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Chapter 17 - Evening of the Damned

~X~

It had been a few weeks after the bachelor evening at the grill, and William had officially started to rent the lake house after he conveniently got the position as coach for the football team. Some compelling may have been involved, even though Harper was still against using that ability on anyone.

Which all led up to this moment, hours before William's first practise at the school, he now only had to do one thing. Learn how to play and coach football. Easy enough? Wrong, because Harper knew next to nothing about the sport, she only had one person to turn to.

"Okay so don't me mad" Harper said and she led Tyler towards the lake house. It was early morning , and both of them had skipped from the first period to do this.

"Why would I be mad?" Tyler had no idea what was going on, but he was pumped at finally getting a real coach to the team. Since Tanner had passed away the team had been in the biggest slump, with several guys quitting the sport.

"Because I am hiding a vampire in the lake house" Harper stated casually and walked ahead as Tyler froze in place. He knew that the person renting the lake house was his new coach, which could only mean one thing.

"Harper!"

The inside of the guest house was a real mess, and it took some real good explaining and reasoning for Tyler not to suckerpunch William as soon as he saw him. After an hour of explaining himself William had convinced Tyler, for now, that he only wanted what was best for everybody in this situation.

"You think you can get me prepared for this?" William asked, his whole living room a mess. Textbooks and papers about strategies, history of the sport and a big fat rulebook was spewed all over the place. The flat screen tv was running reruns of previous years superbowl.

"Look man, I don't feel comfortable doing this.. I mean you are-"

"A vampire, I know. A vampire who has been locked away in a tomb for over a hundred years. I just want a normal life, to experience the modern world" William argued. Tyler's shoulders slumped, a signal for his surrender. It was soon to be off season anyways, William only needed to act as coach for a while, and then become a normal P.E. teacher for the high school.

"Fine, but we only have a couple of hours.. what do you know so far?" Tyler stated and sat down on the couch next to Harper, who looked between the guys with amused eyes.

"I read the rulebook several times, I know it inside and out.. I just need to know how to be a coach. I have only been a soldier in my past life, I need to learn how to lead" William said and picked up some more of his notes, which had the most neat handwriting either teenager had ever seen in their life on it. It was clear that William was a serious man, and Tyler had to rely on his gut that Harper was right about him and his good intentions.

Besides, he had told them a lot more about the 'real' history of this town. The supernatural part of it, at least all that he knew. He had told them about every vampire and their background that had been with him in the tomb. Since losing contact with them, even the good ones that wanted to move on from Mystic Falls, he had lost a real community that had been with him through hell and back. It was hard to see when he teared up from a phone call he had gotten from Pearl a couple of days ago. The Salvatores and a hunter had attacked them, several were dead because of it. He almost regretted not going to live with them, but Pearl reassured him that he was doing the right thing.

"Okay so, let's get started"

~X~

Tyler was feeling super nervous and done with school as he arrived around lunch to do afternoon classes and then practise. Ever since Harper had been adopted into his family everything just started to go off the rails. Not that he blamed her, no it was his father he had a major issue with. The aggression between them just wouldn't cool down, even after days of not seeing each other, as soon as they did an argument sparked.

And now they had found Vicki's body too.

All of these things lead him straight to the 'stoner den' on the far corner of the school property. He was ready to smoke all of his problems away. After the super awkward date he had with Caroline, that had ended up as a double date with Elena and Stefan for some reason, he felt even more like a loser. For once he just wanted the world around him to disappear. So he sat down by the guy that could probably relate to his shitty situation more than anyone. Jeremy fucking Gilbert. Lighting up his joint, he looked at Jeremy and gave him the opportunity to take a hit.

"Nah" The young Gilbert declined and looked at Tyler with an odd look on his face.

"What's your problem?" Tyler said and chuckled.

"I just don't want any," Jeremy explained.

"Okay" Tyler then started to smoke on his own. Not really caring about anything anymore. But the truth was that he sought out Jeremy for more than just company. He knew that Vicki had been way closer to him than she had ever been with himself. Tyler had been a huge dick towards her, and she did not deserve to die the way that she had.

"They say it was an overdose" Tyler stated and looked away from Jeremy. Like he was disinterested in the subject.

"That's what I don't get, she was doing okay" Jeremy argued.

"Apparently not-"

"Then how did she end up buried in the woods? That's what I don't understand" Jeremy said with a hurried voice. Tyler realized that this wasn't going to end well, with the youngest Gilbert still not letting her go and be at peace.

"Maybe whoever was with her buried her after she od'd" Tyler tried to explain in a calm voice, as to not rally the kid up even more.

"Yeah but most people would just leave her there, who would take the time to bury her?" Jeremy said.

"Maybe she saw something and-" But even Tyler couldn't come up with a logical explanation. He was heartbroken about the whole thing, but tried his best to hide it. "Man I don't know" He added and looked at Jeremy. He seemed to be doing alright, despite his grief making him rather neurotic about Vicki once again.

~X~

As the day went by Harper went home to find the house in preparation of the Founder's day Kick off celebration. Unlike the one that had happened months ago, this was the 150 years anniversary of the town actually being founded and a whole string of celebrations would follow this one. Harper dreaded every second of even thinking about it.

Carol had, as usual, already laid out a perfect new outfit on the teenager's bed. Fancy but not gala, muted colors but not funeral attire. Harper sighed and started to get on with dressing herself anyways. She needed hours to herself to the same standard as the rest of the girls in this town, who just seemed effortlessly flawless.

Her hair was now so long that she could do something with it, so she lightly curled it and used a black headband to pull it away from her face. Her makeup was light, just some mascara, and shiny lip gloss. She had tried to look up some youtube tutorials to help, but Harper left helpless anyways. Her dress was a modest styled purple cotton dress, long sleeves and a knee length skirt. She looked very pretty, and Harper felt confident as the sun had gone down and the band started to play downstairs.

She lightly knocked on Tyler's door across the hall, she had heard him come back from practice some couple of minutes after her. He opened the door, looking dapper and casual at the same time in his dark blazer and t-shirt underneath. His hair was perfectly ruffled and his dress shoes were shining.

"Don't you look cute?" He chuckled, to which Harper spun around in front of him.

"Thank you, you look good too" She said as she looked at his arm, letting him lead her down the stairs to the awaiting party. William had declined about going tonight, as he didn't want to meet any vampire or doppelganger after their attack on his friends.

"Oh my lord, my children are perfect," Carol said as she quickly walked up to them and hugged them. At the same time she inspected them from head to toe, fixing small insignificant details.

"Tyler go with your father, Harper you come with me" Carol stated and took Harper's hand. The teenagers raised their eyebrows, but still did what she commanded them to do. Harper's best guess as to why was to keep her away from Richard.

The two of them did a few rounds around the party, greeting so many people that Harper couldn't keep up. Many were still staring and whispering about her, as she was still the lifeblood of the town gossip. But she didn't care anymore. They could believe anything they wanted, she was living the life of a normal teenager for the first time in years. And as selfish as it made her, she would not mope around about the Lockwoods taking her in. Carol left Harper as the music had changed from classy jazz to upbeat party music. Harper was feeling very lonely when an unknown man came up to her.

"Harper, right?" The man said and stretched out his hand to her. He was so old that he could probably be her father, and the teenager immediately felt uncomfortable.

"Yes, and you are?" She carefully asked and shook his hand.

"John Gilbert, the uncle to your friend Elena" He stated casually.

"I just know her from school" Harper said and looked around the party for any rescue. But no one she knew was around.

"I see.. you know I knew your mother quite well when I was younger" He stated and looked at her for a reaction. But Harper just rolled her eyes with disinterest.

"Good for you"

"She was a very sweet woman, super smart. Some said she even could look into the future and all that.." John went on and on, but Harper was having none of it.

"Look, she abandoned her kids. I don't care who she was back in the day, because you don't know who she was as an adult" Harper gritted out and walked away. But John just stood in the same spot agast. He knew everything about the Bellrose's, and he would do anything to get her on his side. Even if he has to drag her kicking and screaming there.

Finally Harper made it down the hall, where she bumped into Matt and Elena.

"Hey Harper" Matt greeted her with a hug, and Harper could immediately smell whiskey in his breath.

"Hey guys, are you having fun?" She asked and looked between the two. Elena looked displeased about her coming over, frowning slightly at her though Matt didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, but we are going to get some air. You wanna come too?" He asked and pointed at the door behind Elena. Harper looked back and saw that Elena's uncle was gone, which made her sigh with relief.

"Sure thing" Harper nodded. Elena's frown deepened as she looked over Matt's shoulder towards the bar. Following her gaze, Harper's eyes landed on Elena's boyfriend Stefan Salvatore. The two of them seemed to be in an argument, but Harper didn't say anything about it.

"By the way, have any of you seen my mother?" Matt asked as he opened the door for them. Harper shook her head while Elena let out a small 'No'.

"Oh my god" Elena then suddenly said, lifting her gaze, Harper saw Tyler making out with Kelly. Matt's mom, and Matt went quickly from 0 to 100. Marching forward, he gripped the back of Tyler's blazer and pushed him away from his mother.

"What the hell are you doing man?!" Matt shouted, drawing many eyes towards them. "Mom!-"

"Matt" Elena tried to step in, but of course the obviously drunk Tyler had to mess it up even more.

"Hey dude, calm down-" But he couldn't get the words out before his best friend sucker punched him in the face. Making him crash into Harper, before taking a stance to retaliate.

"Tyler no!" Harper tried to make him snap out of it. But sadly she knew that the rage of the Lockwoods were an unstoppable force, that no one could stop once it had been ignited. Elena kept shouting for both boys to stop, but it only made Harper's ears bleed while her eyes clouded over with tears. Kelly had been pushed hard into a table full of empty glasses, making the terrace filled with glass shards and more people wanting to know what was going on. Harper was quick to hurry over to Kelly, who was so daced that she accepted the teenager's hand and support to stand. Meanwhile, Tyler was punching down at Matt, and Harper quickly turned Kelly around so that she didn't have to see the fighting.

Suddenly Alaric Saltzman was at the scene, pulling Tyler away from Matt. Tyler was so clouded with rage that the teacher had to hold firm so that he couldn't go back to fighting. Harper had seen that state of mind before in him, and knew that there was nothing she could do to help him calm down right now.

"I'll take it from here" Richard appeared through the doors with a waiter, and Harper was quick to give Kelly over to the staff who could help her inside. Alaric looked between the father and son, flabbergasted that Tyler seemed to snap out of his raging state pretty quickly once Richard was at the scene.

"Are you hurt?" Richard asked his son, and Tyler just shook his head mutely.

"Go get cleaned up, it's okay" He said and pushed Tyler inside the patio doors.

"Come on Harper, you too" Richard motioned her to follow them, which she did. The teacher watched with pitiful eyes as Harper quickly laid her hand on Tyler's shoulder for support.

"Thank you for your help" Richard said to Alaric and then looked around at the masses. "Everything is fine everybody, come on! Back to the party everyone"

It was the last thing Harper heard from the party as she went up the stairs with Tyler.

~X~

It was late in the evening. The cleaners were in full force downstairs. Tyler and Harper had both gotten punishments from Richard as the last guest had left. Tyler with a punch in the face as well as being grounded for a week, while Harper had just been slapped. Carol had looked away, but her stomach couldn't really handle this type of correcting behavior by her husband.

Harper didn't really care anymore, it wouldn't bruise, she knew that the mayor would never hit her that hard anymore. It would ruin his image.

She was sitting on her bed, her last piece of homework for the week almost done when her phone rang. Harper looked at it with a raised eyebrow at the unknown number title that was shown and yet still clicked on the answer.

"Hello?" It was quiet for a while, just slight heavy breathing was heard. Creeped out, she was ready to hang up when a gruff voice said.

"Harper? I'm your father..."