CHAPTER SEVEN / ACT ONE

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Stefan knocked on the door to the Gilbert residence as Angelina hurridly searched the porch for some place to hide the copy of the journal for the time being until Damon was long gone and unable to find it and take it for himself.

"Where do I hide this?!" She whisper yelled at him.

"Just- Just hide it in your shirt, I don't know!"

"Ew, I'm not hiding it there-"

When the doors opened, Angelina quickly stuffed the papers into her pocket, crumbling them up as she did so and pulled her shirt down to cover her pockets.

Damon and Elena were both standing in front of them. Elena's expression was grateful, while Damon's was impatient.

"Well?" Damon asked.

"The journal wasn't there." The Salvatore spoke up when she didn't. "Someone else must've gotten to it."

"Well then who took it?" Damon stepped out onto the porch with all three of them following behind.

"We don't know." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"You know what, it's that teacher." The raven haired man accused. "There's something really off about him."

"No, he doesn't know anything," Angelina lied, crossing her arms as she shook her head. "Somebody got to him right before us."

"Who else knew it was there?" Leaning on the white fence along the porch, Elena finally spoke up.

The four of them thought for a moment about who else knew the journal was in Alaric's classroom and eventually all turned their heads towards the window where Jeremy sat playing video games.

Without saying a word, Damon calmly began walking inside of the house while Elena attempted to stop him.

"No Damon, leave him out of it!" She protested.

"Why, what's the big deal?!" Damon shrugged carelessly as he continued on.

"Damon!"

The three entered the house while Angelina instead signaled to them all that she'd be upstairs to evade Jeremy.

The doppelgänger entered Elena's room and examined every inch of it. She couldn't deny that it was tastefully decorated. It was practically her dream bedroom, with pictures on the walls and hanging lights.

Her curiosity spiked as she walked over to her dresser, which was cluttered with family photos of Elena and her family. She picked up one photo which displayed Elena, her brother, her aunt, and her parents.

As she stared, her expression became solemn and her eyes darkened. A pang of envy washed over her as she saw her smiles with her family. A family she wished she had. The echoing of footsteps and a familiar voice snapped her out of her trance. The girl's hazel eyes shifted to the door to see her split image making her way down the halls and into the bedroom, her hand to her ear as she spoke to her friend.

"Give me all the details, Bonnie." Elena said to her friend with a wide smile on her face, ignoring the vampires presence but Angelina didn't mind. "I'm dying to know."

"A gentleman, huh?" She continued on while Angelina sat down on the bed, uninterested in her teenage gossip.

She began to tune out Elena's conversation until she heard something that piqued her interest.

"You're a powerful witch goddess!" She exclaimed. "Come on, seize the day, Broom Hilda."

Angelina raised an eyebrow, wondering if her friend, Bonnie, really was a witch or if she was just joking.

The doppelgänger eventually hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket before turning around and awkwardly smiling at Angelina.

"So, your friend Bonnie; that's her name right?" Angelina began and Elena nodded in response, evidently confused.

"Is she a witch?"

"Um- yeah.." The brunette's eyes narrowed as she answered her question. "Why?"

"Just making conversation." She shrugged in response as she rose up from the bed. It's true; she was just making conversation. But to a vampire, especially one like her, the whereabouts of a witch where something she needed to know about as you never knew if they were a potential threat. One of the many things Katherine taught her.

Suddenly, Stefan entered the room alone, shutting the door behind him and her eyebrows drew together.

"Where's Damon?"

"He left to track down Jeremy's friend Anna and see if there was anything there." He informed her.

"Aren't you gonna go with him?" Elena asked before looking over at Angelina cautiously and attempting to whisper into Stefan's ear. "If he get's to the journal before we do, then—"

"First of all, Elena," Angelina interrupted her as she rose from the bed and stood next to her. "You do a terrible job at whispering, and second of all.."

She then pulled out the crumpled up copy of the journal from her back pocket, which was thankfully still readable. "I'm helping you."

"..You are?"

"Is that so hard to believe?" Angelina cocked her head to the side. "I don't want Damon to open the tomb just as much as you do."

Elena sighed and hesitantly nodded her head, adjusting to the realization that Angelina was now an ally to her. Though it wasn't hard to tell she was still cautious of her.

"This is the copy of the journal," She began before handing the papers to Stefan.

"How did you get it?"

"Well, Mr. Saltzman made a copy and was kind enough to loan it to us." Stefan answered for her.

"He did?"

"Yes, he did. Can we get on with it now?" The Petrova responded impatiently as she began to grow anxious, her eyes scanning the pages intently in Stefan's hands.

"Sure." Elena sighed deeply as she took a portion from the stack of papers, Stefan took another stack, and Angelina read the rest of them thoroughly.

Angelina took a seat back on the while Elena sat in the window seat, and Stefan stood. She flipped through the papers, looking for anything related to the grimoire, but almost everything was incomprehensible to her.

"Here's a reference that we wrote about Emily." Elena spoke up and the two glanced in her direction.

"The Fell family believed it should be I, not them, who protected the witches spell book." She read. "But I feared she would haunt me from the hereafter. They mocked my fear, but it was Giuseppe Salvatore who-"

Abruptly, she stopped reading and lifted her head up to face Stefan. "Is that your father?"

"Yeah," He gave a short answer as he the papers from her and picked up where she left off. "It was Giuseppe Salvatore who removed my fear. He told me he would protect the secret of the spell book."

"He said he would carry it to his grave."

The three of them remained quiet for a moment, brainstorming any idea as to where Giuseppe could've hid the spell book. Angelina glanced over at Stefan, noticing how deep in thought he was, hoping that he had thought of any answer to this.

"I know where it is." He spoke up, and without wasting another second, he stood up from the window seat and began exiting the bedroom with the girls frantically following behind.

Stefan led them both into the woods, the pitch black sky, the faint sounds of crickets chirping, and small bugs flying in their faces every so often. To Angelina, it felt like they had been walking for hours when in reality, it had only been about 20 minutes.

Before they left Elena's house, Stefan made Angelina grab two shovels, and made her carry both of them the way here, which implied that they were digging up something.

Possibly a grave.

"How much longer?" She began to complain, dragging her shovel against the dirt. "I can only carry these shovels for so long!"

Stefan and Elena response with silence, which only made her grow more impatient by the second. Just then, the came across a tombstone with the words "Here lies, Giuseppe Salvatore" written across it.

Angelina and Elena both raised their eyebrows as they gathered in a circle around the grave.

"We're digging up your father?" Elena's eyes widened, a hint of concern in her tone.

"Yep." He answered bluntly.

"Why isn't he buried in your family's tomb?"

"It wasn't built until well after he died." He informed her.

"Are you sure the grimoire in there with him?"

Stefan stepped over to Angelina and took one of the shovels from her, which caused her to sigh of relief. "As sure as I could be."

Angelina cocked her head to the side and peered across at Elena, holding the other shovel up to her with a wide fake smirk on her face.

"What?" Elena questioned.

"What?" Angelina repeated. "I already carried both of the shovels the way here, I need a break."

"I-" Before she could finish her sentence, the vampire immediately pressed the shovel to her doppelgängers chest and stepped away, smiling at her the entire while.

The brunette sighed as she began to shovel with her boyfriend, emitting loud groans after lifting the shovel into the air, while Angelina dodged dirt that flew her way every few seconds.

Moments passed and they eventually hit a solid fore, a loud clinging noise echoing through the air. "I think we've found it." Elena commented.

He remained standing inside the grave, while Elena stood outside next to Angelina. He pushed the last bits of dirt out of the way, knelt inside, and opened the casket, revealing Giuseppe Salvatore's skeleton. Along with Emily Bennett's grimoire in his arms.

The Petrova's eyes gleamed with delight and almost even shock as she caught a peek of the witches book and crouched down in front of the casket to have a better look.

Stefan took the grimoire from the coffin and handed it to her, who immediately opened the book to begin reading. Elena bent down next to her, pulled a flashlight from the pocket of her jacket, and shined it down on the book to read the words.

Suddenly, the three could hear a familiar voice emit from the shadows. "Well, what do you know?" They glanced over in the direction of the voice, to see Damon standing there with an unamused expression on his face.

"This is an interesting turn of events." He commented.

Stefan hesitantly stood up from the ground, a stern look on his face. "I can't let you bring her back, I'm sorry."

"So am I." Damon replied. "For thinking that for even a second I could trust you."

"You are not capable of trust!" He scoffed, laughing faintly. "The fact that you're here means you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself."

"Of course I was gonna do it by myself!" His brother argued back with him, his voice raising with every word. "Because the only I can trust is me!"

"You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan."

A silence fell over the four of them, as Damon gazed slowly shifted towards Angelina, who was just now standing up from the ground with the grimoire in her hands. "But you,"

"You had me fooled."

"Damon," She attempted to console him, but was immediately cut off.

"Don't even say a word!" He yelled. "You made me believe that you wanted to get her back. But let's be honest, Angelina."

"You'd rather have Stefan's approval than save your own sisters life."

Angelina kept her head lowered to avoid making eye contact with him. "Believe what you want, Damon. I love my sister." His venomous words slashed her like a knife. She knew what he told her wasn't true. She'd put her sister ahead of them all, and she'd do it without blinking. Even after everything she'd been put through, she had to remain loyal to her own flesh and blood. Even if it costed her relationship with Stefan.

Right?

"So what are you gonna do now?" He turned his attention back to Stefan. "Because if you try and destroy that book, I'll rip her heart out."

"You won't kill her." Stefan immediately came to her defense.

Without hesitation, Damon raced in front of Angelina, wrapping his arm around her neck and turning her around before she could react, causing her to drop the grimoire. He reached into her chest with his other hand, holding her heart while she gasped for air every time he squeezed.

"Damon!" Stefan hesitantly came closer to his brother, holding a hand out in front of him. "Let her go!"

"Gimme the book, Stefan!" He ordered. "Or I will rip her heart out right now, and you will have a dead girlfriend."

"Let her go first." Stefan demanded, a pleading look in his eyes.

"The book."

"I'm not gonna give it to you," Stefan said calmly. "Until she is standing next to me."

"The problem is, I no longer trust that you'll give it back!"

"You just did the one thing that ensure that I will."

A silence fell over them as Angelina continued to gasp for air as he squeezed her heart tighter, unable to utter a single word. Slowly, she could feel her life slipping away. Just one more clutch to her heart could- would kill her.

Reluctantly, Damon nodded his head in agreement.

"Okay," Stefan inhaled deeply as he took the grimoire from the ground and tossed it to him. Damon gazed down at Angelina, who returned his stare with a plaintive expression on her face.

He threw her in Stefan's direction, who caught her in his arms as she tried to regain her strength, panting heavily.

"You alright?" He whispered to her.

"I-I'm fine," She breathed, touching her chest which was covered in her blood. "It'll heal soon."

He held her close and signaled for Elena's to follow behind them before immediately leaving the woods together. Angelina gaze back at Damon, her mind still trying to process everything that had went on in the span on two minutes.

And at that moment, she knew this was her fault.

AUTHORS NOTE
i love this chapter for some reason

ty for reading loves ❤️❤️