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𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

"JEREMY!" STEFAN STIRRED AWAKE GROGGILY, eyebrows furrowed and hand resting on his forehead slightly as he sat up at the sound of Elena's panicked cry. "JEREMY?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" He looked towards the entrance to his and Aurelia's tent, which was zipped closed to prevent the monsters of the night from paying a friendly visit. "JEREMY!"

Elena's echoes caused Aurelia to groan softly, and Stefan realized then that she was awake—still lying down in her bed, arm outstretched towards him. Her fingers twitched slightly in his grip—and he realized, too, that they'd fallen asleep somewhere in their hours and hours of chatting, exactly like that. "What's going on?" When he asked, Aurelia didn't look back at him; her eyes closed and her eyebrows knotted together in a look of frustration.

"I don't know—" She raised her free hand to massage her forehead. "I've been awake for a good minute, and I've got a splitting headache." She hissed slightly, head tilting to turn towards him, though her eyes remained closed. "Her shrieks can break glass, really. I think that's why my head hurts." She winced at the desperate call of Elena's voice yet again, and failed to mention how her voice sounded louder—magnified in a way like the light dispersing into the tent. Everything was bright through her eyelids, and the sound of scattered footsteps several yards away from where they were felt like they were just next to her ear.

"I'm going to go check on Elena." Stefan blinked his eyes wide open to fight his grogginess, and his hand squeezed hers gently in an attempt to comfort her. "I'll be right back, okay?" Aurelia wordlessly nodded; eyes still shut tightly from her aching head. "Call for me if it gets worse. I mean it."

"I promise it won't get worse if you get her to keep quiet." She mumbled, clenching her jaw at the sound of Elena's voice piercing through the air once again—she left Stefan's touch, feeling a burst of coldness run through her knuckles and fingers when she broke contact with him to cover her face with two hands. "It's too early for her crap." Stefan, shaking his head, left her in their tent to rest a little while longer, and quickly made his way to the desperate brunette pacing around their campsite.

"Elena, what's going on?" Elena looked at the Salvatore with teary eyes and a gaping mouth, and then at the shuffling from Rebekah's tent as the Original herself emerged from it.

"Jeremy's gone missing!" The doppelganger was obviously distraught. "And so have Bonnie and Shane! Them, their things, they're all gone!" Stefan shot a quick and confused look at Rebekah as she walked over to them, having expected her to keep an eye on the Bennett Witch.

"Well if you weren't busy shacking it up with Damon in your tent last night—" Rebekah rolled her eyes. "Maybe you would've seen to it that your brother was safe. The three of them are clearly together somewhere—all we need is for Aurelia to perform a locator spell to find them."

"You were bent on keeping an eye on Bonnie!" Elena gritted her teeth at the millennium-old vampire. "Don't give me shit for something you failed to do, too."

"Okay, Elena," Stefan, tired of the constant raise in voice between the two women, lifted his arms to gesture for her to relax. "You need to calm down. We're not gonna get anywhere if you can't calm down—and Rebekah's right. They're probably not too far off, and Aurelia needs an artifact from one of them in order to get her spell done."

"What is Aurelia getting done—oh, crap, it's so bright." Aurelia stumbled out of her tent slightly, eyes narrowed. "I never thought I'd say this as a vampire, but I need sunglasses."

"We don't have any of their artifacts—" Elena pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly stressed out. "They took everything and left—I can't explain everything, I just need to find him—" And she cupped her hands around her mouth, spinning to face the dense forest. "JEREMY!"