Chapter 7: I'm sorry, Claire.

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I found Jeremy at his locker, two days later, and he seemed… fine. "Jeremy?" He turned his head toward me with a smile. "You ok? I talked with Vicki yesterday…"

"Yeah, thanks, Claire. I'm fine, I'll miss her, but I think it's for the best." He smiled softly at me and I could only blink at him.

"Didn't you… want to go with her?"

His smile dropped for half a second but it was back quickly. That was eerie, was he really the same kid I heard pleading with Vicki last night?

"I've thought about that but I can't just leave my family behind for a girl. Everything will be fine. I think it's for the best."

"O...kay..." I looked at him for a second before shaking my head and turning around. I was starting to walk toward my English class when I fully registered his words.

Oh, no… She didn't.

"Jeremy," I called after him when I saw him at the end of the corridor. "Sorry if I seem persistent but," I jogged toward him. "Be honest, what do you think about Vicki's departure?"

He has this disturbing soft smile again, "I think it's for the best."

"Yeah, you're probably right…" I smiled at him sadly.

He resumed his walk and I took the direction of my English class again. She did it.


My last class was History and since my teacher was… Well, dead, I just went home.

When I was finally alone in my room, I took out my phone and called Vicki.

"Hey, what's up? Enjoying yourself?" I asked with fake cheerfulness.

"Ha. Ha. That's hilarious, Claire. Enzo is still not here, and I'm stuck in my room because of the sun," she sighed and I heard the sound of a fridge door opening. "Thankfully, I still have blood."

"Enzo should be there by tonight, Vic, I'm sorry that took so long…" Enzo wanted to find a daylight ring before coming, and he had to do a little bit of persuasion to some of his witches'... friends.

"Hey, at least I will have a ring, right?" I could sense the shift in her mood when she talked next. "So… Have you seen Matt and Jeremy?"

And there was the one subject I hoped to avoid, but I knew it was inevitable. "Yeah… Matt was fine, sad but he seemed to understand why you did it. Even if he said he missed you already."

I was sure being separated will do good for both of them, though. But that wasn't the kind of thing she needed to hear right now.

"And… Jeremy?" I heard her nervous tone and my heart clenched because I couldn't really hide it from her.

"He thinks it's for the best but—"

"I suspected it, you know," she cut me before I could finish. "I'm not really girlfriend-material, even more for someone like Jeremy."

"No, Vicki, you don't understand. He said, and I quote, 'I think it's for the best' three times in our conversation. We talked for five minutes, top."

She stayed silent while the information made its way. "You think…"

"I think Elena asked someone to compel him. Stefan or Damon, I don't know, but she probably thought he would be happier like that or something, but—"

"She took his feelings away… I knew she didn't approve of me, but I didn't think it was that much," she laughed darkly. "Do you know of a way to get rid of the compulsion? It's not that I want him to suffer, it's just…"

"I'm sorry, Vic, I don't think it can be done…That seemed too strong."

"It's okay… Thanks for the news, Claire."

"You're welcome… Bye, Vic." She answered with a vague sound and cut the call. I didn't even have the time to put down my phone before it rang again.

"Caroline," I answered when I saw her name on the phone.

"Gwen is throwing a party at the Grill! How can she? I should be the one throwing a party at the Grill!"

I couldn't stop my laugh at her indignation.

"It's just a party, Caroline. It's not a big deal."

"We have to go, see what it looks like."

"Honestly, I'm not in the mood, Care, sorry. I'm just gonna take a bath and watch a movie tonight."

"You're no fun, Claire," she sighed.

"And my phone is out for the night," I told her with a chuckle. "If you get drunk, ask Bonnie to take you home." I cut the phone before she could reply.

I was so tired.


I was in the woods. How did I end up in the woods? There was fog everywhere around me. It was dark. I didn't know why I was here, nor where 'here' was.

Something moved behind the tree. A shadow.

"Someone is here?" I shouted, voice shaking.

"You have to destroy it," a woman answers me with a soft voice, walking out of the woods to face me. "You know he cannot have it."

"Who are you? How is it possible that I'm here?" I was seriously starting to freak out.

"My name is Emily Bennett," she said, and I laughed nervously. She was who, now? "We're in your head, it was easy to enter; your soul is marked by death."

"My— What?" I didn't even know what should've freaked me out the most. "What do you want from me?"

"My necklace. You need to destroy it, Damon can't have it," she added before disappearing.

"Wait!"

I woke up in my bed, breathing heavily. After a while, I took the direction of the bathroom and turned on the sink to wash my face.

And I almost screamed when I saw what was around my neck. I took the necklace off quickly and hid it between the towels.

Emily, you're really scaring me.

I turned off the water and made my way to the kitchen, searching for something to eat. I stopped by Caroline's room to check if she was back on my way there.

When I opened the door, I was welcomed with the sight of my sister, sleeping in no other than Matt Donovan's arm. Okay…

That, that's none of my business.


I had another nightmare, after getting back to sleep. And I saw Emily all day long at school. I kept finding the necklace everywhere; in my locker, in my bag, in my lunch.

It was driving me crazy so, after school, I took the direction of Sheila Bennett's house.

I knocked strongly at the door and she was quick to answer.

"Claire, child, what makes you call with so much enthusiasm?"

"I need your help," I stated blandly, showing her the necklace in my hand.

"Where did you find that?" She said, looking between it and me with shock. She moved her hand toward it, but stopped before touching it.

"Can we talk inside?" I asked, looking around me before shoving back the stupid thing in my pocket.

She moved her body to let me in but didn't voice her invitation aloud. Subtle.

I got in without problems, of course, and sat on the couch, in the living room. When she closed the door and joined me, I took out the necklace and passed it to Bonnie's Grams.

"Take it back, I don't want it."

She took it almost reverently, "where did you find that, Claire?"

"I took it from Damon Salvatore, at the founder's party. You know why he wants it?"

"The tomb," she replied without blinking.

"Yeah, his deal with Emily. But now, your ancestor's ghost doesn't want him to have it. She asked me to destroy it, she said she could talk to me because…"

"Your soul is marked by death," she cut me.

"You know about that. Of course, you know about that. What does that mean exactly?" I didn't hide the fear in my tone, I didn't want to be marked by death, thank you very much.

"Don't be so scared, child, reincarnated souls are always marked by death," she said, taking softly my hand with an amused smile.

"Tell me, which one of my secrets do you not know about?" I told her, chuckling nervously.

"I'm sure there are plenty of them," she said as she stood and grabbed some candles, placing them in a circle on the table.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to destroy it," she said, looking at me from the corner of her eyes, as if she was stating something obvious. "If Emily wants it destroyed, she has her reasons."

"You can't do that!" I exclaimed and, honestly, I was the first one surprised by the amount of panic in my voice. "Sorry, it's just… I can't tell you how, I just know it but… If you do that, destroy the necklace, you will die."

She stopped her movement to look at me.

"What do you mean by that, Claire."

"You will end up helping Damon anyway, and that will kill you. You need the necklace to do the spell."

"Don't worry about that, I'll never help him. I stay away from vampires' business," she told me with a smile before resuming her work.

"Mrs. Bennett—"

"Everything will be okay, child," she told me, and the candles' flames suddenly lit up on the table. She put the necklace in the center of it.

"Don't do it, please…" I said desperately. I shouldn't have come, she was going to die if she…

"Incendia," she whispered, and the stone of the necklace exploded.

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Two weeks later, my phone rang in the middle of the night. It was Sheila.

"I'm sorry, Claire. I should have listened," was the only thing she said before cutting the call.

The next day, all towns knew about the sudden death of Sheila Bennett.


Caroline entered the house upset, closing the front door with a bang before crashing on the couch beside me.

"Hey, sister of mine. What's up?"

"I broke up with Matt."

"You… What?" Caroline and Matt were together for, like, a month, top. What in hell and heaven happened for them to break up that quickly? "You know what? We didn't have a sister night in ages, we should do that right now, okay? You, me, my bed, and ice creams."

"Claire, it's two in the morning…" She said with an incredulous laugh.

"And we don't have school tomorrow, mom is at work, and we have a lot of things we need to share. I know I have."

"Okay, but you go first!" She relented, following me in the kitchen.

"I don't think it's a good idea. Better begin with normal teenagers' problems."

She looked at me with her eyebrows raised while we went to my room.

"Of course, because your news are supernatural-related."

"Yeah," I crashed into my bed and looked at her with a guilty look. "I kept a lot of things from you this past month… Sorry?"

"And why did you do that, Claire?" Her tone was accusing and I winced.

"Because you and Matt— You were in a little cloud. I didn't want to bother you with all that and ruin your budding relationship. There is nothing we could really do. I don't want Elena and the Salvatores knowing that we know about them. Not yet."

"I didn't need you to ruin my relationship with him, we did that by ourselves," she pouted, digging violently in her ice cream.

"What happened exactly? I thought you were on a double date?"

"Yeah, and it felt like Matt and Elena's date."

"Ouch, that hurt."

"Don't tell me. But it isn't meant to be, right? You didn't see us dating in that show, did you? That surely means that we shouldn't be together."

"Caroline, if you want to date Matt, it's sure as hell not going to be the memories half accurate of a TV show that will stop you. Now… If you can't date him because he's still in love with Elena..."

"You see it too!" She turned toward me with hurt in her eyes. "He said she was 'just a friend' and that she will always be 'important' to him. But the truth is that he still loves her…"

"And…"

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. "And I'm not going to pass after Elena. Not anymore."

I took her in my arms and we stayed like that for a while, laying in my bed. "Okay, say it, what the big bad news."

"Huh… Remember when Vicki left?"

"Yeah, that was like, a week or so before I started dating Matt. What about that?"

"She didn't leave because of the drugs… She left because Damon turned her."

"What?!" She half-stood, looking at me with shock. "How that… How can… Why didn't you tell me?!"

"And for what? You would have told Matt? Keep it secret? You were just at the beginning of a relationship, I didn't want you to have secrets that big, so soon."

She sighed and got back in my arms, "fair enough… What else have you in your bag?"

"I've been temporarily hunted by Bonnie's ancestor until I gave the necklace to Sheila, who destroyed it."

"O-Kay…" She nodded, looking up at me. "More?"

"Remember when I told you about those vampires in the tomb? Seems like they are out, now."

"They are…" she sat and looked at me with a frown. "That, that's important, Claire! You can't hide that because you didn't want—"

"Calm down, Care, I wasn't going to hide it," I said, sitting up to face her. "It happened recently. Truth is… It happened with Sheila Bennett's death…"

"Bonnie's Grams?! What did… She's a witch, she opened it…" She muttered, remembering suddenly the details.

"And that was too much for her, she died because of that. I think… I think Bonnie is the one who convinced her to."

"Oh my God, poor Bonnie! I can't imagine what she's going through…" She whispered, putting her hand on her mouth.

"Yeah, I know… And that's not even the worse part."

She closed her eyes and let herself fall on her back. "I'm not even sure I want to hear it."

"I'm not sure I want to say it either…" I crossed my arms in front of me, using them as a shield. "It's almost time for the founder's day, and the Salvatores are in town… With the tomb open, that could only mean..."

"That it's almost time for my death…" She whispered, realizing what I was trying to say.

"I'm not letting you be turned if it's not what you want, Caroline. I promise," I said, squeezing her hand.

"I'm not against the idea of being a vampire, but… I don't think I'm all for being stuck at 17 for the rest of eternity." She turned toward me with a smile, her eyes surprisingly full of mischief. "The least that I can do is 21, imagine not being old enough to drink for all eternity!"

She laughed and I quickly joined her, breaking the tension. After a while, she turned toward me with serious eyes.

"What are we gonna do, Claire?"

I sighed before looking into her eyes. "We are gonna go to Dad's house, for his boyfriend's daughter's birthday. And we will decide what we're doing next when we get back. It's not like Mystic Falls is gonna end without us for two weeks, right?"


Well, at least everything was still standing.

Being at our dad's had been nice, we had been out of Mystic Falls dramas for a while, but we had to come back. Just in time for Miss Mystic Falls, too.

"I don't know why I'm here, I don't even participate," I whined at Caroline, standing beside her in her changing room for the contest, in the Lockwood's house.

"You're my moral support. When I think I have to dance with a boring replacement… Just because I was stupid enough to break up with my boyfriend two weeks before the contest."

"Why? You would have waited if you had remembered the contest?" I punched her in the arm playfully.

"Well…" She put her finger on her chin like she was seriously wondering it. "No, don't worth it!"

"But seriously, didn't you say Matt was going to come anyway?" I'm almost sure she had mentioned something like that. Funny enough, Matt and Caroline stayed close after their break up, so much that I was sure to be the only one who knew that they had broken up.

"Yeah, he was, but he had work and I can't really make him miss it if we are not a couple anymore… But, anyway, you have to go downstairs or you will miss my introduction!"

"I'm going, I'm going!" I said before leaving.

"Hey, Jenna! Mr. Saltzman," I said with a smile. They were standing together in front of the doors.

"Please, Claire, call me Ric," he smiled at me politely.

"Huh, okay, Ric," I replied with a smile of my own.

"So, Claire, Caroline dragged you here?"

"You said it, not me."

We were cut by the introduction of the girls, and the couples crossed the doors one by one.

I couldn't help the smile that twisted my lips when I saw Elena at Damon's arm. Honestly? I was afraid I changed that. Ann was a big Delena shipper, even when she disliked the girl, and I had seen this scene with her a hundred times already, and I was waiting impatiently to see it for real.

'The Delena scene', she had said.

"What is she doing with Damon?" Jenna asked from beside me.

"I have no idea," Alaric muttered, leaning toward her.

"Me neither," I added jokingly, "but, man, I wish I brought popcorn!"

"Claire!" Jenna whispered accusingly, but I knew she was thinking something in the same line. "You love dramas too much, young lady."

"You think like me Jenna, and you know it… Oh, by the way, we totally need to drink tea together, we haven't done that in ages, we have so much to catch up on."

"Oh yes, it's been too long! Let's say the coming Saturday morning, at the Grill?" She asked me with a smile.

"That's a date," I answered as the dance finished, following the crowd inside and letting Jenna with my History teacher; Ric, the vampires' hunter.


Saturday came quickly, and I found Jenna waiting for me beside her car, in front of the Grill. I hugged her quickly and she sighed

"You're late."

"You know I hate waiting, I much prefer when people wait for me," I replied, only half-joking. That was partly true, in fact. She hit my arm with a smile and we entered the building.

"I didn't want to see you just for a tea…" I began when we were both sitting in a booth. "You know that, Jen'…"

"It's never just for a tea, Claire," she said, smiling, and I knew she wasn't mad. That was a part of our meeting; we shared a tea when she broke up with Logan the first time, after my first break up, or when my parents divorced. "What is on your heart?"

Matt was at our table before I could begin, though. "Hey Jenna, Claire, what can I get you?"

"A teapot of Earl Grey and a jug of milk, please," I ordered and looked toward Jenna, who nodded with a smile. "You really need more tea on the menu, you know?"

He just smiled indulgently, that wasn't the first time I said that, and probably not the last either.

"I will be back," he said, making his way to the kitchen.

"Jenna… Have you noticed, lately, how Elena was more…" I trailed off, not knowing how to describe it.

"Secretive, nervous, lying… Yeah, I have. Why do you ask? Did it have something to do with what you want to say?"

"Well… Yes, it has everything to do with that…"

"I'm all ears," she told me, looking at me with interest.

"You will think I'm crazy but… Remember those stories Miranda would tell you about when you were a kid?"

"How do you know about that?"

"My dad used to tell me about them, too. It's a founding family thing. I guess Miranda took them from Grayson…" I shut up when I saw Matt coming our way.

"Here are your tea, ladies," he smiled before going to his next clients.

"What about those stories? That just horror tales about vampires, Grayson's ancestors were fantasy writers."

"Yeah… The thing is, it's not just tales," I said quietly, looking around if either of the Salvatore were there. Not seeing them, I continue under the incredulous look of Jenna. "Vampires are real, Jenna. And Elena knows about it," I paused, looking at her but she didn't react. "She chose to hide it from you because she thinks she is protecting you, but I think that it's not really a protection."

She blinked at me, "it's a joke? Claire, it's not funny." She made a move to stand but I grabbed her hand.

"I swear it's not, Jenna. I have to tell you, you're important to me and I want you to be able to protect yourself. It's like… Being in a room without windows, in the middle of a storm. You don't know there is a storm, but if it moves a little too close, you're dead. Vampires are around you, if you don't know that, you can't protect yourself," I pleaded, the faded memory of her death turning in my head.

"You can prove it? It's not that I don't trust you, Claire, I do. But this is something relatively… Unbelievable."

"Right now, no I can't," I wasn't going to bring up Mikael's video, that was something that won't get out until the Originals get in town, at the very least. "But you can come with me at my house, and I can Skype a friend of mine who… is a vampire."

"You're friend with a…" she stuttered, blinking quickly before sighing. "Why am I not surprised?"

I chuckled at her exasperated tone. "Do you want to go now, or hear the rest of the story first?"

"Because there is more? Okay, you know what," she took a sip of her tea and added sugar. "What about we finish our tea while you tell me more, and I act like I actually believe you? After that, we will call your… vampire friend," she shook her head, probably not believing she actually said that.

So, I told her about Elena and her doppelgänger, about the Salvatores being bloodsuckers, about the secret counsel, and about Alaric and his dead-but-not-really-dead wife.


A/N: Hey! Here is the next chapter! It was almost just sort of explanation but, I swear, it began to move by the end of next chapter! Hope you loved it anyway! Thanks for your reviews, I love hearing from you! Don't hesitate to tell me what you think!

Stay Safe!

XxxX Miss Dragonish