50: Ordinary People

                                    

                                          
MJ left Stefan eventually. She had too. She needed food, a shower, and a chat with her mum. Her talk was interrupted about halfway in, Damon summoning her to check out something he'd found.
                          
Apparently, Lexi wasn't the only ghost trying to do some good.
                          
Mason Lockwood had wanted nothing more than an apology from Damon, and once he'd gotten one, he'd shown the vampire a collection of tunnels under the Lockwood Cellar. They'd been enchanted by somebody to stop vampires from getting in, meaning Damon needed help once the ghosts had vanished.
                          
Hearing that made MJ both happy and sad.
                          
Mason and Lexi were genuinely good people who, even in death, wanted to help their loved ones. And both of them had been killed by Damon for basically no reason.
                          
She'd met Elena in the cellar, and then Ric had appeared, handing Elena a torch, leading them through a hole in the wall that hadn't been there the last time MJ had visited. To be fair, she hadn't been in the cellar for a while, though, she assumed Damon and Mason had made it on their little adventure.
                          
"The Lockwoods really have no idea that these tunnels are underneath their property?" Elena asked, looking at the spiderwebs on the ceiling.
                          
"Tyler didn't even know about the cellar until he followed Mason to it," MJ confessed, "He had no interest in his family history until the curse showed up...Carol might?"
                          
She had a rune on her hand, glowing in the dark, lighting the way.
                          
Ric looked at it, then the torch, "Careful, bats hate the light."
                          
"Wait, what?" Elena covered the torch top to dim it.
                          
A voice whispered in the darkness, "Elena."
                          
They all shivered, spinning around, ready to attack.
                          
Damon, standing behind them and smiling, "Boo."
                          
"God, Damon!" Elena whacked him.
                          
"Scaredy-cat!"
                          
"Just ignore him," Ric motioned to the way they were walking, "That's what I do."
                          
They continued on their way, Damon walking with Elena, MJ and Ric at the front.
                          
"So, you really can't get in?" MJ asked.
                          
"Nope. Seems even the ancient Lockwood's were anti-vampire."
                          
"What do you mean, ancient?" Elena asked.
                          
Damon pointed to a makeshift entrance, "See for yourself."
                          
It opened into a large cave, and MJ instantly started scanning the walls. Pictures everywhere.
                          
She ran her fingers over them.
                          
The white lines were grooves, meaning it hadn't been painted, but etched – a story carved into the rock. By the sharp shape of the lines, she assumed it was some kind of makeshift knife rather than a rock or a stick.
                          
"This is as far as I get to go," Damon announced, still in the tunnels, "And Ric, I thought I asked you to bring Elena."
                          
"Given what we found," Ric rubbed MJ on the back as she glared at Damon, "I thought a witch might be helpful."
                          
Elena inspected the images herself, "What is all this?"
                          
"As far as I can tell..." Ric quickly scanned them again, "It's a story. In simple, archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story."
                          
He pointed to one of the images.
                          
"That right there is the moon cycle," He then gestured to the two pictures below it, "A man, a wolf."