Vampire Diaries
“Discovery”

Bonnie’s encounter with Damon has both frightened and intrigued her. With Elena’s help they have decided to investigate Katherine and her connection to the Salvatore family.

At Bonnie’s grandmother’s (Gram’s) house, she and Elena search to find something about Katherine’s family or how she arrived in Mystic Falls. After looking through newspapers, photos, and many old books, Bonnie finally comes across a packet of letters. She reads the top letter it’s dated March 4th 1848. “My dearest Lillian,” it begins, and is signed “Your beloved sister, Emily.”

“Oh my God, Elena! I found an entire stack of letters from Emily, to her sister, Lillian! If Emily was a witch I’m sure Lillian was too. There has to be something in here about how she saved Katherine and all those vampires!”

Both girls picked up a few letters and began to read. After two hours, and learning nothing more than the few tricks Emily used to help her work, the two girls were exhausted. Elena decided to return home for the night, but promised to come back tomorrow.

When she’s walking to her room, Elena sees her brother staring at a bunch of open books. It’s odd for him to be so concerned about schoolwork, but when she looks a little closer she can tell they aren’t textbooks.

“Hey Jer, whatcha lookin’ at?” She asks, in the nicest and not nosiest voice she can muster. He has been so private and defensive since Vicki’s disappearance; the slightest thing could upset him.

“All these books Aunt Jenna showed me. I have to write a paper for Mr. Saltzman, the new history teacher. He wants it to be about the history of the town, he thinks all small towns have rich histories, or some crap like that. Aunt Jenna said these might help, she said that they had been in the Gilbert family for generations. This one’s a diary,” he points to a smaller brown leather book. “It’s got the craziest pictures in it,” he flips to a page with a man’s face. The face isn’t normal though, it’s distorted and frightening, but it looks oddly familiar to her. She gasps when she realizes that this face looks exactly like Stefan’s face when he sees blood. “I know pretty intense huh?” Jeremy says, assuming Elena is startled by the image, if only he knew just how disturbing this picture really was.

“Oh yeah, they’re very…um creative,” Elena manages to get a few words out. “Does he mention what they are pictures of?”

“I haven’t read much yet, but it’s possible. The same guy also wrote this novel about vampires, though. So maybe the pictures were his inspiration?”
“Wow, really? Do you think I could borrow this after you write your paper?”

“Yeah, actually you can take it now, I think I have enough basic information. I’m sure Mr. Saltzman doesn’t want to be a paper all about the Gilberts anyway. Here you go.”

After exchanging “goodnights” she goes to her room, and immediately sends Bonnie a text saying, “You’ll never believe it, but my ancestors knew about the vampires too! Found a diary with all these sketches of vampires and a novel about vampires. I’m reading them, and will explain tomorrow!”

Elena and Bonnie both stay up all night reading letters and diaries written by their ancestors. When Elena arrives at Gram’s the next morning the two of them are just gushing with information.

“I found letters about the day when Katherine moved to Mystic Falls!” Bonnie exclaims as soon as she opens the door for Elena.

“I read an entire book recounting the sightings and attacks of vampires, from like a hundred years ago!” Elena answers.

After both girls have calmed down they take turns relaying information to one another.

“Apparently, Katherine moved to Mystic Falls, without any parents or husband. Of course at that time, this was very unheard of. The story that circulated was that she had married a much older and wealthier man, who had unfortunately died after falling onto a piece of broken wood, and left her with an enormous fortune. She left their house and traveled for a while, then finally decided to settle here.”

“A piece of wood huh? Sounds like the old man was probably a vampire too, I bet he used mind control to get her to marry him, then turned her into a vampire so he wouldn’t have to be lonely. That’s probably where she got the idea to do it to Stefan and Damon. I wonder if she killed him. That still doesn’t explain how Emily knew Katherine.”

“Well that’s the thing! Apparently Katherine was aware of Emily’s being a witch, so she hired her as a servant. Here let me read you this letter,
‘Miss Katherine is very interested in potions and spells, as if being able to control a mind is not enough, she craves complete control of everything. I am afraid to cross her; she is a very powerful vampire. I have been hearing stories of animals attacking, bodies found with bites on the neck, and no blood. I know it is her doing, and I do not want that to happen to me. She has asked me to create a potion to allow her to walk in the sun. I know if I do that more people will die, but if I tell her no, I will die, and I’m sure she will not spare you, my beautiful sister, or any of our family. I have been studying the book, but of course there is no recipe for vampires. I am trying to create something, but it is very difficult. If you have any suggestions please share them.’
She goes on to talk about the things she has tried, but how none of them have worked. Then in another letter, she tells her sister she has found the right recipe and it worked! She tells her soaked a ring in the potion, and as long as Katherine is wearing the ring, the sun will not harm her! Isn’t that insane? My ancestor created a potion to keep vampires safe! No wonder Emily did not want to release Katherine, after all the horrible deaths she caused!”

“Wow, I cannot believe how awful Katherine was, or that Stefan was so in love with her.”

“Elena, you can’t blame him, she had control over his mind!”

“I know, but still. If he’s been pining for her for so long, it just seems like she should’ve been worth it.”

“Well, now he’s pining over you, so you should just relax. He is so in love with you, it’s kind of disgusting. Now tell me about what you read.”

“Well it was this diary from an ancestor of mine. He wrote mostly everyday things, but then he started writing about the animal attacks. He had theories about what was causing them, and so I guess he began to investigate them. I think one night he must have seen a vampire. I don’t know how he didn’t get caught, but he described in detail the thing that was eating a person, then he drew a sketch of its face. It looked just like their faces. It was really scary. He only told a few people what he saw because no one believed him. They thought he had gone mad! I think that’s when he started writing down all his sightings, and all the information he had. After he died, one of his sons found the book and sent it out to be published as a novel. Everyone thought the man had written it as fiction, but according to his diary, it was all real.”

“I wonder why now, after all these years, they’re back.”

As soon as the words were out of Bonnie’s mouth there was a loud pounding on the door. Startled, they both go to answer it. It’s Damon.

“Well hello ladies, how are you today? Feeling a little smarter than yesterday?”

“What do you want Damon?” Elena asks curtly.

“Well actually I want to talk to Bonnie, alone if you don’t mind.”

Elena looks at Bonnie, who says she’s fine and so Elena leaves.

“Why do you want to talk to me Damon?”

He stares her in the eye and says, “Because now that you know about your powers they will become stronger, strong enough to make a potion to free Katherine. You want to help me free Katherine.”

Powerless and unaware of Damon’s mind control, Bonnie replies, “Okay.”

Damon takes off and Bonnie she begins to research how to create a potion that might break Emily’s spell and free Katherine, and the rest of the vampires from underneath the church.