I was at the Grill with Jeremy. I hadn't spoken with Damon ever since he agreed to work together, which was for the best. I was still angry over what happened, but most of all, hurt.
It was ridiculous, I knew. I had always known what kind of person he was. He'd even fed from me, once. But that was before. I genuinely thought we had become friends, so for him to use me like that… To almost turn me into a vampire against my will…
No, I didn't want to see him. Good thing he was leaving with Katherine soon.
That was what my logical brain thought, anyway. My heart was having an annoying disagreement with it. I attempted to ignore it.
"Ten kegs. Do you know how much damage we could do with ten kegs?" I heard Tyler say to Matt. They were playing pool next to where Jeremy and I sat. "Duke's got it all hooked up."
"Duke is a douche," Matt said.
"Yeah, a douche with ten kegs, aka, my new best friend," Tyler said, causing Jeremy to scoff.
Tyler looked over at us. "What's the problem, Gilbert?"
"Don't," I said before Jeremy could reply. After that I gave Tyler a pleading look, and he nodded. I smiled, and he smiled back.
Matt looked between us. "Did I miss something?"
Jeremy's face had soured. "Are you two back together?"
"No!" I denied immediately. "God, can't two exes even smile at each other anymore?"
After the dance, Tyler and I had been texting each other, and we were slowly mending the friendship that we used to have.
"I haven't exchanged many smiles with Elena," Matt said wryly, but his eyes had that kicked puppy look in them.
"Okay, bring it in, Donovan." I stood up from the table and approached Matt with my arms outstretched. He let me hug him.
"Did I miss something?" Tyler asked. "Mel, I didn't know you and Matt were friends."
"Sure we are," I said as Matt pulled away from me. "We bonded over our mutual dislike of you."
Jeremy sniggered.
I gave both him and Tyler a look. "Don't start anything."
I went to go refill my drink. When I came back, Jeremy and Tyler were in each other's faces again.
"Matt, you're a terrible peacekeeper," I complained.
Caroline arrived and joined us. "Where is Elena? I have been texting her all day."
"She's probably with Stefan."
Caroline scoffed. "I am so not going to be one of those girls who disappear just because she has a new boyfriend."
"Right, that's so unlike you," I said sweetly. "Hey, unrelated, do you remember when no one could reach you for days and you were late for cheer practise? What was the reason for that again?"
Caroline huffed. I smiled victoriously even as she gave me a playful shove.
Matt seemed worried when Caroline stepped in front of him.
"Can we talk?" she asked.
Well, that couldn't be good. Trouble in paradise?
"Sure," Matt said before leaving with her.
Tyler and Jeremy traded insults as a goodbye.
"You two should get a room already," I told Jeremy once we were in the car. "If you weren't my brother I'd tell you I've heard wonders about hate sex."
"Gross. I am your brother." Jeremy made a face at me. "Did you and Tyler never…" He trailed of.
"Have hate sex? No, why would we, we didn't hate each other." I avoided his gaze.
Jeremy rolled his eyes in my periphiral vision. "You know what I mean."
I met his gaze. "We never had any sex at all," I admitted. "Is this the part where you gloat that you lost your virginity before I did?"
"No," Jeremy said, before smirking. "Well."
I scoffed and rolled my eyes at him.
"Why not, though? I mean, he seemed to have no problems with Vicki," Jeremy said, his jaw clenching at the last part.
"I wasn't ready," I said simply. "Sometimes…" I voiced something I never had before. "I wonder if that's why he cheated on me with Vicki. Because she'd readily give him something I never had."
"Probably. He's a dick," he said. "It'd suck if you got back with him."
"I am not getting back with him," I said firmly. "I'm just trying to move on and be friends again, that's all."
"Okay."
We arrived home. Damon was at my house, leaning against his car. So much for my plan to avoid him.
Jeremy went inside and I locked up the car, not looking at Damon.
"I don't know how tonight will go, so I figured we should get our goodbye over with now," Damon said, walking to meet me halfway.
"Goodbye," I said to him flatly. I went to move past him but he got in my way. I tried to sidestep him, but he anticipated that and did the same. I sighed. "Did you want something else?"
He considered me. "You're angry."
I smiled brightly at that deduction. "Wow, at least your brain isn't as dead as you are to me."
His eyebrows raised before he cleared his throat. "Melanie, you're the only one in this town who didn't completely write me off. I'm leaving tonight. Do you really want this to be our last conversation?"
I didn't. I didn't want to look back on this, years from now, and have regrets. I remembered when he caught me after I jumped, back in Georgia. I remembered how good it felt to be held by him and I wanted to hug him goodbye now.
But I couldn't. I had to stick to my principles.
"Why would it matter to you?" I asked him rethorically.
He took in a breath, before giving a wry smile. "Still annoying as ever, I see."
"What you call 'annoying', is just refusing to take your crap. It must be a new experience for you. Oh, and for future reference," I said. "At whatever town you go to with Katherine, if you meet someone else you'd like to be friends with; don't use them as a tool for your own ends. Maybe then you'll get a goodbye you actually like."
I walked past him. This time he let me.
When I arrived, everyone else was already there. Duke's party was nearby. I hoped that everyone who was partying stayed away, lest they turn into food for ancient vampires.
"Air," Grams said as she lit a torch. "Earth. Fire."
"Water," Bonnie said, handing her grandmother a water bottle. She took it and sprinkled the water on the ground.
"That's it?" Elena asked. "Just water from the tap?"
"As opposed to what?" Grams asked, not looking up from her work.
"I just figured maybe it would have to be blessed or mystical or something," Elena admitted, earning a smirk from Grams.
I looked at the brothers, who stood side by side at the entrance. Damon pulled out something. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a blood bag. Something to get Katherine going.
"We're ready," Bonnie said. We all looked at each other. The plan was simple. Get Katherine, get out, start a fire for the other twenty-six vampires. It was finally time.
Bonnie and Grams held hands, standing in the center of the torches. They began to chant.
The door of the tomb slowly began to open. I watched as a smile came to Damon's face. He would get what he had wanted for a century and a half.
"It worked," Bonnie said with disbelief.
"Of course it worked," Grams said.
"We have some fires to build," Damon said to Stefan.
Stefan turned to Elena. "I'm gonna go get the gasoline, I'll be right back." He sped up the stone stairs.
"You ready?" Damon asked, looking directly at me.
I looked behind me, but no, he really meant me. "What?"
"You think I'm gonna go in there by myself so you can seal me in?" Damon asked the two witches.
Grams stepped forward. "Don't take her in. I'll bring the walls down."
"You'll bring the walls down if I don't. You think I trust you?"
"As much as I trust you."
"Enough," I said. "He needs leverage so he knows you won't shut the door once he gets inside. I'll go."
At my agreement, Damon grabbed one of the torches from the circle. I moved to follow him.
"No," Elena said, a stubborn set to her jaw I recognized all too well. "If you go, I'm going."
"You're killing my mojo," I complained.
Elena gave me a look that told me to deal with it.
"Great," Damon said. "The more, the merrier. Let's go."
We went inside the tomb. It was dark. Damon's torch was the only source of light.
"It's so creepy here," I said, sticking close to Elena. The sound of water dripping was the only thing to be heard, until a loud noise echoed through the cave. "What was that?!"
"They can sense you," Damon said ominously.
'They' meaning the starved vampires. I fumbled for Elena's hand in the dark. Once I found it, she squeezed it.
"So where are you and Katherine going?" I asked, trying to seem casual. "New York? California? …Georgia?"
"I don't know," Damon said, his voice clipped. "Away." Damon looked around. "Now where is she?" he asked to himself as he continued walking.
"Damon!" Elena shouted for him as he turned a corner and we couldn't see him.
He'd left us in the dark, literally.
"I'm going to stake him," I hissed.
Elena used the flashlight function on her phone to make out our surroundings. I sucked in a breath and backed away when the light landed on what looked like a decomposed corpse. The vampire's eyes opened. They were bloodshot and hungry.
Elena and I turned around, only to be met with another person. I gasped loudly.
It was the girl from the Grill. Anna.
She told Elena, "You must have a taste for it. You scream and even bother to escape, but then you just come right back to it."
I watched her with fear. We were on our own, in a tomb filled with hungry vampires, and one pissed off healthy one. There was a very real chance that we would die here. I gripped Elena's hand tighter.
Anna was distracted from us, however, when she spotted one of the vampires. "Mother! Mother." She kneeled down. "Those Salvatore brothers did this, you know."
"Their father did," Elena defended.
"And Jonathan Gilbert," Anna said. "I made a choice a long time ago that it would be Gilbert blood that brought her back to life. I had Jeremy all ready to go, but…"
I shivered.
"Can't help you there," I forced out through gritted teeth. "Elena and I are both adopted. No Gilbert blood here."
"Close enough," Anna told me. She grabbed Elena by the wrist, unlocking her hand from mine as she was pulled. I heard Elena scream. Anna had bitten into her wrist.
Anger like I'd never felt before pulsed inside me. The callous way Anna had been planning on using Jeremy. Anna using Elena, my teenage sister, to revive her ancient mother. It wasn't right.
I felt as helpless as when Damon almost turned me. As when I got all of those bad feelings, warnings of bad things to come, but I never was able to stop them.
No more.
I pushed Anna back, but she went flying much more than I had anticipated. A sphere of light emerged from my hands and it caused Anna to collide with the wall.
For a moment, everything was quiet.
Stefan arrived, shouting, "Let her go!"
Then he actually took everything in: Anna against the wall, Elena cradling her bleeding wrist, me just standing there with wide eyes.
Anna seemed to recover from the shock and leaped towards Elena. Stefan stopped her.
"Go, I'm right behind you," Stefan said. Elena and I headed for the exit as quick as we could.
"How did you do that?" Elena demanded. "What was that light?!"
"I don't know!" I replied. "Just run!"
We made it out.
Bonnie looked at us, especially Elena, with a sympathetic grimace. "We'll fix it."
"Fix what?" I asked.
"I can't," Stefan said from behind us, standing in the doorway of the tomb.
"Can't? Can't what?" Elena questioned.
"The spell's still up, we can't get them out. Yet," Bonnie explained.
I stared at her, wide-eyed. "What spell?"
"The seal," Bonnie explained. "We didn't remove it, we just opened the door. The seal keeps vampires from coming out."
No. That couldn't be true.
"You went in there not knowing if you could come back out?" Elena asked Stefan, her voice trembling a little.
"I heard you scream," he said simply.
No vampire could leave.
"He trusted me," I mumbled.
"What?" Elena asked.
"Damon trusted me," I said, louder. "I promised him I'd help. He can't get stuck in there."
I was getting hysterical and I knew it, but I couldn't help myself. After everything that had happened, this couldn't be how it ended.
"We'll fix it," Bonnie repeated, her voice reassuring.
Damon had to be here, by the entrance, when Bonnie did.
"Melanie, wait," Elena said, grabbing my arm when I moved to go back inside. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" I asked rhetorically.
"You can't go back in there," she said. "It's too dangerous."
I shrugged her hand away. "I made a promise. I can't leave him in there."
"Even if we're able to break through the seal, we won't be able to hold it for long," Grams said.
"I'll go with you," Stefan told me.
We headed back inside while Grams and Bonnie began the spell to lift the seal.
We passed Anna on the way, holding her mother upright. She glanced at me with a frown, before turning her full attention back to getting her mother out.
"Damon," Stefan said when we finally found him.
"She's not here," Damon muttered.
"What?" I asked, uncomprehending.
"She's not here!" Damon shouted. He threw the blood bag against the wall.
I looked around. I couldn't see anyone who looked identical to my sister. No Katherine.
"Damon, we need to get out of here," Stefan said.
Damon didn't pay him any mind. He just continued to mutter to himself. "It doesn't make sense. They locked her inside."
"If we don't leave now, we're not getting out," Stefan pressed.
"How could she not be in here?" Damon questioned, sounding lost.
"It's not worth spending all of eternity down here!" Stefan said forcefully. "SHE'S not worth it!"
Devastated, Damon searched around the corner of the cave we were in again, as if Katherine would magically appear anyway. My heart broke watching it, but we didn't have time for this. Bonnie and Grams couldn't hold the spell for long.
"Damon," I said. My voice was quiet compared to Stefan's, but it caught Damon's attention. He looked at me, his blue eyes sad and confused. "Please."
He snapped out of his daze. Finally, he left with us.
The three of us made it out of the tomb just in time. Grams and Bonnie closed it behind us.
Elena immediately hugged Stefan, relieved that he had made it out. I was glad. Stefan always tried to be good, and he made Elena happy. I was glad Elena didn't have to lose anyone else tonight.
Damon, on the other hand… He had lost everything. He was bracing himself against the wall, like he was afraid he'd collapse if he didn't hold onto something. His face was distraught. He'd been so certain. He'd been anticipating this moment for so long, and it had all been for nothing. I couldn't imagine.
"What happened?" Elena asked once she noticed the lack of her look-a-like.
"She wasn't down there," Stefan confirmed.
I was walking towards Damon. It hurt to see him like this. I used to wish for a break from the constant smirks and smug facial expressions, but now I wanted nothing more than to see those again.
His head turned slowly as he heard my footsteps. He looked at me. I gave into my earlier impulse to hug him. If he needed to hold onto something, I'd rather it be me than a wall. Slowly, he embraced me back. I heard a sharp inhale.
Abrubtly, he pulled away from me. He headed up the stone stairs in a hurry. I watched him go while swallowing the lump in my throat.
I had gone home to decompress. Elena called and said Bonnie's Grams hadn't survived the strain of the spell. Grams had passed away in her home. I felt incredibly sad for Bonnie.
Elena was with Bonnie. There was someone else in need tonight, someone who didn't have anyone.
I went to the boarding house. Damon was sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, staring into the flames.
Slowly, I walked to him. I crouched down.
"I thought I was dead to you?" he asked, not looking away from the fire.
I blinked and watched him. "Technically, you're dead to everyone," I offered with a half-smile.
He huffed and still didn't look at me. The only sound was the crackling of the flames.
"She knew where I was," he said suddenly. "This whole time. She knew and she didn't care."
I couldn't think of anything to say, so I reached out and placed my hand on his shoulder. Damon reached up and put his hand on mine. He leaned in further and I did the same.
Neither of us let go for a long time.