He woke up in the hospital, did they find him somehow. How could anyone find him in the middle of a forest in a ghost town?

A nurse walked into the room. "You're awake?"

"Yes"

"I'll call the doctor right away" The woman said then began heading out of the room. Which he did not want her to do.

"Wait, where am I?" He said

"Mystic Falls General, sir"

"..." What the hell is going on.

"COME ON GET OUT" Pulling on the stake with all his might did nothing but hurt his hands.

"OW… I hate you"

Adam has been trying to take the severely rusty stake out for a solid 20 minutes now to no avail.

After all the money he spent all the time and preparation. It would all go to waste because of some rusty stake that's probably a few centuries old. Was this seriously happening to him again? He commits himself then…

NO… no this is different it can still work out even if he can't get this in. He has over 24 hours until the full moon. He can find something to help. If worse comes to worst he could find something around the mansion or even go back to the hardware store.

He took a deep breath. He had time, not much but he had some. Just leave the stuff here, go into the house, eat some food and figure out what to do after you eat. Make yourself a burger and relax.

Going into the house he was greeted by Carol.

"Hello, Adam how are you?" Carol said

"Good just got back from out of town."

"Oh how did you get there, it's a ways away?"

"I walked…"

"Oh, you could've asked Tyler, or even me to take you?"

"It was at 5:30 in the morning"

"Oh"

He didn't really know what else to say to her at this point so he proceeded to get the food for his burger out. Patty, cheese, lettuce, a bun, and maybe some onions. After you got your supplies out you went to the cabinet where all the frying pans were kept. Determined to find the medium-sized black iron one you like best.

"You don't think I know…" Carol started

"Excuse me?"

"You don't think I knew what Richard was, what he did" Carol paused. "I knew it all I did what I could… but he was still a good man"

IS she seriously doing this right now? He didn't really want to deal with this conversation, he knew it would come eventually Carol always did this. When he said something she didn't like. She went on this tirade pretending she knew what he was talking about, and maybe to some degree she did. But he already knew this wasn't nearly as genuine as she wanted it to appear.

"Yep, Richard was a good man, Sorry I gotta go, Carol, bye"

"Wait"

"WHAT?"

"Tyler and Mason are heading to the fair earlier, they're wondering if you want to come to?"

"Uh.. I mean I don't want to be the 3rd wheel and get in the way of their nephew uncle bonding time"

"You haven't been a part of this town for long, the fair going on now is a historical tradition you should go to."

"I mean that sounds nice and all but all the same I'd rather not"

"Richard would have wanted you to."

Would he actually? Maybe, but it would've just been for the very same reason Carol is suggesting it not out of some "love". he really questioned Carol's reasoning here but he figured she really wanted him to go maybe for the familial status maybe for Tyler or maybe because she was wary of Mason maybe some combination of all three.

Regardless he knew she wouldn't let this go and honestly even though this fair goes somewhat sour he did need a little fun in his life after the past few days of death, strategizing, and everything else.

"Ok" was all he said in response then he sat in silence and ate his food.

He headed back to the cellar shortly after as soon as he got in he looked towards the old stake that was giving him so much trouble and upon looking in his direction he shook a bit. The old stake wasn't there anymore in its place was the new one he bought earlier that day.

"What the hell?"

He looked at the cellar's new edition with a terrified curiosity. He walked up to it slowly and pulled on it with all his might. Like the old one, it didn't budge. Well, at least they did a good job. Whoever did this Katherine? Mason? Damon? The last ones Unlikely, he doesn't even fully understand what Mason is at this moment much less what the cellars are all about. Katherine or Mason were the only ones that made sense.

Why would Katherine though even if she was somehow onto him? Was this a message of some kind meant to scare him? No doesn't really seem like her style at least not her style with some random like me.

She'd be more direct. So it has to be Mason then, but he seemed perfectly fine talking to me earlier. Didn't seem like he thought something was going on. From what he can remember and even what he saw firsthand when it came to Mason and Tyler; Mason always said when he could tell someone knew or had some idea something was going on with him. Well, he didn't say that directly but he'd kind of talk in this passive-aggressive way that kind of told the person he knew that you knew.

But the few conversations he had with Mason before were normal, with no passive aggressiveness or anything. Didn't talk super deep either, just a normal conversation barely beyond small talk.

About an hour later Mason and Tyler came back to the house shortly after they all left together in Mason's car.

The car ride was nice. There wasn't much talking which was honestly a good thing for him.

The most conversation that happened was Tyler asking him where he was today and Mason asked him pretty much the same. Didn't say much in response then conversations between him and the two Lockwoods came to a close at least in the car. The rest of the time consisted of Mason and Tyler talking and me looking out at mystic falls. Which was quite beautiful at night and in the evening. He was excited about getting to the fair. As long as he could avoid the drama that may or may not go on there he'll have a good time. It's been forever since he went to a fair since he was in his early teens actually.

Upon getting to the fair the first thing they did was all try to ring toss which we all failed of course. Which Tyler got a bit jilted about. Then Mason tried the bottle smash or whatever you call that game.

"Whoa, dude how did you even do that? You smashed 3 bottles in a row."

Of course, Tyler was referring to Mason's ease at which he smashed 3 out of 5 bottles in the bottle smash game with the balls. Even the clerk at the stand seemed shocked and a bit mad as well. No doubt it was one of those rigged carnival games. Mason walked off with a giant teddy bear stuffed animal. Would he be giving that to Katherine? No, don't think about that. Then came the arm wrestle. Which featured the added element of me trying to arm wrestle Mason and my arm getting severely sore. One change that did occur though was Stefan and Damon wern't in the crowd until after Mason finished up. Which certainly worked in my favor. Hopefully anyways.

"You destroyed the entire football team in arm wrestling dude that was crazy," Tyler said

"Don't sell yourselves short you guys did your best" Mason said

"But, how did you actually do that?" Tyler asked

Mason shrugged "What can I say surfing pays."

Tyler paused for a few seconds after this comment

"Are you juicing or something?"

"Nah, he just be all like KOWABUNGA and then he be big strong dude" I said this in the most exaggerated tone I could muster hoping to distract Tyler.

"I don't juice " Mason stated no doubt mildly offended at the accusation.

"You have to be what you did. Just isn't normal" Tyler said in disbelief

"He be getting strong from those huge waves he be like SURFS UP Brah Saffa" The two ignored him the first time so he persevered.

Mason chuckles "Surfers talk nothing like that and i'm not juicing Tyler"

"I'm sure you needed some support to ride Those GNARLY waves brah" Tyler said

He chuckled at that one. I proceeded to give Tyler a high five.

"We don't talk like that"

"Wait are you seriously offended?" He asked

"I think he might be, Adam can't handle us stereotyping his people"

"aha, guys Nah we just don't talk like that"

"Well, then how do Florida surfers talk?"

"KOWABUNGA BABY" Mason retorted with the biggest grin on his face.

We all were chuckling as we walked towards the parking lot at this point.

"So they do talk like that then?" He asked

"Yea we do, once in a while for fun"

"Cool, I figured it was exaggerated a tad at least."

"Yea of course but it's a stereotype for a reason I'll say. Once, my friend Jules and I were looking out at the ocean when we saw this wave come and this wave was colossal 3 stories high I swear. We rushed for…"

Unfortunately, Masons story was cut short by one of the last things I wanted to run into here"

"Caroline?" Tyler asked.

"Tyler is that you?"

"Yea, are you okay? You don't look so good."

"I'm just hungry"

"I can get you some food if…"

"I'm starving, It smells so good"

"BOTH OF YOU GET BACK" Mason Yelled

"Caroline come one ill get you some food."

"I'm starving, I need it now" Caroline began walking towards me at this point.

"Caroline you'll be fine, you'll be fine, don't"

"DON'T IMAGINE IT FADING"

With that comment, Caroline's face changes from a look of a predator to a look of terror.

"I'm sorry…"

Then she ran off, thankfully at normal speed. After that, I looked back at Tyler and Mason, and at that moment my fears were realized. Mason had a suspicious "I know that you know look". And the suspicious glances Tyler had pointed in Mason's direction the past two days were now pointed at him.

"dammit," he whispered under his breath.

The drive back was frustrating, to say the least.

"What was that all about Adam?"

"What?"

"What the hell was that with Caroline earlier?"

"She was upset, I just helped her out."

"She wasn't upset though, it wasn't normal the way she was acting, It was weird."

"Tyler leave him alone, just be glad he handled the situation and was able to help your friend?"

"Well now I really want to know, You have been acting weird since the day you got here." Tyler half yelled then looked directly at me in the back.

"And you have been acting weird for a while now, I just was so distracted I didn't think about it. What the hell is going on with you two? What are you hiding?"

Neither of us said anything in response to that. I don't think we really knew what to say.

"So you got nothing to say now? Just tell me it can't be that bad?"

"Tyler, STOP," Mason said in a voice eerily similar to his late brothers.

Fortunately, that got Tyler to stop asking his questions. Unfortunately, this was not over Tyler would most certainly ask him what the hell is going on later on, and even if by some miracle he doesn't Mason was most certainly gonna talk to him at some point and that's if he is lucky. Mason could tell Katherine before he talks with him. Which is a scenario he doesn't want, she could kill him if she doesn't want to risk him getting in the way of her plans. He couldn't play the naive human anymore. He needed to talk to Mason tonight before they went wherever the hell they were staying. He can't risk him telling Katherine.

Once they arrived home Tyler ran to his room. Not wanting to deal with either of them or their lies. He didn't blame him. He lied to Tyler in part to protect him and in part so he wouldn't get in the way. It wasn't completely selfish, but it wasn't completely noble either. He had a personal pipe dream that he would be able to keep the truth of the supernatural away from Tyler for years. Unfortunately due to recent events, and werewolf uncles they were seeming more and more unlikely. With the way things are going now, Tyler might find out a bit earlier than he originally did.

With Tyler gone Mason turned to me.

"We need to talk," Mason said sternly

"Yes we do... right now"

With that Mason headed out the door of the mansion and he followed.

If this bites him in the back later. He blames Caroline and team rash decisions lackluster abilities to corral vampires.

A.N. So looks like Adam is in for a tough conversation. Edited on 12/27/2022 fixing grammar mistakes.