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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟗

 -ˋˏ 𝘚𝘢𝘮𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯 ˎˊ-

˚ 　 ✫ 　　　 ˚ . 　　　 ⋆

. · 　　 +

✧

╰┈˚ · ° .  31st OF OCTOBER, HALLOWEEN. Its origins began with Samhain, a festival first seen celebrated among the Celts, and to this day, a sacred day for the pagans. It was believed that during this day, the souls of those who had died returned to visit their homes, and those who had died during the year were believed to journey to the otherworld. People set bonfires, relighted their hearth fires for the winter and to frighten away evil spirits, and they sometimes wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts. From which the tradition of dressing up began evolving into how Halloween to our days was celebrated.

I loved halloween. That was why I was so angry at myself that I had forgotten all about it.

"Are you coming tonight?" Elena asked entering the kitchen where I was moping, not even able to read my book.

"No." I said, pouting my lips and burying myself in my book once again even if I had not been able to read more than a line.

"You aren't?" Her tone showed her shook. I wasn't very social, but every halloween I attended a party. And this year, I had totally forgotten about it. I was very angry with myself.

"You gotta call me, Vick. I don't get it. What's going on with you? Just call me, please." Jeremy, with his phone right on his ear, talked, leaving a message on Vicki's voicemail— another after the dozens he had continued to leave.

I knew from Elena that Stefan was trying to teach Vicki how to be a vampire, but the girl wasn't following the Salvatore's animal blood diet very well. And Vicki Donovan was an addict, teaching her was going to be even tougher.

"Hey." Elena said as our brother walked into the kitchen, face sullen by his girlfriend continuing to not respond to any of his calls or messages. And worried, Jeremy was worried about her. "So, do you wanna hang out tonight? We could go to the Halloween thing at school. Could be fun."

"Cool. Sure. Sounds fun. Can't wait." He definitely didn't want to go.

"I know you are upset about Vicki. I heard she called Matt. but you can't be with her. She needs to get better. The best thing you can do for her is let her go."

"Elena." My eyes widened at Elena's words. Is she stupid? Let her go? He is sickly in love and Vicki was really helping him copying after our parents death. Sure, she wasn't the best exemple, but the girl had a hard life. Jeremy was getting better. She helped like we could have never done. And maybe now, he could be the one to help her.

"What does that mean 'let her go'? Okay sure since you are such an expert on letting people go, right?"

"I know you may not see it right now, but trust me Jer, it's for the best."

"For months after mom and dad died, I felt like crap. Like nothing-really-even-mattered crap. All of a sudden, I get these moments and things started to feel a little bit better and Vicki was in every single one of them. So you may not see it, but trust me... keeping me away from her is not for the best." And with that, Jeremy walked away.

"He is right. It's not for the best." I said to Elena.

"How can you say that when you know what she is. She could hurt him, kill him." The brunette lowered her voice, but she delivered them with an unmistakable bite.

"It's his choice. Vicki could tell him what she is and if he still wants to be with her then I don't see the problem. Jer and Matt could give her a reason to learn how to control herself. But in the end, it's still his choice. He loves her. They could get better together."

"That's not happening. He can't know, Meda." She sternly said, shaking her head as if in disappointment at me.

I shut close the book that I was not reading anyways, standing up from the chair where I was sitting. "Are you going to forbid me from seeing Zyran too?" Like she would ever succeed in that.

I left the kitchen too, went to my room before going to my brother's. I knocked on his door, waiting for him to let me in.

"Your nail polish is half gone." I said, I had the polish remover with me and the bottle in my other hand. "Can I help you put it on?"

"yeah." He said, offering me a small smile.

I used to do it a lot before our parents died but in our grief we all locked each other away.

We were both sitting on his bed. I first took off the old layer before starting to reapply the new one.

"Do you think that I should let her go too?" He asked quietly.

"It's not that simple but no, I don't think that letting her go would help you nor her." I said. "But drugs and sex is not a healthy relationship. If you want to be together then you should help each other get better, not dig each other into an early grave. And if she does not want to get better, then you should choose yourself first. Don't let your love for her consume you until you are left with nothing."

"I can help her." He said after a second, letting my words soak in before speaking.

"I really hope so." I gave him a small smile before returning to his nails.

He had his hand propped on a pillow, and I was carefully applying the nail polish trying not to touch him too much. I noticed that it was starting to get slightly better at touching other people. A brush against their skin once in a while was not that bad to tolerate.

"Did you really forget about halloween?" He suddenly asked.

I groaned. "Don't remember me that. I can't believe that I actually forgot the best day of the entire year."

"So you are not coming tonight?" He asked, a hint of displeasure in his tone.

"I don't have a costume and I would not be caught dead wearing normal clothes or the last year one." I scoffed. Dramatic? Very much.

"Talking about relationships." He changed the subject.

"What about it?" I knew what he was going to ask me.

"Zyran?"

"We are not together but we are not just friends." I revealed. I had nothing to hide, and for sure not to him.

"I like him. He is good for you, you know. Makes you smile and go out where there are actually people. And he seems cool." Jeremy surprised me by saying that.

"Do you really think so?" I asked, finishing the last nail.

"Yes. That is why I told him about your obsession with Halloween this morning when I hadn't heard you gush about your very secret costume."

"I am not obsessed." I scoffed before smiling widely. "You told him?"

Jeremy chuckled, "Yes, he should be here in less than an hour."

"Oh my god. I really want to hug you right now." I told him, half sad that I couldn't actually do it.

"Fortunately you can't." He said standing up from his bed.

"You are the best!"

───── ⋆˖⁺‧ ☽◯☾ ‧⁺˖⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  The knocks on my bedroom door were followed by a voice that had become a trigger for my heart to beat faster.

"Halloween delivery for Miss. Andromeda Gilbert." He spoke with a flaunt, voice slightly muffled by the door between us.

Grinning what felt like from ear to ear, I opened the door revealing the boy on the other hand with two bags in his hands. I couldn't resist the urge to let out a squeal of excitement flying without much grace in his arms.

The bags thumped on the floor boards as he caught me with a surprised sound.

"Hello to you too, Darlin'." He said. My feet left the floor as he used his strengths to lift me up, kicking the bags inside the bedroom and closing the door behind us.

It felt good, almost too good to be surrounded only by him. His nose brushed my neck, inhaling my scent. The action in the last few days since he had revealed to me the truth had started to become more frequent, and where before it was subtle, not he did not hide it, and he didn't even hide the pur-like sound that his chest emitted from the content dragon in his skin.

But as much as I liked it, it wasn't the time.

"Zy, put me down." I said through a laugh when not even the time to finish the sentence he had brought me even closer to him, holding me in a tighter embrace.

"No." He replied. "I want to stay like this. Can we stay like this?"

"No we can't because thanks to you, we have a halloween party to go." I said with a smile, that only brightened when he grumbled and finally put me down.

"Fine." he said, returning to a chipper mood. "Alright." He clapped his hands, taking the bags up and placing them on the bed. "I did not have much time so I had to be creative. The movie that we watched two weeks ago actually gave me the idea," The two bags were in contrast with each other, one filled with black the other with white. "I present you the black and white swan, my lady." he finished with a flourish, bowing down at the waist.

"Oh, that's good." I commented, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "You might have just become my favorite person."

"Might?" he gasped dramatically. "You are wounding me."

"Thank you." I said suddenly seriously. This meant a lot. Most of all because it had been the only thing in the last years that had not changed between my father and I— our love for Halloween. And this year he wasn't here, on this day, I felt his missing presence amplified much more.

"Everything to see you smile like that, Darlin'."

Zyran was the white swan. He was dressed in white dress pants and a sheer white shirt that had few embroideries through the fabric that remained almost all unbuttoned. The finishing touches for his white swan costume were the small white wings on his back that he definitely didn't like but kept his mouth shut about it, the circlet made with white feathers slightly hidden beneath his hair and the white vertical lines that I had drawn and smoked out slightly a top of his dark brown.

The black swan costume was more similar to the movie adaptation. With tights, a black corset and an uncomfortable tulle skirt that was very short. My hair was styled in a low bun and on top of my head was a black crown. My lips were stained in a mauve color and my eye makeup— which I was very proud of— was almost identical to the movie's black swan.

The school was decorated with fake spiderwebs, fluorescent blue lights and police tapes. The music was loud, the sound effect echoing in the hallways and the fog arriving almost to the knees tied everything beautifully together.

Tyler Lockwood was the first person that I searched when we arrived, Elena and Jeremy splitting off from us. "Lockwood!" I shouted the boy's name. He was with Caroline and Bonnie, the girls wearing witches costumes and the boy a sparta warrior one.

"Gilbert. I was waiting for you!"

The only time I would approach Tyler Lockwood with a smile was during Halloween parties.

"Cider?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yup." I eagerly nodded my head.

"Coming right up." he said, leaving us to take his special drinks where he had stashed it, returning moments later with two new glasses. He offered one to me and one to Zyran.

"Plan for tonight." Caroline started. "Drinking until someone is hot enough to make out with."

"Sounds like a good plan to me." I shrugged, clinking my glass with hers.

"Don't need it." Zy winked down at me, "But, yeah." He too joined the cheers, clinking his glass with ours.

"I like the plan, Care." Tyler finally said.

We ended up staying with the trio, dancing to the music, having fun and drinking more of Tyler's cider, even Bonnie joining us. At least that was until the carefree expression on the dragon shifter changed to a worried one.

"What's happening?" I asked him, tilting my head backwards to look at him.

"I don't know, but..." He trailed off, winching a couple of times as he tried to hear over the very loud music.

I turned around so I didn't have my back against his chest anymore and I could look at him easily.

"We'll be back soon." He shouted to the other three, who didn't even conceal their laughs.

"Sure." Tyler snorted.

"Hopefully not." Caroline winked at me. The innuendo not passing subtly.

I mean, we were kind of grinding against each other half of the night. And still, my cheeks flushed as I narrowed my eyes at the blonde.

"Come on." He took my hand ready to drag me away. I could see the worry in his dark hazel eyes. The alcohol quickly evaporated from my body when we opened the back door of the gym coming face to face with a nightmare. Jeremy was thrown on the ground and Vicky was biting Elena's neck. My sister screamed as the vampire drank her blood savagely, and in a span of a second, Stefan pushed a stake made with a wooden plank between Vicki's shoulder, piercing her heart and ending her life.

"Oh my god." I gasped, as Jeremy shouted Vicki's name in pure agony as he watched the girl he had fallen in love die before her eyes.

I ran to Elena, checking her wound. "Are you okay?" Fortunately, no artery was caught in the bite, and the wound was pretty shallow.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Vicki!" Jeremy tortured screaming, caught my attention back. Stefan and Zyran were trying to shield him away from the sight of Vicki, nevertheless, his shouts pierced my heart.

"Get him out of here." Elena told me.

I nodded my head at her, quickly jogging to my brother who was crying all his remaining tears.

"Come on, Jere-Bear." I whispered, heavily shifting his weight mostly on Zyran to lead him away.

───── ⋆˖⁺‧ ☽◯☾ ‧⁺˖⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  His tears never dried, not even when an hour later Elena came back.

"Do you understand what happened?" She asked our little brother.

"No. I don't understand. I know what I saw but I don't understand."

"She was going to kill me." Elena said.

Not the best thing to say but at least she was more helpful then my silent self.

"And now she is dead. Vicki's dead."

"I'm so sorry, Jer..."

"Just make it stop, it hurts."

I couldn't do it. A tear streamed down my face at his cries and my heart squeezed in my chest. I tried to say something, but the words didn't leave my lips. And it hurted me that he was in pain and that I could not do anything about it. So I left his room with my cheeks wet with tears.

Zyran didn't waste a second to lead me to my own room enveloping me in his arms. Helping me take off my makeup before did the same to himself. We changed our clothes before falling onto bed. And he never let go of me.

Silence reigned until alarm shone in his eyes.

"What the hell..."

Damon Salvatore was in Jeremy's room, speaking with him when we ran there. "-Not coming back. You shouldn't look for her or worry about her. You are going to miss her but you know it's for the best." His words were spoken clearly, with intent.

"You are compelling him." I said wide eyed. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Zyran stopped me from marching forwards towards him.

"Your sister told me to do it." Was he reply. He turned to Jeremy once again, continuing to compel him. "Now sleep."

"Elena, you can't do this." I said to my sister who climbed up the stairs for the second floor.

"It's the only way." She replied, trying not to cry.

"No it's not. You are taking away his free will." I told her, enraged by her decision. He should mourn her and not forget about her. Forgetting that she died!"

"Keep your voice down, your brother is asleep." Damon said smirkingly.

That son of a–

"You didn't even tell me. You just did it." I said to my sister, ignoring Damon.

"Didn't you say that she was good for him? That she loved him, that she could get better? Look what she did, Andromeda! She tried to kill me!"

"She was a vampire for what? A week? She did not know how to control herself. But I get why Stefan killed her, that does not mean that I think compelling our brother to forget about her is the right thing!"

"Like I said, it was the only way." Elena spoke, she composed herself and did not dare to look me in the eyes.

Bullshit. I scoffed, passing past her and the Salvatores brothers directed down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" My sister asked.

I didn't even reply to her, only shutting the front door.

"Wann tell me where we are going?"

I stopped in my tracks. I was so immersed in my anger that for a second I had totally forgotten about Zyran.

He stopped in front of me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders until he was the only thing that I could see, feel, scent, think about.

"Zy."

I needed him. For the first time in my life I felt the cry of my soul reaching for his. I needed my mate.

"I'm here Darlin', I'm here."

"I was going to show it to you some other day but I guess this time is as good as any other." I said, taking a breath. 

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!!

Halloween lovers, I wanna hear you in the comments!! When I wrote this chapter it was august and I couldn't wait for halloween to arrive.

Hopefully you like the creative costume of black and white swan!

Andromeda has zero people skills (She is so me tbh) And finds it very difficult to console them. She sees the fact that she can't touch people in a very negative light, and that, it makes it even harder. She is kind of her own first enemy tbh.

Meda is very sensitive, and she feels a lot of the burden of the oldest sibling, and most of all, that she can't reach the expectation that has set for herself in that role.

Thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Saturday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾