CHAPTER EIGHT
a not-so happy birthday!

As far as Iylah Hale knew, after being questioned by Sheriff Forbes, the news about Vicki Donovan leaving town, spread like wildfire. Albeit, only a few people in particular, hid the truth about what really happened that night at Halloween. Elena Gilbert was still overcome with guilt for so many reasons, and that included: not being able to tell Matt that his own sister was dead, and Jeremy, for obvious reasons, had recently been acting differently ever since Damon compelled him the other night, making him think that Vicki had left town and she was not coming back. He shouldn't look for her or worry about her. He would miss her, but would know it's for the best. Elena knew making Damon compel him wasn't the best idea, especially because it was Jeremy's mind that was being messed with. But, she kept telling herself, that it was for the best. All she ever wanted to do was protect him. And after hearing him cry out to his best friend that night in his bedroom, begging her to make the pain stop — compulsion was the only solution she could think of at the time.

Meanwhile, apart from a few conversations Iylah has had with the two Gilbert's, and spending time with her cousin's side of the family — she mostly kept to herself after she witnessed another death, happen right in front of her eyes.

Her and Bonnie had been staying at their Grams, until today, when Rudy Hopkins — Iylah's uncle and Bonnie's father, decided it was time for them to come back to the house. Sheila Bennett walked into the room to see Bonnie packing her suitcase, as Iylah watched her from the bed, since she had already done hers. "You two leavin'?"

"Dad doesn't like it when we stay here too much."

Sheila arched a brow at Bonnie, already knowing the answer to her words. "Because he misses you both or because he doesn't trust me?" She asked, making her two granddaughters look over to her, before she glanced over at Bonnie. "Your father's problem is he lacks imagination. He thinks I fill your head with all my witchy juju."

"He's right." Bonnie smiled.

"He's always right." Sheila said, earning a chuckle from both girls. "That's his other problem." Upon seeing the yellow crystal necklace on the bed, the woman quickly indicated to it. "Uh-uh. You need to be wearing that."

Bonnie turned to face her grandmother, with the talisman now in her hand. "I gotta give it back to Caroline. It doesn't belong to me."

Iylah got up from the bed to stand next to the two of them. "Yes, it does. It was your ancestor's, and now it's yours." Her Grams quickly reminded the girl.

However, Bonnie was conflicted. "Emily was your ancestor too, why don't you wear it?"

"Because it didn't find me," Sheila pointed out to the girl. "it found you, protected you." Iylah spun Bonnie around to move her dark long locks away from her neck, so she could put the necklace on her. "A witch's talisman is a powerful tool, don't be giving that back to anybody."

As soon as she fastened it around her neck, Iylah let her hair drop back down onto her back, when Bonnie sighed, turning her head towards the two of them. "I just wish it was prettier."

Iylah hummed. "I do agree with you on that one."

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The next morning, Iylah joined Bonnie in visiting the Gilbert Residence to check on both Elena and Jeremy. Bonnie grew concerned, mainly because Elena hadn't called her back since the Halloween party at school. She knocked on Elena's bedroom door, opening it as she called out. "You up?"

Elena was laying comfortably in her bed, with her back facing the door, when she heard her friend's voice, causing her to turn her body slightly so her eyes were facing the ceiling, before she grumbled a response. "No."

Bonnie rolled her eyes as Elena pulled the covers over her face. "Don't make me bring her in." She threatened, but all she could hear under the quilt covers was mumbled groans, not liking whatever Bonnie had planned, but she also didn't want to get out of bed. "Alrighty then," She looked behind her and signalled Iylah to come out. "come on in, Sunshine."

A burst of giggles echoed in the hallway, followed by the sound of running footsteps, when the Hale girl flew past Bonnie to jump on the bed, and she landed on Elena, who squealed. "Good morning, El!" Iylah chuckled, before her face softened for a second, making sure to add gently. "I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"Don't be silly." Elena reassured, telling Iylah she was completely fine.

Bonnie came round the corner of the bed, and sat on it to finish Elena's job, which was: pulling her covers off of her face. "Why haven't you called me back?"

"I'm sorry." Elena sighed.

"Are you gonna stay in there forever?"

"Yep."

Bonnie huffed. "Move over." She told Elena, who did as she said, stopping in the middle of the bed, so there was enough room for Bonnie and Iylah to lie on either side of her. "I'm officially worried. What's going on?" She wondered, looking at her friend in worry.

Elena took a second before replying. "I'm tired of thinking, of talking." She subtly made eye contact with Iylah first, as they were the only ones in the room who knew more than Bonnie currently did, before her eyes flickered over to her best-friend.

"Can we get a one-line version so we can at least pretend to be helpful?" Bonnie asked, assuming her cousin knew as much as she did. Yes, she has noticed a slight change in Iylah's behaviour, since the night of the Halloween party at school, but whatever seemed to be — or not be affecting her, she was hiding it a little bit better than Elena was.

"Stefan and I broke up."

Bonnie frowned at the girl's words. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" She asked, causing Elena to shoot her a look, and she immediately regretted asking that. "Right. Stupid question." A sigh escaped her lips. "I know I've been kind of MIA when you need me the most. I suck."

Elena looked up at the ceiling. "You wanna make it up to me? Get my mind off of it."

Bonnie directed her eyes over at Iylah, who tilted her head with a pointed look, as if she was telling her: Do it. The Bennett girl glanced back over at Elena, as the corners of her lips stretched into a smile. "Just remember you asked for it." She got up from the bed, and stepped over to the window to close it, before grabbing some scissors off the bedside table. She grabbed one of Elena's pillows and pulled the pillow out of its pillowcase, before using the scissors to cut a line down the middle of it.

"H-Hey." Elena let out, looking confused at what her friend was doing. "Uh—" She cut herself off, watching as Bonnie emptied the feathers out the case and onto the bed.

"Be patient."

"Okay." Elena replied, still bemused.

Bonnie moved positions so she was sat in front of Elena and Iylah, on the bed. "I need to swear you to secrecy. Iylah already knows."

"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff."

However, Bonnie insisted. "Well, swear, because I'm not supposed to be showing you this."

"Okay, I swear." Elena sighed.

"Okay. There's no windows open, right?" Bonnie just wanted to make sure, because, whatever she was about to do, she didn't want anything — like the wind, to blow into the room, and prevent any disruptions to her plan. "There's no fan, no air conditioning?"

"None." Elena answered. "What are you doing?"

"Grams just showed us this. You're gonna love it. You ready?" Bonnie expressed her excitement for what she was going to show Elena, and smiled at her when the girl nodded. Bonnie looked down as she hovered her hand over the pile of feathers on the bed, starting with one of them to rise up from the pile and followed the movement of her hand before she dropped it back down.

"Bonnie, what's going on?" Elena's eyes flickered over to Iylah, who merely grinned at her, before turning back to Bonnie, as she rubbed her hands together before using both of her hands to hover over the pile this time, and multiple feathers had levitated up into the air before they dropped back down again. And just when Elena thought Bonnie was finished, the girl looked up, and more and more feathers followed her eyesight, and floated around in the middle of the girls.

Elena scoffed in disbelief, amazed by the sight in front of her, before she moved up to her knees to get a closer look. Iylah giggled softly, watching as Elena continued to look around her with a bright smile on her face. "I know, right?" The Hale girl asked rhetorically. She was astounded too when she saw it the first time — after she did a similar thing, not long after she discovered her abilities.

"It's true. Everything my Grams told me." Bonnie started to say. "It's impossible, and it's true. I'm a witch." After weeks of denying what was capable of doing, Bonnie was finally able to admit that she was a supernatural witch.

"I believe you."

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"It's weird, huh? After all this time, joking about being psychic, I really am a witch." Bonnie had a moment of relief, now that she's finally admitted what she was. Plus, now that she did, Iylah knew it wouldn't be much longer before Bonnie would find out about her as well. "You don't think I'm a freak now, do you?"

"A freak?" Iylah scoffed. "More like, a badass."

"No, of course not." Elena answered the girl, who seemed pleased with their responses. "Bonnie, I just— I don't understand though. If your Grams asked you to keep all this a secret, why did you tell me?"

"You're my best friend. I can't keep secrets from you." At her friend's words, Elena was consumed with guilt for the second time for keeping a deep secret from her close ones. It's hard enough as it is, keeping her brother in the dark — but now she was hiding the truth from Bonnie, who told her basically everything.

"Speaking of secrets..." Iylah trailed off. Her body language felt awkward, and pursed her lips when Bonnie and Elena turned her way. The latter felt her eyes widening slightly, with her nerves rising at the possibility of Iylah spilling her secret right then. "I'm keeping one from my own." She took a second before sighing loudly, as she reached her hand into the pocket of her hoodie and pulled out a marker pen. "Do you reckon it's too late to tell Jeremy that I just drew on his face while he was asleep?" She winced, making Elena let out a quiet breath of relief.

A chuckle escaped Bonnie's lips. "What?"

The blonde stuck her hand into her pocket again, this time, bringing out her phone to hold it up to the girls, revealing her proof of her prank on the mobile — a picture of a sleeping Jeremy that she had managed to take after doodling on her best friend's face, without him waking up.

Elena laughed softly at the picture of her brother that Iylah took. "Did you already have that up on your phone?"

Iylah turned her phone around. "Oh, it's about to be my lock screen." She shared, receiving another round of chuckles from Elena and Bonnie as she finished up making the picture the lock screen on her phone, before putting it back in her pocket.

"IYLAH GRACE HALE!"

Iylah's brows pinched together. "Huh... How does he even know it was me?" She sounded befuddled at hearing Jeremy suddenly screaming her name, before she took a brief pause and held up a finger to the girls. "On that note— see ya!" The Hale girl scrambled out the bed, and ran out the bedroom, hoping she'd be able to get past Jeremy's room at least, without him catching her.

"Get back here!" Elena and Bonnie heard Jeremy scream from inside the room. "I can't believe you actually gave me a mustache!" The sound of their running footsteps echoed around the house, and that included the loud bang that was made after Jeremy tripped over his own feet in the middle of chasing Iylah. Elena and Bonnie shared a look at that, before they burst into laughter.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

As she promised Damon earlier, Caroline Forbes succeeded in setting up a party at the Mystic Grill restaurant that evening. People were either up at the bar getting a drink, sat down at tables having food, playing a game of pool with their friends, or moving their feet on the dance floor, to the music that boomed through the speakers.

The sound of Quinn's instax camera clicked after capturing a picture of Stefan and Iylah, currently finishing off their game of pool. The latter raised her free arm into the air, clenching her hand into a fist. She let out a Whoo!, celebrating her win on the game, causing an amused Stefan to chuckle at her antics, watching as she used her moment of victory to dance. "I won! I won! Aha, yes!"

Stefan smiled gently. "Congratulations."

"Ah, Stefan." The Hale girl turned to Stefan, with her pool cue still in hand. Once he stepped closer to her, Iylah leaned forward to whisper. "Thank you for letting me win." She stepped back, seeing Stefan gesture with his hand, as if he was saying: No worries.

"Iylah." She directed her eyes over to Quinn who had called her. "I'm gonna go over there to check on Caroline really quickly, are you coming?"

Iylah nodded. "Yeah, give me one sec. I'll be right behind you." She looked over to see a girl walking over, making her turn to Stefan. "Just to be sure, is that your friend, Lexi, coming this way? Blonde hair?" The Salvatore boy looked confused to start with, but went along with it anyway, and followed her gaze to see she was right. He nodded his head at her, which confirmed her theory. "Hey!" Iylah let out, as the blonde girl approached. "It's Lexi, right? I'm Iylah."

The Branson vampire beamed. "Ooh, so you must be the famous Iylah I've been hearing about." She began. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Iylah raised her brows slightly and turned to face Stefan, feigning a gasp. "Oh, Stefano, you've been talking about me? I feel so honored." She put her hand to her heart in awe, before chuckling softly, glancing back over at Lexi. "It's nice to meet you too. Anyway, do you want to take my place?" She held up her tall cue. "I've finished, and I need to go over and check on my friend Quinn."

"Um, yeah sure. Thank you." Lexi replied as Iylah passed her the pool cue.

She smiled as she walked around her. "I'll be sure to cheer you on, and I hope you lose Stefan. Now, bye bye!" Iylah said just before she walked away, hearing the two vampires chucking behind her.

Lexi turned to look at Stefan. "I love her."

Meanwhile, Iylah had found Quinn, who grabbed a hold of her hand and they both made their way over to Bonnie, where she had caught Caroline on her way out of the restrooms. "Don't do that, let me explain—"

The broken-hearted girl interrupted her. "What is there to explain, Bonnie?" Caroline scoffed out a chuckle of disbelief. "You got what you wanted... and something that doesn't even belong to you by the way, and I get called a shallow, useless, waste of space."

"What's going on?"

"Yeah, and who said that? I want names." Quinn threatened once she and Iylah approached their family members.

Caroline glanced over at her adopted sister with a huff. "Who do you think?"

Damon. "You know that's not true. Don't let him treat you like that." Bonnie shook her head at the Forbes girl, wanting to reassure her that Damon doesn't know what he's talking about.

Caroline sounded like she was about to burst into tears any minute at her reply. "Yeah, as opposed to how my best friend treats me." She shook her head and scoffed, before walking off.

"I ask again... what's gone off?" A confused Iylah and Quinn turned to Bonnie for answers, though, she seemed to be just as baffled as them. But, by the way Bonnie fiddled with the crystal necklace, Iylah started to have an idea what seemed to be the problem. However, since Quinn was still with them, she couldn't explain it.

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As time passed on, Caroline's night was cut short, from the many glasses of alcohol she had poured down her neck. So, Quinn left early, so she could join Matt who was taking Caroline home. Bonnie was in the restroom, while Iylah stood by Stefan and Elena, just about finishing off her small glass of coke, when something caught her attention.

She quickly swallowed the last bit of the liquid in her glass, before putting it down on the table and whacked the Salvatore softly on the arm. "Uhhh, Stefan..." She pointed over in a certain direction, and from where they were, across the restaurant, the couple looked to where Iylah was pointing at, to see Sheriff Forbes going over to the bar, with a couple of her deputies behind her.

They watched as Liz stopped to stand in between Damon and Lexi, before turning to the latter, and injected her with vervain, but the others were too far away to see that.

Damon quickly got up from his stool. "What are you doing?"

"Thank you for the vervain." Liz nodded. "Now, if you'll excuse me." She left without another word, with her two deputies, who had the job of holding up a now weakened Lexi, followed their boss out of Mystic Grill.

"Oh, my God." Stefan's face contorted into shock from seeing his best friend being dragged out of the place by police. He began to turn around, just in time to see Iylah already rushing off. "Wait— Iylah." He tried to catch up with the fifteen year-old, as a confused Elena followed in tow.

Knowing they most likely didn't have a chance of using the front entrance to get out of there, Iylah found the back door was both unlocked and clear of deputies, so they could exit with ease. She was the first to run out, with Stefan and Elena not far behind her, quickening their steps at the sound of gunshots. "Oh—" Iylah's words got caught in her throat as she crouched down, still keeping herself hidden behind the side of the building. Elena and Stefan stood right behind Iylah, when a loud gasp exited Elena's lips, so Stefan quickly covered her mouth with his hand. They looked on helplessly, not being able to do anything but stay quiet so they couldn't get caught, after witnessing Damon drive a wooden stake through Lexi's heart.

"Oh my god..." Stefan whispered.

As soon as Lexi desiccated, she fell to the ground, dead. Tears spilled in the eyes of the three people hiding behind the side of the restaurant. After the many horrendous things Damon has committed, he had finally got what he wanted... for Stefan to snap. He had crossed the line far too many times, and now his best friend was gone.

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author's note!

normally i would say, i hope you enjoyed the chapter, but considering what happened in this episode, i decided against saying it.

#lexideservedbetter am i right?

anyways, thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33