CHAPTER EIGHT

Nyx groans as she rolls over in bed. "Get your tree arm off of me." She grumbles.

"What are you talking about? I'm not even touching​ you." A familiar voice says, and she opens her eyes to see who's laying beside her.

"Vicki?" Nyx's​ eyebrows furrow as she looks at her best friend.

"Duh. Who else would it be?" She questions, obviously annoyed as she rolls over. "Go back to sleep." 

"I don't..." She shakes her head as she sits up. "What are you doing here? How are you here?"

"What are you talking about?" Vicki rolls back to look at the younger girl with a furrowed brow.

"What's going on?"

"Well, I was trying to get some sleep."

"But you're... You're dead."

"Yeah, I know, Nycki. Thanks for the reminder." She sighs. "Did you wake me up just to tell me that I'm a vampire?"

"I don't..." She pinches the bridge of her nose. "What happened last Halloween?"

"Why do you want to relive that catastrophe?" She questions.

Nyx doesn't say anything, and she sighs as she pushes herself up to rest on her elbows.

"I left the Boarding​ House and went to find Jeremy at the haunted house at the school. I kinda lost it, but then you showed up and helped me calm down." Vicki tells her. "You were already on your way back because Elena kept calling, so you came to help me through the transition. We left town together that night."

"We did?" The younger girl asks, and she nods.

"Yeah... And we've been traveling ever since because it was too dangerous for me to stay in Mystic Falls. Now we're out here, two badass hunter chicks — as you like to joke." She tells her. "Except you're not very badass when you're being crazy, just so you know."

Nyx looks around and sees that they're in a crappy motel room. She takes a deep breath and tries to puzzle together what's going on. She rests her hand on her stomach and finds that she's not pregnant.

"What happened to Dean and Sam?" Nyx asks as she looks back at Vicki.

"They didn't want to travel with a vampire, and you refused to leave me, so they're off doing their own thing." She pauses as she looks at Nycole. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She nods. "Yeah, I just had a really weird dream is all."

"Great, now I have to pee." She gets​ up and starts away from the bed, but turns around and looks​ back at Nyx. "When I get back, you better be asleep. And in your own bed." She points to the empty bed across from her and then goes into the bathroom a few feet away.

Nyx gets up and moves to the other bed to lay down.

A loud bang sounds throughout the motel room, and Nyx immediately shoots up in the bed. She looks around the room, and sees Dean over by the table. He's looking at the mess he just made on the floor and he's the only other person in the room with her.

"Sorry." He says as he looks over at his girlfriend.

"It's, uh... It's fine. I think I wanted to wake up anyway." Nyx pulls her knees up to her stomach and attempts to lay her head on her arms that are now folded across the top of her knees.

"Are you alright?" Dean asks as he walks over to her.

"I had another one of those dreams." She tells him.

"Where Vicki's still alive?" He asks, and she nods, tears in her eyes. "What happened to her isn't your fault, Nyx."

"That doesn't​ stop me from blaming myself." She says as she lays back down, giving up on trying to sit there comfortably.

Dean jumps over her and bounces as he lands on the other side of the bed, then he rolls to face her. "Are you sure you're okay?" He asks, and she nods.

"I just can't help but think about what might be different if I had been there that night." She tells him. "What if I could've helped her? What if I could've done something to help her before she lost control?"

"The world is full of what if's." He says as he moves closer to her. "You can't let them get to you like this."

"She was my best friend, Dean. And being on the Other Side is so bad that she was willing to kill me to come back." She says as she rolls onto her side to face him. "Can you imagine what it must be like over there?"

He shakes his head. "No. I can't."

Dean reaches over and rests his hand on her cheek, and she closes her eyes as she feels the warmth of his fingers on her skin. His hand moves to her shoulder and down her arm before he wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him. She sighs as she cuddles into his chest.

"You have such a big heart." His voice is low as he brushes her hair away from her face. "I wish I could do something to make things better."

"You do, every day." She says as she looks at him. "Just by being you." She tells him, and he kisses her forehead.

"What was she like?" He asks, and she smiles.

"Crazy." She chuckles as she looks at him. "She was the life of the party, and she didn't care what anyone thought of her. She'd look you straight in your face and tell you all the reasons she didn't like you. She was stubborn and sometimes a little mean, but that girl was loyal as all hell. And boy, did she know how to have fun."

"She sounds kinda like you." He says, and she nods.

"We had a lot in common, and yet we butted heads so often. Part of that problem was that neither of us had any issue being brutally honest with the other." She says, and he chuckles, he can almost see it. "We fought a lot more after she started doing drugs. I hated it, and she said that it was her body, she could do whatever​ the hell she wanted with it."

"Why'd she start in the first place?"

"She wouldn't tell me straight out, that was probably the only secret she kept from me, but I was always pretty sure it was because of her parents." She tells him. "Her dad hasn't been around in years, I don't even remember what he looks like. And Kelly isn't any more reliable. Her mom was always in and out, never around for very long. Matt was the only family who stuck by Vicki, never left. That's why he was always the most important person in the world to her... And now he's all alone."

"He's not alone. He's got all your friends over there." He says, and she nods.

"Yeah, I guess."

It's quiet between them for a few minutes. She starts lightly drawing patterns on his shirt, over his chest.

"What are you thinking about now?" He asks.

"Halloween, two years ago. They have a haunted house every year, and I always insisted on going." She tells him. "Me and my sister​ wanted to match, but she also wanted to do a couples​ costume with Matt. So, me and Elena both went as nurses, and Matt was a doctor; Tyler was my patient. That way we all sort of matched... And then there was Vicki."

"What did she go as?"

"A vampire." She scoffs. "Ironic, huh?"

"Why'd she go so different from the rest of you?" He asks.

"She was never one to follow the crowd." Nycole smiles. "I actually have a picture from that night." She says as she pushes herself up.

She walks over to her bag and grabs the picture before climbing back into bed with him. She hands him the picture, and he looks at it.

"You both look happy." He says, and she smiles as she lays with him again and looks at it as well.

"Elena and Tyler were arguing over which one of them I loved more." She tells him. "Matt took the picture​ right after Vicki said that they were both wrong, and I loved her the most. We're laughing​ at the looks on their faces because I didn't deny it."

She sets the picture on the nightstand and then moves closer to him. He wraps his arms around her, and she closes her eyes as he rubs her back.

"I miss her." She says, her voice barely a whisper as she fights back tears.

"I know." He kisses the top of her head before adjusting the blanket over them.

Unbeknownst to both of them, they aren't​ alone in the motel room. Vicki stands up from the chair she was sitting in and walks over to the nightstand, wanting to get a look at the photo she hasn't seen in so long. She smiles as she looks down at their smiling faces, and a tear rolls down her cheek as she brushes her fingers along the picture, unable to pick it up like she wants to so badly. She can't feel a thing.

"I'm so sorry, Nycki." Vicki whispers the apology that her best friend will never hear, then she disappears from the room.