Ryleigh got to the front door and flung it open as she tried to get to her car in vain. She knew that the vampires could run so much faster than hers, but her fear was genuine. She hadn't even realized she was doing anything, but it was evident that she'd been the one hurting Damon. Not that she wasn't happy that he'd been stopped because he'd been a second away from ripping into her. She made it halfway to her car when strong arms circled her waist and stopped her. She shrieked and began to fight, trying to free herself. The arms around her were strong and held her in place. She was crying freely now; this was not what she'd expected at all, though it should have been. Damon was one of her favorite characters, but the guy really had no qualms killing anyone if he thought they were a threat to his family. She continued to struggle when she finally registered that someone was speaking to her, it was Matt.
"Ryleigh, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you!" His words finally penetrated her foggy mind, and she sagged into him, a sob escaping. He turned her around to face him and enveloped her in a tight embrace, making her feel safe. He stroked her hair and whispered to her that she was going to be okay. She was shaking with fear, and when she saw Stefan cautiously approaching them, she jumped back, but Matt held her steady. Stefan held his hands up in surrender, showing that he meant her no harm.
"Ryleigh, I am so sorry for my brother, he really doesn't think things through before he acts. Please, come back inside, and we'll explain everything to you. Matt gently pulled her back and looked at her with a warm smile.
"Come back inside, they're not going to hurt you, I promise." She couldn't believe that even Matt was trying to get her to go back into that house. There was no way she was stepping foot over that threshold again. She was going straight back to her house and using the fob to go back home. She'd expected a fun adventure in Mystic Falls, but there was angst, drama, and murderous intentions towards her and she didn't want anything to do with it. She pushed Matt away from her and began to back up towards her car.
"Like hell, I'm going back in there, you can forget it. I'm going home; I don't want any part of any of this, so you just stay back!" Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline were outside now too and they came to a stop beside Matt, causing her to step back several more steps, her arms outstretched in an effort to keep them back. Elena stayed where she was, and when she spoke, she sounded on the verge of tears.
"Rye, please come in and let us explain, don't leave it like this." Ryleigh scoffed as she finally reached her car and ran to the driver side.
"Back off, I'm going home and you can't stop me." After making her bold statement, she quickly reached for the door but realized that she'd left her purse inside the house. She groaned in frustration and decided it wasn't worth it and began running down the driveway towards the road. She made it to the side road and realized that she was incredibly foolish. The Salvatore's lived at least 15 miles outside of the town, but she couldn't make herself stop. She screamed again and came to a skidding stop, almost falling when Damon was suddenly in front of her. He gave her a pensive look, held his hands up, and didn't move towards her.
"Okay that was totally my bad, I'll admit it. Your arrival is a little suspicious but Bonnie told me that you didn't even believe it until I attacked you. Look, please come back, the vampires will stay on a different side of the room and we won't try to touch you, I promise." Ryleigh had the feeling like she was going to faint, she couldn't catch her breath and her vision was tunneling. She tried to speak but started to wobble. She had the sense of falling, but couldn't stay awake as everything went black.
Ryleigh wasn't out very long, but when she came to, she was lying on the couch in the boarding house living room with a cold rag lying on her forehead. She slowly started to come out of it, but when she realized where she was, she jerked herself up to a sitting position. She felt Matt's arms encircle her, but she pushed him away, not wanting to be touched. She saw that Damon had kept his word and the vampires with Tyler were sitting in chairs across the room leaving Bonnie, Elena, Jeremy, Matt, and Alaric on her side. Staring at Tyler across the room with them confused her. She knew that she should be aware of why he was over there with them, but she couldn't put her finger on why. Elena's eyes were red as she looked at her and Matt looked hurt that she'd pushed him away. She couldn't worry about any of that at the moment; she just wanted to get the hell away so she could go back to her reality. She frantically looked around the room, but couldn't remember where she'd sat her purse down. Shoving the throw off of her, she sat up completely and placed her feet on the ground, eyeing Tyler once more.
"Ty, why are you over there with them?" It was then that she noticed Caroline. She had a tortured expression and tears were running down her face, but she steeled herself against it. Tyler cleared his throat and glanced over at Caroline before answering.
"I'm not a vampire if that's what you're asking…but I am a werewolf." The air just whooshed out of her lungs at his admission. She had known that, why hadn't she been able to remember that earlier? The more she thought about it, she remembered the events of the show as she'd watched them, but she had to concentrate on them. She stood up and kept looking around the room as she spoke.
"I want to go, where is my purse?" Alaric spoke from behind her, not leaving his perch on the arm of the couch.
"You're in no shape to drive anywhere right now, Ryleigh. I've called your aunt and she'll be here in a few minutes but in the meantime…let us explain." Ryleigh scoffed and began to pace, not knowing what else to do with her nervous energy.
"Explain what exactly, Mr. Saltzman? Let's start with the fact that my ex-best friend seems to be a vampire and my other ex-best friend is a witch. My ex-boyfriend just told me that he's a friggin werewolf and Elena's boyfriend and his brother are vampires too, one of which who tried to kill me! Do you want to start with that?! I want to go home where I can forget any of this happened. I didn't come here for this, I came here to get to know them, but this is way the hell more than I bargained for." Caroline spoke for the first time, her voice breaking as she did.
"This is the biggest reason why I stopped talking to you, Ryleigh. I was in an accident and I was turned into a vampire. How do you explain to your best friend that you're no longer human? I know that it felt like I was abandoning you, but what else was I supposed to do? I was excited when I saw you, but I was also worried because I didn't want to drag you into any of this." Ryleigh understood what she was saying, but she couldn't stop her outburst.
"Then you should have left me the hell alone, Caroline! I made it pretty damn clear that I didn't want to rekindle our friendship but every single one of you pushed it on me, so why would you do that if you didn't want me to know?!" No one had an answer for her and she realized that she was becoming hysterical, the thought to call Grady had entirely escaped her and she was frantic to get out of there. Damon spoke, not leaving his post by the bar.
"You know, she's got a pretty good point there. You guys knew the danger of inviting someone into the circle, especially with the Mikaelson's and the hunters. Why would you push to resume a friendship that seems dead?" Bonnie answered Damon's question before Caroline had a chance to.
"Damon, we grew up together, all of us. The six of us have known each other for as long as I can remember and she's back after being gone for two years. We knew the risk, but we didn't anticipate it coming to a head so quickly. Regardless of any of that, she's a part of this now. She has powers and we could seriously use her help." Ryleigh was just about to respond when her aunt briskly entered the room looking furious. She looked around the room and spoke to everyone when she stopped in front of her.
"You all assured me that nothing like this was going to happen! Alaric, you explicitly promised me that nothing was going to happen to her. Ryleigh, I took a cab so that I can drive you home, okay? Let's go, grab your stuff and we'll leave." Ryleigh still didn't know where her purse when she saw that Damon was holding it with a smirk. She stared at him, seriously contemplating letting him keep it when his brow furrowed. He walked over to her and she took an involuntary step back, causing Meredith to step in front of her. He sighed and handed the purse over to her aunt and backed away, but not before addressing her.
"Ryleigh, I really am sorry, I tend to shoot first and ask questions later. I don't like that you're afraid of me, I promise you that you're safe." She stared at him and felt warm all over. His expression was that of confusion and worry, and he was actually upset that she was scared of him. She couldn't help her reaction to him any more than she could help it from Caroline. She followed her aunt out of the room without saying goodbye to anyone.
When she was safely in the confines of her room, she plopped down on the bed and started to cry. That was the scariest experience of her life, why the hell had she thought she'd live in a different reality? There was a reason that these were shows and not real life, they were dangerous. She looked around for the fob and picked it up. It would be so easy just to leave this world behind and go back to her house and pretend that this never happened. She put it back down, so conflicted with what she wanted to do. She started to pace once more and thought things through. True, she'd never been that scared in her life, but she'd also never felt more alive. These two days in Mystic Falls had meant more and made her felt more than she ever had. Should she go home to her safe, unsatisfying life or should she continue to stay here and see what happened? Plopping back down onto her bed, she called out for Grady. He was instantly in front of her, a grin on his face.
"My have we had an exciting two days so far. That did escalate rather quickly, did it not?" She wiped her face off as she stared at him and wondered if he was evil.
"Did you know what was going to happen when you sent me here?" Grady frowned and came to sit beside her.
"We set the basic outline but you make your choices. For instance, you chose to go to the Salvatore house instead of blowing them off. If you hadn't gone, you wouldn't have learned the truth about your friends for another month. Also, you seriously hurt Caroline's and Matt's feelings today so it may take a little while to get back in the good with them. Think of it as a live-action, choose your own adventure story. Every decision you make has a consequence." Ryleigh nodded and took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
"Why are my memories fading, I forgot that Tyler was a werewolf for a few minutes." Grady nodded and answered her honestly.
"Well, you seemed to be struggling with have all that knowledge, so I took it away to let you experience the real story. If you'd prefer to remember all that happened in the show as you watched it, I can restore it." Ryleigh threw her hands up in the air in frustration.
"Of course, I want to retain the information; it's the only leverage I have here!" He frowned at her and stood up.
"You seem very distraught, Ms. Jameson. Would you rather go home and wait for the fob to recharge so you can go somewhere less stressful?" She'd already made up her mind that she was going to stay, she had to see how it played out.
"No, I'm not going to chicken out. You told me that I couldn't die while I was here, so I'm going to trust that and just let go. I just wish I could lose my fear of Caroline and Damon…though Damon is understandably scary as hell." He bowed to her and responded with a smile.
"As you wish, please call upon me as you need. I've restored your memories so no more fogginess." With that statement he was gone, leaving her to contemplate her next move and how she was going to handle them the next day.
