𝟏• 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 | 𝐓𝐕𝐃 ✓

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘

"NO! JEREMY—" WAILS AND CRIES OF DISTRAUGHTEDNESS were the only sounds emitting from Elena Gilbert's form when she'd found Aurelia and Stefan leaving the cave with a body cradled in the latter's arms; that had been hours ago, when they agreed to meet the doppelganger and her boyfriend outside the cave, where there was little chance of an ambush. "Oh God, oh my God—it's fine, right—?"

Aurelia, despite her rough relationship with the young vampire, found it increasingly difficult to look at how she cried and grieved the only family she had left. "How did this happen?" Damon, who was also unable to keep his eyes on his girlfriend for more than a few seconds, winced at another pitiful sob.

"It was Katherine." The name made the elder Salvatore's head shoot up to look at his brother with disbelief and incredulousness—Katherine bloody Pierce hadn't been caught alive or dead by anyone in their group for months now, and had suddenly just shown up to kill Jeremy and whisk the cure away from them? Elena had mentioned that it was her who she'd been ambushed by, and that was enough to send Damon reeling with confusion. Now—she had caused an even bigger mess. "She must've been following us this whole time." Stefan summarized his answer to account for the tense and surreal atmosphere surrounding the group.

"What about the cure—or Silas?" Aurelia shook her head at Damon's question, head resting on the tips of her fingers.

"There was a tomb—and it could've been just for show..." She clicked her tongue disappointedly. "But it had the imprints of a human silhouette—the stone surrounded the silhouette aged differently—so if there was anything at all, and I'm thinking there was... it's gone now."

"Hold on—" Damon couldn't stop his barrage of questions, finding his mind become dizzier and foggier by the second. "You," He pointed at Aurelia. "Didn't believe in Silas even once. What changed that?"

"Katherine wouldn't drain Jeremy of blood for sport, not when her goal was time-sensitive." Aurelia's answer made it look as though she had everything figured out, but what irritated her the most is despite the answers she had, she couldn't make any sense of the mess they were entangled within. "There has to be a reason for her to kill him like that—and think about it: Silas is supposed to be an immortal who was immobilized for two millennia. What would wake him up?"

"Blood." Stefan completed, looking distressed than ever. "Katherine probably did it because he was attached to the cure or something."

"And where the hell is Bonnie?" When Damon asked the question that no one knew the answer to, the group's mood dampened further, and it was quiet for a moment—save for Elena's pleading sobs.

"I have no idea. She went looking for Jeremy last night. She never came back." Stefan answered hurriedly, eyes falling on the brunette's kneeled posture in the distance—under the shade of a tree. "Damon, Elena is there—" He gently pointed in the needed direction. "Waiting for the Gilbert Ring to bring Jeremy back to life." Damon sighed out of slight relief at this—however worried he was, there was at least a smidge of good news.

"Okay, fine—" He replied, beginning to walk past Stefan. "I'll wait with her." But when Aurelia stopped his paces with a firm grip on his bicep, he raised his eyebrows and queries at her, suddenly feeling unsettled by her melancholic, serious mood. "What?"

"Damon," Aurelia lowered her voice to a whisper, eyes shooting to Elena as she spoke. "Jeremy is—was one of the Five. A Hunter, for heaven's sake..." And that caused him to cower back into his misery for his girlfriend.

"He's supernatural..." He observed, earning nods from Stefan and Aurelia. "The ring won't work anymore—"

"No, it won't." Aurelia replied, jaw clenched slightly at the gravity of the situation. "I thought of digging up a spell to make a ring like mine for him—" When she said that, Damon's eyes flickered to her infamous ring. "But it wouldn't have been of any use; if I had a ring like that for him, it could only work if he was wearing it before he died."