𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙍𝙏𝙔
ミ★ ( lion and the lamb, act two ) ★彡

It was a surprise to absolutely no one that Hazel Gilbert did not sleep a wink the night before. Her sleep was interrupted by constant tossing and turning in between the nightmares of Katherine and Caroline attacking her among the reoccurring dream of fire down at Steven's Quarry. As the days go on, the images only get clearer and clearer, and the same feeling of pain only becomes stronger. It tells Hazel that whatever these dreams are, are getting closer and could occur any day now. Hazel wants to chalk it up to fear manifesting into something as she knows her family has no supernatural link (besides her and Elena being doppelgängers) and no Gilberts were known for being witches or seers. But, Hazel refuses to ignore them—and she also refuses to be anywhere near the Quarry, especially at night time. It has to mean something that she's been constantly dreaming this for months now.

      She's so caught up in it she has no energy to follow Elena to the Duke University campus to find out more on werewolves—apparently, Damon and Stefan believe the Lockwood family are keeping a much darker secret of their own; that being that their family lineage is of the werewolf nature. They apparently saw Mason Lockwood possess incredible strength that matched Stefan's and he managed to tear a compelled Carter off of Tyler, with his eyes glowing yellow at the carnival. Damon wanted to test Mason further and compelled Carter to pick a fight with Tyler to see what he would do. This was before Carter was killed by Caroline.

     Hazel believes it's ridiculous—she was practically at that family's house every day for nearly two years and she thinks she would've noticed if they were werewolves. She's even more uninterested when she found out that the only lead comes from Isobel—Alaric's not-so-dead ex-wife that's an evil vampire that tried to kill Jeremy. Hazel wants nothing to do with her and she wouldn't trust a word that comes from her mouth... or paper; even if she was once an academic on folklore and parapsychology. Hazel guesses she became a little too invested in her degree that she became what she was studying.

However, she also can't ignore that Caroline needs her help despite her spiralling about her nightmares. She's a newly transitioned vampire and Hazel refuses to watch her end up like Vicki Donovan. It was unlucky for Vicki, because she didn't have a best friend that was a witch that could assist at the time. She, Bonnie and Stefan were sat at a booth at the Grill, talking about the best way to handle the situation and Stefan had requested if she knew how to make a daylight ring as it was the first step.

Bonnie shrugs, "I don't know how to make a day-walking ring." She says it quietly because she's come to know about the Council that is filled with members of the community. She doesn't want any of them to find out about her involvement with the supernatural, because she doesn't want a repeat of the Salem Witch Trials again for herself, nor does she want her friends hurt because of history repeating itself.

Stefan fiddles with his Lapis Lazuli ring that was branded with the silver S on it, "Emily made mine, she made Damon's, too—instructions must be in the grimoire."

"That doesn't mean I can cast the spell." Bonnie shakes her head. Hazel can't tell if she's being doubtful about her abilities or if she's being avoidant of doing it all together.

"Bonnie, you know how to drop vampires with a single look, okay?" Hazel reminds her with a supportive smile, "You're a badass witch, I know you can do this."

"Caroline killed someone, Hazel." Bonnie retorts back, looking into her eyes. It wasn't just anyone that she had killed either, it was someone that she knew, "I can't make it easier for her to do it again."

Hazel looks at her strangely. Why was Bonnie abandoning Caroline when she needed her friends the most? She didn't understand, "It's not like she wanted to kill Carter, Bonnie. She didn't know what she was doing or what was happening to her. Katherine killed her after you made Damon feed her vampire blood—she didn't even know she was a vampire!" Hazel reminds her a bit more firmly, "And we're not making it easier for her; we're just giving her the chance to survive."

Stefan exhales, realising it was time to intervene, "Listen, every day that she's cut off from her old life—from you, from Hazel, from Elena, from Matt, it'll make it that much harder for her to hold on to her humanity."

Hazel can only nod her head in agreement with Stefan's analysis. She wants to do everything possible to get Caroline the best step forward with her new predicament. She wants to show Damon wrong—that Caroline won't be a liability. She could be great. She just needs her friends—her humanity. Bonnie turns to Stefan, "And how do you know she won't hurt anyone else?"

"I don't, but, if we don't do everything we can to help her or at least trust the fact that she can keep it together, we might as well just stake her right now." Stefan responds.

"Which is not an option, by the way." Hazel intervenes pointedly. She's not letting anyone hurt Caroline.

"I don't know if I can trust her, not with this." Bonnie shakes her head hesitantly.

"Then trust me." Hazel insists.

Bonnie, Caroline, Hazel and Stefan are in Caroline's darkened bedroom. The curtains were all closed but there was still a small amount of light peeking through that gave the room luminosity. Caroline was sat furthest away from it as even that could still burn her skin. Bonnie had eventually agreed to help Caroline acquire a daylight ring. Prior to her arrival, Hazel and Stefan were trying to catch the blonde up to everything she had been in the dark about: such as Katherine being Stefan's very alive ex-girlfriend from the 1800's and looked exactly like Hazel and Elena, but they had no idea why.

It only made Caroline look at Stefan with a disapproving glance because she recalled how distraught Hazel was when she had told her about the photo incident; it made the situation make so much more sense. Hazel wasn't upset that they had similar features and that he had kept a photo of her, it was because Katherine was Hazel. Hazel did feel guilty to have kept it from her, but she understood that she was trying to protect her from this life, especially when they had told her that her mom was a vampire hunter and was part of the Council.

Bonnie has Emily's grimoire in her hands while Caroline has the ring in hers, inspecting the small piece of silver and royal blue jewellery. She raises an eyebrow, "So, I don't get to choose the ring I have to wear the rest of my life?"

Hazel smiles sympathetically from beside Stefan, "Sorry, it was the nicest one we could find on short notice." Caroline smiles back at her appreciatively.

"Hey, if you don't want it..." Bonnie trails and Caroline holds the ring closer to her protectively.

"No, no, she wants it." Stefan insists from a chair beside the window, his arms crossed comfortably over his chest.

Caroline looks at Bonnie, "Now what?"

"Now is the part where I explain the rules." Bonnie states, "The witch who spells the ring has the power to de-spell it so if you ever do anything to hurt anyone..."

"Bonnie!" Hazel says disapprovingly. They're all treating Caroline like she was the enemy—like she was a monster who wanted to hurt people. It was as if Bonnie completely disregarded how distraught Caroline was that she hurt someone. It wasn't like Caroline wanted to be a vampire, it was forced upon her by Katherine.

"I'm not gonna hurt anyone." Caroline interjects.

"You're a vampire." Bonnie reminds her, "That means the urge to kill is a part of who you are. The minute you let it take over, I will stop you." Bonnie responds firmly, taking a step towards her.

Hurt splashes across Caroline's face that makes Hazel's heart pang. Bonnie doesn't trust her and doesn't believe in her to not hurt someone. Caroline shakes her head lightly, "Bonnie, you're supposed to be my friend."

"I can't ignore what happened, okay?" Bonnie argues.

"Bonnie, we talked about this." Hazel says protectively, "You're placing the blame on the wrong person. This is Katherine's fault. Not Caroline's. Give her a break."

Bonnie sighs in annoyance, but Hazel isn't backing down. This wasn't Caroline's fault at all. She turns to the blonde, "If you want to be friends, you have to prove that the Caroline I remember isn't gone. Now, put the ring on the bed." She orders.

Caroline looks at her with a sad frown but after a moment, complies and puts the ring on the bed. Bonnie walks back to the window, "Do you really think I meant to kill that guy at the carnival?"

"He's still dead." Bonnie dismisses as she looks up from her grimoire, and Hazel pokes the inside of her cheek with her tongue in annoyance at Bonnie's attitude, crossing her arms over her chest to hold it in rather than snap, "Now, do you want me to cast the spell or not?"

Caroline nods and Bonnie opens the curtain by a little bit. Caroline brings her knees closer to her, and further away from the sun that shone brightly on the ring. Bonnie looks at the ring and closes her eyes a moment, mouthing a few words and finally opens them, "All done."

She gives the ring to Caroline. She takes the ring and puts it on her finger. Caroline's eyebrow raises, "So, that's it?" She asks and Bonnie gives her a look of offence, "I mean nothing witchy happened. You know, no flickering lights, no gust of wind." She's going off the experience from when they did the seance, but she assumes it's all the same, "Have you even done this before?"

"Caroline..." Stefan warns.

"What? I just want to make sure that it worked!" Caroline defends.

Suddenly, Bonnie opens the curtain fully, the sunlight pouring into the room and Caroline flinches away with a squeal, expecting to feel the burning feeling that occurred whenever she touched sunlight after she died, "It worked." Bonnie states and Caroline gasps in disbelief.

"What if it hadn't, Bonnie?!" Caroline exclaims in terror.

Bonnie only looks at Stefan and Hazel, "She's all yours." She whispers, taking the grimoire before leaving.

Now that Caroline had obtained a daylight ring and had successfully fed (she was going on the bunny diet, and Stefan had helped her), it was time to help her assimilate back in with her normal life. It wouldn't be as normal as it once was, but if she was going to survive, change was needed. The next step was to try and pretend that nothing had happened to her and she was still the same old Caroline that they all knew and loved. It was time to get her back to normal with Matt, and he was unfortunately down by the swimming hole on the Lockwood property for a party that Tyler was throwing.

Everyone from school was there, and it wasn't helping Hazel's anxiety. The dreams ramping up only made her fear of water worse. She had decided to leave the bikini at home because there was no way in hell that she was going anywhere near the water. Her grip on Stefan's hand was tight and he was trying to soothe her anxiety by rubbing his thumb on her hand to distract her. Noticing her anxiety, and surprisingly hearing her heart beating so rapidly, Caroline turns to Hazel, "We don't have to be here if you're not comfortable." The only reason they were there was to help her get back to normal with Matt.

Hazel shakes her head in refusal, "No, I'm okay." She lies, but Caroline picks up on the way her heart skipped a beat from the lie and raises an eyebrow. Hazel rolls her eyes, "Lying to you is going to be so much harder now."

Caroline giggles and shakes her head as she continued to get their stuff out from the trunk, "Like you ever could before, anyway." They see a pickup truck arrive to the party and Tyler approaching it, only to see an unfamiliar man in the driver's seat. After a few moments, Hazel finally recognised him; she had never met him before but she did remember seeing old photos of him from around the Lockwood house, "Who is that?"

"That's Tyler's uncle." Hazel realises with wide eyes. She remembered situations at the house when Richard was constantly reaching out to his brother to come home and see the family, but Mason always no-showed events or refused to come. It was a strained relationship, that much she knew.

After they finished speaking, Mason put the car in drive and leaves, passing next to Stefan, Hazel and Caroline. Both men never took their eyes off of each other beside the one glance he made at Hazel. Once he was out of site, Caroline turned to Stefan, "Why are you looking at him with your serious vampire look?"

"My what?" Stefan blinked, "My serious vampire look?"

The newly transitioned vampire hummed and nodded that he had heard correctly, "I mean it's different from your worried vampire look; neither of which stray too far from your 'hey-it's-Tuesday' look." She joked as she closed the trunk and Hazel couldn't help but snort, appreciating the conversation to distract herself other than the fact that she was standing just a few feet away from a body of water she could easily drown in.

Stefan laughed, putting his head down to laugh at himself, "I get it, okay. You think I'm... you think I'm too serious. Is that it?"

Hazel shakes her head, putting her hand on his chest to assure him, "You're not."

Caroline grins cheekily, "I mean I was not gonna say it like that, but..." Caroline's smile drops as she spots something behind the couple, "Are you freaking kidding me?"

"What?" Hazel turns around to see what she was looking at, "What is it?"

"Aimee freaking Bradley." Caroline simply answers as she walks away from them and storms up to Matt and Aimee.

     Both Hazel and Stefan turn to follow Caroline, watching as she approaches her boyfriend and the girl that had decided it was a good time to flirt with him. Hazel can only cringe. Aimee wasn't in Caroline's good books, even before this, but now, there was no coming back for her. After a few moments and a few words from Caroline's confrontation, Aimee stands up straighter and walks away as if she was in a trance—like she was compelled to leave.

     "Did she just..." Hazel can't find the words.

      "Yep. She sure did." Stefan confirms. Caroline had just successfully compelled Aimee to leave, and do God-knows what else.

They watch Matt scowl in disgust and disappointment towards Caroline before he left her standing there on her own, letting the couple know that what Caroline had compelled her to do was not the greatest. They walk over to her, "Hey, I saw that." Stefan says disapprovingly, crossing his arms, "You compelled her."

"Yeah, she deserved it." Caroline remarked with a scowl, her eyes narrowed onto Matt and making sure that Aimee wasn't around him.

The Salvatore male doesn't look impressed, "Caroline, nobody deserves to have their mind messed with for... shallow reasons."

Caroline's head snaps towards him with annoyance and her foot slightly stomps the ground petulantly, "You know, why is everyone sticking up for Aimee freaking Bradley?"

Stefan looked down to Hazel for help, but she only shrugs, "Hey, I wouldn't be too happy if I saw someone trying to flirt with you the first chance they got, knowing we're together."

Her boyfriend sighed, realising that he wasn't getting help from her, shaking his head and turning back to Caroline, "You're letting the jealousy get the best of you."

Caroline huffed bitterly, "Oh, so, now I have magnified jealousy issues, too. That's great."

Stefan tried to offer a supportive smile, "I told you this wasn't gonna be easy."

"Yeah, well, I might as well have stayed dead." The blonde mumbled, "My entire personality is killing me."

He smiles at her joke but Hazel shakes her head, "Sorry, but I would never let that happen. You're stuck with me."

Caroline smiles appreciatively that Hazel cares; not that she ever doubted it, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

     It was night time. The full moon was shining brightly in the sky, leaving just enough light for people to see where they were going as everyone was leaving the swimming hole since Tyler had asked them to. He stated that the party was going to be redirected to his house since his mom was out of town on business that evening, and Hazel couldn't help but feel thankful that was the case; she couldn't wait to get far away from the swimming hole. Matt was standing alone and Caroline couldn't take her eyes off him. She sighs, slumping her shoulders, "He's mad at me."

      "Go talk to him." Hazel suggests to her best friend with an empathetic look on her face. She can see how anxious Caroline is for not being on good terms with her boyfriend. Hazel's hand links with Stefan's, "We'll wait for you." Caroline sends them a grateful smile and heads toward Matt, a different approach than her last attempt—she's regretful about their fight and doesn't want to continue it. Hazel feels her phone vibrate in her back pocket and she reaches for it, seeing that Elena was calling her. She answers it with a relieved smile to hear from her, "Hey. How's Duke?"

      "Hi." Elena says back, but it isn't in the same tone of voice. She's concerned, "Listen—we've learned some stuff here and I know it's gonna sound crazy but I wanted to fill you guys in."

     Hazel's eyebrows pinched together and she puts the phone on speaker, even though she knew Stefan could hear, "We're listening. What's up?"

     "So, we found Isobel's research and there wasn't any record of werewolves in Mystic Falls, but there was a record of another legend—the sun and the moon curse." She says.

      Hazel's face turns up at her, "What the hell is that?"

      "It dates back to the Aztecs. Legend was that the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires that terrorised the countryside, making farming and hunting impossible until an Aztec shaman placed a curse on them." Elena explained and Hazel couldn't help but make a face to hear that this dated back to the Aztecs, "It made vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants to the moon—so vampires could only prowl at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. Whoever is unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf."

     "Can they control the transformation?" Stefan asks.

     "No. If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse." Elena exhaled, "Werewolves will attack humans on instinct but centuries of rivalry have hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice—vampires." She says and Hazel's eyes widened as she looked up at Stefan with worry. As much as she didn't believe the Lockwoods were werewolves, she would be a fool not to listen to the warning if he was. Even more so since they had seen Mason at the party and he had stared Stefan down. That made her worry.

     "But, I haven't come across a werewolf in my existence." Stefan looks confused. He doesn't believe it.

     "That's because there might not be that many werewolves left alive for you to encounter." Elena argues almost, "Apparently, hundreds of years ago, vampires hunted them to almost extinction to protect themselves." Hazel lets out a small sigh of relief because that means they were less likely to encounter them, but she knows there's still a risk, "I don't know what that means exactly or if we should even believe it, but it's a full moon, Stefan. After what you saw Mason Lockwood do..."

      "I'll be careful." Stefan confirms.

      "There's one more thing."

      "What is it?"

      "According to the legend, a werewolf bite can kill a vampire." She says and Hazel's eyes widened as far as they could, her head snapping around to look for Caroline or Matt, and even after looking everywhere, she couldn't find them.

      Stefan, doing the same, also cannot see or hear either of them. He turns back to the phone, "Listen, we gotta go. We'll talk to you later, okay?" Elena lets out a reply before hanging up.

      Hazel quickly dials Caroline's number, but she doesn't answer. Stefan hears her phone ring and they walk over towards Matt's truck. Her phone had been left in the back in her purse. Hazel's heart quickens because now there was no way to reach her and warn her, "I don't know where she could be right now." She says shakily.

Stefan turns to the woods before looking back to Hazel and placing his hands on her shoulders, "I'm gonna go find them. But, I need you to go wait in the car for me." He orders and she begins to shake her head in refusal, opening her mouth to reject his idea and say she was going to come with him but he interjects, "If it's a full moon and there's a werewolf out there, I can't protect you and them. Go to the car and don't come out until we come back. If I'm not back in five minutes, you start that thing and get home as fast as you can."

      "But—"

      "Please don't argue with me." Stefan begs, "Every second we waste arguing about this, Caroline could be in danger, okay?" He says and Hazel blinks. He's right. She's wasting their time arguing with him to put herself in danger. He wouldn't be able to focus on Caroline and Matt if she was there.

      "Okay." She reluctantly agrees, before licking her lips, "Just... please come back to me—all of you." She says, and he nods, leaning forward to kiss her.

      "I will."

     Hazel turns to go towards the car and she gets inside, locking the doors as if they would protect her while Stefan ran into the woods. She doubted a werewolf would try and pry open the car door to get her, but it was a small amount of comfort that she appreciated.

     Now, all she could do was wait.

     It was a while until Stefan came back with Caroline and Matt. Caroline had blood on her mouth and Matt had a wound on his neck, indicating that she had lost control momentarily while they were in the woods. Stefan had explained that they had indeed ran into the werewolf in the woods—the werewolf being Mason Lockwood. It had almost attacked them all until Tyler intervened and scared him away.

     Hazel was watching Caroline compel Matt to forget what he had seen while tucked into Stefan's side sadly, knowing she would take this moment to the grave with her from Bonnie—with the way she's been lately, she might act out on Caroline for giving in to her instincts. She didn't think the night would turn out the way it did, but she is glad to know there were precautions they would need to take while Mason Lockwood was in town. She had people that would be affected by this, like Stefan and Caroline. She wouldn't be able to handle it if she lost any of them, "You're not going to remember what I did to you or what you saw me become."

      "We were just making out in the woods." Matt responds in a trance.

       "And then an animal attacked you and bit your neck."

      "It's weird; it just came out of nowhere."

     Caroline gives him a look of guilt that she had to convince him of this, remembering what it felt like to have her mind compelled constantly, but she understood that this was to protect him. She then turns to rejoin Stefan and Hazel, "What are we gonna do about Tyler?"

      Hazel turns up to look at him, "I took care of it." Stefan tells her, letting them know that he had compelled him to forget about it, "And I will get Matt on vervain, it'll keep you from being able to compel him and also to keep you from drinking his blood."

     Caroline shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest anxiously, looking over at Matt, who was patting the blood on his neck dry with a cloth, "I can't believe I hurt him."

      "I know." Was all Stefan could respond.

      "He is one of the people on this entire planet that I never wanted to hurt." She continues, momentarily looking towards Hazel's direction. Hazel can only send her a sympathetic glance in return. She has so much trust in Caroline that she would get a hold on this. She trusts Caroline with her life just as much as Stefan.

       "It's not going to get any easier." Stefan advises her, "You're just gonna have to work that much harder."

       Caroline looks back towards Matt, and bites her lip anxiously, "I shouldn't be with him, should I?" She whispers, "Because if there is any danger..."

       Stefan huffs in response and rubs the back of his neck, "I'm the last person to make that kind of decision for you. If I had followed my own advice, I would walked away from Hazel a long time ago." He says, reaching for Hazel's hand to hold. She smiles back up to him.

        "We don't need to think about that. Let's just get home, okay?" Hazel suggests and they nod at her. A long sleep is very much needed.