⭒❃.✮:▹
Bonnie was putting on some sky lantern as Caroline and Arabella held the ladder to keep her stable. Arabella had just learned about the ghost and Jeremy still seeing his exes. She understood why Bonnie didn't like it one bit.
"So when you did the spell to send Vicki away, did that get rid of Anna too?" Caroline asked.
Bonnie sighed. "I wish. I blocked the magic that was helping Vicki get a foothold here. Jeremy's still got a direct line to the other side and as long as he wants to see Anna and she wants too see him-," The Bennett started to climb down the ladder.
"She's still here." Arabella finished.
"I went against balance of nature when I brought Jeremy back to life and now I'm paying the consequences."
"And you're not okay with it. Which is totally reasonable." Caroline said.
"I'm a thousand times not okay with it. I Just don't know what to do about it." The girls got distracted from their conversation by a car. Damon's car.
"Greetings. Sunshine-witchy, blondie, Witchy. I think you got your voodoo wires crossed when you got rid of Vicki Donovan."
Bonnie and Elena had caught her up with what happened at the bonfire, Vicki coming sort of back from the dead and Vicki trying to burn Elena alive.
"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked.
"Because I'm pretty sure I just got split-roasted by Mason Lockwood's ghost."
"What?" Arabella asked. "Why would you think that?"
"Maybe because he chained me to a chair and shoved a poker in my chest. I'm just having a déjà vu."
If she was Mason, she would want to get revenge too.
"Ghost can't physically interact with people, Damon." Arabella said.
"Well, sunshine, I don't have time for a vengeful Lockwood. When I kill someone, they're supposed to stay dead." He looked at Bonnie. "Whatever you screwed up, fix it." And with that the Salvatore drove away.
"Matt!" Arabella called the Donovan boy over from the other side of the street. The three quickly explained everything to him.
"I haven't seen Vicki, I swear. I sent her back like you told me to." Matt responded.
"Are you sure? Because she has just as much reason to haunt Damon as Mason Lockwood does."
"She's gone, Bonnie." Matt spoke, harshly. "If she was here, I'd know it.
"Why do you think it's Vicki and not Mason?" Caroline asked.
Bonnie answered. "Because if any ghost other than Vicki Donovan has a physical foothold on our side, then that means Damon's right and something has gone really, really wrong."
"I've had enough of this ghost stuff to last forever. So you guys can leave me out of this one." Matt said before leaving quickly.
"I feel so sad for him. It took a lot for him to send his sister away." Caroline spoke, voice filled with concern for him. " So much strength as a man"
"We've got a ghost problem to deal with, Caroline. Save the Jeremy lecture for later." Bonnie grabs her bag but she didn't notice that it was open. Everything fell on the ground, including her grimoire. She sighed as she went to pick it up but there's wind, blowing it open until a certain page.
"Okay, did your grimoire just-" Caroline spoke.
"I think so." Bonnie said as she took the book to read the page.
"Please tell me that's a recipe for witch cookies." Caroline begged.
"It's a manifestation spell. It's used to reveal veiled matter."
"What's veiled matter?" Caroline replied confused.
"Ghost." Arabella said as she asked Bonnie if she could see the spell.
⭒❃.✮:▹
The three girls had decided to go to the old witch house so they could cast the spell since no one would be hanging around there. "So this is where you brought Jeremy back to life." Caroline stated.
"Yeah. Sorry, I know it's creepy, but we needed a private place around here to do the spell." Bonnie apologized.
"Hmm. There's no chance it's haunted by the hundred dead witches who were horrifically burned to death in this very spot, is there?" Caroline asked, worriedly.
"They're not here anymore. And they made it clear they were never coming back."
"Right. They pinky swear?" Caroline chuckled, nervously.
"It's okay, Care." Arabella said.
Caroline lighted the candles and turned back to the witch and the heretic, ready to ask them if they were ready to do the spell.
As she turned, the two were sitting on the ground, holding each others hands, already preforming the spell.
⭒❃.✮:▹
Five minutes later they were still busy and Caroline was getting worried.
"Bella? Bonnie? I don't like this." Caroline said to them, but the girl didn't react until someone suddenly grabbed Bonnie's wrist. Bonnie opened her eyes first. They widend as they saw Sheila.
"Oh, my God. Is that your-"
"Grams. I can't believe you're here." The Bennett started to cry at the sight of her dead grams.
"Now stop your crying, we don't have time for tears." Sheila spoke but in a kindly way. She looked to Caroline and Arabella.
"Nice to see you again, Caroline." The woman greeted the blonde.
"Hi, miss Sheila."
The elder turned to Arabella. "It's been a long time, Arabella."
"Too long." The girl smiled sadly at her.
The woman looked back at her granddaughter. "A fine mess you've made, honey. The witches told you there'd be consequences to bringing Jeremy back and you did it anyway."
" I didn't have a choice. I love him and I- I couldn't just let him go." The girl's voice broke because of her crying.
" I understand. But you cracked open the door to the other side. There's an old witch over here. She took advantage of it. She took advantage of you, honey. When you did that spell to send Vicki Donovan away, she wedged the door wide open. Giving a free pass to anybody with unfinished business."
"How do you know this?" Bonnie asked, confused. Arabella wanted to ask the same, but decided not to, wanting to give the granddaughter- grandmother duo as much time as they can get.
"Witches talk. Even on the other side. Who do you think makes all the rules?"
"What does the witch want?"
"That's original vampire business, not yours. I don't want you getting in the middle of that. I'm here because you upset the balance of nature. And it's your duty to set it right. You need to close that door."
Caroline called Elena up. "Apparently the old witch can draw power from this side because of her talisman."
"Her talisman. My necklace?" Arabella heard Elena's voice from the other side of the phone.
"It's some ju-ju power source. And I know you're not going to like this, but Bonnie needs to destroy it."
"I just walked in on Jeremy kissing the reason I'm completely okay with that." Elena answered and Caroline's head snapped towards Arabella, who immediately looked to Bonnie.
"What?! Are you kidding?" Caroline whisper-yelled.
"I wish. Look, I don't have the necklace. Damon has it somewhere. Text him. I'll call you right back and send Arabella over here." Elena said before ending the call.
"Where is she?" Arabella asked, while standing up.
"The Grill."
The Heretic looked back down at the Bennett's, who nodded at her telling her that she can leave.
⭒❃.✮:▹
Not much later she made her way into the grill. Only to see someone she never thought she would see again.
"Lexi?"
"Arabella." Lexi smiled at her as the two girls hugged each other. "Need a helping hand with Stefan?"
"Yeah. We'll need it."
The two friends walked in the old city jail, where Lexi opened the door to reveal Stefan tied to a chair.
"Klaus really did a number on him, huh?"
"The asshole compelled him to turn off his humanity."
"Well, we're just going to have to convince him to turn it back on." Lexi kicks Stefan. "Wake up, sleepy head."
Stefan looked up to them.
"How you feeling?"
"What is this?" Stefan asked, trying to get out of the chains. "Let me out of here." More looking at his mate than his best friend.
"Shh. Inside voices, please. I'm trying to get inside your head."
"Bels. Get rid of her, please."
"Hell no, sweetheart."
"First step, drying him out. Starve away the blood lust. Strip away the temptation"
"This isn't going to work, Lexi. You can't do this."
Lexi looks Stefan in the eyes.
"What are you doing?" The humanity-off vampire asked with a little scoff.
He suddenly starts to grunt in pain. The veins in his arms and hands start to become visible.
"What are you doing, Lexi?"
"Doing what I do best, sweetness. I'm saving your life."
Lexi started to walk circles around him and Stefan looked at Arabella. " I'm starving. I'm starving. I'm starving! Let me out! Let me out. Please let me out."
"What's happening?" Arabella asked, despite her many years on this earth, she had never worked with a vampire to help another vampire turn their humanity back on.
"He's hallucinating. That's three months without any blood."
"Let me out!"
"Now he's at nine months."
The Salvatore grunted more in pain.
"Two years- five."
"Did I ever tell you how glad I am that you're dead?" He spoke through grinted teeth.
"Oh. I missed you, too, friend."
⭒❃.✮:▹
"Bels, I'm hurting. Please help me." Stefan begged, but Arabella looked over to him, unimpressed. Of course he was hurting, she knew that. Which vampire in the history of vampire could go five years without blood -even though for him it was just a feeling inside of his head-?
"Don't listen. Shut him out, Bella." Lexi said.
"I'll do anything. I'll change. I promise." Stefan said as he looked at her, with pretend humanity eyes.
"It's a lie. He'll say anything right now." Lexi said.
"Bels, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just make it stop. Please, just make it stop." Stefan begged once more.
"You have to separate yourself from your emotions. Don't let him play with them."
"Hey, look at me. Look at me. I love you, okay? I love you. I love you so much."
"Stef, I'm just helping you."
His eyes turned back to their emotionless state. "You know what? I don't want your help, anyway. I wish I'd never met you. Every single moment that I've spent with you has been a complete and total waste."
To be honest, she knew his words weren't true, but they still hurt.
"That's the ripper talking. Once he's weak enough, you have to cause him pain. Make him feel things. Anger, rage, anything. You have to make him see past the blood." Lexi said before driving a stake through his body. "Think of it as a regimen. Day in and day out. Like running the treadmill. Like making coffee. Until he's ready to be saved"
"I will rip you apart, Lexi!" Stefan yelled.
"You can't. I'm already dead." She spoke before stabbing him again with the stake.
But Stefan didn't seem to want to give up.
"Quit fighting me, Stefan. I know you're in there." Lexi said.
"Not anymore, Lexi."
"You know you say that every time. Until I make you feel again." She drives the stake again through his stomach.
"You wasted your whole life taking care of me. Now you're dead and you still have nothing better to do."
"We're running out of time." Arabella said, looking down at the text she just got from Bonnie, telling them she's almost ready to destroy the talisman.
"You've got to get me more." Lexi looked at Arabella.
"I can't. They have the necklace. They're going to close the door."
"The necklace. Okay. That necklace. At least tell me you remember how you felt about that. You found it during your darkest time. And you said, when you made it through, that that necklace represented hope. Hope of seeing Arabella again." Lexi tried, and this was new information for Arabella. She never knew this.
"Ironic, then, that it's about to be blown to pieces."
Suddenly Lexi raises her head and then looks at Arabella. "He's still in there, Bella. You just have to break through."
"It's okay, Lexi. I know what to do. I promise you, I will help him." She quickly hugged the blonde. "You can be free now." Arabella whispered to her and she felt the blond disappearing in her arms.
"So what are you going to do, Bels? You just going to stand there? Waiting for me to dry out?" Stefan asked her.
No, I'm going to go to Caroline's home, give my siblings a call. Be a friend to Bonnie and everything else that I have to do." She turned around and had her hand on the door handle but her mate's voice stopped her.
"That's good for you. You know, I was wondering when you were going to give up. Lexi gave you enough of a glimpse into your tragic future."
"I haven't given up, Stef. I still have hope. But there's nothing that I can do until you get yours back." Arabella put her hand on both sides of his face. "Hey. You can break through this. Fight for it. Feel something. Anything, Stefan. Because if you don't, you're going to lose me forever. I won't love a ghost for the rest of my life."
⭒❃.✮:▹
Words: 2614
Posted: January 7, 2024
Be sure to comment. I love reading them and it keeps me motivated!
31k guys! Thank you so much!
xx Kat