Lorelai's Diaries / The Vampire Diaries

Chapter 12: Duke

"Thanks for coming, Ric. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?" Damon says opening the front door for Alaric. "Elena mentioned you needed my help."Alaric sits down on the couch next to me and across from Elena and Stefan. "Yeah, we were, uh, hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family." Stefan tells Alaric. "Now, why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?" Alaric says confused. "Well, you wouldn't. But your dead... not-dead vampire wife might." Damon says sitting in a chair next to the couch Elena and Stefan are on.

"Isobel's research, from when you guys were at Duke together." Elena tells Alaric. "You said that she had spent years researching this town." Stefan clarifies. "Isobel's research here Mystic Falls was rooted in folk lore and legend. At the time, I thought most of which was... fiction." Alaric tells us. "Like that amazing vampire story." Damon says sarcastically. "Aside from vampires, what else?" I ask. "The Lycanthrope." Alaric answers.

Stefan and Damon look at each other knowingly. "Wait. Like werewolves?" I raise a brow at him. "No way. Impossible. Way too Lon Chaney." Damon leans forward in his seat. "Is it?" Stefan asks. "I've been on this planet a hundred and sixty some odd years, I've never come across one. If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?" Damon says. "Well, why do you suspect the lockwoods?" Alaric asks. "Because vervain didn't affect the mayor Founder's Day. But the Gilbert device did. And it affected his son Tyler." Damon explains. "And at the school carnival his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought one of the carnival workers. So it suggested some sort of a… supernatural entity." Stefan says. "We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure out what it is." Elena expresses. "All of her things are still at Duke. I mean, her office is still there. She's technically still missing." Alaric explains to us. "So can we get access to it?" Damon asks. "Ric, we need to know what we're dealing with. If this wolf man thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good. It means, Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney junior. Which means Bella Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed." Damon continues.

We decide that Elena, Alaric, Damon and I would go to Duke. The only reason I'm going is to see if Isobel had anything on my family lineage. I head back to my house and Tell jenna that we're going to Duke for Elena, but I wanted to go just to see the campus. Alaric and the rest of them come to pick me up. I can hear Alaric and Jenna talking downstairs in the foyer. A car honks, "Lori, you coming!" Jenna yells for me. I walk down the stairs with my bag, to see Alaric heading out the door. "Hey, you okay?" I ask Jenna. "Yeah. Just men and their baggage." She brushes off. Damon's sitting in the passenger seat hanging out the window. "Hey, Red." He smirks. "Hey, douche." I say opening the back passenger door. I see his smirk drop. I throw my bag over the back seat to the trunk.

I'm sitting looking out the window, listening to the music. "How you ladies doing back there?" Damon asks. I eye him in the rear view mirror and don't respond. Neither does Elena. "You know this whole pretending to hate me is getting a little silly." Damon says. Alaric huffs. "I don't think they're pretending. You killed Jeremy. I should honestly be treating you the same way." He looks over to Damon. "There is a huge asterisk next to that statement. He came back to life." Damon defends himself. "Yeah. Thanks to a ring that you didn't know he was wearing." Elena says. "Why are you so sure I didn't know." Damon asks. "Did you?" She asks with raised brows. Damon turns to look at her. "Yes." Both Elena and I furrow our brows at him, not convinced. "You're lying." I say. "Lorelai, I saw the ring. It's a big tacky thing. It's hard to miss." He wines. I roll my eyes and look back out the window.

We make it to Duke by late afternoon. "So Isobel was officially employed by the anthropology department given that most paranormal phenomena is rooted in… folklore." Alaric explains to us as we enter the anthropology building. "Excuse me. Hi. I'm Alaric Saltzman. I called earlier." He tells a woman going through a filing cabinet. "Yes. Of course, I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant. Comparative folklore." She shakes Alaric's hand, and looks Elena and Damon up and down. "Uh, let me just grab Isobel's keys." She says. "I'm sorry. These are my friends Damon and Lorelai, and my niece Elena. I hope this isn't too much of an imposition." Alaric tells her. "Oh, please. Isobel's office is right through there." she says walk to her desk. "Isobel was one of my first professors." She grabs a set of keys for a drawer. "I'm a grad-student. She was brilliant. One of the reasons I went into folklore." She explains.