CHAPTER ONE | I'LL REMEMBER 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

EVELYN AUSTIN LAID WITHIN A SLUMBER OF STILLNESS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. Coincidentally, it was the exact same backstreet road that Damon used to go to when he had an existential crisis of his own to work through. The Austin vampire was not entirely sure why she always ended up on that same road, but she didn't care enough to question its relevancy.

As she laid there with her eyes fixed up to the sky, her eyes glazed over as she dared herself not to blink. It was a game she loved to play at night when she laid there with nothing around her but the stillness of the night. Every time she blinked— something had changed. Maybe the moon was a little brighter or the air was a little colder, but the one thing that Evelyn Austin hated above all was change. So, she made sure there was none.

The brunette felt her eyes begin to burn, desperate to blink as the sound of a car approached in the distance. With a smirk on her lips and a hunger in her veins, she felt the headlights of the vehicle illuminated her lifeless body that was lying down in the middle of the road, right in between the white lines. A hysterical woman jumped out of the driver's side of the car and ran straight for Evelyn, whose eyes remained fixed on the sky above.

"Are you hurt? Please tell me I didn't hit you!" The young woman rambled on breathlessly. She persisted to assume that she was the reason the brunette was laying down in the road. "Oh my, God. I didn't hit you, did I?"

"Even if you did, it wouldn't hurt," Evelyn spoke in a monotone voice as her eyes continued to burn with desperation. Then, she blinked. "Nothing hurts me anymore. Nothing."

"Look, I'm gonna call an ambulance or the cops. Or, maybe both. Just wait, right here, okay?" She jogged back over to her car and lunged her hand through the open window to grab her phone. Just as she turned herself back around, she came face-to-face with Evelyn, who had an unreadable expression across her face.

"God, you scared me." She spoke in a flustered tone but began to emit a soft laugh out of awkwardness to mask her growing fear.

"What does that feel like? Being scared, I mean." Evelyn shrugged, then she began to carefully walk across the white lines in the middle of the road. "I haven't felt anything like that in a really long time, and I gotta say, it's the most liberating thing ever. I'm free, don't you wanna be free, too?"

"Uh—" The young woman fearfully stuttered. Adrenalin ran through her veins as she attempted to swing her car door open, but she was no match for Evelyn's vampire speed. She slammed the door shut before the woman could even get back inside.

"Well, that was kind of stupid, wasn't it?" Evelyn rolled her eyes, then began to compel her victim. "Don't move, don't run. Just do what I say. Now, what's your name?"

"E—Emily." Unwillingly and hesitantly, the young woman revealed her name.

"Emily. Wow, that's so weird, right? Because I killed a girl called Emily just last week." Evelyn chuckled as she continued to walk the line again, whilst she saw the girl's eyes widen. "I mean, obviously she wasn't as pretty as you are."

"You killed someone? Why would you do that? What the hell are you?" Emily yelled fearfully. Every inch of her was trying to run away from Evelyn, but she just couldn't get her legs to move. She was frozen, thanks to the compulsion.

The vampire shrugged with a smile on her face as she turned on her heels. "Uh, because it's fun—Duh. It's exciting knowing that standing here. Damn, I spent a lot of time trying to be perfect, Em, I can call you, Em, right? Well, like I was saying, I don't need to be perfect anymore." Evelyn took a deep breath, let her eyes turn dark as she sped back over to Emily with a grin on her face. "This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it's gonna hurt me."

The scream of her victims was always the most enjoyable part for Evelyn. The pain. Inflicting pain made her feel alive in ways she had never experience before. Evelyn had absolutely nothing left to live for, and that's the way she wanted it to be.

After a few minutes, she let Emily's lifeless body drop at her feet before she wiped the last of the blood from her chin, and licked her finger. "Well, Emily, you were absolutely delicious. I mean, had I had my emotions on, we could've been friends. But, I don't, so—" She chuckled before she opened the car door of the vehicle and drove off down the road.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Since her last kill, Evelyn was hungry, except she wasn't hungry for blood. She was hungry for booze. And, so she pulled up just outside a dive bar in the middle of nowhere. Her curious eyes scanned the array of motorcycles parked just out the front as she stepped inside and took a seat at the bar.

"Bourbon. Neat." She simply declared in a bored tone as she propped her head up with her arm as she watched the bartender pour her drink.

"This one's on me, keep the change." A familiar British accent chuckled from beside her. The first thing Evelyn saw was a hundred-dollar bill being pushed across the bar, then she looked up and saw Klaus Mikaelson. "You're a little far from home, aren't you, love?"

"Incredible that in all your years of being alive, you still remain fully capable of deducing an otherwise extremely obvious situation." Evelyn scoffed in a bored tone as her index finger danced around the rim of her glass.

"That was— unexpected." The Hybrid furrowed his brows, a little wounded by the vampire's comment. "And, here I thought you and I were friends."

"I don't have any friends, Klaus. Neither do you."

"Right, well at least I understand now why you're being such a monumental pain in the arse." Klaus chuckled to himself softly as he watched the brunette raise an eyebrow. "You turned it off, hm? You finally wanted to experience what it's like being a real vampire without remorse or impulse control."

"You mock me about being a real vampire, and yet you're only half of one." Evelyn downed her drink with a wince, then caught the bartender's attention for a refill. "What do you want, anyway? Having a hard time finding innocents to terrorize?"

"I thought I'd approach my old friend in the very questionable bar she's chosen to spend her free time in, is that such a crime?" He asked with a smirk that finally turned into more of a concerned look.

"There you go again, using that word friend."

The Hybrid's face hardened as he watched her glance back to the refilled glass. "What happened, Evelyn?"

"Happened? Lots of things happen. You of all people should know that,"

"But, not a lot of things happen that make you want to want to turn it off. I have known you a long time and not once have you ever decided to turn your humanity off. So, I'll ask you again, shall I? What happened, Evelyn?" The Hybrid glared at her as she appeared to dismiss his question when her drink came.

A soft, quiet chuckle left the brunette's lips as she watched the Original Hybrid's brows knit together with confusion. "You know, you had me goin' there for a second. Coming over here, buying me a drink, playing the friend card."

"Evelyn, I—"

"—You know, what? Tell Caroline I don't need a babysitter." Evelyn snapped viciously in Klaus' face just as she jumped off of the barstool and wandered back outside into the parking lot.

"Clearly you do," Klaus called after her as she halted and twirled back around to face him. "Come on, love, this is not the way to deal with death. You're better than this. Turning off your humanity, feeding off the locals, and getting drunk in some grubby backstreet bar is not going to bring him back, you know."

Evelyn rolled her eyes and shook her head with a smirk on her face. "What makes you think I give a damn about what you're saying? I left Mystic Falls for a reason. I turned my humanity off for a reason. Now, the only thing I'm concerned about is why I didn't do it sooner."

"You're wrong, Evelyn. You without your humanity is wrong. I think you'd be better off turning it back on and dealing with your pain properly."

"Oh, that's right. Because you're such an expert in dealing with grief and pain. Sorry, remind me again what the punishment for your siblings is when they go against you?" Evelyn chuckled. "Now, as I said before, tell Caroline that I'm fine. I don't need her. I don't need you— I just need to be left alone."

The brunette gave Klaus one final vicious glare before she jumped in the driver's seat of her car and drove off out of the parking lot. While Klaus watched Evelyn's lights disappear off into the night, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the Forbes girl's number.

"Caroline." He spoke as soon as he heard her frantic voice on the other end of the line. "I've been asking to relay a message to you—Evelyn Austin doesn't need a babysitter."

"Oh, my God." A sudden gasp left Caroline's lips as she lowered her tone of voice in the hopes that Klaus had located her best friend."You found her?"

"Yes, In a dive bar. She's very feisty when she's at a loss, isn't she?" The Hybrid chuckled to himself as he quite literally heard Caroline's eyes roll.

"Feisty isn't the word. She's dropping bodies like it's an Olympic sport for God's sake." A frustrated sigh left the blonde's lips again. "How—how did she seem to you?"

"Broken, even without the humanity." Klaus sternly spoke with a gentle shrug. "Caroline, I've seen vampires turn off their humanity and commit countless atrocities for the sheer enjoyment. It's almost like there's a comfort in the madness, but she doesn't seem to be reveling in that the way an ordinary emotionless vampire would do."

"She turned her humanity off because she couldn't bare to lose Damon, again. Maybe, tucked away deep inside where her humanity is buried, she's grieving?" Caroline suggested. "Uh— look, just keep her talking and text me your location. I'm on my way."

"Regrettably she's no longer in my company, she took off a few minutes ago after she made it very clear that she didn't need looking after. I think going after her will only fuel the fire more."

"No, I can't just leave her. She's my best friend, and she's just lost the love of her life. I need to be there for her. Thanks for the help, but I'll take it from here."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───