Next Book: Crumbling
Caroline had called us to tell us that Julian had killed Stefan, and to meet us at the dorms in Whitmore.
Caroline was crying over Stefan's dead, desiccated body, which was lying on the couch.
We walked in.
I looked at Stefan, feeling like I was going to get sick. "Oh, my God. Stefan!"
I sat on the coffee table in front of the body.
Caroline was sobbing. "I didn't know where to bring him, and I just couldn't leave him outside." Damon looked at Stefan's body, disconcerted. "Bonnie has a plan, right? She--she said that she could bring people back." None of us answered. "Tell me that she can bring him back!"
"We'll bring him back," Damon told us. "Come on. Let's get away from prying eyes."
Damon, Elena, Caroline and I started to pull Stefan's body away.
~~~~~
I felt like I was breaking, standing in the girls' dorm room, kicking a wooden chair and breaking it.
"Nicola, stop," Bonnie told me.
I held my head in my hands, sinking into the chair behind me.
Damon was in the room, too, having a metal rod, using it to break a flower vase on the fire place mantel. He turned around, using it to point at Bonnie. "You said you had a plan, Bonnie."
"I did," Bonnie told us. "I had a Traveler who knew the right spell."
"And you lost her," I told her.
"I didn't lose her," Bonnie told us. "She was sucked into oblivion like everyone else on the Other Side."
"Then find another one!" Damon told her.
"It's more than just knowing the spell," Bonnie tol us. "Markos was able to come back because dozens of Travelers were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to overwhelm me. I doubt they'll be willing to do that for a bunch of supernatural strangers."
Damon pointed at her with the rod. "You know who needs motivation?" He walked closer, pointing the rod at her neck. "You need motivation because if the Other Side goes away, everyone we know there, including you, goes away with it."
"I know that," Bonnie told him. "Do you think I want to die?"
"My brother is over there," Damon told her.
"I know that!" Bonnie told him.
I stood up, stepping closer, taking the rod from Damon, throwing it across the room so that he wouldn't hurt Bonnie. "So is Alaric, and so is your Grams."
"I know that, Nikki," Bonnie told me. She looked behind us. "Enzo is here."
Damon and I turned toward that direction, but didn't see him.
"Well, if it's not Mr. Butterfingers himself," Damon said. "How'd it feel to have your only hope of coming back literally slip through your fingers?"
"Are you serious?" Bonnie asked. "You found another Traveler?"
"Well, then get on it!" I told him.
Bonnie nodded to something that we didn't hear. "More or less."
We needed a witch to do the spell for the plan. Elena and Caroline went after Liv and Luke. To convince Liv to help, Caroline snapped Luke's neck so that he would be dead and on the Other Side, making Liv choose to help us do the spell to bring the select few back to life before the Other Side disappeared entirely.
~~~~~
In Wes' old classroom, Jeremy and Matt were in the front of the classroom, Damon and I walking toward them.
"Class is in session," Damon told us. "First assignment. Anti-magic perimeter. Gilbert, what do you got?"
"I walked around Mystic Falls this morning to see where my Hunter instincts disappeared," Jeremy told us.
"Meaning what?" I asked. "Your biceps shrunk, and your brain got smaller?"
"Meaning that I have a supernatural urge to kill vampires that you narrowly avoided by being turned into one, so wherever I hated you less, there was no magic," Jeremy told me.
I smiled sarcastically.
We looked down at a map of Mystic Falls, which had a big red circle drawn on it to determine the limits of the no-magic area.
"The cemetery's outside of the no-magic perimeter, a couple of un-populated areas other than that," Damon told us.
Caroline's voice was on speaker. "Hey, Miss and Mr. Salvatore, not everyone can see the map."
Elena's voice was on speaker. "Yeah, don't forget about us."
I looked at Matt. "Donovan, you had one job."
"I'll send you a picture right now," Matt told them, taking a picture of the map with his phone, sending it to Elena and Caroline.
"We should be there," Elena told us.
"Nope," Damon told her. "You should not be. You are on witch duty because without crazy locks, no one's rising from the dead. So next order of business, mass murder. Quarterback?" Matt brought another set of maps. "Thank you."
"Okay," I told them. "We got these from the Sheriff. Apparently, there was some truth to her evacuation story. There's a major gas line that runs underneath the town. Now if it did leak, it could be deadly. As in massive explosion deadly."
"We can't blow up our hometown," Matt told us.
"Says one of the only people left in this group who can actually live there," I replied.
"We're not blowing up our town," Elena told us. "We just need to lure enought Travelers to one spot."
"How?" Caroline asked. "We can't lure anyone anywhere stuck out here."
"And that's where your mama comes in," Damon told her. "She will convince them to gather somewhere inside. Meanwhile, these two geniuses at 7:00 will turn on the gas, let it leak. We'll have about 10 minutes before anyone can smell it. You clear out. Boom! Travelers gone, resurrection spell starts, loved ones return. Good? Good? Class dismissed."
~~~~~
Damon pulled me aside later. "Listen, if this doesn't work out like it's supposed to--"
"No, don't you even go there," I told him. "You told me that you're gonna spark the explosion, you told me that you will be able to cross back over through Bonnie after the spell begins, and you told me that both Stefan and you will be here. Do not say anything that makes me think otherwise."
Damon smiled a small smile. "All I was gonna say was . . . I'm sorry."
"For what?" I asked.
"You know what," Damon told me. "I'm sorry that I killed your father. I'm sorry that I ruined your life. I'm sorry that I turned you into a vampire. I'm sorry that I made your life a living hell. You said that you wanted an apology, and I just gave you what may have been the best apology I've ever given. I'm going to die--"
"Damon, stop," I told him.
"--and there's a chance that I might not make it back," Damon finished. "And if that happens, then I wanted you to know that I'm sorry. I know that there is a part of you that hated me after what I did to you, and you just didn't want to admit it, not even to yourself, but I know the truth. I hate to admit it, but I couldn't live with it if I died while you still hated me. So, even though I know that I should burn in hell for what I've done to you alone, I just needed to know that you forgave me. I don't deserve it, but I need it."
I wrapped my arms around him, tears in my eyes. "I forgive you." I chuckled. "Even if you don't deserve it." I pulled back, hitting his chest. "You are going to die. You are going to find Bonnie. And you're going to come back. No matter what. Okay?"
Damon nodded.
~~~~~
At the cemetery, Caroline and I walked toward Bonnie, who appeared to be alone, but she was talking to someone we couldn't see them. "You need to come through."
Enzo appeared, walking toward us. "Ah. See you around, gorgeous . . .es."
Tyler appeared.
"Tyler?" Caroline asked.
"Yeah," Tyler answered. "It's me." Caroline ran into his arms. "Whoa . . ."
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"That felt different," Tyler told us.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Tyler looked around. He picked up a pointed rock, slicing himself across the hand with it.
"You're not healing," Caroline told him.
"I'm not a hybrid anymore," Tyler told us.
Bonnie looked at whoever else was on the Other Side. "Come on, guys, we don't have much time. Grab my hand!"
Elena appeared.
"Elena!" Caroline said. "Thank God!"
"No!" Elena said. "Bonnie! Why would you do that?! I can't leave without him!"
"We'll find him!" Bonnie told her.
"Wait," I told them. "What's going on?"
"Who are we missing?" Caroline asked. "Where's Stefan?"
"And Damon?" I asked.
Bonnie started to cough up blood.
"Are you okay?" Elena asked.
"Oh, my God," Caroline said. "Bonnie?"
Bonnie almost fell.
Something unseen caught her, and Stefan appeared.
Stefan looked around. "No. No. No."
"Stefan!" I said in relief.
"I was just trying . . ." Stefan trailed off.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"She fell," Stefan told us. "I was just trying--"
"What?" I asked.
"Damon," Stefan told me. "He's not there yet."
I shook my head in denial. "This isn't happening."
"It's okay," Bonnie told us. "I can do this."
Bonnie walked away determinedly to go find Damon.
~~~~~
Alaric was back. And it was really Ric.
Lexi had moved on before the darkness had taken her.
Luke had stopped the spell.
Damon was still stuck over there.
And there was no way to bring him back.
Stefan was sitting on a picnic table all alone.
I sat next to him with tears in my eyes.
"I lost them both," Stefan told me. "Two people I've known longest in this world . . . both gone."
"Lexi," I stated.
"She never came out," Stefan told me. "Neither did Markos. I know that's not a coincidence. It was, uh, her unfinished business. And Damon, uh, he finally had everything he wanted. He was happy."
"He apologized to me Stefan," I told him, tears falling down my cheeks without a sound. "He apologized to me about everything. My dad, turning me, ruining my life. He said that he needed to know that I forgave him when he died because he couldn't live with it if he died while I hated him. I forgave him. For everything." Stefan looked at me. I sniffed, looking at him. "And now he's just gone? He should be here."
Stefan started to cry, wrapping his arms around me. I wrapped my arms around him, neither of us saying a word but crying.
~~~~~
Everyone heard Jeremy running through the woods, screaming Bonnie's name over and over again. "Bonnie! Bonnie!"
Elena and Alaric walked out of the crypt. Stefan, Caroline, Tyler and I gathered to try to figure out what was going on.
"What's going on?" Tyler asked.
"Bonnie!" Jeremy yelled. "Bonnie! Bonnie!"
We saw Bonnie standing across the graveyard.
Then she disappeared.
Both Bonnie and Damon . . . on the Other Side, with no way to save them.
The Other Side was crumbling, and everything and everyone inside was going to disappear with it.
Bonnie and Damon were gone.