Ch. 10 – Let the Right One In 1x17

A/N: Edit: 12/20/2021

Alliana was spending time with Rebekah, but her mind was focused elsewhere. Alliana was not happy. Everywhere she turned, Tatia seemed to be there. Every time that she wanted to spend time with Elijah or Niklaus, Tatia would be with them. It was infuriating. They should be spending time with her, not her older twin sister. What made Tatia better than her? She was just as pretty as Tatia and their friend, but Elijah and Niklaus both would rather spend time with the older twin.

To make the situation worse, both are blissfully unaware that Tatia is playing them both. She started with winning Niklaus's affections quickly, but after a conversation during a feast over Loki the pig, Elijah seemed enraptured as well, even though he knew of his brother's feelings for the same girl. But, somehow, Tatia had them both attending to her every need, unaware of their brother doing the same. It would be ingenious if it was not so wrong.

As Alliana did her chores with Rebekah, she wondered about how to get the brothers back to spending more time with her but could not think of any ideas. At least not by herself. "Rebekah, what do you think of my sister?" Alliana asked.

Rebekah turned to her. "Why would you ask?"

"I am wondering why your brothers, Niklaus and Elijah are no longer spending time with me-, with us."

"I think she is awful. She is playing with both of my brothers and they do not even know."

With Rebekah on her side, she broached the topic, "How about we show them?"

"What do you mean?" Rebekah asked.

Alliana just smiled. "We show them," she said.

Alliana and Rebekah created a plan with a little help from Kol, and surprisingly, Finn. The plan was simple, get Tatia to reveal that she is playing with both of the brothers by having Alliana discuss them with her sister.

Alliana walked into the marketplace and saw Tatia. She looked away and waited for her twin to see her. It did not take long.

Tatia called over for her. "Alliana!"

Alliana looked over to see Tatia. She walked over slowly. "Hello, sister," she said politely.

"It is very nice to see you," Tatia said. Alliana noticed Elijah behind Tatia and Niklaus not too far behind either. That was their siblings doing. Kol and Rebekah placed the fueding brothers just far away enough to not notice the other, but able to see and hear Tatia and herself interacting.

"Yes, it is. I'm surprised you wished to speak with me. It's been years, sister. And I have not been able to speak with you as someone always seems to be with you."

"I don't know why that would be," Tatia said. Alliana spotted Elijah move slightly closer, listening to their conversation. Niklaus also moved closer, but into a place where Elijah could not see him. Alliana smirked. Her plan was working perfectly.

"The word around the town is that you are holding a certain son of Mikael's interest. You must tell me about him. I am quite close with the family. I can be sure to tell them all about your winning attributes," Alliana smiled winsomely.

"The children of Mikael have been very welcoming to me."

"And your child? I imagine."

Tatia grimaced at the reminder, "Yes, especially to her."

"Yes, whatever happened to her father?"

"You mean my husband?" Tatia interjected quickly.

"Yes…husband," Alliana commented, her voiced filled with sarcastic undertones.

"He died… in a battle in our village."

"I imagine that must have been tough."

"Yes, but the people of this village have been so caring to us that it makes the grieving process so much easier."

"Niklaus is very caring. The word in this village is that you have his attention."

"That… is correct. We have been spending some time together." Niklaus's face brightens from behind Tatia, Elijah's face turns stormy. Tatia starts to turn to focus on the village market.

Before the older twin could fully turn away from the conversation, Alliana interjected. "Except, you also seem to be spending a lot of time with Elijah" Niklaus' face took on a confused expression, while Elijah's looked both smug and guilty. "I only mention this because he is a dear friend of mine."

"He is a dear friend of mine as well," Tatia giggled, displaying what she meant by friend with her tone.

"Yes, but what will you do?" Alliana asks quietly.

"What ever do you mean?"

"I have heard talk about them courting you for marriage. You do know that you cannot have them both."

Tatia smiled. "But why would I only choose one, when I can have both?" Niklaus and Elijah's faces both became serious, then furious.

"Dear sister, you know if you continue down this path again something unfortunate would happen. You have already had one child and had been disgraced," Alliana said. Tatia's face fell. Alliana continued, her voice took on a sickly-sweet tone. "That is why you had to leave your last village. We would not want that to happen again, now would we?" She smiled. Tatia's face turned furious as Alliana giggled. Elijah and Niklaus both stormed away. Tatia turned just in time to see them storm away furiously. She tried to run after them, but they went in opposite directions, so she could not.

Alliana smiled. Now Niklaus and Elijah would have to be with her instead of Tatia. Everything went perfectly.

Grams' funeral was a few days later. It was a touching, but somber event. So many people came to honor Sheila Bennett; her students, the Bennett family members, and many people from Mystic Falls, even though they thought she was crazy. But Grams was respected and loved by so many, and I am sure she would have been happy to see everyone.

After the funeral, I go straight home. Elena finds me in my room, searching for my suitcase. "What are you doing," she asks.

I turn to her for a second, but then went back to my small suitcase. "I'm packing. Bonnie invited me to join her when she leaves to visit her family." I start packing shirts, planning comfortable outfits in my mind. I can't bother to try to look nice in the next few days.

"But why?" Elena asks. She walks over to me. "I mean…I know you were close to Grams but why are you leaving? We need you here."

I stop and turn to face her, and my frustration rises up. This is her fault. "You don't get it Elena." I turn back to my packing to try to distract myself. I can't deal with the mess of my emotions. "I knew something like this would happen. I told them it was too dangerous. They were not strong enough to handle that spell." I stop. "But you don't care about that, do you?" I can feel tears welling up in my eyes, but I am too frustrated to even care. "You traded Grams' life for a vampire's." I turn to her, "You traded the life of a wonderful, loving woman who treated us like family for the life of a selfish female vampire who tricked your boyfriend and his brother into loving her so that she could turn them and they could be in an eternal threesome. Grams' loved us as if we were her own granddaughters. She has known us our entire lives and she cared for us after our parents died." I can feel the tears rushing down my face, but I no longer care, because of how angry and emotional I am. "She is dead, because you wanted to give a vampire who almost killed me the supposed love of his life. There were other options Elena! But you chose this one and now Grams is gone because of you! You wanted to give Katherine to Damon and now Grams is dead!" I turn back to my packing. I throw the last bit of my clothes into my suitcase and zip it quickly. "So, I'm leaving, because I can't bother to deal with you and your drama right now."

I see the tears running down Elena's face and a pang of guilt run through me. I know it is not Elena's fault, but I need someone to blame other than myself. I know it's my fault. I run to my bathroom and grab my packed toiletries. As I leave, I grab my phone, its charger, my wallet, and my suitcase. I am about to leave when I turn back and see Elena sitting on my bed. "Jenna already knows I'm leaving, so you just have to tell Jeremy. I will see you in a few days." Elena just silently nods. I hear a knock on the door, so with that I leave.

break

I am mostly responsible for keeping Bonnie from going completely insane from all the family time. As the last line with the powers of the Bennett clan, she is rather isolated from her less powerful and more normal family members. Plus, with Sheila being the town crazy lady and Abby being gone, Bonnie spent her time at my family events rather than her own. It was nice to spend time doing completely normal things because it kept my mind off of Grams' and my parents' deaths. Well, mostly. Afterall, I was with Grams's family. I could see her in a lot of their faces.

I speak with Caroline every day and she keeps me up with the social scene in Mystic Falls. Apparently, she and Matt are going okay, despite Matt's mom finding them in the middle of a make-out session. And Kelly Donovan just being a bit of a bitch in general during the bachelor auction. I mean, she loved Elena. Because everyone does. And that includes being rude to Caroline because she's the 'rebound girl'. Care and I spend a lot of time reminiscing about moments where Kelly has always been a bitch. Even when we were kids. Care is also the one to tell me about the awkward double date between her and Matt and Elena and Stefan. One that ends with Damon and Kelly making out.

I'm glad I missed that.

I get a few calls from Elena and Stefan, but I just let them go to voicemail for the first few days. I could not handle the supernatural drama of Mystic Falls. Unfortunately, Elena initial messages are her asking questions about Isobel, our birth mom. With the funeral, she was thinking about our parents and her curiosity led her to seeking out more information. Jenna apparently found some information using dad's patient records and Bing (gross) to discover our birthmother's name was Isobel Flemming, a cheerleader from Grove Hill. I decided to mend some bridges by sending her the information I had collected previously about our mom, having found plenty of information about her during the period when we weren't discussing the adoption elephant in the room. I had already connected her to her research in Duke and her husband, Alaric Saltzman, which made for some awkward history lessons on my part. Luckily or otherwise, I don't think he knew about it.

Jenna updates me with the fact that he might know now. It came up between them. It does make me a bit sad to realize, but Isobel and I have a couple important things in common. Smart, loves history to the point of being almost obsessed. I always knew I got it from my mom, but turns out I was only a little wrong. I mean, it was to a point that Jenna noticed and that's why she brought it up with him. She actually thinks that Mr. Saltzman and I could have a lot to talk about with her. But of course, pointing that out made things uncomfortable between them. And boy did that make me feel like crap. Here I am ruining my aunt's life even more. This time from a distance.

I also found the address for Trudie Peterson, the high school best friend and sent that to Elena. Maybe she will have more luck with contacting her in person than I did over the phone or email. That night Elena responds with the fact that Isobel is a vampire. She was turned by Damon and that she doesn't want us to find her. Well, screw her.

Luckily the Bennett's don't question why I throw myself even harder into supporting their family. And I go back to all calls from Stefan and Elena going to voicemail.

Stefan only calls a few times. He apologizes. For Gram's death. For not listening and going in the tomb. For all of Damon's actions. For Damon's existence in general. He actually begs for Damon's life in one message. But after that, he only calls to let me know that Alaric Saltzman came back from the dead. According to them, Isobel gave Mr. Saltzman a ring to protect him. I text him back to thank him for the information. At least it gives me something fun to do. I love research.

Elena's message try to stay positive. She talks about the double date and her need to feel normal and do human things.

But like usual, the supernatural comes up. After I spent a week with the Bennett's, Elena leaves me a final message.

The tomb vampires had been released.

My stomach drops listening. I can barely think. All that keeps repeating in my head is that this meant that Grams died for nothing.

I wish I could spend more time out of town, not involved. But I had to go back. I had to protect my family. What better way to honor Gram's memory than killing the people who got her killed?

But just as I think that I remember Grams's last words to me. Strong. Powerful. Special. Beautiful.

And I just want to scream. Why isn't she here? Why did this have to be for nothing?!

I can't do anything to bring her back.

But at least I can kill some vampires.

It's pouring rain when I get back to my house. There is a huge storm going on, which I know means trouble. If 25 vampires were recently let out of tomb that they were stuck in for 145 years and it was a rainy day without a single beam of sunlight for hours, there is going to be chaos and deaths. This is going to be loads of fun…

I walk into my house and immediately see Damon and Elena. Whoopee. "Is Stefan here?" I hear Damon ask as I walk in. Oh, what is going on here?

"No," I hear Elena reply.

"No, but I am here," I say. They both turn to me. Looking a little bit close and kind of distracted. From what I've heard from people, Damon has spent most of his time drinking the Grille bar dry. And apparently hooking up with Kelly, flirting with Jenna, and bragging about having Isobel. New levels of grossness from the elder Salvatore, but also some humbling desperation. I'll believe it when I see it. But I get back to the problem at hand. "Something wrong?"

Elena runs over and gives me a quick hug. I squeeze her quickly, I have missed her, but I let her go, so we can focus on the situation. "What happened?" I ask.

Damon nods at me. "Stefan went out the woods and didn't come back. I can't get him on his phone."

"Someone doesn't want to answer your call?" I say extremely sarcastically. "Shocker." Damon just rolls his eyes. Elena on the other hand immediately reached for her phone and started to call Stefan.

Damon turns to Elena "I figured he was here with you."

"It's going straight to voicemail," Elena responds. I can see her getting worried and that makes me a little bit anxious and more focused on the problem.

"Well, where could he be?" I ask.

Damon's face becomes darker. "You are not going to like what I am thinking."'

Damon was right. I did not like his plans. Note to self: Damon's plans are usually stupid. Don't follow them.

I am standing outside in a car in the pouring rain, in the middle of a forest with Elena and no protection as Damon walks up to a house filled with hungry, old vampires to try to get Stefan back. Seems the boys (meaning Damon) have pissed off the tomb vampires. And now they are looking for revenge for being stuck in the tomb and for killing one of theirs. So yeah, just asking for Stefan back is totally going to be successful.

I repeat; this plan is stupid and is not going to work.

I am proven correct when Damon runs back, soaking wet. Elena immediately runs out of the car with an umbrella to meet him. I roll my eyes but join them bringing another umbrella.

"They have him. I can't get in," I hear Damon say as I walk over. He and Elena are standing under Elena's umbrella. He is completely soaked. Haha, sucks. And he is wearing a leather jacket which cannot be comfortable wet. Double sucks. I pause for a second. Maybe I should feel bad for him. I mean the love of his life lied and abandoned- Nah. He's an ass who can fucking suck it. I will be civil when he proves that he is worth the effort.

"Why not?" Elena asks. Oh, so many potential reasons, the major one being tomb vampires being jealous of the fact they were in the tomb while these assholes weren't. Sorry Stefan. I knew this plan wasn't going to work.

"Because the woman who owns the house is compelled to not let me in," Damon answers. Of course. I roll my eyes.

"I can get in," Elena states.

Damon and I immediately both turn to Elena. "You're not going in," we both say. We turn to each other in surprise. Ew, I just said the same thing as Damon. What is happening to me? At least he is protecting Elena instead of trying to kill someone.

Elena tries to rush past us. "I'm going," she says. Wow, does the power of love make people completely suicidal? Damon and I both hold Elena back.

I grab Elena by the shoulders and make her look in my eyes. "None of us hold a chance of surviving long enough in that house to even make it to seeing Stefan, let alone saving him. Least of all you, Elena," I say. "You are not going in there."

Elena stops and faces Damon and me. "Why are they doing this? What do they want with him?"

I turn to Damon, let him answer that. He sighs before answering. "Revenge. They want revenge."

"What did you do while I was gone?" I ask, mostly to myself. They just sort of ignore me. Thanks guys.

"We gotta do something," Elena says.

"I know," Damon says as he looks back to the house. He turns back to face Elena and grabs her face in his hands. "Elena, I know." Um, what? His hands drop as he says, "But I don't know how to get him out."

A plan instantly forms in my mind. "I do," I say. They turn to me. "We are just going to need some backup."

We are at the school. I figured we could use some extra weapons and Alaric's help could not hurt. Man's got weapons and bonus, magical ring. We are waiting in the classroom when Damon suddenly walks out. Alaric must be here. I can hear their conversation.

"Well, don't you look…alive," I hear Damon's snarky voice say. I roll my eyes. Ugh, the drama of Mystic Falls.

"You can't hurt me," Alaric says.

"Oh, I can hurt you alright," Damon says. And I have had enough.

"Damon, stop threatening him. We here to ask for his help," I call out. I walk over and see they are both still. "Hi, Rick." I say. He gives me a weird look. Right, we're seeing each other since the reveal that his wife is my birth-mom. "Technically, you did say we could call you that on the first day." I groan to myself. Of course, I made this awkward. "Or not. That was a little weird… Anyways, we need your help."

We walk into the classroom and Mr. Saltzman sits down at his desk. Damon sits at the back of the classroom by the windows. I can imagine that is exactly where he would sit if he was some teenager in high school. Oh, that's a weird thought. I stand behind Elena with my arms crossed while she explains everything almost like a presentation. "Stefan's in the house. Damon's a vampire. He can't get in. We need you. I would go, but-"

"Your life is valuable," Damon interrupts. I roll my eyes. "Yours," I'm guessing he is referring to Alaric. "On the other hand."

I jump in at this point. "That's enough from you, Damon." He rolls his eyes at me. Whatever. I turn back to Alaric. "Don't listen to him." I look at Damon over my shoulder. "He is just mad that a seventeen-year-old girl came up with a better plan to save his brother." I turn back to Alaric. "Speaking of. The plan is that you are going to go into the house, try to get the owner to let Damon in. Then you two" pointing to the men in the room "will try to kill as many of the tomb vampires as possible. Try to distract them while I get Stefan. That's my main goal, but I will kill the vampires I come across. And when I say 'kill them' I do mean stake-to-the-heart-level kill. We don't need any more deaths in this town. Unfortunately, we may still be a man down as someone has to watch over Elena to make sure she doesn't leave the car and go all kamikaze." I finish looking at Elena pointedly. I turn back to Alaric. "I suggest bringing a lot of weapons of different kinds. I can give you a few of mine if needed."

I look down and notice his ring. I know this ring. "And definitely wear that. Where did you get it?" Now that I see it, I realize that it's Jonathan Gilbert's ring. He wrote about it in one of his journals. It protects the wearer from any form of death by supernatural causes. I can't believe I didn't put it together! Helpful magical ring, indeed.

"My wife, Isobel gave it to me," Alaric says. "Why do I need it? What about it?"

I shake my head and sigh, "Well, the Isobel part just brings up more questions that I don't believe we have the time for." Then I remember earlier. "Damon, didn't you kill him?"

Damon snarks, "Let me recap. He attacked me. I defended myself. He died. Then according to Stefan, your ring brought me back to life. Am I leaving anything out?"

"Yeah. The part where I try and kill you again," Alaric replies as he stands. "Only this time, I don't miss."

He starts to walk to Damon, but I step in. "Not the right time or place for this. You can duke it out later. And honestly, I would probably join you. But right now, we need you two to work together to save Stefan."

"I'm sorry, Emilia. But it is not my problem," Alaric replies. He did not just say that! Ugh, it's one of the lamest excuses. I get that this is dangerous, but he can't be killed from this, unlike the rest of us, so why should that matter. I can feel the frustration building up in me.

"That's a shame, because the woman in charge of the crowd can help you find your wife," Damon says as he stands.

"You're lying," Alaric replies.

"Am I?" Damon asks. He walks over to stand next to me. "Why don't you ask her yourself?" Alaric is silent, so Damon continues, "Coward." He starts to walk away. "C'mon, Elena and Ems." When did he get the right to call me that? Elena immediately follows Damon, but I hang around for an extra second to see Alaric fiddle with his ring.

We are just about to leave when we hear Alaric call, "Wait!" We turn around and Alaric takes a deep breath before he says, "I'll go."

Fuck yeah, Let's do this.

We stand around Alaric's desk as he pulls out some of his weapons. I stand in between Damon and Alaric to make they won't start fighting again. Elena is on the other side of Damon. I see some stakes, a few knives, and some tranquilizer darts. Not a bad selection. I'm sure this is not all he has, which is good. His stakes are a bit fancier than mine, but I have more different types of stakes. And that reminds me that we need to stop by the house so I could pick up my weapons.

"Teacher by day, vampire hunter by night," Damon says as he examines the weapons.

"I have you to thank for that," Alaric replies. Right the whole vampire wife disappearance thing. That did not make this situation awkward.

"What are these?" Elena asks, pointing to the tranquilizer darts.

Alaric explains, "Those are tranquilizer darts filled with vervain."

"Just get me in. I will get Stefan out," Damon says, still looking at the weapons.

I roll my eyes. "Getting in is only the beginning of the plan. You can't take all of them yourself," I point out.

"Well, I'll be a little stealthier than that, hopefully," Damon replies.

"Hopefully is the operative word in that sentence," I reply dryly. I see Elena smile at that and hear Alaric softly chuckle. I then see Elena grab one of the darts.

I stop her with my hand, "Whoa, what do you think you are doing?"

"I'm coming with you," she replies.

"No. no. no. no. No way," Damon says. I have to agree with him on that.

"You need me. I'll get in. You could distract them and I'll get Stefan out," Elena says.

"Nope. That's my job," I dispute.

Damon focuses on my sister, "You are not going in there. You will get yourself killed."

"I'm going," Elena states. Oh my god, let it go, Elena. We have a plan, just listen to me.

Damon ignores her and turns to Alaric. "So when you get me in, get out as quickly as you can. I know how to sneak around where they can't hear me. You'll basically just be in the way."

"Damon, this is not the time to be the Lone Ranger," I say. "Elena, you are driving the car. It is the safest place for you. You are not going in the house."

"You can't stop me. It's Stefan we are talking about here. You don't understand," Elena says to me and to Damon I see. I roll my eyes. I may not have experienced the deep love that Elena and Stefan apparently share, but that does not mean I have not done stupid things in the name of love, or what I thought it was. This kind of shit doesn't make you special, especially when we are stupid teenagers with all kinds of hormones and a not-fully-developed brain.

I am about to start ranting to her about when Damon answers first, "Oh, I understand. I understand. He's the reason you live. His love lifts you up where you belong. I get it."

I just roll my eyes again. "Focus, Damon! Can you not joke around for 2 seconds? I am here to save the life of your brother. The only person who is keeping me from killing you, right now. There are a bunch of weapons in front of me and you know I could do it. I also have motive, you threatened to turn me into a vampire by shoving your blood down my throat for a fucking book. You turned my birth mom. Your selfish goal of opening the tomb, lead to the release of 27 vampires who are now holding your brother hostage. The same goal also led to the death of a woman who I considered family, so I am not in the mood for your jokes. What I need from you right now is to focus on saving your brother, who would get pissed at me if I killed you, so don't give me any more reason to." He looks down, so I turn to Elena. "You are not going. I can't protect you. I don't know how many vampires are in there." I snap my fingers. "That is how long it takes for you to get your neck snapped. Now I will last longer because I have training and experience. You have absolutely none of either, so you are dead instantly. This plan needs to work, and it needs to happen fast. We cannot be worried about your safety. Or this will be a bloodbath none of us walk away from." Elena looks down and I can see my words have made some impact. I can only hope that it is enough. I swear I usually just try to monologue internally, but what can you do with these idiots in charge.

Damon softly says, "We get it. We do." I can feel him thinking about Katherine, but this is not the time for that.

Alaric suddenly speaks up, "If we are going to go, we should go now."

I nod, "We just have to make one quick stop at our house, so I can get some more weapons." Damon and Alaric nod. Elena remains silent. "Let's go."

The plan was going well from what I could see. I am stuck hiding in the woods, in the pouring rain. I need to see that the vampires are sufficiently distracted before I can make my move, but I can't be close enough for the vampires to sense me. So, rain. I sneak around the back in time to see Damon going into the house. I just wish he did not have to kill that woman. Of course, by doing that he messes things up as now Alaric has to come out to hide the body, which means Damon is alone in the house. He is going to get himself killed.

I help Alaric drag the body further into the woods. He has the arms, while I have the legs.

"Hey, Mr. Saltzman?" I ask.

Alaric grunts out, "What?" as he shifts the body.

"Real quick, have you graded our latest test yet?"

Alaric pauses in a stupor, "Are you seriously asking me about this now?"

I shrug and we throw the body to the side. I take a breath before I answer, "Seemed as good a time as any."

Alaric leans with his hand on his knees for a beat. "Yeah, I graded them."

I perk up, "Did I get an A?"

Alaric looks over to me, "What do you think?"

"Oh, I'm sure I've got an A, but I really want you to confirm it."

Alaric sighs, "Yeah, you got an A."

I cheer.

Alaric starts mumbling to himself, "Misses two weeks of classes and still manages to get the best grade in the class."

But since I totally overheard that, I exclaim, "I got the best grade! Awesome!" as we start jogging back to the car.

Alaric chuckles breathlessly, "You are an odd person, Emilia."

"Yeah, but soon, I'll be your favorite student. I can just tell."

Alaric just shakes his head and we remain silent as the car comes in sight.

Alaric goes for weapons. I go to check up on Elena and tell her what is going on. When we get there, we find an open bag in an empty car.

"Damn it, Elena," I hear Alaric say. My thoughts exactly.

"Go help Damon. I've got the lovebirds," I command. He nods, grabs the last bag of weapons, and runs off. I run off a second later. I run to the front of the house, where the entrance to the cellar is. I scouted the perimeter of this place when I was hiding in the woods earlier. I hear the crash of glass breaking as soon as I enter the cellar. Elena could not have gone far, then. I run further to find her peeking down a hallway. There must be a guard there, because there has not been one up to this point. I approach her slowly. There is no way to do this and not scare her, because her body is on alert, running on adrenaline.

I give up and just reach gently for her hand. She jumps away, but I pull her into me and cover her mouth with my other hand. She notices that it's me and relaxes slightly.

I motion for her to be silent and she nods. I question her with my eyes, almost as if I were saying, 'What the hell do you think you are doing here?' She looks at me apologetically and gives me a look that says, 'It's Stefan. I have to do something.' I roll my eyes and motion for her to get behind me. Too late to get her out now. I just hope that if this goes wrong, it goes wrong in a way that allows for Elena to learn something from this.

The light that illuminates the guard flickers. I think he notices me, which makes him stand up from his seat in the corner. I pull one of my longer, heavier stakes, meant for launching, from my coat and aim straight for his heart. He stalks closer and I throw. Bullseye, and he is down. Thank god, that worked. It's been far too long since I tried throwing weapons. As soon as this vampire hits the floor, another one appears by him. Elena peeks around me and I grab another stake. I am about to attack him, when he turns around and I see that it is Damon.

He looks over my shoulder and sees Elena. He gives me a look that says, 'Really?' I shrug in response. He turns to Elena, and asks her, "Are you insane?" I roll my eyes and keep walking. I step over that vampire's dead body and grab the stake. I creep further and notice the door. He had to have been guarding something, hopefully, it's Stefan. I open the door and see two vampires. One sitting in a chair and one very familiar one hanging from ropes attached to the ceiling. The one sitting in a chair looks tied up, so I let Elena in. Damon and I follow.

Stefan looks up to see Elena walking toward him. "Elena?" he asks. She walks over and immediately starts looking over his wounds. "You shouldn't be here," Stefan says. From what I can see, they started to torture him a bit. I'm guessing some knife wounds. I would think vervain was in them, because he hasn't healed, but he also has not fed in a while which could be impacting the healing factor.

"She was supposed to stay in the car," Damon says as he saunters in. He turns to face the vampire in the chair. He flips the stake in his hand and is about to lunge and kill him when Stefan stops him.

"No. No. No. Not him," Stefan interrupts. Yeah, does Damon not notice the ropes and the bloody stake in his leg?

Damon just turns and says, "Whatever. Let's get you down." I notice the burns on Stefan hands, and I am about to stop Damon when he grabs the ropes. I can hear the singeing of his hands and his reaction.

I sigh sarcastically, "Oh, if only there was someone who noticed the vervain on the ropes and could've stopped you." Damon glares but I ignore him and walk over and grab the ropes, "I got it." Damon catches Stefan as he falls and then leans him against the column. Elena goes and unties his hands, while Damon grabs Stefan's clothes.

"All right, let's go. Clothes on," Damon says.

Elena is trying to fully untie Stefan, but he is struggling to do something. He says, "Wait." And I notice that he is trying to reach for the stake in the sitting vampire's leg. I go over and remove it.

"I've got him. Go. Elena, get him out of here," I say. Elena drags Stefan away and they walk out, followed by Damon.

"Can you get him to the car?" Damon asks Elena. He nods to me as he walks out. I can hear their conversation as they walk down the hallway. I hear Elena reply that she can get Stefan to the car.

"All right, go," Damon says.

"What about you?" Elena asks.

"You rescue, I'll distract. Go," he replies. Wow, he's actually following my plan. I'm guessing he goes through the door he entered from when Elena and I first encountered him here. Elena and Stefan probably go out the way she came in.

I turn back to the vampire still tied to the chair with what I can guess is vervain-laced ropes. "What is your name?" I ask him.

"Harper," he answers.

I nod. "Okay, Harper. When I release you, you need to get help. Find Pearl, I think her name is. She is the one in charge, right?" He nods. "Okay, find her and get her back here as soon as possible." He nods again. I nod and remove the stake in his other leg. I then release him from the ropes and help him stand. When he is stable on his feet, I release him.

"Thank you," he says.

"Go," I tell him, and he flashes off. I go back through the door Damon went through. Hopefully Harper will come back through. I also hope Alaric is up there helping Damon. I can't believe I am going to help Damon. I know I am actually helping Stefan and Elena escape, but still I have to make sure Damon is not killed. Surreal. At least he has been helpful and semi-successful in keeping Elena safe. Maybe he doesn't completely suck.

As I walk upstairs, I grab two regular stakes from my coat. I am glad that it is cold and rainy. It makes it okay to wear this coat. It is this black pleather trench coat that goes down to my knees. It is waterproof, warm, but flexible, so I can fight in it. It also comes with a lot of packets. I remade the interior of the coat to carry multiple stakes and many different types. Plus, I feel like a badass.

When I reach the top of the stairs, there are two vampires in the room. It is quiet and they are looking for something, I'm thinking us intruders, so someone must have noticed something is wrong. I take down the closer one quickly with a stake through his back to his heart. The other one turns and sees me with a stake through his buddy's heart. He runs towards me, but I push the dead vampire to him to distract him. The body hits the other vampire and pushes him off balance. I rush quickly to him and I stab him quickly in the heart. I grab the two stakes again.

I run to another room and find a female vampire looking around. She sees me and runs to me. I duck down to a squat and throw my leg out to trip her. It's an old trick but it's effective. She falls flat on her face. I flip her over and stab her in the heart.

The funny thing about vampires is that they have their weaknesses that I can exploit. Vampires have increased speed, strength, and heightened senses. They know this and can get really cocky when it comes to hunting humans. They underestimate us. They can run very fast, but usually only in straight lines and large turns. They don't really have a heightened agility. They don't expect obstacles to come quickly at them. Majority of the time, vampires fight with very crude technique, because they assume that they have the upper hand. They are the predator, hunting/scaring the prey. Lots of fast appearances and displays of brute strength. But if a human can use this strength against them well, then the human can gain the upper hand long enough to stake them.

But it's risky and I always have to be ready in case a vampire is actually thinking smart, because I would lose my small advantage very quickly.

I find Damon in a long hallway fighting off two vampires at once. He is holding his own, but I don't think he will last for too much longer. I call out to him, leaning against a door frame, "Hey, Damon." The vampires pause for a second. I try to look as calm as possible. "I'm offended. You haven't invited me to join the party." I can see him smirk. Then one of the vampires rushes to me. I use the momentum of the vampire to flip him over me. I go to stake him, when he flips over and grabs me, so I fall onto him. I can feel his hands roaming over me for a quick second as I struggle. I lose my stake, so I quickly grab a smaller, lighter stake and shove it into his heart. His grip of me loosens as he dies and I say, "Sorry, honey. I'm just not into you like that." I hear shots behind me. I turn to see Alaric with a shotgun pointed at a fallen vampire in front of Damon. I shake off the feeling of that vampire's roaming hands on my body. Got more to kill.

"I'm going after Fredrick," I hear Damon say. He walks off, looking for him.

Alaric and I move to follow him, but Alaric is attacked by another vampire. They tussle for a bit, smashing everything around them. I would help but they are spinning and moving a bit too fast to get a clear shot at the vampire. I don't want to hurt Alaric instead. They fall to the ground and the vampire has his hands on Alaric neck when Alaric stabs him with a tranq dart. The vampire falls from on top of Alaric, who stands up rubbing his neck. I get down and kill the vampire. I don't want to take any chances.

Damon comes back in and says, "Fredrick's gone." That can't be good.

"Let's get out of here," Alaric says.

"I'm gonna kill him," Damon says. We follow behind him. I can't disagree with him on that. Fredrick seems like a dick (if he is who I think he is). We walk out of the door and are about to leave, when we stop on the edge of the porch. They are at least 6 vampires walking towards us. Damon turns to Alaric and asks, "How many of those vervain darts do you have left?"

"One," he replies.

"That's not gonna be enough," I reply. I look inside my coat. "I've got a handgun filled with wooden bullets and two vervain grenades, but I prefer not to use them." They both look to me at the left end of the group in surprise. Damon and Alaric turn to each other. I can see Alaric mouth the word grenades. "They are hard to make and loud so I would rather just get out of here." I walk back in the house and Damon and Alaric follow. We get in and lock the door quickly. There is pounding on the door, so I hand Alaric a thicker stake that is good for stabbing multiple vampires. I give Damon a regular stake because I'm sure he will lose it. I grab a miniature crossbow formatted for pencil-sized stakes. They both look at me again. "Hey, they are my weapons. I get to have the coolest one." They shrug and go back to the threat at hand.

"So, what you said to get me to do this, about my wife. It was a lie, wasn't it?" Alaric asks.

"Yep," Damon replies. I can feel the bromance forming for some reason. The line from Shakespeare's King Lear, 'for whoever sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother' feels very accurate right now. Two guys who drink way too much at the Grille bar is just as good a basis of a friendship as this is and they have that in common.

We hear a few more thuds on the door and then a female voice shouts, "Stop. What's going on here?" I think this must be Pearl. Thank you, Harper for pulling through on the help front. The door creaks open and we all tense, preparing to fight again. Anna and another woman enter, who must be Pearl. She looks a lot better not desiccated. I remember reading about her in my ancestor's journal; he had a huge crush on her and was so upset when he found out she was a vampire. He was right, she is very pretty. She looks around and sees the vampires that we killed. I make only a few apologies. "What did you do?" She asks Damon.

"Me?" he replies. "Your merry little band of vampires spent the day torturing my brother." He walks up to her.

I can see the guilt on her face. "Trust me. The parties responsible for this will be dealt with."

"Our little arrangement doesn't work unless you learn to control them," Damon says as he points a stake at her. I think she is stronger than you, Damon. I don't think threatening her much further would be a good idea.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Pearl replies.

"Well, it did," Damon says as he brushes past her to the front door. "If I had a good side…" He turns around to say. He points a finger at her, "Not a way to get on it." And with that he opens the door and leaves. Alaric and I follow after him silently.

We find Elena and Stefan by the car. I can tell something happened, but I am not really in the mood to ask questions. It was a tight fit in Damon's car, but we managed. I got dropped off at the house after we dropped off Alaric at school. I'm sure Elena wants to go spend more time with Stefan. I unload the weapons in my room and I start unpacking. I did not realize how uncomfortable I was until I reached my room. I take a shower and change into some dry clothes. I then get a call that instantly crushes me in guilt.

I rush quickly to Matt's house and I call Elena on the way there. They found Vicki's body. I always felt bad about how we left that situation. Elena let Damon compel Jeremy and we let him and Matt believe that she had run off. I was right about only delaying the inevitable.

Oh, not the time, brain.

I get to the house to find Sheriff Forbes in the living room. She must have been there to tell Kelly, Matt's mom that they found Vicki's grave. Kelly has tear tracks on her face. She has never been the best mom, but I still feel sorry for her. It can't be easy losing a child. I greet her with a warm hug, and I offer my condolences. She then sits back down on the couch. I greet Sheriff Forbes, but she looks away quickly. I follow Caroline into the kitchen, where I find Jeremy and Tyler sitting at the kitchen table. If this weren't such an awful situation then I would be shocked at the fact that Jeremy and Tyler were spending time together. Jeremy instantly gets up to hug me. I hold him tight feeling tears well up in my eyes. He has lost so much in his short life already. I wish I could take his pain from him, but I can't.

Jeremy sits back down and Caroline pulls me away.

She explains to me her night. She got caught driving in the storm and while looking for reception, she fell and slid into a ditch. The very ditch where the Salvatore's had apparently discarded Vicki's body. Which was unearthed by the storm.

I now see why the Sheriff avoided my gaze.

Caroline mentions to me that Matt is in his room. I move to sit down with him on his bed. He just looks so out of it. I pull him into my side and he hugs me back. Matt has always been one of my best friends. Even when he started dating my sister, we remained so close. He is so sweet and so dependable. I am so sorry that this happened to him. He was there through some of my worst times, so now all I can do is be here for him. I let lose a few tears for him, for his loss and his pain. But I can't allow any more than that.

We sit there for a while in silence, just being in each other's presence. I know other people would be arriving soon, so I release Matt. I give him a quick kiss on the cheek and whisper to him that I would be right back. I walk to the kitchen to start making some tea and food. There isn't much in the house, but I can at least make a nice warm soup for everyone, especially with the weather and mood being what it was.

Caroline walks towards Matt's room holding a cup of coffee. Oh lord, Caroline is going to be overbearing in the next few weeks. I mean I saw how she was with how she was to us in May. Matt is probably not going to react well to that and will push her away. Which sucks, because I know they really care for each other, and this is not the time to be pushing people away.

I start handing out some bowls of soup to Kelly and Jeremy and Tyler, when the doorbell rings. I open the door to find Elena, who must have rushed from the Boarding House and Stefan's side. I hug her quickly. At this moment, I forgive her for everything (for being stupid earlier and leaving the car, for being stupid and agreeing to open the tomb, for letting Damon compel Jeremy, etc.), because right now it can't be about us. We have to be here for Matt. I whisper to her that I'm sorry and I forgive her and I tell her where Matt is. She rushes past me to Matt's room.

I grab another bowl of soup for Caroline, because I know Matt is going to take comfort from Elena. I find Matt and Elena hugging, while I rush over to Caroline and hand her a bowl of soup. She looks at me gratefully, but she is still sad. We are both alike in how we always want to do something – anything – to help. But unfortunately for us both, there is not much we can do right now but offer support.

I look over to my inconsolable brother.

God, I wish I could do anything to help him right now.

A/N: Edits to quite a few scenes, especially the intro.

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