Episode 4: The Founder's Party

"Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive."

— Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire

Mystic Falls, 1864

My heart beat fast as I entered Damon's room. He sat with his back to me at his writing desk. I closed the door softly behind me.

"Damon," my heart felt like it was lodged in my throat.

"Maggie," Damon stood and within two strides he was in front of me, less than an arm's reach away. He reached out, but his hands fell to his sides before they touched me. "You shouldn't be here."

"Why not? I just want to talk, we used to share many more intimate moments behind that closed door."

"That time is over, I'm with Katherine now."

"No, your brother is courting Katherine. You're just her… side dish."

"I love her."

"What you feel for her isn't real. It's her compulsion. You love me, or at least you did. Look deep in your heart Damon, I know if you feel anything for me at all you can fight the hold she has on you."

"Maggie I—" Damon struggled to speak, then he said, "The words escape me, but—" instead of talking he kissed me passionately. It was like the first sip of water after months of drought.

Someone cleared their throat in the doorway and Damon and I sprang apart as if caught on fire. It was Katerina.

"Damon, be a dear and give me and the maid some privacy." She said. Damon, presumably under Kat's compulsion, left immediately. "I have had enough of your meddling, sis." Katerina reached out, slamming me against the wall and squeezing my throat. Her vampire strength lifted me off the ground. I struggled for a moment and then I felt heat radiate from my skin. It wasn't too unpleasant for me, but it burned Katerina. She let go, hissing, and looked at the palm of her hand as it blistered.

"What did you do to me? It burns like sunlight." She hissed.

"You can't hurt me Kat, not without hurting yourself." I said.

Mystic Falls, 2009

My room was a mess as I tried to find the perfect dress for the Founder's party later that day. Usually Caroline helped me with these sorts of things, but she's been weird with me ever since I told her to break up with Damon. Giving up, I took a deep breath and an armful of dresses and walked across the hall to Caroline's closed door. Before I could open the door I heard voices from the other side and paused to listen.

"How come you don't sparkle?" I heard Caroline ask.

"Because I live in the real world, where vampires burn in the sun." Someone replied, it sounded like Damon.

"Yeah, but you go out in the sun." Caroline noted.

'Does she know?' I wondered.

"I have a ring. It protects me. Long story." Damon said, "This book, by the way has it all wrong."

Tentatively, I knocked on my sister's door.

"Caroline!" I called, "I need your advice on what to wear tonight."

"Just a moment!" She called from the other side. I heard some shuffling around and then she opened the door. I raised my eyebrows at her; Caroline was wearing a scarf and sweater with her sleep shorts. Part of me wondered what I would find underneath the layers, the other part was happy to leave it a mystery. "Okay, show me what you got." She said excitedly. At least she wasn't still being weird.

I stepped into her room, Damon was lounging on her bed reading New Moon.

"Perfect timing," Damon said, still flipping through pages of the book, "we were just about to pick out Caroline's dress too."

"Does mom know he's here?" I asked, licking my lips nervously.

"Of course not, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell her."

"You do know our mother is a very proud gun owner right?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "So I've heard."

"Okay… well I have a few dresses I thought would fit in at the Founders party." I had brought a blue a-line dress, a red sheath dress, and a black asymmetrical dress and laid them all out on Caroline's bed trying my best to ignore Damon's presence. It was hard enough trying to reconcile the image of Damon as a bloodthirsty vampire and the Damon from my dreams. It was even harder with him dating Caroline.

"Me first!" Caroline said cheerfully. She pulled out two dresses: one yellow and one blue. "What do you think? I like the yellow." She held the yellow dress to herself so we could imagine what it would look like on.

"No yellow. Jaundice." Damon commented, "Go for the blue."

"Really?" Caroline sounded disappointed. She held the blue dress up to herself. "I don't actually like the blue."

"Well I do, and if I'm going to be your date to this thing..."

"Woah, date?" I asked, eyes wide. "You can't be Caroline's date, our mom would flip."

"Let her." Caroline said, "I'm not exactly taking her dating advice right now."

I wanted to argue; to remind her our broken family wasn't mom's fault. But I knew that would become heated and I didn't want to give Damon a show.

"I agree with Damon, the blue is way better." I said, instead. I didn't want to agree with the vampire that was probably drinking my sister's blood, but dammit I did like the blue better. "It compliments your skin tone and really brings out your eyes."

"Fine. But if I'm wearing blue, you can't wear blue too. We're twins, but we're not matchy twins."

"Woah, you two are twins?" Damon put the book down slightly, he had a wolfish grin. "How come no one told me this sooner. I can get down with twins."

I rolled my eyes.

"Pig." I said. Damon returned to reading the book. I picked up the red and black dresses to show Caroline. "My turn, then. The red or the black?"

She played with the hemline of the black dress.

"This one's kinda fun." She said thoughtfully.

"You should go with the red." Damon suggested.

I lifted the red up and looked at it in the mirror. It was a deep, one might even say blood, red. The sleeves and back were shear lace and the dress was form fitting. Despite the implications of the color it did look good on me.

"Red it is." Pointing at Damon I added, "but not because you said so. Red just happens to be my favorite color."

"What's so special about this Bella girl? Edward's so whipped." Damon asked later. Caroline and I had moved on to talking about accessories, and surprisingly Damon had nothing to say on the matter.

I shrugged.

"Beats me." I took a seat next to Damon on the bed and plucked the book out of his hands to look at it, "I'm not really a twilight fan. Personally, I think vampires are overrated; especially if they sparkle. Real vamps burn."

Damon's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but I just smiled at him as pleasantly as I could.

I went to the Founders Party with Bonnie as my date, our friend group usually all went together but obviously Caroline was with Damon and Elena went with Stefan.

"Charlotte, what a lovely dress." Mrs Lockwood greeted as Bonnie and I stepped up to the Mayor's manor.

"Thank you, Mrs. Lockwood."

"Will you be performing for us tonight?" She asked.

"Oh, um...I'm not sure yet."

"Oh well, either way, welcome and enjoy."

I saw my mom, still in uniform, and decided to say hello.

"Hi mom!" I greeted, giving her a hug. "Still working?"

"Always." She smiled. The sheriff's eyebrows knit together as she looked at something behind me.

"Who is that with Caroline?" I turned to see Caroline and Damon being welcomed by Mrs. Lockwood.

"Her date?"

"Really, you couldn't even change out of the badge for this?" Caroline said as she walked up to us.

"I'm working, honey. Who's the date you just tried to sneak past me?" Mom was still looking intently at Damon.

"Just some guy." Caroline shrugged.

Mom raised a brow.

"He's a little old for you, don't you think?"

"Oh, 'cause otherwise you'd approve. Yeah, I doubt that." Caroline snipped.

"Do you know where your father is?" Mom asked.

"Ask Charlie. She's his favorite." Caroline turned and left, returning to Damon's side.

"Dad's in Memphis." I answered.

"Good."

"I'm sorry, mom. Everything's been harder for Caroline, she's still upset about it."

"I know, I'm trying to give her space, but I worry about you girls. Go on enjoy the party."

"Thanks mom." I gave her another hug before rejoining Bonnie.

Bonnie and I snuck glasses of champagne and browsed the Mystic Falls Historical Society's collection.

"'The founding families in Mystic Falls welcomes you to the inaugural founder's council celebration.' Wow, look, it's the original guest registry." Bonnie pointed out.

"Look at all the familiar names—Sheriff William Forbes, Mayor Benjamin Lockwood, Doctor Johnathan Gilbert" I read off. "Typical though, no female names. It's like we didn't start existing until 50 years ago."

Damon came up, a glass of bourbon in hand.

"Trust me, men have been feeling your existence since the dawn of time." He commented.

"Is that Damon Salvatore? And, Stefan Salvatore?" Bonnie asked, she was still reading the names on the registry.

"The original Salvatore brothers. Our ancestors. Tragic story, actually." Damon said. A slow waltz began to play.

I saw Mrs Lockwood heading in my direction. When I accidentally locked eyes with her I could tell she wanted to ask me about playing again. Between Mrs Lockwood and a potentially murderous vampire, I think I'd choose the vampire.

"Dance with me, Damon." I requested.

"Shouldn't he be dancing with Caroline?" Bonnie asked, eyebrows raised.

"She won't mind." I lied. Caroline would so mind, but she'd understand later.

"Mind if I steal your date Bonnie?" Damon asked.

Bonnie looked between us and deciding to stay out of it, shook her head, "Nope." And then she walked away.

Damon extended a hand to me, "May I have this dance, Charlotte?"

"I hope you know how to waltz." I said as I took his hand and we stepped onto the dance floor. He took my hand and we positioned ourselves with my other hand on his shoulder and his at my waist.

"Why the sudden desire to dance?" Damon asked.

"Mrs Lockwood was looking for me, probably to ask me to play for the party again. I don't want to, but I hate turning her down."

"Which instrument? The flute?"

"No, the piano or the harp. Whichever she has set up for me. I used to play at events all the time, but now… I don't know. I just haven't been feeling up to it."

"You're surprisingly good." Damon said, as we whirled around the dance floor.

"Sometimes I feel like I've been doing the waltz since the day it was invented." I said casually. "Our dad had Caroline and I take lessons, probably because of all the events Mystic Falls puts on.

"So why are you so intent on getting in between Elena and Stefan?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I don't know what you mean." Damon replied,

"Please, you told Caroline a bunch of bull about Stefan and his ex because you knew it would get back to Elena."

"What makes you think it was made up?"

"Katherine was playing you both and you know it."

"You're right. She was." He admitted.

"So then why are you so angry with Stefan?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Then maybe you could tell me the tragic tale of the original Salvatore brothers, instead." I asked searchingly.

"Well, since you asked. The Salvatore name was practically royalty in this town. Until the war. There was a battle here—"

"The Battle of Willow Creek. I remember, we talked about it in History. Confederate soldiers fired on a church with civilians inside."

"What the history books left out was the people that were killed. They weren't there by accident. They were believed to be union sympathizers. So some of the founders on the confederacy side back then wanted them rounded up and burned alive. Stefan and Damon had someone they loved very much in that church. And when they went to rescue them, they were shot. Murdered in cold blood."

"Katherine…" I whispered, it must have been her in the church.

"What did you say?" Damon asked, he must have heard me.

"The situation then must have been similar to your situation with Katherine. They both loved the same woman and then she died tragically. Doomed to repeat the past and all that..." I tried to explain away my slip up.

"You're very intuitive…" Damon said suspiciously. "What makes you think it was a woman in the church."

"Doesn't it always come down to the love of a woman?" I answered. "Anyway, that was an awful story. But I suppose war makes monsters of us all."

Something I said must have struck him, because Damon's grip on me grew tighter before he let go completely.

"Thank you for the dance, Charlie." He said before disappearing in the crowd.

I rejoined Bonnie. She was sitting alone at a table, surrounded by lit candles.

"Woah, that's a lot of candles." I commented. She looked up at me startled.

"Charlie, do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"What? No. Why would you think that?" I asked as I took a seat next to her.

"If I'm really a witch, wouldn't that make me a freak?" She said quietly.

"Grams is really getting to ya, isn't she?" I teased playfully, it got Bonnie to smile a little. "Look Bon-bon, according to Grams you come from a long legacy of witches. That doesn't make you a freak, that makes you like the coolest person I've ever met."

"You think?"

"I know. Real or not, the world needs a little magic. And a little Bonnie."

"God, you're corny." Bonnie laughed.

"Well, it's true, I need you in my life, you're my best friend. And honestly, I've been dealing with some weird stuff lately-"

"Hey guys." Elena greeted from the doorway, dateless, "I need some ice cream, anybody want to join me?"

Bonnie and I grabbed ice cream from the kitchen with Elena as she told us everything that went down with Stefan, or didn't go down since he apparently won't tell her anything about his past. Elena had finally had enough of the mystery and left him on the dance floor.

"This is my fault. I planted doubt. I'm a doubt planter." Bonnie said.

"It's not your fault." Elena said between spoonfuls of ice cream, "I just—I feel terrible because I said that I wouldn't get in the middle of it, and then that's exactly what I did. I got all snotty."

"I would say Stefan and Damon's fight has nothing to do with you, but they obviously insist on involving you." I ate a spoonful of ice cream, "You deserve a few more words besides 'I don't want to talk about it'."

"You're right." Elena nodded.

Elena and I went to the powder room to freshen up. Caroline was already in there at the mirror.

"Hey." Elena greeted.

"Hey." Caroline replied, "So how are things with Stefan?"

"Great. Just great." Elena replied stiffly.

"Really? Well, my radar must be off, 'cause I was getting all sorts of other vibes…" Caroline said. She was adjusting her scarf and as it moved Elena and I saw a dark bruise on her neck.

"What is that?" Elena asked, trying to lift the scarf.

"Don't!" Caroline exclaimed, but it was too late. The scarf shifted enough to reveal a large bite mark.

I pushed Elena out of the way to look at it closer.

"Caroline, what happened?"

But I knew what happened, I just didn't want to believe it and now, seeing it made it real.

"Nothing, okay?!" She said, still frantically trying to cover it back up.

"That is not nothing! Did Damon do that to you?" I asked, looking my sister in the eyes. I needed to know how far gone she was.

"No! Of course not! Just leave me alone."

Elena pulled down Caroline's shawl, revealing another bite mark on her back.

"I'm gonna kill him." I walked out of the bathroom ignoring Caroline's pleas to stop. After seeing those marks on Caroline I was seeing red. I was furious at Damon, and I was furious at myself for allowing her to get marked like that. All thoughts of caution flew out the window. Caroline was hurt and I could have stopped it if only I had stepped in sooner.

I found Damon outside and marched right up to him. When I got close enough I pushed him. He didn't move and it allowed him to grab onto my wrists.

"You are so lucky I don't have my flute on hand. I saw what you did to Caroline...What the hell is wrong with you? You better stay away from her, or I'm going to our mother, the sheriff."

"Charlotte," Damon said lowly, his grip on my wrists tightening. "Maybe we should talk elsewhere, in private."

"No, I'm not going anywhere with you—" My protests were useless though because Damon was a lot stronger than me and he was dragging me along behind him. He was taking me to the front of the house were there weren't any people around. He turned me around to face him, his grip on my arms keeping me in place.

"You drive me crazy, you know that? There's something familiar about you, reminding me of everything I've lost a long time ago. Which doesn't make any sense, because you're someone so completely different. Do you have any idea how frustrating that is? Worse, I can't compel you and I don't know why. Are you on vervain? Are you a witch?" He was shaking me now and it scared me.

"Damon I don't even know what you're talking about!" I lied.

He turned me around again so my back was to him. His arms went to my waist and his nose brushed the hair off my neck.

"Maybe it's better if I just end this torment now." He whispered. I knew what was coming.

"Please don't do this…"

I let out a scream as I felt his fangs puncture my neck. A hot burning sensation flared up at the bite and suddenly Damon let me go, a startled scream leaving his lips.

"What the hell? What are you?" He said between pained coughs.

I fell to the ground next to Damon. He was hunched over, sounds of pain still emitting from him. His face looked scarred and burned. The next moment Stefan was there, injecting Damon's neck with something that knocked him out.

"I'm sorry Charlie, I didn't think Damon would…" Stefan's apology died in his throat as he looked at me. From the corner of my eye I could see a glowing light fading from where Damon bit me.

"What's happening to me Stefan?" I asked, feeling lost.

I gingerly felt where Damon had bit me but there was nothing there, just my unblemished skin. There wasn't even any blood despite feeling Damon bite me hard.

"I don't know Charlie. Please don't say anything about this...We can talk later, but first I have to get Damon out of here."

I nodded and watched, amazed, as Stefan lifted Damon and then sped away faster than my eyes could track. Perhaps I've been wrong about Stefan, just as I was wrong about Damon. On the ground where Damon had fallen was a yellow crystal necklace. I pocketed it. It looked familiar, although I couldn't quite place where I'd seen it before.