CHAPTER FOUR | THE RECKONING

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IT WAS SENIOR PRANK NIGHT, AND IT WAS SOMETHING CAROLINE AND RILEY WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO. It was a chance at normalcy, especially through the midst of all of the crazy that was going on in their lives. Riley, Caroline, Bonnie, Elena, and Tyler had all set up mouse traps within one of the classrooms, but instead, Matt Donovan's entrance to the room set them off.

"Oh, come on!" The Forbes vampire exasperatedly yelled out whilst all eyes averted to a frightened-looking Matt. "Seriously? Do you know how long it took for us to set all this up?"

Tyler rolled his eyes in the direction of his best friend. "Forgot about Senior Prank Night, huh?"

"Clearly." Matt snapped with sweat dripping from his face.

"How could you forget such a thing? This probably the most exciting thing to happen in our high school careers." Riley folded her arms across her chest. "You know, apart from graduating."

"Yeah, Matt. If I'm doing this, you're doing this." Elena chuckled softly in the direction of the Donovan boy.

"I'm kind of surprised any of you are doing this."

"Caroline's making us." Bonnie deadpanned with a heavy sigh whilst a small chuckle escaped Riley's lips.

"We're about to be seniors. These are the memories that will stay with us forever, and if we don't—"

"—Create these memories, then what's the point of it all?" The doppelganger mockingly cut Caroline off with a smirk on her face.

"Ooh, don't make fun of Caroline. She's got a point, for once." Riley smirked, though the Forbes vampire didn't seem too impressed with the mocking.

"You're all lame. And, I've got ten more classrooms to prank." The Lockwood boy announced just as he grabbed his duffle bag and hurried out of the classroom.

"Come on, Elena. You and I can superglue Alaric's desk shut." The Evans witch chuckled softly as she pulled the doppelganger up to her feet as they wandered out of the classroom.

As they walked out of the classroom, Tyler was briefing the rest of the football guys into helping with the pranks. The lengths Tyler was prepared to just to prank a few teachers did make Riley laugh, and Caroline was right— it was all about memories.

Riley pushed one set of double doors open, but as she and Elena wandered into the corridor, Klaus was stood in front of them with an unreadable expression on his face. "Well, isn't this a surprise?"

"Klaus." Elena breathed out fearfully, her eyes widened as she came face-to-face with the Original Hybrid.

"You are supposed to be dead," Klaus looked almost enraged by the fact that the doppelganger was still breathing air, despite him feeding on her until the point of her death. He turned his attention to Riley. "Why isn't she dead?"

"Guess we can't always get what we want." Riley hissed back before she felt the Hybrid grab them by the forearms and drag them toward the gymnasium Riley would not dare try anything against Klaus, she knew that if she did, she would likely end up dead.

"You put a rather large kink in my plan, sweetheart. The point of breaking the curse and becoming a Hybrid was to make more Hybrids." Klaus ranted as he strode down the corridor with the females. "I haven't been able to do that. Now, my bet is it has something to do with the fact that you're still breathing."

"If you're gonna kill me, just do it." Elena spat once he tossed her and Riley through the double doors into the gymnasium.

"Not until I know I'm right. But, I do have ways of making you suffer."

Klaus had compelled innocent students in the gymnasium, who were setting up for Senior Prank Night. Dana was compelled to keep her leg up in the air, if she failed, Chad was compelled to beat her to death. Riley's heart began to race as she watched Dana stumble breathlessly, though she managed to keep her foot in the air.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena's eyes flickered toward the Hybrid. "What'd you do to him?"

The Hybrid simply shrugged and then folded his arms across his chest with a smirk. "Stefan's on a time-out."

Almost as if on queue, Bonnie and Matt hurried into the gymnasium. Once Elena and Riley saw their friends, they knew they needed to keep them safe. "Bon, no! Get the hell out of here!" The Evans witch yelled.

Klaus sped straight behind Bonnie, which caused her to gasp in fright. "Oh. I was wondering when you'd show up. Now, we can get started." The Hybrid's attention turned to the compelled students. "Uh, Dana, why don't you relax? You and Chad sit tight." Klaus turned back to Bonnie. "I assume you're the reason Elena's still alive."

"That's right. If you wanna blame someone, blame me." The Bennett witch boldly told Klaus.

"There's no need for blame. Just your witchy interference seems to have caused some undesirable side effects. And, since you caused the problem, I'm gonna have to find the fix."

"Ugh, get off of me!" Tyler grunted whilst he was pushed into the gymnasium by an unrecognizable blonde. Riley and Elena glanced toward each other, both exchanging confused looks.

"I'd like you all to meet my sister!" Klaus gestured to the blonde vampire, who grinned. "Rebekah. A word of warning, she can be quite mean."

"Don't be an ass," Rebekah smirked just as she shoved Tyler Lockwood into Klaus' hold.

"Klaus, leave Tyler out of this." The Evans girl shouted though she knew Klaus was unlikely to even listen to her. "He's not involved."

"I'm gonna make this very simple. Every time I attempt to turn a werewolf into a vampire hybrid, they die during the transition. It's quite horrible, actually." The Hybrid then bit his wrist and forced his blood up to Tyler's mouth. "I need you to find a way to save my Hybrids, Bonnie. And for Tyler's sake, you'd better hurry." He swiftly snapped Tyler's neck without batting an eyelid.

"He killed him." Matt breathed out once he hurried over to Tyler's dead body, which laid just at Riley and Elena's feet.

"No. He's not dead. Klaus' blood is gonna turn him into a vampire." The strawberry-blonde told Matt, though a heavy sigh escaped Klaus' lips.

"And, if Bonnie's successful, he'll live through his transition." The Hybrid turned to the Bennett witch. "Go on, then. Go and fetch your Grimoires, and enchantments, and whatnot. I'll hold onto Elena, for safekeeping. Riley, you're a witch. Assist Bonnie in her endeavors and perhaps I'll let Elena live."

"You're crazy." Riley spat just before she, Bonnie, and Matt ran out of the gymnasium together.

"What're you guys gonna do?!" Matt's voice was frantic. It was clear that he was worried about, not only Tyler but the rest of his friends.

"No idea." Bonnie shrugged. "The curse he's talking about is a thousand years old. My Grimoires don't go back that far."

The Donovan boy's eyes widened as if he had come up with an idea. "Can you ask those dead witches that helped before?"

"No. She doesn't have access to them anymore. Witches are fickle." Riley rolled her eyes. Part of her absolutely hated witch politics. "They cut her off when Jeremy died."

"Wait. That's it!" Bonnie's face suddenly lit up with a smile as she looked between Matt and Riley. "I can't contact the dead, but Jeremy can."

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After frantically calling Jeremy more times than anyone could count, Matt knew that it was down to him to save everyone. Jeremy could speak to the dead because Bonnie brought him back to life, so he figured that if he killed himself and he was brought back, he would be able to help.

Once Riley heard what Matt had planned to do, she frantically ran through the corridors and slammed through the doors until she saw Bonnie performing CPR on the Donovan boy just beside the swimming pool. Almost as soon as Riley dropped down to her knees, Matt regained consciousness.

"It's okay. You're okay." Riley breathed out as she pulled the Donovan boy onto her lap whilst Bonnie slowly managed to regain her breath. "Why the hell did you do that, Matt?"

"It was the only way." Matt coughed back viciously just before Riley grabbed him by the hands and pulled him up to his feet.

"As soon as you're feeling better, I'm gonna kill you." Bonnie rolled her eyes with an irritated tone of voice as they ventured out of the swimming pool.

"But, it worked. I saw her." Matt told the witches, whose eyes both widened as he stopped in front of them. "I saw Vicki. She said she had a message for you, both. From the witch that put the Hybrid curse on Klaus. She said that Elena shouldn't have survived Klaus' ritual. The Hybrids can't transition because Elena's still alive."

"No." The strawberry-blonde witch trailed off whilst she began to shake her head. "Tyler. He's—"

"He's gonna die, isn't he?"

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Klaus' voice boomed from the end of the corridor. He wore a smirk on his lips whilst he leaned against a locker door. "Given the choice, doppelganger or Hybrid, I go Hybrid every time."

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It had come to transpire that Elena's blood was actually the blood the key. The reason every other Hybrid has died during the transition, was because they had to drink the blood of the doppelganger to complete the transformation. Klaus realized this and took a vial of Elena's blood for Tyler.

Though, things had gone bad to worse for the rest of the group. Klaus had compelled Stefan to completely abandon his humanity— to turn it off. And, once he did, he did the unthinkable. He drank from Elena's neck without a hint of hesitation.

Riley had called Damon once Elena had disappeared from the high school since she assumed it had something to do with Klaus. The strawberry-blonde anxious sat on the couch, her eyes fixed on the fireplace until Damon strode in with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Damon? What— where's Elena?" Riley's eyes widened once she noticed her boyfriend had returned home without the doppelganger in tow.

"Took her home. She wanted to be alone with this." The Salvatore vaguely answered as he sauntered over to the bourbon and began to pour himself and Riley a glass. "Understandable."

Riley remained silent whilst her gaze flickered back to the fire that danced in the center of the fireplace. Part of her couldn't believe how willingly Stefan had drunk from Elena's neck, but she knew that once he turned his humanity off, he was capable of anything. She just couldn't wrap her head around it. 

Damon stepped away from the liquor and moved in front of Riley. He extended the bourbon for her to take, but she was so deep in thought that she didn't even notice. "Here. Riley, drink."

"Sorry, I—" The strawberry-blonde hesitantly spoke just as she grabbed the bourbon tumbler and took a small sip. Her attention moved back to her boyfriend once he sat down beside her on the couch. "God. Everything's such a mess. He turned it off. How the hell are we supposed to get him back now, huh?"

"We'll find a way." Damon breathlessly answered with a hint of determination in his voice as Riley's head dropped into his lap.

"He was stubborn before when he actually cared about us." Her voice was almost as quiet as a whisper before it broke. "Without his humanity, he cares about nothing. No one. He's not gonna wanna come back to us."

"Riley, everything's going to be okay. I promise you." Damon solemnly told his girlfriend whilst he gently caressed her hair. "Rest, baby. You need to get some sleep."

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