Episode 6: Party at the Boarding House

"Be with me always—take any form— drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!"

—Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Mystic Falls, 1864

I hadn't seen Katerina Petrova in 372 years. I almost couldn't believe she was still alive. She was alone in the guest bedroom, and it was my duty to see if the lady needed anything more from the Salvatores.

"Katerina." It was just barely above a whisper, but she jolted to attention as if I had yelled it. Within the blink of an eye she was in front of me.

"Do I know you? Are you working for Klaus?" She asked, paranoid.

"No, no, it's me Katerina, your sister. It's Viktoria." I said in Bulgarian.

Suddenly Katerina's hand was at my throat, she started with just a light squeeze; a warning.

"Please, clover, you don't look anything like my sister. Now how do you know about me and Tori?"

"Because I am her! Maybe not on the outside, but look into my eyes and see that my soul is the same."

Kat looked me in the eyes, whatever she saw there must have been good enough because she released me.

"Impossible." She said in her native bulgarian.

Mystic Falls, 2009

I awoke on the most comfortable bed I had ever been in and it most definitely wasn't my own. I was wearing a t-shirt that wasn't mine. Luckily, I was still wearing the bikini and shorts I wore to the car wash underneath the new shirt. My phone, which I had in my back pocket, was missing. I got out of bed and walked around the room. There was a pile of books next to the bed. I shifted through the top ones: Wuthering Heights, Call of the Wild, Interview with a Vampire.

I took in my surroundings, the large bed, the tall windows, the woods outside, the generous fireplace, I assumed I was still at the Salvatore Boarding House.

The events that occurred before I lost consciousness were a bit of a blur. I remembered following Caroline to the Boarding House. I remember seeing Damon locked in the basement. Then things get hazy. I remember the anxiety of trying to keep Damon in his cell. There was a flash of my hand on fire, but the fire hadn't hurt.

I looked at my hands and I tried to recreate the sensation of them lighting up. My head started to hurt, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when I tried to keep Damon from eating Zach and Caroline. Warmth rose up from my core and traveled through my body, up my spine to my fingers, and then I felt that warmth burning only in my hands. I raised my hands as they started to glow, just as I saw them do yesterday, wisps of fire trailed behind my hands as they moved like a comet flying through space.

"So you're getting the hang of your witchy mojo." Damon said from the doorframe. I dropped my hands and the warmth left them. The pressure in my head was relieved too.

I took a breath, hiding my nervousness, "I don't think I'm a witch."

"Right, you're just the reincarnation of my long lost love. Because that's not too convenient." He said sarcastically.

"Have you met you lately? It's really not," I countered. "Obviously you heard me and Stefan talking."

He pointed to his ears.

"Just because I was desiccating in the basement doesn't mean I didn't still have vampire hearing."

"And you don't think it's possible? That even after dying, Maggie's soul was reborn."

"I think it's a lot less likely than you being a witch. So that's what I'm putting my money on."

"That's ridiculous. So Elena can share a face with Katerina, but I can't share a soul with Maggie."

"Pretty much. And her name was Katherine."

"Originally it was Katerina Petrova." Deciding to follow my dreams lead I said, "Look me in the eyes, Damon. Look into the windows of my soul, and if you can't see any part of Maggie there, I'll drop it."

Damon placed his hands on either side of my face, they felt cold and I wondered briefly if touching me warmed them. We stared into each other's eyes, on the outside Damon looked as young as the day he died but in his eyes I could see his age. There was a flicker of emotion in his eyes as Damon stared into me, but he quickly masked it.

"Nope. Nothing." He let my face go and a part of me felt empty.

"You're lying, but fine, whatever. Thanks for not killing me in my sleep, but I'm heading out." I said, masking my own feelings as I walked past him. I had just gotten to the bottom of the stairs when Damon flashed in front of me.

"Woah woah woah. Not so hasty. Stay. enjoy the party."

"First, I don't want to. Second, I can't. Who knows how long I've been gone, I'm sure my mom already sent out an amber alert. I don't even know where my phone is."

"Don't worry about that, already taken care of." Damon held up my phone by his fingertips. I snatched it from him, walking a few feet away as I did so, and looked to see what he meant by 'taken care of'.

In my text history Damon had apparently texted Caroline yesterday, 'staying out. Cover for me? ;)'. And Caroline had replied, 'k details later ;)'.

"I wonder if she'd be so complacent if I asked her to help me cover up a murder." I muttered.

"Probably," Damon said from his place by the stairs.

I turned around to face him.

"So she doesn't remember anything that happened yesterday, like at all?"

"Nope," Damon popped the 'p'.

"And what happened to Zach?" I asked, worried.

"Not sure. He ran out of the house, if I'm lucky he left town entirely. Living to be a thorn in my side another day." Damon answered, stepping closer to me as he did. I was relieved to know that I had bought Zach enough time to get out.

"Why do you want me to stay?" I asked searchingly.

"The leverage. Stefan stole my daylight ring. I need it back."

"Let me think about it." I feigned considering it and swiftly replied, "No, thanks. Bye."

I turned away again to leave but I was stopped by the sound of a door closing upstairs. I turned to see Vicki Donovan in a tank top and underwear walking by the upstairs banister.

"Oh, man. That shower was so great." Vicki said, towel drying her hair as she came downstairs.

"Vicki's here too?" I said, eyebrow raised.

Vicki stopped to look in a mirror and noticed the bite mark was gone.

"What did you give me?" she asked.

"Some blood. You loved it." Damon replied, ignoring me.

"I did?" Vicki said, "Wait. I'm confused. How did we get here?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know why she's here too." I looked to Damon expectantly.

"We met in the woods. You were drunk. I attacked you. Then I killed all of your friends and brought you here, gave you some blood. You loved it. And now we're gonna party till the sun goes down."

"Vicki, we should really go." I said.

"Don't be such a wet blanket, I want to party."

"Yeah Charlie, loosen up, don't be a wet blanket." Damon mocked.

I walked up to Damon and whispered, "If I stay, you don't kill Vicki."

"No promises." He whispered back, "but if you go, I definitely will."

"Fine," I ground out, "I'll stay."

"Um, but first, can I have another hit?" Vicki asked Damon. "That blood was so good."

"Only if I can." He replied. He bit into his own wrist and gave it to Vicki, with her lips on his wound Damon bit into Vicki's wrist and drank from there. It was all very creepy and I had to look away.

"You should try it," Vicki said, wiping off the blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. "It's the good shit. Might make you less of a prude."

"I'm okay. Thanks." I noticed the Salvatore's piano and sat down. My fingers flittered above the keys. I guess if you can't leave 'em, join 'em. "Can't have a party without music. Hey, Vicki guess the tune." I started playing Katy Perry's Hot n Cold.

"Oh, I love this song." Vicki started singing the words, off-key, as she danced.

Damon took a seat next to me on the piano bench. As my song ended he started playing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by The Beatles. I started singing along at the chorus. Vicki and found t he Salvatore's radio and once his song ended she turned it on.

Damon turned to me on the bench, "I didn't realize you were a fan of the 'classics'."

"Please, I'm a huge music nerd. Of course I know The Beatles." I watched Vicki dancing around in her tank top and underwear and realized I was severely missing something from this equation. "Hey where's the liquor cabinet? If I'm gonna be stuck here I need a drink stat." I got up from the bench and looked around for the bar I saw the last time I was at the Salvatore House.

"I hope you like whiskey." Damon said, suddenly by my side with a bottle of bourbon and two glasses already filled.

"I'm a teenager, Damon. I like anything that gets me drunk." I said as I took one of the glasses and slid its contents down my throat. The burn of the alcohol feeling unusually pleasant.

Half an hour and five shots later all three of us were dancing all over the Salvatore's living room. The music system was turned up so we could hear it anywhere in the house. After the third or fourth shot, I had thrown the borrowed shirt off so that I was dancing in just my bikini and shorts. At some point Damon had unbuttoned his shirt, or maybe Vicki and I had done that for him. Either way he was shirtless and every so often as we danced our skin would brush against each other, sending my alcohol addled mind back to 1863 when Damon and Maggie were together.

Eventually it became too much and I had to sit down on the couch.

Vicki was still dancing and jumping around the Salvatore's living room and talking about how she was so over Tyler and how she liked Jeremy now. Damon managed to seem vaguely interested. It was nothing new to me; ever since Elena ran into Vicki in her bathroom, Elena couldn't stop bringing up Jeremy and Vicki hooking up.

While she ranted I grabbed a candle sitting on the Salvatore's coffee table. Wanting to try something, I concentrated on the candle's wick.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked. Nothing had happened to the candle.

"What was it you said earlier? Oh, yeah, getting a hang of my witchy mojo. I'm trying to light the candle with my mind."

"Well, you're doing a piss poor job it." He replied. Huffing, I placed the candle back done.

"You can start fires with your mind?" Vicki snorted, "Makes sense, you were always the weirder Forbes sister."

"I can't," I said, "yet."

This time I pointed my finger at the wick and concentrated on sending that same warmth I recreated that morning out through my finger tip and to the candle.

"You look constipated." Vicki commented.

An annoyed anger ripped through me and fire shot out of my hand, lighting both the candle and the fire place across the room.

"Whoops." I said, sheepishly.

"That was actually kinda cool, Forbes." Vicki said, taking another sip of bourbon straight from the bottle.

"Okay. Enough of that." Damon said, blowing out the candle.

"Agreed." I took the bottle from Vicki and took my own generous sip.

"Hey, why don't you have a girlfriend?" Vicki asked Damon, "You're, like, totally cool and so hot."

"I know." He said, winking at me.

"It's because he's an asshole, Vicki." I said, crushing his ego. Damon's smile slipped into a slight frown. "He was dating Caroline remember? But he majorly screwed that up."

Damon rolled his eyes, "It's not like that was going anywhere."

"Don't you wanna be in love?" Vicki asked, and despite everything, I found myself greatly interested in the answer.

"I've been in love." Damon stated, "It's painful and pointless and overrated."

Flashes of Maggie watching Damon and Kat kissing when they thought no one was looking, I could feel her pain as freshly as if it was my own. Perhaps Damon had a point. I took another swig of whiskey.

"Except when it isn't." Vicki replied with unexpected wisdom.

"No more talking. Let's dance." Damon dipped Vicki and when he stood her up he spun her away. He lifted me off the couch, catching me as I stumbled, his hand feeling cool on my warm back, and started dancing with me. Soon we were all dancing together again and I could forget my worries because I was actually having fun in my captivity. Or I was just really drunk.

Damon jumped onto the second floor banister and started dancing there. Vicki and I laughed, amused and followed him up to the second floor. He went into one of the bed rooms and started pulling books off the bookcases. Vicki ran to the bed, jumping on it and throwing all the pillows and blankets on the floor.

I picked up one of the fallen books, which looked like a journal dating back to the forties.

"Who's room is this?" I asked.

"Stefan's." Damon said, knocking down more books.

"Whose room was I in when I woke up?"

"Mine." My drunken mind went to all sorts of dirty places. I think Damon could tell because his eyes grew dark, but like in that sexy kind of way. "I know, not the way I imagined getting you into my bed either." He said, his hand reaching for my waist.

Clearing my throat I chose to ignore that and stepped over to Stefan's desk and with a great sweeping motion of my arms I knocked everything off. I laughed in the face of the mess we made, dissolving into a fit giggles that was joined by both Vicki and Damon.

Something I'd thrown on the floor must have caught Damon's attention because he picked it up. His stare hardened as he looked at the picture, it was of Katherine. I covered her face with my hand, making Damon look at me.

"Hey, she's not here right now, Okay? So stop thinking about her." I took the picture and threw it back on the floor behind me. "Now dance with me," I commanded. The music changed into a slow song. With my arms circled around his neck and his hands on my back as if in a hug, we swayed to the song. I rested my head on his shoulder. One of Damon's hands was stroking my hair.

"This is nice." I said, my drunken mind unable to keep my thoughts contained. "Stefan's right, you really aren't the monster you pretend to be."

"What?" Damon breathed, the hand at my hair tugged at the strands forcing me to look back at him.

"My mom spends most of her time in Virginia beach with Pete." Vicki said suddenly, not reading the room at all. She was sprawled out on Stefan's bare bed. The interruption was just what I needed to get out of Damon's hold. "He drives trucks." She continued. "I don't remember my dad, but from what I gather, he's not worth remembering." Vicki finished, tears trailing down her face. I felt sad for her, I was angry with my dad for lying and leaving us, but at least I knew him. I still had good memories of my dad, Vicki didn't have any.

"Your life is so pathetic." Damon said without an ounce of sympathy.

"Yeah. I mean, I'm the screwed-up one. Matt's got it so easy. He's the golden boy. I mean, he's gonna get a football scholarship and marry Elena and have a lawn mower and some babies, and when I think of my future, I just come up blank."

"You are so damaged." Damon continued, his mind seemed elsewhere.

"Yep."

"I mean, you don't have one hint of self-esteem." Damon stepped closer to her, resembling an animal stalking prey.

"Damon…" I said warily. I didn't like the look on his face.

"Nope, none."

Damon sighed at her. "I think I know what could help you."

"Damon, don't do it." I warned. I could guess what Damon was thinking. I stepped closer to Vicki, trying to get between them.

"What's that?" Vicki asked.

"Death." Damon replied. He stepped around me faster than I could blink and snapped Vicki's neck. She fell limply onto the bed.

"What the hell Damon!" I yelled. The pleasant warmth from the liquor quickly became uncomfortably hot. From my peripheral vision I could see flames around my head. It shocked Damon who took a large step back with wide eyes. The fire dissipated almost as quickly as it ignited. I was suddenly feeling very sober. "You killed a bunch of campers, Mr. Tanner, Vicki's friends and now Vicki—"

"Vicki's coming back." He said, as if that made it okay, "She died with vampire blood in her system. She's turning into a vampire."

"That doesn't make it okay!" I said angrily. Damon looked nervous, as if he expected me to burst into flames again. I took a breath and tried to calm myself, for all I knew the fire might come back. "What happened to you? I always knew you were kind of an asshole. But when did you start to care so little for other people?"

Damon grew angry and defensive. He paced up to me but stopped himself before he got too close. "Because I'm not the same guy that you see in those dreams of yours. I'm a vampire. A monster. And it's about time you realized that."

"You're not, not really." I said in denial. "You're just hurt and lashing out and pushing away everyone before they can get close enough to hurt you again. But I know you feel guilt over everything that you've done, even if you can't admit it."

"Tell me, Charlie, in those little dreams of yours have you seen the one where I killed Maggie."

"What?" I asked, shocked. I hadn't seen that. I couldn't even imagine it. They had loved each other so strongly.

"That's right. I killed Maggie. You've been operating without the full story, but I can assure you: I've always been a monster, Charlotte."

Vicki groaned as she woke up. "What happened? We were dancing, and then…"

"Damon killed you." I said, still shocked from Damon's revelation.

"What?" Vicki was still groaning as she got out of bed.

"You're dead." Damon reiterated.

"I'm dead?"

"Yeah, well, let's not make a big deal out of it." He replied flippantly. "You drank my blood, I killed you, and now you have to feed in order to complete the process."

"You're wasted" Vicki said, obviously not believing him. She grabbed some sweatpants off the floor and started heading out of the room.

Damon stopped her, "You don't wanna be out there all alone. You're about to get really freaky."

"Ok, I had a really good time. I just wanna go home."

"Vicki it's not safe for you to leave. You could hurt someone." I said, trying not to let my anger out on the girl who just died.

"She's right." Damon said, "You're gonna start craving blood, and until you get it, you're gonna feel very out of it. You have to be careful."

"Come on, move." Vicki knocked into him with her shoulder to get him to move out of her way.

"See? you're already starting to fall apart." He joked.

"And I'm going home now." She said, walking out.

"Ok, fine. I'm just warning you. Actually, you know what?" Damon said, changing his tune, "You should go. In fact, if I were you, I would stop by your boyfriend Jeremy's house."

"Yeah, whatever." Vicki said as she walked downstairs.

"Bye. Tell Elena I said hi and if you see Stefan, tell him to call me." He called after her.

I followed after Vicki, also knocking into Damon with my shoulder as I passed.

"You're leaving too?" He called after me.

"Yeah. You already killed Vicki, and I don't burn in the sun. So, bye." I wasn't in the mood to try and decipher Damon's mixed signals. He wants me to think he's a monster, but he also wants me to stay?

I followed Vicki out of the Salvatore Boarding House and when we were past the driveway I tried to stop her.

"Vicki! Hey, Vicki." I called out to her. She stopped and turned to face me, arms crossed.

"I'm not staying." She said. "What ever kinky shit you and your boyfriend are into, I'm not. I just want to chill with Jeremy."

"He's not my boyfriend," I muttered. "And I wasn't going to ask you to stay again, but you really shouldn't go home. We need to find Stefan, he can help you."

"I don't need help, Forbes. Especially from you." Vicki walked away.

Frustrated, I texted Stefan, warning him about Vicki.

"Hey, where have you been? You totally owe me for covering by the way." Caroline said as I entered our house. By the way Caroline was sprawled out in the living room, Mom wasn't around.

I debated with myself about what to tell her. It's not like I couldn't say anything, but I didn't want to lie. She'd be pissed if I told her I was with Damon without telling her why. Damon made her forget about vampires, so even if I do tell her the vampire stuff I don't know how it would affect the compulsion. I really didn't want to break my sister's brain.

So instead I told her about myself.

"Care, there's something I have to show you." I brought her up to my room and took out the journals I'd been writing in since the dreams started. "These are my dream journals. I write in them every morning about the dream I had the night before."

Caroline picked one up and opened it somewhere in the middle. She read a few pages before closing it again.

"Is this your way of telling me you want to be a writer? 'Cause I'll support you, it's pretty good."

I laughed.

"No, Care. The dreams I have, they're more like memories. That's why every entry has a place and year associated with it. They rarely come in sequence, so that's how I keep track."

"Memories… Like from a past life?"

"Past lives… There's something else I need to show you." I put my hand out, palm up, and focused on bringing the warmth there. A ball of fire erupted from my palm. I was actually impressed that I could do that now.

My sister gasped in surprise.

"H-how are you doing that?"

"I don't know. The leading theory is I'm a witch." I let the fire die out.

"God, that's crazy!" Caroline sat down on my bed, "But amazing! Does that mean I'm a witch too?"

"I don't know," I said, humoring her. I grabbed a candle from one of my shelves and handed it to her. "Try to light the candle."

Caroline's forehead crinkled in concentration on the candles wick, but nothing happened. After a few moments she gave up.

"Nope, not a witch." She said.

Stefan had texted me back, letting me know he would help Vicki and that he had finally told Elena the truth.

I went over to the Gilbert's House to check on Elena, and to let her know she wasn't alone. When I got there, I saw Damon leaving.

"Elena are you okay?" I asked. Elena had sat down on the porch. "I saw Damon. He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No. He didn't. So you know about everything?" She said, "Stefan told me."

"Yep, Vampires are real. Although I think I always knew." I said, joining Elena on the porch.

"How?"

"In my dreams. They always seemed too real. Damon thinks I'm a witch, but I don't know…Maybe I should ask Bonnie's Grams."

"Do you think Bonnie's a witch?" Elena suggested.

"The way things are going? Probably."

We laughed at the ridiculousness of our situation. Elena seemed on the brink of crying, but I knew she was stronger than she appeared.

Vampires and witches and who knows what else, the supernatural was real. It had already claimed countless victims and now it had taken someone we knew, the sister of our dear friend Matt. We didn't know how to fight the unknown, we didn't know how to protect our friends and families. All we could do was sit together on the Gilbert porch and wait for news.

Stefan arrived sometime later, his shirt was covered in blood. Elena jumped up to check his wound. But Stefan assured it he was ok.

"I couldn't stop her." Stefan informed us, "I tried."

"What does that mean?" Elena asked.

"It means Vicki's a full time vampire now." I said, "Do you know where she is?"

Stefan shook his head in guilt.

"No, I lost her. But, I'll take care of it. I'll find her, and I will show her that she can live like I do. I will make sure that she does not hurt anybody, Elena. I promise you."

"What do I tell my brother and...and Matt?"

"Vicki can call… say she's going out of town for a while." I suggested, "It wouldn't be the first time."

"So, you want us to lie?" Elena said, she was having a hard time processing all this.

"Do you want them to know Vicki's a vampire?" I asked, whispering the last part. "She died, but she's not dead. And eventually she'll be able to be around people again without wanting to drink them dry. Trust me, Matt and Jeremy? They don't want to know that part." The tension was thick between Stefan and Elena, and I realized there was no more room left for me. "I'm gonna go back home now. See you later, Elena."

Before I went home I stopped by Sheila Bennett's house. Witch or not, Bonnie's grandmother was an occult professor at Whitmore, she was the only person I could think of that might know what was happening to me.

"Charlie?" Bonnie had answered the door, "What are you doing here?"

At the sight of Bonnie, not her Grams, I felt like running away. Which was ridiculous, she was one of my best friends and strange things had been happening to her too.

"Uh— never mind, maybe I should just go—"

"Bonnie, who's at the door?" Sheila asked as she walked up. She caught my eye over Bonnie's shoulder and gasped. "It can't be." Her eyes were wide and her face had paled like she had seen a ghost. "Come here, let me get a better look." Sheila pulled me in and looked intently into my eyes. "I can't believe it, it is you."

"Grams, it's Charlie. You've known her since she was like six," Bonnie said slowly, as if worried her grandmother had lost it.

"I can't believe I never saw it before." Sheila said absentmindedly, still staring shocked at me.

"Grams, who do you think Charlie is?" Bonnie asked. She looked to me for answers but I was just as confused.

Sheila went back into her living room and picked up a picture frame from her fireplace mantel. She handed the picture to Bonnie and we both looked at it. It was an older photo, showing Sheila as a teenager next to a younger girl.

"Amanda Bennett, my sister and your great aunt. She wandered off into the forest and was never seen from again. I tried contacting her spirit a few times to no avail, but I see now it was too busy to answer."

I touched the little girl's face in the photo and flashes of memories sprang to mind: playing in the forest as my sister and I collected herbs, learning magic with Sheila and hating the lessons because I could never replicate a spell like she could.

"Grams that— that can't be right, that—" Bonnie was having a hard time forming her words.

"No, Bonnie I think she's right. I mean I don't remember exactly, I've been a lot of people, but it sounds familiar."

"I think it's time we talked over some tea." Sheila said, moving towards the kitchen.