Hi everyone! So, this is something I've only tried once before and it was majorly different, but I just randomly had this ida while watching 5x07 last week. I've been debating on whether or not to make this story, but we'll see how it goes. I kind of like the idea, but you never know with me. Anyways...I hope you like it! Please review at the end.

Note: This chapter has been revised. Nothing's new, it's just better writing :)

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries (obviously) or any of the characters from the show, but I do own my characters Madeline Reichs and Audrey Morgan, along with the plot line and the writing, of course.

Preface

Deep in thought, I tapped my pencil against the desk, completely checking out of reality. Without my knowledge, I chewed down on my lip and stared at something that I wasn't even looking at. What I was thinking of was unknown to me, but I felt like there was something extremely wrong in the pits of my stomach. I couldn't put a finger on it, but like every other staring spell normal humans went through, I eventually broke out of it and turned around. Audrey Morgan, my best friend, sat on my bed making scribbling noises with her pencil as she worked diligently on her homework that I was avoiding because it was so boring. With a sigh, I finally spoke.

"Can we take a break?"

Audrey looked up at me, first confused, but then registered my question. "Huh?"

"I'm calling a break," I repeated, throwing my pencil down in refusal. She frowned.

"You called a break two minutes ago."

Oh. Right. I scoffed, regardless. "Well, I'm calling another one. Scoot," I commanded as I gestured for her to move on my bed. With a frustrated groan, she adhered to me by moving over and I plopped down beside her as I grabbed the remote on my nightstand in one fluid motion. Without even looking, I turned the television on and waited for the screen to glow to life and entertain me. Audrey was attempting to be a good student and finish whatever it was she was writing, but I paid no mind to her. I flickered through the channels with no doubt on my mind that there had to be something good on television at the hour—after all, it was eight o'clock on a Thursday evening! It was a primetime slot.

"I wish we could live in a television show," Audrey commented beside me, and I found her tapping her own pencil against her notebook, deep in thought. I raised an eyebrow at her and just chuckled.

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Intelligent," I praised mockingly, giving her a serious look. Audrey rolled her eyes at me and I did the same while turning back to the television to find something to watch. Eventually, I came across the CW channel, where I found something interesting. "Ooh, look at this. It's the Vampire Diaries season premiere."

Audrey looked up at me as I looked back at her, waiting for approval. She raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

I looked at her with surprised eyes. "You don't remember? Last spring, Riley made us watch half of the first season against our will. I learned how to sleep with my eyes open during that trip just so she wouldn't notice I wasn't paying attention." I snorted. Audrey thought back to what I was referring to, and eventually, she snapped her fingers and straightened.

"That one about those two vampire brothers who fell in love with their ex-girlfriend's look-alike."

"Yeah."

Audrey laughed. "Riley's obsessed with that show. She's probably sitting down at her TV right now with a bucket of popcorn and those fake fangs her parents bought her for Christmas."

Chuckling, I agreed wholeheartedly. "And she's probably wearing her 'Team Stephen' shirt or something like that."

"I thought it was Stefan," Audrey pointed out. I shrugged. "Yeah, I think it was Stefan. I remember because he's the only character I actually liked. He was pretty gorgeous, I don't blame her for being obsessed if she likes him."

"I don't remember which side she was on. And I was out before the first minute of the pilot started," I defended myself, but turned back to the television. "You want to watch it? Just to make fun or something?"

Audrey scoffed and chucked her books aside. "Please. I want to watch it for that Stefan guy. Turn it on, Mads." Taking her request, I hit the select button on my remote and the television lapsed for a second before eventually coming up at a commercial for some car dealership. Audrey and I both got comfortable and waited as the clocked ticked down to eight o'clock.

"Why do you want to live in a TV show?" I asked at last, the thought bothering me just a little. "They're mostly so unrealistic."

The red-haired girl beside me just shrugged her shoulders, even in the head-propped-against-hand position she took on my bed. "I don't know. I think it would be interesting. I've dreamt about it once or twice, too." I raised both of my eyebrows at her as if challenging my friend, and she looked up at me with confusion. "What? You never thought about doing that? Going into a TV show to change a storyline or something?"

"No, I can honestly say I've never thought of doing that," I told her, skeptical. Audrey frowned at me. "You do realize that all of the characters are actors and they're real, right? It would make no sense to go into a television show since it's just a video."

Audrey's shoulders slumped as much as they could and she grimaced at me. "God, Madeline. You're so unimaginative and super literal. Doesn't it get boring?"

"Audrey, there's a difference between unimaginative and stupid," I countered at her. "Even if it were possible to 'go into a TV show'—which it's not because they don't really exist—why would you want to change a storyline? That's what the writers are for! It's their jobs."

My best friend scoffed. "Yeah, well, writers are idiots sometimes."

"I don't believe in thinking of things that aren't possible," I told her. "Like time travel. Or traveling between dimensions."

"Or fun," Audrey shot. "Because for you, it's never possible." I wanted to take offense, but I didn't get worked up over things like that. It seemed a waste of valuable time. But before Audrey could continue the situation from where I dropped it, the screen on the television before us blackened and the clock struck eight o'clock. We silenced, waiting for the show to come on.

Up on the television, the voiceover started: "Previously on the—"

Out of nowhere, there was a crackling sound, and the picture on the television before us began to spasm out of control. Outside the window, there was a flash of lighting and a roll of thunder completely taking both me and Audrey by surprise and also succeeding at making us jump out of our skin. Loud thumps sounded all around us like we were being stormed by an angry group of military troops. As if things couldn't get any weirder, the lights in my room began to flicker on and off without anyone touching the switches on the wall. A few seconds after the light flickering had started, they blew out completely, and there was nothing but the sound of the repeating introduction on the television that hadn't gone away with the power being cut off.

"What the hell is happening?" Audrey whispered at me in the darkness. I couldn't see her, but I knew that, just like I was, she was scared shitless.

"I-I have no idea," I stammered.

The television made a static sound again before repeating the introduction more, and I had no idea what to do next. I couldn't find the remote to turn the television off—and it should've gone off anyway if the power cut out. But the television was relentless, and with every passing second, the static became clear and the introduction grew louder. It got the point where Audrey's piercing scream had been drowned out by the noise, and I felt myself losing all hearing. The static became a shrill sound, and it caused me to unconsciously roll in the darkness as I desperately tried to block out the shrill noise from my head. I couldn't see jack shit, but I knew Audrey was doing the same thing. It was what a sane person would do.

But this? It wasn't sane. What the hell was happening to us?

The television got louder and louder and the shrill noise got higher and higher until it finally came to a sudden stop, and a white light flashed all around me.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

I awoke with a start.

My chest heaved, gasping for air like it had been cut off so violently from me. I was completely unaware of my surroundings, having no idea how I ended up in a bed, much less enveloped in silk sheets. I looked to the side and saw a bright, white light that blinded the shit out of me. To block it out, I put my hand up in protest to protect myself from the sun's violent rays that made me squint.

"Gah. What the hell?" I muttered to myself, unaware that I had company. From the direction of the white light, the shape of a girl took form while my vision cleared. She was looking at me with amused confusion and a smile on her face.

"Wow. What a nice way to wake up, Mads." She jerked her head to the side. "Come on, get out of bed. It's bad enough that I have to wake you up and you're my older sister. This is your job, you know." Somehow, she thought this was funny. I stared at her with an open mouth.

"Excuse me?" I asked in a high-pitched the hell was this girl? She seemed to be highly entertained by my snide comment, but I was far from amused. She smiled like I was telling a joke or something. I wasn't. In the light of the sun-soaked room, I saw a red streak dazzle from this girl's dark brunette hair. It took me all of two seconds to realize that it was an obvious extension, and I wrinkled my nose in distaste. Who would even think to—?

I stopped short the second I caught sight of a deeply saturated blue that contrasted around a sea of brown. For a second, it was unclear to me what was going on, but then I realized. My eyes widened in realization. There was a dark blue streak that entwined in the hair I picked up on my shoulder. My. Hair. What the hell? I had to be hallucinating this.

"You've got to be kidding me," I whispered to myself and threw the covers I had pooling around my waist to the side. Two seconds later, I found myself a bathroom in the unfamiliar room...a master bedroom? I was lucky enough to get the bonus room in my house, what the hell was I doing in a master bedroom? But the thought had escaped me when I turned on the lights in the bathroom and widened my eyes seeing that I wasn't hallucinating. That blue streak was as much a part of my hair as the brown locks were. "I have blue hair. I have blue hair!" I shouted loudly.

The girl who was in my bedroom walked over to the threshold of the bathroom, her arms crossed. "Um...yeah. Of course you do." She looked at me as if I were insane, and I didn't blame her one bit. I had to be insane to get a blue streak in my hair! "You're acting strange, Mads. What's going on?"

I looked at the reflection in the mirror. My reflection. Minus the hair, there was nothing different about me. I had the same figure, the same features, and even the same scar I had on my shoulder from burning myself when I was ten with a curling iron. How could I be me without being me? I didn't know where I was. I didn't know who I was, at least not when it concerned the girl at the threshold of my bathroom waiting for me to answer her question. At the mention of her, I realized that I was taking too long to answer. What could I say? "Sorry, I don't know who the hell you are or what I'm doing here?" Now there was an awkward conversation.

And that's when it came upon me and I realized that I had been given the gift of intelligence for a reason. Of course. How stupid could I have been? This was a dream. I was dreaming. I was myself, but it wasn't real. Oh, thank God, I thought with respite and exhaled a sigh. The stupidity of my panic was enough to make me start laughing nervously as I relaxed and turned against the counter, shaking my head in disbelief. The girl at the threshold of my bathroom stared me down, and I immediately stopped my laughter and cleared my throat.

"Uh...what?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Mads...?" she trailed off with a skeptical outline tracing her tone. "Are you still upset or something? I thought you said you were okay with it. At least, that's what you said last night...did something change?"

I opened my mouth to divert the attention from those questions and flat-out ask her who she was and what she was talking about, but then I thought to myself: if this was a dream, what was the harm in playing along?

"Oh, yeah." I brushed my new hair out of my face coolly. "I am...okay with it, that is. Totally. I mean, why wouldn't I be?" But this was the one thing that was bothering me: how did I even fall asleep? The last thing I remembered, that freaky thing happened with the television. Was I missing something? Was that...normal? Of course not.

"Good." The girl let out a long, relieved exhale as if she were holding her breath. I tried to put the pieces together as I looked at her and found some trace of familiarity in her features. I knew her from somewhere, didn't I? I racked my brain for her face, but I came up blank. Odd.

"Knock, knock." The girl at the threshold turned and beside her came a man sauntering into the bedroom like he owned the place. I crossed my arms and watched as the girl gave him a smile and the man smiled in return, but his smile wavered with...fear? I could've been getting my signals mixed up, but that's what it looked like. He turned to me and glanced me over with a weird expression on his face. This time I really couldn't put my finger on it. "Morning, Madeline."

I cleared my throat. "Uh...yeah. Morning." Damn. He looked at me with these...eyes. They were bright blue and electrifying, as if they ripped down to my very core. And it wasn't even his eyes that were the half of it. He was electrifying...everywhere. Had the face of a male model, and most likely the body of one, too. Where were guys him in real life?

The man looked me over again before turning to the girl at the threshold, who I temporarily forgot was there. "Elena, Caroline called. She said she'll be here in a bit." Elena, I repeated in my head. Again, that familiarity rose, but I brushed it off, determined to not beat myself up over something I wasn't registering.

"Great." Elena gave him a knowing smile as she learned forward and kissed him. I felt my eyes widen a fraction. Wow, I really didn't see it coming. It sucked, too. I could see the man Elena kissed tense up a bit, and it surprised me to watch him not kiss her back, as if cautious of something—or, perhaps, someone. Elena pushed herself away from him and smiled. She looked back at me, as did the man, but Elena's eyes didn't stay on me like his did. She looked back and forth between the two of us and then said to the man, "Oh, Damon. It's fine. You don't have to be weird about it. Madeline's okay. We talked it over last night."

Damon? I repeated. This time I wasn't looking for familiarity. It was just an odd name. "Yeah, sure. It's just a little...weird." Damon peered up at me over his eyelids, and he looked like he was hiding it from Elena. I stood there like an idiot, totally not understanding anything they were throwing at me. I was lost like a puppy dog.

Elena swallowed. "I guess you're right. But I think we're all going to have to get used to it." Used to what? My head hurt from not knowing what was going on. Elena sighed as she tossed her hair in her hand and cut her eyes over to me. I waited and watched as the three of us wrapped up in awkward silence, but I was determined to break it.

"Yeah. Okay. So...I think I'm going to shower now." I came up with the first excuse that came to my mind, being that I was in a bathroom. "So unless one of you wants to see me naked, I would leave." A laugh escaped my mouth at my joke, and the couple in front of me didn't think of it that way. Damon tensed as if I'd slapped him and Elena just gave me an undercover pissed-off glance before turning on her heel and walking away. What the hell crawled up her ass?

"Listen," Damon said softly, earning my attention to be drawn over to him. "Mads...I know you're still upset, okay? And I don't blame you one bit. You have every right to be angry at me, and I get that. But Elena really needs you to forgive her. The whole summer, she was worried sick about you."

All because I made a joke? Am I supposed to not be funny or something? "Sure, sure."

"Elena and I are together," Damon admitted sadly. "You and I are...not." I widened my eyes at this. Oh. Now I get it. So I was the ex? And, clearly, things didn't end well with me and this Elena girl. As I looked over Damon again, I appreciated the fact that I was the ex. It might've sucked, but it was something. He was the equivalent of a supermodel and I was...well, Madeline Reichs. I was far from a supermodel.

"Oh. Yeah. No, no, I completely understand." I nodded at him reassuringly. Damon cocked an eyebrow.

"...You do?"

Okay, now it was getting really annoying. "Yes, Damon. I get it; it's fine. Now do you mind?" I didn't mention the shower again, but I jerked my thumb back to it to indicate what I was talking about. Damon stared me down for a second before nodding and turning, almost stunned. He shut his door on the way out to my gratitude and when he was gone, I turned back to the mirror and sighed.

This was one super weird dream. And the shower I took even felt like it was real.

I had to admit, it wasn't every day that I decided to wear jean shorts and a tank top. But since I had hunted through a suitcase I found in the armoire in the master bedroom I'd woken up in and hadn't been able to find anything that wasn't wrinkled but the shorts and tank top, I was forced to wear them. Plus, it was a dream. I wasn't really worried about my fashion status. The one thing I had managed to do, though, was match my highlights with the color of my shirt. Granted, mint green and blue didn't really go hand in hand, but it complimented each other well. The saturated strand in my hair was dark enough so that it blended in, but I was still aware of it. It made me sour to think about it, honestly. What kind of idiot did I have to be to dye my hair?

After drying my hair so it wasn't dripping wet all over my clothes, I walked over to my nightstand to grab my phone. It was the same product, but it was in a different casing and was a different color. I shrugged it off and slipped it into my back pocket, but that's when I realized something else was on the nightstand. After slipping the phone in, I took both hands and reached down to grab a silver chain. Holding it up, I found that it dragged up a locket with it. The locket was as silver as the chain with intricate designs planted all across the casing. I tried to open the locket to see what was inside, but instead, it wouldn't open for me. It was something that I actually approved of; it was silver, round, and subtle. What wasn't to love? So, with an approving look, I reached behind my neck and clasped the necklace on without hesitation.

When I opened the door to leave the room, I found that Damon was on the other side of it, his hand raised to knock. I jumped back a little when I realized he was blocking my way, and he gave me an awkward smile and lowered his hand.

"I'm here to get your suitcase," he explained. I raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

Damon looked at me, confounded. "Madeline? You couldn't have forgotten. This is the day you've been waiting for your entire life." He frowned at me. I shrugged at him, waiting for him to fill me in. "You and Elena are going to college, Mads."

He looked at me like I was another person, so I opened my mouth and immediately drew in a breath. I scoffed. "Duh. Right. I'm sorry. Of course, I'm...going to college." I stepped aside to let him in, but I was divulging into the idea. College? I was in high school in the real world. But it wasn't a far stretch that I was in college in this dream; it was better than being a senior in high school if anyone asked my opinion.

"I know you're worried about Jeremy, but he'll be fine," Damon assured me as he walked into the room and turned around so that we were facing each other again. Jeremy? "Just hand your suitcase over and I'll bring it downstairs for you."

I looked over at the armoire and realized that it was a mess in that duffle bag. I had torn through it just to find a decent pair of clothes. "Um...give me a second. I don't have it ready yet."

As I spent the next minute or so shoving all the clothes into the bag and grabbing all the toiletries I'd busted out from it for my shower, I heard Damon ask me something out in my room. "So where did you go?"

He didn't see me, of course, because I was in the bathroom while he was in my room, but I raised my eyebrows in confusion. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Over the summer," Damon clarified. "Elena said something about Europe but she didn't tell me much more." I walked out of the bathroom and over to my suitcase that I left open for the toiletries I had. "Was it just you and Stefan?"

"Stefan?" I repeated, stopping for a moment. The guy from that television show on the CW? What did he have to do with anything?

Damon stuttered, "I mean...you left with him, so I just assumed..."

I turned around at Damon after zipping up my suitcase. "No," I covered it up, shaking my head. "Err...Stefan and I parted ways." I paused. "Why do you want to know, again?" I didn't mean to be rude, but I was the ex. Why would he want to know anything about me?

Damon looked me over with hurt eyes. "Just because I'm with Elena now doesn't mean we can't go back to..." He shifted uncomfortably and sighed, "...whatever we were before, Madeline. You know I'm no good at this." I stared at him with parted lips, but Damon saw my hesitation and soon brushed it off. "You know, just forget I said anything. You're still angry."

I exhaled deeply. "I told you, I was—" I stopped mid-sentence when I heard a whoosh, and Damon was suddenly standing right in front of me, grabbing the suitcase that was in my hand. I let out a fearful gasp. "What the...what was that?" Superpowers? What in the hell did I take before I went to bed?

Damon snorted. "You might be stuck with human speed because you're a human, but I'm certainly not." I swallowed. There was a difference between human and...whatever he was? Shit. "Go ahead, Elena's waiting for you downstairs. I'm just going to grab her suitcase and I'll be right behind you."

I looked back and forth between the door in him, completely dazed. Holy shit. Be calm, Madeline. Be calm. "Err...okay." Without anything else, I pulled myself to the side and exited my room, all while feeling Damon's eyes on me. But soon, the thought of Damon's superpower escaped my mind when I really examined the house I'd been put into. Was it possible to dream up something this intricate? This rich? I continued down the stairs with bright eyes, taking it all in. I could get used to living in this house. Why did I have to go off to college when we had a mansion at our disposal?

As I made my way down the last step and into the foyer, I heard a male's voice. "There were issues at home. Ever since I lost my parents and my aunt, I've been…acting out. Drugs, drinking…I was looking for attention, so I lit my house on fire and faked my own death." I let my jaw drop to the floor. Somehow, Elena was just sitting there, across from this kid, looking like everything was okay? This kid had major problems!

"Really stress the drug thing. And I would definitely say that the fire was an accident because there's crazy and then there's…well, me." I scoffed and widened my eyes, completely astounded at the intensity level in the foyer. It sounded like she was the one who lit the house in question on fire. Were we in a game show or something? This was really confusing and...weird.

"Or I could just not go back, considering my school already had a memorial for me," the male suggested. I raised my eyebrows.

"But in order to have a memorial for you, you'd have to be dead…and…clearly, you're not dead," I began, looking at everyone in the room. The kid looked at me for a moment before smiling and getting up from his seat.

"Madeline," he breathed and pulled me into a big hug. Did I even know this kid? I gave him an awkward hug back, again trying to play along with my subconscious' demands, but then I remembered: Oh. This must be Jeremy. That kid Damon was talking about. "I'm just getting you back and you're leaving again."

"Yeah, well, that's what cell phones are for," I said, thinking of nothing better to say as the boy pulled away from me and Elena walked up to us with a smile on her face—like she was enormously happy by our conversation for some reason. To be brutally honest, I was quite uncomfortable.

"Caroline just pulled up," Damon announced as he came down the stairs, two suitcases in his hands. Outside, there was a car honk like it was on cue.

"I-I can't leave." Elena sighed. "I should at least stay and wait until Jeremy settles into school. Mads can go without me."

I scoffed, already feeling put in a sticky situation. "Really...? I mean, I could stay here and...um, help?" I offered.

Damon looked back and forth between the two of us in disbelief. "You're leaving. You're going to college. You're going to drink cheap beer and you're going to protest things you don't care about. Both of you," he commanded as he paused and clamped a hand down on Jeremy's shoulder. "And I am going to take care of your little brother. Trust me"—his hand clapped Jeremy twice in an adult-like pat—"you two have nothing to worry about.

Elena was smiling, but despite being confused, I just stood there. It wasn't worth my time to keep questioning everything. This dream was already weird enough.

The brunette with the red streak groaned, giving in so easily. "Okay. Well, at least Whitmore's only a few hours away, so if there's anything you need, just call me." Whitmore? I questioned, but this time it wasn't out of confusion, it was out of approval. My mind was creative after all. I'd never heard of a college called Whitmore.

Jeremy stopped Elena from leaving the parlor where she was standing. "I'll see you on laundry day," he joked, pulling her into a hug. Elena smiled happily before they pulled away and whispered a goodbye to him before walking past me and over to Damon, who stood in the foyer just a few feet away. Eyeing Damon and Elena out of the corner of my vision, I decided not to dwell and to walk over to Jeremy, who was looking as if he was waiting for me. When I reached him, I opened my mouth, but he pulled me into another hug that nearly squeezed all the air out of my tiny little body. "Finally! Big sis is going to college!"

"Finally," I agreed, trying to smile at him and keep the charade up. I was his sister. And so was Elena. Which meant we were all related. Yikes—did that mean she was dating her sister's ex-boyfriend? God, I guess so. This family was definitely screwed up. "I'll talk to you later, Jeremy."

"Bye, Mads," Jeremy parted, and I turned around to find Damon and Elena smiling at each other lovingly with their arms wrapped around each other. The sight, for some unknown reason, sickened me. Maybe it didn't sicken me, Madeline Reichs, but whoever the sister of these people were...she was sickened to the very core. I shook it off, though, but decided that Damon wasn't worth my time, even though he clearly kept trying to weasel his way into it with his talks of going back to "whatever we were before" as he had said.

Damon handed Elena her suitcase, and Elena moved out of the house swiftly when Damon opened the door for her. I walked up to Damon and bent down to grab the suitcase, but he shook his head and grabbed it for me. "I got it."

I scoffed and reached down, pulling the duffel bag out of his hand. "Thanks, but I'm fine." I gave him a tight smile before opening my own door and stepping out into the sunlight. I think I heard the beginning of my name from behind me, but I ignored it and pulled the door shut with an exhale. Thank God that was over with.

The bright sunny day had been painful to wake up to, but it was nice to feel the sun on my skin. A few feet away from me, a car was parked in the driveway of the mansion and Elena was hugging a blonde at the trunk. I walked over to them just as they parted and Elena went to get into the car.

"Madeline!" the blonde that had been hugging Elena previously exclaimed and pulled me into her arms for a hug. She scolded as she rocked me back and forth, "You are never allowed to leave us again. Not like that."

I tried to still us, but I failed. "Um, like what?" The blonde forced me away from her at arm's length before taking my suitcase and shoving it into the trunk with a bunch of boxes, Elena's suitcase, and another suitcase as well.

"All...angry and stuff. You didn't even say goodbye. All I got was a text," the girl said, disappointed. I smiled at her, only because it was kind of adorable—in a friend way. It was just something about the way she said it. "I know Damon hurt you and everything, but you had friend obligations! College obligations!"

"Sorry." Everything comes back to Damon, I realized. Trying not to roll my eyes, I just slipped my hands into my pockets and shrugged. Then, I thought over her words about Damon. He hurt me? I gasped and looked at Caroline with hopefully eyes. "Hey, maybe it's something you can explain to me, then—" Before I was able to get my question out, from behind Caroline emerged a redhead with an expression just as clueless as mine had been at the beginning of this dream. I gasped. "Audrey!"

I leaned forward and pulled her into a hug, relieved. The blonde I had been talking to left us when her name was called, and I overheard it to be Caroline. It was a fitting name, actually. But pushing that out of my head, I held Audrey at arm's length. "Thank God I know someone in this stupid dream."

Audrey nodded. "This is a weird dream, isn't it?"

I scoffed. "You don't know the half of it. Apparently, my sister's dating my ex-boyfriend..."

"You? Caroline thinks I'm her sister." I waited for the weirdness in that statement, and Audrey pointed to her fire-red hair. "Mads, it's a family of all blondes."

I took in a sharp breath. "Yeah. Okay, you might take the prize on that one."

"You're dreaming about Stefan?" Caroline asked Elena as the three of us walked down the pathways of the Whitmore campus together, each of us holding a basket of laundry. I had all of the clothes from my suitcase in the basket, hoping that all the wrinkles would eventually go away with the rinse cycle.

"They're not dreams," Elena defended herself. "It's more of a feeling. Maybe I should call him."

"So he can hear how happy you are with Damon?" Caroline snorted. "Absolutely not. Mads, back me up here!" I cleared my throat having been pulled into the conversation, and I quickly agreed no matter the cost.

"Uh, yeah. Don't call him, Elena." I didn't even know who we were talking about, let alone what. The only thing I knew was that the show Audrey and I were watching before this dream happened had a Stefan in it. I kept trying to remember the name, but it wouldn't come off the tip of my tongue.

"See," Caroline said pointedly to the brunette, who hung her head a little shamefully. "Listen to her. You've already hurt one person because of your relationship with Damon. There's no need to hurt another one."

Elena mumbled under her breath after a moment, "Way to make it not awkward, Care."

Our trio fell silent for a while until I caught up with the dialogue and gasped. "Oh! Oh, I get it. But no...Elena, Caroline, it's not awkward. Damon and I are over. We called it, it's done." I shrugged. "Moving on."

Elena tried to give me a smile, but I could tell she was hiding hidden suspicion. Caroline just looked at me like I got out of an insane asylum. "Um, Mads...I was never really a cheerleader for you and Damon before all this happened, but are you really serious right now?" she asked, weary.

I nodded. "Mmhmm. Dead serious." Playing with my subconscious was fun. I looked over Caroline's shoulder at Elena. "But as for Stefan, Caroline's right. Don't call him."

Elena sighed. "So what are you two saying? I should just let it go and not call him?"

"He'll call when he's ready," Caroline reasoned.

"So I should just live with this nagging pit in my stomach?"

"Okay, Elena, that pit is called guilt. You feel terrible because you broke Stefan's heart; and that nagging feeling is your brain waking up to tell you that you've made a horrible—yet completely reversible—mistake," Caroline suggested.

"Nice try," Elena taunted her with an unamused expression while she stopped us in the middle of the pathway. "Besides, Stefan and I left things in a good place."

Everything was beginning to fall together—Stefan and Elena dated, Damon and I dated, Elena and Damon are currently dating. Things were not in a good place for any of us and Elena's head was so far up in her ass she was literally in denial now. Wonderful. I was dreaming about a soap opera; a soap opera that sounded a lot like that television show I paid absolutely no attention to.

Caroline groaned. "It doesn't mean that he hasn't been thinking about you shaking up with his brother all summer long!" the blonde accused. Elena and Caroline were quiet for a moment before looking behind at me, and Caroline took in a deep breath. "Crap. That was inconsiderate of me, wasn't it?"

I opened my mouth to protest yet again, but instead, Caroline's mom—who apparently was also Audrey's mom—and Audrey walked by. Caroline's mom gave her a parental look. "A little. Hello. Mom and younger sister ears. We're still here." Elena made a face and Caroline laughed, but I just shook my head. All of us turned and Elena sighed deeply, taking it all in.

"We're in college," she stated.

Caroline grinned widely. "We actually made it. All three of us."

I didn't really want to ruin the moment, but its as honestly boggling my mind. "Wait a second...shouldn't I be a sophomore here or something?" Caroline's mom had dropped the age bomb on me on the way over. Apparently, I was nineteen—almost twenty. It made me feel super, duper old.

Elena laughed. "Go ahead, Mads. Get all you're 'I'm-smarter-than-the-average-student' jokes out now. We know you have them." But I was smarter than the average student. I frowned at her for not answering my question. But when I fell silent, Elena and Caroline looked at me strangely.

"What?" I asked them, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing?" Caroline asked, blinking at me incredulously. "Not one joke? Not one comment to gloat, either? Jesus, breaking up with Damon really changed you."

"What can I say?" I shrugged innocently as I brushed past them, tired of talking about Damon and Stefan and whatever soap opera story lines they had in this place. "I'm a changed woman."

The more I spent time with these people, the more and more I realized that this was coming close to the show Riley showed Audrey and me that I had zoned out on. But she talked about it so much that I got the gist of it: girl in love with boy, boy in love with girl, evil vampire brother gets between them, all hell rises. But where in that equation did I fit in?

I walked off from Caroline and Elena trying to collect my thoughts. They contemplated going after me from what I saw, but I kept moving until I found a bench far away from them. I put the clothes hamper down on the bench and pulled out my phone from my back pocket, tapping it in my hand in contemplation. What was the name...? What was the name...?

Suddenly, I remembered. The Vampire Diaries. Bingo.

Repeating the name into my head, I hastily unlocked my phone and pulled up the internet. After typing the name of the show in, I waited for the results to come up on the page. It took forever, which had me gritting my teeth anxiously. If I was stuck in this dream, I was going to know what the hell was going on. Finally, the Google page loaded, and I braced myself for a shitload of information.

No results found.

"What?" I asked myself quietly. I typed in the name again, but the same answer came up. It was the right name for the show, I was sure of it. Eventually, I stopped trying to look for results and just knotted my eyebrows in utter confusion. "God, what does that even mean?"

"Hey!" I heard from behind me, and I turned to see Caroline rushing up to my side without her hamper. Elena must've taken it for her so she could come and talk to me. "Are you okay?"

I swallowed and locked my phone, slipping it back into my pocket without her knowledge. My smile wavered, but I thought about it. So The Vampire Diaries didn't exist? Maybe it was meant to be that way in my dream. "Yeah. I'm fine. Let's go."

"You bought a panini press?" Elena asked incredulously as she turned around to face Caroline, who was completely serious about the matter.

She didn't even bat an eye while responding, "Small appliances by the fridge." Elena blinked twice before moving over to follow Caroline's orders. I walked over to my bed, where Audrey was helping me unpack the boxes Caroline had taped up for transport. I thought about mentioning to her the fact that the television show wasn't online, but it was just a dream. It really didn't matter, did it?

"That's the last one," Liz announced as she brought a box into the room and set it down. She looked up at her daughter. "All right. Give me a goodbye hug before I change my mind and bring you home with me." Caroline pulled her mother into a hug after they made their way to each other across our lavish dorm room, and Liz got teary-eyed. "You can call as much as you want, you know?"

Caroline laughed. "Mom! We'll be fine." Once they broke apart, Liz went over and hugged Elena, and then she stepped over and hugged me. Once she was done hugging me, she turned her attention back to Elena and kept her eyesight on the both of us. "This is where your dad fell in love with medicine, you know?" she stated. "He would be really proud to see you both here."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Audrey give Caroline a hug while Elena smiled beside me. "Thank you," she said to Liz. I smiled as well, but said nothing. Elena walked over to Audrey next and they gave each other a hug goodbye, though I could see Elena was tense. After Elena, I hugged Audrey, and then it was time for the Forbes to leave us.

"Go!" Caroline laughed at her mom and her sister, but she said it with love in her voice. Liz smiled. "Before I change my mind and make you both stay."

"We're going, we're going," Caroline's mom assured, beckoning Audrey with her. "I love you," she said as she approached the door. A smile peeked at Caroline's lips. "Bye, girls."

"Bye," Elena and Caroline said in unison while I merely waved. Audrey echoed the parting and left as well. I thought about going with her, since she was a senior at the high school back where we started out (I gathered it to be Mystic Falls from when Elena mentioned it as we'd left the town during the car ride), but I decided against it. A dream was a dream, after all. What was the point in fighting it?

"So, roomies." Caroline sang the words as soon as her family left.

Elen chuckled. "I think we should drink to something." One of the best ideas she'd had all day.

"I couldn't agree more," Caroline spoke before she walked over to her bed and opened her suitcase. She hid alcohol in her suitcase? That was smart.

But what she pulled out from the suitcase was not alcohol.

"What the hell?" I snapped as I saw Caroline pull out two pints of blood in hospital bags. I pointed at it and watched as Elena and Caroline eyed me suspiciously. "W-Why...?"

Elena frowned. "Mads, it's just blood."

"Just blood?" I repeated, shocked. Why was that normal? "Why would you even—?" I stopped short. Damn it. The Vampire Diaries. They were vampires. I could be so stupid sometimes if I didn't catch on fast enough. I swallowed. "Sorry. Vampires. Right. I kind of forgot," I covered.

"It's okay." Caroline gave me a weak yet suspicious smile, and for a second, I thought she was going to extend the blood to me. Was I a vampire? I wasn't craving blood so...hopefully not. Instead of doing what I thought she would, Caroline turned around and walked to the mini-fridge and pulled out a red can labeled Coca-Cola. "And this is all yours, Mads."

When she shoved it on me, I had no choice but to grab it, but I frowned. Soda? I couldn't have anything stronger? But luckily, I was a human. I felt relieved at that fact. And soda wasn't so bad...I loved it, actually. I just wished Caroline had given me tequila instead. What was the point of being a college student if you couldn't have fun?

"To the next chapter of our lives," Caroline toasted after sharing one of the blood bags with Elena. The two vampires toasted to it using the pints of bloods, and I fought back a bile as I cracked open the can of soda. They looked over at me and I forced a smile while I rose my can up in the air for them to tap their blood bags to. Again, bile threatened at my throat.

Right before they were about to open their blood bags and probably succeed at making me puke all over the nice hardwood dorm room floor, there was a soft knock at the door, leading them to quickly—meaning supernaturally—throw the blood bags back into the suitcase and watch as a girl invited herself into the room, holding all of her stuff.

Her face, unlike Elena and Damon's from earlier, was not familiar. I was quite certain I'd never seen her before in my entire life.

"Hey!" the girl exclaimed excitedly. But as for the rest of us, we weren't so excited. Well, I didn't really know what was going on, and Caroline and Elena were looking at the girl like she had three heads. Caroline was especially not happy.

"Um, who are you?" Caroline demanded.

"I'm Megan," said the girl. With a smile, she added, "Your roommate."

Needless to say, Caroline and Elena were furious over the fact that they had a roommate they didn't want. I took it in stride seeing as it was a dream and it would all be over soon. But while Caroline sulked to herself, Elena tried to be the bigger person and divulged in conversation as we all walked outside to get a look at the campus.

"So your current boyfriend, Damien—" Megan began, but was cut off by Elena.

"Damon," she corrected.

"—is your ex's brother?" Megan's tone was disbelieving. Elena nodded to her.

"Stefan."

"And you and Stefan are friends, but three months ago he left without saying goodbye?"

"You think I should call him?" Elena questioned again, wanting an outsider's opinion. I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything, but I was annoyed to my very core. She was annoying. But I knew why everyone was so concerned with my feelings...Damon and Elena's relationship apparently hurt more than just me. Caroline didn't like it, I don't think Jeremy was all that ecstatic, and this Stefan guy was hurt just as much as I was. And even along with being Elena's ex-boyfriend, he was also Audrey's.

Damon and Elena. Damon and I. Stefan and Elena. Stefan and Audrey. That was one messed up love-pentagon. The thought of a romantic relationship between me and Stefan crossed my mind, but no one seemed to confirm my thoughts that we were involved, too. As far as I was aware, Stefan and I were just friends.

Megan scoffed, "No way," at the same time Caroline shouted, "Absolutely not!" for the billionth time. Elena shook her head and hunt it shamefully, causing Megan to look at Caroline.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" she asked.

Caroline smiled proudly, giving her answer without saying anything at first. It surprised me, but I didn't say much. "I do. His name's Tyler. He had to miss moving day, but he'll be here for the first day of classes."

"Assuming he registers," Elena said doubtingly, "and picks a dorm. And buys books." Jesus, was my entire family this rude? Caroline shot her a look, and while that was going on, Megan looked at me next.

"What about you, Madeline?"

I could've said something along the lines of "No, actually, he's Elena's now," but I decided against it the second I thought of the snarky answer. Caroline and Elena watched me carefully, awaiting the final answer that I spoke from my lips. I didn't know if I had another boyfriend since Damon, but because I hadn't heard of one, I shook my head. "Um, no. Not anymore."

Elena looked at me sympathetically, and I hated it. I felt like everyone—especially her—kept treating me like I was a little china doll on the verge of shattering into a million pieces. When did I become so man-dependent that other people felt sorry for me because of a breakup?

Caroline saved me from awkward silence, turning to Megan sharply. "Speaking of minding one's business, let's talk roommate ground rules." She crossed her arms. "Privacy is very important to me."

"Same here," agreed Megan.

"I have low blood sugar," Caroline lied. "My diet's finicky, so keep your paws off my stuff." That was rude, too. Wow, everyone was really rude here.

"We'll split up the shelves," our other roommate compromised.

"And if I suddenly get up to leave or disappear for a while, don't follow me."

"Okay." Megan looked at Caroline with agreement and Caroline just smiled in response. "Sounds good."

"Great." Elena laughed awkwardly. "Then we agree on everything."

"Excuse me, ladies," said a male voice, interrupting the conversation at hand. Before the male walked up to us, I could see Elena and Caroline give each other a weird look. Did we know him? Regardless, the male announced to us, "Party at Whitmore House tonight." He handed Caroline a flyer. The blonde didn't notice, but Elena and I both caught the boy staring at Caroline in a more than interested way.

When Caroline didn't answer, Elena looked at the boy with a smile. "We'll be there." The boy crossed our path to leave just as Caroline snapped her head up in confusion.

"I hope so." The male turned his attention fully to Caroline, who finally caught it as he walked by. Elena put an arm around the blonde and sighed deeply, as if she were in heaven.

"I love college." My sister laughed, and Caroline just rolled her eyes before we all continued towards the center of campus.

A frustrated, furious Caroline raided the drawer's in Megan's dresser, completely obliterating the agreement we all had about privacy. Elena was facing the full-length mirror in the corner and I was on my bed just waiting for this dream to end. Caroline looked back at us, annoyed. "Do you guys notice how Megan's juicer takes up all the small appliance space?" Elena and I just stared at her while she turned around and opened a drawer in our roommate's dresser with a judge-y expression. "She has an entire drawer dedicated to organic linen!"

"What happened to privacy?" challenged Elena. I played with the threads on my bed. Jesus, college was boring.

Caroline shut the drawer and turned around. "Maybe if she didn't take long showers, I wouldn't have time to go through her stuff! I mean, how can you two be okay with a fourth roommate?" She didn't even stop raking through Megan's things, despite what Elena reminded her of.

"Because we're trying to be functional. And being functional means we need friends." Earlier, they had said something about "compelling" the housing's office to kick Megan out of their room and stick her with another unlucky trio of college students, but just as Elena pushed now, she pushed then. She wanted to be "functional", as if we weren't already.

"Human friends," I commented. There were way too many vampires around.

Caroline spun around and argued, "But we also need personal space! I mean, what if we suddenly get a craving and I want to eat her?" Elena rolled her eyes and chuckled under her breath. I raised my eyebrows.

"Wait a second, I'm human. Are you saying you want to eat me all the time?" I asked, narrowing my eyes to slits. Caroline rolled hers in response, as if the thought had never crossed her thoughts.

"Mads, come on. You're my best friend, of course not." She scoffed. "I'm saying that I don't know her and if I want to eat her, nothing's stopping me. And what about our blood bags? What if they go bad because we can't store them in the mini-fridge?" The blonde turned and opened the small fridge before pulling out a bottle of Megan's water. She held it up in the air as if it were a disgusting trophy. "I mean, what the hell is protein water?" Elena and I both shrugged as Caroline twisted off the cap with a sadistic smile. "Well, maybe if I drink it all, she'll want to move out."

"Because that's so logical..." I trailed off in confusion, but Caroline didn't listen to me. She put the bottle to her lips and drank, about to chug the whole thing down. Elena walked over to her with her mouth open for protest, but in the next second, Caroline was on the floor, spitting out all of the water she'd taken in as if it were poison. Concerned, I jumped off my bed to help.

"Caroline, what the hell?" I asked her as I tried to drop to the floor, but Caroline just held up her hand in protest in the midst of her coughing fit. Elena and I stared down at her, worried.

When she finally looked up, she said one word: "Vervain."

Somehow, this was a big deal to Elena. The word cut through her like a blade and she widened her eyes. "Vervain?" I repeated, clueless. What was it? Was it something harmful to vampires? Or just Caroline? Maybe she had an allergy to it...could vampires have allergies? It seemed doubtful.

Suddenly, Megan burst through the door leading to our private bathroom, a towel messily slapped around her body. "What's going on? Are you okay?" Megan asked as she saw Caroline on the floor. Steam floated out from the shower room into our room from Megan's hot shower.

Elena and I helped Caroline up from the floor. As we did this, Elena covered for her. "Yeah. She's fine." But it didn't take a genius to figure out that Elena and Caroline were panicking on the inside. Obviously, Caroline didn't just have allergies. Something was wrong.

"What happened?" a curious Megan asked.

"Uh...the water just went down the wrong pipe," responded Caroline. "I'm okay. Really. I shouldn't have touched your stuff. I'm really sorry." She extended the water like a peace offering, and Megan took it reluctantly.

"It's fine. It just sounded like someone was dying out here." Caroline, Elena, and I all laughed nervously. It was partially the truth, I guess. Obviously, this "vervain" thing was more than harmful to just Caroline. Megan let out a rough exhale. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."

Once done, Megan returned to her shower and, when she had the water back on, Elena and Caroline exchanged worried glances. "She knows who we are," whispered Caroline. That immediately answered my question: vervain was harmful to vampires, in general. "She drinks vervain water!"

"That doesn't mean she knows about us," Elena tried.

"Seriously?" A frantic Caroline exclaimed. "We share a bathroom with this girl! What if she's a Hunter and she stakes us in the shower?" A Hunter? Am I dreaming about Supernatural, too? If I am, I call Dean Winchester, hands down. "Or steals our daylight rings while we're asleep and then we burst into flames when the sun comes up—" So the vampires could walk in the sun because they had daylight protection rings? If this wasn't based off of that television show Riley loved so much, I would consider writing a book about this shit.

"Don't you think if she was a Hunter, we'd be dead by now?" Elena reasoned. Caroline ignored the comment, listing off things they could do.

"I think we should lock her up. You know, let the vervain get out of her system? And then we compel her to forget about us."

"Caroline, I'm not kidnapping our roommate!" shouted Elena. I shrugged at the idea.

"You know, it's actually pretty logical—" I began, but my younger sister cut me off. I still wasn't exactly sure about how we were in the same class together, but I assumed it had something to do with that stupid birthdate cut off for when you started school. Either that or I was held back...but I highly doubted that.

"No, Mads. The best way to convince her that Caroline and I are normal is to act normal. Do normal, human, freshman-y stuff," Elena suggested, but it was more of a demand honestly.

"Such as?" Caroline prompted. Elena let a creepy smile onto her face, and I realized exactly what she was thinking.

Suddenly, college wasn't so boring anymore.

From the Whitmore House, the music was blasting as loud as could be for the start-of-the-school-year party. It felt like everyone on the East Coast could hear us, but I highly doubted that it wasn't normal for the place. I'd never been to a big, crazy party before like this one, though I had been invited. Junior year, I was supposed to go with Audrey when I got sick with the flu the weekend it was supposed to happen. Audrey went, though, and she loved it.

"I'm getting drunk," I announced to Elena and Caroline as we arrived on the lawn. They both threw a teasing glance to me. "Seriously. Someone's going to have cover me. I don't want to end up sleeping on the couch here or something."

Elena snorted. "Yeah. Sure thing, Mads." I looked over at her. What? Was I not allowed to have alcohol, either? Granted, I wasn't of legal age, but neither was anyone else!

"I'm serious." Elena started to laugh. "Okay, fine! Let's go. I'm ready to get drunk." Caroline and Elena both shook their heads at me before walking forward, and I followed behind with a disappointed half-smile. Before we ended up getting two steps from where we were standing before, there was a familiar voice behind us.

"Hey, I remember you." We all turned around to find the guy who informed us of the party pointing at Caroline.

"Hey," Elena greeted. "Flyer guy."

"Jesse, technically, but flyer guy works, too." He gave us—more like Caroline—a grin while he corrected Elena, but Caroline just stood there. When a silence overcame us, Elena did her best to cover it up by introducing us all herself.

"I'm Elena. This is my sister, Mads, and this is...uh, Caroline." Caroline was clearly avoiding Jesse's gaze, and I wondered why. Sure, she had a boyfriend, but Jesse wasn't so bad-looking if you asked me. A little pining here and there wasn't harmful, was it? But Elena nudged Caroline in the side, silently telling her to say something.

"Hi," Caroline said quickly, but then walked away. Elena looked at Jesse with soft, apologetic eyes, but I just gave him a tight smile and walked in the direction Caroline went to find her. But while I found Caroline, Elena stayed with Jesse to talk to him. Eventually, I found the blonde vampire by the threshold and I pulled her arm back.

"What's wrong, Caroline?" I asked her with raised eyebrows. "He was just being nice."

"I'm with Tyler." I frowned.

"Are you?" I retorted, trying to be as gentle as I could. "I mean...I don't know much, but from what it sounds like, it seems like there's been a lot of distance—"

"Well, you would know, if you were here over the summer," Caroline snapped at me with bitterness outlining her tone. I bit down on my lip, trying to come up with a response that the Mads everyone thought they knew would come up with.

"I know you're...upset about that, Caroline," I started while she crossed her arms defensively, "but I needed space. Some time away. I came back, though. Doesn't that count for something?"

"You still left!" Caroline said angrily. "I thought you would be stronger than that!"

"I thought so, too." I was so intricate in this conversation, but I really had no clue what was going on. I just played along like nothing was wrong, though...and it was fun. "But he broke up with me to be with Elena. I needed time to get over it." Things went silent, and I shrugged. "Besides...for all you know, Tyler could be cheating on you and you're just passing up opportunities here and there like they'll always—"

"Oh, don't bring your issues with Damon last year into my issues with Tyler." Caroline's voice was harsh, but I stared at her with confused eyes. What? Caroline gasped. "Oh. Oh, my God! That was so insensitive, Mads, I am so sorry—"

I stopped her. "D-Damon was cheating on me?" I asked, puzzled. Caroline stared at me, incredulous.

"Um...duh. That's why you left. Why would you even ask me that?" In her eyes, I saw complete and utter confusion, and I realized I messed up. Quickly, I shook my head.

"Err, sorry. I'm a little out of it." Suddenly, a metaphorical light bulb went off in my head and I gasped. "Wait a second, was—"

"Caroline," someone interrupted. Speak of the devil, it was Elena. I shut up instantly as Elena looked at Caroline with soft eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Caroline said quickly. "Let's just...go inside. It hasn't really been one of the best days." With a nod, all three of us began to walk into the house. I passed through easily, but Caroline and Elena stopped at the threshold. I looked behind me to find them, but when I saw that they were stuck, I turned around and cocked an eyebrow.

"Um...what's wrong?"

"Someone must own this place," Elena whisper-hissed. "We have to be invited in."

"Hey!" another voice said, and I turned to see Megan come up to my side with a slaphappy grin. "I was wondering if you guys were gonna make it!" Elena, Caroline, and I just gave Megan a smile, trying to stall. But as if it wasn't bad enough, that Jesse guy came behind Elena and Caroline with a confused expression as they blocked the doorway.

"Are you guys going in, or...?" he trailed off.

"Uh, go ahead." Elena let Jesse passed, and he walked around them and disappeared into the crowd in the house. Megan looked at me and then at Elena and Caroline, suspicious.

"Why are you guys just standing there?" Elena opened her mouth, but she couldn't come up with a good excuse. Neither Caroline nor Elena looked at me for anything, thankfully, because they probably knew what a bad liar I was.

"Uh, Caroline?" prompted my sister.

"Waiting for someone," Caroline said lamely after taking a moment to herself to think. I wanted to bring my palm to my face, but I resisted. There were a bunch of mumbles from Elena and Caroline that I couldn't hear, but Megan just nodded.

"Right." She paused. "Well, I'm gonna go hang. Mads, you coming?"

I turned to her, surprised at the invitation. I could've said yes, technically, and ditched Elena and Caroline in the process, but I had to admit that it was a bad (and rude) idea. At last, I declined, "Um, no. I have to wait, too." A suspicious Megan nodded and backed away into the party. Elena smiled and waved innocently, but when she was gone, her smile dropped.

"Like I said, she knows," Caroline proved and turned to leave. I reluctantly joined them and we walked outside, where Elena pulled out her phone and decided to call Megan to cover all of us.

"Hey, Megan, it's Elena." Caroline paced back and forth as Elena spoke on the phone. "Just calling to let you know why we left, so...call me when you get a chance. Bye." Swiftly, Elena ended the call just as Caroline let out a deep sigh.

"Okay. It's settled. When she leaves, we grab her."

"Or we could just let her know that you weren't feeling well..." Elena trailed off. Caroline scoffed.

"Elena! She saw us stuck at the threshold! We might as well flash her our fangs." So these vampires had fangs. That was nice to know. The three of us walked again and I kept my mouth shut while Caroline and Elena argued with each other. I didn't care what happened, this dream should be over soon.

"There's no way that out of the thousands of freshman, we were randomly placed with someone who knows about vampires," Elena hissed, looking around cautiously.

"Maybe it wasn't random," said Caroline, cryptic. Elena opened her mouth to respond, but the phone in her hand began to ring sharply.

"Megan's calling," Elena announced while hitting the accept button on her phone and pulling it up to her ear with a smile. "Hey, Megan—"

"Elena?" a frantic Megan breathed over the phone loud enough for even my human ears to hear. "You have to help me...chasing me..." She was terrified, that was for sure. Elena put the phone on speaker now per Caroline's request.

"Megan, who's chasing you?"

"Help me!" our roommate screamed, and Caroline and Elena both looked up to the top level of the Whitmore House beside us. I looked up as well, but I saw nothing.

"We can't come inside—" Elena started to say, but cut herself off and tried to come up with a reason. "The line's too long." Megan screamed again, her breath ragged. "Where are you?"

"Ah! Elena, please help me!"

Caroline grabbed the phone from my sister. "Megan, can you hear me? Just get outside and we can help you." Megan screamed again after Caroline's assurance, and I was the first to hear the loud thump on the ground just a few feet away from me. The three of us turned, all to see a completely revolting sight.

"Holy shit!" I freaked as I jumped back and stumbled into Caroline and Elena as we all stared at the dead body on the ground. It was Megan, her body limp and...well, dead. Elena covered her mouth with her hand and ran over to the girl. She brushed Megan's hair off of her neck to reveal two puncture wounds in the neck, blood coating the outside of the wound.

"Who did this to her?" Caroline asked aloud.

That was a legitimate question. We all knew what it was, but we didn't know who. So that's why I wanted to stab myself when the blatantly obvious words escaped my sister's lips. "This was a vampire."

No shit, Sherlock.

Caroline, Elena, and I all watched as the campus police covered Megan's dead body with a yellow sheet, declaring her untimely death. Sirens blazed everywhere and policemen crawled all over the campus, checking out the scene of the crime. We were to be interviewed about the situation any minute now.

"What is happening?" my sister asked aloud, frantic. "Our roommate is dead. There was a vampire at the party."

Caroline turned to her. "We don't know what she knew or who she told."

I blinked at her. "Seriously, Caroline? Our roommate just died. I think we can give the Hunter hunt a rest for right now."

"Absolutely not! We're next if we don't figure out if she knew about us and who she told," Caroline snapped back, this time not apologizing for her insensitivity. I crossed my arms. God, I really didn't like these people. "We should get out of here."

No one said anything until Elena spoke again, gasping. "Caroline, I left that message on her voicemail."

Caroline brushed it off. "Don't worry, I took her phone," she replied. I scoffed while Elena blinked in disbelief.

"What?"

"Hey, girls?" someone asked us, snapping us all out of the conversation. We turned to see an African-American woman come over to us and was instantly recognizable by the police lanyard on her neck. "I'm Diane Freedman, head of campus security. Are you okay?"

All three of us nodded, but Elena spoke. "Um, I think so."

"I understand Megan was your roommate. I'm so sorry you had to find her like this," she said apologetically.

Caroline urged, "Do you know what happened?"

"They found a note. Apparently she was struggling with severe depression."

"A note?" I repeated, dumbfounded. "A suicide note?"

Diane nodded. "Your roommate took her own life." Elena and I were deeply surprised, but Caroline wasn't buying it.

"You think this was a suicide?" she demanded angrily. The security woman nodded.

"We're convinced it was a suicide. But we can't seem to find her cell phone. Have you seen it?"

"No." The three of us all said that one word at the same time. The woman looked at us with skeptical eyes, but moved on.

"Okay. If it turns up, let us know." She left promptly afterwards, leaving the three of us alone again. Once she was gone, Elena dropped her voice to a whisper.

"What's going on?" she asked, earning Caroline to just stare, as clueless as Elena was.

"Hey, Megan, it's Elena. Just calling to let you know..." Caroline pulled the phone away from her ear as we all walked down the dorm room halls. She pressed a button and announced the fact that she was deleting the message just as we came to our dorm room. Elena stopped cold when she found that the door was left cracked open, and Caroline and I noticed the same thing. Cautiously, Elena went first, I went second, and Caroline last. It sucked being the only human one, but I had two vampires to do the protecting for me.

"Someone's been in here," Elena noted as she walked into the room, looking around. Caroline walked over to the desk and turned on the side lamp.

"Megan's tablet's gone."

"Along with her so-called suicide note." Elena sighed. "Can I...see the phone for a second?" Caroline happily handed the phone over to my sister, who searched it quickly. While she did so, Caroline let out a frustrated groan.

"This just doesn't make any sense! First, the roommate we're not supposed to have might know about vampires, and then happens to be killed by a vampire, and now the school's covering it up...I mean, seriously. Who is this girl?"

I took it as an opportunity to crack a joke at a much-needed time. "Maybe she's a CIA agent." Caroline frowned. "What? Like a secret part of the government who knows about vampires? They could've covered up her death and others so that a panic doesn't break out."

"Seriously, Mads?" Caroline eyed me, annoyed. I shrugged.

"Hey, it's my dream!" I defended myself without realizing that I slipped up. Caroline scoffed.

"You dream about that sort of thing?"

"Well, that's not really what I—"

"Whatever's going on, it's not just about our roommate," Elena announced, cutting me off. I looked over at her.

"Then what is it about?"

"Us," she said simply. I raised my eyebrows at her and she turned the phone in her hand around to show a picture of Megan and some older man. I was completely lost. "That's Megan..."

"With your dad," Caroline finished, gasping.

After the crazy events that previously took place in my dream, I was just hoping that I could fall asleep in it and wake up in the real world—in my own bed. Maybe it was one of those weird dreams where you had to fall back asleep again to wake up. I didn't know; all I knew was that this world was complicated and scary and that I didn't want to be a part of it anymore.

But while I shut my eyes and tried to fall asleep, I couldn't help but overhear the soft yet loud voice over the phone that was easy to hear when the room was pin-drop silent. "I'm really, really sorry, Care. But this is important." I turned to find Caroline in her bed, only separated from me by a nightstand. Elena was in the shower, the pitter-patter of the water from it a background noise. I could see that Caroline was clearly trying to hold herself together, but her sobs inevitably leaked out. I felt terrible about planting the thought about Tyler cheating on her in her head, so I felt like I needed to say something. It was obvious that it had been Tyler on the other side of the line before they hung up the phone.

"Care?" I said softly. I knew she could hear me. "Are you okay?"

I heard her answer, even with my boring human ears. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." It was a lie and we both knew it.

"Caroline." Her eyes glanced up to meet mine, and I could see the gleaming wetness that built up in her lids. "I'm so sorry."

Caroline sniffed. "For what?"

"Leaving," I responded, finally being serious. I didn't know her, but I felt like I needed to apologize. "Saying those things about Tyler...I...I don't think he'd do what Damon did to me. He cares about you too much." I was simply going off of a guess, but she didn't correct me, so I considered it a win. I saw the shadow of Caroline as she wiped her hands on her face, getting rid of the tears as she sniffled again.

"Mads, I'm really glad that you came back." I let a small smile come onto my face. I dreamt of a great friend.

"I'm glad I did, too."

"Can I ask you something?" I nodded. "Are you okay? Really?" She looked at me sympathetically, and I swallowed hard. "I know Elena's trying to make everything work out...but she did hurt you."

So I was right. It was Elena who wrecked my relationship with Damon. It was a painful stab in the chest, like I was being impaled with a knife of pure betrayal. My own sister. Well...not my sister, but the sister I had in my dream. Nevertheless, it had the same effect. It was a straight-shot betrayal.

"It's okay." I took a second to make sure my voice didn't waver with sadness, or maybe angry. "I'm fine. I really am."

There was a silence for a long time before Caroline let out a sigh. "I'm so sorry for snapping at you earlier."

"It's fine," I assured her. "And I'm sorry again for saying those things about Tyler." Caroline nodded. "Goodnight, Care."

"Night, Mads." She turned over in her bed and said at a slightly inclined volume, "I'll see you in the morning."

I turned over, myself, and whispered quietly, "Yeah. I'll see you in the morning."

I closed my eyes and slept.

Up next, True Lies. Ugh. That episode. But Silas and Damon are really, really hot. Not to mention, Stefan comes out of the safe!

Don't forget to review!

Love,

BellaSalvatore1918

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