"HEY, ARE YOU OKAY?" CHARLIE ASKED HER BROTHER when she saw him the next morning. She and Caroline, who was there as well, had covered for him and said that Sarah's death was an accident, but he had seemed a little freaked out after it happened. She told him to sleep it off, and they would talk about it in the morning.

He nodded as he poured himself a glass of water and grabbed some of the cereal out of the pantry. He responded without looking her in the eye. "I'm great."

"You killed someone," she reminded him, her mouth open in disbelief because of his lack of reaction. Her voice was low just in case their mother was looming somewhere and listening in on them because the chances of that were pretty high.

He shrugged. "I am aware of that."

"You do know what that means, right?" she questioned, confused because Mason had told her that he told him how a werewolf triggers its curse. However, now, he was acting like he either did not know what happened or simply did not care.

"That on the full moon I'm going to go through the excruciating painful process of turning into a freaking werewolf," he quizzed with raised eyebrows, and before she could nod or respond, he continued, "Yeah, I know."

She just watched him in confusion, trying to read his face to see if he was actually freaking out, but he looked calm and collected — well, as calm and collected as Tyler Lockwood could be. She quizzed, "And you're great?"

"I'm great," he confirmed.

She nodded slowly as he walked out the door, and she whispered, even though he could not hear her, "Okay."

While she was dealing with Tyler the night before, the others had been dealing with Elena and Katherine. The vampire doppelganger had gotten some witch — the woman that she was talking to — to link her and Elena, so every time Damon and Stefan tried to kill her, they hurt Elena as well. They somehow convinced Katherine's witch to switch to the good side and help them break the spell. Then, instead of killing Katherine like the plan was, they trapped her inside the tomb that the tomb vampires were stuck in for a century and a half.

Charlie finished getting ready and headed out the door. She froze in confusion when she stepped out the door and saw a car in the driveway. She could not be sure, but she thought it was Elena's car. She had seen it a couple times. That's weird, she thought. Why would Elena leave her car here? She shook it off, figuring there was probably an explanation for it, and headed off to school.

Once she got there, she went up to Jeremy who was at his locker. When he saw her approaching, he smiled and greeted. "Hey, Charlie. What's up?"

"Hey," she responded before looking up at him in question to ask about his sister and make sure that she was all right, "Is Elena okay? She left her car at my house last night. I figured she just hitched a ride home with you and Bonnie."

"Um, she didn't come home last night. Her bed hadn't been slept in," he informed her.

She furrowed her eyebrows at that because that did not sound good, especially when it was about someone that got taken by people frequently for some crazy reason. "That's really weird."

"She probably just got back together with Stefan and spent the night at his place. There he is now," he told her, and she turned around to see the Salvatore man walking past them, so they joined his side.

He smiled at them in greeting. "Hey, guys."

"​​Look, Elena's got to let me know if I'm supposed to cover for her," the Gilbert boy said to him. "Jenna's cool with the two of you but you guys are pushing it."

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked in confusion, and that made Charlie start to think that he had no clue what they were saying.

Jeremy did not seem to take the hint and just kept trying to explain to him, "You and Elena. Look, I'm glad you guys are back together but if she's gonna sleep over—"

"Wait, wait...hold on a minute," the other guy cut him off, stopping in the hallway so that they could look at each other while they talked. Charlie pulled both of them over to the side so that they were not blocking the entire path to classes. Neither male seemed to notice, though. "We're not back together."

"So, she didn't stay at your place last night?" the Lockwood girl questioned.

He shook his head, and they could tell that he was starting to get a little worried for the his ex-girlfriend. Charlie had no clue why they were not back together now that Katherine was trapped, but that was not really important at that moment. "No, I mean I saw her at the party but that was it. She didn't sleep over."

"Jeremy said that her bed hadn't been slept in, and she left her car in my driveway," the brunette girl informed him, letting him know why they were wondering if she had stayed at his house. "If she didn't spend the night at your place, where is she?" The two guys looked at her, and she groaned. "Oh, God. Not this again. We should just tie her down and lock her in her house so that no one can take her. All right, let's get this over with."

"How does this work?" Jeremy asked Bonnie as he placed a map on the table in front of them. He, Bonnie, and Charlie were all in Alaric's history classroom, and the witch was trying to perform a spell that would help them find Elena.

As she lit some candles — which was definitely not allowed in school because it was a fire hazard, but they did have a teacher with dozens of weapons in his office and locker — she explained, "I'll use your blood to draw energy for the tracking spell. You're blood related; it'll make the connection stronger."

"All right, Alaric said we've got to clear out of here within ten minutes. I've got weapons, he stocked me up," Stefan informed them as he walked into the room, closed the door, and threw the weapons bag on the teacher's desk before walking over to them to watch the spell. He then looked up at the Lockwood girl. "Oh, and he told me to tell you that ou can keep the gun."

"Yes!" she exclaimed, and Jeremy chuckled at her. Bonnie shot them a look that told them to shut up, and they did. The brunette girl just stood there with a smile, though because the gun made her feel really badass.

"Are you ready?" the Bennett girl questioned the Gilbert boy, and when they nodded, she got started. She took a knife and cut open his outstretched hand, allowing the drops to fall on the paper. He winced in pain as the knife sunk into his skin. It looked like she cut a lot more than she needed, but who was Charlie to question her actions? She then started focusing and chanting under her breath. As she did that, the blood on the map started moving before settling in one spot. The Lockwood girl was in complete awe because she had never seen the spell done before. "There. She's there."

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows. "That's three hundred miles away."

"No, Bonnie. We need a more exact location than that." Stefan shook his head, not accepting what they got.

"Dude, I don't see you cutting people open and doing witchy stuff," the werewolf responded to him, defending her friend. "Beggars can't be choosers."

Bonnie smiled at her gratefully before shrugging at the Salvatore man in reply. "Thanks, Char. Plus, that's as close as I can get."

"We can map it," the brunette boy suggested, looking up at them. "Aerial view will show us what's around there, help us narrow down the area. "

The Lockwood girl's eyes widened when she realized that it was actually a good suggestion. "Wow, Gilbert. That's actually not an awful idea. Who knew you could be so smart?"

"Shut up," he muttered, playfully glaring at her.

"All right, Jeremy, that's perfect," Stefan told him, pointing at him before standing up from where he was leaning over and walking over to the door determinedly. "Call me with whatever you find."

The Gilbert boy, who had a cloth on his hand to stop the bleeding, ran over to him to join him. "No, no, I'm coming with you."

"No, Jeremy, you're not," the vampire shut him down, and they continued to discuss in lowered voices. Both of the females could hear what they were saying, but they were both distracted when a drop of blood landed on the map that was not Jeremy's because he was all the way over next to Stefan. Charlie looked up to see Bonnie wiping her knows, and she furrowed her eyebrows.

The brunette boy insisted, "Well, you can't go alone."

"He's not," Damon announced, opening the door to the classroom as he stepped inside. He gestured for his brother to start moving because wherever they were going was about five hours away. "Let's go."

"You're coming with me?" the younger Salvatore asked with raised eyebrows, so clearly, he did not know that the other man was coming with him.

The older brother nodded like it was obvious. "It's Elena."

☾❄☽

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" CHARLIE EXCLAIMED. She had just arrived at the Gilbert residence because while Bonnie and Jeremy were looking up the aerial view of the area, Bonnie had done something and passed out. The Gilbert boy brought the werewolf to his room, and there, on the bed, was the unconscious Bennett girl.

He rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air as he responded, "I didn't do anything!"

"Well, she didn't just pass out, did she? What drugs did you give her?" she questioned, glancing around the room to check for any signs of drugs and smelling for weed.

"I didn't drug her," he insisted, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "She was trying to do this spell to send Elena a message somehow, and then her nose started bleeding and she passed out."

All of a sudden, Bonnie gasped as she woke up, and the two that were arguing stopped and whipped their heads toward her. Jeremy quickly grabbed the cup of fresh water on his dresser and handed it to her. "Here, drink this." She took it, shooting him a grateful smile before taking a couple of sips.

"What happened? You scared the hell out of us," the Lockwood questioned, sitting down next to her friend on the bed with a concerned expression.

Jeremy nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, Charlie thought I drugged you."

"He didn't," the witch assured her female friend with a slight chuckle before answering her previous question. "And it's nothing. I've been doing a lot of magic lately. It wears me down."

"When I'm worn down, I take a nap. You were...you were unconscious," the Gilbert boy breathed out as if she was not aware of that fact.

Bonnie shrugged. "Witchcraft has its limits. If I push too hard, it pushes back."

"How do you know all this?" Charlie questioned with raised eyebrows because she definitely did not know that much about witches. "Is there, like, some online witch hotline or something?" The Bennett girl then motioned to the grimoire beside her.

"It's all in here. It's like a reminder that I'm not invincible. Please...don't...don't tell anyone because it's a weakness and I don't want certain people to know that," she explained to them, causing them to frown because she seemed really down about that fact. The Lockwood girl did not know why, though, because Bonnie seemed pretty indestructible to her, even without her powers.

Jeremy replied, "By certain people, you mean Damon."

"I mean anyone that can hurt me," she corrected, looking down at her lap like she was ashamed.

"Hey," the brunette girl said, grabbing her friend's chin and forcing her to look up at her and look her in the eyes. "The Bonnie Bennett I know can't be hurt, okay? Not the witch, the person. She's fearless and indestructible, and I always hope that some day, I could be like her. Besides, we won't tell anyone, right, Jer?"

He nodded, and the witch could not help but smile at the girl's words. The smile dropped as she informed them, "It's hard, you know? My Grams is gone and my dad, he doesn't want to know about what I am. He hasn't since my mom left. I'm all alone in this."

"That's how I feel a lot of the time, alone," Jeremy let her know, telling her that she was not alone. Then, he questioned, taking about the message that she sent Elena, "You think that worked?"

"I have no idea."

It did, and a couple hours later, Stefan called to tell them that they had found where Elena was being held and that they had rescued her. Apparently, she had been kidnapped by some vampires so that they could trade her for their freedom and give her to some really really old guy that wanted her for some probably very weird reason. They killed him, though, and Elena was returned safe and sound.

Little did they know that their interactions with the really really old guy were far from over.