ACT ONE; INITIATE CONTACT
SCENE SIX; BENEATH THE MOON
─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────

SALEM STARTLES WHEN A POUNDING KNOCK ECHOES FROM HER FRONT DOOR. Cursing under her breath, she drops the wet paintbrush in her hand into the cup of water set beneath her easel, pulling the cloth cover over the canvas. "Who is it?!"

"Salem, it's me! Open the damn door."

She hurries over to the door, grimacing at the remnants of the blue paint that immediately stain her doorknob as she twists it open. "Damon? What the hell do you want?"

"Remember that miracle you were talking about? Well, I think I might have one."

Salem raises a brow but steps out of her doorway, muttering an invitation for him. "Explain, please?"

"I just talked to Katherine next door," Damon steps a few feet into her apartment before turning to face her again. "Klaus has Caroline and Tyler sitting in the tomb for the ritual."

Salem's eyes widen and she looks at him in disbelief. "But Tyler was fine, Alaric said he saw him at the hospital earlier with Caroline."

"He must've grabbed them right after Ric left." Damon runs a hand through his hair, sighing frustratedly. "They're in the tomb, and I need you to come with me to get Caroline."

"What about Tyler? We can't just leave him."

"Klaus needs both for the ritual." Damon shrugs. "If I take Caroline, he won't have a vampire."

Salem shoves his shoulder with a scolding glare. "We can get both of them, if this works out." She turns and grabs her shoes from the rack by the door, and grabs a jacket she'd thrown on the couch. "Come on, the sun's already starting to set."

─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────

"What is this tomb for anyways?" Salem's feet snap branches and dead leaves as she follows Damon deeper into the woods into this mysterious tomb she's never heard anything about until today.

"Back in 1864, they gathered up a bunch of vampires in a church and tried to kill them, but there was a tomb underneath the church so they hid out there. Emily Bennett sealed them inside the tomb to keep them safe, but she died, and they got stuck in there. They all desiccated and were practically dead."

Salem furrows her eyebrows. "They couldn't get out of the tomb?"

"No," He shakes his head with a sigh. "The spell is gone now, but if you were a vampire you couldn't leave once you were in."

"That's–"

"Convenient?"

"Frightening." She corrects him, her lips pursed in concern. "I'm not a fan of small spaces."

He snorts a humorless laugh, giving her a smirk as they come to a stop in the ruins of the tomb. "Big bad hybrid scared of small spaces. Everyone's got a thing, I guess, huh?"

Salem scoffs, giving him a mocking smile. "Oh, alright, asshole– remind me again, we're out here because you're afraid to–" Salem cuts herself off, feeling the pulse of magic from behind them.

"Which one are you trying to save? The blonde, or the wolf?"

Salem and Damon both spin around to face the approaching man, and Salem looks him up and down warily, eyeing the way he's got his hand ready to twitch at any given moment in their direction.

The witch gives them both an incredulous look. "Did you really think Klaus would leave them unprotected?"

Damon shrugs. "Wishful thinking." He rushes towards the witch and tackles him to the ground, but the witch thrusts a hand out and sends Damon flying backwards into the concrete ruins, and keeps him on the ground with a continuous aneurysm.

Salem clenches her jaw and swipes a hand out in the man's direction. His head twists in a sickening direction and Damon's yells of pain drown out the crack of his neck as he falls to the ground.

Salem drops her hand back down and offers Damon a helping hand off the ground.

"Ms. Kenner?"

She tenses and turns around, facing the familiar boy. "Matt?"

Damon stands behind her, eyeing Matt and the gun in his hand confusedly. "What are you doing here?"

"Where's Caroline?" The teenager steps towards them, tightening his grip on his gun.

"Listen, man, not a good time to play the hero,"

"Where is she? And what did he do to her?" Matt cocks the gun and aims it at Damon, right past Salem's head. Her eyes widen and she holds her hands up in slow surrender, seeing the grief-stricken look in the boy's eyes.

"Matt, hey, look at me." Salem gestures to herself, getting the attention off of Damon. "We're here to save her."

She feels the breeze of Damon's quick movements from behind her, and she lets out a startled yelp when Damon appears in front of Matt and rips the gun from his hands, slamming the butt of it into his temple. Matt falls unconscious to the forest floor and Salem groans.

"Oh, what the hell, Damon?"

Damon shrugs, popping the bullet from the chamber. "He's lucky he's not dead."

"So brain damage is better?" She huffs. "I really didn't think there would be this much of a hold up breaking people out of an old tomb."

Damon ignores her as he kneels down to the ground, grabbing the bullet he'd just dumped onto the ground from Matt's gun.

"What? What is it?"

He holds the bullets in her direction. "They're wooden bullets."

"And?"

Damon sighs frustratedly, and stands upright again. "That means he knows about vampires," He stalks past her, taking the steps down into the tomb. "Come on."

She follows after with him an annoyed mutter. "Am I missing something? Did Matt not know that his girlfriend was a vampire?"

"No, he didn't know about any of it. Caroline compelled him to forget when he found out, but he must've been on vervain or something. Wildly inconvenient."

Salem doesn't say anything, just stares at Damon's back as he leads them through the tomb, and asks herself why she has seemingly surrounded herself with idiots that are going to get her killed.

─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────

It takes them nearly ten minutes to walk through the tomb, and Salem is silently curious about the fact that this tomb has existed beneath Mystic Falls since the 1800s with almost no one knowing about it, or at least no one caring about it. Despite her curiosity, there's still a pit of anxiety trickling through her stomach as the knowledge of the sun continuing to set lingers in her mind. She can feel the itch of the moon already starting low in her spine, and she does her best to not let her nerves show as they come to an opening at the end of one of the makeshift hallways inside the tomb.

"Damon?"

Salem perks up when she hears Caroline's voice, relief flooding through her like a tide.

"Your boyfriend's outside with a rifle loaded with wooden bullets." Damon ignores her greeting, instead bending down to break the chains keeping her trapped. "You have some explaining to do."

Tyler's eyes dart from the two vampires to the familiar face heading his way, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Ms. Kenner?"

She gives him a wry smile and rips the chains out of the wall, helping him untangle his hands from them. "I have some explaining to do, too. But right now, we need to get you guys out of here."

Tyler gives her a short nod before he recalls Damon's words. "Matt knows about you?"

Caroline shakes her head as Damon helps her up. "No, I–"

"Not a problem right now," Salem shakes her head. "The moon is rising, and Tyler needs to get out of here as fast as possible."

Damon nods as they rush out of the tomb, glancing at Tyler over his shoulder. "How fast can you get away from here?"

"I need to get to my family's cellar. I can lock myself up."

"I can help." Caroline immediately offers, earning a refusal from Salem and Damon.

Salem shakes her head. "If he bites you, you'll die. I can handle Tyler, I'm a werewolf, too."

Caroline furrows her eyebrows stubbornly. "I can help, though,"

The woman sighs through clenched teeth and nods in surrender, knowing they would only waste time arguing. "Only if you run when I tell you to." Caroline gives a silent nod in confirmation, and the conversation ends right as they breach the tomb and hurry up the steps.

Caroline rushes towards Matt, who's just now regaining consciousness with a pained groan. "Hey, Matt," She notices the pain etched on his face and glares over her shoulder at Damon. "Did you hit him?"

"Did you already forget the part about the gun with the wooden bullets?"

Tyler gasps and his eyes shoot up in a panic at the sight of the pale, full moon above him. "It's starting,"

Salem looks between him and at the three others lingering a few feet away worriedly.

Damon groans. "Grab boy wonder and let's go."

Salem holds Tyler up as they hurry through the woods, her eyes darting between Tyler and the glaring moon. The teen lets out a groan and glances at his teacher. "Why isn't it affecting you?"

"I can control it better, I've had practice,"

"Is he gonna be okay?" Matt looked at his friend worriedly, earning an eye roll from Damon.

"He better not wolf out on us," He grabs his cell phone as it rings, and frowns as he answers it. "Bad time, little bro."

Damon furrows his brows at whatever Stefan says on the other line. "Saving the day. I figured you'd understand. Just tell Elena to stay put."

He stops suddenly, eyes going wide. "What?"

Salem looks at Damon worriedly as fear floods his face. He gives her a muttered, "I'll tell you in a minute," and finishes his phone call with Stefan, pocketing his phone forcefully.

Salem turns to Damon, but as soon she turns, Tyler falls to his knees, groaning in pain.

"Tyler!"

Salem stops Matt from approaching him, sending him and Caroline warning glances to stay back.

The cracks of Tyler's bones echo amongst the group, and Salem's hands tremble worriedly. She could easily incapacitate Tyler if he got too out of control, but she can't remember the last time she was around a shifted wolf. She doesn't even know if she ever has been to begin with.

Tyler falls as his hands start to shatter and heal, breaking over and over. He looks up at them, shaking his head. "I don't know if I can hold it off. Just get out of here."

"You've got time. We're almost there, just–"

"It's happening faster,"

He snaps up, eyes flashing yellow at Caroline. Anticipating his movements, Damon shoves Salem and Caroline away, and tackles Tyler a few feet away from them.

Salem rushes over and grabs him right as the sound of flesh breaking hits her ears. She flings Tyler off of Damon, sending him flying backwards. She helps Damon up, her eyes dropping to the torn fabric of his jacket and the blood bubbling beneath it.

He shakes his head silently at her and she lets out a small, disappointed sigh. Turning away, she hurries over to Matt and Caroline, taking their arms in her hands. "We need to get to the Lockwood cellar,"

Damon nods in agreement. "If it held him in, it'll keep him out." He sighs, pulling the wooden bullets out of his pocket. "If it doesn't, use these. It'll buy you a couple seconds."

"Come on," Salem pushes them away, giving a silent nod to Damon, who disappears in a blur. "We need to go. Now!"

"Come on, down here," Caroline leads them into the cellar, and they file in right as a growl sounds from behind them.

Matt throws a scared look over his shoulder, then looks at Caroline. "Is that gonna hold?"

She shakes her head and locks it behind them. "No."

They head further into the cellar, and Salem shuts the door behind them, her eyes wide with worry as she looks out into the darkness.

"Help me with the gate,"

Salem pushes them into the fenced off cellar and wraps the chains around the rattling door as Caroline holds it shut. Her knuckles turn white with force as she traps them in the cellar, and Tyler's growing growls echo through the cellar.

The doors they'd gone through burst into shards and the wolf skids to a stop in front of them, his lip curling in a snarl. Salem shakes her hair out of her face and pulls the chain taught, keeping a deathly tight grip on it as Matt raises his gun in Tyler's direction.

"Tyler?" Caroline says his name on a shaky exhale. "It's me. It's Caroline."

Salem shakes her head at the teenage girl. "He's not going to recognize you, all he sees is a vampire. A threat."

The wolf lunges at the gate and Caroline and Matt jump backwards, stumbling into one another. Salem flinches, and her eyes flash yellow at the werewolf.

"Caroline, the door's not going to hold!" Salem yells over the loud growls, throwing the two a panicked look as they rattle with Tyler's brute force.

Matt raises his gun, and Caroline lets out a frightened yelp. "Tyler, please!"

The wolf snarls, forcing his way through the weakening bars, and Matt pulls the trigger. The wolf yelps in pain and startles backwards, the wooden bullet lodged in his abdomen.

"Matt, no! Hey, no, it's Tyler!"

"It's trying to kill us!"

Salem lets go of the chains, and pulls Caroline away from Matt. "He's hurt. He's not getting back up." She lets out a sigh. "Caroline, take Matt to Tyler's house. He'll follow your scent back there and shift back. The moon is already starting to pass."

Caroline gives her a wary look and Salem grabs the tightened chains, snapping them with little force. "Go, now. Tyler's going to be fine, he'll heal."

She reluctantly nods and offers her hand to Matt, who hesitates for only a moment before he takes her hand and the two disappear in a blur of blonde.

Salem kneels beside Tyler, and throws him a sympathetic glance. "I know you don't have any control. But they're your friends, they'll never hate you." The wolf whines and her eyes soften with pity. Her fingers trail along the thick, black fur lining him and she stops when she gets to the bullet wound.

"This is going to hurt,"

Her fingers dig into the wound and the wolf yelps in pain, a slight snarl curling at his mouth. She grimaces, but her fingers clench around the piercing bullet and she pulls it out with a quiet grunt. Salem tosses the bullet away and wipes her hand off on her paint-stained jeans. "Go home. Your friends are waiting for you."

Salem waits for him to disappear before she leaves the tomb, putting distance between her and the volatile wolf as the ripple of the full moon runs across her skin, making her break out in shivers.

She tilts her head up towards the sky and sees the moon, and silently relents the fact that she knows she's not going to shift tonight.

─────⋅☾ ☽⋅───── 

author's note; 1k double update!! thank u guys smmmm 

edited and published; 2.10.23.

- liz