A/N another chapter update for my readers. Thanks for the views and reviews!
Damon, Damon, Damon… All I can think about is Damon! And it doesn't help that he knows I can hear him so he begs me to release him all day long. Stefan has forbidden me to go to the cellar to see him alone, fearing I will release him. Zach is forbidden to go into the cellar at all. That I can agree with. It's for his own safety.
I shoved my diary aside and walked down into the cellar. I heard Stefan down there already, so I could go down. Stefan was standing by the closed door, talking to Damon through it.
"Where's my daylight ring?" Damon moaned.
"Won't be needing it anymore." Stefan answered.
"How long have I been in here?"
"Three days." I answered for Stefan.
"Hey, little sis… Can't you just open that door for me like a good little girl?" Damon asked. I saw Stefan's warning look, like he actually thought that I'd do something like that.
"What are you doing to me?" Damon asked when I said nothing to him.
"During the dark ages when a vampire's actions threatened to expose or bring harm on the entire race, they would face judgment. They sough to reeducate them rather than to punish." Stefan told him.
"You know what will happen if I don't… feed on blood..." Damon sounded weak already.
"You'll grow weaker and weaker. Eventually you won't be able to move or speak. Within a week your skin will desiccate and you'll mummify. A living corpse… Unable to hurt anyone… Ever."
"So what you're going to leave me in the basement? Forever?"
"I've injected you with enough Vervain to keep you weak. Once your circulation stops, I'll move you to the family crypt… Then in fifty years we can reevaluate." I walked out of the cellar. I couldn't stand this type of talk between my brothers…
"Beth, wait up for me!" I turned as Elena ran towards me at school. She stopped in front of me and caught her breath.
"Have you see Stefan today?"
"Yeah, he's coming today. I think he's at his locker." I told her. I turned to walk away, but she caught my arm to stop me. I turned back to her.
"Are you okay? You seem… off." She said.
"Damon's gone... You don't have to worry about him anymore, Elena…" I told her. She looked surprised and then concerned.
"Gone as in…?"
"As in Stefan told him to leave town and never come back here and now I'm probably never going to see my big brother again gone. Are we done here?" I asked a little snappily, putting my anger at reality into the cover story.
"Sorry, Beth…" She said, dropping my arm. I sighed.
"I'm sorry; I'm just upset about Damon." I told her.
"Why don't you come to the car wash? It's called Sexy Suds, so you'll have to wear a skimpy bikini, but it might be fun. It's a fund raiser for the school." She told me. I shrugged.
"Sure, why not?" I said with a shrug of my shoulders. She grinned, happy at my agreement. I pointed over her shoulder at my brother.
"I'd better get going. Stefan's over there if you want to talk to him."
The second Stefan and I came home from school that day, I tuned my vampire hearing to listen to any sound coming from the cellar.
"I came to say goodbye Damon." Zach's voice came up from the cellar. Why the heck was he down there with Damon? Then there was a thump.
"Unlock the door, Zach!" I darted down there with Stefan right beside me. Stefan easily pried Damon's hand off of Zach's throat and Damon yanked his hands back in through the bars of the door. I ran over to Zach.
"Keep it up, Damon. The more energy you expend, the faster you'll go!" Stefan reminded him.
I came downstairs the next day, dressed in short shorts and a tank top that didn't go all the cover my whole belly button. I didn't have a bikini for that 'sexy suds' fundraiser thing, so I improvised.
"Zach? I'm heading out for that fundraiser thingy at the school now!" I called as I came into the living room.
"Okay, then go on out, Aunt Beth… I'll stay out of the cellar and away from Damon like a good little human." He said. I nodded to him, hiding a smile.
"Thank you. We don't need another incident like yesterday where Damon actually succeeds. Human or not, you're family." I told him. He gave me a small smile in return to my comment.
"Yeah, okay. I guess we are. You hold the title for the only vampire I like as family." He told me. I put a hand over my chest dramatically.
"Oh my gosh, really?" He smiled wider at my mock surprise. I gave him a quick hug before heading out.
"No friend discounts. No freebies. No 'pay ya later's. We are not running a charity here!" Caroline told me. I nodded in agreement. She handed me a bucket and a sponge with a smile.
"You can go help Matt and Bonnie with their car over there." She told me, pointing to them a couple yards away. I nodded and headed over. Bonnie welcomed me with a wide smile.
"Hey, Beth!" Matt was looking at something else. Bonnie and I both turned to see that he was watching Elena and Stefan kiss.
"Uh-uh. None of that tortured pining stuff!" Bonnie told him. He looked down at the car hood he was scrubbing. I got to work on the windows.
"I'm just observing." He told her.
"Oh, Tiki, this one's yours!" Bonnie told a cheerleader as another car drove up. The girl, Tiki, scoffed.
"Why do I always get the homely ones? Just to be clear, your cards a p.o.s. I mean, we can wash it, but it's still a p.o.s." Tiki told the driver.
"You don't have to be rude!" Bonnie told her.
"Rude is uglying up the road with that junk!" Suddenly the hose filling up a five gallon bucket flew up out of the bucket, spraying her all over. Matt laughed as he grabbed it and shoved it back into the bucket.
"Wet and wild, Tik!" I was laughing too hard to work on the car for a minute. Matt was having trouble himself just because of the look on Tiki's face.
I finished up the car that I was washing and Caroline directed me over to help Elena and Stefan with the one they were washing.
"That's a pretty ring. You might get soap in it, though it." Elena said, motioning towards my daylight ring. I looked down at it too. It was a small ring as opposed to Stefan and Damon's big bulky ones. It had a simply silver band with silver swirls that kind of pointed to the small oval Lapis Lazuli stone.
"Thanks. And it's fine. It's been through much worse wear and tear than this..." I assured her. Like over a century and a half of wear and tear worse than this…
"What kind of stone is that?" She asked.
"I think it's called Lapis Lazuli." I told her.
"I noticed that both you have rings with stones like those and Damon… Is there a story behind it?" Elena asked.
"Yeah, Damon's and mine had has the family crest on it if you notice. It's from the Italian Renaissance. Beth's was passed down through the females of the family, who were all given one like that when they married into the family." Stefan said. Not true on my story of course. Katherine had her witch friend Emily Bennett make this for me and it was obvious she put more thought into Stefan's and Damon's rings than mine. She smiled and nodded. Then she wiped her hands on her shorts and started to walk off.
"Okay, I'm going to get more towels."
It was hours later, after dark, when Stefan and I finally got home.
"Hey, Zach! We're back!" I called as I walked in. No answer… Stefan walked in behind me just as I looked around. A rug in the hallway was messed up and I just then noticed the door had been wide open.
"Zach? Zach! ZACH!" No, no, please no! I begged in my thoughts. I dropped my bag and Stefan and I sprinted down to the cellar. I stopped a couple steps from the bottom as I saw Zach's lifeless body. Stefan sprinted past the open cell door and over to Zach.
"Zach! Oh no, Zach!" He said. He looked up and me. He shook his head, confirming he was gone. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks. I stumbled down the last couple of steps and fell to my knees in front of Zach's body.
"No! No… Zach." I sobbed on the floor while Stefan rubbed my shoulder in an awkward form of comfort. I could tell his mind was some where else. Suddenly he jumped up and ran out of the cellar. I took a second to try and stop my crying. When I failed, I just got up and ran after him anyway. He had already grabbed a stake and was heading for the door. He glanced at me, waiting for me to stop him. I snatched the stake from him, my expression saying it all.
"You're going to help me?" I nodded silently. I was aware of the little mascara I had on running down my cheeks with my tears like black war paint. He nodded, grabbed another stake and we ran out the door. We both stopped dead when we saw Elena there.
"What are you?"