The Forgotten One- chapter 16
Episode- the birthday
A/N: thankyou for the reviews and special shout out to xxlisagalloverxx whose idea was awesome but just not the idea that I'm going to use, so without further ado here is chapter 16.
Don't worry the first part of this chapter is enlightening thoughts after that there is ass kicking, booze and making out with strangers. There might even be some beer stands, who knows? Read and find out. The first part of the chapter that's depressing and all about death is needed to peel back the layers of Aria and give her some depth and feeling.
Also who would make a good Aria? Put down your opinions so I can make a cover!
Aria's POV-
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My grandmother always used to say that there are only two types of people in this world; the ones to stuck to move and find happiness and the ones who are too stupid to try. Everybody else got their happiness because they found a way out. Especially Mystic Falls. Now I'm really stuck. Stuck in age. Stuck in the middle of everything supernatural. Stuck. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that 'Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.' Well I was stuck in the darkness and I couldn't find any light, only more darkness.
My mom said 'life is only worth being lived if you have loved and been loved', was my life worth living? Did I die having been loved? I loved. I know that much. I loved my family, my brother, my sister, my aunt, my uncle/father, my father and both of my mothers. I loved my friends, Caroline, Matt, Bonnie, Tyler, Alaric, Stefan and Damon. I loved Elijah. I don't know if Elijah loved me, maybe he did. But I was loved, by my friends, my family. I'm not dead until I'm forgotten. Will I be forgotten? Will I be the forgotten one?
My dad said 'to go out and find your great perhaps', I never understood what that meant, I always thought that it was the usual cryptic parent speech that they got from a book. My Great Perhaps. Did I ever find it? Will I ever find it?
Maximillian Robespierre said 'death is the beginning of immortality', he didn't know how right he was.
Martin Luther King Jr. said 'a man who won't die for something is not fit to live'. So what did I die for? Did I die for love? For family? For friends? I would like to think I did. But I didn't. In the moment that I died I was thinking about the taste of Klaus's blood, the fact that I was trembling in fear because I knew what he was about to do.
Stephanie Meyer in Twilight says 'when you live forever what do you live for?' what will I live for? Family who will die or become the thing I have come to hate. Friends who will leave and scatter the earth? In a hundred years, what will I be living for?
Some say that death is easy, it's what comes after that's hard. So what is after death? Heaven? Hell? Some place in-between? I would like to believe that there is some place better. Easier maybe. Maybe there wouldn't be so much pain. So much regret. Guilt. Sadness.
My mother, when I asked her if there was a heaven, one day after church, she said 'maybe. No can really know. What I believe, is that when we die, we get to watch the people we love, live. We get to see them do the things we can't, make mistakes, love, feel, be happy.' I wonder if it was going to be like that.
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My neck was aching and my eyes lids were heavy, I just wanted to sleep. But I was also hungry, insatiably hungry. For something that wasn't food, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was that I was hungry for. Not food that's for sure. My jaw and gums throbbed like they were on fire.
I stood up from the floor of Alaric's apartment and recoiled from the glaring, vivid sunshine that was peeking through the thin curtains. I staggered through the apartment and trudge down the steep, marble stairs, I make it outside and walk across the asphalt road with my head down, using my hair to block the harsh sunlight. It was morning, the suns out, kids are playing Frisbee with their dogs, birds are tweeting and chirping in trees with their leaves turned orange from sunlight and autumn time.
Everything was louder. I could hear the water fountain spouting out water, I could hear a woman telling her daughter to be careful, I could hear a cat rummaging through trash in the alley, dogs barking and bugs buzzing. It felt like the volume had been turned all the way up on everything.
There was a girl. There was an insatiable hunger. There was an insatiable hunger for blood.
I didn't mean to but the bomp-bomp of her heart circulating her blood through her veins called to me like a siren song. Compelling and beautiful. Bomp-bomp-bomp. It was working so hard to circulate her blood around her body and keep her alive.
I sunk my teeth turned fangs into her slim and pale neck, blood rushed into my mouth and I moaned, blood was dripping down my chin and her neck. I licked the blood that was sneaking away, the ruby red stained her neck and I could see the marks my fangs made, two puncturing holes in her neck with blood gushing out.
Panic settled over me. How could I? She was an innocent girl just a few year older than me. I had seen Damon do it plenty of times. "You're not going to remember this," her pupils dilated, and she repeated my words in a monotone voice, "You're going to go back to whatever it was that you were doing," she repeated me in her monotone, dull, lifeless voice, "you're not going to remember me." She repeated me once again and I released her shoulders and stepped away from her, she was pale and pasty and looked like she had been drained of blood. I bit into my wrist, remembering Damon doing it and pressed my wrist to her mouth she took it obediently and drunk from it, her wound healed and her skin regained some colour. "You won't remember that either." I compelled and she repeated me.
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This morning wasn't grey, but a soothing lavender and brilliant amber. The colours merged into neon pink and peach. I sighed and turned away from the window, walked over to the mirror and flashed my golden eyes with black veins swimming underneath. My golden eyes reflected the sun and the small ray of sunshine hit something under my bed. I got on my knees and looked under my bed. A few candy wrappers, a pencil, and a stick of gum. And a small, long rectangular box wrapped in a silver bow.
I held it at arm's length, people knew I didn't want any presents this year for this birthday.
Oh, what the hell. I pulled the intricate and fancy bow off and opened the box, it was a necklace. A really beautiful necklace.
It was a crystal pendant and the crystal was in the shape of a teardrop. It hung on a fine silver chain that was cool to touch. I looked in the box and there was a note.
To my dearest Aria,
A gift because you deserve it. Something so beautiful deserves to be worn by somebody beautiful.
Elijah.
He must have left it here after I was kidnapped in my kitchen and kept hostage by crazy witches and Klaus. I wonder how Klaus was going out there, making more hybrids.
I put the necklace on and it was cold on my neck. I sighed and sat back down on my bed, Elena walks in at that moment, concern written all over her face. She's been having a hard time with Stefan gone for the summer, she's been unrelenting in her search for him, not that I can blame her really but I think she should come to terms with the fact that he's probably flipped the switch and is never coming back. I wanted to find Klaus, I wanted to thank him for turning me into a hybrid because now I don't have to turn unless I want to. I felt a pull to him, like I needed to find him.
"You okay?" she was concerned like always, but ever since Jenna and John died and I turned into a hybrid that concern has been on overdrive.
"Uh, yeah, fine." It's what I said every day when she asked. And she always asked. I stood up from my bed and ran a brush through my hair that was growing so long it touched just above my waist. My blue eyes now had flecks of gold within them, from my wolf.
"I'm going for a jog after breakfast want to come?"
"Yeah sure." Ever since Stefan was taken she's been on this training frenzy, although I wasn't much better.
We walked downstairs together, everything was awkward between us but it was out birthday so we should try to be civil, mostly me but whatever. Elena's phone rings and Caroline's name flashes on the screen. I hadn't spent much time with Caroline, I decided that I wanted Damon to teach me the Vamp 101 and she's a little bitter that I didn't want to go and eat Bambi with her. I blocked out the conversation, more leads on Stefan and who he's killing.
"Was that ... Stefan news?" Alaric asks as he's making up the bed slash couch that he's been sleeping on for most of the summer.
"Could be more Klaus victims." Elena says and puts down the cup I hadn't realized she was holding.
"Probably Stefan's. He's probably all ripper-y again." I say and shrug when Elena glares at me.
"You certain Stefan's still with him?" Alaric asks ignoring my comment but shooting me a warning look.
Elena starts pouring herself a cup of coffee as she says "Easy to be certain when the alternative is that he's dead."
"He's probably dead." I have turned into a pessimist over the summer, I realized as I listened to myself.
They're silent for a second, exchanging a look that I didn't know what it meant. "Are you sure you're still okay on the couch?" Elena asks.
"Yeah, Yeah, I'm good." He replies.
She picks up two cups of coffee and a blood bag, "because you spent half the summer on it." She walks over, "If you need your own bedroom?"
"Aah, sleeping in your dead parent's room or my dead... girlfriend's room. Nah." He pauses before he says girlfriend, he's taken Jenna's death really hard. We all have but I think he felt guilty, I did too but that's because I had an opportunity and I wasted it but he's feeling guilty because he thinks he could have prevented it but he couldn't have.
"Alright", she gives him a cup of coffee and throws me a blood bad that I start to sip from. "Got it." Elena starts to walk away and I follow her up the stairs.
"Hey you two." We stop and look at him.
"Happy Birthday."
She half smiles and says "Thanks."
I don't say anything, I just keep walking.
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We jog and I of course along the way have to stop and wait for her to catch up.
"Where are we running to?" I ask and see that she has a clear destination.
"Salvatore house." She says and I stop.
"I'll pass." I turn around and ignore her calls for me to stop, I jog until I get to the Grill. Caroline and Tyler were outside, talking.
"When are you two going to get together already?" I ask and take a sip from Caroline's drink. She smacks me away and laughs.
"Were not together." She says with a nervous laugh.
"But you should be." I say and steal a fry from Tyler.
"No." if Caroline could blush she would be.
"Whatever you say." I trail off so that she knows I still think that they should be together.
"So, you party tonight is at the Salvatore's don't be late." She says. I look at her already exasperated, I don't want a party or gifts or anything.
"I thought I told you-"
She cut me off, "I didn't listen, besides you haven't even given me a reason why."
"I just don't." I end it at that. "Conversation closed. Next subject please."
"I thought you were going to cut you hair, it getting a little long especially your fringe, you know the eyes are the windows to the soul."
"Maybe I don't want anyone seeing into my soul." I snapped out. I was very angry lately and I was having a hard time controlling my emotions. I smiled softly to say sorry and Caroline nodded understandingly.
"So how are you going with being a hybrid?" Caroline asked and looked at me in sympathy.
"It's amazing, Klaus did me a real favour." I said truthfully, they looked at me like I was crazy.
"Klaus? Favour? Are you on a blood high?" she laughed as if she didn't believe me.
"Yeah, a favour. I don't have to turn. I'm stronger. I'm faster. I heal quicker. Everything is better." I say happily smiling.
"Ok. You're definitely on happy pills." Before I could correct her, my phone rang.
"I'm gonna go take this over there." And gestured away from them, when I was out of hearing distance I answered the phone.
It was Damon. "What do you want?" I asked straight away into the phone.
"Well aren't you just a bright ball of sunshine." He said sarcastically on the other side.
"Why are you calling me for?" I asked again more insistently.
"Grumpy. Do you want to come to Tennessee?"
"Tennessee? What the hell are you doing in Tennessee?"
"Stefan and Klaus lead that I don't want Elena to know about. You in?"
"Totally." I said and hung up before walking back to the table. "Hey guys. Sorry but I have to go. Have fun with your date." I said and walked off as Caroline started throwing Tyler's fry's at me.
"It's not a date." She yelled out and groaned in frustration.
Damon pulls up beside me as soon as I'm out of hearing and seeing distance of vampires and werewolves.
"Stalking much." I say with snark and get in the back with Rick and Damon up front.
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We pull up to the house, the smell of blood lacing the pine tree air. Damon's phone starts to ring, over his shoulder I see Elena's name and he ignores the call.
"Elena?" Rick guesses. "I don't know why you just don't come clean and tell her where we are."
"Have you met Elena, you tell her what you guys are doing and she'll hide in the boot just to come along even if it means Klaus knows she's no longer dead and kills her." I interject.
"Because Andy said this was a half lead and I don't want to get her hopes up." Damon says and Rick sends me a look, he does that a lot, I call it his 'Aria shut up' face because he reserves it just for me.
"You're so whipped." I put in. Damon glares at me.
"Yeah, well they're all half leads, and I'm your accomplice. What do you want me to say to her, I'm practically living there?"
"You tell her to suck it up." I say and get the look from him again.
"Still sleeping on the couch?" they look around the big space on the farm.
"Even though it's stupid." I say.
"You know, I keep waiting for them to kick me out but they don't. I don't know why, it's not like I'm helping or anything." Rick says, always undervaluing himself.
"Were not going to kick you out." I say and give him a pat on the back.
"Mm-mm."
"It's quiet." Rick observes.
"Doesn't take Sherlock to figure that out." I'm a pain in the ass, I'm well aware.
"Yeah. Too quiet." Damon says. We walk onto the porch, Damon tests the door with his foot but he is free to walk in and I follow, "Oh yeah." Rick comes in and closes the door, he looks around. There are very dead bodies on the living room couch. The head, arms and legs have been ripped off but been put back into place, blood is everywhere, empting me with its delicious smell, I have the urge to lick the walls clean, the women's eyes are open and their faces are one of fright.
"Uuuggh. Vampire for sure." Rick says and looks at the bodies in disgust.
"Stefan, for sure." Damon says.
"How do you know?"
"It's his signature; there's a reason they call him the ripper. Feeds so hard he blacks out and rips them apart, but then when he's done, he feels remorse. It's the damndest thing,"
"It's the grossest thing." I say.
He puts up his foot on one of the women's legs, "he put the bodies back together." He pushes with his foot on her leg and her head rolls to the floor.
"Back together?" Rick asks.
"Like a puzzle." I say in horror as I look at the carefully constructed women.
"Definitely Stefan." Damon says with a grimace. He grabs a bottle of gasoline and starts pouring it over everything, the couch, the women, and the rug.
"What are you doing?" Rick asks.
"Becoming a pyromaniac." I say but am ignored.
"Covering their tracks. Clearly they have no interest staying in the dark, but I do." Rick moves backwards to give Damon more space to set things on fire and the floorboard that he steps on squeaks.
"Hang on." Damon says suspiciously. He puts the tank down and I flip the carpet over, there's a hidden door. Damon opens it and it's full of chains, werewolf constricting chains.
"Well, what do you know? Werewolves." Damon says in surprise. He closes the door, and Damon lights a match and he throws it on the floor. Soon the whole living room is on fire, the flames are licking up the walls and soon the whole place is engulfed in flames after we walk out unscathed.
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I look at myself in the mirror. A tacky silver, sequin dress that screams 'slut', my hair put up into a messy bun on top of my head, my crystal teardrop necklace, Isobel's Lapis Lazuli pendent and clear heels like Cinderella's, silver eye shadow that makes my blue eyes pop, winged eyeliner and deep red lip-gloss. This is what I get for allowing Caroline to dress me though I put on the necklaces so that's credited to me.
I hear Flo Rider's 'good feeling' come on downstairs and vow to myself to have a good time. I walk downstairs and smile when I see people dancing wasted. I take a bottle of bourbon out of a random girls hands and gulp it down quickly. "Let's party!" I yell and everybody cheers. I laugh and walk to the beer stand, Matt is watching.
"I wanna go!" I yell when the guy falls after only a minute. They cheer, "Hold my dress up will you?" I ask Matt and he nods. I use my vampire grace to stand and feel Matt's hands holding my dress up so I wasn't flashing everybody, the hose was put into my mouth and I stood drinking for twelve whole minutes before I got bored.
"Wanna dance?" I ask a random stranger who was mildly attractive. Nothing compared to Elijah but he would do. I had to keep readjusting his hands when they got too high or too low and pretty much ignored him for the whole song. Hips grinded and sweaty bodies pressed up against each other, this was a party. I spun around and mashed my lips to his, he sucked at kissing, and too much tongue, but I was ignoring that and all of my problems tonight because I was officially 18. Well kind of, I would have been.
I pulled away from him after five minutes and roamed around until I found strip poker. Should be fun.
"Can I join?" I asked sweetly and the half-naked guys nodded eagerly while the wasted girls just kept drinking. I sat down at the table and was give my cards.
I don't know how later but I had lost my shoes and dress in the game. I sucked so bad at this "I'm out." I said and put my dress back on, I was feeling tipsy now and swayed a little on my feet. "Goodbye amigos." I said and ventured further into the party.
I find a perfectly stable table and stood on it. I swayed my hips to the music and whipped my hair back and forth, I giggled and shook my hips and waved my hands in the air to the music. I dropped down to a crouching position and kissed one of the guys that had been surrounding the table. I danced for two songs and saw my brother sitting on the couch in the Stoner Den for the night, I hopped down and ignored the wolf whistles and walked over to my baby bro.
Matt and Jeremy were sharing a joint. "Oh. I want some." My speech was slurred and they laughed at me. I took a draw from the joint and passed it to Matt, "so…" I paused and lost track of what I was saying, "What was I saying? Was it important?" they shook their heads, "everything I say is important." I giggle like a schoolgirl.
Matt gets up as Elena and Caroline enter the room.
"Oh...the Stoner den. Buzz kill." Caroline says, I walk up to them and wrap Caroline in a big bear hug. No even better, a hybrid hug! I made a funny. I laugh to myself.
"Where have you been? Your missing out on all the fun." I say and sigh as I cuddle into Caroline's side.
"Hey guys." Matt says.
"Matt, hey!" He kisses her on the cheek and I laugh and make smooch noises at them, "Happy Birthday." He says to Elena.
"Where's my happy birthday?" I ask and look around searching for something that cannot be found.
"You said you didn't want to celebrate you birthday this year." I make an ohh noise and smile at him.
"Thank you." Elena says, Matt leaves without speaking to Caroline.
"He hates me. His hatred of me, has driven him to drugs!" Caroline exclaimed.
"He doesn't hate you, he hates that he's not with you."
"You guys are harshing my buzz." I tell them and take another shot.
Elena looks over at the couch, "Is that my brother?" Elena hands Caroline her drink that I take and gulp down quickly. Caroline takes back the drink before I can drink all of it and I whine as Elena leaves.
"So tell me now that you're drunk and will spill all of your dirty secrets that you keep locked away. What's the reason you didn't want to celebrate you birthday?"
"Your never gonna find out, I'm a vault baby!" I make a zipping motion across my lips and she laughs.
"But why?" she insists.
"Because I'm dead and I'm never going to age ever again." I say suddenly feeling sober. "Is there going to be cake?" I ask and she nods sadly.
I walk into the kitchen and look at the pretty cake.
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I wake up to the feeling of somebody poking me. "Go way." I mumble incoherently and move my face so that they can't poke me anymore. My pillow smells like sugar and feels softer, mushier. Cakier. I lift my face up out of the cake and lip my lips clean of blue icing. "Oh my god." I mumble and push cake out of my eyes. Damon stands next to me smirking. He finds this funny. "What happened last night?"
"Oh aside from the table dancing, joint sharing, strip poker and making out with random guys, not much." He said and smirked evilly, I groaned.
"I did all that?"
"And more." He chuckled darkly and walked away and switched on the TV where they were showing an announcement about Andy Stars death. I sobered up enough to say "I'm sorry."
"For what? You didn't kill her, my psychotic brother did." He clenched his jaw in anger.
"I'm sorry that you keep losing people you care about." I say and delicately kiss his cheek before leaving. I pass by Elena and say "be delicate" before I leave.
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I sleep for most of the day and when I do wake up its lunchtime and Elena is throwing the covers off of me.
"Were going to the smoky Mountains." She says.
"Smoky Mountains? As in Tennessee?" she nods insistently and I grumble before getting out of bed, if we find Klaus, I can thank him.
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"In a couple hours, the full moon's gonna rise just above that Ridge. If Tyler's right, that's where the pack will be." Alaric says and points towards something that's meant to be a ridge.
"You were a boy scout, weren't you? A boy scout, slash vampire slayer?" I laugh at what Elena says. Sometimes she's actually funny.
"Slash whiskey-drinking all-around lost cause."
"You're not a lost cause" I say and he smiles gratefully. We all stop walking and he opens his bag where there is a whole lot of weapons.
"Wow. You came stocked." Elena says.
"Well, we aren't exactly bird-watching. Here. Put that in your bag." He hands her a grenade.
"Vervain grenade?" she asks but I can smell that its wolfsbane.
"Wolfsbane." He says and I flinch, that shit hurts like a bitch.
"Well, since we're exchanging gifts..." she shows him John's magic ring.
"That's John Gilbert's ring." He says.
"Aren't you observant." I get the look again.
"It was yours once. Go ahead. Take it. I'll protect you from whatever supernatural danger we're about to get ourselves into."
"Trust me, with your luck, Rick. Your gonna need it." I say with a chuckle.
"He gave it to you." He says.
"Yeah, but I'm a doppelgänger. It's not gonna work on me. He left it for if I ever have kids." Elena says and I nod.
"Yeah, well, then why don't you save it for future generations of stubborn, relentless baby Gilberts?"
"That's offensive." I say and he smiles.
"Ok, and how 'bout you borrow it until after we survive this? I'd feel bad if I got you killed before happy hour." Elena says, he takes the ring and slips it onto his finger, she walks closer to the water edge.
"I don't know why you think that you're a lost cause." Suddenly she goes flying into the water and Damon is standing where she stood.
"Damon! How are you even here?" Elena yells and I laugh at her as she stand in the water with her arms crossed like a petulant child.
"Thanks for the tip, brother." Damon says and Elena looks at Alaric betrayed.
"Bromance." I sing.
"You sold me out!" she yells.
"You think I'd take you to a mountain range of werewolves on a full moon without backup?" Alaric says. He's got a good point.
After an argument between Elena and Damon, she didn't want to go home without finding Stefan so she wouldn't get out of the water. They ended up coming to an agreement that when the moon came up and he became werewolf bait that we would leave and she got out of the water.
"What was that about a death-bed kissy thing?" I ask and she shakes her head. I laugh silently to myself and give Damon a thumbs up.
More of Damon and Elena arguing. These guys were like 5. Seriously.
The sun is setting in the distance and were all still walking. "We got about a mile left." Rick says, oh yeah, he was so definitely a boy scout.
"The sun's about to set." Damon states.
"I can see that, Damon." Elena says annoyed, so snippy lately. It's like she's constantly PMSing, its irritating and an emotional downer.
"I'm just saying."
"The moon doesn't reach its apex for a while. We have time." She says. Twigs snap and a man with dirt golden blond hair, scruffy beard and blood running out of his eyes.
"He's rocking the hobo look. And plaid is so two seasons ago." I say and Alaric raises his crossbow at him. Sometimes I forget that he's a hunter, times like this remind me that he's a total bad-ass and not the guy grading me C- in history.
"Stay where you are!" he yells.
"Vampire." The guy/hybrid says and speeds over to Damon and they fight, the hybrid manages to get the upper hand and pushes Damon into a tree and tries to bite him with his now protruding fangs. Alaric shoots an arrow at him but the hybrid is still trying to bite Damon, like he is completely unaffected. Elena takes the wolfsbane grenade from her bag and yells Damon's name out, she throws it to him, and he releases the trigger that makes it explode in the hybrids face. He screams and his face burns. Damon kicks him in the stomach and the hybrid falls unconscious.
"Let me guess. Hybrid." I nod even though it was a rhetorical question. Damon, Alaric and I tie the hybrid to a tree while he's unconscious.
"These ropes aren't gonna hold him much longer. What else do we have?" Damon asks. Elena is spaying the rope with something, probably wolfsbane or vervain, maybe both.
"Ric, here. Take these." Elena holds the rope out for Ric to take but Damon being an idiot touches it and his skin starts to blister.
"Aah! Ow!" He cries out and lets it go.
"I said Ric." She's enjoying his pain, ha, the things you learn, and Alaric takes the rope and puts it around the rabid hybrid. Maybe he has rabies because I was never like that.
"All right, that's the last of the vervain. We don't have enough stuff to hold him. I don't think we're gonna make that Ridge before the full moon." Alaric says.
"If we can get him to talk, we don't have to." She says.
"Talking isn't always the solution, I suggest we torture, maim, get answers and kill." Say and Damon nods agreeing with me for once in his super long life.
"Is he turning?" Damon asks surprised when the hybrid starts screaming and the full moon seems to be affecting him, even though it's not up yet.
"Thanks for pointing that out, grandpa. You're so perceptive." I say sarcastically and he glares at me.
"It's impossible. It's still daylight."
"Tell him that." Ric says.
"Hybrid, person, you're not meant to be turning, stick to the rules." I say to the screaming hybrid, Ric rolls his eyes at me, Damon gets closer to the hybrid and catches his shoulder.
"There aren't supposed to be werewolves out here until the moon is full." Elena says.
"Looks like they decided to start the party early." I say and tilt my head at the snarling hybrid.
"You know, those ropes aren't gonna hold the wolf." Alaric says.
"Damon, we've got to get out of here. We gotta get out of these mountains now! Damon, now!" Elena shouts and we all turn and run human speed for the humans. And Elena just has to trip, doesn't she know when you're getting chased you never trip or look back, I've learned that much from horror movies.
"Don't move." Damon says. She raises her head and she's face to face with a snarling werewolf.
"Here, doggie, doggie. You stay here and keep them safe." He says to me before he turns and uses his vampire speed to leave, the werewolf runs after him.
"Come on. Let's keep moving." Alaric says.
"We can't leave Damon." Elena says desperately.
"He can handle himself. Let's move." Alaric says and I nod vigorously.
"No. If he gets bit, he'll be dead. I'm the reason he's out here."
"She's got a point out here, he's wolves bait." I say.
I am the reason he's out here. I told him where we were, and I'm telling you to keep moving. Let's go. Elena, now! Aria!" he yelled.
We all find the car and get in. "Stefan's out there somewhere and now Damon, and we're just sitting in this car?" Elena says.
"On the bright side, none of us became chew toys." I say from the back.
"Let the vampires fight the hybrid zombie mountain man. I'll take care of keeping the humans safe." Rick says to her.
"That's discrimination." I say from my spot in the back.
"I thought you were checked out of taking care of people." Elena say, probably still bitter that he moved out.
"I know what you're doing. Don't. There doesn't need to be a lesson here." Alaric says.
"You're better at it than you think, you know?" Elena says.
"Oh, boy, are you a sucker for a lost cause or what?" Alaric asks.
"You're not a lost cause, Ric. You're just lost. But so is Jeremy, so is Aria and so am I. Our family is gone. We don't have anybody. I'm sorry, but you don't have anybody either, so... We're kind of good for each other." I nod quickly at her words.
"I'm keeping the ring, then." Alaric says and we all smile. Damon turns up out of nowhere and walks towards the car.
"Damon?" she asks and gets out of the car. "Are you ok? Did you...?" she trails off, did he get bit, is what she's asking.
"Fine, bite-free. Get back in the car, please."
"Can you just give me a minute to appreciate that you're not dead?"
"I'll give you 10 seconds. 9, 8..." He pushes her toward the car, "Hey, Ric, did you happen to see where I parked my car?" he asks.
"Damon, stop being such a caveman." Elena says. This is going to be a long trip home.
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I walk into my bedroom and lay down on my bed. I feel my teardrop necklace against my neck and sigh, I miss Elijah.
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A/N: So what did you think? Read and review!