I slowly walk up to my front steps and Stefan and Elena are standing there. "Where is he?" I ask.
"He's inside." Stefan sighs. I nod, moving towards the door opening it. I walk up the stairs to see Jeremy sitting in his room, slightly rocking back and forth. I walk into the room and sit down in front of him.
"Do you understand what happened tonight?" I ask softly.
"No. I don't understand." He cries. "I mean, i know what i saw, but... i don't understand."
"She was going to kill Elena and i," I say softly.
"Now she's dead. Vicki's dead." he cries.
"I am so sorry, Jer." I frown. He moves to wrap his arms around me and i frown, wrapping my arms around him.
"Make it stop. It hurts." He cries into my shoulder. I start to cry as well, holding onto him.
"I know, i know, Jer." I sniffle.
"Why does everybody have to die on me?" I hold him tighter as he cries into my shoulder. I have no idea what to do.
__________________________
After a while, Jeremy stopped crying and somewhat fell asleep. I walked into my room, pulling out my phone. "Alina?"
"I need your help, please," I say, it was evident in my voice that i was crying.
"I'm on my way." I quickly changed into leggings and a sweatshirt, and walk back downstairs.
"Are you okay?" Stefan asks. "I, uh, i wanted to help her." He tells me. I nodded and he frowned. "But instead, uh..." Elena rubs his back soothingly.
"How's he doing? He wouldn't talk to me." Elena frowns.
"He's hurting," I say with a nod. "He... he has to go through this all over again, but I'm gonna fix that." I nod. "He's just a kid."
"Is there anything i can do?" Stefan asks.
I shake my head and he frowns. "If you do it, it might not work."
"What?"
"You're too weak to make him forget. So you can't help."
"Alina," Elena says surprised.
"No, she's right. If i did it, there's no guarantee that it would work-- because of who i am, because of how i live. I don't have the ability to do it right."
"But i do," Damon says, i look over at him and sigh in relief.
"Why are you here?" Elena grits out.
"Because i called him. Thank you, for coming." I smile. Damon walks forward, his hands under my elbows to make my look to him.
"Are you sure you want me to do this?"
"I don't want him to hurt anymore."
"What do you want him to know?" Damon asks me.
"Tell him Vicki left town and she's not coming back, that he shouldn't look for her or worry about her. He's gonna miss her, but he knows it's for the best." Elena tells him, he looks to me and i nod.
"Show me to his room."
I nod, taking his hand and leading him inside and upstairs. "Once i do this, there's no saying it can be undon-"
"I don't want him to hurt anymore," I repeat, outside Jeremy's door. I open it and walk over to him. "Jer, wake up."
Jeremy wakes up and looks to Damon. "Who's he?'
"He's gonna help you." I leave the room and go sit on the stairs. After a minute, Damon comes out and sits with me.
"It's done, he went back to sleep." I sigh, kissing Damon on the cheek.
"Thank you," I say before getting up and walking into my room.
__________________________________________
"I knew he had a tiny crush on her, and i knew he had real feelings for her, and that she made him happy. So i wanted to help her, that's why Elena and I asked Stefan to help. I didn't want another person to walk out on him, and then she did." I tell Sheriff Forbes.
She sighs, looking up from her notepad. "When was the last time you saw Vicki Donovan?" She asks.
I pause for a second then nod. "The Halloween dance, She asked me where Jeremy was and i told her that he was there with his friends somewhere." I lie.
"What was her attitude like?"
"She seemed fine, she wasn't mad, she had a smile on her face-" A vision of Vicki, baring her fangs at me ran through my head. "She just wanted to know where Jeremy was."
"Not any sign of aggression or violence?" The image of Vicki trying to kill me made me look down and shake my head.
"No, as i said, her mood was light."
"Do you believe Vicki really left town?"
"Yes." I nod.
"Thank you, Alina. That'll be all." She smiled. I smiled as well, walking out of her office to see Elena and Jeremy. We all walked out of the station, to see Stefan standing there at the bottom of the steps.
"We'll meet you in the car." Elena smiles and Jenna and Jeremy.
"You guys okay?" Stefan asks.
"I don't think the sheriff suspected anything. Jeremy had no memory at all. All he knew was what Damon made him know." Stefan gives her a small smile.
"That was the whole point." I remind her. Stefan gives a small chuckle as he looks between us.
"Thank you, both of you."
"Stefan, i can't do this." Elena frowns. "Every time i look at Matt or Jeremy, all i think is that Vicki is never gonna come back, and they'll never know why. Around you, people get hurt, and people die, and i just- I- It's just too much. I-"
"How about you two have a moment alone, I'll see you at the car, E," I say, starting to walk away.
"Just wait at the stairs, please." I nod and wait at the bottom of the steps. I watch as they talk for another minute, Elena rushing down the stairs. Stefan sighs and looks over to Elena walking over to me.
I walk over to him and sigh.
"You know, i kinda now realized you're not the bad guy." I laugh. "I'll talk to her." I nod. He nods as well.
"Alina!" Elena calls, i look back to him and smile, walking over to Elena. "What'd you say to him?"
"To stay away from you." I lie, getting into the car.
__________________________________________
Jeremy and I were sat at the table, i was doing the homework i had forgotten to do, while Elena and Jenna were on the couch, talking.
"You're wallowing," Jenna tells her.
"So are you," Elena argues.
"My wallow is legitimate. I was dumped." I get up from the table and walk over to the couch, laying my head-on Jenna's lap.
"I wanna wallow too," I say playfully, making them smile at me as Jenna played with my hair. "And Logan's a jerk."
"I second that." Elena nods, playing with the ends of the blanket she had resting on her lap.
"Neither of you got a brushoff E-mail saying, "I'm leaving town. See ya." Jenna huffed.
"Wanna keep it down over there?" Jeremy called out. The three of us looked over the back of the couch.
"Why? What are you doing?" Jenna asks.
"Homework." The three of us looked at each other.
"Since when do you do homework?"Elena asks.
"I gotta finish this. I'm way behind." Jeremy groans, not paying attention to us. "And i have a quiz tomorrow, so..."
"What do you think?" Elena asked quietly. "Alien?"
"Some sort of replicant."
Jeremy looked up to us with a displeased look. "I think it can hear us..." I whispered.
"He can hear you," Jeremy stated with a small laugh. He looked down back to his homework. We all sank back into the couch and hummed.
__________________________________________
"You have a visitor." I hum as i open Elena's room door, Bonnie following behind me.
"Hey, you up?" Bonnie asked as i moved to sit in the bed with Elena.
"No." She grumbled, pulling the blankets over her head. Bonnie and me shared a look as she huffed, walking over, both of us trying to pry the blankets away from her. "No."
"Why haven't you called me back?" Bonnie asked, holding a majority of the blankets so Elena couldn't hide in them.
"I'm sorry." She apologizes, giving up on pulling the blankets away from us.
"Are you gonna stay in there forever?"
"Yep." Elena nodded with a small smile. Bonnie sighs, shaking her head.
"Move over." Bonnie huffs, Elena moves to the other side of the bed, Bonnie laying on the untaken side and me sitting, legs crossed between them. "I'm officially worried, what's going on?"
Elena shakes her head, taking a deep breath. "I'm tired of thinking, of talking. I-"
"Can i get a one-line version? So i can at least pretend to be helpful?" Elena sighs, looking to me and i huff, looking to Bonnie.
"Stefan and her broke up," I say softly. Bonnie frowns, looking to Elena.
"I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Elena gives Bonni an 'Are you kidding me' look and Bonnie sighs. "Right. Stupid question. I know I've been M.I.A when you need me the most. I suck." Bonnie frowns.
"You wanna make it up to me?" Elena asks, looking over to Bonnie. "Get my mind off of it." Bonnie looks between Elena and I skeptically.
"Come on, B, look at her. She's miserable." I mock, Elena puts on a small pout and Bonnie laughs with a smile.
"Okay, just remember you asked for it." Elena and I nod and she hops off the bed, closing the window closest to her and then moves back over to the bed, grabbing a letter opener and one of Elena's pillows.
She rips it open, letting the feathers fall out. Elena looks to me in shock and i just shrug.
"Hey!" Elena calls out.
"Be patient." Bonnie huffs, letting the feathers still fall out. Elena and I nod and Bonnie smiles. "I need you both to swear to secrecy."
"It's kinda a bad week for that kind of stuff." Elena huffs, looking over to me and i nod slowly.
"Swear, cause I'm not supposed to be showing either of you this."
"Okay, we swear." Elena and I say in sync.
"Okay, there's no windows open, right?" Bonnie asks.
Elena looks at all her windows and shakes her head. "Right."
"There's no fan, no air conditioning."
"Nope," I say, shaking my head. "What are you doing?"
"Grams just showed me this. You guys are gonna love it. You ready?" Elena and i nod slowly and she smiles. She puts a hand over a feather and then pulls it up, a feather going with her. She starts guiding it around and my face falls and my eyes widen in shock.
She lets it drop and Elena and i look to each other.
"Bonnie, what's going on?" Elena asks. Bonnie grins, rubbing her hands together, placing them over the feathers again. Multiple feathers start to float and my eyes widen even more if that's even possible.
Bonnie then looks to us with a smirk, looking down at the feathers and then looking up, even more, feathers starting to float.
"Holy shit..." I mutter, looking around. Elena gasps looking at the feathers surrounding us and laughing.
"It's true, guys, everything my grams told me. It's impossible, but it's true." I touch a feather and it floats away but comes back. "I'm a witch." Elena and I slowly nod and laugh.
"Yeah, we believe you." Elena smiles.
"It's weird, huh?" Bonnie asks. "After all this time joking about being psychic, i really am a witch." We all laugh slightly and i shake my head. "You guys don't think I'm a freak, do you?"
"No. Of course not." Elena says shaking her head. "Uh, Bonnie, i just- I don't understand, though." Elena huffs. "If your grams asked you to keep all this a secret, why us?"
"You guys are my best friends." Bonnie says in a 'duh' tone. "I can't keep any secrets from you guys." Elena and I share a look and sigh, nodding.
__________________________________________
Elena and i sigh as we get out of her car and start to walk to the door. We both needed to talk to Stefan about telling Bonnie after she told us her secret, we have to tell her. "Are you sure you can do this?"
"Can you do the talking?" Elena gulps. I laugh slightly and nod, taking her arm. We walks up to the door, Elena ringing the doorbell.
"It's open. Come on in." A voice calls out, a female voice. Elena and i look to each other with a frown before i push the door open. I look around, turning my head to see a blonde with just a towel wrapped around her. She gasps when she sees Elena and i.
"Oh, my god." Elena takes in her appearance, holding onto me tighter. "How, uh... Wh- Who..."
"Um, I'm Alina, this is my sister, Elena," I explain. Realization comes over her face as she nods. "Who are you?" I ask.
"Lexi, a friend of Stefan's." She explains. Elena looks upstairs and sighs.
"Is he here?" She asks.
"He's in the shower. Um, do you wanna wait?" Lexi asks.
"No." Elena says quickly, shaking her head. Lexi nods and then looks between us.
"I'll tell him you stopped by."Lexi smiled.
"Uh, that's okay," Elena says, letting go of me and walking out. I look at Lexi for a second and sigh, walking out of the house and into the car. "Don't..."
"I wasn't." I say calmly as she speeds away. My phone buzzes and i look at it seeing two texts from Damon.
It's Stefan's birthday, see you at the party ;)
I smile slightly, shaking my head.
Sounds like i don't have a choice lol
I laugh to myself as another text comes in, this time it's from Caroline.
Stefan's B-day tonight, at the grill. See you there <3
I giggle to myself at the dramatic difference in texts.
Of course you will <3
"What are you smiling about?" Elena asks with a small smile.
"Nothing, nothing."
__________________________________________
I look around the grill with a small smile, the music was blaring and boy, did Caroline know how to throw a party. People were dancing and there were people all over the place. I spot Damon at the bar and walk over to him. "Amazing party." I smile.
He turns around in his seat smirking at me.
"It sure is." He says with a tight smile. "Are you having a good time?"
"I just got here." I laugh. He smiles and looks over my shoulder and i follow his gaze seeing Lexi. "Is she a vampire?" I ask.
"Yep, she's one of Stefan's old friends. Come with me." He says, linking my arm with his and pulling me over to Lexi. "Where's my brother?"
"He said he'd meet me here," Lexi says, she looks over to me and quirks an eyebrow. "Alina, right?" I nod and Damon smirks. "What are you doing with a guy like him?" She smirks.
"Um..."
"We're friends, Lexi. I have those."
"Highly unlikely." She says, moving past us and towards the bar. "She doesn't like me very much."
"I can tell. But does anybody?" I laugh.
"Ha, ha, how funny," Damon says, rolling his eyes. He looks around and then looks me up and down. "You look... very casual." I roll my eyes, I was wearing a black tank top with ripped back jeans and a jacket that has a flannel print and my usual black heeled boots.
"I only dress up for special occasions, Damon," I say, rolling my eyes. I look over to the dance floor and then to Damon. "Let's dance."
"Anything for you, Ms. Gilbert."
"Why thank you, Mr. Salvatore." I laugh. We start to sway to the music as Damon's hands find their way to my hips, as mine find my way to his shoulders.
Around twenty minutes later, he looks up and smirks. "What?" I frown.
"Nothing, i have to go." He says looking back down to me. "I'll talk to you later." Before i can protest, Damon is making his way through the crowd, leaving me standing there confused. I huff and look around, seeing Lexi at the bar.
I tilt my head and walk over to her, taking a seat next to her.
"So what's with you and Stefan?" I ask. "Friends with benefits... or?"
Lexi looks over to me and laughs. "What? Oh god no, he's been my best friend for almost 100 years." She says, her eyes widen and i smirk.
"I'm hanging around with Damon Salvatore, trust me, i can keep secrets." I laugh.
"Wow, Damon told you his secret." She gasps. I shrug and nod and she smirks. "I'd be careful with him."
"Yeah... everyone says that." I nod.
"You know... you're not that bad," Lexi smirks.
"Thank you?"
"It's a good thing." She smiles, she looks over my shoulder and i follow her gaze, seeing Stefan. "You know he's not a good dancer."
"I say we should fix that." I laugh. She nods, taking my hand and leading me over to the dance floor with her to meet Stefan. Lexi starts dancing around Stefan, who smiles at me and i smile back. She takes my hand and we both start dancing around him. He just nods his head to the music and Lexi sighs.
"I'm gonna need a little more foot movement," Lexi says, stopping to look at Stefan.
"Yeah, I'm not really- Not really interested in making a fool out of myself." Stefan laughs.
"It's your birthday Stef, i think you're entitled to acting like a fool." I nod. Stefan nods and laughs. "Come on, you can't be that bad."
"Do me a favor then, tell me if you see Damon with his camera phone." He jokes. I stop dancing with false shock on my face.
"Did the Stefan Salvatore just make a joke?" I ask, he laughs and nods.
"Well if you're not gonna dance, let's play pool," Lexie says, leading us over to the pool table. "You in?" She asks, holding out a pool stick.
"No way, there's an unfair advantage here." I laugh, sitting in a stool next to the table. Lexi smirks, lining up her shot, she misses, surprisingly and only makes one in.
"Amateur." Stefan laughs, lining up his shot. Stefan takes the shot, making almost all the stripes go in. He cheers and Lexi high fives him.
"Nice!" I look over to the door to see Elena walking in.
"Be right back," I say, making my way through the crowd and over to her. "Hey." I smile.
"Hi." She says, still staring at Lexi and Stefan.
"You know, she's not Stefan's new girlfriend or anything. You should talk to her or him. It is his birthday." I say, wiggling my eyebrows. Her jaw drops slightly and i laugh. Elena sighs, looking back to them and then i feel a presence beside me.
I look over to see Damon beside me.
"Stefan smiles. Alert the media." Damon smirks.
"You haven't given him a lot of reasons to be happy lately." Elena retorts.
"Oh, you're right. Poor Stefan." Damon says with a false frown. "Persecuted throughout eternity by his depraved brother." Damon shakes his head. "Does it get tiring being so righteous?" Damon asks.
It flares up in the presence of psychopaths." Elena glares, rolling her eyes and heading towards Stefan and Lexi.
"Ouch... Well, consider these psychopaths feelings hurt." Damon frowns putting his hand over his heart.
"You acting skills suck," I tell him, taking a sip of my soda. He gives me a sarcastic smile and i roll my eyes again. Elena sighs, turning around and putting her hands on her hips.
"What did you do to our brother?" She asks.
"I'm gonna need a less vague question." Damon states.
"When you did what you did to Jeremy's memory of Vicki, what else did you do to him?" Elena asks. Damon looks down to me, taking a small step forward towards Elena.
"You asked me to take away his memory of fangs and rowr and all the bad stuff." Damon shrugs, he looks to me again and smiles. "I took the pain away."
"But he's acting different, he seems okay with everything and a little too okay." Elena frowns. "I mean, he's studying. He's not doing drugs. He's not drinking."
"Elena, that's what you've wanted this whole time. Why are you complaining?"
"I just want to be sure he didn't do something else." Elea sighs, turning back to glare at Damon.
"Elena, i took away all the pain and suffering," Damon says clearly. Elena sighs, looking to me and frowning. She storms away and i sigh.
"You don't always have to be such a dick, you know?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"I gave her an honest answer."
"But, you didn't have to be an ass about it," I say, rolling eyes.
He looks at me, tilting his head. "Are you mad? Cause you're kinda hot when you're mad."
"Do you want me to be mad?" I ask with a blank expression. He frowns slightly.
"No, not really." He sighs, "Let's get you a drink." He says, taking my arm and leads me to the bar. I look over seeing Matt and Caroline drinking together and i quirk an eyebrow. "Don't pay attention the them, let's drink."
When we get to the bar, one of the bartenders narrows his eyes.
"Uh, she's underage, she can't-"
"She's twenty-one." Damon compels. The bartender blinks and then smiles.
"What can i get you two?"
"A bourbon and a-"
"Water." I smile. He nods and Damon gives me a weird look. "If you paid attention to anything, you'd know Sheriff Forbes just walked in," I smirk. His eyes widen slightly. Lexi walks up behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"You know, you're too cute to hang out with him," Lexi smirks, glaring at Damon.
"I've been told." I laugh.
"I take it back- You're not bad at all." Lexi smiles, she turns and looks to Damon. "What are you really doing here in Mystic Falls, Damon?" She asks, crossing her arms.
"Have you tried the brittle? It wins awards." Damon says sarcastically.
"Cut the crap." Lexi glares.
"Okay." Damon shrugs, he looks to me and smiles then looks back at Lexi. "I have a diabolical master plan." Lexi smiles and nods.
"What is it?" Lexi asks. I turn to face Damon.
"I wanna know too," I smirk.
"Well, i would tell you two. But if i told you, it wouldn't be very diabolical, now would it?" Damon asks.
"So critical," I mumble, taking a drink of my water. Damon looks over his shoulder and then back to us. I look behind me as well to see Sheriff Fornes was still standing there, but she now has this other girl with her and she's pointing over to us.
The girl leaves the room and i quirk an eyebrow, but look back over to Damon and Lexi. Then she's behind Lexi, sticking a needle into her side. I shoot up, into Damon's chest and he wraps an arm around me.
"What are you doing?" Damon asks. The Sheriff looks between us and then smiles at Damon quickly.
"Thank you for the vervain." And then she walks away.
"You gave them vervain?" Damon had taught me that Vervain weakens vampires. I look behind me to Stefan and Elena and walk away from Damon over to them.
"Alina, how can we get out?" Elena asks, knowing i know every in and out. I take her hand and she takes Stefan's and we make a b-line for the back exit.
We push the door open and walk through the alley as soon as shots go off. We round the corner to see what's going off the see Sheriff Forbes firing at Lexi. And then Damon coming out of nowhere, stabbing Lexi in the heart with a wooden stake.
Elena and I gasp as Stefan pulls us towards him, placing his hands over our mouths, shushing us.
"Oh my god..." Stefan whispers, i look to see his eyes tearing up. We watch as Damon walks over to Sheriff Forbes asking if she was okay. Damon lifts up Lexi's body and puts her in the trunk of the Sheriff's cruiser.
Everyone heads back inside and the crowd starts coming out, and Stefan starts to rush away. Elena grabs my arm and pulls me with her as we walk ofter Stefan.
"Stefan," Elena calls out. "Stefan." She says, letting go of me and pulling Stefan's arm.
"He killed her." Stefan grits out. "He killed Zach. He killed Tanner and he turned Vicki. I have to kill him." Stefan says. My stomach drops at the idea of Stefan killing Damon.
"No, you can't, Stefan you can't do that," I say, walking up beside Elena. "You'll be just as bad as he is."
"Why are you trying to save him, Alina?" Stefan asks. "He's never gonna change. Don't you see that? You've given him three chances, and he keeps messing up. He isn't gonna change."
"No, Stefan," I say, grabbing his arm. "Like i said, you'll be just as bad as he is."
"She's right." Elena nods. "You have no idea what this will do to you. Please, Stefan." Elena begs.
"Everywhere i go, plain and death follow. Damon follows me. No more." I huff and run a hand through my hair as Elena goes after Stefan again.
"Stefan, please. Please, just... Just talk to me." She pleads. "Let me be here for you. Talk to me." Stefan looks at Elena and then me who's about three feet behind them.
"No," Stefan says, shaking my head. "You were right to stay away from me." Stefan finally walks away. I turn around to see Damon walking out of the grill and i stalk towards him.
"Hey, what you s-"
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" He looks shocked and steps back slightly. "Your brother's best friend, on your brothers birthday!"
"You don't understand, they were looking for vampires, so i gave them on-"
"Do you know how stupid you make me feel?" I ask and his face falls. "I have given you more chances than i have ever given anyone. Elena has told me to stay away from you, Stefan has told me to stay away from you because you are a monster, but i don't listen. But tonight made me realize something. You're not gonna change."
Damon looks lost like he has no idea. "You don't mean it." He says shakily.
"You are fake, and you destroy peoples lives. I wish i never met you."
"Don't say that." I roll my eyes and start to walk away but he grabs my arm. "Don't walk away from me."
"You haven't given me a choice. I will not just sit here while I'm waiting for you to stop acting like this, i can't keep going against my sister, and i won't." I say shaking my head. I turn around to see Elena standing there waiting for me. I get over to her and we hug each other.
Damon Salvatore has ruined both of us enough for one night.