Things started happening faster than I expected… There was a town party, everyone split into their own groups.
Jeremy and I stayed with Vicki and another random girl I wanted to make out with.
I was responsible for Jeremy that night, since the Gilberts wouldn't let him come to the party unless I was the one taking him there and bringing him back.
"Dude… what do I do?" Jeremy pulled me aside, excited. "Vicki called me over, man, what do I do?"
"Simple, go," I answered firmly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But don't take anything she offers you. I don't want to see you high. Make out with her and come back. I want you here before 9 PM."
"Man, you're worse than my dad," Jeremy laughed, gesturing like he was throwing a tantrum.
"That's because I'm responsible for you, brat," I smiled back and gave him a thumbs up. "Now go have fun."
I nudged him toward Vicki, who gave me a thumbs-up.
She was a little project of mine. I was trying to fix her up enough to make her functional. She could be useful in the future, if destiny allowed her to live.
I went back to the log where I was sitting, talking to the girl named Joly, and sat beside her with a goofy smile.
"Done taking care of your kid?" she joked, knowing I was responsible for Jeremy.
"Sure… diapers changed and fed, the child is ready to go play," I said with an ironic smile.
"So drink up, now it's just you and me," I said, and she smiled.
"I want to see if you're really everything you talk about, tiger," she replied with a naughty grin, and I grabbed her by the neck and leaned in to kiss her.
But since my luck is horrible, a hand grabbed my hair and pulled me away from my long-awaited kiss.
"Nik… my adorable friend and brother of my best friend, I need you," Caroline's voice called me, sweet and full of danger. "You promised you'd take us home, right?"
"Hey, I'm busy right now," I shouted, my scalp hurting and my sadness over losing the kiss obvious. "Wait a minute."
"Hey, he's with me," Joly snarled, standing up and pulling me by the arm. "You can have him later."
"You walking sack of syphilis… get lost, important people are talking," Bonnie appeared beside Caroline, who was dragging me away. "Let's go, Nik."
I just had to relax, because they always ruin my potential hookups.
"Alright, but I need to get my kid," I said dramatically. "He can't be alone in this hostile place."
"No need… Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert already picked him up and are looking for Elena," Caroline said, and my eyes widened.
Ohhh shit.
The world stopped for half a second.
That half second when your brain does the math, checks the past, the present, and concludes: this is bad.
"…What do you mean the Gilberts picked him up?" I asked, already getting up from the log like I was late for my own funeral.
Bonnie crossed her arms, the perfect "I told you so" expression on her face.
"They showed up and asked about Jeremy, and guess who pointed to Vicki?" Bonnie said with an amused laugh.
"It was me, I was responsible. Snitching on minors hooking up with adults is my hidden talent," Caroline raised her hand proudly.
"Caroline…" I started, despair mixed with fake humor, "you just destroyed an entire timeline."
She blinked, confused.
"Timeline of what?"
"Nothing. Forget it." I ran a hand over my face. "Did they find Elena?"
"Not yet," Bonnie replied. "But they're looking."
Damn it, how do I get through this without seeming like I knew Elena's parents were going to die and just let it happen?
Bonnie is way too kind to understand that the Gilberts have to die tonight.
I took a deep breath, feeling that old sensation of destiny tightening like a belt.
"Alright. Change of plans. Everyone in the car. Now."
"Wow, tiger lost his claws?" Joly said irritably from outside the conversation. "Turned into a slave for your little girlfriends you're not even going to hook up with, unlike me?"
"It's not losing my claws," I replied, scanning the party for familiar faces. "There are more important things than you right now. If you'll excuse me."
I pulled away from her and dragged the two girls with me.
Bonnie shot me a sharp look.
"Nik."
"Hm?"
"You've got that look again."
"What look?"
"Your 'I know the future and the shit that was going to happen slipped out of my control' look."
I smiled sideways.
"Intuition, Bon. Trust me."
She didn't answer, just got into the car. Caroline followed, still complaining about how Joly ruined her night. I took one last look at the clearing. Laughter. Music.
I'd seen this movie before.
"Where exactly were the Gilberts?" I asked.
Caroline answered. "Heading toward Wickery Bridge."
My foot pressed harder on the accelerator.
"Great. Perfect. Wonderful," I muttered.
Bonnie frowned.
"Nik… what's on the bridge?"
I looked at the road ahead, the dark sky, and thought about how things were changing with just a few small interferences. Was destiny getting revenge on me?
The car sped toward the bridge.
And deep in my chest, that old warning echoed again, and when we reached the bridge—
"Nik, the bridge is broken!" Caroline shouted, pointing at one of the broken side rails. "Something fell there!"
The car screeched to a stop, and a heavy silence fell over us.
My heart sank before I even clearly saw the car.
I jumped out too fast, Bonnie right behind me. The air was cold and damp, with that metallic smell of water and rust. I took a few steps forward and then I saw it.
Bubbles rising.
The Gilberts' car had already sunk, as if the lake was swallowing everything.
"No…" Bonnie covered her mouth. "My God…"
Time did that strange thing again. It didn't stop. It just stretched.
Then I saw the blur—great, Stefan showed up.
Good. One variable resolved.
But there were still too many people inside.
Jeremy.
My jaw clenched.
"Stay here," I murmured, more to myself than to them.
"Nik, what are you going to—" Bonnie started.
I didn't wait.
I jumped into the river without taking off my clothes or anything. The impact almost knocked me out, but the vampire blood, even inactive, healed me.
I dove deeper, used a spell to clear my vision, and saw the car far below.
"Levitate," I said in my mind as I swam, and the car began to rise.
The bubbles froze in the water for a moment—far too unnatural—then the vehicle started to rise, creaking, water spilling as it returned to the surface. I saw Mr. Gilbert still struggling to get Jeremy out, and he saw me and his eyes widened.
He pointed at Jeremy, and I made a hand motion, casting a spell to loosen the door. At the same moment, the back door tore free, creating a vacuum in the water.
I grabbed Jeremy and saw gratitude in Mr. Gilbert's eyes. Then he pointed to the ring on Jeremy's finger and made a slicing motion across his own neck.
Makes sense… very smart, Gilbert…
I used magic again, and Jeremy's neck made a strange movement, and his body went limp.
Thank God, he was still alive.
When I saw that the Gilberts were already dead, I used magic to pull them out of the car and then accelerated toward the surface with magic, because I was out of air. When I reached the surface with the three of them, at that exact moment Jeremy gasped, reviving thanks to the ring.
I swam to the surface carrying Jeremy and the bodies of the two dead Gilberts with magic, and when I reached dry land, I collapsed, exhausted.
When I turned my head, I saw Caroline.
She was standing a few steps back, eyes too wide, face too pale. She wasn't panicking. She was… processing.
"Nik…" her voice came out low, almost respectful. "The car… it climb up."
Bonnie was looking at me too. Unlike Caroline, there was trust there—and damn it, they saw the damn car rising. I hadn't gone deep enough.
"Collective adrenaline," I said, shrugging. "Sometimes people see strange things."
Caroline slowly shook her head.
"No." She swallowed hard. "I saw it. It wasn't adrenaline. My God… the Gilberts."
She was in shock seeing the bodies of Elena and Jeremy's parents, and relieved seeing that Jeremy was still coughing and breathing, even unconscious.
"Caroline, please don't tell anyone," I said weakly as my consciousness faded. "Bonnie, call an ambulance…"
Everything went black.
The darkness didn't come like a clean blackout. It came like water closing over my head.
First the sound disappeared. Then the cold. Finally, the weight.
When I came back to existence, the world was blurry and too loud. Voices overlapping, footsteps running, a distant cry that took my brain a few precious seconds to recognize as real.
"…He's breathing, I swear he's breathing!" "Give him some space, Bonnie, step back!" "The ambulance is coming, I called, I called!"
I opened my eyes with difficulty. The night sky spun slowly, like someone forgot to lock the axis of the universe. My head hurt in a very specific way: magical pain. The bill always comes.
Bonnie was kneeling beside me, one firm hand on my chest, the other gripping my shoulder like I might disappear if she let go.
"Hey…" she said, too relieved to hide it. "Stay awake. Don't you dare pass out again."
"Too late to dare anything…" I muttered, my voice rough.
She laughed, but there were tears there. There always were.
I turned my head slightly and saw Jeremy being placed on the stretcher. Wet, pale, but alive. Coughing. Annoyingly alive. The ring gleamed on his finger under the red ambulance lights, discreet like an inside joke of fate.
Good. One anchor in place.
Then I saw Caroline.
She stood a few steps away, hugging herself, staring at the bodies covered with silver thermal blankets. Elena's parents. The Gilberts. Fundamental pieces of the cosmic domino that had just fallen exactly as it was supposed to.
Her face wasn't hysterical. It was broken. That kind of inner silence that rearranges everything afterward.
Our eyes met.
She knew.
Not everything. Not yet. But enough for the world to never be simple again.
"Nik…" she began softly.
I raised a hand, stopping her. Every inch of my body protested, but I managed.
"Later," I said. "Not now."
She nodded slowly. A fragile, unspoken agreement formed there, like freshly blown glass.
The sirens grew closer. Red and blue lights painted the bridge in colors wrong for a place of death. Someone put a blanket over me. Someone else asked questions I didn't answer.
Before closing my eyes again, I felt Bonnie squeeze my hand.
"You saved him," she said. "You did the impossible."
I smiled crookedly as I slipped back into darkness.
The impossible is just a word the future uses before it happens.
And that night, destiny was obeyed.
But it charged interest, and I ended up breaking canon—and now things will probably happen that are out of my control.