Part 12- Close call

I come home from the great night that I just had just to find Tyler rand Mason at ti again.

"You think this is a joke! If you know where it is then tell me!" I heard as I closed the front door and put my purse down to take off my shoes and start to make my way up the stairs.

"Then tell me how the curse it triggered." Those words made me stop.

"If I tell you, you won't be able to think about anything else and I don't want that for you." Mason replied

"I think I can handle knowing." Tyler replied calm but with a little bit of an attitude

"Yeah, you think you can handle it tough guy?" Mason asks

"You want your stupid rock or not?" Tyler blows up and Mason pushes him against the wall and pins him.

"Tell me where it is!" Mason yelled

"Woah! Let's calm down!" I say as I ran into the room to help my brother

"Tell me what triggers the curse!"

"You have to kill somebody!" My jaw dropped and Tyler looked just as shocked

" You take another person's life away from them and the curse is yours forever."

"Omg." I say

"Can you handle that?" Mason says to Tyler. Then both of them finally acknowledge me.

"Ok, what is going on!" I say having sort of an idea but my mind is scrambled from the bomb that Mason just laid on us.

"Wait the guy died?" Tyler aksed

"You killed him?" I followed up. Mason was telling us the story about how he triggered his curse. Apparently, he was at a bar with a guy and the guy started a fight with him over the guys girlfriend.

"He kept coming at me, got into his head that I was sleeping with his girlfriend."

"Were you?" Tyler asked

"No! No, I wouldn't do that. He was my friend" Mason said like it was obvious "He was drunk and attack, it was self defense."

"And it triggered the curse." I said understanding

"On every full moon I lose control, If I don't sedated myself and chain myself down I'll kill anything in my path." I don't want to end up like that, I don't know what I'll do if I hurt someone never mind someone I care about.

"You guys have to be careful, all it takes is an accident. A car wreck, any death at your hands and you'll have a lifetime of this." Tyler looked kind of scared.

"You don't want this guys, trust me." Tyler puts his head down.

"Alright where's the moonstone. A deal's a deal." Mason said. Tyler made this deal with Mason. Mason tells us his story of hoe he triggered the curse and answers any questions we have and he gets the moonstone.

"I answered your questions."

"Um, I'm not sure but I'm guessing it's in here." Tyler says. But... he just had it like yesterday.

"Our dad, he was very kooky with his hiding spots but we figured most of them out over the years." Tyler walks over to the cubby in the floor and opens the safe.

"It's all yours." Tyler says as Mason looks through the safe for the stone

"You gonna tell us what's so important about this rock or what?" I said looking at them and laying on the couch

"I told y'all, it's just something I want. Sentimental value." Mason says and keeps looking

"Yeah....I'm not really buying that.' I said

"Why do you really want it?" Tyler asked

"Do y'all know where it is or not?" Mason asks getting fed up

"No, I figured it would be in here man."

-Jeremy's POV-

"Can't believe the Lockwood's are werewolves" I say to Elena as she washes her hands in our shared bathroom

"We're not sure about that yet." She says looking at me in the mirror. "The only thing we know for sure is that Mason Lockwood is."

"It should be easy enough for us to figure out." I said

"There is no us." She replied." I said that I wouldn't keep things from you anymore, that doesn't mean that I want you involved in it."

"By definition of being in this family, I'm involved." I said as it was common sense showing off my Gilbert ring

"This is dangerous Jeremy, you have to stay out of it. Ok?"

"Alright. Just saying." And with that I walk out of the bathroom with my book bag and Elena walks back into her room

-Maya's POV-

We are now at the Historical Society's Volunteer Day. Mom's now the Mayor since dad died so she runs all the town events and since she's our mom Ty and I have to be there.

I'm helping Mason unload the truck when Stefan walks up.

"Stefan, right?" Mason asks turning to look at Stefan and stopping the unloading process while I keep going. "The other Salvatore." Mason finishes.

"The nice one." Stefan replies back with a smile. "The one offering an apology."

"Not interested." Mason follows up and I elbow him in the back. HE turns to look at me and I smile. "ow" He says and Stefan looks behind Mason.

"Hi, Maya"

"Hey Stef." I say taking a few boxes and walking them over to where they're suppose to be. But I can still hear Mason and Stefan's conversation

"Look, my brother acted impulsively."

"You think?" Mason said with an attitude

"If you and Damon keep at each other's throats, somebody innocent is going to get hurt. And I don't want that. You have family here, so I can't imagine you'd want that either. So wha do you say we just uh, quit the whole alpha male fighting thing and just call it a truce?" Stefan tried to make amends on behalf of Damon

"I made that same offer to your brother. He turned it down. With a knife." Mason replied. Im already walking back and I hear that.

"I'm sorry, what?" I said looking at them and I get ignored

"He made a mistake, and I'm here to make sure that neither one of you make another one."

"Tell your brother to watch his back." Mason said as he picked ups. box and started to walk away but Stefan caught him by his arm.

"Well I'm guessing that he only has to worry about that during the full moon. Otherwise your not as strong. Am I right? Or you would have killed Damon by now. There's one of you and two of us. I think your the one that needs to watch his back" Stefan says and I now walk up behind Stefan

"Watch yourself, Stef." I said with my arms crossed and Stefan glances behind him and Stefan lets go of Mason's arm

"If he comes at me..." Mason said and Stefan quickly interrupted

"He won't" Stefan said and they shook on it. Mason then walks away with the box.

I grab Stefan's arm and turn him around, "Don't ever threaten my uncle or anyone in my family again. You hear me?" I said

"Loud and clear." He said and I grabbed another box and walked away. After I dropped off the box I decided to go to the Grill and meet my brother. Jeremy was there too and I kept catching him glance at me and my brother. Does he know?

There were these 2 girls playing pool next to where Ty and I were sitting and they started talking

"When did Jeremy Gilbert get so cute?" Girl 1 asked

Girl 2 turned around, "Oh no, Stay away. That guy's damaged goods." I heard them say making my blood start to boil and I glared at them.

"Hey guys, how you've been?" I hear and Jeremy walks up to us

"Hey Jere." I said

"Since when?" Ty asked and I elbowed him in his side. He looked at me and mouthed 'what?' I mouthed back 'be nice.'

"I don't know, haven't seen you much since your father's funeral I just figured that--"

"Im fine, Gilbert." Tyler says as he finally picks his head up from the book but he answers with bit of an attitude

"Yeah. Ok." Jeremy replied, said by to me and grabbed his stuff

"Wait. Hold up." Ty said "Im sorry." He said as Jeremy turned back around and started walking towards us again. "Listen, you were cool that day, at the wake. Thanks for that, felt like kins a freak show." And I nodded agreeing

"Yeah, well. I know that feeling well. What are you guys doing here?"

"Distracting myself" Tyler said

"Same." I replied and the 2 girls walked up to our table and went to talk to my brother bumping into me on the way around.

"Hey, watch where you're going." I said angry

They ignored me, "Hey thanks for the text, where to?" Girl 2 said to my brother glancing at Jeremy. I think her name was Amy or something like that.

"My place." Tyler answered and I looked at him like he was crazy. "My mom's gone all day. Empty house. Fully stocked bar."

"Margaritas?" They asked

"Sure"Ty answered

"You guys in?" Tyler asked looking at me and Jere. I went to decline but Jeremy had already agreed before I could do so.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm in." He said and they all turned to look at me

"Sure, why not." I said

"Let's do it." The Amy girl said. We all got up and walked away.

We go to the house and Ty turns some music on and the other 2 girls start dancing. The other girl toys to get Jeremy's attention. I just sway to the beat a little next to Jeremy watching the girl that is until Jeremy puts his drink down and starts to dance with me.

"Getting a little bold I see." I said with a smirk

"Maybe." He replied with that smirk I hate but love so much

The Amy girl walks over to Tyler "Hey where's mine." She says referring to the drink

"Have at it." Ty says and shows her the options

" Thanks for having us over." Amy says to Tyler

"I think Sarah's got a thing for Jeremy." No duh. That's her name?

"Well, good for Sarah but... I don't know if she knows this Jeremy's kinds got a girlfriend."

"Um hey look, I'm really embarrassed about being all on you that day at the swimming hole. I'm really not like that I promise you."

"No need to apologize" Ty tells her

"Friends?"

"Yeah. Sure." and they clink their glasses together rand drink

Jeremy tells a joke and Sarah starts laughing but not normally like the 'I'm trying to impress a boy laugh' you know what I mean? She turns and sees Jeremy's sketch book in his bag and grabs it.

"Can I see?" She asks

"Uh, no, no. No way." Jeremy says and his smile drops as he goes to grab the book back.

"I wanna see." Amy says

"Yeah, let's see. What's Van Gough got going on" Tyler says

"Guys he said no, drop it." I said coming over and putting my hand on Jeremy's arm getting his attention. "You don't have to." I say

" Ok, um yeah. I guess it's fine. Here check it out." Jeremy says and I smile at him as Sarah takes the book

she opens it and immediately says, "ooh-scary-demon-wolf-thing." and the girls laugh. Mine and Tyler's faces drop. He knows. Jeremy looks at us and Tyler and I just avoid eye contact. But then Tyler looks back at Jere and Jeremy looks away back to the book.

"What's this about." Tyler asks acting confused as he grabs the book.

"Just some sketches. You still draw Tyler?" Jere asked

" A little. But not much." Tyler replied still flipping through the sketch book that only had sketches of werewolves. "You know, I've got something that I'm actually working on. Come on, I'll so you."

"Yeah. Ok. Sure." Jeremy didn't sound sure though

"I mean, it's nothing special." Tyler says as he and Jeremy walk away and I stay with the 2 girls.

"You need a drink." Amy said to Sarah

Everything was fine, I could hear Tyler and Jeremy talking in the other room and it was all calm that was until I heard a thud and someone choking. I calmly got up to not have the girls follow me and went to check on the boys. I open the doors to the room and close them back quickly.

"What is going on here!" I yelled but not loud just loud enough to get their attention.

"What are those pictures about, huh?" Tyler asks Jeremy pinning Jeremy by his throat to the wall

"I can't- I can't breathe." Jeremy said and at that I tried to intervene but I wasn't strong enough. But out of no where I got this boost of strength and threw Tyler off of Jeremy.

"Answer me. Why?" Tyler said still trying to go after Jeremy but I held him back.

"Talk like civilized people!" I tried but it didn't work

"Why wolf pictures!" Tyler asked again

"Because.." Jeremy said "Because I know." Tyler backed off and I was shocked.

"You know what?" Tyler asked "You know what, Jeremy?!" Tyler asked again hitting Jeremy's arm while Jeremy is still catching his breathe

That's when Jeremy finally looks at me but his face is emotionless. "I know what you and your sister are."

Jeremy started telling us everything that he knows. "How do you know all this." I asked

"my uncle John left this old diary laying around. It was written by a crazy Gilbert ancestor who wrote about this curse that ran in your family"

"A curse about what?" Tyler asked acting stupid

Jeremy looked him dead in the eye and said, "Werewolves. It's crazy right? But then, Matt was attacked, by a wolf under the full moon and your uncle had just gotten back to town. It was just--It was too weird.... Is it true?" He directs the question at Tyler

"About our uncle?" Tyler thinks if he wants to even tell Jeremy. "Yeah"

"But you-- you're not?"

"A wolf?...I-I'm sorry a werewolf?" I say with a bit of an attitude "No, I mean, not yet. Neither is Ty." I pinch the bridge of my nose. "You know? Hell, just--just saying that out loud I sound insane"

Jeremy then places a his hand on mine. "No I don't think so. But then again, I did always believe in the crazy stuff" I smile as a 'thank you' for the comfort he tried to provide

"According to our uncle, you have to trigger the curse, somebody has to die at your hands." Tyler tried to explain

"Like murder, or an accident." I finish. "We basically have to cause death and then, boom, next full moon we're howling on all fours."

"Is that why he came back to tell you guys all this?"

"Yeah right, he had to tell us" I said

"I caught him. He's not here for us." Tyler said then went to pull something out of his pocket. "He's here for this." Tyler now has the moonstone in his hand and Jeremy looked confused.

"What is it?" Jeremy asked

"Its a moonstone" I answered

"I looked it up online, its a natural rock, but they're suppose to have all sorts of supernatural legends attached to them." Tyler then clarifies

"Why didn't you give it to him?" Jeremy asked

"'Cause he wants it" I giggled and Tyler shrugged

"We're jerks that way." We have a little laugh. "it's important to him for some reason but I don't trust the guy. so, I'm not just gonna hand it to him." Jeremy frowns in approval.

Then the other girls walk ins the door, I honestly forgot they were here. "Found you." Sarah said to Jeremy

"Hey, you guys are missing all the drinking." Amy said as I now hear the music in the background

"Oh, um, sorry were you 3 having a moment?" Sarah asked

"No. We're good." Tyler answered for us

"Hey, what is that?" Amy asked as she snatched the stone from Jeremy's hands

"It's--Whoa. Hey."

"That's pretty." Sarah says

"mmh." Amy agrees

"ok. Let's not play with the rock." I said getting a little frustrated with them.

"Well, come and get it."

"Ok, I'll play around a little bit. But seriously, give, it, back." Amy opens her hand and she doesn't have it anymore

"Look here, snooze you lose." Sarah now has the stone

"Alright listen, I don't even like you so give me back my property and get out." They laugh and Sarah starts running around the house with the stone and Tyler and I chase her.

"You're lucky you're cute when you're drunk." Tyler says going to follow her up the stairs

"I want Jeremy to come get it." She says dreamily.

"Uh, no you don't." I said

"Says who."

"Sarah, don't be a bad drunk." Amy tells her

"Jeremy come upstairs with me."

"Tyler get her, or I will."

"Come on Sarah." He tries

"see how bad a drunk I can be." I try to go after her up the stairs but Tyler grabs me.

"Im good, thanks." Jeremy tells her.

"Come on give it." Tyler is trying to get the stone from her.

"Seriously Sarah this isn't funny." I say annoyed now.

"Alright, easy, easy there. Just let me-- let go." Tyler tries to get the stone back but she's being difficult. But then in a sp[lit second she's falling down the stairs screaming.

We all run to her, "Sarah!" "omg!"

"She fell!" Tyler says rushing down the stairs

"She's not moving! Omg!" Amy says like we can't see that. The Sarah moves her head to look at us.

"Fooled you." She said smiling. "You pushed me down the stairs." She said looking at Tyler offended

"Looks he didn't-- He didn't mean to okay?" I said as Jeremy helps me up. Then we help up Sarah. Even though she's annoying she did just fall down the stairs.

"You got her?" Jeremy asks Amy

"Yeah." and they go to the other room. Tyler, Jeremy and I all just sit there looking at each other because we all know if she would have died, then Tyler would trigger his curse.

Later in the night Mason got home and Tyler went to talk to him. I don't really know about what, but I wasn't that worried.

-Tyler's POV-

"Hey" said Mason after I walked up to him

"I almost killed a girl today." I said with no context

"What?" Mason actually looked like he cared

"It was an accident. I was being stupid. She's okay though" Mason took a breathe of relief "But there I was. You know, just fora moment. For a split second, I hoped she's die. Look, whatever this is inside me, I don't want any part of it. I don't ever wanna feel that way again. I won't. I can't." I refused to feel this way. I refuse to feel like I want to hurt someone for even a split second, cause what if that person was Maya. What if we got into a heated argument and I lost control. I wouldn't;t be able to live with myself.

"I know." Mason said, I looked down and gave him the moonstone. "Thank you."

"Yeah." I said and walked away back upstairs. Maya's room is just a the top of the stairs so I think she heard me coming up and she came out of her room.

"Hey, knuckles," I smiled at the old nickname she gave us as kids. I always use to fight a lot so she gave me that nickname.

"Yeah"

"Wanna have a movie night. You know, like we use to." She looked at me with those puppy eyes that a little sister gives and I couldn't say no to her.

"Sure, bunny." I smile as use her old nickname also. "Just give me a second to get some pjs." I get some pjs and go to the kitchen to get some snacks all of her favorites plus a few of mine then go back up to her room. We watch all kinds of movies she even forced me to watch some Disney movies but luckily it wasn't the all girly ones it was like Hercules and Tarzan plus we watched some marvel movies. She ended up falling asleep as usual so I tucked her in then made a makeshift bed on her floor. That's what we would always do as kids watch movies, eat snacks, then go have a sleep over. I think she did this because of the close call today. Maya isn't really the violent type unless constantly provoked then it's fair game like today.

I was just thinking about all that happened today and how in one second my whole life could have changed. I slowly fell drifted off into a peaceful sleep.