seven. death and the maiden
Salvatore Boarding House
Stefan Salvatore is asleep in his own big queen-sized bed while having nightmares about his wicked doppelgänger, remembering the torture of helplessly drowning over and over again. How only dark, ice cold water was surrounding him for so long that he became numb to the unbearable agony of trying to fight for his breath, for his own immortal life, to somehow reach for safety; his lungs were filled with water, all he could do was struggle while fighting the urge to switch off the remaining part of him that is human. Although he didn't, as he's able to hear Rosie's soft voice whisper his name and his eyes open as he suddenly wakes up, relieved that the entire thing was only a nightmare. Rosie is in their shared bedroom, having just opened the curtains to let the sunlight shine in, holding a steaming mug of coffee.
She smiles at him, "Morning. I made coffee. How did you sleep?" Hopefully, alright, even though she seems to be able to sense that he isn't, considering how many several times he muttered her name while he was long asleep. Hence the purpose as to why she made his favourite type of coffee earlier.
Her traumatized ex-boyfriend slowly sits up on the bed, "Ohh...Not great." Considering he remained to dream about the unbearable torture all over again throughout the night, how he tossed and turned in bed uneasily.
"First night back in your own bed. Not as comfy as Tessa's couch, huh?" Rosie teased as an attempt to lighten up the mood for the poor young man.
"If we're going to talk about Tessa, I think I'm going to need that caffeine." Stefan takes the mug and has a sip, "So, uh, what's with the wake up call?" Not that he minds, considering it would be nice to wake up seeing her the first thing in the morning once he opened his eyes. How lovely she always is, hence he really doesn't want to speak about Tessa or anyone else now.
His own amnesiac ex-lover initially hesitates to express her deep thoughts, "I miss you, so much. I feel like when you lost your memories...I lost a friend, and I was thinking instead of just describing how much we meant to each other, maybe we could just start fresh, you know. Hi, I'm Rosie." Again, much like how they did this the two previous years ago under a false identity because she was trying to retrace her memories of her own past life.
"I was driving back to you." Stefan suddenly informed her in recollection of what happened from three months ago before he drowned in the quarry; the night of the high school graduation, how could he forget? The love of his life rejected the cure of immortality because she only wants to be with him.
"What?"
"The night I took Alexandra to the quarry, I said goodbye to Lexi, and then I wanted to come back to you, to restart our lives together." He recalled; Stefan and Rosie, it all makes sense to him again. It's always going to be the both of them eventually, together...All I see is Stefan and Rosie. Even Klaus Mikaelson said it once, how the Salvatore brothers were always fighting for Rosie Kartwright's precious affection, only for her to choose Stefan in the end. He remembers well now that Damon is now with Elena, the sire bond...
"Wait. Hang on. Stefan, how do you remember that?" Rosie asked, genuinely surprised that he seems to finally remember that exact night. Unless...a witch magically returned his memories with a significant spell. Tessa, she must be the one, considering she was the one who caused the memory loss in the very first place after she mentally linked him with Silas.
"Because my memories are back." Thanks to Tessa's visit the previous night once he finally stepped into his own bedroom and found her waiting here.
"Really? Wha-- did Tessa do something?"
"Tessa came here last night and she undid whatever spell fried my brain and it's all back. I can remember everything. I remember you." Stefan said guiltily; how could he forget such an extraordinary young woman like her? Their very first met, their reunion, every joke they ever shared together, their fights, their laughs, the entire relationship...how much he loves her, how much she's madly in love with him that she would let him go when he needed her to. She would do anything, as long as he's happy eventually, hence what did he do to deserve such a one-of-a-kind woman like Rosie?
Rosie smiles, "Oh my God, Stefan, this is great!" She hugs him close, "This is amazing." Tears of joy start to form in her big eyes as he returns the hug.
A moment later, Stefan, Rosie and Damon are sitting downstairs in the parlor room, and Damon is testing Stefan's memory while Rosie watches.
"October 1852." When his brother was only an odd five years old then.
"You broke my nose trying to teach me how to throw a right hook." When his brother was already thirteen years old, who would love to make him cry.
"But not on purpose." Damon looks at the youngest one for the next part, "Just to be clear." She laughs adorably, "How much did you pay for that hunk of junk motorcycle you ride?" He smirks at his brother mischievously.
"That's a trick question. You bought me that motorcycle, although I'm guessing it was pretty expensive." Stefan answered correctly, nodding.
"So Tessa just gave you back your memories, no strings attached."
"Well it wasn't exactly a gift. It was a lot to take in at once, everything from blowing out the candles on my first birthday cake to drowning in a safe." Stefan has the same traumatizing flashback of him drowning in the dark.
"Stefan." Rosie called out gently, remaining to feel sorry for him; she couldn't even imagine how it must've felt to drown over and over again.
Stefan holds his crystal glass a little too tight and it breaks in his hand.
"Whoa! Easy there, buddy." Damon called out as well.
"Stefan, where did you go?" Rosie asked in clear concern.
"All that and I still can't remember my own strength." Stefan hears a loud, distinct sound coming from the basement, "What was that noise?"
"Uh, well that is..."
"We have a situation." Rosie simply replied.
"Of the doppelgänger variety." Damon added on in a tired manner.
"Katherine?"
"No, nope, not Katherine."
The brothers walk down into the basement cellar and Stefan peers through the locked cell door window and sees the mortal, traumatized anchor screaming aloud and trying to cut loose from her tight, metal handcuffs.
"I don't know! I don't know." Amara shakes her head in denial, unstable.
"What's wrong with her?" Stefan asked in deep sympathy for the woman.
"Tessa turned her into a block of rock, left her in a box for two thousand years, probably went a little stir crazy like those deserted island guys who talk to volleyballs." His vampire brother simply answered.
"So, you're telling me that this girl is the only thing holding together the other side?" Stefan turns to look at him, as if in disbelief and surprise.
"Yep. She's the anchor. As long as she's alive, the other side exists, and we can keep trying to get Bonnie and Luka from over there." Damon spoke.
Alexandra spoke up from the next cell through the window, "Give it up." To say that she's annoyed by them would be a huge understatement now. All she wants is to destroy the other side and eliminate the cure as soon as possible. She couldn't risk being around the cure-- Silas, and now even Amara after she fed from him the previous night, when she remains immortal and she really doesn't want to end up on the other side with him.
"Is that..." Stefan looks through the other window, "...Alexandra?" Of course, being the manipulative immortal psychic that she is, she would be here.
The bold immortal smiles lazily at him, "Hey handsome."
"Yeah, she tried to kill Amara to get rid of the cure after her minions failed and she got her neck snapped for trying to do it alone." Damon told him.
"When I get out of here, you're dead." Alexandra snarled at the older one.
"Not if Silas shows up and kill you first." Damon snapped at her.
"I'd love to see him try." The ancient immortal psychic giggles.
Damon looks at his vampire brother, "Bottom line: we have to keep Amara's ordinary little human heart beating until we get Bonnie and Luka back."
"How would you plan to do that?" Stefan asked with a truly puzzled frown, knowing that they require the aid of a powerful witch-- Tessa, perhaps?
Alexandra piped in, "You can't. Face it, boys. Bonnie Bennett is dead."
"You're dead if you won't shut up." Damon hissed in annoyance, "Silas made a pinky promise that he'd do a spell to bring her back. Unfortunately, he's taking his sweet time coming back to Mystic Falls." From New Jersey, alone, after he was fed on by Amara the previous night because his blood is the cure. Now he would start to age faster than he already is, as a true mortal.
"Well, duh. That's because he's bluffing. There is no spell." Alexandra proclaimed as an attempt to end their hope about any resurrections.
Stefan looks at her suspiciously, "No? How about you shut up?"
"Ah! Amara, stop." Damon called out in alarm and concern.
Amara is biting herself on the wrists so she can bleed to death, hence Damon opens the anchor's cell door and stops her as she shouts out.
"No!" She tries to back away from him, "No! Let me die. I want to die!"
"Let's hope love is blind or at least deaf." Damon told his brother.
Later, Stefan, Rosie, and Damon are talking upstairs in the living room.
"Okay, we need to buy some more time, protect Amara. What if we move her somewhere else? Somewhere far from those who want to kill her, especially Alexandra." The Kartwright girl in the middle suggested.
"Silas is a witch. He's a living, breathing, GPS tracking device. He'll track her wherever we take her." The oldest blue-eyed vampire reminded her.
"No, we can't let him anywhere near her until he brings the twins back." Rosie shakes her head at the possibility of losing the young witches forever; unlike some people, Bonnie and Luka deserve to live their own lives again.
Her vengeful ex-boyfriend snapped, "He's not going to bring them back." Perhaps Alexandra is right; both Bonnie and Luka are dead and gone because Silas is a manipulative, controlling, liar who only cares about himself and he only wants Alexandra to be mortal and end up with him.
The hopeful caramel brunette sighs, "So, what, I should just give up? Come on, Stefan. You got your memory back. You know me probably better than anyone else. Do you really think that I'm going to give up?" On her friends?
"You know what? You're right. I do know you. You put your hope in all the wrong places and sometimes..." Stefan looks at Damon, "...in the wrong people. I wasn't the only one who's got my memories erased, Rosie, at our own will actually. Silas needs to die and put us all out of our misery."
"Well, pardon me for not being on board with your plan for vengeance. But as long as he's alive, I'm holding out hope that he can still help us." Rosie insisted stubbornly with her arms folded as she stares her ex-lover down.
"Well, as someone who just spent the last three months at the bottom of a quarry because of the guy, I wouldn't hold your breath, pun intended. Silas needs to die, and I need to be the one to kill him, end of story." Stefan storms out of the room, away from the furious Rosie and awkward Damon.
"Ugh! He's so stubborn." Rosie stomps her right flat on the floor adorably.
"Ironically, so are you." Damon mentioned with a small smile.
In the basement cellar, the traumatized Amara sits in her cell trying to get her rope-tied hands free while Bonnie stands at the wide open door, watching the anchor in curiosity. Jeremy comes with sandwich on a plate while Luka Martin shows up to stand next to his twin sister in sympathy.
A small smile shows up on Luka's handsome face, "She's looking better." She's an innocent martyr, actually, she doesn't deserve the torture this long.
"How's our mental patient doing?" The seventeen-year-old asked them.
Bonnie shrugs, "I guess all those years alone sent her over the edge." To feel every paranormal demise which passed through her to the purgatory.
"Yeah. For the record, turning her into stone isn't necessary. I mean, did she even do anything wrong? Didn't think so." Luka commented to add on.
A scoff of disbelief escapes Jeremy, "Tell that to Tessa." He slowly walks up to his sister's look-alike, who clearly looks frightened as she watches him, careful enough not to frighten her, "Relax. I'm-- I'm just bringing dinner."
"A sandwich, Jeremy? Really? You don't have anything more...edible?" Luka judged, which escapes a snicker from his own sister, who's stifling her grin.
Amara stares at the young hunter, as if she is familiar with him, while he gently puts the plate on the floor and she mentioned, "I know you."
"I don't think so." Jeremy starts to take the tight ropes off her wrists.
"You're the hunter." The mortal anchor is given a definitely confused look from him, "I never forget a face, but Silas killed you. You're dead." After he was fed on to Silas, thanks to Katherine, which ended him with a broken neck and his childhood home burned to the ground, thanks to his sister.
"I was. I came back." Thanks to Bonnie, who ended her life as the price. Fortunately, she ended up with her estranged brother on the other side.
"How? I said, how?" She looks at the supposedly invisible ghosts at the open door, "It was you, wasn't it? You're a witch. You brought him back." A Bennett witch, of course, a descendant-- two descendants of Qetsiyah.
Bonnie furrows her eyebrows in confusion, sharing a relatable puzzled look with her twin brother, while she mentioned her, "You can see us?" Ghosts.
"Of course I can see you. I'm not blind. I have eyes. Or are you dead? I get so mixed up. I can't tell the difference between the living or the dead."
"Can you see people on the other side?" The hunter questioned her.
"I am the anchor to the other side. I can see everything." Amara admitted.
Bonnie quickly tries to touch the former immortal on her shoulder.
"Don't touch me! Please don't-- don't touch me."
"I can touch her." The older ghost pointed out, "We both can."
"Okay, we can't. Not when it terrifies the hell out of her." Said Luka.
"Okay. That's weird." Jeremy mentioned with a simple nod.
A small smile shows up on Bonnie's face, "Guys, I think I've got an idea."
Later upstairs in the parlor room, Jeremy is talking with Damon and Rosie regarding the deceased young witch's idea while Bonnie and Luka are near the young hunter, standing by his sides as they listen to what he's saying.
"Amara could see Bonnie and Luka, and they could touch her. They made physical contact. It's like Amara's got a foot on each side or something." This side and the other side, as the anchor that can feel every supernatural demise which passes through her-- like a door that ghosts can pass through.
"So, Amara exists in both places at once, here and the other side?" Rosie concluded as she looks at the big picture in genuine awe and amazement.
"Then she's not crazy crazy, she's just talking to dead supernatural beings roaming around in our basement." The blue-eyed vampire pointed out.
Rosie shakes her head a little, "That's not the point. Is it?"
"The point is if Silas isn't going to help us, what if Bonnie could be the same thing? What if she existed on both sides at once? What if she became the anchor, and Luka can pass through her to come back to life?" Considering she will be a door then, the seventeen-year-old hunter wondered aloud.
"Oh my God, you're right. Jeremy, you're right. So, all we would need now is someone who could do that spell." Rosie looks at the vampire with a knowing, significant expression which definitely says that he should call her.
"Oh, please don't say who I think you're going to say."
"Come on. This is what we've been aiming for. Alexandra wants Amara to die, and Amara wants to die herself, so who, besides us, is the one person with the biggest stake against letting that happen?" Rosie questioned him.
Once Damon has already left to the woods over to the ancient witch's cabin to negotiate their deal, Stefan is in his bedroom looking out his balcony door windows. Rosie is talking to him from the middle of the large room.
"Haven't you heard it's bad luck to kill your doppelgänger?" Which is why she decided to keep herself distant from any of hers in sight these days.
"Yeah? Well, if I don't kill him, he wins." Her ex-boyfriend spoke with burning resentment toward his own shadow self; he's not going to let him win again.
"And what if he kills you first? I can't have that. Witches aren't exactly easy to take down, you know. We just got you back, Stefan. Please don't do anything crazy. Revenge is for the weak, remember?" Rosie advised him.
"How would you know? You know, there were these moments in that safe, a stillness in time when I was dead right before I was about to come back to life, I would think about things in the past that made me happy, things that gave me hope. All these things kept me sane. They pushed me to hang on when all I wanted to do was give up and turn off my humanity, but eventually, the pain took those moments away from me too." Stefan nods.
His ex-lover stares at him in genuine sympathy and guilt, "I'm so sorry." Although of course apology won't be able to heal his unbearable agony.
"Every time I close my eyes, I can see Silas stabbing me, I can feel myself drowning, and I need to make it stop. If I don't kill him, I'm going to lose my mind, or I'm going to turn off my humanity...Or both."
****
Tessa stands in the foyer of the boarding house as she examines the living room with Damon behind her, "So, you live in this giant mansion with two doppelgängers that are destined to end up together? I swear there's a sitcom in there somewhere. So, where's the ancient immortal bitch?"
"This way."
A moment later, Rosie opens the heavy door to the second basement cellar while Tessa stands by her; she shows her Alexandra, who's sitting on a cot.
"Are you sure you want to be alone with her? I mean, she's still psychic." Rosie asked, deeply concerned that the immortal can effortlessly escape.
"Not to worry." Tessa muttered an incantation as she stares at the immortal psychic, who grabs her temple in slight pain, "I've rendered it useless."
Rosie sighs in a tired way, "Okay, as long as you know what you're doing."
"That'll be all." The ancient witch closes the door after stepping inside, "Well, if it isn't the face that launched a thousand doppelgängers."
"If it isn't the witch that ruined everything for Silas." The immortal spat.
"A little birdie told me you're on the edge of your immortal life."
Alexandra scoffs, "We'll see about that. Don't take this personally, even though I think your rotten heart should, but I don't want to be stuck with you on that supernatural purgatory for the rest of eternity. Offense, yeah."
"Two thousand years, you have nothing else to say to me? No apology?" Tessa hissed as she glares daggers at her former close companion.
Rosie is outside the heavy closed door, listening to their conversation.
"I should apologize to you? Have the rubbish fables gotten to your head? I'm not the villain in this story, Qetsiyah. You are." Alexandra stands up to be in the same level of height with her, but she is forced to sit back down when the old witch uses her magic against her with an incapacitation spell.
"Two thousand years ago, you turned away from your true humanity — one that makes you the woman I am proud to call my good, trusted companion."
"Oh, please don't start." Alexandra looks away from her worst enemy.
"You rejected your loved ones, including your own friends and family, like a coward only with the intention to increase your strength. You're pathetic."
"At least I'm not the one who was left at the altar." The immortal grins.
Tessa nods, "I admit, I betrayed you. I was the only one who knew about your feelings for Silas and yet, I took that opportunity to take him away from you for my own selfish intentions. I regret it, and I am sorry."
Alexandra looks up at her in surprise and disbelief, "What was that?"
"I'm sorry." Her former best friend repeated in a sincere manner.
"Oh."
"That is what you want to hear, isn't it? How I have suffered, alone on the other side? I did. My sin was falling in love, but that doesn't mean you've won. You believe that your strength has to be tied with character, and that is your biggest mistake of all. For centuries, you've been nothing more but a power-obsessed immortal and that ends tonight." The witch told her.
"Anything else? You're boring me." The immortal spat.
"You have nowhere else to go and I advise you to be afraid. Silas is coming. When I make someone else the anchor, I will kill Amara, and since you will be nothing more than a witch, you'll pass on to the other side, and I will make sure that you and Silas are going to spend eternity apart and that is going to be kind of fantastic for me. Selfishly speaking." Tessa smirks.
Upstairs, Caroline, Minerva and Katherine step in through the main door.
"The cute one's here." The human doppelgänger called out playfully.
"Here, actually." The banshee doppelgänger corrected her.
Caroline faces Tessa, who slowly walks up to them, "She's all yours."
"She who?" Katherine asked with a truly puzzled frown.
"Minerva, of course. So you should just wait in there." Tessa told her.
Katherine spoke instantly, "Wait a second. Let's be clear, first of all." She raises her left index finger out, "I don't care about Bonnie Bennett, or her twin, or the other side going away or Minerva getting her best friend back."
"Shocker." Minerva uttered sarcastically with a raise of her eyebrows.
"You want something. I'm shocked." Tessa slowly said sarcastically.
"I had the cure you created running through my veins, and when Silas sucked it out of me, I started aging faster than normal. So basically, I'm dying, and I need you to fix me." Katherine watches as the old witch smiles, "You made the cure. Now, make something that stops the aging."
"Fine. When the ritual's finished and Bonnie is the anchor, we'll find a way to stop you from dying." Tessa grabs onto the younger doppelgänger.
"Thank you." Katherine shrugs.
"Now, join Tweedledee and Tweedledum." Tessa asked the banshee.
Later, in the drawing room, Alexandra, Rosie and Minerva stand around a small table, in which Tessa puts a grimoire on the middle of it.
"Bonnie's grimoire." The youngest out of the three look-alikes stated.
"Yeah." The Kartwright girl uttered.
"Who cares? Let's get on with it." The immortal snapped impatiently.
"It's a talisman. Since Bonnie can't be here, her grimoire will have to do. Hands in, palms up." Tessa demanded strictly at the three doppelgängers.
Alexandra extends her right arm simply and Tessa cuts her palm with a blade that was on the table; the immortal's blood falls on the grimoire.
Rosie extends her right arm next, "Here."
She grabs the blade while Tessa is holding it by the handle. She squeezes enough that it cuts her, she winces in pain, and the blood falls on the grimoire as well. Minerva smiles and extends her right hand to Tessa.
"Easy." The mortal banshee advised her.
Tessa cuts the youngest doppelgänger's palm and the blood falls on the grimoire as she hisses in pain, which Alexandra scoffs at in mockery.
"Did that hurt, love?" The oldest doppelgänger mentioned.
"Ina pran khos suptheia jhem ai pada khey rasattan."
As Tessa casts the spell, the blood of all the three Kavanagh doppelgängers form the Celtic symbol called Triquetra, meaning 'trinity', on the grimoire page. All the candles light up around the room, then they turn off. Bonnie is standing there next to Minerva, but it's not clear yet if the spell has worked.
"No."
"Is it done?" Minerva asked in concern.
"No, it's not done."
The wind blows strong, the lights crack with electricity and the bulbs explode, which Rosie mentioned anxiously, "What is happening?"
"Silas is happening! Show yourself, bastard!" His ex-fiancée yelled.
The whole room eventually goes dark without any electricity.
Minerva releases a tired sigh, "I can't see anything. Rosie?"
Damon walks in with a flashlight with Elena after him in concern and confusion, "Electricity's out in the whole house. What happened?"
"Silas is here." Rosie simply answered him.
Elena sighs with a slight sense of relief, "It's about time."
"Well, Silas owes me a fuse box. Hang on. I only count two doppelgängers. Where's the royal bitch?" Damon asked as he moves the bright light around.
"And where's the other bitch?" Elena added, referring to the witch.
"Silas. Elena, help me find Tessa. Minerva, stay here." Rosie ordered.
"Since when are you in charge?" Her sassy doppelgänger snapped.
"Since I want to get Bonnie back." The hybrid look-alike snapped in return before she trails after Elena out of the drawing room in search of Tessa.
Meanwhile, the ancient witch walks into the library with a lit candelabrum, frowning when she senses someone, "That was quite the show, Silas."
"Thank you. You haven't seen the love of my life running around here by any chance, have you? Or the syringe filled with my blood?" He questioned.
"Nope. Maybe you shouldn't have turned the lights off, genius." Tessa magically throws an empty glass container in his direction, but he evades it and it crashes against the wall.
"You've had two thousand years to watch me suffer. You've had your fun. Why can't you just let it go?" The former immortal spoke, taunting her.
"Maybe I'm just not wired that way." She moves another glass against her arrogant ex-fiancée, with restrained anger, but again, she misses him.
"Honestly, I feel sorry for you. Hateful vengeance is for people without real love." She moves another glass to hit Silas, but he catches it in front of his face; he throws it back at her, but she dodges it. Silas, with magic, moves a fireplace iron tool and shoots it into his former fiancée's left shoulder.
"You spent two thousand years waiting for me to die just so you could be with me, when all along the universe knew I belonged to somebody else. Doesn't that make your whole existence, like, I don't know, a total waste?"
"I loved you." Tessa expressed between gasps, her dark brown eyes teary.
"Yeah? Well, get in line." His phone rings and he answers, "Sucky timing, Stefan."
"I disagree. I have Alexandra just beyond the property line. You have ten minutes to come find us." His calm but vengeful doppelgänger told him.
"Well, I'm a little busy right now watching my nemesis bite it. Plus, I have no interest in saving Alexandra's life. In fact, she's still unkillable."
"She was. Thanks to your entrance earlier, I took that opportunity to swoop in and give her the cure. So now she's nothing but a vulnerable, mortal little witch just like you, which is why I'm going to take her away, and I'm going to keep her alive by any means possible while everyone else hunts you down like an animal. You now have nine minutes." Stefan snarled in resentment.
Silas hangs up. Later, Elena and Rosie walk into the library using individual flashlights and find Tessa with the iron poker still stuck to her shoulder.
"Oh my God."
"No way."
Rosie and Elena uttered in unison.
"Can't a witch rest in peace?" Tessa mentioned weakly.
"It's a flesh wound. Get up." Rosie pulls the iron poker from her shoulder, "You're not done yet. Come on." She grabs the witch and drags her with her.
****
Mystic Falls Woods
Alexandra, who is now mortal again for the very first time in two thousand years, has just awoken and is tied to a tree and gagged with a cloth when Silas slowly-- carefully walks up to his runaway one-true-love, "Alexandra." She is just as beautiful as he remembers her to always be...exquisite beauty.
He undoes the knots as he looks at her and grabs her beautiful face. She does the same as she begins to cry as she remembers her true feelings for him despite many centuries to deny it, "Why are you still here? I rejected you." How could he still come back to her after the horrible things she did?
"I loved you. I still do." Silas confessed, meaning each and every word, after two thousand years long of being unbearably apart from each other since.
Alexandra continues to cry silent tears as she looks up at him, "I love you." So much, despite how in denial she was throughout the ages of time, even after she was betrayed by her own best friend who she trusted and relied on.
"I can't live any longer, not without you. Please understand." Silas uttered; the time has finally come for them to end their lives, once and for all now, and reunite in the bright world together once the other side is destroyed. He only ever desires to be with her for eternity, even in death afterward.
They gently touch foreheads with each other affectionately as she continues to cry silent tears. Silas, however, gently wipes the wet tears from her face before he slowly places a short though sweet kiss onto her dry pink lips, desiring for such an unbearably long time to do so ever since they parted. How he missed her so much is undescribable, cannot be put into words, in which he had to go through two thousand years of starvation and desiccation because of another witch to reach the finish line at this point.
"I understand. I love you." Alexandra sincerely expressed in return and she returns his sweet and short kiss with her own, molding their lips together.
Silas pulls out a sharp blade from his jacket pocket; his love gasps in fear when he places it near her fragile, sensitive neck, "Only if you die with me."
The caramel brunette shakes her head, terrified, "No. No, Silas, please." She doesn't want to die, she doesn't even want to be mortal in the first place. Although she was caught eventually, and she was forcefully cured by Stefan.
Although they have to, "It's been two thousand years, Alexandra."
She closes her eyes waiting with the desperate hope that he will change his mind, and he just stands there. She opens back her eyes to see a very sad Silas, crying as he only stares at his own love, "You're not going to do it." Because he loves her too much to even hurt her. Let alone murder her.
"I want to. I'm ready." Silas starts cutting on his lover's neck when his doppelgänger shows up out of nowhere and vamp-speeds, pushing Silas away from Alexandra and against another tree, holding him by the neck.
"Remember me? I remember you. I'm sorry, is it hard to breathe? Is your throat closing? Did the fear of dying start to creep in yet?" Stefan snarled.
Silas uses his magic on the vampire, who falls to the ground and groans in pain. Alexandra starts untying the ropes binding her to the tree to escape.
"I hear every emotion is heightened for a vampire. All those memories must be eating you alive right now, Stefan. What's it like to die? I've never done it. You must have done it a thousand times over this summer." Silas snarled.
"Stop it!"
"Stop it? I've spent two thousand years alone in a tomb. You were locked up for what? Three months? Look at you! You're a mess. The safe was the easy part, wasn't it? Being forgotten about, that's the real torture, isn't it?"
Stefan sees Silas' knife lying on the ground, grabs it and throws it into Silas; Silas groans and starts falling down while Alexandra finally gets herself free.
A gasp escapes her in true shock, her eyes growing wide, "Silas!"
****
Salvatore Boarding House
Damon walks over to inform Rosie, "Stefan and Alexandra are not inside." Including Silas, therefore the three must be outside in the property somewhere because Stefan is aiming to murder his doppelgänger tonight.
She sighs anxiously, "That's because Stefan took her. I have a feeling that she's a witch again. You have to go find him before he gets himself killed." By either Silas or Alexandra, or any threats near, Stefan needs to be safe.
"No. He's luring Silas away so he can finish this. It's typical Stefan. He'll be fine." The older blue-eyed brother assured her, too lazy to search for them.
"No, he's hurting. Damon, he's not thinking clearly. Okay, Silas may have been the one that put him in that safe, but we were supposed to get him out of it. Please go find him. We can't lose him again." Rosie pleaded hopefully.
Damon, concealing how guilty and envious he feels, nods once, "Okay."
Meanwhile, Tessa continues chanting her spell to replace Amara with Bonnie as the anchor to the other side in the drawing room with Elena alone.
****
Mystic Falls Woods
Alexandra looks at her one-true-love's cold deceased body, pulls the bloody sharp knife from his chest and looks at it as she contemplates the alternatives she has next. His healed doppelgänger comes up behind her.
"Would you like me to do the honors?" The vampire gestured to her death, insensitive and cold as to how he feels about the end of Silas and Alexandra. Why should he care about them? They were both bloodthirsty immortals who only cared about themselves for two thousand years. Now is their end.
"I never wanted this." The former immortal shakes her head in horror as she stares at Silas' cold, lifeless body leaning against the tree guiltily, regretful.
"Your decisions led you here, now. You rejected love for two thousand years and look where that's got you — alone, and he's dead." Stefan told her, actually satisfied that he managed to murder his doppelgänger eventually.
The ancient witch sobs as she stares at the other witch's lifeless form.
"He was right. It's been two thousand years. No one should live that long. Now that you're clearly depressed and miserable, why don't I just--"
Alexandra quickly stands up and turns around to face him, terrified.
"No. Don't touch me. Please, I-- I don't want to die." She shakes her head.
"You're not going to live for long. You shouldn't be here." He spoke.
Damon finally shows up to join them, "Yep. Time to go, Alexandra."
As if only in a blink of an eye, the older vampire brother grabs the sharp knife, which she accidentally dropped on the ground, and throws it with vamp-strength and speed that the blade stabs itself into her stomach; she gasps while both brothers are watching her drop to the ground. Stefan, however, moves quick enough to her and catch her as she bleeds to death.
Although she weakly pushes him away and she falls down on the ground on her back and her big eyes close, in which her final moments is seeing the exact face of her one true love. She opens them to speak one last time, forgetting with little mind that the young man is her own love's shadow self.
"Our eternity starts now."
****
Salvatore Boarding House
Bonnie and Jeremy are in the parlor room alone, they are about to say a teary goodbye since Amara's throat has just been slit by Tessa in the drawing room earlier, to their satisfaction, to her own unfortunate demise.
"I love you." The seventeen-year-old hunter sincerely expressed.
A sad and grateful smile shows up on the girl's face, "I love you too."
The hunter and the witch, who would have thought that they would end up together and to end up tragically this way in tragedy? How it started with him being her own best friend's brother, and now she's going to end up dead because of her love for him to be alive once again with his loved ones.
"I'm not ready to let you go." He lifts a gentle hand to her face, and they are both stunned that they can touch each other, "I can feel you."
"I can feel you." Bonnie repeated after him in true shock and denial...this means that the spell worked, thanks to Tessa; she's the new anchor now.
Caroline, Elena, Rosie and Minerva step into the exact room behind them.
"Bonnie?" The young banshee mentioned her in disbelief.
Bonnie turns to face them with a gasp, in more denial, of this outcome.
A gasp of surprise escapes Rosie, "Oh my God."
"Please tell me this is real." Caroline remarked hopefully with a frown.
Another gasp escapes Bonnie, in surprise, "You guys can see me?"
"Bonnie, it worked." Jeremy stated about the significant transfer spell.
"It worked!" Bonnie repeated in a triumphant tone, smiling widely.
Elena, Minerva and Caroline run to Bonnie and they group-hug while Rosie and Jeremy watch them delightfully, smiling at their displayed reunion. She deserves this, Bonnie Bennett deserves to live after what she did for them.
"You're here!" The chestnut brunette stated as a delightful declaration.
The formerly dead witch looks at the banshee, "Thank you."
Minerva nods in response and shares a smile with Rosie for a brief moment.
"Oh my God, oh my God! And we can be roommates, 'cause we have that extra bed, and we can clear out half the closet–"
Bonnie and Elena mentioned in unison, "Caroline!"
"I'm sorry, I just—I can't believe you're really here!"
Minerva chuckles good-heartedly, proud of themselves, "Well, she is."
"I'm here. I'm back."
"Yeah, well, guess who else is back?" Rosie mentioned as a reminder, smiling, to which the five of them turn to find Luka standing at the entrance of the parlor room, awkwardly watching all of them in utter disbelief.
Bonnie slowly walks toward her own estranged brother, both separated since they were only a few months old, in equal disbelief, "Luka?"
A shaky sigh of nervousness leaves Luka, utterly relieved to be reunited with his estranged sister, "Bonnie." He quickly moves to embrace her in a warm hug while the rest of their friends silently watch them on in deep sympathy.
****
Mystic Falls Woods
Stefan looks down at Silas' cold body, resting his hands on the handle of a shovel, after he has already buried Alexandra. Rosie stands nearby him.
"So, he's dead. Along with Alexandra. It's over." His ex-girlfriend mentioned hopefully, slightly relieved that all Alexandra, Silas, Amara and Tessa are already dead; all four of them were murdered apart from Tessa, who murdered herself when Katherine came into the room earlier and witnessed her final moments. True love prevails...the universe be damned.
Stefan resists the urge to roll his eyes in raw annoyance, "Yeah, it's over."
Rosie stares at him in genuine concern and sympathy, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Look at me and tell me that killing Silas worked. That you'll be okay now." Rosie insisted in a desperate manner, annoying him even more instead.
"Why is this so important to you?" Stefan turns to face her with a snap.
"Because I know how much he stole from you, he stole from us." Rosie said.
"Yeah, and he's dead." Her stressful ex-boyfriend pointed out.
"And because while you were suffering in that safe, grasping onto hope, fighting every second so you wouldn't lose your humanity...I was happy, because you did it for me. I still didn't get everything that I wanted, Stefan. I want to be in love, I want to have the summer of my dreams, and I want you. So now I need to, at least know that this worked. I need to know that it's going to take away all your suffering. I need to know that you're going to be okay. I need to know that I have my Stefan back." Rosie confessed.
"I wanted it to be you. When that safe finally opened and somebody found me...I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be both of you." Stefan expressed.
Damon is shown to be standing not too far behind Rosie. She looks back at him, then back at Stefan, looking regretful, guilty and ashamed of herself.