two. true lies
Salvatore Boarding House
Late at night fall, after the end-of-summer celebration at the Mystic Falls Town Square, the ghost of Bonnie Bennett tells the ghost of her twin brother, Luka Martin, and her former boyfriend, Jeremy Gilbert, about what happened to their father earlier while they sit in front of the lit fireplace; the event was going very smoothly until Alexandra showed up and slit the man's throat right in front of the whole audience, in public, who she compelled to remain motionless and silence as she demanded them to search for Katherine Pierce. Like Silas, they both have the same objective in mind. Although the real question would be: what do they want with this girl? Mayor Hopkins was collateral damage, he didn't deserve to die through this. Words cannot even describe how truly sorry he is for these deceased twins.
Dry tears are covering her pretty though devastated face as she looks at her equally deceased twin brother, "It was supposed to be a nice family event. Just stopped in to see Dad." Her eyebrows furrowed then, "Then Alexandra showed up...said she was testing how powerful her mind-control had become. The entire town did exactly what she said. She didn't want any witnesses, so she told them to forget what she did." She shakes her head in pure horror over what has happened earlier, "They watched Dad die...Luka, they couldn't do anything, or tell anyone." She resumes to cry silent tears.
Her twin brother gently rubs her right arm and slowly pulls her in close for a warm embrace, fortunately they can still touch each other on the other side, of pure sympathy and sadness over their grief together, "Oh, come here." Alexandra managed to compel everyone at the town square earlier and slit their father's throat, therefore the immortal psychic truly is a cruel woman. Merciless. Controlling. Selfish. Manipulative. Just to get what she wants. Therefore, now both of their fathers have already passed on-- in which Dr. Martin was viciously fed on from his own blood by Katherine Pierce months ago, and now Mayor Hopkins met his end in the bloody hands of Alexandra. They don't deserve this, none of this is fair, though who ever said that life is? Their father didn't deserve this despite how unfair he was toward them.
Jeremy closely watches the grieving twins in pure sympathy from the adjacent couch he's sitting on in front of the fireplace, "I wish I can hug you."
Luka spoke in defense of his own sister, "But you can't. Thanks anyway."
Bonnie sniffs her snot back as she slowly pulls away from the warm embrace, "Yeah." She slowly looks at her ex once again, "You can't touch either one of us, and we can't touch you, because we're dead, but Luka and I can touch each other, because we're dead. Just like our dad, except he's not supernatural, so we don't get to see him on the other side. He's just dead." He has passed on, without saying goodbye, because of Alexandra. Therefore, she will make sure that the cruel woman gets what she deserves.
Bonnie takes a moment with a deep breath to pull herself together.
Luka gently rubs her right arm and shoulder once more, "He's in a better place now. Look, Alexandra is using her mind-control to find Katherine. She told everyone in the town square to keep an eye out for anyone that looks like Elena. Whatever she wants with Katherine, we can't let her have it." She doesn't deserve to get what she wants, after what she did to these people.
****
Steven's Quarry
Stefan Salvatore is peacefully lying on a blanket near the serene quarry with his girlfriend Rosie, who mentioned it, as they remain silent to take in the serenity of the early morning of the day, "We could be doing anything right now, Stefan. You know that. Be anywhere. Why here? Why this?" She looks up at her love in wonder as she has her head resting on his warm chest.
He smiles at her, "These are the good moments...the simple ones, the ones that matter. These are the moments that keep me from falling apart."
Rosie smiles as she slowly sits up, and leans down to kiss Stefan's lips.
"This can't last forever. You're just distracting yourself." She reminded him of the raw truth before she suddenly starts choking and spitting up water.
In real life, Stefan starts drowning again in the dark, cold water of the safe.
****
Whitmore College, Caroline and Elena's Dormitory Room
Outside the dormitory building, young students-- most of them being the freshmen and several sophomores, lay a variety of different types of flowers at a memorial for Megan King. Minerva walks into her freshmen friends' dorm room to find them rifling through the contents of a big cardboard box.
"Hey, in case you tweedledee and tweedledum are wondering, your roommate's memorial outside is growing by the minute." Minerva spoke.
"Ugh, college kids are so dramatic. She was on campus for, like, one day. She couldn't have made that many friends." The Forbes girl complained.
"Caroline, she's dead. You can stop competing with her." Elena advised in pure sympathy for the recently deceased freshman, who 'took her own life'.
"Sorry, I'm in a mood." Caroline told them as she resumes to rifle through.
Minerva raises her thick dark eyebrows, "Huh. You talked to Tyler?"
"He's deferring from enrolling and deferring from returning my phone calls, so I'm deferring from having sex with him ever again." The blonde snapped.
The young sophomore looks at the older freshman, genuinely curious, "What about you? How's the snooping going? Any explanation why your vervain-laced--" She looks back to check for eavesdroppers, "--vampire-slaughtered roommate had a picture of your dad on her phone?"
What does Megan King have anything to do with the late Dr. Gilbert?
"No." The pair of rifling freshmen simply answered in unison.
"Hm. Disappointing." Minerva suddenly remembers something, and hands a folder to them, "Here. Um, I went by the hospital this morning for you — Megan's death certificate. It says she died of suicide. No mention of the gaping vampire-bite on her neck. So, whoever signed off on the cause of death was part of the cover-up, just like the Founders Council back home." Until they were blown up at the Young cattle ranch by Pastor Young himself. Therefore, someone-- or some people know about vampires around here in Whitmore campus...Officer Freeman could be one of them, perhaps? The head of campus security, though who else knows about them? To find out...
"Dr. Wesley Maxfield." Caroline read aloud the unfamiliar name, frowning.
"A.K.A., my Applied Microbiology professor." The sophomore labeled.
"Oh yeah. I switched our classes around, so that we could—"
The blonde interrupted the chestnut brunette as she looks at her with an incredulous frown, "Applied — what, what? Uh, Elena, you did what? Hello? We are supposed to be taking Intro to Communication. What happened to getting drunk and making bad decisions about boys? What happened to our fun freshman year at college? I am supposed to be a drama major!"
"You're not going to be an Anything major if we get exposed as vampires!"
Elena stops when Minerva shushes them, realizing her voice had been rising. Both of the vampires take a deep breath, and the banshee smiles.
"Okay, there's that. But you two are still going to have your fun year, enjoy it while you still can as freshmen, but you have to protect yourselves. The way Damon kept his secret in Mystic Falls was because he infiltrated the Founders Council." The eighteen-year-old sophomore advised them.
"Yeah. So, bust out those alleged acting skills, and let's get on it, okay?" Elena smiles at them, and finally Caroline relaxes and smiles in return.
****
Whitmore College, Dr. Maxfield's Applied Microbiology Classroom
Caroline and Elena walk into the lecture hall, for junior level, for the class. They see Minerva, who's in concentration, studying through her notes while Jesse is sitting next to her. The pair pass by them on their way to their seats.
The attractive actual junior mentioned the blonde freshman with a smile, "Hey, Blow-Off Girl. Aren't you a freshman? How are you in this class?"
The brand new eighteen-year-old sophomore looks at them in a playful, mischievous, wicked manner, "Yeah, I didn't know you guys like Bio."
"What? No, I love —" Caroline stutters, looking at the written blackboard nervously to read the title written in capital letters in white chalk, while Minerva stifles her laugh at her own humor, "— Applied Microbiology...It's, like, my favourite Biology. You know, little things are just so...cute."
"Are you going to the bonfire tonight? Or are you just going to get really close and then turn around and leave again?" Jesse asked her hopefully.
"Minerva?" Caroline asked about her presence for tonight's bonfire party.
"No, I have a study group with Liv and Luke." Minerva referred to her own older sophomore blonde roommates — the blonde Parker twins.
"She'll be there." Elena answered for her blonde best friend instead.
His genuinely friendly smile only grows wider, "Sweet. We'll hang."
Elena gives him a thumbs up and Caroline pushes her away to a few rows back with a look. Jesse looks at Minerva, who is smiling at him as a tease.
"Okay, so she's cute." He commented, highlighting his transparent interest.
"Yeah, she got that from me." The caramel brunette said smugly.
Dr. Wesley Maxfield walks into the lecture hall, "Morning, everyone. I'm Dr. Maxfield. First name is Wes, but call me Dr. Maxfield. One day, when you're out of med school, you'll understand. So, you're all going to this bonfire tonight, right? Well, here's a quick History lesson for you. Whitmore was founded as a hospital during the Civil War. Deadliest war in American history — over six hundred thousand casualties. Disease was so prevalent that once a week, they had to gather all the dead, rotting bodies, put them in a pile, and light the whole thing on fire. So tonight, when you're getting drunk and partying, stop for a second, close your eyes, and imagine the rancid smell of a hundred rotting corpses. Which brings us to Microbiology, because that rancid smell comes from a very specific bacteria." Which they have to learn.
"Isn't that right, chatty girls in the back?" Wes referred to the two freshmen.
Caroline and Elena, still smiling from laughing quietly together, turn to face Dr. Maxfield, their smiles fading in embarrassment from being called out.
"And what is that bacteria?" Wes questioned them assertively.
"Uh, that's the, um...um...I don't--" The clueless Elena is interrupted.
Minerva answered for her poorly ignorant friends, "Pseudomonas."
"That's correct. Thank you, Minerva. Maybe you two don't know because you're freshmen, who shouldn't be in this class. How do I know? I'm observant — a skill you'll learn in Bio 101, down the hall." Dr. Maxfield points to the door, while Caroline and Elena shift uncomfortably in their seats.
****
Woods
The human Katherine coughs and shivers, rubbing her cold hands together. Jeremy stands and drapes a warm blanket over the poor doppelgänger's shoulders without a word, leaving Katherine more than a little surprised near the campfire around their campsite as an escape from two immortals. Elsewhere in the dark woods now that it's night time, Matt holds a lantern aloft to collect more firewood for the campfire when Alexandra shows up behind him. At her familiar feminine voice, the bus boy whirls around.
"Not a word out of you. You can't talk, and you can't scream."
Matt looks utterly confused, but realizes that his will remains intact, "Yeah, actually I can. Jeremy, run!" He shouted as loud as he could.
At the campsite, Jeremy grabs Katherine's hand and they start running.
"That's not supposed to happen." Alexandra grabs the eighteen-year-old's head between her hands, trying to read his thoughts; she sees a young woman, Nadia, and her male accomplice, performing their spell on Matt, "Oh well, I guess I'm a little late. Now I see why. Somebody's already in there." She frowns, "Why are you watching me, Traveler? Odpowiedz mi!"
A demand in Czech, which translates to 'Answer me!', before she breaks Matt's neck. The teen falls to the ground, dead, but wearing the resurrection ring and Alexandra notices it before she walks away to leave the lifeless body alone to search for Jeremy and Katherine deeper into the dark woods. She will suffer the hunter's curse if it means that she will get Katherine.
****
Salvatore Boarding House, Stefan and Rosie's Bedroom
Damon and Rosie rush into the room, after he has arrived home from Whitmore for an urgent visit to his girlfriend, and the latter closes the door.
"Alright, Princess, what do you--"
"Sit." Rosie aggressively pushes the vampire down onto a chair assertively before she rips open Damon's T-shirt; all of the buttons fly off.
"Mm. Okay, as much as I'd like to do this right now..." He has a girlfriend.
Rosie gets up, picks up a plastic water bottle, smiling. She opens it, tips it into Damon's mouth and holds his face upright while the water burns him — it's vervain water — Damon then slaps it away, choking and coughing. The young hybrid starts tying the vampire to the chair with pieces of clothing.
"Alexandra got into your head, didn't she? What did 'Minerva' tell you to do?" Damon almost regrets his decision earlier to leave her alone at home.
The doppelgänger picks up a field hockey stick and breaks it in half before she simply answered, "Get you alone, weaken you, and then kill you."
She pours more vervain water down Damon's throat. After she pulls the plastic bottle away, she goes to stab the sharp end of the broken stick into Damon, but he sprays a mouthful of vervain water at her, and she backs away, shouting in agony, though then she seems to snap out of her trance.
"Oh my God, Damon, I'm so sorry, I— What the hell is happening?"
"You're in some sort of Alex-trance, but I think you snapped out of it."
Rosie releases a shaky sigh of tiredness, "Alexandra? But I— oh my God, you're right. She's supposed to be at the bottom of the quarry, but--"
"It's a common misconception. You talked to her today." Damon stated.
"She posed to me as Minerva, of course. She was really good at it."
"Yep. Looks like we have a new psychotic bitch in town." Damon labeled.
Rosie shakes her head as she begins to cry in misery and hopelessness, "Where is Stefan? What happened to Stefan, Damon? Just, please--"
Damon slowly shakes his head as he watches her in sympathy, "Rosie..."
"Where is he?!" The impatient Kartwright girl shouted with tears on her face.
"Can we talk about this when you don't have that murdery look in your eyes?" The icy blue-eyed vampire suggested in great sympathy and fear.
Rosie nods, "You're right. Every time I look at you, all I want to do is kill you."
"It must be Alexandra's mind-control. She's using your anger at me, like a trigger. You have to resist it." Damon advised her to protect themselves.
"I can't." The caramel brunette whimpered hopelessly.
He nods insistently, "Yes, you can. Rosie, you have to resist it."
"I'm trying!" Rosie throws down the broken stick and puts her head in her hands in frustration, trying to calm down as she breathes heavily. She sits in a chair opposite him, grabs the sharp Polynesian sacrificial knife from next to her journal on the table, and stabs herself in the thigh with it, pinning herself to the chair; she loudly yells out, shuddering in excruciating pain.
She opens her teary eyes to glare at him, "Tell me what's going on."
****
Woods
Jeremy comes back into the dark forest and finds his friend's body, "Matt!" He quickly crouches over the cold, lifeless body, and sees the resurrection ring on his right hand, fortunately, which makes him let out a sigh of relief.
Alexandra reappears with her gaze on him, "Now, if my best friend died, I'd at least pretend to cry, you know. Which leads me to believe he's not really dead, is he? I take it that tacky old ring somehow protects him? I think so."
"Too bad you can't get inside my head to find out for sure. Hunter's perk."
The immortal laughs slightly, "See, that's what you don't get. When I can read your mind, I at least have use for you. Now...I'm just going to kill you." She doesn't care if she has to be haunted by the hunter's curse afterward; she can then easily take off the ring and hide it before going after what she really wants. Katherine will then have no one to be her aide to run away.
"You can try, but none of your abilities work on me, so right now, you're nothing. Slower than a vampire, weaker than a vampire. I, on the other hand, am a hunter." Jeremy picks up a small hatchet from the ground, "Plus, I work out." He throws the hatchet at her, who leans and dodges it.
The hunter runs at Alexandra, shoving her up against a tree. The immortal pushes him off with her super strength, and Jeremy staggers back. They throw punches at each other, each blocking them until they come to an impasse. Alexandra head-butts him hard in the face; Jeremy staggers back again. She takes the lantern and swings it at the boy but misses. Jeremy goes at Alexandra again and grabs her in a headlock from behind. The immortal quickly breaks a small branch off the tree right in front of her.
"You might be stronger than me, but you're forgetting...that I...am immortal." Alexandra slowly pushes the sharp end of the branch through her own chest, until it impales Jeremy behind her; the hunter groans in excruciating agony until she pulls the branch back out; Jeremy collapses, though the deep hole in her chest magically heals by itself in advance.
Alexandra smiles in victory after she picks up the hatchet, looking at Jeremy, who is crouched on all fours. She raises the hatchet, but suddenly she is loudly struck by a gunshot to the chest — Katherine has shot her.
"I thought you didn't know how to use that." The hunter recalled.
"I figured it out." Katherine shoots the immortal psychic again, and she falls to the ground, momentarily in pure agony with the bullets in her chest.
****
Salvatore Boarding House, Stefan and Rosie's Bedroom
Damon and Rosie remain secured to their respective chairs, opposite to each other, "Poor Bonnie...Has anyone talked to her, is she okay?" No.
Although she will be, as long as she has her twin brother and Grams there.
"I don't know. I've had more important things to worry about." He replied.
"Are you serious? My best friend's dad died. It's pretty damn important." Rosie spat in defense of Bonnie and Mayor Hopkins in great sympathy.
"Yeah, well so is protecting my girlfriend's brother, finding mine, and figuring out what the hell Silas and Alexandra want with Katherine."
"You left me, alone. What is wrong with you?" The Kartwright girl hissed.
"You're getting angry at me again, Rosie. Remember — trigger."
Rosie shakes her head as she starts to cry once again in horror, "Stefan's been — he's been suffering, for months, while you've been rolling around with your girlfriend all summer long. What kind of a brother are you?!"
"A self-proclaimed-serial-killer-one, that's what I am!" Damon snapped.
Rosie gasps as she tries to catch her breath, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God."
Her anger is flaring up again. She grabs the hockey stick on the floor and stabs herself in the stomach with it while she yells loudly in pure agony.
"Rosie, that is a stake. Stop. You don't really want to kill yourself, Rosie. You have to realize this before you're going to break Alexandra's compulsion."
"I can't, okay?! All I can think about is killing you!" Rosie shouted furiously.
"Well, you're going to have to think about something stronger than your desire to kill me, or you're going to kill yourself. Neither of us wants that."
"Yeah? How would you know? You don't know how I feel, with this...misery, and loneliness and, hopelessness. You don't care about me." Rosie cries.
"Stefan. Stefan. Think about Stefan. Caroline told me you've been worried about him, that you had a pit in your stomach. Describe it, tell me about it." Damon asked, reluctantly agreeing that his brother is the only solution.
Of course, it always has to come down to Stefan, the good brother.
She stops what she's doing by pulling the stake out, "What? I — no, I can't--"
"Yes, you can. Think about him. Think about the feelings you're getting. No matter how much it hurts. Describe it to me. Come on." Damon encouraged her, knowing well that she can definitely do this; she's in love with his brother, from what he has overheard himself three months ago that night.
Stefan was supposed to come back to her, though something terrible did happen to him-- either Silas or Alexandra locked him in the safe for him to drown at the bottom of the quarry for three months to suffer all by himself.
"It's...it's like a chill, but I can't explain it...It's like I can feel him. He's trying to reach out to me, but I don't know where he is, and I can't understand what he's trying to say. All I know is that he's scared, and he's lonely, and he's in a lot of pain. He's in a lot of pain. We have to find him." Rosie sobs miserably at the deep thought of her one true love with tears on her face.
"We will. Rosie, we will, I swear." Damon nods in pure sympathy and worry.
The younger one gasps in genuine surprise, "The rage...It's gone."
She drops the stake in relief.
****
Gas Station
Alexandra walks into the convenience store in which Matt had bought cold medicine from earlier. The compelled store clerk is behind the counter.
"Did you find that girl that you were looking for?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah, I did...and then she shot me. So, I'm a little bit angry, and I'm a little bit hungry, but luckily you can help me out with one of those things." Alexandra finds a pocket knife and a plastic cup in the store; she brings them back to the clerk and places the cup in front of him, "Blood, please."
The clerk takes the knife from her, cuts open his own wrist, and drips the blood into the cup. Suddenly the door opens, and Gregor and Nadia walk in; the former being a Traveler which was inhabiting Matt's body and the latter being a vampire who had a threesome with Matt and Rebekah in Prague.
"Oh, goody. Gypsies are here. Oh, I'm sorry, you call yourselves 'Travelers' now, right? It's much more P.C." Alexandra scoffs as she faces them both.
"You can call me whatever you want...when I'm gutting you." Gregor pulls out a knife, which makes the immortal chuckle softly at her own humor.
"I see. Somebody's angry that I killed his blonde-haired, blue-eyed host. Well, that makes us even since I got shot by the human doppelgänger. I guess that's what you get for taking over somebody's body to spy on me. But congrats, you found me. So now what? What is it that you want?" Alexandra questioned strictly with an attitude as she stares at them both.
"You, in a tomb, sealed away for eternity." Gregor simply answered.
"That's what the Travelers have always wanted." Nadia added before she shoves the knife in Gregor's hand up into his neck, killing him right in front of the unexpected Alexandra, who looks on boredly; he falls to the floor.
"How convenient." The immortal mentioned at her own sadistic humor.
"Yes. Luckily for you, I've never really considered myself one. I know you can see inside my mind...and I have my own agenda." The vampire said.
Alexandra smirks, "Yes...I see that you do."
****
Mystic Falls Woods
Liz, Damon and Rosie walk up to the safe that Stefan was locked in all summer long, for three whole months, which was washed up onto land.
"We didn't find anything in the quarry, but a deputy found this a few miles away. Didn't open it. If Stefan's been in there for three months...chances are he's hungry."
Damon lifts the top of the safe open, and they see a bloody corpse inside.
"Oh, my God. That's not Stefan." Rosie looks away anxiously and hopelessly as the sheriff looks at her in genuine sympathy for her unfortunate loss.
"Well, you were right. He was hungry." Damon agreed as he looks at it.
"Starving." Rosie corrected him in deep concern as she looks around.
"Yeah, I bet he still is."