CHAPTER EIGHT | ROSE

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FOR RILEY, SCHOOL WAS ONE OF THE MOST NORMAL ACTIVITIES SHE COULD DO AMONGST ALL OF THE CRAZY OF THE SUPERNATURAL WORLD. There was nothing more simplistic than standing in the school hallways with your best friend, awaiting the bell ring for the next period. Since the Masquerade, Stefan had been pretty distraught. Even though they managed to stop Katherine, Elena still wanted to be apart from Stefan.

"Stop pouting, okay?" Riley rolled her eyes toward her friend, who glared back at her. "What? Come on, that is not the face of a man who's gonna try everything to get his girlfriend back."

A small scoff left Stefan's lips as he raised an eyebrow toward the witch. "Okay. Then, what is it the face of?"

"Uh. It's the face of a quitter. And, the Stefan Salvatore I know it's not a quitter. A broody little bitch? Yes. But, a quitter? No."

"You're all heart, you know that?" The Salvatore chuckled to himself as he saw Jeremy stride over to them with an almost irritated look on her face. "Hey, Jeremy."

"Elena's gotta let me know if she wants me to cover for her. I mean, Jenna's cool with the two of you, but you guys are pushing it." Jeremy told Stefan, whilst his gaze flickered between Riley and the Salvatore.

"What are you talking about?" Stefan furrowed his brows as confusion spread all over his face.

"Look, I'm glad you guys are back together, but if she's gonna sleepover, you gotta—"

"Woah. No, rewind, Jeremy. Stefan and Elena aren't back together." Riley furrowed her brows, then gestured to the vampire that stood beside her. "I mean, look at that face. Does that look like the face of a guy who's back with Elena Gilbert to you?"

"Wait. She didn't stay at your place last night?" Jeremy readjusted the strap on his backpack with a confused look on his face.

"No. I mean, I saw her at the party, but that was it. She didn't sleepover."

Jeremy immediately knew that something was wrong. "Because her bed hadn't been slept in, and Mrs. Lockwood said that her car was still in the driveway."

"Where the hell is Elena, then?" Riley breathed.

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After the news of Elena's disappearance hit them, Stefan called Damon, who met with them just outside the high school. "This has Katherine written all over it." The younger of the two vampires bitterly stated as he began to frantically pace.

"No, it can't be Katherine." As the words fell from her lips, even Riley doubted her certainty. "Can it?"

"No. Katherine's in the tomb. Trust me, I'm the one that shut her in." Damon nodded in agreement with Riley while Stefan just glared at them.

"Did you?" Stefan suddenly snapped in disbelief. It was easy for him to blame Elena's disappearance on Katherine than somebody else.

"Did I what, Stefan?"

"Well, I know the hold that Katherine has on you—"

"Boys!" Riley yelled out exasperatedly as she folded her arms across her chest. "Do you guys really need to do this right now? Elena missing. Save the drama for later." The witch scolded the pair of them. "Now that you mention it, Stef, Katherine said something before we shut her in."

At the mention of Katherine's words right before Damon shut her in the tomb, his face completely fell. "I thought she was lying."

Stefan twirled around with widened eyes. "What did she say?"

"Elena's in danger."

"What? And, neither of you thought to ask her to elaborate?" The younger Salvatore yelled back in disbelief and anger.

"Everything she says is a lie. How am I supposed to know when she starts spouting out the truth?" Damon raised his hands in the air while Riley nodded.

"We have to go talk to her." Stefan suddenly suggested again, without a hint of hesitation.

"No, no." The eldest brother shook his head immediately. "Let me tell you how that's gonna go; We're gonna go ask her for help. She's gonna negotiate a release, which0 you're gonna be dumb enough to give her, and then she's gonna get out and kill us. That's exactly what she wants."

"He's right, she's a compulsive liar. I just thought it was a ploy to keep us from trapping her in the tomb." The witch paused for a moment just as Stefan started toward his car. "Wait. Wait, hang on. I think there's something I can do that doesn't involve going to Katherine for help."

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They headed into Alaric's empty classroom, where Riley intended on trying a locator spell to find the missing Gilbert female. Her trying a locator spell was infinitely better than bargaining with Katherine Pierce for information. Stefan had grabbed Jeremy and told him what was going on since he was needed for the spell.

"How does this work?" The Gilbert boy raised an eyebrow just as Riley flattened a map onto Alaric's desk whilst dozens of candles were situated around it.

"I'm gonna try and do a spell to track Elena, and I'll use your blood to draw energy. I mean, you're blood-related, so it should make it easier for me to find her." Riley nodded to herself as if she was doing it more for her benefit than Jeremy's.

"Alright," Stefan called out just as he wandered back into the classroom with a duffle bag of weapons from the history teacher himself. "Alaric said we've gotta be out of here in ten minutes. I've got weapons. He stocked me up."

"Here we go." Riley breathed. She leaned forward and made a small cut on Jeremy's palm, deep enough so that his blood would drop onto a map that was pushed out to cover the entire table. The strawberry-blonde witch closed her eyes and began to mumble an incantation to herself. Jeremy's blood droplets on the map slowly began to move downwards from the Mystic Falls mark, then they stopped. "There. I found her. She's there."

Jeremy leaned forward and glanced at the location on the map. "That's three-hundred miles away."

"Riles, we need something a little more exact." Stefan looked up at his best friend. He felt guilty for trying to push her, but he needed more to find Elena.

"I know. And, I wish I could give you one. But, that's as close as I can get." She nodded slowly, a sympathetic look on her face. "But, there's no reason why we can't map it and get a more exact location. Let's go."

Just as Riley headed to leave the classroom, Stefan sped in front of her. "Woah. No. No, you're not coming."

"You're kidding me, right?"

"If Riley's going, I'm going," Jeremy called out in agreement with the strawberry-blonde witch. "Elena needs us."

"No. What Elena needs right now, is for the people she loves to be waiting for her at home when she comes back." Stefan folded his arms across his chest with a stern look on his face.

"There's no way I'm letting you go alone, Stefan."

Suddenly, the classroom door swung open and Damon appeared in the doorway. "He's not." The Salvatore's eyes drifted to his little brother. "Let's go."

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One of the hardest things for Riley was giving up control. She hated not being involved, especially with situations like the one they were in. Damon and Stefan were stubborn, and she knew that they were only doing it to be protective. So, with the intention of getting the drama out of her mind, Riley pulled out her phone to video call her grandmother. Even though Gwen irritated Riley as any other parental figure would, she missed her so much.

"Ril— Oh, Riley. I do hate it when you call over these ridiculous apps." Gwen grumbled down the phone the moment she answered Riley's FaceTime call. "I never understand what I'm doing."

"Uh. Just— just point the phone down a little so I can see your face, rather than your forehead." The little witch chuckled to herself as she watched the close-up image of her grandmother's forehead disappear so she could finally see her entire face. "That's better."

"Are you okay? I figured you'd be busy studying with your friends." Gwen raised an eyebrow toward her granddaughter.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Honestly, I just wanted to call and see how you were doing." Riley smiled wholeheartedly into the phone as she dropped herself onto one of the many couches situated in the Salvatore's living room.

"I'm absolutely fine, honey." Gwen chuckled and then panned the camera around the living room, where Riley then saw two of her grandmother's friends wave into the camera.

"Oh— Hello!" Riley waved awkwardly, completely unaware of what she had interrupted.

"Riley, that doesn't look like my living room. Where are you?"

The strawberry-blonde rested the phone on her knees, while she leaned against her arm. "I'm at the Salvatore's place. Stefan said I could spend some time here while you're out of town."

"Those Salvatore boys will be the death of you." Gwen knowingly rolled her eyes and then raised an eyebrow. "Well, not so much Stefan, that boy is an angel."

"Stefan can do no wrong in your eyes."

"And Damon, well, you must be completely infatuated with him to keep running back to him the way that you do." Riley's eyes suddenly widened as Gwen began to rant about the eldest Salvatore. "I see now why he's desperate to get me to like him. Sweetheart, don't pretend that you can't see it."

A small smirk drifted across Riley's face as she rolled her eyes. Truth be told, she had missed her grandmother's meddling in her life. "Would you be quiet? He could walk through that door any minute."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "You want my advice? Tell him how you feel, before you regret it."

"I don't feel anything. Damon's my friend, just like Stefan is." Riley narrowed her eyes with a defensive look on her face. "Though, I sometimes feel like I double as Damon's therapist."

"That's my point. If a man like that trusts you with his innermost thoughts, chances are you're more than a friend."

"I agree!" A feminine voice called out from the background, Riley recognized it as one of her grandmother's friends, and that was when she knew she should end the call.

"Right, okay. I— I think they're back. I'll speak to you later, I love you." Riley waved with an innocent smile whilst her thumb pressed the end call button. Once her grandmother's face disappeared from her phone, a sigh of relief escaped her lips.

The door to the Salvatore house suddenly widened to reveal Stefan and Damon. The raven-haired Salvatore had an unreadable look on his face as he wandered toward the liquor, while Stefan looked completely relieved.

"Is Elena, where—"

"She's home." The younger Salvatore informed her as he slid his hands in his jacket pockets. "She wanted to be with Jeremy."

The witch's eyes flickered between the two Salvatores. The atmosphere was thick, and the tension was high. "Okay, so what happened? Who the hell had her?"

"Oh, honey. You gotta' sit down for this one." Damon scoffed quietly as he twirled around and handed her a tumbler of bourbon. "So, Elena is apparently the key to breaking this dumb ass curse."

"The key, how exactly?"

"She has to die, and then the curses placed on both werewolves and vampires is lifted," Stefan revealed with a troubled look on his face as he watched his best friend's eyes widen.

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Riley had taken up residence in one of the many vacant rooms in the Salvatore house since she couldn't face going home to an empty house. With the news that Elena was the key to breaking the curse whirling around her head, Riley sat on the edge of her bed researching everything she possibly could on; the curse, the doppelganger, and everything in between.

"Hey," Damon's voice called out as he stepped into the bedroom. He watched the strawberry-blonde's head lift up from the research as she slowly closed the laptop down. "Mind if we talk?"

"As friends, or as your therapist?" Riley joked, only to watch the Salvatore's brows furrow. "Nothing. It was a joke. What's up?"

"Honestly, I just wanted to come to see you." Damon shrugged. "I don't know, more recently you and I have been getting on amazingly. I just— everything is so damn complicated right now, and I know that. But, talking to you makes it that little bit easier to deal with."

Riley nodded slowly as Damon sat beside her on the bed. She could see that he was nervous, perhaps even fearful of what was to come for themselves and Elena. "You're worried, aren't you?"

"For several different reasons. Yes."

"Okay. What're the reasons?"

Riley watched the Salvatore's lips purse together, then a heavy sigh left his lips. "This guy that tried to take Elena, something tells me he ain't gonna be the only one looking for her. And, the people that stand in between them and the doppelganger are likely to get caught in the crossfire." His eyes were immediately fixed on the strawberry-blonde. "I don't want that for you."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but you know I'm capable of looking after myself, Damon." Riley breathed out with a slight smile. "And, as for these people coming after Elena, we'll deal with that the same way that we deal with everything else."

"God. How is it that you manage to make everything okay?" Damon scoffed quietly whilst his hand absentmindedly moved against the witch's cheek. He used his thumb to gentle stroke against her skin until he snapped his hand away. "I— I'm gonna let you carry on with your research. Goodnight, Riley."

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