Chapter 10: Meanwhile at the arcade
In the tent that normally housed the fortune teller stood Charlie Swan. Around him was a group of people and none of whom looked happy to be there. At the small table stood a small laptop and a bunch of medical and police files and a muscled man was reading the medical ones.
"So you're saying that not only the legends are real but someone is also killing our families, my brother?"
"why isn't any of this in the papers?"
a woman with long blond hair asked while browsing the internet. Her name was Tracy Fell and was an investigative reporter in DC. She had helped Charlie cover up the vampire attacks in Forks the previous years and was the first he called.
"Liz is keeping under wraps for now. But its getting out of control"
"Why are no reports on Zack?"
The oldest of the group asked. He seemed to be in his late fifties and spoke with a heavy Italian accent.
"he's not dead sir"
Charlie said confused
"my son hasn't talked to me since the family abominations came back here"
"I'm sorry mr. Salvatore but according to Liz he went back to Italy and left Damon in his place at the council"
"it's safe to assume he's dead too. Just like my uncle"
Jeff Lockwood said calmly. he was a twenty three year old lawyer who unlike his father, mason, didn't advertise himself. Richard knew about his brother's discrepancies and had taken his nephew under his wing helping him get into college and even gave him an internship at his law firm. Since the day Richard had died he had kept an eye on his wife.
"Why am I here?"
Stephenie Gilbert asked confused. She had plans with her cousin Jeremy but he was nowhere to be found. Joseph gave her the once over and felt pity for the girl.
"All I want is to find my father"
Stephenie finished. Tracy rolled her green eyes at the girl's nativity and decided to fill her in the town's problems. After all they were all descendants of the founder families.
A loud scream interrupted their meeting as a blond woman made a freefall from the Ferris wheel on the other side of the town square.
"I'm sorry miss, you need a partner to ride the Ferris"
the bulky man said apologetically at the young girl that was about to sit at the last wagon.
"There you are love; I've been looking for you"
Klaus gave the man his best smirk and slipped to the last wagon. Bella sighed and shook her head chuckling before joining him. The man locked the safety bar and walked back to his position and turned the Ferris on watching as it began to play a few cheesy carnival songs as it worked.
"so... what are you doing here?"
"I want to apologize for last night. I shouldn't have grabbed you"
"no you shouldn't but I hear you have anger issues"
Bella stared at the older hybrid that looked down for a moment.
"I want to know more about you"
He changed the subject easily.
"of course you do"
"come on, tell me something i don't know about you"
"that would imply that you do something about me but you don't"
the two hybrids looked at each other for a few moments.
"I know that you look good in a towel"
"yeah..."
a blush colored her cheeks.
"you don't know about me that.. um- I'm only a week old"
"really"
"your turn"
the Ferris stopped and the wagon with the pair was almost at the top.
"I played in a film"
Bella smirked at his actually shy tone
"Mansfield Park"
"you.. you've seen it?"
"I love old classic books and did a paper on it back in phoenix. So I saw the movie as well mr. Price"
it was his turn to blush as they started talking about this and that and everything and nothing. their chat was interrupted by a scream as a blond woman fell from the wagon on the top and landed with a splash
"Liz"
the body was laying face down and the crowd around it made it difficult for anyone to go near it. Bella and Klaus had jumped from their wagon but thankfully no one saw them as everyone's attention was at the dead woman dressed in blue shirt and pants. Like a cop without the insignia.
Charlie and the rest of the backup founders pushed their way closer as the Ferris wheel operator turned the body around after checking for a pulse. Bella hid her face in Klaus' chest just as the face was uncovered.
"What's going on here?"
Liz asked nearing them. She was looking at the group of people behind Charlie and not on the dead woman on the ground.
"Mommy?"
Caroline gasped and ran to her mother to give her a hug tight enough to bruise the older woman's ribs. Looking at the ground they saw that the woman was the head of the fire station and yet another member of the founder's council. Over Caroline's shoulders Liz locked eyes with her brother who nodded and motioned to the newcomers to leave the town square.
Liz hugged her daughter back finally realizing what Charlie had meant that their daughters could be dead, but they're not. It took the death of a woman she was friends with for Liz Forbes to realize that.
Caroline got herself under control but feeling zero mood to party she returned home and spent the rest of the night talking to Tyler.
Liz gathered the remaining members of the founder's council as her deputies gathered the body of the woman and transported it to the morgue even though it was a well known secret that the woman was stabbed.
Bella bid her new friend goodbye and went after Caroline, she was afraid her cousin might do something stupid. Not to mention her feet were killing her with those heels.
Charlie Swan had the most productive evening of them all. He and the rest of the newcomers met at the old motel in the outskirts of town. About five years ago the motel had closed due to the number of 'working girls' using it and giving the small town of Mystic Falls a bad name so the police had rounded the girls up and sent them packing. Since then the motel was empty.
The newly formed 'secret founders council' held its very first meeting on the first floor in the old dining room.
"This is ridiculous"
Stephenie Gilbert exclaimed. only Jeremy paid any attention to her whose suppressed memories had somehow came back.
"Yes, it is. but its also real. Vampires exist; werewolves exist and unless my memories are completely wrong John is dead because of them, not directly but still"
Stephenie nodded confused but at least things seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. John's sudden trips to Mystic, the silence about his brother's family, how adamant he was that Stephenie never meets her cousins under any circumstances. She wasn't upset about him having another daughter though for the very simple reason she also had a new cousin because of it.
Elliott Forbes lived and worked in DC as a general surgeon. He was Bill's cousin and the two were never close but he liked Liz and Charlie. He had found about the supernatural world by treating Charlie's daughter in phoenix a couple years ago when he was there for a medical conference. the girl's wounds simply did not match her story so Charlie had sat him down and reluctantly had given him the 101 on vampires. So when his friend called him the previous day inviting him back to Mystic, the place he had only set foot for Bill's wedding, he quickly got in his car and drove the short distance.
In this new 'secret' council his place would be to review the medical files of all strange deaths in mystic and look for similarities in victims that were not members of the actual founder's council.
Tracy's job was to keep the press in line while Joseph's would be to take the Boarding house back to his name along with the rest of his family's properties as to keep the 'family abominations' in check. Lastly Jeff would use the pull his family name bore to keep an eye on Carol and her bed companions along with accessing the paperwork to transfer the correct property to the correct owner.
Stephenie, much to everyone's amusement, declared she'd take a job at the high school. The town's only non founder in the founder's council had died three times in the past week and it was only her family's power jewelry that kept him alive, someone had to keep an eye on him.
Right?
