The Sacrifice

The Sacrifice - 1

"Psst Ariel. Ariel" Elena whispers as she nudges my shoulder. I groan and roll over in bed to face her.

"What is it?" I grumble annoyed. What am I doing here is probably what you're wondering. Well Elena and I decided that I should stay over every once in a while.

She presses her finger to her lips and motions for me to listen. I stay quiet and hear a door slam making us jump out of bed.

I get out of bed and carefully dig into my bag, pulling out my Karambit knife. Alaric gave it to me during our last training session, and I've been practicing my technique. I slip my index finger through the ring and clutch it, prepared to use it.

We get out of bed and slowly walk across her room. Elena quietly opens her ajar door and we walk out onto the landing. We look around the landing for anything suspicious and quietly approach Jeremy's room, looking in through his ajar door.

Suddenly, We hear a noise from behind. We gasp and spin around, I hold up the knife in pick position, with my thumb against the finger ring as I clutch the blade. Turns out the noise was Alaric, shirtless and in his boxers, who is also startled by our unexpected appearance on the landing. I lower the knife and The three of us try to catch our breath after the scare.

Alaric regains his posture. "Girls. Ahem."

Alaric lowers the ice cream bowl he's carrying towards his nether region.
Elena stiffens. "I-we heard something."

Alaric chuckles nervously. "Ariel, nice us posture" He complements. I smile lightly and then We avoid his gaze, embarrassed.

Jenna walks up the stairs, wearing Alaric's shirt. She runs her hand through her hair, embarrassed as well.

"That was us. I'm sorry." Jenna apologizes.

"We didn't think anyone else was up." Alaric explains.

"But here you two are." Jenna exclaims.

Alaric fumbles "We were just-"

Both of them continue their attempt at explaining and fail. Alaric sighs and holds out the ice cream bowl to us.

"Chunky Monkey?" He offers.

"No, thank you" I say as I fold my hands behind my back.

Alaric chuckles. "Well...I'm naked. So I'm gonna go."

Alaric walks past us and into Jenna's bedroom, shutting the door behind him. We start to walk back towards Elena's room. Jenna, embarrassed, walks up the remainder of the stairs.

"I'm really really sorry." Jenna says again.

Elena and I turn around when we reach the doorway.
"It's okay, Jenna, don't worry about it." I assure her and try going back inside the room before she calls us out again which she does.

"I know he's been staying over a lot. Are you- are you sure it's okay?" She asks.

Elena smiles "Seems like things are good"

Jenna smiled sheepishly "They're extremely good"

Elena and I exchange smiles "Then we're extremely okay with it"

We retreat to our bedrooms, getting under the covers.
"Good night" I mumble.

"Good night"

...............

"Ariel. Ariel!" Elena shouts, making me groan.

"What?" I grumble as I sit up. This is the second time in 24 hours!

Elena is already dressed for the day, she's the morning person. "Stefan and Damon are here" She explains briefly.

"What? Why?" I ask as I hop off bed and slip into my shoes. I'm wearing my nightclothes, a tank top and some shorts.

"Something about Katherine" My eyes bulge and in no time I'm flying down the stairs. Elena leads me to the kitchen where the boys are. "What did I miss?" I ask as I walk to the cupboards for a mug as I start the coffee.

"We went to go visit Katherine, asked her about the moonstone and she said she'll give it to us if she's freed and then she'll leave town" Damon says summing it up.

"According to Rose's friend slater, there's a way to destroy the spell that Klaus wants to break," Stefan explains.

Damon grins. "No spell, no doppelgänger sacrifice. Ergo, you live."

"How do you destroy it?" I ask, crossing my arms and leaning against the counter.

"By releasing it from the moonstone." Stefan explains.

"How do you guys even know this is gonna work?" Elena questions. "Cause we have a crafty witch on our side." Damon tells us.

Elena sighs in realization "You discussed it with Bonnie."
Stefan nods. "She agreed to do anything she could to help us."

Elena argues back. "It's Katherine who has the moonstone. She's not gonna give it to you." I pout in realization.

"She has a point" Stefan narrows his eyes at me. Saying 'Not helping'

"We're gonna get it from her."

Damon rolls his shoulders. "Well, what he means to say is, we will pry it from her cold, dead hand if we have to." I cringe.

"Bonnie just needs to find a way to release the seal long enough for us to get in, get the moonstone, and get out in time for her to return it." Stefan explains.

Elena's eyebrows shoot up. "Wow. I mean, it sounds like you guys already have it all planned out."

Damon smiles. "Yep. We're awesome." He brags.

Elena sighs. "Except for one thing. I don't want you to do it."
Stefan, Damon and I exchange looks.

"What are you talking about? Elena, we don't have a choice." Stefan explains.

"What about Klaus?"

"We'll find him right after we get the moonstone." Stefan assures,
Elena frowns. "Is that before or after he kills everyone that I care about, including the three of you." She points from Stefan to Damon and me.

"Elena, if we can de-spell the moonstone, we can save your life." Stefan says trying to reason.
Elena sighs. "I know. Everybody keeps saying that."

Elena gets up and leaves the room. Stefan, Damon and I exchange looks again. Oh we're totally doing this.