CHAPTER FOUR | THE FIVE

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EVELYN STEPPED OUT OF THE SHOWER, A TOWEL AROUND HER BODY. She was immediately startled when she saw Damon stood in the bedroom's corner, his eyes scanning her body. The tension in the air was thick, though Evelyn didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that his eyes hadn't left her for a second.

"Damon, my eyes are up here, thank you." She snapped immediately and his eyes slowly drifted back up to her face. Evelyn rolled her eyes. "What d'you want, anyway?"

Damon folded his arms across his chest as he watched Evelyn wander over to her dresser to gather some fresh clothes. "I came to ask if you wanted to come with Elena, Bonnie, and I to Whitmore College."

"College?" The brunette vampire echoed with a scoff. "Remind me why exactly I'd wanna do that?"

"Well, Elena's having bloodlust issues, Bon-Bon's magic is severely lacking so I figured: two birds, one stone." Damon sang despite Evelyn's clear unwillingness to join them on their road trip. "Oh, come on, it'll be fun. I'll even let you pick who we eat."

"Wow, you really know how to show a girl a good time, don't you?" Evelyn sarcastically remarked though Damon didn't seem to catch the sarcasm. "As much as I would love to watch you train the doppelganger to be a good little vampire. I'd rather stake myself— repeatedly."

"Technically, if you do it in the heart, you'll only have to do it once." He smirked. "Is this about Elena?"

"No." Evelyn snapped. "It's about me not wanting to be stuck in a car for hours just to go to some stupid college campus. Not my scene."

"Oh, okay." The Salvatore slowly nodded as he watched Evelyn pull a white shirt from her dresser. "So, you're jealous." The vampire turned on her heels and narrowed her eyes toward him, though he held his hands up in surrender as a smile spread across his lips. "Relax! I'm joking. I'm joking, I swear."

"You know what I said before, about staking myself? Maybe I should stake you repeatedly, instead." Evelyn tilted her head toward him and gave him a grin as he slowly began to retreat out of her bedroom. "See you later. Try not to turn her into a ripper, I hear that sucks!"

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Since Damon and Elena were gone for the day and Stefan had disappeared to god-knows-where, Evelyn had decided to take the day for herself. She wanted to see what the town had to offer now, since the last time she lived there was 1864.

She stepped into the Grill and sauntered straight over to the bar, which was Damon's usual spot. Evelyn sat, examining the liquor that was stored behind the bar until Rebekah appeared beside her. "You look in need of a friend."

"Bekah." Evelyn smiled toward the blonde. The two were rather good friends, despite the fact the Original family and the Salvatore's had been at loggerheads since they returned back to town. "Haven't seen you since the Young Farm. Where've you been?"

"Around. Family drama." The Original vampire vaguely nodded with a smile as she tapped her hands against the bar. "You're drinking alone? Isn't there usually a Salvatore brother on one of your arms."

Evelyn nodded slowly. "Figured I needed a time out from Elena-drama. It's exhausting."

Rebekah looked over to April Young was sitting in a booth alone. The vampire gave her a wave before she turned her attention back to Evelyn. "Come sit, have a drink with us."

"I mean, it's not like I have anything better to do. Why not?" Evelyn sighed reluctantly as she stepped off of the bar stool and followed Rebekah. The blonde slid into the booth first, and then Evelyn.

"Evelyn, this is April. April, Evelyn." Rebekah introduced the two girls who gave each other awkward smiles, but the moment was shortly interrupted by Stefan who slid himself into the booth beside April.

"You won't remember any of this." He compelled the dark-haired girl before he turned his attention to Rebekah Mikaelson. "Klaus wants me to fake peace with you, so you'll talk about the Five."

"Yeah, I bet." Rebekah folded her arms across her chest. "Don't help him. He'll just betray you, it's what he does."

"Girl's got a point, Stefan." Evelyn tilted her head. The Austin girl was well versed in the Original vampires, all of them. She knew how difficult and manipulative Klaus could be. "Working with Klaus will get you nowhere."

"Alright, well, forget him. Help me instead." The Salvatore proposed to Rebekah once more with pursed lips.

"Why?" She furrowed her brows. "You hate me more than he does."

"Because I want to figure out what he's up to." Stefan deadpanned as if the reason was obvious. "And plus, I can give you the one thing that he won't— a clean slate. I'm not saying that I'm willing to forgive you for what you did to Elena, but I'm willing to set it aside and start over."

Evelyn furrowed her brows as she listened to Stefan's proposition. "All of that for some information about the Five? I saw the look on Klaus' face, must be important."

Rebekah looked between Evelyn and Stefan as she leaned back in her seat. "Why would you do that?"

"Because you're obviously not leaving town anytime soon and I'm just looking for a way we can all get along. Plus, you can't be too happy wandering around school with no friends." Stefan raised an eyebrow, his eyes lingered on Evelyn. "Cause, Eve's definitely not going back to school and she's your only friend, so..."

"Absolutely not." The brunette shook her head. "The thought of it makes me wanna puke."

"Well, what if I don't care what you or anyone else thinks?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that you care what, uh, Matt over there thinks." Stefan gestured to Matt, who was cleaning a free table. Rebekah's eyes lingered on him. "So maybe I can talk to him about a clean slate, too."

"Fine." Rebekah pouted as she turned to Evelyn. "Looks like that catch-up drink will have to wait, it appears I have to make peace with my brother. I'll see you later."

Evelyn slid out of the booth so that Rebekah could exit with Stefan. She turned to the Salvatore, just as he passed her. "Thanks for stealing my only friend, Stefan."

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Night had fallen, and Evelyn heard the roar of Damon's 1969 Camaro and lifted herself from the couch to walk toward the door. She opened it to see him staring up at the night with his arms folded across his chest. Evelyn examined the costume he was wearing and raised an eyebrow. "Uh—"

"Oh." He shrugged then gestured to his outfit. "Jack The Ripper. Ironic, isn't it?"

"Just a little. Here." A small chuckle left her lips as she handed him a bottle of bourbon that she had been drinking before he arrived. "You look like you need this a lot more than I do right now."

"Oh, Eve, you have no idea." Damon thankfully gripped the bottle and lifted it up so he liquid ran down his throat. Evelyn watched him drink desperately, almost as if the bourbon would cure his misery.

"Damn, that bad, huh?" She mused with a little chuckle once he'd finished drinking and handed it back to her to sip, which she did. "So, come on then, what's up? Did Elena massacre the entire campus of Whitmore College?"

"Elena's changed, she's a different person now. But, apparently, that's a bad thing. She's a vampire, she's gonna indulge in human blood and she's gonna drink without remorse because that's who we are, Evelyn!" The passion and irritation began to surface in Damon's voice.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow, blatantly confused. "Struggling to see the problem here."

"I am the only one here that's not living with their eyes wide shut," Damon yelled in an aggravated manner before he finally let his eyes fall to her. "Everyone's terrified of her becoming like me, Evelyn. Am I a bad person?"

"Damon." Evelyn placed the bottle of bourbon onto the wall in front of them as she looked at him. "You're not a bad person, you've made some questionable choices, but nobody is bad. Being a vampire comes with certain aspects of life that you can't deny, nobody can."

Damon's eyes fell to hers and for a moment, he felt like Evelyn was truly the only person that could understand him. He took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "I need a drink— a real one." He started to walk but immediately stopped when he noticed that she wasn't following him. "You coming? Last I heard, you were desperate to drink from the vein."

"You sure you're in the right frame of mind to feed, the last thing we need is you coming all emo and ripping heads from shoulders." Evelyn wriggled her eyebrows as she saw a flicker of a smile appear on his face.

"Hm, true." He hummed. "But, somehow, I think you'll be able to pull me back. Now, come on, I'm hungry."

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Damon had assured Evelyn that he would show her how he fed in Mystic Falls. He had a system in place and a way of doing things that attracted slightly less attention than just going to a bar and finding the first walking blood bag they saw. "So, lay down in the road."

"You want me to lay—" Evelyn's eyes drifted to the middle of the road. It was covered in dirt and she saw wearing an outfit that she adored. "There?" She raised an eyebrow. "You're not serious."

"You wanted me to show you how I feed, this is it." He shrugged simply. "Now, get on the floor." Evelyn exhaled with irritation and dropped down flat in the middle of the road. Her eyes were fixed on the night sky above, she focused on the stars while Damon stood over her with a smirk then he dropped down beside her. "Now, it might take some time, but someone will come, and then that's when we make our move."

The brunette vampire rolled her eyes as she turned her head to Damon, who was laid beside her. "This requires so much waiting."

"It's dinner with a view." Damon gestured to the stars that were above them. "It doesn't compare to anything else? To be honest, I've had an existential crisis on this road or two. It's good for the soul."

"Wow, you've got a soul." Evelyn pressed her hand on her chest, feigning surprise."No way. I'm shocked, Damon, truly."

"A few were over you, actually." He mumbled quietly but he knew that she was able to hear him. "I came here just after I'd visited your grave. Obviously, your body was never found because, well, you're not dead, but I compelled a funeral for you. I think it helped a lot of people cope with your death, your parents the most. They needed it. So did I."

Evelyn was truly surprised by Damon's confession. She knew that she had a funeral, considering she managed to stumble on her own grave a few years prior when she came to visit her parents, but she assumed it was encouraged by them— not him.

Headlights began to approach from the other side of the road. Evelyn's breath hitched in her throat as she noticed a smirk appear on Damon's lips. "Showtime."

The car eventually pulled up a short distance from the two vampires, and a young woman ran out with her friend. The two seemed rather panicked to see Damon and Evelyn in the road. "Oh, my God. Did you hit them?!" One of the girls asked her friend, who was driving.

"What? No, of course, I didn't!" The blonde that was driving gasped. She kneeled down beside Evelyn as she looked between her and Damon. "Are you guys okay, you're not hurt, right?"

"No." Evelyn deadpanned as a smile began to creep across her lips. The veins underneath her eyes slowly appeared as she gripped the blonde by the throat and sped up to her feet. She sank her teeth into the girl's neck and began to feed on the sweet crimson liquid inside of her carotid.

"Impeccable timing, Eve. I mean, you're supposed to wait for a little, but sure." Damon glanced at Evelyn, who was too busy feeding to even listen to anything that he was saying. He sank his teeth into the brunette girl who he had in his hold.

Eventually, Evelyn pulled away just as she felt the life start to drain from the girl in her hold. "Okay. You won't remember any of this. You and that lovely brunette friend of yours have incredibly kinky boyfriends." She compelled the girl with a light smile as she tapped her shoulder and turned to Damon, who'd done the same.

"So, thoughts?" He asked, wiping the blood from his lips.

Evelyn smirked. "I get why you do this. Food and a view, who could argue with that."

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