CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

There isn't much left of the home that Jay knew. Sure, the house is still standing — mostly. The foundation is intact; they may even be able to rebuild it. But it's not the same. Everything is burned, charred black. Walking through the house, the rooms are almost unrecognizable. But then again, so is her life. Now the house looks on the outside how she feels on the inside.

Paul walks up beside Jay in what remains of her family's kitchen. She's staring into the living room directly attached, trying to imagine Jeremy playing video games on the couch. She remembers one time when Damon came over for dinner and was playing with him. She didn't know what he was then, but it still didn't seem likely that he played video games often. So she thought it was funny watching him beat her brother, who she could never win against.

The little brunette feels the warmth of Paul's skin as his arm brushes against hers, and she subconsciously leans into it. He looks down at her, and he can see pain on her face.

"The house was trashed before it was set on fire." She tells him. "Kol tried to kill Elena and cut off Jeremy's arm, so they killed him instead. They destroyed the door upstairs trying to give themselves time to come up with a better plan. He stabbed Elena, and she was stuck to the wall, and someone went through the banister. Kol died here." She points in front of them, and Paul looks down at the floor.

There's a spot that looks more charred than the rest. There was a fire, it was put out, and then the house went up in flames later.

"They had Klaus locked in that room for a couple of days." She motions to the room she was staring into before. "Where we used to watch tv, play video games, have dinner. We used to watch the news and make fun of my mom for her crappy taste in men — she dated the news anchor. To my knowledge, the only decent guy she ever dated was Ric."

"This is just a house, Jay." Paul says as he moves to stand in front of her. "The memories of your family aren't ruined by what those original jackasses did here, and your memories don't live in this house. This is just a building with walls and a roof; the memories live with you."

"And only me." She finally meets his gaze. "My family is dead."

"Not your entire family." He shakes his head. "I may not fully understand it, but those vampires are your family too. And so is Bella and Kim. I am your family, Jay, and you are never gonna be alone." He tells her, and she smiles as she remembers how Marie had said basically the same thing to her when Mystic Falls was flooded with ghosts.

"I think it's time to go." The little brunette says. "I don't know what I was hoping to gain exactly, but I don't think it worked."

"I think you were looking for closure, and it's gonna take some time." He motions for her to go ahead of him out of the house, and she leads the way.

"Hey." Bella and Jake look up as they walk down the steps of the front porch. "How... Yeah, I don't really know what I'm supposed to ask here." She admits.

"That makes two of us." Jay says as the wind suddenly picks up. "Damn." She mutters as she moves her hair out of her face.

The lights to every house on the entire street suddenly go out, and then the only thing providing any light is the moon above them. The gusts of wind keep getting stronger as it blows over trash cans and knocks down mailboxes, and the two shapeshifters help keep the girls steady.

"Something tells me that that's not normal." Jake says as he looks around.

"Something tells me that it's witch related." The youngest says. "Come on, we need to find one of my friends."

Jay gets Damon on the phone, and he starts explaining everything that he understands about what's currently going on.

"What the hell is an expression triangle?" The little brunette questions.

"Three hotspots where twelve people were murdered — each." He says. "She's charging each of the spots, making it so that she can drop the veil to the Other Side."

"Why the hell would she do that?" Her eyebrows furrow. "Last time the veil was down, we were almost killed by the tomb vampires. Frederick was a second from tearing Caroline's head off."

"It has something to do with Silas, I don't know exactly." He tells her. "The center of the triangle is at the high school. Stefan and I are headed there now, and he's talking to Caroline."

"Should we meet you there?"

"Are you armed?"

"Am I in Mystic Falls?" She asks, and he chuckles.

"Oh, I missed you, rugrat." Damon says, and then hangs up the phone.

"Turn here." Jay tells Paul, and his grip on the steering wheel tightens. Every instinct that he has is telling him to get her the hell out of this town, but he does as she told him instead.

They pull up outside of the high school, and Jay looks at the Salvatore brothers as she and her friends climb out of the car. "Are we sure this is a good idea?" Jake asks, not having to yell over the wind for Paul to hear him.

"No." The older boy answers.

"Where's Caroline?" Jay asks the brothers.

"Inside looking for Bonnie." Damon tells her. "I think we should split up. We'll cover more ground than if we all stay together."

"We're not splitting into a bunch of groups." She shakes her head. "Bella and Jake aren't going anywhere in this hell-hole alone."

"They can stay with Stefan. I'll stay with you and your angry wolf-boy."

"Can you play nice?" Jay asks as she looks up at Jacob, and he smiles sarcastically at her. "Be careful." She says as she looks between him and Bella.

"You too." The older girl says, and then the group splits in two.

While they're looking, Stefan calls Damon and tells him that they found Caroline, and he thinks that they're in the wrong place — sort of. They need to get down to the multitude of tunnels that run connected under the town.

"Where's the basement?" Damon asks as he looks at Jay; they're now walking through the hallways of Mystic Falls High School as well.

"Off the boiler room." She tells him, and then all of their footsteps falter when a familiar man suddenly appears in front of them.

"Miss me?" Frederick attacks Damon, sending him flying across the hallway, and the others hear cracks and pops before he hits the wall.

"Do you ever stay dead?" Jay questions when he turns toward her.

"You're that annoying little punk that kept me from killing the mayor last time." He says, and she nods.

"It was a fun fight. You here for a round two?"

"That's not gonna happen." Paul says, and she holds her hand back to keep him behind her.

"I'm gonna rip your throat out." Frederick says as he walks up in front of Jay. "With my teeth."

"Well, if you can do that..." The little brunette swings her fist and it connects with his torso, sending a stake into his abdomen. "Then I can do this." She says, and he groans as he doubles over in pain.

The ghost suddenly pulls the stake from his own body and shoves it into hers, and she gasps as she feels the sharp pain. "One down..." He shoves her back, and Paul catches her.

Damon barrels into him, having finally finished putting all of the broken bones back into place, and they start fighting. Paul's on the floor now with Jay in his arms, and he's leaning against the lockers. He's starting to panic as her blood coats his fingers.

"Just keep pressure until Damon kills him." The brunette says, followed by a groan. "Would you believe that this isn't the first time I've been stabbed?"

"That doesn't make me feel better." He tells her.

"I probably should've given you a crash course on Mystic Falls." She mutters. "This...is at least a weekly occurrence."

Frederick's about to pull Damon's heart from his chest when he suddenly gasps and then drops dead. The raven-haired vampire's eyebrows furrow as he looks up at his unlikely savior.

"So that's how that works." Logan Fell says as he drops Frederick's heart onto the ground. "How long does he stay dead now?"

"What the..." Jay stares confused, and then Damon's kneeling down beside them. He pulls the stake out, and she groans.

Damon then bites his wrist and holds it to her mouth. "Drink up, rugrat." He looks at Paul. "It'll heal her." He explains as he then glances over his shoulder.

Jay's on her feet soon enough, and she shows Paul the wound that's no longer there. "I'm fine, I promise." She tells him, and then looks at Logan. "You showed up to save us? Really?"

"Believe it or not, I did love your mother." The former anchorman tells her. "Even if you did once make fun of her for her poor choice in dating me."

"You heard that, huh?" She chuckles. "Sorry."

"You guys go." He motions for them to leave. "I'll keep him preoccupied." He says as he looks down at Frederick's lifeless body.

"Hey." Damon gets his attention. "Out of morbid curiosity — who killed you?"

"Your friend, Alaric." Logan tells him, and he chuckles.

"Gotta love the irony in that."

"Thank you, for this." Jay says, and Logan nods.

"Let's go." Damon pulls her with him, and Paul immediately follows.

It doesn't take long before Damon ends up on the phone with Matt, who tells him a few things that really piss him off. He starts pacing, and Jay makes him stop so that she can get some answers out of him. He lets out a frustrated sigh as he looks down at her.

"Caroline never left the grill, which means it's Silas with Stefan and your friends." The blue-eyed vampire says, and she nods as she thinks it over.

"That's not what pissed you off. What's going on?" She questions, but something behind her catches his attention.

"This is the end of the line for you and lover boy. You two are staying with Ric." Damon tells her, and she immediately spins around.

"Ric?"

"You know, I liked it better when you called me Dad." Alaric says, and she chuckles as tears fill her eyes. "Do I get a hug or what?" He asks, and she runs over to him.

Jay jumps, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso. He squeezes her, and she fights back tears as she hugs the man who was like a father to her.

"I missed you." Jay says, and he nods as he sets her back on her feet.

"I missed you too, kid."

"Stay with them. Protect her." Damon tells his best friend and then disappears.

"What did he just say?" Paul questions.

"Protect me from what?" Jay asks as she looks back up at the ghost that's standing beside her.

"From Kol." Ric tells her, and her dark eyes widen. "He wants revenge for his death. Jeremy's already dead, and the veil's only down inside the expression triangle. He can't go after Elena, so he wants to kill you."

"We're getting you the hell out of this town." Paul says, and Jay looks over at him.

"Your friend's right."

"O-Okay." The little brunette nods, and then Paul quickly calls Jacob.

Half an hour later, Paul's driving down the road with Jay beside him and Bella, Jacob, and Ric all in the backseat of the car. A man suddenly appears in the middle of the street, and there's no time for Paul to swerve. The car hits him, and they flip, rolling a few times, until the car lands upside down in the otherwise empty road.

Jay groans as she looks around, and then she sees legs walking toward them. Kol kneels down and smiles when he sees that she's awake. "Hello, old friend." He pulls the door off of its hinges and then pulls her from the car. "Sorry about your friends..." He looks at the car behind her as he holds her by her throat. "Guess it's just you and me now."

"Because your family hasn't done enough to mine." She tries to pull his hand from her neck.

"I don't care about our families history." He tells her. "I care what your brother did to me...and what I'm going to do to you."

He punches her in the side, and she groans as he lets her body fall to the ground. Then he kicks her, and she skids across the asphalt, scraping up her arm and tearing bits of her clothes. Jay starts coughing and blood spills into the street.

"Now this is what I've missed — two people connecting." Kol says as he looks down at her, then he kicks her again. "It's lonely on the other side." He kneels down as she coughs up more blood, clutching where he kicked her. "And I swear, being invisible will drive you mad. The way you couldn't see me standing in front of you, or feel my breath on your cheek as I whispered all the ways that I wished for you to suffer." He grabs her by her throat again and lifts her off of the ground. "But, alas, now you can."

"If you'd really been paying attention...you'd have seen my suffering." She barely manages, and then they hear the growling behind him.

Kol turns and sees the large, gray wolf that's snarling a few feet away. "I guess the fun's over."

In one fluid movement, Kol moves his hand, and Jay's head jerks to the side. Her body goes limp in an instant, and he lets her fall to the ground. Bella's scream rings through the air, and Jake pulls her back as he makes it out of the car. From the other side of the overturned vehicle, Ric launches himself at Kol, and they slam into a tree, causing a loud cracking noise.

Jake's back is against the car as he holds onto a sobbing Bella. The brunette's hand is over her mouth, and Jake is barely holding it together himself as they watch the gray wolf walk over to the motionless girl in the middle of the street.

"Oh my God." Jeremy's voice causes them both to look up. "What happens to a wolf when his imprint dies?"

"I... I have no idea." Jake shakes his head.

"And if she becomes a vampire?"

His eyebrows furrow as he looks up at him. "What?"

"This isn't my first stop tonight, I know that she has Damon's blood in her system." Jeremy says as he looks down at them. "That's how vampires like Damon are turned. Jay's gonna wake up in transition, and then she'll choose whether to turn into a vampire or let herself die."

Paul's whimpering as he nudges Jay with his nose, trying to wake her up. A noise ahead of him gets his attention and he growls as he looks up, finding two newcomers to the scene. The large, gray wolf steps over Jay, keeping her body hidden safely under him, and he growls at Damon and Marie. He doesn't want anyone going near her, he doesn't care who they are.

"Oh my God." The little witch's eyes widen as they stop walking. "Oh my God. Damon, tell me that she's not—"

"In transition." The vampire says as another wolf comes out of the woods then.

Jake's trying to explain to Paul what Jeremy told him — that Jay's not dead. Not entirely, at least. He'll have the chance to talk to her, that she gets to decide what happens next.