Leo reached for the empty chair beside Bonnie. Its legs dragged across the floor with a rough scrape as he pulled it out. He sat down, settling himself firmly next to Bonnie and directly facing Elena. The two girls had been leaning in very close, their shoulders almost touching. They were talking in soft, low whispers, the kind used for sharing secrets or worrying news. From their tense expressions and the way they huddled, it was clear they were discussing something important and serious.When he sat down, both girls turned their attention to him. Leo pushed the earlier incident with Caroline at the cafeteria door out of his mind, determined to hold onto his good mood.
"Hey," he said, offering a casual smile. "What's up, girls?"
Elena hesitated for a second. She gave a small, tight smile, her fingers toying absently with her fork on the table. "It's nothing much," she began. "Just that Bonnie got hold of this strange locket. It sort of appeared out of nowhere. And it's been bothering her."
Before Elena could say more, Bonnie cut in sharply. "Elena!" Bonnie's eyes locked onto her friend's, deep and flashing with a clear message: Why are you telling him? It was a personal thing, and sharing it felt a little awkward.
Leo's eyebrows drew together in a faint frown. He shifted slightly, looking away to the left for a brief moment as he considered the tension. Then he turned back to Bonnie, his tone soft and careful. "Bonnie," he said. "If you want, can you show me that locket? Maybe I can help you figure it out."
Elena gave Bonnie a pointed stare. Her expression clearly said, See? Your problem might just be solved.
Bonnie answered Elena's look with a tight, unsure smile. Then she turned to face Leo. "Sure," she said, her voice quieter than before. She reached into the collar of her top and pulled out the chain, lifting the locket free to show him.
Leo grabbed the locket from her hand. His fingers brushed lightly against the fabric of her top as he took it. His attention was fixed on the locket itself. He stared at it. The locket had an oval-shaped amber stone at its center, set in a dark, intricate metal frame. The design was antique, with detailed brasswork that looked old and carefully made.
He recognized it instantly. He hadn't expected to find the very locket he'd missed from the party last night, of all places, and in Bonnie's possession. It seemed it was returning to its original owner after all. As far as he could remember from the plot details of the show he'd watched in his previous life, this locket had been worn by Emily Bennett, the handmaid of Katherine Pierce.The details came back to him clearly. Even though he had locked up Damon, the story was stubbornly pushing forward, following the same old paths. Slowly, he dragged his gaze away from the amber and looked up, meeting Bonnie's waiting, curious eyes and said,Bonnie why don't you just throw away this locket
Bonnie's face fell into a look of pure helplessness. "I can't, Leo," she said, her voice strained with frustration. "If I throw it far away, it just… comes back. It reappears around my neck an hour later, by itself. Every single time."
Elena, sitting opposite her, felt her own brows furrow deeply. She watched Bonnie's exhausted expression, hearing the words but struggling to accept them. Her mind, practical and grounded, hit a wall. How can a locket just return on its own? It sounded impossible, like something from a bad ghost story. With a normal, logical brain, anyone would find it hard to believe. A little flicker of doubt stirred in her stomach, but Bonnie's sincere distress kept her from voicing her skepticism out loud.
Seeing there was nothing more to examine, Leo took his hand back. Bonnie quickly tucked the locket back into the safety of her top, the familiar weight settling against her skin once more. A tense silence hung in the air for a beat.
Then Leo spoke, his tone calm and matter-of-fact. "Maybe I can solve this problem," he offered. He paused, letting the words sink in before delivering the catch. "But by doing it, it'll break the locket into pieces."
He didn't say it as a boast, just a simple statement of his capability. After all, with his superhuman strength—a force nearly fifty times greater than any ordinary human—a delicate piece of jewelry like that wouldn't stand a chance. Even if, as he suspected, a little bit of the witch Emily's soul or magic was clinging to the object, empowering it to return, it couldn't handle that much raw, physical power.
Leo watched her, his face giving nothing away. He simply waited. It was her choice, her locket, and he wouldn't push her.
Bonnie's fingers went to the metal resting against her skin. Touching it made her remember the other day, when her grams had seen it. Sheila had frozen, her eyes wide with a shock so deep it had scared Bonnie. Then, her voice low and serious, grams had explained. She had pulled out an old, faded photograph. There was Emily Bennett, clear as day, wearing this exact same locket around her own neck. "That makes it ancestral property, Bonnie," grams had said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "A Bennett family artifact. It's a part of your lineage. A part of you."
Bonnie had just nodded then, her throat tight. She hadn't told grams the whole truth. She didn't mention how it returned when thrown away, or the cold feeling it sometimes carried. How could she? It would only worry her, and the locket's connection to their family seemed to mean so much to her. Saying she wanted to destroy it would feel like a betrayal.
That feeling was still there now, warring inside her. She couldn't let Leo break it. Not yet. It wasn't just a creepy piece of jewelry anymore. It was a link. A mystery tied directly to her bloodline. Why had it chosen her? What did it want? If she smashed it to pieces, she might never get those answers. Her own need to understand, what this power in her blood really meant, was stronger than her fear of the locket itself. For now.
She met Leo's waiting gaze. "For now," she said, her voice firmer as she made the decision, "I don't want anything to happen to this locket." She paused, acknowledging his offer. "But if I need it… if I need you to break it, I will tell you."
Leo gave a single, small nod. That was good enough for him. He turned back to his plate, picking up his fork. He began to eat, but his mind was working.
The locket's purpose, according to the plot he remembered, was crystal clear. It was a key. Specifically, the key to unlocking the tomb where those 26 other vampires were buried. That was its whole reason for being. But that path was effectively closed now. Damon Salvatore, the one who was most obsessed with opening that tomb, was currently locked in a cell. Without Damon driving the mission forward, the whole crisis seemed… postponed, if not cancelled.
He thought about Emily Bennett's spirit, tied to the locket. In the story, she would eventually possess Bonnie, using her body and power. And what was the first thing that spirit would want to do? Destroy the locket herself. Why? Because Emily knew better than anyone the catastrophe those 26 vampires would unleash if they ever got out. They weren't just a threat to the town; they were a direct threat to her own descendants, the Bennett witch line. Letting them roam free would be a disaster for her family's legacy.
So, in a way, the problem might solve itself. The locket would eventually be taken care of by the very witch whose soul was attached to it. All he had to do was wait, and keep an eye on Bonnie. For now, there was no immediate emergency.
Bonnie watched as Leo simply accepted her decision and went back to his food. He didn't argue, didn't try to persuade her, just gave that nod and moved on. A small wave of relief, mixed with gratitude, washed over her. He'd offered help, but was leaving the choice in her hands. It made her feel a little more in control of a situation that felt wildly out of control.
Feeling a bit lighter, she turned her attention to her own plate. As she glanced up, her eyes met Elena's across the table purely by chance. Without thinking, a small, genuine smile touched Bonnie's lips.
Elena saw the smile and was immediately confused. Her brows knit together. They had just been talking about a magical, returning locket and possible destruction—serious, frightening stuff. Why was Bonnie smiling now? Elena knew her friend well enough to know Bonnie didn't just smile for no reason, especially not after a tense discussion like that.
Bonnie's smile had a reason, though it wasn't about the locket. It was about Elena. Earlier, Elena had told Leo about the locket's problem without asking Bonnie first. Normally, that might have bothered her—it was her secret, her weird burden. But seeing how it played out, with Leo offering a solution but not forcing it, Bonnie felt less irritated. Still, Elena had shared her private business. In Bonnie's mind, that created a kind of imbalance. Friends don't just reveal each other's secrets without giving up something of their own in return. It felt inappropriate, like Elena was holding all the cards.
So, Bonnie decided to balance the scales. She'd give Elena a little shock, a taste of having a private matter suddenly brought into the open.
She kept her voice casual, as if commenting on the weather. "Elena," she began, her smile turning a tiny bit knowing. "You and Leo are currently dating,right?. And you even kept it a secret from me."
The effect was instant. Elena's eyes flew wide open, her face a perfect picture of stunned disbelief. Her fork slipped from her fingers, clattering lightly against her plate. "How did you know?" she blurted out, her voice rising in genuine surprise. Her mind raced. They had only shared that one kiss, and then Caroline had burst in, making a huge, dramatic scene. The only people who knew were right there at that moment: herself, Leo, Caroline, and Stefan. There was zero chance Stefan would have told Bonnie—he was the soul of discretion. And Caroline?She didn't know.
At the same time, Leo, who had been taking a drink of water after finishing his meal, choked. A sudden cough erupted from him as the water went down the wrong pipe. He put his glass down hard, coughing into his fist, his eyes watering slightly. The directness of Bonnie's statement, the fact that she knew, and the timing of it all hit him like a physical jab to the chest, interrupting the calm he'd been feeling just a second before.
Bonnie didn't even glance at Leo, who was still clearing his throat from his choking fit. She kept her eyes on Elena, answering her shocked question with a flat, matter-of-fact tone. "Who else could it be except Caroline?" she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "She called me at 3 AM last night. Woke me right up." Bonnie's expression was a mix of irritation at the lost sleep and amusement at the memory. "She went on and on about how you and Leo had betrayed her. Of course, I only believed about half of it. I know how Caroline gets. Everything is the biggest drama ever, the end of the world. So I took the main point—that you two are together—and filtered out all the hysterics."
Elena's face shifted from surprise to a slow, dawning understanding. "Oh," she said, the single word heavy with realization. Of course it was Caroline. It was always Caroline. She felt Leo's gaze on her and turned to meet it. A warm flush immediately crept up her neck and onto her cheeks. Looking back at her plate, she fumbled for words. "So it was Caroline," she repeated, mostly to herself. She felt a pang of guilt, thinking of her friend's tearful, late-night call. "I do feel a little sorry for her, Bonnie. I really do." She reached for a tissue from the dispenser in the middle of the table, pulling one out just to have something to do with her hands. "But from my point of view… it's a big kind of misunderstanding. What's happening with Caroline. It's so big I don't even know how to explain it." She dabbed at her mouth with the tissue, even though she hadn't been eating, using the action to hide her flustered expression.
"I understand," Bonnie said simply. And she did, in a way. She could see the serious look in her friend's eyes, a look that went deeper than just a simple high school crush.
On the side, Leo had finally stopped coughing. The conversation had taken a turn into deeply personal territory, and he felt like an intruder in a moment between the two friends. More than that, the spotlight was now squarely on him and Elena, and it made the air feel too thick. He quickly gathered his plate and glass, the utensils clattering slightly. He stood up abruptly, the legs of his chair scraping against the floor. "I'm leaving," he announced, his voice a little rougher than usual from the choking.
He turned to Elena. She looked up at him, her brown eyes wide and still full of that shy, embarrassed awareness. Seeing that look made his own chest feel tight. "See you after school, Elena," he said, his tone softening just for her. Then, without another word, he turned and walked away, heading for the hallway and his next class.
Bonnie watched him go, then turned back to Elena with a slow, mischievous grin. The serious mood from the locket talk was completely gone, replaced by classic best-friend teasing. "You know," Bonnie said, her voice dropping to a playful murmur, "if I wasn't sitting right here, you two probably would have started kissing already, huh?"
Elena's head snapped up, the shyness burning away into mock outrage. She didn't say a word. Instead, she fixed Bonnie with a sharp, potent glare, the kind that promised future payback for the embarrassment. But the red still high on her cheeks gave her away completely.
...
Next Chapter - 50 powerstones.