CHAPTER FIVE | HANDLE WITH CARE
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SILAS WAS NOW A REGULAR, MORTAL WITCH THANKS TO DAMON. He gave Katherine to Silas without hesitation, and Silas drank the cure from the doppelganger's blood. Stefan, however, still remained lost in terms of his memories and had disappeared after Damon continuously snapped his neck in order to help Silas regain his psychic ability.
Klara stepped down the staircase and saw Damon and Elena both curled up in front of the fire, tangled in each other's hold. She let a sigh escape her lips and started off over to the liquor. She needed a drink. Everything Damon and Elena did reminded her of what she had with Stefan.
"Hey, Goldie-Locks." Damon's voice carried as the blonde looked up from her tumbler, that was now filled with bourbon. "You doin' alright?"
"Just peachy, thanks." That was a lie. A lie that Damon knew all too well as he watched her completely down every drop she had just poured.
"Greetings. Good morning, frenemies." Silas announced as the front door of the Salvatore house swung open. He flicked his fingers and pulled back the curtains, letting sunlight pour into the dim room. "Ah, you know, I'm only a few hours into my old life as a witch, but somehow, the sun feels warmer." He stepped in front of the window as the sun hit his face. "Probably because I'm not cursed with having to outlive it anymore."
"What's with the home invasion, Silas?" The Salvatore asked.
The witch turned his attention from the window. "Well, Damon, after two-thousand years of a miserable existence, I finally get to die. We all know that Tessa was a real vengeful bitch." Silas glanced to Elena. "Your doppelganger, Amara died at her hands. But today, after two-thousand years, Amara and I will finally reunite."
"Alright, skip the mushy parts. Look, my girl here is just trying to have a good day, and there are promises that she and Klara are expecting you to keep." Damon and Elena both crossed their arms over their chest, while Klara nodded.
"Oh, you don't think I keep my promises?" Silas raised an eyebrow.
"Not really." Klara gave him a pointed look as she rested a hand on her hip. "You told us that now you're a witch, you were able to bring Bonnie back from the Other side."
He nodded. "I did, and I can."
"And you promised Damon you would do that if he helped you." Elena continued on from Klara's point while Silas nodded. "But you're kind of evil, no offence."
"None taken."
"So, I'm just trying to figure out how I can trust that one of your last acts in the world will be to bring our best friend back." The doppelganger raised an eyebrow as Klara walked beside her.
Silas sarcastically held out his pinky with a smirk. "Did you two want me to pinky-swear?"
The blonde vampire gritted her teeth at Silas' horrific humour. They just wanted to know how he was going to bring Bonnie Bennett back. "Shut up and tell us how this is going to work, alright?"
"I just want to destroy the Other Side so I don't get stuck in that pit of a purgatory when I finally do kill myself. Before I do that, I'll bring Bonnie back. And, being the amazing, and incredible, and all-powerful witch I am, I can totally do both things. I just have to find the Anchor first and destroy it.
"The Anchor?" Klara repeated with a raised eyebrow.
"The Anchor is the thing that the Other Side is bound so. Ergo, destroy the Anchor; destroy the Other Side. Don't you people know anything?" Silas asked, almost irritated that he had to explain what the Anchor was. "Anyway, it's in New Jersey, so..."
"New Jersey?" Damon scoffed. "The supernatural other-world is bound by an object in Snooki's backyard?
"It's in a stockyard and it's being shipped out, so we really need to—" Silas finally stopped in turned his head in Jeremy's direction. "Hello, hunter. Banner day for you, huh? Didn't you and the Bennett witch used to—"
"Hey. Knock it off, okay?" Elena warned Silas with a irritated look before she turned to her brother, who was holding a crossbow pointed at Silas. "It's okay, Jer. We all want the same thing today: Silas dead, Bonnie alive."
"AKA, put the damn crossbow down, Pocahontas." Damon rolled his eyes with his hand pressed against his forehead.
"We're supposed to believe that he's going to bring Bonnie back to life out of the goodness of his heart?" The Gilbert boy scoffed in disbelief.
"Well, I hope not. I mean, I am kind of a monster." He glanced around the room. "You know, guys, I'm feeling really ganged up on right now, okay? I would hate to lose my temper and do something—" He raised his hand while fire roared at the end of his fingertips. "—Crazy. Ah, man, I really love being a witch again. I feel like I'm constantly reinventing myself. I'm like a supernatural Madonna, don't you think? Right, we gotta get going." He turned to Jeremy. "You, grab a crowbar, or four from the garage."
Jeremy furrowed his brows. "For what?"
"Does it matter?" Silas answered back then turned his attention to Elena and Klara. "You two, you're not going. Men only."
"What?" Klara's mouth gaped open with irritation as she glanced to Elena. "Are you serious?"
"No, he's not serious." Damon rolled his eyes. He knew that Elena and Klara would be desperate to come.
"Actually, I'm one-hundred percent serious. She's a freaky carbon-copy of my one true love, Amara. You can understand why I don't want to stare at her imposter face all day." Silas snapped and then turned to Klara. "And her, well, don't really feel like staring at her face all day, either."
"This is ridiculous. We're bringing Bonnie back from the dead. We're going." Elena had already made her mind up as she and Klara stared for the front door.
Silas rolled his eyes, waved his hand and shot two arrowed into the back of each of their legs. Klara and Elena both let a cry of pain escape their lips as they fell to the ground. "Next one goes in their hearts. Now, hurry up. I only have until sundown before Tessa tries to stop me."
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Klara and Elena had received a call from Stefan's phone, but it wasn't Stefan who called them— it was Tessa. The fire burned inside Klara as Tessa hinted to the fact that she and Stefan had spent the night together. So, in true Klara fashion, she wanted to go and make sure he was okay.
Elena assured Klara that she was going with her, considering Tessa was crazy. The two knocked on the door, as Tessa opened it within seconds. "Well, if it isn't Stefan's fated love." Then she glanced to Klara. "And, the obstacle."
"Oh, believe me. I've been called worse." Klara folded her arms across her chest, her eyes narrowed viciously toward the witch. "Where is he?"
"Come on in." Tessa stepped aside as the two girls entered the cabin slowly.
"Klara. Elena." Stefan's eyes met Klara's first. Even though he had no memory of the girl, even now he still felt this urge to keep her face. "You shouldn't have walked through that door."
"I'm really sorry. I wouldn't have let Damon do what he did to you—" Elena started, but Stefan immediately cut her off.
"Sure you would've. You have this annoying tendency to do anything he tells you to do." The Salvatore responded as he continued to button up his shirt.
As Klara watched him, she felt the fire burn inside her. "Look, I get that you're hurt and you feel like you can't trust anyone right now. But, sleeping with her—" The blonde gestured to Tessa, not noticing the sets of furrowed brows. "—seriously?!"
"Who said I was sleeping with Tessa?" Stefan's furrowed brows and bewildered attitude was confirmation enough to the blonde. Stefan hadn't slept with her.
"Oh, I'm so bad with messages." Tessa chuckled to herself after she noticed the jealousy. "Oh, look! Klara and Elena called. They're wondering why you're here. I may have embellished for effect."
"Okay. We just came by to make sure that she hadn't done some Fatal Attraction spell on you, so now that we know you're good... we're gonna go." Elena tugged Klara by the arm and awkwardly tried to leave the cabin, but there was some sort of boundary spell stopping them from leaving.
"Yeah." Stefan hummed. "You really shouldn't have come inside."
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Klara lost count of how long she and Elena had been bound in Tessa's cabin with her fawning all over Stefan like some loved-up couple. Elena remained silent, seated on the couch while Klara kept as far away from Tessa and Stefan as she could.
"Look at all the incredible things they've dreamt up to do with food. Pineapple on pizza." Tessa flicked through a cookery book with Stefan at her side. She then turned to Klara. "So sad. Let me guess, gluten-free?"
"You seriously think I wanna sit here and talk to you about Pizza?" Klara scoffed at Tessa's delusion. "How the hell are you here— alive?"
"Ah, yeah. That. You can blame your friend Bonnie for that. She opened the door and distracted herself when she brought Jeremy back to life. So I just walked right through when she died." Tessa shrugged, then turned her attention back to the cookery book.
"Well, today, Silas was gonna bring her back to life after he got the Anchor. But you told my boyfriend, who has never put anyone's life before mine, including his own, to kill Silas before he could do that. So no, Klara and I are not sad about the Pizza." Elena snapped viciously toward Tessa then turned her attention away from them once more.
Stefan turned to Klara, who brushed a tear from her cheek. "Look, we don't we forget about the Pizza? What do you say I make something?" He asked.
"Okay. Roasted duck?"
"Wait. Do you have a duck?" The Salvatore asked.
"No, but maybe I can lure one inside. I got those two in here. How much smarter can a duck be?" Tessa chuckled, glancing between the two girls as Stefan laughed, too. "Go for it."
Stefan over to the kitchen and began to prepare food while Tessa stood there, going everything he asked. Klara noticed how obsessed she was with him. She didn't know whether it was because he had no memory of caring for anyone else, or the fact that he looked like Silas— her first love— but Klara was sick of it.
"I've seriously had enough." Klara gritted her teeth and stood up to her feet. Stefan turned around to face her, while Elena and Tessa watched the blonde's emotional outburst. "I know you don't remember this, but you and I— we trust each other completely. Before we were together, Stefan, you were my best friend. This woman, Tessa, whatever the hell she has started calling herself; she's not the sort of person you'd like."
"That's not very nice, especially considering I've allowed you and Elena to remain alive until sundown." Tessa glanced over to the window and noticed that night sun had started to fall. "Ah. Almost sundown."
Stefan glanced to Tessa, who moved away from them. "Klara, don't say a word. I got this. I know you think that I hate you, but I don't. I believe you— I won't let her hurt you, or Elena." His voice was a whisper, but thanks to their supernatural hearing, Klara and Elena hear every word clearly.
Once Tessa hung up her phone call, she walked back over to the girls. The sun had set, the barrier on the cabin was down which meant they could leave the cabin. Stefan's hand gripped around a knife that was left on the kitchen counter, he sped straight to Tessa and stabbed it in her abdomen. "Klara, Elena. Run!"
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"Hey." Stefan spoke as he stood at Klara's bedroom door. The blonde was stood in a towel after her shower, though the fact that she had no clothes on didn't seem to bother him. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
"Your sorry?" Klara furrowed her brows immediately. "You saved me. You saved Elena. What're you sorry for?"
He took another step into her bedroom and closed the gap between them. "Because I see the way that you look at me, and I'm sorry that I just don't feel it back. I— I can feel that I used to care about you and that you were important to me, but I just... I can't."
Klara felt a lump form in the back of her throat as she looked at him. "So you're sorry don't feel the same as I do?" Stefan nodded. "I mean, you don't remember me, Stefan. I wouldn't expect you to feel it."
"But I want to." He pressed his hand against her cheek and felt the sudden warmth. His memory of her was there, but it was just out of reach. "I touch you, and I can feel it. But— I just, maybe you and I could start fresh. I don't know how long I'm going to be like this, so maybe we could start at friends and try and find out way back."
Klara turned her head into his touch and smiled encouragingly. "I'd like that, Stefan. Yeah."
"Good." He removed his hand from her cheek, nodded and slowly backed out of the room. "Good night, Klara."
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