𝟏• 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 | 𝐓𝐕𝐃 ✓

𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

"AURELIA," STEFAN LOOKED AT THE DOOR at the call of the familiar name, spotting Aurelia just as she walked into the room and shut the door behind her. "What happened? Is something wrong?" Elena continued to ask, looking away from the wall she had been facing.

Not answering immediately, Aurelia's eyes scanned the entire room and the half-painted walls, before they focused on the paint rollers in Elena and Jeremy's hands. She then scrunched her nose up in slight disgust. "This reeks of paint." She remarked dryly. "What's the occasion?"

"Uh," Elena paused before responding. "Alaric stayed here, so we thought to paint the walls... I just wanted some sort of distraction..." Her voice quietened as she reached the end of the sentence, spotting Aurelia's expression dampen considerably. "I'm sorry he left you so quickly, Aurelia, I know you two were—"

"He's...gone." Aurelia spoke fast. "There's no need to talk about him if you want to move on, right? So stop talking about Alaric." She said, her tone turning uncomfortably assertive. With a small and timid nod, Elena fell silent. "Anyway, Damon told me to come here."

"Damon?" Stefan asked, his interest and concern coming into display. "Why would Damon ask you to come here?" With a small shrug, Aurelia pulled her phone out from her jeans, turning it on quickly so that she could open her messages.

"He said," She cleared her throat once, scrolling through the chat. "Yeah, he said, "Get your ass to Elena's place and do it right now. This isn't a joke, so don't screw around." Word for word." She elaborated, raising her head from the screen while Stefan took a moment to look at it. "Uh.. the rest of the texts are just him and I chatting." She cleared, switching the device off quickly. "None of your business." He then stared at her with suspicion for a quick second before Elena cut in.

"Do you know why?" She asked, making the vampire shrug. "You... came here without asking him about the details—"

"Look, Elena," Aurelia said pointedly. "I assume from the way he texted me that it's not just to hang out or drink. Something's wrong, and I trust him enough to tell me after he gets here." Elena hummed in submission to the elder, who then looked back at the walls. "Did you only have a darker grey?"

"Well—" That was when Aurelia's phone rang loudly, disturbing the conversation and making the doppelganger jump slightly.

"Caroline." She said, staring at the caller ID. "I just saw her before she got to the school..." Picking up the call, Aurelia placed it next to her ear with a curious expression, turning away from the small group to focus on her sister. "Care, hey. Did you forget something at home?"

"Aurelia!" The desperate and fear-filled tone of Caroline's voice made the hairs on the nape of Aurelia's neck stand instantly. "Aurelia! The school, please, help me! He's alive, he's here—" She stopped speaking as a terrified sob left her lips, increasing Aurelia's concern by tenfold. "Please!"

"Caroline? Who's there?" She asked in a tone that was hurried and worried more than anything else. "Caroline! What's going on?!" She continued to ask, the volume of her voice only growing more and more as she spoke. "Can you hear me?!"

"Al—" As Caroline proceeded to answer, her voice suddenly turned more muffled than before, almost to the point where Aurelia was unable to make out what she was saying. "Mmph! Mmph!" In response, the vampire could only yell for her descendant and beg for her to answer her, the back of her throat stinging as she felt worse and worse.

"Caro—" There was a loud beep, and her fingers considerably loosened, letting the phone slip through and fall on the carpeted ground with a muffled thud. She ignored the device and focused only on the thought of the younger blonde in grave danger. "Shit!" She shrieked through welled up eyes as she punched the wall with enough force to tear her skin open. "I need to go the school, now."