The Gilbert Twins

Chapter Five: Family Ties Part I

Holly walked down the stairs, she tried turning on the light, but strangely none of them worked. "Aunt Jenna? Elena?" Holly paused as she walked down the stairs. "Jeremy?" she reached down the stairs and turned left, suddenly she gasped.

The walls were covered in blood and someone had knocked down the small table and vase. She let out a gasp when she noticed the bodies on the floor. There were of her family. Her only family that she had left. They were all dead and covered with blood.

Jeremy had blood spilling from under his eyes.

Aunt Jenna's heart had been ripped out.

Elena's head had been decapitated.

Holly made a small, choked sound and she kneeled beside Aunt Jenna, her eyes filling with tears. "No, Aunt Jenna," she hugged her aunt's dead body. "No, please Elena . . . Jeremy, I can't be alone. Please."

Holly woke up with a start as the bright sun entered her bedroom. Her heart was beating fast and her head was pounding. She looked around the room and breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was fine. It was just a bad dream, a horrible bad dream but a dream nonetheless. It wasn't real.

She pushed away the covers and headed for the bathroom hoping a shower would wake her up and start making her feel less crazy. As she waited for the water to heat up she stared at her face in the mirror and rubbed her cheekbones. God, she was a mess. There were dark circles under her eyes and she felt like she hadn't slept all night.

First week back and she had already witness a murder and kept having these weird visions. Every girl's dream.

"So we have now resolve the mystery of all these deaths that have been occluding lately," Logan Fells' voice boomed over the TV. "The latest victim was the local history teacher, Mr. Tanner who was found dead near the Mystic Falls football field. The result of all these deaths have been because of a rare mountain lion."

"Dirt," Jenna threw a napkin at the screen. "Scum bag!"

Elena raised an eyebrow and looked up from her coffee. "Who are you talking too?"

"Him." Jenna moodily looked up at the screen. "Logan 'scum' Fell AKA the reason I left Mystic Falls and never came back. Jackass."

"Cute jackass." Elena replied looking up from the box that she had picked up from their family deposit box that was filled with Gilbert mementos. She pulled up a ring. "Is this Grandma Beth's wedding ring?"

Jenna smiled as she inspected the ring. "Yeah. What are you doing looking at these old things?"

Elena put the ring back in the box. "Mom told Mrs. Lockwood that she could borrow it for the heritage display at the Founder's Ball. Holly promised that she would help me, but," she gave a frustrated sigh. "You know how she is sometimes. She can be moody."

"Hey, don't be so hard on your sister," Jenna softened. "Her first week back hasn't exactly been a picnic and seeing Tanner's dead body didn't help either. How is she doing by the way? Has she said anything?"

"Holly is Holly." Jeremy grabbed the ring from the box. "She won't talk if she doesn't want to talk. How much do you think this is worth on eBay?"

"You're not going to find out."

"That is Mom and Dad's stuff-they belong to Holly and me as well!" Jeremy protested. "You can't give it away!"

Elena said. "It's called loaning," she frowned when she saw Holly walking down the stairs as fast as she could as if someone was chasing her. She had a panicked look on her face and she was only half wearing her sweater. "Hol, you ok?"

"I'm fine!" she shot back, not even bothering to look back at them. "I just need some fresh air." She opened the door and saw Stefan who had obviously come to visit his sister. She forced a smile. "Hey, Stefan."

"Hi, Holly." Stefan had an amused smile on his face. "Where are you up to in such a hurry?"

"Oh, you know around." Holly said breathlessly. She just needed to get out of this house.

"Go for the blue," Damon instructed lazily to Caroline who was trying on dresses for the Founder Ball tomorrow. "Yellow makes you look even more pasty and I can't have my date looking pasty."

Caroline scoffed. "Who says I'm going with you? Besides have you meet my mother? She will kill you on the spot."

Damon compelled her lazily from the bed. "But I worked so hard for this party, not to be canceled. Please take me."

Caroline's smile brightened. "You should go to the Founder's Ball with me." She started trying on the blue dress.

Damon stood up and started kissing her neck. "You can be very sweet when you want to be." She murmured. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Yes." He murmured. "But first I need you to do a favor for me. How good at you at getting this nose where it doesn't belong?"

"Oh, I'm excellent." Caroline purred. "What do you need me to do?"

After providing Caroline details for tomorrow night, Damon left the Forbes house with no desire to listen to her chat his ear off. He whistled as he walked through the streets, something he rarely did but he allowed himself to do now. He was having a pretty good day. His brother was off his back, the accidents had been explain, and everything was going just like he wanted them too.

He stopped whistling when he saw someone approaching, at first he thought it was Elena, but then he noticed the wavy hair. "Holly." He said knowing very well that Holly wouldn't look at him twice after he had tried to kiss her. He had heard from Caroline that Holly had witness Tanner's body and that she had freaked which made Damon feel a tiny bit guilty for killing him and leaving him where Holly could find him.

"Holly?" he said again, but it was clear that Holly wasn't listening to him. "Holly?"

Holly was looking over her shoulder and turning around as if worried that someone was following her. She was biting her lip and looking like she was trying very hard not to cry. Why were their voices inside her head? She couldn't understand what the voices were saying because there were in whispers, but they were loud and very insisting. She tried to make them stop, but they wouldn't. She heard a bird chirp and she flinched.

She felt someone grasp her firmly by the shoulders. "Holly? Holly, look at me. Can you hear me, Holly?"

Holly stared at Damon's blue eyes that looked at her concerned. "I shouldn't be here." She whispered. "I shouldn't have come back. I should have stayed in Denver . . . this place is haunted or something."

Damon looked at her strangely. "Holly, you're not making any sense."

Holly shook her head as she pulled away. "It's nothing, just leave me alone. Please, Damon."