CHAPTER SIX | WE ALL GO A LITTLE MAD SOMETIMES

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ELENA FRANTICALLY CALLED DAMON AND EVELYN TO TELL THEM THAT SHE HAD KILLED JEREMY. When the pair walked into Elena's house, they saw Jeremy Gilbert dead on the couch with Elena stood in front of him. Evelyn couldn't quite believe the streak of horrific luck Elena was having. First, she killed her only chance of being human, now she had killed her own brother.

"I can't believe this happened." Pacing in front of him, Elena finally looked up to Damon and Evelyn. "What am I going to stay to him?"

"Well, if it were me, I'd probably start by apologizing for stabbing him in the neck." Evelyn shrugged immediately. "To be honest, it kinda hurts."

"Thanks for not ditching the family ring after it drove Ric crazy," Damon added in exactly the same tone as Evelyn, before he sighed. "You should've called Stefan."

Elena's face turned the moment she heard his name. "I don't want to talk to him. He's been lying to me and hiding things from me. He compelled Jeremy to forget God knows what."

"In all fairness, I think you killing him kinda trumps that." Damon pointed out, his eyes fell to Jeremy before he turned back to Elena. "And, you should've called Stefan."

"He's got a point, Elena." Evelyn shrugged.

"I don't trust him right now, Evelyn. He's acting differently, you've seen it as well as I have."

As the door to the Gilbert household swung open to reveal Stefan, Elena's sent daggers Damon's way. "PS, I called Stefan," Damon whispered over the doppelganger's shoulder before he moved back beside Evelyn.

Stefan looked down at Jeremy's dead body and then up to his girlfriend. He couldn't seem to understand why Elena would have called Damon and Evelyn but not him. "What happened? Why didn't you call me?"

"I just—" Hesitation ran through her voice before she looked down at her bloodstained hands. "I need to go upstairs and shower. Clean all the blood off my hands." She held up her hands, covered in her brother's blood before she ran up the staircase.

A gasp escaped Jeremy's lips as he came back to life, courtesy of the Gilbert family ring. His eyebrows were knitted together in confusion as he lifted his hand up to where the stab wound on his neck once was. "What happened?"

"Long story, buy the E-Book." Damon vaguely responded.

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Evelyn and Damon remained in the kitchen since Elena was still showering Jeremy's blood from her body. The Salvatore had lifted himself up from the kitchen floor after he mopped up Jeremy's blood. Stefan suddenly entered the room and looked at the pair in confusion. "Where's Jeremy?"

"School. Bonnie has him volunteering for some occult exhibit." Damon stated bluntly as he dumped the bucket back onto the kitchen counter.

"Or maybe he didn't want to linger in the house where his sister just jammed a knife in his neck," Stefan spoke matter-of-factly as his cellphone began to vibrate in his pocket. Once he saw the caller ID, his entire body tensed up. "It's Klaus."

"Oh, damn. It's crunch time. I mean, surely he's not gonna be happy with you." Evelyn tutted, a slight smirk on her face. "You know, that's what happened when you form an alliance with a thousand-year-old Hybrid."

Stefan noticed Damon and Evelyn both snickering. "I'm glad you both find this amusing, but he if finds out I told you both about the cure, he'll kill all of us." Stefan snapped and then answered the call. "I don't want to talk about it, Klaus."

"Well, I can't imagine why what with you ruining all my plans for a Hybrid-filled future." Klaus' voice was unsettlingly calm on the other end of the phone.

"Well, it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't sworn me to secrecy." Stefan eyed up the two vampires, who both nodded. After all, he was right.

"Life's full of ifs, Stefan. Let's extenuate the positives, shall we? The hunter was one of five, we'll find another. It may take centuries but we've got nothing but time, right?"

Stefan paused to examine the fact that Klaus seemed far too chipper for someone who had just been told he could never sire his own race again. "You're using your calm voice today, who's getting killed."

"Not you, if that's what you're worried about." A chuckle left Klaus' lips. "But I am concerned about your beloved. Have the hallucinations started yet?"

Looks were exchanged as soon as Klaus asked about the hallucinations. In fact, Elena was experiencing them. When she killed her brother, she was seeing Connor— the hunter she killed. "What do you know about that?" Stefan asked.

"I'll tell you. Where are you?"

"I'm at her house," Stefan revealed without a hint of deflection.

"How convenient, so am I." Klaus ended the call which caused Stefan rolled his eyes and headed off to the front of the house to talk with Klaus about Elena's condition.

Once Stefan left the kitchen, her eyes drifted to Damon. He was busy tiding Elena's kitchen considering she was unable to do it due to the small fact of her hallucinating.

It wasn't long before Elena ran into the kitchen with a confused and dazed look on her face. Evelyn eyed her up suspicious, she thought that Elena might've been hallucinating again. "Elena?" The brunette asked her. "Are you alright?"

"No!" The doppelganger cried out and then sprinted straight for the front door. Damon and Evelyn glanced at each other and then followed Elena out of the front door. Once she was outside, Klaus grabbed hold of her and sped her away from the house.

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"You lost her?" Bonnie looked between the three vampires. She was unsure of how three vampires were able to lose a newly-transitioned one.

"Well, lost is a very strong word. We just technically don't know where she is." Damon shrugged in an attempt to defend himself, though Bonnie just rolled her eyes.

Stefan folded his arms across his front as he started to pace. "I'm more worried about what Klaus said about this Hunter's curse."

Evelyn turned her attention to the, obviously panicked, Salvatore brother. She gestured for him to continue his explanation. "Well, go on. What'd he say? Damon and I were a little too busy to listen."

"He said it was a witches curse." The younger brother glanced at Bonnie, almost hoping that she could help.

"You know if I could do anything to help, I would. But—"

"—But nothing." Damon snapped immediately and cut her off, while Evelyn rolled her eyes. "Wave your magic wand, hocus-pocus, be gone, Hunter, ghosts, whatever."

"The spirits won't let me do the magic I need to break the curse." Bonnie looked between Damon, Evelyn, and Stefan with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "But I can ask Shane for help. He knows everything about everything."

"Ooh, can't wait to meet Professor Hottie." The Austin wriggled her eyebrows suggestively as she turned her attention to Stefan, who began to walk out of the room. "Where'd you think you're going?"

"I'm gonna get her back."

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Bonnie went off to meet Professor Shane while Damon and Evelyn waited in Alaric's old classroom. Damon sat down at the desk and pulled open a drawer that contained a bottle of bourbon. He took it out and waved it to Evelyn. "You're missing all the adventure, pal."

Evelyn gave the Salvatore a sympathetic smile while he held the bottle in the air and then took a swig. "I'm sure he's watching from the Other Side."

Damon nodded, a smile on his lips. "Oh, he'd like you. I'm sure of it."

The classroom door swung open to reveal Shane and Bonnie. The man glanced between the two vampires with furrowed brows until Bonnie introduced them. "Shane, this is my friend Damon and Evelyn. They're kind of experts on this stuff, too."

Damon nodded. "I audited your class. Very enlightening."

"That's right. I remember you." Shane looked almost intrigued as his eyes remained on Damon. "What's your specialty?"

"The Origin of the species."

"Oh, I think Darwin would arm wrestle you for that distinction." The Professor chuckled in response as he watched Evelyn's eyes narrow.

"Yeah, she's not talking about that species. He's talking about the supernatural species." Evelyn sat on Alaric's desk as she swung her leg. "We were hoping that maybe you'd stumbled upon this before." The brunette gestured for Damon to hand a small piece of paper with the drawing of the Hunter's mark on it.

Shane's eyes widened in recognition whilst he looked between the two vampires. "This is the hunter's mark. Where did you get this?"

"Came to me in a dream." The Salvatore shrugged. "Do you know anything about the Hunter's curse?"

"Why? You got a dead hunter in the trunk of your car or something?" Shane glanced at the two once more. "Legend says that if a hunter is killed by that which it hunters, then that person will be cursed to walk the Earth in torment until—"

"—Until?" Bonnie trailed off in a tone that gestured him to continue his explanation.

"Until a new Hunter's awakened and their legacy's passed on. They're called potentials." Shane explained as soon as Damon pulled his phone from his pocket. "Listen, I have a bunch of research on it. Why don't I go grab it for you?"

"That would be great. Thanks." Damon gratefully smiled toward Shane, who nodded and immediately left the room.

Evelyn glanced at Bonnie and Damon once Shane closed the classroom door behind them. "Is anyone else feeling a little derailed right now?"

"How are we supposed to find a potential hunter?" Bonnie sighed out in defeat, though her eyes remained on Damon who seemed to have a plan.

"Yeah, about that—" He trailed off and placed his phone up to his ear. "Little Gilbert. Your services are needed."

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It seemed that Stefan had finally found Elena, but considering the state she was in, he lost her again. Evelyn found it rather comical that the young vampire was able to give them all the slip. She had heard that Stefan asked Damon to find Elena since he seemed to be the only one Elena would listen to.

Evelyn could pretend that she wasn't jealous or that she wasn't hurt, but it wasn't that easy. Since the day she came back to Mystic Falls, she wanted Damon. She didn't blame him for not waiting for her to come back— she blamed herself for coming back and thinking they had a chance.

"Hey." The door of the Salvatore house swung opened to reveal Damon. He looked rather beaten down and tired as he pulled off his leather jacket and hung it by the door. "Crisis averted. Elena is seeing ghosts no more."

"Great. That's great." Evelyn chewed on her bottom lip while she tightly gripped onto the tumbler of bourbon in her hand.

Damon furrowed his brows as he sat down beside her. "Really? Because you look like someone just shot a puppy. What's wrong?"

"Why you?" The vampire immediately asked once she turned her head in his direction. Damon's brows were furrowed. "I mean, why is it you that can get through to her? Why not Stefan? I mean, he's her boyfriend, after all."

A puff of air left Damon's lips whilst he shrugged. "I don't know, Eve. I wish I had the answer to that." The Salvatore gently placed his hand on her thigh while he leaned forward to grab the bottle of bourbon on the table in front of them. "I think she's new, and she's confused and she doesn't know who to trust."

"I wouldn't trust you." Evelyn tilted her head toward him, a smirk on her lips. "Not even if you were the last man on Earth."

"Ouch. That's kinda harsh." A small chuckle echoed as Damon placed his hand over his heart. "You wouldn't have a choice. You and I both know you trust me."

"Do I?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow as she watched Damon start to close the gap between them. She felt her heart thump, the thought of kissing him consumed her but then she lifted herself right up from the couch. "Good night, Damon."

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