CHAPTER EIGHT | FADE INTO YOU

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AFTER DAMON AND EVELYN'S VOW TO MAKE SURE BONNIE CAME HOME TO THEM, THEY HIT THE ROAD WITH ALARIC AND STEFAN. Despite it being Thanksgiving and Caroline had organized a meal with everyone, Evelyn wanted to be a part of Bonnie's return home since she knew what Bonnie sacrificed to get Damon back to her, it was only fair. So, she and the boys followed a lead which resulted in them heading to Portland.

"You know, I haven't got half as many missed calls as I thought I'd get." Evelyn inspected her messages with her back against the car as the Salvatore's took their belongings from the trunk. "Only fifteen. That's pretty good, considering."

"Pretty good?" Damon echoed in question with a light scoff. "It's Caroline, she's gonna be pissed regardless."

"Yeah, well, I expected more than just missed calls. More of a SWAT truck tailing us, and dragging us all the way back to Whitmore." Evelyn joked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey," Stefan called from the back of the car as he slammed the trunk and then moved beside Damon and Evelyn. "Were you two invited to Friendsgiving?"

His brother nodded in response, "Of course. Caroline demanded I bring string beans." Damon saw the shrug Stefan gave. "Why? Were you not invited?"

"No, Stefan was not. Were you, Stefan?" Evelyn teased, "Caroline refused to let him attend. I mean, I tried but she wasn't having any of it."

"Oh, boy. You messed with the wrong girl's feelings." Damon chuckled in response as he snaked his arm around Evelyn's waist. The reason Caroline didn't want Stefan to attend Friendsgiving was that they had an argument about her having feelings for him.

"Is that the reason Caroline assigned me the turkey and cranberries?" Alaric questioned while he glanced at the three vampires as they all walked. "Stefan wasn't invited."

"See what you did? Now we're pulling your weight. I really hope you figure this out before Christmas." Damon rolled his eyes with a smirk on his lips.

"Oh, trust me. I will not be taking over from Stefan at Christmas."

"Yeah, well, I'm glad you three are finding amusement in this." Stefan deadpanned as if he were refusing to let the conversation get under his skin.

Damon furrowed his brows, a dumbfounded look on his face as he glanced at his younger brother. "Why don't you just date her and put us out of our misery."

"Because I don't think about her that way. She's my friend."

"I was Damon's friend back in the day." Evelyn pointed out, just as Damon and Alaric nodded. "Friendships don't mean anything. If anything, it makes for a better foundation to form a relationship on."

"Look. One—she's hot, objectively." Damon tilted his head once he saw Evelyn raise an eyebrow when he spoke.

"Two— she puts up with you." Alaric cut in.

"Someone has to." The female vampire agreed with a soft chuckle. "She's a saint for doing that anyway."

"Three—very, very well organized."

A small scoff of disbelief left the youngest Salvatore's lips. "Organizational skills?"

"There are no drawbacks to this woman, Stefan." Damon slapped his hands onto Stefan's shoulder.

"Uh. She did sleep with you." Alaric pointed out as he saw a small smirk grow on Damon's face until Evelyn shoved him for seeming too proud about that.

"See? Another plus."

The group stopped at an empty field in the middle of quite literally, nowhere. All they could see was grass, trees, and an old tree stump situated in the middle of the field. Stefan gave the group a smug smile, considering he didn't have much faith in the lead to begin with.

"Oh, look! We're here. Behold— the Gemini Coven exactly how it looked four months ago." Stefan spoke while he waved his arms in the air with a hint of sarcasm lacing his words.

"Stop being so negative, you dick," Evelyn growled out from beside Damon. "No wonder Caroline doesn't want you at Friendsgiving."

"You know what? Check the GPS again." Alaric suggested as he stared into the field. "Just because we don't see anything, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"Not unlike Caroline's feelings for Stefan." Damon smugly piped up while his brother flicked through the GPS on his phone.

"Hilarious. Keep them coming." The Salvatore grunted under his breath.

"Are you sure that's wise? Considering he actually will." Evelyn raised an eyebrow, then she glanced back to see a smirk on Damon's face as he pulled Ms. Cuddles from his backpack.

"Oh, no. Is Stefan feeling sensitive about ruining his friendship with Caroline? She really liked him, and he broke her heart." Damon spoke in a high-pitched voice with the bear in front of his face.

"See, Stefan? Even the bear knew." Alaric grinned with amusement.

"I saw that from a mile away and my brains made of cotton!" Damon continued to wave the bear's arms around for effect.

"Oh, wow." Evelyn chuckled out.

"Give me this," Stefan growled. He yanked Ms. Cuddles from Damon's hold, then aggressively kicked it into the empty field in front of them. The bear caused something to happen in the open area, and suddenly a large white house appeared in front of them.

Evelyn's mouth hung open in surprise while she blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. "Okay, does anyone wanna explain what the hell just happened?"

Damon jogged over to the white front porch and picked up the bear. "Ms. Cuddles— one. Invisible, creepy mansion—zero."

"Anybody wanna take a stab at how Bonnie's teddy bear undid whatever was cloaking this place?" Stefan asked as four remained on the porch while Damon rang the doorbell in an attempt to get some answers.

"You said without laughing." His brother joked.

"Damon, stop pressing that damn doorbell." She complained, then she grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him away from the door.

"Jo told me she got rid of her magic by putting it away for safekeeping," Alaric stated with the bear in his right hand. "Maybe Bonnie put her magic away in this."

"Why would Bonnie put her magic in Ms. Cuddles?"

"To keep Kai from using her to get out," Damon answered back with a hint of anxiety lacing his words. Then, he walked back over to the door and shoving it open.

Once it opened, it appeared that the house was in someone's name. So, all eyes turned to Alaric. "Guessing this one on you, mortal man." Evelyn teased as she ushered Alaric inside the large house.

After a while, Alaric came back outside of the house with a confused look on his face and a pile of photographs in his hands. "Jo lived here. And, there's a drawer inside full of stuff. Newspaper articles about Jo's medical clamp, pictures of her as a kid, pictures of her as a teenager."

Damon stuck his head between a gap when he came across a familiar face in the photo. "Hold, please. Rewind. That's Kai from Planet 1994."

"Wait, that's Kai?" Evelyn looked at the picture. If she were being honest, she was not expecting a psychopath to look that cute. "And, Jo's his sister, right?"

Once he saw Evelyn glance back up at him, Damon shrugged. "Either that or they both have a thing for Cosby sweaters."

"I didn't know I had guests. You've met Kai?" A voice from the distance caused them all to wearily turn around.

"Met him?" Damon asked with sarcasm and a soft chuckle. "Watched him die. Watched him come back to life. Why? You know him?"

"Yeah, he's my son." The man nodded out of embarrassment, then he held his hand out to Damon as if he were introducing himself. "I'm Joshua Parker."

"Damon Salvatore," The minute that the Salvatore vampire grabbed hold of Joshua's hand, he disappeared.

"Damon?" Evelyn called out in a panicked tone. Neither Damon nor Joshua was visible to any of them anymore. "What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know," Alaric responded, clearly just as stunned as she was.

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Stefan and Evelyn sat on the grass, both equally worried about the Salvatore that had gone missing less than ten minutes ago. Alaric was on the phone with Jo, who he figured could shed some light on the situation, but things looked awfully bleak.

"Jo? Jo, answer the phone!" Alaric yelled down the speaker but all he was a scuffling and Jo's cries of agony.

"Ric, What's happening?!" Panic struck the two seated vampires who immediately ran straight over to Alaric, who looked like he was going out of his mind with worry.

"Ric?" The voice of Elena Gilbert echoed through the speakerphone.

"Elena, what is going on?"

"Something's happening to Jo. Find her dad and stop him from whatever he's doing to her." The Gilbert girl instructed the vampires as they all glanced around.

"That's a problem. Even if we could see the house, we haven't been invited in." Stefan spoke out while Alaric put the phone onto the speaker.

"Invite them in," Elena told Jo.

"You can come in," Jo screamed out breathlessly with an anxious undertone that made Alaric panic.

"Well, that was easy enough." Evelyn shrugged, then she glanced at Stefan. "Apart from the small fact that we can't even see the house."

"Ask them if they see an old tree stump in the front yard!" Jo's muffled grunts echoed through the phone. Evelyn nodded, ran over to the old tree stump in which she found the knife that Jo stored her magic inside. Evelyn picked up the knife and threw it in the direction the house was once in, finally revealing it once more.

They headed straight inside the house to see Joshua stood over Damon with a make-shift stake in his hand. Stefan sped straight forward and pinned Jo's father against the wall until Joshua used his magic to drop the vampires to their knees. Then, disappear without a trace.

"Well, I guess the uh, disappearing act is their shtick." Stefan breathlessly rolled his eyes as he glanced around the room and noticed that Joshua was gone.

Evelyn immediately ran over to Damon once she lifted herself up to her feet and helped him up, too. "You good?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Uh, anybody hear from Jo?"

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"Alright, so let's get this straight. We went to the airport, took off all our clothes for security just so I could come out here, have my brain scrambled by Papa-Kai who, by the way, can disappear into thin air, poof. Only to find Jo's rusty knife full of magic." Damon began to speak about the failure of a day as the group headed back to the car.

"And, we learned that the Ascendant, i.e the only reason we flew our asses out here in the first place is actually with Jo at Whitmore, five minutes from where we started" Stefan sighed with sarcasm and defeat in his voice. "Great."

"I mean, personally, I would've preferred Friendsgiving. At least I would've gotten food." Evelyn pouted from Damon's side hug. "I'm starving."

"Jo said that she kept it with her to ensure that Kai would never be released." Alaric shrugged toward the rest of the vampires, who seemed understandably irritated.

"Genius. Great, then we can go home."

"Shotgun, let's go!" Evelyn sped to the passenger side door.

"Guys, hey, we can't do this, okay? We need to find another way and one that doesn't end up with my girlfriend dead." The human deadpanned while he glared between the vampire vampires.

"Girlfriend?" Damon scoffed. "You've been on like three dates."

"More than we've been on, so shut up."The Austin vampire hummed under her breath as Damon narrowed his eyes toward her.

"What? I'm just saying. He barely knows her. Her literal evil twin is over there with Bonnie right now." Damon viciously spoke again.

"Guys, I will do what I can to help, but we're not letting her brother out, alright?" Alaric shook his head as he watched the vampires exchange looks. "The Ascendant is off the table."

"Okay." Damon sighed loudly, then he walked over to his best friend, grabbed him by the shoulders, and started to compel him. "Get the Ascendant from Jo. Do whatever you gotta' do to get it. Do you understand?"

"I understand." The human responded in a monotone voice.

"What are you doing?!" Stefan yelled out of disapproval just as Damon turned around and looked at the two vampires behind him.

"What? You two got a better idea?"

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