chapter four — we're hiding dead bodies and babysitting teenagers

      As Vicki spoke with her concerned brother, dismissing his worries and weeping into the phone, Gwyn centralized her attention on the blueberry tea that was steaming inside her glass teacup. Vicki pressed a button on her phone and wiped the streaming tears from her cheeks. "I don't understand why I have to stay cooped up here." She was tensely perched on one of the cushioned chairs in Stefan's room. Stefan was across her, an intense look on his brooding face and Damon was casually leaning on the leather chair behind the wooden desk, legs crossed and laid on the tabletop while he flipped through the current newspaper. "Why can't I just go home?"

      Stefan miraculously didn't seem peeved with Vicki's repetitive whining and vocal displeasure. Gwyn, however, couldn't relate to his ongoing patience. "Because you're changing, Vicki, and it's not something you want to do alone." Gwyn rolled her eyes as she sipped the brew, nonchalantly sprawled across Stefan's comforters. The circumstances of Vicki's transformation were undoubtedly unpleasant, but she was attempting to formulate a strategy where everyone wasn't hunted and brutally murdered.

      Damon unexpectedly closed his newspaper, evident displeasure on his expression. "There's nothing about that Logan guy I killed in here, not a word. Someone's covering it up." He fiddled with the compass, his thoughts heavy.

      Gwyn's eyes widened as she feigned an exaggerated gasp. "In Mystic Falls? Shocking." Her voice was thick with sarcasm. Of course, they were covering the story. They were going to openly disclose the council member's death without constructing a false story beforehand.

      Vicki leaned her head to the side, eyeing the compass with curiosity. "What is that?" She innocently asked.

      Gwyn raised her hand, allowing the compass to levitate from Damon's palm to hers. "It's a stupid, old compass that's gonna give us trouble. And it definitely doesn't belong to that asshole Logan Fell."

      Stefan glanced at her. "If you're so worried that somebody's gonna give you trouble, why don't you leave town?"

      She smiled and raised a brow. "Why don't you suck my dick?" She said with an overly sweet tone.

      Vicki noticed the tension between them and interrupted Gwyn's deadly gaze. "Hey, I'm hungry." She whined, "Do you have anything to eat?" Stefan stood with a small sigh, walking to the desk and grabbing a small green mug, offering it to her. She accepted it, but she obviously wasn't allured by the odor emitting from it. She eyed it oddly, swirling it around with a grimace. "What is it?"

      Stefan returned to his chair. "It's what you're craving." He said.

      Damon chuckled airily. "Don't lie to the girl," His eyes remained glued to the columns of the newspaper. "It's so not what you're craving. But it'll do in a pinch, right, Stef?" Vicki seemed disturbed by their lack of an actual answer and repeated her question. "Yeah, what is it? Is it skunk? Saint Bernard? Bambi?"

      Gwyn laughed as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, placing her tea on the nightstand. "Stefan knows she can't sustain on animal blood, it's only a matter of time before she'll need human blood." She commented, her feet pressed onto the hardwood floors.

      Vicki sipped the animal blood with a displeased look, face scrunching with aversion as she swallowed. "Yeah, why can't I have human blood?"

      "Because it's wrong to prey on innocent people, Vicki." He said, "There's no guarantee that you can control yourself. It takes years to learn that. You could easily kill somebody, and then you have to carry that with you for the rest of your life, which, if I haven't made clear, is eternity."

      Gwyn glared Stefan's direction. "She isn't you, Stefan. Feeding doesn't always require death, but it's not like you would know about that. You act like you're better than us and than me, but we all know who you are inside. You're just like me—bloodthirsty, angry, and have blood on your hands."

      Damon finally tore his focus away from the black and white paper, an inquisitive, but impressed, glimmer in his eyes. Gwyn calmed herself, inhaling a deep breath before feigning a small smile. She stood from the bedside and departed from the room without another word. She descended the stairwells while she released a string of curse words, hands clenched as she opened the front door.

      A breeze flowed through the tendrils of her smooth hair as Gwyn rolled her eyes as Elena's petite figure turned to face her. She seemed as displeased as her. "Is Stefan here?" Elena asked, taking a deep breath.

      Gwyn cocked her head. "Unfortunately."

      "Where is he?"

      "Upstairs, giving Vicki a Thumper and Bambi cocktail," Gwyn said, her voice was assertive.

      Elena's aura swirled into a brick-red as she crossed her arms, her mouth clenched. "How can you be so arrogant and glib after everything you've done?"

      Gwyn smiled icily. "And how can you be so pretentious and stupid to call a bitchy witch arrogant and glib?"

      Elena narrowed her eyes. "If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead."

      "Yeah, without a doubt."

      "But I'm not."

      "Yet," Gwyn responded, "I've got plenty of tricks up my sleeve just waiting for you, Elena Gilbert." And with that, Gwyn roughly pushed passed Elena's shoulder with a shove and disappeared for the day.

<<>>

      "I've been gone for two hours and you've lost Vicki," Gwyn pinched the bridge of her nose as she stepped inside her car, closing the door hurriedly. She turned her key inside the ignition. "You tried to steal the amulet from the Bennett witch, and now you want me to meet you at some stupid high school Halloween party?" Truth be told, she was starting to grow tiresome with deep cleaning Damon's constant and impulsive mistakes. And with him trying to yank the amber amulet, it burned and sizzled his fingers. She glanced down at her own blistered and flushed fingers.

      She could hear Damon's smirk through the phone as she pulled away from the shopping center's parking lot. "Yeah, Gwyn, it's been an eventful day." She could also hear the obvious frustration in his tone. That was almost forgiving of the blisters on her hands. "If you could just get here as soon as possible, that would be great."

      She turned around one of the corners of the street, patiently waiting as teenagers in childish costumes walked pass the crosswalk. "Relax, dickhead, I'm, like, two blocks away." She drove and chose to disregard the children wearing witch costumes with heavily-exaggerated makeup and pointy hats. "I'm pulling up in the parking—oh, my fucking God."

      As she slowed to a complete stop, she watched with wide eyes as Vicki effortlessly tossed Elena into a heap of discarded trash while her brother watched, horrified and leaning onto a school bus for support. While removing her keys from the ignition, she heartily laughed as she exited her driver's door. "Get to the back of the school, this is wonderful." And with that, she hung up and threw her phone onto her driver's seat before closing the door. Vicki launched herself forward but was quickly intervened by Stefan's hasty movements, restraining her against the school bus. Vicki growled as she managed enough strength to push Stefan aside, disappearing in a quick blur.

      Stefan circled around, dark eyes searching through the darkness. "Go. Get inside." Elena latched her hand around her brother's, yanking him to the entrance of the high school. Stefan hurried to where Gwyn stood, who was watching the performance with amused eyes. "Help me look for her. She's a danger to everyone."

      Gwyn furrowed her brows distastefully. "Gross, I'll pass."

      He gave her an incredulous glance before searching underneath the buses. A thundering crash was followed by a deafening scream that captured both their attentions had both of them rushing to the source. Gwyn, stunned by the scene, watched as Vicki tore Elena's shoulder, creating a bloody mess. Elena struggled to fight Vicki but her efforts were to no avail, she only appeared like a flailing doe against a bloodthirsty and starved lion. And as Vicki latched herself onto the open wound again, Gwyn sighed as she realized this wasn't going to work. They were never going to successfully survive with someone who was uncontrollable. Gwyn outstretched her hand and Vicki immediately froze, as if the witch pressed pause. Gwyn glanced at Stefan and nodded, almost imperceptible. He grabbed a broken shard of wood and hastily impaled Vicki's heart.

      As Gwyn lowered her hand back to her side, Vicki almost collapsed as she released a strained cry. Her skin slowly transformed into an ashen grey, black veins flowing throughout her exposed skin while muddy tears streamed down her cheeks. Then she crumpled to the floor. Elena's brother screamed her name, horrified by what he had just witnessed. Elena clutched her shoulder. "Get him out of here." She demanded and Stefan could only listen.

      Gwyn observed uncomfortably as Elena crashed to the concrete floor, sobbing as she hesitantly touched Vicki's corpse. She didn't know what to say or how to comfort the weeping teenager so she waited in silence until Damon arrived. And when he did, she rolled her eyes. "You really took your time, didn't you?"

      Damon smile coldly. "Better late than never." He stopped where Vicki's leather boots laid. He looked at Elena with indifferent eyes. "You should go. We got this." Gwyn almost vocalized her discontent but Elena shakily stood, releasing shuddering breaths as her gaze hardened.

      "You did this," She said through clenched teeth. "This is your fault."

      Damon glimpsed down at the corpse with emotionless eyes. He seemed more concerned with how much work it was going to be to successfully get rid of the body. "You confuse me for someone with remorse." Elena, in the heat of her anger, pushed against his chest but Damon hardly even flinched. Then, she raised her hand to slap him, but he grabbed her wrist. "None of this matters to me, none of it." He released her.

      Elena looked at him as if he was the worst thing she had seen all night. "People die around you. How could it not matter? It matters and you know it."And with that, she took the brief moment of distraction and actually slapped his cheek.

      Gwyn whistled as Damon glared with icy eyes. "Yikes," She muttered. She could see Damon's aura transform into anger and threatening hunger. She stepped forward. "You need to go. Bloodied wounds around angry vampires is a bad ending." Elena seemed as if she wanted to protest, but didn't have enough energy to do so and complied.

      Damon crouched down and examined Vicki with tired eyes. "All right, you grab her arms and I'll get her legs." Gwyn childishly groaned but followed his movements. She knew this was necessary.

      And as they both carried a lifeless body to Gwyn's trunk, Gwyn scrunched her nose in disgust. "Is this what our lives have come to," She began, "Hiding dead bodies and babysitting teenagers?"

      Damon chuckled as he closed the trunk. "I guess so. Could be worse." He entered the passenger's door while she stepped inside the driver's. "I suppose you make it slightly more tolerable."

      Gwyn started the car with a smile. "Was that a compliment from Damon Salvatore?"

      He rolled his eyes and she barely witnessed the small smile. "You're still a pain in my ass, though."

      "You're one to talk."

      "Shut up and drive."

Sorry for the late upload and if this seems really rushed. I really wanted to update asap. please let me know what you guys think! :)