[ BOOK TWO ]
Erin Gilbert's life had become one supernatural catastrophe after another, not that she should've expected any different when her sister's boyfriend and his brother turned out to be vampires.
The years of chaos that followed should have...
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MYSTIC FALLS HADN'T changed in the month since she left the small town. Not that Erin expected it to. She failed to even think it would've held the slightest difference when she came back the following November. The people who called the place home didn't really like change.
But despite the identical appearance, the atmosphere that encompassed the town seemed to shift. Darkness and dread now hung above them like a thick blanket, threatening to suffocate those beneath it. The warm and happy feeling that should've overcome Erin as she returned had been replaced. At that moment, all she wanted to do was turn her car around and put the place in her review. She couldn't pass by The Grill or Town Square or the little boutiques she used to visit with her friends. Where she used to visit with Bonnie.
Her best friend who had been dead the entire summer.
Erin didn't want to believe Elena when she called shortly after she returned from her awkward stay in the bayou with Elijah and Hayley. More so, answered the next call that came through her phone after nearly a hundred.
If only Tyler Lockwood hadn't attacked her and took her out to the bayou, leaving her phone behind on the Mikaelson's floor.
Elena berated her for not answering, before she revealed torturous truth that shattered her world. When Bonnie dropped the veil to the Other Side, she performed a spell to bring Jeremy back from the dead. And in doing so, she used more magic than her body could handle. She had died as a result.
Throughout the entire summer, even their graduation ceremony, Bonnie had been dead. She died because of a spell to keep Jeremy in their world. She died so Erin and Elena could have their brother back.
Erin couldn't even begin to fathom the thought. How could Bonnie Bennett, her best friend and the most powerful witch she had ever known, be dead? It didn't seem real. She felt as though she had fallen into a dream, a nightmare she couldn't escape, and she wanted to wake up. She needed to wake up.
But that wasn't possible. Not this time.
Erin shifted her car into park along the driveway of the Boarding House, leaning against her leather seat as she stared at the front façade. She wasn't supposed to see the massive home again for another two months. An occasion that should've been more joyous, filled with laughter and smiling faces, not tearful eyes and a funeral.
With a deep breath, Erin climbed out of the car and headed for the front door. She didn't even spare a glance toward the parlor as she headed down the hall for the staircase. It didn't take her long to arrive at Damon's room, finding the door stood wide open. Erin peered inside and found her sister near the foot of the bed, rummaging through a few suitcases on a cushioned bench along the end.
