It was perfect the wind felt like a storm was kissing his entire body. A wind many hated but he himself loved. He knew this was the time to do what he came out here to do. He gripped the metal in his pocket feeling the oh-so-familiar diamond textures of the Glock. Finally, he brought it out.

"It's been a good run hasn't it?"

He brought the gun to his temple

"I'm so sorry Olivia"

and pulled its thin trigger.

For most people this would be the end of their story, you would assume so but for this man on this day, it wasn't the end. Not yet anyway.

Looking ahead he got a perfect view of Richard's coffin and saw his graying hair, his dead skin that looked weirdly alive thanks to the wonders of science. He could have done more.

Should feel more guilty. He's the reason this man died after all. Had a choice between Anna and him and chose Anna, could have tried to save him after dealing with her but he did not even bother. Told himself it was because everyone was better off without Richard. But even if that was true, he's playing god, and who's to say he's not just telling himself that cause he's too afraid to admit it was his selfish desires being the reason he let him die. A need to still be in control of the plot, and a personal dislike of Richard.

"What the hell did I do?"

He said that in less than a whisper but it was enough to send him over the edge. For the first time in a long time, he cried. Not for Richard, not for the life, he could have had with that man as his father or anything close to that. Not even for himself, not really. He was crying so the troubling thoughts he had regarding his decision would fade at least for a time.

About 30 seconds later his tears were reduced to barely a mist. He looked around, people were looking at him a moment ago and he saw several heads turn away as he looked around. Trying their hardest to convey a lie that they were not looking at all. this was true for all but two unfamiliar men who simply nodded in his direction. Nods of support, he suspected if those men knew what they were truly supporting they wouldn't have nodded at all. Nonetheless, he appreciated the gesture regardless.

He looked at Richard's coffin one more time.

"No"

He needed to focus on other things now. Tyler gets in a huge fight with his mother near the end of this party or after it concludes. Not particularly important to any plot just lets Mason know Tyler is struggling and lets Tyler know something is going on with his absentee uncle. Though he still wondered if he should do anything about it. He debated this the past 2 days since the night he saw Richard go to his death. It might be better if he wasn't present at all for that event. Would the event even still happen given some of the fundamental dynamics of the Lockwood household are different given his presence?

As it turns out the argument/fight was largely the same with one key difference when his mother kept denying the largely true statements Tyler said about Richard.

Tyler asked him if Richard was a dick. Not really thinking he said yes. Which seemed to dial his anger back somewhat he still freaked out at his mother, but he didn't try to kill her.

Despite this Mason still intervened and we both got a glimpse at his weirdness. When it was all said and done, Carol left she looked pissed off at me but at least she wasn't scared of her son. Small victories you know.

After that whole scenario, Tyler looked disgusted with himself and Mason clearly wanted him to leave so he opted to go upstairs. He did have plans to look into where the werewolf chaining cellar was and all that. Though frankly he felt exhausted after the past few day's going-ons and he figured it probably would be better to look in the morning given several vampires with a kill streak are in town at this moment. He also didn't want to risk getting Carol or mason suspicious or anyone for that matter. Operation save uncle wolf can start tomorrow morning at 5.

"I regret my decisions"

One would figure or at least he would figure that getting up at 6 on school days and getting up at 5 on a weekend wouldn't be so different. Well, he was wrong the alarm blaring in his headphones at 5 am woke him up to horrible body aches and his teeth felt weird. Not in a toothache way but in teeth are made out of styrofoam way. Regardless after about 5 minutes of sitting up in bed, most of those aches went away. Then he stood up to a whole new world of aches.

Every step hurt as he walked down the stairs to the kitchen to quickly make himself a gourmet breakfast of a bagel and cream cheese with orange juice. He finished off as quickly as he could feeling somewhat revitalized then grabbed his wallet and headed out the door. The walk to town from Lockwood manor is not a fun one, given it takes 5 minutes just to walk down their stupidly long driveway and 10 minutes from there to get to some semblance of civilization. Long story short it was 6:15 when he got to town and 6:23 when he finally found the hardware store.

Relieved to finally find the destination he runs to the door and pulls. The door doesn't budge. He tries again but it still does not budge. Finally, he looks at the door and sees the token "Sorry, we're closed sign" that is at nearly every business in town. Then he glances at the opening times and sees on Saturdays the store opens at 7 am, not 6. At this point, he had a strong urge to smash the window in and steal what he needed maybe take a bit of money well he's at it.

Unfortunately, he didn't want breaking and entering and robbery on his record. So he instead opted to wait 45 minutes till it opened.

"I could've woken up at 6…" He mumbled repeatedly under his breath.

Fortunately, at 6:50 a heavy bald middle-aged man came down and opened the door, and said he could come in early.

"Anything specific you lookin for kiddo?" The man asked

" A steak and a chain," He stated flatly

"Ok we don't have a huge selection but in the back, we do have some dog steaks and leases"

"Wait wait not for a dog for a Horse"

"What?"

"Yea it's a gift to have a friend who owns a farm a few towns over they have a really old chain that broke trying to hold the horse."

"Not sure I've heard of people chaining horses like that before but we do have something that might work."

The man leads him down to an aisle filled with steaks and chains and finally stops at a rather large intimidating-looking one.

"I'm not sure what a good steak for a horse would be but this is the strongest steak we have made entirely out of steel. The chain I would recommend is here 30 ft reinforced steel"

"Do you have one that's a bit shorter, 10 or 15 feet?"

The man looked disappointed that he was asking him about a shorter chain

"Yes we can do that, anything else ya want"

"Uh no… wait, actually do you have a chain cutter?" Doesn't hurt to prepare for a potential future right?

"Do they not have one?"

"Wh.. oh, I'm guessing they do but not sure also I want my own anyways just in case I ever need it?"

"Ah keep spirit thinking like that and you'll be like me"

That comment made him pause; he really had no desire to be anything like the hardware store worker. The guy clearly meant it as a compliment though. So he tried his best to smile at the statement.

"That's the plan" He stated cheerily

"Our chain cutters are in the next aisle, " The man said as he brought him down the next aisle and then stopped.

"This is our best pair so good that they could cut those chains I just showed you in a snap or two."

"Those chains you showed me our good though right?"

"Yes yes, they're the best we have" the man looked a bit nervous at this point.

"Ok, ill get all these how much will it be."

"Will see when we ring it up."

The supplies he got came to a total of 132 dollars which was a lot more than he was hoping to spend. At least he knew the products were good even if the guy was swindling him a bit. Bad products usually aren't so expensive.

"What's your return policy?"

"I'm sorry we don't take returns unless the products are defective"

"Oh"

"Yea sorry bud but now that you bought it you can't return it. I'm sure it will work though"

"It better…"

"Have a nice day." the man said robotically.

When he got out of the store. He sighed in relief, thankful he found the items he needed quickly despite the inconvenience along the way. He debated whether he should walk back to the Lockwood property now, or if he should take a breather around town. His stomach decided for him when it growled much like the creature he got the items for. He of course opted to go to the one restaurant in this town, the grill.

As soon as he got in he was welcomed by the best townie in town Matthew H. Donovan. He wasn't particularly sure if he even had a middle name much less if it started with H but he liked to imagine it did. Despite him usually feeling awkward around Matt since Vicki died he did appreciate the friendly face… and the eye candy.

His appreciation was short-lived though as the second he was seated he saw 2 dark-haired teenagers making their way over to accost him. Well, 1 dark-haired teenager and a centuries-old vampire that happened to look like a teenager. Jeremy was in the process of opening his mouth to talk.

Before Jeremy could say anything he or more importantly I would regret it.

"Sit down, speak quietly there are people around." He stated directly.

"What the hell was that the other day, I tried to ask to see you but Tyler and Carol wouldn't let me in the house." Jeremy's frustration was evident in his tone.

"Sorry about that they don't know what's going on with me" Thank god they kicked Jeremy to the curb the longer in my life I went without having this conversation the better.

"And what is going on? With you?" Anna asked in a tone that almost sounded threatening. Though she wasn't a top worry on his list any supernatural creature, worried him, especially one as old as her, any vampire in town could kill him but one as old as her would be even stronger considering she also has a pure diet.

"Depends who you ask I suppose"

"Can we just cut to the answer?" Jeremy asked

"The best answer I have is that if I wouldn't of' done what I did your girlfriend would be dead and you would be worse for wear."

"But how would you know that to be there at that time?"

"I think you can guess that one on your own Jeremy you've figured a lot out with little to no help so far."

"You're a witch? Guys can be witches?"

"Haha, yea guys can be witches Jeremy. I'm sorry for him, he doesn't know much about the supernatural." Anna said.

"That's fine I'm not a witch anyways"

"What? Then what are you?" Anna asked

"I'm psychic"

"You can't be psychic and not be a witch," Anna said her skepticism evident.

"Well I am, at least as far as I know I'm not a witch or anything I've tried spellcasting before nothing happened." He stated truthfully.

"Maybe your just a sucky witch," Jeremy said

"Okay then… I don't know why you're being so passive-aggressive. Anyways you need to get out of town, Anna, or at least out of the public eye. His uncle wants you dead. He would've been the one to kill you"

"John wouldn't..." Jeremy said

"Really? You wanna take that risk I know he's your uncle but he hates vampires with a passion and he killed her mother," he said well looking at Anna.

"Ok fine how long will it have to be"

"I'm not sure until he leaves town at least"

"I just got her back…"

"And this way she will stay back for good. Also, Jeremy can you not mention me to the scooby gang at least not yet."

"Sure I guess but if you get involved in anything with them ill have to tell them."

"Really you have to… ok fine bout what I expected anyways."

"What are the Lockwoods?" Jeremy asked with accusation evident in his voice.

"HUH?" I put on the best-confused tone I could muster.

"Tyler and his father were both affected by the thing that affected Anna. Are they vampires too?"

"No, they are not vampires?"

"Then what are they?"

"They were cursed with something that makes it so they are not immune to it like most people are"

"I don't know what that means" Jeremy exclaimed

"In my opinion, it's pretty self-explanatory" He groaned

"Jeremy let's go," Anna said

"Wait for one last"

"JEREMY"

"Anna, just let me thank him"

"Thank you Adam for helping me and Anna"

He could see Jeremy was genuinely thankful he appreciated it. Been quite some time since he even was thanked for any of his actions.

"You're welcome Jeremy be careful."

"We will," Anna said

Somehow that conversation went better and worse than he expected. On the plus side, it seemed they were genuinely gonna keep their word about not telling the rash decisions squad at least for now. Which is honestly the best he could hope for. He could only stay invisible for so long. He's surprised it lasted as long as it did.

Shortly after Jeremy and Anna left a waitress came up and asked him what he would like to eat. He ordered "The Grill" burger and a Dr pepper. By the time he finished said burger, it was 10 am.

At this point, he decided to begin his somewhat long trek back to the Lockwoods.

Apparently carrying around steel chains, a steak, and chain cutters makes a 40-minute walk an hour and 10 minutes. Especially when you stop every couple minutes to put the chains down cause they get too cold in the late winter weather. Regardless he persevered and eventually ended up at the Lockwood's front door yet again.

Unfortunately, he couldn't go in at this moment despite how much he would have loved to just go in, put his supplies on his bedroom floor, and lay in bed for a bit. He couldn't though due to a certain lycanthropic uncle fighting with his nephew inside. At least that is what he thought was happening he heard them talking from out here. So they were being quite loud. If he lived in a big house a mile out from civilization he would be loud too in fact he already was once in a while.

Regardless he already thought it would be too risky to go in if they're were no signs of anyone inside. It certainly was too risky now. Guess it's high time I rediscover that cellar I found a few months back.

He was happy it only took him 20 minutes to find it. He went down the worn downstairs to the Lockwood. "Slave Quarters" opened the door to see the rusted cage and rusted chain in the center.

He grabbed onto the chain and it wouldn't pull up.

"This is gonna take awhile" he mumbled to the empty room.

A.N. I hope everyone enjoyed chapter 2 of this fic. A lot of this chapter I had in the works already but parts were added in on the fly. Things will start picking up a bit in the next chapter. I hope the instances of conversation with cannon characters I have in this chapter are okay. I had trouble writing those. If anyone has any tips feel free to leave them in a review or send me a P.M.

- Last chapter someone left a review expressing concern that this story would be slash. Before I was able to properly respond they deleted their review. Though just for anyone who is concerned at this moment I don't plan on having the MC end up with anyone at this moment in time. That could change as I write more and the story progresses but at this moment no plans.

Edited on 12/27/2022 filing up grammar mistakes