[Episode 19 - Miss Mystic Falls]

I wake up to Jeremy tip-toeing around the room. "How're you taking it?" I whisper, dreading the answer. He sighs and avoids my look, handing me my diary "I, need some time..."

"I'm s-"

"Look Katherine-" the use of my first name hurts like no other sting "- you erased a part of my memories. Surely you should understand when I say that I need some space. Now, I'm headed out". He rushes out and I sigh.

Time for school.

▹▹▹

I park my car at the far end of the parking lot and stalk closer to the Hell they like to call school. I see Elena and Stefan walk off together, arm-in-arm. But more than that, what irks my eyes is the cherry red classic Porsche sitting in the first spot.

Something is really wrong with Stefan.

I don't get to question it further when they announce that the day is declared a half-day because of the Miss Mystic Falls pageant prep. O god. Mom signed up Elena and me for this. But, she isn't here now. Should I take my name off? But I want to be a part of this and it makes me feel really terrible.

My best friend's fighting blood addiction, my sister is dating a guy I'm having feelings for and I feel like I'm about to burst any second.

And I wanna go to a pageant?

No, you have to do it for her. My inner voice answers. I sigh and make my way into the class.

"Okay, this week we're gonna set aside our regular curriculum for a lesson in local history as we approach Founders' Day. Apparently"  Alaric rants frustratedly as his class begins "-the community leaders feels it's more important than World War 2 but hey what do I know?"

He's about to start the Founder's history when we all hear a familiar brunette witch enter. "Sorry I'm late..." she hurries and settles into her seat beside mine.

"Well, it looks like we will be at full occupancy today. Welcome home, Bonnie"

I smile at her hesitantly and she smiles back at Elena and me. Suddenly, her smile falls as she averts her gaze. I look to Stefan lowering his head in guilt.

▹▹▹

As soon as the class gets over, Bonnie takes her assignment from Alaric and rushes out. "Bonnie!" Elena yells and we catch up to her.

"Hey..." her rush slows down to a walk but she still avoids us.

"Hey, how are you? How's your family?" I ask. Her jaw tightens as she says "We're dealing, it's been hard..."

"We really missed you Bonnie..." Elena sighs sympathetically.

"Yeah, I just had so much to deal with after Grams' funeral and, honestly after you told me the tomb spell failed I just didn't really want to come back..."

"I hope that you understand why we called...We wanted you to know before you came home-" I try to explain

"I understand why. I just...shouldn't know" she hugs her books closer and I do the same, awkward silence taking the place of words.

"I know it's been really har-" Elena is cut off by a cheery Caroline.

"Bonnie! Bonnie! Thank god you're home!" she hugs her tightly, which the witch returns readily unlike any conversations with us.

"I know we talked everyday but I missed you!"

"Everyday huh?" I avoid my gaze from the duo and look down to my shoes.

"How are you doing?"

"Better. Better. You know, glad to be back and trying to keep myself busy-"

"Well, I can help with that. Major wardrobe problem. You need to help me pick up the perfect dress for the Founders' court!"

"The Founders' court? Did I miss something?" Elena intervenes, wanting to be a part of the conversation. I sigh in exasperation. She's heard me rant about it the whole week and now acts clueless. 

"Miss Mystic Falls. They announced it today and you both and I are on it..."

"Oh my god! We signed up for that so long ago...I completely forgot" Elena trails off uncertainly.

"So, are you dropping out then?" Caroline speaks up oh-so hopefully. I shake my head in apology, I know she thinks we are competition but this time, we can't go off to the side for her

"We can't..."

"No?" our blonde friend's face falls as she looks to Bonnie.

"Their mom is the one who wanted them to enter..." 

We all sigh.

▹▹▹

We're called to the Founder's Hall as we wait to be interviewed. Caroline goes off first, bouncing a bit. She's got a lot of stuff under her belt in the past two years but I'm proud to say I have some things too.

Before mom and dad died, I did the community work because I liked to do it. After the accident, though I felt dead inside, I did community work to keep a part of them alive.

I wait for everyone to get interviewed first and go last. I enter the air-conditioned hall to face 3 judges, Carol Lockwood and 2 others, who are waiting with questions. "Hello, I'm Katherine Gilbert. Pleasure to meet you" I nod and shake their hands.

"Hello Ms. Gilbert, please take a seat" I sit down, only a gulp showing my nervousness as I smile.

"May we know why you signed up for this pageant?"

I smile "Well, my mother always said 'If all you want is a crown, then I can buy you one, but if you want to lead and inspire, you can enter a pageant and earn one'. So, I'm here to earn a crown the high way" I joke and they all smile.

"Your mother... The late Miranda Gilbert?" the only man in the group asks me and I nod seriously "Yes..."

"So, would you like to tell us what your contribution to the society has been?" Carol speaks up with an anticipating smile.

"I draw" I mention and the first lady raises a brow.

"I volunteered two-thousand dollars that I earned from the sale of my portraits and paintings. The sum was volunteered to the poor soup kitchen and the adjacent church..." It was my first earning and I was proud to have given all of that for these.

"I volunteer at the poor soup kitchen with Caroline Forbes and also conducted the charity car-wash a few months ago..." That seems like years ago.

"I've led the campaign of Green-Falls for 3 years till date and ongoing. This campaign is proud to report the cleanliness of the forest around this town and the Falls... " Though I didn't do all of that for answering the interview of the Founder's Ball, life has curveballs.

They all nod, impressed. Mrs. Lockwood seems proud. I smile and wait for their next question.

"What do you think about this pageant?"

"My mother was Miss Mystic Falls in her day and she kept the sash around my sister and me as a reminder of the honour that it is. It's a legacy she left behind for not only her daughters, but to all of the beautiful young women. I know that I've not been myself lately, but it gives me great honour to be a part of this, no matter who wins. It's something every girl in Mystic Falls sees herself as."

They announce "Good speaking to you Miss Gilbert". I smile and nod, getting up and shaking their hands once again "Thank you for your time. Do let me know if I can be any help in organising the dance tomorrow..." I put in sincerely.

Anything to take my mind off the current vampire under control.

▹▹▹

I call Damon again as I pace the halls before the dance practice. On the fifth ring, he picks up "What Kat? I have a lot of things on my hand"

"Hello to you Smoldy. Tell me what's wrong with your brother" I demand. I'm running out of time. The dance practice starts in a few minutes and it's until then that I can remain of Stefan's earshot.

"Nothing you need to worry about" he grits out.

"Great. I won't worry about it. So tell me now. I don't have a lot of time or patience Damon. The pageant prep has taken most of my day-"

"Huh, who knew, Katherine Gilbert, a pageant queen..." he whistles. 

I roll my eyes, "Fine, don't help me, perhaps your brother will appreciate it when I bash it out of him"

I see Carol Lockwood coming up the hallway with Caroline in tow. 

"Well, best of luck, he's extra peppy today. Might wanna come here after prancing practice Kat" Damon drops a hint. 

I hurriedly speak into the phone "So what I think is true, right? Gotta go, bye" I cut the call off just as the duo approaches me.

"Hello Mrs. Lockwood, seems like I can't find a date, could I ask someone t-"

She waves it off with suppressed glee "O sure honey. Someone could stand in for your date now. Or you could make your stand-in your date". I thank her in relief but that fades away slightly as her intentions are revealed a while later. We all stand at the corner of the big hall as she calls forth the pairs, or stand-ins for some cases like me and Caroline.

"Elena and Stefan"

"Amber and Brad"

"Caroline and Bonnie, for now, we'll be waiting for Matt or your partner next time" she states sternly to the nodding blonde.

"Tina and Bart"

"And... Katherine and Tyler" my eyes widen as I stand in my place and Tyler stands facing me. So this is one of her matching schemes. 

God no. I don't have anything against Tyler but it'll be really good if his mom didn't resume her efforts. Tyler's one of my friends.

We start the dance slowly, a dance we've both spent years watching. I hear Stefan acting a bit too cheerful with my sister and I concentrate harder on the hand movements "You seem stiff there Kat" Tyler mocks. 

I take a breath and joke "It's not everyday that your mother throws you on me"

He narrows his eyes playfully as we turn another time "What are you talking about miss? I. am the perfect picture of a man" he whisper yells.

"Tell me when you see this perfect picture of a man, because he owes me a dance" I wink. 

Tyler scoffs and what happens next spins my eyes. He takes my hands, ignoring the no-touching part of his mother's instructions, and spins me around, dipping me. His face dips closer to me as he smirks "That, he does..."

He sets me on my feet to face a mixed Mrs. Lockwood. "No! No Tyler! There is no contact in this part of the dance, it's about the simple intimacy of near touch" 

I resist bursting out into laughter at that explanation and by the looks of it, so does Tyler and so does Elena. But Stefan, on the other hand, is not amused.

We all resume and Carol offers instructions, more like commentary "Stay focus, right hand around. Flirt with your eyes... Left hand around.... Both hands..."

We get a 2 minute break and Caroline drags off Bonnie outside, and I realise.... sometimes supernatural hearing just sucks. 

Caroline basically states off her enemies and their weaknesses insensitively "The Fell cousins don't have a shot and Amber Bradley is only on the court so the pageant doesn't look like its founding families only—which of course it is. So that leaves Kat and Elena who totally have the sympathy vote since their parents died. How can I compete with that?"

After Caroline drones about how she deserves this and wants this, I see Bonnie come out and I nudge Elena, who's making googly eyes at her boyfriend from across the room. We both rush towards the witch 

"Bonnie. Hey" I interrupt her path. She smiles and nods uncomfortably.

"Bonnie, do you have a minute?" Elena begs. I plead with my eyes but the dark-haired girl was having none of that as she points behind our back awkwardly "We only have 30 minutes for rehearsa-"

"It'll only take a minute, please?"

We walk out of the room and I hug her.

"Bonnie, you have to tell me what's wrong..." Elena asks. How could she ask that? Bonnie's friends are in association with vampires,because of whom her Grams died. No one can get past that.

"It not worth talking about..." she hugs me back as she answers my twin.

"What do you mean not worth it! You've barely said ten words to me and you won't even look at Stefan. Is that what it is? Is it Stefan?" Wow, look who grew brains sister. 

Okay, that was not kind.

"Listen, Elena, I can't just pretend that everything's okay. Everything my Grams did was to protect us from those vampires in the tomb. And now they're out which means she died for nothing"

"I'm so sorry Bonnie. What can I do to make it better?" I ask, desperate to have her back with us. I wanna help her, she's one of the pillars of my life and I can feel her crumbling.

"There's nothing you can do Kat, not you Elena. I blame him" she grits out, referring to Stefan "him and Damon and I'm not gonna put you in a situation where you both have to choose sides. I'm just having a hard time with it, okay?"

"Bonn-" she cuts me off as she goes back into the hall to put on a facade that she's pushing herself to.

The practice ends in an eternity and I take a bottle from Tyler as he packs his stuff up for football practice. He heads off but I stop him one last time "If you wanna talk about Vicki, or anything else, you know your 2nd grade hoops-coach is here". He smiles and trails off.

I give Elena the car keys and tell her to go home, I have some work. After she heads off in front of my eyes, I go to the one of the people whom I have avoided lately. 

"Can I come in?" I knock on Alaric's open door and he motions me in. I stand against the door and ask him "Did you read it?" 

He nods slowly "Sorry for avoiding you, I just, needed some pep talk" he trails off awkwardly.

"So?" I ask "Did you have it? The... pep talk?"

"Yes. So, uhm" he clears his throat "I just want to make it clear to you that Isobel never told me that she had kids" he begins. 

"So, I don't know anything about that except what you know. So, you're...not -" his daughter.

"How about the grounds? The people are still practicing" I get up and go out, he follows me.

Once we're outside, I start explaining "I'm not... you know" I raise my brows and he nods

"I'm a Guardian. It's like a hunter, but the scope is, wider, let's say" he nods again but what we arrive on in the next few steps of silence shocks us.

Tyler's applying some antiseptic on his scraped knee, I look at Alaric and then walk towards the jock "Couldn't keep yourself out of trouble huh?" he looks to us and scoffs.

I look around to see a familiar figure watching from the shadows. Alaric follows my gaze.

"You can take care of that right?" I ask warily. Tyler nods and his concentration goes back to the scrape. 

I walk, following Alaric, towards the spot where Stefan stands tensed. Alaric approaches him slowly and even speaks "Hey, Stefan?" he touches his student's shoulder warily.

"Are you oka-" Stefan catches him by the throat and pins our teacher to the wall where noone can see it. 

I rush to Stefan "Stefan! Leave him" I whisper panickedly. He takes one look at me, then his victim and lets go with a gasp. 

Alaric, ever being the parental one, even for 150 year old vampire, asks as soon as he catches his breath "Stefan? Are you okay?" On getting no answer, I hold him by the shoulders roughly "Are you okay?" he blinks a few times and walks away "Yes, I'm sorry. I was just...I was feeling a little sick"

Stefan is sick, but he's hungry. He did try to resist but he couldn't stop it.

His devil burst through the unicorn. 

"Y-You're fine" I stutter with the onload of information and let him go. Stefan staggers off and I watch, with Alaric, as he gets into his car.

"Call Damon" I mouth slowly to Alaric and he nods confusedly. I wave goodbye to him and run with my bag towards the red classic. 

I bend towards the window "Stefan! Gimme a ride will ya?" I ask. He hesitates but nods "Your house?" I shake my head "Yours"

He visibly gulps and I settle in. Needless to say, he floors it to the Boarding House.

▹▹▹

I pull Damon aside the moment we arrive at the House of BnB. Stefan comes along with me but I stop as soon as he tries. Damon looks to me and then his brother. I raise my eyebrows in warning to the older Salvatore. He gets the message.

Seems like Alaric made that call.

"Kat just wanted to talk to me about the brother compulsion issue," Damon waves it off to his brother "go on, brother. I'll keep your damsel safe"

We try to walk out very slowly. I get into his car just as I hear a chair crashing. We both look at each other and I sigh. It's getting worse. 

Damon slows down once we get out of the hearing range and stops the car near the edge of the forest, he turns to me with expectant looks and I burst "Why didn't you tell me!" I shout and grab his collar. 

"The same reason you didn't call Elena the minute you knew"

"He's teetering on an edge Damon. He needs someone to talk to! He's high again" I state. 

I thought he'd be surprised but I was wrong "He stole a big bunch of blood from the hospital. If I told you this before, you would've laughed it off and said you needed to trust him"

I get out of the car in a huff "I would never do that!"

"Just like you never listen in to their conversations?" he asks rhetorically, absolutely calm. 

I know whom he's talking about, Stefan and Elena. Damon gets out of the car and vamps in front of me "It's a form of self-torture Kat. You won't believe he's in trouble, that he's a blood-junkie with addictive issues because he's the good guy!" 

I punch him and grit out "Don't confuse me with my sister. Damn, Stefan can't even tell her the truth because she can't bear it!"

I take a breath and slump down onto the hot concrete, Damon sits down beside me 

"Get it out of him, get him back on rails. You're the one who can do it Kat" he encourages and I hide my face between my knees, tears building up. 

I can't tell anyone this. But I have to. Then there won't be any difference between Stefan's situation and mine.

"What is it? Hey..." he pushes my head up by my temples only to see a messy face "I would try if he was the only one falling apart" I whisper. 

Damon shushes and puts an urgent arm around me. If anyone would see us now, they would, for sure think that we're mad, sitting on the road against a car in the middle of nowhere, crying and confessing.

"I'm, so angry, all the time! I can't even stand next to you and not think of killing you!" I shout out and now I feel even scared. There, that's my fear, that the Guardian in me will force me to kill them. I wanted to hold Stefan down so bad when he had those intentions about Tyler, ripping his head off, draining him of every last drop of blood.

Damon let's me cry for a few more minutes and then speaks up "You'll get through this... But only if he does"

"So help him get back on track and you're both alright" he suggests. There's a long pause before I look at him, glaring "Okay".

▹▹▹

I come down with Elena's and my dresses in hand to see Alaric standing in the way "Hey Alaric" I smile.

"Hey. How was... stuff?" he looks around to look out for Jenna or John. I nod hesitantly "After the dance, no other window"

Damon wants to stage an intervention after the Founder's Ball because he didn't want Elena to worry and run off to lecture Stefan in the radius of a crowd.

"Okay, I'm driving" he states as he takes the dresses from my hands. 

I smile "I heard. Thanks"

John comes down, rolling down his sleeves, suit in hand "Alaric. Hey buddy, what are you doing here?" John patronises and Jenna comes in with a smug smile as her new boyfriend answers "I'm the chauffeur"

"I thought I was driving" he looks to me for support, uh-uh, not after what he's been with the Council and Damon. I have little time left for family talk, because most of the time it's Damon complaining or whining about Uncle John destroying his ship.

"No need, we're going with Ric" Jenna smiles up at her man. Elena comes down with our make-up kit and hair-curler set as she asks "Are we ready?"

"Jeremy can ride with you" Jenna states, trying to hold in her laughter. My brother barrels down the stairs and avoids my look as he smiles at the out "Sure"

"Can't he ride with us?" I look to Jeremy, but he rolls his eyes and ignores me.

▹▹▹

Just as Amber leaves in a panicked flurry, Elena and I look about to see a serious Damon. Elena hurries into the dressing room and Damon follows with heavy steps. I furrow my brows as I wait in anticipation.

"We need to talk..." he motions me further inside and I oblige, it's about his brother, I can tell.

"Normally I would have a completely different outlook of what I'm about to tell you but since it could really inconvenience me, I'll squeal"

"What are you talking about?"

"Stefan's still drinking human blood..." I state to my aghast twin "What?!"

"Yeah, a month ago I would have rejoiced but with the council back on the alert, it is not a good time for Stefan to fly off the handle"

"I know he's been a little edgy but he said that was normal..." Elena muses, still not willing to believe what's in front of her.

"He has a fridge full of stolen blood bank contraband in the house..." Damon states angrily.

"Oh my god"

"He has no idea what normal is, Elena, his entire existence isn't normal. Normal to a vampire is drinking human blood but he spent all this time fighting it when he should have been learning to control it and now it's controlling him instead" I try to explain to her what the problem really is.

"I can't believe this. I mean, it's Stefan that we're talking about here"

"Stefan on human blood Elena" Damon grits out "He'll do anything, he'll say anything because he's not gonna want to stop. Trust me." Damon states bluntly.

"We have to help him get back to norma-" I'm cut off by the arrival of the devil himself.

"What's going on in here?" Stefan enters with a smile.

"Just filling Elena on your... extra-curricular activities..." Damon swings on his feet, giving his brother a look. Stefan laughs. 

Literally -  laughs and smiles as he looks from Damon, to me to Elena "What are you talking about?"

"I know about the blood, Stefan" Elena inhales.

"I'm uh - I'll be downstairs, drinking" Damon excuses himself, exits while his eyes flit from me to Stefan in a gesture. He wants the intervention to be now? How mad is he?

"I was going to tell you" Stefan smiles again as he comes closer to Elena. "When?" I question.

"I'm fine Viv, I'm fine, Elena, the blood" he scoffs "it doesn't change anything" 

"It's changing you!" my sister throws up her hands, hopeless.

"Why? Because I kept it a secret from you? Come on Elena, look, giving the way you're reacting right now, can you really blame me for doing that?"

"Then why would you keep this from me? Huh?" I throw out angrily and he looks at me like never before. It sends a burning fire up my spine and I catch the vase behind me tightly to contain myself "Are you my girlfriend Katherine?" he glares "I don't think so, so none of your business"

I narrow my eyes as I rush to him, catching his shoulders tightly, I hear a bone pop but right now, I can't bring myself to care "Are you hearing yourself right now? You've been stealing blood and lying and you say that everything's fine? Everything's not fine, Stefan!"

"So what - so you and Damon all of a sudden have everything figured out then?" Stefan pushes me off with newfound strength.

"It's not about Damon. It's about what's happening to you!" my sister says emotionally. I know she loves him, but if I can just kill hi-

No! I yell to myself. Stefan's not dying. I'm not killing anyone. I'm gonna make everything alright. 

"I know and I'm telling you that I'm fine. I'm fine. Please, come on. Elena I thought you...I thought you believed in me.." Stefan uses his last straw but we're interrupted by a harried Carol Lockwood "Elena! Katherine! The line-ups starting. Get ready girls" she looks to Stefan and adds "Escorts wait downstairs Stefan".

He bypasses me and goes out.

When the names start being announced, Elena and I stand in a panicked state. Caroline looks to us "Has anyone seen Amber?". I shake my head and Elena asks "Do you see Stefan down there?" I look and realise that I don't. There's only Caroline's fill-in escort and Tyler - my escort. No Stefan.

"What am I doing? I never should have gone through with this" I take in breaths as I look for a way to escape. I need to find Stefan.

And kill him. The Guardian insists. 

I close my eyes sharply and shake my head to get it out of my head. 

Caroline looks to me "I can't do this" I murmur and Elena holds my face "This isn't us, we're not these people anymore. Let's go find Stefan" she pulls me away from the banister but our blonde friend stops us 

"No, no, no way, no. You both had your chance to drop out and believe me I was all for it because there is no way that I could beat you. But you're doing this because it was important to your mom!" she pulls me back and gives us a hug away from the stairs.

I take a breath and smile. I have to do this. Just this once. Then-

-You can find Stefan and kill him before he hurts anyone. No! I take in another breath and stuff the voice inside the unicorn as Carol breezes nervously past us 

"Caroline,it's you, then Elena and then you Katherine".

"Miss Elena Gilbert, escorted by Mister Stefan Salvatore" the Mayor's voice declares and Elena slowly walks down the stairs. 

I look over the banister and hope for everything to be okay. But it isn't. Stefan isn't there. I look from my descending sister to the empty spot of the escort with wide eyes. At the last moment, I see Damon walk to the spot, his stance prepared but nervous.

He extends his hand to her and they walk off nervously, I hear Elena ask Damon "Where is Stefan?"

"I don't know"

"Miss Katherine Gilbert, escorted by Mister Tyler Lockwood" I put on a smile and descend, Tyler waiting with a smile. 

Once outside, we bow to our partners and begin the dance slowly, then the pace picks up. I keep searching for Stefan to stand somewhere at the edge of the spectators crowd, waiting for it all to be a prank.

The dance finishes with a flourish and the music symphonies to an end. All 6 of the contenders stand in a line beside the stage as the Mayor speaks 

"Before I crown the winner, I'd like to offer a personal thank you to all of these young ladies for their efforts to better our community. So, without further a due it is my honour to announce our very own Miss Mystic Falls, Miss Katherine Gilbert!" 

I smile nervously, still looking around. Caroline, to everyone's surprise, hugs me, "I'm so happy for you! Congratulations!"

I accept the wishes of the rest of the girls and walk onto the stage to receive the shield and accept the sash of Miss Mystic Falls. I look around once again but don't find Stefan.

The judges and the Mayor congratulate me but I'm bombarded with not their voices, but Stefan's.

"-I want to kill you, I want to rip into your skin and I want to feed on your blood"

Blood. Blood. Feed on you. Rip, rip rip rip. I want to kill you. 

Killkillkillkill. 

The voice goes on and I look to Damon and Elena. I shake all hands quickly and walk off the stage as quickly as I can among the crowd. I walk backstage and run into Damon.

"Stefan"

The voices continue and I shut my eyes harder "Stefan" I run farther into the building and run into a room at the far end of it. I grab the first thing I see and throw it out the window. Elena comes closer to me but I don't see Damon anywhere. 

Another wave of strong voice bombards me "I can't stop. Oh my god. Oh God"

I pull my sister closer to me, breathing roughly "If I try to kill Stefan, stab me then and there. I want you to warn Damon okay? Run". 

I shove her out of the room and run in the opposite direction. 

I rush outside towards the back of the estate and see Stefan crouching into a screaming Amber. I speed to him and yank him from her and pin him to the tree with a growl.

I hear Amber get up and ask innocently "You said to run..." Stefan snarls and throws me off in anger and urge 

"I changed my mind" he sneers out. 

He jumps again towards her. I pull him back and hold him by his neck. I lift him up and watch him thrash. All memories fly by as his skin starts turning blue.

How he consoled me when I was falling apart. How he looked at me when he took the watch. How he smiled. How he cried when Lexi died. How he told me that I make him feel human.

I gasp and let him go, he falls to the ground. I take a step towards him but he snarls at me and gets up. He vamps to Amber and bites her. "Stefan!" Elena calls out in panic. 

He lets the girl go and looks at my sister behind me and then at me. Damon rushes past me as he holds his brother's shoulders "Stefan, come on get control. It's okay, come on. Breath through it man!" Damon begs.

The next second, he's thrown at a far tree before I tackle Stefan to the tree without thinking. I growl as Elena shouts "Stop it!"

I feel a sudden pain in my head and I fall to the ground with a groan. The pain clouds my vision and hearing and all I can think about is that pain. When it stops, I find myself on my shins as I look at Damon assuring a similarly pained Stefan "It's okay.... Stefan" Stefan takes one look at Elena, and then at me, and he speeds into the forest. 

I look to Bonnie, who's standing stoically. We don't speak for a while but she holds my gaze. She knows how I'm feeling. She's putting it together, I can see it. 

And I can see her mind shift a bit away from me.

I get up, as the Sheriff and her deputies arrive. They take Amber away on a stretcher and Sheriff turns to Elena and Bonnie, I'm standing with Damon. I don't want to spook my friends anymore than what happened. "She doesn't remember what happened..." she states.

"It's a good thing the girls got here when they did, she lost a lot of blood..." she says and looks to Bonnie and Elena. Her words contain the deeper question for us, who know in her eyes - Did they see who or what happened.

"You didn't see anything?"

"No, we just found her and then called Damon..." Bonnie fills in the silence and Elena nods forcedly. "Is she gonna be okay?"

"It looks like it, yeah. Why don't you girls get back to the party? Damon and I can take it from here..." she talks to all 3 of us. We nod and walk away.

I walk away to the dressing room as it's getting dark and change into another dress for the after-party. 

All the while, shaking hands and smiling for photographs, my mind doesn't sway from thinking about Stefan.

He must be feeling so alone. And guilty, and scared.

▹▹▹

"You shouldn't be here..." Stefan sighs with his back faced to me.

"Maybe" I shrug, holding onto my clutch as if it'll give me answers.

"Now you know" he sighs.

"Know what? That you fought hard?"

"No" he turns to me angrily "That I'm a monster, a predator, that's who I am!"

"Why do you say you're a monster?" I frown, sitting down on his bed, his eyes following my every movement "Because that's what people call you?"

He remains silent and I scoff "You think you're a monster because the hero in you has had enough. You're a vampire Stefan! Blood makes you think you're a monster!"

"Blood brings out what's inside of me" he snarls, bending down to look into my defiant eyes "and if you think any differently then you're an idiot"

"Yes, I am" I growl and push him back "I'm an idiot for thinking that the monsters within don't have power over us. Admit it Stefan! You want to give in!"

"I wanted to drain every ounce of blood from that girl's body..." he grits his teeth, stalking towards me, trying to back me to a helpless place. "Yes" I whisper.

"It's who I am Viv!" he shouts, holding my shoulders roughly, bruising my already-healing shoulders.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" I challenge and he shakes his head "Why would you risk it? Why would you come here?"

"Because admit it or not, no one tells the story of a monster Stefan! And it's my fault! I was too busy trying to kill my monster instead helping you face yours" I shout, biting my shaking lip.

"All you did was expose me to who I really am" he whispers, stalking closer me.

"You didn't need to know who you are Stefan, I'll tell you who you are" I step forward, making him retreat "You're the man who loves with all his heart, you're the man that fights the bad in him, you're the one in love with life"

"Don't get any closer to me..." he warns, lips trembling as his eyes furtively bounce from my neck to my lips.

"So, if you still don't believe in yourself... I'll have to make you-"

"Stop"

"Stefan, I'm not gonna give up on you!" I move inches close to him "You may be a monster, but that's not all you ar-"

He breaths shakily, burying his face in my shoulder. But before my hand can skim over his sobbing head, he snarls "Stop!"

Spinning me about, he pins me to the wall with a growl, punching the wall particles away from my face. Just as the brick comes crumbling into his hand, he gasps. I feel him move away from me "I'm so sorry..." he cries desperately.

"It's not okay Stefan, don't make it...." I hug him. And just like that, he falls limp in my arms.

I gulp as I throw away the vervain syringe in my hand with a jerk and turn to an approaching Elena and Damon.

Damon carries his brother and locks him in the very cell Damon himself was in months ago.

Pushing the latch on the stone cell, he warns"There's no guarantee it's going to work..."

"It has to" Elena whispers.

He closes the door and locks it shut "Coming?" he asks us both. I look to him as Elena nods and rushes out, not bearing to see Stefan in this state. I murmur, sitting down in the dirt, against the wall "I think I'm gonna stay..."

One monster in guard of another.