Journey To The Past [Sequel to At The Beginning]

Chapter 87

Mystic Grill
Cassie is munching on fries while Alaric has a drink in hand and is grading papers when Damon arrives. "Hey! Is she here?" Damon asks as he approaches them. He bends down and kisses Cassie cheek because she was chewing a fry. "You seriously couldn't just wait for me to swallow my fries?" She asks with a pissed off tone. "The way you're devouring them, I was afraid you'd accidentally bite me." Damon shot a smirk at her. "Dick." She mumbled under her breath. Suddenly a blonde woman walks in that Cassie doesn't recognize. "Incoming." Cassie says and motions her head to her. The woman sees Matt and walks over to him. "Hey, excuse me. Crazy question: do you know Tyler Lockwood?" She asks with a flirtatious smile. Alaric and Damon turn and look at her. "Mmm, Mason's mystery woman." Damon says with a raised eyebrow. "Where is Mason anyway?" Alaric asks curiously. Cassie looks to Damon for the answer. "Decomposing in his truck." Damon says with no remorse. "So you think she is a werewolf?" Alaric asks with worry in his tone. "Well I hope not, being that it's a full moon, Ric, but we should definitely find out." Damon says to him and takes wolfsbane from his pocket. "What is that?" Alaric asks with a furrowed brow. "Wolfsbane." Cassie says knowing just by the smell what it is. She scrunched her nose in disgust. "You know if you hurt her and she is a wolf, you're gonna make more wolves come here and seek revenge?" Cassie asked him knowing he didn't care. "Well, we'll deal with that when and if it happens.

Jules is sitting alone at the bar until Alaric joins her with a drink in hand and pretends to be drunk. "Well hello. Can I have a scotch and whatever this beautiful woman is drinking." Alaric asks the bartender with a slight slur. "No, one is my limit." Jules says with a chuckle. "Oh come on, it's not like I'm a freak. I'm just being friendly to somebody who's new to town." Alaric says with a dashing smile. "Okay, if you insist. How do you know I'm new?" Jules asks curiously. "Because I've never seen you here before and I am here every night." Alaric says still pretending to be drunk. Cassie and Damon walk up to the bar and continues along with the scene. "Excuse me, is this guy bothering you?" She asks Jules with fake concern. "I'm not bothering anybody." Alaric says to Cassie. "Perfect. Well... Do it elsewhere." Damon cuts in. Alaric looks at them. "Don't worry, he's harmless. He's sort of the town drunk." Damon says to Jules with a reassuring smile. "And you know, when we get tired of him we just put him in a cab and send him back to wherever he came from." Cassie says and chuckles. Jules feels uncomfortable. Cassie can sense it. While Cassie is talking to her, Alaric puts wolfsbane in her glass. "Please don't talk about me like I'm not here." Alaric says and he gives the glass to Jules. "Why are you here?" Damon asks Alaric with a fake glare. "Thank you for the drink." Jules says to Alaric. Alaric raises his glass and leaves. Jules puts her drink on the counter without drinking it. Cassie got a funny feeling being around this woman. She was definitely not human. "By the way, I'm Cassie." Cassie put her hand out and waited for Jules to take it. After a moment of hesitation, Jules shook her hand. "Jules, nice to meet you." Jules smiled.

In that split second Cassie got a hit with a vision of wolves running through the woods and then saw Jules slowly transform back into a human. She let go of Jules' hand and kept smiling to act like everything was fine.  Cassie then pulled out her phone and pretended to answer a text. She typed 'WOLF' and angled the phone so Damon could see.  "Well, if you're here for a while, there's a B&B down the road and there's a motel on I-90 but you know, if you ask me, it's kind of a mistake." Damon added trying to make her trust him. "No, it's fine. I'm just here for the night. It's a long story, I'm looking for my friend." She said casually with  a tight smile. "Who?" Cassie asks; playing dumb. "Mason Lockwood." Jules says matter of factly and begins  stirring her drink with a stirrer. "We know Mason!" Damon says and points to Cassie. "You do?" Jules asks curiously. "Yeah. He's a great guy." Damon says quickly. "He's missing." Jules says in a slightly angry tone. "What do you mean?" Cassie asks with concern. "Like...I mean, missing missing?" Damon asks her; playing dumb again. "How do you know Mason?" Jules asks sternly. "Friends of friends." Damon says with a shrug. "I dated Tyler for a short time while Mason was here, and I've lived here my whole life." Cassie added in. Jules nods but still doesn't drink her drink. Damon and Cassie both looks at Alaric.