𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙀
ミ★ ( lion and the lamb, act two ) ★彡

     Jeremy was definitely starting to get annoyed by Hazel's fussing over him as the days went on. He could understand it because she watched him die, reopening old wounds from the accident, but when he said he was fine, he was just that—fine. It's not that he's not appreciative of her checking in on him; he's used to it since she's always been like that as the oldest sibling, he just wishes she would tone it down a bit. He doesn't need hourly check ins—and that's even undermining it. He knows Hazel would be texting or calling him every minute if she had that chance. Jeremy understands that watching him die would've been traumatic, and he had no doubt that she had nightmares of that very situation every night since. Thankfully, she was now busy, preparing for the Mystic Falls High School Carnival. She could use the distraction. A night away from all the supernatural crap that has invaded her life—a night away from vampires. She's earned it.

     Hazel has always loved carnivals. She thinks they're so joyous and fun, and her sweet tooth most definitely loves the amount of candy everywhere. She'll eat so much of it that her stomach will ache for days, but she can't ever resist the pink, sugary cotton candy. Jeremy had to basically beg her to go to help prep for it. Since Caroline was in the hospital, she, Elena and Bonnie were in charge of taking care of everything in her absence.

     "Katherine looked just like you two, it was freakish." Bonnie says, shuddering a little, speaking on her run-in with Katherine during the wake. She almost fell for her trick before she realised who it really was. There was something different—darker—than normal about the 'Elena' she was speaking to and she just knew it wasn't right.

     "Yeah, I know she's like centuries older than us, but maybe she's our other triplet." Hazel jokes uncomfortably. She guesses that's why they call them doppelgängers. She then thinks out loud, "Maybe we are related—that could explain it, right?" She asks, turning to look at the set up of one of the stalls, missing the way that Elena and Bonnie shared a look between them.

      "She didn't just resemble you like a family member would. She was you." Bonnie insists.

     "I don't know, I can't explain it. It's creepy, that's all I got." Elena shrugs. She wishes she wasn't the only one being mimicked. She doesn't know what else Katherine could get up to pretending to be her. Elena then tries to change the subject, "Hey, I moved the student booth into the cafeteria."

     "That's fine." Hazel says as she flips through some of the pages in her clipboard to see the layout of the school compared to the other stalls. The cafeteria was looking a little sparse in terms of booths, "It might be a better fit there, actually."

      "How do you know she's not still out there pretending to be one of you?" Bonnie continues to ask, not swayed by Elena's deflection.

      "We don't, but I could sit here and be tortured by the not-knowing, or I could get these prizes to the ring toss." The younger Gilbert twin answers, holding up the cheaply made toys.

     "Have you talk to Damon since he killed Jeremy—or tried to kill Jeremy?" Bonnie asked again.

     Hazel felt her nails dig into the palms of her hand at the reminder of what happened a few nights before. She doesn't think she could ever forgive Damon for killing her brother, whether or not he knew about the ring. Elena feels the same way and she stiffens up in anger, "No, Bonnie, I haven't and I won't." She snaps slightly, "And I don't want to talk about Damon, or anything else that's vampire related, okay?" She gives a bag full of plushies to Bonnie, "I'm human. And I have to do human stuff. Otherwise, I'm going to go crazy."

     "Okay, I'm sorry, I'll focus." Bonnie says understandingly, "We have to make Caroline proud or she will kill us." Bonnie then looks around at the chaos surrounding them, "I don't know how she does all of this."

     Hazel huffs a laugh, "Well, because she's not human, obviously."

     "Obviously." Bonnie says and they laugh.

     The carnival was well underway by the time night rolled around and Hazel was constantly texting Caroline with updates. She knew the blonde was most likely panicking about making sure it was perfect considering it was her name was all over the project and she couldn't risk it ruining her college applications if it was an absolute failure. Hazel knew some reassurance that she had it under control would go a long way. Hazel walked over to Bonnie, "The ring toss is out of Bart and Homer dolls and Team Jacob tees." The witch tells her.

     Hazel nods, "Okay, I can grab some from the science club." She says before remembering, "Also we lost a speaker in the karaoke room."

     Hazel was about to walk towards the science club when Bonnie called out, "Hey, take a beat, Hazel, look around. This is a huge success."

      Hazel huffs, "You mean I can do more than just wreak vampire havoc?" She asks jokingly, "And as much as I'd love to, I need to make sure that this night continues to be a huge success otherwise Caroline will freak."

     "Go figure." Bonnie says and they laugh.

     As they laugh, Hazel's eye catches someone she recognises. It's a tall man that was repairing one of the stands, "Hey, Carter, right?" She calls out to him, and he walks over towards them, "You're with the carnival?"

     "That'll be me." He confirms with a charming nod of his head. His head then turns to look at Bonnie, where his eyes practically turned into heart shapes when he saw her. Hazel smirked at the way he looked at her best friend, he was breathless, "Wow, what do you need, beautiful?"

Bonnie's cheeks flushed instantly, "What do you know about karaoke speakers?" She asks, remembering how Hazel mentioned the speaker being blown.

"Why don't you show me the problem?" He suggests hopefully. He wants to spend alone time with her and Hazel was loving every second of this. He was cute and so was Bonnie—therefore, they would be cute. Bonnie hasn't even thought about dating again since the whole Ben McKittrick thing, and Bonnie deserves a normal encounter with a man. He might be with the carnival, but at least he wasn't a soul-sucking evil vampire—not that Hazel can talk; since she's also dating a vampire, just not an evil one.

Hazel playfully nudged her arm with her elbow, her playful and encouraging smirk on her face still there, "Yeah, Bonnie, show him the problem."

     Bonnie looks over at her friend, who was giving her an encouraging wink, and bit her lip as she feels herself giving in. What the heck, she thinks, it can't hurt to flirt with the guy, "Okay, come on." She rolls her eyes dramatically at Hazel, agreeing instantly, to which Carter smiles, and Hazel grins.

     The two leave as Bonnie leads Carter to the karaoke room that had the broken speaker. Hazel's happy grin doesn't leave her face as she watches them. She can just see the way that Bonnie was happy, and that made her happy.

     As she turns her head, she sees Damon standing behind her, "Hazel."

     Her smile drops instantly, "What do you want, Damon?" She glowers. Her tone goes colder than ice and she feels her body tense up defensively. She wants Damon far away from her.

     "I know I'm the last person you want to see right now but I need you to come with me." He urges.

     Hazel's scowl deepens, "You are grossly underestimating how true that first part is." There's the last person she would want to see, and then there's Damon, "And whatever it is, I'm not interested."

     Hazel turns to walk away from him, aiming to put as much distance between the two of them. She hates that she knows she isn't strong enough to do anything else other than that—and even then, she knows he's quicker than her, too, "It's about Caroline." He says to her retreating form. She stops in her path instantly and turns to look back at him with concern. What had happened to Caroline? "Yeah, I need you to come with me right now."

     Her concern for her best friend trumped her hatred and she reluctantly follows after him.

     Damon leads her to the school building, ignoring Hazel's questions about what had happened with Caroline, and at one point, even tries to grab onto her arm to assist leading her through the crowd after she had accidentally knocked shoulders with someone passing—whether it was as an act of kindness or as an opportunity to make amends, Hazel wasn't sure, but she wasn't trusting it and snatched her arm away like his touch burned her; because it felt like it did. She doesn't want to rub shoulders with the man that killed her brother to make a point to Elena.

The anticipation was growing to be too much by the time they reached one of the classrooms, the furthest away from any prying ears, to see her twin and boyfriend already sat down waiting for them to join. Hazel's eyes scanned the room before turning attention to Damon and crossing her arms, "Now can you tell me what the hell is going on here?"

"I just ran into Caroline..." He started and Hazel's eyebrows furrowed together. Caroline was supposed to be in the hospital. She wasn't supposed to get out until tomorrow morning since she was doing better with the assistance of Damon's vampire blood, "And our little blonde bombshell is a vampire." He says and their eyes widened as Damon explained the story. Guilt welled up in Hazel; she should've been there with her, she must've been going out of her mind with confusion as to what was happening to her. How did this happen? Damon then perked up as if he remembered something, "Oh, and she told me that Katherine said 'game on'."

Hazel couldn't help but sit down in shock, "How did this happen?" Stefan asked the question on everyone's mind.

"Well, I fed her blood, and Katherine obviously killed her, and A plus B equals..." Damon trailed with an obvious tone, shrugging at the end.

Elena's mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of what to say, "But, why?" Was all she could come up with. What did turning Caroline into a vampire accomplish?

"Because Katherine is a manipulative, nasty, little slut." Damon snaps.

Hazel clicked her tongue and blinked at his outburst, "Wow." She muttered in response.

"And she said 'game on'?" Stefan asks Damon, who nods in confirmation, "I mean, what does that even mean?"

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

"But, why Caroline?" Elena asks.

Damon shrugs, "I don't know."

Hazel shakes her head and runs a hand through her hair, "Caroline must be going completely out of her mind, she doesn't even know what's happening to her."

"Oh, I think she does." Damon responds and Hazel looks at him curiously, "All of my compulsion from the past started wearing off the minute she was in transition." He says and Hazel's eyes widened. That means she remembers everything: everything Damon put her through, as if she's living through it again.

"We have to find her." Stefan realises and Hazel nods. She stands to her feet to get ready to go find her best friend to help her.

Damon nods, "Yep, and kill her."

Elena and Hazel's head snaps to the older Salvatore, "You're not gonna kill Caroline." Hazel refuses firmly. He can't kill her best friend—she's her best friend. She wouldn't hurt anyone; it wasn't in her nature to. Hazel has faith in her that she wouldn't.

"She knows who we are. She's officially a liability, and we've got to get rid of her." Damon insists, trying to convince the others of his decision being the right one. Hazel's eyes can only widen at him in disbelief.

"Damon, absolutely not." Stefan refuses.

Damon groans dramatically and turns to his brother, "Need I remind you of a tragic little story of a girl named Vicki Donovan?" He snaps, "Caroline, of all people, will not make it as a vampire. Her mother is a vampire hunter. Guys, come on, we all know how this story's gonna end, just flip to the last chapter and..."

"It's not an option, Damon." Elena states firmly. She agrees that Caroline doesn't deserve to die because the cards she was forcibly handed from Katherine.

"No?" His eyebrow raised at Elena, "Your silence is deafening, Stefan." He said before smirking, "Wait, wasn't there a school carnival the night you staked Vicki? I never had a town where history repeats itself. You know I'm right." He says and Hazel's arms crossed over her body uncomfortably as she recalled that situation. She hasn't thought about it for months now and she hates that Damon had a point—this town does have a knack for repeating itself.

      Stefan looks over to Hazel, seeing her face, and reading it instantly the moment they locked eyes. She was silently begging him desperately to not agree. Stefan looks to his brother, "We're not gonna kill her." The look of relief covers Hazel's face and her body visibly relaxes. She mouths a thank you to him before she leaves the room to go find Caroline, with Stefan following after her. Caroline was still a new vampire, even if she didn't want to hurt Hazel, she most likely didn't have the control to not.

Elena stands to go follow her twin and Stefan, and Damon grabs onto Elena's elbow, "It's the only way." He says to her.

"No..." Elena responds, removing her arm from his grip, "It's not." She says before leaving the room.

Meanwhile, Stefan and Hazel were outside looking for Caroline. The two of them were silent, both using the excuse that they were concentrating looking for their blonde friend so that they didn't have to speak to each other. Hazel really is concerned about Caroline, but she can't tell if she could tell that Stefan believes in her faith of Caroline. She goes to turn around to him before backing out and looking forward. Her teeth gnaw at her bottom lip, her body just begging her to get it over with and ask already. She turns to look at him, "You agree with Damon, don't you?" He doesn't respond, only keeps walking, "Stefan?" She asks and suddenly, Stefan punches the side of a trailer in anger. Hazel's eyes widened and she goes to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Stefan. Hey."

"Damon's right—not about what we should do but about what's gonna happen." Stefan exhales and Hazel's eyes softened, "Katherine already signed Caroline's death sentence."

"Well, we can't let it end that way. I won't let that happen. She's my best friend." Hazel decided. Hazel then sighs, "Why is she doing this?"

Stefan sighs as well, "She's doing it to me."

Elena had joined the search for Caroline with Hazel and Stefan, and Hazel was growing increasingly more worried about her best friend's safety and wellbeing. She must be going out of her mind, wondering what was happening to her and she most likely has no idea that Damon is out to kill her for existing, "Where could she be?" Hazel mutters to herself, looking down at her phone to see multiple of her messages and calls still left unanswered. She looks over at Stefan, seeing the way it looked like he had noticed something, "What is it?"

      "Do you hear her?" Elena asks urgently, but Stefan doesn't answer them. Instead, he starts hurriedly walking in another direction, "What's going on Stefan, what is it?"

      "Blood." He answers and their eyes widen in concern, "I can smell blood."

     Hazel's heart plummets immediately at his vagueness. She isn't sure whose blood he can smell—either context was equally disheartening, because she doesn't want Caroline hurt, nor does she want Caroline to have hurt anyone either—and panic was settling in more and more by the minute. Stefan races off in the direction of the scent and the twins follow after him.

They reach the parking lot just in time to see Damon and a crying Caroline embracing, however, Damon's arm was raised with a stake in his hand behind her back, ready to stab and kill her. Hazel feels the air catch in her throat in panic, seeing Caroline's life flash before her eyes but thankfully Stefan rushes over and pulls his hand away.

The stake falls to the ground, "Stefan!" Damon yells in betrayal while the twins run to Caroline's side.

As soon as Caroline opens her eyes and they land on Elena, she panics, thanking it was Katherine. Caroline's eyes widen and she tried to scurry away from Elena, "Get away from me! You killed me!"

Elena and Hazel looked at each other momentarily with concern before Elena shook her head and held up her hands peacefully to calm her down, "No, no, no, no, Caroline, That wasn't me." Elena says as she tries to take a step forward, "You know that. That was Katherine."

"No!" Caroline jumps back, "Then why did she look like you?! And why—why did she do this to me?!"

Hazel's eyes darted around and she noticed that people were starting to walk towards the parking lot from the carnival, their night being over and wanting to go home. She then looks back to see Carter's dead body and a bloodied, and panicked Caroline. Stefan wouldn't be able to compel all these people to forget an image like this. She walks towards Stefan's side, "Stefan, we've got to get her inside."

He nods in agreement, "It's alright, Caroline, come with me."

Damon's eyes narrowed onto his brother, "She will die, it's only a matter of time."

Stefan can only shrug as Caroline cries harder at the thought of dying, "Yeah, maybe so, but it's not gonna happen tonight."

"Oh, yeah, it is."He picks up the stake and rushes over them but Elena puts herself in front of Caroline.

"Elena, no!" Hazel screams in fear.

Elena's breath catches in her throat as she stares at the stake in front of her, "Damon, she's my friend." She says shakily.

Damon hesitates, staring at Elena who refuses to move while everyone watches in concern. Then he drops his arm, "Whatever happens, it's on you."

Suddenly, Bonnie arrives, "Caroline?" She asks, seeing that her best friend was currently on the ground, crying her eyes out.

"It's okay, come on." Stefan ushers Caroline while Hazel helps her up off the ground.

Once the newly turned vampire stands, and her blonde hair moves, Bonnie could finally see the blood on Caroline's face. Her eyes widen in horror and she almost stumbles back, "No, you're not; you can't be." She says and touches her and gasps, horror filling her bones as she could feel the same feeling she got when she first touched Stefan months ago—the same feeling she gets that's associated with vampirism.

Caroline looks at her in confusion, "Bonnie?"

Bonnie's eyes then travel behind her friend, seeing Carter's dead body on the ground, brutally murdered. She jumps back in shock, "Oh, God!"

     "Bonnie..." Caroline tries to plead but Stefan takes Caroline away from the area to the bathroom with Hazel behind them. He takes some tissues to wipe the blood off her face. Caroline starts washing away the blood too, "She hates me! Bonnie hates me!" Caroline cries as she wipes the blood, the tissues, water and the sink below staining a pink colour.

      Hazel shakes her head as she also helps, "No, no, she's just in shock." She tries to assure her with a sympathetic glance, "We all are."

       Caroline only cries harder, "And what about Matt?" All she can think about is that she hurt Carter, she could just as easily hurt Matt even if she didn't want to.

     Hazel can only hush her comfortingly, rubbing her arm, "One thing at one time." She says, "Let's get this blood off, come on."

      Caroline only shakes her head and steps away from Hazel and Stefan, "I'm a murderer. I'm a monster."

      Hazel's face drops in sadness hearing the way Caroline spoke about herself. Stefan grabs onto her shoulders to force her to look his way, "Look at me, your emotions are heightened right now. It's part of the transformation. It's completely normal. I promise you. Okay?"

      Caroline nods in understanding before she catches a glimpse of her face changing in the mirror and starts to panic all over again, "Why does this keeping happening to my face?!"

       Stefan grabs her face, "Look at me, look at me, look at me!" He shouts but Caroline refuses to look, only continues to panic and make herself feel worse, "Caroline! Caroline! Look at me! Look at my face, look at my face!" Caroline looks up. His face has changed too, mirroring her own new features, "You see that?" He asks and she nods, "When you feel the blood rushing, you tell yourself that you're going to get through it, that you're strong enough." Caroline shakes her head, saying she can't do that and she isn't strong enough, but both Hazel and Stefan disagree, "Yes, yes, no matter how good it feels to give yourself over to it, you fight it off, you bury it. Watch me, watch me." His face is normal again, "It's the only way you're gonna survive this thing. Try."

Caroline looks in between Stefan and Hazel, and the doppelgänger gives her an encouraging nod to give it a try. She closes her eyes momentarily before she takes a few breaths and her face returns to normal. Hazel smiles in relief, "That's good."

"Why did Katherine do this to me?" Caroline asks in a small voice. She didn't know who to ask.

"I don't know, I wish I did." Stefan answers after a moment of hesitation that catches Hazel's awareness.

     Caroline's face twists as she's about to cry again in fear and Hazel steps forward, "Hey, hey, I promise you I will not let anything happen to you." She says, but Caroline only cries harder. Her words aren't believable when her evil doppelgänger is causing chaos while acting like her and Elena.

     Hazel does the only thing she can do in that moment and embraces her best friend.

At the end of the night, Hazel was by her locker. Her face is worn down and she's exhausted from the day and she's overwhelmed with concern for Caroline. A deep sigh escapes her lips and she rests her head against the cool metal lockers to calm herself. Just breathe. Stefan approaches her, seeing how tired she looked—not the type of tired she is from a nightmare, but as if she just ran a marathon. She's emotionally and physically tired, "Hey." He says to her softly, touching her arm, not missing the way she flinched slightly. She's on edge. She looks up at him, "Caroline is okay for now. I'm gonna check in on her later."

Hazel nods. Caroline was taken home by Stefan and she had to wait at the school. Stefan didn't trust that Caroline would be able to control herself straight away around Hazel. The Gilbert girl did try to argue that it was her best friend, but Stefan wanted to take precaution, "What about the guy that she..."

"It's taken care of." Stefan answered. Hazel nods again. That meant that Damon had buried him in an undisclosed location in the woods that won't be found for a very long time—unless it's a Vicki situation all over again. Noticing the look on her face, he steps closer, "I know what you're thinking." She's thinking about Damon's words; about how it won't end well for Caroline, and she doesn't agree, but no one else stood with her, "I'm gonna make sure that Damon's wrong."

Hazel sighs again, shaking her head and running a hand through her brown hair, "I just can't believe what this day has turned into." She breathed out. It was supposed to be a normal day, focused on running the carnival so she didn't have to think about what happened to Jeremy. But, instead, she focused on her best friend dying and turning into a vampire.

Stefan bitterly huffed, "Not your normal day, huh?" He says with a raised eyebrow.

Hazel nodded, "I was stupid to think that it could be." She scoffed at herself, "I mean, nothing about my life is normal. My best friend is a witch, my friend is now a vampire, I'm dating a vampire and Elena and I have a doppelgänger who's hell-bent on destroying all of us." She scowls angrily, crossing her arms across her chest.

"I'm sorry." Stefan frowns. Sometimes he thinks coming into her life was the worst thing he ever did because he turned it upside down.

Hazel shakes her head, " No, it's not your fault, Stefan. It's no one's fault, you know? It is what it is." Stefan's frown only stayed and he touches her face, "I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just that..." She stops herself. None of this has to do with her. Caroline is the one that needs help. She's the one that's been affected by this whole thing, "You know what? I'm fine." She doesn't want to complain. It feels like that's all she's done lately and she doesn't want to keep doing it. It makes her feel powerless and weak to complain and not act. She just wants to sleep the night off; maybe after a decent night's sleep she might feel less pathetic, "I'm gonna to call you tomorrow, okay? Good night, Stefan." She reaches up to kiss his cheek and leaves.

"Good night." Stefan whispers to her retreating form, wondering how he is going to fix this.