(act two, chapter seven: masquerade)

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Despite the situation she was in, Jenna Sommers was smiling. Smiling at the two people by her side. Buffy was sleeping with her head resting on her mother's bed, while Alaric was sleeping, head fallen back on the chair on the other side of Buffy.

"I tried to sent them home, but they wouldn't move." A nurse whispered to her as she entered the room with a tray full with food. "Especially that one." She nodded at Buffy.

Jenna gave her daughter a smile as she grabbed Buffy's hand, which laid right next to her, so Jenna was assuming that Buffy had hold it this night or at least until she fell asleep.

"A doctor will come by later today, if he clears you, you're free to go." The nurse spoke, making Jenna look away from her daughter. She nodded with a small smile at the nurse, who left the room again.

Buffy started muttering in her sleep. A thing that the girl only did when she was having a nightmare. 

"Hey, sweetheart." Jenna spoke, softly shaking her daughter awake, who's head shot up and looked around to find herself still in the hospital room next to her mother. Not in the woods. Not with a death body and blood on her hands. "Hey, it's okay." She heard Jenna say as her breath started going faster.

She hadn't told it to anyone, not wanting to worry them, but what Mason had told her was true.

She wasn't able to think about anything else than accidentally killing someone and turning into a wolf.

But Buffy though she was at least doing a good job at hiding it since no had noticed it yet.

"What were you dreaming about?" Jenna asked her.

"A movie I've seen a while ago. Scary as hell." She lied, hoping that her mother wouldn't see right trough her.

And she didn't, but Jenna didn't ask her why she lied. Not now Buffy was talking to her normally again. 

"How are you feeling, mom?" Buffy asked her in worried tone, her eyes going over to the place that Alaric had told her that her mom had 'stabbed' herself.

Stupid Katherine.

"I'm fine."

"You got a knife in your stomach. You're not gonna tell me you're feeling fine." Buffy spoke, shaking her head. By saying that she got a small flashback of when Damon had stabbed her with the stake. That had hurt like a bitch, a knife couldn't be much less painful, right?

"It hurts, but I'm fine."

Buffy nodded, letting it go.

"Have you eaten anything?" She asked, looking at the tray.

"No."

Buffy stood up and looked down at the plate.

"Yeah, I'm gonna get you so real food, unless you want this." She said, showing the plate to her mother, who's face turned in disgust at the sight of the hospital food.

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"Hey, stop fussing, I'm fine." Jenna told the four as they walked through the front door of the Gilbert house a few days later, when she was finally released out of the hospital. Matt and Buffy were by her side so they could get her to the couch, while Jeremy closed the door behind them.

"The doctors said that you have to take it easy." Elena said. Her hands full with flowers and a balloon that Jenna had received during her stay at the hospital.

"Yeah, you don't want to rip your stitches, hemorrhage and die, alright?" Jeremy spoke, joining them again.

"And they say I'm the dramatic one." Buffy said with a look at Jeremy.

"That's because you are the dramatic one." Jenna said to her daughter, receiving a small glare in return. 

"The only thing I'm gonna die from is embarrassment." Jenna spoke to Jeremy.

"No." Matt shook his head.

"I walked into a knife. How does somebody do that?" Jenna asked him.

"It was a freak accident." Elena said.

"Yeah, it happens." Jeremy spoke as the three who knew what had happened shared a look with each other.

"Yeah, I mean I've done it like twenty times at the Grill." Matt said, trying to make Jenna feel better, but Jenna let out a laugh but then winced in pain. "Okay, I'm being nice."

"Careful." Jeremy said as Matt and Buffy put Jenna down on the couch.

"What should I do with this?" Matt asked Elena, who stood behind the couch, as he showed her the bag of food.

"I got it." Elena spoke, taking it from him as she walked to the kitchen with her brother.

"Oh, God, this is embarrassing." Jenna repeated.

"It's okay." Buffy spoke, reassuring her mother. 

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"I feel like an invalid." Jenna muttered, still laying on the couch hours later. Everyone of their friends was at the masquerade ball, Elena and Buffy were still at home. Elena because she wasn't in the mood to engage with other people after her 'break up' with Stefan and Buffy because she wanted to stay with her mom, who also invited Alaric.

"That's because you are an invalid." Elena said, putting a slice of pizza on a plate.

"He already left for the Lockwood party."

"He went to that?" Elena asked her aunt in confusion, knowing that her brother would never go willingly to a party out of himself.

"Yeah. I'm glad. He needs to have more fun. Lose some of that emo thing." Jenna shrugged, finding it good of Jeremy that went out, not like a year ago when the only thing he did with his time was smoke, do drugs and sit in his room all alone high.

"I'm gonna get some napkins." Elena declared as she stood up and walked over to the kitchen to get 'the napkins', where she found the daughter - father duo, discussing some movie she had never seen before.

"What's going on?" Elena asked, narrowing her eyes at Alaric, who looked back confused.

"What do you mean?" He asked, opening the bottle of wine.

"I haven't heard from anyone all day. It's like everyone's been avoiding me and now Jeremy's supposedly at the party? He hates stuff like that."

"Same, I send Caroline a text earlier and normally she would respond a few seconds later and she hasn't replied yet." Buffy said, joining in on the subject.

"I don't know what to tell you two." Alaric spoke, obviously lying, but when his phone started buzzing, Elena reached out to look at it, but Ric quickly put it away in his pocket.

"So, then you'll be okay if we just head out and try to meet up with everyone." Elena spoke, trying to walk past Alaric, but he stopped her.

"Wait."

"What are you hiding?" Buffy asked from her seat. 

"From you, absolutely nothing." He said to his daughter, before turning to Elena again. "Stefan asked me to keep an eye on you just in case Katherine showed up while he was at the party."

"So, Stefan's at the party, too? He would never go to the party for himself. He did that stuff for me."

"Just let this one go, okay, Elena?" Alaric asked her before going over to the couches and join Jenna. 

"I think we know now who you got your bad lying skills from." Elena spoke to Buffy as the looked in the living room at Buffy's parents.

"I do not suck at lying." 

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"Hey, guys, we're gonna go to bed. You good over there?" Elena asked, looking back at the two in the living room from where the two stood in the hallway.

"Night." Jenna said.

"Night." The two girls replied as Elena grabbed her car keys. The two sneaked through the front door, closing it as quietly as they could.

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"You guys are trying to kill her here?" Elena asked with wide eyes as Bonnie and Jeremy had explained what was going over after the two had practically dragged Jeremy away from the party. Luckily, they weren't seen by anyone.

"We saw an opportunity and we knew we had to take it." Jeremy spoke, defending himself and the others.

"Okay, stop with the "we", are you guys crazy? You're gonna get yourselves killed."

"We know what we're doing, Elena." Bonnie said to the Gilbert girl, who was clearly not agreeing with their decision. 

"And how am I supposed to feel if one of you guys gets hurt because of me?" Elena asked them.

"It's not just you anymore, Elena. She's messed with all of us, she has to be stopped." Jeremy spoke.

Elena looked at Buffy for support.

"I say kill the bitch." Buffy said with a shrug.

"Buffy!"

"Elena, she killed Caroline and made my mom stab herself and basically ruined your relationship with Stefan." She turned back to the two. "Kill the bitch."

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Suddenly Elena started screaming, falling on her knees from the pain in her back.

"What's going on?" Jeremy asked in worry as they all walked over to help Elena.

The brunette let out another scream as she felt a sharp sting in her right arm, where Buffy was holding her. It didn't take long for there to appear a stain of blood on her pink shirt as well.

"Jeremy, it's Katherine. She's linked to Katherine, get them to stop! Now!" Bonnie realised as she and Buffy tried to help Elena. Jeremy quickly stood up and ran inside the Lockwood mansion up to the room where he knew he could find the brothers and Katherine.

"Stop! You're hurting Elena. Everything you're doing to her is hurting Elena." He yelled, making the oldest Salvatore stop in his movement since he was aiming the stake at Katherine's heart.

Katherine smirked as he got off her. "You think you are the only ones with a witch on your side? Wrong. And something tells me that my witch is better than your with."

"Jeremy, go check on Elena. Make sure she's okay. Go." Stefan spoke.

"Let's all make sure poor Elena is okay." Katherine spoke with jealousy in her voice. She raised the stake again putting it against the other hand. "Just a little bit more pressure-"

Another scratch appeared on Elena's hand palm. "Bonnie, it hurts." She cried out in pain as she made a fist of her hand, thinking that would stop the pain.

"I can't break the spell. Elena, I'm sorry. But I an try to take some of the pain away. Okay?" The Bennett asked before she started chanting a spell that would help her with the pain.

"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked, running back down to where the three girls were.

"Are they?" Elena asked, referring to the brothers.

"They're stuck in there with her." He turned to Bonnie. "You were right. Katherine had a with to link them to her."

Bonnie's head snapped up at his words. "That girl I saw. The one inside. Keep pressure on her shoulder." She spoke before going back inside to look for the other witch.

"Where are you going?" Jeremy called out after her.

"There's another witch and I'm gonna find her." Bonnie replied but she didn't stop walking.

Jeremy pulls the Gilbert ring of his finger and handed it to Elena.

"No." Elena said, not excepting it.

"Take this." Jeremy spoke to her once more.

"No, Jeremy-" Elena was cut off.

"Elena, listen to me. You need this more than I do." Jeremy spoke, trying to get his sister to put on the ring.

"No, Jeremy. What I need is for you to be safe."

Jeremy sighed before putting the ring back around his finger.

No more scars or stab wounds followed after that. And both Buffy and Jeremy helped Elena stop the bleeding and tried to help her with the pain

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"Hello, Katherine." Damon spoke as they finally were able to put the Pierce into the tomb with Lucy's help. The place she should've been in for hundred and forty-five years and now she was now finally getting what she deserved.

"Where am I?"

"Where you should've been all along. I thought you would've learned your lesson, messing with a Bennett witch." He tsk-d.

"You should've killed me."

"Death would've been too kind." Damon said and walked towards her to close the door.

"Damon, don't. You need me. Elena and Buffy are in danger."

"From who?" Damon asked feeling worried for his best friend and Elena, but he didn't show it to her, instead he just glared at her. 

She shook her head, not wanting to tell him.

"You're lying. You're always lying." Damon spoke as he realised it had just been one more lie coming out of her mouth.

"Why do you think I haven't killed Elena?" Katherine yelled out. "Because she's the doppelgänger. She needs to be protected. And Buffy will get caught up in this if you do this. She'll be in an even worse situation than Elena. She will live a live of hell with no way out."

"Then I'll protect them. While you rot in hell." Damon spoke to her as he started to move the stone so that he could close the opening of the tomb. He didn't believe her anymore, and why should he? The only thing leaving her mouth were lies and more lies.

"No, Damon, don't. Please. I'll do anything. You need me! Damon. You need me! You need me!"

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Buffy stood by a tree as she was waiting for her cousin to finish up her conversation with her boyfriend. Both didn't seem to happy about it, so Buffy didn't ask any questions when Elena finally made her way over to her with her phone to her ear.

"Yeah, Jeremy, I've got my car. I'm starting to feel better. Yeah, you can drive her home. I'm just gonna go straight to bed. Yes, Buffy is here with me. Okay." Elena spoke through the phone while the two were stepping towards Elena's car.

As Elena went to open her car, Buffy saw a man walking up to her sister. "Elena, watch out!"

But the blonde was to late.

The man had already knocked her sister out.

And now he was walking her way and with one quick slap, she was out as well.

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I wish my town had events like a Masquerade Ball :(

And we all know whats gonna happen next chapter aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

Words: 2326

Posted: August 5, 2024

Thank you for reading again and be sure to comment. I love reading them and it really keeps me motivated!

mwah katherine