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ENDGAME
CHAPTER FOUR, CAR WASH DISCOVERIES

Declan woke up when he heard a plate fall from Lilah's room. He turned to look at the clock on his bedside table, running a hand down his face when he saw it was 3.54 in the morning. He got up and walked to Lilah's room.

The girl was crying in her sleep, clearly having a nightmare. Lilah opened her eyes and looked around to see her bedroom was empty, it didn't have her parents bodies or the body bags or the police officers and coroner. Instead it had Declan standing in her doorway, concern etched on his face as he got closer to her. "What happened?" he asked, sitting on her bed.

"Had another nightmare about mom and dad again. Nothing new," she shuffled, turning around to face the other way. "You can go back to your room now. I'm fine."

"He's not going to get to you again," Declan swore. "I'm back now."

"You're back too late, Dec. You being back doesn't change what happened now go back to sleep. I'm fine."

The man sighed, finding it pointless arguing with her again and with one last look at his sister he walked back to his room but neither Quinn's went back to sleep that morning.

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Lilah had avoided speaking to Declan in three days because she knew all he'd want to speak about was her nightmares and they were back and worse than before. "You can't avoid him forever you know, Li," Bonnie told the girl.

"I can and I will, it won't be long until he disappears again. He never stays in one place for too long even if he promises he'll stay," she shrugged. "Besides, all he'll want to talk about is my nightmares and I don't want to talk to him or anyone about them. They're back and there's nothing I can do about it."

"As much as I love you, you can't keep hiding out here or at Elena's because he knows they're the only two places you'll stay," Caroline's voice trailed from the other room.

Lilah sighed, knowing the blonde was right. "Well what do I do then?" she asked, picking at the skin around her nails.

"Speak to him and make the most of your big brother being here while he is," Bonnie suggested.

"Bon's right, you and I both know Dec will do a disappearing act sooner or later and then you'll hate yourself for not speaking to him. You did last time," Caroline pointed out, sitting at her vanity, looking at them through her mirror.

Lilah sighed, she knew Caroline was right, she hated herself for arguing with Declan before he left last time and she didn't know if he was where he was or if he was even still alive. "You're right. You both are," she mumbled, loud enough for them to hear her. "Anyway, what do you remember about the Founder's Party?"

"I remember the party. Damon came up behind me and he was kissing my neck, or biting my neck. I passed out. It's like there's holes in my memory lately. It's just weird. Maybe I let him bite me," Caroline told them.

"But why would you let him bite you?" Lilah asked, confusion evident on her face and in her tone.

"Can we just not talk about it, okay?" she asked, looking down. "I just don't wanna talk about Damon. I don't wanna talk about any of it. Just want to go back to normal."

"You and I both," Lilah agreed.

"What are you doing with the candle?" Lilah asked Bonnie, watching as she was looking at the candle very intensely.

The teen looked between them both before putting it on the side, "Nothing."

"What's this?" she asked, holding up a necklace.

"Damon gave it to me or he was going to give it to me. All I know is it's mine now," Caroline replied, standing next to Bonnie.

"It's ugly," Bonnie commented and Lilah hummed in agreement.

Caroline snatched the necklace from Bonnie's grasp, "Well, then get your grubby hands off it."

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Lilah noticed Stefan standing with Elena in the hallway as she made her way past Caroline, ignoring the girl's complaints about her being ignorant. "Can I talk to you?" she asked, looking right at Stefan. "Alone." She clarified, ignoring Elena's questioning look.

"Yeah," he looked at the brunette and they walked further away from both Caroline and Elena. "What's up?"

"Where's Damon?" she asked him.

"He's not coming back if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm not worried for me. I'm worried for Care, he's abusing her and compelling her to forget and she knows he's compelling her but can't figure it out why there's so many holes in her memory," she whispered harshly.

"Lilah, he's not coming back. I'll make sure of it," he promised her.

"If he hurts her again, I will bite him," she told him, her eyes not leaving him. "And that's not a threat, it's a promise." The vampire nodded, he hadn't known her for long but he knew by the icy glare she was sending him, she was serious.

"This is a good thing Care," Lilah placed her hand on the blonde's shoulder in a comforting manner.

"I know that," she replied.

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"If you want dropping at the school, you're going to have to hurry," Declan told his sister, passing her the glass of soda she wanted.

"I'm going to take my bike so I can leave whenever I want and I don't have to wait," she smiled.

"Are you sure? I'll drop you if you want," Declan told her.

"I'm sure," she nodded, taking her jacket from her wardrobe and putting it on.

A car wash in shorts and a bikini top was the last place Lilah wanted to be but she promised Caroline she'd be there so there she was parking her motorbike and putting her helmet on the handlebars, silently chuckling at Caroline's impatience.

"No friend discounts, freebies. No pay ya laters," Caroline stressed to Lilah and Elena. "We are not running a charity here."

"No, we are not," Elena told her blonde friend, Lilah nodded, looking down at her feet in amusement.

"Hi," Stefan walked behind the two girls, Lilah sending the boy a small wave.

"The event is called 'Sexy Suds', you know," Caroline eyed Stefan and Elena before she walked away.

"Did we just get scolded?" Stefan asked.

"And judged, yeah."

"Wow."

"I'm sorry, but I guess you're going to have to take that off," Elena said.

"I think you have to go first," Stefan smiled down at her.

"I think I'm going to vomit," Lilah cringed, walking away to find Bonnie. The brunette found her friend and Matt, drying a car.

"Uh-uh. No," Bonnie told the blonde boy. "None of that tortured pining stuff."

"I'm just observing," Matt told her.

"Do you usually burn holes into the heads of people you're observing?" Lilah asked, playfully smiling at the boy.

"Oh. Tiki this one is yours," Bonnie pointed to the red car that was beat down and that had just pulled up.

"Why do I always get the homely ones?" Tiki asked before she looked at the owner of the car. "Just to be clear, your car's a p.o.s. I mean we can still wash it, but it's still a p.o.s."

"You don't have to be so rude," Bonnie told her.

"Rude is uglying up the road with that junk."

Lilah watched as Bonnie glared at Tiki as she stuck the water hose into the bucket just before it exploded in her face.

"Whoa!" Matt rushed to take the hose from the girl and bent it so the water would stop before he handed her the towel he had over his shoulder.

"What the hell?" Tiki asked in shock.

"Wet and wild, Tik," Matt grinned.

Lilah grabbed Bonnie's arm, "What did you just do?"

"I don't know," she replied, quietly.

"Just be careful," Lilah told her.

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A while had passed before Lilah had noticed Caroline's absence. "Have either of you seen Care?" she asked Elena and Stefan, mainly focusing on Stefan.

"No, she abandoned me," Elena shook her head.

"That's weird," she muttered, eyebrows furrowing. "If you see her can you let me know please?" The two of them nodded as she made her way back over to Bonnie.

Lilah and Bonnie leaned against a black car, talking about Declan and how Lilah still hadn't spoken to him properly about her nightmares.

"Sweeper duty," Tiki interrupted the Quinn girl mid-sentence, broom in hand, looking at Bonnie.

"What?"

"We have to clean the pavement," Tiki clarified.

"It's a car wash? The pavements clean," The Quinn girl spoke, confused.

"It's not dry."

"The sun will do that," she spoke, pushing the broom away from Bonnie.

"And I'm doing this, why?" Bonnie asked.

"Caroline bailed so that leaves me in charge."

"Fabulous," Bonnie scoffed, taking the broom from Tiki's hand.

Bonnie kept her focus on the pavement in front of them while Lilah kept her focus on her friend. Before she knew it, smoke started coming from the puddle of water before the towel caught on fire and then Tiki's car. "Shit," Lilah muttered, walking in front of Bonnie, calling her name.

"Bonnie! Bonnie! Bonnie! Hey!" Stefan rushed over, grabbing the teen by the shoulders. As soon as Stefan turned the girl to face him and Lilah.

"What just happened?" Bonnie asked the both of them.

"You were in some kind of a trance," Stefan told her, glancing at Lilah.

"Did I do this?" Bonnie whispered, taking a look at the car that was smoking.

"I think so, yeah," Both Stefan and Lilah nodded.

"Nobody else saw, did they?" She asked. "Don't tell anybody. Please."

Bonnie then walked off and Lilah looked at Stefan. "How many times has that happened to you?" Stefan asked.

"Twice with a candle in my parents room. Once before they died and and once after," she muttered. "I can control my magic the same way I can control when I turn if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm not worried. I don't know that well but I know you can control it."

Lilah nodded, making her way over to her bike so she could go home. She figured Caroline had gone home but there was an uneasy feeling in her stomach as she rode home.

🌕

"Dec?" Lilah called out, locking the door. "Great," she muttered, reading the note that he had something to take care of. "By myself again."

She let out a sigh, taking her phone from her back pocket and ringing the last person she would ever speak to.

"Hello?" Stefan's voice filled her ear, a weird sense of ease filling her.

"Are you busy?"

"No, why?"

"My brother's left, your brother is back and hates me. Do you think you could come over?" she asked, the vulnerability evident in her voice.

"Sure."

Before she knew it, Stefan was knocking on her door and she smiled as she let him in and locked the door once again.

"I still have nightmares about him. I can see his face, I can see my mom's lifeless eyes staring at me and I remember the way I staked my dad instead of him," she broke the silence, knowing he was wondering why she rang him instead of Caroline, Bonnie or Elena. "They stopped, well they didn't, they just weren't everyday. Not until recently when-"

"When Damon came back?"

"Yep," she nodded.

"I promise you he won't hurt you again. I'm sorry he did what he did," he apologised, placing a hand on her shoulder in a comforting way.

"It's not your fault he did what he did. It's my dad's. He took it too far again and dragged everyone down with him," she shrugged. "Are you staying over? You can stay in Dec's room, he won't be needing it."

"Where did he go?"

"No idea, he just disappears and comes back whenever he feels like it," she shrugged. "There's spares in the bathroom for whenever."

"Thanks," Stefan smiled at her, earning a smile back as the girl showed him Declan's room before entering her own and not sleeping out of fear of her nightmares.