Elena's POV
After Caroline and I had run all over the town square telling everyone what we had found and how we could solve this problem, we all decided to gather underneath a small tree, leaving me sitting there tapping my foot impatiently on the ground.

"Let me go over this again." Bonnie said.

"The demon is the afflicter. And the demon is also the cure."

"Did I stutter?" Caroline said sarcastically, leaning against the tree branch.

Bonnie sighed.

"No, I'm just trying to get the whole story wrapped around my head so we can figure out a way to get this cure. Does anyone have any ideas?"

Everyone fell silent, Stefan even shifting uncomfortably as we all stared pointedly at each other.

"Well, I don't know any spells. And considering the thing can't be killed, I doubt anyone can catch it." Bonnie said.

Even after her words, no one had come up with any reasonable ideas to kill the demon and we all continued looking at each other silently.

"We could, like, lure it somewhere. Lure it to the Salvatore's place. And stick it in the dungeon and have all the afflicted people jut randomly wander over to it and cure themselves." Caroline said, offering the first good idea.

I perked up at that idea, hoping that the rest of the group would find the idea as appealing as I did.

"Thanks Caroline, for the first idea I've heard. It's not like the rest of you three are being very helpful." Bonnie said, glaring at us.

I opened my mouth to protest but was cut off by Damon, who was already defending himself in his usual fashion.

"Sure, it's a good idea, but is it rational? How are we going to get the demon into our house? And how exactly do we stop it once all the people are cured?"

"When I saw the guy run into the demon and get the smoke stuff into his mouth, a bit of the demon came off. So I bet if enough people are cured, the demon will just disappear altogether." Caroline offered.

"But how does that solve our getting the demon into the house problem?" Damon asked.

"We'll need bait." Stefan said.

"Someone to lure the demon into the house."

Stefan had said exactly what I had been thinking, but he hadn't said the other half of what I was imagining.

Could I do it though? Was I really brave enough to risk myself?

But I didn't have time to carefully think it over. It was now or never. There was only so much time before the demon left and we had no cure for all those poor people. And Katherine. There would be no cure for Katherine.

"I'll be the bait!"

And the words were out of my mouth, too late to take them back.

The rest of the group stared at me like I was crazy.

"Are you insane?" Caroline shrieked, her voice raised a pitch.

"You are literally the weakest out of all of us."

"Thanks, Caroline." I said dryly, rolling my eyes.

"But seriously. I can defend myself."

Everyone glanced at each other skeptically.

"I'm serious. I can. I'm stronger than I look. And besides, I have the most reason to fight for this. My girlfriend is afflicted, for god's sake."

Damon and Stefan flinched- noticeably- but no one was objecting.

"So. Are we good?"

Everyone nodded begrudgingly.

"Great. Then what's the plan?"

I'm so sorry it's so short!! I'm on vacation right now, and I'm doing a ton of stuff with my family. I actually didn't expect my summer to be busy, but it has been. So, sorry for the short chapter! But I'm guessing there will be one more and then an epilogue. Those should be up as soon as I have time!