Ayla was sitting at a picnic table by herself, drinking Lemonade made by one of the little girls at the stand. She didn't know why Carol forced her to go to this every year. She was barely even a Lockwood. She knew that Carol didn't consider her a Lockwood, and to be honest, she didn't consider herself a Lockwood either. But in hopes of somehow not arguing with her step-mother she showed up to put on a good face as the daughter of a founding family and of the late mayor.

"Ayla, right?" She recognized the pretty boy as Damon's younger brother and she wondered why exactly he had come to speak with her, especially after both Mason and her declared his brother an enemy just the previous night.

"And you are Stefan Salvatore."

"The nice one." He joked.

"I think anyone can be considered nicer than your brother, he's a bit of an asshole."

"Tell me about it." He smiled at her, Mason walked over to her and sat down at the table right next to her, eyeing Stefan with a suspicious look. She knew that he didn't trust either of the Salvatore's and neither did she. "Mason. I wanted to offer you both an apology."

"We're not interested." The oldest werewolf stated.

"Look, my brother acted impulsively."

"You think?" Mason said with a scoff.

"Yeah, like I said... he's a bit of an asshole." Ayla muttered before taking another sip of her lemonade.

"If you and Damon keep at each other's throats, somebody innocent is going to get hurt, and I don't want that." He spoke directly to Mason. "You have family here, so I can't imagine you'd want that, either. So what do you say we just quit the whole alpha male fighting thing and just call it a truce."

"I made that same offer to your brother. He turned it down. With a knife."

"He made a mistake."

"No." Ayla scoffed at the pretty vampire. "Stabbing someone in the stomach is not a mistake."

"I'm here to make sure that neither one of you make another one."

"Tell your brother to watch his back." Mason told Stefan, getting up from the table and moving to unload the truck, but he didn't get far when Stefan stopped him by grabbing onto his shoulder. At the sight of the vampire touching her uncle, Ayla stood up from the table, ready to fight for him if need be.

"Well, I'm guessing that he only has to worry about that during a full moon. Otherwise you're not as strong. Am I right? Or you would have killed Damon by now. There's two of you, who need a full moon. There's two of us who don't. I think you're the one who needs to watch his back." Ayla heard the threat in his voice, and immediately did something she regretted; showing her hand to someone who she didn't know nor trust. But she couldn't control it and she clenched her fist. Stefan started holding his head, gasping and groaning in pain as he nearly fell to the ground.

"Ayla." Mason warned causing her to unclench her fist. Stefan let out a sigh of relief and gripped the picnic table with his hand, splintering the wood.

"You're part witch." He was stunned, still trying to control his breathing. "How is that possible?"

"Just lucky, I guess." She stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"If he comes at me or her, next time I won't stop her from-"

"He won't." Stefan interrupted, putting his hand out. Mason just nodded, shaking his hand in an unspoken truce before walking away from the two teenagers.

"You try to control your brother. I'll try to control my uncle." He nodded at her and pushed himself away from the table. "Stefan... if one of you come at me or my family again, I will make your blood boil so hot that it melts your insides and then I will tear your throat out with my teeth."

She was just leaving the picnic when she saw Elena by herself getting out of her car a few feet away. Ayla took a deep breath, trying to work up the courage to speak with the girl that she once considered a close friend. Her body was walking slowly towards Elena, but her mind was moving a mile a minute, trying to figure out what to say to her.

"Elena..." Ayla started. Elena's face fell at the sight of the short brunette standing in front of her. "Can we talk for a second?"

"Please, Ayla. Just don't, okay?" Elena's voice was soft, but riddled with emotion. Ayla's eyes teared up as she heard Elena start to speak again. "I know that the accident wasn't anyone's fault. But I just- I can't be friends with you. I can't talk and act like it never happened. My parents are dead and being with you, seeing you... it's just a reminder of what happened to them. It hurts too much. So just stay away from me and from Jeremy, okay? Just leave us both alone."

"Of course, right." Ayla nodded and sniffled, trying to speak and stay strong through her tears. "I totally understand. I-um, I'm sorry." Ayla gave her a solemn smile before blinking the tears away and turning away from her old friend. "I'm sorry."

Ayla went back to the Lockwood Estate. She sat in her bedroom, looking at her mother's grimoire. She looked at the easier spells in front of her, making fire appear on her fingertips. She frowned, feeling shame for doing magic. Since triggering her curse, she had stopped using her magic and learning spells, feeling as though she was betraying her mother who had always said that magic was natural and pure. But she was neither of those things anymore. She was cursed now, and she felt as if her curse went against nature. So the years she spent practicing and teaching herself magic using her mother's grimoires had been halted.

She heard laughing down the hall and looked out her bedroom door, seeing Tyler and Jeremy drinking with Sarah and Amy. She focused her hearing, not wanting to eavesdrop, but also really wanting to eavesdrop. She heard a loud grunt and a large bang, almost as if someone was slammed up against the wall. She immediately stood up and walked over to her dad's office, seeing Tyler holding Jeremy by the throat.

"What are those pictures about, huh?" Tyler spat.

"I-I can't breathe." Jeremy gasped out.

"Tyler! Tyler, stop!" She yelled at her brother, forcefully pushing him off of Jeremy. She stood in between the two boys, with her arms stopping them from getting any closer to each other.

"Answer me! Why? Why wolf pictures?"

"Because..." Jeremy tried to catch his breath, looking at him before looking to Ayla. "Because, I know."

"You know what? You know what, Jeremy?" Tyler yelled at him.

"I know what you are. I know what you both are."

"You don't know anything, Jeremy." She told him, about to walk away. Not wanting to entertain this conversation.

"You're a werewolf." Jeremy said. She looked down at the ground, worriedly. She didn't want anyone else to know, especially not Jeremy. It put not only her life at risk, but it could potentially put his at risk too.

"How do you know about all this?" Tyler asked him.

"My uncle John left this old diary lying around. It was written by a crazy Gilbert ancestor who wrote about this curse that ran in your family."

"A curse about what?"

"Werewolves." He scoffed. "It's crazy, right? But then, Matt was attacked by a wolf under a full moon, and you and your uncle had just gotten back to town. It was just... it was too weird. Is it true?"

"About my uncle? Yeah. About me?" Tyler spoke up. "No."

"And you are?" Jeremy looked at Ayla.

"It was not a wolf that attacked Matt." She spat. "I did not attack him. And Mason did not attack him either."

"Matt said it was an animal attack. It was on a full moon."

"Well, Matt needs to start taking vervain." She told him with tears in her eyes. "We did not hurt Matt. I do not hurt people."

"This all sounds insane." Tyler told Jeremy.

"No, I don't think so. But then again, I always did believe in the crazy stuff." He looked at Ayla, putting his hand on her back. She felt the curiosity, the exhilaration that rolled off of him in waves. It made her move away from him immediately, not wanting to be anywhere near him.

"According to my uncle, you have to trigger the curse. Somebody has to die at your hands. Like murder, or an accident."

"A car accident?" Jeremy gasped in realization, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Ayla again. "My parent's accident."

"Yeah, that's what triggered her curse."

"Why are you doing this?" Ayla asked him with a rough voice. "Why are you here?"

"Why are you? Why is your uncle? To tell Tyler about all of this?"

"Yeah, right." He scoffed. "Ayla, she's still here because she wants to protect me. But my uncle Mason..." Tyler pulled the moonstone out of his pocket, showing the both of them. "I think he's here for this."

"What is it?" Jeremy held it in his hand.

"It's a moonstone. I looked it up online." Tyler started. "It's a natural rock, but they're supposed to have all sorts of supernatural legends to them."

"Can I see it?" Ayla spoke up, taking the rock in her hand as Jeremy handed it over to her. She gasped out a breath, seeing the man with the amber eyes and the vampire teeth. She felt the energy billowing off of the rock and she knew it was dangerous. She saw the blood drip down onto her arm before she felt it.

"You're bleeding, Ayla." Jeremy moved towards her, wanting to wipe the blood away from her nose.

"I'm fine." She pulled away from him, putting the rock on the table, not wanting to feel it anymore. Jeremy looked at her with a worried glance. "Why didn't you give it to Mason?" She asked Tyler, wiping her bloody nose.

"'Cause he wants it." Tyler chuckled, causing Jeremy to smile. "I'm a dick that way. It's important to him for some reason, but I don't trust the guy. So, I'm not just gonna hand it to him."

"Found you." Ayla rolled her eyes at the girls, especially Sarah who rubbed her hand up against Jeremy's back. Jeremy looked over to her, sensing her uneasiness or her jealousy. Ayla just walked out of the room and went back to her bedroom. She picked up her drawing pad and looked at the drawings she had done over the last few weeks. Her finger traced the picture of the man as she stared into the amber eyes, almost feeling like they were staring back at her.

She didn't know how long she was asleep for, all she knew is that when she woke up she heard screaming and thumping from the stairs. Ayla rushed out of her bedroom, pushing her hair out of her face, only to be met with her brother standing at the top of the stairs with a worried expression while one of the girls laid unmoving at the bottom of them.

"What did you do? What did you do, Tyler?!" She yelled at him, running down the stairs to the body on the ground. "Oh, no, no, no." She listened for a pulse, a heartbeat, a breath. Anything. She looked to see Tyler standing above them with tears in his eyes before she heard the gasp of breath and a laugh.

"Fooled you!" The girl laughed, pointing to Tyler. "You pushed me down the stairs."

"Bitch." Ayla scoffed at the girl who just continued to drunkenly smile. Ayla was genuinely scared for her brother and thought that he had just triggered his curse. She pushed herself off of the ground and moved back up the stairs. "Maybe it's time for your friends to go home now, Tyler." She yelled walking quickly into her room. Her anger got the better of her as she clenched her fist, her bedroom door slamming behind her without even touching it. She looked back at it, trying to take deep breaths before her anger and powers consumed her.

Days had passed and Ayla thought that everything was working out better than she had thought. Her brother had stopped questioning her about the curse, her uncle seemed to be staying out of trouble, and she found herself steering away from the vampire drama. So when she woke up late to the loud sounds of decorating for the Masquerade Ball, she had almost felt excited.

But that excitement slowly faded when she saw her step-mother looking at her with contempt.

"Ah, Ayla. You're finally awake. Living in my house and yet you still somehow manage to be late."

"Sorry, Carol." She muttered, looking down at the ground.

"Go help Tyler and Matt set up some decorations. And please remember to dress appropriately tonight, okay, sweetheart?"

"Of course." She gave her a fake smile before walking away, muttering something about 'bitchy evil step-mother' under her breath.

"Ah, you're practically Cinderella." Stefan told her as he walked up to her.

"Unloved teenager going to a ball." She rolled her eyes. "All I need now is a fairy god mother who grants my every wish, some glass slippers, and a prince charming."

"Just, make sure you're home before midnight or else you'll turn into a wolf."

"Oh, the nice brother has jokes." She turned away from him with, an amused glint in her eyes.

"The nice brother was also almost killed yesterday." Stefan told her quietly. "Along with the mean brother, because niece werewolf didn't control uncle werewolf."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your uncle outed us to Sheriff Forbes." Ayla looked down to the ground. "People are dead because of you and your uncle."

"I didn't know." She felt tears pooling in her eyes. "I thought everything was okay. I didn't want that to happen. Is Sheriff Forbes okay? Oh my God, Caroline..."

"They're both fine." Stefan whispered. "A few deputies were killed. They shot me and my brother with wooden bullets, vervained us. Caroline is actually the one who saved us."

"I swear I had no idea, Stefan." She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"Jeremy told Damon how you turned. The accident." She looked up at him with a clenched jaw. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"Yeah, well. I didn't die, though it probably would have just been better if I had. I'm more sorry that their parents died. I never wanted any of this to happen."

"I know that. So does Elena." He cleared his throat. "And Jeremy."

"Yeah." She wiped at her eyes, turning away from him. "Evil step-mother will be pissed if I don't help set up for this stupid party. So, see ya later."

Ayla moved away from him quickly and walked away from prying eyes and ears so she could reach out to her uncle, only it seemed he had chosen to ignore her call.

Ayla must have called him seven times and looked around the property for over an hour before she came to terms with the fact that he wasn't here. So when she finally saw her brother, she knew she had to question him about the whereabouts of their uncle. She needed to know what the hell was going through his head when he outed a bunch of vampires, who could kill them both with a snap of the neck, to a council of vampire haters.

"Have you seen Mason?" She asked Tyler quietly. "I can't find him anywhere."

"He left... he didn't tell you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"He texted my mom. Told her he headed back to Florida and couldn't bring you back with him this time."

"What? No, he wouldn't just leave me here."

"Don't worry. My mom, she's not gonna kick you out. I wouldn't let her. So you always have your place here."

"He just left?" She shook her head, not believing that for a second.

"That's what she said. Sorry. I know he helped you with the whole... curse thing."

"Yeah." She frowned in suspicion, walking away from her brother as she thought about how Mason had promised to take care of her. To protect her. "Yeah, he did."

Ayla tried to contact him several more times, but each time was another failure. She knew something bad happened to him. She could feel it in her bones. He would have never left her here alone in a town filled with vampires. So as she called one more time, his phone went to voicemail, indicating that it had either died or had been turned off. Ayla took a deep breath as she closed her eyes.

She saw a well, the moonstone, chains, and a bleeding heart.

And she felt in her gut that her uncle was most likely dead.