A/N This is part one of 'Haunted'.
Malia glanced around her new bedroom in the Salvatore Boarding House. It was comfortable enough, just not home. She went over to the window, which were adorned with thick curtains. She started to pull one of the curtains aside but let it fall back into place with the sun burned her hand. She shook out her hand, which was already healing, and bit back a groan of pain. On the desk behind her, her phone vibrated with an incoming call. She darted over, her speed sending the homework pages she'd left beside her phone flying, and checked the screen. Jeremy. Of course it was Jeremy. She had received frantic calls and texts from Jenna all night. Now it was Jeremy's turn to make her hate herself.
"I don't understand why I have to stay cooped up here. Why can't I just go home?" Vicki's voice drifted down from the attic above her. Malia looked up at the ceiling. She could hear so well that she could tell exactly how Stefan was pacing, how Vicki was spinning around and around in Stefan's desk chair.
"Because you're changing, Vicki, and it's not something you wanna do alone." Stefan told her calmly. His attention was on Vicki; Malia had proven that she had no wish to leave until she could control herself and that was good enough for him. Ava was at school and with no humans in the house, Stefan's stress level went down somewhat. But Malia was still under the impression that he brooded, stressed and worried far more than what was healthy. Could a vampire have a stroke? She wondered to herself.
"There's nothing about that Logan guy I killed in here. Not a word. Someone's covering it up." Malia jumped; she was so focused on listening in on Stefan and Vicki that she'd forgotten about the person she should've been worried about. Damon smirked at her surprise, waved the newspaper in her face for emphasis and then dropped it down on her desk with a thump.
"Are you worried someone is onto you?"
"If someone is onto me, then they'll soon be onto you, Gilbert Barbie. We should both be worried." Damon told her.
"I'm nothing like-." Malia stopped abruptly. He smirked, genuinely amused with the situation.
"Nothing like me? Oh, but you are. After a while you'll stop the depressed, moody girl act and be much more fun. You know, after everyone you know and love dies of old age." Damon hit a nerve. Malia hit him. Damon hit the floor, hard, and the compass he was holding fell out of his hand.
"What is that?"
"A compass. People used it before map-quest, you know. And that was uncalled for, by the way." Damon ran his hand over his jaw and moved it around to make sure it wasn't broken. Malia stooped down and grabbed the compass.
"This is Jeremy's pocket watch. What did you do to it?" She turned it over in her hands, trying to decide how to put it back the way it was. Damon got to his feet and snatched it back from her. She made a wild grab at it, but he put a hand against her shoulder and easily held her back.
"I didn't do anything to it, don't be so judgy. Logan Fell had it."
"Well, give it back." She protested.
"No." Damon told her simply, slipping it back into his pocket. The doorbell rang.
"I'll get that. Sounds like your sister." Damon darted downstairs and Malia went after him.
"Is Stefan here?" Elena asked the second Damon had opened the door.
"Yep." Damon replied.
"Where is he?"
"And good morning to you, little Miss-I'm-On-a-Mission."
"How can you be so arrogant and glib after everything that you've done?"
"And how can you be so brave and stupid to call a vampire arrogant and glib?" Damon whirled around and had Malia's wrist in a death grip in under a second.
"Learn how to pick-pocket. You suck at it." He shoved her back and she stumbled off the short step into the living room. Elena walked in and hurried over to her.
"Are you okay?"
"What about my life right now makes you think that I can possibly be okay?" Malia demanded, rubbing her wrist.
"Ava's going over to our house, talking to Jeremy. You have the flu and don't want to get Jenna and Jeremy sick." The tone of voice Elena took on told Malia just how much she hated lying.
"Okay." Malia mumbled back.
"So where's Stefan?" Elena changed the subject. Malia listened intently before responding.
"Coming down the stairs…. There." Malia pointed and Elena turned towards Stefan as he came into view.
"I'll let you guys talk." Malia walk past them and went halfway up the stairs, stopping and sitting down on the landing.
"Where's Vicki?" She heard Elena ask.
"She's upstairs."
"What happens now? Because my brother is out there searching for her with the rest of the town and calling my sister every two minutes, freaking out about both of them. What do I tell him? He's not going to believe the cover story Ava's telling him for much longer. Especially since it's from Ava." Elena complained. Malia rolled her eyes at the insult to her best friend, but couldn't help but agree. Ava was a horrid liar, especially to people she knew as well as she knew Jeremy.
"I'm working with her, but it's gonna take time. She has a very volatile and impulsive personality. She's a drug user. I mean, all that's gonna play a part in how she responds to this."
"So, she's a vampire with issues?" Malia bit back a laugh at that; it was sassy comments like that that reminded her that she and Elena were, in fact, twins.
"What about Malia?" Elena added. Malia tensed, waiting for Stefan to speak his mind about her.
"She's… defensive. She says she wants help but she wants help from herself, not from me."
"Malia's like that." Elena agreed.
"I'm gonna keep them both here with me until I know that their safe."
"How long is that?" Vicki's voice reached Malia's ears. She got up and went back into the living room.
"We can talk about that later." Stefan told Vicki.
"Hey, Vicki. How are you?" Elena obviously hadn't learned her lesson from her conversation with Malia.
"How am I? You're kidding, right?"
Caroline jumped onto Jess's bed. Jess groaned and kept her back turned to her sister. Caroline sighed.
"Come on, Jess, Halloween is a time to smile."
"Actually, it's usually a time to get scared just for the sake of being scared. I'm not going to that school party thing, Care."
"Why not?" Caroline whined.
"I'm depressed."
"Ava and Malia are just playing hard to get." Caroline told her, brushing off the subject. Jess sat up and looked at her.
"We're talking about my best friends, not my boyfriend."
"Which you don't have."
"Yes, please, rub that in my face too." Jess lied back down, burying her face in her pillow.
"I promise you that you'll have fun."
"Don't make promises you can't keep."
"Pretty please come with me?" Caroline leaned over her younger sister, giving her a rough shake as if she didn't already have her attention. Jess groaned in protest and sat up again.
"I don't have anything to wear." Caroline's face broke into a smile.
"That's what I'm here for. I got you covered. Come on!" Caroline encouraged, pulling Jess out of bed. They went across the hall to Caroline's room and the older Forbes sister went to the closet to retrieve a costume.
"A witch?" Jess asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We'll match!"
Elena gasped for breath as Vicki held her by the throat against the wall. Where was Stefan, or Malia? Even Damon would be a welcome surprise.
"Let's get one thing straight. You had my brother whipped for fifteen years. Fifteen years and then you dumped him. When I look at you that is all I see, just so you know. And I'm gonna see Jeremy whenever I wanna see Jeremy, because I have some fun new toys to play with, and I won't think twice about ripping your little head off. You got it?" And then Vicki was off her, colliding with the wall opposite of Elena. Elena rubbed her throat and coughed, staring at Malia, who stood in between them.
"You're going to see my brother whenever you want?" Malia let out a very fake laugh and Vicki glared at her.
"Yeah, no, not happening." Malia added, going over to haul Vicki to her feet by her arm. Vicki struggled and managed to shove Malia backwards.
"Just stay away from me!"
"Trust me, Vicki; being trapped in the same house as you hasn't been a walk in the park for me either! Stay away from my brother and my sister or I'll be one ripping heads off." Vicki stomped out of the room. Elena stared at Malia. Stefan had told her that everything about a person would become enhanced after becoming a vampire; she had just never thought about how violent Malia could become. She was dead serious now; Elena knew if Vicki ever went near one of them again, there would be one less vampire to worry about.
"What's it like? Being a vampire?" Elena ventured, figuring a distraction might be good for both of them.
"I can't separate my feelings. I'm angry at everything and everyone. The only thing I can think clearly about is blood. It's not something I wanted to go through." Malia snapped, still fuming about Vicki.
"Then why did you do it? Turn, I mean?"
"My other choice was death, Elena. And I don't mean how I would've died if I didn't feed. There was a vampire hunter running around with wooden bullets. Stefan got shot. Damon showed up a little too late. I did it to save Stefan." Elena thought about that for a second.
"That was pretty brave."
"Bravery to the point of stupidity… That's kind of my thing. You should really get going."
"But-."
"I can hear your pulse right now and I am starving. You need to go." Malia told her coldly. Elena hesitated for a split second and then hurried out of the room.
Ava sat cross-legged on the couch next to Stefan, studying the homework page in front of her. Everyone couple of seconds, she would look up and glance around the room.
"Vicki, Damon and Malia are all upstairs." Stefan told her, scanning the pages of a history textbook with his eyes.
"Malia and I are kind of avoiding each other and now I'm avoiding Jess and sooner or later she's going cut me loose like she did with her mom after the divorce and… I'm just stressed. I can't concentrate." Ava threw her homework onto the coffee table and flopped back against the cushions.
"Malia seems to be adjusting okay, right? I mean, she seems to be but you've been with her more. And I know that being a vampire must suck and all-." Ava stopped abruptly. Stefan looked at her.
"Why do I come up with the best puns when I'm not trying?" Just then, Damon and Vicki hurried downstairs and over to the front door.
"What are you doing?" Stefan asked, getting up and going over to them. Ava hesitated, but then followed, staying close to Stefan.
"She's been cooped up in your room all day. She's not Anne Frank." Damon protested. Malia came downstairs.
"Do I need to hit someone?" She threatened, staring straight at Damon. He ignored her, as usual.
"No, no. Hey, hey... Now's not the time for this." Stefan told Damon, looking between him and Vicki.
"If you're gonna teach her. Teach her. Show her what it's all about."
"She could hurt someone."
"I'm not taking her to Disneyland. We're going in the front yard. Come on." Damon and Vicki hurried out to the front yard. The other three followed after them. Malia took a deep breath of fresh air.
"Hey, why don't vampires burn up at night too? Moonlight is just reflected sunlight." Ava pointed out, looking to Malia as Stefan argued with Damon. When Malia didn't answer right away, Ava went on.
"I was thinking lower concentration or something. Of course I'm not the resident vampire expert or anything. Though I am living with four vampires at the moment which is totally weird, by the way. Not that you're necessarily weird. Well, no weirder than usual, but-."
"Magic isn't science. It breaks all the rules." Malia interrupted as an answer to her question. Ava stared up at the moon above them and seemed to consider that. Ahead of them, Damon was showing Vicki how to use her vampire speed.
"Live a little. No pun intended." Damon told her with a smirk. Vicki smiled back and then vamp-sped away, disappearing into the trees. Malia, Stefan and Ava looked at Damon.
"Uh… My bad."
"We have to go after her." Malia growled. Her fangs extended automatically and Ava nudged her arm.
"Uh… your fangs are kinda showing…" Ava made a motion towards her mouth. Malia looked away to try and get her vampire face under control.
"She'll go to either Matt or Jeremy." Stefan reminded them.
"I'll go to Jeremy, make sure he's okay and keep Vicki away from him." Malia said quickly. Stefan looked at her.
"I won't hurt him." She assured him.
"I'll go with her." Ava put in. Stefan hesitated but nodded. Ava looked over at Malia.
"We'll take my car." The two girls hurried away from the Salvatore brothers.