22. The Walking Dead

"Stamp please" Caroline told Kaitlynn, as her, Kaitlynn and Fae sat outside the Grill, writing their graduation invites.

"Here" Kaitlynn said, handing Caroline a stamp.

"Thanks" Caroline said, taking the stamp from Kaitlynn's hand and sticking it on her invitation, she then looked at her two best friends, only to see both of them done, "You two are done? I'm only on my second batch".

"The only family I have is my sister, and something tells me she doesn't want to come so I'm not bothering inviting her" Kaitlynn stated.

"And I have no family to invite" Fae said, "Whoever I have, is already here with me".

"Kaitlynn" Elena called out, walking over to the three friends, "Do you know where Katherine is?".

Kaitlynn rolled her eyes at Elena, Stefan had informed the three best friends that after turning her humanity back on, Elena has become obsessed with finding Katherine and then killing her for what she did to Jeremy, "Trust me Elena, if I knew, I still wouldn't tell you" she said.

"Why the hell not?" a furious Elena asked.

"Because you're obsessing over someone who can very easily rip you limb from limb" Kaitlynn stated.

"Kaitlynn, listen to me, if you know where Katherine is, then you have to tell me" Elena snapped.

Kaitlynn stood up and glared at Elena, "Why?" she asked, "So you can kill her?".

"Your sister ruined my life Kaitlynn, I'm not going to stop until I ruin hers" Elena said.

"Be careful Elena, because Katherine might end up ruining you before you ruin her" Kaitlynn warned, walking away from Elena.

Both Caroline and Fae looked at Elena then each other, both wondering what new problem Elena's obsession with killing Katherine was going to lead them to.

***

After receiving a call from Brayden, Stefan entered the hospital and was immediately confused seeing a room sealed off and police officers everywhere.

"You just missed the doughnuts".

Stefan turned around and saw both his older brothers standing near the reception.

"Yeah, I was with Fae informing her about Elena's new obsession" Stefan informed.

"Right" Brayden remembered, "You know Stefan, I think it's time you finally admit Elena to a mental asylum, the doppelganger has officially lost her mind if she thinks she can take Katherine on, I mean the three of us together couldn't even kill Katherine, and she thinks a newbie vampire like her will? Sounds to me like crazy talk".

"Agreed" Damon said, nodding his head at Brayden's words.

"Hey guys, thanks for coming" Liz greeted, walking over to the three brothers before Stefan could say anything to his brothers.

"Hey" Stefan greeted.

"Why were we invited?" a confused Damon asked.

"Is everything okay?" a concerned Brayden asked.

"Well, the hospital's kept the blood banks empty ever since they were raided last month" Liz informed, "We thought at the very least it would help keep the vampire population away".

"And it didn't?" Stefan asked.

"See for yourself" Liz said, leading the three brothers towards the sealed room.

Entering the room the brothers were shocked seeing the patients wrists cut and blood spilling down the floor.

"Woah" Damon said, the brothers never having seen a sight like this before.

"There were four other victims in this wing, each one almost completely drained of blood" Liz informed, "You think it's Silas?".

"Or a doctor with very questionable bedside manners" Damon said.

"But five victims?" a confused Liz asked, "That's a lot of blood, and it's not like he can take it with him".

"Unless he's fueling up for something big" Stefan said, as realisation drew on all three brothers.

"Big?" Liz asked, "Any details would be helpful, considering I'm dealing with five grieving families out there and a psychic killer on the loose".

"By something big, Stefan is talking about the fact that ever since Silas has risen from his two thousand year old sleep, he's been trying to get Bonnie to drop the veil of the other side" Brayden informed.

"I have no idea what that means" Liz admitted.

"It's an invisible wall that separates our plane from the plane of all dead supernatural creatures" Damon explained, "Now, Silas wants that to go away so he can take the cure, die and not have to spend an eternity in a supernatural purgatory".

"And when do you suppose Silas plans on doing this?" a shocked Liz asked.

"The next full moon" Brayden informed, "Which if you didn't know, is tomorrow night".

***

After the power went off at the Grill, Caroline, Fae and Kaitlynn stepped outside to see what was going on only to realise that the power was out everywhere in Mystic Falls.

"There's no power anywhere!" Kaitlynn yelled over the wind storm.

"I'll call my mom, maybe she knows what's going on!" Caroline yelled, taking her phone out of her pocket and walking back into the Grill to talk to her mom.

Fae looked at the weather, "She's started" she whispered

"What?!" Kaitlynn asked, not having heard what Fae said.

"This is because of Bonnie, Kait!" Fae yelled over the storm, "She has started the spell!".

***

"The power outages originated at three different places in town" Liz informed the three brothers, as all four of them hovered over a map of Mystic Falls, "The young farm, the Lockwood estate, and a blown transformer off old miller road".

"These are the locations of the Silas massacres" Stefan realised, connecting all the dots, "It's the expression triangle, Bonnie must be doing the spell".

"So she doesn't need the full moon after all" Brayden realised, "She just said that to trick Silas".

"There's something else, one of the power company guy has a daughter who goes to school with Bonnie" Liz said, "He saw her leaving the young farm an hour ago, with Elena".

"But the girls are with Elena" a confused Stefan said.

"Looks like Bonnie Bennett has a new doppelganger friend" Damon realised.

"Katherine" Brayden whispered, "Bonnie isn't with Elena, she's with Katherine".

"So how do we find them?" a confused Liz asked.

"Well they must be somewhere in the triangle" Stefan said, "My guess is they'd be right in the middle".

"And where exactly might that be?" Damon asked.

"The school" Brayden replied, looking down at the map of Mystic Falls.

***

Damon drove himself and his brothers to Mystic Falls High, as they stepped out the car, they saw Elena walking over to them.

"Where the hell is Caroline?" Brayden asked, knowing Caroline had come here while Fae and Kaitlynn stayed at the Grill, with Fae going through her grimoires hoping to find a way in which she can stop the veil from dropping.

"Inside looking for Bonnie!" Elena informed over the windy storm, "I think we should split up, Brayden and I can look outside, while you guys and Caroline look inside".

"Absolutely not!" Brayden protested, but both his brothers ignored him and started walking towards the school, knowing if they gave Brayden a chance to start then he will not stop complaining and insulting Elena, "Hey dickheads!".

"Bye, Bray!" Damon waved, walking inside the school with Stefan.

"These are the times in my life I wish I was an only child" Brayden mumbled, just as he was about to walk away to look for Bonnie, Elena grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"Where's Katherine?" Elena asked.

"Are you insane?!" Brayden asked Elena.

"You know, don't you?" Elena asked.

"Yes, I do know" Brayden informed, "But guess what, you're not finding out, and honestly pick your battles correctly Elena, do you not see world ending shit happening right now?".

"Tell me that you don't want her dead, after everything that she did to you and your brothers" Elena snapped, "Stringing your brothers along for hundreds of years".

"No one in this world can hate Katherine more then me" Brayden snapped, "But right now, I can't think about her, I have to find Bonnie, so move it".

Brayden tried to walk away, but Elena blocked his way, "I don't care about finding Bonnie, I care about killing Katherine" she stated.

"Fine, let's do this the hard way then" an annoyed Brayden said, causing Elena to look at him in confusion, Brayden then grabbed Elena by her throat, shocking her, but even if she used her vampire strength she couldn't get out of Brayden's grip, he was too strong, "Let's get one thing straight Elena, I am not Stefan, you can't boss me around, I will never listen to you and your stupid demands, now, I've said it once already, but looks like you didn't hear me, so let me say it again, I'm going to go find Bonnie, not Katherine, you want to kill Katherine? Go find her yourself, stop being a desperate bitch and asking other people".

Brayden threw Elena on to the floor and then walked away from her, leaving the coughing doppelganger on the ground.

***

"Bonnie is in the tunnels?" Brayden asked, entering the school with Elena right behind him, while on the phone with Stefan.

"We checked everywhere else, the place we haven't checked is the tunnels right underneath the school" Stefan said.

"Okay, meet me at the basement, I'm pretty sure there's entrance to the tunnels there" Brayden said.

"Where's the basement?" Stefan asked.

"The boiler room" Elena informed.

"Hear the voice of the useless one?" Brayden asked.

Stefan rolled his eyes at his brother, "I heard, me, Damon and Caroline will meet you there" he said, hanging up on his brother.

After Stefan hanged up the phone, Brayden stepped infront of Elena.

"What?" a confused Elena asked.

"You're not coming with me" Brayden stated.

"Are you kidding me?" a furious Elena asked.

"No, I'm not kidding you, Elena" Brayden snapped, "Right now, our priority is to stop Bonnie from doing this damn spell, but you have a tendency to screw things up, so just stay here and stay put".

"Is that really the reason?" Elena asked, glaring at the middle Salvatore.

Brayden sighed, "Elena, listen to me, behind all this rage that you have for Katherine, is the tidal wave of feelings that you've been avoiding, there's the grief, the guilt, and once you kill Katherine all of those emotions that you've been avoiding are going to rush right in and once again all of us are going to have to go on the roller-coaster ride that is Elena Gilbert's recovery, and frankly I'm just too damn tired of the same damn routine everytime you screw up".

"What if I can handle it?" Elena asked, "What if killing Katherine takes away all that grief and guilt? What if killing Katherine finally lets me feel all the good things that I've lost? Brayden, help me, as soon as I get over this hurdle, I'll be me, I'll be able to think clearly, I'll be myself and everything will go back to normal".

"Your normal is a baby vampire who commits genocide, frankly I'd rather you not go back to normal" Brayden taunted, "And about killing Katherine, you need to forget it, she's much more older than you Elena, much more stronger and craftier, you stand no chance against her, she will kill you without a second thought".

Brayden turned to leave but before he could, Elena ended up staking him in the back, causing him to groan in pain and fall to the ground.

"At least I'll die trying" Elena stated, before speeding away from Brayden.

***

Brayden laid on the floor, groaning in pain while trying to reach the stake Elena had lodged into his back.

"Need a hand?".

Brayden looked up and was shocked seeing the person infront of him, "Ric?".

Alaric bent down and pulled the stake out of Brayden's back, making him yell in pain.

Brayden looked at Alaric after the pain had gone, "So either something really good has happened or something really bad has happened".

"It's good to see you too, Bray" Alaric said.

"I'd say the same thing to you but I'm not sure you really are who you say you are" a confused Brayden said.

"You think I'm Silas?" Alaric asked, "Are you kidding me?".

Alaric gave Brayden a hand and helped him stand up, "You're saying the exact same thing Silas would say" Brayden retorted.

Alaric walked over to locker forty two and opened it up and took out a bottle of bourbon, a bottle of bourbon only Damon, Brayden and Alaric knew was there.

"Now, would Silas know about locker 42?" Alaric asked, showing Brayden the bottle of bourbon.

Brayden started at Alaric for a moment, the next moment he started laughing in relief and pulled Alaric into a hug, glad to see the history teacher again.

"Wait" Brayden said, breaking the hug as realisation suddenly drew on him, "If I can see, hear and touch you, that means Bonnie did the spell, she dropped the freaking veil".

"Well, not completely, it's only down inside the expression triangle" Alaric informed, "If I step outside of it, it's back to ghost world".

"Then where are all the ghosts?" a confused Brayden asked, "Shouldn't Mystic Falls be turned into a ghost town by now?".

"Not every ghost has a reason to come back to Mystic Falls" Alaric said, "Just the ones like me looking after their idiot best friends".

"And as much as I appericate that, I can't help but be worried about the ghosts who've come back for their enemies" a concerned Brayden said.

***

"What?!" a shocked Brayden asked, currently on the phone with Kaitlynn.

"Caroline has been at the Grill this whole time, me and Fae found her in the back cutting herself, I'm trying to get her to snap out of it but Silas is deep in her head" Kaitlynn said, "And if Caroline is with us, that means the Caroline with you guys, isn't Caroline, it's Silas".

"Dammit" a frustrated Brayden whispered, as he and Alaric walked down to the boiler room, "Kaitlynn, do whatever you have to do, but stop Caroline from hurting herself, I'll be there as soon as I can".

"Don't worry about Caroline, I got her, what you need to be worrying about is Kol" Kaitlynn said.

"Kol?" a confused Brayden asked, "Where did Kol come in this?".

"Kol came here looking for Elena" Kaitlynn informed, "He is majorly pissed off and out for her blood".

"Yeah well can you blame him?" Brayden asked.

Kaitlynn sighed, "Just watch your back, okay?" she said, "And inform the others, also Fae is on her way to you guys, she thinks she knows how to stop Silas".

"Got it, you take care of Caroline, I'll take care of everything here" Brayden said.

"Sounds like a plan" Kaitlynn said.

After hanging up on Kaitlynn, Brayden turned to Alaric and gave his phone to him, "Call Stefan and inform him about Caroline and if you want to keep Elena safe, then tell him about Elena as well, he's the only one who will care enough to go save Elena from Kol".

Alaric nodded his head, and while Brayden went into the tunnels, Alaric called Stefan.

***

"Damon!" Brayden yelled, finally having found his brother in the tunnels.

"Finally, what took you so long?" Damon asked.

"Long story" Brayden said, as the two brothers heard more footsteps coming there way.

"Woah" Alaric said, just as the twins were about to attack him, "It's just me, I called Stefan, he's heading for Elena, did you find Silas?".

Brayden smirked, "Yes, I did" he said, punching Alaric in the face, the impact of his punch causing him to fall to the ground, Brayden ripped the metal chains from the wall and wrapped it around Alaric's neck and started chocking him.

"Brayden, it's me!" Alaric yelled, while a confused Damon stood back, though he didn't know what was going on, he didn't stop his brother, knowing if he was attacking Alaric, it was because he had a good reason to.

"Liar, liar, pants on her fire" Brayden said, tightening the chains around Alaric's neck, "I know these tunnels like the back of my hand, there is no way you just came from the school, I'm not someone who will fall for your mind games, Silas".

Silas screamed in pain as Brayden made the chains around his neck even tighter.

Both Brayden and Damon looked infront of them when they heard someone run towards them.

"Oh thank god, I found you guys" Fae said, rushing over to the twins, "These tunnels really mess with a girl's head".

"Please tell us you figured out how to kill him" Damon said, pointing towards Silas who was still in Brayden's grip.

"I can't kill him, but I know how to stop him" Fae said, putting her hands infront of him and starting to chant the spell that will finally put a stop to Silas.

"Fae, what are you doing?" Brayden asked, stepping back from Silas who grew weaker and weaker.

"Turning him into stone" Fae informed.

"What the hell is he doing?" a confused Damon asked.

"Hiding his face" Fae replied, as the trio watched Silas turn to stone, his hand covering his face, "He can't hide his true self behind mind control anymore, this is his true face".

"Which is what exactly?" Brayden asked, trying to see Silas's face, but unable to due to him covering it with his hand.

Fae shrugged, "I don't know" she replied.

***

"You guys need to get rid of Silas's body" Fae told the three brothers, all four of them now in the woods, by Brayden's car.

"Well, there's a slight problem, Medusa" Damon said, "Even though you turned him into stone, if he gets one more drop of blood, he's back to his old mind tricks".

"Alright, so let's do what we should have done to Klaus" Stefan said, "Drop his body in the middle of the ocean".

"I'll do it, right after I make sure Caroline is alright" Brayden said.

Fae nodded her head in understanding, "Okay, I'm going to go check on Bonnie, make sure she puts the veil back".

Fae turned to leave but before she could, Stefan grabbed her wrist, "Are you okay?" a concerned Stefan asked.

Fae gave her boyfriend a small smile, "I'm okay".

"I just--something doesn't seem right" Stefan whispered.

"Stefan" Fae said, cupping Stefan's face in her hands, "Everything's fine, we won, we beat the bad guy, nothing is going to go wrong now".

"You sure?" an apprehensive Stefan asked.

"I'm sure" Fae said, pulling her boyfriend into a kiss.

***

"Caroline!" Brayden called out, rushing into the Grill, desperately looking for his girlfriend.

"Brayden" Caroline said, standing up from the table she was sitting with Kaitlynn, finally free from Silas's mind control.

Both Brayden and Caroline quickly rushed towards each other and as soon as they reached each other, Brayden pulled Caroline into a tight hug.

"Are you okay?" Brayden asked.

Caroline tightened her hold on Brayden, "I am now" she whispered.

Brayden broke the hug and removed the strands of hair from Caroline's face, "I was so worried, I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner".

"You're here now, that's all it matter" Caroline said, once again hugging Brayden, who gladly hugged her back.

"Aren't you two just adorable".

Brayden and Caroline broke the hug and turned to face the new voice, seeing the person, immediately a huge smile formed on Brayden's face.

"Lexi" Brayden whispered.

"Hey Bray" Lexi smiled.

Brayden let out a laugh before rushing over to his best friend and pulling her into a hug, Lexi let out a laugh when Brayden span her around, so happy to see his best friend again.

"I missed you too, Bray" Lexi laughed, as Brayden sat her down on the ground again, she then looked behind Brayden at Caroline and Kaitlynn, who were smiling at the duo, "Thank you for being there for this one, through it all" she told Caroline.

"You don't have to thank me, Lexi" Caroline said, happy seeing her boyfriend's happiness, "I'll always be there for him, I love him".

"And he loves you, oh so much" Lexi teased, making everyone present in the Grill laugh.

Brayden looked at Lexi, Caroline and Kaitlynn, "This feels nice" he said, looking at his best friend, his soulmate, and his complicated friend, "It feels like things are finally starting to get better".

"That's because they are" Lexi said, side hugging her best friend.

***

"Bonnie!" Fae called out, entering the tunnels where Bonnie was, "Bonnie, it's time to put the veil back up".

"Not yet" Bonnie stated.

Fae frowned, "Bonnie, if you don't put the veil back up, a lot of people are going to get hurt".

"Silas said I can bring Jeremy back" Bonnie informed.

"I'm sorry what?" a shocked Fae asked, not sure if she heard Bonnie correctly or not.

"Silas told me how I can bring Jeremy back" Bonnie said.

"And how is that?" Fae asked.

"To bring someone back from the dead, you have to sacrifice someone from the living" Bonnie revealed, "And Silas wants that to be you".

Fae looked at Bonnie wide eyed, "You're still in Silas's control" she realised.

"I never stopped being in Silas's control" Bonnie informed.

Before Fae could say or do anything, Bonnie used her magic to cause Fae an aneurism, Fae held her head and fell to the floor in pain.

"I'm sorry Fae, but I must bring Jeremy back, I love him and I can't live without him" Bonnie said, as Fae fell to the ground, the pain having rendered her unconscious.

***

Fae groaned and slowly opened her eyes, with her hand on her heavy head, she slowly sat up and looked at her surrounding in confusion, she realised she was still in the tunnels where she was talking to Bonnie, only difference now was that Bonnie was no where to be seen.

Fae slowly stood up and looked around in confusion, something didn't feel right, something felt really off to her.

"Fae".

Hearing a familiar voice, a shocked Fae quickly turned around, "Mother" she whispered, tears in her eyes seeing her mother infront of after hundred and forty five years.

"I'm so sorry my child" Emily Bennett whispered, tears in her eyes.

"Sorry?" a confused Fae asked, "Why are you sorry?".

Emily didn't say anything, instead she pointed towards the floor, following her finger, Fae let out a shocked gasp seeing her body laying on the ground.

"Bonnie sacrificed your life to bring Jeremy back" Emily revealed.

"Oh my god" Fae cried, covering her hand with her mouth, "Stefan" she whispered, tears streaming down her face, "I promised him nothing would go wrong, how am I meant to tell him this?".

***

Presenting 4x22 of They Don't Know About Us!

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Brayden getting annoyed with Elena's new obsession to kill Katherine?

Thoughts on Elena attacking Brayden?

Thoughts on Fae turning Silas into stone?

Thoughts on Bonnie sacrificing Fae for Jeremy?