𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
im stuck between a rock and someone i want to hit with it

ECHO SAT ON a chair, waiting for Caroline and Bonnie to come out of the changing rooms to show her their dresses. The only reason she was there was because Caroline needed her best friend there to help, and to get her mind off of humanity-less Elena. And Jack was with her because he had nothing else to do.

"You guys look great," Echo complimented with a smile towards the blonde.

"What kind of dreams?" Caroline suddenly asked Bonnie curiously. 

"Usually I'm at his grave and all of a sudden, he appears to me," the witch explained gravely.

Caroline was inspecting herself in a three-way mirror as she said, "Well, you never got to say goodbye, Bon. You're grieving, that's normal." 

"When I woke up, the couch was on fire," Bonnie added sheepishly and the other three paused and turned to her with raised brows.

"Oh," the blonde mumbled with wide eyes and turned to face Bonnie. 

"I don't know if it's because I was emotional in my dream, or if Shane was right. Without his help, I'll lose control of my magic," Bonnie mumbled sadly and looked down at her feet. 

Caroline shook her head with a pointed look. "No, it's because you need a night off from mourning. And I'm gonna make sure that you have it."

Jack started twiddling his thumbs as he looked at them. "You both look really pretty"

"You think?" Caroline questioned genuinely and checked herself out in the mirror again. 

Bonnie nodded quickly and smirked. "Oh yeah." 

"Yeah." The blonde smiled over at her in agreement. 

"You look really hot." Echo smirked over at her best friend, and wiggled her brows up and down.

"Matt and I are gonna have the sexiest date there," Bonnie pointed out and the two giggled with each other. 

"You know what, I love friend-prom," Caroline said cheerfully with a grin. "And it's exactly what prom should be — friends and memories." She then frowned and smoothed down the dress with her hands. "Yes, it sucks that my boyfriend can't be here, but we're gonna have the night of our lives."

"Who are you taking, Jack?" Bonnie asked as they all turned to look at the boy.

His eyes grew wide and he looked around with a deep blush on his cheeks. "I was going to ask—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door jingled as someone entered the shop. Caroline looked up and her smile faltered as Elena and Rebekah entered the store.

Echo stood up quickly and placed Jack behind her. She loved Elena, no matter if she had her humanity off, but it was Rebekah she didn't trust.

"Hey, Bonnie. Heard you got your mind wiped — that sucks," Elena insensitively remarked before looking at the Forbes. "Pretty dress, Caroline." 

"I know." Caroline forced a smile on her face. "You helped me pick it out months ago when we were friends — before you tried to kill me."

"I thought it looked familiar," Elena mused looking at it up and down. 

Caroline walked over to the store clerk. "Can you press this for me? I'll pick it up later." She then turned to the witch and shot her a hinting look. "Bonnie?" They both went back to the fitting room while Elena watched them with a sly look on her face. 

Echo turned to Elena with a cautious expression, and went to open her mouth, ready to say something when the older twin simply walked away.

LATER ON, ECHO was getting ready for Prom, even though she really didn't want to go. Every dance they go to ended up bad. But, seeing as her friends and Jack was excited, she couldn't not go.

She was staring at herself in the mirror in Damon's bathroom, face full of makeup. There was a simple glittery silver eye shadow with black eyeliner. She had mascara on that made her eyelashes seem fuller and longer, and her lipstick was the colour of pomegranate seeds. Her long black hair ran down her back in thick curls.

Smiling widely at herself, she walked over to the bed which had her dress laid out on it. It was a bright pink color with a shimmer at the bottom, strapless, and had a slit up the right leg. Her high heels were three inches tall, and sparkly.

Taking in a deep breath, she examined herself in the long mirror on the wall. She tilted her head and realized that she was kissing something. Reaching over at a small bowl on their dresser, she pulled out a silver anti-possession necklace. Of course, it wasn't natural to wear something so satanic looking to a dance, but she didn't care.

Once she took a look at herself, her eyes began watering when she recalled where she got it from.

Jo had handmade her the necklace days before she died. They had stayed up all night, drinking and laughing when Jo decided she didn't like Echo's plain looking necklace. And even though Echo has an anti-possession tattoo, she wanted to make something special for her. So when Echo left to go help her father and uncle with a hunt, Jo made the necklace, and carved their initials into it.

Ever since Jo died, Echo always wore it. And she thought she had lost it when she arrived in Mystic Falls. But, she found it one day in her room after Dean and Sam left. It was a shock, and she was scared that she would lose it, so she kept it safe in Damon's room. She was more than glad that she did seeing as Elena burned down their house.

Steeling herself from going down memory lane, Echo smiled and made her way downstairs.

Damon immediately stood up from the couch and stared at her in complete awe and admiration. His heart stopped beating for a moment and he had that look in his eyes that he only had when looking at her. "You look beautiful." He was surprised to see her in anything other than red and black. "That's not the right word for you." He smiled brightly at the love of his life. "You look ravishingly irresistible."

Echo blushed and bit her lip as she pictured skipping the dance and having sex with Damon the rest of the night. Looking up through her eyelashes, she smirked. "And you look strikingly lavishing."

Damon smirked too and held out his arm to her. "Shall we?"

She grinned excitedly even though she didn't want to admit it. "We shall, Salvatore."

PULLING UP TO the school, Echo looked out the window and noticed the red carpet and the screens displaying pictures from the school years.

"I wonder if you're in any of them," Damon commented as they got out of the car.

"If there is any," she took his arm, "it isn't really me. Not Echo Winchester, me."

Damon nodded, having forgotten that she hadn't actually been at the school for long, not like the others. "Right."

As they walked through the picture display, they stopped at one of Tyler and Echo. She was on his shoulders, holding up a football, laughing.

"I didn't know you too were that close," Damon commented, a small hint of jealousy in his tone.

Echo sighed as she looked at it. "Well, to be fair, that's the other Echo. By the date, it was only a couple of days before the crash. And then two weeks later, I inhabited her body." She felt disgusted with what she had just said. She sounded like a demon just possessing someone, and she hated it. "I wish I knew what really happened. I want to know why I can't die. There is just so many questions, and no answers."

Damon looked down before sighing. "I have been searching all over the place for any instances like this." She looked to him in surprise. "I have some vampires that owed me some favors looking for any answers. It's been almost a year, and nothing. There is no answer to why you showed up, how you showed up, if the other Echo was here before or if you just created her and memories. Nothing like this has ever happened or even been a theory." He swallowed thickly and grabbed her hands. "I'm sorry."

Echo bit her lip as she watched another picture show up on the screen, this time, it was of her and Jeremy. Her heart ached heavily and she let out a long and deep breath. "It's alright, Damon. You just taking resources to look for an answer is all I can ask for. You're the best boyfriend ever."

He grinned and pulled her into his chest. "I love you."

"I love you too, blue eyes." She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips passionately. They stayed like that for a few seconds before music could've heard inside the school. "Come on. We should at least dance once before it all goes to hell."

The couple walked into the school to see couples dancing to a slow song and some standing around awkwardly sipping punch. 

Damon led her to the middle of the dance floor and gently pushed her close to him while placing a hand on the small of her back. She placed a hand on the side of his bicep and the other entwined with his.

Sighing in content, she laid her head on his chest, listening to the beating of his heart. His kissed her head before laying his chin on it.

They were happy and content, thinking they could stay like this forever. Then, Bonnie ran over to them, and ruined the moment. "We have a problem."

A FEW MOMENTS later, the group consisting of Bonnie, Echo, Damon, Matt, and Stefan were discussing what to do.

"It's like Jeremy was there. I could talk to him, feel him," Bonnie explained with wide terrified eyes. 

Echo placed a hand over her mouth. She wanted nothing more to believe it was her baby brother, but, Silas was in town, and he found turn into anyone at any given moment.

"Bonnie, that's what Silas does. You can't let him get to you again," Stefan said softly, trying to go back to being the calm brother. 

"Yeah, because you all crazy and brainwashed is just not a good look," Damon commented with a humble.

Stefan rolled his eyes at his brother. "Look, one of us should take her home." 

"What?" Echo scoffed. "No. She's safer here in public around all these people. There's no way Silas can make everyone see the same thing all at once."

"Okay, in the meantime, how do we look out for a guy that can appear as anyone?" Matt questioned them in concern.

But, before anything could be said, they were all interrupted by April announcing the winners for the night. "All right, your prom king and queen are..." She dramatically paused for suspense. "Matt Donovan and Bonnie Bennett." 

Everyone clapped as the two looked at each other in confusion and made their way up to the stage to receive their crowns.

Stefan looked at Echo and Damon. "Stick together."

"Who died and made you the leader?" Echo asked rhetorically and scoffed loudly at the annoying Salvatore before grabbing her boyfriends hand. "Let's dance and look around for anything out of place."

LATER ON, a car alarm going off could be heard. Damon and her shared a look before they went out to investigate it.

Suddenly, a gust of wind manifested and carried the leaves up around them. And then, everything — the car alarms, the wind — stopped.

Bonnie, who was standing outside, put a hand to her head as Silas, who was pretending to be Jeremy, had disappeared. However, she didn't have much time to recover before Elena swooped in and attacked her, biting into her neck. Bonnie yelled in pain and fell to her knees, but suddenly Elena stopped and started making choking noises. 

Elena then vomited blood while the wound on Bonnie's neck healed supernaturally fast. The brunette continued to choke as Bonnie rose from the ground and used Expression to break Elena's bones. She was shouting in pain as Echo, Damon, and Stefan quickly approached them.

"Bonnie, stop!" Echo shouted angrily, wishing she had magic so she could snap the girls neck. "Bonnie!" She quickly got to the ground and grabbed her sister gently. "Breath through it, El."

"Stop this, Bonnie!" Damon shouted as he stood close by just incase Elena poses a threat to Elena.

"Echo, help me," Elena pleaded for her life regardless of the fact that she had no humanity. 

"Bonnie, you're killing her!" Stefan shouted at the with, pointing at Elena.

"I know what I'm doing," the witch responded while furiously glaring at the doppelgänger and continuing her spell. 

"That's the magic talking. This is your best friend!" Damon shouted as he watched Echo hold onto her sister who was still withering in pain.

"I'm going to kill her!" Echo screamed and jumped up, and went to run at the witch, but was knocked harshly backwards by wind. Damon rushes towards her as she hit the ground and let out a loud groan. "Are you alright?" He asked in worry and anger. He wanted to rip Bonnie apart for hurting her.

Elena managed to look up at Bonnie with blood dripping from her nose. "Bonnie... please ." She moaned for a moment longer then suddenly stopped. Bonnie stopped the spell causing Elena to gasp in relief. 

"You okay?" Damon asked the witch in worry as he held tightly onto Echo. 

Bonnie shook her head quickly as she stared at him incredulously and furious. "No, I'm not okay. I almost died. The shell of my best friend almost killed me. None of this is okay!" Then she stormed off. 

Echo ran away from Damon and shoved Stefan to the ground before he could reach Elena. She then grabbed her sister and smiled. "Are you okay, Elena?" When she nodded, Echo grinned. "Good." She then stabbed her with a syringe full of vervain that she has stashed between her boobs. She turned to Stefan who stared in surprise. "This was Plan B."

"Here, let me." Damon walked towards her and picked Elena up gently before they began walking towards his car.

"Have fun brooding!" Echo shouted over her shoulder at Stefan who was staring in surprise at them retreating.