Vicky Donovan's funeral ended shortly. The police said it was caused by overdosed.
Caroline, Mom, and I went to pay our respects. The air was heavy with grief, but when Kelly Donovan's eyes landed on Mom, they burned with something sharper than sorrow. She didn't even try to hide the scoff that slipped from her lips when she saw Caroline and me. We figured our she had some bad beef with mom.
Caroline leaned closer and whispered so only I could hear, "Looks like I dodged a bullet by not going out with Matt."
I whispered back, "Yeah. Kelly looks like she'd kill you if you so much as breathed near her son."
Caroline shook her head slowly. "So weird."
After the funeral, I went straight to the Gilbert house.
I knocked, and Jenna opened the door. Her eyes widened in mild surprise. "Oh. Hi, Aaron."
"Is Jeremy home?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yes, he's in his room. But he won't come out. Come on in."
I walked inside and headed straight for his room. The door was locked.
I knocked once. "Jeremy, I know you're in there. Open the door."
"Go away, Aaron!" he shouted from the other side.
I placed a hand on my waist. "Jeremy Gilbert, in case you don't know, I can open locked doors with hairpins."
"Then do it if you can," he shot back.
I frowned. "Are you challenging me?"
I marched to Elena's room, grabbed a hairpin from her drawer, and crouched by Jeremy's door. I tried for several minutes, twisting and turning the pin. Nothing. The lock wouldn't budge.
I leaned back with a sigh. Nah. Not working. I still don't know how Dad's study got unlocked that night.
I knocked again. "Jeremy, open the door or I'll bring a mic and start singing. And you know I'm not Caroline. I'm completely tone-deaf."
A second later, the door swung open.
The threat worked.
"Say what you want and get out of the house," Jeremy muttered.
I pushed past him into his room. "No. I've been away from Mystic Falls. I thought I'd come chat with my best friend."
He crossed his arms. "You didn't come to chat. You came to make sure I don't do anything stupid now that Vicky's dead."
I held his gaze for a moment, then sighed. "Can you really blame me?"
Jeremy lay down on his bed and put his headphones on. "I'm not doing anything. Just listening to music. So if you're done checking on me, you can go."
I sat beside him on the bed. "I'm not leaving. I want to be here for you on your bad days."
He finally looked at me over his phone.
"Jer, I'm not Elena. I can't talk like her and magically make you feel better. And even though Caroline says the weirdest stuff sometimes, she somehow makes it better. I can't rearrange words like they do. So at least let me just sit here with you while you're going through something awful."
Jeremy didn't respond. He just looked back at his phone.
But he didn't ask me to leave.
(Back at the Salvatore Boarding House)
At the Salvatore Boarding House, Damon kicked the table in frustration. Stefan had been kidnapped by the tomb vampires—tortured, according to what little they knew. Elena and Alaric had offered to help, but their numbers were painfully low. One vampire and one vampire hunter against an entire house full of tomb vampires? The odds were laughable.
The front door creaked open.
Damon turned sharply—and froze.
"Lexi?"
She stood there, arms crossed, expression unimpressed.
"Don't look so shocked," Lexi said coolly. "I didn't want to come back to Mystic Falls this soon—especially after you blew my cover in front of the town sheriff. But I've been texting Stefan for days. No replies. No calls back. So I came to check. And if you even think about backstabbing me again, Damon, you won't see the light tomorrow."
Damon chuckled. For the first time since Stefan's disappearance, he felt a flicker of relief. Two vampires were better than one.
"Why are you laughing?" Lexi asked.
"Well," Damon replied, "I've got a story to fill you in on."
Some time later, after he explained everything—
"You're telling me the tomb's been opened," Lexi said slowly, "and Stefan has been kidnapped by those vampires?"
"Yep."
"And you've teamed up with a vampire hunter?"
"As crazy as it sounds," Damon shrugged, "it's real."
Lexi exhaled. "Fine. I'm in. When do we attack?"
.
.
.
.
.
(Background summary)
Caroline found Vicky's body after her car broke down on a rainy road .
Stefan was eventually rescued by Damon, Alaric, Elena, and Lexi. But he was weak. To save him, Elena fed him her blood.
That was the mistake.
Once Stefan tasted it, something inside him snapped. The control he had fought so hard to maintain slipped through his fingers. He became unpredictable. Dangerous.
Lexi offered to stay and help him manage the bloodlust. She had always been the one who helped him find balance.
But Stefan refused.
He insisted he could control it himself. And more than that, the town council already suspected Lexi. If she stayed, she'd be in danger.
After hours of pleading from him—firm, desperate, unyielding—Lexi finally gave in.
And she left Mystic Falls.
Again.