ALMOST IS NEVER ENOUGH | TVD [3]

XXXIX • I NEVER COULD LOVE LIKE THAT

thirty-nine. i never could love like that

Skull Bar

It's late, and the restaurant near the Whitmore campus has just closed for the night. A young male bartender has almost finished cleaning up before he can go home for the night, and just as he switches off the lights, he hears a quick whooshing sound behind him. When he turns around, the chair he has just stacked on top of the table is back on the floor, which puzzles him. Did he forget to stack the chair on the table? Or was that yesterday night?

He averts his odd gaze around for a moment, feeling weirded out, "Okay..." He puts the chair back up on the same table, but when he turns around, a glass liquor bottle has been knocked over on the main bar by an invisible, mysterious force, and the alcohol is pouring itself all over the clean floor, which annoys him, "Oh, come on!" He speed-walks toward the unoccupied bar, "Okay, who's messing with me? Chris, are you up there? Hello?"

He pauses, but gets no answer, "Dick!" He starts to clean up the spilled alcohol, once again in a stubborn manner, when suddenly, the body of his co-worker, Chris, is dropped onto a nearby table from above; his throat is bloody, and he's clearly dead, horrifying him, "Oh, God! Chris? Chris!"

Out of nowhere, an all-too-familiar male voice called out to the young bartender in a bored and disinterested tone; it's Isaac, "Boo!" He shakes his head in disappointment just as his emotionless best friend, Caroline, shows up on the main steps to the upper level of the place, looking offended.

A scoff of disbelief escapes Caroline in offense, "Are you booing me?"

Isaac does a simple shrug, as if it's no big deal, "You heard me. Boo!"

The blonde, in an indignant manner, retorted right back at her tactlessly stone cold best friend, "I scared him!" She turns to the bartender, "I scared you, right? With the whole chair-flipping, and the bottle thing?"

Isaac shrugs once again, not at all impressed by her efforts.

The cornered human, afraid, averts his terrified gaze between the two emotionless vampires in front of him, truly puzzled, "Who are you people?"

"Oh! I'm Caroline--" She gestures to her older partner in crime, who waves to him, "--This is Isaac." She points to the lifeless body on the table, "And that? Mmm...was delicious." She turns to her best friend, "Taste!"

Isaac goes over to Chris' body and tastes his blood from the neck, "Mmm!"

The young bartender slowly shakes his head in denial, "...What's going on?"

"Well, Caroline and I had a little bet that she would scare you to death--"

The Forbes girl cuts in happily, "Like, literally scare you to death."