him. "I can help you, if you'll let me."
"How?" she sobbed.
Everyone watched and waited to hear how he was going to help her. He wasn't her sire, so what could he do?
"…Turn it off," said Klaus.
There came a chorus of objections, and even Phoebe looked surprised. But Klaus never looked away from her brown eyes.
"Just turn it off, and everything will go away."
Phoebe had never liked the whole 'off-switch' concept. She'd basically done it before as a human, when Klaus had broken her, but this was different. This would be actually turning off her emotions, not just giving up on life.
Was it worth it to make all this pain go away? Was it worth making all the enemies she was bound to make, once she no longer cared about their feelings? Was it worth the guilt she'd feel when she no longer had compassion to keep her from killing?
Maybe she could just turn it off for a little while. Give it a year or so to get away from everything, and then come back. But what if she hurt someone she loved during that time? She wouldn't care about them to stop from hurting them.
Maybe her sense of logic would keep her from doing anything too severe. Maybe this, maybe that, there were so many maybes floating around her head, it was beginning to drive her crazy.
The voices of everyone arguing over Klaus' suggestion faded into nothing, as Phoebe sat there thinking. It was maddening being an empath, feeling all the time; and stopping the pain she felt right now seemed like a wonderfully tempting idea. But were the consequences really worth the temporary bliss?
Phoebe closed her eyes and took a breath. She rose to her feet and looked at everyone still arguing.
She'd made her decision…
So I know, to some of you, Phoebe may be coming across as a bit overboard in her reaction to losing Matt, but I disagree. Yes, she still has Jeremy, Elena, Jenna, and all her other friends, but Matt was special. He was her best friend from a very young age, he's always been there. She also has heightened vampire motions amplifying her empathic emotions, so she's overwhelmed with grief.
On a lighter note, even though the circumstances weren't great, it felt nice to bring Agnes and Zoie back. And they're going to be making another appearance later this season!
The next couple of chapters are going to be original chapters of my own creation, not following an episode. But they should still be enjoyable.
As always,, I look forward to reading your comments on this chapter and any thoughts or wishes for the future.!
