Part 25: The memorial

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Rosa was in the act of feeding when she got a call from Caroline. Tyler was shot at a bunch of times by this crazy dude that showed up at his house.

Rosa sighed, "Make sure you cover that up and you don't remember this, okay?" Rosa compelled the girl she was feeding on. She had taught herself how to compel since no one actually took the time to do it.

Rosa watched as the girl walked away. She tried to fight the urge, but suddenly Rosa ran up to the girl and finished the job. Sucking all of the blood out of her, until she was dead.

"Shit." She muttered under her breath. "Uh, okay." She talked to herself as she pulled the body into the dumpster and ran.

Carol invited Rosa inside and she and Caroline watched as Stefan pulled the wooden bullets out of Tyler's stomach with a pair of metal tongs.

"Please tell me that's the last one." Caroline says.

Stefan looks at one of the bullets, observing it, "These were specially carved; the length, the width. If you were a normal vampire, you'd be dead."

"Well, that's great for all us normal vamps over here." Rosa mumbled as Stefan places the bullet inside a glass of alcohol in order to clean it.

"This guy knew what he was doing. His gloves must have been steeped in vervain. He was looking for a vampire and he didn't hesitate for a second when he found one." Tyler told them.

Stefan was still studying the bullet when he said, "These etching..." He touches the bullet and it burned by it.

"Are the bullets spelled?" Caroline asks.

"I don't know. They're something." Stefan answered.

Rosa sighs, "Thank you Stefan, very helpful." Caroline glared at her friend, but Rosa shrugged. She just became a vampire, she was supposed to be immortal or whatever and now there's these magical bullets that kill vampires.

"I get a bunch of people died, but is now really the best time to be at a town event. You know when there's a vampire hunter on the loose." Rosa said as Tyler, her and Caroline sat in an isle.

"It's fine, Rosa." Caroline assured her.

Stefan than walked up to the three, "What are you doing here, Tyler?" He asked.

"Being sensitive to the community's loss."

Stefan looked at Tyler and Caroline. He then looked at Rosa who rolled her eyes at Tyler's comment. "With a hunter out to get you?"

"Thank you." Rosa said.

"I'm not letting a hunter stop me from where I'm supposed to be."

Caroline then added, "Also, if he shows his face, I'm gonna kick his ass." Rosa high fives the blonde and the two went back to watching as more people entered the church for the memorial.

Stefan then walks away and moves down a row to sit two rows behind everyone. Carol Lockwood is standing at the podium, preparing to start the memorial.

"Before we begin the Mass, we'd like to open the floor to anyone who would like to share a memory about our late friends on the Town Council. I know that April Young wanted to say a few words about her dad. April? April, are you still here, honey?" April doesn't come. "Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or a memory about Pastor Young?"

No one gets up for a while. Finally Elena stands up and Stefan, Caroline and Rosa all give each other worried looks.

"Come on up, Elena." Carol says kindly.

Elena walks up to the podium and at the same time, Damon enters the church. Everyone turns towards him as he dips his hand in the bowl of holy water and performs the sign of the cross.

Rosa turned her attention back to her sister and it was easy to see that she looked awful. She looked sick and from Rosa's knowledge vampires didn't get sick unless it had to do with magic, werewolves or starvation.

"I uh—when I talked to April earlier she was kind of nervous about coming up to speak. And now that I'm up here, I'm kind of nervous too."

Elena grips onto the sides of the podium and looks at her sister. Rosa gives Elena a thumbs up and an encouraging smile.

"The worst day of loving someone is the day that you lose them." Elena stops. Every vampire in the room could tell why. The smell of blood, dripping somewhere in the church.

Caroline looks at Tyler, "Do you smell that?"

"Blood." He answers.

Damon then whispers, just so the vampires could hear, "Nobody move. Don't turn around, it's a trap."

Caroline looks at Rosa, a slight panic. Rosa and Elena were new and Rosa may have had a worse handle on the blood control than everyone thought. The veins under Rosa's eyes poked out.

"Rosa, calm down." Caroline said softly.

She didn't move, staring straight ahead. "I'm trying, but...the smell."

"It's fine. Just don't move, try not to think about it." Rosa nodded and shut her eyes. After a moment, the veins disappeared and Rosa let out a deep breath.

Everyone looked back at Elena, who was still having trouble. "I uhm..." Rosa watches as her sister breathes heavily, the veins start to show, but Stefan quickly steps up to the podium, so no one can see.

Stefan leads Elena back to her seat next to Matt. Priest then begins to talk, "Please turn to page forty two in your hymn book. Let us join together in song."

Everyone stands up. "The blood. Stefan, the blood, I can smell it. There's so much." Elena said which was not helping Rosa who was trying to ignore the blood.

"Stefan what do we do? Rosa and Elena are to new, they might do something." Caroline said as she looked at Rosa who was fighting the urge to sink her teeth into someone.

Stefan sighed, "It's alright; just remember what we talked about. Focus, push back, come on you can do this."

"What's wrong with her?" Matt asked.

"She's hungry. She hasn't fed." Stefan answered.

"So, get her out of here."

"I can't. There's somebody watching us."

Damon then spoke, "I'm gonna go rip his head off now."

"You do that, Damon, you risk exposing all of us."

"Well, I think the risk will be slightly diminished when I, you know, rip his head off."

Rosa took in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. "Stefan, I'm losing it." Elena told him. Rosa repeated, breathing in and slowly exhaling.

"You have ten seconds before I go old fashioned on the new guy." Damon said.

Stefan shook his head, "Don't do it, Damon. Please."

"Three, two, one. Bye."

Damon starts to get up when Matt says, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Elena, feed from me." Everyone looks at Matt confused. "It's okay, everyone will think you're upset. Just feed from me." Elena looks at Stefan to see if he'll agree. He looks at Matt before helping Elena into Matt's arms. "It's okay. You'll be okay."

Elena pulls at Matt's collar and begins to drink from him. Matt was right, it just looks like she's crying. Rosa shuts her eyes for a moment. Caroline holds Rosa's hand and smiles softly.

Finally Elena gets up, "Thank you." She says quietly. Elena wipes the blood from her mouth and Matt pulls up his collar to hide the wound.

Rosa and Caroline are watching Elena and Matt from the other side of the room when suddenly Tyler gets up and pushes past Caroline and Rosa. They look at each other confused.

"The blood. I can still smell it. It's got to be April. We have to help her." Elena says.

She tried to leave, but is stopped by Stefan. "Elena, we can't risk it."

"Then I'm gonna do it." Elena continues to try to push past Stefan.

Suddenly Tyler speaks at the podium. "Excuse me. I just wanted to say a few words about Pastor Young."

Everyone sits back down. "What is he doing?" Rosa asks Caroline who shakes her head both confused and worried.

"Back in first grade, I was a brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't affect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it is to be part of a team; a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of..." Suddenly Tyler is shot. He falls to the floor and everybody begins to scream and duck down in the aisles. Others rushing out of the church.

Caroline and Rosa begun to rush towards Tyler. "Oh my god." Caroline says.

Caroline sits next to Tyler and rips the stake out of his chest. Stefan rushes up to the stage and stands next to Elena and Rosa. Tyler begins to couch. "I'm gonna kill that bastard."

"Damon's way ahead of you." Stefan says. He then turns to Elena and Rosa. "Stay here, I have to help him."

Stefan starts to leave, but Elena grabs his hand. "What about April?"

"I got it. Go." Caroline says. Stefan then leaves.

Elena begins to walk away. Rosa looks at Caroline and Tyler before following after her sister. "Where are we going?"

"To find April." Rosa nods. The smell of blood was still overwhelming. Enough that they could easily find April if it was hers.

Elena and Rosa walk up to the balcony where they find April, she was gagging and bleeding. A lot.

"April!" She shouts and runs over to the girl. Elena then stops, taking notice of all he blood. Rosa takes a deep breath and shuts her eyes. She doesn't notice when Elena begins to vamp out and rush towards April about to feed off her.

Caroline rushes towards Elena which makes Rosa open her eyes. "She's not dead, but if you feed on her you will kill her." Caroline says. She looks at Elena and then Rosa who had veins poking out under her eyes, but continues to take deep breaths, her hands in fists.

"Let go of me!" Elena shouts.

Elena tries to fight Caroline to get to April, but it's no use. "Look at her! Look at her, Elena! It's April. April Young. She's not a warm body for you to feed on. She's your friend." Elena slowly turns back to normal. Caroline let's go of Elena and walks towards April. "She's an orphan. Just like you. She's scared. Just like you were." Caroline bites her wrist and feeds April her blood. April gasps and looks at Caroline.

She begins to cry. "Please, don't hurt me. Please." Rosa than calms down and looks at April. She felt guilty for even having the thought of feeding on her. Of killing her.

"No one's gonna hurt you. No one's gonna hurt you." Caroline stands up and looks at Elena and Rosa. "She needs you. You can make her forget all of this."

Rosa shakes her head and steps back. She knew that she couldn't control herself if she got to close. "That's all you, Lena."

"Why did he do this?" April asks.

"No, I—I can't, Caroline. You have to do it."

Caroline shakes her head. "No. The only way you're going to learn is if you do it yourself."

"No, I can't."

"Yes, you can. You just need to believe what you're telling her, okay?"

Elena kneels down next to April, gently touching her shoulder. April is still panicking but Elena begins to talk. "April listen to me." April looks at Elena. "Everything's gonna be okay. You're gonna get through this. Just like I got through it." She starts to compel April. "Im going to help you. I promise."

"I'm gonna be okay. You're gonna help me."

Elena looks up at Caroline with a smile. Caroline smiling back. "You watched the funeral from up here so that you could grieve alone. It was a beautiful service. People said really nice things." April smiles softly.

As the three girls walk away Caroline turns to
Rosa. "Okay, you're next Rosa. Gotta teach you to compel."

"Oh, I already know how to compel." She said. Caroline tilted her head. "I taught myself. Just like you. I just...couldn't get to close to April. Don't want to kill her or something." Caroline nods remembering that Rosa had told her about killing people already.

"Okay, we'll tomorrow we are going to start your vampire training." Rosa smiled softly and nodded.

"Okay."

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