Lexi is dead… I hate Damon for it. Zach is dead… I hate Damon for it. Mr. Tanner is dead… I dislike Damon for it… Vicki was turned by Damon. I dislike him for it. Vicki is dead and Jeremy was upset and Damon had to compel him to forget. I HATE him for it! I have tried not to hate Damon all these years… Now I have no choice but to…
"Have you tried talking to Bonnie?" Elena asked as Caroline, she and I walked onto school grounds. Apparently Caroline had gotten into a huge fight with Bonnie and Elena was trying to fix it for them. I was staying out of it. I had my own hating-of-a-person to do…
"No. I'm mad at her. She needs to make the first move." Caroline grumbled.
"Be the bigger person." Elena urged.
"Impossible in her presence!" Caroline shot back.
"Why are you so pissed at her anyway?" I asked as my curiosity finally out weighed my own thoughts of hatred towards Damon.
"She's a thief! That's why! I gave her my necklace and she refuses to give it back. It's a matter of principal!" Caroline told me.
"All right, I tried. I'm officially out of it." Elena said.
"I was never in it." I added.
"Jeez, Beth, you got bitter. When we first met you, you were sweet and innocent. Blame Bonnie, she ruined you." Caroline told me. Blame Damon. He ruined us both.
"Now, Elena, you're turn. Where's Stefan? Have you talked to him?" All Caroline knew was that they'd gotten into a fight. She was kept out of the whole Damon-killed-his-best-friend-in-cold-blood part of it.
"He's avoiding me."
"Why?"
"It's complicated. I'll see you later." Elena steered me away from Caroline and only spoke once we were out of hearing distance.
"How are you guys doing with… you know?"
"Lexi's dead… Stefan's still upset and he's not coming to school today I don't think. I'm upset too…"
"Did you k-… I mean is Damon…?"
"We didn't kill him. We threw him around a bit and then Stefan stabbed in his the chest with a stake, but he made sure he missed the heart."
"Oh, okay… Jeremy's over there if you want to talk to him." Elena said, motioning behind me. I turned and saw him a few yards away.
"Okay, thanks..." Elena walked off and then I hurried over to Jeremy. Jeremy grinned as I walked over and straightened up from where he was leaning against a tree.
"Hey, Beth!"
"Hey, Jer… How ya doing?"
"Good. You?"
"Okay, I guess…." I wasn't going to mention anything with Lexi or Damon or anything else going on with me. He nodded and then wrapped an arm around my shoulders. He led me towards the school.
"You're in a good mood."
"I dunno know… I've just felt… better. It's been a long time since I felt like this." He told me, looking down at me. I smiled.
"Good. That's good… We have different classes." I reminded me as we walked into the school. He pulled his arm back so I could walk away.
"Right. See you later?"
"Of course."
"Bye!"
"Bye."
"Good morning everyone. Alrighty…" The new history teacher said as everyone sat down. He quickly wrote his name on the blackboard.
"Alaric Saltzman… It's a mouthful, I know. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue… Saltzman is of German origins. My family emigrated here in 1755 to Texas. I, however, was born and raised in Boston. Now the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great-grandfather I will never be able to thank enough. You'll probably want to pronounce it 'all-a-rick' but it's 'a-lar-rick', okay? You can call me Rick. I'm you're new history teacher."
After school, I went to the Grill. I didn't want to go home just yet because I knew Damon was going to be there. I saw Jeremy and his aunt Jenna at a table, talking. I listened in curiously.
"I like a man who can dine alone. A quiet strength." Jenna was saying. I followed her eyes and saw she was watching Mr. Saltzman.
"I thought you were still in that whole Logan depression thing." Jeremy said. I saw her grimacing just at the name.
"I've sworn off men forever, but it doesn't mean I can't observe from a safe distance." Jenna said. He nodded, trying not to smile.
"Well, I can introduce you… Hey, give me two seconds." He slid out of his seat and headed over to me, a grin on his face.
"Want to join us?"
"I shouldn't… You're having family time and I'm being bitter today. I think you took my good mood for yourself." I told him.
"Then maybe I can rub off on you. Come on." He pulled me back to the table. I reluctantly slid into the seat next to him.
"Jenna, this is Elisabeth Salvatore. Beth, this is my aunt Jenna." Jeremy introduced us. I held out a hand for her to shake and she did.
"Nice to meet you, Beth." She told me.
"Nice to meet you too."
"So how do you guys know each other? Jeremy hasn't mentioned you at all." Jenna told me, sending an amused look at Jeremy. I looked at him too. His cheeks were burning, obviously not liking this subject.
"Well, we met at the Grill and we've been hanging out at school. With my big brother dating his big sister, it's hard not to know each other. And he hasn't mentioned me at all?" I asked in disbelief, turning to Jeremy again. She shook her head, trying not to laugh.
"Not a word. Elena has mentioned you a lot though. I wonder why he hasn't…" Jenna teased. Jeremy was bright red by now.
"Hey, so, change of subject, how do you like our new history teacher?" He asked. I shrugged and looked over my shoulder at him as his table.
"He's cool, I guess."
"Speaking of history, have you picked a topic for your history paper?" Jenna asked Jeremy. He shrugged it off.
"No, not yet. It's gotta be local and no internet research, so…"
"That's easy. You've got your dad's stuff."
"What stuff?"
"How the Gilberts came over on the Mayflower and all that family linage from way back. You're dad loved all that family history stuff. It's all boxed up in the closet." Jenna explained.
"Oh, cool… Does you're family do that stuff?" Jeremy asked, turning to me.
"Oh yeah… Because my family is one of the founding families, I can trace our history through journals and stuff right back to when the town was built." I told him. Most of the journals would by my brothers, so it's guaranteed to be accurate. Just then, Alaric walked up to the table.
"Mr. Saltzman." Jeremy and I greeted him in unison.
"Jeremy, what's up, man? Elisabeth, how's it going?"
"Oh, Mr. Saltzman, this is my aunt Jenna." Jeremy told him, motioning towards his aunt. They shook hands.
"Alaric Saltzman, nice to meet you."
"Jeremy was just telling me about his paper. Thanks for giving him another chance." Jenna told him. He nodded.
"It's my first day. I wanted to make a good impression." Then I saw Damon and Stefan at the bar. I nudged Jeremy with my elbow.
"Hey, I see my brothers; I gotta go talk to them." I told him. I slid out of my seat and hurried over to Damon and Stefan at the bar. Apparently they were imitating each other now.
"Stefan, I've been thinking. I think we should start over, give this brother thing another chance. We used to do it oh so well once upon a time." Stefan was saying.
"I don't Damon. I can't trust you to be a nice guy. You kill everyone and you're so mean. You're so mean and… You're really hard to imitate and then I have to go to a lesser place." Damon took another drink from his bottle of alcohol.
"Can I get a coffee please?" Stefan asked the passing bartender. Then he turned his attention back to our brother.
"So what's with the whole bottle?" I asked Damon, boosting myself onto one of the high bar stools. Damon groaned and took another drink.
"I'm on edge. Crash diet and trying to keep a low profile…"
"You could always just leave, find a new town to turn into your gas and sip." I suggested. He gave me a drunk, amused smile.
"I'll manage. And you two don't need to keep an eye on me."
"I'm not here to keep an eye on you." Stefan told him.
"So why are you here?" Damon asked.
"Why not?"
"Lucky shot." Damon said as Stefan, he and I played darts. Stefan went to pull his darts off the board with a smile.
"More like carefully honed skill over many decades." He handed the darts to me and I stepped up to throw them.
"You're beating me." Damon complained. I threw a dart and it hit dead center of the board. I grinned, just because I knew behind me Damon was grimacing.
"Yeah, it's because I'm better than you." Stefan said. I threw another dart and it hit only half an inch below the first one.
"I'm onto you. Reverse psychology. It's a little transparent, but I admire the effort." Damon said. I threw another one and it hit just above the first dart. I went to pull them all out of the board. I handed them over to Damon.
"You prefer the brooding forehead?" Stefan asked.
"Seriously, what game do you think you're playing?" Damon asked.
"That's a funny question considering I've been asking you that for months. It's frustrating, isn't it?" Stefan asked. I laughed as I sat on top of a nearby table. Damon nodded slowly.
"Touché."
"What are we doing here?" Damon asked Stefan and me as we walked onto the football field of the school.
"Bonding. Catch! Go on, give it a try!" Stefan urged.
"Don't forget who taught you to play this game!" Damon reminded him. Stefan tackled him to the ground and they both lied there for a second.
"That hurt." Damon complained.
"Downside of my diet… getting hit actually hurts a little." Stefan told him. Since they obviously weren't getting up, I went and lied down beside them on the field. Damon reached over for my hand and I didn't pull back when he took it.
"I'm impressed, Stefan. Fun with booze and darts, sentimental football and now starry night… What do you want, Stefan?" Damon asked.
"It wasn't real, Damon, our love for Katherine. She compelled us. We didn't have a choice. Took me years to sort that out, to truly understand what she did to us." Stefan told him.
"Oh no, we are not taking that on tonight!" Damon said.
"What do you want with Katherine's crystal?" Stefan asked instead.
"How do you know about that?"
"Oh please, Damon, did you really think that Elena wouldn't have told him everything?" I asked.
"How did you know it was Katherine's? Emily gave it to her on her last night. I was there, you weren't." Damon told him.
"I was the last one to see her, Damon… Now, what do you want with Katherine's crystal?" Stefan tried again.
"She didn't tell you know?" Damon inquired.
"We had other things on our mind."
"I could rip your heart out and not even think twice about it." Damon said, jumping up. Stefan and I both got up too and I darted between them.
"Don't!" I cried warningly, putting a hand on each of their chests to stop them. Whenever the whole Katherine subject came up, things tended to get violent.
"I've heard that before." Stefan said.
"I have a bigger surprise, Stefan. I'm gonna bring her back."
"How can you bring Katherine back?" I demanded.
"Before Katherine and the others were killed in the church, you remember what it was like in the town?" Damon asked.
"I remember the hysteria…" Stefan said.
"The fear…" I added.
"Townspeople were killing vampires one by one…. When they came for Katherine, I went straight to Emily, said 'I'll do anything, name your price, just protect her' and she did."
"How?" Stefan and I asked in unison.
"She did some kind of spell with the crystal. And while the church was burning and we thought Katherine was burning it, she wasn't."
"But I saw her go inside." Stefan protested.
"There's a tomb under the church. The spell sealed Katherine in that tomb, protecting her."
"Are you telling me that Katherine's alive?" I asked. If she is, then I will kill her myself for what she's done to all of us…
"If that's what you wanna call it. She's been trapped in a mystic holding cell for the last century and a half, but Stefan's the expert on starving a vampire. How do you think she's doing, Stefan? Did you know that witches can use celestial events to draw energy into their magic? Me either. But in order to give the crystal its power, she used the comet that was passing overhead and in order for that crystal to work again…"
"The comet had to return." Stefan finished when Damon trailed off.
"Downside… Long time between comets and a couple of hiccups along the way with the crystal, but the comet passed and I got the crystal. And then Caroline got the crystal and now Bonnie has the crystal and here we are!"
"Why would Emily… Why would she do this for you?" I asked.
"Because she knew they were gonna come for her too and she made me promise that her linage would survive."
"I remember. You saved her children…" I said. At the time, it had seemed so strange. He was desperate to save those children when normally he would have been trying to save Katherine… It was all making sense now.
"It's the only thing keeping me from ripping that little Bonnie girl's throat out to get my crystal back. Well… A deal's a deal… So, you wanna throw some more?" He asked casually, holding up the football. Just then, Stefan's phone rang and he answered it. I turned to Damon.
"Katherine is evil! She ruined our lives! Why would you still want her back?" I asked him. He threw the football to me casually. I didn't even try to catch it and it landed a few feet behind me.
"I loved her!" Damon told me.
"No you didn't! She compelled you! She used you! She used you, she used Stefan and she used me! All for her little games! Why can't you see that?" I cried. He couldn't answer before Stefan walked back up.
"Emily is posscessing Bonnie. She's headed for Fell's church." Stefan told me shortly. Damon shot off. We exchanged a look.
"Do you think she's going to release Katherine?" Stefan asked.
"If she does release her and Katherine comes out of that tomb, I don't care what Damon does to me… I'll stake her right then and there." We darted off, heading for the old church. We stopped in the woods near the church when we saw Damon in a tree, a branch through his stomach. Stefan pulled him off.
"It hurts…. This is why I feed on people…" Damon moaned.
"Stefan, Elisabeth…" Stefan and I both turned around to look at Emily Bennett. She was in Bonnie's body, but it was obvious by her expression, voice and posture that it was her.
"Hello, Emily." Stefan said tersely, walking over to stand slightly in front of me.
"These people don't deserve this. They should never know such evil!"
"What do you mean 'evil'?" Stefan asked.
"Emily… I swear to god I will make you regret this!" Damon threatened her, walking over to the other side of me.
"I won't let you unleash them into this world!" Emily said. Stefan and I both slowly turned to Damon.
"Them?" Stefan echoed.
"Did you happen to leave out part of the story?" I asked.
"What does it matter?" Damon asked.
"Emily, tell me what you did!" Stefan demanded, turning back to her.
"To save her, I had to save them."
"You saved everyone in that church?" I asked in disbelief. That had to be at least twenty vampires that had been in that church…
"With one comes all."
"I don't care about them, I just want Katherine!" Damon said.
"I knew I shouldn't have believed a single word that came out of your mouth. This isn't just about love is it? It's about revenge!" I accused.
"The two aren't mutually exclusive." Damon muttered.
"Damon, you can't do this!" Stefan said.
"Why not? They killed twenty seven people and they called it a war battle! They deserve what they get!" Damon snapped.
"Twenty seven vampires, Damon! They were vampires! You can't just bring them back!" I protested.
"This town deserves this!"
"You're blaming innocent people for something that happened a hundred and forty five years ago!" I yelled at him.
"There's nothing innocent about these people and don't think for a second it won't happen again! They already know too much and they'll burn your little grandwitch right next to us when they find out. Trust me!" Damon yelled at Emily.
"Things are different now!" Emily told him calmly.
"Don't do this!" Damon yelled.
"Bonnie!" Elena yelled as she caught up with us. She stopped beside Stefan.
"No!" Damon yelled.
"I can't free them! I won't! Incendia!" She threw the necklace up in the air and it exploded mid-air. With that, Emily left Bonnie's body. Damon darted forward and bit into Bonnie's neck. Elena screamed as Damon shoved Bonnie's limp body to the ground and darted off. Stefan, Elena and I ran to Bonnie.
"She's alive but barely… I can save her." Stefan bit into his wrist and then put it to Bonnie's mouth for her to drink the blood.
"Her neck… It's healing." Elena said in amazement. I left them, darting off in search of Damon. Stefan was right behind me. He wasn't far, only just out of sight. He spoke before we could.
"Katherine never compelled me. I knew everything. Every step of the way... It was real for me… I'll leave now."
I darted back to the house. I expected to find Damon there, maybe convince him to stay here, but he wasn't. I wasn't even sure why I wanted him to stay. Maybe I thought that now that he had no agenda, we could get back to being family… Maybe I thought he could use some comfort since he couldn't get Katherine back… Maybe I just didn't want to lose anyone else.
"Damon!" I yelled uselessly through the empty house. Finally I went to my bedroom, slamming the door behind me. Damon had put it back on his hinges since last time when I had slammed it too hard. I never even thanked him for that… I collapsed on my bed. I heard Stefan walk into the house. I listened to him as he went to his room. I heard the thump of something hitting the wall and then him crying. I had heard Stefan's breakup speech to Elena and I knew they were both upset. I crept out of bed and into his room. He was sitting on his bed. I went silently over and sat down. I hugged him around the shoulders and put my head on his arm. And so we sat in silence…