𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙀𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉
ミ★ ( lion and the lamb, act one ) ★彡

     Hazel Gilbert could not believe that she was going along with this stupid, idiotic plan that her sister and her ex-boyfriend had devised with the help of Bonnie's Grams. There were so many things that could go wrong just for Damon to get back his ex-girlfriend from 1864 that looks freakishly like her and Elena. She's still pissed at the both of them for hiding it from her and she can't help but wonder about the logistics of it all. What are they going to do when Damon does find Katherine, are they all supposed to act on like they suddenly had a triplet this whole time and didn't say anything? What if Katherine has a vengeance? Hazel sure would if she got screwed over the way she did—and from the way Stefan and Damon had spoken about Katherine, she doesn't exactly sound like the forgiving type.

      Everyone loves to hate her, and there is a reason for that, and she just cannot believe she's going along with the plan to bring her back to the land of the living; amongst everyone that they love and care about—people for her to manipulate and harm because she feels like it, all to get Damon out of town. If anything, she'd prefer Damon stay in town if that means Katherine stays far away.

     Hazel was down where the tomb was, rugged up in a thick coat and a scarf around her neck from how cold it was in the woods at night, blowing at her gloved hands and rubbing them together to warm them up while she watched Stefan dig at the tomb with Bonnie and Grams. Stefan eventually climbed up from the tomb with his shovel in hand, "Cleared the debris away. Set the torches like you asked. We can get down now." He informed Grams as he placed the shovel against a rock.

     Bonnie notices the cans of gasoline that were lying near by them and asks, "What is that?"

     "It's everything I need to destroy them." He answers Bonnie as he hands Grams a flashlight.

     Grams only looks him up and down. She doesn't trust him completely, but, she trusts him a hell of a lot more than she does Damon, "Are you sure that Damon will come back with her?"

     Stefan doesn't answer because he isn't so sure himself.

      Damon and Elena approach them and the older Salvatore brother whistles to grab their attention, and they all turn to look at him, "Brother. Witches. Hazel." He greets and Hazel offers him a small yet timid smile. Damon strides past them with the grimoire, Elena trudging along behind him as he descends the stairs into the tomb.

      Elena walks over to Stefan, "Everything okay?"

      "I just want to get this over with." Elena answers with a sigh before looking at them all expectantly, "Are we ready?"

       "I guess so." Bonnie says with a nod and they all descend into the tomb, causing Hazel's heartbeat to thump loudly against her ribcage at the thought of coming face to face with Katherine after all this time of wondering about her.

       Grams lights the torches at the entrance of the tomb while Bonnie stands next to her and Stefan, Hazel, Damon, and Elena watch from the entrance, "Air. Earth. Fire."

      "Water." Bonnie holds up a water bottle and Grams takes it, sprinkling the water on the floor.

      Elena raises an eyebrow, "That's it? Just water from the tap?"

      "As opposed to what?" Grams asks as she continues to sprinkle the water on the ground.

      Elena shrugs, "I just figured maybe it would have to be blessed, or mystical or something."

      Grams only smirks in amusement at Elena and Damon pulls out a blood bag to unravel it. Smelling the blood, Stefan shines his flashlight onto him, "What's that?"

      "It's for Katherine." Damon answers, "Gotta have something to get her going—unless one of your girl's are offering a vein to tap." He looks back at Elena, who looks at him, unamused. Stefan sighs and Damon whispers to him, "Admit it—you can't wait to get rid of me."

      Stefan chuckles at the challenge, "I can't wait to get rid of you." He admits truthfully and Damon smirks and hums.

      Bonnie kneels down beside Grams and looks up at them from the ground, "We're ready."

     The two witches then stand up and face each other, interlocking their hands and shutting their eyes before they started to recite the spell.

      "What are they saying?" Damon asks his brother.

      "Sounds Latin." Stefan replies.

      "I don't think it's Latin." Elena disagrees.

      "I think it is." Hazel disagrees, trying to remember what she could about her obsession with dead languages.

      After a few more seconds of reciting the spell, the torches flare up. Elena grabs onto Hazel's arm, "What's happening?" No one answers as the door to the tomb creaks open and Stefan shines his flashlight towards it.

     Grams and Bonnie stop chanting and look up, "It worked!" Bonnie whispers in disbelief that it worked.

     "Well, of course it worked." Grams replied.

     Damon turns to look at his brother, "Don't you have some fires to build?" He remarked.

     Stefan looks back at Hazel, gently touching her shoulder, and she subtly brushes it off. He frowns at the gesture but still says, "I'm gonna go get the gasoline, I'll be right back."

     Hazel and Elena nod and Stefan ascends the stairs out of the tomb. Damon looks from Bonnie and Grams to Hazel, "You ready?"

     Confusion spreads across both the twins' faces, wondering why he expected Hazel to do something, "What?"

      Damon turns to the Bennett witches, "You think I'm gonna go in there by myself so you can seal me in?" He questions them and grabs Hazel harshly.

      "Ow, Damon. Let go." She hisses in pain and tries to shove him off but he doesn't let go.

     "Don't take her in." Grams demands before threatening, "I'll bring the walls down."

      "You'll bring the walls down if I don't." Damon states, knowing how Bennett witches work, "You think I trust you?"

      "As much as I trust you." Grams replied stiffly.

      "Enough. Both of you." Elena interrupts with a sigh, "Look, he needs leverage. He needs to know that you're not going to shut the door when he gets inside. I get it." She licks her lips, knowing it's stupid but will do what she can to protect her sister since it was her plan, "I'll go."

      Damon shakes his head in refusal, "Nope. Sorry." He says and Elena blinks at him in shock while Hazel looks horrified at the thought of going into the tomb with him still, "Like I said before; fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm not taking that chance for you to trick me again, so, I'm taking Hazel as leverage; maybe then you and Stefan will work a little harder at not stabbing me in the back." He explains as he grabs the torch and pulls Hazel into the tomb.

      "Damon, no!" Elena shouts after them and goes to run in but Grams grabs her and stops her.

      Meanwhile, Stefan had run over to the gasoline and started to gather the cans up. Suddenly, Ben McKittrick approached him, "Dark down there?"

     Stefan looks up at him and when he sees Jeremy unconscious at his feet, he straightens up, "Thought I told you to leave."

      "I considered it." Ben replies with a shrug, "Then I thought: screw you."

      "Hey, hero." Stefan turns around and sees Anna, "I'm going down there to get my mother."

      Stefan walks towards her, "I can't let you do that."

      "Well, Ben's about to make a main course out of Elena and Hazel's little brother." Stefan turns around to see Ben holding up Jeremy's limp body with an excited smirk on his face at the premise of sinking his teeth into fresh blood, "So, you can stop me or him. Your choice."

      Anna then runs into the tomb with her vampire speed, leaving Stefan to contemplate what to choose.

      Damon and Hazel were down in the tomb, searching for Katherine, relying on Damon's lit up torch and her measly little flashlight for light from how dark it was down there as they followed deeper into the tunnels. Hazel flinches and gasps from fear when she hears whispers throughout the tomb, "What is that?!"

      "They can sense you." Damon says as he continues to walk into the tomb, "Now, where is she?" He says and walks away, leaving Hazel behind knowing she needs him to navigate the tomb from how dark and narrow it was.

      "Damon!" Hazel exclaims in fear, trying to find him with the torch but the light could only shine so far, "Don't leave me alone in here!"

      Anna descends the stairs into the tomb. Bonnie looks over at her, "Hey, you're not going in there!"

      Anna looks around, "You think you can stop me?" She retorts.

      "Bonnie..." Grams warns and Bonnie steps aside. Anna grabs a flashlight from the ground and runs into the tomb.

      Bonnie and Elena turns and looks at Grams with anger, "Why did you let her go in?" She snaps, "Hazel is still in there!"

      "Because she isn't coming out, baby." Grams admits and the girls eyes widened, "None of them are."

      Above the tomb, Stefan and Ben were in a tense conversation, "Do you really think that she cares about you? Hm?" He questions, "You're disposable."

      "I don't care." Ben replies with a smirk, "She already gave me what I want."

      "Are you going to say 'eternal life'?" He scoffs, "You really that stupid?"

      Ben scoffs back and moves closer to Stefan, "You know, I've heard about you. You don't feed. You're not strong enough to beat me." Ben rushes at Stefan and Stefan thrusts his arm, easily knocking Ben to the ground. Stefan picks up the hose connected to the gasoline can as Ben gets up and looks at him with a glare, "Is that all you got?"

      "No. I got this." He says and ignites the torch and sets Ben on fire.

      Ben screams and flails around, before finally falling to the ground, dead. Stefan then runs back down into the tomb and looks around when he notices a person missing, "Where's Hazel?"

     Elena swallows thickly, "Damon took her inside."

     "What!?" Stefan tells in worry. Hazel was inside the tomb with Damon, and a dozen other hungry vampires who haven't fed in over a century, in darkness and probably scared, and it's his fault. He should've never betrayed him because it wouldn't have driven him to be so cautious. He knows Hazel is the best leverage he can get.

       Stefan runs towards the entrance of the tomb but Grams grabs his arm to stop him, "Stefan! If you go in there, you won't come out."

Stefan turns to Grams in horror at the thought that Hazel was stuck in there and they were just standing there and not doing anything, "What did you do?"

"Opening the door didn't remove the seal, it just... opened the door." Grams informed him with a small shrug.

Stefan's eyebrows pulled together, "What's the seal?"

"Some seals keep vampires from entering. This one keeps them from... coming out." Grans elaborated.

Realisation dawned on Stefan's face, "Hazel's human. She can leave." He thinks out loud and Grams nodded her head to confirm his thinking, "Anna and Katherine can't—Damon can't. You were never planning on breaking the spell, were you?"

Grams' takes a few steps back towards Bonnie as she says, "I told you. I will protect my own. Hazel can get out. That's all that matters."

      Back in the tomb, Hazel was still searching for Damon, "Damon?" She whispers, "Damon!"

      Hazel continues to hear the whispering around her and her breath quickens as she continued to get more and more frightened. Startled, she falls but quickly gets back up. Her flashlight beam lands on one of the mummified vampires and she walks around the room, seeing more and more vampires. She gasps and in a panic, Hazel falls down next to one of the mummified vampires, her beam lands on him and she gasps in shock. The vampire's eyes open and are bloodshot with hunger.

      Hazel screams loudly and gets up, scrambling away and looking around for an exit. Her beam of light lands on Anna who is standing right behind her. Hazel lets out another gasp, "Oh, my God."

     Anna smirks and steps towards her, shining her own flashlight on the doppelgänger, "You must have a taste for it. You scream and shriek and even bother to escape, but, then you just come right back to it." With every step that Anna takes forward, Hazel takes one back away from her until she bumps into something. She shines her flashlight to see what she tripped over and Anna's eyes widened when she recognises her instantly, "Mother!" She gasps and runs over to her, kneeling down beside her and caressing her arm, "Mother." Anna then looks back towards Hazel with an enraged look in her eyes as she says, "Your boyfriend did this, you know."

      Hazel looks confused, "Stefan did this?" She asked. She had no idea this was even possible, let alone that Stefan was the reason they were all down there—surely he would've said something, and he would've known that Katherine was down here.

      Anna stands up and faces her, "Well, technically his father did—and Johnathan Gilbert." She corrects herself, "I made a choice a long time ago that it would be Gilbert blood that brought her back to life. I had Jeremy all ready to go, but..."

      Hazel's eyes widened in realisation as to where she was getting at. She was going to use Jeremy, but, there she was—a Gilbert—right in front of her and her mother, ready for the taking.

     Hazel lets out a gasp of fear and turns around to bolt from the room, but Anna runs in front of her using her vampire speed, grabs Hazel by the wrist, and bites down. Hazel can only let out an ear piercing scream as she feels Anna's fangs imbed into her wrist deeply.

      Anna removes her fangs and pushes Hazel down on the ground across Pearl's lap, and holds Hazel's wrist up to her mother's mouth while the human girl struggles, "No, please don't!" Hazel begs fearfully, but Pearl, smelling the blood, begins to drink anyway.

      "I'm gonna get you out." Anna says to her mother.

      Suddenly, Stefan runs in, "Let her go!" He demands as he grabs Anna and pushes her aside despite her protests. Stefan grabs Hazel and pulls her up, pushing her towards the exit, "Go. Go. I'm right behind you." He tells her and Hazel nods as she runs off, unaware that Stefan was blocking Anna from chasing her down again.

     When Hazel exits the tomb into the ante-chamber, she sees Bonnie and Grams looking through the grimoire, "Hazel." Guilt washes up on Elena's face, "Stefan—"

      "He's right behind me." Hazel says breathlessly because it seemed she had run for her life, which technically, she did. The Bennett witches and Elena look at the entrance of the tomb and Hazel turns around and sees Stefan standing in the doorway. Hazel approaches him with worry because she knows something is wrong, "Stefan, what did you do?"

      "It's gonna be okay. We'll fix it." Bonnie assures her.

      Hazel looks in between all their faces, "What is going on?"

     "I can't." Stefan states.

      Hazel turns to look at him again, "Can't what?"

      "The spell's still up. We can't get them out yet." Bonnie informs her.

      Horror floods her face and she turns to look at Stefan again, "You went in there not knowing if you could come back out?" She questions him and Stefan only looks down, giving her, her answer. She brings her hand to her mouth in shock, "Oh, my God."

       He looks almost ashamed as he says, "I heard you scream."

       "We can't leave him in there." Elena then points out to Stefan, referring to Damon, "We promised him. Both of us."

      Stefan nods, "I know."

      "Even if we're able to break through the seal, we won't be able to hold it for long." Grams warns him and Stefan goes back into the tomb to find Damon.

      Stefan finds his brother pretty quickly, and when he does, Damon is still searching the tomb for Katherine. Frustrated, he kicks the dirt on the floor, "She's not here." Stefan walks up to Damon to call out to him, "She's not here."

       Stefan doesn't understand, "What?"

       "She's not here!" Damon roars as he takes out the blood bag from his pocket and throws it at the wall, the blood splattering across it before he turns to look at Stefan with anguish.

       Meanwhile, Grams and Bonnie are reciting the spell to lift the seal as Elena and Hazel circle around them. The torches flare up and Elena looks towards the tomb, "I think it's working."

       Instead of either of the Salvatore brothers exiting, Anna exits the tomb with Pearl, who is still weak and Hazel stumbles back with fear, "I just wanted my mother back." Anna explains, as if it made up for everything she put them through, "Jeremy's fine. He's outside. I won't touch him."

      Hazel's eyes widened as she comprehends what she just said, that Jeremy was just a pawn all along, just like she always assumed—but, she was concerned that Jeremy was there.

       The two of them leave as the torches begin to falter, "Bonnie, keep going!" Grams yells at Bonnie before turning to Elena, "They better hurry."

       Elena goes towards the entrance, "Stefan, they can't hold it much longer!" She yells and suddenly the torches extinguish themselves and she can see that Bonnie looks faint and Sheila doesn't look much better. Elena makes the decision to run into the tomb.

       "Damon, we need to get out of here." Stefan informs his brother urgently.

      "It doesn't make sense. They locked her inside." Damon mumbles to himself.

      "If we don't leave now, we're not getting out."

Damon isn't heeding his warning, only lost in his own thoughts as he tries to piece together how they missed this major fact, "How could she not be in here?"

"It's not worth spending all of eternity down here." Stefan exclaims in a panic as he goes closer to Damon to place his hands on his brother's shoulders to shake him out of this daze, "She's not worth it!"

"No!" Damon yells as he angrily pushes Stefan away.

Elena suddenly rushes into the room, "Damon!" She calls out to him and he makes eye contact with her pleading eyes, "Please."

There's a moment between them before Damon nods and leaves the tomb with Elena and Stefan where Bonnie and Grams were still chanting the spell to keep the seal down with Hazel watching with worry when Bonnie stops for a moment, gasping for air and keeling over, "Oh, my God. I can't!"

Grams holds Bonnie up, "Yes, you can." They continue chanting. Damon exits the tomb first, followed by Elena, who embraces Hazel when she exits and the door to the tomb closes with the torches dying out around them.

Hazel looks around, expecting to see another replica of her and Elena in a dated dress but her eyebrows crease together when she sees that there isn't anyone else with them and Damon looked completely miserable, "Where is she?" She whispers to Elena as she pulls away from the hug.

Elena only shakes her head in response, giving Hazel everything she needed to know—that they did all of that for nothing. Katherine either wasn't there, or she was dead.

And she isn't sure what option was scarier.

      Hazel went with Bonnie and Grams back to Sheila's residence after they had made sure that Jeremy had gotten back home safely. He was okay, and thankfully had no memory of anything that had happened with Anna or Ben, but it broke Hazel's heart to see how confused Jeremy was. He thinks that he had relapsed and woken up in the middle of the woods, and that his sisters had to save him again.

      Hazel watched as Grams walked unsteadily to her room with a concerned face. She knew she was getting old, but she's never been unable to walk. Bonnie gently grabs her arms to guide her, "Hey, let me help you."

       "Oh, I'm fine." Grams insists, "You don't need to coddle me, baby."

      "It was a big spell, Grams. I could tell it took a lot out of you." Bonnie says with concern.

       "I'll be fine." Grams insists again as she continues to walk unsteadily towards her bed while Bonnie and Hazel look on with worry.

       "Why don't I go make us some tea?" Hazel offers kindly, "It'll help you sleep."

Grams nodded as she sits down onto the bed, "That would be lovely, thank you, Hazel." She says and Hazel nods as she goes back downstairs to the kitchen with Bonnie following her.

     "I hope she's okay." Bonnie whispers as she enters the kitchen, "She's not usually like this."

      "Like you said; it was a big spell, it must've taken a lot out of her." Hazel replies sympathetically as she starts to make the tea for them all. Once she turns on the kettle to boil some hot water, she walks over to the kitchen island and places her hands on it, "I'm sorry you had to get involved in that. You shouldn't have had to."

      Bonnie smiles at her appreciatively. She knows she was against the idea because she didn't want this situation to evolve into something bigger like it had, especially if it put her loved ones in danger. Just as Bonnie is about to say something back, Elena walks through the door on the phone to Stefan, to which Bonnie sends the older Gilbert twin a strange look, wondering why Elena was so close with Stefan despite what he did to her, but says nothing.

      Hazel doesn't pay it any mind. She doesn't want to know and she only continues making tea, humming to along to a tune that was playing in her head before handing the cup to Bonnie to take upstairs to Grams.

      "Thanks." Bonnie whispers as she takes it from her friend and goes upstairs, leaving the twins alone.

There's an uncomfortable silence that fills the room in Bonnie's absence as if Bonnie was being used as a buffer to replace the tension that was present between Elena and Hazel. Hazel only continues to ignore it as she cleans up the mess she made in the kitchen, leaving Elena to fiddle with her hands uncomfortably, waiting for the opportunity to say something.

"What was done tonight was stupid." Hazel speaks first. She keeps her voice calm and steady while she cleans, not looking at Elena as if she's a parent scolding her child in a calm rage, "It should have never happened. A million things could've gone wrong."

"I know." Elena hangs her head in shame. It was her idea, she pushed to let Damon try and find Katherine.

"How long?" Hazel asks as she suddenly faces Elena, who only looks at her in confusion, "How long were you and Stefan cooking up this plan?"

       Hazel spots the guilty look on Elena's face instantly. It's the only look she's ever been able to give her for a while now and she's sure that it might be permanent soon if she doesn't let it up, "Since the night that Bonnie was possessed by Emily." She admits and Hazel's eyes widened because it had been weeks since then and she had no idea that any of this was happening. It feels like a slap in the face that she can't even trust her own sister to tell her anything.

      "Elena..." Hazel sighs and shakes her head, "I don't get it. We tell each other everything. Why would you lie to me?"

      The guilty face returns and before Elena can say anything in return, they hear shouting coming from upstairs, "Grams! Grams, wake up! Grams! Grams! Guys, help!" Their eyes widen and they run upstairs to find Bonnie sitting beside Grams on the bed, shaking her to try and wake her up. They're bewildered by the sight and Bonnie has frantic tears streaming down her face, "Help! Wake up! She's not breathing! She's just not breathing! Please, wake up!"

      "Oh, my God! Call 911!" Hazel tells her sister and runs to Bonnie's side to pull her away from Grams while Elena runs out of the room and grabs the phone, dialing 911.

      "Yes, I need an ambulance. 2 Oak Street. It's an emergency, quick." Elena says quickly while Bonnie pulls away from Grams.

      Bonnie grabs the grimoire and flips through the pages, trying to find a spell to bring her Grams back. Hazel walks back into the room and gently grabs Bonnie's shoulders, "Bonnie..."

      Bonnie moves away from Hazel's touch as she flips through the pages, "No! No! I can fix it! Grams, I can fix this!" She sobbed.

       Elena pulls the grimoire away from her rather forcefully to get her to stop while Hazel wraps her arms around Bonnie, letting her sob while she tries to comfort her, and all Hazel could think about, was how she knew this whole thing was going to end so badly, and she was right—and she hates that.