Reverse Psychology (Book Three Zach's Daughter Series, TVD)

Chapter 8__Ordinary People

Elena, Ric and I walked into the Old Lockwood Cellar with flashlights ready to light the way.

"So the Lockwoods really have no idea that these tunnels are underneath their property?" I asked.

"Careful where you shine that thing," Ric told Elena. "Bats hate the light."

"Wait, what?" Elena asked.

"Elena," we heard someone whisper. "Nikki."

Elena jumped, turning to face Damon, hitting him. "God, Damon!"

"Scaredy-cat," Damon said.

"Just ignore him," Ric said. "That's what I do."

As we walked closer to the cave, I looked at Damon. "So, you really can't get in?"

"No," Damon answered. "Seems even the ancient Lockwoods were anti-vampire."

"What do you mean, ancient?" I asked.

Damon gestured forward. "See for yourself." We walked into the cave,  Damon unable to enter. "Well, this is as far as I get to go."

Elena and I looked around at the ancient drawings.

"What is all this?" Elena asked.

"Well, as far as I can tell, it's a story," Ric answered. "In simple archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story." He pointed at a picture. "That right there is the moon cycle." He pointed at another drawing. "A man, a wolf."

"A werewolf," Elena realized.

"Yeah, it's the 'Lockwood Diaries: Pictionary Style'," Damon said.

"I don't understand," Elena admitted. "I thought the Lockwoods came here with the Original Founders in the 1860s."

"I don't know," Ric said. "Maybe the Lockwoods did, but according to this wall, these werewolves have been here a lot longer than that."

"How long?" I asked.

"Long," Damon said. "It gets better. Show them, Ric."

"Names," Ric stated, shining a flashlight on an old script of written, carved names. "They're not native. They're written in Runic, a Viking script."

"Vikings?" I repeated.

"This name here, I translated it, and it reads Niklaus," Ric told us.

"Klaus," Elena said.

Ric shined his flashlight on another name. "And Elijah . . ." He shone it on another. "And Rebekah."

~

"These are the names of the Original Family?" Elena asked.

"Carved into a cave that's been here since way before the founding of Mystic Falls," Ric said. "Or even the entire New World, for that matter."

I shook my head, not believing this was real. "Okay, this has gotta be one of Klaus' fakes."

"That's what I said," Damon agreed.

"That could be true, except the last name up here made us think otherwise," Ric said, shining the flashlight on the last name.

"What's the name?" Elena asked.

Ric looked to us. "Mikael."

Whoa, wait, I thought. "Mikael . . . Mikael, as in, the vampire hunter who knows how to kill Klaus?"

"Yep," Damon answered. "I now like to call him  'Papa Original'."

Mikael was hunting down his own family?