Matt had given me a call, in the early hours of the morning with some heart breaking news, Tyler Lockwood was dead and it was all Damon Salvatore's fault.
I couldn't believe it, I had just seen Tyler a month ago, we took the girls to the zoo, I still remember the smile on his face as he held Arabella on his shoulders and they admired the penguins together. He couldn't have been gone, not so soon.
I met Stefan and Caroline downstairs and we all sat together in silence absorbing this news together, until Matt brought the coffin into the house. We were all sat together as we looked at his pale dead body, I wiped my tears as I looked down at Tyler, I'd been friends with Tyler my whole life, he was my first boyfriend, I mean granted we were seven and it lasted two days, but we tried again when we were twelve, that lasted a week and a half, but then we got together when we were fifteen and that time it lasted two years up until we were seventeen.
Tyler was someone I just thought would be in my life forever, he wasn't the best boyfriend sure, but he was an amazing friend and it was weird to see him gone, "mommy why are you crying?" Kaiara asks, "and why's uncle Tyler in that box?" Arabella adds, I turn to them wide eyed having forgotten that they had been asleep upstairs. "Hey girls, why don't you come with me, I can make you some pancakes." Stefan says softly distracting them, "ooh pancakes yum." Arabella grins grabbing onto Stefan's hand eagerly, "mommy?" Kaiara stays in her place looking at me, "go with uncle Stefan I'll be there in a second." I tell her smiling through my tears to try and ease her nerves, she nods and hesitantly takes his hand.
I compose myself and then join them in the kitchen, "mommy you should try these pancakes they're so yummy, uncle Stefan can you make me pancakes forever?" Arabella asks Stefan as she licks syrup from her hands, "sure I can, but only if you're a good girl for your mom." He chuckles making her grin, "I'm always a good girl." She tells him, "no you're not." Kaira protests making us laugh as Arabella glares at her, "you're just jealous that uncle Stefan's going to make me pancakes forever." She says sticking her tongue out at her sister, who then retaliates by whacking Arabella, "Kaiara, you don't hit your sister like that." I scold making her pout, Arabella then grabs onto her arm and begins to Siphon from her sister who winces, "ouch!" She says trying to pull her arm away as it burns, "Arabella! You don't do that to your sister, you know that." I say pulling her hand away from Kaiara's arm, "she hit me first!" She pouts making me sigh, "Arabella I told her off for doing that you shouldn't hurt each other." I say, "sorry mommy, sorry Ara." She mumbles dropping her head, "you apologise as well." I tell Kaiara, "sorry."
"Now come on let's go and get you cleaned up, you've made a mess." I say observing how they they seemed to have syrup all over their faces and shirts.
"Mommy, why is uncle Tyler sleeping in that box." Kaiara asks after I clean them up and change them, "well sometimes, people go to sleep in a special way, and they don't wake up." I start off not really knowing how to explain death to them, "for how long?" Arabella asks, "forever, but it's ok because the sleep is very peaceful and calm." I tell them, "so uncle Tyler isn't going to wake up?" They ask sadly, I shake my head at them, "no, but that's why here's here in the box, it's called a coffin and it's a special kind of bed, so that after we say goodbye, we're gonna put uncle Tyler away somewhere safe so that he can sleep nice and peacefully." They nod, "but I don't want to say goodbye." Arabella sniffs, "I want uncle Tyler to wake up and take me to the zoo again." She cries making her sister cry as I hug them.
"We have to say bye, because uncle Tyler is resting now and you don't want to disturb him do you?" I ask making her shake her head, "no." She sniffs wiping her eyes, "you know your uncle Tyler loved you girls very much and if you ever miss him, you should know that he's always with you and watching over you." I tell them making them feel a bit better.
"Can we say goodbye?" Kaiara asks wiping her tears, "yep do you want to now?" I ask and they nod. I take them down, "hi uncle Tyler, mommy said that we have to say goodbye, so bye, thank you for taking me to the zoo and for buying me ice cream and my penguin teddy, I'm going to miss you but mommy said that you're always with us and that you're having a nice sleep so sweet dreams."
I drop them off with a babysitter that I compelled before we leave to bury Tyler. We carry his coffin to the cemetery and lay it on the ground as we notice five empty graves. "I was wondering when you guys were gonna show up." Damon says from behind us catching our attention as he walked out from the trees, "Body's probably starting to smell a little bit. Tried to keep it as intact as I could. But I got to admit, I got a little carried away about the whole ripping the throat out thing. My apologies to Donovan. I'm sure you cleaned him up real nice." He says making my eyes narrow at him, as Stefan reaches for a shovel and snaps it pointing the wood at Damon.
"What are you gonna do with that? Stake me? Go ahead, try it. But first... Take your pick. 'Cause I'm gonna bury every one of you." Damon smirks as Stefan inches forward slowly. "Easy. Underestimating me is what got Tyler killed." He says walking forwards himself, Matt reaches behind his back for his gun and Damon hears and zooms over to him. "Matt Donovan. The only living boy in Mystic Falls. You know, it's shocking you managed to stay human this long. Maybe I should fix that." He says with a dangerously tight arm around Matt's neck. "Is that why you came home, Damon? To make empty threats?" Stefan asks, "Not empty, brother." He says biting into his wrist and shoving it into Matt's mouth, we all take a step forwards, "Don't move or I'll snap his neck. Give Matt here a non-transferrable invitation to our supernatural breakfast club." He says making us all halt.
"Damon, enough." Caroline calls out annoyed, "Sweet Caroline. How many innocent people did you kill on your no humanity bender, hmm? Doesn't matter what you say or don't. The devil knows what you did." He smirks, "What's happened to you?" Ric asks him, "What's so surprising about this? I'm who I've always been." Damon shrugs, "No. No, you're different." Damon chuckles, "Professor Ric Saltzman, everyone. Certified genius. Knows you better than you know yourself." I look at him sadly, "Damon please stop it, you're better than this." I say making him laugh, "you should know how bad I am best of all I did kill your husband remember, slapped his head clean off, ah good times, I'd do it all over again if I had the chance." He says making me shut my mouth and look away.
"Damon, just go. Nobody wants you here." Caroline tells him tiredly, "You all despise me, right? Just so we're clear, hmm? I killed Tyler, you hate my guts, our ties are severed, huh? Great. If you thought there was any remaining opportunity to rescue me, let this prove you wrong." He says before letting Matt go and zooming off.
The others leave but I don't, I wander through the cemetery before stopping at a certain two headstones, "hey mom, dad I haven't been in a while, I know I'm sorry." I say taking a seat, "I don't know how things have gotten so messed up mom, every boy I've ever loved has died I mean that's not great but I'm definitely swearing off of boys now." I say with a small laugh.
"I'm a mom now, and I don't think I ever even told you guys but you're grandparents so congratulations, it's hard raising two kids alone, I wish that you guys were here to help, you did such a great job with us, I hope I'm as good a mom as you someday mom, you were the best and I hope my daughters will rely on me the way I relied on you."
***
"Thanks for coming. I thought we could give the funeral another shot." Stefan says as we all gather at the carnival, Bonnie and Enzo join us making me smile at them, "Welcome back." Caroline hugs Bonnie as I hug Enzo. "We're here to... honor Tyler." Stefan says as we all sit down, "He was strong. In the face of so much loss." Alaric speaks up after a moment of silence, "He fought the darkness inside himself and won. I respected the hell out of him." Enzo says next, "Tyler was willing to sacrifice everything for us." Bonnie murmurs softly, "He cared about all of us. And he was my best friend." Matt says, "He was so much more than a small-town kid and he lived so much more than a small-town life. I loved him. You know, we all did." I look at Caroline and give her a small smile, "he was my first boyfriend, my first kiss, the first boy I loved...Tyler Lockwood was one of a kind and I'll never forget him, I don't think any of us will." I say smiling at my friends.
"Look, we don't know what'll happen next to any of us. But we can't let that haunt us. We can't let that make us forget what we mean to one another." Stefan tells us. "A few years ago, I sat on top of that Ferris wheel with Elena and I told her how important it was to appreciate these moments. Because moments are all we have. So in honor of Tyler and Elena, we need to keep creating moments like these. We need to remember to live." He says before flipping the lever and bringing the carnival to life. We all admired its beauty before running off to have fun.
Stefan, Matt, Caroline and I ended up playing the bumper cars, I laughed my head off as we all hit into each other.
I stood to the side watching Bonnie and Enzo and Caroline and Stefan as they looked so happy and in love, "Don't worry, you still got me to third wheel with." Matt says coming to stand beside me, "great." I say sparing him a glance, "wow Thea." He says in mock offence making me laugh, "no I'm kidding obviously, I'm glad to see you Matt." I tell him looping my arm through his, "it hurts doesn't it?" He asks as we observe the couples, I nod and lean my head on his shoulder, "it does but my love for them outweighs the pain. I'm happy for them."