CHAPTER FIVE | THE WORLD HAS TURNED AND LEFT ME HERE 

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EVELYN TRULY THOUGHT THAT TURNING HER HUMANITY ON WOULD BE THE HARDEST PART ABOUT COMING BACK— SHE WAS WRONG. Coming to terms with what she had done, and attempting to make amends with the people that she had hurt along the way sucked just as bad as turning her humanity back on. Once Alaric and Stefan released her, she got herself straight and then headed straight to Caroline's dorm to apologize for everything.

"Knock, knock." Evelyn innocently spoke as she wandered into the dorm room to see Caroline, who had clearly just gotten out of the shower, with a confused look on her face. "Hey, don't worry. It's— it's me."

"Thank God," Caroline exclaimed loudly as she rushed over to the vampire and threw her arms around her. The Forbes girl had missed Evelyn more than she could even express. "Okay, so I know exactly why you're here right now, and you don't even need to bother with the whole speech because I forgive you, okay? You were grieving, and you were hurt, and it's okay."

Evelyn blinked slowly and a small scoff escaped her lips once Caroline detached herself from her. "Wow. I was honestly so scared for how the whole apology-tour was gonna go down, but you've— Care, you have every right to hate me. I did some horrible things."

"True. You did." Caroline nodded. "But, as I said, you weren't you. And, now you are so it's fine!"

"God, I've missed you so much!" Evelyn exhaled deeply as she dropped herself backward, onto Caroline's bed, then furrowed her brows at the lack of Elena in the room. "Huh. Where's Elena? Did she turn off her humanity, too?" The vampire joked.

"I don't know. She's probably at the hospital." Caroline shrugged, then immediately saw Evelyn's brows knit together. "She volunteers there sometimes."

"Interesting." Evelyn hummed softly, then a knock on the door caused the two vampires to glance at each other. Before Caroline even had a chance to open it, Stefan pushed it open and wheeled a large black trunk inside just before he kicked the door shut with his foot. "Uh. Because that's not weird at all."

"I need a favor." Stefan exhaled deeply, glanced between the two vampires, and then walked straight over to the curtains to yank them shut just as the lid of the trunk opened.

Evelyn and Caroline's eyes widened as Ivy's head popped out of the trunk, then she turned to look at Stefan with an irritated expression. "Where am I? What did you do?" Completely mesmerized, the two vampires blinked at each other with widened eyes, then at Stefan.

"Ivy? How did this happen?" The Forbes vampire slowly spoke with a tone of confusion, while Evelyn awkwardly cleared her throat.

"Oh, Enzo turned her." Stefan bluntly explained with a shrug.

"Yeah, I think we got that, Sherlock. What I don't get is why she's in a trunk?" The Austin girl tilted her head and examined the size of the trunk. A person to be stuffed inside it was the last thing she imagined would happen.

"Stefan broke my neck, and I woke up in a trunk." Ivy vaguely explained to the two vampires with a light shrug, then she turned to the Salvatore.

"Right. So, I need a little bit of help."

"No. No. No. No." Caroline began to vigorously shake her head. She knew exactly what Stefan was about to ask them to do, and she wanted no part of it.

"Just watch her for a little while, while I get Luke to make her a daylight ring." The Salvatore continued to plead while he glanced between the vampires. "Show her the ropes, teach her some control. Please."

"You're asking a vampire who recently got their humanity back to teach your—" Evelyn paused while she eyed the newly-turned vampire up and down. "—whatever the hell she is, about control? Do we look like vampire-daycare to you?"

"Exactly! This is not our mess. This is your mess." Caroline intended her index finger and pushed it against his chest with an irritated look on her face.

Stefan folded his arms across his chest and rolled his eyes. "A mess that wouldn't have happened if you had just left me alone!"

"Uh, I can hear you, you know. I can hear everything, like— perfectly." Ivy butted in.

"Do we need to remind you that there is a vampire hunter lurking around?" The blonde pointed out while Evelyn nodded.

Stefan shrugged with an unbothered look on his face. "He's not here. He's in Savannah, which is why we're not. "Look, Tripp Cooke has somehow decided to become the Eastern Seaboards, self-proclaimed vampire hunter. None of us are safe if we can't control ourselves. If anybody can teach her, it's the two of you."

"Yeah? Well, you don't have to flatter me because I already know that." Caroline sighed out as a small blush hit her cheeks.

"What? No way." Evelyn groaned at the prospect of teaching the vampire. She had barely managed to get herself on the straight and narrow, now she was responsible for somebody else.

"Yes, way." Stefan deadpanned before turning his attention to Caroline again, "Alright, so just a couple of hours and then you'll never have to deal with me again."

"Is that what you think I want?" The Forbes girl raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"I don't know. You tell me."

After exchanged glances, she finally gave in. "Okay."

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"Well, what do you guys think?" Ivy asked as she walked out from the bathroom wearing one of Caroline's dresses. Evelyn glared at the girl, not knowing whether to admire her lack of interest in other people's belongings or hate it.

"Well, I think you're wearing my dress, and you must be deaf because I already said, the party's not happening." Caroline scolded as she grabbed two blood bags out of the fridge. She tossed one in Ivy's direction, while Evelyn grabbed the other.

Ivy popped the cap off of the blood bag and began to sip it slowly. "So, you'd rather be locked in a dorm room with a newbie vampire?"

The Austin vampire looked up in disgust as she ripped the top of the blood bag, "Is that a trick question? Are you seriously asking us that?"

"We would rather be at the party. Just like I'd rather have friends who didn't ignore me for months and then use me when they need help." Caroline rambled on out of anger while Ivy stood beside her bed.

"Woah." The newly-transitioned vampire scoffed. "I just realized why Stefan brought me here to learn control. Do yourself a favor—unwind. Just admit you have a thing for him."

"Excuse me?" Caroline's eyes widened with a look of both disbelief and rage.

"Oh, you really shouldn't have said that." Evelyn rolled her eyes at the current conversational topic.

"I saw the way you looked at him that night you came over for dinner. You practically cut his food for him."

"You know, my relationship with Stefan is strictly complicated, okay?" Caroline rolled her eyes, then turned her gaze to Evelyn, who had just finished up her blood bag. "Aren't you suppose to be practicing your vamping with Evelyn?"

"I've already taught her." Evelyn shrugged as soon as Ivy sped straight in front of the blonde. "She's a natural."

"Done. See? I'm fine. You already put your numbers into my phone as my emergency vampire contacts. I know I burn in the sun. We covered compulsion and snatch-eat-erase. Look, it's getting dark, let's go party." Ivy pleaded. "You can teach me how to eat someone without killing them."

"Stefan will be here very soon and then you can do whatever you want with him."

The woman rolled her eyes at how boring Caroline and Evelyn were being, then raised an eyebrow. "Can we at least play a board game, or do something non-vampire related?"

"Well, there's something you don't hear every day. A new vampire wanting to do something non-vamp related." Evelyn scoffed as she laid herself backward on Caroline's bed and scrolled through her phone.

"What kind of game do you wanna play?"

"I don't know. Scrabble?" Ivy suggested as she watched Caroline wander over to the bookcase to search through the boardgames she and Elena had brought to college with them. Though, once she was distracted, she snapped Caroline's neck.

"Oh. It's like that, is it?" Evelyn tilted her head as she shot up from the bed. "Look, Ivy, Stefan's gonna be back with a daylight ring, and then you're free to do whatever the hell you want. But, take it from a girl that knows, this life is not all it's cracked up to be."

"I don't care." Ivy glanced at the window to her left, and before Evelyn could do anything, the vampire had already jumped out and disappeared.

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"Stefan, hey, this is the third message alerting you that your psychotic little she-vamp has gone AWOL. If you hadn't noticed, it's dark outside so every dead sorority girl tonight is officially on you." Caroline exclaimed down the phone before she sighed heavily and shoved the phone back into her pocket.

Evelyn stopped a few paces back from the blonde vampire and stared at a car that had blood dripped all down the side of it. "Care."

"What is it—" The moment that Caroline's eyes latched onto the blood against the car, she grunted and rolled her eyes. "Brilliant."

Their eyes averted to Stefan's car that had pulled up on the sidewalk just beside them. He jumped out with an irritated look on his face and wandered toward them. "You lost her?"

"Oh, so you decided to listen to your messages a million hours later? No, we didn't lose her. She snapped my neck. What the hell took you so long?"

"I got caught up." The Salvatore simply shrugged.

"You got caught up?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow as she folded her arms across her chest. "Doing what exactly? We've been busting our asses trying to find your trainwreck of a fake girlfriend while you've been caught up."

"I was driving half way out of town." Stefan finally yelled out and caused both the girls to become mute. "I slid Ivy's daylight ring under your front door—"

"—No." Caroline snapped. "I don't care about some stupid ring, Stefan. Were you seriously about to dump your vampire ex-girlfriend onto my lap and then just skip town? God, who are you right now."

"So much for staying here and helping me work through the grief, huh, Stefan? Just— just if you wanna leave, then leave." Evelyn scoffed under her breath as she watched the vampire hesitantly turn his back. Stefan got in his car and drove away with a second thought. Then her phone began to buzz in her pocket and she answered the minute she saw the caller ID was Ivy. "Where the hell are you?"

"I did a really bad thing." The vampire anxiously spoke.

"You mean, breaking my best friend's neck and then disappearing? Yeah, I'd say that was a pretty bad thing, too." Evelyn angrily spat into the speaker of the phone.

"Okay, two bad things. Look, I'm sorry—"

"Forget it. Text us where you are, we'll come get you." Caroline huffed.

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Evelyn had a seemingly rough day, and all she wanted was to go to bed and sleep for a week. The fact that Stefan was still trying to leave baffled her, especially after he had promised her that they would get through the grief together. But, maybe that was the problem. The pain was too much for him and he just wanted to get as far away from Mystic Falls as possible. Now that her humanity was back on, Evelyn knew that she could never do that— she could never leave the places she went with him and the memories they had made behind.

The Austin vampire furrowed her brows the moment that she saw Stefan's caller ID pop up on her phone. For a moment, she considered just ignoring him. She wanted to make him feel a fraction of the pain that she felt, but she answered. "Stefan. What's up? Did running away from Mystic Falls get boring. Did you call to be even more of an asshol—"

"—You need to come down to the crypt, now." His voice was stern and unchanged, but the Austin vampire just scoffed in response.

"I don't need to do anything, especially not for you."

"Evelyn, just come here. Everything will be clear when you're here."

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