CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | RESIDENT EVIL 

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EVELYN WAS GENUINELY SURPRISED AT ELENA'S REACTION TO HER ENGAGEMENT. Given her rocky history with the doppelganger and Damon, Evelyn half-expected Elena to be cut-up about the whole thing. Though, Elena had taken it pretty well and even suggested that Evelyn join her and Caroline for coffee in the Grill— which Evelyn happily agreed to. She wanted to get in a good place with Elena, just like she was with everybody else. 

As Evelyn wandered into the Grill, she immediately caught sight of the blonde and the doppelganger seated at a table just a short distance from the door. "Hey, I bought you a coffee."

"Oh, you're amazing. God knows I need caffeine so bad right now." Evelyn groaned out as she sat herself down on one of the seats and then furrowed her brows toward Elena. The girl hadn't said a single word to her, instead she just gripped her keys tightly.  "Elena, you okay?"

Caroline glanced at Evelyn with furrowed brows, then began to wave her hand in front of Elena's eyes to get her to respond. She assumed the girl had just zoned out. "Elena? Hello! Elena!"

Suddenly, a gasp left Elena's lips. She looked around the room with a dazed and panicked look on her face. "How did I get here? I was just standing in the doorway."

"Uh, you walked." The Forbes girl furrowed her brows with confusion, though after a few moments, she came to a conclusion. "Hang on. Did you just have one of those dreams, like, right here?"

"I didn't feel like a dream, okay? It felt like it was real, like, I was just there."

"What dreams?" Evelyn furrowed her brows and glanced between the two females, as if she were waiting for one of them to explain what was going on. "

"Elena's been having dreams about Stefan," Caroline informed her friend, then lifted her cup of coffee up with an unreadable look on her face. 

"Oh. Wow. Really?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow at the fact that Elena was dreaming about her ex-boyfriend.

"Yeah." Elena sighed heavily, then rested her arms on the table as she set her sights on Caroline. "Caroline, if you bite your tongue any harder, you'll bleed. Say it."

"It's psych 101. Actually, it's whatever comes before 101. You're having dreams about Stefan—" The vampire attempted to explain, but Elena interrupted.

"—It's not just about Stefan, okay? My parents were still alive. It was like a different life."

Whilst Elena was attempting to explain the mysterious dreams she'd been enduring, Caroline's phone began to vibrate on the table in front of them. All eyes averted down to the caller ID that read Stefan, then Evelyn chuckled. "Wow. Check out the timing on this guy."

"Stefan, hey," Caroline answered in a nonchalant tone as she pressed her phone up to her ear, fully aware that the two brunette vampires would listen to the conversation intently. "Is everything okay?"

"Well, you know how sometimes you feel crazy, and you call me and I tell you that you're not crazy?" Stefan slowly began as a small chuckle left the blonde's lips. 

"Even though most of the time I am."

"Well, I need you to tell me that I'm not crazy." Stefan's voice was stern. "I was walking to my car, and I nearly got plowed over in the middle of the street because I was having some vision of Elena."

Elena's eyes immediately widened as both Caroline and Evelyn set their sights on the doppelganger. "I take that back, actually. You're not crazy at all. Something's going on."

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The door of the Boarding House was swung open as Enzo glared at the three vampires who stood on the front porch. Evelyn rolled her eyes and sighed under her breath at the British vampire. "What're you doing here?"

"Nice to see you, too, Evelyn." Enzo gave the brunette a faux smile. "I've actually been having a lovely game of pool with Damon. I hear congratulations are in order."

"Where is he?" Caroline exasperatedly sighed. 

"He's here." The Salvatore called out as he wandered straight into view. When he set eyes on Evelyn, he pulled her into his embrace and place a gentle kiss on her head.

"So, I hear Elena's having sex dreams about the younger Salvatore, no less." Enzo teased as he set his sights on the doppelganger, who began to squirm. 

"They are not sex dreams!" Elena huffed in a tired tone of voice, though she knew that whatever she said, Enzo would still find a way to irritate her. 

"Shut up, Enzo. They're not sex dreams." Evelyn spoke through gritted teeth as she narrowed her eyes toward him. "We've got no idea what it is, but Elena and Stefan are now the only living doppelganger's now that Tom, Stefan's doppelganger, is dead. We know that Tessa said the doppelgangers were fated to be together, so—"

Before Evelyn could even finish her explanation, someone knocked on the front door. A groan left the Salvatore's lips as he rolled his eyes, opened the door, and came face-to-face with someone he had never met before. "We're all good on bibles, thanks."

Damon attempted to slam the door shut, but the boy stopped him. "I'm Luke Parker, Liv's twin brother." 

"Liv has a twin?" Damon groaned out as Evelyn appeared beside him. He turned his eyes to his fiancé. "Is it possible for there just to be one of someone around here?" 

"Sh." Evelyn rolled her eyes with a light chuckled, then set her sights on Luke Parker. "Where's Liv?"

"Busy." The witch deadpanned with a bored expression. 

"Come on in." As Damon pushed the door open wider, he and Evelyn stepped aside to let Luke enter inside the home. 

"Okay, I know that you called me here to help stop these visions, but I have to tell you that you can't." Luke deadpanned as his eyes glanced around the vampires that gathered in the room. "Nobody can."

At the mention of the word can't, Damon's face suddenly scrunched by in disbelief. "What do you mean you can't stop their visions?" 

"Our magic doesn't work like that. We're not bigger than the universe." 

"Right, okay." Evelyn shrugged as a heavy sigh escaped her lips while she rubbed her hand against her forehead. "Then, what're you doing here?"

"Because we need your help. We think the travelers are about to make their move. Their leader, Markos, is here."

"From where? Chant Camp?" Damon sarcastically quipped as Elena sent him an irritated glare.

"The Other Side," Luke answered back with a stern look. "He's been dead for centuries, and we think the fire sacrifice allowed him to escape."

"Perfect." The doppelganger rolled her eyes. It was not the first time a thousand-year-old guy had been after her. "A dead old guy with a mysterious, evil plan." She got up to her feet and headed over to the liquor. "I'll take that drink now."

Caroline bounced back into the parlor to join the rest of the group as she slid her phone inside her pocket. "Stefan just called. He said the scrap yard's been completely cleared out."

"And let me guess— the witches don't know where Markos is." Damon bluntly stated with his eyes fixed on the witch. 

"You guys said the visions are trying to draw Stefan and Elena together for something."

The Austin vampire nodded while she leaned against the wall. "Yeah. The Travelers need their doppelganger blood for some prophecy."

Luke hummed softly. "And if the Travelers are the ones who need your blood, doesn't it make sense that you're not only being drawn together but also—"

"—Being drawn to them." Elena's eyes widened as she finished off the witch's explanation. 

"Well, this just keeps getting better and better." Damon chuckled to himself as he poured another tumbler or Bourbon. 

With a look of confusion on her face, Caroline furrowed her brows. "Wait. I don't get it." 

"If the visions are a road map, then we need more clues," The British vampire smirked, then let his eyes fall to Caroline. "Break out the popcorn, Blondie. Elena's little sex romp isn't over yet."

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Shortly after Elena had endured yet another vision about her and Stefan's perfect lives together, she gathered a location of where Markos was. Damon, Evelyn and, Enzo headed to the address with the intention of finding the leader of the travelers and killing him without hesitation 

Once they reached the house, Damon stepped up to the threshold first. He pushed open the front door then waved his and just inside to see they were able to enter without being invited in. "Huh, clear."

As the three cautiously stepped inside the poorly lit house, Evelyn shivered suddenly. "Does this place give anyone else the creeps?"

"I wonder if this is where Stefan and Elena had crazy vision sex. Eh, It's probably the bedroom. Stefan's pretty vanilla, but apparently, that's Elena's favorite flavor." Enzo chuckled quietly to himself as the vampires continued to search the property. 

"Taking full advantage of the fact that you didn't need to be invited in, I see." A voice spoke from a chair in front of them which caused the three vampires to halt.

"Markos, I take it," Damon concluded with a nod. Markos lifted himself up from the chair with furrowed brows. "Well, I'm not Stefan, and this is not Elena."

"Why are you here?"

"Why are you here?" Evelyn repeated with a soft chuckle. "What the hell do you want? And, why are you the doppelgangers having visions of each other?"

"First two are complicated. Last ones easy." The leader of the Travelers hummed, his vision fixed on the fireplace that burned in front of him. "I'm the reason Stefan and Elena are having visions of each other."

"You?" The Salvatore vampire narrowed his eyes to the source of their problem. 

"Well, would you look at that." Enzo grinned as he nudged the vampires beside him. "I think we just me the universe."

"You mind telling me what the hell is going on?" 

"I'm afraid the doppelganger lore's been misinterpreted over the ages." Markos' eyes finally lifted from the blaze and fell to the vampires. "The prophecy is that the doppelganger blood can help the travelers. But, they're being drawn together because of a spell I cast fifteen-hundred years ago. I had no idea where they were, and it turns out the best way to get people to go searching for each other is the promise of true love. Is it stuffy in here? Why don't we take a walk?" Markos led the vampires outside of the house but immediately set his sights on Enzo. "You stay here."

The British vampire scoffed in disbelief. There was no way he was leaving Damon or Evelyn alone with Markos. "Not bloody likely." 

"You wanna find Maggie?" Markos asked with a raised eyebrow, then he chuckled. "You stay here." Then, he turned back around to glance at Damon and Evelyn. "Shall we?"

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Evelyn wasn't completely sure why Markos was taking her and Damon on a tour of Mystic Falls, especially since the two had lived there before it was even the way it was today. But, she hoped that the little tour would get him to reveal his true plan. 

"Mystic Falls is a beautiful town,"

"Oh, yeah." Damon hummed sarcastically as he and Evelyn walked a few paced behind Markos. "Picket fences, block parties, uncannily high death rate." 

The leader of the Travelers chuckled. "You take your homes for granted."

"We've pretty much been in this town our whole lives, excuse us if the scenery is a little generic." Evelyn deadpanned with a sigh as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "So, Mr-Creep-Traveler-Dude, what's the with the tour?"

"Two-thousand years ago, Silas and Qetsiyah cast a spell for immortality. It created a schism in the Traveler community, giving rise to the witches. They tried to keep us scattered to make us forget how powerful we can be." Markos vaguely explained with a light shrug as Damon rolled his eyes. 

"And thus began the war between the Travelers and the witches, and it still rages on and on." Damon let out an, obviously fake, yawn. "Sorry, I just nodded off."

"The witches put a curse on us that kept us from settling down as a tribe. Whenever we've tried to gather, disaster struck—Plagues, earthquakes, fire. Something inevitably wiped us out."

"Right, so the doppelgangers break this curse that the witches put on you. How original."  Evelyn knowingly finished for Markos, as he stopped walking and turned to face them. "Well, you've found them both. What's next?"

"We simply need their blood. But we're not your enemy, and to prove that to you, I'm gonna stop their visions." The leader of the travelers gestured around and all of the townspeople stopped what they were doing and faced him. Then, they started to chant. "The curse might prevent us from gathering in our own bodies, but we've found ways around that."

"Passengers," Damon concluded in a soft tone of voice as he glanced at the residents of Mystic Falls. "So, how many of you are there?"

"A few. Here and there. Shall I continue?" With a hesitant nod, Damon agreed to let Markos continue to stop the visions that Stefan and Elena were having of each other. As the townspeople chanted, Markos' eyes jolted open again. "It's done."

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