Cassie's POV

Diana called Stefan several times last night, but he didn't answer, leaving us to wonder if Damon was still alive or not. I wore a black tank top and jeans with a navy peacoat and black cat beanie and black ankle boots. Meanwhile, Diana wore a black and white striped off-shoulder dress with a leather jacket and black heels. Once we got to school, we met up with Elena and Caroline.

"So why are you fighting again?" Elena asked the tall blonde. She was fighting with Bonnie for some reason.

"It's simple. I gave her my necklace and now she won't give it back, making her a thief." Caroline explained. "It's a matter of principle."

"Be the bigger person." Elena urged.

"That's impossible with her." Caroline replied.

"Okay, I'm out." Elena declared before she turned to me and Diana. "So what's going with you and Stefan?"

"I don't know. I need to talk to him about it." Diana declared before we headed to class.

Once we got there, we found out that there was finally a new teacher. He was a scruffy-looking man in his early 30s.

"Good morning, everyone." He greeted before he started to write his name on the board. "Alaric Saltzman. It's a mouthful, I know. It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Saltzman is of German origins, but I'm from Boston. Now the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great-grandfather I will never be able to thank enough. So you can call me Ric. I'm your new History teacher."

Diana's POV

I met up with Elena and Bonnie at lunch. I wasn't entirely sure what Cassie was doing to be honest. Bonnie was telling us about some dreams that she'd be having.

"And then I woke up at Fell's Church." She explained. It sounded like she was sleepwalking to me. They had medicine for that.

"Do you they have your ancestor Emily in them?" Elena asked.

"Yes and it's freaking me out." Bonnie remarked. "I was wondering if you or Cassie knew anything about."

"What did you grandma say?" I questioned.

"I don't want to talk to her about it." Bonnie stated. "She's gonna tell me to embrace it. I don't wanna embrace it. I want it to stop."

"Well there must be something that's causing the nightmares." I remarked. "When did they start?"

"It was as soon as I started wearing this necklace." She explained.

"Well maybe you should stop wearing it." I suggested. Both of them looked at me. "I'm not an expert on magic. Cassie and I just picked up whatever we could find."

After school, I met up with Cassie and to our surprise, Stefan was out there.

"Hey, you weren't in class." I commented. "I was worried that Damon had killed you."

"I didn't want to say what I'm about to say over the phone." He replied.

"An 'I didn't kill my brother' text would have sufficed." Cassie quipped.

"I didn't kill my brother." He stated. "He has the two of you to thank for that, but I have something important to say. I'm not gonna be coming to school anymore. I've decided to back off and keep my distance."

"Back off from school or from us?" I questioned. He didn't say anything. "Well thank you for telling us."

I knew that dating a vampire was a bad idea, but I had done it anyway. I was lucky that I hadn't let myself get too close but I still felt hurt by it. On the way home, we came across Bonnie in the parking lot and gave her a ride home on which she threw the necklace out the window. She said that Damon had threatened her.

I figured the best thing to do would be to talk to Stefan about it, so I called him over. Cassie and I went to meet him outside and we explained the situation to him.

"He threatened her, Stefan." I declared.

"Why would he want this necklace so much?" Stefan mused.

"It's not just any necklace." I explained. "It's a talisman that belonged to her ancestor Emily who lived here around the Civil War…when you and Damon did."

"Her name was Emily and she was Katherine's handmaiden." He answered. I couldn't help but wonder if that was code for slave, even though technically they were supposed to be free in 1864. "I can see what he wants with it."

At that point, he dashed away.

"Well I need to get going." Cassie remarked. "I'm going out for dinner with Jenna and Jeremy tonight."

"Don't you think that's a bit strange?" I asked her.

"No, I don't mind how they treat us like family." She declared. "It's nice to have someone that actually cares about us."

I had to admit that she was right. It was nice that they cared about us. I then went back inside. Caroline was going to be coming over and couldn't help but think that it was going to suck. I probably should have gone with her.

Cassie's POV

Another reason I wanted to get out of the house was because Elena had invited Bonnie and Caroline over and I wasn't big on sleepovers. I didn't see the appeal of a bunch of girls being together in the same room. For me, it just reminded me of the mental institution that Diana and I used to live in. Granted, the girls would be less crazy, but there was supernatural drama that came with it. It seemed like whenever there is a sleepover, there is drama that comes with it.

Once we got to the restaurant we noticed that it was kind of busy. I supposed that I shouldn't have been surprised considering that it was a Friday night. I also wondered if they had hired a new waitress considering that it didn't look like Vicki was coming back. I knew that she wasn't coming back, but the town didn't know that. I noticed that the new teacher was there, but he wasn't the only one. Damon was there. He had a bottle of wine in front of him.

"I'll be right back." I told Jenna as we waited to be waited on. It seemed like they were short on staff. It probably had to do with the lack of Vicki. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing you should be concerned about, Wendy." He told me.

"Stop calling me that!" I ordered.

"I might if you leave me alone." He challenged.

"Will you stop killing people?' I responded. I was pretty sure that both of us knew he wouldn't.

"It looks like there's someone at your table." He remarked as I noticed a waitress walking towards there. I rushed over. The waitress was a young Asian woman, who may not have even been out of high school yet.

"Hi, I'm Anna and I'll be your waitress tonight." She said. "What can I get you to drink?"

"How about some beer?" I suggested. Anna looked like she might actually do it.

"She's kidding." Jenna told her. "I'll take a daiquiri and a water."

It wasn't long before Damon was joined by Stefan. The two of them seemed to usually be together.

The other thing that I noticed was that Jenna was leering at the history teacher. I could not remember his name. I remembered that it was unusual, but I could not remember what it was.

"I love a man that can dine alone." Jenna commented.

"You know he's our teacher if you want to meet him." I offered. I would probably have to remember his name in order to do that.

"No, I've sworn off men forever, but that doesn't mean that I can't admire from afar." She said. Meanwhile, I couldn't help but notice that Stefan and Damon were playing darts. I didn't know how to play darts, but I was bored. We had already eaten, but I needed to do something to stay out of the house.

"Hi Stefan." I greeted him as I walked over.

"Cassie? I didn't expect you to be here." He remarked.

"It seems our little Wendy likes to stick her nose in other people's business." Damon declared. I wanted to stick one of those darts in his hand. "It's boys' night. So, shoo."

"Well I'm crashing it." I argued. "So, what are we talking about? How about we try to get Stefan back with my sister?"

"You two do make a good-looking couple." Damon agreed. "Stefan, you know you have to have sex with a witch eventually. They're amazing in bed."

"You can't generalize an entire group of people like that way." I argued.

"Maybe we should go outside." Stefan replied. "Some air would probably be good for us."

I texted Jenna that I was going with them. You know it wasn't normal to let a teenage girl go out with a group of guys, but she seemed to be sure that I wasn't going to get raped or killed. Either that or she was too busy ogling the teacher to care.

We ended up heading out to the football field. Stefan even managed to acquire a football somehow.

"You ready?" Stefan asked as he put his arm out to throw.

"You wouldn't know how to play this game if not for me." Damon boasted.

"How about you just throw the ball instead of yapping away." I suggested.

"You could throw it." Damon argued.

"I could but it wouldn't go very far." I pointed out as Stefan finally threw the ball. Damon went to catch it but Stefan tackled him and they both went to the ground. It looked like it hurt. Even though, I knew they would be okay, I still went over to check on them

"Fuck, that hurt." Damon said.

"The downside of my diet is everything hurts more." Stefan explained.

"Wait, you adopted Stefan's diet?" I asked.

"I'm starting to regret it." He added. "So, this has been an interesting night. Games, football, and the stars. What do you want, Stefan?"

"It wasn't real: our love for Katherine." Stefan explained. That took a sudden turn.

"We are not going there tonight, Stefan." Damon told him as he started to walk away.

"Well what do you want with her crystal?" I asked. I assumed that was what Stefan was going to ask him. That got him to stop in his tracks.

"How do you know about that?" Damon questioned after turning around.

"Come on. You knew Bonnie would tell me and Diana about it." I remarked.

"I mean how did you know it was Katherine's?" Damon clarified. "Emily gave it to her on her last night. I was with her. Stefan wasn't."

"I was the last person to see her alive." Stefan remarked. For some reason, that seemed to really anger Damon…unless he meant…okay I didn't need to know that.

"I could rip your heart out." Damon threatened.

"I'd like to see that." Stefan countered. Damon started to walk away again before he turned around.

"I've got an even bigger surprise." The older brother declared. "I'm gonna bring her back."

"How can you just bring someone back from the dead?" Stefan asked. I knew it was probably possible, but it was really advanced witchcraft that neither I nor Diana had even heard anything about. Who was going to do it for Damon? I hoped he didn't think I could do it.

He then proceeded to explain how the crystal worked. He also explained that Katherine wasn't dead, but in a tomb and how he planned on getting Katherine out of the tomb. I hoped that he would really leave after getting her out.

"Why would Emily help you?" I asked.

"Because she knew that they would come for her too." Damon answered. "She asked me to keep her lineage alive."

"You saved her children but I could never figure out why." Stefan stated.

"It's the only thing preventing me from ripping that Bonnie chick's throat to get my necklace back." Damon explained. "Oh well, a deal is a deal."

At that point, my phone rang. It was Diana.

"Do you know where Stefan is?" She asked.

"Yeah, he's with me. Why?" I replied.

"Emily is possessing Bonnie and Elena and Caroline are freaking out about it." She explained. "She was rambling about something. She said 'I won't let him have it. It must be destroyed.' And then she left. What did she mean?"

"Did she end up in some sort of church?" I questioned as Damon disappeared.

"Yeah, Elena says that she knows how to get there." Diana remarked. "I'll meet you there."

"I don't know how to get there." I said, but she had already hung up. "Can you take me to this church?

When we got there, we found Damon impaled on a tree. I wish I knew a spell to expel a spirit from someone's body. Bonnie or Emily I guess was preparing a spell. She cast the spell to destroy the necklace right as Elena and Diana arrived. At that point, I was pretty sure that Emily left because Bonnie looked dazed and confused. Damon began to lunge at her, but I used my own magic to throw him to the ground. I was still thinking about lighting him on fire.

Unfortunately, Bonnie saw the look in his eyes and the fangs and since witches couldn't be compelled, it created a conundrum. It also made the idea of erasing Elena's memory again not very likely.

I then noticed Damon was sitting on a stump. He looked crushed.

"Katherine never compelled me. I knew everything." He stated. You know if he wasn't a psychopath, I might have felt sorry for him. "I'll leave now."

Diana's POV

I was currently trying to console Elena and Bonnie, who were both confused. At that point, Stefan stood in front of me. I knew I should speak to him alone.

"You two wait in the car." I declared. "I'll explain later."

The two of them headed to the car and Cassie walked over.

"Stefan, this night has put a lot of things in perspective for me." I explained. "I really don't want you to push me away. I know this is weird, but I love you. I can do this."

"I can't." Stefan replied. What? "Too many people have died. I need to move on. You're better off without me."

"Stefan, please don't go." I cried. It had been a while since I cried. "I know you think you're protecting me, but I don't need you to. I love you."

"Goodbye, Diana." He said before he kissed me on the head and left.

So this story has been on the shelf for a while. I wonder if the people who reviewed it will still be around. Please don't forget to review.