˖*°࿐chapter twenty six.
xxvi. OUT WITH THE OLD

———

"So what do you think?"

Janelle took in everything as she stood next to Caroline at the entrance.

Girls with painted faces and skimpy outfits, shirtless men and glow-stick jewelry, and loud music surround them as they walked through the crowd. Everyone was cheering loudly, laughing, dancing, talking, and drinking very heavily.

"Eh," Janelle simply shrugged her shoulders, "I've participated in better, but it'll do."

"I'm gonna get us some drinks," Caroline told her. Janelle nodded, not really pay attention to what she was saying as she left.

She was here for one purpose, which was to have fun and not stress out over everything, and that's exactly what she planned to do.

———

"Okay, not exactly the Welcome Home party I envisioned for you, but..." Elena trailed off to Bonnie as they stepped into the party. "I think we should split up and look for Caroline!" Elena had to yell over the music.

"Maybe we should split up and look for Caroline!" Bonnie yelled back.

"Good idea," Elena laughed. "Good luck," she mouthed before turning away from Bonnie and pushing through the crowd of ravers.

She stared in disgust at all the college students around her, most of which she didn't even recognize. People were all over each other and Elena almost regretted even agreeing to be here. That was until she finally spotted Caroline.

She was calm and relaxed, enjoying herself as she danced with some guy. When Caroline caught Elena watching her in the distance, she purposely let her face vamp-out as she leaned in to bite her date's neck.

Elena rushed towards them, but Caroline gave her a look, reminding Elena that she wasn't supposed to interfere because of the deal they made.

As long as they stayed out of Caroline's way and don't try to flip her switch, she won't feed, or kill on anyone. Caroline grinned, whispering, "I'm fine."

Elena sighed as Caroline went back to dancing. A shirtless guy suddenly approached Elena and tried to grind up on her, making her roll her eyes in disgust before walking away.

"Hey. There you are," Elena said when she found Stefan. "Did you talk to Liam? Were there any bite marks on him?"

"No, which means she must have given him her blood," he replied, referring to Caroline's incident with Elena's ex.

"And he doesn't remember her feeding on him at all?"

"He remembers them making out — in graphic detail — but that's about it."

Elena was surprised to hear that. "So, that means she's covering her tracks. It's very thorough. It's actually really good."

"No, it's not good," Stefan retorted. "It means that she's gonna use him as a human blood bag every time she gets hungry."

"Or she'll drink from the blood bags in our fridge that she just restocked," Elena informed him.

"Wait a minute. Why are you defending her?" Stefan asked.

"I'm just saying she hasn't actually hurt anyone, and there are no bodies that have shown up at the med center, no students are missing..." she said. "What if she actually has this under control? You know, we give her her year, she's happy, and then —"

"And then what? She magically flips her humanity switch and starts feeling everything that she's been putting off? Caroline is going to snap, and when she does, it's gonna be my fault. Because I am the reason that she did this."

Elena stared at him, sympathy set in her eyes, "Pain is the reason she did this."

"Her mother died, her world was turning upside down, and she asked me one simple question. All I had to do was tell her the truth, and I didn't. Now, look me in the eye and tell me that I couldn't have stopped this."

Just when Elena was about to ask Stefan was his plan was, she was cut off by Bonnie rushing over to them. "Bon, you okay?"

"Yeah," she panted, trying to catch her breath. "And I have good news, but also some bad news."

"Oh, great," Stefan sighed, allowing Bonnie to continue. "Now, what?"

"Well, the good news is I found Caroline."

"Yeah, we know. That's what we were just talking about."

"Right, but the bad news is, I found something else." When Bonnie didn't elaborate on what she meant, Stefan and Elena urged her on to do so.

Without saying another word, Bonnie pointed over to the right. The two followed her gaze and their jaws dropped.

"Oh, my God. Is that —"

"My sister," Stefan confirmed.

Janelle was on top of the bar dancing very provocatively with some other girls. None of which she probably even knew herself. A lot of the guys were cheering her on and whistling as she poured shots of alcohol into their mouths.

Stefan had surely seen his sister drunk before, but this was taking it to a whole new level.

"All right, you go handle Caroline," Elena blocked his view and snapped Stefan out of it. "Bonnie and I will get Janelle."

"I-I..." Stefan stammered, still not getting a hold of what he just witnessed.

"Stefan, go." Elena pushed him. When he got lost in the crowd, Bonnie and Elena rushed to get to Janelle.

An unknown boy approached Janelle, holding his hand out for her take. Well, Janelle knew him, she just had no idea what his name was. She took his hand and he helped her get off the bar.

"Someone's having a good time. You ready for another round?" he smirked.

Janelle was about to answer but didn't get the chance to because of some whiny bitch coming in from behind them. "Bryan, what the hell are you doing?"

Oh, that's what his name is. Janelle thought, mentally laughing to herself.

She met him an hour ago and didn't exactly care to ask for details. He just provided her, and many of the ravers, with something to help their experience be a lot more realistic.

Annoyed, from the partially drunken strawberry blonde who was still rambling, Janelle waved her hands, freezing the girl mid-sentence.

"Ha," she grinned, going off with this 'Bryan' person.

Elena and Bonnie got closer, bumping into the girl, unfreezing her, and knocking the drink out her hands. It spilled all over her dress and she let out a high-pitched shriek.

"Oh, I am so sorry," Elena apologized almost instantly.

The girl stormed off and Bonnie tapped Bryan's shoulder. "Hi. Your girlfriend went that way. Bye!"

He rolled his eyes, "I'll catch up with you later, babe." Janelle nodded as he went to go after his so-called girlfriend.

"Hi, we need to show you something," Elena and Bonnie grabbed Janelle by her arms and dragged her outside to the front.

Janelle stumbled on her own two feet and leaned herself up against a car. "Ugh, you guys are such party-poopers," she whined.

"Uh, Elena, can you take care of this? I need to take a minute," Bonnie mumbled to her.

"Yeah. You okay?" Elena asked.

"I'm fine," Bonnie assured her.

Once she left, Elena crossed her arms over her chest. "You wanna explain what was going on just a few minutes ago?"

"Okay, mom," Janelle snorted. "If you must know, it's called having fun, Elena. You should try it sometime."

"You're grieving. I get it," she said. "You're looking for a way to get over it, but this isn't the answer."

"Oh, that's right, I forgot you were the grief expert. Well, it's a good thing I'm not you," Janelle stated. "Look, I don't care what you have to say to me, Elena. This is my business, not yours. So let me deal with it my way.

"Janelle —"

"Don't you have someone else to be worried about? You know, the blondie without her sanity. I bet her and my brother are having a great time right about now. I must say, you did quite a good job pairing up your best friend with my brother. It takes a lot not to get jealous when you see your ex waiting on someone other than you."

Not even letting Elena get another word out, Janelle left her there and went back into the party. She stole a bottle of Ciroc from the girl next to her and took back a swig.

She leaned against the wall and let herself take a breath. The party was intense enough, so she needed a break. Janelle pulled out her new phone from her jacket pocket and checked her messages.

As usual, people were asking where she was, why she left without letting anyone know, all that boring stuff. Janelle rolled her eyes, not bothering to respond to anyone. It's not like she was dying.

"Well, you seem to be having the time of your life."

Janelle turned at the familiar voice and smiled, "Oh, hey, Cam."

"Glad to see you're out and about. And that you have your vision back. Guess a phone call would've been too much to ask."

"Guess so," Janelle shrugged.

"You know, I stopped by your house earlier to check up on you, but you weren't there. Instead, I found this," Cameron held out the open book in front of Janelle's face.

"You were snooping through my things?" Janelle scoffed. "Wow, some friend you are."

"You cast a fearless spell," Cameron stated. "Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Not a fearless spell, a freedom spell," Janelle clarified. "Caroline told me to get rid of my fear, so that's what I did."

"Okay, but you didn't get rid of your fear, you just suppressed it," she informed her.

"Same difference," Janelle waved her off.

Cameron crossed her arms, "What's our coven gonna think when they find out their new leader is a reckless fool who can't even control her own magic?"

"Now, what are you rambling about?"

"You're a descendant from the Warren line. This is your destiny, Janelle. It's what you're m —"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Janelle seethed. "I'm the last person our coven would want to be their leader. If it wasn't for me, Cassandra would still be alive. I can't do this, Cam. Especially not if the prophecy still stands."

Cameron sighed, "It's only for protection — to ensure that what happened to Cassandra doesn't happen to you."

"It's immortality," Janelle emphasized, already fuming. "It was the life I was forced into once, and I'll be damned if I choose to go through it again. I refuse to live beyond my lifetime again, to be an immortal again — it's a curse."

"How do you expect our coven to grow?" Cameron asked. "Witches can't be trained if we can't generate magic, future generations will cease to exist. The Phoenix line is not meant to end with us, Janelle, and you know it"

"I understand that, but I'm just not ready to take on something like this. I mean, if anybody should be head of the coven it's you, Cam. You've been at this longer than me, you have far more experience."

"But I'm not Sophia Warren's daughter," Cameron told her, which made Janelle frown. "Three years ago, you came to with questions regarding your family's history. You wanted to know where you came from, who you came from. You asked me why the spell we cast went the way it did, why it turned you into a Phoenix. This is the answer. This is destiny fulfilling itself."

Janelle rolled her eyes, "To continue our line."

"No," Cameron disagreed, "to finish what your mother started. To let our kind live in a world where we don't have to hide in the shadows. To let us be free."

"Janelle?"

The two witches turned their heads and Janelle's breath hitched in her throat as she was now sobering up very quickly. "Damon. I —"

She tried to speak, but no sound came out. She was terrified that her brother might have heard their conversation and unfortunately for her, Damon heard every single word.

"You want to explain to me what the hell she's talking about?"