•Loyal• Matt Donovan

{|10|}

  Once Matt helped Brooklyn get her car to the shop, they walked into the grill with big smiles on their faces. They had been joking in the car about life in Mystic Falls. But Brooklyn wouldn't change a thing. She loved living here. Even if it was probably only temporary.

  Matt hopped behind the bar and began pulling out drinks for them. She gave him a questioning look. "Once a Mystic Grill waiter, always a Mystic Grill waiter." He smiled. "Plus I'm kinda the sheriff right now, so I can do pretty much whatever I want."

  "Did you know, that back in my day, this building was a saloon? It was the Mystic Saloon." Brooklyn told him.

  "Really? But the old building burned down in the fifties! This one was built right after that." He leaned closer, curious to hear what she had to say.

  "Nope. You of all people, Matt should know that things are not always as they seem. Most of the people in town didn't like the saloon. No one really knew why, but they were always uneasy. Some claimed it was because the owners were Africans who had white men as slaves, who were treated horrifically. Some said it was because the owners served dead flesh in the drinks. Some said it was because it was built over a graveyard. But the founders never listened to the pleas of the people. For some... odd reason, they would not take the saloon down. The people even built a bigger and better one on the town square, but the founders would not shut it down. The city was divided for a while after the civil war, but about ten years later, the people left it to rest. But soon after world war two ended, the argument got stirred up again when a lady was found dead behind the 'diner' that it was at the time. So finally, the founding families got together and decided to give the citizens the illusion that they were getting what they want. The Lockwood's found a witch who would give people the illusion that the building had burned. The witch then gave people the illusion that they were building another building, slightly to the left of the previous building."

  "So we're more to the right than I think we are?" Matt asked.

  "No. It only lasted until those people died." Brooklyn hummed, deep in thought.

  "How did you know all that?" Matt asked in awe.

  "I was there when it happened. Damon had come passing through. I was trailing behind him, keeping him from destroying a town's population. Who do you think killed the lady?" Brooklyn explained.

  "Damon? So technically, it was all Damon's fault that the spell had to be cast in the first place?"

  "No... it was mine. I should've been there before anyone found her body, but Nik had begged me to take a detour and help him clean up one of his messes, and I couldn't say no."

  "That doesn't make it your fault, Brooklyn." Matt soothed.

  "Technically, I was the one who contacted the witch in the first place. Mr. Lockwood was not doing anything right."

  "Did you ever find out why they were so dead set against tearing this place down?" Matt asked.

  "No. I didn't have time to. After the witch came to town, I had to go ween Stefan off of human blood. That was something that I always wondered about, but I always have something above it on the priority list." Brooklyn said with a disappointed glimmer in her eye.

"Well, Jeremy should have some founders' diaries laying around. I'll call him and ask him if he can dig them out." Matt said.

  "Really?! Matt that would be awesome! I think that those founders' diaries might be helpful in helping us wake up Elena." Brooklyn squealed.

  "Matt? Honey, what are you doing here? I thought we had a date today!" Reyna said coming up to the bar.

  "Hi, Reyna." Matt sighed.