8.) Brave New World

Authors Note: hey guys. I've been enjoying the series again after so long of not watching it. Just want to say thank you for all the interaction. While I enjoy reading these myself, I'm happy to know others enjoy it as well.

Enjoy the chapter.

_

Caroline

I wake up in the hospital from that terrible dream. Something about me feels odd. Different. The light hurts my eyes. I feel a gnawing hunger in the pit of my stomach and my throat feels like I'm swallowing razor blades.

I cough and walk to the reception desk. "Where is everybody?" I ask with my voice sounding as confused as I feel.

"It's the middle of the night sweetheart. They're all gone."

"It is?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Well have you seen my mom?" I ask looking for any answers amidst this wave of confusion in experiencing. Like the worst hangover ever.

The receptionist replies, "she left after dinner with your boyfriend. And then your friend elena stopped by."

That got my attention. Remembering the women who named herself Katherine putting a pillow over my face. "Can I just get something to eat?"

The receptionist replies, "breakfast begins around 7."

I'm getting annoyed with this nurse. "But I'm hungry."

"You should go back to sleep."

I begin to walk back when the sweet smell that's been swirling around my nose since I woke up becomes too sweet to ignore. "What's that smell?"

The nurse ignores me. "Back to bed." While getting up to go somewhere else.

I begin to walk into my room but curiosity gets the best of me. I follow the scent into a room and spot a blood bag hanging up. I don't know why but I smells so good. I'm about to touch it when the nurse from earlier startled me.

"What are going doing in here?" She asked me.

"I don't know." That was the truth. It felt like a trance. The nurse escorts me to my room this time and I plop onto the bed while she closes the door.

Little does she know I still have a blood bag wi the me. I take a drink and feel my world explode in color.

Then I realize what I'm doing and cough while throwing my hands over my hair and dropping the bag onto the bed. I breathe in and out trying to get a handle on myself but the sight of the blood is too much. I go back off the bed onto the floor and begin gulping it down.

_

Zach

I wake up In the guest room of the Forbes house. I think back to Caroline. She's probably full vampire by now. While I feel bad there's not much I can do about it now.

I decide to wait until she comes home to speak to her about myself. I hear my phone buzz and look down to see a text from Bonnie.

Hey, thanks again for last night. Come by the school today and help me set up the carnival :)

I sigh but decide to do it. If I don't I'll just sit in the house all day. I begin my stretches and preparing for the days events as i Remember them.

1.) Caroline wakes up as a vampire.

2.) Matt tried to visit her but she is her heightened vampire spaz self.

3.) Bonnie and Elena are stuck setting up the Carnival while Jeremy reels from being killed by Damon after he was rejected by Katherine.

Dude really can't catch a break in the first few seasons can he?

Shaking that off I continue my mental checklist as I begin the shower and step inside.

4.) As the carnival continues, caroline eventually comes as night falls and chaos happens. Bonnie tries to kill Damon and Stefan tries to help caroline adapt to her new reality.

I sigh. 'Today's going to be an emotional one. What's with all the catastrophic events happening back to back?' I think as I finish my shower and begin to dry off.

I'll need to get in touch with Tyler as well. The closer we are the more likely he is to give me the moon stone which I will protect and use correctly. I'm actually kind of excited to play with the other wolves from Masons pack that come sniffing around after his death.

The entire reason Katherine came back to Mystic Falls was to bargain her life from Klaus in exchange for her freedom. Being on the run for 500+ years sure doesn't sound like fun so I can empathize a little with her.

Hell, even the originals themselves know what it's like to be hunted across centuries by Mikael. As I'm getting dressed I also begin to think about taking some time this weekend to truly try and understand my abilities.

My eyes give me the idea I'm some kind of alpha. But those didn't exist within the TVDU as far as I'm concerned. The closest thing would be a wolf who can control their shift like Ansel who had the first moonlight ring or a hybrid such as Hayley or Klaus.

That and the fact I took Bonnie's emotional pain away makes me see the need to understand what all can be done. The Originals made many mistakes that cost them a lot later down the line in the early stages of Turning to vampires.

The creation of Lucien Castle is one of them as is the compulsion of Aurora De Martel by Elijah when he learned that Klaus actually killed their mother.

These thoughts remain at the forefront of my mind as I begin my journey to the school.

_

Bonnie

After texting Zach I turn back to Elena.

"Katherine looked just like you it was freakish."

Elena begins to try and deflect, "she is my ancestor."

I reply, "your vampire ancestor. And she just didn't resemble you like a family member would. She was you."

Elena tries to stay on task while I follow. "I don't know I can't explain it. It's creepy. That's all I got."

"What If she's still out there pretending to be you?" I ask her.

"I don't. But I could sit here and be tortured by the not knowing or I could get these prizes to the ring toss."

I almost sigh at her lack of confidence in this situation but push further. "We'll have you talked to Damon since he killed Jeremy… or tried to kill him?"

"No Bonnie I haven't. And I won't and I don't wanna talk about Damon or anything else that's vampire related okay?" she asks while putting prizes into my arms.

I give up. It's clearly not a good time. "Okay."

"I'm human. And I have to do human stuff or else I'm gonna go crazy." Elena says letting out a breath.

"Okay. I'm sorry. We have to make Caroline proud or she will kill us. I don't know how she does this all the time.l

"Beacuse she's not human. Obviously." Elena jokes.

-

3rd point of view

Stefan and Jeremy are beside the lockers while the vampire gives the young human a crash course in keeping vampires away from you.

"It's the same as the bracket elena gave you."

"So it protects me from compulsion?"

"Vervain is Toxic to vampires. So it'll keep em out of your head." Stefan replies to the question.

"But why vervain?" The curious Gilbert asks.

"I don't know." Stefan said honestly. "There are just certain natural herbs and roots and other elements that are harmful to vampires."

"You mean like a stake to the heart?" Jeremy asks yet another question.

"Right. But it has to be wooden." Stefan keeps patiently replying.

"You know you're pretty confident telling me all the ways I could kill you." The young Gilber said.

Stefan laughs before saying, "Jeremy if I thought you wanted to kill me we'd be having a very different conversation."

Jeremy sighs. "You're right. It's Damon that deserves it."

Stefan cut off that train of thought quickly, "I want you to forget about Damon. He's 100 times stronger than you and right now he's not stable. You need to try to move forward."

"I was killed by a vampire and bright back by a magical ring. How do you move forward with that?"

"Right we'll today we have a nice little distraction thanks to the slave driver Elena. Hello Elena."

Said girl begins to ask her brother if he'd gotten what she needed. "Yes. All 300 goldfish ready to go. It's gonna be epic." He says moving away from the couple and closing his locker.

Stefan tried to calm Elena. "He's gonna be alright. He's been through a bit of an ordeal."

"I was hoping this carnival could reel him back into the land of normal highschool teen." She said.

Stefan asked, "is that what we're doing?"

She nods and speaks, "yes. We all are. We're gonna be boring highschool students where the V word is not uttered."

"Got it" stefan replies.

The conversation eventually turns to Damon. Elena speaks. "No. No D word either. That has been deleted from the list of topics we can discuss."

Stefan sighs. "Unfortunately Katherine being here has him in a bit of a weird place. A little off kilter. A little dangerous. Who knows what he's up to."

-

Said brother was currently meeting with Carol Lockwood.

"So I understand John Gilbert left town." Carol said. "Have we found the vampire that attacked him?"

Damon replies, "the sheriff has asked me to take care of that and I promise you we will find them."

"Which brings me to my next subject. I'll be acting as mayor in richards place until the next election. I'll need someone to spearhead the council. I'd like that to be you."

You could see amusement dance in Damon's eyes as he spoke. "Whatever you need carol. As a founding family member it's something very dear to me. I'd be honored help keep this town safe from vampires."

As he finished speaking noise could be heard and carol does to close the office door. "Is it safe to talk?" Damon asked.

Carol nods, "my brother in law mason is still visiting. I just don't want him to hear us. He wanted no part of the council when he lived here and I don't see a reason to do it now."

Damon hears the conversation begin between nephew and uncle. "Dude I play 3 varsity sports. Workout 4 times a week and run 3. It's not helping."

"You blackout?"

"Yea. I go blind with rage."

"Is there a pattern. Like only at night?"

"All I know is I loose myself. And I hate it."

Damon is brought out of his eavesdropping by carols voice beside him, "more tea?"

"Oh yes. Thank you carol." He says with his mind running a mile a minute to the other unknown supernatural element in his town.

_

Caroline

As I'm looking in the mirror I see veins appear under my eyes. I begin to freak out and that only makes them more pronounced. Then my mouth hurts. Really hurts.

"Ahh" I groan out and see two fangs coming from the top of my mouth. As I'm having an existential crisis the nurse from last night walks in. I blur to her before slamming her agaisnt the wall and looking her in the eyes.

"You can't tell anyone. You can't tell anyone."

She seems to enter a trance, "I won't tell anyone." I don't know what just happened but I won't question it.

"Good. Because I'm starving." I say before descending on her neck.

_

3rd Point of View

Tyler finds mason looking around the office. "You know where I can find some family artifact stuff? heirlooms?"

"What you blow through your trust fund already?"

Mason laughs, "I did that when I was 22. No. It's one of my moms. My dad gave it to her when they got married. It was passed down to your dad probably still in the house somewhere."

"What's it look like?" Tyler asked?

"Old,dusty, oval, very limited monetary value."

Tyler threw up his hands. "Hey, no judgement. Just ask my mom."

Mason looks hesitant. "Yea. I think I will. You ready?" Tyler nods. And they head off to the carnival.

_

Damon

Stefan comes up beside me. "Ah, your lurking."

I answer him keeping my eyes on Tyler Lockwood. "I'm observing."

Stefan cracks back, "more like obsessing."

"He's got strength," I say seeing him win another arm wrestling match.

Stefan defends him, "he's a triple variety athlete. Of course he has strength. You're reaching."

We then see mason lockwood, "enter the uncle." We see him beat Tyler easily.

"Alright. He's the champ." Tyler says. "Who wants to go next?"

I decided to make a move. "Stefan wants a go." Stefan looks at me like he wanted to kill me.

"Sure. I'll give it a shot." He says making his way toward the table.

"Go stef. Get em stef!" I cheer for him like a good big brother. After a stalemate Stefan loses. He walks back over to me.

"You didn't put in any effort at all."

Stefan looks at me seriously for the first time tonight, "actually I did." I decide it's time for a more in depth investigation.

"Come with me." I say and turn around. I walk around and find a kid alone working on something.

I turn to Stefan, "is he?" I ask trailing off.

Stef shakes his head. "No it wasn't that kind of strength but, it was more than human if that makes sense."

"What is up with that family?"

Stefan gets an understanding look in his eye, "werewolves?"

"You have no comedic timing." I say to him before turning back to the kid alone. Stefan stops me, "what are you doing."

I answered, "since this is reality and there's no such thing as werewolves or combat turtles…." I trail off and begin compelling the kid.

"I want you to get into a fight with Tyler lockwood."

Stefan speaks behind me, "damon this isn't a good idea."

"Shush. This is an experiment." I say before focusing back on my target.

"I want you to get him mad. But don't back down no matter what he does okay?"

"I won't back down," he answers me.

"I know you won't." I see him walk off.

Stefan comes beside me. "You know someone is going to get hurt right?"

"No someone is going to get mad. Like rage." I say to him.

"Why? What's that going to accomplish?" Stefan asked me.

"That Tyler kid is incapable of walking away from a fight. Let's see who intervenes. Maybe it's the ambiguously supernatural mystery uncle." I say before walking away.

-

After I get to an empty hallway I see Caroline. "Oh hey blondie. They let you out?" I joke and begin to walk away.

"I remember," she says down the hall.

I stop, "what do you remember?" I ask.

"I remember how you manipulated me. Pushed me around. Abused me. Erased ny memories. Fed on me." She says.

"You're crazy." I say.

"The memories have been coming back. In pieces."

I answer her and begin to walk towards her. "You can't remember. It's impossible. Unless you were becoming a…"

"I have a message from Katherine," she said. Now she has my full attention. "She said game on." The blonde says before turning around to leave.

"Wait—" I try to stop her but I get pushed back and fly down the hallway.

"You suck," caroline says before leaving.

_

Zach

I've been slowly making my way around the carnival all day staying away from the mystic falls crew. I come out of the school to see it's nighttime which means the shit is about to hit the fan.

I begin making my way around until I hear groaning and flames.

I speed over to the source of the noise and see the scene where Elena is stopping Bonnie from Killing Damon.

"This can't be us Bonnie. This can't be us." She says finally pulling her from the trance like state she entered when trying to Kill the vampire.

Bonnie falls into Elena's arms and they make their way back inside.

I walk up to the downed vampire, "that one has a temper." I say trying to joke.

He chuckles. "Yea. You're right about that." He breathed out. "What are you doing here?"

"I was invited by Caroline. But from what I hear it's been a rather rough day for her. Think I'll keep my distance for now."

He sits up. "Probably a good idea."

I begin walking away but he calls after me, "it's going to end badly for her you know?"

I shrug my shoulders, "probably. But your brother will try. He sees himself in her. Someone who didn't know exactly what was happening until it was too late." I say and keep my pace towards the Forbes house.

'Glad I missed this episode.' I think while walking home.

Tomorrow is another day. Another chance to get more familiar with myself and those around me.

I lay back In my bed and begin humming a tune from my last life until I drift off to sleep.

_

Damon

Looking at Elena's little brother sitting in my house I speak, "I'm sorry. I'm not good at the whole big brother stuff. Sorry I don't have any milk and cookies to give you."

He jumps up from his seat and begins leaving. "Dick."

I sigh. "Wait."

Jeremy stops and turns around to face me while crossing his arms. I decide to speak the truth to him. It probably won't help but who knows.

"My father hated vampires too." Little Gilbert looks shocked. "He did?"

I nod. "Yeah. Only it was 1864. People knew how to wittle. Did you do this?"

He looks embarrassed, "Yeah. It's a little harder than it looks."

I smile.

_

Authors Note: hey guys. Getting this out as soon as I wake up. Hope you enjoy.

Gonna be at least 1 more chapter today. See you later.