𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐲 | 𝐭𝐯𝐝

-38-

Well, the headstone wasn't there. Stefan was about to start raging when Rebekah found some herbs. I took the jar from her. I used to be VERY good at rolling blunts. "Look Stef," I tossed the jar into the air and watched as his heart skipped a beat before I caught it. "This is exactly what you need." Rebekah persuaded. I sat down at the desk.

"No, I'm not interested." Stefan denied. "What happened to you? You were so much fun in the twenties." Rebekah remarked. "I was a psychotic killer with no emotions in the 1920s." He glared. "You may have been a killer, but you were far from emotionless, Stefan. You had a blast. I know you remember. The jazz, the booze, our little table at Gloria's...Don't make me compel it out of you." She remembered. "I also pushed River away and regretted it for decades...but I suppose we did have a little fun." Stefan caved.

"Thank you, so now that we've established that fun is, in fact, possible, maybe you'd like to start having some? Don't worry about the professor. He won't be back anytime soon; I made sure of that." Rebekah told him. He sighed and sat down. "River?" The Original checked in. "Already on it."

-

The room was now smoke-filled and dimly lit. "What's with all of this random crap in here?" Stefan asked, walking around. "Crap, maybe. Random, no. Looks like Shane has a bit of an afterlife fetish." Rebekah said. "Hopi prayer feathers, the Han dynasty soul vase, and a Polynesian sacrificial knife. Brutal way to die, but at least you appease the gods." I admired. "Geek." Stefan chuckled.

"I know that might be hard for you to understand, considering you dated a child who only thinks about herself, but people enjoy other cultures," Rebekah told Stefan. He smiled sarcastically and threw a knife at her face. She caught it before it hit her. "Still a sensitive subject, I see. Do you know why I wouldn't compel Elena from your memory?" She asked, standing up and walking towards him. "Because you wanted me to suffer." He answered.

"I did. It's the only way you'll learn. It took me a thousand years and hundreds of betrayals to realize that love and caring, ruins you. It's liberating actually. You know why we had so much fun in the twenties, Stefan? Because we didn't care. We just did what felt good -- drinking, feeding, sex..." She dragged the knife against Stefan's throat. "The sex wasn't good because we didn't care. It was good because you're crazy. Crazy sex is always good."

Stefan looked up at me. "River was better." He smirked down at Rebekah and grabbed the wrist of her hand holding the knife and pulled her arm down. She laughed and smiled at him. Her face got serious. "Stop...caring." She dropped the knife while they continued to stare at one another, their faces nearly touching. The door suddenly opened. We all quickly hid, disappearing from sight as an unknown man enters. He begins searching the office for something, removing books from the shelf, and tapping the walls. He eventually opened a door and found a large stone.

"Good. You found it." I got up and walked towards him. Rebekah grabbed his neck, restraining him while he made choking noises. "Question is who are you?" I muttered.

-

The man was now sitting in a chair with his arms beside him on the armrest. Rebekah was torturing him by slicing his right arm open slowly with the knife. "I think he's been compelled. There's no way someone wouldn't confess my now." I pointed out. "All you have to do to make it stop is tell me who sent you." Rebekah licked the blood from the knife when he didn't answer. "You're full of vervain, so I know you haven't been compelled."

"Or maybe somebody compelled him before he ingested it," Stefan said. "He was after the headstone. We need to know who sent him." Rebekah bent down to look at the man again. "Okay. Fine. So we take him home, wait till the vervain is out of his system, and then compel him and get whatever information we want."

"That wouldn't be a bad idea if he didn't just bite off his own tongue." I gagged, looking as the blood streamed from his mouth. The man grabbed Rebekah's knife and stabbed himself in the throat. "Great. So was it Damon or Klaus?" I looked at the two vampires. "Maybe it's option number three. There's another team in the race." Stefan looked at me. Well shit.