"Oh no…" I sighed when we walked past a bunch of parked cars, the music growing louder and louder the deeper we moved into the woods. Everywhere, bonfires were lit and teenagers huddled around them to chug down beer, laugh and have fun out in the cold. Duke's annual party. "Tell me if you see a tall, douchey-looking guy," I told Damon.
"Friend of yours?" He smirked.
"Long ago." I glanced over my shoulder, hoping not to catch a glimpse of the familiar face.
"What did you do?"
"Oh, you know." I shrugged faintly, scanning the woods. "Steal a car, crash it, the usual." But with good reason! After the dickhead cheated on my – kind of – good friend Laura, he deserved it! Although I doubted he agreed with that.
"Hey, Parker!" Crap! I swung around, ready for a fight, but instead of meeting a bulldog-y face, two blondes – although Matt's hair was hidden by a gray beanie – dressed in warm clothes approached us.
"Parker! Oh my God, where have you been?" Caroline asked, just as chipper as usual. She quickly grabbed Matt's hand and intertwined their fingers; someone was clearly keen on making a certain dark-haired guy jealous. "I haven't seen you in ages!" It had been a while. The last time I actually talked to Caroline was the same night that I had first met...well. I glanced over at the devil in question.
"Long story, no time to tell it," Damon spoke beside me.
"I wasn't talking to you," Caroline retorted.
"Sure you were." Damon smirked. Caroline's eyes locked with mine, then shot into the ground.
"We haven't met. I'm Matt." Kennedy held out his hand for Damon, as a way of easing up the tension. At this point, you could cut the teenage drama with a knife.
"Matt. There's a reason we haven't met." Damon nodded towards the extended hand. "You and I are going that way," he continued and grabbed my arm, pushingly leading me away from the scene, and with a roll of my eyes I let him.
"See you later!" I called to Matt and Caroline over my shoulder. They were about to have a serious couples related conversation. When had that happened anyway? "Smooth," I added in a hushed tone to Damon, attempting to rip my arm from his grip.
"Like you weren't longing to get away from them," Damon replied, easing his grip. But as I stumbled on a branch hidden in the dark, he took a firmer hold. And didn't let go.
The noise from the party faded away, as well as the light from the fires, replaced by dark trees rising up from the soft earth.
"Well, this is cozy," I spoke. A twig snap somewhere behind us.
"Here we are," Damon answered, his hand slipping from my arm. He whistled two small tones, and four dark figures further ahead turned around to face us. "Brother. Witches," Damon greeted and nodded towards Stefan, then Bonnie and Sheila. "Ice queen," he finished for Elena, and I had to suppress a laughter that threatened to burst out, not succeeding very well. I probably received some glares for that, but it was too dark to tell.
"Everything okay?" Stefan asked me.
"Super." I stopped before the gathered little crowd, ignoring Elena's squinted gaze as I rubbed my hands together for some warmth. "Let's get this over with."
As Sheila lit torches placed all around the tomb, I watched her and Bonnie's preparations from the entrance with my arms folded, keeping a close eye on Damon and another focused on Elena. A bad feeling was settling in my stomach, spreading fast. So much could go wrong, and probably would since I hadn't been present when the plan had been drawn up.
"Air. Earth. Fire," Sheila spoke and lit the final torch. The whole scene felt a bit like a bad witch movie, summoning the four elements.
"Water." Bonnie held up a water bottle for her Grams, who then poured it out on the floor.
"That's it? Just water from the tap?" Elena sounded almost a little...disappointed. But the witch stuff usually never got any more fun than this.
"As opposed to what?" Sheila asked, continuing to empty the last drips of water onto the earthy floor.
"I just figured maybe it would have to be blessed or mystical or something," Elena mumbled. I released a chuckle from her side. Sheila just smirked at my little sister. The noise from me got strangled as I noticed Damon fiddling with something in his pocket.
"What's that?" Stefan shone his flashlight towards his brother, revealing a blood bag in Damon's hands.
"It's for Katherine. Gotta have something to get her going. Unless someone's offering up a vein to tap." Damon turned to glance over at me.
"Dream on," I spoke coldly, earning a smirk. I would definitely not miss that once he was gone, driving into the sunset with that Katherine bitch, or whatever starcrossed vampire lovers did once they were reunited.
Elena moved behind me, rubbing her arms for a little warmth.
"You okay?" I turned to check, abandoning my watch on Damon for a moment. She nodded, although not very convincingly. "Should have brought a warmer jacket," I pointed out like a proper older sister, pulling at her thin, black leather jacket. Elena shivered, casting a glance at my own dark brown one as she rearranged her scarf to warm her neck more.
"How come you're okay?" Because this wasn't my first time, and with the adrenaline building up I would barely have needed a shirt.
"We're ready," Bonnie spoke up from the floor before I could answer. With all eyes watching them, she and her Grams kneeled down next to the oh-so famous grimoire.
It felt as if we had stood there for hours, listening to Bonnie and her Grams chant in their magical language, when the flames around them finally lit up and the stone door that led into the tomb opened with a loud crack.
"It worked!" Bonnie stated with a gasp. Her exhaustion wasn't hard to miss. Considering how long that spell had lasted, it wasn't weird if it had drained her.
"Of course it worked," Sheila answered her.
"Don't you have some fires to build?" Damon said, turned to Stefan. For the other vampires within that stone door, never allowed to see the light of day of the town who doomed them.
"I'm gonna go get the gasoline, I'll be right back." Stefan gave Elena a reassuring pat on her arm before making his way towards the stair to exit the tomb. But before he headed up the stairs, some whispered words were directed in my direction. "Keep your eyes opened."
It was too quiet for Elena or the others to hear, but I was sure Damon did, as he looked directly at me when Stefan brushed past me. His gaze wandered to Bonnie and Sheila, then back to me again, to finally land on Elena.
Within the blink of an eye, he grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him unkindly. I moved to react before thinking. He was not going to put her in danger again! Once during 24 hours was more than enough! But Damon stopped me by a raise of his hand.
"Don't, Parker!" he warned. Grunting, I stayed put. There was something in his eyes telling me it best to, for once, obey. The blue orbs seemed to mirror and show just how desperately he wanted Katherine back. And what he was willing to do for it. Damon turned to the witches. "You think I'm gonna go in there by myself so you can seal me in?"
"You think I'm gonna let you take her?" I retorted for them and drew his attention back to me. There was a slight eye standoff between us, before Sheila spoke up to break it.
"I'll bring the walls down if you take her in."
"You'll bring the walls down if I don't. You think I trust you?" Damon's voice was dangerously low.
"As much as I trust you," Sheila replied, not even flinching.
"If you take her, I'll stake you myself," I spat at him through my gushing rage. Did Damon look slightly hurt by my comment, or was it just the light from the fire playing with his features? Honestly, I couldn't care. Not when he still held onto my sister with whitening knuckles.
"Enough!" Elena looked at me. "He needs leverage. He needs to know that the doors aren't gonna shut when he gets inside. I get it." I wanted to scream at her, my lips twisting from keeping back the harangue of curses. "I'll go," she finished. "Parks?" Her eyes searched my face for some kind of confirmation that I wasn't going to run in after them. If only I could find a good reason not to; besides following her wish.
With a grunt, filled with frustration, I nodded shortly.
After one final deadly glare on Damon, he grabbed a torch and went inside the tomb, my sister following with her flashlight raised. Thus, leaving me standing there like an idiot. Stomping my foot in frustration.
They were gone too long. During which my mind not only came up with horrible scenarios what could be occurring inside that tomb, but also a girl with raven black hair descended from the stairs behind me. Given who knew about the tomb and wanted in, it was presumably Anna.
"Where do you think you're going?" I uncrossed my arms, reaching for a torch. Sadly, she was faster – being a vampire – and pushed me into the rounded stone wall. The back of my head hit hard against it, and for a moment my vision blackened and the world was set spinning.
Once I'd regained my sight, she had continued moving towards the tomb. But Bonnie stepped into her way.
"Hey, you're not going in there!"
"You think you can stop me?" Anna threatened, glancing over at me to prove what would happen. I hissed, bringing a hand to press at my aching head.
"Bonnie…" Sheila spoke up, looking sharply at her grandchild. After a moment, Bonnie reluctantly stepped aside, allowing Anna to run into the tomb after she'd grabbed a flashlight from the floor.
The second her dark curls merged with the darkness, the young witch ran over to my side, offering an extended hand to help me up. With a face mirroring strained thanks, I took it whilst carefully rubbing the back of my head. It hadn't been long since Stefan 'accidently' threw me into a wall at the Gilbert house, and a stone wall hurt a lot more. Retrieving my fingers, I thankfully found them without blood. Always something.
"Why did you let her go in?" Bonnie furiously asked her Grams when she noticed I could stand upright without any support.
"Because she isn't coming out, baby. None of them are."
"Excuse me?" Maybe my hearing had been affected from my head's impact with the wall, but it almost sounded as if…
"Opening the door didn't remove the seal that keeps the vampires from coming out. It only opened the door," Sheila explained and, I swear, in that moment my heart stopped in my chest.
I had promised Damon that there would be no betrayals, I couldn't break that after what happened yesterday.
Right on time, Stefan returned. His gaze glanced around as he seemed to realize the situation. We shared a look and I shook my head. Stubborn Elena, I mouthed at him and he responded by smiling sadly. Really, I thought that would be it, but as the 'white knight' he was, Stefan ran towards the entrance of the tomb.
"Hey!" I protested loudly. If I wasn't allowed to do that, than neither was he!
Thankfully, Sheila stopped him for me by grabbing his arm. "Stefan! If you go in there, you won't come out."
Stefan's gaze flew around the room, landing on me to look for an explanation. I shook my head, it hurt way too much for me to put it reasonably for him. "What did you do?" he instead asked Sheila.
She repeated her explanation.
"What's the seal?" Stefan sounded close to panic when he stared down at the old witch.
"Some seals keep vampires from entering. This one keeps them from coming out."
"Elena's human. She can leave," Stefan made clear for himself. "Anna and Katherine can't. Damon can't." He looked over at me, but I had already figured that out. "You were never planning on breaking the spell, were you?" he asked Sheila.
"I told you." She took a step back. "I will protect my own. Elena can get out. That's all that matters."
Stefan clenched his fists, then walked over to me. "What happened?"
As I gave him a short version of the events, a sharp pain shot out from my head. As if instinctively, Stefan's hand shot to steady me.
"You okay?" He seemed more anxious than me when checking for blood around the place of the impact, but I remembered Elena mentioning he had a bit of a problem with that area. Some vampire.
But I didn't get a chance to answer, as a high-pitched scream echoed from the tomb, undoubtedly coming from my sister. Before anyone could stop him, Stefan had dashed into the darkness after it without a moment's hesitation, but Bonnie held me back from doing the same as I tried to follow. Damn! Stupid vampire-speed always won!
"I'll fix it," she whispered to me, before turning around to yell at her Grams.
They began fighting over how they weren't strong enough to perform the spell and blah, blah, blah. Truthfully, I stopped listening pretty quickly. All that mattered was that they ultimately began reading through the grimoire in search of the right spell to remove the seal.
It was whilst watching them do that, that I noticed someone with long, pin-straight hair emerge from the tomb.
"Elena!" I ran and pulled her into my embrace, simultaneously dragging her away from the entrance.
"Stefan's right behind me." She hugged me back with a glance over her shoulder. And as said, Stefan reappeared, although unable to set his foot outside the tomb. "Stefan, what are you doing?"
"It's gonna be okay. We'll fix it," Bonnie reassured. I held my sister tighter, afraid she might run back into the tomb.
"What is it?" Elena desperately tried to break free from my embrace. She stopped her struggling for a moment to look at me for some clarification.
"He can't come out. The spell's still up," I laid out carefully. Elena's head shot between me and Stefan.
"We can't get them out yet," Bonnie added.
"You went in there not knowing if you could come back out?" There were tears in Elena's eyes now. Stefan avoided her gaze. "Oh my God."
"I heard you scream," Stefan explained, his voice hoarse. Suddenly, I felt as if I was intruding on something private. My arms loosened their grip around my sister.
"We can't leave Damon in there. Not after the promises that's been made," I told Stefan over Elena's head.
"I know." He nodded.
"Even if we're able to break through the seal, we won't be able to hold it for long," Sheila informed gravely from behind us. Stefan understood, going back into the darkness of the tomb for Damon.
The magical chanting began once more. And it seemed to be working! Soon enough, Anna returned with her arm wrapped around a weak, gray-looking vampire; probably her mother.
"I just wanted my mother back. Jeremy's fine. He's outside. We won't touch him," Anna reassured and slowly moved towards the exit. She halted and looked in my direction. "Sorry about that." She nodded towards my head, before leaving with her mother.
The burning torches began to falter as Bonnie and Sheila gasped from exhaustion.
"They better hurry!"
Elena paced around nervously, eyeing the entrance to the tomb. It was easy to see how her thoughts turned, but before she got the chance to act on any of her stupid impulses, I pushed her back into a wall and ran into the tomb myself.
It was dark, pitch-black actually, and I was very thankful for the light on my phone. Who would have thought this piece of crap had a flashlight!
Around me, I could sense the starving vampires, almost hear how they sniffed after the fresh blood bag just entering. Keeping as far away from the walls as possible as I moved further into the deep darkness, I was forced to step over vampires who gasped at the probably delicious smell of my blood. It was in the middle of doing this that I heard shouting further ahead, as well as glimpsing a dancing light from a flame.
"She's not here!" Damon's distinctive voice roared before a thud was heard, something hit a wall..
"Damon, we need to get out of here," Stefan told him, urgently.
"This doesn't make sense, they locked her inside…"
"If we don't leave now, we're not getting out!" 16:30
As I got closer, I could hear them continuing their banter. Dashing inside, I was greeted by the shocked faces of the brothers.
"Damon! You're gonna be stuck in here forever!" I shouted, slightly out of breath. "Screw Katherine and let's go!"
Damon stared at me, his nostrils flared out in anger and his eyes filled with sadness. Actually, I was a bit taken aback by that last part. It was an emotion that I hadn't seen on his face before. I couldn't claim that I liked it. At all. But why was it even bugging me?
The two brothers were both still standing there like idiots, so I grabbed Damon's hand and pulled him with me, hearing Stefan follow closely behind us. Once again I passed the desiccated vampires, now dragging Damon behind me.
Finally, we stumbled through the stone door, leaving the thick darkness behind. The door shut with a loud thud the very second Stefan had sat his foot outside, too, and Bonnie and Sheila gasped before they collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. Elena practically threw herself at Stefan, and he hugged her back just as tightly.
Whilst watching their reunion, I became extremely aware of my hand still entwined with Damon's. Quickly, I snatched it back and started brushing away some imaginary dust from my clothes. However, he only went past me and out of the tomb without a word nor a glance directed my way. Nice. Although, he had just lost the love of his life, or whatever she was to him.
"Jeremy!" I suddenly remembered. Stefan and Elena reluctantly drew away from each other to follow me out of the tomb.
Even though it was dark, I saw a bumpy shape not belonging in the darkness of the forest, and sprinted towards it. My little brother laid unconscious on the ground. He grunted when I shook him, which meant that he was fine. I released a quick sigh of relief and leaned back.
"He's okay. He's all right." Stefan and Elena knelt down beside me.
Just then, a figure moving out in the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was Damon, looking absolutely crushed as he stared out into the dark forest before him. I had never seen him like this before. Hurt? Yes. Mad? Yep. Sad? Well, just now in the tomb, yeah. But destroyed? This was completely new ground. And new territory meant new and untested actions.
Slowly, I walked over to Damon, stopping before him to look up into his expressionless face. What I was about to do felt very much like an Elena-like thing to do, but maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. Tip-toeing slightly, even in my heels, I wrapped my arms around Damon and forced him into a quick hug. A weak attempt at comforting.
Neither of us said anything when I drew back, but it felt less weird than I'd originally thought it would. He only stared at me, but no words were needed. I knew the pain of losing someone you hold dear.
As I turned around to head back, I was met by my sister's face wearing a small smile. She encouragingly nodded at me to compliment my deed. Proof! I knew it was an Elena-like action! All that was missing now was my sister giving me two thumbs up, and the supportive suburban mom image would be complete.
"Shut up," I told her proud beam as I walked past her and back towards our dazed brother.