❝ 🪦‧˚꒰ ೯﹙ 𝗦𝗜𝗫 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗧 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 ﹚- ୭౿ ❞
ꗃ ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ﹙ AWKWARD INTERACTIONS ﹚˖ ࣪. ࿐
𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗡𝗘 ━━━ 𝖤𝖯𝖨𝖲𝖮𝖣𝖤 𝖥𝖮𝖴𝖱𝖳𝖤𝖤𝖭
𝘍𝘖𝘖𝘓 𝘔𝘌 𝘖𝘕𝘊𝘌 ╱ ╱ ⋆⭒˚.⋆

ELENA GROGGILY WAKES UP and looks around the unfamiliar room, a gasp leaving her lips as she notices Ben, the guy Bonnie had been telling them about, sitting in a chair at the end of the bed, sound asleep.

Looking for a way out of the room, her eyes land on the door of the motel room before looking back over to Ben. Quietly, she slides off of the bed and steps over his outstretched legs careful not to accidentally kick him and wake him up.

Slowly, she backs up towards the door while she keeps her eyes on Ben, hoping that he doesn't wake up at at.

As she unlocks the deadbolt on the door, she occasionally glanced back at Ben before turning the lock on the door and getting ready to open it.

"I wouldn't."

Elena let out a gasp, spinning around to find Ben only inches away from her face.

"Don't try to escape. Don't even move. Do you understand?" Ben compels Elena, not knowing it wouldn't work since her necklace had vervain inside of it.

"I understand."

A scoff leaves the boys mouth before he turns around to grab a bottle of blood from the mini fridge.

Taking that time to get away, Elena opened the door and bottled outside, only to be stopped by Anna blocking her way out.

"Seriously?" Anna looks over at Ben as she grabbed Elena by the hair and pushed her back inside.

"I told her not to move!" Ben exclaimed, "I did that eye thing that you taught me!"

"And forgot the lesson about vervain!" Anna said, pushed her towards the motel bathroom.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Elena asked her.

"Does it matter?" Anna forcefully pushes Elena into the dark bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Flipping the light twitch on, Elena looked around for any other way out as she turned towards the bathtub, finding Bonnie passed out in the tub.

"Bonnie? Oh, my god."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"ANNA TOOK Elena." Stefan says as he walks into the boarding house, Anastasia behind him as she rubbed her neck that was still a bit sore from letting her Uncle break it the night before.

"Yeah, I got that from your 600 voicemails." Damon tells him, not looking up from the grimoire that belonged to Emily that he was reading.

Stefan moved to stand by his brother as Anastasia made her way up the stairs so that she could go up to her room and change out of the clothes that she was wearing.

"Damon, all night long, every single street in town, I've been searching. What if your blood hasn't passed out of her system?"

"Well, then at least you know you'll see her again." Damon said.

"Please." He sits next to his brother, "What do you know? You were with Anna, you must know where she's living. Just tell me where I can find her."

Damon looks up at his brother, "Nope. You can go. Really."

"You know, all I can remember is hating you. There might've been a time when that was different, but your choices have erased anything good about you. But see, I also know that you have just as much reason to hate me. This all began with me. Katherine got taken away because of me. And I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted."

"So, please, just tell me what you know."

"Huh."

"It's Elena, Damon." Stefan pleased with his older brother, "If you know something.......tell me."

Damon closes Emily's spell book with a sigh as he stands up, "I mean this sincerely. I hope Elena....dies."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

ELENA WETS a cloth in the sink of the bathroom she was locked inside of, putting it against Bonnie's forehead as she started to open her eyes, "Bonnie?"

"Elena?"

"Oh, you're okay!"

"My head...." Bonnie groaned in pain.

"Come here." Elena helps Bonnie sit up in the tub.

"Oh my god! Ben is a-,"

"Shh." Elena gestured to her ear before pointing towards the door, "They can hear."

She got up from her spot and turned the tap in the sink on before she moved back over to Bonnie.

"I'm so stupid." Bonnie says.

"No, he had us all fooled."

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked, "Why are we here?"

"It must have something to do with the tomb and Emily's spell book." Elena tells her.

"Spell book?" Bonnie questioned.

"Damon said it could be used to open the tomb." Elena says.

"Why didn't I know about any of this?"

"I was trying to keep you out of it, hoping it would never come to this."

"Come to what?"

"They need a witch to break the spell and let the vampires out." Elena said, "Anastasia already told Stefan and Damon she wanted nothing to do with opening it."

"No way."

"I know."

Ben bursts into the door, making Elena grab onto Bonnie protectively as he turns the water off.

"You're wasting your time." Bonnie tells him. "I'm not gonna help you."

"That's why she's here." Ben smiled as he grabs Elena, Bonnie trying to pull her back, but since Ben was much stronger than she was, he managed to pull Elena away from her. "Motivation for you to behave. You know, you shouldn't be so desperate. You made it too easy."

He pushed Elena out of the room and shut the door as Bonnie is getting out of the tub.

"She wants to talk to you."

"Well, well. Elena Gilbert." Anna spoke, "You really are Katherine's doppelganger. You must have the Salvatore boys reeling."

"Who are you?" Elena asked.

"I'm Anna. Your brother may have mentioned me. I mean, we're like, practically dating." Anna tells her in a girlish voice.

"He has mentioned you." Elena gave her a snarky look, "He's always tell Aunt Jenna and I how desperate you are."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"TEN KEGS?" Tyler questions as he shoots pool with Anastasia, Matt cleaning off a table while he talked to the two of them, "You know how much damage we could do with ten kegs? Duke's got it all hooked up."

"Yeah, a douche with ten kegs. AKA my new best friend. Sorry, Angel." Tyler playfully winked over at Anastasia, who was taking her turn as Jeremy scoffed from his seat, "What's your problem, Gilbert?"

"Don't have one, Lockwood." Jeremy tells him as Anastasia made her way towards him, arms going around his neck as she stood close to him, his arm making a home around her waist.

"Yeah, I didn't think so."

"Be nice." Anastasia pointed in Tyler's direction, a stern look on her face.

Tyler held his hands up in mock defense.

"Do you ever get bored of it?" Matt asks the Lockwood boy.

"Of what?"

"Yourself." Matt and Anastasia say in sync.

"Keep laughing, buddy." Tyler tells Jeremy, who was still laughing.

"Hey, Jeremy." Caroline walked over to the Gilbert boy and the Salvatore girl, "Where is Elena? I've been texting her and Bonnie all day about Duke's party."

"Uh, she went somewhere with Stefan." Jeremy said.

Caroline sighed, "I am so not going to be one of those girls who disappears just because she has a new boyfriend."

"Who is Duke?" Anastasia asked.

"Some guy that graduated a couple of years ago. And he throws a party every time he comes home from Duke." Caroline explains to her.

"Wait, Duke goes to Duke?" Jeremy asked.

"He's real name is Bob or something." Caroline said, "He's a total ass. But he buys the beers. You know, you should come. Both of you."

"Uh, Yeah, I - I don't think so." Jeremy said.

"I have plans with Uncle Stefan tonight." Anastasia tells her.

"No, seriously. Everyone goes. Even quiet loner little brothers." Caroline says before she sees Matt, "Think about it."

"You don't wanna go party with the older kids?" Anastasia raised an eyebrow at Jeremy.

"Not really. Not if you aren't gonna be there." He shrugged, moving his other arm to go around her waist also.

"You should. Live a little. You can even invite Anna." Anastasia playfully winked at him, "I don't think she likes you having me around all the time."

"Well, she's just gonna have to get over it. Because you are the only girl I see and need." Jeremy grinned as she leaned down to kiss him. "But I guess I'll invite her. Maybe, just the two of us can do something after the party."

"Sounds good." She says, "Just don't make a move on Anna, or let her make a move on you."

"I promise, I won't make a move on Anna." Jeremy tells her, "But I won't not make a move on you."

Anastasia laughs, "Shut up."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"BONNIE'S NOT gonna open the tomb." Elena tells Anna as she peers out of the window, making sure that Stefan hadn't learned of where they had been hiding.

Or even Anastasia for that matter.

"Oh, I think she will."

"Do you really want Katherine out that bad?" Elena questioned.

Anna looked over at her, "Trust me. No one I know wants to see that girl again. Except Damon, the love struck idiot."

"Then what is it?" Elena asked, "Or who is it?"

"My mother's in there." Anna walked closer to Elena, "Katherine couldn't help herself. She just had to toy around with both of the Salvatore brothers. And when she got caught, so did my mother. I watched Jonathan Gilbert take her away."

"I'm sorry."

"You really mean that, don't you?" Anna chuckled, "Yeah, I think we'll skip the dead mom bonding so you can start serving a purpose."

"Which is what?" Elena questioned.

"Leverage. This belong to you?" Anna held up a cell phone, "Ah-ah!" She quickly pulled the phone away from Elena before she could reach it, dialing the number that belonged to Stefan.

"Elena? Are you okay?"

"She's fine. For now." Says Anna, "Tell me you have the grimoire and she'll stay fine."

"I can get it."

"Which means your brother has it. And I have the witch. So one of you had better meet me in the very public town square in thirty minutes so we can safely discuss how fun it's gonna be to work together." Anna hung up the phone before she went to knock on the bathroom door, "I'm leaving."

Ben opens the door, leading Bonnie out.

"Keep them buttoned down. Compulsion won't work. Just use violence."

"Right, I got that. Sit. Behave." Ben pushed Bonnie onto the bed as Anna left the motel room. "So, you're the key to this. Literally. The one who opens the door. Tell me, how long have you been a witch?"

"Is there anything to drink here?" Elena asked Ben.

Ben gets up and walks closer to her, "Are you offering? There's water on the nightstand."

Elena picked up the glass and drank it.

"Hey, can I have a sip?" Bonnie asked.

Elena handed the glass over to Bonnie.

Once the glass was in Bonnie's hand, she tossed the water onto Ben, who yelled as he put the flames out on his arm.

While he's doing that, Elena and Bonnie made a run for the door. Bonnie gets there first and pulls the door open and is ready to run out, when Ben grabs Elena before she could make it out the door.

"Come back in! Shut the door!" Ben tells Bonnie, who does what he says.

"Don't hurt her!" Exclaimed Bonnie.

"Don't make me!" Ben growls, "Lock it."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"ARE YOU sure about this?" Jeremy asks Anastasia once they see Anna walking through the town square.

"Yes." She laughs, "But if she touches you, I might have to kill her."

Jeremy raised an eyebrow as he leaned down to kiss her. "I like it when you get territorial."

"Shut up and go." She pushed him in the direction of Anna.

"Anna! Hey - uh, what happened to you last night?" Jeremy asked her, unaware that Anastasia was listening in.

"Sorry, I had to leave." Anna tells him. "I told your sister to tell you."

"I haven't seen her." Jeremy says.

"Well, I gotta run, so-," Anna turned to leave.

"Hey, do you wanna go to a party tonight?" Jeremy asked her.

"Go to what? Won't your girlfriend be upset?" Anna asked.

"Oh, the guy who's throwing it is a total douche, but it's supposed to be fun. I figured, you know, safety in numbers." Jeremy tells her.

Anna chuckled, "So, you're finally ready to go out with me, are you?"

Jeremy glanced towards Anastasia, "It's been a while since I've been to a party, and I kind of want to get back out there. And not be such a - a loner. You're fun, and you're also kind of strange and lurky, but, uh, I guess that's cool. Besides, Stacie thinks I could use more friends. That and she's helping her Uncle with something tonight, and told me that I should ask you. So, yeah, you should come to the party. It's in the woods by that old cemetery."

"Oh. It's there, huh. That sounds cool. Uh, I'll meet you there." Anna tells him.

"Okay. Great." Jeremy turned around and made his way back to Anastasia, "That was so awkward, especially when she asked if I was ready to go out with her. Why'd you make me do that? I could've stayed home and - and listened to Jenna talk about Mr. Saltzman."

"Oh, suck it up." Anastasia playfully rolled her eyes, "You can survive being with her for a couple of hours."

"I might not." He says, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"GOT A hot date, or are you just planning on nabbing the entire Gilbert family?" Damon asked as appeared on the bench next to Anna.

"A party, right next to the old cemetery." Anna tells him, "Isn't that nice of them? Lots of warm bodies for starving vampires."

"I told you. I work alone."

"Yeah, so do I. But you're minus a witch and I'm minus a spell book. So, what do you say?"

"Stefan will come after you, you know that." Damon said, "For messing with Elena."

"Then he won't be too happy if I kill her when I don't get what I want." Anna says before she gets up and starts to walk away.

Damon scrunches his face up, and lets out a sigh. "When do you want to do this?"

"God, it's like 1864 all over again." Anna laughed as she turned around. "You Salvatore's are truly pathetic when it comes to women. Tonight. After sundown. Meet at the church."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"WITCHES DON'T have eternal life, right? So you guys can die." Ben asked as he stands around the motel room.

"Yep. We can die." Bonnie tells him.

"Ah. That sucks."

Suddenly, the door is kicked in by Stefan and Ben screams as the sunlight hits his skin. He rips the curtain open which allows even more sunlight to come into the room as Ben goes to hide away from getting burned more than what he already was.

"Stefan!" Elena exclaims.

"Get outside!" Stefan tells them, Elena and Bonnie running out of the Motel room, and he walks over to where Ben is, "When the sun goes down. Leave town. If I ever see you again, I will kill you." He goes to leave but turns back around, "Actually, I'll have my niece kill you. She likes to make a mess."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"HOW DID you know where we were?" Bonnie asked as she and her Grandmother, Shelia Bennett, sat at a table in Shelia's home.

"Many things can fuel a witch's power. Worry. Anger. After Stefan told me they had taken you, I had a lot of both. Simple locator spell was easy after that." Sheila tells her granddaughter.

"I'm sorry. About all of this."

Sheila smirked, "Not as sorry as they're gonna be."

Stefan, Elena and Anastasia walked into the house.

"So what do we do now?" Elena asked.

"Well, for now, you need to stay here."

"A prisoner in my own home? I don't think so." Shelia says.

"Eloise and I can't protect you if you leave the house." Stefan tells her.

"We'll protect ourselves."

"We need to let him have Katherine back. He's not going to stop until he gets her back. If we help him, maybe that ends it." Elena says.

"No. He doesn't deserve to get what he wants." Bonnie tells them.

Elena looked up at Stefan, "What other choice do we have?"

"Witches being pulled down by vampire problems. As much as we tried to do to stay out of it." Shelia says, "I'll open the tomb. You get your brother's girl and destroy the rest with fire. Then this will be all over."

"We still have to get Damon to agree." Stefan says.

"He already agreed once."

"Yeah, and then the two of you double crossed him. So now he's angry." Anastasia tells her Uncle and Elena.

"He's hurt. There's a difference. I think I know what I have to do." Elena said.

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"I'M GONNA have to change the locks." Damon says when he looks up to see Elena standing in the boarding house, removing her scarf from her neck, "You stage a jailbreak?" He picked up the grimoire.

"Stefan."

"Oh, brother. Ever the white knight." Damon says.

"I convinced Bonnie to help you." Elena tells him.

"I doubt that."

Elena walked around the edge of the study, towards the stairs, "I'm not gonna say that I'm sorry we got the grimoire without you last night, because I'm not really."

"Well, at least you're honest."

"I was protecting the people I love, Damon." Elena tells him, "But so where you, in your own, twisted way. And as hard as it is to figure, we're all on the same side after the same thing." She walked down the stairs.

"Not interested." He goes to leave.

"Yes you are, because you were willing to work with us yesterday." Elena said, which stopped Damon.

He turned around, "Fool me once, shame on you."

"Okay, when we were in Atlanta, why didn't you use your compulsion on me?" She asked.

Damon walked closer to her and crossed his arms, "Who's to say I didn't?"

"You didn't. I know you didn't. But you could have." She says, "You and I - We have something. An understanding. And I know that my betrayal hurt you, different from how it is with you and Stefan, but I'm promising you this now, I will help you get Katherine back."

"I wish I could believe you." Damon says, not convinced with her little speech.

Elena reached around her neck, pulling her necklace off and showing it to Damon, "Ask me if I'm lying now." She set the necklace down on the table, waiting for him to respond to her.

"You know Anna won't stop, by the way, no matter what I do."

"Then we'll deal with it."

Damon grabs Elena's necklace off the table and puts it back on around her neck, "I didn't compel you in Atlanta because we were having fun. I wanted it to be real. I'm trusting you. Don't make me regret it."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"CLEARED THE debris away. Set the torches like you asked. We can get down." Stefan says as him and Anastasia come from the old church, a shovel in his hand.

"What is that?" Bonnie asked, looking down at the gasoline cans lined next to her.

"Everything Uncle Stefan will need to destroy them." Anastasia tells them as she hands Sheila a flashlight.

"Are you sure that Damon will come back with her?" Sheila questions.

Damon whistled from behind them and the four turned to look at him and Elena, "Brother. Daughter. Witches."

"Everything okay?" Stefan asks Elena when she walks over to him.

"I just want to get this over with. Are we ready?" She asked.

"I guess so."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"AIR. EARTH. Fire." Sheila lit the torches around them.

"Water." Bonnie held up a bottle of water, handing it to Anastasia who started to sprinkle it on the floor.

"That's it? Just water from the tap?" Elena asked.

"As opposed to what?" Sheila asked her.

"I just figured maybe it would have to be blessed or mystical or something." She says, causing Anastasia to roll her eyes at the Gilbert girl while Sheila smirked at her.

"What's that?" Stefan asked as Damon pulled out a blood back.

"It's for Katherine." Damon tells him, "Gotta have something to get her going. Unless your girl's offering a vein to tap. Admit it - you can't wait to get rid of me."

Stefan chuckled, "I can't wait to get rid of you."

"Hmm."

"We're ready." Bonnie tells them.

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

JEREMY LEANED against a tree as Anna stood in front of him, but his mind wasn't even close to thinking about the girl in front of him. Instead, he wished that he was at the party with Anastasia instead.

"This place is wild." Anna says.

"You kinda like dead people, huh?" Jeremy asked her.

"I'm a stranger, remember? You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah." He nodded, "This place makes me think of someone."

"A dead someone?"

"No, no, just - someone I used to know." He tells her. "So, uh, hey." He chuckled awkwardly, "We made it all of what, 37 minutes, in that party?"

Anna smiled with a laugh, "Not your scene?"

Jeremy pushed himself up to where he was standing, "I'm not really sure what my scene is anymore. Now, I'm usually, uh, with Anastasia."

"Hmm, don't you get tired of the same old person?" Anna asked, stepping closer to Jeremy, who quickly took a step back from the girl.

"Uh, no, not really." Jeremy shook his head.

Suddenly, Ben came up behind Jeremy and knocked him unconscious.

Anna sighed, "You didn't have to hit him that hard."

"Yes, I did."

"Grab him, let's go. I'm taking him to meet my mother."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"WHAT ARE they saying?" Damon asked, watching Bonnie and Shelia do the spell to open the tomb.

"Sounds Latin." Stefan replied.

"I don't think it's Latin."

"No one knows what language it is." Anastasia tells them, arms crossed over her chest, bored and only wanted to be somewhere other than where she was.

"What's happening?" Elena grabs at Stefan's arm as the torches flare up.

The door to the tomb slowly creaked open, Bonnie and Sheila stopping the spell and looking up towards it.

"It worked!"

"Of course it worked." Sheila says.

"We have some fires to build." Damon tells Stefan.

Stefan gently grabs Elena's shoulders, "Anastasia and I are gonna go get the gasoline. We'll be right back."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"DARK DOWN there?" Ben's voice sounded from behind Stefan and Anastasia as they picked up the gas cans.

The two turned around to find Ben standing there, Jeremy laying at his feet.

"Thought I told you to leave." Stefan tells Ben.

"I considered it. Then I thought, screw you." Ben tells him.

"Hey, hero." They turned around to find Anna standing there, "I'm going down there to get my mother."

"I can't let you do that." Stefan tells her.

"Well, Ben's about to make a main course out of Elena's little brother. So, you can stop me or him. Your choice."

"Hey, where'd she go?" Ben asked.

Stefan turned his head to find his niece nowhere in sight. "Do you really think she cares about you? Hm? You're disposable."

"I don't care." Ben tells him, "She already gave me what I want."

"Are you going to say "eternal life"? You really that stupid?" Stefan asked.

Ben moved closer to Stefan, "You know, I've heard about you. You don't feed. You're not strong enough to beat me."

"Are you strong enough to beat her?" Stefan asked.

Ben looked at him confused before turning around to find Anastasia standing behind him with a smirk on her face.

"Hi. Bonnie was right, you are cute." Anastasia says before plunging her hand into his chest, causing the boy to gasp in pain at the feeling of her nails digging into his heart. "Too bad you have to die."

Just as she ripped his heart out of his chest, Stefan picked up the hose connected to the gas can and set Ben's body on fire.

"Why do I love doing that?" Anastasia grinned, Ben's heart still resting in her hands before she let it drop onto his burning body. "Go make sure everyone's okay. I'll stay with Jeremy until he wakes up."

Stefan nodded at his niece before he flashed back down the tombs.

"Why did I compel you to forget?" Anastasia sighed, sitting on the ground and pulling Jeremy to sit up against her chest.

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

STEFAN AND Elena came out of the tomb, rushing over to where Jeremy and Anastasia sat on the ground just as Jeremy was waking up.

"He's okay." Anastasia tells her, running her fingers through his dark brown hair, "He's okay."

Damon walked out of the tomb, a miserable look on his face.

Anastasia frowned up at her father as Elena stood up and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his.

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

ELENA WALKED into her brother's bedroom with a glass of water and an aspirin in her hand, handing it to Jeremy, who laid against Anastasia's chest.

"How's your head?" Elena asked him.

"Uh - It's alright. I just - I wish I knew how I passed out. I didn't drink that much, I swear." Jeremy tells his sister.

"And you don't remember anything?" She asked.

"This whole thing is pretty cloudy. I just - I know how this looks. I'm - I'm sorry." Jeremy tells her.

"No, Jeremy, don't be sorry." Elena shook her head, "You didn't do anything, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

"I've got to head on over to Bonnie's for a little bit, but is there anything that you need?" She asked.

"No, I'm just - I'm gonna crash." He says, leaning more into Anastasia, "Stacie's here if I need anything."

"Okay, well, Jenna's here also and I'll come back soon." Elena says before she leaves.

Jeremy gets up from his place on the bed and goes over to his computer.

"What are you doing?" Anastasia asked, moving to stand behind him. Her eyes grow wide as he quickly googles 'vampire' on his computer, "Jeremy, I - I need you to do something for me."

"Yeah?" He spun around in his computer chair.

"Take your bracelet off." She says.

"Huh?"

"Your bracelet. Take it off."

"Shouldn't you be asking me to take my clothes off instead?" Jeremy smirked, but did what she told him as she moved to sit on his lap.

Grabbing the sides of his face, Anastasia stared into his eyes until she took notice of his pupils dilating, "I want you to remember everything that I told you about vampires. I want you to remember everything that I told you. But what I don't want you to remember is what I told you about my bond with Kol."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

ANASTASIA SLOWLY walks into the parlor where Damon and Stefan sat in silence, both of them just staring into the fire in front of them, "Daddy?"

Stefan looked up at the sound of his niece's voice, watching as she slowly made her way over to her father.

He could see Damon look up at his daughter before she sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly.

"I'm sorry."

Damon quickly wrapped his arms around his daughter tightly, closing his eyes and letting a tear roll down his cheek.