A/N: I know, i know. Very late. I'm so damn sorry but i moved to a new city, away from home. SO my college work and completing an undergrad degree took a lot of my time but i kept feeling guilty for not writing so here it is.
Haunted
Malia's POV
I felt his breath on my neck as he pressed soft kisses on my jaw and neck. I was moaning under him. He took my hands and intertwined with his. I felt my heart race and I knew he heard it too as I felt him chuckle against my neck. He pressed slow, agonizing wet kisses along my neck and collarbone trailing his tongue towards my chest.
"Please…" I don't know what I was begging for but I needed it more.
"Shhh… kitten," He chuckled and pressed a long kiss on my forehead before peppering small kisses all over my face. I smiled at his nickname and tried to wriggle my hands free but I realised they were tied up above my head.
"Damon…" I moaned his name as he licked my neck and I turned my face to see him. I opened my eyes and saw his fangs out, "Ahhhhh…."
"Oh my god!" I gasped as I startled awake and realised that I was dreaming. I groaned, again a naughty dream! Ughhh… I need them to stop. I didn't even think about him like that. Okay... maybe a tiny bit but no, he was a vampire and damaged one. I grumbled and tried to snuggle in my covers as I turned other side but instead of covers, my hands found a very bare, naked chest. What? I opened my one eye and saw Damon smirking at me, his eyes dancing playfully. Oh, it's just him.
"Two minutes, Damon." I grumbled as I snuggled back.
"Okay, kitten." Huh? I opened my eyes fully and yelped, shrieking trying to get away from him and ended up falling on the floor.
"What the hell are you doing, Salvatore?" I half yelled-whispered at him, glaring at his smug face. Oh god, I dreamt about him and snuggled with the smirky-ass.
"Don't worry about me but looks like you were dreaming about me, kitten." He whispered tugging me up from the floor making me fall on my bed with my face first. I looked up at him, trying not to blush and trying to pry my tangled bed curls away from my face.
"Don't. I can't process anything so early in the morning. Get out." I glared at him as he tucked my curls behind my ear as if to see my face clearly. I swatted his hands away. "And stop with the name." I said but stopped pushing him midway when I realised, "You. How did you know that?"
"Know what, kitten?" He smirked at me pulling me on top of him.
"Stop it. Get out." I wriggled away from him and got off my bed walking towards my window, opening it. "Out, Damon."
"So grumpy yet adorable in the morning, kitten." He smirked at me as he got up from my bed and shrugged his shirt back on. He moved towards my door to open it,
"No, no, no, no. Mr. smirky-ass. You came through my window, you're going from there. Now, OUT." He chuckled at me and rolled his eyes as he turned towards my window. Thank god, if my twin found about this she would have killed me. And I needed to process what the hell was going on between us. No. No. No, Malia. There's no 'us'. It's just Damon and you. Same Damon, who killed Vicky last night. No more naughty dreams. Wait, how did he know what he called me in my dream? I can't think all of this without any caffeine in me. And I needed to talk to twin about Vicky and the situation we are in.
I was about to go in my bathroom when I felt a kiss on my shoulder and I shrieked, "WHAT THE HELL?" I turned around to see that he was gone. Arghh. That smug bastard. I huffed and went to do my routine.
"Hey Jer," I said as I knocked and went in to his room. He was getting ready to go somewhere.
"Where were you last night, Lia? Did you know about Vicky? She is missing." He said sadly as he sat beside me.
"I know. Twin told me. I'm sorry, Jer." I sighed as I felt guilt eating me up.
"It's fine. We'll find her. I'm going to police station to organize a search party for her." He answered getting up and proceeding towards the door. What? Should I stop him? I saw him and he looked so hopeful that I refrained myself from going. I can't take his hope away.
"Okay. Take care, Jer." I said getting out of his room and shutting the door behind me as Jeremy rushed past me with a hurried 'bye'.
I was about to go in my room when I heard my twin call my name and I groaned internally,
"Malia? Is that you?"
"Yep!" I sighed as I turned around to face her and stopped outside my room as she came to stand beside me.
"Why were you screaming? I heard you screaming." She said giving me a suspicious look and I swear my ears got red.
"No. I was not." I said quickly, too quickly making her more suspicious. Great! I can't tell her about Damon spending the night.
"Yes. I heard you screaming 'what the hell' on top of your voice, Malia." She narrowed her eyes at me and I'm sure by my facial expression she must know I was hiding something. Think, Lia. Think. "Malia!"
"WHAT? FINE, I HAD A SEX DREAM ABOUT STEFAN." I blurted out snapping my eyes shut at my horrible lie. Seriously?
"What?" She asked me looking shocked then cocked her eyebrow as if she didn't believe me. I wouldn't believe me either.
"Yes. I had a naughty dream about Stefan. So, did you see Jeremy?" I said quickly changing the topic.
"Yes, I saw and I don't want him sending search party looking for that monster." Twin said in a harsh tone. Oh, she did not just say that.
"Really, twin? Seriously? Is that why you were making kissy faces and having a tongue-tonsil match with one of those 'monsters'?" I replied glaring at her for being so hypocritical. She looked at me stunned at my outburst but she just narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms,
"Stefan is not a monster and you know it, Malia. Isn't that why apparently you had a 'sex dream' about him?"
"Whatever. I don't want to argue with you and besides if you thought about him like that then you wouldn't have broken up with him." I shot back at her.
"It's not that. I couldn't stay with him because even though he doesn't feed on humans, he's still a danger Malia. And his brother is more vicious and dangerous then him, Malia. They both might have learned to control their urges with time but Vicky hasn't and I don't want her to hurt Jeremy. Can't you see that, Malia?" She said gritting her teeth at me and I bit my tongue not to come back with another sarcastic comment.
"Us fighting right now isn't helping, twin. Our opinion might be different but right now we have to focus on Vicky. I agree that we can't let her hurt Jer but you didn't see the hope in his eyes, twin. Did you see how happy he was when he was with Vicky? I haven't seen him this happy after mom and dad. And I miss my brother. If we make him stay away from one thing that makes him happy…" I trailed off not knowing how to convey her what I was trying to say. I saw her eyes saddened as she walked over my bed and sat on the edge. I sat beside her and squeezed her hand. No matter how much our opinion differs, we are family. She is my sister and I need to protect her.
"I know what you are saying, Lia. But we can't let her hurt our brother. If she hurt him, I wouldn't be able to live with myself." She said sighing.
"I know. Don't worry. Stef and Damon are looking for her. We won't let her hurt anyone, not just Jer. Have you talked to him?" I asked softly and she nodded her head.
"Yeah. That's why I was looking for you. They found her last night. She's at the boarding house. I'm going to talk to Stefan, you coming?" She asked me as she got up from my bed and moved towards my door.
"Yeah. Just let me have my daily dose of coffee and I'll catch up with you there." She just nodded at me and shut my door behind her and I sighed. No matter how much I thought or behaved it was okay, it wasn't. Technically, Vicky is still dead. And I let the killer in my bedroom. Stefan is a vampire and I told my twin that I had a sex dream about him. Wtf is wrong with me? My life went from high school cheerleader to a very weird scary movie.
I splashed my face with water and saw myself in the mirror. My green eyes were dull and my curls were more wild. I had bags under my eyes and I looked like a duck. I splashed it again so that it would help me cool down a little bit. I needed to talk to Matt and Caroline before I left. What was I going to say? Hey Matt, I saw your sister getting killed last night but don't worry the killer and his brother are training her and oops now she's a vampire cause she's not dead-dead? Not only that sounded crazy but very crazy. He'd never believe me and even if he did, do we really need more people in on this secret? No. It's too risky for him to know. That means, I have to lie now. Sure, I'm so good at lying.
I shook my head and took a shower and got dressed quickly. I took my phone and dialled Caroline's number,
"Hey it's Caroline. If I want to talk to you, I'll call you back. Thanks." I got her voicemail. What? Was she okay? I saw the time in my phone and it was already 20 minutes so I decided to call again later and I headed to the Salvatore house.
I got out of the car and hesitated before going in. Last time I was here, I was held as a leverage and my best friends' sister got killed. Relax, Lia. Everything will be…
"Bad night, kitten?" I heard that smug voice again. I rolled my eyes. God, he annoyed me so much.
"Go away." I said without turning and leaned against my car to calm my nerves down.
"I can hear your heartbeat, you know. Very distracting sound." I felt his breath on my neck and I turned around quickly head butting him.
"Oww… what is your problem?" I asked him getting irritated and looking behind him to see if twin was in the eyeshot.
"I don't have one but looks like you do," He said turning around to see what I was looking at, then he turned to face me smirking, "Are you looking for Elena?"
"Yes. Is she inside?" I asked trying to look over his shoulder and when I confirmed that indeed twin wasn't around I sighed.
"Yes. With Saint Stefan."
"Did you tell her where you were last night?" I asked not meeting his eyes.
"Why? Wasn't I suppose to?" I snapped my head up at this with a very weird expression, I'm sure, which must look like half angry and half scared.
"What? Damon! Why would you do that?" I whispered yelled at him with wide eyes and arms flailing.
Damon's POV
She was looking at me with her ocean wide eyes, looking like I just killed a puppy. I stared at her, looking at her face, wide arms and the weird but adorable half angry, half scared reaction. Why did I feel like this with her? I wasn't supposed to feel at all. I'm here for Katherine but yet I find myself drawn to her. Kind Malia. After last night, the way she defended me. It rendered me speechless. Never in my life had anyone defended me and trusted me or even get to know the real me. Even though I killed, or technically, turned her friend yet she stood by me. Stood by what she saw in me. It wasn't just her ocean eyes that separated her from Katherine. Her loyalty, her kindness, her compassion and that damn half smile-half glare of her made him soften towards her. That made him feel like she was like a friend. He hated that she was going to be the collateral damage but he needed to find his love. Katherine.
"Damon!" she hissed at me adorably and I chuckled at her.
"Relax, I didn't say anything to her… yet but she might already know the way you screamed dramatically in the morning." I rolled my eyes at her but she looked smug.
"Don't worry about that!" she scoffed. "I already gave a very good reason to shut her up." She giggled. I cocked my eyebrow at her and she glared at me. "What? She was suspicious so I told her that I had sex dream about Stefan and…"
"WHAT?" The moment I heard that I don't know why something snapped in me and I glared at her making her frown. "What did you just say?"
Malia's POV
"What did you just say?" He said very slowly closing his eyes as if I said something he couldn't grasp. I rolled my eyes at his thick head.
"Whatever. Where is my twin?" I turned to leave but I felt his arm on my shoulder and he turned me around abruptly.
"What did you just say, Malia?" He asked me with his eerily calm voice.
"Huh? I was asking about my twin, Damon. Now let me go."
"No."
"Excuse-me? I said let me go you ass." I shrugged his arm off as I glared at him. Who the hell does he think he is?
"Why would you say it was Stefan?" He asked me looking angry.
"What?" I asked him confused. Why was he stuck on that same thing as if on a loop?
"Stefan is inside with Elena lecturing Vicky." He said coldly nodding towards the door. I eyed him then just shrugged and went inside to find my twin. His mood gives me whiplash. Sometimes he's so infuriating that I wanna kick his ass and the next moment he is that genuine guy who… ugh stop it. I need to stop sympathizing with him. First, he gives me that damn dream and then he behaves like nothing happened and next he gets all weird around me when… I just know he gave me that dream. How else he would know about it? Kitten? Seriously? I'm not a damn kitten! I ignored that fuzzy feeling I got when I thought about that dream. This is so wrong…
"Ugh, don't start with that whole 12 steps thing. The school councillor has been down that road and it doesn't work for me." I heard Vicky talking to my twin and Stefan as I walked in the room. I saw Vicky sitting at the head of the table and Stefan on her left. Elena was sitting right next to Stefan as he was lecturing Vicky on 'how to be a vampire'. I stood beside Elena and gave a small smile to Vicky to which in return I got an icy glare. Jeez it's like I can't even be nice to her.
"It can work. It's your choice Vicky." Stefan argued.
"So, you've never tasted human blood?" She said more like a statement than a question and I shuffled a little to look at Stefan. Stefan didn't say right away anything almost as if he was ashamed by its answer.
"Not in a long time." He finally responded with a faraway look and I wondered what he was thinking about? Blood and mayhem? No. The way Stefan acts around us and the way he has been, I don't think he's the bloody type. It's more like Damon style but who am I to judge? Both were god knows how much old and I wouldn't even know what they had done and besides people change with time.
"How long?" Vicky prodded noticing Stefan's reaction.
"Years and years. I'm not proud of who I am and my behaviour." Stefan said vaguely in a low voice.
"Ugh, does this sketchy feeling ever go away? It's like I have a massive hangover and this daylight thing is a bitch!" Vicky groaned getting up from her seat. "I need more blood! Where's your bathroom? I have to pee. Why do I have to pee? I thought I was dead."
Stefan pointed behind him and Vicky stomped towards the bathroom. When she was out of the room, Stefan turned towards twin and I awkwardly,
"I'm going to uh, I'm going to get her some more… right. I'll be quick." He got up out of his chair and left twin and I alone.
"This is so not going to work." Twin sighed. I didn't know what to say but before I could even respond Vicky walked back into the room.
"False alarm, my body is feeling really funky. It's a good funk, but man it is weird." She said plopping down on the couch and pulling her phone out.
"Who are you calling?" Twin asked quickly.
"Jeremy."
"Vicky you can't see Jeremy anymore." Twin ordered Vicky and I was face palming myself for her stupidity. Vicky is a vampire now and she could kill both of us in a snap.
"Oh, come on, don't you start. I'm going to see whoever I want to see." Vicky said turning around to glare at us. But I stood up making my way to her, forgetting that she is a damn vampire,
"Don't. Please Vicky! Don't you get it? You could hurt Jeremy. Hell! You could end up killing my brother. I'm not going to let that happen." I almost yelled at her trying to mask the panic that was rising in me.
"I would never hurt Jeremy." Vicky narrowed her eyes, clearly taking an offence to what I said.
"You say that now, but when that blood lust runs through your system, you'll do anything to get a taste, to satiate that hunger, including hurting my brother."
"What she means is, you may think that, but we can't take the risk." Elena jumped in, trying to make the situation better and pulling me back slightly so that Vicky doesn't jump on me and try to eat me in anger. I scoffed and swatted her hand away, crossing my hands across my chest still looking at Vicky with my angry glare. "You're going to have to let Jer go." Twin stated as a matter of fact trying to mask my scoff and placate Vicky.
"Oh really?" Vicky sneered, "And how long have you been preparing the 'you're not good enough' speech? I'm assuming it predates the whole vampire thing." Vicky put down her phone and started to get into twin's face. I pulled Elena away from her and stood in front Elena glaring at Vicky.
"It has nothing to do with if you're good enough for Jeremy, you make him happy and I appreciate that. But if you're going to end up sucking him dry then we have a problem, Vicky. We don't want Jeremy involved in any of this shit, so kindly back the hell off." I argued.
"Or what?" She questioned clearly not understanding and pushed me and twin against the wall, holding us up by our throats. "Let's get one thing straight, you perky little bitch. You had my brother wrapped around your little finger for 15 years. 15 years, and then you dumped him like he was nothing. When I look at you, that's all I see." She sneered at Elena choking her while I was desperately trying to make her loosen her hold on our throats. And then I felt the pressure of her hold tighten around my neck as she switched to me from twin, "And you, the piece of trash that Tyler could never get over, he liked you and I thought that I could change that. I don't even know what he saw in you, wandering around wood like a pathetic wannabe orphan, drowning in your own misery, who even are you?" She spat those words at me and I was resisting a huge urge to punch at her face, not that I could even if I want to as she was still holding us by our throats.
"Fuck off." I managed to spit it out with all the venom I could muster without passing out by the way she was tightening her grip on my throat and it was getting real hard to breathe.
"Let's get one thing straight. I will see Jeremy whenever I want to see because I have some fun, new toys I want to play with and I won't think twice about ripping either of your heads off. You got it?" She dropped both of us, walking away, leaving us to gasp for air.
"I'm so going to kill that bitch." I spit it out as I mustered some much-needed air and went to walk towards her, but my twin grabbed my hand.
"No. No. No, Lia. She's a vampire, now. Let's talk to Stefan first." She pulled me towards the door and I didn't put up much fight as I begrudgingly went with her, knowing she was right. As much as I wanted to punch the shit out of her, I knew I was no match. As we were about to walk out the door, we saw Stefan coming up to the front door.
"She threatened us." Elena said, rubbing her neck and I scoffed at her understatement rolling my eyes. Stefan smiled at me and sighed as he explained us motioning for us to move inside,
"She's on edge, imagine every sense in your body oppressing at super speed. I mean she's uncomfortable in her own skin, and then when you throw in her other issues..." he trailed off as it would make us understand.
"Didn't look like it when she was choking us," I scoffed mumbling under my breath, but Stefan just smirked at me shaking his head. I knew what he was saying was right, but my inner bitch still was pissed at Vicky for threatening us.
"How long before it settles?" Elena asked, snapping me from my bitchy thoughts.
"There's no rule book."
"Well how long was it till you learned how to control it?" I asked Stefan narrowing my eyes as if it would squint all the answers.
"A while, but I didn't have anyone helping me. I had to do it all alone. The thing is, it's hard to resist certain people, especially when you're new. It's difficult to separate your feelings. Love, lust, anger, desire- it can all blur into one urge, hunger."
"What does that mean?" Elena asked with a confused look.
"What do you think, sissy?" I retorted with a hint of anger in my voice as I finally grasped the situation, "It means that Jeremy can't see her. Not now, at least. She may not be able to resist him, and she could kill him, Lena." I said with my eyes wide to make my point as Stefan nodded looking from me to Elena.
"Lia is right." Elena said with fear in her voice.
"We'll try explaining that to her, because she is set on seeing him." I turned towards Stefan with a concerned look on my face which mirrored Elena's.
"I'm not going to let anyone get hurt, alright?" Stefan tried to reassure us, but I knew it was next to impossible. Vicky is a wild card. She was unpredictable as a human and now that she's a vampire, she is going to be a lot more difficult.
Twin just nodded at what Stefan said to believe what he said but I knew it was just a false hope. One, that was surely going to break. I had a gut feeling about this.
"We need to get going." She turned towards me and started to walk towards the door and I just raised my eyebrows as if to remind her that she needed to talk to Stefan, but she just ignored me and kept walking towards the door.
"Elena…" Stefan said quickly to stop her, but my twin cut him off.
"Please Stefan, there is only so much I can take. Malia, come on." This time she was out of the door and I sighed. I didn't follow her as I watched her walking out of the door and walking towards the car. I looked at Stefan and he looked upset and disappointed. I shook my head and walked towards him to stand in front of him,
"Give her some time, Stefan. She'll come around. I know her. She's overwhelmed and scared right now. I know her." I smiled at him and gave him my famous Malia bear hug. He stood there stiff for a moment but then I felt his arms around my shoulder returning my hug.
"It's time to go home, Malia." I heard Damon growl behind me and I felt Stefan stiffen. I turned to look at him and he was looking at Stefan with so much hate and anger that I didn't even realize that Stefan was now standing far away from me, looking directly at Damon.
Finally, Damon looked at me, but his stare was still cold when he just raised his eyebrows at his earlier statement and I rolled my eyes at him but smiled at Stefan as a goodbye and turned around walking out bumping my shoulder into his. I heard him chuckle and mumble something to Stefan, but I was already out of the door to actually hear what it was.
Later that night
"You got to call me Vic, I don't get it. What's going on with you? Just call me please." I watched as my very distressed brother left another voicemail in past hour on Vicky's phone. As much as I was glad that Vicky didn't find him, I was feeling very guilty about everything. I felt as if it was my fault that everything was happening. Vicky got killed because Damon got bored. Matt sort of lost his sister and he was too in danger now. What if Vicky went to Tyler's or Matt's? What if she hurt anyone? What if she got hurt? All these guilt-ridden thoughts were haunting me making me feel guiltier when I heard my twin walk in. Giving her a look as if to tell her that we have to do something about this she instantly understood.
"Hey, so um, do you want to hang out tonight? We could do the Halloween thing at school. Could be fun?" Elena asked, while getting comfortable on the bed I was sitting while we saw Jer pace calling Vicky again.
"Cool." Jeremy responded without looking up or even acknowledging my twin. "Sure. Sounds fun. Can't wait."
"So enthusiastic Jer." I said sarcastically and scoffed at him. He stopped pacing and looked at me with a smirk and then pointed a finger at me saying,
"You're coming too."
"What?" I said bug eyed, squinting my eyes at little traitor who was again engrossed in his phone.
"If I'm going so are you." Before I could refuse or shout in denial, my twin shot me a look which had me trapped.
"Fine." I huffed.
Jeremy went to walk out of the room, but Elena stopped him and I was already shaking my head knowing what she wanted to say and how my little brother was going to react but still I just sat there hoping it would somehow play different,
"Jer, I know you're upset about Vicky. I heard she called Matt. But you can't be with her, she needs to get better, the best thing you could do for her is to let her go." She said trying to look insisting while Jeremy was looking more and more annoyed as she peered at him.
"What does that even mean 'let her go'? Oh, okay sure, because we are such experts at letting people go." He barked annoyed at my twin. Well, she had it coming.
"I know you may not see it but trust me Jer, it's for the best."
"For months after Mom and Dad died I felt like crap. Like nothing even mattered crap, and all of a sudden, I'd get these moments and things starts to get a little better and Vicky was in every single one of them. So, you may not see it, but trust me, keeping me away from her is not for the best." He walked out of the room, leaving Elena and I staring at his wake shocked.
"Well that went well." Twin sighed.
"What did you expect, twin? And now I'm stuck going to this thing with you."
"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. Let's go get ready."
"Fine." I got up from the bed and went to my room to change my outfit. I was never into going to Halloween, I'd rather sit at home and have greasy food while binge watching movies. Caroline always dragged me to this stuff and made me feel pretty but now with all the Vicky stuff and Caroline being MIA I was really not in the mood to play dress up.
I decided to go with my last years costume that Caroline made me wear of pebbles and Tyler wore of bam-bam. It's a very short green one shoulder dress version of pebbles and even though we weren't dating, Tyler and I decided to go as pebbles and bam-bam. I walked out of my room as I was done, and walked down the steps, there waiting was Jeremy with his phone in his hands too engrossed to notice me.
A few minutes later, Elena came down in a nurses costume that she wore last year.
"Naughty nurse again! You too, twin." I asked raising my brow.
"Pebbles again? Just hope that Tyler isn't going as bam-bam." She shot back rolling her eyes at me and walking towards the door.
"Oh yeah? Forget about me, twin. Let's just hope that Stefan doesn't see Matt in his Doctors outfit." I smirked as I bumped my shoulder into her and she grumbled not having any comebacks for me.
"Come on, let's go. Don't make us late, Lia." Elena yelled as she opened the car door and got in her seat. I rolled my eyes, following her, getting into the passenger seat as Jeremy got in the back seat. I switched on the radio with high volume but neither Elena nor Jeremy fought me on it. We always used to fight on who gets to pick the songs and it was so fun no matter who won, but it's never going to be the same anymore.
Elena backed out of the driveway and made our way to the school.
When we got there we all got out of the car, Elena and I taking the lead dragging Jer with us, quite literally. Everyone was dressed up quite well and my eyes searched for Caroline, but she was nowhere to be found. I tried calling her from the car, but her call went straight to voicemail. I really have to go check in on her. It's so not like her to miss high school dances. After this mess with Vicky gets sorted out, I will talk to her.
We made it through the crowds of people who were partying. As soon as we walked in, twin and I spotted Matt sitting in the corner standing alone. And I laughed out loud as I saw him as well in last year's outfit, he was standing alone in the corner with his costume covered in fake blood. I started laughing as he made his way towards us.
"Look twin, I told ya." I snickered loudly to Elena to which I got an elbow in my stomach.
"Hey…" I scowled at her but then turned my head and smiled at Matt.
"You went with last years costume too?" Matt asked smiling.
"Yeah, I didn't know I was coming until an hour ago." Elena shrugged trying to act all normal when I know she was feeling all kinds of awkward.
"You too, Lia. You still look good in your pebbles outfit but just be glad that Tyler isn't here." He laughed pointing at my outfit as I punched him laughing and secretly feeling glad that indeed Tyler wasn't here.
He was still laughing when he turned to Jeremy and said, "And you're going as… you?" Jeremy just looked at him unamused and walked away. I just shook my head as Matt looked at twin and I confused,
"He's not talking to us right now, twin got into a fight and I was the collateral damage as usual." I said shaking my head and Elena scoffed at me as if what I said was totally beyond her.
"Yeah! I got into it with Vicky to when she got home. I'm trying not to smother her tonight, but a part of me didn't want to let her out of my sight." I snapped my heads towards twin as Matt said that. Crap! Vicky was here!
"She's here?" I questioned.
"Yeah, I mean you can't miss her, she's a vampire."
"Of course, she is." I muttered, and Elena shot me a look.
"Where did Jeremy go?" Elena said looking around breathing heavily.
"Elena what's the matter?" Matt asked getting confused with my twins erratic behaviour. I wanted to kick her for panicking like that. I know Jeremy might be in trouble, but Matt didn't need to know anything about it.
"We have to go find him." She said grabbing my hand and pulling me away with her leaving a very confused and flustered Matt behind.
"Stop it. You're scaring Matt and we don't want him to know, Lena." I told her trying to loosen her grip on me.
"You need to take this seriously, Lia. What if she hurts Jer?" She yelled at me tightening her grip as we make our way through crowd to find Vicky or Jeremy, whoever we see first.
"I am and that's why I'm saying to slow down, and she won't hurt Jer. Look." I said pointing towards Stefan who was dragging Vicky behind him.
"Oh, thank God. I lost track of Jeremy, I was worried." She said sighing with relief and finally leaving my hand. I rubbed my hand, but face palmed myself as I saw Matt coming towards us with a very serious and frantic expression.
"Great." I muttered, and Stefan saw where I was looking.
"What's going on?" Matt asked, coming over to us as he looked between me, Stefan and Elena.
"Everything's fine." Stefan replied quickly.
"I told you to quit bothering me." Vicky yelled, pulling away from Stefan.
"No Vicky don't do this." Elena started to shake her head as she realized what Vicky was doing.
"Matt, he won't leave me alone." Vicky clung to Matt's arm. Oh no, she didn't.
"Don't be such a bitch, Vicky." I barked at Vicky.
"You need to back off man." Matt threatened, stepping towards Stefan and I shook my head at Matt.
"Matt, it's okay. Stefan is…"
"No, it's not okay, what the hell is your problem?" Mat said cutting me off pushing me aside making me stumble into some guy.
I tried to regain my balance but was pushed more backwards as the crowd went wild again and I couldn't see any of them. I frantically searched my twin and Jeremy as I rushed through the crowd but couldn't find anyone.
I ran down the halls, searching for any one of them but I couldn't find Jeremy or my twin anywhere.
Eventually I ran outside as I heard a loud piercing scream, looking to my left I was my twin on the ground and Stefan was holding Vicky back while Jer was just standing there in shock. Vicky pushed Stefan out of the way and ran, leaving all of us standing there gaping at what transpired there.
"Get inside, go run!" Stefan ordered. I ushered my twin and Jeremy in front of me and headed towards the door. When we got towards the door, Elena and Jeremy went inside but I was yanked by someone from behind, as I felt myself pulling into someone. I felt the agonizing pain as the fangs pierced the skin of my neck and felt my blood getting sucked. I let out a loud scream as I felt the pain increase as Vicky kept sucking my blood and it was more agonizing and terrifying than I ever imagined, and it felt as if it would never stop. I tried to free myself from her grip, but she was too strong for me and I felt my knees buckle as I started losing consciousness. When it did stop, I collapsed on ground, as I couldn't hold myself up, when I saw that there was a piece of wood going right through Vicky's body and Stefan was standing hovering her. He saved me. But by killing Vicky. No!
I wanted to yell and scream and cry but as if my body was in shock, I couldn't utter a single word. I just sat there on the ground looking at Vicky's body which was now in a very horrible grey colour with veins on it. Matty's sister was dead. Because we didn't try to save her. Oh my god! What did we do?
"Vicky!" I heard Jeremy's scream from somewhere, but my mind was still hazy with everything that was happening around me. I could hear Stefan holding him back and I felt tears running on my cheeks as my twin towered over Vicky's lifeless body. I was still sitting there trying to remain conscious, as each second went by more blood left my system.
"Get him out of here." I heard my twin say heavily. Stefan pulled out his phone as I adjusted my vision to see him clearly and he was talking to someone on phone.
Stefan left us, taking Jeremy with him, getting him away from Vicky. Elena got down on the ground beside me and started to cry, looking at Vicky's body. She was dead. Vicky, the girl who was my best friends sister, was dead. I sat there numb as Elena cried silently until Damon showed up. I'm guessing Stefan was calling him.
"You should go." He said as he stared at Elena not looking at me.
"You did this, this is your fault." Elena said disgusted with pure venom in her voice.
"You confuse me with someone with remorse." Damon replied, looking down at the body and then finally looking at me with same cold expression. In rage, Elena went to push Damon, but he didn't move so she went to slap him, but he caught her hand. "None of this matters to me. None of it."
"People die around you. How could it not matter? It matters, and you know it." She spit it out and slapped him hard across his face.
I don't know if it was the shock or what, but a snort escaped me as I saw his face and I mumbled, "Nice. Slap a vampire, twin. Good going."
Elena quickly bent down to pick me but could barely hold me considering I was not at all holding my weight. I slipped through her again landing on my butt, yelping as my hand slipped from my wounds. I felt Damon's arms around me as he lifted me up and sucked in a breath as I turned my face towards him.
"You need to leave, Lia. Your wounds are bleeding and it's not safe." He said peering down at me with his icy blue eyes.
I nodded and clung onto Elena while she just stared at Damon in disgust. As we moved away, Elena could barely hold my weight and I knew I was about to land on my butt again when I felt my body lifting. I was barely holding onto my consciousness as I felt a strong spicy scent flow through my nostrils and I snuggled deep inhaling it.
I opened my eyes and saw Damon looking down at me as he carried me towards he car. I tried to look over his shoulder and saw Elena talking to Matt blocking his view of me.
"You need to patch those up, Lia." I heard Damon's voice as he lowered me onto the backseat gently.
"Later." I sat up clutching my neck as I saw him looking at me. He just nodded and left without any word. Elena came towards the car and slid into the drivers seat and broke down into tears.
"Hey, hey, twin! We're going to get through this. Matty will be fine. We'll take care of him." I said trying to comfort her but not believing my own words for a second.
"I can't do this, Lia." She managed to get out through the tears but didn't say anything else as she kept crying silently until I reminded her that we needed to go home and see Jeremy. She put the car in drive and took us home.
When we got home, Elena helped me up the front steps, onto the porch where Stefan was waiting for us.
"Where is he?" Elena asked trying to hold back her fresh tears.
"Inside." Stefan nodded towards the door.
She went inside, but I stayed on the porch, I couldn't make it up all those stairs and I didn't want to see Jeremy all broken again. He was finally starting to feel good and normal, no matter how in a fucked-up way, but it was because of Vicky. Now, she's gone, and he has seen too much to be okay again. I don't know who to blame anymore. Damon had made Vicky a vampire, Stefan had killed her to save me and I don't know why but I feel like somewhere it's mine and Elena's fault too that Vicky is gone. Forever. Another sob threatened to choke me as I sat down on one of the chairs on the porch and held my hand to the neck.
"How is he Stefan?" I whispered so slowly that if it weren't for his super hearing, he wouldn't have heard me.
"He's not okay, Lia." He responded, taking a seat in the chair next to me, replying softly as the gravity of situation surrounds us.
"Can you hear them?" I asked softly nodding towards the door where my twin left to go see Jer.
He looked towards me as if he was deciding whether to say yes or no but then he ended up saying, "yes".
"What are they saying?" I asked, unsure if I wanted to know the answer. He turned to me, looking in a very serious way as if he wasn't sure either if he wanted me to hear it or not.
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"Yes." I whispered unsure of my answer. I wanted to know but I wasn't sure if I could take anything anymore.
"He doesn't understand what happened, he knows what he saw but he doesn't understand how it's real." Stefan paused looking at me pensively before continuing, "He wants to know why everyone dies on him. And now…" Stefan didn't finish his sentence looking at me as I was about to break down myself.
I nodded in thanks not being able to utter any word knowing that my brother might be breaking down right this moment and I can't do anything about it. I closed my eyes shut tightly, trying to stop the tears from escaping. I have been able to keep it together for a long time now and I needed to keep my emotions in check now too. I sat on my porch stairs for a while until my sister came out. Stefan stood up from beside me and went to her. She just smiled at me trying to reassure herself or myself, I didn't know.
"You okay?" I heard Elena ask Stefan.
"I, uh, I wanted to help her. But instead…" Stefan said, guilt clear in his voice.
"It isn't your fault Stef." I said timidly trying to ease him a little to which he slightly smiled at me and then turned to Elena,
"How's he doing?" He asked nodding towards the door.
"He's a mess." Elena said trying to hold back her tears, "I don't want him going through this again, he's just a kid."
"Elena what can I do to help? I'll do anything." Stefan said earnestly, and the look Elena was giving him, I was honestly dreading it.
"Can you make him forget?" Elena asked Stefan ignoring my horrifying look.
I stood up about to protest about the absurd idea, but Stefan beat me to it, "Elena…" Stefan said not completely sure about this.
"Stefan please, I don't know how he'll eve get past this, I just want him to forget everything that happened."
"No, Elena. I thought we decided that we won't keep things from him anymore. And even if we do, I don't think taking away his choice is the right thing to do." I said trying to stand still but with all the blood loss I couldn't keep still.
"It's going to help him now. You know how it was, how he was! He doesn't need to be like that again, Lia." Elena exclaimed shaking me as if I will change my mind about her taking away the only thing Jeremy has to hold on right now. His choice. His decision to forget or to learn from it and move on. I know what Elena said makes sense but if I were in Jeremy's place, I wouldn't want to forget. And I don't want to be a hypocrite and take away his choices when I wouldn't want mine to be taken away. I know he's suffering right now but he has us, together we will be fine.
"You are taking away his own free will, Elena. He has the right to choose if he wants to forget or remember it. But even if I say this, you've already made your decision but you're being a hypocrite. If you were in his place, you wouldn't like that your choice was taken away. And when he does figure it out, it's on you." With that I turned around, making it clear that I wasn't budging from what I thought was right. Jeremy has the right to remember how the girl he liked was gone. Yes, it would hurt but he would move on. He won't be in the dark anymore. He won't be lied to.
"This is what is best for him and we're going to do it." Elena said ignoring my words, and I rolled my eyes. Of course, she would think that.
I didn't say anything and just sat there feeling infuriated about what they were about to do with my little brother. They were going to manipulate him. Compel him. I knew they would never listen to me. Whatever my sister says, Stefan is going to follow through it. Even if he thought it was wrong.
"If I do it, there's no guarantee that it'll work." Stefan said finally when he realised that I wasn't going to budge from my opinion. "Because of who I am, because of how I live. I don't have the ability to do it right."
"I can do it." I heard Damon's voice say and I turned to find him directly staring at me. I turned around, averting my gaze from where he was standing, not able to look at him. I was hating myself at the moment for trying to still understand him. To understand why he did, what he did. I was really hoping that Stefan couldn't do it. As much as I didn't want him to endure any more pain, I didn't want him to feel betrayal from his own family either when he finds out what we did. I had already lost my parents, I didn't want to lose my brother over this. Now, I didn't understand why Damon was being Elena's knight. "If that's what you want. I'll do it." He was looking at Elena now intensely and I felt a tight sensation in my chest and I hated myself more for it.
"It's what I want." Elena said sternly looking at me, challenging me to try again to change her decision but I knew it was of no use, so I turned around not meeting anyone's gaze trying to choke back a sob that was trying to escape.
"What do you want him to know?" Damon asked, and I could feel his stare burning into the side of my head, but I refused to make an eye contact.
"I want you to tell him that Vicky left town, and she's not coming back. That he shouldn't look for her or worry about her. He's going to miss her, but he knows it's for the best." I heard Damon go into the house and I released a harsh breath that I didn't knew I was holding finally letting the hot tears fall on my cheeks. "It was the right thing to do, Lia."
"Sure, you would think that, Elena. Its always what you think is right." I said angrily turning to look at her and wiping the tears that wouldn't stop falling. I was trying to hold back for so long, but this was it. I couldn't hold back in and I could see that Elena was doing the same. She just sighed and walked to where Stefan was standing and staring at me pensively.
"Part of me wishes that I could forget too. Forget meeting you, finding out what you are, and everything that has happened since." She said sighing and I scoffed.
"If that's what you want." Stefan replied stepping closer to her hesitantly and I turned around to give them space.
"But I can't, with everything that has happened, I can't lose the way I feel about you."
"Yes. But you would do the same thing to Jer, Elena. God, could you be anymore of a hypocrite." I said coldly glaring at her, my breath hitching at the emotions that I was feeling right now.
"It's done." I heard Damon say as he came out of the house, standing beside Elena. I looked at him directly in the eyes and I could see that he was apprehensive. I turned around and limped towards the swing that was on my porch, shrugging Elena off when she tried to help me. I know I was being a bitch, but I was tired of getting bossed around by her because it was supposedly the 'right' thing to do.
"Don't be like this with your sister." Stefan said softly as he sat beside me.
"And you should stop listening to a 17-year-old teenager who thinks it's always a right thing what she does. Both of you." I shot back glaring at him and he sighed.
"I know you don't approve of Jeremy's choice being taken away from him, but I think it's…"
"Don't," I cut him off before he could end that sentence, "You and I both know, taking someone's choice away, no matter how 'right' it is never the right thing to do, Stefan. It wasn't your or Elena's or mine decision to make. Right or wrong, it was Jer's." I said softly trying to hold back the fresh tears that were threatening to escape.
"Let me help you get inside," He said softly, and I just shook my head, needing some space away from all the stuff that has happened.
"It's fine. Thank you for everything you've done to help us. I appreciate it, Stef. You're a good person." I said managing to smile a little, hoping it will make them both leave, and I was still ignoring Damon. I didn't know how to deal with him. He smiled softly at me, squeezing my hand and made his way from off the porch leaving me and Damon alone.
"I'm sorry." Damon said softly, and I don't know what snapped in me that I glared at him so hard that he took the same step back that he took towards me.
"Don't." I said looking at him, "Leave." I know I was harsh by the way he flinched but turned his features into same poker smirky face that if I hadn't looked so closely, I wouldn't have noticed the hurt reaction on his face.
I heard a whoosh and I knew he was gone too, leaving me in darkness alone with my heart-wrecking sobs. I didn't know when I fell asleep but when I woke up, I was no longer on my swing but in my bed with a note, I'm sorry, love. on my bedside.
A/N: Review and Read and Like please. I'm so so sorry again. But I hope I didn't disappoint you guys. Love, Amy.