"Hey umm Brea," Elena said sticking her head into Jeremy's room while they were halfway through Mission Impossible. Jeremy paused the movie and the siblings looked over at Elena. "Can I please talk to you? It's kind of important."
"Can it wait until after the movie Lena, we're halfway?"
"No, no. Please, Brea, please?"
"Oh umm yeah sure ok," she said sensing her twin's distress. "Uhh finish it tomorrow Jer?"
"Sure," he grumbled putting on headphones as Brea followed Elena to her room.
"So are we going to talk or are you going to keep pacing?" Brea asked Elena who had been walking up and down her room for the past 5 minutes.
"I can't tell anyone, but I have to tell you, it's you."
"Um ok, so are you going to tell me this secret or are we just going to mutter?"
"Stefan's a vampire."
"Excuse me!?"
"Damon too." Brea jumped up and grabbed Elena's face looking into her eyes. "What are you doing Brea?" she asked trying to slap her sister's hands away.
"Did you hit your head, Lena?"
"No! Brea! I'm serious."
"Look I'll drive you to the hospital, come on," Brea said making her way to the bedroom door and Elena lunged at her arm.
"Please, Brea! Please! Look I made a copy of a video, the one that I found at Logan's work. It's from 1953. It's an old news video, of an animal attack on the boarding house. Joseph Salvatore! And Stefan's in the video. Tiki's grandfather recognised him the other day at the Grill and said he remembered Joseph's nephew called Stefan. It's him in the video Brea!" Elena then showed Brea the video.
"Well he's a relative it's possible they just look really similar."
"No Brea please listen to me."
"An old video of a look-alike Stefan doesn't prove vampires exist sweetie."
"Don't patronise me Brenna I'm serious."
"Wow you called me Brenna," she said shocked. "Oh my god, you really believe this don't you." Elena nodded.
"I know it. Think about it. He and Damon, they're new to town the animal attacks started just as they got to town. His and Damon's names were on the original Mystic Falls Founders Party registry, he never gets old. Jeremy sliced Stefan's hand open when Tyler and he were fighting, I saw the blood, you did too, but the cut wasn't there, he never gets hurt. Sometimes his eyes go dark and the veins under his eyes, they pop out, he changes in ways that can't be explained. 5 bodies drained of blood Brenna, drained. Caroline, who was dating Damon, was bitten all over her neck, you saw it, Brea! I went to his house Brea, he told me that I'm right. Then he came here. He came here and tried to talk to me. He moved so fast Brea."
"Elena, you sound absolutely insane. But for some reason, I-I think I believe you." Elena breathed a sigh of relief. "We have to talk to him Lena and find out what it all means."
"Ok, tomorrow. We'll meet him, together."
That night Elena and Brea slept in the same bed, afraid of what would go bump in the night.
"You said you would explain everything, that's why I asked you to meet us here."
"When you google 'vampire' a lot of stuff comes up," Brea added.
"You get a world of fiction. What's the reality?" Elena elaborated.
"I'll tell you whatever you want to know."
"I know you eat garlic," Elena said.
"And you go in the sun without sparkling." As soon as Brea said this a waitress came around with Stefan and Elena's coffee and Brea's hot chocolate.
"We have rings that protect us, otherwise we burn, not sparkle," Stefan explained to Brea.
"Or amulets?" Brea asked and Stefan titled his head and then nodded hesitantly.
"Crucifixes?" Elena asked
"Decorative."
"Holy water?" she asked again.
"Drinkable."
"Mirrors?"
"Myth."
"You said you don't kill to survive."
"Animal blood keeps me alive, but not as strong as Damon. He can be very powerful."
"And yet you let him get involved with Caroline?" Brea accused angrily.
"Forcing Damon not to do something is much more dangerous, believe me," Stefan tried to reason.
"He was hurting her!" Elena accused.
"He was feeding on her. He was able to take away her memories of being bitten using a form of mind compulsion. She never knew what was happening to her. If he wanted to kill her, he would have."
"Is that supposed to make it ok?"
"No. No, none of this is ok, Elena. I know that."
"Are there any others, aside from you and Damon?"
"Not in Mystic Falls, not anymore."
"Not anymore?"
"There was a time when this town was…"
"Infested," Brea finished.
Stefan gave her a funny look again, "very much aware of vampires, and it didn't end well for anybody. That's why it's important that you two don't tell anyone."
"I can't promise that," Elena said as Brea slowly nodded to Stefan as she knew vampires being an open secret would have disastrous consequences.
"Elena… give me today. I will answer any questions that you two have, and when it's over, you can decide for yourself what you want to do with what you know. It'll be your choice."
Elena was driving the car whilst Stefan was directing. Brea was in the back seat and an eery feeling was growing in her stomach.
"Stop here," Stefan said and everyone got out.
"What are we doing?" Elena asked.
"I want to show you something."
"In the middle of nowhere?" Elena asked as Brea started walking forward entranced.
"This didn't use to be nowhere. It used to be my home."
Brea had reached the two pillars at the front of the property and reached her hand out to touch them. "I've been here before," she whispered.
Elena heard and responded, "Brea, we've never been here."
"Oh, maybe I came here with Tyler and Matt," Brea replied uncertainly.
"Maybe," Elena suggested before turning to Stefan "it looks so…" she said struggling to find an appropriate word.
"Old?" Stefan bluntly finished. "That's because they are."
"Wait. How long have you…" Elena said again, unable to find an appropriate way to finish her question.
"I've been 17 years old since 1864."
"Oh, my god," Elena said in shock as she realised she had been dating a guy older than her grandfather.
"You said you wanted to know. I'm not gonna hold anything back. A half-century before the boarding house was even built, this was my family's home." Brea walked further into the property area ahead of Stefan and Elena. "Damon and I… we were both born here. The Salvatore brothers, best of friends." Stefan then went on to describe his relationship with Damon to Elena.
"You knew Katherine in 1864?" Elena asked eventually.
"Her and her sister," Stefan said watching Brea
"Her sister?" Brea asked snapping out of her trance.
"Yeah, well I don't know if they really were sisters. She was human and Katherine was a vampire. But Katherine wasn't feeding from her or using her in any way. They just both genuinely loved each other as siblings." Brea's breath quickened and she went back to walking around the destroyed property.
Brea heard Elena and Stefan talking about how Katherine went with Stefan to the Founders Day instead of Damon. "Damon, who did Damon go to the ball with?" she asked turning around.
"He went with um, Katherine's sister to the ball." Brea nodded and walked off in a daze.
Mystic Falls, 1864
"Oh do stop staring Mr Salvatore," Brenna said to Damon as they danced.
"Why would she choose Stefan, though Miss Pierce? Am I not enough?"
Brenna sighed, unsure of how to answer the question, knowing her sister was toying with them. "My sister can be a cruel being Mr Salvatore. I do not believe she has dismissed you. I believe, Damon, that she wants you to fight for her, to show her how you are perhaps a better choice for her than Stefan."
Damon smiled at his friend. "Perhaps you are right Miss Pierce, maybe I need to show her my affections outweigh my brothers."
"Well to start Mr Salvatore, pay her no mind for the rest of the founder's ball. You are, after all, escorting me. I would hate to be talking about my lovely sister all night."
"As you wish Miss Pierce," he said spinning her.
"Brea?" Elena asked shaking her sister.
"Huh?"
"You were completely out of it, we're leaving. We got Damon's ring."
"What we can't give it back to him! He'll just hurt more and more people," Brea protested.
"We have to Brea, he'll hurt us in retaliation if we don't." Brea took a deep breath and nodded before making her way to the car. "The mind control, you said Katherine used. Did you ever do that to me?" Brea stopped and looked fascinated at what the answer would be.
"No. That necklace, it contains a herb called vervain. It protects you from being compelled. And Brea I slipped some into your perfume bottle when I was over there. But I would like to give you something like Elena's, I thought it might make you uncomfortable for me to give you jewellery when I just started dating your sister," Brea nodded in agreement. "I wanted to protect you both from Damon's influence. But I also wanted to… protect you from me. Elena, you should never take that necklace off… because no matter what happens after today, no matter how you feel about me… you'll know that you were free to make your own choice." Stefan then walked around to the driver's side of the car and Brea gave her sister a small smile before getting in the backseat.
Brea, Elena and Stefan arrived at the Gilbert house and walked through the door. Brea heard Matt's voice and yelled "Matty!" running into the living room before reading the situation, seeing Jeremy on the floor and Vicki standing over him and asked, "um, what the hell is going on here?"
Elena then got into the room and asked, "what's going on?"
"She's really messed up guys," Matt filled them in.
"Elena, back up," Stefan said pulling Elena away from Vicki's side to get a better look at her. Stefan grabbed her face and whispered calming words to her. "Guys, take her up to bed, she's gonna be ok," he told Jeremy and Matt.
"You know what's wrong with her?" Elena asked.
"Is she ok?" Brea followed up.
"Yeah," Stefan confirmed.
"What is it?" Elena pushed.
"She's transitioning."
"Transitioning into what?" Elena prodded still confused.
"Oh no, it's withdrawals, isn't it? I don't want her in my house if she's going to start throwing up, I just can't do that, it's just too gross," Brea panicked.
"No, it's not that, she's transitioning into a vampire."
"What?" Brea squeaked.
"Damon must have gotten to her. She's new. She hasn't completed her transformation yet."
"H-how does she do that?" Elena stuttered.
"She has to feed on human blood," Brea answered quietly.
"And what if she doesn't?"
"She'll die. She may only have a few hours," Stefan answered
"Jeremy and Matt!" Brea realised.
"She's up there with him right now," Elena said concerned
"It's ok. She doesn't know what's happening to her yet."
"So when is she going to know?" Elena asked pacing the kitchen.
"Right now, she doesn't remember anything. A part of her is still human, but slowly, the deeper she gets into the transition, the memories will start to come back, and then she'll know she has to make the choice."
"The same choice you made?"
"Urgh, not the time Lena. Can we please think about the three people upstairs right now please," Brea said desperately as she left the room and went upstairs to find Matt. "Hey, how is she?"
"I don't know Brea, I've never seen her like this. I don't know what she took. She's in there with Jeremy and I don't know what to do Brea. She's so agitated I don't know if I should just take her home, or let her stay here or even take her to the hospital."
"I wouldn't go to the hospital," Brea said. "Lot of blood there."
"I've never known you to be afraid of blood," Matt smirked. "Your dad was a doctor and if memory serves me right you'd fall out of the tree about twice a day when you'd climb with Ty and I. You're not afraid of a little blood."
"It's not me Matt. I'm thinking of Vicki. She might not like blood," Brea suggested with a smile. Brea and Matt then started walking down the stairs and when the reached the bottom they heard someone storming down the stairs and turned to see Vicki running down the stairs, and proceeded to push past the pair and run out the front door.
"Vick!" Matt called as she sprinted out the front door. "I'm gonna go look for her call me if you hear anything!" he said running to his truck.
"I can track her," Stefan informed the girls.
"Go," Elena encouraged.
"I'm going with Matt, I'll call you if we find her," Brea said running to Matts truck. "Matty! Wait up, I'm coming with you."
"Ok, get in. God what the hell Vick!" he said to himself. The pair then drove around the town for hours calling Vicki's name but to no avail.
Brea opened the door to her house and stepped in. Elena and Jeremy ran to the doorway with Jeremy yelling Vicki. When they saw it was just Brea their shoulders fell and they both said "oh" disappointedly.
"Wow, guys. That was a lovely greeting," Brea scoffed.
"Maybe we should check in with Matt," Jeremy suggested.
"Hey, dude! I just came from Matt. Am I invisible?" Jeremy just looked at Brea for an answer.
"Well we couldn't find her, he dropped me home because it was late but he's going to keep looking."
"Well, what are we supposed to do then?"
"We wait. We're supposed to wait," Elena answered.
"Yeah Jer, she might come back here and I'm guessing she's going to want to see you. Not Elena or me. So we should just stay put for now."
"I don't know what's wrong with her," he said upset and Brea squeezed her arm in comfort.
"She'll be fine, it'll all be fine," Elena lied.
"How about we finish our movie to take our mind off it Jer?" Brea suggested and he nodded slowly as the doorbell rung. All three of them then rushed to the door. Elena opened it a fraction before trying to slam it shut. "Lena?" Brea asked concerned only to see the door being pushed open and Damon on the other side of it. Brea gasped and stuck a hand out in front of her brother.
"Jeremy, go upstairs," Elena ordered. Jeremy just glared.
"Go Jer, get the movie started, I'll be up in a minute." He then slowly went upstairs.
"You two are afraid of me," Damon noticed. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess. Stefan finally fessed up."
"Stay away from us," Elena forced out through her fear.
"Hey, hey, hey, there's no need to be rude. I'm just looking for Stefan. May I come in? Oh, wait of course I can. I've been invited," he taunted walking into the house as the twins stepped back two steps for every step he took forward, he then shut the door behind him.
"Oh, would you just bugger off Damon! Now is not the time," Damon's eyes softened when Brea growled this at him before hardening again.
"We can cut to the chase if you want. I'm not gonna kill you right now. That wouldn't serve my greater agenda."
"Did killing Vicki serve the greater agenda?" Brea hissed.
"Oh brave one, are we," he smirked. "So…" he continued, "Where's Stefan?"
"He's out looking for Vicki," Elena said with malice.
"Don't look at me with those judgy little eyes. Girl's gonna thank me for what I did to her."
"Did you thank Katherine?"
"Mmm. Got the whole life story, huh?"
"We got enough," Brea answered.
"Oh, I doubt that. Tell my brother I'm looking for him," Damon said leaving the house. Just as the door was about to close he pushed it back open. "Oh, a tip for later. Be careful who you invite in the house."
"Get out," Brea growled. Damon smiled and finally left. Brea and Elena were left stunned for a minute before Brea finally went upstairs to Jeremy's room without speaking to Elena as they were both too shaken up.
"Ready for the movie?"
"Yeah I guess," he said disheartened.
"Press play baby brother."
The siblings then continued to watch the end of their Mission Impossible movie as Elena texted her to say that she was going to wait outside for Stefan to show up with any news. After a while, Brea heard the front door close. "I'll be back in a minute Jer," he just nodded, not really caring. Brea ran to the top of the staircase to see Elena sliding down the door in tears. "Lena? Are you ok? Did he find Vicki?" Elena couldn't talk she was crying so much. Brea just ran down the stairs and sat next to her sister pulling her head into her shoulder and holding her as she cried. She was able to work out that Elena must've broken things off with Stefan. After a while, Jeremy got to the top of the staircase and seeing one sister crying mouthed "Vicki?" to Brea and Brea shook her head. Letting her brother know her sister's despair was over a different matter and he nodded and went back to his room.