A/N: Hi there everyone! For those of you who've been following my updates, this chapter might be familiar. And it is, cause I've uploaded the wrong chapter as chapter thirty. When I was rereading this, I realized I'd somehow skipped the whole figuring out Whitmore College was involved and the trip towards the college (while I'd written it), so- sorry? The problem is fixed now though. If anything, the chapter before this one is the new update?
Either way, below you can read my 'old author's note', and Chapter thirty-two will be uploaded upcoming Saturday. We'll continue the search of Caroline and the continuance of the plot then^^
Old Author's note: Hello again! And welcome back! I wanted to let you know that yes, Bonnie Bennett will be back, and although there will be a lot of bumps along the way, she will have a nice ending. But that won't come without struggles. After this, she'll need time to heal, but she'll find someone who will be her other half. Even if I don't know yet whom that will be. I've started watching the fifth and sixth season (*for obvious reasons, I guess) and I adore her and Enzo.
As for Grayson...
He will get what's coming to him. One way or the other he will, and by now, I'd like to think you know I won't be gentle. I won't hide away from showing both sides to someone's character. I'm not going to pretend Damon is only misunderstood, nor that Klaus is only the abused artist. Which is why I'm not going to give Grayson a ticket out of all of this either.
Because honestly, I felt so sick. Calling vampires monsters, but then doing that? The hypocrisy. It just, I know you have to overlook many things, but it's hard when its things like this. Characters that are supposed to be the good guys aren't supposed to do this. I don't know how to really explain it.
On a different note, thank you for all your support and reviews. To those I can't reply to, know your words are very appreciated. To LunaLuna99999 and perhaps to others who might have been shocked by last chapter, I'm sorry. I hadn't considered how those scenes might have been triggering for people, but reading them again, I can see why. So consider this an official warning.
This chapter will be dark and gory. I'm kinda wondering if I should change the ratings to M? I'm descriptive, but I'm never sure when a story should become M? It's not overly sexual (if at all at the moment) and most stories I've read which were rated M, were more about sex?
If anyone knows, please let me know.
Either way, warning, gore and maiming ahead. Bonnie is not harmed or maimed in this chapter.
Like always, let me know what you all think!
o.O.o
Chapter Thirty-One, A Secret Organization
We used the flashlights on our phones and tiptoed down the iron stairs. It was cooler in here. Cool and damp and I felt my mouth go dry. The deeper we went, the damper the walls became and the more nervous I felt. At some point, we moved down a hallway, down another flight of stairs and I wondered.
What kind of house had such a basement?
Had such a dungeon-like structure?
There were several flights of stairs and when we finally reached the end of it, deep beneath what I thought must be the central building of Whitmore College, Caroline stilled. I almost bumped into her and held onto the railing with all of my might.
"What?"
"I hear something! Moaning— I think." She whispered and stepped out onto the concrete floor.
"And the smell?"
"It's worse here." She explained, leading me through a wide brick tunnel. "Ah, it's coming from here!" She whispered, pointing at the large metal door in front of us, flicking a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder. "Blood, and there's a lot of it too."
I didn't think she meant human blood, for the veins beneath her eyes didn't appear and I frowned. "I'm utterly impressed you can tell by sound and smell alone," I remarked and we slowly moved closer. There were several large brass locks, all locked and I bit my lip. How the fuck were we going to get past those?
I shouldn't have worried. Caroline's shoulders bunched up as she yanked at the handle of the door, the metal groaning against her vampiric force and I flinched when the hinges squeaked loudly. Sweat had condensed along the side of my neck and my fingers had started to tingle. In the empty, dark aisle my puffing gasps sounded awfully loud in my own ears, and then— we were staring down another long grey corridor.
"Well, I definitely think we're in the right place," I remarked softly.
Caroline nodded and I took a hesitant step into the dim-lit corridor, raising my arm up, shining the flashlight as far over the floor as I could. It was a long aisle, moving on deep beneath the house or the college building. My hand found Caroline's and we moved deeper into the long tunnel-like aisle together. It was slightly illuminated by pale, flickering led lights on either side of the wall and somewhat reminded me of the sealife park I'd been to when I was little. Caroline's muscles were tense her eyebrows furrowed.
"I hear something," she whispered.
I didn't. I only started to hear the strange whirring sounds coming from the end of the corridor about halfway along. We'd already passed two doors standing opposite each other and Caroline let go of my hand turning to one of them. My scalp prickled with unease as Caroline reached for the doorknob and I straightened my spine, fingers curling around the deodorant spray stuffed in the pocket of my vest.
"Caroline—"
"No," she shook her head, and her hand dropped from the door handle, "there's no one in there."
"What do you hear?"
"The whirring of machines," she mumbled and she headed on, not even bothering with the other door. I hurried along to keep close to her, my eyes widening. In this part of the aisle, the floors had turned a darker shade of grey with the darkest hints of red. Streaks, my mind supplied belatedly. Streaks of dried, old blood and a shudder ran down my spine.
"I really want to get out of here," I mumbled, but Caroline's jaw had set in an angry snarl.
We were nearing another metal door, at the end of the corridor and I— I had a bad feeling. A really bad feeling and stopped in front of it. There were more blood splatters on it and I curled my fingers tightly into fists. My heart hammered steadily against my ribcage, too fast, but steadily altogether, and I swallowed when Caroline curled her hand around the door handle, pushing down. I could only imagine what we would find. The door creaked open to a large round cold room, bright with fluorescent light and divided into parts by plastic curtains and metal examination tables. At the end, two bloody legs were twitching and someone— a man I thought— was standing with his back to us, leaning over the body. I couldn't see its face, a plastic curtain blurring its face but Caroline— Caroline flashed forward, pushed the man away, and grabbed the straps at the person's ankles. It tore with a sharp snap and I too hurried towards the metal table.
"Bonnie?" I gasped, but it wasn't. It wasn't Bonnie. It was a man eyeing the both of us as if in a daze and I stumbled over my words, unable to articulate my question just right, while Caroline slammed the doctor against the wall. I recognized him. Wes Maxfield, Grayson's friend, and colleague I'd met earlier today. Caroline had slapped the— I stared at the medical saw still rotating as it dropped on the tiled floor, splattering little specks of blood around, and I inhaled sharply.
"Where is she?" Caroline snarled and shook the man for good measure, his head bouncing off against the wall. I winced from the crack that followed, but no real sympathy made its way past my conflicted emotions when I saw the man still sprawled out over the examination table. His face was gaunt, blood was covering his chest, his blouse was open and jagged at the edges. His legs weren't fairing much better, gaping wounds that looked like they were festering, but he was healing— slowly. What had they tried to do to him?
"Where is Bonnie?" Caroline snapped again her hand curled around his throat.
"The brunette?" He gasped, probably figuring out his life was at stake.
I let out a wheezing sort of sound through my teeth and frowned. "You don't know your victims by name?"
"They're not victims." He whispered. "They're monsters."
"Where is Bonnie?" Caroline echoed again, and I watched in mild horror when she snapped his wrist. I'd never actually seen this kind of violence. I'd never seen someone's wrist getting broken and I had to push down the urge to scream or run, or both. I couldn't though, I couldn't lose my shit right now and ground my teeth together.
"Just tell us what we want to know. Obviously, you have little to fear of me but—" I let the threat hang in the air and Caroline tightened her grip on his neck. I watched his mouth open and close but no words passed his lips and slowly but gradually, his skin turned bluish. I pressed my hands against the back of my neck, the palms cradling the sides of my neck and—
And then, lightning-fast, a cold, damp hand curled around my wrist and yanked me around. It happened so fast, I didn't even have time to scream and my heart plummeted to my stomach when I came eye to eye with the dazed man from before. He'd broken out of his straps and was now staring at me. Or— rather, staring at my neck as his eyes darkened and veins began to slither thickly breath his eyes.
I might have screamed, might have fought, and tried to push the man away, but I could have been pushing against a wall and have more results. A flash of white, my arm caught when I tried pushing against his throat— a gasp forced from my lips as my back connected with the harsh flagstone wall and a burst of pain in my wrist and then— I was flung to the floor, my palms scraping open against the wall, my wounded wrist adding to the old, dried blood spatters already there.
"Vervain," he hissed, but he only looked revulsed, not like his throat was still on fire and I gasped.
"What—"
Caroline appeared beside him, fingers going to his shoulder — to restrain him or to push him away, I wasn't sure —but the man intercepted her. He caught her wrist, snapped it to the right, breaking it, obviously, and slapped her so hard she flew backward, slamming into the wall with a loud crack, much like thunder. A small crater was left and Caroline slumped to the floor admitting an explosion of plaster and dust.
He was on Maxfield the next moment and I gasped. Surely, Maxfield was on Vervain as well? Yet, his head was wrenched to the side, his eyes freezing in his skull and I heard the vampire's teeth sink and tear into Maxfield's neck. Blood pulsed around and I scrawled backward until I was crouched up against the cold stone wall, panting and gasping.
And I just didn't understand. He was experimenting with vampires. Why the fuck wasn't he on Vervain? I supposed absentmindedly that the answer was obvious. Arrogance. And that same arrogance was the reason why Wes Maxfield became paler and paler, arms limply hanging at their sides. The sounds, the swallowing— it was all a bit too much—
My vision swam precariously and my stomach twisted horribly. I couldn't describe the sound Maxfield's body made when he dropped to the floor. His head was wrenched in an unnatural way. Broken, I supposed and I tried to force my mind to emerge from the muddy habitat of confusion and uncertainty. Caroline had managed to get to her feet again, her eyes wide and haunted too. I supposed it must have been the human blood, coating the wall now and I forced myself to my feet.
"Care—"
She stepped forward. It was all happening so fast. I noticed the sweat beading in glistening droplets across her forehead before her eyes rolled back, showing off only the whites. My scream was frozen in my throat and I watched Dianne Freeman appear from behind her. Caroline dropped to her knees and flopped forward in a dead faint.
"You stupid girl," she muttered and her eyes went wide when she noticed the male vampire, turning to her. "Oh my God— you imbecile—"
"Hello Headmaster," he grinned.
The vampire's skin was still a fluorescent milky white, slightly tinged with grey in the cold white light of fluorescent tube lamps, but he was already looking better.
"I'm on Vervain," the woman hissed and the male vampire rolled his eyes.
"Hm, yeah, yet, your little boy toy was not." He observed, toneless and flat.
He moved too fast for my eyes to track and like a puppet whose strings were cut, Dianne Freeman dropped to the tiled floor, her head rolling away from her body. Like a baseball, it wobbled across the room and stopped against the leg of one of the examination tables with a dull thud.
I watched it staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes and I— I froze.
My body just stopped moving, back straight, almost painfully so, and my heart fluttered wildly against my ribcage. And— I waited. Waited for my synapses to fire and my nerves to respond and my body to shock awake and run. The man, his entire shirt was wet with scarlet and his eyes were hauntingly empty, turned towards me again. For the first time, I recognized what Grayson had said before. This man—
He was a monster.
A beautiful, deadly monster, who was grinning down at me. Or at least, they'd made him one-
He crouched down in front of me, fingers playing along my shoulders. A searing bolt of electricity shot through me, curling up the notches of my spine and I started to struggle in earnest. "Don't touch me!"
"Don't be like that, Darling," he smiled, his eyes quirking, "we're just getting to know each other."
"Please! Just— let go!" I gasped, adrenaline making my vision crackle like static energy.
"You know, little student, if you don't want to be hurt, you shouldn't experiment on dangerous men."
"What? You think I had anything to do with this?" I gasped.
His smirk faltered for a moment and I felt my back hit the wall. "You think I would believe that?"
"I'm not— I swear I would never— I was looking for my friend. We think they got her— I don't even know who you are." I hurried out to explain and the man cocked his head to the side, smiling bloodied teeth at me. He looked like a male version of Carry, the moment after she'd gotten a bucket full of blood tipped over her head and I— I flinched, tears springing to my eyes. "I don't agree with these experiments."
"You don't, hm?"
I shook my head because I didn't trust my voice anymore and averted my eyes to Caroline. She was sprawled out on the tiled floor, in the middle of the white plaster and the ashy grey dust, next to Dianne's beheaded form. Blood was still seeping out across the tiles, mingling with whatever other dirt there was, and crept up towards Caroline's form.
"Please, let me go!" I whispered and could hear the fear win through my voice.
"The girl?" He asked, his eyes flitting towards Caroline as well.
"She's my friend," I whispered through my tears and he let go of me as if burned. Getting up, he crossed the room, fingers trailing along with the bloodied, plastic curtains. I knew my face was pale— leeched of all the blood. "You killed them."
"They deserved it."
"Are you going to kill me?" I whispered.
I didn't want to be here, or anywhere, with dead bodies on the floor. I wasn't even sure if there was anyone around who was parallel in my skill to make a bad situation so much worse. Yeah, Elena hadn't done a stellar job of protecting the people she'd loved, but I— I glanced at Caroline. I had pretty much rocked the boat and danced around it as it burned. Perhaps, this would all have been easier if I—
If I was a vampire too.
Because, as much as the humanity switch disgusted me, it would have been so much easier to just flip it and migrate to another country. But— I couldn't. It simply just wasn't right. I met the man's eyes again, steeling myself again. "If you are, then I would love it if you did it fast. But, my friend? Caroline, who you just slapped. Just— let her go, okay?"
His bloodied mouth went slack, his eyes widening. "She's a vampire."
"She's a good person. Besides, I dragged her in here. This is my fault."
Like so much that had happened lately was. I refused to think about that right now and curled my fingers around my wrists.
"You're a weird human." He muttered before his attention flitted elsewhere.
I had no idea what was going on. The vampire turned to the door. The exit. The way out and I followed his gaze. He curled his lip, like some sort of rabid animal and I watched his fangs reappear. My eyes were drawn to the door again because now, I too heard the approach of slow, even footsteps. Coming closer and closer until they stopped in front of my only exit.
The lock clicked. The latch opened. Grayson appeared, white-faced and scowling. His eyes landed on me, flitting over me, and for a moment, I watched relief curl over the tense lines of his face, and then— recognition flashed over the vampire's face. His eyes flitted between us until finally, they lit up in understanding.
"Ah, this is Elena?" He asked, his voice eerily flat.
"Please." Grayson tried.
However, the vampire just grinned— and then he was gone. He appeared again, I felt the air flutter against the fine hairs around my ears. I turned towards him, just as he grasped my shoulders and hauled me to my feet, he moved behind me, aligning his front with my back and fisting one hand in my hair. The fingers of his left hand clamped about my neck, squeezing and I made a quaffing sound, fingers desperately clawing at the man's wrist. It didn't help of course.
"Let her go, Enzo." Grayson hissed, a vein throbbing in his brow.
"Now, now, doctor," the man, Enzo apparently, mocked and I felt his breath fan over my cheek. "Patience is a virtue. I mean, I had a lot of it you know? Years of it actually. And most of those years I've spent imagining. What to do when I finally get the chance. So why waste such a good opportunity?"
"Opportunity to do what?" I whispered, my voice barely there.
"Oh so many opportunities actually," he laughed and I felt his chest shudder as he did.
"She's just a girl—" Grayson tried and Enzo let out a hollow laugh.
"And I'm supposed to care? I thought I was just a monster?"
I felt him wrap the lock of my hair tighter around his hand, tugging it and I forced myself to keep my head straight. Forced me to not crane my neck.
"She's just a child."
"A child with a rather nasty scar on her neck." Enzo tutted, but I heard the confusion in his voice.
I turned my face to his, eyebrows furrowing and his lip curled. "I got bitten once." I tried.
"And is that person still living?" He whispered in my ear, breath hot and I noticed Grayson shudder.
"Yes," I answered truthfully, keeping my eyes firmly on his, "I don't think many could change that."
He made an amused snorting sound. "Interesting you are, Little Bird."
"Listen, I'll let you go," Grayson tried and I wondered why he thought he still had the upper hand.
"You let me go?" Enzo laughed. "Really?"
Grayson inched towards the length of red string attached to the ceiling. I thought it might be connected to the sprinklers above us and Enzo yanked my head back, nuzzling his mouth down the side of my neck, until he'd found a tender, shallow spot.
"I would not recommend that Doc, I bleed her dry and I make it hurt."
He froze. "You wouldn't. She's on Vervain. I made sure she is."
Enzo let an emotionless laugh roll off his tongue. "Vervain laced blood does nothing to me." He coldly retorted, and he let his tongue glide over the sensitive skin of my throat. I shuddered. He had his cheek pressed against the scarred side of my neck, transferring blood and God knew what else onto my skin. He ran his tongue across the tender bite mark and I felt my breath escape me in terrified little gasps. I felt his mouth open wide against my throat and— then Grayson screamed and I was flung to the floor. Enzo flashed across the room again.
With a vindictive roar, Enzo's hand pierced through Grayson's stomach and sent an arc of blood across the concrete wall. I didn't scream, I didn't cry out. The only sound escaping me were little whimpers and my body shook. Little black speckles were dancing at the sides of my vision as adrenaline once more infused my system rapidly and my heart pumped wildly in my chest. Enzo growled, ripping through Grayson's stomach and then he howled. Something bloody got torn from inside of his chest, accompanied by a loud crack. Finally sound escaped my lips.
"Stop!" I gasped, legs feeling wobbly beneath me. "Please stop!"
"I don't think so, Love," he smiled at me and more blood bubbled up from Grayson's mouth.
"I— please, stop!" I gasped and took a hesitant step toward the two men. Enzo turned towards me, staring at my face. "I— I know he hurt you— but, this— this isn't right. It wasn't right what they did to you, but what you're doing right now, that's not right either. Doing this— doesn't that make you just as much as the monsters as they said you were? As they are?"
Enzo ground his teeth together and Grayson let out a soft, rattling sound. "Perhaps," he agreed, and with a jerky movement, Enzo snapped Grayson's neck. I watched him fall as if in slow motion, his body flapping awkwardly to the floor, head bouncing off the tiles. "But he won't be alive to do it again."
"Oh my God—" I gasped and scrabbled on my hands and knees to where Grayson had fallen, his head bent at an odd angle and his eyes unseeingly.
My fingers flitted towards his ring — the ring that protected him — and I swallowed. He would be fine. I was sure— he would be fine and I scrambled to my feet. However, the other man — Maxfield wasn't it — he wouldn't. There had been nothing to protect him and I took a slow step towards his fallen form, crouching down beside him. Blood, so much blood, streaked his shirt and lab coat a dark scarlet.
His head was cocked at an awkward angle and protruding from his neck was some kind of large forceps. A halo of crimson was pooling around his head and shoulders.
"Don't worry— he'll be back."
"What?" I whispered, my skin an almost yellowy wash in the bright lab light.
"That man," Enzo said, wiping his bloody hands at a discarded shirt. "So, Elena, who were you looking for?"
I clutched my bloody hands to my chest and tried to ignore Maxfield's dead accusing stare. I was trembling. I couldn't stop shivering, even though I was not cold, and tried to push up to my feet. My legs refused to do as I wanted. Refused to hold my weight and I stared at him.
"Cat got your tongue?" Enzo asked, tapping his fingers against his arms. "Need help, Sweetheart?"
"No," I shook my head vehemently, "no, I don't."
And I looked at Caroline. The syringe was still protruding from her back. Still out like a light and— how long before more people would come here? I doubted this little organization had only three members.
"I— Bonnie—" I forced out, wiping at my eyes as more unbidden and unwanted tears accumulated on my lashes. I didn't even understand why they would be there, because, in the end, I had been furious with Grayson.
"Little Bonnie Bennett," he agreed and my teary eyes locked onto his.
"What?"
"I don't have so much time anymore." He whispered, "But blondie and I will find her."
"What?" I echoed stupidly.
"Thank you, Elena Gilbert." He grinned.
And then he was gone. As was Caroline. And I sat there, terrified.
It took over an hour before Grayson gasped awake and I watched him with a detached sort of curiosity. With a groan, he rolled onto his side and propped his head up with his hand. He was covered in blood, pale as a sheet, but— he was alive again. I let my eyes glide over his face and a shudder reverberated through my body. There was a trail of dried, flecked blood curling down his chin and he coughed. His eyes landed on me.
"Elena?"
I wet my lips before responding, averting my gaze to the wall, away from him. "You're back."
His face filled up my line of sight seconds later. "How could you do this?" He whispered, and then, suddenly, he was shaking me. "How could you do this?"
"You think I wanted this?" I gasped, tears springing to my eyes.
"You brought Caroline here and both of them—" he gestured at his fallen friends — colleagues? "Both of them are dead now."
"Yes," I whispered, "somewhat seems like an occupational risk when you go about torturing people."
"Elena—"
"You really think I wanted this?" I gasped back and pushed against him, pushing myself to my feet. "I didn't!"
He snarled and kicked at one of the examination tables. My gut clenched and I crossed my arms and gritted my teeth. "I can't understand how you could do this." He whispered, looking down at me.
"You tortured my best friend and you're asking me why I'd go after her?"
"She's not human—"
"There are many times in history when people used that exact excuse to somehow lord their superiority over someone else." I snapped back and Grayson turned a so dark color I worried he would have an aneurism. His hand wrapped tightly around my upper arm next and, without a word, he started to drag me out of the room.
The air was chilly now, crisp even, and I felt strangely flat when Elena's dad yanked me out of the college building and across the vast, sloping grounds. I didn't put up much of a struggle, not even when he pushed me into the passenger's seat of his car. He started the large bulky engine without a word and pulled out of the parking lot. The SUV grumbled when he accelerated too quickly, without even a side glance. I refused to look his way, folding and unfolding my hands.
"Elena," he tried, but I shook my head. I didn't particularly wish to hear what he had to say. Grayson gripped the steering wheel tightly and for a moment said nothing. The only sound came from Jeremy's headphones, the music loud enough to resonate in the silence.
"I can't believe you'd do something like this."
"They're monsters." He answered in a glacial tone.
"You should worry about not becoming a monster when fighting them." I quipped back.
"Are you saying—"
"Yes," I agreed, nodding more to myself, than to anyone else, "I definitely think what you're doing is monstrous. I don't care if vampires are monsters, or not. The things you're doing to them— The rules of our world don't just stop applying because you're fighting monsters, dad. Thinking rules are different with a different species is just hypocritical."
Grayson's jaw tensed for a second before he slowly flexed his fingers around the steering wheel. "You still don't understand, Elena"
I snorted and laced my tone with as much bitterness as I could, and said. "I think I understand perfectly well. It's you who doesn't understand. You're the one who's degrading people you don't know. Even people you've known all of your life. Bonnie didn't even get a chance to prove you wrong!"
"They're not people, Elena, when will that finally get through to you?" He snapped, accelerating.
"They are!" I snapped back. "Bonnie and Caroline don't deserve this. They didn't ask for this. If you cared for me, you would see that."
"Are you blackmailing me?"
"Yes!" I snapped back and decided to throw the line that had always fascinated me as a child in his face. "I'm not like you. I won't turn my back on people who need me. I won't abandon my friends. Even if they're turned into monsters! But by all means, ground me again. It won't change anything."
His face turned thunderous and he hit the brake so hard, my body snapped forward, only held back by the pressure of my seatbelt. "Watch your tone with me!" He erupted in anger and my eyes went wide.
"Fine," I whispered, sinking back in my seat, resolutely turning my face away. "Fine."
The remainder of the drive was quiet. I didn't say another word. Not when we left the highway, nor when Grayson turned the car down the curving road leading towards Mystic Falls. The forest was harsh, the crossroads flickering in the moonlight, but I said nothing. I said nothing when we turned into Maple street, or even when he parked the car in front of the Gilbert house. I noticed Jeremy's eyes flit between us — he too had been silent throughout the entire drive — and climbed out of the car without even a side glance at Grayson Gilbert. I heard the man kill the engine behind me and almost manage a genuine-looking smile at Miranda, waiting in the door opening. I just wanted to go upstairs.
I just wanted to go home.
Just for a while.
Just for a moment. I just wanted to see my mom and be around people who did not have a double agenda. I couldn't of course...
(To be continued...)
A/N: Also, I'm trying to convey Elena's confusion, hesitation or horror, with the hole situation. Not the whole vampire-thing. She's very in the know about all the things that go bump in the night, but it's hard to piece the pieces of Grayson Gilbert together. Not agreeing on viewing a species as dangerous (because vampires are dangerous) and not wanting your daughter to hang around them to experimenting with vampires, maiming and harming them, that must be hard. Because as much as Non-Elena is furious with Grayson, she has also come to care for him.
A hard pill to swallow...
And, like I said before, I wanted to highlight that part of him. Because the show kinda glossed over that and I know it glossed over a lot of things, but still.
Anyway, let me know what you all think! I'd love to hear what you think!