I was heartbroken. I've never even imagined it to be so bloody hard to say goodbye to someone who'd crept into your heart and occupied almost all of the space inside for himself.
It seemed like I should've gotten used to it already, because it looked like we were going in circles over and over again. We would meet, spend a perfect few days together and then part our ways for no less than a month. I couldn't even imagine moving in with him or at least living in a same town, it just seemed so surreal... which was really sad. I wanted to wake up every day and see him lying beside me, wanted to spend evenings painting or reading or doing whatever the hell we wanted... together. I wanted him to be there with the rest of my family on holidays, wanted to travel with him, visit different places as he'd promised me to on our second night together. We were cuddling on a couch in front of a tv, not even paying attention to the movie that was playing and he was telling me about all those places he's been to, about the languages he could speak and when I sighed wistfully, he firmly promised that we would go and visit them all and more after I graduated from school and something in his voice told me that he would 100% keep his word.
He booked tickets for both of us and we've spent the time while waiting for check-in together, trying really hard to absorb as much of each other's warmth and presence as we could. It was almost painful to let go of his hand when it was time for me to go.
I remember very vaguely walking to my seat as tears kept blurring my vision. I think a flight attendant walked me all the way, seeing that I wasn't able to do that myself, that's why I was quite surprised when I found myself sitting in business class after I composed myself enough to notice my surroundings. His attention to little details warmed my heart and almost made me tear up again.
During the flight I kept my unseeing gaze on the clouds flying by, while gently caressing the bracelet that he gave me. I smiled warmly, remembering waking up that morning with this masterpiece on my wrist, which looked like it would've belonged to a princess or something and then paling when he nonchalantly stated that it actually belonged to a real queen. He had to try really hard to make me keep it on after that, because I was quite terrified to be honest. I told him that he'd already given me the best present ever and there was no need in throwing that much of a money away. Which he didn't like to hear at all.
I chuckled and came out of my thoughts only to hear the pilot announcing our arrival.
Jenna and Jeremy came to pick me up at the airport, that's why driving home went almost unnoticed as we were catching up, cracking jokes and listening to the music so loudly, that almost all the passing drivers kept throwing some dirty looks our way. When we reached home my sadness was almost gone. Almost, because I knew full well that without him by my side it would never be completely gone.
We celebrated thanksgiving that very day, I prepared the fabulous holiday table with the help of my faithful minions, aka Elena and Caroline, the last one joined us after having a fight with her mom, when Liz had to take a shift at work. Bonnie was visiting her grams and decided to stay there for the rest of the holidays, which was sad, but I guess it was good for her to spend the time with her family, especially since she sounded quite tired on the phone. I also hoped that Sheila would become more serious about teaching her some witchcraft.
Holidays went quite smoothly in my opinion, the only thing disturbing the perfect picture being sad Elena, who was a little depressed about that whole situation where Stefan was keeping his distance while trying to solve his brother's diabolical master plan. Damon, on the other hand, was surprisingly enough keeping a low profile, which, on the second thought, wasn't that surprising after he presented that poor homeless guy from the Grill as a sacrificial lamb to the Council and now he had to lay low for a while until the drama with vampires was more or less forgotten.
We continued our training, to my siblings' horror, me concentrating more on Elena to distract her from thinking about Stefan even for a little while. And it magically worked, after our sessions she didn't have enough energy to breath let alone wallow in sadness.
Now it was the last day of thanksgiving holidays and I was at the Grill with Caroline, who'd been dragging me there almost every day lately to my confusion, I mean more than she usually does anyway. And after watching her for some time I think I finally figured out the reason. Two words.
Matt Donovan.
Yeah, I know. I was flabbergasted as I came to that conclusion, when I finally deciphered the looks she was throwing his way all the time while we were there. The girl was whipped. I mean, I heard that Matt was the one to drive her home that day after Stefan's birthday when she got drunk, but I totally missed how she ended up falling for the guy. Nonetheless, I was definitely going to figure that out.
"He's quite handsome, isn't he?" I asked nonchalantly, after observing the whole staring session for the nth time.
"He is," she whispered with a stupid smile on her face, making me snort in amusement. Then she finally understood what she'd just said and blushed furiously, sitting a little bit straighter on her chair. "I mean, yeah he is quite handsome. No big deal."
"Caroline, first of all, cut the crap," I said making her wince. "Second of all, spill."
"What do you mean spill? There's nothing to spill. Absolutely nothing," she laughed, but realized that her laugh was fake as hell and stopped. I just raised an eyebrow at her, making her squirm uncomfortably on her chair.
"You like him. Why are you denying that?"
"Okay, yeah, I like him. Happy?" she asked and I nodded at her encouraging her to continue. "Don't ask me when or how that happened, I have no idea myself. It's just one day I met him and realized that I was happy to see him and wanted to talk to him or him to talk to me first or... agh I don't know, it's so stupid."
She pulled on her hair in frustration and I had to try really hard not to laugh cause she would've thought that I was laughing at her, but I just never really saw her this flustered. Instead I gently pulled on her hands making her let go of her hair and gave them a gentle squeeze.
"Listen, Care, it's okay to like someone. Actually it's pretty amazing and I'm really happy for you. But why were you trying to hide it from me? Every time when you fell for someone I was the first one you told about it. What changed?"
"I'm sorry. It's just, I mean, I don't even know if he likes me back. But the main reason is... Elena," she mumbled making me frown.
"Okay, first, of course he likes you, you are gorgeous," I said casually, making her smile. "Second, why is that a problem? I mean the Elena part of course. Let me tell you, she's madly in love with Stefan and even if that wasn't the case, she stopped feeling anything for Matt long before they broke up, she just didn't want to hurt his feelings. After our parents died she just grasped the opportunity and finally broke up with him. You are completely safe."
"I know. But that's not the reason," she sighed and looked longingly at Matt who was serving someone at the bar. "The fact that Elena is not in love with him anymore doesn't mean that he feels the same. I'm pretty sure he still hopes that they'll get back together."
"Well, then show him that he's wrong. Make him see how gorgeous and amazing and incredibly smart you are." That made her turn to look at me again, still not looking convinced.
"What if it won't help?" she asked quietly and she looked so sad at that moment I wanted to hug her so I did just that. I stood up and sat right next to her, giving her a warm, encouraging hug. I thought that I was quite successful in improving her self-esteem and making her see that she had nothing to be jealous of when it came to my sister, but I guess I had much more work to do.
"Then dump his pathetic ass and find someone who will deserve such a great young woman as you and will love you for who you are and won't be intimidated by your sparkling personality. Do you understand me, young lady?" I asked sternly and she giggled with tears shining in her eyes.
"Yes, ma'am."
The school started again and I wasn't really expecting anything. I mean it's school, nothing interesting ever happens there. The only thing that I was happy about was my art class. Two days spent with the love of my life gave me a lot of inspiration and I couldn't wait to paint some of my new ideas and share them with my favorite art teacher, especially since my amazing family presented me a huge painting set that I've been dreaming about for quite some time now.
The day started as usual: I woke up early, did my usual workout routine, took a shower, changed into the outfit that I prepared beforehand which consisted of black high waisted skintight jeans, burgundy red turtleneck, some high heeled boots for a change and my favorite leather jacket and went to the kitchen to cook something for breakfast.
I had to leave my new bracelet at home in my jewelry box where I kept my most expensive jewelry (had to have some to wear on special occasions, even though I'm not a fan of jewelry, which might change in the future if Niklaus continues the tradition of giving me one on special occasions) because it was... well... too expensive and noticeable (you should be blind not to notice a platinum bracelet almost completely covered in diamonds). I wouldn't usually end up liking it, I mean I loved the necklace that he gave me because I felt connected to it right away, but even being a masterpiece which costs quite a fortune, the bracelet was actually really delicate and graceful. And about my blood enchanted bracelet, I somehow stopped wearing it on my person, and only carried it in my bag most of the times just in case. I just didn't think that it would be of some use for me in the near future.
I prepared some bacon and eggs and turned on the coffee machine before going upstairs to wake up my siblings. Jenna had a day off so I decided to let her sleep in.
We drove to the school together, me Jeremy and Elena which was quite rare, because Elena would've usually driven with Bonnie, but today Bonnie haven't called and wasn't answering her phone so Elena decided to drive with us.
I was actually quite worried about Bonnie and shared my concerns with Elena and Caroline as soon as she joined us on a parking lot.
"I know right! She's been weird lately. I asked her a few times if anything was wrong, but she said that she didn't want to discuss it over the phone, so I decided to wait until we meet in person," Lena said, looking as worried as we all did.
"I think it's because of that ugly ass necklace that belonged to her ancestor or something," Caroline mused thoughtfully and scowled. "That bitch Katie almost bit her head off that day at the party because of that stupid necklace."
"Wait, what? Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this? I told Bonnie to be careful with the necklace and never heard about it ever since. What the hell did Katie want from her? She refused to take it back, as long as I remember, when Bonnie tried to return it."
"She claimed that she forgot about it, and that it actually was hers and called Bonnie a thief," Elena mumbled angrily making me clench my teeth in annoyance.
"What a bitch!"
At that moment Matt walked just pass us and said hi, which we all returned, but his eyes were mainly on Elena and I felt really sorry for Caroline when she looked at him like a lost puppy. At that moment I was ready to punch Matt to make him open his eyes and stop living in a dreamland.
The first class was history and when we arrived to the class a young looking substitute was already there writing something in a journal, so we exchanged curious glances with Elena and sat down waiting for a class to start.
The bell rang and with it came in Bonnie, mumbling an excuse and rushing to her place under our worried glances. We turned to her while the teacher was writing something on the blackboard and gave her questionable looks, only to return our attention to the teacher after she mouthed "later".
"Good morning everyone." The teacher finished writing and turned to the class, while we tried to read what looked like a name written on the chalkboard. "Alaric Saltzman. It's a mouthful, I know. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Saltzman is of German origins. My family emigrated here in 1755 to Texas. I, however, was born and raised in Boston. Now the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great-grandfather I will never be able to thank enough," he joked and students snorted, which was actually a very impressive result for a teacher. "You'll probably want to pronounce "Alaric", but it's "Alaric", okay? So you can call me Rick. I'm your new history teacher."
He finished introducing himself (which was quite entertaining by the way, he made a great first impression so far and the lesson has just started) and my vision flickered and I suddenly was hit with the same short vision that I had while reading Jenna's tea leaves and I finally understood what was so familiar about the guy. I had to try really hard not to laugh with joy, knowing that this new teacher would become really close to my Aunt, which was awesome because she deserved to be happy, especially after that fiasco with Logan.
The lesson went quite well and I had to admit that Alaric was a natural teacher. He bonded with the class from the very beginning and managed to hold our attention till the very end. As the class ended, Mr. Saltzman asked me to stay behind so I told the girls I would meet them at lunch before approaching the teacher's desk.
"Is there something wrong, Mr. Saltzman?" I asked, trying to figure out the reason of catching the new teacher's attention on the very first lesson.
"Ah Ms. Gilbert, yes. Don't worry, everything's fine. I just wanted to talk about why you are here and not in AP class. If I understood it correctly you are high above average level and actually took an AP test, which you scored remarkably well. So, why are you here?"
"Ah, that..." I mumbled unsure of what to say. I took the tests last spring because my dad wanted me to, before the accident. "Um, our previous teacher said that I hadn't scored enough to pass, so..."
"There has to be a mistake here, because I certainly remember seeing your results, which led me to reading some of the papers that you passed on and as I said they were quite remarkable. You definitely should've been in AP class, but I understand that... your previous teacher was a bit of an asshat, and had some curious reaction to your family, as I've found his so called "jackass file" which consisted only of your younger brother's "misdeeds", with whom I'll be having a talk during lunch as well. Now about the AP class..."
"Actually I would've liked to remain in this class, if that's possible," I quickly said interrupting him mid sentence. "Its the only class that I can attend with my friends, so.."
"It's not a problem. If that's what you want then you can stay exactly where you are," he smiled and I could tell he was a really nice guy. Lucky Aunt Jenna.
"Thank you Mr. Saltzman," I was about to leave when I remembered one thing that he said earlier. "And about Jeremy. He's a good kid. It's been a rough couple of month, so. Don't believe everything that you read in that "jackass file"."
"Don't worry, Ms. Gilbert. I usually like making my own impression of people," he smiled warmly and fixed a few papers on his table. "Have a good day."
"Likewise, Mr. Saltzman," I replied thoughtfully, and went to my next class all the while thinking about a familiar looking ring on my new teacher's finger.
I was a little late to lunch after staying behind to have a little chat with Ms. White after the art class, so when I went to join my friends I've found them already sitting at the table, having a heated conversation in hushed voices.
"Sorry I'm late, what did I miss?" I asked landing on a seat beside Caroline. I noticed that they looked worried and instantly became serious.
"Bonnie's being hunted by a ghost," Caroline blurted out half scared and half excited, you could tell that she was enjoying all the supernatural stuff.
"What?!" I asked confused, not quite following the course of conversation. "Where did the ghost come from?"
"It's not a ghost," Bonnie sighed tiredly. "It's my ancestor Emily, or her spirit or whatever. I've been having these nightmares lately, which all ended up with me sleepwalking to the old Fell's church by the way, and she was in all of them."
"The same girl that we saw in my vision? Did you recognize her? Was that really her?" I became deadly serious when I heard her mentioning the Fell's church. That place was bothering me since I stumbled upon it a few years ago.
"Yep, that's her."
"It's a little suspicious don't you think?" Caroline asked thoughtfully gathering our attention. "First, we saw the vision where Damon was asking something from that Emily girl, then that necklace came out of nowhere or we thought it did, but I think Damon had it and dropped it that night when he tried to kill Katie at the Founder's Ball, remember?" The girls looked at her in confusion, trying to follow her line of thoughts, but I was feeling that I knew where she was heading. "I mean think of it! He tried to kill Katie Fell, but Stefan did something to him and he dropped the necklace, so that's why it was there when you girls found Katie and that's why she said that it wasn't hers when Bonnie tried to give it back the next day, because it really wasn't!" Caroline finished gracing us yet again with her unbelievable deducting skills and smiled proudly.
"But why then she changed her mind and said that it was hers that day at the party? Unless..." Elena's eyes instantly filled with realization, but Bonnie beat her at the answer.
"Unless Damon compelled her to take it back! But that doesn't answer why did he have my ancestor's necklace in a first place and why does he want it back so desperately? What is so special about it?" Bonnie asked huffing in frustration.
"Well, we saw him making a deal with Emily and whatever it was that he asked from her had to be quite a difficult piece of magic to achieve if she asked him to protect her line in return," I started thoughtfully, careful not to say too much. I didn't want to tell them about the tomb under the church before I got all the missing pieces to make a whole picture. "The necklace has to be Emily's talisman, that's why she's able to communicate with you, even though I can't quite understand her motives, I'm not that versed in all this ancestral thing. But why did you start wearing it anyway, I told you to be careful with it. What did your grams say about your nightmares?"
"She was the one who made me wear it!" Bonnie exclaimed annoyed out of her mind, but I could feel that she was quite scared too. "And I can't tell her about the nightmares, she's gonna tell me to embrace them. I don't want to embrace them, I want them to stop!"
I felt sorry for Bonnie, she never wanted to be a witch in a first place and now she was having the worst first contact with magic ever, being hunted by her ancestor's spirit wasn't exciting at all. We managed to calm her down a little so she could attend the rest of the classes without freaking out or getting scared of every shadow. Elena offered to have a sleepover at our place and both girls gladly accepted. No one wanted to leave Bonnie on her own with a ghost, including Bonnie herself. But I had to tell them that I would join them a little later as I promised to have a dinner at the Grill with Jenna and Jeremy. We haven't had those in a while.
Throughout the rest of the classes my mind kept drifting back to the tomb that appeared to be the center of events, which was a little disturbing. I stumbled upon that place for the first time when I was wandering around the forest in search of a place where I could practice some magic. I didn't understand what was different about that place except for it being filled with magic, only that I didn't like it, it was giving me creeps. So I just left it be for the time being, only to return much later when I was experienced enough to understand what kind of magic was used there. And what I've found out was quite disturbing. I've found the hidden entrance to the tomb and could make a better grasp on understanding the nature of the seal that's been keeping it closed. I was really shocked when I realized what was inside it, but I couldn't do anything while the seal was too strong.
When I realized what kind of a seal was used to close the tomb, I instantly knew that I needed to figure out the way to get rid of all those desiccated vampires inside of it just in case, as the only thought about them running free kept giving me creeps. All those vampires had a huge grudge on the founding families, not even considering the fact that they were slowly going insane, trapped inside of their own minds without a drop of blood in a century and a half. There was no way in hell I was letting them go.
But all this unwanted attention to the tomb was getting on my nerves, because I knew I wouldn't be able to break the seal in my current state, I needed more time. The seal was getting weaker and weaker and I've been planning to deal with it when it became weak enough for me to break it without hurting myself, but now I felt like I would end up having to deal with it much sooner.
I needed to talk to Damon, because it was obvious now that he had someone important to him in that tomb. Everything about him was making more sense now, he asked Emily to protect someone who was in the tomb and she ended up "protecting" not only that person but all the vampires that were inside. For such a powerful feat of magic she most certainly used the power of the comet, that's why the seal started losing its magic after the comet passed again, because no one performed the ritual to renew the seal. I was curious as to why she even used that particular seal in a first place, knowing full well that after 145 years without being recharged the magic would fade away, and all of those hungry, vindictive vampires would end up running free. Maybe she didn't know that the seal would need to be renewed or she was desperate and didn't have much time to come up with something else... In any case, she screwed up. Maybe she was trying to warn Bonnie about her mistake by appearing in her dreams, so she would come up with something?
Anyway, while driving to the Grill after MMA training a few hours after school ended, I made a mental note to find a way to contact Emily's spirit and demand some much needed answers from her.
Jenna and Jeremy were already there when I arrived, waving at me to attract my attention as if I hadn't noticed them right away. Dorks. I landed on a seat beside Jeremy with a heavy sigh, smiling happily when I saw my favorite food already on the table.
"Thanks for ordering for me too. I don't think I would've been able to wait until the food arrived. I'm starving," I smiled at my aunt gratefully before sipping happily on my diet coke. I noticed that Jenna's head was in the clouds and quietly whispered to Jeremy. "What did I miss?"
Jeremy just shrugged his shoulders, telling me that he had no idea himself, but patience is a virtue, so I decided to wait and see and just dug in. The cheeseburger was delicious as always.
When I was already finishing with my food I felt Jeremy nudging on my shoulder so I gave him a puzzled look only to be directed by his pointing glance to someone who was sitting a few tables away. When I recognized our new history teacher I turned to look at Jenna only to see her admiring him with a small dreamy smile on her face.
She finally felt our amused looks on her face and turned to us questioningly.
"What? I just like a man who can dine alone. A quiet strength," she murmured throwing in Mr. Saltzman's direction another glance.
"I thought you were still in that whole Logan-depression thing?" Jeremy asked not even trying to hide his amusement.
"I've sworn off men forever, but it doesn't mean I can't observe them from a safe distance."
"Well," Jeremy started suggestively, sharing a glance with me before continuing. "We can introduce you."
"You know who that is?" She asked trying not to look curious but her shining eyes gave her away.
"Yeah, that's our new history teacher Mr. Alaric Saltzman," I said, then remembered something.
"Yeah, he's pretty cool," Jeremy added initiating another curious glance at said man from our aunt.
"About him, he talked to me about AP history class, asked me why I wasn't in it," I said only to receive confused looks.
"Wait, I thought you told me that you didn't score enough to transfer?" Jenna asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"I thought so too, but it appeared that Tanner decided otherwise. He was the one who told me that I didn't pass. But it's okay, in the end I'm even glad that everything turned out this way. I asked Mr. Saltzman to let me stay where I was and he said yes."
"I know you can't speak ill of the dead, but Tanner was an asshole," Jenna stated furiously then continued. "And why did you ask him not to transfer you to AP class? It would've been very beneficial for your education."
"I know, but to be honest it's the only class that I share with Bonnie and Elena, I didn't want to lose that. By the way, he mentioned that he'll be having a talk with Jeremy too," I said turning to Jeremy. "How did it go?"
"It went good, he's cool. He told me right away that he didn't believe anything that was in the file that Tanner had on me, but the damage was already done, so he offered me to write a paper to fix the situation."
"Have you picked a topic?" Jenna asked curiously.
"No, not yet. It's gotta be local and non-internet research, so..."
"That's easy, you've got all your dad's stuff."
"You mean the journals?" he asked looking interested.
"Yeah, your dad loved all that family history stuff. It's all boxed up in a closet, all the family lineage from way back."
Jeremy nodded, glad that now he was free from roaming the local library for hours in search of a suitable topic.
I ate the last of my curly fries and was finishing my coke, when Mr. Saltzman suddenly approached our table.
"Mr. Saltzman!" Me and Jeremy greeted him almost at the same time.
"Jeremy, Thalia." He greeted us back, amusement shining in his eyes. "How are you guys doing?"
"Great. This is our aunt Jenna," Jeremy introduced our love struck aunt smoothly making our teacher's eyes dart in her direction and I almost snorted at how Jenna's cheeks started slightly go pink.
"Alaric Saltzman. It's nice to meet you," Mr. Saltzman said shaking her hand.
"Jeremy was just telling me about his paper. Thanks for giving him another chance."
It was obvious that those two were interested in each other, so after Mr. Saltzman returned to his table I turned to Jeremy and asked if he was ready to go home.
"Sure let's go. We've already finished anyway."
"What? You are leaving?" Jenna exclaimed looking extremely confused.
"We are leaving to give you a chance to have some alone time with "tall, smart and handsome"," I nonchalantly said and almost snickered when her eyes turned huge.
"What? Did I miss something?" Jeremy asked confused, but I just waved him off, saying that I would explain everything later.
"You mean to tell me that he's the one?" Jenna half whispered half screamed, leaning forward on her chair.
"Yep. You can imagine how surprised I was in the morning when my aunt's mysterious future boyfriend appeared to be my new history teacher. So I'm being the best niece in the world that I am and giving you the opportunity to further your conversation with him, without us ruining your mood" I said standing up and giving Jeremy the keys from my car. "Go wait in a car, I'll be in a sec."
He nodded and headed to the exit, giving our aunt a suggestive wink. I too didn't wait till she got her head together, smooched her on a cheek and went to the bar where I spotted two vampire brothers a while ago.
They were having some curious conversation, and I couldn't hold an amused snort seeing Stefan's desperate attempts to make Damon talk about his plans. Damon looked quite moody for some reason trying to drown himself in a bottle of bourbon. I waited till he pored himself another glass and snatched it right out of his hands before downing it in one go doing my best to ignore his irritated glance.
"Hey you two. Thanks for a drink Damon, you are always somewhere near when I need one."
"It wasn't meant for you, witchy," he rolled his eyes snatching back an empty glass from my grasp.
"So Stefan, any progress?"
"Hello to you too Thalia. And I have no idea what you are talking about," Stefan answered trying hard to look oblivious, even though all three of us knew what I meant. So I decided to leave him be and turned to Damon once again.
"I wanted to talk to you, Lestat. You have a minute?"
"Nah, I'm busy bonding with my baby brother, so you'll need to return sometime later," he said dismissively, pouring himself another glass only for it to be snatched again and drank by me to his endless annoyance.
"Okay then, I'll hold you to that. It's quite important so I hope you'll contact me as soon as you are free." I tried to show him that I was serious but he just waved me away.
"Yeah yeah, see you around, witchy."
I stuck my tongue out at him childishly then gave Stefan a nod and left the diner.
Jeremy was already in a car when I joined him, listening to "In the end" by Black Veil Brides one of our favorite rock bands. I gave him a smile and was about to start the car when I remembered that I wanted to ask him something.
"Hey, how are things with Emily going?" I asked turning volume down a little bit so we could hear each other without yelling.
"We, uh, we broke up. Back when you were in Atlanta actually."
I wasn't surprised by his answer just sad and bitter. The only positive thing was that he didn't sound hurt or depressed either, just... relived I guess.
"Jeremy, I'm so sorry. For ever introducing you to that person. I just wanted..."
"Hey, don't say that. You have nothing to feel sorry for. You didn't make me ask her out or something, it was my decision. I know you just wanted to distract me from all the bullshit that was going on back then, but you couldn't have possibly known that everything would've ended up this way." He looked so mature at the moment so I couldn't help myself and pulled him into a strong hug, not noticing that it was quite an uncomfortable thing to do in a car.
"Oh, my baby brother is all grown up now," I cooed, rubbing his back gently. You would've thought that being a teenager that he was he would break the hug not wanting someone to mother him, and he would have, usually, but never with me, not after having been teaching me to accept hugs or any other shows of affection for almost all of our our childhood. "But jokes aside, I'm so proud of you, Jer. You were in your first real relationship, which our mom would've killed for a chance to observe and chase you and your girlfriend around with a camera for some photos to put in your album." His whole body started shaking from a holding laughter, probably imagining the scene, as it was a 100% what our mom would've done, and she actually did a few times for Elena and Matt when they started dating, which was hilarious. "I'm sorry that you had to go through a break up, but at the same time I'm proud of how you are holding yourself. I'm sure you'll meet someone soon and your first relationship no matter how short it was would become something to look back at and remember how not to behave in a new one."
We sat like that for a while, listening to a raspy ass voice of the Black Veil Bride's lead vocalist Andy Biersack. The song ended and suddenly the car filled with Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" and we broke our hug, sitting back in our seats, howling with laughter.
"Really Thalia?" he asked wiping away the tears.
"Sorry it's just my playlist. One minute you are crying and next..."
"... this?" he asked, completing my sentence and we started laughing again.
I started the car and Jeremy turned up the volume, so our drive home went in singing our asses out to a song of all times, so much so that we couldn't even hear Miley's voice behind our howls. We didn't really care anyway.
I stopped the car in front of our house and as soon as we got out, I felt that something was wrong. Jeremy walked pass me still humming to the song, but I grabbed his hand making him stop and look at me. When he saw the expression on my face he immediately sobered up and tensed, his eyes becoming hard and determined. He silently opened his backpack and started pulling out a wooden stake, which he started carrying around after what happened with Vicki, but I stopped his hand and shook my head in no. He looked confused for a second but obliged, putting it back and staying behind me as we slowly approached the front door. Somehow I was sure that it wasn't a vampire problem this time. We reached the door and I made him stand aside so he wouldn't be seen from the doorframe and went to open the door, only to freeze halfway through when it flung open from the other side.
"Bonnie?" I asked confused, seeing my disheveled looking friend, but felt that something was completely wrong. I saw frightened looking Elena and Caroline at the top of the stairs, but didn't spare them another glance, grabbing Bonnie's hand instead. The second our skin touched I knew that whoever that was in front of me, it wasn't Bonnie. "You are not Bonnie, are you... Emily?"
I didn't have time to do anything else as she instantly sent me flying down the driveway. I hit the ground pretty hard, air leaving my lungs from the impact. When I came back to my senses, surrounded by horrified looking Caroline, Elena and Jeremy, she was already gone.
"Where's she?" I managed to breath out, still slightly out of breath, trying to ignore the blood slipping down the back of my neck from the wound on my head. "Where did she go?"
"Thalia, oh my God, are you okay?" Elena gently helped me up trying not to touch anything.
"I'm so sorry, she was so fast, I couldn't do a thing," Jeremy started apologizing profusely, clearly angry and disappointed with himself.
"One second she was there, the next she was gone. I have no idea where she'd disappeared to," Caroline said quickly, finally answering my question.
"I'm okay guys, calm down. I'm going after her, who knows what she'll do while possessing Bonnie's body. And Jeremy you don't need to worry, we couldn't have known that we'd be attacked by a friend, you couldn't exactly do anything in this situation. You all go wait inside, I'll be right back."
"What do you mean? You need to go to the hospital you may have a concussion," Elena exclaimed, when I made an attempt to walk away.
"And what do you mean go inside, I'm coming with you," Jeremy said indignantly and walked to stand right beside me showing with his posture that he would be left behind only over his dead body.
"We all are," Caroline added more calmly. "She's our friend."
I sighed and waved my hand to the still open door closing it with a click and turned to look at my companions trying not to point out the fact that they've all just jumped from a sudden noise.
"Okay, you can go. But you'll do exactly what I tell you, understand?" They all nodded in agreement. "Did she say anything before running away?"
"She said "I won't let him have it. It must be destroyed." And then she just left."
"Do we even know where to find her?" Jeremy asked, before pulling a handkerchief out of his backpack and giving it to me. "Here, it's clean."
"Yes, she's at the old Fell's church," I answered wiping away the blood from my neck, gestured them to follow me and we all took off.
"But isn't it in the opposite direction?" Caroline asked confusedly slightly out of breath, when she realized in what direction we were heading.
"I know the shortcut."
They didn't ask any more questions, knowing full well that I knew that forest like the back of my own hand. I heard Elena calling Stefan but didn't do anything to stop her. It took us 10 minutes to reach the place. Bonnie/Emily was already there, drawing something on the ground with a stick, and soon we found out that Damon was there too. We heard some noises but couldn't quite pinpoint the location for a few moments, until I decided to look up. He was impaled on a huge stick, struggling to come off, blood pouring out of his mouth because of a punctured lung. The girls gasped in horror following my gaze up and spotting the vampire-kebab. I took pity on him and pulled him off with my magic, ignoring the sound with which he hit the ground and turned to look at the crazy witch, trying to figure out what in the world she was going to do. Everything seemed so illogical, that I was getting angrier with every second. Second later Stefan appeared out of nowhere and helped his brother to his feet, while my companions remained silent, standing a little behind me, not quite knowing what to do.
"It hurts. This is why I feed on people," Damon grunted trying to steady himself, but wasn't doing that good of a job.
"Stefan," Emily spoke for the first time since we all arrived, reacting to the only person she knew personally.
"Hello Emily," he greeted back cautiously, not really knowing what to expect from her.
"These people don't deserve this. They should never have to know such evil." Her voice sent chills down my body, as it didn't match the body of my best friend it was coming out from, but aside from that I was just becoming more confused.
"You are speaking nonsense, old witch. The fact that you destroy the crystal won't change anything," I stated, irritated, attracting her attention to myself. "I thought you were trying to fix your own mistake by contacting your descendant, but you are dumber than I thought. And they call you one of the strongest Bennet witches in history. I always knew that strong doesn't always mean smart."
"I'm protecting this town from the evil that is kept under this church, young one. I don't expect you to understand." She replied making me huff. She didn't understand a thing that I've just said.
"What do you mean evil?" Stefan asked, glancing suspiciously at his brother.
"Emily, I swear to God, I will make you regret this," Damon grunted, his wound now almost healed.
"I won't let you to unleash them into this world," she repeated, sounding like a broken record, and I had to try really hard to prevent myself from facepalming.
"Them? What part of the story did you leave out, Damon?" Stefan was finally putting pieces together and by the look on his face he wasn't liking the final picture.
"What does it matter?"
"Emily, tell me what you did?" Stefan demanded, dreading the answer.
"To save her, I had to save them," she simply said.
"You saved everyone in the church?" he asked horrified and I heard Elena and Caroline gasping beside me when they realized what he was implying.
"With one comes all."
"I don't care about them, I just want Kathrine," Damon stated and somehow I felt for him at that moment. He's been waiting for this moment for 145 years and now everything was crashing right before his eyes.
"I knew I shouldn't have believed a single word that comes out of your mouth," Stefan stated with a disappointed look on his face making me wonder where he was getting with that. "This isn't about love, is it? It's about revenge!"
"I don't care about them, they all can burn for that matter. I... just... want... Kathrine." Damon looked right into his brother's eyes shaking off his hands from his body. It was curious how Stefan always thought only worse of his brother. While I saw his desperate attempts to reunite with the woman that he loved, Stefan saw completely different things. But those were their issues that they should discuss with a family therapist, I had much more serious things to worry about.
"Damon you can't do this. You can't just bring back 27 vengeful vampires, they will want revenge on this town and you know that."
"Some of them very well deserve it," Damon finally snapped back.
"You are blaming innocent people for something that happened 145 years ago."
"I don't blame anyone, but you are wrong, not all of them are innocent. They already know too much, and they'll burn your little grandwitch right next to us, when they'll find out. Trust me," he said to Emily, and I can't say that I wasn't agree with him. If the Council finds out about the existence of witches... I didn't even want to think about what would happen then.
"Things are different now," Emily said throwing her stick away, whatever she was drawing now finished.
"No they are not and you are even a bigger fool than I thought," I said making them all turn to me and started chanting raising my hands, palms in her direction.
"What are you doing? I don't know that spell..." she started saying then froze, finally feeling herself being pushed out of Bonnie's body. Bonnie wasn't the first possessed witch that my family had to deal with after all. Possession was one of the things that happened regularly with those who performed ancestral magic. There was always a price for it. "No, I can't let this happen. I can't free them," she exclaimed out of her breath and fell on her knees with a groan.
I didn't react and just continued chanting, but she managed to gather herself together enough to finish whatever she was going to do.
"Insendia," she breathed out and what I recognized as a pentagram she craved around her, suddenly was set ablaze, creating a wall of fire between us.
I raised my voice, strongly pronouncing every word and the space around reacted, strong wind started blowing out of nowhere making the fire go wild. Bonnie/Emily writhed in pain, her back arching, her head tilting back in a silent scream. I raised my voice again, practically shouting the last few words of a spell. I heard my friends screaming something, but I didn't pay any attention to them, too focused on completing the spell, but before I was able to finish, Emily suddenly threw the crystal that she was holding all this time in the air, making it explode with the last word of my spell.
Fire died down, wind was gone completely, eerie silence filled the meadow. Bonnie's body was lying still on the ground, and I was about to rush to her side when I felt Damon tensing beside me, practically vibrating with rage. I didn't know for sure what he was about to do, but I could guess, so I didn't give him the opportunity to do something stupid and sent him flying into a tree that he was hanging on not so while ago. He hit it with a thud, breaking the unnatural silence and attracting everyone's attention.
"Guys, go check on Bonnie. Don't worry she's not possessed anymore." It was the only thing that Elena and Caroline needed, as they didn't wait even a second and went rushing to our friend, trying to wake her up, worry filling their voices. I turned to the vampire that was struggling to break free from my hold and approached him with a tired sigh. "Calm down Damon, before you did something that you would certainly regret in the future. You know that this is not Bonnie's fault." He started slowly calming down, but his rage slowly turned into despair, making me wince at the sheer power of the emotion that was coming off his body.
"It's gone," he numbly said, his eyes fixed on Bonnie's laying frame.
"You should've told me that you came here to rescue your girl from the tomb. Things would've been much easier then."
"Why does it matter. You would've done the same thing as the traitor Emily did. All the witches are the same."
"Ouch, that one hurt!" I huffed, annoyed by being compared. "It matters, because I would've told you that I was planning to open that tomb anyway."
That had got his attention instantly, his eyes darting to my face for the first time since our conversation started, and not only his attention as I felt that Stefan and Jeremy that still were standing nearby turned to look at me like I was insane.
"What? No no no, you can't do that," Stefan exclaimed suddenly appearing right next to me in a vampire speed.
"Not that I have any doubts in your actions sis, but did you just say that you are going to let out 27 crazy vampires that hate this town?" Jeremy asked hesitantly and I rolled my eyes at his choice of words. At this moment we all heard Bonnie's freaked out voice and turned in their direction to see her standing up with the help of Care and Elena. They started talking to her in hushed voices, trying to calm her down so I sighed relieved that she was okay and returned my attention to Damon, whose gaze was starting to burn my face at this point.
"If this is some kind of a trick, I swear..." he hissed, obviously not believing me in the slightest.
"Relax, Dracula. I'm not playing any tricks, I'm going to do exactly what I said I would," I rolled my eyes at him and finally let him go. He took a step forward straightening his jacket and opened his mouth to speak again but I didn't give him the opportunity. "I've found and examined this place a few years ago, so I already knew about the mummified vamps down there. But the problem is that Emily made a huge mistake."
I was interrupted when the girls decided to join us and heard the ending of my little speech.
"I remember everything that was going on when she was in my body," a slightly disheveled looking Bonnie said in a weak voice. "What kind of mistake are you talking about?"
"The seal that she used was a mistake," I simply replied making them all give me confused glances. "At first, when you said that she was hunting you, I assumed that maybe she was trying to warn you about the seal and ask you to do something about it, but then again, the comet already passed so she appeared a little too late for that conclusion to bear any logic."
"What are you talking about, witchy? What the comet has to do with all this?" Damon asked, irritated.
"Everything. It has everything to do with this. She used the comet to power the seal 145 years ago by using a very particular spell, which needed to be recharged again for the seal to remain strong. You can't just put your magic in a bunch of rocks and expect it to remain there forever, magic doesn't work like that, it would fade away eventually. But the comet passed and nothing was done, even though I thought that maybe Sheila would perform a ritual and recharge it, but she never did. That's when I started getting worried. Without being recharged the seal will get weaker and weaker, until it fades away completely. So I wasn't going to let them all walk out of there when some unfortunate hiker stumbles upon them, becoming their much needed breakfast. I decided to wait until the seal was weak enough for me to break, then go down there and burn them all to a crisp."
Their shocked faces were the only reaction that I got. Then I noticed some of the faces starting to fill with horror, when they realized that all this time they were living on a time bomb that could explode any moment.
"But the crystal... it was needed to open the tomb," Damon murmured, his eyes unfocused.
"I'm telling you, Emily got it all wrong. I don't know what she assumed the crystal was needed for, but it's definitely not for that. Maybe in the original ritual it was needed to recharge the seal or something, I need to see her grimoire to tell for sure."
"You are saying that all this time, they were down there and now they can just pop up any time and go on a killing spree?" Caroline whispered, completely horrified by that revelation. Elena, Bonnie and Jeremy didn't look much better.
"All I have to do is wait then," Damon finally said, hope shining in his eyes. "Not that I haven't done this before."
"It can take a few more years for the magic to fade away completely, but you are right. You can rescue your damsel, but with one condition," I looked at him seriously and he sobered up, preparing himself for whatever I would demand from him. "She was down there for a century and a half, but there's a possibility that she might've already lost all her marbles, so you can have her... if you promise to take her and leave this town and it's people alone forever. I don't care how big of a grudge she has on founding families and this town, but what's done is done. The people that tried to burn her are long dead, so if she tries to hurt anyone in this town I will hunt her down and tear her to shreds, do you understand me, Damon?"
"I... understand. That won't be a problem, I've been planning to take her on a world tour anyway," he said with that little signature smirk of his back on his face.
"Give me your word, that you'll take her away and keep her away from this town and these people for however long you'll live." I was dead serious and he saw that.
"You have my word." I looked at him for a moment and nodded, feeling that he was sincere.
"Good. Because if you fail to keep it, I'll kill you too."