Circus of Souls

Circus of Souls is the nineteenth volume of The Vampire Diaries Digital Comic and the thirty-seventh, -eighth, and -ninth issues in the series.Credit and Purchase Info
==Summary==
Part 1: The carnival that has come to Mystic Falls isn't what it appears to be-and when Sheriff Forbes realizes that people are disappearing, she turns to Damon for help!
Part 2: Damon is trapped by the carnival's ringleader, but the real danger comes from a source much closer to home.
Part 3: Bonnie's figured out how to permanently end the ringleader's carnival, but will it cost Jeremy part of his humanity?
==Plot==
===Part One===
A family of three are out camping and when the father leaves to get marshmallows, his daughter notices he's been gone awhile and the mother decides to look. She finds them in the trunk and calls out to her husband, though he knocks her out with a stick, though not in control of his own body. He then carries her off, away from the little girl.
Two days later, Stefan is working out with a punching bag. With Damon's arrival, he punches right through it. Stefan is angry at Damon, but asks if he's up for going on a ride with him for a few hours.
They arrive at the police station, meeting with Sheriff Forbes. She shows them a board of photos and tells them that everyone on it has done missing within the last two weeks, and that they all are from Mystic Falls. The most recent is the owner of Mystic Hardware, who had went camping with his family over the weekend. No one has since seen them; the upside is that there's no bodies, yet. Liz asks for their help searching the woods. They agree to accompany her.
Once there, they're joined by Elena, Bonnie and Caroline. Matt and Jeremy are at work and couldn't help. Stefan's been distant with her and asks if he's okay. He just wants people to stop asking if "he's okay". Caroline tells Damon that she's here to make sure that 'someone' is on his best behavior. Elena, however, hears something in the distance. It's laughter. Walking towards it, they happen upon a carnival. They spot the missing dad, the owner of Mystic Hardware. They notice that he's acting as if he has been compelled. Stefan reasons that if he's here, then maybe so are the other missing people. Bonnie warns them to be care, there's some kind of magic at work. Considering the rest are supernatural, Damon warns Liz to be on her guard. Elena will watch her back, though.
Elena and Liz heads towards the entrance of one of the carnival tents and they seee that Jeremy and Matt are also there. Elena makes a move, but Liz stops her. If they make their move out in the open, the whole place could come after them. They could put everyone in danger. They decide to find the others and make a plan. Unbeknownst to them, their plan is overheard.
Stefan points out that everyone here is under some kind of spell; they're not compelled. Damon asks Bonnie if she has any insight. Bonnie tells him there must be some way to break Matt and Jeremy out of their trance, but she needs to know more about the magic that's making it happen. Damon points to the ringmaster and Bonnie notes that the pendant he's wearing doesn't come from some costume shop as she has seen something like it before in her grandmother's books. However, she'll need to go back and look through her research. Damon decides to confront the ringmaster and ask questions later. It's four vampires, a cop, and an ex-witch against one guy. Elena agrees with Damon, which is obvious to Caroline. Damon goes through with his plan, however, when he goes to attack him, the ringmaster incapacitates him with a pain infliciton; he's subsequently dragged away by two strongmen. Stefan asks Bonnie how fast she can break the spell. 
Later, they meet to discuss the situation. Damon's made things worse, as usual. Bonnie, however, tells the group that she's found the pendent in her Gram's books. The pendant is an Druidic artifact that is used to control a subject. The book also says that the pendant has to be destroyed to release the subjects from their trance. They can't break the spell without a witch and the ring leader can aneurysm any vampire that gets close to him. Bonnie can take him down using herbs and Caroline will help her. Elena decides to go with Stefan and Liz to get Damon, Jeremy and Matt
While Bonnie and Caroline head to the carnival, they run into a girl that is in a trance and another shows up as well. Liz, Elena and Stefan are already at the carnival and Elena heads to the mirror room and sees images of her, Stefan, Damon, and Jeremy, and bursts through one of the mirrors. Liz and Stefan are at a haunted house and decide to go different ways. When Stefan begins to get a PTSD attack, Elena grabs him and says that she'll always be there for him.
In the main tent, Damon is stuck in a cage. As he reaches outwards, he's burned by vervain. The ringmaster shows up with other members of the troupe and hopes he's well rested for the main event, with the lights coming on and the tent is shown to be full of people in a trance.
===Part Two===
In the cage, there's a small box with a crank handle and a note that says "Crank me!" Damon throws the box away, not intending to play their game. As it lands, it opens and reveals a stake inside, which proceeds to stab him in the back. The ringmaster states that pain is a great motivator and he must get him ready for the big event. Stefan and Elena threaten a worker at the carnival and he tells him about an event in the main tent. Elena almost goes too far, but Stefan stops here. They decide to look for Damon on their own.
Meanwhile, Bonnie and Caroline are still facing off against the two girls and when Caroline bites one, she realizes that the girl has taken vervain. They also notice their eyes, pale, solid bluish-white. Caroline doesn't know how to stop them without killing them. Bonnie may not have her magic, but she does have pepper spray, which she successfully uses against them. She's reminded that her Grams always said to have protection against both supernatural and human danger. Caroline tries to compel them, they realize that it won't work until they do something about the ringmaster.
At the carnival, Stefan decides to go find Damon while Liz and Elena can go after Matt and Jeremy. If they haven't moved, then Matt and Jeremy would still be by the stage next to the animal cages. Elena tells Stefan to be safe, she can't lose him again. Caroline and Bonnie arrive, and they wonder if they're interrupting something.
After they part ways, Stefan confronts the two strongmen and asks them about Damon, to which he throws a weight at them, hitting them both. They run out of the tent not wanting to fight him. Caroline, Bonnie, Elena, and Liz see the boys on the stage. Bonnie tries a spell from her grimoire, and Elena asks if it was working. It doesn't. Though Bonnie connects the clue between the mind-controlled persons' eyes and the ringleader's pendent. She knows what they must do.
Stefan runs into the main tent, threatening to kill them all. It's a trap, however, and a wall of fire rises before him. Elena hears Damon and rushes off, leaving Bonnie, Caroline and Liz with Matt and Jeremy. Bonnie asks Caroline to snap Matt's neck. Liz believes that everyone has lost their minds and Caroline refuses it. However, it's the only way Bonnie can see if it will break the spell.
Elena enters the main tent sees that Damon's cage is open. Now, both brothers are fighting. The big event is under way. Damon is now under the ringmaster's trance and tells Stefan that he's not going anywhere unless he's dragging his dead body out of the tent.
===Part Three===
Under the spell, Damon sees Stefan as a being of fire. He'll burn him if Damon doesn't do anything. Stefan calls out to Damon, attempting to get him to recognize him. The ringmaster, however, assures the crowd that it's a fight to the death. They want to see blood. One person is even taking bets on which brother will survive. Elena, however, has not been captured by the two strongmen. As they continue to fight, Damon starts to hallucinate Stefan as Katherine and Giuseppe, causing him to attack Stefan more. Stefan picks up a stake to defend himself, but Damon takes it from him and stabs him in the shoulder. Elena escapes the strongmen and grabs the cage, burning her hands on the vervain.
Caroline tells Bonnie there needs to be a Plan B as she doesn't want to snap Matt's neck. She still has the pepper spray, but that's still a pretty short-range solution. Bonnie asks Caroline how her acting skills are and wonders how she'd feel for her next role as a Vaudeville performer. She can handle it.
Stefan pulls the stake from his shoulder and Damon seems to hallucinate Stefan as Stefan. It's the real him, but Damon doesn't acknowledge it. Damon doesn't believe it should be him. Damon tells him that he's had his change with Elena and he blew it. She was happy with him until he showed up again and he means that as the truth. Stefan forces him up against the bar, burning him.
Caroline is in place, performing on stage next to Matt and Jeremy and she then pepper sprays them. Vamping out, she grabs them and binds them in chains up against a carriage wheel. She asks where her mother is and Bonnie tells her that Liz was going to meet up with them after she turns off the generator. Caroline smells blood and rescues her mother, and thinks that one of the carnies attacked her. Caroline doesn't want to leave Liz after feeding her some of her blood, but she reassures her daughter that she's be fine. She can keep an eye on the boys. 
At the tent, Bonnie tells Caroline that they'll need the pendent. Caroline's on it and attacks the ringmaster, knocking the pendant off. Phesmatos simprem udom. Bonnie tries to cast the spell again, but a grimoire spell won't work without her magic. They'll have to try something else. The ringmaster turns his magic against Caroline, giving her an aneurysm. Bonnie realizes that she can summon the help of magic on the Other Side. Sheila appears before her, wondering when she'd ask for help. Four other witches appear and they circle Bonnie and cast the spell. It works this time and the spell that's compelling the people into trances.
The ringmaster decides to make a run for it, throwing a torch on to the tent. As the fire spreads, the vampires leave him to make sure the townspeople are saved. Matt and Liz, however, are there to capture the ringmaster. Matt hits him in the back of the head, knocking him out and Liz arrests him. Caroline wonders if Bonnie is going to destroy the pendent, but opts to take it back to Whitmore. It looks like an 18th century druid stone and they'll love it within the historical society archives.
Caroline makes comfort food for the group, and Elena tells her that Stefan decided to stay by Damon. Caroline admits Damon's doing the right thing. Elena points out that he also gave up his revenge on the ringmaster to save people from the burning tent. Caroline tells her not to push it. On the roof of the Salvatore house, Damon tells Stefan the real truth. He's missed him this summer and assures him that he won't let Elena get between them. Stefan knows this, but he's still a dick.
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Damon Salvatore
*Stefan Salvatore
*Elena Gilbert
===Supporting Characters===
*Matt Donovan
*Jeremy Gilbert
*Ringmaster
*Katherine Pierce (hallucination)
*Bonnie Bennett
*Caroline Forbes
*Liz Forbes
*Giuseppe Salvatore (hallucination)
*Sheila Bennett
==Trivia==
*In Part Two, Caroline bites one of the two mind-controlled girls and suffers the effects of vervain. After Bonnie pepper sprays them, she attempts to compel them. She concludes that compulsion won't work on them until they do something about the ringleader. While her comment could be true, as they're controlled by a spell, regardless, compulsion would not have worked since they had vervain within their system, which prevents compulsion. This is a plot error with established lore within the television series.
*The events of this comic occur around Season Five as Stefan is still suffering from PTSD due to being locked up in a safe, continuously drowning for months over the summer.
==Credits==
*Art by: Cat Staggs
*Colored by: 
*Pencils: Cat Staggs
*Cover by: Cat Staggs
*Page Count: 23
*Age Rating: 15+ Only
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==References==
==See also==
Category:Digital Comics
Category:Non-Canon