Title: Dirty Little Secret

Chapter: 11

Summary: Caroline Forbes is a lot of things. Neurotic, controlling and insecure being top of the list, but one thing she is not is stupid. So she knows that something is seriously up with childhood friend (and occasional enemy) Tyler Lockwood. She's determine to figure out why all the sudden he's acting as if he's seen a ghost and why he looks at her all the time with a heat she doesn't understand. As she digs deeper, she finds out about a whole new world she didn't know existed and- despite her lack of knowledge- how she's part of it. AU.

Author's Note: Thank you all for your lovely reviews. They make my day! I'm going to New York for a week so I won't be able to update. Sorry):

Wednesday

Matt Donovan parked his beat up old pick up truck in Mystic Falls High's student parking lot, which was nearly vacant. It was early- 7:15 -so only a very few people were parked. He grabbed his football bag with one hand, slinging it over his shoulder, and grabbed his book bag with the other. Wiping sleep out of his eyes, he made his way toward the front of the field house, already dreading working out. He was absolutely exhausted. Vicky had come in late again, and of course, he'd stayed up waiting for her. Ninety nine percent of the time he felt like he was the older of the two. He felt like the big brother having to take care of his immature, irresponsible little sister who had a knack for taking strange pills and talking to even stranger guys. She'd been with Jeremy Gilbert last night- her newest toy- who was hardly a stranger, but he still didn't like to think what they had been doing out that late.

He turned the cold, silver handle, only to find it locked. Frowning, he tried again. Coach Tanner always got there ridiculously early, opening up the weight room for anyone who wanted to come in. Today wasn't a workout day for football players, but he was still surprised to find the door locked. He had to give it to him: the man was a total dick, but he was punctual and reliable. He knocked on the door, thinking maybe Coach had forgotten to unlock it. After a few minutes with no response, he cut through the grass and walked around the side of the building. Maybe the back door was unlocked.

Eyes on the concrete, he walked to the backdoor and tried the handle. No dice. It was locked too. He huffed out a breath. Where the hell was Tanner? He turned, sweeping the area. There was a medium sized parking lot behind the field house, which was usually filled during football games. One loan car was parked, far to the left. He instantly recognized Coach Tanner's Mustang. Matt squinted. All the doors were closed and no one was inside.

Call it a gut feeling, but something made him drop his bags and begin walking toward the car. A few steps in, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he shivered. When he was just a few yards away from the car, he spotted something on the left side, just barely in his line of vision. It was dark, and Matt wondered if maybe something was leaking from the car.

He saw a hand first, stained with dried, dark liquid, peaking out from the side of the car. Matt swallowed bile and walked closer, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to see. Tanner laid still, blood straining his shirt from a wound to his neck, a larger puddle beneath him. His face was pale, his lips parted. If it weren't for all the blood, Matt could have almost convinced himself he was alive. His eyes were open after all, but they were wide, glassy and staring. His chest did not rise and fall.

There was something else, but Matt was too shocked to read the message that had been written in blood.

He stood there, completely frozen for a minute before running back to where he had dropped his bags by the back door and dialing 911.

"I'm telling you," Bonnie said. "It's Staind, not Seether."

"It's Seether!" Caroline said. They were on their way to school, arguing over who was the artist of a song that was playing on the radio. Bonnie's car wouldn't start this morning, so she'd called Caroline. It felt so trivial, arguing over a song when it felt like everything was falling apart. But for some reason, it did make her feel a little better.

"Oh my, God, Care!" Bonnie exclaimed. "It's Staind!"

"You know what? We are settling this right now," she said and stuck her hand in her purse, shuffling things around.

"Let me do it," Bonnie said, taking the purse away from the blonde. "I don't particularly want to die today."

"Fine," Caroline said, rolling her eyes. "Get out my phone and go to SoundHound."

Bonnie did and held the phone up in front of the speakers. She waited for the song to register. It did and she smiled. "'Not Again' by Staind. I told you so!"

Bonnie looked at Caroline, fully prepared to gloat about her immense musical knowledge, but stopped short. Caroline was staring straight ahead, her eyes wide and her eyebrows furrowed.

"What-?" Bonnie began, looking in the direction Caroline was. They were in the student parking lot, just about to pull into a parking spot. The field house parking lot, which was in full view, was swarming with cops and ambulances, blue and red lights flashing. A crowd had started, circling something she couldn't see from here, and the police were ushering people back.

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked, like Caroline might actually know.

"I have no idea," Caroline said, turning off the car and getting out. Bonnie followed close in pursuit. "My mom was at work when I left so I have no idea. I wonder what happened."

"Come on," Bonnie said, grabbing her best friend's hand and pulling her toward the crowd of students.

Even as close as they were, they couldn't see over the crowd of people. Bonnie was short and even on her tippy toes, she couldn't see past her fellow students' heads. Caroline gripped her hand tighter, as to not loose her in the crowd, and began pushing, not so politely telling people to move. When they finally reached the edge of people, Bonnie saw Liz Forbes, Caroline's mom and the sheriff of Mystic Falls. She looked exhausted - dark bags underneath her eyes and blonde hair rustled all around her face.

"Mom, what's going on?" Caroline asked, hand still gripping Bonnie's tightly.

"Caroline?" Liz asked, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean what am I doing here?" Caroline exclaimed. "I'm here because it's a school day!"

"I told you to stay home," Liz said, her voice tight with stress and tension. "Did you not get my message?"

"No, we were in the car listening to music and then-"

"Never mind that," Liz said, waving a dismissive hand. "I want you to get back in your car - take Bonnie with you - and go home. Don't leave there until I come and tell you otherwise."

Bonnie knew her face mirrored Caroline's. Scared. Worried. Curious. What the hell was going on? A bad feeling was in Bonnie's feeling - a feeling that felt too familiar for comfort.

"Mom, what's going on?" Caroline asked, looking pale.

Liz sighed and said, "William Tanner was murdered sometime last night. It looks like an animal attack, but there was a… message. I don't know what's going on and I would feel better if I knew you were at home, safe. Please, Caroline. Just once, please listen to me."

"What kind of message?" Caroline asked, her voice breathy.

Bonnie distantly heard Liz and Caroline continuing to talk, but part of her was thinking back to yesterday when she had her vision. It had been dark… someone murdered in an empty parking lot, a parking like just like this one, the murderer writing something in blood. Was it…? No, no it couldn't be possible! Bonnie couldn't possibly have seen Mr. Tanner's death.

She didn't realize she had shaken off Caroline's hand and began to run toward the one lone car (besides police cars and ambulances) in the parking lot until she heard Liz call her name and the tap tap tap of feet on the ground, chasing after her. It was too late though. She already was looking at Mr. Tanner's body, pale and still. His eyes were wide open, his face and shirt stained with blood that had spewed from his ripped throat. Beside him was a message written in his own blood. Tick, tock. Time is running out.

Her eyes only lingered on that for a moment though, before something else caught her attention. It was the number of the parking spot, barely able to be seen with the blood surrounding it: 7.

Her heart clenched in her chest, making breathing painfully difficult.

And then her eyes moved to Mr. Tanner's license plate. It was a normal license plate, with letters and numbers. One number in particular caught her eyes: 14.

She could barely breath now. Her vision was blurry and unfocused and her body felt strangely light, like she wasn't completely connected to it anymore. But she wasn't so out of it that she didn't see the paper just beside his hand. It was of a play. It was of play number 22.

She distantly heard someone yell her name before everything went dark and she was falling.

"Bonnie!" Caroline yelled, ignoring her mom yelling at her to come back. Her best friend looked ashen, like she was about to throw up. Her eyes were moving back and forth, her distress becoming more clear at each thing. And then, her eyes rolled back and she was falling toward the ground.

"Oh, my God! Bonnie!" Caroline screamed.

She ran as fast as she could, dodging hands trying to hold her back and dropped down on her knees. She grabbed Bonnie's arm and shook it, praying she was alright. She got no response. "Bonnie! Wake up!"

She finally seemed to notice something other than the still girl. She was standing beside a Mustang and beside that Mustang was Mr. Tanner. Or rather, Mr. Tanner's body. He was deathly pale, his eyes wide open and his shirt and face stained with dark red. An even larger amount of red was underneath him, staining the concrete. His throat was ripped open, like someone had taken long nails and torn it open. Something was written in blood - the message Liz was talking about. It read, Tick tock. Time is running out.

Caroline fell back on the ground, her mind running wild. What time? Why was it running out? What was going to happen when it ran out?

People were beginning to surround Bonnie, lifting her up and carrying her away. Someone helped Caroline to her feet and asked if she was alright. She nodded, though she was far from it. She'd heard about this before. In Bonnie's vision, she had said that someone was murdered and a message was written in blood. Was this what Bonnie saw? Mr. Tanner dying?

"Caroline, come on," Liz said, guiding her daughter to an ambulance. "Sit down. You look pale."

Of course I look pale! She wanted to say. My best friend saw my teacher dying! But she couldn't find her voice, so she allowed her mom to help her in the ambulance. A paramedic asked if she was okay and she nodded, then he put a blanket around her. She hadn't realized until the warm material was touching her how cold it was outside. It was freezing.

"Caroline?"

The voice was as familiar as her own and once upon a time, this voice made her heart flutter and her cheeks turn red. Now it was just another voice. Matt stood in front of her, looking pale and wide eyed, dark crescent moons lining the soft skin right underneath his baby blue eyes.

"Hey," she said, her voice sounding strange.

"Are you okay? What are you doing in here?"

"Bonnie… she passed out when she saw Mr. Tanner." Caroline couldn't bring herself to say "body." "And I don't know… I just…"

He nodded understandingly and climbed up in the ambulance to sit beside her. They sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes. It was weird - them being uncomfortable around each other. She wondered if she should still be mad about Dana having her paws all over him. She wasn't. Not really. It didn't seem so important anymore.

Matt broke the silence first. "I found him," he said quietly, looking down at his intertwined hands. "Mr. Tanner, I mean."

Caroline's mouth popped open in a little "o" and she turned her whole body toward him. "Oh, my god," she said. "That must have been horrible."

"I wonder who did it," he said. "Because it's not the animal that attacked Cody. An animal couldn't of done that. Written the message, I mean."

"Or maybe it wasn't an animal who attacked him in the first place," she whispered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and bit his lip. A few seconds later he said, "Caroline, are we okay?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, though she knew.

"I mean… I don't know. Things have been weird with us lately. I feel like we're growing apart and… I don't want that to happen. I love you, Care. I don't want to lose you."

He was still looking down at his hands, avoiding her eyes. It used to bother her, that he wouldn't look her in the eyes, but now she knew it was because he was uncomfortable. He wasn't good with talking about feelings. She gave him the benefit of the doubt.

She sighed and said, "I love you too, Matt. But we have some problems that I can't ignore anymore. We need to talk about them."

"Alright," he said. "Friday night. I'll come over and we'll talk."

"Okay."

"And I'm really sorry about the whole Tyler thing," he said.

She assumed he was talking about him being suspicious of them spending time together. "I know," she said. "And it's okay."

"I mean, I shouldn't have asked him to stay away from you."

She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

He looked at her, surprised by the sharpness of her voice. "I-"

"You told Tyler to stay away from me?" she asked. That made her absolutely livid. How dare he try to control her life like that!

"I thought you knew," he said, realizing his mistake. "When you said we have problems that we need to work out."

She stood up, dropping the blanket. "I can't believe you would do that."

"I'm sorry, but I thought-"

"What? You thought that I was going to hook up with Tyler? News flash, Matt, I'm not the cheating type. And with your best friend at that? Screw you." She shook her head and hopped out of the ambulance, ready to get the hell out of there.

Tyler, like all the rest of the population of Mystic Falls High School, was trying to figure out what the hell was going on. He'd heard enough of bits and pieces of conversation that Tanner had been killed, but that was all. Unlike all the rest of Mystic Falls High school, his sneaking skills were pretty awesome, so he had successfully managed to weave his way between cars and ambulances to actually get a better look.

Right as he was turning the corner of an ambulance, someone ran into him. He knew it was her immediately. She always smelled like vanilla and a flower he couldn't figure out. Not to mention her blonde hair brushed his arm, making him shiver slightly. He grabbed her arm, making sure she didn't lose her balance. He had a rush of deja vu of that first day, when he said he would make sure to let her fall if she ever ran into him again. Oops.

She looked pissed. Like really, really pissed. More pissed than when he accidentally spilt soda all over her during a basketball game and more pissed than the first time she ran into him.

"Tyler," she said. Anger gave way to surprise. "How did you-"

She kept talking, but he couldn't concentrate because his hand was still holding her arm. He should let go. She was dating his best friend, who had asked him to leave her alone. And he said he would. He should let go.

"Tyler?"

He realized whatever she had been saying required some kind of a response. He had no idea what she had been talking about, so he quickly let go of her arm and said, "I was trying to figure out what was going on."

"Mr. Tanner's dead," she said. A shudder passed through her slight frame. "His throat was torn out and there was a… message written in his blood."

"A message?" he asked, surprised. "What did it say?"

"'Tick, tock. Time is running out.'"

What the hell was that suppose to mean?

"Listen, Tyler," she said, "I think that-"

"Look, I've got to go," he said, cutting her off. If he stayed, he would somehow get roped into whatever she wanted him to do and he couldn't do that. He needed to stay far, far away from Caroline Forbes, or he was going to lose it.

"Oh," she said, her eyebrows furrowing at his abrupt tone. "Do you think I can call you later or something? I want to talk to you about-"

"I don't think that's a good idea," he said. "It's not like I'm going to be able to help you or anything."

"But-"

"Seriously, I've got to go," he said. "I'm sure Elena or Bonnie will help you. Isn't that what friends are for?"

She covered her hurt expression almost quickly enough for him not too see it. Almost. "Fine," she said. "I guess I'll see you later."

He had to stop himself from apologizing and saying he would help her, and shrugged, before turning around and going back the way he had come from. He pushed past all of his fellow students, heading toward his car and feeling like the biggest dick on the face of the planet.

Mason cursed as, yet again, he pulled out a brown leather book and it failed to be the right one. He'd been going through his big brother's stuff for days -almost getting caught by Tyler - and still couldn't find it. Where the hell did he hide it?

He pulled out another five books with brown leather covers, all of them the wrong one. He cursed again and put all the books back. He ran a hand through his hair and tried to think like Richard. It was proving hard to do. Richard had always been a hard ass and boring, while he was fun and much less of a dick that his older brother.

He walked to the desk and sat down in the leather chair, spinning around and thinking, before he began going through each drawer of the desk. There were plenty of pens and pencils and paperwork and other crap Mason didn't need. No book though.

He blew out a breath and began spinning around in the chair again. Three spins in, his foot caught on something, effectively stopping him. He raised an eyebrow and looked down.

One piece of wood was slightly loose and stuck out.

No, it couldn't be…

He leaned down and began shaking the wood, trying to pull it out of place. It budged without any effort on his part.

"You sneaky bastard," Mason said, smiling.

There it was. The book he was looking for, along with a few thousand dollars, a fold of paper and a small brown box that he knew held there father's old class ring. He reached in, ignoring all the rest of the stuff, and picked up the book. It was just how he remembered it.

He heard the front door open.

"Damn it," he said, underneath his breath and tried to stick the wood securely back in place. It wasn't being cooperative, so he had to really shove it in there.

"Mason?" he heard Tyler call out.

What the hell was he doing home?

"Yeah, in here," Mason called back, successfully shoving the piece of wood back in place.

Tyler appeared in the door way within seconds, his eyebrows raised and his eyes suspicious. "What are you doing in here?" he asked.

"Looking for something," he said, trying to appear nonchalant. "Why are you home from school?"

"One of the teachers was found dead," Tyler said.

"Really? What happened? Was it the same animal that attacked that one kid?" As he was speaking, he was slowly sticking the book behind his back, trying to keep it out of view.

Tyler shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "What are you looking for?"

"Nothing," he said, waving a dismissive hand. "Just this old book our mom used to read to us."

Tyler raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying the story.

"What?" Mason asked. "I'm a sentimental guy. So are you ready for Friday?"

Tyler scowled at him and immediately walked away.

Mason felt a little bad for doing that to his nephew, but it would be much, much worse if he had to tell him the truth. Shaking his head, he stood up and stuffed the book in his hem and pulled his shirt over it.

After pushing the chair in, he headed out of the office, closing the door behind him.

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