They were heading back two months later.
Rosalind had done everything in her power to settle all affairs so that they could eventually move back to Mystic Falls. She sold her father's store to one of his most trusted employees, and collected the money to finish paying off other debts.
She organized his belongings, discarding what was no longer useful, keeping other things for herself, and letting Tyler go through his clothes to see what he wanted before she took it to be donated. She kept most of her father's jackets, and nearly all of the hoodies as well. The shoes were too worn out for Tyler to use.
She worked like crazy trying to save money. She kept her job as a lifeguard, but worked several hours at the carpentry shop where Brady had been situated, to help the business while they waited to hire his replacement. She worked at the movie theater and comic book store for the same reason, making up for Stevie's absence. Thankfully, Jules handled everything else for the other pack members, to lessen the burden on Rosalind.
Every day, she called her aunt to let her know Tyler was doing fine. He was attending school, keeping up with his sports, learning to feel more comfortable in his changing body. Carol didn't understand what had changed in Tyler, she just knew that he seemed to need this, and did her best to not ask too many questions.
Tyler seemed happy, which is what mattered to Rosalind. He wasn't keeping up with his old friends, rather making new friendships and trying to see how to best function as a teenage werewolf. He came home every day to find Rosalind rushing in from work to make him something to eat before heading out for her next shift. He'd never known a life like that, where one actually had to be working constantly just to survive financially.
Every day, she made sure he ate, that he had a packed lunch, and a warm meal awaiting him before he got to doing his homework. It was a good distraction for her, having to care for someone other than herself. She got her chance to grieve without constant questions, and still managed to learn how to continue living without her father at her side. The one thing she didn't have to worry about was figuring out how the hell to get Tyler under her insurance. With his wolf healing, he wouldn't need it.
As their two month stay in Florida came to an end, they began to pack, and arranged to leave the apartment the day before the full moon, so they could spend it in Mystic Falls. Carol was delighted to hear they were coming back, and had been insisting on a welcome home party, which Tyler politely declined.
Jules decided to come with them, using the extra space in her car so that Rosalind's wouldn't be too heavy and put them at risk of something malfunctioning in the vehicle. Both Lockwoods were happy for her company, leading the way as Jules drove behind them at a slower pace.
"So, you can go back to school for the remaining weeks," said Rosalind. "Finish up your junior year strong, and then enjoy the summer... aside from full moons where we'll be in the cellar."
"How will it work if you trigger your curse?" asked Tyler worriedly. "There isn't enough room there for the both of us. We'll kill each other."
She shrugged, keeping her eyes on the road. "I don't know. But I'm going to try to not trigger my curse. Until we can ensure you have yourself under control on full moons, with minimal pain, I am not going to do anything that might lead me to trigger my curse. I already cut back on drinking and drugs and sugar... I'm keeping busier... some part of that has to work. Nobody's dying at my hands. I have myself under control."
Tyler leaned back in his seat. "Maybe we should just try one day to... let me roam free. Not in Mystic Falls, but we could go into the woods somewhere far away. See what that's like."
"Caroline wouldn't be able to come with us, but sure. Maybe when you hit your sixth full moon, okay? You're barely going to have your third today. Last one was the same as the first. Lots of pain, and you being a little brat in wolf form."
Tyler gave a weak laugh. "Yeah, I can't remember much from it, but I know you're yelling at me throughout."
"Because you start making faces and being rude." Rosalind's phone started to ring from the back seat. "Can you get that, please?"
Tyler leaned over, trying to find it. "Do you really need to put it in the back seat each time you drive?"
"Yes," said Rosalind. "It ensures that I can't get tempted to answer any calls or texts that come in. But you're here. Hurry up and answer!"
"I'm trying, but your bag had a billion small pockets—"
"It's in the backpack not my purse—"
"Same thing!"
"No it isn't!" The phone stopped ringing, and there was a chime to indicate a voicemail had been left.
Tyler finally managed to grab the phone. "It was my mom." He unlocked the phone and played the voicemail, 'Rosalind, honey,' came Carol's voice, 'I need you and Tyler to come back as soon as you can. I've had an accident and I'm in the hospital.'
Rosalind frowned. "In the hospital?" She made him play the voicemail again. "What happened to her? Her voice sounds... fine. And I didn't hear any machines in the background. Try calling her back."
Tyler pressed the button to dial her number again, but Carol didn't pick up. "Weird," said Tyler. "Can't you drive any faster?"
"If I drive any faster, we might lose half of our stuff in an accident and I might kill someone. Definitely don't want tomorrow night to be my first full moon. Call Jules instead."
He did as he was told. "Hey, Jules," said Rosalind when she answered. "When we get off of the freeway, I'm going to take a right first street afterward to head to the hospital. My Aunt Carol was in some sort of accident. You can head straight off the exit ramp and you'll end up at the mansion."
"Rosalind, are you sure? I can come with you two. That sounds... fishy."
"It'll be okay," said Rosalind. "We'll see what's up and get to the mansion a bit after you."
They arrived in Mystic Falls early the following morning. Rosalind was very tired, but couldn't afford to rest even after they got to the hospital. The two Lockwoods rushed in to find where Carol was, and found her in a room filled with flowers and get well cards.
She stirred when she heard them arrive. "Tyler?" she whispered wearily. "Rosalind?"
"Mom," said Tyler softly, kissing her forehead. "It's okay, we're here. What happened?"
She groaned. "Fell down the stairs... I think. It's all very fuzzy." She reached out her hands for them to hold. They stood on either side of her and held her. "Just need to rest... don't go anywhere."
"We'll be right here," said Rosalind. "Don't worry."
Carol closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep. Jules walked in from the hallway. "Tyler," she said, "your blonde vampire friend is outside, she wanted to check on your mom but I told her to wait for you in the parking lot."
"I'll be right back," said Tyler, darting out.
"This is all very suspicious," said Jules as she came closer. "What are the odds she gets hurt the day we come back? Have you been keeping up with the people here?"
"No," said Rosalind. "I've been so busy with a dozen other things." A nurse came in and Rosalind piped up, "Hey, at what time was my aunt admitted?"
The nurse checked her chart. "She was brought in at nine o'clock last night after a maid found her unconscious beside the stairs. The doctors estimate she was injured an hour prior. She was very lucky to have no spinal damage or brain damage. But she did break her femur and she cracked several ribs. She will need to stay here for a while."
Rosalind frowned. "And when she was brought in, was she conscious?"
The nurse shook her head. "She only woke up once early this morning asking for her son, and for you. She'd been unconscious since she arrived."
"Thank you," said Rosalind, checking her phone for the timestamp of the voicemail. "Jules... she left that voicemail at seven fifty-five in the evening. We were in the same time zone at that point. She called to say she was in the hospital before she was ever brought in. Just minutes before the supposed hour that she'd been injured."
They both realized what was wrong at the same time. "It's a trap," said Jules. They sprinted out of the hospital, and rushed out into the parking lot. Tyler and Caroline were nowhere in sight.
"They can't have gotten far," said Jules. "What if— AHHH!"
Rosalind saw a man appear behind Jules, holding his hand out and causing her sink to her knees, holding her head. He quickly injected something into her neck that made her pass out. Rosalind tried to run, but with a flick of his hand, a random car door opened, knocking her flat on her ass.
"Let go of me!" she shrieked as a woman arrived to help him zip-tie her hands together. "Let— GO!"
They shoved her into the back of a truck beside two unconscious bodies: Tyler and Caroline. Jules was dropped in between them before the doors closed and the man and woman drove them away at a high speed.
Rosalind tried to wake them up. She tried to kick open the doors. But each time her foot got close to the back of the truck, it was like it hit an invisible wall just inches in front of it, preventing her from actually making contact with the doors. She had no hope of kicking out the tail lights. When she tried to sit up to wave and call for help, the man braked hard, and her head slammed into the barrier she'd been kicking, effectively knocking her out.
She awoke in a dark room. Jules was beside her, chained up and very still. Rosalind's hands were still bound, and now her ankles were, too. But aside from the ache in her head, it seemed she hadn't been given any sedatives. She wasn't a supernatural yet, there was no heightened strength for the kidnappers to worry about.
She forced herself to her feet, kicking off her shoes and socks, then twisting her wrists as much as possible to press her palms outward, feeling against the walls she couldn't see. She could feel stone both beneath her feet and on her hands. There was water in the cracks of the stones under her, making them smooth. But the stones she was touching were dry and rough.
She had to waddle around to move, careful not to injure herself, but also making sure to examine the place quickly. The room was small. It had four walls and only one door made of a hard metal that made a loud noise when tapped in any way. There was no handle, and no cracks on the top or bottom. Just one window, but judging by how dark the room was, it must have had dirt and dust caked over, or maybe it had been painted to keep light from penetrating inward.
She felt around Jules. Her heart was beating, and she was breathing, but the chains were locked impossibly tight. No matter what Rosalind tried, she couldn't remove them from the bolts or from Jules's wrists.
Once she examined the perimeter of the room, measuring in steps that it was a square, twenty steps from one corner to the one beside it, she started to move through the center. She nearly slipped, but was able to grab onto a pillar that was in the center. It was softer, as if it had moss of some kind.
Maybe this structure was somewhere in the woods. Somewhere near water. It wasn't the Lockwood cellar, but chances were the other Founding Families had had cellars for different, more sinister reasons.
"Jules," she whispered as she kept walking through the center. "Jules—"
She tripped again, this time on what seemed to be a camera. She was surprised she hadn't seen the blinking light before. Perhaps her eyes had taken too much time to adjust because of her headache.
She leaned down to look at the camera screen, and found it was recording Jules. "Let us go!" she begged, looking into the lens. "We didn't do anything to you, please!"
Obviously, no one answered.
She started to panic. Her aunt would wake up alone in the hospital room, thinking she was abandoned again. Tyler and Caroline weren't here, which meant they might already be dead, or were being tortured somewhere far worse. Tyler might even be alone. He might be stuck doing his full moon completely by himself.
Rosalind did another round of the room, feeling for anything sharp she could use. At last, she found one particularly pointy bit of stone, and lifted her hands to rub the zip-tie over the sharp edge, gritting her teeth each time her skin accidentally brushed it too hard. She made the same motion over and over, occasionally taking breaks to try and chew through the tie, weakening it with her teeth. She rubbed and rubbed until her wrists ached from the zip-tie digging in each time she flexed her hands in different ways for access. But at last, it was weak enough that when she sat down and slammed her hands onto her knee, it broke.
Time for her feet. She crawled around, looking for sharp edges nearer to the ground, because otherwise, she would need to do a handstand to reach the one she'd been using, and while she could easily hold a handstand for awhile, it would run the risk of cutting her foot, and that would hinder her ability to move. Plus even if it was possible, it would be insanely difficult.
She found a new edge by the bottom of the door. She sat back, spreading her legs as best as she could with her ankles still tucked together. She made a back and forth motion, pushing her legs forward then bringing them back into her chest, over and over as she felt the edge digging into the zip-tie. Her teeth couldn't help this time. Hard as she might try, she simply wasn't flexible enough to reach with her mouth. She tried to use her nails, tried to tug with her hands. But it didn't make the process any faster. She went over and over until she felt it ready to snap, causing her to abruptly push her feet away from each other. It broke onto the floor, and she was completely freed.
She made a beeline for Jules, who had still not awoken, but was already whimpering in pain. The darkness made it hard for her to know what time it was, and the camera had no visible numbers or symbols she could see on the screen. For all she knew, it could be evening already and Jules was going to start transforming soon.
"It can't be evening," she told herself softly. "I have to get out of here before that. Tyler can't be alone. He can't get hurt."
She tugged with all her might on the chains, trying to break them off to free Jules before she awoke. But it was useless. Rosalind was left laying on the ground, panting heavily.
And then, she heard footsteps. She quickly rushed to the corner nearest the door, which would place her behind it when it opened. She had nothing to use as weapons, just the zip-ties.
Someone came in, and she burst out, her fists flying at where she estimated the person's face to be. The woman simply swept her hands up, and tossed Rosalind to the far wall, where she landed with a painful crack, and lay in a heap on the floor.
"Evigilo," the woman said. Jules suddenly awoke and let out a terrified scream, sitting up and thrashing as her bones began to break. "It's time."
"Where are you taking her?" croaked Rosalind. "Where are Tyler and Caroline? Take me instead, take me—"
"Klaus requires a wolf," said the woman. "You are the second backup. If something goes wrong with this one... you will get your chance to be the sacrifice."
"Second backup? Where's Tyler?"
"Someone helped him and the blonde escape. But no matter, we always have backups."
"You're breaking the Curse of the Sun and the Moon?" she said. "You can't! It isn't fair to—"
"Silence," snapped the woman. "We are building a New Order. That silly curse is a fake. Tonight, Niklaus Mikaelson will become the Original Hybrid, a creature more powerful than anything you can imagine."
"What are you talking about?" said Rosalind, thoroughly confused and dazed. "A hybrid?"
"You clearly know nothing. Klaus is an Original vampire, one whose wolf side was locked away unfairly by a witch in his past. I will help free him of his curse. He must sacrifice a vampire... a werewolf... and a doppelgänger."
"Elena," said Rosalind quietly. "No, you can't do that! You can't just kill people for something like this, it's wrong!"
"You wouldn't think it wrong if you knew a fraction of the power you could have, standing with Klaus. Perhaps you'll understand one day. As soon as he can sire hybrids... he might choose to make you the first after him."
"NO!" yelled Rosalind as the woman began to drag Jules away. It seemed the chains had broken easily now. Perhaps this witch had spelled them to be unbreakable. "Take me instead, leave her and Tyler alone—"
"No," said Jules weakly. "Take me, they're just kids, leave them alone..."
Rosalind tried to crawl over to help, but the woman simply pumped her hand again, and Rosalind was pushed back into the wall, unable to get to Jules in time before the witch dragged her out of the room, and slammed the door shut.
There was so much she didn't understand. So much she wanted to ask questions about. She didn't understand why it was necessary for Elena Gilbert to die. She didn't understand why she was going to lose Jules tonight.
At the very least, Tyler was safe. But how long would that last?
She didn't know how long she was in there, using the camera and its stand to try and break down the door, break through the window to reach the handle on the other side. She was exhausted and weak. She hadn't eaten since that morning, and given the fact Jules's bones had been breaking when the witch arrived, it was already evening.
She forced herself to stay awake. To drink the water right off of the floor no matter how disgusting it was. She couldn't pass out, she simply couldn't. All would be lost if she dared to lose consciousness. And yet, she was so hungry and tired. So, so very exhausted of crying.
I lost my dad two months ago.
I lost eight wolves who were like family to me.
And now I'm going to lose the woman who acted as a surrogate mother for me.
I might even lose the only other maternal figure I have left...
I may lose Tyler if I can't get out of here.
She tried to distract herself with making a to-do list in her head. Things she needed to get done if she ever got out of this prison.
I need to go back to Florida to settle Jules's affairs.
I need to transfer ownership of her car to me and give mine to Tyler.
I need to see what things of hers I want to keep and what I want to donate.
I need to find a job or two here in Mystic Falls.
I need new insurance.
I need to register my car.
Maybe I should get a dog.
Maybe I'll name it TyTy as a joke.
Maybe Tyler will be alive to laugh at that joke.
Suddenly, the doors open. Rosalind found herself being lifted up, and was able to smell Caroline's perfume as someone held her into their chest.
"You came for me," she said softly, knowing exactly who her rescuers were.
"Of course we did," said Tyler. "Caroline will heal you as soon as we're out of here."
"No," said Rosalind, shaking her head. "No vampire blood, please... no..." she covered her face as she saw the sun shining over them. "How long has it been? Who died?"
"Two days," said Tyler grimly. "Jules is dead and so is Jenna, Elena's aunt."
"Elena," said Rosalind suddenly. "Is she dead, too?"
"No," said Caroline softly. "She's okay. Almost everyone is okay... Damon almost died because Tyler bit him on accident and Stefan left with Klaus and my mom knows the truth about me and Matt broke up with me, but... we're alive."
"Let's get her to a hospital," said Tyler when Rosalind closed her eyes. "She's about to pass out."
"How did you bite Damon?" Rosalind murmured as she felt him carrying her through the woods. "On purpose?"
Tyler shook his head. "Accident. He actually rescued me and Caroline. It was to save Elena, obviously, but... he did it anyway."
"Eh," said Rosalind quietly. "He should have died anyway..."
Caroline laughed lightly. "Um... turns out Klaus's blood is the cure to a wolf bite."
"You need to explain... the whole Klaus deal."
"Don't worry, I will. As soon as you can stay awake, I'm going to tell you everything. I'll tell both of you everything."
Rosalind had never had to stay in a hospital overnight. When she'd broken her leg as a kid, she'd only been there a few hours, and was allowed to go home afterwards with a cast that had been signed by the nurses present. This time, she had to remain in observation for a few days to make sure she didn't have any brain damage.
Elena came to see her before she was discharged.
"Hey," said Rosalind quietly. "I'm glad you're okay. I hope it's alright that Caroline told me... literally all of what was happening these past months that I didn't know about."
"It's alright," said Elena with a good-natured smile. "Um... how are you? I am so sorry about Jules."
"I'm doing okay. I'm very sorry about your aunt. She was a wonderful person. I only got to see her that one time but she... she was kind to me. And I'll never forget that."
Elena half-smiled. "Thank you. You made a good impression on her."
Rosalind just nodded. "Listen, Elena, you and I are no strangers to grief and pain. So, if you ever need someone to rant to... someone who will really understand what it's like to lose a fuckton of people in a short span of time... then I'll be here for you. I'm only going back to Florida to settle things for Jules. After that, I'll be moving here, permanently. If you need anything... just let me know."
Elena's smile was more genuine this time. "Thank you, Rosalind. Same goes for you."