𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞

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❝She do anything necessary for him
And I do anything necessary for her❞

'03 Bonnie & Clyde
~Jay Z
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That evening, at the Salvatore Boarding House

Kat took a deep breath and knocks on the door of the Salvatore Boarding House. The lawns were quiet as death, the only sign of life being the flickering lampposts along the mighty canopied driveway. Her Halloween costume stuck on her like a second skin, but was just as comfortable as she squirmed sheepishly. Her heeled pirate boots made click-clacks on the old brick of the porch as they tapped her foot nervously.

The door opens after another knock, revealing Stefan's dark-clad form, "Viv—" Stefan stops short as he takes in her figure. His entire form was frozen, not one other reaction except his stunned blinking once in every few seconds.

"Hi..." Kat's face loses its nervousness, morphing into a smile, "Can I talk to you? Outside." She tilts her head towards the front lawn where her car was parked. Stefan nods, closing the door behind him.

Once they reach her car, she leans against it with her arms crossed over her chest. She was oddly fidgety, trying not to mutter out the wrong thing tonight. "Um, so I was wondering, if Vicki could come to the Halloween party?"

Well, that's what got out of her mouth anyway. She wanted to talk about many things with Stefan: Elena and... yeah, Elena. Kat was irritated at seeing Elena treat Stefan's nature as if it was a disease, breaking up with him every time she was scared. Kat was there to put them back together every time.

The first time, Kat did it because she thought Elena deserved someone to have her back after all they both had been through the past summer. But she didn't think she would have to be a permanent fixture for Elena to even act normally with him.

She actually came here to get it over with. Kat wanted to let her feelings become clear. She never had to do it before, all the boys just threw themselves at her for years. But she never had such strong feelings as she experienced for Stefan.

Caroline was right, Kat deserved to be liked by someone like Stefan.

But does Stefan like her the same way? From the moment he stepped into school, he had eyes only for Elena. What if Kat's confession ruined all the friendship they had built till now?

Kat was still unsure till she knocked on his door but the moment she saw him, she had decided.

She would never confess.

Stefan slid a hand over her shoulder, sighing, "It's too dangerous. I'm sorry, she's still learning,"

"Oh yeah, okay..." Kat nods vigorously, carefully getting back into her car before she could blurt out something that would make Elena or Stefan hate her. 

"Wait, Vivi..." Stefan leans in from her open window, giving her a sad smile, "What Vicki said this morning... is it true?"

"What thing?"

"That you weren't like this before?"

Her lips purse to show a barely-there disdained smile, suppressing the attention her eyes wanted to pay to his lips. She gulps, "Well, everyone changes Broody. The person I was before... that Kat wasn't worth knowing."

Stefan lets her admission float in the silence in the few inches separating them. She avoided his deep gaze, wrapping her fingers tightly around the wheel.

"I don't know what makes you feel that way," Stefan shakes his head, "But I'm sure I'd like knowing any version of you. So whenever you're ready..."

She whispers, repeating his words, "Whenever I'm ready..." She chooses that exact moment to whip her head to the side, realizing that her nose inches away from Stefan's.

She could easily do it. Be the other girl. The one everyone knew, the girl who didn't care what her sister did or felt.

But she should care.

Kat backs away with a shaky breath, a hysterical chuckle taking the place of her conflicted smolder. "I—I gotta go, I'll uh... come by later after Caroline lets me leave the party."

Her eyes fixate through the front windshield passively until Stefan steps back with a final goodbye, his eyes never leaving her.

She speeds away the first second she gets.

Kat walks through the crowded hallways of the school. The lower grades had taken care of the decorations, adding a bit too much of haunted lighting and cobwebs. It didn't bother Kat too much, since she just focused on scolding herself for even trying to confess to Stefan.

She just sends off a crowd of middle schoolers with a fake scream when her phone vibrates in her hand.

Broody, calling...

"Stefan?" she shouts over the din of the celebrating fake vampires and werewolves.

"Vicki's at school"

Kat pales as she looks around with more desperation than she showed, "Tell me you're with her"

"No." Stefan sighed, the background cheering of his voice becoming more familiar, "She just ran away! I'm at the school right now, we need to find her."

"On it," she hurls herself through the crowds faster, "I'll check the stoner pit, you take the classes."

An eternity later, Kat walks out to the buses to find Vicki biting into her brother's neck.

"Vicki no!" She rushes towards her, trying to pull her off. But it was just a high school girl against an unstable vampire. Kat didn't find any other way to stop Vicki, but a loose-lying wooden plank from the carpentry waste.

She slams it against Vicki's back, the plank breaking into chunks as pieces of wood showered over all of them.

Vicki snarls, shaking her head and pushing her off with one fierce jerk. She faces a screaming Jeremy yet again, growls emanating from the back of her predatory throat.

"Vicki no! Vicki, no, get away from him!" Kat pulls her back with shaking hands, this time helped by her brother who yanks her away with a panicked shout.

The girl snarls out, twisting Kat's hand as she threw her to the other side of the parking lot— onto the pile of carpentry garbage. She grunts as all those planks dig deep into her back but she's forced to look through her tears when she hears Elena run into the area with a scream.

A whoosh sounds and Vicki appears, pinned to a bus by Stefan "Vicki, you have to stop it! You don't want to do this, calm down."

Vicki growls, fighting against his grip. 

"Go! Get him out of here!" he shouts to Kat. Elena immediately pulls their brother up, dragging him towards the door of the school. She just gestured for Kat to follow, which she did albeit slowly.

And right in front of Kat, Vicki runs in front of them and sinks her awaiting fangs deep into Elena's shoulder. Everything happened so fast. Elena's screams was like a flare in her veins and Kat saw red.

It's like a reflex for her, she lets her mind push her without any fight. In a second, sharp wood gleans red out of Vicki's chest. She gasps, stumbling steps to the left and right before she finally falls down - a lifeless mess.

Kat looks down to see a hand holding the stake.

Hers.

Kat killed her friend. She killed her friend.

Stefan rushed to the elder twin as she took a step back, almost falling to the ground. Air froze in her lungs, she wheezed in shock. Her hands shake under the weight of Vicki's blood now smeared all over her.

Her vision grows dim and dark with every step she takes backwards - finally welcoming the cool metal of the bus against her back.

Jeremy looks over at his dead girlfriend, disbelief and shock riveting pain into his wide eyes "Vicki! Vicki!" his knees scrape the wood beside her body as he screams in heartbreak "Nonono! Vicki!"

Kat gulps with trembling lips, pulling her brother up and passing him towards Elena, "Get him out of here."

Stefan tries to talk to her, but Elena pulls at him to go with her. They disappear without another word, leaving Kat to stare in horror at Vicki's greying body.

She sees Damon walk into the dimly lit parking lot, his eyes barely scanning Vicki's state as he bends down to pick her up.

"You should go." he tells her, "I'll handle this."

Not a word. She can't manage to say one word. She watches with mute eyes as he carries her away.

Not her. Her body. 

Kat stumbles out into the crowded and dark lighted hallways, constantly bumping into people oblivious of the guilt that burned her gut. Outside on the lawn, her furtive eyes find the those of Matt Donovan, "Kat! Hey have you seen— whoa" His eyes take in her sleeves and costume soaked in red, "Wh—what happened?" 

Kat looks down for the first time in a while only to see her once-white costume splattered with blood. It made her feel even more like a killer, as if the blood was there just to prove it to people that she had changed.

Swallowing on her spit, Kat murmurs, "Some idiot spilled fake blood. I um... I gotta go Matt"

"Listen," he stops her, "Have you seen Vicki anywhere? She totally bailed on me."

Imagine his surprise when Kat barrels into his arms, squeezing her wet eyes to his chest.

"Hey... Hey hey... What's wrong? Kat? Shh, what happened?"

"I-I tried to help... Mattie I really did." Kat sobs harder. He just stands there, arms around her with shared understanding.

If only he knew what she was talking about.

"I'm so sorry Matt. I— Vicki j-just left..."

"What are you talking about? Where is she Kat?"

"She said she loved you, but she left Matt. I'm so sorry. I— I have to go..." she rushes away, her feet planting one in front of the other till she reaches her house.  

Later, at the Gilbert Residence

"It's done" Kat sees Damon come out of her house, addressing Elena. She stumbles up the porch with no expression at all, her voice low and somber as she chooses to focus on the splinters of wood digging into her back.

"He won't remember any of it at all."

She slides down onto the floor, clutching hard onto the pillar to be grounded as her vision brightens. She nods breathily, tears oozing out when she blinks. Elena sighs and pats her shoulder, going inside to leave her twin with the Salvatores.

"Get some shut-eye Kat," Damon leaves.

"Vivi..." Stefan sighs.

"I killed her," she whispers, looking down at her drying sticky hands.

Stefan kneels in front of her, nudging her face up to his "No, don't do this, it's not your fault"

"I killed her," her eyes widen in horror "I killed her. No... no! Vicki, sh-she's dead. And I killed her!" she yanks Stefan's collar with a sob, "I killed her! Everyone just dies! No no no!"

"No. Vivi, look at me! Look at me!" he takes her face into his palms, his eyes glistening with tears that he tried to hide, "Look at me! I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, I'm here. It was an accident okay? Just a mistake. You didn't mean to do it..." She buries her head into the crook of his shoulder, clinging onto him like a scared little girl.

There's nothing she could do now but sob harder.

Her vision dims in a flash, making her close her blurry eyes with a slow breath as her cries became rougher. She falls unconscious into Stefan, who frowns under the extra weight.

"Vivi? Vivi!" Stefan shakes her.

No response.