The Forgotten One (The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter Six

"I missed you too, buddy." Damon pats his back in comfort.

"I can't believe it." They both pull apart. "I thought you were gone."

Damon smiles. "Well, you didn't think I was gone gone! I promised you an eternity of misery." He chuckles sadly.

"What happened to Bonnie and who's this?" He finally notices my presence.

"Bonnie..." I share a look with Damon as I soften my voice. "She sacrificed herself so that we could come back."

"But, let's not share that with the others. No sense in making this harder than it already is." Damon adds.

"That still doesn't answer my question." Stefan glances over at me. "Who are you?"

I open my mouth but, Damon interrupts again. "I think we should save that for later."

"I really should go, Damon." I inch back but he doesn't let me. "I'm gonna have to figure it out without you anyways." I shrug. "You're back, Damon. You can go see my- You can go see Elena. It's all you talked about over there. Now's your chance. I can figure it out on my own."

"Scar..." He takes a step forward.

I hold up my hand. "Damon," I pull him into my arms. "I am grateful for having you show up and annoy the shit out of me." We share a sad chuckle. "You're acting like I'm gonna disappear." We pull away. "I just wanna see what the town is like. Explore."

"You can explore with me." He pouts.

"Wait so, where was there?" Stefan chimes in.

"Mystic Falls, 1994." I answer.

"I know." Damon smirks. "If a bunch of witches were going to get together and create some space-time purgatory, you'd think they'd pick a better year than the one Kurt Cobain killed himself in. The whole thing was just very depressing." He follows it up with another swig, holding out the bottle in my direction.

"No, thank you." I push it back to him.

"So, how did you get back?" Stefan sighs.

"Long story, big flash of light, two decades worth of jet lag. I will explain all of my adventures in that flannel hellscape but first, there's someone I got to go see." He claps his brother on the back and turns around, pausing at the sight of me.

"Go, Damon."

"Uh," Stefan winces. "You probably shouldn't..."

"And why not?" Damon slowly turns towards his brother.

"She compelled your memories away."

"She did what?" Damon asks, shocked and appalled.

Stefan hesitates. "...She had Alaric do it."

"I just need to see her, Stefan! Our eyes will meet, fireworks will go off, and the balance of nature will be restored. She loves me!"

Glancing around awkwardly, I realize something's missing. In all the struggling with Kai, I must have dropped my bag with the baby sonogram.

Well, fuck.

This time I was able to slip away unnoticed.

**

Everything looks so different yet not at the same time. The clock tower still looks the same, some of the old shops are still there except for the phone stores. We didn't have those kinds of phones back then. What we had were like bricks. I stayed away from Mystic Falls town center because of the barrier.