The Salvatore Jewel

Chapter 13

Against her conscious and father's wishes, Ellie went to the bonfire that night and stayed close with her group of friends. Ellie stood by and watched as some of the teenagers she knew from school get drunk. The place was full of high school kids and music along with laughter filled the air. A drunk girl came up to Ellie, holding a plastic cup, and asked if she wanted a drink. Ellie, knowing that it was alcohol from the smell, scrunched her nose and said, politely, "No, thank you." The drunk girl scowled at the other girl and walked away, muttering along the words of 'your loss'. Ellie began to walk around, becoming slight bored after seeing that her friends had decided to mingle with the other kids. Along the way, she noticed a crow was perched on a branch and was watching her. She tilted her head in confusion and curiosity while the bird had a slight glare in its eyes. Feeling unsteady, Ellie walked away from the bird and into the woods. As she walked into the woods to get some privacy and silence, the teenage girl spotted a small bridge that was at the edge of the water and stopped to sit on the bridge. She looked down at the water to see her reflection then noticed the moon's reflection. All of a sudden, she was pushed into the water, causing her to let out a piercing scream as she fell into the water. From the bonfire, Jeremy had heard the sound of his best friend's scream and raced in the direction it came from.

Ellie struggled to get to the surface and felt herself transforming into an animal, even though she was unaware that she was doing so. Jeremy found himself in the middle of the woods and said, calling out for his best friend, "Ellie?! Ellie?!" He then stopped calling to listen and heard the sound of water thrashing. He ran over to find a small bridge on the edge of the water and saw the water making large ripples. The teenage boy scrunched his eyes to get a closer look and saw a figure of a wolf struggling to swim to the surface. Taking a deep breath, Jeremy dived into the water to rescue the helpless wolf. By this time, the rest of the gang of friends had noticed that Jeremy and Ellie went missing and started to look around for them. Matt and Tyler took the search to the woods and were calling out Jeremy and Ellie's names while Caroline and Bonnie were looking around the area of the bonfire. Matt spotted Jeremy coming out of the water with a medium-sized body of a wolf out in his arms and called out to Tyler, racing to help Jeremy pull the wolf to the surface. Tyler had heard Matt calling to him and rushed to see Matt helping Jeremy. All this time, Ellie, in her wolf form, was unconscious from having too much water in her lungs. Tyler watched Jeremy try to perform CPR on the wolf and said to Jeremy, "Jeremy, care to explain to us what happened?" Jeremy replied, "I heard Ellie's scream from the wolf and went to see what happened. Damon mentioned that Ellie inherited her mother's wolf side and Ellie's mom said that her wolf side wouldn't be unleashed unless something triggers it." Matt's eyes widened in fear and said, "Something like what? An murder attempt?" Jeremy nodded and replied, "Something like that." After a couple minutes of pressing on the wolf's chest, the wolf started to cough out water and was coming to its senses. The wolf's eyes opened to see the three teenage boys and got to its paws, inching away from them with its tail between its legs. Jeremy got to his feet and slowly stepped towards the wolf, knowing it was Ellie. Tyler and Matt stood next to each other as they watched the youngest Gilbert attempt to calm the wolf down. Tyler crossed his arms and said to Jeremy, "Uh, Jer? Are you sure that's Ellie?" Jeremy glanced at Tyler and replied, turning back to the wolf, "Yes, I'm sure. You just have to trust me, Ty."

While Jeremy was trying to calm Ellie, in her wolf form, down, Bonnie and Caroline had arrived with Damon and Stefan. Ellie's ears flattened even more and her tail curled up between her legs when she noticed her father and uncle with her two best friends. Ellie continued to back away from Jeremy until her backside hit a tree. Jeremy turned to see what his best friend was staring at and noticed Damon and Stefan. He stood to walk over to them and said to them, "You guys' presences is making her even more scared. I can only get her to calm down if you guys are not here." Damon was about to protest with a sarcastic response but stopped when he saw the frightened state of his daughter. He nodded and allowed Stefan to lead him away, along with Ellie's other four friends. Jeremy turned back to continue to calm Ellie down but found her not at the spot of the tree. He groaned and said, "Come on, Ellie. You're really not helping the situation either by running away." With Ellie, Ellie ran as far as she could away from the woods and found herself in the middle of town. Her ears were still flat and her tail was still between her legs, giving out the signal that she was scared. As she roamed the town, Ellie was practically screaming at herself for disobeying her father's order to stay home. Another part of her told her that she was doing the right thing for escaping from the Salvatore Boardinghouse but the other part of her told her that she should have listened. While she was busy torturing herself, she was unaware that her friends and family were looking for her. Damon walked around the town with his brother and called out his daughter's name as did Stefan. He sighed and said to Stefan, "I screwed up big time, didn't I?" Stefan turned to Damon and replied, taking a deep breath, "You did what any father would done to protect their child, Damon. No one can blame you for that but you did go a little overboard. As for Ellie, she's not in the wrong either. Right now, she's just scared and lost. And we need to find her before she gets hurt."

The two brothers went back to calling out Ellie's name and found themselves stopping in the middle of the town square with the others, with no Ellie unfortunately. Caroline informed the two Salvatore brothers that she had called her mother for some extra pair of eyes and help, which was greatly appreciated. Jeremy turned to Damon and said to him, seeing the slight worry in his sister's boyfriend's eyes, "Don't worry, Damon. We'll find her. She's just frightened and she's just being plain stubborn right now." Damon nodded at his daughter's best friend and replied, "I know, Jer." If Jeremy didn't know any better, he could see the father side coming out of his friend. Matt crossed his arms and said to his group of friends, "So, who's going to call Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus and tell them that Ellie's missing?" Caroline let out a sigh and replied, "I'll call Elijah. He'll take the news calmly than Klaus and Rebekah will. You guys keep looking for Ellie. My mom will be here in a few minutes with reinforcements." Tyler turned to Bonnie and said to her, "Wait, Bonnie. You're a witch, right?" Bonnie nodded and replied, "The last time I checked I was." Tyler came up with an idea and said, "Can you perform a locator spell to find Ellie?" Bonnie nodded and replied, "I can but I'll need something that belonged to Ellie to do it." Stefan then turned to Matt and said to him, "Matt, you can go back to the bonfire sighting and have your friends from the football team help you look for Ellie. The more reinforcements the better." Damon nodded in agreement and said to Stefan, looking at Jeremy, "Jeremy and I will go look at the cemetery to see if Ellie's there. I have a small gut feeling that she's there." Stefan nodded and replied, "Okay but go easy on Ellie, Damon. She's been through enough already." With that, the group with their separate ways to find the girl they most cared about.