ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ⇴ ᴛᴠᴅ ² ✓

thirty one

Billie lay splayed out happily on the grassy river embankment, soaking in the hot sun while her phone rang out it's dial tones next to her ear.

She had been trying to enjoy a nice afternoon, not thinking about Stefan and his deal with Klaus' coffins, not about Ric and his probably crazy girlfriend, not about any of them.

But it seems even some happy sunbathing is no exception to nauseating clairvoyance. She had been so relaxed until her head began to pound, begging Billie to pick up the phone and call Elena and Stefan.

Seeing as there was much less desire in her to talk to the latter of the two, Billie had instinctively called Elena over the vampire.

But she wasn't picking up.

What was the point of this horrible light and dark bullshit if they didn't pick up the damn phone?

"The number you have dialled is curr-"

Billie pulled the phone away from her ear for the thousandth time, hanging up on the automated voice. She was going to simply just put her phone away, but the light only amplified in a blinding manner that she couldn't ignore.

One more time, she said to herself, if only to satisfy the slowly growing curiosity.

⇴

Agonised groans filled the wooden barn and Elena couldn't help the way she frowned empathetically. Her hands were firmly tied behind her back and she couldn't help him. He needed help.

With the way Stefan squirmed and seemed completely unable to recover, Elena guessed whoever had compelled Jamie let him know about the handiness of wooden bullets.

Jamie, Bonnie's non-related step brother of sorts, did not leave. He paced restlessly back and forth across the floor anxiously. She felt bad for him, he had no idea what was going on, only an instinctive response that should Bonnie and her mother fail to find the coffins, he would have to turn the shotgun in his hands on himself.

The boy had his eyes always on the vampire, unwilling to let him take out the bullets grazing against his heart. Elena wished she could help somehow, but in reality, the only way they could get out of there, was if Stefan managed to recover and as it was, there was no way for him to do that without getting pumped full of wood a second time.

A soft ringing sounded from the doppelganger's back pocket and Jamie whipped his head towards her in a small fright. He debated for a moment before shaking his head almost unnoticeably and resuming his pacing, constantly flicking his eyes to the dying vampire.

They listened to the ringing for another few seconds before it cut off and silence ensued once again.

It only took another moment before it began again, and the person on the other end of the line persisted to try and talk to Elena.

Jamie eyed the bound doppelganger with furrowed brows, trying to guess who it was on the phone.

The ringing ended. But just like before, it started once again, slowly beginning to grate at the fragile nerves of everyone in the room.

This process repeated over and over, every time the ringing stopped and started, Jamie seemed to get more and more restless, fiddling with the shotgun more intensely and pacing even faster. Stefan's little huffs and puffs of pain had become almost entirely unheard beside the shrill ringing. 

Elena wouldn't say it but all the buzzing from her back pocket had begun to make her right buttcheek incredibly numb. She leaned heavily on her left leg for balance.