CENTURIES, stefan salvatore [1]

My Brother's Keeper

CHAPTER 65: MY BROTHER'S KEEPER

The Lockwood Mansion

Of course, Natalie didn't get much sleep. Elena had stayed in her room that night, partly to check up on her so that she'd survive and hopefully not have awful nighmares, partly because her and Stefan just broke up (not knowing that Natalie had basically told Stefan to make it happen) and she didn't want to be alone. But the night couldn't last forever.

With Miss Mystic Falls coming up, she was easily one of the first people dragged to help set it up (seeing as her best friend was the reigning Miss Mystic Falls) and she was thankful for that distraction so she wouldn't have to flash back to all the horrible hallucinations she had gladly stopped having. 

But she was outside of the Lockwood mansion, looking at the flower arrangements as she glanced at Elena and Caroline having a fight (probably about Stefan and Damon) when a guy walked up to her with a whole lot of curly hair on his head. "Excuse me, I'm a little lost. I'm here to interview contestants."

Natalie looked up from the flowers as she met his gaze and sent him a short smile, truthfully wanting him away from her as quickly as possible as he gave of this creepy vibe. "Uh, try inside by the parlor."

He smiled back, before standing for a moment and studying her weirdly. "You're Natalie, right? Bonnie was talking about you. You going strong?"

The brunette girl couldn't help but notice his weird tone of voice, as if he was trying his best to not sound creepy but he still was clearly desperate for a yes. But Natalie wasn't the kinda person to just let him be so weird towards her. "You going creepy?"

His eyes widened at her bluntness and sighed in annoyance as he realized he was pretty much failing at keeping his cool. "Sorry, may have been coming of a little too strong. I'm Atticus Shane, but call me Shane, I beg you."

"Okay, Atticus," Natalie started, noticing him closing his eyes in annoyance. "You're the one who's been all weird with Bonnie and having all the answers to stopping the hunter's curse that didn't do much good, thanks for that. Can I just ask how you somehow have all the answers?"

"I study these kinds of things, Talia. There isn't that much more to know." he sent her a tight smile, as if to signify that the conversation was over and there was no more talking about. "Thanks for the directions."

And only after he walked away had she realized he had called her Talia, AKA what Esther once said was her original name, as in the one from a two thousand years ago. Well, this was interesting. 

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The Gilbert House

Natalie loved distractions after something awful happens, and helping her little brother figure things out when it came to his new hunter status was something she was all for, especially seeing as the only reason he had started his hunter's mark was to keep her from killing herself, she was really thankful for that.

But when he had started getting ready for the pageant (Natalie was already in her dress with her hair and makeup done so she was ready) he had started explaining that he had a dream where he had killed their shared older sister, but even worse was the fact that when he woke up he had a knife and a stake with the symbol of the five on it. "Wow, the mark is really messing with you, isn't it?"

"What if I'm just having a psychotic break? You know all about that, don't you?" he retorted, but then seeing the wince on his sister's face he realized that he probably shouldn't have said that. "That was way out of line, I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she shook her head and grabbed a paper out of the folder she had gotten from Matt (she had no idea how he managed to get a hold of it and, quite frankly, she didn't really want to know) and read of it. "Newly awakened hunters may not be fully conscious of their actions. Their sub-conscious pushes through until the urge becomes a basic instinct. This isn't a simple psychotic break, Jer. Either you tell Elena or I do."