A/N: And here is chapter five! Enjoy!


o.O.o


Chapter Five, A Stupid Rock

The branches behind him framed Tyler's head like a twisted crown and his face was thrown in shadow. They were at the edge of the Lockwood property, the wind ruffling through my hair and the sun warming my bare legs. With his father in hospital, in a coma and absolutely oblivious to the world, I'd found it hard to break the news of the supernatural to him. However, we'd long ago agreed that we would tell each other everything and I really needed someone to know what I knew. Still, to learn that the existence of vampires were real, that was utterly unexpected. He'd readily believed me of course, especially after I'd did a little spell (setting a small branch on fire), but with this knowledge, more questions rose. The device that had been used during Founder's Day had affected both Richard and Tyler Lockwood and now we wanted to know why. Just, not much came forward.

"I just—" he started helplessly and I tried to smile.

"I know,"

"Supernatural…" He whispered, "I'm quite sure I'm not a vampire though."

"No, besides I don't think Vampirism is congenital. A warlock seems far-fetched as well, with what, you being affected by the device and me not?"

"Good point," he agreed irritably.

"What?"

"I rather liked the idea of setting things on fire." He muttered.

I rolled my eyes and peered at the angles of his face, watching as his brows furrowed together in concentration. Several buttons of his shirt were undone, exposing the tanned line of his collarbone and I concluded, with the sort of clinical detachment only best friends could develop, he'd grown from a silly looking boy to a handsome young man. I understood why several of his female classmates batted their ridiculous long eyelashes at him.

"My uncle is in town." Tyler admitted and I moved closer to him until our arms were touching and I could prop my head up on his shoulder. "He's acting super weird."

"I remember Mason." I whispered, remembering the man (he'd probably really only been a teenager then) trying to push daisies in my hair and threw Tyler in the swimming pool to push our buttons. "But hasn't he aways been a bit weird?"

"Fine," Tyler conceded. "My uncle is in town and he's acting even weirder than normal. He says he is here for dad. Because he is in a coma and all, but he hasn't even visited him yet."

"I'm really sorry about that." I said slowly. Although Caroline Forbes made a miraculous recovery after a horrible car accident Richard Lockwood had got stuck in my father's office when the ceiling came down. I wasn't even sure how the ceiling could have come down in the first place but I thought it might have something to do with Bonnie Bennett. The dark-skinned girl who was Elena's best friend was supposed to be a witch as well.

"It's not your fault."

"Yeah, but I don't think you want me to say what I really think." I said. I did feel bad that his father had been hurt, guilty too, but I was glad he was not near Tyler anymore.

"I know what you think."

I pursed my lips: "I have my reasons."

"Yes," he agreed and allowed it when I squeezed his hand.

"What is Uncle Mason here for, if it isn't for his brother?" I asked and inhaled noisily.

"Some stupid rock." He said, laughing hollowly.

"A rock?"

"Yeah," he nodded and I poked him in the arm.

"And you know where it is?"

"Well," Tyler retorted slowly, suddenly catching on to my line of thoughts. We were thinking about supernatural occurrences. We couldn't think of anything related to Tyler, yet, his uncle was in town for some rock… "I know of more secret stash places than he does."

I grinned at that: "Care to make it a search party?"

His smirk turned ferocious: "I hoped you'd ask."

I returned his smirk with one of my own and we moved quickly towards the mansion. We stepped inside, with both Tyler's mother and uncle out we had the place to ourselves and I winced slightly when the door closed noisily behind me. Dim sun light filtered in through the tainted-glass windows above my head and I followed Tyler across the Entrance hall. A heavy familiarity rose inside me as we started to climb the stairs. I'd used to practically lived at the Lockwood house even if Richard Lockhart was not my biggest advocate.

I would admit, if only to myself, that I did nothing to dissuade Tyler's stupid plans and more often than not, made sure they were even more ill-advised. Shaking my head I dropped my jacked and bag to the floor in the living room.
We started downstairs. It took thirty minutes before we ascended the stairs to the upper levels. A shadow passed over Tyler's face as he crouched down in front of a white wall, where another cupboard was hidden. It was truly insane how many hidden cupboards, hollow panels and weirdly decorated saves Richard Lockwood had truly been the most paranoid person she'd ever met. I rubbed my hands together as I pushed the rug aside and revealed the even wooden panels. There was no hidden anything here and I was almost surprised. We were in the master bedroom. You'd think if there was one room you wanted secret loose panels hiding dark spaces full of money and weird rocks it was there and I dropped the rug back in place, moving to the small privet library Carol Lockwood loved so much. We'd searched through half of the house and I tucked my hair behind my ears. Straddling a richly-decorated chair and filed through another cabinet, shifted in my seat, rifled through the bookshelves and sighed in frustration when that too did not produce some weird voodoo rock.

It was rather surprising there was little method to the cataloging system, with Carol Lockwood in charge and I wondered if there was a witchy way to speed up the process. Possibly there was, yet, it was not known to me. Both Uncle John and Anna had come through with their promise to sent me a Grimoire and although I had learned a lot, I wasn't exactly good at it yet. A grimoire was often like a weird combination to a note and a cook book. Deciphering took time. Till now, I'd learned that day light rings were made from jewellery with a lapis lazuli stone spelled so that the supernaturals (mainly vampires) could walk in the sun, how to control and expand fires and how to create brain aneurysms; which sounded rather crafty against those pesky immortals.

Something toppled over in a room not too far from me and I straightened up in the chair. "Tyler, you okay?"

"Oi," he yelled back and I shot up so fast the chair almost toppled over. I moved across the room and stepped out on the landing. I heard him rummaging around and I frowned.

"You got something?"

"Hell yeah, I think I got it!" He yelled and when he emerged, stumbling out of his father's second study, he grinned madly, waving something that caught the sunlight. The hallway smelled fusty and the floorboards creaked beneath my easy sneakers as I crossed the distance. He grinned at me, holding the stone out in triumph.

"Here you go, Baby-witch." He grinned and I grimaced.

"Remind me again why I told you?"

"Because you love me?" He said before his expression turned tight. "Do you think it is something supernatural as well?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. I really don't know much about it. Only what Elena writes in her diary. And she writes her feelings, her fears, but she is not very detailed about events. I think she doesn't really want to remember all the details."

"And your witch books?"

"They're complicated. It would help if someone could explain the basics to me." I explained.

"Well, my dear student, magic is a complicated—"

"Shut up, Tyler," I snapped and he grinned. I snatched the stone out of his hand and held it out above my head trailing my thumb over the smooth surface. It was translucent, milky-coloured, flat and ovoid, looking a lot like a gemstone. "If it is something supernatural we should be able to find out."

"How?"

I grinned: "I've got two Grimoires." My grin faded. "But I do need some time. If it's not written in one of those, I'll need— well help? Not sure— there are a lot of magical drawings, potions and even objects. It's a bit hard. I just need more time."

"The last time you told me that, you went to England and hacked off your hair." He returned dryly and I rolled my eyes in slight irritation. He wasn't wrong of course, after my parents had died I'd seized the opportunity to get away from Mystic Falls. When arriving at the dreary dorm rooms I'd dropped of my possessions before cutting off all the hair below my chin in a sloppy bob. At least it had grown till it was now curling just beneath the line of my jaw.

"The last time I was upset and angry."

"Upset and angry are your trademark feelings."

"Very funny," I retorted half-heartedly and trailed my index finger over the stone. "It doesn't look like much though."

"Mason says he wants it for sentimental value."

"Must think you're stupid." I retorted and I munched on my lip. "I could ask Uncle John."

"Is that a good idea?"

I snorted: "Probably not, can I take this?"

"Oh, please do." He nodded and I yanked the napkin I'd used to wrap my sandwich in out of my pocket and tucked the stone in it before folding the napkin tightly around it, pushing it back in my pocket. "Let's go back outside. I think my uncle and mum could be back any minute and it would be less suspicious if we were outside."

"Good point," I agreed, collected my bag and jacket and, as we moved outside my phone started to buzz agitatedly in my back pocket. I reached for it as we continued outside and Tyler's lip quirked up in a smirk.

"Elena?" He asked as he held open the door and I nodded.

"Indeed," I agreed, "Hello?"

"Samantha, where are you?" Elena's voice demanded quivering and I stared at the device with a frown.

"What's with the judgy tone?" I asked dryly and I almost heard Elena overthink her next sentence. She knew I could react badly to her bossy I'm-the-older-sister-tone and I waited almost patiently.

"Are you all right?" Elena asked and I felt my fingers tighten around my phone.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh— well, I— ah, was worried. With Uncle John's attack and all." She stumbled and Tyler tried to convey his questions through his eyes. I shrugged my shoulders in response and sighed.

"I'm on my way home, okay, I was with Tyler." I finally settled on.

"Oh, good," she sighed gratefully.

"How was your trip?" I asked pleasantly and Tyler's eyebrows rose so high, they almost disappeared beneath his hairline.

"Oh, good," she repeated uncomfortably and I heard someone mumble something in the background. "I'll see you at home."

The line went death and I breathed out already irritated: "Elena truly thinks I'm an idiot. There is something wrong, of course, and she was checking if I was still alive. I'm almost regretting giving Jeremy my blessing to do a runner."

"Again, you're not one to judge."

"Not my point," I retorted dryly, "I mean that since Jeremy isn't there Elena averted her big-sister-attention to me. It's annoying. She didn't call me every day when I was in England and now, while I'm back she needs to know where I am at every second of the day."

"What trip?"

"I have no idea. Doing research together with Alaric. He's the History teacher isn't he?" I asked absentmindedly, frowning when I remembered I would be returning to my old school in a few days. "I think I overheard them talk about a woman named Isobel. Who's by the way Elena's mother."

"Seriously!"

"Yep," I agreed, popping the 'p', before crossing the gravel path towards my car. "I'll have to go home though. When Elena is upset, it's easier to just call defeat and listen to her. I'll see you later. I'll see if I can find out something about this silly stone. Try asking Mason again. You could mention something about the supernatural."

I plopped down behind the wheel, ignoring the tremble that ran down my spine and pursed my lips: "Although, if he is a—"

"Vampire-thing?" Tyler added helpfully and I nodded.

"We could raid his apartment." Tyler opted almost hopefully. "I mean, if there is something supernatural, or witchy or something entirely else, there might be prove at his home."

I pursed my lips at that. I seriously doubted Mason would tell us anything about his potential Supernaturalism and searching Tyler's home had already served us well, but—

"Doesn't he live in Florida?"

"Yep,"

"It's a long drive."

"With everything that's going on in this town, do you think they'll miss us?" Tyler asked dryly and I tapped my fingers against the wheel of my car.

"It's worth a shot. Let me think about it." I decided on and started the car. "I'll need to tell Jenna something, but I guess she won't be too difficult. I'll call you tonight and if I find something— Well, I'll call you then too."

I sped off quickly, ignoring the light jolt my stomach made when the gravel bled seamlessly into a dirt road and the Lockwood mansion was hidden behind the tall copse of trees. The ride home was almost pleasant and I listened to the Christina Angelera song, coming from the speakers. I shifted between gas and brake; the streets even busy before rush hour, and drove half a block on automatic pilot until I reached the familiar narrow street before my home. From inside of the house the faint sloppy, chortling laughter of Jenna and a male visitor greeted me. When I opened the front door slowly I also heard a soft twangy music playing coming from upstairs.

Ignoring the lovey-dovey back and forth between my aunt and what I assumed was Alaric Saltzman, and followed the music up the stairs. Her bedroom door was open, revealing her sitting cross-legged on her bed, flipping through a large, old leather-bound book. The pages were yellowed and I leant casually against the doorjamb, peering at the written words, yet, I couldn't read them.

"Hello," I greeted leisurely, "doing some extracurricular research?"

Elena squeaked and flushed before flapping the book shut. "Samantha!"

"Yep," I agreed, pointing at myself, "in the flesh. What got you so upset that you called me?"

"I wasn't upset," Elena muttered defensively and I rolled my eyes almost theatrically.

"Don't lie to me."

"Fine," she whispered tearily, "Stefan and I broke up."

I'd waited several moments for her to cough and tell me it was a joke. Counted each excruciating second and hoped desperately for something to happen, because I wasn't sure I could act horrified in her place for losing her Vampire boyfriend. When I finally found my voice again I stumbled uncharacteristically over my words: "I— oh, I'm sorry…"

Elena pouted unhappily and I slowly moved further into her bedroom, dropping down on her rickety desk chair. The large vanity was mum's birthday gift when Elena had turned fourteen and had started to have her period. I twirled a bottle of nail polish between my fingers and pulled one leg up against my chest, resting my chin on my knee.

"Also, Jeremy ran away," she admitted glumly and I averted my eyes.

"Yeah, I know."

"What do you mean you know?"

"Because Elena, Jeremy told me. Honestly, what happened between the two of you when I was gone?" I asked, thinking that would have been something I would have wanted to know.

Elena opened and closed her mouth like a fish and I scratched at the nicely healing marks on my throat. Her eyes followed the movement and she flushed a light pink before looking at her hands, laying uselessly on the book. "I— We had a minor disagreement. I'm— I'm sorry, Sam, perhaps— I really just need some time alone."

I sighed: "Sure, I'll be in my room."

I thought I heard something when I closed Elena's bedroom door behind me but moved towards my bedroom either way. Retrieving the Grimoires I now owned from my hidden bathroom tile storage (made by my father when I needed a place to hide my secrets away from my siblings, even though obviously both my parents knew of its existence), I locked the door and sat down on the toilet seat. The sooner I started to search for an answer, the sooner we could think of what to do.

To be continued...


A/N: In the altered timeline, Richard Lockwood survived the fire, but he was drained to inch of his life, partly burned (because, why the fuck wouldn't John restart the fire or Bonnie have restarted it, taking the ceiling with her when she was at it) and saved only because Liz Forbes was called by Carol Lockwood. Either way, for now, remember he's still alive. He will have an important role later (*much later). As for Mason, well, I'm not sure what I'll do with him. I know what I will do with Florida though^^

And Samantha— well, she's still not a fan of the vampires…

Either way, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think.