CHAPTER THIRTY / ACT TWO

Plan B

"How many events can Mystic Falls squeeze in one week?" Angelina complained as she carried a box of masks with Jenna through the crowd outside of the Lockwood estate. "Miss Mystic Falls, Founders Day, that park set up thing, and now a set up for a Masquerade Ball."

"Well, in a small town like this I guess it's good to get together every once in a while." Jenna shrugged, chuckling softly. "But I see your point."

Angelina set the box on the table outside of the house, next to the stairs which led inside. "Who knew a box of party masks could be so heavy?"

"Well, they need just about enough for the entire town." The redhead laughed, setting a box of utensils right next to the masks. "Are you going to the ball?"

"Probably not." She sighed heavily. "I'm not necessarily in the Masquerade mood at the moment."

"Aw, I think you should go," Jenna rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. "It'd be nice for you to have some fun. Doesn't seem like you've been so.. cheery the past few days."

"You got that right." The brunette muttered lowly, her lips pressed together as she shifted her gaze from the box to Jenna. It'd been just about a day since Mason Lockwood tried to declare World War III on Angelina and her friends, and everything felt oddly.. normal.

For some reason she expected to wake up in a bed full of poisonous snakes for a blanket, but it felt the same as any other regular day. Or at least as regular as it gets for her.

It paranoid her more than anything now that she had no contact with Katherine and no way of knowing what she was doing at this exact moment. It certainly wasn't anything good, of course. Jenna was right, she hadn't had the chance to go out and have fun; but she didn't have the time to have fun after everything that was going on in her life. No matter how much she wanted to go, she couldn't afford any distractions.

The doppelgänger took a deep breath before examining her surroundings and slowly backing away from Jenna. "Um.. I'm gonna go find Stefan.. or Elena.. or at least any one of my friends."

Jenna smiled and nodded as Angelina twisted on her heel and walked through the crowd of civilians in search of her friends. Unfortunately, Caroline wasn't here today, not that she expected her to be.

Currently, she was sitting in the dark and dusty cellar at the bottom of the Salvatore boarding house with her mother, waiting for the vervain to pass out of her system so she could be compelled to forget her daughter was ever a vampire. She wished she could be there for her friend, but unfortunately for her Jenna was a little too persistent in her helping set up for the masquerade party.

Yesterday was most definitely hard for her to deal with, especially considering the way her mother had to find out was by her violently killing two cops. But, hopefully it would all be over with by the time the vervain left her system.

Angelina strolled through the outside of the estate, specifically in search of Stefan; though her search was instantly cut short by the annoying little voice of a certain insufferable Lockwood werewolf. "Hey, Ang." He taunted. The vampire let out a long deep sigh before turning around, flashing him a fake smile.

"Can I call you that? Ang?"

"Call me what you want," She rolled her eyes whilst examining the area. "I don't care."

"Something wrong?" Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Mason studied her irate expression though she knew his so-called "concern" was nothing but a mockery.

"Oh no," She smiled, waving him off. "I'm absolutely fine. Just had a bit of an.. off day yesterday."

"What'd you do with Sheriff Forbes?" He immediately cut to the chase, his voice raising higher.

"Quick question," she raised a finger, completely disregarding his question. "If I throw a bone will you go away?"

The wolf rolled his eyes before crossing his arms across his chest. "Where is she?"

The Petrova smiled. "I killed her."

"You did what?!"

"Oh relax," She chuckled lowly. "She's safe and sound with her loving vampire daughter.. but I'm sorry to inform you that from now on you'll have to do your own dirty work."

"Not a problem." She could see him calm down as he shrugged before walking past her, purposely bumping her on the shoulder simply to aggravate her.

"I'd be careful Mason!" She called out to him, turning back towards him as he stopped in his tracks to face her. "Bad things tend to happen to bad people."

"Is that a threat?" He scoffed.

"Observation." Her smiled softened as she stared a hole through him. The Lockwood stared back, his jaw tensing slightly before he spun on his heel and began advancing towards the house until he suddenly bumped into a certain teenage witch.

Angelina watched the ordeal from afar, noticing distasteful look on Bonnie's face as she watched Mason walk away. Pressing her lips together, the witch's head turned towards her, giving her a questioning glance.

Angelina watched as she hastily proceeded in her direction with a worrisome expression.

"What's wrong?" The vampire crossed her arms, her head tilting to the side in concern. She knew the Bennett witch didn't like her, and knew sure as hell she tried her best to keep her distance, but that fact alone was enough for her to worry as to why she came her about her issues.

"When I touched him, I saw something." Bonnie murmured, trying to keep her tone down so that only the vampire could hear. "I saw you.. or Elena.. I'm not sure."

"What?" Her eyebrows furrowed.

"Kissing Mason."

"Ew, what?" The doppelgänger's nose scrunched in disgust. "Sorry to disappoint you Bon Bon, but I'd never kiss a dog, and I'm sure as hell Elena wouldn't—"

Angelina cut herself off as the realization hit her. If anyone of the doppelgängers would be caught kissing Mason Lockwood, especially considering the circumstances, it would be Katherine.

"..You didn't see me or Elena," Bonnie's eyes furrowed at her words. "You saw Katherine."

"Right," The witch pointed at her. "The evil twin sister. Apart from you, of course." She remarked with a sarcastic grin on her face.

The brunette frowned. "Right, yeah." Don't get her wrong, she had plenty of snarky comments she could say back to her. But after her Grams died she felt like she owed her kindness, though that was much less than what Bonnie deserved.

The witch began to walk off but she quickly opened her mouth to speak. "I know my apologies won't mean much to you, but for what it's worth I am sorry for what happened to your Grams."

A silence fell upon them, and Bonnie didn't do anything but stare. A flash of confusion washed across her face before she looked away for a moment and simply walked away from the doppelgänger without another word.

Angelina let out a small aggravated huff before turning on her heel to walk away. Bonnie aside, she had nothing to do with this new information about her sister, Whether Katherine and Mason were in a relationship or not, they were working together notheless. No matter how gross she found it.

The brunette sighed loudly, running her hand through her hair as she walked towards the porch of the Lockwoods house. The wooden planks creaked underneath her feet as she reached the front door where Stefan had already seemed to be waiting for her.

"What was that about?" He raised a brow, referring to her conversation with the Bennett girl.

"Nothin'." Angelina replied as she slipped her arm through his. "But I'm absolutely sure Mason and Katherine are working together now."

The Salvatore paused, frowning lightly as he glanced around them nervously. He looked back at her before nodding.

"Do you have any idea where the moonstone might be?" He inquired after a brief pause.

"Well it must be inside. George Lockwood kept it as a family keepsake way back when, so it must've been passed down or something." The girl informed the Salvatore and he nodded accordingly. "I'd go inside to snoop but I haven't been invited in yet."

"Well you don't have to worry your pretty little head any further." A familiar voice spoke as it entered their earshot. They both whipped their heads towards the source, finding a very smug looking Salvatore brother leaning against the porch railing.

"Damon?" Angelina narrowed her eyes, letting go of her boyfriends arm as she walked towards him, Stefan trailing behind. "What're you doing here?"

"Lookin' for you two." He replied.

"Why?" Stefan interjected before Damon could reply any further.

"Because, I've already handled the entire situation myself." He said, smiling triumphantly, completely oblivious to the looks the two gave him.

"Really?" Scoffing, Angelina crossed her arms questioningly. "And just how is that, exactly?"

"Well, half-handled it." The vampire admitted, glancing between them. "That moonstone you were talking about, Jeremy's getting it from Tyler."

Stefan blinked, his brown eyes widening slightly. "Why would you involve Jeremy?!"

"He's playing Indiana Jones, he involved himself!" His brother raised his arms in the air to defend himself.

"I'm sorry, but are we really trusting Elena's kid brother to get it for us?" Angelina's eyebrows furrowed and her arms crossed. "No offense to him, but he isn't the smartest in vampire stuff, or just.. anything."

Damon shrugged, "Well, unless any of us know's where it is, we don't have any other choice."

The vampire nodded in agreement before letting out an exasperated sigh. Her mind wandered, brainstorming any last minute ideas to find the stone faster when her thoughts eventually gathered to Bonnie. "Wait.. what about Bonnie?"

"What about her?" Stefan inquired.

"Earlier, when she touched Mason, she saw a vision of him and Katherine together.." She uncrossed, shifting her head in her boyfriend's direction then back at his brother. "Maybe if she did it again she might be able to find out something useful."

"Fine. We'll go with that then." The eldest Salvatore grinned before walking off in search of the Bennett witch with the couple following behind.

It didn't take long for the three of them to find the witch and convince her to talk to them in a private area. Of course she was skeptical, but when was she not?

Except this time, she could tell their reasoning was important.

They eventually made their way to a large gazebo in the corner of the Lockwood estate, closed off from the rest of the event where they could speak privately and somewhat peacefully.

"What do you want?" Bonnie questioned impatiently, folding her arms across her chest.

"A favor." Damon replied casually while leaning against the railings which were surrounding the gazebo.

"Like that's gonna happen."

"Just as I thought." Angelina muttered lowly before turning towards the youngest vampire. "Which is why we brought him."

"What is this? Good cop, bad cop?" The Bennett frowned.

"I know how you feel about helping us out but since you're the one that linked Mason with Katherine, we finally have an opportunity to get an upper hand on both of them, so just hear us out."

"Pretty please." Damon added.

Bonnie stared at the trio for what felt like hours, her amber eyes darting between each of them. It was obvious she was still wary, and although the brunette knew that Damon and possibly even Angelina, were no strangers to manipulation, she couldn't deny the sincerity they were showing her right now.

"Just touch Mason Lockwood again and see if he gave my sister the moonstone. It kinda looks like a bar of soap? A bit shiny."

"My visions don't work like that, I don't get to ask questions." Bonnie mumbled, averting her gaze away from them.

"How inconvenient." Rolling his eyes, Damon let out a frustrated sigh. "Although, let's talk about that witchy juju thing you did to me. Y'know the fun one where my brain bursts into flames? What is that?"

"That's me giving you an aneurysm." Bonnie deadpanned. "Your blood vessels go pop, but you heal quickly so I do it over and over again."

"Only for vampires?" Stefan arched an eyebrow at the witch.

"It'd work on anyone with a supernatural healing ability." She shrugged.

"Good, good good." The raven haired boy
replied, nodding his head appreciatively.

"Damon, I'm not gonna help you hurt him."

"Mason Lockwood's a werewolf, Katherine's evil, they're the bad guys. Really? You wanna play morality police with me right now?" He scoffed.

"And Elena's your best friend, right?" The doppelgänger added. "Well both of them are a threat to her, so you Bon Bon, are gonna get over yourself and help us."

"She meant that as a question," Stefan added softly. "With a please at the end."

Angelina hummed in response and watched as the witch's expression softened slightly, almost as if she wanted to say yes.

But the next moment, those features hardened. "Fine." The brunette huffed in defeat, running her through her hair as she nodded. "Where do we find him?"

AUTHORS NOTE
every day i pray i get to the masquerade chapter soon 😔 ✊ goodbye my pretties