𝟖𝟎

a/n: Lottie's outfit for the chapter is above!

☆═━ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐘━═☆

"New York? Are you kidding me?" Charlotte scoffed out, leaving Damon on speaker as she tried to clean the mess of last night's party, "She tries to kill Caroline's mom and you take her to freaking New York?"

Knowing him, she guessed Damon Salvatore was rolling his eyes at her as he replied with no care in the world, "And that tone is the reason I didn't pick up the phone the first thirty-two times you called."

"You seriously need to change that voicemail," Charlotte guessed he wasn't speaking to her with Elena next to him so she asked, "And where is she now?"

"I won't. And she is out, exploring," He drawled out, adding, "Maybe she's eating a hot dog...vendor."

"Way to go, Damon," She sucked in a deep breath, shaking her head, "How is this fixing our problem again? What happened to you finding Katherine?"

"Relax, little Char," Damon assured as the brunette wrinkled her nose, knowing that he was trying to take her attention off a mess he made every time he used that nickname, "This little joyride is actually a cure hunt."

She picked up her phone, closing the speaker and resting it between her shoulder and ear as he continued, "That vampire that Katherine sent after Hayley was a friend of mine. He lived in the city. Will got vampires fake identities, and I'm sure that Katherine was one of his clients."

"Something tells me Elena doesn't know about this cure hunt."

There was a bit of shuffling in the background before he responded, "Yeah...I didn't tell her."

Charlotte pursed her lips together, "You do realize that if she finds out you are still looking for it, she will just bolt out of there, right?"

"I'm aware of that, Charlotte," He sighed, claiming foolishly, "What I'm hoping is that she's gonna be so wasted on booze and blood that she won't even think about it."

"Well, I hope you realize how stupid that is," Charlotte huffed out, picking up a trash bag, "You can't handle her. She will trick you, and trust me, you will fall for it."

"I won't."

"Oh, you will, it's called being hopelessly in love with someone, Damon."

He stopped talking for a few beats and Charlotte had to check to see if he hung up before he finished, "Just deal with the immortal named Silas and let me handle this."

Charlotte nodded to herself before hanging up. She left her phone on the couch and looked back at the living room. Somehow it just got worse as she went on with the cleaning. The brunette took in a deep breath and poured the alcohol left in the cup into the sink. She watched it go down the drain before tossing the empty cup in the bin.

"My, my, seemed like a great party," Charlotte turned around, spotting Klaus at the end of the room.

"Great isn't the word I would use," She commented, exhaling sharply, "What are you doing here?"

The Mikaelson was about to respond before Stefan entered the room, answering, "I asked him to be here. We need his help. With Silas."

The Bernard dropped the trash bag to the floor and questioned, "Would it hurt to let me know about any part of your miraculous, never succeeding, and absolutely stupid plans? For like once?"

✵ ✵ ✵

Charlotte had called Caroline to let her join in on...whatever that was. Klaus was pouring himself a drink, Charlotte had her legs crossed together from where she sat on the couch opposite to him. Caroline was sitting down next to the brunette and Stefan was standing behind them.

"So some blood went missing from a few hospitals. What about Elena?" He wondered, taking a sip from his drink, "Don't vampires with their humanity off tend to overindulge in human blood, or were you the exception?" Klaus raised an eyebrow, addressing Stefan.

Charlotte spoke up, "It's not Elena."

Klaus shrugged, going along with them, "Well, let's say for a moment that it was Silas. I'm struggling to see how this affects me."

"Look. Silas wants to die and be reunited with his one true love, but he's supernatural, so if he takes the cure and dies, he gets stuck on the Other Side."

"How Shakespearian," The hybrid mocked.

Charlotte folded her arms together, stating, "But if he does succeed and destroy the Other Side altogether, he can take the cure, die, and pass on. The small downside is when he does that, every dead supernatural is back from the dead," She paused before elaborating, "That means every vampire, every werewolf, and every witch that you had ever killed."

"You care yet?"

"My interest is piqued," He smiled at her before turning to Stefan, "How do we stop him?"

Stefan started, "Bonnie said Silas needs to complete three massacres to do this spell. Before Professor Shane died, he convinced the pastor to blow up the Council," He crossed his arms together, stating, "Next, he had you kill your hybrids, and now he only needs one more massacre, so if he's here, that's what he's doing. We need to find him."

✵ ✵ ✵

"I don't like this place," Charlotte commented, looking around Shane's office and exhaling sharply. It was nighttime already and the four of them had no luck finding something...well, Charlotte didn't even know what they were looking for so there was that.

Caroline huffed out after a few moments of silence, "What are we even looking for?"

"Well, if Shane really was working with Silas, chances are he was helping him plan his next move," Stefan stated hopefully.

Charlotte ran her tongue over her bottom lip, nodding, "Yes, I am sure we will find his evil villainy to-do list somewhere around here."

Caroline chuckled, following up, "Steal blood, perform 3 massacres, pick up dry cleaning?"

Klaus interjected, claiming, "Actually, not to nit-pick, but we evil villains usually use minions to pick up our dry cleaning, that sort of thing."

The Bernard clicked her tongue, shrugging, "Maybe it's because he is a second-hand villain, he doesn't have minions yet."

Stefan looked between the two when Klaus shook his head at her before Caroline sighed, asking, "Why is he necessary again?"

"Well, we don't know what Silas can do, so if we do have to go head to head with him, an Original hybrid who can't die might come in handy."

Charlotte pulled out a book from one of the shelves, skimming through it. She hoped for any kind of note, a hidden something but no sort of luck as Klaus claimed smugly, "Besides, Stefan and I work well together, or at least we did in the twenties."

Stefan pointed out, "Well, granted my emotions were off."

"And that's why you were more fun, just as Damon is probably relishing in Elena's emotionless company in New York," The hybrid grinned, sitting down on Shane's chair.

"My brother knows what he's doing," The Salvatore stated, more to reassure himself than to doubt the Mikaelson.

"Does he?" Klaus repeated, clasping his hands together, "Don't underestimate the allure of darkness, Stefan," A grin made its way onto his lips as he finished, "Even the purest hearts are drawn to it."

The Forbes vampire turned to look at Charlotte putting down the third book she found on the shelf. She seemed to think over his words, thinking of the connection he and Charlotte were forming. She didn't know if she could call it a connection but it was something for sure.

"Still, I'm sure it'll all be fine," Klaus said, shrugging it off.

Charlotte spoke up, placing a book in front of Klaus on the desk, "Symbolic figures in Dark Arts. Bonnie said something about an Expression triangle," The brunette pointed at a large, intricate drawing of a triangle.

Stefan moved around her to get a better look at the book before reading from the page opposite, "In some schools of magic such as Expression, human sacrifice can be used as a focus for power. It is rumored that the addition of two supernatural sacrifices compounds the mystical energy, creating an Expression Triangle."

Caroline pointed at a symbol in the drawing, "Humans, that was the council fire," She pointed at another symbol, "Demons, Klaus' hybrid failure."

He rolled his eyes, "Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a failure. What's the third?"

The blonde brought her clasped hands to her mouth as Charlotte spoke up, "Witches."

✵ ✵ ✵

Charlotte laid out a map of Mystic Falls when Caroline and Stefan left to find Bonnie. She marked the two first massacres, "There've been two massacres," She pointed over with her pen, "Pastor Young's farm is here," She noticed Klaus barely looking down at the map before shaking her head and continuing, "And the old Lockwood cellar, where you killed 12 of your hybrids, is here."

She drew a line connecting the two locations, "According to the book, the Expression Triangle is equilateral, putting it here," She drew another two lines, forming a triangle on the map.

"Or—"

She cut him off, "I am not done," Charlotte drew two more lines forming another triangle opposite of her first, "Or here. Sorry, Geometry is one of my favorite subjects, wouldn't want anyone to correct me when it comes to it."

"No, of course. It's impressive how caught up you are with everything now."

Charlotte smiled. It was not common for people to acknowledge how hard it must have been to catch up with everything after spending a century and a half away from civilization. It's not that they didn't compliment her, it's just when people said it, it reminded her of what a horrible experience it was but when Klaus said it, it was different. It just made her want to keep smiling.

She shrugged her shoulders, "It hasn't been easy but it worked. I am just exceptionally good with mathematics...I am hoping to be an architect one day," He raised his eyebrows and she continued, "It's close enough from my father's job back then."

"I reckon you will be one of the best."

"I hope," She sighed, looking down at the map before Stefan walked into the room with Caroline.

Caroline looked between the two of them again and Charlotte shook her head at her friend's antics before asking, "Did you find Bonnie?"

"No, but we talked to her dad. I think we found Silas."

✵ ✵ ✵

Charlotte had her flashlight on as she walked through the woods with Klaus. He had the map on his phone so he was leading the way, "How far is it?"

"We are close," He answered shortly and she inhaled sharply before he asked, "How are things with Stefan? He didn't look all too happy with you."

Charlotte snorted out, "Stefan is never all too happy with me. It's the usual. It's our...thing."

"You know, when we split up you did have the option of going with Stefan," Klaus pointed out.

The brunette raised her eyebrows, "And leave you with Caroline? She would tear you apart. She is tougher than she looks," Charlotte folded her arms together, walking forward, "And would probably grill you about the whole allure to the darkness thing you were murmuring about."

"What about it?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes and kept walking but he stopped and turned to face her so she shrugged her shoulders, "Caroline thinks that I am drawn to you because you have certain darkness around you. It's silly."

"Really?" The hybrid questioned, raising an eyebrow, "So you've never felt the attraction that comes when someone who's capable of doing terrible things for some reason cares only about you?"

"I am saying it's just what Caroline thinks."

"And I am asking you. What do you think?"

Charlotte pursed her lips together, "A couple of times maybe. I don't believe that there are terrible people. We are all just people who sometimes do terrible things," She shrugged her shoulders, finishing, "No one is born terrible. They are made that way and I can't judge people because I haven't suffered as much as they did."

She ran a hand through her hair, sighing, "So if someone terrible cares about me, that's another proof that they are not so terrible."

"But you did," He reminded her, "You did suffer and you came out just the same."

She chuckled humorlessly, "Yeah, I like to believe that sometimes but it's not the truth."

He didn't speak for a few seconds before she looked down at his phone, "And we are here," She pointed over at the space full of tress, "But I don't think that's the correct location."

✵ ✵ ✵

They found the second location, Charlotte ran towards Caroline when she found the blonde kneeling on the ground, Stefan a few feet away. Both weakened by the witches' chanting.

"They're linked," Stefan revealed, clutching his head in pain, "Bonnie's gonna kill them."

"Not if the witches kill her first," He pulled him and Caroline away from the circle of witches.

Caroline shook her head, looking out for Charlotte, "We need to save her, Charlotte."

The brunette looked at Klaus who scoffed out, "How? The only way to stop the witches is to kill them, and then Silas gets what he wants."

Aja continued chanting louder, "Spirits, take her soul. Free her from darkness," She held the dagger over Bonnie and as Charlotte heard her scream in pain, she shook her head at herself for even thinking twice before vamp-speeding into the circle. She forcefully pulled the dagger in the witch's hands and stabbed her in the chest, killing her.

"No!" Klaus shouted as Charlotte backed away and the witches dropped dead one after the other, the torches' flames burned out. She looked down at her hands with the blood of the witch on them but it wasn't just one witch that died.

She suddenly remembered why she had done it and knelt in front of Bonnie as Caroline ran over to them, "Bonnie! Bonnie, wake up!"

The Bennett witch opened her eyes but all that Charlotte could see was milky white soulless eyes as uttered out, "The triangle is complete."

✵ ✵ ✵

Charlotte placed the shovel aside after closing the last grave. It was daylight then and Klaus had helped her bury them even after she claimed that it was her fault and she could handle it.

"You didn't have to stay," She pointed out once again.

"Twelve graves for twelve witches. Like it never happened," He rolled down his sleeves, "Only it did happen, and now Silas has everything he needs to open the gates to hell on earth."

"I couldn't think," Charlotte spoke up, her voice barely above a whisper, "My friend was about to die and I didn't know what to do but make sure that she comes out alive."

"Oh, you are smarter than that, love," He titled his head, reminding her, "One is still less than twelve."

"I guess I am selfish then," She looked up at him, stating, "One of my terrible qualities peaking out. Not being able to stand the sight of someone I love dying in front of me. How anticlimactic, huh?"

Charlotte ignored him after that and squeezed her eyes shut, "They were here to help her...They didn't know any of this could have happened."

"Hey," He placed his hands on her arms, "You did what you thought was right."

"And consequences be damned," Charlotte shook her head at herself, sucking in a deep breath. That was for Bonnie. Bonnie would do anything for the people she loves and she deserves to live.

"You look like you are in need of comfort."

"After I had you bury six bodies?" She raised an eyebrow, clicking her tongue, "Doesn't sound fair."

"There were eight," Klaus corrected and she shook her head. He had to bury six bodies and so did she. That was how it was supposed to go, "I took two of yours when you weren't looking. I guess you were just so far up there to care really."

"And they say chivalry is dead, clearly haven't met you."

✵ ✵ ✵