CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | PICTURES OF YOU

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ELENA HAD VOWED THAT IF THEY CONTINUED TO TRY TO GET THE CURE FOR HER, SHE WOULD KILL PEOPLE. Though, in a strange lapse of judgment, Elena hadn't killed anyone in recent days. Evelyn, Damon, and Stefan had tried to intervene every time Elena attempted to attack a local, so they guessed she may have given up.

"So, what's it been?" Damon raised an eyebrow toward his brother as he tossed a football toward him. He stood on one side of the room, Evelyn sat on the couch right between them, and Stefan stood behind the couch. "Eight? Nine days?"

Evelyn rolled her eyes as she felt the football fly above her head once more. She glanced up from her cellphone and looked at Damon. "To be honest, I lost count. I was hoping one of you two would know."

"We lost count of the consecutive days in which Elena Gilbert has not killed anyone. I'd say that's progress." Damon chuckled as he caught the football and then tossed it back to his brother.

"So, what are we gonna do? Just—uh, throw the football for another hundred and fifty years until Elena gets her humanity back?" Stefan questioned while his brother just shrugged. "Because I'm cool with that."

"She doesn't want the cure. She's gonna start killing people if she knows we're still trying to get it for her."

"You two are idiots, you know that?" Evelyn rolled her eyes, slid her phone into her pocket, and got up from the couch. "There's more than one way to go about this. We just need to make Elena want the cure."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, gorgeous, but how are you going to make an emotionless vampire want anything?" Damon raised his eyebrow toward the brunette vampire.

"No, no. Evelyn's onto something here." Stefan nodded in agreement. "Get her to flip her humanity switch."

The eldest Salvatore rolled his eyes and glanced between Stefan and Evelyn. "What are we gonna do? Pull a Lexi and bombard her with emotions until one of them sticks?"

"Yeah, and if that doesn't work we go to plan B. Lock her up, keep her sidelined until us three work out a plan C."

"Sounds like a plan." Evelyn clapped her hands together with a smirk on her lips. "That high school prom is tonight, right? There's no way that Elena would miss that. Plus, the theme is Pictures Of You."

Evelyn rolled her eyes as she heard a scoff leave Damon's lips. "What sort of dumbass came up with that theme."

"Caroline did." Stefan folded his arms across his chest and then smirked as he noticed Evelyn gave Damon a pointed look. "I actually think it'll be good. There will be pictures of Elena with the people she cares about. Hopefully one of those pictures can trigger an emotion."

"Well, in the words of the elusive Miss Katherine Pierce— game on," Evelyn smirked.

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Evelyn stood in the mirror with her eyes fixed on her reflection. She wore a silver dress, with a low neckline that revealed a fair bit of cleavage and she loved the way that she looked. The brothers had decided that they would use the prom as a way to get Elena to flip her switch, and Evelyn was to compel herself in, considering she wasn't a student.

"You know, I think I'm far too old to be attending a high school prom." Evelyn scoffed and smirked toward Damon the minute that she saw his reflection in the mirror.

"Ah, I don't know. I think you can definitely pull it off." Damon smirked as he wandered in the room. He eyed up her body and the way that the silver dress hugged every curve of her body. "You look beautiful, by the way. But, you already knew that, didn't you?"

Evelyn shrugged with an innocent smile on her face as she grabbed a set of earrings from her make-up table. "I just— I wanted to make an effort, you know?"

"Well." Damon took a deep breath and glanced back up to the brunette's face. He looked her in the eyes and smiled. "You certainly have done that."

"So, you know right before Rebekah took the cure." Evelyn used her fingers to make air-quotes, the moment she spoke about the fake cure Katherine gave them. "She said you didn't care whether Elena took the cure because you wanted to be with me—"

"Hm. I was wondering how long it would take for that to become a topic of conversation." A chuckle of nervousness left Damon's lips.

"Was it true?" The Austin vampire asked in a hushed voice as Damon twirled her around and grabbed both of her hands. "Damon—"

"—Yes. Yes, it's true." He nodded abruptly and smiled at her as he listened to her heart begin to race. "This whole time, all it's ever been about is breaking that damn sire bond so that you and I—"

"Damon, we—" Stefan's voice echoed as he wandered into the room, unaware that he had interrupted the couple. "Oh, sorry. Uh, we really need to be going."

Damon hesitantly looked between Evelyn, and then his brother. "You need to go with Stefan to get Elena." The woman gave him a sure nod and a smile. "It's okay. I'll be there."

"I'll see you there," He nodded to her and gave her one final glance. "I promise."

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Evelyn strolled up to Matt and Bonnie who were waiting for her just outside the prom. Although Evelyn wasn't actually a student, she'd compelled a few people to let her pass. "Okay, is it just me or does this place look like—"

"—Like we're in a practice run of Caroline's wedding?" Matt joked and laughed with the girls as the two females nodded in agreement.

"I think we are." Bonnie laughed and then glanced at Evelyn. "Aren't you suppose to be helping with, Elena?"

"Yup." Evelyn nodded and then pulled out a flask from a small clutch bag. "I'm here to make sure that no necks get snapped and no bodies get drained of blood. Apart from that, I'm here to get wasted and hang with my friends."

"This is prom. You know, for seniors and stuff. I think you're a little past senior, don't you?" Elena Gilbert's vicious tongue spoke from behind Evelyn. Once the Austin vampire turned around to face her, she smirked.

"You do realize that I could rip your heart from your chest, right here right now." Evelyn lowered her voice only so the surrounding few could hear.

"But you won't." Elena tilted her head, though her eyes didn't move from Evelyn's gaze. "Not unless you want to maintain Damon's affection. Given it's probably quite difficult to do that while I'm around, but it was fun watching you fawn all over him like some obsessed lovesick idiot."

"Oh, Elena, Damon doesn't love you. The only thing he loves is the fact that you going on all these killing sprees is allowing him to feed without actually doing any of the leg work. And as for the cure, well, that's just to break the sire bond. He wants you running straight back to Stefan."

"Elena." Bonnie began as Elena just turned her head. "I just— I miss you."

"Me, too. And, we wanna help you." The Donovan boy nodded in agreement as he stood beside Bonnie, though Elena just scoffed.

"Spare me, Matt." The humanity-free vampire rolled her eyes. "If you had the choice, you would've turned your emotions off the second that Vicki died."

"Hey, you shut it off because all you could feel were the horrible things happening to you. You still have friends who love you." Bonnie tilted her head sympathetically, as Evelyn remained quiet, watching.

"I thought you were gonna bring Jeremy back but it turned out you were just a brain-washed crazy person. So, technically, you're just a walking reminder of all the horrible things that have happened to me." Elena viciously fired just before she pushed past them.

"Bon, wait—" Evelyn extended her hand to grab Bonnie, just before the witch hurried off.

"No, Eve, Caroline's right. Elena's gone." Bonnie snapped and then walked right out of the venue without a second glance.

"Could I trouble you for a dance, Miss. Austin?" Damon extended his hand toward the flustered looking vampire. Matt excused himself with a smile the minute he watched Evelyn take Damon's hand. "I heard your spat with Elena. She was harsh, right?"

"Elena with without her humanity blows." Evelyn sighed heavily as she rested her arms around Damon's neck. She felt his hands stop at her waist as they slowly swayed to the music. "I figured you'd be the one keeping her in line tonight."

"Nope. That's all Stefan." Damon chuckled as he nodded his head in the direction of Elena and Stefan, who were dancing a short distance from them. "I have more important things to worry about tonight.

Evelyn's eyebrow rose with intrigue. "Like?"

"You, for one," Damon revealed and Evelyn immediately felt that feeling again— she was swept up in a current of emotions and all she wanted to do was tell Damon how she felt. "Oh, come on, it wasn't a coincidence you mentioned tonight was the senior prom. You wanted to know what it was like, didn't you?"

"What're you talking about?" Evelyn feigned confusion.

"You've never been to a senior prom, or any prom, so you wanted to know what it felt like." The Salvatore chuckled as he saw a flicker of a smile appear on her face. "Hey, it's okay to admit it. Not all vampires want to keep reliving high school. Just idiots like my brother."

"I— I guess I just wanted to feel simply human for a change. Is that wrong?"

"No. No, Evelyn." Damon's hand brushed against the skin on the vampire's keep and suddenly she felt at home. "It's not wrong at all. I guess I just never had you down to reminisce about human life."

"I don't. But, sometimes I wish that I could experience a few normalities in my life. There's just so much fantasy." Evelyn took a deep breath and then pulled away from Damon slowly. "Thank you for the dance, Damon. But, I think I need a drink."

The brunette vampire moved away from Damon and headed over to the punch table. She rolled her eyes at the fact there were non-alcoholic drinks for the students, then pulled her flask for her clutch bag.

"This prom sucks. This is our last dance together and it's awful. This is not how I wanted to remember this night." Caroline Forbes cried out the moment she walked over and stood beside Evelyn. The brunette vampire held her flask toward the blonde and raised an eyebrow. "Thank you, Eve."

"You're more than welcome, Care. But, you're right. This does suck." Evelyn puffed out as she watched the blonde nod.

"If anyone asks, I'll be at the after-party."

The minute Caroline hurried off out of the prom, Damon and Stefan appeared with a flustered looking Bonnie at their side. They revealed that Silas was actually appearing to Bonnie as Jeremy but their conversation was swiftly interrupted by Bonnie and Matt winning prom king and queen.

"Evelyn!" Rebekah called out toward the Austin girl as she noticed Bonnie and Matt on the stage, taking pictures in their crowns. "You need to get the prom queen off of the stage."

Evelyn's brows knitted together with confusion. "Right. And, why exactly would I do that?"

"You didn't hear it from me, but Elena's up to something." The Mikaelson admitted with a look of hesitancy on her face as she picked up the skirt of her yellow dress and hurried away.

Evelyn glanced over to Matt, and then they saw the lights of the venue immediately flicker and the wind picked up in an unnatural way. The guests began to gasp in horror and that was when Matt and Evelyn managed to find Bonnie and Elena.

"Bonnie!" Matt called out to the Bennett witch with concern all across his face. He turned to the witch and then noticed Elena was on the ground as if she used her magic on her.

"Something's happening to me. I've gotta get out of here."

"It's okay, Bon. Just go." Evelyn confidently nodded toward the Bennett witch, who was gone within seconds. Elena slowly lifted herself up from the ground and turned to look viciously at Matt and Evelyn. "You seriously just tried to kill your best friend, huh?"

"I don't have any friends, Evelyn. And, neither do you so you should really stop trying to help them out." Elena tilted her head with a vicious look on her face. "Now, if you'll excuse me—"

Elena attempted to rush at Evelyn to snap her neck, but the older vampire managed to block her. She moved out of the way, grabbed the back of Elena's head, and smashed it against the table with immense force. A gasp left Matt's lips as he watched Elena fall unconscious.

"Relax, she'll live— unfortunately." Evelyn rolled her eyes as she turned from Elena to Matt. "Go find Stefan and Damon. Tell them it's time for Plan B."

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