CHAPTER SEVEN | DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

THE SCENT OF COFFEE FILLED THE AIR AS DAMON SALVATORE HUMMED HIS WAY BACK TO HIS BEDROOM. As he walked in, the sight of Evelyn Austin asleep in his bed was something he would surely never get tired of seeing. She smiled to himself for a moment, then dropped a coffee on the bedside table beside her. "Come on, get up." He stated with a light chuckle, though Evelyn didn't respond. "Evelyn, don't ignore me."

"Get up? Why do I need to get up?" The female groaned heavily as she grabbed hold of her phone to check the time, then she gasped. "It's the middle of the night, Damon!"

"No, it's not. Look, you and I have to play bodyguards to Amara today."

"And, I will. I promise. Just, let me have a little longer in bed. Please." Evelyn begged once more, but she suddenly felt Damon grip her feet from the bottom of the bed. "What're you doing? You're not seriously going to pull me out of bed, are you?"

As their eyes met, Damon smirked toward the woman he loved. "One—"

"Don't be stupid." Evelyn shook her head, fearful.

"Two—" Damon chuckled softly as he heard a squeal leave the girl's lips. "Eve, are you going to get out of bed, or what?"

"God. Fine! Fine!" Evelyn rolled her eyes and finally got out of bed with very little clothing on, which caused her boyfriend to smirk. "Don't look at me like that, you don't deserve to after the pain you just caused me."

"Ooh, so dramatic." Damon moved behind her and grabbed her waist, but before he could kiss her, there was a knock at the bedroom door.

"Sorry—" The doppelganger began with a startled look on her face as she watched Damon step in front of Evelyn, to shield her from Elena's sight. "Uh— Stefan has his memories back."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"October 1852?"

"You broke my nose trying to teach me how to throw a right hook," Stefan responded to Damon, then he glanced to the Austin vampire who sat perched on the arm of the couch beside her boyfriend. "Evelyn told you we'd end up hurt but you did it anyway."

Evelyn chuckled softly, took a sip of her coffee, and then nodded. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why you should always listen to Evelyn Austin."

"How much did you pay for that hunk of junk motorcycle you ride?" Damon wriggled his eyebrows toward his brother once more.

"That's a trick question, you bought me that motorcycle. Although I'm guessing it was pretty expensive." Stefan glanced between Elena, Evelyn, and Damon who were all staring at him in disbelief.

"So, Tessa just gave back your memories? No strings attached?" The eldest Salvatore skeptically raised an eyebrow toward his little brother, who nodded.

"Well, it wasn't exactly a gift. It was a lot to take in all at once. Everything from blowing out the candles on my first birthday cake to— drowning in a safe." As he spoke, there was a moment where he looked completely disconnected from the conversation. His grip tightened on the glass in his hand until it shattered within his hold.

"Stefan?" Elena abruptly got out of her seat and started toward the Salvatore brother.

"Huh. All that and I still can't remember my own strength." The youngest Salvatore gave them a tight-lipped grin, but the moment was interrupted by a loud banging coming from below them. "What was that noise?"

"Uh— well, that is—" Damon cleared his throat, clearly unable to explain the situation.

"—We have a situation." The Gilbert girl nodded in agreement with Damon while Stefan's brows furrowed.

Evelyn chuckled softly when she saw the look of confusion across Stefan's face. "Of the doppelganger variety."

"Katherine?" They all vigorously shook their heads.

"Nope, not Katherine," Damon lifted himself up to his feet and ushered his brother down to the basement, with Evelyn at their side. Stefan came face to face with Amara, who persisted to scream and yell at the walls of the basement.

Stefan stared into the cell with a look of sympathy in his eyes, before he glanced at the vampire's either side of him. "What's wrong with her?"

"Poor girls collateral damage in Tessa's obsession for Silas' love." A sigh left Evelyn's lips. She knew what it was like to be collateral damage in someone else's game, and it sucked.

"Tessa turned her into a rock and kept her in a box for two-thousand years. Probably went a little stir crazy, like those deserted island guys that talk to volleyballs."

"I said, I don't know!" The doppelganger screamed out angrily as she dropped onto the dusty floor of the Salvatore cellar with tears in her eyes.

"So, you're telling me this girl is the only thing keeping the other side together?" Stefan raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. She's the Anchor." The brunette nodded. "We've gotta keep her alive. If she dies, so does the Other Side and any shot we have of getting Bonnie from over there."

Stefan hummed and folded his arms across his chest. "Well, considering she's immortal, I'd say we have plenty of opportunities."

"You'd think. Expect last night she stuck a hole in Silas' neck, sucked the cure right out of him. So, now she's not only nuts, she's mortal. Which means we have to keep her ordinary little human heart beating until we get Bonnie back." Damon explained as he paced back and forth with both sets of eyes on him. "Silas made a pinky-promise that he'd do a spell to bring Bonnie back. Unfortunately, he's taking his sweet time coming back to Mystic Falls."

Evelyn's attention was taken by Amara, who started biting at her own wrists. "No, Amara. No!" The brunette ran into the cellar and peeled Amara's wrists from her mouth as she cried out within Evelyn's hold.

"No! Let me die," Amara screamed viciously as she thrashed against Evelyn. "I want to die!"

"Let's hope love is blind, or at least deaf."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"We need to buy some more time. Protect Amara." The doppelganger stated to Evelyn, Stefan, and Damon as she paced up and down in front of them. "Maybe we should move her somewhere else."

"Silas is a witch. He's a living, breathing GPS tracking device. He'll track her wherever we take her." Damon pointed out as he reached out for Evelyn's waist the minute she sat on his lap.

"Right, but I'm with Elena on this one," Evelyn admitted as she saw a grateful look on the doppelganger's face. "I mean, we are not letting Silas take Amara anywhere until he brings Bonnie back."

"Weren't you listening to anything?" Stefan immediately scoffed in disbelief as he glanced between the two girls. "He's not gonna bring her back."

"So, what? I should just give up?" Elena raised an eyebrow as she paced toward Stefan slowly. "Come on, Stefan, you've got your memory back. You know me, probably better than anyone else. Do you really think that I'm going to give up?"

"You know what, you're right. I do know you. You put your hope in all the wrong places." Stefan snapped. He stepped forward and glanced back at Damon. "And sometimes, in the wrong people. Silas needs to die and put us all out of our misery."

Evelyn felt Damon's grip on her become tense as soon as he was brought into the argument by his brother. She turned her head and nuzzled her face into his neck. "Ignore him. He's hurting." Damon smiled down at her, he seemed so grateful for the little boost she had given him.

"So as long as he's alive, I'm holding out hope that he can still help us."

"Well, as someone who just spent months at the bottom of a quarry because of the guy, I wouldn't hold your breath. Pun intended." Stefan fired back while Elena rolled her eyes. "Silas needs to die and I need to be the one to kill him. End of story."

Stefan turned on his heels and left the room. They knew that because of his angered state, it was better if he just left the room to deal with his issues alone. Then, Jeremy entered with a slightly more confident look on his face. He informed them of what occurred in the cell with Bonnie and Amara.

"Something just happened. Bonnie and I were downstairs, giving Amara some food and Amara could see Bonnie, and Bonnie could touch her. They made physical contact. It's like Amara's got a foot on each side or something." The Gilbert boy explained with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Amara exists in both places at once? Here and the other side?" His older sister asked with a confused look on her face.

"Then she's not crazy, crazy. She's just been talking to dead supernatural beings roaming around in our basement." Damon stated. Sarcasm dripped from his words as Evelyn rolls her eyes.

Evelyn gently smacked his arm and turned her attention back to Bonnie. "Damon, that's not the point."

"The point is if Silas isn't gonna help us, what if Bonnie could be the same thing? What if she existed on both sides at once? What if she became The Anchor?" The youngest Gilbert continued to explain Bonnie's plan to the rest of the group.

"You're right. Jeremy, you're right." Elena beamed. "So, all we would need is someone who could do that spell."

A groan came from Damon's direction. He knew exactly who they needed to do the Anchor swap spell. "Oh, please don't say who I think you're gonna say."

"Do we have to involve her? She's mental." Evelyn groaned out heavily.

"Think about it. Silas wants Amara to die, Amara wants Amara to die. So who, besides us, has the biggest stake against letting that happen?"

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Damon and Evelyn both arrived back at the Salvatore house with the psychotic witch, Tessa, who was strangely willing to participate. "Wow, isn't this cute." Tessa clicked her tongue as she looked around at the decor of the house. "So, you two live in this giant mansion with two doppelgangers that are destined to end up together. I swear there's a sitcom in there somewhere."

"Hilarious. But, we didn't bring you here to crack jokes." The Austin vampire rolled her eyes as she plunged her hands into her pockets.

Tessa gave Evelyn a faux smile, then turned her attention to the Salvatore that stood beside her. "So, where's the ancient boyfriend-stealing bitch?"

"This way." Damon declared, then lead Tessa down to the basement while Evelyn waited upstairs for the second arrival— Katherine Pierce, who sauntered into the house with Caroline at her side.

"The cute ones here," Katherine announced with a smirk as she wandered inside. Her eyes glanced over to Evelyn, who chuckled softly. "What're you smiling about?"

"Nothing." Evelyn folded her arms over her chest. "It's just amusing how easy it is to get what we want from you. You know, now you're so easy to kill."

Caroline chuckled quietly, then turned her attention to Qetsiyah who appeared at the end of the hall. "She's all yours."

"Let me guess, you must be— who now?"

Katherine viciously narrowed her eyes at the thousand-year-old witch. "Let's be clear. I don't care about Bonnie Bennett, or the Other Side going away, or Elena getting her best friend back."

"Oh, what a surprise. Katherine Pierce wants something." Evelyn rolled her eyes as she held a tumbler of bourbon in her hand.

"I had the cure you created running through my veins, and when Silas sucked it out of me I started aging. Faster than normal. So, basically, I'm dying and I need you to fix me. You made the cure, now make something that stops the aging. Otherwise, no blood for you."

Evelyn raised an eyebrow toward the witch who just shrugged. "Fine. When the rituals finished and Bonnie is the Anchor, we'll find a way to stop you from dying. Now, where's tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum."

"Through here." Evelyn pushed herself from the wall she was leaned against and escorted Tessa and Katherine into the room they were going to use for the spell.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

As Evelyn headed down the corridor, the entire house was plunged into darkness. She ran into the room where the doppelganger's and Tessa were. "There you are." Damon breathed a sigh of relief as he illuminated Evelyn's figure with his flashlight. "What happened?"

"Silas is here," Katherine commented.

"Well, Silas owes me a fuse box." Damon rolled his eyes, then moved the torchlight to Elena and Katherine. "Hang on. I only count two doppelgangers. Where's crazy-pants."

"I'll find Tessa, you two find Amara. She's gotta be here somewhere." Elena called toward Damon and Evelyn, who both sped out into the grounds of the house without a second thought.

When they finally located the scene where Stefan had kidnapped Amara, Silas was dead and his body was leaned up against a tree with the, now mortal, doppelganger at his feet sobbing with a pocket knife she had pointed at her chest. Before the vampires could even stop her, Amara and plunged the knife deep in her chest and began to bleed out.

"Amara, no, no, no, Amara, drink this. Drink. More!" Damon yelled out, He let the doppelganger fall into his arms as he forced his vampire blood into her mouth. "No, no, no. Okay, no. Hey, stay with me, look at me. Amara, look at me!"

Amara gave him a sympathetic look, but his vampire blood didn't work. "I've been in hell for two-thousand years."

"Amara, please. Please, don't do this!" Evelyn begged out from behind Damon as he began to shake her softly.

After everything they had gone through to keep Amara alive, she was now gone in an instant, along with what they thought was any chance of getting Bonnie back. Evelyn made her way back to the house after she left Damon to find Stefan. She knew she had to be the one to tell Caroline and Elena that Amara had died, she just couldn't find the words.

"Eve?" A familiar voice called her name the minute she walked into the Salvatore House. Evelyn's eyes locked with Bonnie Bennett's, who stood in front of her with a smile on her face. "I'm here."

"Oh my, God. It worked!"

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───