Jeremy's frantic voice echoed through the phone, a stark contrast to the silence that had followed Elena's disappearance. "Jeremy? What's going on?" Stefan asked, his voice tight with concern.
"Finally! Thank God you picked up. It's Elena. Something's wrong, I think. I was talking to her, and then I heard a grunt, and then nothing. Now I can't reach her. It's always busy..."
"Hey, hey, Jeremy, slow down. When was this?" Stefan asked, alarm bells ringing in his ears.
"I don't know, like 40 minutes ago."
"Alright, I'm sure she's fine, but I'll call you the second I find her." Stefan promised, ending the call.
He retraced Elena's steps, searching the path she would have taken from the Lockwood mansion. The abandoned phone, lying by the roadside, confirmed his worst fears. He called Bonnie and Caroline, but they hadn't seen her either. Desperate, he called Damon and Bella, knowing we were at the boarding house.
"This has Katherine written all over it," Stefan declared, his voice strained.
"Katherine's in the tomb. Trust me; I'm the one who shut her in," Damon retorted.
"Did you?" Stefan challenged, his suspicion evident.
Damon bristled. "Did I what, Stefan?"
"Well, I don't know, did you bring her someplace else to act out your revenge fantasies? Someplace she might have escaped?" Stefan suggested.
"She's in the tomb, period. End of story... but she did say something to me right before I shut her in. I thought she was lying."
"What did she say?"
"Elena's in danger." Damon spat out.
"What? And you didn't think you should ask her to elaborate?" Stefan asked incredulously.
Damon threw his hands up in exasperation. "Everything she says is a lie. How am I supposed to know if she's gonna start spouting out the truth?"
"We have to go talk to her," Stefan declared, causing a tightness to grip my throat.
I tried to speak, my voice barely a whisper. "You can't."
The brothers ignored me.
"No, no. Let me tell you how that's gonna go: We're gonna go ask her for help, she's gonna negotiate her release which we're gonna be dumb enough to give her and she's gonna get out and kill us! This is exactly what she wants!" Damon shouted, his frustration evident.
"I don't really care!" Stefan exclaimed, his concern for Elena overriding all else.
"Stefan, it's not an option," I tried again, my voice stronger this time.
But they were locked in their brotherly conflict. "It's a bad idea, Stefan."
"It's Elena."
"YOU CAN'T!" I screamed, finally capturing their attention. Both brothers turned to me, their expressions a mix of confusion and annoyance.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and explained, my voice trembling slightly. "I called Mason... Katherine is not going to tell you anything else... because she can't... Mason killed her last night."
The boarding house fell into a stunned silence. Damon and Stefan stared at me, their faces registering shock and disbelief.
Damon and Stefan made their way to the tomb, a sense of grim anticipation hanging in the air. They moved the heavy stone door, the stench of blood assaulting their senses. A low moan echoed from within.
"Katherine! Katherine!" Stefan shouted, his voice laced with a mixture of concern and revulsion.
A grimy hand emerged from the dirt, pulling a weakened and mangled Katherine closer to the entrance. Her body was a grotesque tableau of wounds, a testament to the savagery she'd endured. She was alive, barely.
"You're alive?" Damon observed, his voice laced with a morbid curiosity.
"No thanks to you," Katherine croaked, her voice raspy and weak. "You lied."
"What?"
"Mason. You never killed him!"
Damon smirked, a flicker of dark amusement in his eyes. "Oops, did I forget to mention that?"
Stefan stepped forward, his expression a mask of concern. "What happened to you?"
Katherine glared, her eyes burning with hatred. "A pissed-off werewolf came to visit me last night, no doubt on her orders," she hissed, her gaze fixed on Bella.
Damon and Stefan turned to me, their expressions demanding an explanation.
I refused to waver under their scrutiny. "What? The plan was to kill her. I never agreed to sticking her in here. She would have gotten out… sooner or later. It's what she does. She survives. Well, not this time. There is no cure for a werewolf bite, after all." I stated the last part with a clear sense of victory.
Stefan looked horrified, his usually gentle eyes filled with a chilling disapproval. "You sent Mason to maul her while she was trapped?"
I turned to Stefan, my voice devoid of remorse. "Don't look at me with those judgey little eyes, Stefan. I did what I had to do, and I make no apologies for it."
"And where does this leave Elena?" Stefan asked, his concern for his friend outweighing his shock at my actions.
Katherine smirked, a hint of cruel satisfaction in her eyes. "Oh, did trouble find her already? I tried to tell Damon, but he didn't want to listen."
Stefan turned back to Katherine, his voice pleading. "Please, Katherine, if you know something, tell us."
Katherine, ever the opportunist, saw a chance for leverage. "What's in it for me?"
I rolled my eyes, my patience wearing thin. "You have got to be kidding me."
"You're dying. What could you possibly want?" Damon asked, his voice laced with incredulity.
"Oh, I don't know, blood so I don't die looking like this? Out of this tomb so I can have a bath, enjoy my last few hours on earth. Is that so much to ask?"
I shook my head, my resolve firm. "No, no, and no. You are not getting out. We'll find Elena a different way." I turned and walked away, the brothers following close behind.
When they returned to the boarding house, Jeremy was waiting outside, his expression a mix of worry and frustration.
"Jeremy? What are you doing here?" Stefan asked, his concern evident.
"You never called me back, and side-note, someone want to tell me what the hell happened to my house?" Jeremy asked dryly.
"Long story..." Stefan replied.
"Yeah, I figured," Jeremy said, rolling his eyes.
Stefan called Bonnie, and using Jeremy's blood, they performed a locator spell, pinpointing Elena's location.
Upstairs, Damon and Bella were cleaning up in tense silence.
"Are you angry with me?" Bella asked, testing the waters.
"Nope... are you angry with me?" Damon countered.
"Disappointed, a little," Bella admitted.
Damon spun around, his expression questioning. "Why? Because I didn't stake Katherine?"
Bella shrugged, unable to articulate the exact source of her unease.
"I told you I wanted her to suffer like you had," Damon stated, his voice laced with a hint of defensiveness.
"That should have been my call," Bella retorted.
"Well, you made it your call anyway, didn't you?"
"So, you are mad," Bella concluded.
"Not mad, just stating facts."
Damon grabbed his gear and headed downstairs, ready to leave with Stefan.
Bella went downstairs to find Alaric packing his belongings, likely retrieving the weapons he'd lent out.
"You're not going with them?" Alaric asked, his brow furrowed.
"Pretty sure I'm not invited," Bella replied.
"What do you mean?"
"I orchestrated Katherine's painful death, of which she is still suffering through."
Alaric looked confused. "Wasn't that the point of last night?"
"Thank you! I guess Stefan and Damon don't see it that way."
"I'm sorry," he said, his expression sympathetic.
Bella shrugged. "It's alright. Are you hungry? I could eat, and I don't feel like being alone."
"Uh, yeah, sure, but just to clarify, when you say you could eat, you mean..."
"People food, not food as people," Bella clarified, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Great, let's go."
Meanwhile, Stefan and Damon were in the car, heading towards Elena's location.
"Alaric sure likes his weapons," Damon remarked, eyeing a strange device. "What the hell is that?"
Stefan studied it. "I don't know, a vervain bomb or a grenade launcher or something like that."
"Weird."
"Hey, how much further is it?" Stefan asked, eager to reach Elena.
"About 80 miles."
"We gonna talk about what Bella did?" Stefan asked, his voice laced with disapproval.
"What's done is done, Stef. Can't saw sawdust." Damon wasn't interested in rehashing the events.
"Well, thanks for helping me rescue Elena, even if it is just to avoid talking to your wife."
"Not avoiding anything, and can we not do the whole road trip bonding thing? The cliché of it all makes me itch."
Stefan wasn't convinced. "Oh, come on, Damon. We both know that you being in this car has absolutely nothing to do with me anyway."
"The elephant in the room lets out a mighty roar."
"Well, it doesn't have to be an elephant. Let's talk about it," Stefan 1 suggested.
"Keep it up, Stefan. I can step out of helping as easily as I stepped in."
Stefan, sensing Damon's stubbornness, decided to remain silent for the time being.