CHARLIE WAS WALLOWING IN HER SADNESS.

She was lying in her bed with the covers pulled over her head. She had not spoken to anyone except her brother and Caroline since the night before, and she had just barely said anything to them. Her mind had been flooding with thoughts at the beginning. What was she going to tell JJ's parents? What would she say to the police? Was it all a dream? No, you idiot, it wasn't a dream. She's gone. She's gone. I can't believe she's gone.

Then, she just went numb.

She had blacked out after JJ died, partly because of how upset she was and partly because of the fact that she had pretty much been awake for a little over 40 hours. When she came to, she was in her bed, and Caroline had gently explained to her what happened after she passed out, and the Lockwood girl was pissed as hell.

Elena was fine. They had not been able to save Jenna in the end, and the freaking spell had failed. Elijah had chickened out and did not end up killing his brother but rushing him out, blowing their only chance of killing the man. So, JJ died for absolutely nothing.

It had been about 16 hours since everything went down at the quarry when there was a knock at the door all of a sudden. Charlie groaned, figuring it was her mother that had come to check on her a hundred times even though she refused to tell her what happened. "Go away, Mom."

"It's not your mom," a voice responded, and the brunette girl groaned. She was about to tell her best friend to go away, but it was too late because she was already barging in, causing her friend to pull a pillow over her head. "You can't keep wallowing like this forever."

"It's not forever. My girlfriend died last night," Charlie reminded her bitterly as if she did not know. She didn't mean to be mean, and she knew that her friend meant well, but she just really was not in the mood to be polite.

The blonde sighed as she sat down on the bed and placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I know, but it's not healthy to sit here. They're showing a movie in the park, Gone With the Wind, your favorite."

"That's your favorite," Charlie corrected.

"Please. Just this once, and then I'll let you wallow," the Forbes girl promised her, shooting her friend her best pleading puppy dog eyes. She really just wanted to help the girl, get her out of the house for a couple of hours and try to cheer her up. "I'll even wallow with you if you want me to."

The werewolf girl thought about it for a second before sighing and patting her hand on the bed, giving up. "Okay, fine." Caroline's face lit up as soon as she spoke, and she clapped her hand together excitedly.

Charlie got dressed, and they were in town square in less than an hour. Caroline already had the baskets with her for their little picnic, and they were searching the crowd for the Gilberts when they got there because the two siblings were supposed to be meeting them there.

"Hey! There you guys are. Who's hungry?" the blonde girl exclaimed when they found them, and she placed the baskets in the middle of the blanket as the brunette girl next to her glanced at the huge white screen in front of them that announced the movie that would be playing in a little bit.

The younger Gilbert sibling rolled his eyes, but there was still a smile on his face. "I can't believe you guys are making me see a girl movie. Are we really doing this?"

"Yes, we are really doing this. We are going to take a page from Scarlett. We made it through the war," the Forbes girl answered positively, pulling Charlie down next to her so that they were both kneeling on the blanket. "I know you guys went through hell, and my mom knows I am a vampire, so basically it's like Atlanta has burned. And yet, in spite of everything, we persevere."

"All right. What are we eating?" Jeremy questioned, plopping down next to the Lockwood girl and looking over her at the baskets to see what kind of food was in there.

She shrugged, peeking into the basket to see, but most of it was covered. She caught a whiff though with her werewolf smelling power and grinned. "I don't know, but it smells good."

A couple of hours later, Bonnie had joined them, and Elena had disappeared on a "walk" with Stefan. Charlie had also been informed that her brother had bitten the older Salvatore brother, and he was now in the process of dying. The movie had startled, and they were about fifteen minutes in when Jeremy's phone rang.

"Alaric, hey," the boy greeted, and the brunette girl next to him furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She listened in and heard the man ask whether they were with Elena or not. "She went to go see Damon. I thought that's where you were?"

"No, he just escaped. I think he's looking for her, and the cops are after him. Listen, he's in bad shape, Jeremy, so if you find her, get her somewhere safe, okay? I'm on my way," the teacher informed him before swiftly hanging up and going off to deal with whatever problem was next. The Lockwood girl felt bad because he was in the same boat as her, but he was not the one relaxing in the town square with his friends. He had to fix everything, and it had to be too much for him.

Bonnie spoke up after hearing what happened with the Salvatore man. Jeremy was about to stand up when she pulled him back down. "If Damon is off the rails, there is nothing you can do to stop him. Let us take care of it."

"You keep doing this. You left me behind before, and guess what Jenna still died. Now I'm going to find my sister. You go ahead and you try to stop me," the boy snapped back, and then he got up and walked away, leaving his girlfriend dumbfounded on the blanket.

"I'll talk to him," the werewolf sighed assuredly, and Bonnie smiled at her gratefully. The younger girl ran up to the brunette boy and joined his side. "I know you're upset about Jenna. I get it, but don't be mean to your girlfriend. She's just trying to help."

He paused for a moment before exhaling deeply. "I know. I know. I didn't mean to freak out on her. I'll apologize as soon as we find Elena and make sure that she's okay." His eyes widened, and his hand shot up to point at a figure that was staggering through the square. Charlie thought it was just some drunk guy, but when he got closer, she realized who it was. "Damon!"

"Damon," the Lockwood girl breathed out as they rushed over to him and helped him hold himself up so that he did not fall over. He reeked, and she could practically feel the werewolf venom pumping through his veins.

His voice was low and tired when he questioned, "Where's Elena? I need to see Elena now."

"Okay. Let's get you out of here first, all right?" the Gilbert boy told him, and he glanced to Charlie as they started to hal the man toward the Grill. Once they were inside, Jeremy pulled out his phone while the girl helped the Salvatore man into a chair. "Hey, it's me. I'm with Damon at The Grill."

Charlie heard something as she was walking behind the bar to get the man something to drink, and her head shot up to see Sheriff Forbes standing in the doorway with her gun pointing straight at the vampire's heart. Just as the gun goes off, Charlie shrieks, "No!" Fortunately, he was able to vamp-speed out away in time. Unfortunately, Jeremy was standing right behind him. "Jeremy!"

He took the bullet square in the chest. He looked over at the brunette girl before falling to the ground. She rushed over to him, as did the Sheriff after holstering her gun. The woman muttered, "Oh, God. Oh, God." While the bleeding boy coughed weakly, she spoke into her radio. "I've got a gunshot victim at The Grill. Get the paramedics here. You're gonna be fine. It's gonna be okay." The voices of Bonnie and Caroline entered the room, and they were immediately followed by gasps as they slid over onto the floor next to them.

"Mom. Mom, what did you do?" the Forbes girl asked her mother as Bonnie freaked out about the puddle of blood beginning to form on the floor under them. Sheriff Forbes tried to explain, but her daughter was quick to point out something important. "He still has his ring."

"It's not gonna work," the Bennett girl pointed out.

When the blonde looked confused, the werewolf explained. "The ring only protects against death by the supernatural, but your mom's human. So, it won't work."

"I got it," the vampire told them, and she bit into her wrist, drawing blood, and held it to his mouth in an attempt to heal him. "Come on, Jeremy. Just drink. Go on, Jeremy. Drink. Please. Please. Please." He made no motion to drink and just remained motionless with his eyes closed.

"Come on, Jer. You can't give up," Charlie ordered kind of angrily. She had lost too many people in too little time. She could not lose him too.

Suddenly, Alaric walked in and came running over when he saw what was happening. He saw the unconscious boy that they were praying would not die, and he exclaimed, "Bonnie, what's going on? Oh, my God."

"I know what I need to do," the witch muttered to herself, and she looked at Alaric and Charlie and gestured to the dying boy. "I need you guys to grab him. T—take him with us."

"No, no, no, no. You can't move him. This is a crime scene," the Sheriff protested, standing up to keep them from changing the scene in any way shape or form.

The blonde girl shot her mother a pleading look. "Mom, you let them go." And she did.

She brought them to the Old Witch House, where she had channeled the power of hundreds of dead witches a couple of times like when she brought herself back to life and during the spell when they tried to kill Klaus. Alaric and Charlie laid Jeremy's body down on the floor, and Bonnie stood next to them.

"Is this even possible?" the Saltzman man questioned with a confused expression because some of these witchy things seemed like they were tampering with the rules of nature a little bit.

"There's a spell for it if they'll give me the power to use it," she informed them, and she kneeled on the ground, placing the Gilbert boy's head in her lap as she started to cast a spell, the candles in the room brightening somehow. "Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus. Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus." She stopped all of a sudden and murmured, "No."

That did not reassure the Lockwood girl at all, and she shot up, scanning the scene and asking, "What? What is it?"

"They're angry at me for coming back here. They don't wanna help. They said there'll be consequences," she explained to them, and the way that she was saying it did not make Charlie very confident in her ability to save her friend.

Alaric scoffed. "Well, he's just a kid. Tell 'em to shut up!"

"Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus. Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus. Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas," Bonnie continued to cast the spell, and the building started shaking after a moment. Her nose started to bleed, and mysterious voices that probably belonged to the ancient witches filled the room. Tears started streaming down her face. "Emily. Emily! I know you're there. Please help me. I love him." The voices stopped all of a sudden, and the candles blew out. She cried, "No!" Alaric and Charlie watched her with concerned expressions, but that all changed when the brunette boy opened his eyes.

"Bonnie?" he called, and they all breathed out a sigh of relief.

Happy tears came to Charlie's eyes as she clutched her heart and breathed heavily. "Oh, my God. I should've just stayed home today."