Mystic Falls Police Station
Old Forbes Jail Cells
October 29, 2010
Tyler was in near agony and he only just started his latest round of willing his body to shift for what would be the third time today. If he didn't already know that the man who wanted him to shift again and again was also immune to compulsion he might have tried, at least for tonight, to convince Caroline's dad to cut him a break. After all, it was Friday and his team was supposed to play a game tomorrow.
Breathing heavy, he lifted his head wearily and looked at the closed door. The viewing slat was open as he expected, and Bill Forbes was safely on the other side of the thick iron door.
"Mister Forbes, can we take a short break?" Tyler asked, trying his best not to sound too pleading. His father had beat that out of him when he was younger and at this point in his life, it was almost instinctual.
Although he wanted to smile at a minor concession, the door swung open and his mentor/couch stepped inside with two bottles of water and wordlessly handed him one before taking up a seat on the ground across from him.
"If this had been your first attempt today, I would have suggested otherwise, but with two successful shifts since you got here I think a small break is in order. I think fifteen minutes should do it," Bill started, not before he set the timer on his watch.
"Thank you, I guess the one good thing that has come out of me trying to break my stupid sire bond is that I can shift easier with each passing day. We started this on Monday and that day I could only get through one shift and that took hours. Now I can do it in roughly, what, forty-five minutes?" Tyler drained half the bottle down and poured the remainder over his sweat covered head.
"Mmm… more like forty-seven minutes, but you're right. You're shifting easier into your wolf form and the duration of doing so is getting smaller. How's the pain level?" Tyler would have laughed if he hadn't seen the look of honesty on the older man's face.
"Still hurts like a mother fuc- Uh sorry about that-" Tyler blushed when it registered that he was talking to his supposed girlfriend's father. But instead of snapping at him, his mentor just shook his head, chuckling softly.
"Don't worry about it after what you've put yourself through in the last week. I'm really glad I don't possess the lycanthrope gene like the Lockwood family does, no offense."
"None taken. I wish it was something I could really give up. I wouldn't wish this on any of my friends like your daughter, Matt, Bonnie, Jeremy, or Elena for that matter," Tyler sighed and, as if to emphasize his point, he lifted the chain hanging from the collar around his neck.
Bill didn't say anything at first. He took a long pull on his water bottle before looking up at Tyler's weary expression.
"Speaking of your friends, I noticed that Abby has come back from wherever she went almost fifteen years ago. In all honesty I didn't expect ever to see her again, let alone that fact that she'd come back with a teenage step son in tow. Is he going to be starting school or wait for next year?"
Tyler didn't know why but he felt like he was being quizzed all of a sudden and when it finally occurred to him, he bristled at the hidden meaning of what he was really asking.
"Mister Forbes, I know you are trying to help me break the sire bond, but I'm not been asked to spy on my friends." The look the older man gave him made him sigh and shake his head in silent agreement before he amended. "Alright Klaus has instructed me to be on the lookout for any sign of the possible whereabouts of Elena Gilbert and to report it immediately to him if I do."
"And let me guess the reason you can even tell me this would be that he never thought about ordering you not to deny that you are doing his bidding."
"For a thousand year immortal he sure forgot to close a blatant loophole, didn't he?" Tyler answered rhetorically as he reached for his cellphone but only remembered it was probably still with his clothing. "Um… could you find my phone in my clothes?"
After retrieving the item, Bill handed it to his protege and sat back down with a groan. Thanks to his enhanced senses, he could hear the increase in tempo in his mentor's heart rate.
"I'm really getting too old for sitting on the cold concrete floor, it seems."
"Are you alright?" Tyler couldn't help but ask as he looked through his text messages. As expected, Klaus was still texting his orders as of recently. Now that he was thinking about it, the last time he'd seen or even spoken to the Original Hybrid had been just about a week ago, and the abrupt change in behavior of his sire felt odd to him. The only thing Klaus had told him was that he might be out of cell phone contact as he tracked down an elusive werewolf pack somewhere in the southwestern part of the United States. Normally Klaus didn't tell him shit, so that was part of the reason he'd thought it odd. He considered bringing the issue up to Bill Forbes, but the older man looked at his watch just a second before the timer he'd previously set finally triggered.
"Come on, let's get back to work," Bill Forbes ordered before he added. "Considering that you have a game tomorrow, I assume you want to get yourself psyched up for it. Just be ready for us to pick up where we are leaving it this evening on Sunday right after church services."
There must have been something in his expression that made the older man shake his head in amusement. "I might be old but I was once a teenager myself, Tyler."
Gilbert Residence
October 29, 2010
Jeremy was severely tempted to just turn the stupid television off, but he knew if he missed something regarding his sister, he would hate himself afterwards. So he did the only thing he could do, yet it still felt like nothing had changed. The only thing that he had was the face of the reporter interviewing the town's Sheriff. To the ordinary citizen they must be wondering why in the last year Mystic Falls television station affiliate WPKW 9 has had a run of bad luck with two of the last three newscasters either disappear like Logan Fell or how his co newscaster Andie Star died from a supposedly tragic accident while working on the news set after regular business hours. Jeremy didn't know the entire story, but he knew enough.
"I have to admit she is a much better on screen personality than Logan Fell was, even on a good day," Anna observed humorously as Jeremy unmuted the television. He only nodded his head in acknowledgment of her, his attention was focused on the two people on screen.
"Sheriff Forbes, now that you have contacted the Virginia State Police earlier this week, are there any further plans to the possibility of an expanded search for Elena Gilbert? By perhaps contacting other state police agencies from our neighboring states or even bringing in the Federal Bureau of Investigation?" Megan Fell asked before extending her Mic to the waiting Sheriff.
"Not at this time. My department, as well as the State Police, are sufficient for now in our combined search for Miss Gilbert. On the off chance that she is out of state, we have faxed her picture to the various State Police departments in our neighboring states. As for the federal level, they will only directly involve themselves in a missing child case for cases twelve years and younger. The FBI, however, will help monitor if we can determine that her disappearance is the result of a kidnapping."
"What makes you think that her disappearance might not be the result of possible kidnapping?" Megan Fell asked.
"No corroborative evidence to think otherwise. We surmise that Miss Gilbert might have gone off on her own to think. My own daughter is a close friend to her and, from what I understand, Elena had been dealing with a lot of tragedies and had taken up running and hiking to clear her head. We did find her vehicle in the woods and there are several hiking trails that criss crossed the entire area."
"Tragedies?" Even Jeremy could see that the Sheriff wasn't too pleased with this probing of her daughter's friend's personal life, but Liz Forbes had warned him that the media would try to scrutinize things and since Megan Fell was a member of a founding family it was meant to redirect unwanted attention away from anything supernatural related.
"As you and many of your listeners are most likely aware, the Gilbert family has had more than their share of tragedies in the last two years alone. The accident that claimed Miranda and Grayson Gilbert when their car went off the Wickery Bridge," Liz was about to continue when the reporter added.
"If memory serves, Elena Gilbert was present in that accident and somehow survived, correct?"
"Yes Miss Fell, my department can only guess that perhaps she found some way to extract herself from the flooded interior and swam to the surface before passing out from exhaustion on the river embankment."
"Didn't Elena's Aunt Jenna Sommers and Uncle John Gilbert also pass away very recently from previously undiagnosed health issues?" Megan Fell pressed.
Whatever the Sheriff's response was, Jeremy had just about enough of people digging into his family's business. Besides, they weren't saying anything he didn't already know, thanks to Caroline's mother stopping by to pass on what she could regarding his sister's disappearance. Thankfully, the television network Megan Fell worked for hadn't come to his and Elena's home for an interview. Their competitor WYET 9 News were rather persistent; he wasn't even going to consider listening to their answering machine. Their competitor, not that they could actually state that an ex boyfriend who also happened to be a vampire was keeping his former girlfriend out of the clutches of an ancient vampire bent on harvesting her unique magical blood. In disgust Jeremy flicked off the television before he threw the remote at the far wall, breaking its black case open and dumping out its batteries.
"Jeremy, I know you're upset but there is nothing else they can really do and- I'm sorry I'm not really helping, am I?" Anna apologized. Jeremy reached out to touch her and while they did connect, he nor she could feel the sensation.
"I know Anna and I do appreciate you being here. Ric is off with Damon working on something they don't want to discuss just yet. Caroline is busy with her Miss Mystic Falls obligations and Bonnie is with her mother. It's just me here alone," he paused, looking ruefully at his ghost girlfriend. "Well, not exactly alone."
"What's Bonnie doing with her mom?"
"I don't know. They wouldn't talk about it other than to say it was witch business. Besides, I think Bonnie is still pissed at me," Jeremy groaned out before standing up and heading into the kitchen. Anna followed him and found him drinking milk straight from the carton.
"That's disgusting!"
Jeremy grinned, but out of deference to her, he returned the half empty milk carton back to the refrigerator. "Elena would probably agree with you, but since she is not here and Ric has been staying at his place lately, I'm not really worried about that right now."
"Sorry Jer, I didn't mean to remind you-" she started, but Jeremy silenced her by reaching out as if to touch her but stopped mid reach, obviously aware that she already knew that they couldn't feel each other's touch any longer.
"It's alright I'm just going through a lot lately it seems. Tyler is avoiding me since the whole getting me off vervain, then me nearly getting flattened by an SUV incident. Not to mention that I've tried getting my job back at the Grill, but I burned my bridges there with management. Despite Matt offering to stand up for me."
"What about Bonnie?" she asked carefully. She tried not to wince at seeing the grim expression he gave her.
"Still pissed with me, apparently. Bonnie hasn't forgiven me for not stopping myself from seeing you, Anna," he groaned, rubbing his face with both of his hands. If he hadn't inadvertently blocked his vision, he might have noticed that Anna's body had tensed up, but before she could warn him, an all too familiar voice of Elena's nemesis interrupted the brief silence.
"Nor will she if Bonnie hears that you're still talking to your dead vampire girlfriend, little Jeremy Gilbert!"
"Katherine?!" Anna utters loud enough for Jeremy's benefit, but it was the best she could do since she was still trying to understand why, of all the people, Katherine Pierce would have returned to Mystic Falls. The same place where the very man that had spent the last five centuries hunting her now resided.
Jeremy's eyes snapped open and he couldn't believe his own eyes. He had to blink them a few times to make sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him.
Katherine couldn't stop herself from smirking after hearing the one sided conversion Little Gilbert was having just inside his home. That would only mean that young Jeremy was still seeing Annabelle Zhu. Ah, young love. Such a weakness for a former vampire and hunter in training to have, she thought idly.
"Still pissed with me, apparently. Bonnie hasn't forgiven me for not stopping myself from seeing you, Anna," Jeremy groaned.
Some days she really loved being a vampire and how fast her kind could move. She found him standing in the Gilbert Kitchen, his hands covered by the sight of her and she could resist surprising the young kid.
"Nor will she if Bonnie hears that you're still talking to your dead vampire girlfriend, little Jeremy Gilbert!" she scoffed. Katherine smiled pleasantly at the brother of her dull as dishwater Doppelgänger. She managed not to laugh at his disbelief at seeing her after all. It was only a few weeks ago she forced him and the ghost of a former acquaintance to show her where the infamous Vampire Hunter was entombed. Too bad that plan didn't have much chance of success. She would never admit to anyone but Klaus had truly scared her that night and for once it wasn't for herself, it was ironically enough for the two Salvatore brothers.
"Katherine? What the hell are you doing here?" Jeremy demanded. She had to give the kid credit. It might have been from all the company his sister kept lately, but other than the slight increase in his heart tempo his demeanor hadn't changed. She'd have to keep an eye on this kid as he got older, he might be a real nuisance to her kind if he became a vampire hunter just like his would-be guardian.
"Ah little Gilbert, did you miss me? By the way, how's the head?" she asked with false concern, all the while pointedly ignoring his childish demand that she even bother explaining her presence in the Gilbert residence.
"I'll keep asking Katherine. What are you doing here?"
A part of Katherine was more than willing to keep this little game of wills going for as long as she could before becoming too bored. But she had a mission to complete with the bonus that she'd gain the freedom she'd so desperately craved for half a millennium and she wasn't going to mess this opportunity up. She was a survivor, and she always found a way to make it in this world, no matter the odds.
"Ah… what a shame then, you're no fun little Gilbert," she mock pouted before her expression turned serious. "If you must know, precious Elena's absence is seriously starting to cramp my lifestyle." Not waiting for him to demand that she elaborate on her previous statement, she added. "With your sister still missing, and now it's been made public knowledge. Do you have any idea how many times in the last week I had to pick? Do I compel or eat the next State Police Officer that crosses my path? Not to mention my least favorite Original Hybrid has all the hybrid minions crawling around looking for your sister. The safest place ironically enough is your annoying little town," Katherine drawled.
Standing near the kitchen island, she couldn't help recalling how she had made her presence known to the Mystic Falls Gang when she caught Elena's biological father by surprise. Isobel had stressed that John Gilbert remained alive.
"Still doesn't explain why you're in my house. Why don't you go keep Damon or Stefan company? The boarding house is more than big enough for the three of you."
Getting into the role she'd perfected ever since learning of Elena's existence from her birth mother, she put on her best Elena expression as well as how her inferior duplicate held herself.
"Jer, that wouldn't make sense, after recovering from a fugue state that left me stranded in a North Carolina State Park alone. Why else wouldn't I come home to be with my baby brother?" Katherine asked in her near perfect imitation of Elena Gilbert herself. She hid her own amusement when Jeremy started putting the pieces together, and the rush of blood that sent a vein throbbing in his neck made her gums ache. She needed to feed at some point.
"Are you out of your fucking mind!" he growled. "A fugue state? What do you think this is, Breaking Bad?"
Katherine did smile at the television reference, but didn't let it distract her from pressing her point. "Look, I'm not happy play-acting as your sister anymore than you are, but I'm trying to make the best of the current situation. It will help calm things down around here and once it has, I'll leave. Simple as that."
Jeremy made to speak, but stopped himself. He glanced off to the side, and it wasn't hard to guess that Anna was telling him something.
"What type of game are you playing, Katherine?"
"I've already told you, but if you want more, I can help you find where Stefan has hidden your sister and once she is found and Klaus has his human blood bag back, I'll leave believe me I want be anywhere than here in this one horse town. Elena Gilbert has all of you wrapped around her so much you can't even think straight."
"Won't Klaus come looking for Elena once he hears that she has supposedly come home on her own?"
Katherine shook her head in a chiding manner. "Jer, Jer, Jer, don't you think that after dodging Klaus, Don't you think I wouldn't have the means of keeping tabs on him. I know for a fact he is in Arizona right now, using the last remaining batch of Elena's Doppelgänger blood. He is busy trying to track down a reported werewolf pack living somewhere outside Fredonia in a bid to create some more hybrid minions. He'll be gone for a few weeks chasing down that pack. They are rather elusive from what I've heard."
Jeremy considered her explanation and nodded in growing understanding, but looked up when a thought occurred to him, or if she had to guess, Anna might have just pointed something out to him. "With all of his hybrids out of town, the only one here is Tyler. What happens when he reports that Elena has been found?"
"Have you ever been to Fredonia, Arizona?"
"No, why does that even matter?" Jeremy asked, confusion evident.
"They have some of the worst cell phone coverage in the country? They aren't in any hurry in trying to improve their infrastructure. It's part of the reason the Kaibab Werewolf pack likes it that way, so it works in our favor."
"I see, but I still don't know how you are going to fool the Salvatores, or Bonnie for that matter," he said, not liking the way the conversation was going. He'd grown desperate and a part of him wondered if she might be the one that finally helped them find his sister.
"Don't worry about them. I have my ways of dealing with them. Now run along, I need to change my hairstyle to match your sisters. Play along or else; and if you tell anyone about my little subterfuge little brother I'll rip one of little Elena's many friends' throats out, like Matt or Bonnie, so fair warning."
Not waiting for him to say otherwise, she did enjoy how his heart rate climbed when she mentioned maiming her Doppelgänger's friends. She headed upstairs to Elena's room and started digging through her Doppelgänger's pathetically bland clothing selection.
"God, you're so boring Elena Gilbert," she couldn't help muttering to herself when she finally settled on a pair of slim jeans and a somewhat nice top. She waited until she heard the front door slam and the sound of the car driving away before she reached for her phone.
KP: I'm in. I'll keep up my end of our bargain if you keep up yours.
KM: I always keep my promises Katerina. You should know this by now. You will have your freedom once you have helped me find my family and helped find my missing Doppelgänger.
KP: I'll do everything I can to find your family, but I don't have the slightest clue on where Elena Gilbert is being held.
KM: You evaded me for nearly half a millennium. Are you losing your touch in your advanced age?
KP: Very funny. I'll do what I can to find her. It might be tricky not to draw too much attention to myself. Neither brother trusts me at the moment. With that in mind, do you have the bracelet you offered to help mask my vampire nature?
KM: In that case, do what you can. Just find my family's whereabouts. My warlock in town will be delivering it shortly.
KP: Are you really in Fredonia, Arizona?
KM: Stay out of my business Katerina, this is your only warning. I'll be in touch. Remember, I have my ways of knowing what is going on when I'm not around. I'll be watching you. Don't betray me again.
KP: Duh!
She waited just long enough for him to respond before erasing her text conversation, then tucked her cell back into her pocket. Turning on the shower to her preferred temperature, she grimaced at her limited selection of shampoo and body wash just before stepping under the hot water stream. She needed to come up with an escape plan first and foremost, she decided as she ran her curly hair under the water.
"What an asshole," Katherine muttered. Then busied herself with planning how best to stage Elena Gilbert's return. God why did everyone fawn over her lesser Doppelgänger was beyond her. Rumor had it that even the unflappable Elijah Mikaelson was somehow taken back with her. The world just wasn't fair, she decided.
Old Witch House
October 29, 2010
Abby followed her daughter down into the basement of the same abandoned house Bonnie and Vampire Stefan Salvatore had told her about earlier in the week and only away from prying ears. She had to admit that it looked just about as decrepit as it was described to her, all the while trying to take her mind away from asking herself why she'd even agreed to come help her daughter. She'd thought about Bonnie and the life she had built in Mystic Falls almost constantly for the first five years she was absent. Now it was only on holidays or Bonnie's birthday that she allowed herself to think about everything she'd lost.
It didn't help that she still, rightfully so, blamed herself for losing her unborn son, but it had been the price she had to pay by performing that desiccation spell against the original hunter, although years ago. She clutched to her chest the only item she'd had the sense to grab from her home before fleeing into the night with the Vampire Hunter she'd only just recently learned was the progenitor of all the Original Vampires themselves.
They stepped into the room where Stefan, with the help of the dead witches, were still hiding the four coffins. Abby noted that three of them looked fairly new, but the style of the last seemed old-fashioned to her. Also, she didn't know if it was just her or maybe her daughter felt it too, but she felt strangely drawn towards it, and that alarmed her. Not life threatening, more like the first step towards closing a chapter of a very long story.
"Is this the only grimoire you kept?"
"I'm sorry?" Abby asked. Then she noticed that Bonnie was looking not at her but at the grimoire she was still holding tight to her chest. Feeling a little self conscious, she placed the family grimoire on the coffin she'd felt the odd pull towards.
"Oh… It was the only one I needed. So… what is all this about?" Abby asked, indicating the other coffins in the room. Bonnie sighed as if she understood and moved to stand next to her mother. She only wanted to show Abby the coffin that had been haunting her dreams, then sent her and closest friends on the road to find her mother, of all people.
"Family history. About a mother who loved her children so much, she couldn't bear the thought she might lose them. So she turned them into vampires." Bonnie explained Elena had eventually shared the background information that Elijah and Rebekah had outlined for Elena during their united struggle against Elena's murderer.
"One of them is Klaus," she didn't even attempt to hide the bitterness in her voice.
"So, is he the one that you all are trying to kill? How are you so sure that who or whatever is inside this thing is going to help you do that?" Abby asked, tapping the coffin lid with her fingernails.
Bonnie had started to nod in affirmation but stopped when she considered her mothers rather pointed question. She was privately speculating if that might be the situation they faced, but didn't want to voice it out of a perverse degree of fatalism. She was starting to become despondent. They had tried so many times to kill Klaus and he always came out on top; he was far worse than Katherine Pierce.
Trying to cover her frustration with the situation, she started to flip through her mother's grimoire and noted immediately that it had to be very old, possibly the oldest one she ever encountered before. Far older than any of the grimoires she'd gained from Jonas and his son. As she read through it, she noticed that several sections of pages had been removed.
"There's nothing in here that's going to help us. I've seen most of these spells. Out of curiosity, what was on these missing pages?"
Abby looked furtive at the spell book and pointed at the torn edge of a dozen or so pages first.
"Regrettably, I never knew what was on these pages. They have been missing long before I inherited it from your Grandmother," Abby sighed then indicated the half torn page somewhere halfway through the tome.
"This is the spell I used to seal Mikael in the tomb. I burned it and tried to get it out of my head. Didn't work though. Wait... Do you see this?"
Bonnie leaned closer to better see the spell diagram on the very edge of the page and frown in confusion. There had been a similar spell in her Grams personnel grimoire she'd thought could be used to seal a house whose owner had accidentally given a vampire permission to enter, but hadn't worked as she had hoped it would.
"It's a sealing spell. We're trying to open something... Not seal it shut," she retorted.
"No. Right here. On this side. It's a blood knot. It means to bind it, you need two generations. A bloodline. Like... say two keys to a safe deposit box," Abby said pointing at the spell notation. It had been so long since she even opened this musty tome. Ironic since she had read it from cover to cover as a teenager herself, and like her daughter she had noted the missing pages near the back of the grimoire decades ago too.
"So... unbinding it would reverse the spell. Unseal it. If we did it together. It looks like we don't have a complete spell here so we might have to recreate or brute force it." Bonnie looked up from her mother's grimoire the spellwork was complex from what little remained on the page fragment but she felt that with her mother there they had a real chance. So far her dreams were helping them perhaps after they open the locked coffin her mother might help Bonnie and her friends find what happened to Elena. She was beginning to suspect that Stefan might not have Elena as everyone in Mystic Falls believed but that was only a premonition at the moment.
