~ Founder's Day ~ Part Two ~

Ronnie's POV

"Ronnie, please explain to me what I just heard, 'cause I'm freaking out here." Bash said, pulling me to the side after Stefan finally stopped groaning.

My shoulders slumped a bit as I realized I had accidentally exposed an innocent person to this world. I looked at him sadly, knowing after he found out the truth, he would never be the same again. I wasn't. Bonnie wasn't. Elena wasn't. Anyone who knows about this world changes, and usually it wasn't for the better. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, Bonnie shut herself away from us all, and Elena is dating a 164-year-old vampire who she'll never have a real life with. "Bash, it doesn't matter what I tell you now. I'm just going to have someone make you forget. You don't deserve this."

"What I don't deserve is you brushing this off like it's not a big deal!" He whispered to me angrily, taking a step towards me. I saw Alaric look over at us cautiously, probably thinking the step Bash took was menacing. But I knew Bash wouldn't hurt me, he was about as menacing as a teddy bear. "First Stefan collapses, then our history teacher is helping us, and then you're saying that the police are rounding up vampires. Do you know how crazy that sounds?" Bash swings his arms around as if extreme hand motions would get his point across.

I rubbed my head, "Fine. You wanna know the truth? Vampires are real. And so are witches. All the stories you heard as a kid are true. Monsters that go bump in the night aren't just a figment of your imagination. And I hate to break it to you, Sebastian, but this town is crawling with monsters right now. So the fact that you know this right now, just dropped your survival rate from 95 percent to 35 percent, because anyone who knows about this world is automatically a target. That's why after all of this is over, you will forget because I will not be responsible for your death."

He was silent for a moment, and I thought he believed me, at least, until he spoke. "Do. You. Hear. Yourself, Ronnie?" He paused between each word. "Witches and vampires? What, are all of you on drugs?" He turned away from me and towards Stefan and Elena, making me wonder where Alaric went.

Elena stood up from her crouching position next to her boyfriend, taking a few steps towards the angry boy. "Sebastian... she's not lying."

"I never pegged you for a liar, Elena." Bash shook his head, almost making me snort. Elena was the biggest liar out of all of us.

"They're not lying, Bash. Vampires are real." Stefan looked up at my friend. "You're looking at one."

The black veins that crawled out underneath Stefan's eyes, which turned blood red. Sebastian stumble back and I tried to reach out for him, but he backed away from my touch like I was fire. "Are all of you vampires?" He tried to hold a strong front, but I could see the fear in his eyes.

"What? No. Stefan is the only vampire here." I shook my head, wishing I could ask Stefan to just compel Bash to forget right now, but he was too weak. Even if Stefan didn't just go through that pain that weakened him, he still wouldn't be able to compel Bash properly. He wasn't strong enough to do that on animal blood. "Look, Bash, you don't need to be afraid of him. He won't hurt you."

"He's a friggin' vampire, Ronnie. I'm not afraid-- I'm terrified." Bash snapped.

"I was afraid of him at first, too. Hell, when I found out, I stabbed him with a pen. But as I got to know him, I realized that there is a distinction between good and bad vampires. He's one of the good ones." I gave Stefan a small smile. Even though Stefan had a terrible past, he still wasn't a bad person, at least, not anymore. It took me a long time to figure that out.

My senses went alert when I heard someone jogging down the stairs, and I was prepared to fight the person until I saw it was only Alaric. "I saw at least five vampires go down." He told us, answering my earlier question as to where he had gone. "They're taking them to your family's old building." He looked towards Elena, who was now back at Stefan's side, a hand placed on his shoulder.

"It's the Gilbert Device. It has to be." Stefan said, looking up at his girlfriend.

"But how did he get it to work?" She questioned. "Bonnie unspelled it."

"Maybe she didn't."

Alaric's words were like a punch to the gut. I had trusted her with this, and she lied to us. She put my friend's life at risk because she hates vampires.

"She did. We saw her do it." Elena said, not as willing to believe it as I was.

Stefan shook his head, "No, no, no, he's right. Think about it." He ignored the look he got from his girlfriend. "We asked Bonnie to deactivate a device that could protect people against vampires."

"So we could protect you." Elena corrected.

"And Damon." I added, reminding her of Bonnie's hate towards my best friend. I sighed, turning away from the three, briefly seeing Bash's frightened face as he stayed quiet through the whole ordeal. "I'm gonna be sick." I grumbled.

"Both of us are vampires, a species she hates." Stefan said, then perked up. "Where's Damon?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since this started." Alaric said.

"Ronnie. You were the last one to see him." Stefan grabbed my attention, making me turn back towards them. "Did he say where he was going?"

I shook my head, "He just told me to find you guys and leave."

Stefan sighed, lowering his head as Elena looked towards our teacher. "Can you get my brother? Take him home?" She asked.

"Of course."

"Ric," I started, walking up towards him. "Take Bash with you. Don't let him out of your sight. We still have to compel him to forget. Can't have him going around and blabbing about vampires existing." I lowered my voice, glancing back to my friend. He was leaning against the brick wall, looking down at his hands that he was wringing together nervously.

Alaric nodded, "Sure thing."

I glanced back at my friend one last time before looking to Stefan and Elena, "Let's go find Damon."

~~~~~

"Wait, wait, wait." Stefan stopped us as we rushed through the town square, the people around us completely oblivious. "I can hear them. The buildings on fire."

"What?" Elena and I said at the same time.

"Building's on fire." Stefan repeated as if we actually didn't hear.

I spotted John standing in front of the building, making me nod towards him. "Guys." I said as we walked over towards the man. "Hey, jackass! Where the hell is Damon?" I snapped, grabbing John's arm and yanking him towards us.

"With the rest of them." He answered, crossing his arms. "Where he should be. It's over for Damon." I glared at him, clenching my jaw when I saw deputies standing in front of the building, guarding it. We wouldn't be able to get in.

"You're crazy." Elena shook her head.

"Why?" He looked at his daughter. "Because I'm doing what should've been done 145 years ago? This is the right thing, Elena. And Ronnie, your mother would be so disappointed that you were ruining our plan."

"My mother was in on this?" My voice was quiet. I shouldn't have been surprised. I just thought she was different now. She knew I was friends with vampires, yet she was still willing to let me go through the pain of losing one of them.

"Oh, she was the brains of the entire operation." John said, almost like he was taunting me. He then looked towards Stefan, noticing the way he was inching towards the building. He nodded towards back towards it, "Go ahead. You won't make it out. It'll save me the trouble of killing you myself."

Stefan glanced between the building and John before looking to his girlfriend. "You know the building well, is there another entrance in?"

"Uh, utility door, there's one around the side." She pointed towards the direction it would be, the three of us starting to head towards it. John grabbed Elena's arm, stopping her from going any further. Stefan didn't notice and kept walking ahead, but I noticed and paused. I looked at her then the building before giving her an apologetic look and running after Stefan.

I saw Stefan just getting to the door, but stopping upon hearing a voice. It was Bonnie. She was telling him not to go in there, "The fire will take you out." She told him as he opened the door and looked back at her.

"He's my brother, Bonnie." He said, before rushing into the building.

She turned towards me, noticing my hard glare. "Ronnie..."

"I trusted you... and you betrayed me." I slowly walked up to her, stopping an inch away. I glared at her before turning around and walking into the door. She grabbed my arm, pulling me back.

"You can't go in there!"

"If you don't let go of me right now, Bonnie, I will hurt you. Don't think I won't." I threatened her.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, but I can't let you go in there." She said as she started to chant a spell.

"What are you doing?" I asked, panic in my voice. "Let go of me." I tried to yank my hand away, but her grip was surprisingly strong. My head jerked around as wind whipped around us, and then, it stopped. The witch in front of me opened her eyes, letting me go and taking a step back. "What did you do?" She didn't answer me so I put my hands on her shoulders. "What did you do to them?!"

I heard them before I saw them. When I turned around, I saw Damon was hanging off his brother's shoulder, coughing as Stefan struggled against his weight. I sighed in relief, grabbing Damon's other arm and helping Stefan lower him to the ground. I saw Elena rushing towards us, going straight for her boyfriend. Stefan brought her into a hug while I kneeled onto the ground by Damon's side.

My hands went to the side of Damon's face and I brushed the hair away from his eyes. "You scared me to death, Damon." I whispered, looking down at him.

He turned his head to the side, letting a couple of more coughs before trying to smirk. "Sorry, Ron."

I sighed, leaning my head down and resting my forehead against his. "Please don't do that ever again."

Damon brought a hand up to my face, pushing my hair back behind my ear. "Trust me, I won't."

~~~~~

My car had been parked in front of the Chamberlain residence for a good ten minutes while I debated whether or not to go and knock on the door. Alaric had informed me that he convinced Bash not to tell anyone when he dropped him off, but I wanted to speak with Bash myself. I needed to. I dragged him into this mess, I have to drag him out. Plus, I had to pick up my little brother. So it didn't matter if I wanted to or not, I had no other choice.

After a constant back and forth with myself, I finally opened my car door and stepped out into the cool night. I shut my door quietly, not wanting to wake up the peaceful neighborhood. I wiped my palms on my jeans and took a deep breath in before heading towards the front door. I raised my fist, hesitating for a moment before knocking a few times. I took a step away from the door, waiting patiently.

I was lucky that the person I wanted to talk to opened the door, "Hey, Bash... can we talk?" I asked slowly, watching him look back into his house before stepping outside and closing the door behind him. He crossed his arms and nodded for me to talk. "Let's sit." I said, walking over to the porch swing. Truthfully, I didn't care whether we were sitting or not, I was just trying to buy more time.

"Are you gonna talk or not?" He asked after a few moments of silence after we sat down.

"Sebastian, earlier tonight, you found out about a whole other world. A dangerous world that could put not only your life but your family's life at risk. Knowing about the supernatural isn't good for anyone. I only found out because my mother and all of her family before her were born to hunt them."

"What, like the Winchester brothers?" He rolled his eyes, pushing us on the swing lightly.

"Basically, yeah." I shrugged. "I wasn't meant to find out... me knowing was a mistake and by the time my mom realized her mistake in me finding out, I was in too deep. By that time, Elena and Bonnie had already found out about the supernatural, I had declared war on the Salvatore brothers after Damon hurt Bonnie, then declared peace after he saved me from dying. Honestly, Damon's probably the only reason I'm alive right now. He's saved me more times than I can count." I explained quietly, tapping my finger on my leg to distract myself. "She couldn't make me forget because I knew too much... but you only know the cusp of it. So, I wanna offer you a choice."

"What kind of choice?" Bash looked intrigued as he turned his body towards mine.

"I'll convince Damon to compel you to forget you ever found out about the supernatural. You'll forget you helped Stefan and you'll think you went home when the fireworks started." I told him, watching as he started to ponder over his choice.

Slowly, he shook his head. "No... I wanna remember."

"But-- why? Did you not hear me say it would put your life at risk?"

"Everyone's life is always at risk, Ronnie. We live in a cruel world. There's death around every corner, caused by humans and vampires. It won't make any difference to you if I know or not, but it will for my family's safety. Not knowing about what lurks in the shadows puts them in more than danger than it does good for them. If I can protect them from these monsters, I'm gonna do whatever I can. And in order to do that, I have to know about everything. So, thanks for the offer, but no thanks." He stood up from the swing, heading towards the front door. "I'll go get your brother."

I watched him walk inside, annoyed at his stubbornness, though I get where he's coming from. But, I don't think he really gets the extent that knowing about the supernatural goes, but if that's what he wants, then I have to respect his wishes. Earlier, I was dead set on just compelling him to forget, but then I realized Elena had done the exact same thing to Jeremy and now he hated her. I didn't want to take away Bash's choice and have him hate me for it if he ever found out. That's not my choice to make. It's his. If only Elena had understood that with Jeremy.