Third Person - Salvatore Boarding house
By the time Stefan came home, Damon was long gone. When Stefan saw the front door was wide open, he knew instantly something was wrong.
And then he smelled blood.
He quickly gets out of his car and vamps-speeds into his house. He stopped in shock when he saw Lys on the floor, face pale, heartbeat scarcely slow, and a bloody neck.
"Lys!" He runs over to her and gentley holds her up. He moves hair away from her face and gently caresses her cheek. "Lys."
She groggily opens her eyes. "Stefan..." She says, weakly. Her gaze slowly moves behind me. "...Damon." She mutters out, before passing out.
Stefan looks behind him, seeing the basement doors wide open. He looks down at Lys, he picks her up and carries her into the living room, and gently places her on the couch.
He gives Lys one last look, before vamp-speeds down the basement stairs. His eyes widen when he saw a familiar figure laying on the ground, unmoving. He goes over to Zach's body. He crouches down to his 'uncle' and sadly hangs his head as tears comes down his cheeks.
He angrily punches the wall then wipes the tears off his face. He rushes up the stairs and comes upon a wooden box. He opens the box and takes out the stake, that's inside it.
He runs to the door and opens it, only to a narrowed eyed, frightened Elena.
"What are you?" She demands.
*Flashback - Mystic Falls, 1864*
Stefan walked out onto his porch in the sunlight, the boy smiling to see the carriage arriving at his home.
As the carriage stopped, a girl steps out, and holds her hand out for the other young girl to come out.
Once the second girl came out, Stefan's eyes gazes over her, taking in her beauty. Olive skin tone, brown eyes and hair, in a beautiful gown.
The young girl glances over at the boy, looking at him up and down, smiling.
The boy walks over to her and takes her hand. "You must be Ms. Pierce."
"Please. Call me Katherine."
*Present Day - Mystic Falls*
Stefan looks at Elena, jaw tense. "You know."
"No, I don't know," she quickly denies.
"Yes, you do, or you wouldn't be here."
She quickly shakes her head in disbelief. "It's not possible. It can't be."
Stefan takes a step forward, causing Elena to step back. "Everything you know, and every belief that you have is about to change. Are you ready for that."
Again Elena asks. "What are you?"
"I'm a vampire," Stefan admits.
Elena looked at him, shocked beyond belief. Then she slowly starts to back away, shaking her head. "I shouldn't have come."
"No. Please, please," Stefan pleads as he follows her. "Please, Elena."
"No!" She runs away from him, towards her car. But before she could get to the car, Stefan was suddenly right in front of her. "How did you do that?"
"Please, don't be afraid of me," he pleads, grabbing her arms, to keep her from running.
"Let me go," she commands, trying to Yank herself away from his hold.
"Look, Elena, there's things you have to know."
"Let me go!" She Yanks herself out of his hold and runs into her car. She quickly specs out of the driveway and the road, until she reached her house.
She sprints up the porch steps, opens the door, slamming it behind her as she makes her way up the stairs. She goes into her room and then to the conjuring bathroom. Her hands we're on the counter, breathing heavily. She turns around and opens the door that leads to Jeremy's room, she peeks in seeing Jeremy with his headphones on and watching television. She let's out a sigh as she closes his door, then makes her way to her bedroom.
Once she come into her's and Lys's room, she let's out a gasp when she sees a familiar figure laying on her bed. "Lys!" Elena rushes over to her sister, gasping when she saw the dried bloodied neck.
"Elena."
She gasps, when she sees Stefan standing behind her. She immediately runs to the door, just as she barely opens the door, Stefan closed it with his hand. Elena let's out a shaky breath, pressing herself against the door.
"I would never hurt you. You're safe with me."
"What about Lys?" She turns around facing him. "All those animals attacks, those people who died...?"
"No," Stefan shakes his head. "That was all Damon. And I would never hurt Lys, either."
"Damon?" Tears starts to well up in her scared eyes.
Stefan nods. "Yes. I don't drink human blood. That's not how I choose to survive, but Damon does. I'll explain everything to you, but I beg you, Elena...don't tell anybody."
"How can you ask me that?"
"Because knowing thus is dangerous for so many reasons," he tells her. "You can hate me, but I need you to trust me."
"Just go..." Elena whispers out. "Just go. Please, go. If you mean me no harm, then you'll go."
"I never wanted this."
*End Third Person*
I was in the living room, sitting on the couch waiting.
When the doorbell rings, I jump out of my seat and run to the door. "I got it."
I opened the door and smiled when I came face to face with a bouquet of flowers. The flowers move down to reveal a familiar face.
"Hey," Stefan greets, smiling.
"Hi," I smiles back.
"These are for you," he hands me the flowers.
I take the flowers. "They are beautiful. Thank you."
"I wanna show you something."
"Ok," I look at him. "What is it?"
He indicates to his car. "I need to take you there."
I smile, nodding my head. "Ok," I placed the bouquet on the table besides the door and wrote a little note for mom. Then followed Stefan to his car.
We drove for a few miles, until we turned onto a gravel road. I gave him a questioning look, but all he did was give me a sweet smile.
And I couldn't help but smile back.
We finally reached a small clearing. He stops the car and gets out.
I climb out of the car and walked towards him. "Where are we going?"
He points slightly up. "We still have a little bit more to go."
He points slightly up. "We still have a little bit more to go."
"You are killing me with this secret suspense stuff."
He let's out a chuckle while grabbing my hand and drags me up the little hill.
Once we reached the top, there was another clearing with a lake.
Stefan pulls me along with him until we reached the edge.
I was shocked at the sight. At the edge of the clearing was a cliff and at the bottom was another lake. There was some personal sized waterfalls, that flowed down to the bottom.
I looked at Stefan, smiling with wonderment. "This place is beautiful."
He nods his head. "Yeah, it is." He sits down on a little lump on the ground and indicates me to come to him. I sauntered over to him and stood in front of him. He grabs my hands and yanks me down to him, making me let out a little squeak.
My back was pressed against his chest, while his arms wrapped around me.
I smiled, leaning back against him, but then I noticed something in his hands. "Stefan, what's in your hand?"
"Oh, uh, it's just a little something I got for you," he said. "As a late birthday present."
"You didn't have to," I tell him.
"But I wanted to," he opens his hands to let me see the small box. He opens the box, and I let out a small gasp.
There in that small box, was a ring. A non-solid gold wired banned ring, with a blue stone centered it. He takes the ring out of the box, then takes my right hand and puts the on my ring finger.
I turn to face him, but realized that our face was so close, our lips almost brushing against each other. I turn my whole body to face him, his arms still wrapped around me.
I looked into his eyes and whispered out, "Kiss me."
Without any hesitation, he did. His soft lips pressed against mine, taking my breath away. He pulls away, slowly, looking at me.
I grabbed his face quickly, pressed my lips against his making him groan slightly as he kissed me back.
Our kisses soon turned into a heated kiss. Our bodies pressed together.
I wake up with a start, almost believing my dream.
I looked around and realized that I'm in my room. 'How did I get here?' I got out of bed and dressed up in a cute summer dress, then made my way out the room.
Once I reached the stairs, I see Elena grabbing the car keys. Just as she was about to open the door, I called out to her. "Where are you going?"
She screamed and turned to look at me with a hand on her chest. "Oh my God, Lys! You scared the hell out of me."
I jumped down the last few steps and walked over to her. "I noticed. Now answer my question."
She carefully hides the car keys behind her. "Nowhere."
I sighed. "The keys behind your back says otherwise."
She sighs in annoyance. "Fine. I'm going to see Stefan at the Mystic Grill."
"Cool. I'll come with you."
"Uh, no you're not."
"Uh, yes I am," I looked at Elena. "I want to see Stefan."
Once we reach the Mystic Grill, I instantly saw Stefan. I quickly made my way over to him. "Stefan." His expression seemed relieved to see me. I attacked him with a hug. He seemed surprised, but hugs me back.
"I'm so sorry," I whisper to him. "I'm so sorry about Zach." Stefans hug tightened a bit.
Someone clears their throat behind me. I pulled away from Stefan and look behind me to see Elena standing there awkwardly with a somewhat jealous look. I turned my gaze back to Stefan and gave him a smile, which he returned. I moved away from him and stood next to Elena.
Elena ignores our action. "You said you would explain everything. That's why I asked you to meet me here," she says to Stefan, as we sit down at a table. "When you Google 'vampire,' you get a world of fiction. What's the reality?"
"I can tell you whatever you want to know."
"We know you eat garlic," I say.
"Yes," Stefan said, nodding his head.
"And somehow, sunlight is not an issue?" Elena asks.
Stefan was about to answer, when our waitress came with the drinks, and sets it down in front of us. Once she was gone, Stefan continues. "We have rings that protect us." He shows us his hand, gesturing to the large ring on his middle finger.
"Crucifixes?" Me.
"Decorative."
"Holy water?" Elena.
"Drinkable."
"Mirrors?" Me.
"Myth."
"You said you don't kill to survive," Elena asks, narrowing her eyes a bit.
"Animal blood keeps me alive, but I'm not as strong as Damon."
Elena shrugs sarcastically. "And yet, you let him get involved with Caroline."
Stefan let's out a sigh, as he leans back against his chair. "Forcing Damon not to do something is much more dangerous. Believe me."
"He was hurting her," she seethed out.
"He was feeding on her. He was able to take away her memories of being bitten using a form of mind control. She never knew what was happening to her. If he wanted to kill her, he would have."
"Is that supposed to make it ok?" Elena asks, unconvinced.
"No," Stefan shakes his head. "No, none of this is ok, Elena."
I decided to butt in. "Are there any others, aside from you and Damon?"
"Not in Mytic Falls, not anymore," Stefan answered.
"Not anymore?" Elena and I asked, confused.
"There was a time when this town was very much aware of vampires...and it didn't end well for anybody. That's why it's important that you don't tell anyone."
"I can't promise that."
I gave Elena a look.
"Elena, give me today. I will answer any questions that you have - and when it's over, you can decide for yourself what you want to do with what you know," Stefan said. "It'll be your choice."
She nods.
The three of us ended up in our car. Stefan told us that he wanted to take her somewhere. Elena followed his every direction that he tells her. We drove deep into the furest, surrounded by thick trees and various shrubbery.
"Stop here."
She puts the car in park, then we get out of the car.
"What are we doing here?" I asked staring at the area around me.
"I want to show you two something."
"In the middle of nowhere?" Elena asks.
"This," Stefan gestures to everything around us. "Didn't used to be nowhere. Used to be my home."
We walked over to where Stefan was standing. We stared at the large piles of red-brick across the leaves and dirt strewn ground.
"It looks so..." I started.
"Old?" Stefan butts in. "It's because they are."
"Wait," when I realized the structure of the house, noticing how it didn't look like from this century. I turn to Stefan, with a questioning look. "How long have...?"
"I've been seventeen years old..." He hesitated a bit before continuing. "Since 1864."
"Oh, my God."
"You said you wanted to know. I'm not going to hold anything back," he explains. We didn't say anything. "Half a century before the boarding house was built, this was my families home. Damon and I...we were both born here. The Salvatore brothers, best friends."
*Mystic Falls, Virginia - 1864*
Damon and Stefan Salvatore stumble out of their house on Veritas Estate. Damon was gripping an oddly-shapped ball, that was made of brown leather, that rested underneath his right arm.
Stefan was chuckling as he struggled to catch up to his older brother. "Wait, where did you learn this game?" Stefan asks, as he and Damon ran down the porch steps and onto the front lawn.
Damon runs a bit away from Stefan. "Camp outside of Atlanta. One of the officer picked it up at Harvard. Catch," Damon tossed the leather ball into the air, to Stefan.
Stefan grunts slightly as he catches the heavy ball. "Wait, wait. What are the rules? What are the rules?" He asks, letting out a chuckle as his brother ran at him, trying to catch him.
"Who needs rules?" A sweet feminine voice spoke out.
Both brothers stopped and turned to see Katherine walking down the steps, towards them. "Mind if I join you?"
"Uh, well, you could, uh - you could get hurt," Stefan stumbles his words out to Katherine, but briefly glanced over at his brother. "My brother likes to play rough."
Katherine chucklesgiving, Damon a smirk before Turing her attention back to Stefan. "Somehow, I think that you play rougher." She inched herself closer to Stefan, before suddenly snatching the leather-ball out of Stefan's hands and sprinted off.
Damon chuckled as he moved to stand next to his brother. "Why are you just standing there? That is a girl who clearly wants to be chased," Damon said. "If you don't do it, I will." With that, he breaks out into a full spirit.
Stefan shook his head, before running as fast as he can to catch up.
*Present Day - Mystic Falls*
"You knew Katherine in 1864?" Elena asked. "Damon made it seem like..."
"Damon was trying to make you think that I was still heartbroken. He saw that you," he look at me. "And Lys make me happy, and he wanted to ruin it," he explains, as he stands in front of us.
"All because you loved the same woman, one-hundred and forty-five years ago?" I asked.
"She wasn't just any woman."
*Mystic Falls, Virginia - 1864*
Stefan and Katherine we're running through the garden maze. Stefan was chasing after Katherine, making her giggle.
Katherine reached the statue first. " Ha, I win," she boasted, a triumphant smirk on her lips, as she approached him. "What is my prize?"
"What would you like it to be?" A familiar voice asked her.
The two of them turned to see Damon sitting upon a bench.
Stefan smiled at the sight of his beloved older brother, a smile that Damon gladly returned. "They extended your leave?"
Damon stands up and approaches his brother. "I was simply having too much fun to return to battle."
"Your commitment to the Confederacy is inspiring," Stefan tells his brother, while they both engulfed each other in a brotherly embrace.
"Well, this works out wonderfully for me," Katherine announced, as she glances at both of the brothers.
"How is that Ms. Katherine?" Damon asked.
"Now I'll have both of you to keep up entertained," she said. "First, I'll need someone to escort me to the Founders Ball."
"I would be honored," Stefan said.
"With pleasure," Damon said, removing his cap and bowing towards the lady.
"The smart and kind Salvatore brothers both coming to my rescue," Katherine replied with a grin. "How will I ever chose?"
*Present Day*
"Katherine made a deal that only one of us could escort her, and she chose me," Stefan explained. "I escorted her to the ball at the original Lockwood mansion."
"The first Founder's Party," I said, remembering the sighed registry. "Where you signed the registry."
"I didn't care that I had gotten something that my brother wanted. I didn't even care if it hurt him. I only knew that I wanted her. There was something about her that drew me in," Stefan admits.
"So he was upset."
"That's the thing about Damon. He doesn't get mad. He just gets even," Stefan explained. "What Damon wants, Damon usually gets. Now, I didn't know it at that time, but turns out that night...after Katherine was with me, she had gone to Damon."
"So, he stole her from you, not the other way around?" I questioned.
"Turns out, she wasn't ours to steal."
"She could control my mind, and Damon's. She compelled each of us to keep the secret from the other. She wanted all of us to be together, forever. Didn't work out that way..." Stefan said, as he bends down and picks up something that hwe had stuffed in a log. "But, Damon and I, looks like we're stuck with each other," he unwraps the cloth and reveals a ring. "Like it or not."
"Is that Damon's ring?" I asked.
"I took it from him, I have to give it back."
"No. Don't, Stefan," Elena replied, walking over to him. "Keep it hidden."
"Elena, if I don't give it to him, he'll retaliate in the only way that he knows he can hurt me," Stefan said, staring Elena down.
"And how is that?"
"By hurting you and," he looks over at me. "And you."
We then decided to head back to the car, for it was getting late. Stefan escorted us to our car and opens the door for Elena.
Elena stops by the open door, then looked back to Stefan. "The mind control you said Katherine used." Stefan nods for her to continue. "Did you ever do that to us? To me or Lys?"
"No. The necklace that you're wearing and the ring that I gave to Lys, contains an herb called vervain. It protects you from being compelled," Stefan tells us. "I wanted to protect you two from Damon's influence. But I also wanted to protect you from me. Because no matter what happens after today and no matter how you feel about me...you'll know that you were free to make your own choice."
Just as we were about to get into the car, we were stopped by Stefan's voice. "There is something else I need to tell you."
Elena and I looked at each other, before turning our attention to Stefan.
"Two days before I met Katherine, I was supposed to meet someone else, but they never came."
"Who?" I asked, curiously.
"My fiancé."
"Y-your fiancé?" Elena asked stunned. "You were getting married."
Stefan sighed. "Arranged marriage, actually. My father arranged it for me. I was supposed to meet her and her family, but they never showed up."
"What happened?" I asked, I noticed how he kept glancing at my hand. Not just my hand, but at the ring he gave me.
"Her and her family, the carriage and horses, were all torn apart," Stefan starts. "They were unrecognizable, but a sheriff recognised the family crest, and notified us." He was quiet for a few minutes. "I never got a chance to meet her."
"Want was her name?" I asked him.
"Juliana. Her name was Juliana."
I waited for Stefan at the park, pacing back and forth, wanting to ask him the question that is trying to come out of my mouth.
"Lys?" A voice called out to me, making me stop my pacing.
I turn around and smiled when I saw Stefan. "Stefan."
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yeah, uh, when you were talking about, um, Juliana," I struggled out. "You kept staring at the ring you gave me. Why?"
He seemed hesitant at first, then sighs. "I was supposed to give it to her."
"You mean like an engagement ring?"
He nods.
"You gave me your dead fiancés engagement ring?"
He nods again.
I was confused. "Why?"
"Because, it felt like it should belong to you," he admits.