CHAPTER FIFTEEN | HEART OF DARKNESS 

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KLARA WALKED INTO THE PARLOR WHERE SHE SAW STEFAN STOOD IN FRONT OF THE FIRE, WHILE DAMON WAS BEHIND HIM. The blonde furrowed her brows at the sight of Damon, she assumed that he and Elena would have already left for Denver.

"Hey." The blonde vampire weakly announced herself as she moved over to the liquor and poured herself a bourbon. "Have either of you heard anything from Klaus?"

"Not yet. I'm sure I will soon, though." Stefan didn't bother to remove his gaze from the flames that roared in the fireplace. Eventually, he turned around and faced Damon and Klara. "He's expecting me to deliver two stakes. I only have one."

"Well, that's going to be disappointing for him." Damon hummed in response. Alaric's alter ego had hidden his White Oak stake, and after constant searching, nobody could find it.

"No. We'll get it out of Alaric, eventually." The blonde moved beside Stefan with a light sigh.

"I like that confidence, Goldie-Locks. I don't share it, but I like it."

"You don't think I can do what it takes?" Stefan looked toward his older brother.

"Well, you're good Stefan again. You're in control." The eldest eyed Stefan up and down. "The only question is, who are you in control for. Elena or—" Their conversation was interrupted by Elena, who wandered in with her jacket in hand. "Have you ever flown first class?"

"Who did you have to compel for that?" A scoff left the Gilbert's lips as she folded her jacket over her forearm.

"Please. I used miles." He moved forward and picked up the luggage that had gathered and walked out of the door.

Elena followed after him but turned back and gazed at Stefan and Klara. "Stefan—"

"Be safe." Stefan smiled back at her with a small nod, and then she finally left the house.

Klara understood why Stefan had let Elena travel to Denver with Damon, and not him. His relationship with Elena was virtually non-existent while Damon was in the picture, even more so now that he was harboring feelings for Klara.

"You ready to dance with the devil?" Klara asked Stefan as the two of them made their way down to the basement where Alaric was locked in the cellar.

He was laid on the camp bed with his eyes closed, which caused Klara to tilt her head. "Do you know how hard it is to fall asleep when that is what you're supposed to do?" Alaric huffed out lowly.

"Well, look, we know it's not easy, so Damon suggested we bring something to—" Stefan lifted a bottle of bourbon and tapped it against the bars. "—help speed up the process."

"What the hell." Alaric sat up and moved the open book on his chest off of him once Stefan and Klara entered the cell. "You know, I'll feel decidedly less pathetic if I don't drink alone."

"Oh, I was definitely planning on sharing a drink with you." Klara let a sigh escape her lips as she grabbed the bottle from Stefan's grasp and poured it's contents into two glasses while Stefan grabbed two chairs from outside of the cell and brought them inside.

"So, road trip, huh?" Alaric finally broke the silence after the three had taken the first sips of their drinks.

"Yeah. Yeah, I needed to stay here."

"And, I needed to stay with him." Klara smiled weakly. She knew why Stefan needed to go on that trip with Damon, and she needed to be there for Stefan.

"Why? I mean, why you two? You know, it doesn't take much to babysit me while I sit here waiting for a psychotic break." The man furrowed his brows, slightly interested.

"Well, that's the thing." The blonde vampire began and she watched Alaric's head tilt in confusion. "We actually haven't a lot of time."

"Before what?"

"Before we have to resort to other methods." Stefan finished for the female.

"So you two are worried you're going to have to torture it out of me." The look on their faces confirmed everything Alaric needed to know. "And you don't think Damon could've done that?"

"Look, Elena needed to go on that road trip with Damon because she needs to sort through her feelings for him and I need to sort through my own. Everything's just easier right now if we're apart." Stefan shrugged simply though his eyes darted to Klara.

"You think they got Jeremy by now?" Alaric asked, evidently anxious about the boy.

"Both Damon and Elena have been oddly silent, so I'm hoping that's because they've found him." Klara lifted her head up and set her eyes on Alaric while Stefan kept his head against the wall.

"Elena's worried about him. Now that she can't count on his ring anymore." Stefan finally spoke up.

"Who knows, maybe his alter ego is a pot-smoking, hippie pacifist," Alaric muttered lowly as he almost laughed at his own joke. "I can't say, I thought mine would be so hostile and militant."

"To be honest, it does kind of make sense. I mean, your wife left you to become a vampire, no offense. And then you had another that was killed by one." The female tried to help Alaric make sense of it, but he just rolled his eyes.

"He must really hate me. Here I am, the failed hunter-slash-drinking buddy of vampires."

"Ah, he's too judgemental." Replied Stefan.

"The thing is, he's me." Alaric looked between Stefan and Klara with a pointed look. "I'm not compelled. I'm not possessed. There's no humanity switch. What drives him is me."

"No." Klara's voice was louder than usual. "He's the absolute worst parts of you. Everyone's got a little darkness in them. And your darkness drives him. Not you."

"Well, this is depressing, isn't it?" Klaus' voice boomed while Klara's eyes shifted toward the door where she saw the Hybrid stood with a smile on his face. He lifted up one of the White Oak stakes. "Oh, and I found this upstairs. Now by my count, there should be one more."

Stefan lifted himself up to his feet and stood in front of Klaus. "Yeah, well, it's going to take a little more time."

"Why? Because we're waiting for that one to pass out?" Klaus gestured over to Alaric and rolled his eyes. "No thanks. I think I'll just kill him."

"Well, then you won't know the location of the other stake."

"I can live with that."

"Just, wait—" Klara stepped up to her feet and pushed Klaus away from Alaric. "When my we staked Finn, we found out that killing an Original killed its entire bloodline. I haven't quite worked out which one of you we descended from, but at this moment I kinda value my life, so I'd rather not find out. So, why don't we just find the stake, get rid of it, and all live safe and sound?"

Klaus blinked away the smirk that drifted on his lips while Klara spoke. "So, the fate of the entire vampire race depends on you two finding a stake? And to get it we need you to pass out? Which means that I feel totally justified doing this." He sped straight forward and snapped Alaric's neck with ease. "There. Sleeping like a baby."

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Klara paced outside the door of the cell with her third cup of coffee in hand while Stefan sat on the floor. He was reading Moby Dick which caused Klara to scoff quietly. "You enjoying that?"

"I'd enjoy it a lot more if I knew where Alaric put that stake." Stefan breathed out defeatedly as he closed the book and dropped it to the floor. "I meant what I said before, you know? I wanna work through whatever it is that I'm feeling."

Klara held her hands up in surrender. "Well, don't let me stop you." She smiled a little as she sat down beside him on the floor. "You know, Lexi told me something just before Bonnie sent the ghosts back to the other side. She said she'd been watching us."

"She did always like to stir the pot." Stefan chuckled quietly, as did the blonde. 

"She said that just friends didn't look at each other the way that we did." Klara scoffed. Her eyes were drawn to Stefan's and that's when she felt everything had fallen into place. "I didn't understand at first, but now—"

Their moment was swiftly interrupted by the loud gasp that escaped Alaric's lips as he jolted awake. Stefan and Klara moved up to their feet as the Salvatore cleared his throat. "Welcome back."

"What happened? Did I, uh—"

"No." The blonde vampire folded her arms over her chest and wandered back inside the cell. "You've been laid there for like half the night. I've had three cups of coffee and he's nearly finished reading Moby Dick in the time that you've been dead."

"This is stupid. Evil me or whatever you want to call him, he's not gonna make an appearance." Alaric bitterly snapped. "Why would he? I mean, the best hiding place is the one where you can't find the person who hid it. So, how do you want to do this?"

Stefan furrowed his brows. He knew exactly what Alaric meant. "We don't want to do any of this."

"Well, that makes three of us. But I don't think we have much choice in the matter." Alaric shrugged and then he removed the Gilbert ring from his finger.

"Ric, what're you—" Klara shook her head immediately. "No. Put the ring back on. You need it."

"No. What I need is hope that my alter ego doesn't have a death wish. So, I'm taking bets that my dark side has a sense of self-preservation. So, let's see if he defends himself against death."

"Look, Alaric, I'm not gonna kill you, okay?" Stefan's discontent with the plan was obvious.

"If we have any chance at this, one of you is going to have to try." Alaric stood in front of the two vampires with his hands on his hips, as if he was actually prepared to die. Klara fearfully looked at Stefan who then sped forward and punched him. 

Stefan punched Alaric several times and knocked him onto the ground. But, Alaric simply spat out the blood from his mouth and got to his feet. "You're not putting enough into this."

"If I put any more into it, I'm gonna break your spine." The Salvatore hit him again and let him fall onto the floor as blood came out of his mouth while veins began to appear underneath Stefan's eyes.

"Stefan. Focus." Klara sped in front of her best friend. She forced him to look at her and not the blood. "Don't let it control you. Don't be afraid of it. You can do this."

"Come on, you're past that," Alaric viciously spoke back with blood all down his face.

Fearfully, the Salvatore shook his head as he Klara kept her hands on his arms. "No. I'm not."

"Then use it. Give into it. Try to kill me, Stefan. Come on. You're gonna have to want to kill me for me to believe you will."

"Ric, this is dangerous. I don't know if I'll be able to stop him." Klara remained in front of Stefan as she moved her hand against his chest to stop him while she looked at Alaric.

"You two want the answers from my darkest side, you're gonna have to tap into yours. So don't back down, don't fight it. Just do it. Do it!" Alaric tried to lunge for Stefan, but instead, Klara intervened. She tossed him into the brick wall, but he just slumped on the ground laughing. "You're both so weak. Look at you. Nature's most hideous creatures and you can't even get that right." Alaric's eyes turned to the blonde. "And, you. You're a monster even without the vampirism. You're in love with your best friend's boyfriend."

Realization fell across both the vampires' faces. They had come face-to-face with Alaric's alter-ego. "You."

"Me."

"Where's the stake?"

Alaric had gotten to his feet and started to circle the two vampires with a look of disgust on his face as he stared at them. "You're worse than I ever was. Spineless. Pathetic."

"Tell me where the hell you've put the stake before I rip out your spine." Klara narrowed her eyes toward the man, but he didn't even blink in fear. He just laughed.

"You know, you're all going to burn. Ashes to dust."

Klara sped forward and punched him a few more times. She wanted to protect Stefan from inflicting pain on Alaric, so she did it herself and she hated every moment of it. "Where's the stake?!" He didn't even answer, so she grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to the wall. "I swear to God, I will kill you in three... two.. one—"

"It's in the cave. Where no vampire can get it." He told the Klara as she turned to Stefan with a worried look on her face. She released her grip on Alaric before she headed out of the cellar. "Let's go."

Klara and Stefan headed straight upstairs and were about to leave until they saw Klaus and Rebekah stood in the parlor. "That wasn't too hard, was it? Sister, fetch Alaric from the basement." Klara watched Rebekah gleefully walk straight past her and Stefan and down into the basement while Klaus began to pour himself a drink just as she pushed Alaric into view. "It's a little gratuitous, don't you think, Klara? I would've been more gentle."

"I'm going to take him to the caves." Rebekah held onto Alaric and narrowed her eyes toward him. "You're going to go inside and fetch me the stake. And if you think you're gonna hide, you're wrong." She pushed him straight out of the door and shut it behind them.

"And then there were two." Klaus hummed. "I know about Damon's little mission to Denver. He failed. Not that that's news anymore."

Klara moved beside Stefan while her eyes remained on the Hybrid who appeared to be gloating about Damon's failure. "So, you're here to kill us, are you?"

"I haven't actually decided yet." 

"Oh, sure you have. See, you've had every chance and every excuse imaginable to do it, but yet you haven't. Which means you don't want to." Stefan eyed up the Hybrid who had chosen to sit on one of the chairs.

"You know something, you're right. See, I'm still waiting for my old friend to come back. By the looks of it, he's just beneath the surface. Waiting to come out and play. Isn't that right, Ripper?"

"I've been fighting that part of myself. Thinking that if I repressed it then it would go away. But it won't. And now that I've accepted it, it can't control me. And neither can you." As Stefan spoke, Klaus' smirk soon faded. "So, unless you're going to stake us, why don't you get the hell out of our house." 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───