November 30th, 2009
It was dark in the woods of Mystic Falls. The full moon was out and as far as I could tell I was alone. That is until I wasn't.
'That necklace isn't yours.' A voice said and I turned around to see a young girl with brown curly hair dressed in an old gown.
'Necklace?' I said looking down to see I was holding the ugly necklace I had gotten from Bonnie.
'It's not yours.' She said again.
'It's not Bonnie's either.' I said before more women dressed similarly to her started appearing. 'And I don't have it anymore.'
'It's not yours.' She repeated suddenly appearing in front of me making me fall back except that the ground caved in and I was suddenly on the ground in front of the tomb and I could hear screams and people crying inside.
"Let us out!" They screamed.
Suddenly someone reached out from inside the tomb and grabbed my leg pulling me in.
"Ah!" I screamed as I was dragged in.
Suddenly I sat up in bed panting. I looked around realizing I was in my room at the Salvatore boarding house. I fell back trying to calm down.
I never had a dream feel so real before. I reached over and grabbed my phone to see it wasn't even 6am yet.
"UH." I groaned. There was no point in trying to fall asleep again so instead I got up and went for a run. Running in the woods even with the chill in the air was the best way to wake up in the morning and also a good distraction from the weird dream.
Of course nothing in my life was ever normal and as ran in the woods I took the longer route until I found the ruins of that old church Damon had mentioned and there I ran into the last person I expected to. Bonnie.
She was asleep on the ground in her pajamas.
"What the hell?" I said looking around to see no one else there. I kneeled down and gently shook her shoulder. "Bonnie?"
She groaned before sitting up with a gasp.
"Wha…" She said pushing herself away from me.
"Hey it's just me." I said. "Are you okay?"
"Where am I?" She said looking around.
"Uh I think these are the ruins of that old church from that battle that happened in town during the civil war." I said.
"Fell's church." Bonnie said.
"That's the one." I said offering her my hand and helping her up. She took my hand and flinched letting go of me the second she was on her feet.
"What are you doing here?" She said.
"I was out for a run when I saw you on the ground. Did you sleep here?" I asked.
"No… I … I sleep walk." She said.
"You sleep walk in the woods?" I said not completely buying it.
"My dad must've left the door open." She said quickly. "I should go or I'll be late to school."
"Do you want me to give you a ride home? The boarding house isn't too far from here." I said.
"No it's okay." Bonnie said. "I could use the walk."
"You sure? It's really no trouble." I said.
"No thank you. Really." Bonnie said before running off.
I looked around wondering where the entrance to the tomb but decided against it and headed back to the house. Damon was already up and greeted me with a cup of coffee.
"Someone fell out of bed this morning." Damon said.
"You have no idea. I had this really weird dream where your friend Emily was there telling me the necklace wasn't mine. Then all her friends showed up repeating the same things and…" I started.
"Hold that thought. Broody's alarm is almost going to go off and I made him a peace offering." Damon said.
"I don't think a cup of coffee is going to make him forget you killed his best friend and BAA sponsor." I said.
"BAA?" He asked.
"Blood addicts anonymous." I said.
"That's a good one. I'm using it." Damon said before running upstairs. I sighed and decided to pause the conversation and go shower. By the time I finally came back downstairs Stefan had gone to school and Damon was having his morning blood while he read the paper.
"So I think something else is going on." I said.
"Why because you had a bad dream?" Damon said.
"No because I don't think I'm not the only one that had one." I said getting his attention. "While I was out for my morning run I passed by the ruins of that church and I found Bonnie there."
"She was snooping around. That's not really strange." He said.
"She was asleep in her pajamas." I said. "She made up some story about being a sleepwalker."
"It can happen." Damon said.
"It can but first the drawings, then the dream and now this. One is chance, Two is a coincidence, three that's a pattern." I said.
"It doesn't make any sense though. I don't have any plans to open that tomb, Stefan doesn't even know about the tomb to begin with, Sabrina the teenage witch is still going through supernatural puberty and even if she did know about it I doubt she'd want to."
"I doubt Bonnie wants to open it. She seemed scared." I said before a thought occurred to me. "Everyone that was in the church that night was put in the tomb right?"
"Yeah?" Damon said skeptically.
"Any chance that one of those vampires had a friend or someone that cared enough to spend the last 145 years looking for a way to stage a jail break?" I said.
"That's…" He started.
"Don't say it's impossible. You're unliving proof it is." I reminded him.
"The night of the fire the whole town was purged of vampires." Damon said.
"You're still here. Katherine made it out…" I said.
"So some of them made it out." Damon said. "There's no way to know who they are or how they would even know there was a way to get them out to begin with."
"But it gives us somewhere to start." I said grabbing a pen and notepad and handing them over to Damon. "Start writing down names of every vampire that was in town back in 1864."
"That's a lot of names and even if they did make it out vampires don't make it a habit to be easy to track down." Damon said.
"We don't need to track them down we just need to know who to be on the look out for." I said before heading upstairs. "Start writing."
He sighed but ultimately gave in and started writing.
We were in the library going through each name one at a time. I was taking this seriously Damon on the other hand…
"Thomas Collins." I said.
"Ass." Damon said as he bounced a ball against the wall and caught it.
"Fredrick…" I started.
"Dick." Damon said throwing the ball.
"You know it's rude to speak ill of the dead." I said.
"You call me a dick all the time." Damon retorted.
"Only when you act like one." I said.
"Still rude kind of like eavesdropping." Damon said throwing the ball a lot harder than he had been before at the doorway for Stefan to catch with one hand though it looked like it hurt a bit.
"I was just coming to see if you were busy." Stefan asked Damon. "And by the looks of it you are…"
Stefan looked around at the papers Nora had at the desk.
"Well I'm busy and Damon is being no help at all." I said.
"I was just giving you the unedited, unbias opinion on what the residents of 1864 Mystic Falls were like." Damon said.
"Unedited yes, unbias not so sure." I said closing my laptop. "I need a break from staring at my computer screen. Try not to kill each other while I'm in the kitchen."
"No promises." Damon said. "You know how stabby Stefan can be. Always breaks all the expensive furniture."
I just shook my head as I walked off to the kitchen. I was just putting my glass down in the sink when I felt Damon wrap an arm around my waist before picking me up and next thing I knew I was in my room and he was closing the door.
"Woah a little heads up next time?" I said but he just gestured at me to stay quiet while he picked out a song on my ipod and it started playing out on the speaker. It was pretty obvious he wanted to talk without Stefan eavesdropping. My room was the farthest one away from Stefan's room and with the music he wouldn't be able to hear anything.
"Stefan just asked if we could start over and be brothers again." Damon said.
"That's… nice?" I said totally not believing it and he gave me a look. "A complete 180 from this morning."
"Exactly. I don't buy it." Damon said. "He's up to something."
"He's digging, wants to figure out what you're doing here." I said. "Which I'd like to know too."
"We're tying up loose ends. Bonnie must've said something to Elena and she went running to Stefan." He said.
"You should go." I said and Damon looked at me like I had grown another head.
"Three weeks ago he almost staked me and tried to compel you to leave." Damon said. "It's nice to know my safety matters so much to you Nora."
"It does matter to me but even I have to agree you deserved it because if he had killed you I'd try to stake him." I said.
"I'd pay to see you try." Damon said with a smirk.
"And if you were really worried he was going to kill you, you would have stopped him. You're stronger than him. I'm pretty sure I heard his wrist crack a bit when he caught that ball." I said.
"Perks of the bunny diet." Damon said.
"Either way it's a good idea to try and fix things with Stefan and bury the hatchet." I said and Damon had a devious smile on his face. "Not literally."
"I knew that." He said.
"Did you?" I asked.
"It's not as fun…" Damon said.
"Just go out and have some fun, bro out, and in the meantime I'm going to borrow your car and go down to the library to get some work done." I said.
"My car?" he said. "No."
"Please?" I asked batting my eyelashes. "I promise to pick up dinner on the way back."
"Really I'm in the mood for a Kappa for tonight. Pairs well with the bourbon." Damon said.
"I was thinking more like a pizza, you know something that won't get me arrested." I said.
"Like I would ever let that happen." Damon said but still reached into his pocket and handed me his keys then pulled them out of reach. "Not a scratch on it."
"Promise." I said taking the keys before I grabbed my things. "Have fun."
So I headed to the library and started to go through newspaper articles from 1964. I had to give it to the town's historical society, their record keeping was immaculate. Of course this being a small town and a stranger asking to see these documents got their attention specifically from the town librarian slash historian, Tobias Fell.
The old man could talk and talk. By the looks of it he didn't get the chance to talk about this stuff with anyone often so he was just shoving the information at me. Even after the library closed he accompanied me to the grill so he could finish his lecture and we could compare notes on the founding families' genealogy.
I was really starting to regret volunteering to do all the research.
Meanwhile…
Meanwhile Damon and Stefan were drinking in silence. Damon because he was enjoying listening to Nora try and fail to cut off the old geezer and Stefan because he was still trying to figure out what to say.
"So, Stefan..." Stefan said in his best impression of Damon from that morning. "You know, I've been thinking. I think we should start over, give this brother thing another chance. We used to do it, oh-so well, once upon time."
"I don't, Damon." Damon answered mockingly. "I can't trust you to be a nice guy. You kill everybody, and you're so mean. You're so mean, and... You're really hard to imitate, and then I have to go to that lesser place..."
"Can I get a coffee, please?" Stefan asked the bartender. "So, what's with the bottle?"
"I'm on edge. Crash diet. You know, I'm trying to keep a low profile." He answered taking another drink.
"You could always just leave, find a new town to turn into your own personal Gas 'n' Sip." Stefan said.
"I'll manage. You don't have to keep an eye on me." Damon said.
"I know that's Nora's job." Stefan said hoping to get a reaction since he had noticed the girl was at the grill talking to Tobias Fell for some reason.
"So, why are you here?" Damon said ignoring the comment.
"Why not?" Stefan said getting comfortable in his seat.
At some point Nora had left claiming she had to get some work done at home but since he hadn't heard the car chances are she was just down the block at the coffee shop or running errands.
Damon and Stefan had stepped away from the bar to play darts and Stefan made a shot that hit dead center.
"Lucky shot." Damon said.
"More like a carefully honed skill over many decades." Stefan teased.
"You're beating me." Damon said.
"Yeah. It's because I'm better than you." Stefan said with a smirk.
"I'm onto you. Reverse psychology. It's a little transparent, but I admire the effort." He said.
"You prefer the brooding forehead? Stefan taunted.
"Seriously, what game do you think you're playing?" Damon said not buying it.
"That's a funny question considering the fact that I have been asking you that for months. It's frustrating isn't it?" Stefan said.
"Touché." Damon said.
"Okay if we're going to get serious there is one thing I can't figure out." Stefan said.
"No you can't have my hair stylist's number." Damon said.
"Nora." Stefan said.
"What about her?" Damon asked.
"Who is she?" Stefan asked.
"She's Nora. My best friend." Damon said.
"You don't have any friends." Stefan said.
"Ouch that hurt Stefan. We didn't see or speak to each other in over 15 years, is it really that hard to believe that during that time I made a friend." Damon said.
"But you're not just friends with her. I've seen you two together. You banter, flirt, you actually listen to her." Stefan said.
"My bestie is a genius." Damon said. "And I listen when it's actually good advice."
"You care about her. You were scared when I got close to her when I almost staked you." Stefan said.
"Well I wasn't sure you were going to go all ripper on her and ruin the Afghan. You have no idea how hard it is to get blood off of that." Damon said not giving anything away.
"You gave her mother's bracelet." Stefan said.
"Is that what this is about? Were you planning on giving it to Elena?" Damon said. "Well sorry I called dibs. And it was just lying around collecting dust. I needed something to put vervain in, I like my best friend with all her brain cells and not some compelled zombie like Caroline not that she had any to begin with. I need a refill? You want anything?"
"How about we get that drink to go? I could use some air." Stefan said.
With that the two brothers left the bar after settling the tab. Damon let Stefan take the lead while he thought about how he was going to play this. Stefan was not going to let this go and while he himself did not know exactly why he was still in Mystic falls other than the fact that Nora's drawings all kept leading back to that tomb, he was planning on keeping that on a need to know basis.
Stefan ended up leading his brother to the high school football field. The place was empty even though the lights were still on.
"What are we doin' here?" Damon asked.
"Bonding. Catch! Go on. Give it a try." Stefan said throwing the ball to his brother.
"Don't forget who taught you how to play this game." Damon said amused throwing the ball with a bit more force before the brothers started playing using their full strength and speed until they ended up tackling each other and knocking each other down.
"That hurt." Damon said groaning really wishing he had grabbed a real dinner.
"Downside of my diet-getting hit actually hurts a little bit." Stefan said making Damon groan again.
"I'm impressed Stefan. Fun with booze and darts, sentimental with football, and now? Starry night. What do you want, Stefan?" Damon said.
"It wasn't real, Damon." Stefan said and he had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. As if he needed a reminder of the manipulative so called love of his life. "Our love for Katherine. She compelled us. We didn't have a choice. Took me years to sort that out, to truly understand what she did to us."
Damon pulled himself up before looking at his brother. "Oh, no, Stefan. We are not takin' that on tonight." He said.
"What do you want with Katherine's crystal?" Stefan said stopping Damon from leaving.
"How do you know about that?" he said.
"Come on. You knew Elena would tell me." Stefan said.
"How do you know it was Katherine's? Emily gave it to her on her last night. I was with her, and you weren't." Damon spat knowing that was a sore spot for his brother and was hoping that would throw him off.
"I was the last one to see her, Damon. Now, what do you want with Katherine's crystal?" Stefan insisted.
"She didn't tell you?" Damon said surprised.
"We had other things on our mind." Stefan taunted and Damon sped over and got in his face.
"I could rip your heart out and not think twice about it." He said.
"I've heard that before." Stefan said calling his bluff and that was when Damon decided what he was going to do next.
"I have a bigger surprise, Stefan." Damon said backing away. "I'm gonna bring her back."
"How can you bring Katherine back?" Stefan said confused.
"Before Katherine and the others were killed in the church, you remember what it was like in this town?" Damon said.
"I remember the fear and the hysteria." He answered.
"Townspeople were killing vampires one by one. When they came for Katherine, I went straight to Emily, said,"I'll do anything. Name your price. Just protect her." She did." Damon said.
"How?" Stefan said.
"She did some kind of spell with the crystal. And while the church was burning, and we thought Katherine was burning in it, she wasn't." Damon said.
"But I saw her go inside..." Stefan said.
"There's a tomb underneath the church. The spell sealed Katherine in that tomb, protecting her." Damon said.
"Are you telling me that Katherine's alive?" Stefan asked.
"Well 160 years trapped in a tomb with no way out and no one to eat, not sure alive Is the word I'd use but close enough." Damon said.
"Why would Emily...? Why would she do this for you?" Damon said.
"Because she knew they were gonna come for her, too, and she made me promise that her lineage would survive." Damon said.
"I remember. You saved her children." Stefan said.
"It's the only thing keeping me from ripping that little Bonnie girl's throat out, that and Nora's constant nagging. But it's almost time to collect and trust me I will collect." Damon said picking up the football. "Go long Stefan."
With that Damon through the ball as far as he could but Stefan didn't move an inch.
"So much for starting over. Oh well." Damon said before running off.
Meanwhile…
While Damon was off doing some brotherly bonding with Stefan I finally made it back to the house and was currently crossing names off of Damon's list of the 1864 vampires. Crossing off anyone that didn't have family narrowed it down a lot. From there I cross referenced to the old newspaper report listing everyone that had died in the church fire. I was currently doing some more digging through some of the online channels Bree had mentioned when we met when I heard some weird noises coming from the main room.
I seriously hoped Damon hadn't somehow talked Stefan to go off the wagon. Or that he decided to have the Tridelts over again. Those girls were the worst house guests ever. Would it kill them to load the dishwasher. I knew they were compelled but I'm pretty sure Damon didn't erase their manners.
"Damon, hope you're not too drunk cause I need some help going through the last…" I started before I spotted Bonnie yanking books off the shelves. "Bonnie?"
"Where is it?" She said.
"Where's what?" I asked confused.
"The crystal. It doesn't belong to you, Give it back." Bonnie demanded.
"I don't have it and like I said it was my nana's. It's probably in the New York postal system." I said.
"You're lying." She said. "I can feel it in this house. Give it back."
I looked at her and something just felt wrong. Then I looked at her eyes and didn't see any part of Bonnie in them. Those eyes were cold and hard. I'd even dare say older than the girl who had them. That's when I realized it wasn't Bonnie I was talking to.
"Emily." I said.
"Give it back." She demanded.
"I don't have it. You made a deal with Damon." I said.
"Where did he put it?" She asked.
"I don't know." I said. "But he doesn't want to use it. Katherine was never in the tomb and you know that."
"It doesn't matter." She said.
"He won't give it back." I said before she started chanting and I felt something tighten around my neck as my feet lifted off the ground. "Em…emily."
"Where is it?" She snarled as shadows appeared behind her.
"Please…" I started before I felt it happen. I could feel a vision coming on but this felt different suddenly the shadows disappeared and Bonnie/Emily cried out in pain clutching her head as her nose started to bleed.
"No!" She cried. Before she threw me back, slamming me into the wall, letting my head hit the edge of the mantle twice before I passed out.
A While Later…
Damon had made it back from his bro time with Stefan.
"Nora you're never going to believe what ha…pened" Damon said before he suddenly smelled blood. He quickly vamp sped into the house finding Nora on the floor and bleeding. "Nora!"
He quickly kneeled down checking her pulse and it was slower and she was bleeding a lot.
"No no no…" He said quickly biting into his wrist and pressing it against her mouth so she would drink his blood. "Come on come on drink. You're not dying. Not today."
It took a few minutes before she groaned trying to push away his hand.
"Hey, just another bit." He said waiting for her to do as she said before moving his hand and helping her up to the couch.
"Ow." She said pressing a hand to her head to see the blood there.
"What the hell happened?" Damon said pouring Nora a drink.
I looked around noticing the mess and my blood all over the floor and on my blouse. The one day I chose to wear white.
"Bonnie." I said.
"Bonnie?" He said surprised.
"Yes and No. Emily in Bonnie's body." I said. "I don't know how but I think she's possessing Bonnie. She came here looking for the necklace. She tried Vader-ing me before slamming my head on the mantle."
"She was here for the necklace?" he asked.
"Yeah." I said. "I didn't tell her but…"
I didn't finish what I was going to say before Damon sped away somewhere. I heard a loud curse before he walked back in.
"I'm going to kill the little witch!" Damon said pissed off.
"Damon, it's not Bonnie it's her bitch of a, I don't know how many greats, grandma." I said.
"We had a deal and she broke it so now it's open season on all Bennetts." Damon said. "And I'm getting my ugly necklace back. Stay here and don't fall asleep until I get back."
"Be…" I started but he had already slammed the front door shut. "Careful."
I took a sip of my drink and while my neck didn't hurt my throat was a bit sore. Since I couldn't fall asleep and my research was on hold I decided to do the only thing I could do at that point. I started cleaning up. I put the books back on the shelf before I started cleaning my blood off the mantle and floor.
I was pretty much done cleaning it all off and myself. I was going to have Damon make sure I got all the blood off when he got back but one look at him when he stormed in and I could tell things did not go well.
"Why is there a hole in your shirt?" I asked.
"You're not the only one who went a few rounds with Emily." He said taking my drink and downing it in one go. "You missed a few spots."
"Cut me some slack I might have a concussion." I said sitting down next to him.
"Emily destroyed the necklace." He said.
"Better the necklace than you." I said.
"Still annoying." Damon said.
"Not like you were going to open the t…" I started before he put a hand over my mouth. He signaled me to be quiet before vamp speeding me to the car. We got in and drove a bit down the road before he pulled over to the side.
"I'm guessing there's something you haven't told me yet." I said.
"Stefan was trying to figure out why I was still here and I told him that Katherine was in the tomb and that I'm going to get her out." Damon said.
"Why?" I asked confused.
"He wanted to know why we were here and I thought that was the fastest way to get him off my back." Damon said.
"But you're not trying to open the tomb." I said.
"I know." Damon said.
"I know I sound like a broken record but what are we even doing here?" I asked. "You said you wanted to torment your brother and you did though I feel like Stefan was just sabotaging himself most of the time by not being honest with Elena. Katherine's not here. The crystal is destroyed…"
"And I bit Bonnie so the deal's off." Damon added.
"And there's that. Really Damon?" I said.
"She attacked you." Damon said. "And I can't bite Emily so Bonnie was a close second."
"The necklace is gone, We never wanted to open the tomb to begin with, Stefan and Elena are on the outs effectively making Stefan miserable like you wanted to, So what's stopping us from starting the car and putting this town in the rear view mirror?" I said.
"You tell me. You're the one that keeps drawing the tomb." Damon said. "Did you get anywhere with the research?"
"I crossed off most of the names on the list. There's only a handful that had family and I was going to look through the obituaries to see where they ended up but I was going to ask you first in case any names stuck out to you." I said. "Or if you knew if the relatives were vampires."
"I feel like it's a dead end." Damon said.
"You've said that already and we don't have anything else to do." I said.
"Do you think we should go?" He asked for the first time in months seriously having doubts about sticking around.
"Honestly? The logical part of me says we should start the car, get the hell out of here and never look back." I said. "But the other part of me says that I have to stay because for whatever reason I'm supposed to be here."
"That doesn't really help." Damon said.
"Seeing the future ironically doesn't help with decision making." I said.
"It would be better if it did." Damon said.
"Or worse." I said. "I keep drawing the tomb for a reason and when I draw it, it's open. It was also open in my dream."
"Don't you mean nightmare?" Damon said. 'It's a coincidence."
"Emily was there with her friends and she showed up tonight and called on her friends before bashing my head on the mantle." I said. "We have seen way too much to just shrug this of as a coincidence."
"So you think we need to get into the tomb." Damon said.
"I think there's something there and that's why I keep drawing it." I said.
"Even if you're right…" he started.
"I am right." I said.
"Even if you are, Emily destroyed the necklace without it there's no way into the tomb." Damon said.
"There's always a way." I said. "Magic is full of loopholes we just need to find one."
"I doubt the witches of this town are going to help us." Damon said.
"Witches don't just live in Mystic Falls." I reminded him.
"Bree?" He asked.
"If she doesn't know she can point us to one that does." I answered.
"It's worth a shot." Damon said starting the car. Before turning to me. "How's the head doing?"
"Doesn't hurt. Throats a bit sore but nothing I can't deal with." I said. "How's the shoulder?"
"Better after drinking some real blood. The bunny diet is not for me." Damon said.
"I don't think it's for anyone." I answered before my phone started ringing. "Huh, it's a New York number. Hello?"
Damon drove us back while my boss at my freelance gig thanked me over and over again for helping them out so much last minute before inviting me to the launch party in New York tomorrow where he wanted to discuss a more lucrative permanent position.
"Are you going to go?" Damon asked.
"Is now really a good time. Things here are a mess." I said.
"They always are. You should go it's not like Bree is going to get back to us right away." Damon said. "This could be good for you."
"Promise you're not going to do something reckless while I'm gone?" I asked.
"Yes mom." He said sarcastically.
