I woke up the next morning to a text from Stefan. I immediately opened it and let out a sigh of relief. He and Damon found Vicki. Wait...Damon? Damon helped find Vicki? Why would he do that when he was the one to set her loose in the first place? Unless...maybe...
Maybe him helping Stefan was a sign. That is, if that's what Damon was doing. Maybe there was hope their relationship could be saved. Damon just had a lot of anger he needed to let go of.
I sat up when I heard knocking at my door.
"Sam? You awake?" Elena asked through the door.
"I'm up," I told her.
She opened my door and poked her head in.
"Jeremy went to go join a search party to look for Vicki," she said. "I didn't stop him. I don't know what to tell him."
I pressed my lips together. I hated keeping things from him, but maybe we could get away with telling Matt and Jeremy she went to rehab. Then again, they would want to see her. Maybe...
"Should we tell him?" I asked. "About...you know, the whole-"
"No," she said immediately. "No, I don't want him having anything to do with this. It's way too dangerous for him to know."
"But maybe it'll be better," I said. "I mean, Stefan didn't tell you and look how well that turned out."
She sighed, looking like she was actually considering it. Then she shook her head.
"No," she said firmly again. "We can't tell him. Not yet anyway. Let's just get through today and then we'll deal with it."
"Okay," I said reluctantly.
I didn't want my brother to be in danger, but the idea of him not knowing about this stuff just seemed less safe than if we just told him. I left it up to Elena though. She was the oldest of the three of us, so it was her call.
"I just feel bad letting him go out there to look for her," Elena continued. "I know they're not going to find anything."
"Yeah, Stefan said he found her. Him and Damon," I told her.
She furrowed her eyebrows.
"When did he tell you that?" she asked warily.
"Just this morning," I said holding up my phone. "He texted me."
She folded her arms and sighed. It was the sigh that said she didn't like something I said.
"Sam, I thought really hard last night," she said. "And a lot this morning and...I don't think I should see Stefan anymore. It could put Jenna, Jeremy, you, and me in a lot of danger. I mean, Caroline was example enough that Damon is willing to hurt anyone to hurt Stefan."
"Then you should tell him," I said, looking at my feet.
Honestly, I was sad that she didn't want to see him anymore, but in the end it was her choice. If she thought not seeing Stefan was best for her, then that's up to her. I noticed then how silent she had been, not even saying anything to my previous suggestion. She wanted me to tell him, didn't she?
"Elena-"
"Please, Sam," Elena said. "I can't see him. Not for a while at least."
"You're not even going to go to the boarding house to at least see Vicki?"
She bit her lip, pondering over it. Finally she sighed.
"I'll drive us there before we go to school," she said. "And I'll tell Stefan myself."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elena had changed her mind at the last minute about going to see Stefan. She was pacing around in her room while getting ready to school and she must have over thought something that made her change her mind about going over there to see him. She didn't even want me going over there, but she didn't stop me either. I could tell she was truly afraid of facing the Salvatores- mainly Damon- so I told her I could maybe drop a hint to Stefan about how she felt without actually telling him anything. I could tell she wanted me to tell him outright she didn't want to see him anymore, but she took what I offered anyway.
I knocked on the door of the boarding house, waiting patiently for someone to answer. Despite what I told Elena I'd do for her, I was here for another reason. I had to see how Vicki was doing for myself. Besides that, I couldn't just cut Stefan out of my life like Elena. He couldn't control what he was and he didn't want to hurt us.
My voice died when the door opened and Damon's smirking face appeared in the doorway.
"Well hello dear Samantha," he greeted. He looked around the porch. "No big sister to hide you from me?"
"She went ahead to school," I told him.
"Does big sissy know that you're here?" he challenged with a raised brow and folded arms.
"She does."
"And how does sister dearest feel about you being here?"
I gave him a hard stare and pursed my lips slightly.
"I'm here to see Vicki," I said through narrowed eyes. "You know, the one you turned?"
"Getting snippy on me," he said amused. "Come on in."
He opened the door wider for me and gestured for me to go in. I stepped in only for him to step closer to me at the last second, eliminating any space between us and making my body brush against his. I tried to control my rapid heartbeat and slipped the rest of the way in and crossed my arms across my chest, giving him a look. He simply smirked at me in return.
"What?" he said innocently.
I just shook my head at him.
"Well as much as I'd love to stay, I need to be somewhere," he said winking at me. "I hope to see you around later."
He left, closing the door behind him. Stefan came half-way down the stairs before stopping when he saw me.
"Sam," he said partially surprised and happy.
"Hey Stefan," I smiled.
He walked down the rest of the stairs until he was standing before me.
"I, uh, I didn't know that you were coming over."
"I'm sorry. I should have called or something," I told him sheepishly.
"Hey, you don't have to," he smiled. "You can come over whenever you want. Does Elena..."
"Yeah," I nodded my head. "I wanted to check on Vicki, and you, and she was going to come at first but..."
"She still doesn't want to see me anymore, does she?" he asked.
Like last night, he sounded more like he expected it than sad about it.
"I think you two should talk about that," I said. He nodded understandingly. "Anyway, how's Vicki?"
"I- I'm working with her, but it's gonna take some time," he explained. "She's a volatile and impulsive personality. She's a drug user. I mean, all that's gonna play a part in how she responds to this."
I nodded, taking it all in. The idea of Vicki as a vampire never really resonated well with me, but it's too late now. I knew that Stefan felt responsible for her since he feels it's his fault Damon's here hurting people. I wanted to help him with her. After all, I basically just stood there while Damon fed her his blood and killed her. Besides, I wanted to help her adjust so she could go back to Matt and Jeremy without running the risk of hurting them.
"It's going to take time. Do you-" I began, but stopped. I wasn't sure how to ask this, I mean, I never thought I ever would be asking about something like this. "Do you...need any help? I mean- is there really anything that I can do to help you help her?"
"No," he said instantly. It actually worried me a little how fast he said it. "No, you don't need to do anything. It's actually safer if you don't. The- the smell of your blood..."
He trailed off, but he didn't need to say anymore for me to understand what he was getting at. It would be hard for Vicki to learn control with me around. It'd be like teaching an alcoholic control in a bar.
"Got it," I nodded.
Stefan stiffened a little before his eyes went to the front door.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
I was answered by the front door opening and Elena poking her head in before looking straight at us. Crap.
"Hey," she said warily to Stefan.
"I thought you weren't coming," I said.
"I uh..."
"You wanted to check on Vicki," Stefan said.
"Yeah," Elena said uncomfortably. "How is she?"
"How am I?" a voice sounded from the top of the stairs.
Stefan, Elena, and I all looked up to see Vicki leaning over the balcony on the stairs.
"You're kidding, right?" she asked Elena.
Maybe she's not so good then.
~~~~~~
Stefan explained to Vicki about how she could drink animal blood instead of human blood, and how coffee was her new best friend. He mentioned how he wasn't proud of his past behavior, which peaked my interest and obviously made Elena even more uncomfortable than she already was. I wondered what Stefan had done in his past that made him stiffen up like he was at the moment. Everyone makes mistakes, surely anything he did wasn't totally unworthy of forgiveness.
Vicki seemed to be taking everything in fine enough. The only thing she really couldn't understand now was why she had to pee.
"I thought I was dead, why do I have to pee?" she asked.
She got up and left the room. A silence fell over the three of us and I looked from Elena, who was staring at the floor looking like she wished she hadn't come, to Stefan, who met my gaze and gave me a small smile. I smiled back before looking at my phone. I had three missed calls and twenty text messages from a very impatient best friend...
Realizing this was the perfect opportunity, I stood up.
"I um, I'm gonna go call Chastity quick," I announced to Stefan and Elena. "I'll be back."
Elena gave me her 'help me' look and Stefan nodded, the look on his face telling me he knew what I was doing. I swiftly left the room and went to the front hall by the door, pulling my phone out and calling my best friend.
"Where in the hell are you?" she demanded after picking up right away. "I have something to tell you and I'm literally bursting with impatience here."
"I figured," I said to her. "So what's going on? What do you need to tell me?"
"Um...actually, I shouldn't tell you this over the phone? When are you going to be here?"
A crashing in the other room earned my attention.
"Sam? What's going on?"
"I'll call you back, Chas," I said.
I hung up despite her protests and hurried in to the other room only to find Vicki pinning Elena to the wall by her neck.
"Vicki! Let her go!" I said rushing forward.
"And you!" Vicki hissed turning on me.
She released Elena, letting her drop to the floor like a rag doll, and suddenly appeared right in front of me. I gasped and backed up as she glared at me.
"Poor innocent little Sammy needs her big brother so he doesn't pay as much attention to me," she spat. "Quit judging Jeremy! He's a big boy, let him make his own decisions!"
With that, she disappeared, leaving me and a wheezing Elena alone. I immediately rushed to my sister's side, helping her stand and making sure she was okay as Stefan rushed in to the room.
"What happened? Are you alright?" he asked, directing both questions to me.
"I'm fine, I just came in here and Vicki attacked Elena...I'm not sure what happened," I rushed out.
Stefan looked at Elena, waiting for her to explain.
"I said something about it not being safe for her to see Jeremy," she said. "She got angry."
"Let me see your neck," Stefan said gently.
"It's fine," she insisted. "I'll...probably just have a bruise or something."
I moved her hands aside to see for myself and exchanged a look with Stefan, who nodded in agreement with what she said.
"That's all you said and she just snapped?" I asked. It's not that I doubted Elena was telling the truth, I just couldn't believe Vicki snapped over something small like that.
"She's on edge," Stefan said. "Every sense in her body is operating at super speed. It could take months before she even begins to control it."
Elena nodded, looking worried, unhappy and...uncomfortable again.
"She does need to stay away from Jeremy, though," Stefan continued.
"What, you don't think she could actually hurt him, do you?" I asked.
"When you're new, it's hard to separate your feelings," he said looking at us seriously. "Love, lust, anger, desire...it...can all burn into one urge: hunger."
The harshness of the reality hit me like a ton of bricks. Vicki couldn't be around anyone for a while, especially not Jeremy and, now, Elena given the way she reacted to her when she said that she couldn't be around Jeremy.
"Let's go, Sam," Elena said then. "I'll drive you to school."
I looked from her to Stefan, who seemed to notice how uncomfortable Elena still was around him. He looked at me then.
"I'll, uh...I'll catch up to you later," he said.
I nodded and waved at him before following Elena out of the house. She seemed to finally start breathing again as we got to her car.
"You know, you don't have to be so obvious about it," I said to her.
"I can't help it," she said. "I just...I don't know."
"Did you get a chance to talk to him?"
"Vicki came back downstairs before I could and he went to get her more..."
"Blood," I finished.
She winced but nodded. She really wasn't handling this whole vampire situation very well. Which made me wonder...wasn't Elena's reaction normal and mine...less normal? Why was I taking everything so well? I guess different people handled things differently.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I should kill you!" Chastity snapped at me as soon as I saw her at school.
Elena and I had gotten there a little later, so we went straight to our first classes. This was my first time seeing Chastity today now after said class.
"I'm so sorry! I was so tired last night and I just knocked right out and I woke up late this morning-"
"That's not why I wanna kill you right now! You had me worried sick on the phone, then you just hang up? What was all that noise?"
I considered telling her the truth for a moment, but there were too many people around us, too many people paying attention to what we were talking about. Besides, it wasn't my secret to tell. So I told her a story about waking up late and knocking over a picture frame or two. She eyed me suspiciously for a moment and the look on her face told me she knew I was lying. I sighed and gave her a look that told her we would talk about it later. She sighed then and looked away.
"Are you going to the carnival tonight?" she asked then.
"I was thinking about it, why?"
"Well you're going now and because I got you a costume."
"I could just wear last year's-"
"No way," she said. "You are not going in last year's couple costume. For all we know, Peter Pan could be going again this year and we are not going to give him any more hope by having Wendy Darling show up too."
"You're right," I said with a firm nod.
Last year, Adam and I had gone to the school's Halloween carnival as Peter Pan and Wendy Darling. It probably wouldn't be good for Adam to move on if I showed up as Wendy again.
"So you're going as an angel," Chastity said then.
"An angel?"
"Yeah, I originally got it for me, but I got roped in to being a witch."
"How'd you get roped in to being a witch?" I asked curiously.
"Originally, Caroline wanted for her, Bonnie, and Olivia to go to the carnival as a trio of witches, but Olivia already has her heart set on being a slutty cat to get Jeremy's attention. So instead of giving up the slutty cat costume- which we all know isn't going to work anyway- Olivia offered me up as the third witch instead and Caroline, shockingly enough, accepted and now even has Bonnie begging me to take the costume."
"I'm surprised you're actually going to do it," I said.
"Normally I wouldn't do squat for Caroline, but Bonnie begged me to so...yeah," she shrugged. I nodded once.
"Have fun with that."
~~~~
Later that evening, I prepared myself in my room for the Halloween carnival. Chastity's costume actually fit me perfectly, which probably meant it was a little short on her since she was a good three inches taller than me. I brushed through my waves once more before fastening two parts back in a half up do with a white clip, and then I put the halo headband on to complete the costume.
Elena had already gone ahead to the carnival with Jeremy since he was determined to get there, which honestly surprised me. He wasn't one for going to school events lately...well...not really ever. I told Elena I'd be fine and that I would meet her there, which made her try to convince me to stay home in case Vicki showed up. I was quick to remind her that Stefan wouldn't let Vicki show up if she wasn't in control. She hesitated still, but eventually was okay with me going.
The doorbell rang, making me furrow my eyebrows. Chastity wasn't supposed to be here for another fifteen minutes.
"Oh Samantha! Fair Samantha!" a teasing voice called from downstairs.
I rolled my eyes. Of course he'd just walk in. I sighed and walked down the stairs to see him leaning up against the front door with a smirk on his face as he looked me up and down.
"What are you doing here, Damon?" I asked him.
"You look ridiculously hot in that," he said. "You make a sexy angel."
"Thanks," I said, trying hard not to blush. "What are you doing here?"
"Thought I'd pick you up."
"And take me where exactly?"
"To the school, of course," he said obviously. "Can't have you going alone now can I?"
"How'd you know Elena and Jeremy already left?"
"I didn't," he smirked. "I was going to take you even if they were here and...if I was feeling nice, I would have offered them a ride too."
I gave him a look.
"Okay...maybe I wouldn't have."
I sighed and went to go back upstairs.
"I'll get my phone," I said.
"Nice underwear!"
"Damon!" I shouted, whirling around and sitting quickly on the step behind me.
He laughed at my reaction while I narrowed my eyes at him.
"That wasn't funny!"
"To you it wasn't."
~~~~~~~
Damon and I arrived at the school a little later. I had texted Chastity on the way over and let her know that I had gotten another ride to the school. She was okay with it since Olivia was "taking for gosh damn ever to squeeze in to her whore cat costume". She told me that the two of them would be here within the next ten minutes.
"Sam!" I heard Adam's voice call me.
"Ooh, look what we have here," Damon teased.
"Be nice," I begged.
He held his hands up innocently as Adam walked over, clad in his Peter Pan costume from last year.
"Hey," I smiled.
"Hey," he smiled back. "I uh...I see you got a new costume. You look great."
"Chastity actually got it for herself," I told him. "Caroline got her to be a witch though."
"Fitting," Adam muttered.
"Be nice," I laughed.
Adam finally seemed to notice Damon was there.
"Oh, hey," he said. "It's...Damon right? We met at the Founder's Party?"
"Right," Damon smiled. "And you are...Adam. The cheating ex-boyfriend."
"Damon," I hissed.
"Yeah..." Adam said slowly, guilt clearly in his voice. "I didn't know that you and Sam talked so much."
"Well she and I have grown very close," Damon said. "We share a lot of secrets. Tell each other lots of things about our past."
"Right," Adam nodded slowly.
"So are you having a good time?" I asked him, trying to shift the subject to something else.
"Trying," he said. "There's this girl...I really care about her, but I really messed up with her." My smile faded, knowing it was me he was talking about.
"Adam, I-"
"Don't say it," he said smiling weakly. "I know I don't deserve it. I don't deserve you. Everything was great, but then I did what I did. There's no excuse for it."
"At least you're owning up to it," Damon said. "Finally realizing that little miss cheerleader Stacey wasn't worth it."
"It's okay," I said, glaring at Damon. "I got over it. You can too. We've been doing great as friends."
"You're right," Adam said. "I...I'm gonna go find Tyler. I heard he's got his Lockwood special."
"Okay," I nodded with a small, sad smile.
He walked off and I turned to Damon, glaring at him.
"What?" he asked.
"How do you know what happened between us? How did you know about Stacey?"
"Read your diary."
I gave him a look.
"Caroline blabbed."
"Great," I said.
"Sam," Stefan called suddenly with Elena behind him. "Have you seen Jeremy?"
"No," I said. "Why? Is...is Vicki here?"
He nodded and took my hand.
"We've got to get you and Elena out of here and find her."
I suddenly felt myself being yanked out of Stefan's grasp. I looked shocked at Damon, who was looking at Stefan through annoyed and livid eyes.
"You take Elena and look around in here," Damon said. "I'll take Sam and we'll look outside."
Stefan stepped up to his brother.
"You actually think I trust you to take her outside alone?" he questioned Damon.
"You're wasting time, brother," Damon said, not backing down and not releasing my hand.
Stefan looked away from Damon to me. I nodded after a moment.
"He's right," I said. "We're wasting time. Besides, we'll cover more ground if we split up."
Stefan still didn't seem convinced.
"I'll be safe," I assured him. "I...I trust Damon."
Elena was looking at me with clear disbelief. Stefan slightly winced at my words, but seemed to accept and trust my faith in Damon. He led Elena through the halls while I turned to Damon, who had a surprised expression on his face.
"What?" I asked, genuinely confused. He shook his head quickly.
"Nothing," he said. "Let's go."
~~~~~~
Damon and I had searched outside for any sign of Vicki or my brother, all the while Damon avoided saying anything about whatever was clearly still on his mind. We had just rounded a corner when Damon stopped me suddenly and stood still.
"What?" I asked him.
"I hear your brother," he answered.
"Where?" I asked with wide eyes.
He stood for a moment, carefully listening. He straightened up and grabbed my hand.
"Around back," he said. "Might be faster if I..."
I got the hint and nodded, giving him permission. He quickly scooped me up like I weighed no more than a feather.
"You may wanna close your eyes," he warned.
I clamped my eyes shut, flinching only a little when I felt us start to move. The wind blew my hair in my face and I could feel some of it getting caught in my lip gloss. Gross. We stopped and I felt Damon set me down before I opened my eyes, gasping at what I saw.
Vicki was on the ground, her skin grey and a mask of sheer surprise mixed with pain on her face. She was...she was dead.
I looked up from Vicki's dead body to see my sister standing by Stefan, clutching on to her neck where she seemed to be bleeding.
"Elena," I said rushing to her side.
"Sam," she breathed, wrapping her arms around me when I got to her.
"You're bleeding! Oh my god, what happened?" I asked hurriedly.
"Vicki..." was all she said. "I'm fine though. Stefan saved me."
I looked over at Stefan, who looked incredibly guilty. I knew by that that he was the one who killed Vicki to save Elena. I furrowed my eyebrows then. Damon said he heard Jeremy. So where was he? Elena seemed to catch on to my thinking and she nodded over to the left. I followed where she was looking and saw Jeremy, my big brother, on the ground crying Vicki's name. He had seen. He had seen everything.
Unlatching myself from Elena, I went straight to Jeremy and gently wrapped my arms around him, my heart breaking even more when he clutched on tightly to my arms. I heard Elena ask Stefan to take both of us home and I didn't have the heart to argue with her. I didn't want to leave Jeremy. Plus I didn't want to know what they would do with Vicki. The only thing running through my mind was that Jeremy had lost yet another person he loved. I didn't know how he was going to make it through this.
~~~~~~
-Third POV-
After Stefan got Jeremy and Sam out to his car, Elena looked at Damon with hard eyes.
"You might wanna go with them," Damon said, not in the mood for her judgment. "That bite looks nasty."
"This is your fault, you know?" Elena spat. "Vicki is dead because of you."
"You confuse me with someone with remorse," he said. He caught her hand when she tried to slap him. "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 caught him off guard and slapped him.
"You need to leave. Your wounds are bleeding and you need to leave," Damon said dangerously.
Elena glared at him in disgust.
"I don't know what she sees in you or how she trusts you," she said before storming off, leaving him alone.
Damon stood there silently for a moment. He didn't know what Sam saw in him either. He'd been nothing but a cocky, psychopathic jerk who had done nothing to deserve her trust, yet she trusted him anyway. He had lied to Elena earlier. This did matter to him. Not because of Vicki, or because of Jeremy, but because of her. Maybe...maybe Sam was starting to make him feel again. Maybe she was starting to fix him.
~~~~~
Damon arrived at the Gilbert house later after burying Vicki in the woods and saw Stefan and Elena outside on the porch talking.
"Can you make him forget?" Elena asked.
"Elena..." Stefan sighed.
"Stefan, please," she begged. "I don't know how he'll ever get past this. I just want him to forget everything that happened."
"If I did it, there is no guarantee that it would work," Stefan told her. "Because of who I am, how I live. I don't have the ability to do it right."
"I can do it," Damon finally spoke up, earning their attention. He walked closer toward them and looked at Elena. "Where is she?"
"Inside with Jeremy," she replied stonily.
"They fell asleep about ten minutes ago," Stefan told him.
"Well, I'll wake him up and I'll do it," Damon said. "What do you want him to know?"
"Why would you do this?" Elena asked. "Why would you help?"
"I have my reasons," Damon said. "First one being I can't have your brother running around blabbing about the existence of vampires."
Elena stared at him for a moment while Stefan looked away, knowing that even though that may be a reason, it wasn't the primary reason why Damon was willing to compel Jeremy. Elena hesitated, but told Damon to tell Jeremy a story about how Vicki ran away and that even though he'll miss her, he'll know it's for the best. Damon didn't have a problem with it, neither did Stefan. It was her next request that surprised them and somewhat angered them.
"Can you make Sam forget too?" she asked.
"What?" Damon asked incredulously.
"She's younger than Jeremy is. He shouldn't know, so neither should she," Elena said. "She's too young to be involved in this.
"Well she is," Damon said. "I'll compel Jeremy, but not Sam."
With that, he walked in to the house to do just that. Elena turned to Stefan then.
"Why won't he compel her?" she asked.
Stefan just shook his head.
"I don't know," Stefan said. "But it's probably best if he doesn't."
"So you want her involved in all of this?" Elena asked with a hard tone.
"I don't want her to get hurt, but I also don't want to take her choice away," Stefan said.
Elena scoffed, not liking the idea of having her little sister involved in a dangerous situation, before going back inside the house to wait for Damon to be done.
Upstairs, Damon finished compelling Jeremy and lifted Sam up from his bed. He carried her in to her own room and tucked her in her bed, stroking her hair gently before kissing her cheek and turning her light off.