Time hardly pass when one soul lies anxious whitin cold and darkness, right in the middle of a storm's eye, when silence and stillness are about to break into hollowing wind and killer pouring clouds.
Mystic Falls Highschool prepared for its anual dance party of the decade, completely oblivious to some of the students' fearful hearts. Everyone went on with their lives as if the past months suddenly never happened. Why remember all the horros Caroline suffered when she seems fine, leading the ball commitee? Why check on Elena, even if she missed for days and is still not properly recovered for her parent's deaths when she makes out with Stefan in the hallway? Why question Bonnie's piles of old books and ancient drawings when she is quiet about it?
There was no sign an evil creature lurk around the corner, waiting for the perfect time to strike and sacriffice the beloved doppleganger. Well, except for his brother's warnings. And yet, the friends decided he cannot be trusted enough.
It could be because of Celia, but the secret siphoner likes to pin it on Damon's skepticism as well. Right after the withc returned from her educational encounter with the noble original, she told her friends everything.
"Siblings?"
"That's what I said."
"And this Elijah guy wants to help us kill his brother? Seems fake to me." Damon commented. Hating to agree with him, Stefan couldn't help himself this time and in no time, the teens made an enemy not only from Klaus, but from his entire family.
After the emergency meeting ended, Caroline asked her sister what she thought of it all.
"Elijah is a man of his word, that much is obvious. But he will step back from it. Silblings fight all the time, sometimes go so far as to hate each other, but they always forgive each other. Especially after centuries of drama and hurt I can't even begin to imagine... and I have quite the imagination." The blonde vampire nodded, thinking of Celia's blood siblings she mentioned only once before, to say they're dead.
The youngest girl in the group saw the dance as a good stress relief. Everyone needed one and, frankly, they deserved it too. All of them. She stopped by at Jeremy's to practice their moves, Celia wanting to impress everyone with her dancing now that she was brave enough to be. When Elena stormed in, followed by the usual tail of people buzzing around her twenty four out of seven ever sincer the whole mess with the hybrid started, she knew the dance reharsal will have to wait.
"What's the matter?"
"Ric is missing and no one wants to look for him."
Alaric – Ric – Saltzman is the new history teacher that snaked his way in the midst of supernatural and crazy kids trying to survive it. He dated Elena's biological mom, Isobel, thus leading to her finding out she is adopted and her birth parents are Isobel and John Gilbert, her wrongfuly precieved uncle. And then he started dating Jenna, Jeremy's and the doppleganger's aunt, becoming part of the family.
"Elena, calm down. Sheriff Forbes is taking the case and Damon helps her. It will be fine."
"Damon helps her?" It was young Gilbert who asked the question his girlfriend only thought of. Stefan shook his head to confrim his previous words.
His sister sighs. She knows the older Salvatore brother cares about Liz, they are frirnds. But if there is anything the last year proved them is bigger, dangerous things than they cab phantom are out in the wide world and no one can possibly be prepared for them.
"Is Care with them too?"
"No," it was Stefan again who answerer Celia, acting as the rational, mature one. "She is still at school, decorating." Her sister noded, glad there were distractions for everyone from the real issue.
Do not assume she wishes to lose the upcoming battle. She, as everyone else, hopes for the best. Regardless, the witch believes the odds would look better and work in their favor if they have a calm mind and approach it without panick.
Little did she know, Alaric's dissappearance only meant the tip of a brand new fights. The history teacher has been taken with a purpose by witches hidded in plain sight in Mystic Falls. As the town's supernatural crew, teens and adults alike, focused solely on male strangers, looking for Klaus, his associates snuked in. They manage to abduct Ric and use him for something not even a Bennet witch could imagine magic can do. Old, sealed and forbiden spells.
So, very much oblivious to the higher plan of her enemy, Celia took Jeremy, Stefan and Elena to check on Caroline at the highschool. Entering the sport room, their eyes widened and mouth opened slightly, for it looked so good and last decade fashion style it was hard to recognize it at all.
"Wow! Great job, Care!" Elena hugged her friend, proud. The rest vigurously shook they heads, agreeing.
"Thank you, guys!"
Apart for them, there was only two more people in between those four walls: Matt Donovan, her ex and Tyler Lockwood, her boyfriend, who became really good and even closer friends than they were before. Not even Caroline felt awkward or wierd having both of them around.
Right then, Stefan's phone ringed. He picked up and, on the doppleganger request, put it on speaker.
"Hello, brother," Damon greeted, "I have bad news and good news. Which one should be first?"
Everyone tensed. All eyes were on the vampire on an animal diet, sucking in the air to not make a sound.
"Good news."
"We found Ric!" The older vampire exclaimed with what was supposed to be fake enthusiasm. Yet Celia knew how much he valued both the teacher and her mother and she could appreciate it, despite her own feelings for him – far from being even cordial.
"That's great!" Elena chimmed in.
"Yeah, we're all good, heading home as we speak."
"What are the bad news?"
"It is rumored that Klaus is in town."
It is hard to get dressed for a party when the clothes tightens around the throbbing ribcage, heart ponding with no control. If the gut growls, but not with hunger and with hectic feelings, dancing is a pain, like walking with wobbling legs on sharp, poisonous nails. And if sickness of the stomach sends its tips up the throat for nausea to settle in, then the whole night can be ruined.
This is how Elena was feelin that evening, before the school's decade dance. Her friends decided to lure Klaus in a trap and get him killed, therefore she had to go. They all do.
The plan seemed easy enough and they went over it a dozen times at least. Still, the anxious souls breath heavily under a mask of fake calmness. What they should do is: Damon and Alaric willl come as shaparones, Caroline and Stefan will guard Elena, Jeremy and Celia will look after a stranger face in the mob. Once Klaus is spotted and the brunette girl he wants to kill securred, they, armed with numerous stakes, finish the hybrid.
None thought of the possibilty of a great, intelligent mind hiding in the brain of an evil master of old ages. He knows things they don't. He builed so many plans so far, he can predict them all, yet his were impenetrable. He is one step ahead at least.
The siphoner sat in front of her mirror above the wooden desk in her bedroom. Her small, pale pink laptop was open, Keith's face as big on the screen as it allowed.
"Are you sure you are wearing that lipstick?"
"Yes, Keith, I am."
"No, no, it sounded like a question, but it was a sugestion clear and sound to please change it."
Celia playfully rolled her eyes at him, a little too long, a little dramatic. She and her friends from New York has been calling on video and talking ever since she left, as much and as many times a day they could. It wasn't like having each other close, but it felt like home still and they settled content with it.
"Oh, shut up!"
"I'm just saying, girl –" the vampire raised his hands in mock defence. His hair grew, thick and curly and kept falling over his right eye. "If you gonna blow the party, might as well do it properly."
The witch smiled, brushing a hand through her long, brown hair which she tried – and failed – to curl up. She should have sing that night, filling the gaps between songs on repeat on someone's laptop with her best melodies from the last decade. But since the whole think with the originals happened, she had to quite the fun and take responsabilty on watching the crowd from the stage.
"I won't blow anything tonight," her dissappointment filled voice ringed through and echoed in Keith's room miles away.
"What the hell do you mean? I hope you are not underestimanting yourself again, Cece!"
Celia sighed. She finished her hair and make-up and decided to tell her best friend what was going on in her life at the moment, before ending the call. Not that the afro-american wasn't aware of every aspect aleady. The siphoner simply forgot to mention the last threat coming over Mystic Falls.
"This is some crazy shit, Cece!" Keith esclaimed after hearing the short version of the last weeks. "Are you sure you want to get involved in this? Klaus Mikaelson is, like, a scary legend every vampire is afraid of. You should come back here, I'm sure Dylan, Lydia and I can pay for your plane and old Ruru would be happy to take you back in. Cooper misses you too, you know."
His words did not meant to cut deep in a sore, barely closed wound. And they didn't quite manage to do it as expected from Celia. She felt her hurt stunged by invisible needles, but she also felt the thrill of upcoming adrenaline building up in her veins. The girl longed for her perfect year in the big city, yarned to have that life back. But for the first time something interesting was happening in her small town home and it did not affect badly her sister. She wanted to stay and play the game initiated by Earth's oldest vampires.
"I miss you, guys! I do! So, so much, but I gotta stay here and help. Besides, it's an adventure and you know how much I want to live those."
It was Keith's turn to roll his eyes at his friend's antics. Before he could protest whatsoever, Celia clicked the button and closed the video call, rushing to get to school in time.
Meanwhile, Damon and Alric exit their cars and blend in between already drunk students, bad dance moves and punch spilled everywhere. "You think he'll come?" Ric asked skeptically.
Damon raised his black as a reven's feather eyebrows, gulped down a glass of the rosy liquid and after he grimaced at its taste said: "He better. I didn't agreee to spend a night surrounded by idiot teenagers for nothing."
"Do you think you have a chance against him?" Something in his friend's voice and the way he said you as if he wasn't part of them made the Salvatore to turn and stare at the history teacher. He seemed to search for something, but nothing was there. He looked for more than a second in his eyes, though, at some point in his close examination and thought he cought a glimpse of a glowing silver lining shining behind the black of his pupil.
Gone the second his own gaze moved away, Damon decide he must be worrier than he assumed. Or he finally begin to lose his minds, years after Stefan became a ripper. Maybe both.
"Something wrong?" Alaric snaped him out of his train of thoughts.
"No. Let's find Elena."
Once the two reached the doppleganger, Celia bursted in on the stage and started her show. Caroline led an oblivious Tyler on the dance floor while Stefan encourraged Elena to do the same and relax a bit. He swirll her away from his brother's jelous, loving glance, but failed to see another pair of eyes following them. The teacher stared at them, cautios to not attract unwanted attention.
"Everything is going to be fine."
"You don't know that, Stefan."
"True. What I know is how much fun yiu would have had at a '90's party."
"Really? Why?"
Leaving the couple alone to their love talk, Ric took his careful look from the doppleganger and moved it on the stage. A beautiful voice is why he titled his head from the happy pair. He watched surprised as Celia sanged a perfect copy of Amy Winehouse's Rehab. It's been a long while since he heard such talent: raw and unpolished, yet glimmering and stunning in every way known to man.
The teacher listened memserized and when he finally saw the source of that magical voice and how the siphoner danced magestically, several minutes passed untill he remembered he had a job to do tonight.
While his trance lasted, his eyes lit up and silver lines twirll in them, as though a different soul tried to break free from its body prison. It wasn't untill the song ended and Celia took a break when the man could finally fixate his glare on the doppleganger, eyeing Stefan with an impossible, unusual mix of regret and anger.
He tried to get to them, but the girl from the stage approached him. "Hey, mister Saltzman," (his unfortunate last name), "I saw you from the stage. I know you said no songs about drugs, violence or sex, but Amy Winehouse is a legend and this is one of my favourites up-bit songs. I doubt anyone would be influenced in the wrong way by it."
Then, she let out a soft, short, surprised chirp. The lights died out, floating the whole room into darkness. She struggled to see anything for the mere minutes it lasted, but in vain. When everyonr could see again, two people were not there anymore. Elena and Alaric.