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CHAPTER TWO
the mystic falls annual carnival
╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

( brave new world )

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Friday, February 19, 2010

Harper's POV.

*Outside Mystic Falls High School, Preparing for the Annual Mystic Falls High School Carnival*

My dad is okay.

Defying all possible global scenarios, he happened to be wearing a special ring when Damon snapped his neck. The ring was one of the Gilbert rings that my mother had given him as a gift when they got married. I had no idea he was even wearing it at the time, much less that it was really one of the special Gilbert rings and not just some other random wedding ring.

It saved his life though, and I will forever be grateful to God that he was wearing it. Now, though, I'm in an even bigger pickle. Since my parents know too much, drastic measures had to be taken. My parents are now currently locked up in the Salvatores' dungeon and will remain there for at least three days until the vervain they've been drinking leaves their systems. Locking them up in that dungeon was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my entire life. It's something I never imagined I would do. My only comfort is that after it's all over, neither one will remember anything, and everything will go back to normal—well, as normal as things can be in Mystic Falls in its current state.

Then there's the D-word . . . Damon. I hate him. I hate him so much for trying to kill my dad. I can't believe I was so naive to think that he was making an effort to change. He hasn't changed, and I doubt he ever will. I let myself flirt with him like an idiot. I let myself fall for him like an idiot. But no more, I refuse to make that mistake again. Damon is a monster. He doesn't care what he does as long as he gets what he wants. Well, he's not going to be getting anything from me anymore. As far as I'm concerned, he's out of my life forever.

Bonnie's voice takes me out of my thoughts. "I mean, Katherine looked just like you," she says to Elena. "It was freakish."

Elena sighs while scribbling something on a clipboard. "She is my ancestor." Elena points to the school. "Hey, I moved the student booth into the cafeteria," she quickly changes the subject.

However, Bonnie keeps going, "Your vampire ancestor, and she didn't just resemble you like a family member would. She was you."

Elena gestures for me to help her distribute some stuffed-animal prizes to the booths. I grab some plastic bags filled with stuffed-animals and follow her to the game booths.

"I don't—I don't know," Elena shrugs, responding to Bonnie's comment. "I can't explain it, okay? It's creepy. It's all I got."

"Well, how do you know she's not still out there pretending to be you?" Bonnie asks.

"I don't, but," Elena starts to open a bag of plushie snakes, "I could sit here and be tortured by the not-knowing or I could get these prizes to the ring toss."

Bonnie turns to me. "Have you talked to Damon since he killed your dad, or—or tried to kill your dad?" she rephrases.

"No," I say. Truth be told, I don't want to talk to Damon about it. I don't want to have to be near him again. He—He really scared me last night.

Elena speaks up, "Can we not talk about Damon or anything else that's vampire related?" she begs, handing Bonnie the bag of stuffed-animal snakes.

"Copy that," Bonnie says, wiggling the snake heads at her playfully with a smile.

"We're human," Elena goes on as she grabs another bag full of stuffed-animals. "And we have to do human stuff. Otherwise, we're going to go crazy."

"Okay." Bonnie nods. "I'm sorry, I'll focus. We have to make Caroline proud or she will kill us," Bonnie emphasizes. "I don't know how she does this all the time."

"Tell me about it," I mumble. I wouldn't be able to stand having to plan parties and celebrations all the time, especially since I'm not even a big fan of them in the first place.

Elena grabs the clipboard again. "Well, because she's not human, obviously." She grins while checking something off the clipboard.

"Obviously," Bonnie agrees.

"You got that right," I join in, and the three of us start laughing.

*Later That Night at the Mystic Falls High School Annual Carnival*

Elena and I are walking around, surveying the carnival to make sure everything is in order when Bonnie joins us.

"The ring toss is out of Bart and Homer dolls and Team Jacob T's," she informs.

"Okay," Elena says then looks at me. "Harper, can you grab some more from the science club?"

"Yeah." I nod. "I'll be right back." I start moving through the crowd towards the school. I'm walking past the fun house when someone sidesteps in front of me. Of course—of course—it's Damon.

"Nice little shindig, huh?" he says, amusement tugging at the corners of his lips.

Choosing to ignore him, I move to walk past him, but he blocks my way.

"Oh, that's the way you're gonna play this?" Damon asks.  I can almost see the other words in his eyes. Come on. Play with me.

I refuse to give him the satisfaction though, so I simply glare at him instead.

"Relax. I saw the ring on your father's finger," he insists.

I'm not having this. I try to walk past him again, but this time he grabs my upper arm to keep me from moving. I halt in my tracks and turn to face him.

"I knew he wasn't gonna really die. I was being dramatic," he plays it off.

I narrow my eyes at him. "What is wrong with you?" I say. He's lying, and he knows it.

"What are you doing here?" says the familiar voice of Stefan Salvatore. He comes forward, and I immediately pull my arm away from Damon. Thank God.

"Stuff," Damon replies, and he casually rests an arm over my shoulder.

I shrug him off out of reflex.

He smirks at me like a cat before swaggering off into the carnival. I glare at him as he goes.

"Sorry about my brother," Stefan apologizes, coming to stand beside me.

"It's fine." I sigh.

"Do you wanna play some games?" Stefan suggests.

That's when I remember why I was coming this way in the first place. "Oh, I have to go get some more prizes for one of the games." I point a thumb towards the school.

"Ah." He lifts his chin. "Does Elena have you on fetching duty?"

"Yeah." I smile.

"I can come help you," he offers.

And I let him. The two of us gather more prizes for the ring toss and take them to the booth. Probably still wanting to make things up to me for Damon's behavior, Stefan and I play a few rounds at the ring toss. He beats me most of the time, of course.

"Which one do you want?" Stefan asks me while he's picking out a prize.

I look over the shelf of prizes. "I'll have a Lisa Simpson doll."

"One Lisa doll please," Stefan tells the booth manager. The booth manager hands him a Lisa doll which he then hands to me.

I smile up at Stefan with the doll clutched in my arms.

"Now isn't this just adorable," Damon says.

At the sound of his voice, I frown. Damon and Elena walk up to us.

"Better watch out, Elena," Damon warns. "Harper's trying to steal your guy." He saunters forward and whispers in my ear. "Moved on quite quickly, haven't we?"

I pull away from Damon and scowl.

Stefan crosses his arms. "What do you want, Damon?"

Elena steps forward. "Stefan . . . something happened."

And the next thing I know, we're in Alaric's classroom.

"How did this happen? Hmm?" Stefan asks.

Damon leans against Alaric's desk. "Well, I fed her blood and Katherine obviously killed her. And A plus B equals . . ."

"But why?" Elena interrupts from beside me by the windows.

"Because Katherine is a manipulative, nasty, little slut," Damon says as if that's answer enough.

Stefan speaks up, "And she said 'game on'? I mean, what does that even mean?"

"It means she's playing dirty," Damon says. "She wants us to know."

"But why Caroline?" Elena asks.

Damon exhales loudly. "I don't know."

"Caroline must be completely out of her mind," Stefan says. "She doesn't even know what's happening to her." He puts his hands behind his head as if he can feel her stress himself.

"We have to help her then," I speak up for the first time. When my friends are in danger, being shy is not an option. These are the only times when I'll feel the need to speak up. Caroline didn't deserve this. We did everything we could to keep her out of it, and now she's been thrown right into it even more so than Elena and I ever have been.

"Oh, she knows what's happening to her," Damon begs to differ. "All of my compulsion from the past started wearing off the minute she was in transition," he explains.

"We have to find her," Stefan says then.

"Yep," Damon agrees. "And kill her."

"What?" I ask, hoping that I heard Damon wrong.

"You're not gonna kill Caroline," Elena says sharply.

"She knows who we are," Damon says. "She's officially a liability. We gotta get rid of her." He says it as if it's no big deal, as if we're not talking about someone's life here, one of my best friend's lives.

"Damon." Stefan shakes his head. "Absolutely not."

Thank you, Stefan, for some common sense.

"Need I remind you," Damon brings up, "of a tragic little story of a girl named Vicki Donovan? Yeah, Caroline, of all people, will not make it as a vampire. Her mother's a vampire hunter. Guys, come on. We all know how this story ends, so let's just flip to the last chapter and—"

Elena raises her voice to cut him off. "It's not an option, Damon."

"No?" he questions incredulously. "Your silence is deafening, Stefan," he says, looking over at his brother. "Wait, wasn't there a school carnival the night you staked Vicki? Talk about a town where history repeats itself." He pauses before continuing, "You know I'm right."

Stefan walks close to his brother and points in his face. "We're not gonna kill her," he tells him firmly. He then moves to walk out of the classroom.

Elena and I follow him. As I pass by Damon, I hear him mumble "It's the only way."

Triggered, I stop in my tracks and turn back to face him. "No, it's not," I say. Then I continue on my way out the door.

*Time Skip*

Elena, Stefan, and I search the carnival for Caroline.

"You agree with Damon, don't you?" Elena speaks up, looking at Stefan. He doesn't respond. "Stefan?" she tries again.

I wince as Stefan punches the side of a trailer. I sometimes forget that he has a bit of a temper sometimes. But in this matter, I can understand his frustration.

"Stefan." Elena continues to try to get his attention. She follows him behind the trailer he just punched. "Hey."

He finally turns his attention to her and huffs a breath. "Damon's right," he says. "Not about what we should do but about what's gonna happen." He leans against the trailer. "Katherine all but signed Caroline's death sentence."

Elena shakes her head. "Well, we can't let it end that way," she says.

I awkwardly shuffle my feet. I'm feeling like a bit of a third-wheel right now.

"She's doing this to me, isn't she?" Elena asks.

Stefan shakes his head. "Actually, she's doin' it to me," he tells her, crossing his arms and sighing.

After their little couple talk, we continue our search for Caroline.

"Where could she be?" Elena wonders out loud.

"She could be anywhere," I say, just now realizing how big of a carnival we put together.

Suddenly, Stefan stops walking. He whips around and scans our surroundings as if he's picking up on something.

"What is it? Do you hear her?" Elena asks, looking around for herself. "What's going on, Stefan? What is it?"

"It's blood," he says. "I can smell blood." He then picks up his pace, and Elena and I hurry after him.

Up ahead I see Damon with Caroline next to a truck. He has his arms wrapped around her. Is he . . . hugging her?

Then I notice Damon's right arm isn't wrapped around Caroline at all, but is instead holding a stake behind her back. Oh God.

I call Stefan's attention to what's happening. "Stefan!" I cry out desperately.

The younger Salvatore moves into action immediately. He rushes forward and pushes Damon's hand away, making the stake fall to the ground.

"Stefan!" Damon complains.

Elena and I hurry to Caroline's side. But instead of being happy to see us, she shoves Elena away. "Get away from me! You killed me!" she screams.

I notice a splattered ring of red around Caroline's mouth—blood. She attacked someone already.

"No, no, no, no, Caroline." Elena shakes her head desperately. "That wasn't me. You know that. That was Katherine."

"No! Then why does she look like you?! And why—why did she do this to me?!" Caroline starts to cry and wrap her arms tightly around herself.

It hurts my heart to see Caroline like this. She didn't deserve this. She was innocent in all of this.

Katherine has to pay.

"Stefan," Elena says, "we gotta get her inside."

Stefan turns away from his brother and starts to walk towards Caroline with his hand outstretched to her. "It's alright, Caroline. Come with me," he soothes.

"She will die," Damon says from behind us. "It's only a matter of time."

Can he just shut up already?

Stefan grabs Caroline's hand and looks back at his brother. "Yeah, maybe so, but it's not gonna happen tonight."

"Oh, yeah, it is."

As soon as the words leave Damon's mouth, I find myself whipping around, my body becoming a barrier between Caroline and an incoming Damon, the stake raised in his hand. I let out a sharp breath after realizing what just happened.

I just saved Caroline's life.

As my breathing becomes more even, I stare right into Damon's eyes. I slightly shrink back from his intense gaze. "Don't do this," I plead in a small voice, giving him my best puppy-dog eyes.

Somewhere, deep down inside of him, is the man I started to fall for. And I know that man—that Damon—would let Caroline live.

He lowers the stake. "Whatever happens, it's on you," he tells me, pointing two fingers in my face. He then backs away.

"Okay," I mumble under my breath, knowing he can hear me. I turn around. I didn't realize Elena was standing directly behind me. Damon would have had to go through all of us to get to Caroline, wow.

"We've gotta get her cleaned up," Elena says, still breathing heavily after that close call.

"Caroline?" says a voice. Bonnie steps forward from out of now where. Her eyes widen in horror at the sight of blood on Caroline's face. "Oh, you're not . . . you can't—you can't be." She marches forward and latches onto Caroline's arm.

When Bonnie doesn't say anything, Caroline speaks up in a petrified voice, "Bonnie?"

The said girl backs away from Caroline. "Oh God!" Bonnie cries. She brushes past us towards the bed of the truck where a body lays. I didn't even notice it before.

Elena quickly gestures for Stefan to take Caroline inside, and he does. She then joins Bonnie's side who currently has her head down in sadness. I wonder if Bonnie knew the man Caroline killed.

After a moment, Bonnie backs away from the truck. With tear-stained eyes, she chokes out, "I can't believe this is happening."

Damon comes over with a shovel. He hoists it over his shoulder. "Come on. Don't pout about it. We got a body to bury." He takes a moment to look over the body in the back of the truck. "Hm, sucks to be you, buddy," he mocks, setting down the shovel next to the body.

How insensitive can he be?

All of a sudden, Damon starts to groan in pain. "Ugh! Ahhh!" He falls to his knees with his fingers clutched to his forehead.

I immediately get a flashback to that moment in the alleyway on Founders' Day. The night he saved my life, when the vampire device went off on him. But there's no vampire device here so what could be . . . Bonnie.

I look over and she's staring at him with hard eyes. She must be using her powers on him.

A hose to my right starts to move on its own. It turns on by itself and water starts to make its way over to Damon's struggling form.

What is Bonnie doing?

"I told you what would happen if anyone else got hurt," Bonnie says tightly.

"I didn't do this!" Damon yells between groans of pain.

"Bonnie, it wasn't his fault," Elena defends.

"Everything that happens is his fault, Elena," Bonnie snaps back.

Bonnie's right. Damon didn't do this, but he did try to kill my father. Maybe he deserves a little pain for all he's done.

"Bonnie, what are you doing?" Elena asks hesitantly.

The stream of water lights on fire, making a trail of flames headed for Damon.

Bonnie's not just trying to give him a punishment. She's trying to kill him!

"Bonnie, stop it!" Elena yells. "Bonnie—Bonnie stop it!" she repeats.

I join in, my pleas coming out much more desperate than I expected them to. "Bonnie! Stop it!"

She ignores us, and the fire reaches Damon's legs, igniting his pants on fire. He screams in utter terror all while trying to extinguish the flames with his hands.

All I can hear are his screams in my ears, and it's driving me insane. I can't stand seeing him in pain. I just can't. Past crimes be darned.

"Bonnie! Stop it!" Elena continues to yell. "You're gonna kill him!"

I don't even think. I just move. With my hands, I lightly shove Bonnie's left shoulder. She stumbles a little to the right, and the fire goes out as her concentration is broken.

She glares at me with the most deadly look I've ever seen on her face. "Why—Why did you stop me?!" she demands.

"I—I don't know . . . you were gonna kill him" is all I'm able to say.

"After everything he's done? After he almost killed your father and you're still defending him?!" she bites out.

"I—I don't know . . ."

Elena comes forward and grabs Bonnie by the shoulders, making her look her in the eyes. "She did the right thing," Elena defends me. "This isn't us, Bonnie. This can't be us. Killing Damon isn't going to make anything better. I don't want it to ruin you."

Bonnie calms down and starts to tear up.

Elena puts her arm around her. "Come on," she says before leading her towards the school.

I stay back and watch Damon struggling on the ground. He whimpers with each attempt to get up.

A part of me wants to help him, but another of me remembers what Bonnie said. He did try to kill my father. He doesn't deserve anything from me, and yet I still stopped Bonnie from killing him.

I don't have feelings for him, not anymore, but I still couldn't stand listening to his wails of pain while Bonnie was lighting him on fire. Those screams of terror and torture will probably haunt me into the night. I shouldn't be feeling bad for him, but I do.

Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'm done with Damon, and I'm definitely done helping him.

With one last look at him on the ground, I turn around and follow after Elena and Bonnie towards the school.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

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a/n:

I am a Christian and serving the Lord means a lot to me. In fact, I consider it my purpose in life. So before I post new chapters, I'm going to ask a question (or something like that) at the end of each chapter and will require a certain amount of responses in the comments before I post a new chapter.

If you are a not Christian, I completely understand, and you don't have to take part. Just know that I will still require a certain amount of  responses in the comments from other people regardless. So if you do choose to take part, it will just make updates happen that much faster.

So my challenge for this chapter is: Watch the trailer for the movie "Sound of Freedom" and tell me you have watched it in an inline comment. I hope that after you watch the trailer. You will want to watch the movie. The movie trailer is linked here >>>>>>

Please comment responses that you have watched the trailer here in the inline comment section >>>>>>

(if I get at least 10 responses, I'll post the next chapter of this book)

-- roxy

( word count: 3.5k )