(act two, chapter five: kill or be killed)

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"How do you trigger the curse?" Buffy asked her dad as she was helping him carry some boxes out of his car for the Mystic Falls Historical Society Volunteer Day.

"It doesn't matter, B." Mason said as he shook his head at her. It's not like he wanted to keep it from her what he done to become a werewolf, but he did it anyway. He knew how much people changed when they found out that you killed someone. They even turn their feelings to hate. He didn't want Buffy to know, because it would break him if his daughter hated him for what he had done to his friend, Jimmy.

"Well, actually it does." Buffy said, hoping to hide the worry in her voice as she spoke, not succeeding very much. But she had to know, so that she wouldn't make the same mistake as her father. Just the thought of turning into a werewolf scared her to death.

She didn't know how much was true from what they portrayed about werewolves in movies. She didn't know if it really hurt that bad just like on screen, but you couldn't tell her that breaking every bone in your body didn't hurt at least a bit. Just breaking one bone at the time was painful, she couldn't imagine all 206 at the same time. It would be like hell on earth once a month.

Still Mason didn't answer her as he walked back over to his car to take another box. As he went to set it with the rest, Buffy stepped in front of him. "Please, dad. Whatever it is, you can tell me. No judgement, remember?"

No judgement was a thing between them from when Buffy was fourteen and feeling very insecure about literally everything like everyone does when they are that age. Nobody except from Mason knew how Buffy really used to think about herself back then. Not even Caroline, who the blonde told everything too from the age of five.

When Mason found out he promised to never judge her for anything. Even if it was something small. He would never judge and till now he was still keeping that promise. So she wouldn't judge him either. With absolutely nothing. They could already get enough judgement from everyone else.

It brought a lot of peace to both daughter and gather, knowing that they didn't have to prove anything to each other.

And hell, she was friends with Damon, it couldn't be worse than anything he has ever done in his hundred and forty five years on this earth.

"If I tell you, you won't be able to think about anything else. I don't want that for you."

"Do you know how much times in a day I am thinking about sitting at home and watching a movie or just sleeping? At least 50 percent. I think I'll be fine, dad." Buffy said to her dad, who placed the box back down in the truck of his car as he leaned against the car with a sigh, worrying Buffy.

Had it really been that bad?

"You have to kill someone. You take another person's life away from them and then the curse is yours forever."

"So who did you kill?"

"A friend of mine. His name was Jimmy. He kept coming at me because he thought that I was sleeping with his girlfriend, which I wasn't. He was drunk. That's probably what caused him to attack me." Mason explained.

"I'm sorry." Buffy said, long forgotten about her own worries. "It was self-defence. If you hadn't done anything, he would've probably killed you."

Mason nodded.  "On every full moon, I lose control. If I don't sedate myself and chain myself down, I'll kill anything in my path."

"But that night in the woods?" Buffy asked in confusion, knowing that Mason hadn't chained himself down.

"I was in the old Lockwood cellar in the woods when I heard Tyler and a girl coming my way. I couldn't risk being seen or worse hurting them." Mason explained to her, why he had been in his car instead of being locked up somewhere same.

"I'm so sorry, dad, you don't deserve this." Buffy said as she looked at her father with a pitiful expression.

"Why did you wanna know anyway?" Mason asked her, curiously.

"No special reason."

"B, you don't do anything or ask anything without a reason. Spill."

Buffy was doubting if she should tell him what Caroline had told her in the hospital. But no judgement and no secrets. "Because I think I am one."

Mason shook his head in denial. "No, it is a genetic condition. That's why it is a curse. One can only be a werewolf if they are born to at least one of their parents being one."

"The day of my accident with Tyler, Caroline and Matt, my eyes colored yellow just like Tyler's had done. Just like yours in the parking lot at school that day after my release."

"But that's not possible. As far as I know, Jenna isn't a werewolf and Alaric-"

"Isn't either. That's why it doesn't make any sense." Buffy continued.

"Normally, I would say, try it out, but I'm gonna pass up on that this time." Mason said, making Buffy let out a laugh. "Listen, I know you are probably worrying about it, but as long you don't kill someone, you have nothing to worry about."

Buffy nodded. But she was still worried. How could she not be? One death caused by her hands and she would have to deal with being a werewolf for the rest of her life.

"Stefan Salvatore? The other Salvatore?" Buffy heard her dad ask and when she looked up, she saw Stefan standing in front of her dad, leaning against the car, as her dad had gone back to moving boxes.

"The nice one. The one offering an apology." Stefan replied.

Buffy looked at him confused. Why would Stefan need to apologize?

But the answer quickly came to her. Damon had done something stupid again.

"Not interested." Mason said, not looking away from Stefan and it was clear that he was angry for whatever Damon had done to him.

"Look, my brother acted impulsively." Stefan explained to the Lockwood.

"You think?" Mason asked him with sarcasm.

"If you and Damon keep at each other's throats somebody is gonna get hurt. I don't want that. You have family here," Stefan looked towards Buffy. "so I can't imagine you'd want that either. So what do you say? We just quit the whole alpha-male fighting thing and call it a truce?" Stefan asked him

Mason sat his arm down on a box and pointed Stefan in the face. "I made that same offer to your brother. He turned it down, with a knife."

"Damon did what?" Buffy's voice came from behind him.

"He made a mistake. I'm here to make sure that neither one of you make another one." Stefan quickly said, glancing at Buffy, who was starting to get angry. She had warned him not to try anything and he just goes around stabbing her dad with a knife?

"Tell your brother to watch his back." Mason said to Stefan as he took one the boxes up and started walking away, only to be pulled back by Stefan.

"Well, I'm guessing he only has to worry about that during a full moon. Otherwise you're not as strong. Am I right? Or you would have killed Damon by now. There's one of you, there's two of us. You're the one that needs to watch his back." Stefan said, threatening the werewolf, who knew that Stefan was right.

"If he comes at me-." Mason got cut off by Stefan. 

"He won't." Mason shook Stefan's extended hand before walking away from his car and the Salvatore himself. As the Salvatore turned around to speak with Buffy, he saw that the girl had left.

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Buffy search's for Damon was interrupted when she saw her sister sitting alone by the lake, pretending to be sad about her fight with Stefan. Elena knew that Caroline had seen it and followed her so she would have to pretend for just a little bit longer.

And Caroline was not the only one who had witnessed it. "Hey, I saw your fight with Stefan. Are you okay, Lena?" Buffy asked with worry as she sat down next to her cousin. 

Elena who saw Caroline approaching them, shook her head. "Nope." She answered, throwing one of the leaves she was holding in the lake.

"You know what? Maybe it's for the best." Caroline said as she joined the Gilbert - Sommers duo.

"What? Of course it's not." Buffy asked her best friend confused as she looked up. Fighting with your boyfriend is never good and Buffy knew that Caroline understood that, so why was she acting like this? 

Firstly yesterday at the barbecue when she didn't want Elena going over to the boarding house, which already had not gone well between the couple and now she was saying that this was for the best?

"It's not for the best, Caroline. None of this is for the best." Elena spoke to Caroline, pissed. "I'm sorry, okay? I don't mean to take it out on you. You're just being a good friend." 

Caroline shook her head. "No, I'm not. I'm not being a good friend at all." 

She didn't want to spy on her friend for Katherine, but she was scared. Just like Katherine had said yesterday. She had killed her once, she could easily do it again.

And the Forbes didn't want to die for real without a chance of being brought back.

When Elena though Caroline was going to come clean about what Katherine had asked her to do, Caroline got distracted. "Is she leaving? Where is my mom going?" Caroline asked as she saw her mom with a phone pressed against her ear, looking back a few times to make sure she wasn't followed as she left the park in a fast pace. Her daughter quickly stood up, but Caroline got to her mother earlier than Buffy and Elena did.

"What's going on?" Elena asked as they finally caught up with Caroline.

"I don't know. But something's up." Caroline said with suspicion as she watched her mother leave even faster than before.

"Where are you going? What's going on?" Elena asked as she and Buffy followed Caroline to the top of a hill.

"I need to be able to hear better." Caroline explained, looking around for any sight of her mother.

"Hear what, exactly?" Buffy asked as she looked in the same direction as her best friend.

"Something's wrong, Buf." Caroline replied, pushing her hair after her ears so that she would be able to hear better. 

"Caroline-"

"Shh." Caroline cut Elena off when she thought she heard something. And she did. "Oh, God." She spoke, turning around since the shots she heard got fired from that side of the woods.

"What is it?" Elena asked, confused."It's Stefan and Damon." Caroline answered.

"What?" Elena asked with worry as she and Buffy followed behind Caroline once more.

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"What is it?" Elena and Buffy asked Caroline in unison as the blonde vampire stopped running.

"They've been here." Caroline answered, bending down to the ground as she noticed there was drips of blood on a plant right next to her foot.

"What?" Elena asked and in return Caroline just showed them the blood.

"The old Lockwood cellar." Buffy muttered out.

"What?" Elena asked as she turned to her sister.

"They're in the Lockwood cellar." Buffy repeated as she knew that place wasn't far from here.

It didn't take them long at all to get there. Directly, Caroline used her vampire hearing to hear what was going on down in the cellar. "He's not gonna tell us anything. Kill them both."

"Caroline what is it?" Elena asked as Caroline let out a gasp from what she had just heard.

"My mom. She's killing them."

Elena and Buffy directly started to go off the stairs, luckily faster than Caroline though about pulling them back.

As the two of them went inside, Elena knocked someone on the head with a piece of wood, not hard enough to knock him out, though. 

"Elena, Buffy, what are you two doing?" Liz asked, pointing the gun at them 

"You can't kill them. We're not gonna let you." 

The officer, who Elena had slapped with the wood came back inside and pushed them both further into the cellar. Behind him the gate closed, but nobody saw who had done it, since the person had used their vampire speed.

"What was that?" The officer asked them. 

"Who else is with you?" Liz asked the two girls, who didn't answer.

Caroline came up behind one of the officers and bit his neck, using him as a shield as the other one started firing bullets at her. Once the bullets were all gone, Caroline vamped over to the other one and knocked him out.

As they were both down, Caroline turned to face her mother. Her mouth covered in blood of the deputies and her fangs still out. "Hi, mom." 

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Buffy sat down next to Caroline holding her hand as Caroline's mother was staring at the ground with a horror-struck expression on her face. Liz didn't even care about Damon and Stefan recovering from the vervain and the wooden bullets.

"You need to drink some deputy blood." Damon said to Stefan after he was done drying the officer, who got shot by the other, off his blood. 

Stefan shook his head. "No. I'll be fine. It's just gonna take a little bit longer."

"Damon's right, you know? If there was ever a time to break your diet-"

"He said he didn't want it, okay?" Elena cut Caroline off.

"This is the most unfortunate situation." Damon said as he managed to pull himself up to his feet. "Two deputies dead. And you." He turned to Liz. "What am I gonna do with you?" He asked Liz, who kept quiet.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" Caroline asked her mother, who looked at her for a second, before quickly looking away from her again. "Mom? Please?" Caroline spoke. "Look, I know that we don't get along and that you hate me, but I'm your daughter and you'll do this for me, right?" Still her mother didn't say anything. "Mom, please, he will kill you."

"Then kill me." Liz said with tears in her eyes as she looked up at Damon.

"No." Caroline spoke, standing up.

"I can't take this. Kill me, now." The sheriff begged Damon as he crouched down in front of her so that they were face to face.

"But you were gonna drag it out so painfully." Damon grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet.

"No, no, no." Caroline screamed out in horror.

"Damon, don't." His brother said from the ground.

"Relax, guys, no one's killing anybody." Damon spoke, calming everyone down. "You're my friend." He released Liz from his grip and turned around to the two deputies lying on the ground behind Elena and his brother.

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"A stomach bug. Yeah, it came on fast. I'll definitely be out tomorrow." Liz spoke through her phone as she, Damon and Buffy were downstairs in the cellar of the Salvatore Boarding House.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Damon clicked his tong, catching her attention to give her a pointed look.

"Or longer. I'll text you. Good night." Liz spoke before she hung up the phone and handed it to Buffy, who was leaning against the wall.

"Thank you." Buffy thanked her, giving the sheriff a small, but short smile.

"It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's secure. Brought you a good thread count. And once the vervain's worked its way out of your system, I will compel you, you will forget everything and you will be a free woman." Damon spoke as she sat down on the chair.

"Can you keep Caroline far away from me please? I don't wanna see her." Liz asked of them.

"She's your daughter, Liz." Damon replied as he looked at Caroline standing next to the door, outside the cellar.

"Not anymore. My daughter's gone." Liz said in denial.

"You have no idea how wrong you are about that." Damon said. 

"She died, Liz. How can you say that?" Buffy asked the woman in anger, but again Liz didn't say anything.

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Buffy was in the kitchen, getting some water for Caroline, who was sitting on the couch, not being able to sleep. She had come clean about Katherine to Elena, but she was still scared to go because of the fact that Katherine was probably there, waiting for her to report back about everything that happened today.

"How come that you two have normal food in your kitchen?" Buffy asked Damon as he came walking in to the kichten, to find her making two sandwiches. One for herself and one for Elena.

"You and Elena spend of your time here anyway. And I saw your chocolate stack."

"Let me guess. You were snooping around my room?" The blonde asked as Damon sat down beside his best friend.

"Exactly."

Buffy let out a laugh as she turned to face Damon. She picked up the clean knife that laid on the table and quickly slammed it in his leg. She did all that before he even realised what she was doing.

"Ow!"

"Hurt my father again, and the next one will be a stake through the heart." And with that Buffy left the room.

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Just to be clear, Mason didn't tell Liz about Stefan and Damon, she found out because she planted vervain in the lemonade!

Words: 2918

Posted: August 2, 2024

Be sure to comment. I love reading them and it really keeps me motivated!