Chapter 40: Homecoming
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"Okay, so let's say that Mikael followed Elena in here. He tried to grab her so he could use her as bait." Stefan went over their plan to lure Klaus back to Mystic Falls after they all finally received more information on their greatest weapon to kill Klaus Mikaelson with, once and for all.
"And then what?" Amalia asked, eager to hear what else the Salvatore had come up with regarding the upcoming death of his so-called 'master'. "You just... vervained him?"
"No, we vervained him. Come on, this guy is an Original. Let's make it realistic." Damon came up with his own altercation to the plan, including his input into the conversation.
"Okay, fine. We vervained him, and in the process discovered that he had a dagger." Stefan corrected himself now that his brother had come up with a better plan than his.
"Which he planned to use on Rebekah, but instead..." Elena trailed off, allowing Stefan to finish the rest of her sentence for her.
"We drove it through his heart." Stefan finished off, finding his plan to be perfect. But the other two in the room were smart enough to be able to question it.
"Right. So, since you've become so trained at diabolical plans, what do you say we do when he asks to see the body?" Amalia looked over at the youngest Salvatore, eager to hear whatever his response would be. It was clear to see just how antagonizing his presence was for her based on not only but her tone, but her body language as well.
"Good point! You, my, brother have been compelled to do what Klaus says. So the idea is to lure him back here and kill him...last thing we need is you getting tripped up and tongue-tied." Damon agreed with Amalia, wondering how believable Stefan would be able to portray himself as as well.
"Well, don't look at me. I'm just in charge of getting him back here." Stefan threw his hands up in defense, leaving the rest of the scheme for them to come up with themselves.
"Anyway," Amalia reverted her eyes from Stefan and put them onto Damon and Elena, who she was much more pleased to be around at the moment. "Klaus isn't stupid. We tell him Mikael is dead, he'll want to see the body. Which, you guessed it, we won't have."
"Then I shall be dead." Mikael walked into the living room, alerting them that he was eavesdropping on every last bit of their conversation regarding his son.
"What if he wants to see you in person?" Elena asked the eldest Mikaelson... or maybe it was just Mikael, seeing as it wasn't quite possible for him to be his own son. Anyway, regardless of who she asked, she still asked him.
"Well, that means our plan is working. Klaus will absolutely want to see my body. You lure him here, and I will kill him." Mikael continued on, leaving them with no choice but to put all of their trust in him. "I'm in possession of a stake fashioned from the wood of the ancient white oak tree. The one that left these ashes when it burned."
"Which is where, exactly?" Amalia asked, desperate for more information. Though she knew Mikael wanted nothing more than to see his son, who wasn't actually his son, experiencing his final moments, it still felt a bit odd to trust an Original.
"Not here. The knowing of it's location is my insurance policy." Mikael dipped a dagger he had picked up in his hand into ashes from the white oak tree, which was something that was known to be the only thing to kill an Original.
"Against what?" Stefan asked a question of his own, confused by what Mikael meant as his insurance policy.
"You leaving this in my heart. You see, a vampire can't dagger an original without dying. So... it falls to you." He lifted the dagger from the ashes and placed it into Elena's hands, watching as a look of shock crossed her face.
"Y-You want me to actually dagger you?" Elena held the dagger hesitantly, carefully insuring that she wouldn't make a simple mistake and use it before it was time.
"Klaus will leave nothing to chance-- Especially when it comes to trust."
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Amalia stood in front of her closet, going through every last dress in her possession with frustration. With every dress she came across, the feeling of having nothing to wear overcame her even more so. She looked back at Caroline, who was flipping through a magazine as she laid casually on her bed, not even noticing the fact that Amalia was looking at her.
"I have nothing to wear." Amalia groaned, taking one last glance at her closet before peeling her eyes off of it and closing it, taking a seat beside her friend on the bed. "It's just Homecoming. I don't have to go. Right?"
"You are going." Caroline responded, setting the magazine down in front of her and looking up at Amalia. "It's Homecoming."
"That's easy for you to say-- You worship at every dance's alter." Amalia responded, reminding her friend that while Caroline loved their school events, there was a track record of tragedy that followed every event Amalia had attended. "And you have a date."
"Uh-uh. You're going." Caroline continued on, disregarding Amalia's foul reasons for not wanting to attend. "Even if I have to drag you there myself."
Caroline walked over to her closet, going through it even more carefully than Amalia had. She finally stopped once her eyes landed on a certain dress, taking it out of the closet to reveal a deep red dress that fell to Amalia's lower thigh. "There. Now, you have a dress."
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Amalia walked inside of Tyler Lockwood's home, where the dance had been moved to on short notice. She looked around the foyer, her eyes finding every red solo cup in the hands of every last person in the room. Well, everyone besides Caroline Forbes, who was standing a few feet in front of, doing the exact thing she was.
"I see we've taken homecoming to a whole new meaning." Amalia's eyes were wide as she stood there, shocked by what their senior year Homecoming looked like, which wasn't anything like the last four they had endured.
"How did he plan a better party than me so fast? What? Is that a band outside?" Caroline looked at the lights that flashed through the window, listening to the loud noise that burst through it.
"Is it just me or do you not recognize a single person in here?" With each face Amalia's eyes found, she didn't seem to know a single one of them.
"This is weird. Where is Tyler?" Caroline asked herself before walking further into the dance, leaving Amalia to herself.
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Amalia felt a tug on her arm, pulling her onto the dance floor and directly into Stefan Salvatore's arms. Typically, she would have made some sort of joke about how he was dancing for once, but seeing as she was speaking to the version of him that was carefree and fun-loving, she bit her tongue.
"Well, if it isn't the devil incarnate." She stared into his eyes, noticing the lack of emotion in them. Though they had been that way for weeks, she had never seen them so up close. She had seen the darkness of them, but she had never truly seen just how dark they really were.
"Ouch." He pretended to be fazed by her words, looking over her shoulder as if his eyes were scanning the room for someone. "That's no way to treat a friend."
Amalia scoffed, finding his last word of choice quite humorous. "Let's get one thing straight-- You may have decided to join team good guy for once, but that doesn't make us anything close to friends."
"We're not?" Stefan pulled her closer to him suddenly, causing her nose to graze against his before he put a little more space between them. "Then why is your heart racing?"
She stood there for a second, looking into his eyes as she focused on his words. It was almost as if he had lost her completely, sending her into a train of thought that involved only him. She cleared her throat, pushing him off of her. "Certainly not because of you."
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Amalia continued to walk throughout the dance with a red solo cup of her own in her right hand, her eyes filled with the bass from the band. Though without a second glance, she was suddenly rushed behind a tree, meeting the eyes of someone she didn't recognize.
"Wha--" Amalia's questions were cut off by the sound of the vampire grabbing onto her wrist rather tight, silencing her with a threat.
The vampire looked directly into her eyes, taking in her fear and absolutely thriving off of it. She slowly moved closer and closer to Amalia's carotid artery, ripping her fangs through it, and allowing Amalia to let out a scream.
However, before she knew it, the woman was ripped off of Amalia and thrown far away from them, leaving Amalia to look up and see Stefan Salvatore standing right in front of her. He nodded his head for a second, letting her know that he had every intention of protecting her before rushing off, leaving her to wonder what the hell had just happened.
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Stefan's humanity will be back in the next chapter, so I included that little bit so it wouldn't be as confusing for all of you. ANYWAY, y'all aren't ready. That's all.
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