Talisman

"We have a deal."

"I need details, YahYah. Don't fuck me on this. My dad's a dick, and my Grams needs something to fall back on." Solomon spoke to the Spirit in all seriousness.

"And your mother?" The Spirit asked.

"For Bonnie's sake. That woman is dead, and I will never seek her out. Now tell me what you have."

"A witch name Lena. Her magic went haywire one day, and she turned to drugs. It killed her. Her son is alive, and like his mother, he's a two-bit witch using his magic pulling jobs in Atlanta."

"Name?" Solomon asked. However, he spent many years interacting with the Spirit and always remained cautious of the woman.

"After the cult is dead and the time capsule recovered," YahYah replied.

Solomon nodded with an ever so slight frown as the Spirit vanished.

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Back in Mystic Falls, Bonnie had finally calmed her nerves and was packing her suitcase. Grams leaned against the doorway and asked, "You leavin'?"

Bonnie replied as she continued to pack her things. "Dad doesn't like it when I stay here too much."

"Because he misses you or because he doesn't trust me?" Grams asked.

Bonnie turns around to face her grandmother. She knew the topic of her father was a sensitive one in the family.

" Your father's problem is he lacks imagination. He thinks I fill your head with my witchy juju." Grams added light-heartedly.

"He's right," said Bonnie.

"He's always right, that's his other problem." Grams added as she and Bonnie snickered together.

Bonnie then reaches down to the bed to pick up Emily's Talisman. Grams slightly frowns.

"Uh-uh. You need to be wearing that." She says as she approaches Bonnie.

"I gotta give it back to Caroline. It doesn't belong to me." Bonnie replied.

"Yes, it does. It was your ancestor's, and now it's yours." Grams was quick to correct Bonnie.

"Emily was your ancestor too, why don't you wear it?" Bonnie attempted to pawn the Talisman off due to the slight fear of the Talisman.

"It didn't find me, it found you, protected you." Bonnie turns around, and Grams pulls Bonnie's hair into a ponytail, clearing the way for the Talisman.

"A witch's Talisman is a powerful tool, don't be givin' that back to anybody," added Grams.

"OK. " Bonnie caved as she put the Talisman around her neck. She then turns and quips. "I just wish it was prettier."

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Later that day, Bonnie enters Elena's room. Elena is lying down in her bed, wallowing in her sadness.

"You up?" asked Bonnie as knocked on Elena's bedroom door.

"No.," she replied.

Elena then turns over in her bed and pulls the covers over her head, while Bonnie walks over to accompany her best friend.

Bonnie pulls the cover to reveal Elena to the world, Though resists as she pleads, " No, no!"

Elena finally ends her resistance, and Bonnie asks, "Why haven't you called me back?"

"I'm sorry," Elena answers with a heavy sigh.

"Are you gonna stay in there forever?" Bonnie gestures to the bed that Elena hadn't left for hours.

"Yep," Elena replied, obviously emotionally distressed and keen on hiding from the world.

Bonnie sighs. "Move over," she says as she lies down next to Elena. "I'm officially worried. What's going on?"

Elena shakes her head as she looks towards the ceiling. " I'm tired of thinking...of talking I..."

"Can I get a one-line version so I can at least pretend to be helpful?"

Elena looked at Bonnie and gave it to her straight. "Stefan and I broke up."

" I'm so sorry. Are you OK?"

Elena gives Bonnie a 'what do you think?' expression.

"Right, stupid question. I know I've been kind of M.I.A. when you need me the most. I suck."

Elena was just glad to have Bonnie around and immediately gave her a way out. "You wanna make it up to me. Get my mind off of it," she said.

Bonnie takes a breath, and a thought suddenly appears in her mind. "Just remember you asked for it."

Bonnie closes the window and grabs one of Elena's pillows. She rips it and empties it of the feathers.

"Hey!" Elena cries out.

"Be patient," says Bonnies

"OK."

Bonnie takes a seat on the bed and seriously says, "I need to swear you to secrecy."

"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff."

"Swear, 'cause I'm not supposed to be showing you this." Bonnie retorts.

Elena gives in. "OK, I swear."

"OK, There's no windows open, right?"

Elena looks around and replies, "Right" in agreement.

"There's no fan. No air conditioning."

" None. What are you doing?" Elena stammers.

Bonnie smiles with excitement. "Grams just showed me this. You're gonna love it. You ready?"

Elena nodes her. Bonnie focuses her mind and levitates a feather in front of Elena. Elena watches on with shock and amazement.

"Bonnie, what's going on?" Elena asks.

Bonnie just continues to smile. She rubs her hand together, exhales briefly, and levitates several more feathers, creating a small wonderland.

Elena gasps as she rises from her bed and looks around with speechless wonder. The sight was amazing and unreal. If she hadn't been dating a vampire, she would have never believed the magic that now turned her room into a scene straight from a fantasy novel.

"It's true, Elena. Everything my Grams told me. It's impossible. But it's true. I'm a witch."

Elena held her hands to her mouth in astonishment. She nodded her enthusiastically as she tells Bonnie, " I believe you."

The feathers fell to the bed, and Bonnie allowed Elena some time to calm down.

" It's weird, huh?" Bonnie finally asked. "After all the times joking about being psychic. I really am a witch. You don't think I'm a freak now, do you?"

"No, of course not. Bonnie, I just...don't understand, though. If your Grams asked you to keep all this a secret, why did you tell me?"

" You're my best friend. I can't keep secrets from you."

Elena instantly feels a wave of shame, guilt, and embarrassment crash into her. She thought that she failed as a best friend for keeping things from not only Bonnie but also Caroline.

_________________________________________________________

The night of the cult meeting came fast. Solomon watched as men draped in black gathered around the great Georgia Guidestones.

'The ritual should commence shortly. be ready.' A soft voice whispered through the veil to the Otherside

"Have my payment ready," Solomon replied as he reclined in a tree and watched the weird-looking cult.

The Spirit scoffed, and it was the last that Solomon heard from the pestering witch.

Before he knew it, the night of the ritual was upon him. Solomon found himself interested in the bleakly dressed cult. When they had gathered, they all welcome each other with smiling faces and pure intentions.

The cult seemed well mannered. Solomon began to wonder why he had to kill many decent people for an old Time Capsule. Once the ritual started, things became even weirder when.

Solomon could hear their chants and watched their action. He was astonished to find out that every practitioner of the cult was human. Not a drop of magic was present.

Three men and a woman step out of the group. Together they begin to open a secret hatch and remove a foot tall silver capsule from the earth.

'This is it.' he thought.

Solomon leapt from his tree branch and walked towards the cult gathering. No matter how he felt about the humans dabbling in unknown forces. He was given a job and had many debts to pay to the pesky witch on the other side.

Solomon muttered, and a ring of fire ignited around the gathering, trapping its attendants.

Stepping through fire like a hell fiend, Solomon commenced his massacre. It was slaughter unseen since ancient times.

People screamed, cried, and begged. Some even fought to no avail. Those who ran were scorched by fire or forced to run into Solomon's blade.

The Spirit watched from the Otherside. Thoroughly satisfied, her smile was almost manic.

When the massacre finished, and the earth was doused with blood, Solomon opened the capsule to find a talisman made of an ancient leather necklace attached to a pendant made of human bone.

Solomon grabs the Talisman and claims the power of the human lives that took, pulling the power into the ancient Talisman.

_________________________________________________________________

Back in Mystic Falls, Bonnie was tossing and turning in her sleep. Sweat moistens her body, and her clothes clung to her plastic wrap.

In her dream, she is running through the woods. She trips and falls by the old ruins of a church. Bonnie quickly pushes herself up to run away. Bonnie turns around only to come face-to-face with her ancestor, Emily Bennett. Bonnie stopped as her thumps from the sudden scare.

"It's coming," Emily says.

Bonnie's body jerks, and she wakes up in the woods. She looks around in confusion, surrounded by trees, tombstones, and an abandoned crypt.