𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃
the blood in my veins are made up of mistakes
DAMON opened the door to the Boarding House, revealing both the twins. He smirked at them as he leaned against the door. He looked them both up and down.
"Is Stefan here?" Elena asked, getting straight to the reason why they were there.
"Yep."
"Then where is he?" Echo asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Damon smirked down at her, eyeing her from top to bottom. And he seemed satisfied with what he saw when he nodded. "I have a feeling you don't quite like me."
Echo rolled her eyes. "You can't have an opinion on someone you don't think about."
Damon raised an eyebrow at her. "How can you be so brave and so stupid to stand up to a vampire like that?"
Echo tilted her head up. "I have literally stared death in the face. I'm not scared of you." She held her head high. "So, where is he?"
Damon sighed and said, "He's upstairs, singing "The Rain in Spain". Knock yourselves out." Damon stepped outside as the twins walked in, and Elena shut the door behind them.
"Stefan?!" Elena yelled as they looked up the stairs.
Suddenly, a creak was heard, and they twisted around to look behind them.
"Yes?" Stefan asked and the twins turned around to look at him.
"Where is Vicki?"
"She's upstairs," Stefan stated, making his way down the steps where he then stood in front of the twins.
"So, what happens now?" Elena asked. "Because our brother is out there searching for her with the rest of the town. What do we tell him?"
"I'm working with her," Stefan stated, "But it's going to take time. She has a very volatile and impulsive personality. She's a drug user. I mean, all that's gonna play a part in how she responds to this?"
"So, she's a vampire with issues," Echo said, pursing her lips. "That's just great."
"What are we supposed to do?" Elena asked. "Because we are lying to everyone that we care about. What's gonna happen to her?"
Echo raised an eyebrow before smirking. The lying part was pretty eazy for her seeing as she had to do that everyday of her past life.
"I'm gonna keep her here with me until I know that she's safe," Stefan stated.
"How long is that?" Vicki asked, suddenly appearing at the top of the staircase.
"We can talk about that later," Stefan told her.
"Hey, Vicki, how are you?" Elena asked, looking up at the new vampire in sympathy and worry.
Echo turned to her sister. "She was killed and then turned into a friggin' vampire. How do you think she feels?"
"COFFEE is our friend," Stefan told Vicki as they all sat in the kitchen.
"Hell yeah!" Echo exclaimed in agreement, taking a large sip of her own coffee just to prove her point.
Stefan chuckled and turned bad to face Vicki who was staring at the younger Gilbert twin in amusement. "It's the caffeine. It circulates through our veins, and it warms our bodies so we're not so cold to the touch."
Echo was sitting on top of the table, her legs criss-cross applesauce, and she was sipping her coffee, sighing in happiness.
"Well, what if I wanna drink human blood?" Vicki asked.
Stefan shrugged. "You're gonna have to learn to live with that urge, and fight it on a daily basis one day at a time."
"Oh, God," Vicki groaned out. "Don't start with that whole twelve steps thing. School counselor has been down that road, and it doesn't work for me."
"It can work," Stefan told her. "It's your choice, Vicki."
"So, you've never tasted human blood?" Vicki asked Stefan.
He sighed and said, "Not in a long time."
"How long?"
"Years and years," Stefan stated. "I'm not proud of my past behavior."
Echo nodded in agreement. Even though she is not a vampire, she has done a lot of bad things in her lifetime. Just like her father, she was taken over by a demon, turned into a vampire, a werewolf, she had been to hell and back, purgatory, etcetera. All that can mess with your brain and you start to turn into the very thing people think you are — a monster.
"Does this sketchy feeling ever go away?" Vicki asked in exaggeration. "It's like I have a massive hangover. This daylight thing is a bitch." She sighed and stood up. "I need more blood. Where's your bathroom? I have to pee. Why do I have to pee? I thought I was dead."
Stefan pointed to the door behind him, amd Vicki walked away.
Echo was amused by the whole thing and turned to her sister and Stefan.
"I'm going to uh, go get her some more," Stefan told the twins. "I'll be quick."
Vicki suddenly walked back into the room and said, "False alarm. My body's feeling really... funky. It's a good funk, but it's weird." Vicki picked up the phone, ready to dial someone.
Elena quickly stood up and asked, "Who are you calling?"
"Jeremy," Vicki said simply like it was a dumb question.
Elena shook her head. "Vicki, you can't see Jeremy anymore."
"Oh, come on." Vicki sighed. "I'm gonna see whoever I wanna see."
"I don't see a big deal about this," Echo said as she pushed herself off the table.
"She could hurt him," Elena stated before turning back to Vicki.
Vicki shook her head, saying, "I would never hurt Jeremy."
"I know you think that, but we can't take that risk," Elena said, shaking her head as she walked towards the newly turned vampire. "You're gonna have to let Jeremy go now."
"Oh, really?" Vicki asked. "And how long have you been preparing the "you're not good enough" speech? I'm assuming it predates the whole vampire thing."
"All I'm trying to say is that Jeremy is not getting involved in any of this," Elena stated. "I mean it, Vicki."
Echo walked towards the duo upon seeing the anger on Vicki's face.
"Or what?" Vicki asked.
And just as Vicki brought out her arm to grab Elena, Echo jumped into the mix, and pushed her out of the way. And in result to that, she was the one who was grabbed by the throat.
"Vicki!" Echo exclaimed, gripping the girls wrist when she saw her vampire face emerge in anger. The newly turned vampire slammed her against the wall harshly before running away.
Echo slumped to the ground, her eyes narrowing at the spot Vicki was just standing.
ECHO walked into the school behind Elena and Jeremy, her hands wrapped around a coffee cup as they walked through the crowd.
Matt walked towards them, smirking. "You went with last year's costume too, huh?"
"Yeah, I didn't know that I was coming till an hour ago," Elena said with a nod.
Matt chuckled and said, "Me neither." Matt looked over at Echo saying, "And you are?"
"Buffy the vampire Slayer," she automatically said, showing her combat boot which held a wooden stake in it.
"Right." Matt nodded before looking over Jeremy who had a hood over his head, "And you're going as... you?"
Jeremy rolled his eyes and walked off. Elena sighed and said, "He's not talking to me right now. We got into a fight."
"Yeah, I got into it with Vic too, when she got home," Matt said with a nod. "I'm trying not to smother her tonight, but... part of me didn't want to let her out of my sight."
"She's here?" Echo asked, her dark eyes narrowed and she tried to spot Vicki through the crowd.
Matt nodded and said, "Yeah. You can't miss her; she's a vampire."
"Where did Jeremy go?" Elena asked, starting to panic.
Matt looked between the twins, noticing their panic, and asked, "Hey, what's the matter?"
"We gotta go," Elena stated before she and Echo ran away from him, trying to find their brother.
A few minutes later, Stefan walked towards the twins, holding Vicki by the arm.
"Thank you, Chuck," Echo said with a sigh.
Stefan looked at the twins, confused. "What's the matter?"
"We lost track of Jeremy," Elena explained. "We were worried."
"What's going on?" Matt asked, walking over to them.
"Hey, uh, everything's fine," Stefan told him.
Vicki immediately turned to Stefan, saying, "I told you to quit bothering me."
Echo immediately knowing what she was doing, spoke up, "everything is fine, Matt."
"Matt, he won't leave me alone," Vicki told her brother.
Matt puffed out his chest and told Stefan, "You need to back off, man."
"Matt, it's — it's okay," Elena told him.
"No, it's not okay," Matt snapped before looking at Stefan. "What the hell is your problem?"
Vicki disappeared, and Echo grumbled in both annoyance and anger. "She's gone."
The twins immediately followed after her, and heard Jeremy screaming. They ran outside to see Vicki about to bite into his neck.
"Oh, hell no!" Echo sbouted, reaching into her boot to grab the stake as Elena grabbed a plank of wood.
The new vampire rushed towards the twins, and they were hit with the main blow which sent them flying back into a bunch of wooden pallets.
Stefan appeared and slammed Vicki against the bus, but she disappeared quickly.
Echo groaned, wincing in pain, but she pushed herself off the wooden pallets, and quickly helped Elena.
Stefam turned to them, shouting, "Get inside. Go!"
Echo ignored the aches and pains, grabbed both her twin and brothers and began pushing them towards the door. If they were out of the way and safe, then she could take care of Vicki.
They got the door to the school open when Vicki reappeared, tossing Elena and Jeremy to the side. She sank her fangs into Echo's neck, making the girl scream out.
But, before anyone could say or do anything, Echo reached into her boot, grabbed the stake, and rammed it into Vicki's chest.
Everything and everyone went silent as Vicki gasped and released Echo who stumbled backwards slightly.
The older Gilbert ran over to her sister as Jeremy yelled, "Vicki! Vicki!"
Stefan held Jeremy back as the desiccating vampire collapsed to the ground, entirely grey with dark veins covering her body.
"Get him out of here," Echo stated, gasping. She was holding her bleeding neck, and wounded side.
Stefan pulled out his phone as he led Jeremy away.
Elena ran towards her sister who stumbled slightly from blood lost. "Oh, my god!" She grabbed Echo and held her close to her body. "Echo!"
"God!" Echo complained. "I'm fine."
Damon suddenly appeared in front of them and said, "You two should go. I got this."
"You did this," Elena told him angrily as she kept a hold on Echo. "This is your fault."
"You confuse me for someone with remorse," Damon stated and Elena tried hitting him, but he grabbed her hand, saying, "None of this matters to me, none of it."
"People die around you," Elena snapped, "How could it not matter? It matters, and you know it!" Elena then slapped him.
Echo's eyes widened before she smirked. "Good one, El."
Damon stared her in the eyed and simply said, "You two need to leave. Your sister's wounds are bleeding, and you two need to leave."
Elena wrapped her arm around Echo's waist and helped her away even though she didn't want help.
LATER that night, after comforting Jeremy, Echo went to the bathroom to check out the wound she had gotten earlier from trying to fight off a vampire.
She pulled up her shirt, seeing a piece of wood stuck through her side. She winced as she pulled the piece of wood out, holding back a scream.
She held the piece bloody piece of wood, wincing slightly. "I've been through." She laid it on the counter and started to clean her wounds which she was pretty much more than used to at this point.
After she was done with her wound, she went into her room and passed out.