CHAPTER FOURTEEN | STAND BY ME
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WHEN EVELYN FINALLY REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS, SHE DISCOVERED EVERYTHING HAD GONE TO HELL. Apparently, Katherine Pierce had been following their every move since they arrived on the island. She pretended to be Elena, fed Jeremy's blood to Silas, and ended up killing him in the process.
"How'd this happen?" Damon asked in complete confusion as he and Evelyn stood in front of Stefan. They were all desperate to wrap their heads around the situation.
"It was Katherine," Stefan stated and suddenly Evelyn gritted her teeth. She hated Katherine Pierce with every fiber of her being. "She must've been following us this whole time."
"What about the cure? Or Silas?" Damon snapped. He was clearly annoyed at the fact that Katherine Pierce had one over on them—again.
"If there was anything in there at all, it's all gone," Stefan explained.
"No. You have got to be kidding me. We traveled all this way for, what? Nothing!" Evelyn groaned furiously. "And, as expected, Katherine is long gone and I didn't even get the chance to feed the bitch her intestines."
Damon eyed up the tomb in hopes the Bennett witch would be around somewhere. "Where the hell is Bonnie?"
"I have no idea. She went looking for Jeremy last night and she never came back." Stefan began to lower his voice and his whole body began to stiffen. "Guys, Elena's in there waiting for the Gilbert ring to bring Jeremy back to life but— Jeremy was one of the five, a hunter."
"He's supernatural. The ring won't work anymore." Damon slowly blurted out, looking guilty as hell. "She won't survive this. I'll find Bonnie, you both need to take Elena off this island."
"Wait, what?" Evelyn's eyes widened at the thought of leaving Damon alone on the island, especially since Silas was awake. "Surely I should stay with you." Evelyn's eyes wandered to the eldest Salvatore, they contained nothing but worry for his safety.
"Listen to me, I'll be fine. I just need you safe. I don't want to even risk the slightest chance of this immortal freak hurting you. Okay?" Damon locked his eyes onto the brunette who reluctantly shot him a small smile and nodded. "Thank you."
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The three walk inside the Gilbert home. Evelyn walked first and she caught the attention of Caroline, who was busy cleaning the kitchen. "Hey, you're home! I was trying to clean the burn mark where Kol—"
The blonde was cut off by Elena and Stefan's entrance. The Salvatore held Jeremy's dead body in his arms, covered in a blanket.
"Come on, let's get him upstairs." Elena waved Stefan up the staircase as Evelyn walked into the kitchen to explain the situation to her friend.
"Is he—" Caroline started, but Evelyn nodded before she could even finish her sentence. "Oh, my God. No. How long has she been like that?"
"Ever since we first found his body," Stefan explained while he walked back into the kitchen after leaving Jeremy's body in his bed. "She hasn't said anything except that she's waiting for him to wake up."
"Gotta admit, I feel seriously sorry for the girl right now," Evelyn muttered with her eyes on Caroline as she spoke.
"But, he's not going to wake up." The Forbes girl stated. "She knows that, right?"
Stefan placed a finger over his mouth in a shushing motion before he headed to the sink to turn the tap on. "Look, deep down, I think she has to. But we're talking about Elena here; She feels grief more powerfully than anyone else. I think her denial is the one thing protecting her from letting it all in."
"Eventually, she's going to have to. I mean, she can't live for the rest of her life expecting Jeremy to wake up." Evelyn sighed as she leaned against the kitchen island.
"I know, but I don't want to be the one to break her out of it. Not until we know that Bonnie's safe. Not until we get Damon over here to, you know?" Stefan continued.
"Use the sire bond to convince her that everything is okay." Caroline rolled her eyes. She didn't even hide the fact that she was disgusted about this whole sire bond situation.
"I'm not in denial." Elena's voice boomed from the doorway of the kitchen and the three turned rapidly to face her. "I know that he's supernatural, but did you see? His tattoo is gone. The tattoo had the spell that opened Silas' chamber. Maybe it being gone means that he's fulfilled his supernatural destiny. Maybe he's back to normal. It's possible, right?"
The three gave her a sad look before Caroline began. "Elena—"
"—It's possible, Caroline. There's a chance. It may be minuscule but it's hope, and I'm going to hold onto that hope with everything that I've got because there's no way—" Elena snapped before she stopped herself mid-sentence. "There's absolutely no way that my brother is dead. I'm not in denial."
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Damon and Bonnie finally returned back to Mystic Falls. Caroline took Bonnie inside Elena's house so that Stefan, Evelyn and, Damon could speak about the Bennett witch. Damon was clearly worried about Bonnie's state of mind since Jeremy's death.
"She's out of her mind. The nutty professor has got her totally brain-washed." Damon raised his finger and twisted it in a circle by the side of his head. "I mean, the whole flight back home, all she could talk about was how she's the one that could drop the veil between this side and the other side."
"Drop the veil? What does that even mean?" Stefan and Evelyn looked confused while Damon continued to explain.
"What it means is, the myth about Silas being able to raise the dead is not just one or some. It's every supernatural being over there."
"Wait, I get it. Bonnie drops the veil to the Other Side and then it just goes away?" Evelyn questioned with a raised eyebrow as the Salvatore nodded.
"Three massacres. Three hot spots and the witch spell of the century and every supernatural being over there is back with a vengeance." Stefan's eyes began to widen as he realized the threat they now faced.
"But, that's like inviting every single monster who has ever died back into the world."
"Which is exactly why we can't let her do it." Damon bluntly stated before the tree headed back inside the house to rejoin the rest of the group.
"Where's Bonnie?" Elena asked as she walked back downstairs with a tearstained and unreadable look on her face.
"We told Matt to take her home, we thought it'd be best." Stefan rose to his feet while Elena looked strangely determined as if she was about to do something.
"Okay, guess we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."
"Do what?" The blonde vampire questioned as she glanced at Damon, who had started to carry Damon's body down the staircase at the request of Elena.
"Elena, are you okay? Do you need help or something?" Evelyn's eyes darted over to the female who was now going through the kitchen cupboards.
"Evelyn, stop. I know you don't like me, anyway. So, no, I do not need your help." Elena spat before she pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid and started to pour it all over the kitchen worktops.
"What are you doing?" Stefan stepped forward in an attempt to stop the doppelganger's destruction.
"We need a cover story, right? Do you think I didn't hear you guys talking earlier? Well, what are we going to say? Animal attack? Tumble down the stairs? No. We burn the house down with him inside of it." The girl's voice broke towards the end.
"Elena, stop it." Stefan walked towards her and managed to make her pause to look at him.
"Why? Because you want me to not be in denial? You want me to face the truth? This is the truth, Stefan. I don't want to live here anymore." Elena shouted before she covered a pile of Jeremy's sketches in lighter fluid. "I don't want these sketches." She then walked over to the TV stand and kicked the Xbox that was underneath. "I don't want this Xbox." The Gilbert vampire then turned to her right and pulled out a bottle of Bourbon. "Not gonna need this Bourbon anymore. Alaric's not here to drink it. I mean, unless you guys are willing to bring back every supernatural creature on the other side to get him back. Would you? I know you want your drinking buddy back. Would you, Damon? Because I wouldn't." She turned to Jeremy and began to pour the Bourbon all over his body. "Does that make me a bad person? I have no idea." Then she grabbed Jeremy's hand, slipped the Gilbert ring from his finger, and tossed it to Damon. "He's not gonna need that anymore."
"Elena, stop it! You're scaring me!" Caroline screamed as tears fell from her eyes. Evelyn wrapped her arm over her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.
"What else are we supposed to do with the body, Caroline?!" Elena snapped then turned her head to the girl before she threw a family picture to the ground. "There's no room in the Gilbert family plot. Jenna and John took the last spots.
Elena threw photos to the ground. She then grabbed a match and lit it against the wood on the fireplace, which was when Stefan lunged forward. "No, no. Elena, stop."
"There's nothing here for me anymore, Stefan. Every inch of this house is filled with the memories of the people I have loved that have died. My mom, my dad, Jeremy, and Jenna and Alaric, John— even John! I mean they're all dead, everyone is dead!" Her voice broke. Tears streaming down her face as the match continued to burn. "What am I supposed to—How am I gonna— I can't even— There's nothing left for me."
She cried out in pain and dropped the match but just before it hit the ground, Evelyn sped forward and grabbed it. She earned a respectful nod from Damon before he stepped toward the doppelganger. "Elena, I need you to calm down." He began as she just dropped to the floor.
"No, no. I can't!" She began repeating the words over and over as she dropped to her knees, sobbing. "No, it hurts. It hurts, just make it stop. Please, make it stop. It hurts."
"Damon—" Evelyn began as she nibbled anxiously on her fingernails while the doppelganger sobbed loudly.
"Help her." Stefan continued.
Damon kneeled down to the floor beside Elena and pulled her into his embrace. "I can help you. I want you to let me help you." He brushed the hair from her face and wiped her tears, "I can help you: Turn it off."
"What? No, no!"
"Damon!" Evelyn cried out. She knew that getting Elena to turn it off was a bad idea.
"Just turn it off and everything will go away. It's what you have to do. It's what I want you to do." Damon continued.
Elena stared into complete space and then blinked slowly as the tears finally stopped. Suddenly, there was no emotion in her face at all. She had turned her humanity off and the pain had subsided. Then she got up to her feet and lit another match.
"Elena, what are you—" Caroline began but Evelyn immediately cut her off.
"You don't need to burn your house down, Elena." Evelyn nodded.
"We can find another cover story." The eldest Salvatore continued on while Elena looked at him with the match burning between her two fingers.
"This is the best one. No one will ask questions." Her, now monotone, voice boomed.
"If you burn down the house, it'll be gone. What if one day when this is all over, you want to come home again?"
"I won't." She dropped the match and watched the floor begin to burst into flames.
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