APPARENTLY KATHERINE HAD KICKED SILAS'S ASS AFTER CHARLIE DIED. The Lockwood was not sure how she felt about owing her life to Katherine motherfreaking Pierce. Actually, she hated it, so she decided to just not acknowledge it at all.

Charlie's house was so big that she had completely forgotten that Matt was living there too. That was until Matt asked her and Jeremy to come to his room. They were about to walk out the front door and to the Donovans' old house when he called after them from the top of the stairs.

Once they made it into the guest room — Matt refused to sleep in Tyler's or Charlie's parents' room — Matt began explaining. He pulled a cloth out of a desk drawer, and when he unwrapped it, he revealed a knife. "So, I woke up last night covered in mud with this."

"Okay. Weird," Jeremy muttered, and he took the dagger from his friend to examine it.

He stepped toward his girlfriend so that she could look over his shoulder. It seemed like a pretty ordinary knife. She furrowed her eyebrows as she looked up at her roommate. "How did we not know any of this was going on until now?"

"Well, last night, you two were...occupied," he answered, and both of them made 'oh's with their mouths and looked down at the ground, remembering the events of the night before very vividly. The blonde boy coughed awkwardly before continuing. "Yeah, it's weird. I have no idea where it came from. I blacked out, and I'm pretty sure that it's not the first time."

"How many times have you died wearing the Gilbert ring?" the Gilbert boy questioned, remembering how Alaric went on a killing spree and had a lot of blackouts after he died too many times.

"No. I don't think it's the Gilbert ring that's messing with me. No. Like, it's got to have something to do with why Silas couldn't mind-control me," he explained to them. Silas had also snapped his neck before he did the same to Charlie, but luckily, the Donovan boy was wearing the Gilbert ring. "He saw something or someone or whatever that Czech freak put in my head, but I think it's still there."

Charlie had not failed to notice the video camera set up in the corner of the room, and she was almost scared to ask what the hell it was for. She knew that it was not there before Matt moved in. "What's with the camera?"

"I set them up all over the house to help me figure out how I'm losing time," the blonde boy answered. Her eyes widened in shock. How the hell had she not noticed that there were cameras set up all over her house, and why the hell did he not think that she should know that there were cameras set up all over her house? When he saw her face, Matt just waved her off. "Don't worry about it. Have either of you talked to Bonnie? I think that she's the only person that might know what's going on here."

"Yeah, yeah. She's in D.C. with her mom or something," Jeremy responded, but he seemed really unsure about his answer. Charlie eyed him, but he refused to look at her. She knew that something was wrong.

Matt groaned and rolled his eyes because he, as well as everyone except Jeremy, had had barely any contact with Bonnie since graduation. They had gotten a couple of texts once every couple of weeks, but no one had actually spoken to her. "So she can't pick up?! I sent her, like, 300 e-mails this summer, and she writes back twice. Did I do something to piss her off?"

"I don't know. She hasn't mentioned anything," Jeremy replied, and he could feel the Lockwood girl's eyes burning holes in the side of his head. She was not saying anything, which made him certain that she was aware that something was up.

"Jer, look. I need you to help me get in contact with her, okay?" Matt pleaded, and the ex-Hunter inhaled sharply at the desperation in his older friend's voice. "I haven't slept, okay? I'm scared I'm going crazy here. I need her help."

The brunette boy finally breathed out, "I gotta go."

"What? Where?" the Donovan boy exclaimed, but Jeremy was already running down the stairs. Charlie was on his heels, and she finally caught up to him when he was halfway down her walkway on his way back to the car parked in the street.

She then grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her, and she frowned when she saw the tears beginning to form in his eyes. She grabbed his face and forced him to look down at her. "What the hell? What's wrong?"

"I need to tell you something, but I can't," he informed her, and her worry grew and grew when he glanced up before looking down at her.

"What is it?" He always told her everything, and she did the same for him. He knew that he could trust her with anything, which was why she was so terrified in that moment. Whatever it was must have been pretty bad if he would not tell her. "Just tell me."

He opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again and reached into his pocket to grab his phone. He sighed, "I have to call Damon."

"What?" she questioned with furrowed eyebrows, wondering why the hell he had to call the Salvatore man at that exact moment when he had something to tell her.

He brought the phone to his ear and tapped his foot nervously. He looked down at her as it rang loudly in his ear. He seemed hesitant but finally informed her. "I know where Bonnie is."

☾❄☽

DAMON COULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN THERE SLOWER. They were in the Salvatore Boarding House, and Jeremy refused to tell Charlie anything until Damon got there because he did not want to have to say it twice. Although it took the Salvatore man about fifteen minute to finish up what he was doing and get back home, it seemed like hours of sitting in silence

They both looked up when they heard the door, and Damon clapped his hands together and watched them expectantly as he walked in. "Okay. Where is she? Call her. Get her here."

"That's the problem. I can't actually call her. No one can." Jeremy told them, and they both stared at him with confused looks. "I've been lying to everyone for months, and I can't keep lying knowing that everyone's waiting for her to swoop in and save the day."

"I don't speak 'crazy-person,' Jer. You're gonna have to translate that for me. Charlie looks equally confused," Damon responded, nodding the the brunette girl that was staring at her boyfriend like he had three heads.

The younger male sighed and glanced at them as if he was begging them to understand so that he did not have to straight up say it. Charlie was still baffled as he pointed out, "Think about it, guys. I was dead. I wasn't supposed to come back."

"Yes, exactly. The beauty of Bonnie magic, which is what we need right now," Damon replied, and the Lockwood girl tried to piece together what the Gilbert boy was saying in her mind.

"You're not hearing me. Magic finds a balance," Jeremy told them, and as he was speaking, everything seemed to fall into place. Charlie froze and looked up at him, and Damon stopped pacing and shook his head in denial. "I'm not supposed to be here. You can't just bring sombody back from the dead. There is always a price to pay for it."

Charlie was looking around, but she did not know what for. She just did not want to look at Jeremy. She did not want want him to say what she knew to be true. Damon yelled angrily, "Don't say it, Jeremy. Don't you dare."

"She didn't show up to her dad's funeral, Damon. Nobody has spoken to her all summer." The Gilbert was now mostly speaking to the older vampire because he could tell from the look on his girlfriend's face that she had already realized what had happened.

"You say it, and everything in Elena's life goes to crap, do you understand me?" the Salvatore reminded them, and he glanced bath and forth between the Gilbert boy and the Lockwood girl. "Everything changes. Don't."

But he did say it. "Bonnie's dead."

At the words, Charlie felt her heart break. She collapsed onto her knees and stared blankly at the carpet. She heard voices around her, but they sounded muffled. Bonnie was gone. Bonnie, the girl that she had known since she was born. Bonnie, the one who had saved her life dozens of times. Bonnie, one of her best friends... was dead.

That afternoon, Elena and Caroline came home from college for the funeral. Charlie wore the same black dress that she had worn too many times in her sixteen years of life, and they all walked together toward a stump in the woods. Jeremy pulled a picture of Bonnie out of his pocket and placed it on the former tree.

Matt was next, and he placed his lifeguard whistle beside the frame because Bonnie brought him back to life when he killed himself in the pool so that he could see Vicki. Caroline approached next and placed black and red cheerleading pom poms on top, chuckling slightly through her tears.

Charlie took a step forward and placed a DVD of Footloose beside the rest of the items from when she went to comfort the Bennett girl after Grams had died. She then took a step back and fell into place beside Jeremy, who just wrapped his arm around her so that she could rest her head on his shoulder.

Elena scattered white feathers on and around the stump, and Damon finally place the Bennett girl's Grimoire on the very top. Caroline hugged Elena as she cried, and Jeremy grabbed a bell that was sitting on the stump. "We ring this bell in honor of Bonnie, in remembrance for her.'"
"I'm not sure what else to say. She says that she's not going anywhere, that she has been here all along. Bonnie has watched you have the summer of your life." He spoke the words like they were coming out of Bonnie's mouth, and they all knew that she was there with them, even though the could not see her. "And I saw you happy, and I know you think now that you can't have a normal life...that you have to be there for everyone, but you don't."

He went around the circle, telling everyone what she said about them. "Elena. Everyone will find their way, so you are gonna repack your things, you're gonna go back to college, and you're gonna live it up. You didn't do anything wrong, Matt. You know I would have sent you three hundred e-mails back if I could. I miss you."

"Charlie, you are so kind, and try not to be so hard on yourself. You are one of the funniest people I know, and you have lost way too many people already. We all have." The Lockwood girl soaked in the words and stared straight ahead. She was not sure whether she was looking at Bonnie or not, and she probably looked pretty stupid from the Other Side. She smiled slightly and let out a breathy laugh as she moved onto the Forbes girl. "Caroline...I watched you decorate that dorm room like your life depended on it. And I know that college isn't everything you expected and that you feel like something's missing, but...Tyler..."

They all looked up at that, and sure enough, the older Lockwood sibling was standing a couple of yards away. Caroline reached him first, running into his arms. She was soon followed by Charlie, who took her time and walked so that the couple could have a moment before she hugged her brother.

And despite the fact that one of them was a ghost, that was the first time they had all been together in forever. There was just one thing missing.

Stefan.