I was on the phone with Tyler, walking through the halls of my house. "A Halloween corn maze? Seriously? Do you know how stupid that sounds?"
"Actually, I think it sounds kind of cool."
"Well, there's no points accounting for taste."
"Wow. Someone's extra fiesty today." I smiled. "It'll be fun. We need some fun, and so do you. I got to run some gear over to the football stadium later. If you want I could pick you up after, and we could go together."
"You mean, like, a date? Because definitely not."
"Come on, Nikki." I smiled at the nickname. "Don't forget that you owe me."
I sighed. "You had to break out the favor card."
"Duh."
"Okay. I'll come."
"Yes."
"See you there," I told him, smiling, hanging up.
I sighed, turning to the fridge, opening it to see tons of blood bags, reaching inside and pulling one out to drink.
It was lunchtime.
~~~~~~
At the corn maze, a girl was dressed like Lady Whitmore, wearing a dirty white dress with blood staining the front of it, holding up a torch, running through the maze, screaming hysterically. She reached the entrance of the maze, meeting up with the crowd of teenagers. She had been pretending the theme of Homecoming, smiling, using the torch to light the bonfire, beginning to dance to the music someone had playing from their truck speakers.
The crowd cheered loudly, heading into the maze.
~~~~~~
Tyler still hadn't gotten here by the time that night had fell.
I walked through the maze, completely and utterly bored, pulling out my phone to text Tyler.
Party's lame. You got 5 minutes until I'm outta here.
~~~~~~
Suddenly, people were yelling, "Watch it!" and "Hey!"
I looked up to see what was happening. I heard a truck swerving, smashing right through the corn maze. People ducked, falling to the ground, screaming, knocking other people unconscious.
The truck continued forward violently.
~~~~~~
I was on the ground, on my back, sitting up to see the chaotic mess of Homecoming.
People were injured, lying on the ground bleeding, dying, yelling for help. I stood, transforming at the sight of blood, at the smell, breathing heavily.
I held my hands to my face to hide the red eyes and veins. "No, no, no, no."
Breathe. Just breathe. Push it back. Fight against it. Bury it.
After a few moments, I felt in control, lowering my hands to my side.
I saw Elena in the crowd, healing people with vampire blood as she went, careful to make sure no one saw her.
My phone rang. Seeing who it was, I immediately answered. "Tyler?"
"I was driving the truck, Nikki."
"What?"
"This guy ran right in front of me, and he's hurt bad. He's pinned under my truck. If he dies, I'm a werewolf all over again, okay? I need you to get here. We're in a ditch. I don't know where, but I need you here now, so please hurry."
"Tyler, you don't understand. You drove right through the maze. There are injured people everywhere."
I looked around, noticing that Elena was looking toward me, listening.
"What the hell am I supposed to do?"
Elena walked closer.
I put it on speaker.
"Ty, it's Elena," Elena told him. "Just listen. Just hang on. Um, make sure that you keep him awake. Assess his injuries while we go find Jo and Alaric."
~~~~~~
Elena and I found Dr. Josetta Laughlin and Alaric kneeling next to an injured man.
"Dr. Laughlin, my friend Tyler, he's in trouble, and it sounds really bad, and... we don't know where he is," I told her.
"Call me Jo," Laughlin told me. "Put him on speaker."
"Okay," I told her putting it on speaker.
"Tyler, can you hear me?" Jo asked.
"I--I don't know what to do. I think he's losing consciousness."
"I need you to answer my questions as accurately as you can. Is there blood?"
"Tons."
"Is it still flowing? Is he bleeding now?"
"No. No. I... it looks like it stopped."
"Is there any coming out of his nose, or his mouth?"
"Yes."
"What color is it? Is it red, or is it black?"
"It's black. It's really freaking black. What do I do?"
"Take his hand."
"Now what?"
"Just try and keep him comfortable. Won't be long now."
I shook my head.
No.
This couldn't happen.
I turned away, hanging up, starting to walk away.
Elena followed me. "Nicola." I turned to face her. "Even if you get there before he dies, it's too late. Vampire blood won't save him before he..."
"I have to do something," I told her. "Stay here, make sure no one dies. Save as many of them as you can."
Elena nodded.
I turned around, making sure no one was watching me, rushing away.
~~~~~~
I followed the sound of Tyler's voice in the corn maze.
It sounded like he was hitting the victim's chest. "Come on, man. Please, you gotta live. Come on, buddy. Come on. Come on, man. You can't die."
I found the truck overturned in the ditch, using all of the vampire strength I had to push it away.
Tyler turned toward me in surprise.
I jumped down into the ditch kneeling next to the man.
"What are you doing?" Tyler asked. "Nicola even if you give him blood, it's too late. He'll still die. Even if he turns into a vampire, I still killed him. I'll still turn. And right now, with the new vampire hunter, we can't risk another newborn. There's nothing you can do. I killed him."
"No, you didn't," I told him.
"Yes, I did, Nikki," Tyler told me. "Everything we've tried to do to keep me from this, and all it took was one guy running out into the road." I closed my eyes, covering the man's nose and mouth to keep him from breathing. "What are you doing, Nicola? Nikki, stop! What the hell are you doing?"
I opened my eyes, tears in my eyes, watching as the light left the man's eyes.
He was dead.
I killed him.
I slowly took my hands away from the man.
Tyler looked at me in shock.
"You didn't kill him, Tyler," I told him. I looked at Tyler sadly. "I did."
I stood, leaving.
~~~~~~
On the road, I walked down the street, trying to push it out of my head. I slowed to a stop.
I couldn't push it out of my head.
Nears tears, I remembered him struggling to breath.
I leaned against the brick buidling next to me.
Tyler walked closer.
"I don't wanna talk," I told him.
"I talked to Elena," Tyler told me.
"Still don't wanna talk," I told him.
"She said everyone else lived," Tyler told me, slowly stepping closer. "You don't want to talk about what happened?"
"I've got nothing to say," I told him.
"You killed someone tonight," Tyler told me. "You did the one thing that you tried not to do your whole life, the one thing that I've been trying to help you stay away from. You can't just pretend that didn't happen, after all we've done to keep you from it."
"I'm a vampire, Tyler," I told him. "We're a predatory species that hunt, feed and kill. And no matter how much I try to be, I am no different from the others. So watch me."
I started to turn away, beginning to cry.
Tyler caught my wrist. "You are different from the others. You barely use your powers. You don't feed from the living, and you don't hunt anything. And before tonight, you had never taken a human life. Nikki." I didn't answer. Tyler turned me to face him, but I still didn't look at him. "Nikki." He placed his hands on either of my cheeks, making him look at him. "He was dead. There was nothing you could have done to save him, so you saved me instead. You. Saved. Me."
"You've been saving me from myself since I turned," I told him. "I told you I'd find a way to repay you, and I did. But I just can't talk about it. Not with you."
I took his hands away, pulling away.
"I know," Tyler told me. He looked behind me. "That's why I called him."
I turned to follow his gaze in confusion.
Stefan was standing there.
I looked at him in slight shock, but not much. I felt numb more than anything.
"I am so sorry," Stefan told me. "About everything."
I walked toward him, wrapping my arms around him. He wrapped his arms around me.
I sniffled, standing there like that for a moment.
Stefan pulled away, looking at me. "I need you to come with me."
I looked at him in confusion. "Where?"
~~~~~~
Stefan led the way into the Salvatore mausoleum, a bottle of bourbon in his hand, taking a drink.
"Are we seriously doing this?" I asked, taking the bottle.
"Yeah, we are seriously doing this," Stefan answered. "This is happening. I broke a promise to you, and I hurt you, and I left you behind. I'm never doing that again."
I looked around the crypt. "So we're gonna talk about what I did tonight to a...a crypt filled with our dead family?"
"Everyone but Damon," Stefan answered. "Because wherever he is, it's not here." He looked at me. "I know you wanna talk about it, just not to Tyler. So now you can talk to me."
"I don't wanna talk about it, to anybody," I told him, sitting down, taking a drink from the bottle, looking down at my phone in my hand.
"Nikki, talk," Stefan told me.
"What do you want me to say, Stefan?" I asked. "For the past four months, since Damon died, you disappeared, trying to start over, but you can't get anywhere, because you're lost. And when you did, it felt like you just left me to do this by myself. Until I find out that you've had Tyler watch out for me since you left without so much as a goodbye. And he's been the one to keep me from falling off the edge, from turning it off. And then tonight, when he nearly triggered his werewolf curse all over again, I did the one thing that I never wanted to do, to save him. To repay him. I killed him." I held my phone in a too tight grip, making it break in my grasp, drawing blood, but I barely felt the pain. "But the only thing that I feel is.... broken, Stefan. I'm broken."
I stood angrily despaired, throwing the bottle of bourbon toward the far wall.
Damon caught the bottle.
Stefan's and my eyes widened.
Damon looked at me. "So what? I'm gone a couple of months, Stefan abandons you, you made your first kill tonight, and you think it's okay to waste a perfectly good bottle of bourbon? And Tyler Lockwood? Seriously?"
Damon took a drink.
Stefan and I looked at him in shock, not quite believing what was happening.
"Damon?" Stefan asked.
"Yep," Damon answered. "In the flesh."
Damon smiled.
"How are we seeing you right now?" I asked.
Damon's expression became serious. "Because I'm not dead, Nikki. I mean, this stuff's good, but it's not 'I see dead people' good." He chuckled, slowly stepped closer. Stefan still couldn't believe it. I was slowly accepting it, tears in my eyes. "It's a hell of a long story, but... I'm back. I'm back." Stefan slowly reached out to touch Damon's shoulder to make sure he was really there. "Yeah." Stefan looked as if he was about to cry, pulling either of us into a tight embrace. Damon wrapped an arm around either of us. "I'm back."
I started to cry, this time in relief, holding either of them.
Damon was back.