I was in a forest. Everything was more vibrant than I was used to, the grass, the leaves, the bark from the trees. Everywhere I looked, there was an array of colorful flowers and mushrooms. The air around me seemed to sparkle with life.

I could hear a voice, but the owner of the voice was nowhere to be seen. It called out, "Come home!"

I remembered going to sleep. I knew I was actually in my bed. "But I'm already home."

The voice insisted, "Come home!"

"I'm already home…"

The forest disappeared, melting away like water thrown on a painting that hadn't yet dried. Instead of it, I saw an old picture of Elena.

It seemed like the Elena before the accident, with that mischievous glint in her eyes, except her hair was curly. Elena didn't often curl her hair.

Something was written underneath the picture. The only thing I could make out was '1864'. I was unable to see the rest clearly, it was blurred.

…

I woke up with a pounding heart.

I spent the morning with Bonnie and Stefan. He was filling us in on everything that was real and everything that was a myth concerning vampires.

This was what we had discussed so far: garlic was not harmful, they didn't sleep in coffins because that was just uncomfortable, a stake to the heart could kill them but so could ripping out their heart or ripping off their head.

"Vampires can use compulsion to control minds," Stefan was explaining. "When a human is on vervain, they can resist it. Witches are immune."

Bonnie exhaled a sigh of relief. I frowned, as I still didn't have an answer to why I had the same immunity. Stefan studied me, and I wondered if he knew—if Damon had told him.

"What about bloodlust?" Bonnie asked. "How bad is it?"

Stefan hesitated. "It varies." He proceeded to tell her about his animal diet.

He looked worn down. Stefan always had that brooding look about him, but the circles under his eyes were more pronounced today. Understandably so; he lost his best friend to his brother. I couldn't imagine. It was impossible to picture Jeremy killing Caroline or something similar.

"I have a question," I piped up after Stefan finished. I was hoping to cheer him up. "What was it like in the past? It can't all have been doom and gloom. Come on, you must have stories."

"No, it wasn't," he agreed, giving me a small smile. He proceeded to tell us about the eighties and going to Bon Jovi concerts with Lexi.

Eventually we had to leave or we'd be late to school, but I was holding Stefan to his promise to tell me about his flower child phase in the sixties later. Bonnie and I went in her car. Stefan told us to go ahead as he'd catch up with us later.

In Bonnie's car, I noticed Stefan wasn't the only one with circles under his eyes. I told Bonnie as much.

"That's because I've been having these weird dreams," she complained. I felt unsettled. I had a weird dream, too, but that was all it was, right? Just a dream.

With Bonnie, this clearly wasn't the case. She told me about her dream.

"And then, I ended up at the remains of the old Fell's church before I woke up back in the woods," she finished.

"And you always see your ancestor Emily?" I asked.

Bonnie nodded. "Do you think ghosts are real, too?"

My mind flashed to the whispers I had heard when Lexi died. "At this point, it wouldn't surprise me," I said, resigned.

We arrived at school. Bonnie parked the car. As we got out, she showed me a crystal.

"Grams said Emily was a powerful witch back in the Civil War days, and that this was hers. A witch's talisman."

"The Civil War days," I mused. "Maybe Stefan and Damon knew her." I studied the crystal. It was orange and connected to a necklace. "Is this the necklace Caroline's been after? The one Damon really wants back?"

"It is," Bonnie confirmed. She made a face. "Grams tells me I should embrace all this. But I don't want to embrace it. I want it to stop."

I walked inside the classroom. I had history first period, from a substitute filling in for Tanner.

I contemplated my dream. It hadn't been as freaky as Bonnie's as it certainly hadn't caused me to sleepwalk, but it had still been a weird dream.

Whenever I thought about the forest and the voice, I couldn't help but feel like I was forgetting something important. It was like it was on the tip of my tongue, but whenever I tried to find it, it was just gone.

"Good morning everyone," a man said, walking in. He wrote his name on the blackboard. "I'm Alaric Saltzman. It's a mouthful, I know. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue." He smiled. "Saltzman is of German origins. My family immigrated here in 1755 to Texas. I, however, was born and raised in Boston."

I was unsure why he was giving us a history lesson on himself. Usually Tanner's substitutes just let us work on the material while they did their own thing. I stifled a yawn.

"Now, the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great-grandfather I will never be able to thank enough," he continued. "You'll probably want to pronounce it as 'Ala-ric' but it's 'Alaric', okay. So you can call me Ric. I'm your new history teacher."

My eyebrows raised. So he wasn't a substitute—we finally had a teacher again. One who didn't seem so bad. Maybe I would finally be able to enjoy history class again.

After history, I had a free period. I saw Stefan outside and went to him.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to ask about your sordid past of peace and love in the sixties," I said, before pausing. "Unless you really feel like telling me now. I wouldn't be opposed."

Stefan just looked at me, amused, while he waited for me to get to the point.

"…No? Okay." I got down to business. "I am here to ask if you knew a witch named Emily."

His eyes widened and his posture stiffened. "I knew her," he answered eventually. "Where did you hear that name?"

"From Bonnie," I said. "She has a talisman of Emily's that Damon really wants. A crystal. Do you know why?"

"No," Stefan said, troubled. "But I can try and find out."

"Great!" I smiled.

He lifted an eyebrow when I continued to stand there, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. "You look like there's something else on your mind."

"Can dreams be…more than they are?" I hurried to add, "I'm asking for a friend." It wasn't technically a lie...

"Sometimes," he said. "Vampires are capable of entering someone's head and tampering with their dreams." He got a worried frown. "Why?"

I ignored his question, too deep in thought.

"I can't be compelled," I said. "So that dream thing probably doesn't apply to me either, does it?"

"Vampires and witches can't be compelled, either, but their heads can still be entered," Stefan said. His eyes were knowing. "You're not asking for a friend, are you?"

"Not…completely." I sighed. I hadn't talked about the compulsion thing with Stefan yet and I wondered about his opinion. "Do you think I'm a witch?"

"I think there are all sorts of things we don't know, and there are a lot of possibilities," Stefan said, regarding me kindly. The words were reassuring.

Stefan and Damon were knowledgable, but they didn't know everything. There could be a different reason for my resistance to compulsion that they just didn't know about.

I just wish I knew what it was.

During the break, I caught up with Caroline. Apparently, she had spent the night with Matt of all people. There had been cuddling, until he'd snuck out.

"Maybe I shouldn't talk to you about this," Caroline said, giving me a worried glance. "I know it's weird, he used to date Elena and now I want to date him…"

"Whoa," I said, surprised. "You didn't say that before. You seriously like him?"

"Going after the ex, I know, I'm such a cliché!" she despaired.

"No, Care, I think it's great," I hurried to say. "After everything, you deserve a guy who will treat you right. Matt fits that description, sneaking out after cuddling notwithstanding."

She raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Really, Mel? It wasn't that long ago that you couldn't stand him."

"Times change," I defended. "Besides, he's totally hot."

"Oh my god." Caroline gave a playful, fake scandalized gasp. "What would Elena think?"

"His hair is silky as if spun by a fabulous spider," I said shamelessly. "And those eyes…" I did a chef's kiss. "Don't you just want to do cannonballs into them?"

Caroline laughed and I joined her. It felt good and light.

"Support is still my middle name," I reminded her, before amending, "Well, when it comes to who you want to date. I can't say I'm too supportive of that fight you're having with Bonnie."

Caroline's face soured. "She needs to make the first move."

"What are you, a kindergartner?" I asked incredulously.

"She's a thief," Caroline defended hotly. "It's a matter of principle, Mel. She's refusing to give me my necklace back!"

"It's not your necklace," I said. "It's Damon's." And he had some kind of weird obession with it that was starting to worry me.

"It's the principle," she insisted.

Before I could say more, Caroline was distracted by Matt passing us. The two began talking, so I left. I headed towards the parking lot.

Whenever I thought about my dream, it wasn't just forgetfulness that I felt. There was a sense of loss and longing, too. I couldn't understand it.

"Just leave me alone or I swear—"

"Don't! No threats. Look, A, you hurt me last time. B, I wish you no harm."

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I noticed Damon and Bonnie near Bonnie's car in the parking lot. My eyes went wide and I began walking faster towards them.

"Believe it or not, Bonnie, I want to protect you. Let me help you get Emily off your back."

I reached them and went to stand next to Bonnie. "Because you're such a good samaritan, aren't you, Damon?"

He looked at me smugly, as if to say, 'Yes, exactly'. I rolled my eyes.

"What do you know about Emily?" Bonnie asked Damon.

"I know a lot of things, and I know more about that crystal than you do, and I know that she's using it to creep inside of you," he replied.

"You mean that Emily is actually invading Bonnie's dreams?" I asked incredulously. I almost made a movie reference, but Bonnie looked so scared. This was real.

Damon noticed it, too. "See how scared you are? And, you should be, because I will get that crystal, even if I have to wait for Emily to give it to me herself. So, next time she comes out to play, you tell her that a deal's a deal."

He met my eyes briefly, his smirk widening, before he turned around and left.

"He's bad news, guys. He really scared me."

"You need to stay as far away from Damon as possible," Elena said.

Bonnie was driving her car, with Elena in the passenger seat and me in the back as we discussed what had happened.

I was especially curious about what kind of deal Damon had with Emily. It seemed ominious.

"I'm trying!" Bonnie said. "He just keeps showing up."

"I don't want you to be alone." Elena met my eyes and I nodded. "You're sleeping at our place tonight, we can make a whole night out of it."

"Yes, movie marathon! We can watch your favorites," I said. Elena gave me a look, because many of Bonnie's favorite movies were also my favorite movies. I stuck my tongue out at my sister.

I was taken aback when Bonnie suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car.

"Where are you going?" Elena asked with wide eyes.

Bonnie ripped off the necklace and threw it into a field. I whistled. Damn, she should quit cheerleading and join the softball team with those throwing skills.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Now I am. All my problems were because of that thing." Bonnie let out a relieved sigh. "I can't believe I didn't do that sooner."

Elena was still uncertain. "What's your Grams gonna say?"

Bonnie gave her a look, and then, like an absolute badass, sassed: "Grams isn't the one being haunted by a hundred-and-fifty year old ghost, is she?"

Elena didn't seem to have a retort for that.

I was in my living room with Bonnie, Caroline and Elena. We were having a sleepover together, but the air was tense between Bonnie and Caroline.

Finally, Caroline sighed. "I'm sorry. There, I said it. If you want the ugly ass necklace, keep it. It's yours."

As far as apologies went, hers could use some work.

Bonnie glanced at her, hesitant. "Will you hate me if I tell you I threw it away?"

"You threw it away?!"

"I know it sounds crazy, but the necklace was giving me nightmares. I had to get rid of it."

I pondered that. It wasn't just vampires that could influence dreams. A witch's talisman could, too. Who knew what else was capable of influencing dreams? I sure didn't.

Caroline was frowning at Bonnie. "You could have just given it back to me."

"Why?" Elena interjected. "So you could give it back to Damon?"

"Screw Damon," Caroline said. "Are we doing manicures or what? Who has their kit?"

"Mine's in my bag," Bonnie told Caroline, who started rifling through Bonnie's purse to look for it. We were going to paint our nails while we watched Dirty Dancing.

At least, that's what I thought until Caroline said, her voice dripping with venom, "Why are you such a little liar, Bonnie?"

We were all astonished.

"What?"

"Caroline!"

Caroline silenced us when she held up the crystal. I stared at it. Why was my life turning into a horror movie?

"I'm not lying to you, Caroline, I swear," Bonnie pleaded.

"Then explain it." She put down the crystal and crossed her arms.

"Emily," Bonnie said simply.

"Who's Emily?"

"The ghost."

"Oh, the ghost has a name now?" she mocked.

"Caroline, please," Elena tried. During this whole exchange, my eyes were trained at the ceiling in exasperation.

"This is getting ridiculous!" I finally burst out. "Come on."

I grabbed Caroline's wrist before grabbing Bonnie's. I dragged them to the kitchen and let go.

"Elena and I are going to watch a cinematic gem and you two are talking it out," I said sternly before I left with Elena.

We didn't actually put on Dirty Dancing. We listened in on Bonnie and Caroline.

"Look, it's just not me. I don't believe in the…" Caroline stopped, made a noise, and probably made some gestures. "Woo woo. But, if you do, then…okay. I'm in. That's all it takes for me to jump on board, because I consider you to be my best friend. And I'm saying this, knowing that Elena and Mel are in the living room listening to my every word. Look, I didn't know how real this was for you, but I'm listening now. Okay?"

I was glad the two weren't fighting anymore. They returned to the living room, both smiling.

"There is just way too much drama in this room," Caroline said. "I have an idea. Why don't we have a seance?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Bonnie said. I agreed with her. I was spooked enough by the crystal's inexplicable reappearance. A seance sounded like the last thing we should do.

"Come on!" Caroline insisted. "Let's summon some spirits. This Emily chick has some serious explaining to do."

"Sure, that sounds like a great idea, let's re-enact a horror movie," I said. I gave Caroline a pointed look. "The blondes always die first, you know." Or was it the virgins? If so, I was in trouble. Either way, this was a bad idea.

"Oh, please," she said with a scoff. "We're doing this."