Stefan suggested they head back to his house after giving The Grill a quick look around. He didn't trust them staying there, especially with Elena out in the open. If this man mistook Elowen for Katherine, he'd definitely think Elena was her.
"So, you didn't recognize him, you've never seen him before and you didn't even get a hit off of him? I don't like the sound of that."
They'd just parked in front of the boarding house. Elowen shook her head.
"Neither do I." There was a pause, followed by a very long, drawn out sigh. "Tonight was supposed to be normal," she said in a quiet voice.
"Hey, hey." Stefan leaned over the seat to cup her face in his hand. "It still can be. One little supernatural hiccup isn't gonna stop us. Okay?"
Elowen reluctantly nodded her head. Stefan gave her a reassuring smile and pecked her lips. A few seconds later, there were headlights behind them, signaling that the others had caught up to them.
"Now c'mon. Onwards into the normal, human Friday night. This can wait until tomorrow."
Meeting up on the porch, Josiah leaned over for Elowen to get him up to date. When she was done, Stefan was unlocking the front door and letting everyone in.
"Man, I've always wanted to see what it looked like in this place," Matt said in awe as he took in the house decor.
"Yeah, I guess it's a bit much," replied Stefan.
"My entire house could fit in here. Like twice."
"So, what should we do now that we're here?" Elena wondered aloud. "Watch a movie?"
"Why would we do that when they have a whole bar to raid in the next room?" Caroline had gone off and investigated when no one else was paying attention. Elowen and Josiah exchanged looks, but thankfully Matt changed the subject without realizing it.
"Whoa, these are great!" He'd spotted Stefan's miniature car collection. Stefan walked up behind him.
"This is uhh…. A little hobby of mine."
"I did the entire Mustang series when I was 9."
"You like cars?"
"That's an understatement."
Stefan's lips quirked into a smug smirk, as if he knew something Matt didn't. He probably did. "Come with me."
They found themselves inside the garage. Elowen had never been in this part of the boarding house before, so she was quite curious as to what this could be.
"Prepare yourself, my friend." Stefan pulled back a tarp, revealing a classic, bright red car in mint condition. Matt gawked at the vehicle.
"How do you even have this?"
Stefan shrugged. "It was passed through the family." He opened the driver's side so Matt could take a better look at the interior.
"Why don't you… I mean, why don't you drive it?"
"It doesn't run anymore. Not that I could figure it out."
"Why do you keep a car that doesn't run?" Caroline asked, crossing her arms. It was mainly rhetorical, but Matt gave her a reply anyway.
"Can you be any more of a girl right now?"
"Hey," chided Josiah. "Tone down the sexist stereotype there, alright?" He protectively wrapped an arm around Caroline and drew her closer. She grinned and leaned into the warmth of his body.
Matt and Stefan had gone to the hood of the car and popped it open so they could look inside. Out of the corner of her eye, Elowen noticed Elena's phone light up with a text notification. It normally wouldn't catch her attention, except Bonnie's name flashed on the screen.
"Bonnie's talking to you?" She asked, her voice hopeful. If she were talking to Elena, maybe that would mean she might reach out to her. Elena jumped and hid her phone away, turning around as if she had been caught.
"No," she answered quickly. Elowen narrowed her eyes. Elena squirmed under her gaze, becoming uncomfortable enough for Elowen to snatch her phone away. Elena tried to lunge to get her phone back, but Elowen had already seen the text.
No, I don't wanna talk to Elowen. I don't even want her knowing I'm talking to you, so don't say anything.
Elena's phone chimed with another message.
Idk why you would even ask me that. It was her involvement with Stefan and Damon that got Gram's killed.
The phone dinged one more time.
Look, can we change the subject? How's the playdate going?
Elowen's eyes stung with unshed tears. She blinked them away and handed Elena her phone back, who shot her an apologetic look.
"Elowen…" she tried to say, but Elowen shook her head.
"Don't worry about it." She swallowed her feelings down and forced herself to smile. "I just need some air."
Elena tried to go after her, but Caroline put a hand on her chest to stop her. She glanced at Stefan and Matt, who had stopped their work. Her and Stefan shared a nod. Josiah let go of her waist so she could leave.
"Stay here," she told Elena. "You'll only make it worse."
When Caroline had caught up with Elowen, she was a couple of yards away, quietly staring out at the woods with her arms crossed.
"Y'know…." She started when Caroline was close enough. "I just want Bonnie to tell me that stuff to my face. I can handle it better that way." She faced Caroline. "Is she talking to you, too?"
Caroline shook her head. "No. I'm not really surprised, either. We all claim to be best friends, but it's obvious Elena and Bonnie are closer." She shrugged. "I'm Elena's Bonnie backup."
Elowen gave a bitter chuckle. "And I'm Bonnie's Elena backup. Or at least, I was."
"For the record, I don't think Gram's death was your fault. Bonnie was wrong to accuse you of that."
"Yeah…. I guess," she mumbled.
"You have to be more confident about it. If you say it enough times, eventually you trick your brain into thinking it's true. Trust me, I'm the master of that. Repeat after me: It wasn't my fault."
"... It wasn't my fault," Elowen echoed after a hesitant pause.
"Good. Again," Caroline instructed.
"It wasn't my fault." This time, her voice was much steadier and believable.
"Better!" Caroline praised. "Again!"
"It wasn't my fault." Now she was much more assertive, her voice growing in volume.
"Let the world now! Scream it out!"
"It wasn't my fault!" She yelled out towards the sky. She was panting slightly from the surge of emotions. It felt as if everything went still in that moment. Caroline smiled at Elowen.
"Better?"
"... Yeah, actually," she breathed. "Thanks."
"Anytime."
The two hugged each other tightly, only breaking apart because the sound of a car approached them. Matt and Stefan both got out of the car, with Elena and Josiah trailing behind it. Elena looked like a kid who'd just been caught stealing from a cookie jar. Her arms were crossed and there was a good gap between her and Josiah, although judging by Josiah's unbothered demeanor, there was nothing a matter on his end.
Stefan tossed Matt the keys.
"Why don't you take it out for a spin? You fixed it, after all."
"Wait, seriously?" Matt looked down at the keys, wide eyed.
"Yeah, go for it."
Matt glanced at Elena, then Elowen. He cleared his throat to gain Elena's attention. "Hey… why don't you come with? For old time's sake?"
"Uhh… sure," she agreed, nodding her head. They got into the car and Matt started it back up. The four of them watched as the car drove off. Stefan wrapped his arms around Elowen.
"How are we feeling? Should we call it a night?" He asked. She shook her head.
"No," she answered softly. "Friend drama is normal, right?"
"Yeah, but it was drama about something wiggy," Josiah said without much thought. Caroline elbowed him in the ribs. He clutched the area in pain.
"You're right, friend drama is normal," Caroline stressed. "No matter what it's about. Right?" She asked Josiah through clenched teeth, who gave a very pained hum of approval.
Elowen cracked a smile at the scene in front of her. "Come on. We should head inside. It's starting to get cold."
As vampires only really need blood to survive, the boarding house was severely understocked. Most of the human food that had been there from when Zach was alive had turned sour, so there wasn't much to choose from. They did, however, find a box of hot chocolate packets and some unspoiled bread, so they made do with PB&J's (Caroline also found untouched oranges that were surprisingly still good).
Full and warm from their (very pathetic) dinner, they were all sprawled out in the living room. Elowen was lying on the ground, Josiah was upside down on the couch, Caroline was next to him (sitting upright) and Stefan was sitting next to Elowen, leaning against the armchair.
"Thank you," Elowen said out of nowhere. "I really needed this."
"No duh." Josiah shifted around to look at his sister without giving himself a headache. "Never thought I'd say this, but I hate seeing you… so….. Miserable."
Elowen shot him a glare, thinking he was maybe joking, but Josiah quickly shook his head at her look. He slid onto the floor and sat with his legs crossed to talk to her better.
"I'm serious. You're my big sister. You get on my nerves and sometimes you're too overprotective, but we're family. After everything we've been through, the last thing I want is for you to be unhappy." He gracefully switched to Spanish at the end and lowered his voice, as to make it a bit more personal for both of them. Stefan and Caroline still felt like they were intruding on something and awkwardly looked elsewhere.
Elowen was able to see them in the corner of her eye and laughed. "We're done being sappy. You can look now."
They all shared a round of laughter together, but it was broken by a loud yell that was coming from the front door.
"Mom?!"
"Kelly?!"
Without a word, the four rushed to see what the commotion was about. They found Damon, Matt and Elena just as Kelly scurried out the door. It wasn't that hard to figure out what happened.
"I-I've gotta…." Matt trailed off, taking a step back towards the door. He tossed Stefan the car keys and left the same way Kelly had. The rest turned to glower at Damon, who took a sip from his glass as if nothing had happened.
Figuring out how everyone was getting home turned out to be a little difficult. Elena and Caroline didn't really want to be around Damon, but since Josiah had come with Caroline, he had to decide on whether to go home with her or Elowen. And since the mysterious guy who knew Katherine was still lurking somewhere, Stefan worried about letting Elena go by herself.
In the end, Elowen convinced Stefan that Elena would be fine. Since the words came from her and everything she said usually was right, he let Elena leave on her own. Josiah, on the other hand, was torn. He wanted to make sure Caroline got home safely, but at the same time, was also worrying about the Katherine dude. What if he tried to attack Elowen on her way home? Eventually, Stefan assured him that he'd go home with her. They said their goodbyes and everyone parted ways.
Elowen and Stefan went back into the house and found Damon making himself another drink. He looked up and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. I already can't stand Stefan's judgyness, I don't need yours, too."
"Are you crazy?" Stefan asked anyway, taking a step towards him.
"Save the lecture. Look-"
Damon was cut off by the vampire from The Grill crashing through the window. Stefan just barely had enough time to push Elowen out of the way as he was pinned to the ground and stabbed with a shard of glass. Damon acted quickly, pushing the vampire off before he could do anymore damage. Another vampire, this time female, zipped through the broken window as Stefan removed the glass. She threw him across the room and used her enhanced speed to break a leg off a nearby chair.
Elowen, disoriented by the sudden push and collision into the ground, stumbled into the wall as she picked herself up. The first thing she saw was Damon fighting with the first vampire. Seeing that he was alright, she looked for Stefan. The second vampire was approaching him with the makeshift stake in hand. She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and yanked him up to his feet. Just as she lifted the stake, Elowen was able to grab her bearings enough to lift her hand to cast the pain infliction spell. She dropped the stake in favor of pressing her palms to her temples.
Stefan used this opportunity to seize the weapon and stake her in the heart instead. Her skin turned grey and she dropped to the floor. The male vampire went sailing into a nearby wall and landed with a loud thud. When he got back to his feet, he noticed his friend on the ground, dead. He fled the room a second later.
"Damn it," cursed Damon.
"I recognize them," Stefan remarked breathlessly. "They were in the tomb."
"Yeah…. About that," drawled Damon.
Elowen sighed loudly when she saw his face. "Welp, there goes my normal night."