A groan came from the sleeping doppelganger and immediately Damon’s attention was on her, “morning.”

     Elena looked at the vampires confused before she clutched the side of her head, “where are we?”

     “Georgia.”

     “Georgia? No, no. No, we're not. Seriously, Damon, where are we?” The doppelganger shook her head and rolled her eyes, not believing him.

     “Seriously, Elena, we're in Georgia.” Jasmine leaned back against the backseat and crossed one leg over the other.

     Damon looked over at the doppelganger with concern, “how ya feeling?”

     Elena groaned and held one hand to her chest, the other on her head, “I-I-”

     Damon gave her a once over, then turned his attention back onto the road, “there's no broken bones. I checked.”

     Elena was in deep thought as she tried to remember what had happened the night before, “but my car...there was a man...I hit a man.”

     Jasmine quickly leaned forward and looked at the frazzled doppelganger, “I think that’s called vehicular man-slaughter. You could go to jail.” She leaned back and clicked her tongue, “man, knew I should’ve called the cops. I would’ve been free of your ass a couple states back.”

     Elena glared at her and looked back at Damon, “but then he got up and...who was that?”

     Damon looked at Jasmine through the rearview mirror and raised his eyebrows, “that's what I would like to know.”

     The doppelganger frantically patted her pockets, searching for something, “where is my phone? Okay, we really need to go back. Nobody knows where I am. Pull over.”

     When Damon made no move to do what she said, she hit the seat in frustration, “I mean it, Damon. Pull over! Stop the car!”

     “Oh, you were so much more fun when you were asleep.” Jasmine scoffed out as she flicked her wrist causing the steering wheel to turn, the car stopped on the side of the road.

     Elena got out of the car slowly, hissing with pain as she leaned over and groaned. Damon sped towards her and gently grabbed her, making sure she didn’t fall.

     “Hey.”

     Jasmine watched the way Damon was with the doppelganger and her eyes narrowed. It could be just genuine concern for her as a potential friend, but Damon didn’t really have a sense of strength to not get weak with people that wore the doppelganger’s face.

     Elena looked at Damon, shocked at his concern, “I'm fine. We have to go back.”

     The vampire groaned and shook his head, “oh, come on. Look, we've already come this far.”

     The doppelganger took a step back and disbelief showed across her features, “why are you doing this? I can't be in Georgia. I wrecked my car. I have to go home. This is kidnapping.”

     Finally getting out of the car, Jasmine stepped beside the pair and rolled her eyes at the doppelganger, “that's overdramatic, don't you think?”

     Elena narrowed her eyes and scowled at the annoyed vampire, “you're not funny. You guys can't do this. I'm not going to Georgia.”

     Laughing, Jasmine spread her arms wide and looked around, “well, you don’t have a choice, sweetheart. You’re in Georgia.” She stepped towards the scowling human, “without your magical little necklace, I might add. I can very easily make you... agreeable.”

     Elena pushed the vampire back, anger rising up to the surface, “what are you trying to prove? That you can control me if I don’t go along with your little plan?”

     Jasmine took another step forward, the veins under her eyes threatening to show themselves as her fangs poked at her bottom lip. A phone ringing distracted them enough for Elena to move beside Damon.

     “That's my phone.”

     Damon pulled the cellphone from inside his jacket pocket and looked at the caller ID, “mmm, it's your boyfriend.”

     Elena turned away from him, hinting she didn’t want to talk to Stefan. Damon rolled his eyes and clicked on the answer button, “I'll take it. Elena's phone!”

     “Where is she? Why do you have her phone? Is she okay?”

     Damon looked at Elena with a smirk, “Elena? She's right here. And, yes, she's fine.”

     “Where are you? Let me speak to her.”

     The vampire pressed the phone to his chest and leaned towards Elena, “he wants to talk to you.”

     Elena shook her head and walked away from the conversation. Jasmine took her place beside Damon and held her hand out, wanting to speak to Stefan.

     “Yeah. I don't...I don't really think she wants to talk to you right now.”

     “Damon, I swear to God, if you touch her...” Jasmine snatched the phone from Damon’s hand and smacked his head.

     “Hey, bub. Sorry I didn’t call you last night, but don’t worry, she’s safe.”

Stefan sighed, she could practically feel his forehead brood, “please, just—make sure Damon doesn’t do anything to her.”

“No worries, Stefan. As long as I’m here, Damon won’t harm her, okay? I promise.”

     “Thank you, Jasmine.”

     Rolling her eyes, she ended the call and walked towards Damon and Elena, who seemed to be arguing.

     “Am I gonna be safe with you?” The doppelganger crossed her arms as she looked at the smirking vampire standing in front of her.

     Without hesitating, Damon responded, “yes.”

     “You promise not to do that mind control thing with me?”

     Damon smiled as he looked from Elena to his best friend, “yes, but I can’t say the same for Jasmine.”

     Seeming as she had forgotten the older vampire was there, Elena turned towards her, “can I trust you?”

     Jasmine stared at her, not wanting respond because she didn’t know how to. She gestured towards the car and began walking towards it, not bothering a glance at the doppelganger, “get in the car. Come on.”

▪▪▪▪

     Jasmine was tapping her hand against the window to the beat of the song that was currently playing. Elena looked at her annoyed, “So, where's my car?”

     Jasmine stopped tapping and looked at her. She tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows, “how the fuck do I know?” She scoffed at the human before returning to her tapping.

     Damon sighed, “I pulled it off to the side of the road. I don't think anyone will bother it.”

     Elena focused her attention on Damon instead of giving unintimidating glares at the raven haired vampire in the back, “what about that man in the road? Was he a...?”

     Nodding, Damon glanced at her, “from what I could tell, yeah.”

     “You didn't know him?”

     Laughter came from the backseat as Jasmine shook her head, “if he’s never met him, he wouldn't know him. What do you think we do? Hang out at some rustic Vamp Bar & Grill and interact like a community?”

     Damon eased into a parking space that was right in front of a building that had Bree’s BAR written across it.

     “Oh, hell.”

     Ignoring the vampire’s silent despair, Elena looked around and glanced at Damon, “where are we? You brought me to a bar?” The trio got out of the vehicle, “Damon, I'm not old enough. They're not going to let me in.”

     “Sure they will.” Smirking, Damon made his way towards the building as Elena slammed the door.

     The three of them slowly walked into the bar with Damon taking the lead, only to have him stop and look at the bartender.

     “No. No, it can't be.”  Bree then jumped over the corner and stood in front of the smirking vampire, “Damon. My honey pie.” She then grabbed a hold of his face and kissed him.

     Elena’s eyes widened as Jasmine’s rolled. The pair broke away and the witch looked behind Damon, only to widen her eyes when they landed on a certain long haired vampire.

     “Jasmine.”

     Damon and Elena turned to look at her as the vampire smiled wide, “Bree. It’s been a while, love.”

▪▪▪▪

     Bottle in hand, Bree walked over to the trio who sat in front of the bar, shot glasses situated in front of them, “listen up everybody! Here's to the man that broke my heart, crushed my soul, destroyed my life, and ruined any and all chances of happiness, I thought I had!”

     She filled each glass and stopped when she reached Jasmine’s, softly whispering so only the four of them could hear, “and to the woman who showed me that true love was possible. That pure happiness was possible… that is, until she got up and left without saying goodbye.” Jasmine cast her gaze to the glass and frowned, “drink up!”

     Anyone who was listening immediately downed their glasses, coughing and cheering. Damon downed his glass and then downed Elena’s. Jasmine slid her glass towards Damon, who happily drank it, too. She wasn’t in the mood to relive old memories with exes.

     Bree shook her head as the burning in her throat subsided, “whoo!” She looked at Elena and smiled, “so, how'd he rope you in? Or was it her? I don’t blame you… being in love with her makes it seem like anything is possible.”

     “I'm not roped in. Actually, I'm dating—”

     The witch refilled their glasses and smirked at the doppelganger, “honey, if you're not roped, you're whipped. Either way, just enjoy the ride.”

     Eyebrows raised, Elena leaned towards the bartender, “okay. So, how did you three meet?”

     “Well, I met Damon in college.” Elena’s look of surprise wasn’t unnoticed by the smirking Salvatore.

     “You went to college?”

     Damon raised his glass to his lips, smiling, “I've been on a college campus, yes.”

     Bree laughed as she turned her gaze to Elena, “about twenty years ago, when I was a sweet, young freshman, I met this beautiful man, and I was hooked. And then he told me about his little secret, made me want him more. Because, you see, I had a little secret of my own that I was dying to share with somebody.”

     Damon leaned over to Elena and whispered to her, “she's a witch.”

     Smiling, Bree gazed at Damon, “changed my world, you know.”

     “I rocked your world.” Damon downed the rest of his glass and smirked at the smiling witch.

     Elena turned her head to look at Jasmine, who was staring at her glass and taking small sips of the alcohol, “how’d you and Bree meet?”

     Jasmine downed her glass, letting it slide and hit the bottle that was in front of her, “I don’t feel like sharing.” With that, she grabbed her jacket and walked out of the building.

     The cold air felt refreshing to her clammy skin. She leaned against the brick wall and barely glanced at the nervous doppelganger. She didn’t mean to break Bree’s heart, hell, she broke her own when she up and left. But she had no other choice; she couldn’t let the witch leave everything and everyone she loved. Not for her, not for a relationship that wasn’t going to work out in the long run. People were starting to notice, so she left. Til this day she regretted it. Regretted leaving her behind. Regretted the pain she must have caused her. Above all, she regretted getting involved with someone.

     Her head snapped up as she heard Elena raise her voice, “how am I connected to Katherine, Stefan?”

     The vampire tilted her head to the side and focused her hearing on the call, “I honestly don’t know.”

     “And I’m supposed to believe that?”

     “It’s the truth. Listen—” The sound of a click made Jasmine realize that Elena had hung up on him.

     Elena sighed and turned around to go back inside the bar, only to let out a small scream when she came face to face with Jasmine.

     “Give him a break, Elena.”

     She nodded her head in disbelief, “he lied to me about Katherine.”

     “He technically just withheld the little bit of you resembling her. You didn’t ask that question, so he basically didn’t lie.”

     Angered, Elena scoffed at the vampire, “why are you defending him?!”

     “Because he’s my best friend, Elena. I will always defend him,” she turned away from the doppelganger, “especially from people like you.”

     Elena raised her voice, making Jasmine stop in her tracks, “Stefan is always saying how sweet you are, but all I see is a raging bitch. I sincerely don’t know why he’s still friends with someone like you.”

     Within a second, Jasmine had Elena against the hood of the car, veins protruding and fangs bared. Elena gasped for air as she tried to make Jasmine release her hold on her throat. The feeling was back again. She tightened her hold and slowly leaned towards the girl’s throat. She scraped her fangs against the skin, not hard enough to break the flesh, but enough to make the doppelganger scream in fear.

     Jasmine was then pushed onto the ground. She growled at the vampire who dared to interrupt her. Damon’s eyes widened when he saw her. Her pupils were blown to the point where you could barely notice that her eyes were colored. Her breathing was ragged and her hands were trembling. The sight was very familiar to him, but nonetheless, it brought him utter terror.

     “Jasmine. Fight it.” He slowly stepped forward with his arms outstretched in front of him, “come on, Jas. Don’t let it control you.”

     Jasmine’s hardened stare shifted from Damon to Elena, who shrunk behind Damon. Even if she was a bitch, she couldn’t hurt someone just because they said shit about her, “I can’t—Damon, I can’t.” It was as if a cloud of darkness was surrounding her mind, taunting her. She stepped forward towards Elena, ready to attack her.

     “Jasmine! Hey! You don’t want to hurt her. Stefan asked you to protect her, are you gonna go back on your promise?” Damon blocked her vision of Elena, hoping he could focus her attention on him.

     Jasmine clenched her fists tight and screwed her eyes shut, her breathing was coming out in short and rough puffs. She was struggling to contain it. It’s never been this powerful before, but then again, this was the longest time she had been able to subside the hunger. She tried to focus her thoughts on Stefan and Damon, two of the very few people who were able to help her contain the violent thoughts.

     Damon took another step forward, but stopped when Jasmine opened her eyes. She looked behind Damon towards the frightened doppelganger and scowled at her. Sensing that Jasmine wasn’t going to do anything to her, Damon nudged the doppelganger towards the building before looking back at his best friend, “are you okay?”

     Jasmine looked her trembling hands, shaking her head, “no.”

     Jasmine stood in the middle of the town square. Her fangs were bared and the veins showed under her eyes. Blood was dripping down her jaw. The crimson liquid covered every inch of her body and clothes. She looked around her as she recognized the family that was so kind to her. A sadistic smirk grazed Jasmine’s lips as she looked at all the bodies that surrounded her. Heads and hearts were thrown everywhere. Blood splattered the streets and the trees.

     An entire town was slaughtered. And the worst was yet to come.