Twisted Love
Season Five
True Lies
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the vampire diaries characters or story lines, I only own Grace.
Shooting up in her uncomfortable bed she pressed her hand against her chest for a couple of moments, yet another nightmare about Megan and her knowing about the girls vampire ways, she had been plagued by them every night since the human's death and it was getting harder and harder for her to get any peace.
Throwing her covers off of herself she rubbed her sore eyes as she threw her legs over the side of the bed, she forced herself to get up. Tying her hair up in a high pony tail she tugged on a pair of shorts, her running trainers and a loose fitting tank top before heading out of the door. That's what she really needed to clear her head, a nice run. Going around the campus she took in everything, the place was certainly beautiful but they were hiding something she could sense it.
Jogging back to her dorm she saw the memorial for Megan, stopping by it she placed her hands on her hips taking a couple of deep breaths in and looking at the girl's round face with a perplexed look on her face. "Who the hell are you?" She asked in a low tone shaking her head trying to get her head around anything. "What else are they hiding?"
Deciding that she was getting nothing from just standing around and staring at a picture, she twisted around surprised to see a man standing opposite her, he couldn't have been close enough to hear what she was saying but he was watching her with a confused look on his face, she tilted her head to the side. "Good morning." He told her, walking across the grass patch between them. "Come to pay your respects?"
"Actually she was my new roommate." The brunette replied with a tough voice as she eyed the man up and down sceptically, she decided that he looked too old to be a student here and from the amount of paper he was carrying with him he must have been a lecturer. "I just want to know what happened to her."
The dashing blond creased his eye brows at her as he told her. "You do know they ruled it out as suicide, right? There was a note and everything." She nodded her head slowly. "Listen, death can be a hard thing to deal with and when it happens so suddenly and so dramatically to someone that lived with you then sometimes you just need to talk about things..." He reached into his breast pocket. "And if you ever decide that person is me... well, just come and find my office."
"Thanks." Grace muttered looking down at his card, she had seen so much death in her hometown it wasn't particularly a big deal for her anymore, but it didn't mean that she didn't mourn people anymore. "I really appreciate that, Dr. Maxfield." She nodded looking up at the handsome older man as he nodded before turning and sauntering away from her.
When she finally made her way back to her room, stepping inside and shutting the door behind her she saw her phone flashing on the bedside table, wandering over she picked it up and saw that her loving boyfriend was trying to call her, accepting the call she held her phone to her ear. "Hello?"
"Morning, sweetheart." His voice wasn't deep with sleep which was surprising for her, to be honest it was wide awake, but still she smiled going to sit at her desk opening her laptop. "I trust everything is running well back there in Mystic Falls?" She assumed typing in her password to her emails and checking through them surprised to see she had received one back from Niklaus.
The raven-black haired vampire pulled her out of her trance. "Everything is running smooth here, no problems at all." He of course was lying, he didn't want to but she couldn't know about Silas or any of his mind games yet, he would tell her eventually but right now he needed her to focus on other things. "Jer is getting ready for another glorious day of high school and I am cracking open a bottle of bourbon thinking about how much I miss you..."
A soft smile pulled across her lips. "I miss you, too." It slowly faded away when she felt a hole in her chest from where she missed him so much. "I wish I could be there with you..." She muttered leaning back in her chair. "But right now I need to be here, you understand that, right?" He told her that he did. "Good." She nodded her head slowly as she clicked the email open.
"Yeah, good." Damon's voice wasn't really matching his words, it was a little down but suddenly he said. "Anyway! I need to be getting back to this bottle of bourbon, so I'll catch you later, little girl." He teased her as she giggled. "I love you."
A genuine smile tugged over her lips as she replied. "I love you, too. Bye." With that she ended the call and placed her phone on the table beside her before her eyes went up to the email from Klaus, her stomach was clenching tight from the guilt of talking to him, but really she didn't see anything wrong with keep in touch with him, in her mind it wasn't wrong, but she knew how this would look to Damon if he were ever to find out.
Her eyes hovered over the email for a moment before closing it and shaking her head, if she was going to read it then it wouldn't be when her mind was racing with Damon, shutting her emails she slammed her laptop shut before grabbing a white fluffy towel and walking into the shower room just off of her room.
The pain was still so fresh in her chest as she thought back to the night at the town block party when her father was violently murdered by the evil Silas in front of the entire town and they were unable to do anything about it, or tell anyone because he had used his special mind control on them so they couldn't, all they wanted to do was find Fayth.
The witch was desperate to speak with someone, to be able to share her pain somehow, but the only person she had to talk to was Jeremy, which she didn't mind he was her best friend, but sometimes she wished she had her girlfriends to speak with and that they could see her, she wasn't ready to be dead, not yet.
"It was supposed to be a nice family event." The ghost mused as they both sat facing each other on the couch in front of the roaring fire place of the Salvatore boarding house. "I just stopped by to see my dad. Then Silas showed up..." Her voice broke as she informed him of that, making the hunter frown. "Said he was testing how powerful his mind-control had become." She thought back to that night wincing in pain. "The entire town did exactly what he did. He didn't want any witnesses, so he told them to forget what he did. They watched my dad die... They couldn't do anything, or tell anyone."
Jeremy reached over slowly to comfort her, and she watched his hand move with a worn look on her face. "What are you gonna do? You gonna hug me?" She asked clearly fed-up of the state that she was in and he informed her that he would but she was swift to tell him. "Well, you can't." Her eyes were sparkling with tears as she told him in a cracking voice. "You can't touch me, and I can't touch you because I'm dead." She stated very matter-of-factly. "Just like my dad, expect he's not supernatural, so I don't get to see him on the Other Side. He's just dead."
The ghost took a moment, taking in small soft breaths trying to regain her composer as she closed her eyes trying to block out the immense pain of loosing yet another member of her family, but it was still there echoing through her body to remind her every moment that he wasn't alive anymore and neither was she.
Opening her eyes once more she met the patient eyes of the hunter as she informed him. "Silas is using his mind-control to find Fayth. He told everyone in the town square to keep an eye out for anyone that looks like Grace." Jeremy creased his eye brows. "Whatever he wants with Fayth, we can't let him have it." There was a deep level of determination in the witches voice as the teen nodded slowly, he would do that for her.
On the outskirts of the small town Fayth had made her way to a small suburban neighbourhood, she had been travelling since the car wreck with the young Gilbert, in a small way she felt back about what she had done, leaving him stranded there dying at the side of the road, but she decided that she had no other choice.
The Petrova had to be focused on persevering herself now more than ever, because she was vulnerable and on her own in all of this and had an immortal freak trying to track her down by any means necessary. Fayth had to admit that she was scared, but she had no time to think about any of that, she just had to get to safety.
Stepping out of the seemingly endless forest she had been hiding out in she pushed herself towards a long road surrounded by houses, she was relieved when she saw a car driving lazily down the road, waving her hands above her head she signalled the car over to the shoulder of the road and out stepped a middle-aged woman, she looked like a mother because of the concerned look she had on her face. "You okay, hon? You're gonna get yourself sick out here." She fussed maternally.
The human let out a soft breath as she held her side clearly in some kind of stabbing pain, probably from where she had been in the car crash with Jeremy Gilbert. "Thank you so much for stopping." She thanked her genuinely as she limped towards the woman who now had a funny expression on her face, the Petrova stopped when she informed her that she looked a lot like Grace. "Actually, I'm much prettier and not nearly half as whiny." She answered bracing herself.
"Fayth Pierce, right?" A cynical look pulled across the older woman's face as she slowly reached into the bag on her arm. "I'm supposed to be keeping my eye out for you." Without another thought she whipped out a spray can of mace and sprayed her eyes expertly, yelling in pain and covering her face quickly Fayth doubled over trying to rub the pain away from her eyes, but it seemed to only be making it worse.
Looking through blurry incredibly sore eyes she looked up to see that the woman was now getting out her phone and texting leisurely on it. Thinking on her feet, Fayth launched herself at the woman, she didn't have any supernatural powers anymore so it took all her human strength to knock the woman flat on her back, in a quick moment she gripped the phone tight in her hand and slammed it on the floor next to her face therefore making it useless. Then to take out the problem with the woman she smacked her in the face as hard as she could and then knocking her clean out.
"Agh!" She growled nursing her throbbing hand trying to ignore the pain of her eyes and now her wrist, too. "Dam it." She growled through gritted teeth before she stood back up looking down at the humans unconscious body, feeling almost proud of herself.
She jolted when a voice came from behind her. "Hurts, doesn't it?" She twisted around to see Matt Donovan standing there holding a hunting rifle in his hands, he had obviously been hunting her since she had ran from Jeremy and now he had finally found her. "Not as much as this will..." He threatened darkly aiming the gun towards her as Fayth stood there completely still, she had finally been caught and there was no where else to go.
Stefan's Hallucination
On the shore of the quarry the younger Salvatore was laying there on a soft plaid blanket completely content in that moment as his girlfriend lay there on his chest with a loving smile on her face. "We could be doing anything right now, Stefan." She mused as she leaned up gazing down into his eyes romantically. "Be anywhere. Why here? Why this?" She questioned looking out over the beautiful quarry for a moment and then back at him.
"These are the good moments..." He answered as she titled her head to the side. "The simple ones, the ones that matter. These are the moments that keep me from falling apart." His voice was so sure as she nodded her head before leaning down and pressing a deep kiss to his lips, they enjoyed it for a moment before she pulled away.
Elena sighed. "This can't last forever. You're just distracting yourself." She reminded him before he saw a fearful look pull across her face, gripping her throat she began to choke, he sat up watching her before grabbing her shoulders she spat out water from her lungs painfully and then it knew what was really happening, he was the one choking but it was being passed along to Elena to make it more painful for him.
Back at Whitmore college the students were all up and still placing flowers and messages outside of Grace's dorm instead of at the memorial outside, crowds of students stood there blocking the entire narrow hallway, holding each other, consoling each other, offering her their condolences as if she was a relative of Megan's, but she just brushed passed them straight to her friend's room next door.
"Oh, my God." She hissed out angrily covering her face as Caroline watched her with an almost amused look on her pretty face. The brunette was resisting the urge to scream in frustration, slamming the door shut she blocked out the crowds of students that stood there. "My nightmares have become reality." She mused shaking her head crossing the room. "As if it isn't enough that I can't sleep at night, now I have to deal with these students asking if I'm okay!" She paused for a moment before collapsing face first on her twin's empty bed.
The blonde rolled her eyes from where she was standing beside a box of Megan's things she had taken from Grace's dorm. "Ugh, I know right. College kids are so dramatic." She announced frowning as she looked through the box. "She was on campus for, like, one day. She couldn't have had that many friends. I mean, who else did you see her talking to expect for us?" She quizzed in a rough voice as the brunette laughed into the pillow.
The door opened and in waltz Elena with a look on her face. "Guys, seriously?" She shut the door. "She's dead, you can at least stop belly-aching about her now." She told them as she went and sat on her bed next to her twin who moved up onto her elbows. Caroline sighed heavily as she told them she was in a mood. "You talked to Tyler?" She pried in a concerned tone.
A dark look crossed her eyes as she answered. "He's deferring from enrolling and deferring from returning my phone calls, so I'm deferring from ever having sex with him again." She smirked cynically as the two twins opposite her laughed gently, pushed up off the bed Grace wandered over and began to rummage through the box, too.
"How's the snooping going?" She asked casually trying to get the blonde's mind off of her wayward boyfriend. "Any explanation to why our vervain-laced, vampire-slaughtered friend had a picture of Elena's dad on her phone?" She quizzed looking over her shoulder to her sister who sat there with an interested look on her pretty face. Caroline told her that she hadn't found anything. "Well, that's great. Looks like we've hit a dead end, Sherlock." She muttered picking up a book.
Elena was quick to step in telling them. "Not exactly." She grabbed a folder that she had walked in the room with. "I went by the hospital this morning – Megan's death certificate." She announced as both of them looked back at her like she was crazy, it wasn't really an Elena move to act like that, but there she was so proud of herself. "It says she died of suicide. No mention of the gaping vampire-bites on her neck. So, whoever signed off on the cause of death was part of the cover-up – just like the Founder's Council back home." She handed them only the slip of paper.
"I'm impressed, Elena." Grace muttered as her eyes scanned over the page, her stomach dropped when she saw a certain name written on the page. "Oh my God." She whispered her eyes wide as she stared at the page, the blonde moved around the bed asking what was wrong. "That... That guy... Dr. Wesley Maxfield, I spoke with him this morning." She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the man's card, looking at it.
"Why were you speaking to him?" Caroline quizzed as she took the card from her inspecting it for a couple of moments before looking back up at her brunette friend.
Grace answered. "I went for a morning run and when I stopped by Megan's memorial he was watching me..." She informed them as both of the girls creased their eye brows. "Not in a creepy way, he was standing behind me whilst I was there... Anyway, he told me that if I ever needed to talk to him that I should just stop by his office." She told them before taking the card back. "But he teaches here, so why don't we stop by one of his lectures." She announced to them.
"Because we all know squat about..." She snatched the card back looking at it. "About Applied Microbiology." Caroline retorted firmly giving her a look. "I mean, c'mon! We are supposed to be taking Intro. to Communication." She reminded them giving her best puppy dog look. "What happened to getting drunk and making bad decisions about boys? What happened to our fun freshman year at college? I am supposed to be a drama major!"
Grace smirked as she muttered under her breath. "I think our life has enough drama in it already." The blonde threw her a hard look. "Look, the way I'm looking at it is we're not going to be majoring in anything if we're exposed as vampires, okay?!" She gave her a hard look as the brunette beside her sighed heavily sitting down on the bed once more, all of them seemed to pause for a moment.
"We're still gonna have our fun year, Care, but we have to protect ourselves, too." The brunette gave her a sweet smile. "The way that Damon kept our secret in Mystic Falls was because he infiltrated the Founder's Council. So, if you really want to be a drama major then I suggest you get your best game face on, because we're gonna need it." She smirked at her knowingly.
In Mystic Falls standing at the rocky edge of the beautiful quarry Damon was placed at the very margin looking down over the sparkling crystal blue water, Sheriff Forbes was standing a couple of feet back with her arms crossed over her chest as she lectured him about how irresponsible it was for her to dredge the entire quarry to search for someone whom may or may not be down there, but the older Salvatore was so determined to find his brother, the guilt was eating away at him and this was the only place he could think to start.
Liz sighed. "Damon, I know I said I'd help you find your brother, but I can't dredge the entire quarry. It's enormous." She attempted to reason with him but she could see that he wasn't really listening.
"I'm aware of that." The icy-blue eyed vampire answered nodding his head with a hard tone to his voice. "I mean, clearly that's why we wanted to dump Silas' body, here – because it's big and dark and no one would find him." He shrugged his shoulders lightly. "Now, say I'm Silas, and I wanna take over my doppelgänger's life. Why wouldn't I dump him in a place that's big and deep, where no one would find him?" He mused logically as he glanced over his shoulder at her.
The Sheriff shook her head. "Damon, I already agreed to hold off on telling anyone about the Mayor's death until you figured this all out, but I can't devote those kind of resources to finding one person who may or may not be down there." She understood that it was his little brother, but she couldn't give it the go ahead on just a maybe.
"But it's a place to start." He retorted turning to face her fully. "And if Stefan's down there, that means he's been drowning over and over again all summer, while I've been playing happy holidays with Grace."" She could see the guilt burning deep in his eyes as he stood there his shoulders almost hunched. "Do I need to further elaborate the source of my urgency." Liz took a moment to think over the situation before sighing heavily, telling him that she would get some deputies on it. "Thank you, Liz." He nodded at her his voice so sincere, the woman turned around and wandered back to her cruiser.
His phone began to buzz loudly in the pocket of his jeans, reaching in and grabbing it out he glanced at the caller ID before hitting answer and pressing his phone to his ear. "Please tell me you found her." It was the youngest Gilbert who had been out searching for Fayth after she had escaped them in a quick moment. The hunter answered that he hadn't but in fact Matt Donovan had which surprised the Salvatore. "Huh. How shockingly... useful."
On the outskirts of the deep forest the young Donovan boy was tying together the Petrova's wrists so that she wouldn't be able to pull anything that might put their lives in danger again. Gazing up into his eyes as she sat facing outwards in the truck she looked up into the humans brilliant pure blue orbs. "Those blue eyes..." She mused shaking her head softly. "They made me soft. I think you're one of the only people who make me like that, Matt." She informed him as he smirked. "I should've ripped your head off when I had the chance."
Jeremy continued to talk with the older Salvatore on his phone as he watched the two humans across from him. "She was mid cat-fight with some lady who maced her. We think Silas might have mind-controlled himself some new friends." Of course the only reason he knew that was because he had his helper witch on the other side who seemed to know everything because it was easier for her to get everywhere.
The raven-black haired vampire creased his dark eye brows as he wondered outwardly how the two of them had figured all of that out even before he had. "How exactly did the Gilbert-Donovan brain trust put all that together?" He quizzed, but before Jeremy got even a chance to lie he interrupted him telling him. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter. Just hide her. If Silas wants her bad enough to sic the whole town on her, that means we want her more." He told them before the concerned side of him sunk in. "Stay out of sight – you're the last person Silas saw her with."
The youngest Gilbert rolled his dark brown orbs as he hung up shoving his phone back in his pocket before twisting around as he heard the Petrova belly-ache. "Are these ropes really necessary?" She winced as the ropes chaffed against her soft skin, she looked worse for wear and her voice was raspy and hoarse, it couldn't be easy for her to adjust to this new life that she was being forced to live.
"Bullet would've been more effective, but we're trying to be nice." That hunter's tone was like acid as she rolled her eyes looking past the Donovan boy at him. "You crashed my car and left me to die." He reminded her narrowing his rich brown orbs as he took a couple of threatening steps towards her.
Fayth scoffed as she shook her head. "You were gonna hand me over to Silas to get Stefan back." She hissed back at him wincing again as Matt added another knot to the ropes that he was using to bind. "I was just protecting myself." She told him in a defensive voice.
"How many people have you killed using that excuse?" The blond in front of her quizzed looking down at her as she rolled her eyes gently. "Just be glad we got you some clothes." He answered as she glanced up to see the deep look of concentration on his face as he continued to bind her wrists together, they now knew how sneaky she could really be to save her and had to take precautions.
The Petrova girl hissed back angrily. "Don't play the hero." He just ignored her. "You two are just waiting for the convenient time to hand me back over to him." She hissed out shivering as she thought about what Silas could possibly want with her. "I've done this a thousand time. I get it. I'm leverage; I'm that thing everybody wants." She paused as a look of horror crossed her face. "I'm the freaking moonstone!"
Back over at Whitmore college the three girls wandered into Dr. Maxfield's lecture hall looking around at all the students sitting around lazily talking to each other before the class was about to start. The blonde gave the twins a look before beginning to lead them up the stairs when she noticed a familiar face seated in the middle row with an interested look on his face, it was the very handsome Jesse, looking ready to learn.
"Hey, blow-off girl." He used a very teasingly affectionate nick-name for her as the blonde crossed her arms over her chest. "Aren't you freshman?" She tilted her head to the side as he examined the three girls in front of them. "How are you in this class?" He quizzed as a playful smirk pulled across his lips.
The vampire in front of him scrunched her nose as she answered. "What?" She fake laughed shrugging her shoulders. "I love..." She glanced over her shoulder at the chalk board across the room to read what was written on there. "Applied Microbiology..." This made Jesse smile gently. "It's, like, my favourite biology." She pinched her fingers close together as she added. "You know, little things are just so... cute."
The student in front of her chuckled gently before asking casually. "Are you going to the bonfire tonight?" He was tapping his pen against his notebook rhythmically. "Or are you just gonna get really close and then turn around and leave again?" He teased as the three vampires tensed for a moment before Grace stepped forward resting her hands on her friend's shoulders as she told him that they would be there. "Sweet. We'll hang." He promised nodding his head.
Caroline smiled quickly before turning on her heels and stalking up the rest of the stairs giving her smaller friend daggers. "What?" She shrugged her shoulders softly with a sparkle in her chocolate-brown orbs. "You said you wanted to make bad decisions about boys. I've made enough bad decisions about boys to last a lifetime, so instead I'm doing it for you." They all sat down next to one another at the top tier of chairs. "He's cute, he's interested, and most importantly, unlike Tyler, he's here."
Just as the blonde vampire was about to respond to her a very handsome older man with slick back blond locks and a wool cardigan and a briefcase slung over his shoulder sauntered in. "Morning, everyone." He looked out at the students sitting around the room. "I'm Dr. Maxfield. First name is Wes, but call me 'Dr. Maxfield." He told them all snobbishly nodding his head. "One day, when you're out of med school, you'll understand." He paused for a moment beginning to place his things on the desk.
"So." The lecturer began. "You're all going to this bonfire tonight, right?" He assumed that all the kids would want to go and have fun, but they needed to know what it was really about. "Well, here's a quick history lesson for you. Whitmore was founded as a hospital during the Civil War. Deadliest war in American history – over 600,000 casualties. Disease was so prevalent that once a week, they had to gather all the dead, rotting bodies, put them in a pile, and light the whole thing on fire." The three girls in the back scrunched their faces at the thought. "So tonight, when you're getting drunk and partying, stop for a second, close your eyes, and imagine the rancid smell of a hundred rotting corpses."
Caroline sneered as she whispered. "Creep-y."
"Which brings us to microbiology." Dr. Maxfield continued as he walked around his desk perching on the edge of it.
"But hott-ie." Elena muttered as the three of them giggled as quietly as they could, but it still caught the attention of the lecturer up at the front of the hall who glanced up at them.
"... Because that rancid smell comes from a very specific bacteria." He couldn't even hear himself think with the three girls talking in the back row. "Isn't that right, chatty girls in the back?" He called them out as the three girls went pale looking at him, the entire room turned to be looking at them. "And what is that bacteria?" He asked.
Elena and Caroline both sat there in complete silence trying desperately not to make eye contact with the intimidating man perched at the front of the room. "Uh, that's the... erm... um..." She searched aimlessly through the papers on her lap as she came to the conclusion. "I don't know." She muttered.
"Maybe because you're freshmen, who shouldn't be in this class." Wesley answered firmly looking at the three of them. "How do I know? I'm observant – a skill you'll learn in Bio 101, down the hall." He jerked his thumb behind him towards the door as the vampires in the top tire shifted uncomfortably in their seats trying to hide their deep embarrassment.
Soon the girls all evacuated from the building, Elena muttered that she was going to get herself a coffee before splitting from the group and Caroline informed her dark haired friend that she was going to relax in her dorm room which left the smallest vampire on her own wandering aimlessly through the quad.
Pulling her phone out of her pocket she decided it was time to call her boyfriend, when he answered she whined to him about what had happened and like a good other half he politely listened. "It was mortifying." She hissed out covering her eyes for a moment trying to forget all about it. "We just sat there in silence."
"You want me to beat him up?" She wasn't sure if he was joking or being deadly serious but either way she just laughed and answered that she wanted to find out what he knew first. He paused before questioning. "Did you compel him?"
The brunette sighed heavily. "No, because chances are, if he knows about vampires, then he also knows about vervain." She stated logically as he questioned if she used violence against him. "No, Damon. In a class full of 30 or more students I did not violently threated a guy who was lecturing them..." Sweetly he asked if she used torture. "Damon!"
"You do remember who you are, right? You eat people." He questioned in a rough voice. "And you remember that you're dating a reformed serial killer, right?" She giggled as she asked him what would a hero do. "Pfft, that, I have no idea." He answered truthfully as she spotted someone in the crowd as her jaw dropped open. "You still there?"
She gulped as she informed him. "Stefan's here." His stomach dropped when he heard those words come from her mouth. "Damon, I've got to go." He tried to argue but she hung up and shoved her phone back in her pocket with a look of shock on her face as she darted across the quad to be standing there in front of him. "Stefan..."
He inspected her for a moment, obviously the person standing in front of her really wasn't who she was thinking it was, but he wasn't about to let her know that. "Grace, it's good to see you again. I heard you had quite a time away with my older brother." He mused as he tilted his head to the side.
"Yeah, we've just all been wondering where you've been, Stef." She answered looking up at him, watching a funny look cross his face. "I mean, Elena was going out of her mind with worry and you didn't bother calling her once?" She hissed placing her hands on her hips clearly angry with him.
Silas was growing tired of her games as he began to search through her mind but was blocked, he creased his eye brows as he tried again but something was not allowing him to get through her to her mind so he could scan it quickly. "What are you?" He asked in a rough voice as she creased her eye brows asking him what he was talking about. "Why can't I get into your mind?" He pressed.
"What the hell are you talking about?" She hissed shaking her head as he grabbed her wrist trying to strengthen his abilities but was only blocked once more. "Let go of me!" She demanded breaking free of his hold. "You stay the hell away from Elena and I. Got it?" She growled before turning around and stalking through the crowd with a mean glare on her face leaving Silas standing there in complete silence, gob smacked.
Silas was quick to move through the campus in order to find the Gilbert girl before her twin sister could get to her and tell her about the weird run in she had with Stefan. Spotting her sitting down at on a bench and writing casually in a leather bound diary he smirked drifting through the crowd towards her.
She was so engrossed in her writing she hardly noticed him approaching her, with a simple clearing of his throat she glanced up, the complete peaceful look on her face faded away and changed to shock, throwing her journal carelessly to the side she jumped up reaching out to touch his face making sure he was real, Silas only smiled back at her.
Suddenly she slapped him, as hard as she could making his head whip to the side before he returned to be looking down at her. "I guess I deserved that one..." He nodded his head softly as she gave him a look. "I know you're upset that I didn't call, so I figured I should come apologise in person."
"You think an apology is going to make up for leaving me in the dark for the entire summer?" Elena quizzed in a rough voice as she shook her head. "How dare you just waltz back in here and believe you can make everything better with a simple 'I'm sorry'. I thought something terrible had happened to you. I thought you were dead, or that you had gone back to being a ripper!" She paused for a moment. "I know you needed time after losing Lexi again, I know, I get it-"
Silas tilted his head as he looked at her. "Do you really get it?" She looked up at him with an offended look on her face. "I mean, when I lost Lexi I lost her for good, but when you lost Jeremy he came back to you. I don't really think that's the same thing, Elena."
"I don't get pain, is that what you're saying, Stefan? I don't understand it like you do?" She hissed looking up at him. "If I don't get it and I don't understand then what the hell are you doing back here?" She barked crossing her arms over her chest as Silas smirked, he certainly knew how to push people buttons.
Silas smirked. "Well, Damon has had his hands full with the the entire Jeremy situation, but I don't think he can handle it on his owns, without some help..." He informed her as her eye brows knitted together and she asked what he was talking about. "Oh, it's not a big deal. Jeremy got expelled."
"Expelled?" She hissed her eye widening.
The immortal nodded. "Yeah, and then he and Damon got in this fight, and Jeremy bolted-" Her heart was thudding loud in her chest as she asked how she didn't know about all this and where Jeremy was. "I don't know, maybe Grace was keeping it from you because she didn't want you to worry." The brunette tugged her fingers through her hair. "That's why I'm here. I was hoping maybe you'd know."
At a gas station away from the town Matt pulled his truck towards one of the pumps and in the back seat the sleeping human awoke with a nauseous look on her face. "Ugh. Thank God, we're stopping." Her voice broke from the hoarse sickliness of her throat. "If I can only get out of the car-"
Matt glared at her through the rearview mirror as he answered. "Well, you can't, because as soon as we get gas, we're getting back on the road."
"Ugh, but I'm dying back here." Fayth pouted as she blinked a couple of times, the hunter turned suddenly in his chair and told her firmly that she wasn't allowed to get out of the car because she wanted to get something to sooth her headache, which only made the Petrova even more frustrated as she barked back. "Then maybe I can get out of the car because I need to pee? Like, in a bathroom. Like a lady."
This left them no choice, growling the youngest Gilbert pulled himself from the car and stalked around the truck to open her door beginning to untie her wrists until she was free, glancing over his shoulder he eyed the women's bathroom door uneasy. "Hurry." His voice was filled with mixed emotions.
Fayth cleared her throat slightly as she informed them. "My throat is really scratchy, and my head hurts, like, right here." She pointed her to temple with the tip of her dirty nail. "When I cough, it's green." She stuck her tongue out to reveal the green mucus residing on there making both the boys faces scrunch in disgust. "So, get me some stuff for that."
The hunter shook his head. "Silas knows I'm with you. Sorry, I can't risk being seen." He crossed his arms over his chest in a very final voice.
"Please!" She looked over at the crystal blue eyed human who rolled his eyes telling her that he would and with that she was sauntering across towards the bathroom opening the door and walking inside.
Matt headed inside whilst his hunter friend tended to fill up the tank, searching through all the medicinal products he read the backs to see if it listed the symptoms before picking up a simple cold medicine and walking up to the counter to meet with a curly dark haired male, he smiled calmingly at him. "Just this." He informed him dropping it on the counter as the man nodded his head.
Just outside Fayth walked from the restroom looking around first to see that Jeremy was pumping the gas with his back turned to her, her mouth popped open slightly, this could be her shot to get away from all this. But just inside the store clerk spotted the knotted brunette standing in the doorway to the bathroom and muttered. "Is that Grace Gilbert?" He paused remembering. "Or Fayth Pierce?"
The clerk jumped for the phone picking it up and dialling a number quickly, the blond watched as the new human began to run, but her legs were still hurting so it wasn't as fast as she wanted. Grabbing the phone from the mans hand Matt was quick to throw it to the floor rendering it useless. "Jeremy – Fayth!" He yelled gaining the hunter attention.
It surprised the human when the clerk pulled out a powerful shotgun, but Matt was fearless and grabbed the barrel wrestling it from his hands until it was fully in his hands, using the butt of the gun he smacked it in the clerks face effectively knocking him out. Outside Jeremy took off after the human easily catching up with her capturing her in his arms and saying. "Stop. Running."
In her lonely dorm room the brunette was standing there in a pair of lacy black panties and matching lacy bra as she searched her wardrobe for something to wear for the bonfire, pulling out a simple grey t-shirt which was cut a little short to expose her stomach and a pair of black ripped skinny jeans she placed them on her bed whilst she put on her make up. Grabbing her phone off the side she called Elena again. "Lena, can you please call me when you get this? I've looked everywhere for you, but I can't find you. I'm worried." She hit end and threw her phone on the bed.
Hearing the door click open she turned around half-expecting it to be her blonde friend looking to borrow an item of clothing but instead saw her boyfriend standing there, she jumped up and ran over throwing her arms around his neck. He placed his hands on her lower back holding her close to him inhaling her perfume for a couple of seconds before pulling away. "Are you okay? Did you see him? Did he do anything to you?" He inspected her carefully.
"What are you talking about?" She creased her eye brows before figuring it out. "Are you talking about Stefan? Yeah, I've seen him." She hissed pulling away and wandering back across the room towards the mirror running her fingers through her hair. "He was acting really strange, Damon." She watched him shift uncomfortably through the mirror. "Suddenly he just turns up here and starts demanding what I am..."
The raven-black haired vampire creased his eye brows. "What?" She explained again how weird 'Stefan' had been acting around her. "Okay, Grace, that wasn't Stefan... It was Silas." Her jaw dropped open as she turned to him with shock deep in her chocolate-brown orbs. "He's here and pretending to be Stefan, but by the looks of it he didn't get to you..." He looked at her face.
"No. No." She was shaking her head over and over. "I thought that Stefan dropped his body in the quarry." The brunette blinked a couple of times as he replied he thought that his little brother had, too. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Silas was standing there right in front of me and he couldn't do anything." Fear set in deep within her. "Oh, my God." She muttered again. "Elena was right. All summer, she's had this pit in her stomach about Stefan. She just said she had this weird feeling that something was wrong with him."
Quickly she zipped over to her clothes pulling them on faster than he expected her to. "We have to go get Care and then we have to find her before something happens, alright?" She gave him a sure look.
"Jeremy's still not answering." Silas announced as the two of them walked aimlessly through the campus. "I'm gonna hold onto your phone in case he calls back." He informed her as she nodded in understanding, he slotted her phone back in his pocket she asked why he was so concerned. "Damon made a mess, and I wanna clean it up." He answered her surely, obviously he was lying but he was good at it.
Elena stopped for a moment a look of hurt crossed her face. "Do you really think that Grace knew the whole time and just didn't tell me?" She quizzed looking up to see the indecisive look on his face.
Silas gazed down at her as he answered. "I don't know, Elena." She sighed heavily as he continued. "You know how Grace is with Damon, she'd do anything to protect him and his stupid ideas..." He creased his eye brows when he saw the upset frown cross over her lips. "What's wrong?"
Clearing her throat softly she answered. "I just thought we were past that place where we had to lie to each other... You know, after everything that we went through last year I figured we would be strong again, but..." She sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be saying this kind of stuff-"
"It's okay." Silas assured her in a careful voice as he scanned through her memories invasively with a knowing smile on her lips. "I know exactly what you're thinking." Just then his phone vibrated in the immortal's pocket, pulling it out he saw he had a message from an unknown person, opening it it read. 'Fayth Pierce. Route 9' "Sorry, I don't mean to cut this short, but someone says they just saw Jeremy on Route 9." He announced in a confused tone. "Do you know where he might be going?"
Elena thought for a moment. "Route 9..." She mused before remembering somewhere familiar down that route. "I mean, there was this old campsite that we used to go to when we were kids." She announced as the man nodded his head softly, but she creased her eye brows. "Wait, who texted you?"
Elsewhere on campus the sun was beginning to go down and Damon had decided it was time to explain to his girlfriend everything that had happened back in Mystic Falls with Jeremy going away with Fayth and the rest about Stefan missing and Silas being in his body. "So that wasn't Stefan who I spoke to earlier, it was Silas." She mused creasing her eye brows.
"Yes."
Blinking a couple of times she continued. "And Stefan's been missing this whole time and you knew for the past couple of days." He answered yes. "Right. And Fayth has been on the move with Jeremy ever since Silas came after her for some unknown reason." Another muttered yes from the Salvatore, before he asked if she was mad. "No, no. I'm not mad..." She shook her head. "I'm furious!"
He nodded softly. "I can't believe that you would do this, Damon. That you would keep this from me. Stefan is missing and you didn't bother telling Elena, his girlfriend! And most of all that you would send my little brother Jeremy out there with my psycho doppelgänger who hates me after turning her human!" Her voice was raised as her cheeks turned red.
After a couple of moments of silence he finally asked. "Are you done? Because you can be mad at me all you want later on, but right now we need to make sure Silas hasn't done anything to Elena, alright?" He looked down at her as she turned around stalking away from him. "Grace. Grace!" He called but she just continued walking. "Call me if you find her!" He yelled but she didn't respond.
"Hello, brother." A dark voice came from behind the older Salvatore and suddenly he turned to see the immortal standing there. "But I suppose distant nephew is probably more accurate." He shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "I'm sure your little girlfriend has mention to you by now that she had a run in with your brother..." He paused. "She's a sweet girl. I understand why you like her, I have a soft spot for brunette, too. But there is something different about her isn't there..."
Damon smirked. "Oh, yeah. There's something real different about her, and you can't work it out, can you? And it's eating away at you, isn't it." He pressed with a rough voice as Silas' tough exterior cracked for a moment to reveal a dark look in his eyes.
"I'd love to stick around and have this little back and forth with you, but what your little girlfriend is doesn't bother me as much as finding out were her doppelgänger is. Good luck finding her and her sister before something unpredictable happens." He told him as a smirk pulled over his lips making Damon growl in a low way.
Later that night Damon had decided to finally bring the blonde in on all of this, two of them searching would be better than just him alone, in a confused tone she quizzed. "Why would Silas want to hurt either of them?" She glanced up at the older vampire who answered that the immortal was doing it to get at him. "You know, if you just would've told the truth, all of this could've been avoided."
"Gee, thanks, Caroline." His voice was thick with sarcasm as he glanced down at her under the low light of the moon and the flickering bonfires surrounding them. "Your hindsight is invaluable in this situation." He suddenly bumped into a slightly intoxicated student who gave him the evil eye.
The student spat out. "Watch where you're going, douche." This only made the vampire more angry as he asked if he had seen Elena or Grace anywhere, a confused look crossed the young man's face as he answered. "I have no idea who that is, and if I were either of them, I'd probably run from you, too."
"Wrong answer-" Damon hissed out as he lunged forward and grabbed onto his throat tightly about to end him, but the blonde stepped in shoving the raven-black haired vampire out of the way and looking directly into the student's eyes compelling him. "Forget all this and get out of here." She told him and with that the guy turned around and walked away. "You have to calm down." She commanded the older vampire in a low tone.
The Salvatore growled back. "He turned the entire town into a hunting party for Fayth. How am I supposed to calm down when every single person here could be working for Silas?" He reminded her as the blonde gulped slowly looking around at all the party-goers and deciding to speed up their search a little.
Just across the party Elena was standing at a keg trying to fill up her cup, but the pump was stuck, she kept trying to get it to work but eventually gave up, turning around she saw her sister waiting there patiently. "You know, Stefan told me about the time you went to Rebekah's curfew party and did a keg stand..." She smirked but her sister didn't return the favour.
Elena didn't answer, she didn't get the chance to before suddenly Jesse approached them with that easy smile pulling over his lips. "Hello ladies." He announced as they both looked up at him, the taller twin was still deadly serious, but Grace had a small faked smile pulling up over her lips. "What did I just interrupt?" He held his hands up.
"Just a little family trouble." The rich brown haired girl answered as she glanced down at her sister who creased her eye brows, she hadn't realised that they were even in a fight and here Elena was telling some guy they barely knew that they were in a fight.
Jesse chuckled. "Wow. Family drama, kicked out of class... you two are having a rough day, huh?" He looked down at them as Grace crossed her arms over her chest asking what the deal with Dr. Maxfield really was. " ?" He asked using a rather inappropriate nickname for the professor as both of the girls nodded. "Tell you what – help me grab some more firewood, and I will tell you everything you need to know."
The smaller brunette nodded quickly. "Okay." They walked through the small forest towards a miniature log cabin as they all stood inside the handsome boy began to light candles around them explaining. "I had Dr. Maxfield for a few classes last year. He's a jerk, but he's brilliant, so I'll give him a pass." He shrugged his shoulders beginning to gather the firewood from the floor.
"Brilliant and creepy." Elena muttered.
Jesse smirked as he looked over at the twins telling them. "There's a rumour that he's..." He paused for a moment making sure that no one was around to hear them. "A part of this secret society on campus." Grace made a comment about it being a middle-aged men's club as he chuckled, he shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea. All I know is that a few times a week, they supposedly meet at Whitmore House. But you didn't hear that from me." He pointed his finger strictly at them.
"I'm sorry about this, Jesse." Elena suddenly said before shoving him across the room with all her force, making him hit his head and effectively knocking him clean out sliding down the wall unconscious. Grace was surprised and went to run over, but her sister grabbed her arm and threw her across the room.
"Ah. Elena." She hissed looking up at her to see the determined look in her eyes, climbing to be on her knees she held her head in pain as she whispered. "Oh, my God. He got you, didn't he. Silas. He-" She didn't say another word, Elena zipped around behind her and snapped her neck, sending her to the floor with a loud thud.
The two vampires were still walking around the bonfire looking for any sign of the girls anywhere when Caroline caught a boy's arm asking politely. "Hey, do you know Jesse? Have you seen him anywhere?" She asked hopeful that the handsome man might be able to help her in finding the twins.
"Uh, yeah." The tall man nodded his head as he pointed towards the forest. "He took off to get some firewood with two girls..." The guy smirked. "Always had a way with the ladies." He announced as the blonde's eyes widened as she asked what the girls looked like. "Geez, I don't know. Brown hair, tanned, one was taller than the other..."
Damon muttered. "That's them." He nodded over to the blonde, looking up at the boy he demanded. "What way did they go?" He asked as the boy pointed drunkly behind him and with that the two vampires took off into the forest with haste in the direction that the student had pointed them. "Silas can't get into Grace's mind."
"What?"
The older vampire shook his head. "He can't and I don't know why he can't. He was annoyed that he couldn't and... and I'm scared what he's going to do to her-"
"Don't say that." Caroline ordered him in a rough voice. "Why do the evil ones always see something in her?" She mused before looking up at the icy-blue eyed vampire. "I mean, no offence, but first it was you, then Klaus and now Silas, too." She shook her head as Damon looked down at her.
The older vampire growled lowly. "I'm not going to let Silas do anything to her, if Grace is somehow protected from Silas' mind-control and he can't read her mind then it's good enough for me. That means I only have to protect her physically whilst looking for my brother." He announced nodding his head surely. "Hey, look." He pointed towards the log cabin, quickly they ran over to the candle lit room. "Who the hell is that?" He questioned
"That's Jesse." The wavy haired blonde announced as she ran over to be sitting beside him. "Do you think that they did this?" She tilted her head to the side as she saw him bend over and pick up something off the floor before showing Grace's phone to her.
Damon growled. "One of them did." He informed her tucking the phone away. "Stay here and... and look after him, or whatever. I'll find them." He took off from the cabin back through the woods with a determined look on his handsome face.
In the middle of the woods Fayth was sitting at a camp-fire warming her hands tenderly whilst looking at the shotgun opposite her, she had always been a lot more powerful than any guys or weapons so she never taught herself how to use one, she cursed herself, that could have come in handy for now. A warning came from the Gilbert behind. "Don't even think about it." He growled.
"Please." The human scoffed rolling her eyes. "I wouldn't even know how to use it. I've never shot a gun in my life." She admitted as both of the boy glanced over to her as she stared intensely into the flickering fire. "Didn't need to – I was much more deadly." Her lip curled up smugly.
Jeremy muttered. "Keyword: was."
The Donovan boy was looking between them before he announced. "I'm gonna go get some wood for the fire." He looked over at the Petrova as she watched him walking away with pace. "I'll be back." He called to them as he vanished from sight.
"I basically raised myself and my sister since we were banished from Bulgaria, I survived the death of my entire family and 500 years of running from an immortal hybrid." She announced her voice breaking and hoarse as she shuddered heavily. "I'm sure you can understand why I'm a little upset that I'm on the verge of being defeated by a sinus infection." She growled out angrily.
Coughing hard her entire body shook as he watched a small amount of dismay pulling over his face, grabbing the plaid fuzzy blanket from the pile he wandered over to her draping it lightly over her shoulder, she almost lashed out and hit him at first but when she noticed the sweet gesture he was doing for her she stopped and just accepted the warmth.
Elsewhere in the forest Matt was holding a lantern as he wandered through the brush when a voice came from behind him, it made his heart skip a beat as he whirled around. "Not a word out of you." Silas was using his mind-control on the young human. "You can't talk, and you can't scream."
The blond creased his eye brows slowly not feeling the push to do anything that the man was telling him to do. "Yeah, actually I can." He informed him as Silas creased his eye brows, that was another one who wasn't compelled to do what he had said. "Jeremy, run!" He commanded in a roar.
Back at the campsite the hunter and the newly turned human heard the scream and jumped up suddenly, Jeremy grabbed her wrist firmly before tugging her in the opposite direction through the forest with her doing her best to keep up her behind him.
"Why can't I get inside your head." Silas suddenly grabbed his face trying to search through his mind but only saw the pretty brunette named Nadia and her shaggy haired friend preforming the spell on the young human. "Now I see why." He muttered darkly. "Somebody's already in there." He informed the human who stared at him in complete shock.
The immortal demanded. "Why are you watching me, Traveller?" There was no answer from the human in front of him. "Odpowiedz mi!" He yelled in Polish at the human's face but there was still no answer, muttering a few more words under his breath he lashed out snapping the humans neck clean with a loud crack and letting him fall lifelessly to the floor, unknown to Silas the boy was wearing the Gilbert ring which would protect him.
A few seconds later after a couple seconds of cold darkness surrounding him the human gasped as he found himself lying on the ground in the middle of the forest, clambering against the tree he pulled himself to be standing up when he saw Jeremy and Fayth shoot past him as fast as their legs could carry them. "Jeremy?" He called but the human didn't stop. "Jeremy, hey-" He creased his eye brows. "What the hell?"
"Freaky, isn't it?" A familiar voice came from behind him, suddenly Matt turned around surprised to see his witch friend standing there with a consoling look on her pretty face. "The feeling... the void... the emptiness." She muttered quietly as she took small steps towards him as he creased his eye brows.
The blond looked down at her and whispered. "Bonnie, what's going on? Where the hell am I?" He questioned looking around, he noticed the path they had travelled through to get to where they had set up camp, but it seemed different, darker and colder and more confusing.
"The Other Side." Bonnie answered as a look of deeper confusion came over his face. "The Gilbert ring brought you here when you died." She looked around. "That's how it works – temporarily brings your spirit here. To go back, you have to reconnect to your body." She explained as he informed her that his body was there. Nodding her head she replied. "That's because each time you die, you wake up farther away from it... and you wander the Other Side until you find it." She crossed her arms over her chest.
Suddenly a thought hit the human as he looked across at his friend. "Wait." He whimpered looking her directly in the eye, she already knew the question. "If I'm on the Other Side, how can you see me?" She asked.
"There's something you should know..."
Her vision was blurry when she finally awoke, looking around the room with hazy glances trying to take it where she was, shifting in the wooden chair she was slouched in she felt a restriction around her wrists and chest, blinking a couple of times she looked down to see cable ties around her wrists and rope tied around her chest.
"Wh-what." She whispered looking around the room to see her sister pacing in front of the fireplace, blinking a couple of times the recent events suddenly came flooding back to her. "Elena... Elena, please don't do this." She whispered looking up at the brunette as she caught her attention. "This isn't you. This is Silas."
The girl was just breathing hard. "What did he tell you to do? What did... 'Stefan' tell you to do?" She asked blinking a couple of times as the girl just continued to pace slowing around the room. "Elena, please let me help you?"
"Did you know?" The taller girl suddenly asked as her twin creased her eye brows slowly. "Did you know about Jeremy being suspended?" She asked in a low tone, clutching something in her hand that Grace couldn't quite make out. "Did you know that Stefan was back? Did Damon tell you and you just didn't tell me?"
The chocolate-brown eyed vampire blinked a couple of times. "Elena, I swear I just found out today. I didn't know either, if I did, I'd tell you, I promise!" She looked up but saw the spite in her sister's eyes. "Please, we can talk about this, Elena. We can." She nodded her head watching as the younger vampire picked up a bottle of water from the desk beside her. "Elena." She warned her. "What did Stefan tell you to do?"
"Get you alone, weaken you, but keep you alive for now" The rich-brown haired girl stalked across the room and grabbed the girl's jaw opening it and then flipping the lid off the bottle letting it hit the floor before tipping the bottle up and letting the vervain-laced water pour down her throat.
It burned immediately making her throat incredibly sore, spurting down her chin and onto her chest scolding the skin there also as Elena stalked around the room once more, this time she slammed another chair against the wall making wood splitter around them, picking up one of the legs she walked back across the room and grabbed the bottle again, despite her sister's pleading she tilted her head back again and poured another mouthful of vervain water into her mouth.
This time the tied-up brunette held the water in her mouth ignoring the acid like burning and as her twin sister got close enough she spat the retained water out onto Elena who called out in pain but she seemed to come back to her normal self looking surprised and guilt ridden at the girl sitting tied up in front of her. "Grace, I'm so sorry, I – what the hell is happening?" She hissed.
"I think... I think that Silas may have got to you and put you in... in some kind of trance." She informed her as she shifted uncomfortably in the chair, she looked completely taken back by this news. "I don't know how this is possible either, Elena, but Stefan didn't just leave you at the start of summer, Silas has done something to him, alright? That was who you were talking to earlier on..."
Elena shook her head shock and worry running through her glassy rich brown orbs. "No. That... That... I was speaking with him. In a crowd of people." She was trying to figure out what was going on but there was still such anger burning in her chest. "I saw him standing there. I slapped him. I was talking to him about everything and-"
"I know, I know. I fell for it, too. But whatever he said to you he was manipulating you, Elena." She looked over at her sister. "So he could buy himself some time, alright?" She was trying to calm the situation, but as she watched her twin begin to pace in the room in front of her it didn't inspire a lot of hope.
Elena stopped before turning and looking at the tied up vampire. "So, if that was Silas, then where is Stefan?" She asked her voice breaking. "What happened to Stefan? Where is he!?" She demanded in a shrill shriek which ran straight through Grace making her shuddering heavily.
"I don't know, Elena. I swear, but... but maybe you could untie me first." She whimpered looking up to see the dark look in the taller girl's orbs. "Please, Elena. I know you don't want to hurt me, not really."
Elena laughed in a breathless, heart aching kind of way. "Oh, I don't know." Blinking, tears rolled down her cheeks. "Right now I just... All I want to do is kill you." She growled turning around and huffing out big breaths trying to regain her composer. "And I don't want to hurt you, but every time I look at you-"
"Silas is doing this to you, Elena. Please, I'm your sister. He's using all this anger and fear and pitting it against me, making you think that all this is my fault." Rather than pleading she chose to start using logic against her, but her sister still looked awfully angry. "It's like a trigger, you have to resist it."
Elena hissed out. "I can't." The brunette across the room told her once again that she had to try and resist. "I'm trying!" She yelled at her before throwing the chair leg down to the ground in anger and stalking across the room sitting in another chair and grabbing the iron fire poker and stabbing it through her thigh and the chair, pinning herself down. "Tell me what's going on." She demanded in a rough voice.
At the Bonfire party in the small wooden shed in the woods the blonde vampire walked through the door to see Jesse was still waiting there with a small cut at the side of his head but didn't remember much of what had happened before all of that. "Sorry, this was all I could find out there." She informed him holding up a froze orange coloured popsicle.
Moving to sit on a crate opposite him she placed it on the cut which made him wince at first, but once it had been on there a while he seemed to get used to the burning coldness. "So you think that you tripped and hit your head and my friends just left you?" She looked into his smouldering light brown orbs.
"Maybe they ran off to get help or some first-aid." He decided shrugging his shoulders. "But, the way I'm looking at it is, it got us alone together, so that's a win." He smirked as she laughed shyly for a moment looking down letting a lock of her golden locks fall into her face which he was nothing but happy to move back behind her ear.
Quickly she said. "I have a boyfriend." She wasn't sure if she was telling him to give him a little hint, or if it was to remind herself. Looking up at her he asked where he was if he wasn't here with her. "Well, he was supposed to be here. He deferred a semester. You don't have to say anything, I know how these things go – people go to school and they drift apart."
"Yeah, and sometimes they don't." Jesse replied looking her dead in the eyes. "And sometimes you change, but what you had still means something." She looked up at him with wide-eyes, it was like he was reading her mind. "And sometimes when you're thinking all those things, your girlfriend is moving on, and sleeping with somebody back home, and has no intention of getting back with you." Then it all clicked, he had tried a long distance relationship, too.
The blonde's face moulded into a sorrow filled look. "Oh, my God. Ugh. I am so sorry."
The handsome young lad in front of her laughed gently as he replied. "It was a while ago. And honestly, until the worst actually happened, I wouldn't listen to anybody telling me otherwise." She sighed gently. "I could always find an excuse. So, I get it." He promised nodding his head softly.
Finally Fayth and Jeremy got to the dark blue truck and the hunter passed the keys to her and told her firmly. "Get in the truck and drive." With that he turned around about to run back and help his friend, but she called to asked where he was going. "I can't leave Matt." He answered surely as she scoffed.
"Wait." She said in a strict voice which actually made him stop. "How do you think I survived 500 years? It wasn't because I was a vampire, and it wasn't because there we me and Kat – it's because I never looked back. Don't be dumb – survive." She commanded in a rough voice but he just narrowed his eyes at her.
Jeremy growled back. "That's why people treat you like an object and not like a person." Fayth watched with spite in her eyes as he began to run back through the forest so that he could find his best friend.
On the Other Side, Matt was wandering around looking for his body with his ghost friend listening to her tell the story of how she died and how she was coping with it. "It actually hasn't been so bad." She informed him tucking her small hands into the back of her jean pockets. "I have Jeremy, and I see Grams sometimes. Last night with my dad was the first really hard time... I'll be okay, I just have to get past these next few days." She told him in a tough voice.
Matt saw right through her, he knew that she couldn't be this okay with being dead and unable to live out the rest of her life with her friends. "Bonnie, you don't have to pretend like it's okay. Your dad died, and... you died." She sucked in her bottom lip between her teeth to keep it from shuddering from sadness. "That's not okay."
Her voice broke as she answered back. "It has to be, because there's nothing I can do about it." She hated being the saviour of the town bringing people back to life and helping get rid of the big bads to being dead and unable to do anything, it hurt so deep in her chest.
"I am so sorry." He told her as he wrapped his arms around her, placing one hand on her head and the other on her back as she began to sob into his shirt, finally letting herself mourn everything and it felt good to just let it out and be able to feel someone for once, even though he was dead he was still warmer than he expected and she revelled in the embrace.
"Matt!" Jeremy called as it echoed the forest around him, suddenly he saw a lean form laying lifelessly on the floor, racing over he crouched down beside him to see it was indeed his friend there with no pulse and not breathing, but he saw the Gilbert ring on his hand that made the hunter breath out in relief.
A voice came from the other side of the small clearing and it made his heart race. "Now, if my best friend died, I'd at least pretend to cry. Which leads me to believe he's not really dead." He announced logically. "I take it that tacky old ring somehow protects him?"
The hunter smirked as he rose up from where he was crouched over the human's body. "Too bad you can't get inside my head to find out for sure. Hunter's perk." He boasted tilting his head to the side.
"See, that's what you don't get." Silas began as a smirk pulled over his lips. "When I can read your mind, I at least have use for you. Now... I'm just gonna kill you." He shrugged his shoulders softly as if it meant nothing to him and in reality the hunter's life did mean nothing to him.
"You can try, but none of you abilities work on me, so right now, you're nothing." He hissed in a low tone. "Slower than a vampire, weaker than a vampire. I, on the other hand, am a hunter." He reached down and pick up the small hatchet that Matt would have used to gather the firewood. "Plus, I work out." He added in a cocky tone.
Whipping his arm back and then launching it forward he threw the hatchet at Silas who was quick to dodge it, making it stick in the tree with deadly force just a couple of feet behind him. The hunter ran at him but the immortal held his hands out and shoved him back making Jeremy stagger for a moment, it was then when they were close enough they got into a fist fight blocking, dodging and hitting each other with matched strength.
Acting quick Silas grabbed the hunter's shoulders and slammed his head against his, making Jeremy stagger back once again, the immortal reached down onto the ground and grabbed a lantern that was laying there and swung it at Jeremy, but he was quick to dodge it and then move around him to jump onto his back and placing his arm around his head to put him in a mean headlock.
Silas stumbled from the new weight of the hunter balancing on his back before turning around and grabbing a thick branch snapping it on the tree. "You might be stronger than me, but you're forgetting.. that I... am immortal." Slowly he began to push the branch through his chest straight through the other side and begin to impale Jeremy through his chest, too.
Growing in pain the immortal yanked the branch back through and the hunter fell off onto the floor in all fours. Turning around Silas grabbed the hatchet from the tree pulling it out raising it above his head about to slam it down when a shot rang through the air, Silas looked down at the gunshot wound in his chest, leaking blood.
Jeremy looked up surprised to see Fayth standing there wielding the gun in her hands with a stern look on her face, he figured that she would be half way to the middle of nowhere at the moment, but here she was saving his life from the man who was hunting her down. "I thought you didn't know how to use that." The hunter breathed out tilting his head to the side.
"I figured it out." A smirk pulled across her lips as she fired another shot at Silas watching as he held his chest falling backwards onto the ground with a loud thud.
Elena whimpered from where she was pinned to a wooden chair. "Oh my God." Her voice was barely there as her sister finished telling her what was going on back in Mystic Falls, or at least what her boyfriend had told her. "Oh my God, poor Bonnie." She whimpered shaking her head blinking the tears away. "She must have tried to call me after Silas stole my phone. Has anyone heard from her? Has Damon spoken to her?" She asked looking up at her twin.
The brunette with longer hair answered. "Damon didn't mentioned that he had spoken to her, only what had happened." She informed her looking up and shifting in the chair again trying to get a little slack on the ties around her wrist. "But I haven't spoken to her at all, Elena. I've tried, sure, but she only emails me." She looked across at her sister with concern deep in her eyes.
"Why didn't Damon tell us? I mean, why didn't he at least tell you when he had the chance?" The rich brown haired girl pressed shaking her head softly. "I thought he was supposed to tell you everything." Grace wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a dig at her, or because Elena was just frustrated that everyone she loved was in some kind of danger.
Shifting in the chair again she winced at the tightness of the binds. "I'm not sure why he didn't tell me, 'Lena. Maybe because he's busy trying to look after Jeremy and trying to find where Stefan has gone and why Silas is in town and what he wants with Fayth." She listed off reasons which would be keeping her boyfriend busy. "And maybe he figured that Bonnie felt comfortably enough with us that she would tell her us her father is dead herself." She added.
"We only just left!" She answered back in a rough tone. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you defending him when he's the one that is in the wrong!" She reminded her.
Taking a deep breath trying to retain her anger too she told her sister firmly. "Elena, please just try to calm down, okay? The trigger – remember." She looked at her to see the red tinge in her cheeks from where her anger was growing deep in her chest.
"Why are you not more pissed?!" She demanded tilting her head to the side. "Jeremy – our brother – was expelled. Damon has had him playing white knight to your psycho doppelgänger. Stefan has been suffering for months, whilst... whilst I've been so pissed at him for leaving with just one phone call. Oh, my God. Oh, my God." She whispered running her fingers through her chocolate brown locks.
Feeling a flash of anger she reached down and grabbed the gas line which was leading to the fireplace and yanked it free, both of them heard a low hiss from the gas escaping and beginning to fill the room. The tied up brunette's eyes widened. "Elena, that is the gas. You're gonna kill us both. Everything is going to be okay? You just need to break Silas' compulsion."
"I can't okay! I just want this to end!"
A whimper escaped her throat as Grace answered. "I'm your sister, Elena. You don't want to kill me. We just got things back to normal, okay? Think about something that is stronger than this anger, than your desire to kill us both." She watched as her sister stretched to reach the matchbook that was sitting on the mantle, getting one from the box and striking it against the side of the box, but it didn't take. "Stefan. Stefan." Her voice was fearful. "Think about Stefan."
Elena looked at her through glassy orbs. "You've been worried about him, right? You said you had a pit in your stomach about him. Describe it to me, tell me about it, make me understand." She assured her as her twin shook her head quickly unable to find her words. "Think about him. How much you love him. How it's gonna be when we do find him. Because we will, Elena. I promise."
"It's... It's like a chill, but I can't explain it..." Elena whimpered shaking her head letting tears drip down her face onto her chin. "It's like I can feel him. He's trying to reach out to me, but I don't know where he is, and I can't understand what he's trying to say. All I know is that he's scared, and he's lonely, and he's in a lot of pain." She shuddered as more tears spilled down her cheeks. "He's in a lot of pain, Grace. We have to find him."
A single tear slowly rolled down the other brunette's cheek as she replied. "We will. We will, Elena. I promise." She nodded in confirmation.
"The rage." The taller vampire whispered blinking a couple of times. "It's gone." She dropped the matchbook to the floor by her feet as Grace nodded slowly in relief, just then the door behind them clicked open and in the doorway Damon was standing there with a look of surprise on his face, he didn't expect to see Elena impaled to a chair with a iron fire poker through her leg and Grace tied tightly to another chair.
Grace gave him a tear filled smile as she told him. "It's okay, everything's okay now." She assured him.
Deep in the woods both Matt and Bonnie were still searching for his body, it was like he could feel an invisible tie to his lifeless body leading him in the right direction. "I think someone moved my body." He announced tilting his head to the side. "It's weird, but I can feel it... it's like I'm drawn to it." He explained the best he could.
"There it is." His witch friend pointed her finger in the direction of his truck to see both Fayth and Jeremy waiting for him to return in his body, laying in the bed of the truck.
The blond began to saunter towards it, but stopped and turned back to the ghost of his friend and mused. "So, if this happens every time I die with the Gilbert ring, the second I go back, that means I'm just gonna forget all of this." She nodded softly. "I'll forget that you're dead." He looked down for a moment before looking back up to catch her eye line. "Bonnie, you and Jeremy can't keep this a secret anymore. I'm sorry your dad died. I know it's hard, but how are you gonna deal with his death if you can't even deal with your own?" He stated logically.
The witch smiled sadly before replying. "It's really good to see, Matt." He took this as the end of the conversation, twisting back around he wandered slowly to his body looking at it for a couple of seconds and then resting his hand on his own shoulder and feeling a great power rushing through him making him feel nauseous for a moment before everything went pure white.
That was it, the Donovan boy was back alive and in the real world completely forgetting everything that had happened on his time on the Other Side and mourning the death of his best friend, he looked around completely dazed for a couple of moments before hearing a snide yet sweet voice say. "Welcome back to the land of the living."
"What the hell happened?" He asked as he sat up in the bed of the truck looking between Fayth and Jeremy still trying to get his head around waking up a couple of moments ago.
The hunter crossed his arms over his chest as he informed him. "Yeah, Silas killed you, tried to kill me, then-"
"I shot him." Fayth boasted with a smirk on her lips and a triumphant look in her eyes, Matt creased his eye brows he hadn't expected her to have a part in any of it at all, but she turned out to be the saviour of them all. "So, we're even. No more whining." She commanded in a hard tone. "Let's go. Silas won't be down for long." She reminded them.
The youngest Gilbert nodded his head about to agree with her when he saw a shadow moving through the trees, he knew exactly who it was. Making up an excuse he told them. "Hey, I left a hatchet, I'll be right back." He turned on his heels and began to run through the trees to meet up with his witch friend asking in a concerned tone. "Hey. Are you okay?"
She had a glassy looks in her bright brown orbs. "I'm not ready to be dead yet, Jeremy?" She shook her head slowly. "I'm just not. Maybe I will be one day, but it's not today." Her voice broke as he watched her under the dim moonlight. "And I don't know what to do about my dad, or what to do when the sheriff calls, because she's gonna call me-" She was beginning to panic but he stopped her.
"It's okay." He told her in a soft voice as she looked up at him. "We'll get through this. I can tell everybody that you're with family, that it was too hard for you to be here. I might not be able to touch you, or hold you, but I'm here for you, no matter what you need." He promised with a kind smile on his lips.
At the same gas station that the three had visited earlier Silas had finally risen from being dead once again and made his way there, walking through the door he saw that the store clerk had now bandaged up his bloody nose as he asked wearily. "Did you find that girl you were looking for?"
"Yes, I did." He answered in a very matter-of-factly tone before adding. "And then she shot me. So, I'm a little bit angry, and I'm a little bit hungry, but luckily you can help me, you can help me out with one of those things." He mused before walking across the room to pick up a pocket knife from the side and then a cup before twisting back around placing the cup in front of the man. "Fill her up." He told him.
Taking the knife from Silas the store clerk drew the knife over his own wrist letting the blood drip into the cup, the immortal watched for a moment before hearing the door open, glancing over he smirked when he saw two people he recognised from when he had looked inside of Matt Donovan's head, the travellers Nadia and Gregor.
"Oh, goody." He muttered with a deep drawl of sarcasm. "Gypsies are here." He added as they narrowed their eyes at him. "Oh, I'm sorry, you call yourselves 'travellers' now, right?" He smirked crossing his arms over his chest. "It's much more P.C."
Gregor swept his shaggy light brown hair from his eyes before saying. "You can call me whatever you want... when I'm gutting you." Reaching inside of his inner jacket pocket he pulled out a good sized knife with a smirk on his face, but the immortal wasn't amused with the threats.
"I see." Silas began nodding his head. "You're mad that I killed your blond-haired, blue-eyed host, right?" Neither of the travellers replied. "That's what you get for taking over somebody's body to spy on me. But congrats, you found me. So now what? What do you want?" He pressed raising his eye brows.
Gregor replied simply. "You, back in that tomb, sealed away for eternity." He clutched the knife tight in his hands.
"That's what the Travellers have always wanted." Suddenly Nadia shoved the knife into the shaggy haired male's neck instantly killing him as he fell to the floor lifelessly. "Luckily for you, I've never really considered myself one." She shrugged her shoulders lightly. "I know you can see inside my mind... and I have my own agenda." She explained crossing her arms over her chest.
Silas took this as his opportunity to begin to search through her mind as a smirk pulled across his lips. "Yes... I see that you do."
Placing their suitcases into the back of the older Salvatore's car the two twins were preparing to go home, Elena turned to her sister and told her in a very genuine voice. "I'm really sorry about everything last night..." Grace shook her head telling her that she was forgiven and it was nothing. "Good. You know you don't have to come home with me, right?"
Her eyes were quite on Elena as she answered. "Yeah, I do..." The taller Gilbert glanced behind her to see Damon waiting there for them. "I can't let him go through this alone and I can't let you do that either, alright? You're going to need someone to lean on for support and I need to be there for you, 'Lena." She smiled at her surely.
"Okay, I think that was everything." The blonde wandered towards them with a sad smile on her face. "Just call me the minute you hear from Bonnie, okay? I've left her, like, a hundred messages." She informed them as both of the girls nodded telling her that they would before they fell into a loving embrace. "You're gonna find him, Elena".
"Yeah, I know." She nodded and with one more smile Caroline turned around and wandered back to the dorm room, Grace twisted around also sauntering over to her boyfriend who was waiting patiently.
A voice came from behind the taller Gilbert. "I didn't think Elena Gilbert would give up so easily." Jumping she turned to see Dr. Maxfield standing there with a teasing smile on his face. "Sorry about being a hard-ass earlier. It's kind of my thing." He apologised formally as she shrugged her shoulders. "You're Grayson Gilbert's daughter, aren't you?" He tilted his head to the side.
"You knew my dad?"
"Knew of him." The Professor answered with a small grin on his face. "He's a legend around here. Brilliant. I've studied all his research. I can only hope to do the kind of work he did." Elena crossed her arms over her chest as she made a snide comment about forging death certificates. "And here I thought you were just passionate about microbiology. I have office hours tomorrow. Come by, we can chat." He promise.
The brunette shook her head as she brushed some of her hair back off of her face. "Um, yeah, I would, but I've got other more important things on my plate right now." She informed him as he nodded understandingly before telling her to come back when her plate clears before she watched him walk away.
Damon and Grace were watching from a little while away with amused looks on their faces and the raven-black haired vampire wrapped his arms around her waist and muttered into her neck. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Elena is an everyday hero, like her boyfriend." He smirked as the brunette in front of him smile. "Aren't you curious about the creepster-professor thing?"
"Of course I am, but Caroline will be able to take over whilst we're away. We have more important things to be dealing with at the moment." She reminded him as she turned in his arms to be looking in his eyes, he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead before reaching into his pocket and taking out a ring. "That's Stefan's daylight ring." She noted looking at it.
"Snapped it from Silas yesterday." Damon explained with a cheeky smile on his lips. "And I know you're probably still mad at me after everything I've kept from you-"
She placed her hand over his mouth to stop him from talking for a moment a look of glee in her smouldering chocolate-brown orbs. "You don't have to explain. I know you did what you did for a reason, sure I'm angry, but you told me in the end and that's all that matters. All we have to do now is rescue Stefan, find out what Silas wants, speak to Bonnie and deal with Fayth..." She paused shaking her head. "Piece of cake, right?"
"Right." He smirked leaning down and pressing a passion filled kiss to her lips, running his fingers through her locks, he tugged them for a moment before pulling away and telling her. "I love you." She smiled as her cheeks heated up, a blush pulling over them she was about to say it back but his phone began to buzz in his pocket, pulling it out and answering it. "Yeah?"
A voice came down the other end which made his stomach drop. "We found something."
They raced home as fast as they could, probably breaking several laws but he didn't care at all, the three vampires trekked through the forest until they found where Sheriff Forbes was standing beside a large safe which Damon recognised immediately. "We didn't find anything in the quarry, but a deputy found this a few miles way." Liz explained pulling the older Salvatore back into the situation. "Didn't open it. If Stefan's been in there for three months... chances are, he's hungry."
Damon looked down at both of the girls who were waiting in fear, the taller Gilbert was clutching her sister's hand so hard she was sure she could feel the bones crunching under her iron grip. Cautiously Damon pulled open the heavy door to see a corpse on the inside, Elena sucked in a breath refusing to look burying her face into Grace's neck, but her sister told her soothingly. "It's not Stefan. It's okay."
The older Salvatore looked up, he wasn't in there starving, but there was a drained human that mean his brother was out there somewhere hungry and looking for his next meal whilst trying to avert the sunlight. "Well, you were right. He was hungry. I bet he still is."
So they have finally figured out that Silas is in town and Stefan is no where to be found, Grace and Elena had a little disagreement but they have worked it out now, which is good, I don't like them fighting.
I hope you're all enjoying so far and once again I'm sorry for the late updates and thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I really appreciate it. And if you guys wanna check out my new story 'A Twisted Always and Forever' go give it a read and tell me what you think, please.
Let me know and I'll see what I can do. I hope you'll like where this story is going. Please review, I love hearing from you and hearing what you think, so thank you.
If you want to ask the real Grace Gilbert any questions about this chapter or her life in Mystic Falls with her Salvatore then head on over to ask-grace-gilbert . tumblr ask (just take out the spaces and ask away!)
If you want to follow me on my other blog for story updates, previews and anything else I like to post then go over to proud-salvatore . tumblr . com (once again just take out the spaces, I'm sure you know by now, but just incase)
If you want to see the outfits (or what Grace's dorm room looks like) then check out my polyvore page, my name is graciiieee
Finally thank you very much to my lovely beta missss supernatural, thanks for getting this back to me super quick, I appreciate it.
Answers and responses below:
Courtney-Tamara: Thank you very much for the ideas, I do already have a storyline that is similar to that one, but somewhat different, but I do appreciate input as always. Also I appreciate that you think Grace isn't a Mary-sue, I try to make her as lifelike as possible so I'm glad that you think that.
Damon's Girl: Hey, Amanda, I'm really glad that you like the story so far. I wish I could have a job as a real writer, it would be a dream come true, but it's such a hard business to get into and there are people out there much more talented than me who can't get their books published, but still thank you for that. I really like The Originals, I think it's a great show and the characters are very well written.
Mia Salvatore: I know what you mean, it's nice to see them actually able to enjoy each other without having to worry about everything else. I figured that Grace should be writing to Klaus, because she can't just forget him after everything, and Damon will be finding out about it very soon.
Nymartian: Indeed, it was nice being able to write some Drace scenes and Grace keeping in touch with Klaus was a big thing for me, I need that to happen for her.
Chloe: I am and I hope you're enjoying it.
xxxRena: Glad you liked it, hope you enjoy this one, too.
I3Elijah: Thank you very much.
Peaches2010: I agree, it was very cute of them being away and I will be working on them away on their adventures when I get some free time, so look out for that.
ddluzelle: Glad to know that I don't disappoint, haha. Hope you enjoy this chapter just as much.
Winxgirl1997: Here's an update.
David Fishwick: Yes, the three are going to be feeling very guilty about Stefan being missing the entire summer. Maybe if it feels right then Klaus and Rebekah will return to Mystic Falls, but nothing for a while yet.
SomebodyWhoCares: A lot of people were keeping secrets that chapter, so don't just blame one person.
Psycho17: Yeah both Grace and Damon are getting closer, it's time for them to have their romance too. Katherine will be by her side very soon, but not for a while yet so keep an eye out for that.
Nicole: I'm so glad that you like all of that stuff and you agree with everything that I've written so far to do with and I hope you agree with everything that is happening so far in the story so far.
Ghostwriter: I'm glad you're liking it so far, hope you like this chapter, too.
Graciiee