❪ 𝓢𝑰𝑿 𝓕𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝓤𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 ❫ ⚰️ ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝚃𝚅𝙳  ⸻  ✸ 🔮⭑.ᐟ

❝ 𝖳𝖱𝖴𝖳𝖧 𝖮𝖱 𝖣𝖠𝖱𝖤 ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟔𝟔. ❝ 𝖠𝖥𝖳𝖤𝖱 𝖲𝖢𝖧𝖮𝖮𝖫 𝖲𝖯𝖤𝖢𝖨𝖠𝖫 ❞ ── .✦

"𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗢𝗟 𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗞𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗 always said that togetherness in times of tragedy leads to healing, that one community is stronger than a thousand of its members." Liz stands at a podium in the high school gym. "But how does a community stay strong after losing its leader?"

A memorial service for Tyler's mom was being here and the students lit candles in glass cups as part of the service.

"And Carol was so much more than a leader; she was an open-minded friend and a concerned mother, taken from us too soon by a terrible accident."

Tyler sits among the students, silent and on edge, "Screw this."

"What? Tyler? Tyler?" Caroline calls after the boy as he gets up and leaves the gym.

Liz sees him leave, "Please, join me in observing a minute silence in her memory."

Everyone puts their heads down for the moment of silence. Elena looks over to the side of the gym and sees Rebekah. Closing her eyes, she looks over once more but the blonde original was gone.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie asks, causing Anastasia to turn her head towards the vampire doppelganger.

"Be right back." Elena stands up and leaves.

"Thank you so much. IN the wake of this tragedy, the town has selected an interim mayor." Liz says, "Many of you may already know him. Please welcome, Mr. Rudy Hopkins."

"I'm gonna go see what's wrong with Elena." Anastasia mumbles to Bonnie, standing up to head in that direction.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗔 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗦 down the hallway and stops when she hears someone crying, turning around the corner, she finds April, "April, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine." April says.

"But you're crying?" Elena asks in a confused tone.

"It's just the whole mayor thing, you know. It's bringing stuff up about my dad." April tells the Gilbert girl, who nodded, "And I know you're a vampire."

Elena looks at her in shock, "Wait, what?"

Suddenly, Elena goes limp as someone snaps her neck.

"Was that necessary?"

Rebekah smirks as she walks around the corner. "No, but it was fun to watch."

Anastasia chuckled, "I've always wanted to do that."

"You know if your dad and uncle found out you were doing this, they would never forgive you, right?"

"Wouldn't be the first time they chose Elena over me, won't be the last." The hybrid says before walking off, leaving Rebekah to deal with Elena.

"Don't forget the plan!"

"Never!"

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗟𝗬 is over." April tells Elena as she wakes up against a bookshelf in the library.

"What the hell is going on?" Elena stands up from the floor.

"The school will be empty soon....How many times did you compel me?" April asked. "Don't...don't lie. Rebekah says you lie."

"Rebekah isn't who you think she is, April."

"What? She's not a thousand year old original vampire?"

"Listen, we can figure this out, but we have to get out of her." Elena grabs April by the wrist, turning a corner to find Rebekah and Anastasia standing there, Rebekah's arm wrapped around the hybrid's bicep.

"Sorry, not allowed." Rebekah turns towards Anastasia, compelling her, "Have a seat and don't talk until I tell you too, Anastasia."

Elena looks on in shock as Anastasia does what she's told, "How did--?"

"Compel her? I took all her daylight things and drained her blood of the vervain that she's been drinking." Rebekah smirked, walking up to Elena and compelling her this time, "Why don't you also take a seat? The rest of the class will be here shortly."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗦 in the grill when his phone begins to ring, the caller ID showing 'Unknown Caller' as he answers it irritably, "What?"

"Guess who? I'm back, dagger-free, and I'm holding both your niece and Elena hostage at the high school." Rebekah spoke from the other end, "Just thought you should know."

"Who the hell was dumb enough to pull that dagger out of you?"

"I'll be asking the questions today. See you soon." Rebekah hangs up.

Stefan downs what's left of his drink before calling Caroline.

"I'm only ready to talk to you if you're ready to rejoin civilization."

"How would you like to drive the white oak stake through Rebekah's heart?" He asked, walking out of The Grill.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗦 in her seat quietly as Rebekah walks into the Library with her uncle.

Elena stands up, "Stefan.....,"

"Did I say you could move?" Rebekah asked, causing Elena to sit down, "Class is in session. You've all been compelled; you know the rules. my questions honestly, no disobedience, no one leaves. April, my sweet, take notes. This is how you get answers in this town. Let's start with a little quiz. Anastasia, if they refuse to answer, I want you to walk out into the sun."

Stefan tenses, snapping his head over to his niece, finding that she had none of her daylight jewelry on.

"In the year 1114, my brother learned, thanks to yours truly, about a brotherhood of vampire hunters with tattoos that grew with each kill. These tattoos revealed what, Elena?"

"A map."

"Which let too.....? Caroline?"

"A cure for vampirism."

Rebekah walks around the table where they were all sitting in a perfect circle, "Perfect, so we're all caught up. Stefan Salvatore, the last time we saw each other, you had a vampire hunter, but in order to decode the map, you needed the location of the hunter's sword, which you got out of me using some very dirty tricks. Assuming you found the sword, you also found the cure, and yet, you're still a vampire, which means something went wrong."

Anastasia, lets out a sigh, rolling her eyes.

Rebekah turns to April, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, you asked me to take notes."

"I wasn't being literal, darling. But now that you mention it...a flow chart would be nice, which means index cards and push-pins. Go, fetch."

April leaves.

"You're wasting your time." Stefan says, "We don't know anything."

"So, you just gave up?" She asked, "I thought you would do anything to save Elena? Even if it meant taking the cure yourself, so you could grow old and die with her?"

Elena looks over at Stefan with a shocked look on her face.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Rebekah asked, but no one answered. "I'm missing something. What is it?"

"They broke up, okay?"

The blonde original smiles.

"Now let us go."

"Broke up? Wait, I'm confused. I thought Elena was your epic love, Stefan?" Rebekah sits in April's chair, looking at the male Salvatore. "I asked what happened. You have to tell me."

"She slept with Damon." Stefan answered.

Elena looks at Stefan with a surprised look on her face before looking between Caroline and Anastasia, both of which had two different looks on their faces.

Caroline was full of remorse while Anastasia looked bored.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗦𝗢, 𝗩𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗥𝗘 Elena is a trollop who likes bad boys, which explains why Stefan reeks of alcohol." Rebekah stands back up, "But what it doesn't explain is why sweet, loving, innocent Elena could be so heartless towards Stefan."

Elena looks at Stefan.

"How could she hurt you like that? Answer, please."

"She didn't know it at the time, but she was sired to Damon." Stefan answered.

Rebekah sits down between Elena and Stefan. "A sire bond. That's fascinating. And what do you think about that, Elena?"

"I think you're sad and bored and in desperate need of a hobby."

Rebekah turns to Anastasia, "She's hiding something. And she didn't answer, so you--,"

"Elena!" Caroline snaps, not wanting to watch Anastasia step out into the sun "Answer her!"

"I didn't sleep with Damon because of the sire bond. I slept with Damon because I'm in love with him." Elena answered.

Stefan looks over at Elena with a hurt expression on his face as she looks shocked at what she had said.

"What does any of this have to do with the stupid cure?" Caroline asked.

"You're right. We got off the point. Stefan, how do I find the cure?" She asked, "Unless, you'd rather talk about Damon and Elena all day."

"There's a professor. He knows where the cure is."

"Thank you. And, uh, where do I find this professor?"

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗕𝗟𝗬 relaxes as Kol walks into the library.

"Sister...look at this! You're even worse than Klaus."

"Kol, finally. Did you bring what I asked for?" She asked her brother.

Kol shoves Shane into the room.

"You must be Shane." Rebekah turns to Anastasia. "Anastasia, dear, you're free to go. Thanks for being a pawn in my game....and snapping Elena's neck for me."

Anastasia quickly gets up from her seat and rushing into Kol's arm, who lifts her up, letting her limbs wrap around his body.

"Hello, Darling." Kol smirked as he held her tightly to him, "Did you miss me?"

No words leave her lips as she grabs his face in her hand, bringing her lips onto his. Pulling back, she rest her forehead on his own, "Don't leave me again, asshole."

Kol chuckles, using one hand to brush her hair behind her ear, "I don't ever plan on it, Darling. It's forever and always."

"Until death."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 Shane to another room and leaving him with Kol, Rebekah and Anastasia come back into the library.

"Still glued to your seats? Ahh, it's thick with tension in here." Rebekah grinned as Anastasia sat down, kicking her legs up onto the table, "Let's spice things up a bit. Anastasia, truth or dare?"

"Truth." A smirk appears on her face.

Rebekah tilts her head to the side, "Hmm, wise choice for a vampire, witch hybrid like yourself."

"What can I say? I learned from the best."

The original vampire grinned, "How do you really feel about Elena?"

Anastasia shrugged, "I could really careless about her. The more you get to know her, the more you realize how much like Katherine she really is. Even if she doesn't want to admit it to herself. And I really wanna drive a stake through her chest, but that wouldn't be torture enough."

"Truth or dear, Elena. You're compelled. Answer."

"Dare."

"I dare you to tell Stefan the truth about Damon."

"Seriously?" Caroline asked.

"Being with Damon makes me happy." Elena says.

"Makes you happy? Clowns make you happy, Elena. Dig a little deeper."

"When I'm with him...it feels unpredictable, like...like I'm free."

"And how do you feel when you're with Stefan?" Rebekah asked.

"Stop."

"She can't. She's compelled."

"Lately, I feel like I'm a project, like I'm a problem that needs to be fixed. I think I make him sad, and I can't be with someone like that, because when he looks at me, all he sees is a broken toy."

Rebekah smiles, "Do you still love Stefan?"

"Yes."

"Are you still in love with Stefan?"

"No." Elena looks as if she's about to cry.

Rebekah turns to Stefan, "Did that hurt? Having someone you love drives a dagger through your heart?"

"Go to hell." Stefan speaks up.

"Did.That.Hurt?"

"Yes."

"Welcome to the last nine hundred years of my life."

Suddenly, Tyler runs through the door.

"Ah, good, you're here. It was just getting depressing."

"What the hell is going on?" The werewolf/vampire hybrid asked.

"Listen to the rules carefully. Stay in the building, no vamp-running in the hallways."

Anastasia tilts her head in confusion.

"Vamp-running from what?" Caroline voices the question in Anastasia's mind.

Rebekah turns towards Tyler, compelling the hybrid, "Turn."

"What?" Elena asks in shock.

"He can't, he'll lose control!" Caroline exclaimed to the other blonde.

"That's the whole point. I've exhausted all your knowledge. Now I have the professor to help me find the cure, you're just competition. Whoever finds it first gets to decide what to do with it." Rebekah tells them, "Use it, share it, destroy it, save it. I want that to be me."

"But if I turn, I'll kill them."

"Yes, you will. Turn." Rebekah walks out.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗧𝗬𝗟𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗦 into the bookshelf, causing many books to fall, "Agh! I can't fight this!"

He breathes heavily and falls to the floor. Tyler crawls over to a table and pulls himself up. He grunts as his bones begin to break while the four vampires watch him from a distance. He throws his arms on a table, breaking it.

"Get out of here!"

"Go! Go!" Stefan shouts at the three girls, all of them running into the hallway and he closes the door as Tyler screams from inside.

"That door's not gonna hold him!"

"Yeah! Thanks for stating the fucking obvious!" Anastasia shoutes, rolling her eyes.

Inside the library, Tyler's eyes glow amber, his fangs emerge, and he rams the door open and runs into the hallway after Stefan and Elena.

Elena and Stefan close a door, trying to get away from Tyler. Stefan takes the fire axe and sticks it in the door handle. Tyler's growls can be heard as he rams into the door.

Both Stefan and Elena struggle to keep the door closed as it begins to dent and open with the force of Tyler's body.

Anastasia, coming back, rips off a locker door and sticks it through the handles. "I really hate this school."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗣! 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬 help!"

Anastasia follows Stefan and Elena into the lab, finding April's limb body and Bonnie.

"Bonnie, what's going on?" Elena asked her.

"She needs help."

"What happened?" Asked Stefan.

"I did a protection spell, but it accidentally liked Shane to April." Bonnie tells them.

Anastasia scoffed, "And you couldn't control it?"

"I didn't know I was doing it!" Bonnie exclaimed, "Usually, I feel pain or I bleed, but this time I just felt more power."

Stefan is feeling April his blood as she gasps, looking petrified, "It's okay, it's okay! You're okay, you're okay."

"Bonnie, get out of the school." Anastasia tells the witch "But be careful, Tyler's out there and he's turned."

"What about you?"

"No, we can't leave." Elena says, "Rebekah's compelled us."

"Just go. We'll deal with her later." Stefan says, "Come on."

Bonnie helps a terrified April out of the room.

"Stefan, we have to talk about this." Elena turns to Stefan as Anastasia stands next to the closed door.

Stefan turns to face her, "Talk about what, huh? How many more ways are there for you to rip my heart out?"

"I'm just....I'm gonna go look for Tyler or Caroline." Anastasia points to the door awkwardly as she pulls the door open, "Anything to get out of this fucked up conversation."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬, 𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 was back in the Boarding house, sprawled out on the couch as Stefan stood with a drink in his hand.

"Please, let yourself in." Stefan spoke up as Rebekah walked into the house.

"You called me. Should I be checking for hidden daggers?"

"I wish." Anastasia mumbled, swirling the ice in her glass around.

"You still wanna find the cure?" Stefan asked her.

"More than anything. I want to ram it down Niklaus' throat and look into his eyes as he realizes he's mortal again." Rebekah tells them. "But Shane's dead, and you are both useless. So, I'm right back to where I started."

"Shane's not dead." Anastasia's voice is blunt as she speaks.

"But I watched Kol impale him."

"Well, you probably shouldn't have left him alone." Stefan tells her, "Bonnie did a little spell. He's perfectly fine."

"You didn't have to tell me that." Rebekah has a shocked look on her face, "Why am I really here?"

"You were right. I'm going to be here for an eternity, and I will go insane if I don't know how Elena truly feels about my brother." Stefan says.

"Well, if you really want the cure, you should know that Shane has an agenda, and it's a dark one. He said he organized dozens of people to die in sacrifice, he admitted to the council explosion where twelve people died, and I'm guessing it's not a coincidence that twelve hybrids died at the hand of my brother."

"Twelve....channeling the energy from mass death is used in witchcraft to perform dark spells. It's called Expression. Shane admitted all this to you?" Anastasia asked, sitting up to look over the back of the couch.

"Proudly."

"Well, then, I guess we'll have to figure out how to manage him while we find the cure for ourselves." Stefan said, sitting down on the couch and letting his niece put her legs over in his lap.

"We?" Rebekah questioned, "There is no 'we', Stefan, Anastasia."

"Oh, I could care less for this cure. I love my fangs too much to want to be human." Anastasia smirked, running her tongue over her retracted fangs, veins growing under her eyes.

"Listen, I hate my brother, and you hate yours. But Damon's got Jeremy, Klaus has the sword, and Shane has Bonnie. You and I are the only ones left with nothing." Stefan explained to the blonde, "You said it yourself, right? Whoever finds the cure first gets to decide what to do with it. So, what do you say? You wanna be partners?"

𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘
only 3 chapters left before the end of this book! the next 2 chapters will be....something.

anyway! what are you guys wanting to see the most before the end of this? let me know, and i may use your ideas....