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Stranded in this spooky town,
Stoplights are swaying and the phone lines are down
Floor is crackling cold,
She took my heart, I think she took my soul
With the moon I run,
Far from the carnage of the fiery sun

Driven by the strangle of vein
Showin' no mercy I do it again
Open up your eyes
You keep on crying, baby I'll bleed you dry
Skies are blinking at me
I see a storm bubbling up from the sea

And it's coming closer

- Closer by Kings of Leon

Chapter Fourteen - Hard to Swallow

Stefan and Willow found themselves still on that rooftop. Willow was leaning against the door way that lead back into the restaurant, her head in her hands. Her mind was working a mile a minute, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Stefan's brother had used mind control; Damon had somehow made Willow be silent through this entire ordeal, and convince Vicki to forget the whole thing had even happened. The two brothers had gone on about feeding on hers and Vicki's blood, mentioned vampire god knows how many times. Willow squeezed her eyes shut, her head starting to hurt. It was time to get some answers.

"Stefan, please. What's going on?" Willow begged in a croaky voice. She tried to clear her throat but it seemed that Damon gripping her throat earlier had actually done some damage.

Stefan stared intently into her eyes, a morose expression on his face. "I think you know." Stefan all but whispered.

Willow shook her head defiantly. "No, Stefan, I really don't. I don't know anything!" She spat, forcing herself to stand up straight. "None of this makes any sense!" She yelled, clearly getting upset.

Stefan swallowed and let out a sigh, his breath appearing in a small fog due to the cold night air. He never wanted it to come to this. Maybe Willow would've found out one day, but he wanted to tell her himself rather than her discovering it because her life had been put in danger. But this was the hand that he had been dealt with. And with everything that had just happened he thought that Willow had a right to know everything. "What did you see, Willow?" He asked her.

"What?" Willow muttered.

"What you saw, and what you heard, it's all true."

Willow shook her head. "No, no. Vampires aren't real, okay? They're not!" She insisted. "They're made up."

"You know it's true, Willow."

Willow fell back against the door, muttering to herself. "No, no, no, no. Is.. am I... am I going crazy?" She turned to Stefan, her eyes looking almost manic, "Is that what's happening? I'm losing my mind again?"

Stefan frowned in concern. He had seen her yesterday when she was acting like this, when she had seen his face change at the sight of blood. Her behaviour was quite frightening and it made him extremely worried for where this idea that she was 'crazy' came from. Why was she so paranoid about if anything was real or not?

"No, Willow." Stefan began, reaching for her hands. She flinched when his fingers brush her knuckles. Stefan faltered. "Willow, listen to me. You are not imagining things. Everything that you heard and saw up here happened. Vampires are real. They're very real and very dangerous."

Willow took a deep breath, looking back to Stefan. She stared at him intently, her brown eyes boring into his green ones. It almost unnerved Stefan at how intently she was looking at him. Suddenly, she blinked and shifted away from him. "And... you're one of them. You're a vampire..." She practically choked. "All that stuff your brother was saying... about drinking my blood..." She took a deep breath and watched him. "Is that what you do? Drain people dry? Is that what all those dead bodies have been? You and him going around feeding?"

"No." Stefan told her sternly. "None of that is me. That's not what I do. It's all Damon. He's the one killing people."

Willow glared at him. "Why the hell should I believe you?"

Stefan blinked. He was surprised, and admittedly, hurt by her question. Since they had met there had been nothing but trust between them. Though they clearly didn't know everything about one another because they had only knowing eachother for a couple of weeks. But Stefan already felt like he had made a friendship with her that would last. And to see her so distraught, moving away from him because she was afraid of him, accusing him of killing people. Her fear and distrust of him hurt just as much as Elena walking away from him earlier that night.

"Because that's not who I am." Not anymore, his brain decided to point out. "I don't hurt people. I don't want to hurt people." Stefan said to her despondently.

Willow continued to eye him with uncertainty. For all she knew he could be lying. What if he was just trying to gain her trust, lowering her guard so that he could attack her at any moment. And Vicki... Poor Vicki. "What about Vicki? She told me in the hospital that a vampire had attacked her." Stefan raised his eyebrows in surprise at this. "She was so sure about it. And I didn't believe it at first, but the more she went on about it and the more that I thought it over... I started to see some kind of truth in what she was saying." She swallowed. "A vampire attacked Vicki... you or Damon, or whatever."

"No, Willow, please. It wasn't me. I would never harm Vicki, or you, or anyone for that matter." He begged. Stefan was desperate for her to understand that he would never ever bring her or anyone else any harm. "It was Damon. He attacked in the woods at the party. The same goes for all those people who have been turning up dead lately."

"This is insane." She breathed.

Stefan wholeheartedly agreed with her. "I know."

Willow bowed her head, her chest rising and falling heavily. "I... I can't think straight."

Stefan stepped towards her, cautiously placing a hand on her shoulder. She stiffened but didn't move away from him. "It's a lot to take in."

"I can't take it in." She said, bring her gaze back to his. "Vampires? Vampires are real! You're a vampire!" She exclaimed, while Stefan tried to get her to keep her voice down but she ignored him. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever said! What, am I in some crappy TV show or something?"

"Just relax, Willow." Stefan pleaded.

"Relax?!" Willow hissed. "How? How am I supposed to ever relax again?" Willow shook her head quickly, almost giving her whiplash. "No, no, no. I have to go. This is not real."

"Willow-"

"Stefan! Don't." Her hand reached for the door handle and she yanked it open. "This is too much. I don't need this shit! Okay? I don't! All of this is not real, and if you think it's funny to fuck with me like this then you can shove your friendship up your ass!" Once her outburst was over, she whirled around and sprinted down the steps, heading for the door that would lead her to the back entrance of the restaurant. She hot and sweaty, her heart racing as she made to open the door. She managed to open it a few inches before it was slammed shut by a force.

Willow gasped when she saw Stefan in front of her. His arm was across the door, preventing her from leaving. Willow leapt backwards, a loud gasp escaping her. Stefan didn't look threatening, or like he was going to hurt her. He just seemed extremely worried and panicked; his green eyes wide and his lips in a straight line. Willow didn't care though, because he was scaring her. She stumbled backwards, losing her footing when her heal came in contact with a step. Stefan reached forward with inhumane speed, looping his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. Willow snapped her eyes shut, leaning herself away from him.

"Willow," Stefan practically whispered. "Open your eyes, Willow."

Willow gulped, and not wanting to seem like some pathetic little girl, forced her eyes open. She didn't meat his eyes, but kept them locked his chin. "I am sorry. But this is all real. Yes, I'm a vampire. Yes, I drink blood, but not human blood." His voice was calm, but from what Willow saw earlier he was worried about her reception of him being a vampire.

Willow's eyes widened suddenly when she felt his other arm come around her shoulders. Willow was stiff in his hold. She was frightened. She had just seen Stefan use inhumane strength and speed, not to mention Damon threatening her and Vicki earlier tonight. It was all starting to make her feel freaked out. How could this be real? Vampires were imaginary; fictional creatures in love stories. So how was she standing here right now, in the arms of a vampire? One that she believed was her friend.

Willow furrowed her brows, and despite her better judgement, laid her forehead against his chest and let out a shaky sigh. Stefan closed his eyes and bowed his head and turned it towards her own, resting his cheek on her head, her soft hair tickling his cheek.

Willow moved her gaze upwards, and then closed her eyes.

Sweet Stefan... or so she thought.

Willow couldn't remember how she got home. She just knew that Stefan had used his weird mind control on her boss to let her go home, and that was that. She didn't wait for Stefan to finish, just left before anymore words could be said. He didn't follow her. Maybe he understood that she was okay to leave this time.

By the time she got home, Raven was asleep on the sofa. She watched him for a few seconds, sighed and then grabbed the throw from the back of the sofa and gently placed it over him. Without another look, she went towards the tiny bathroom. She flicked the light on, cringed at the bright light, and looked into the mirror. What looked back at her made her frown.

Her dark curls looked tangled and a mess. Her make-up was messed up; mascara and eye-liner smeared on her right eye. Her eyes looked blood shot and tired. But all of that wasn't made her frown in the first place. She had large marks on her neck and wrists. While they weren't completely showing as bruises yet, the red marks were beginning to turn a sickly dark colour. Her wrist looked the worst though; the one that Damon had twisted and held in a vice grip behind her back. It had already started to swell and darken in colour. She touched it gingerly and flinched from the pain. Willow immediately started looking for painkillers in the cabinet. She rummaged and shoved everything out of the way but found nothing. Willow huffed in anger and annoyance. Raven had probably moved them, put them somewhere that a depressed Willow would never find them.

Willow scowled, grinding her teeth together. She slammed the cabinet door shut, not caring if it woke Raven up or not. Moving away from the mirror, she shoved the bathroom door open and stormed to her bedroom, this time making sure not to slam this door. Willow practically fell onto her bed, her hair fanning out behind her.

She tried to swallow everything that had happened tonight. Now that she was away from the situation, she could think more clearly.

Vampires were real.

Willow frowned, scrunching her brows together. Like before when she had visited Vicki in hospital, she had made the connection that the attacks could have been caused by vampires because the wounds Vicki and the others had gotten was only on their neck and nowhere else. Plus, they had all lost a lot blood. So she could accept that. Accept that Damon was a vampire, running around hurting people even though she really shouldn't.

It was Stefan that she was finding hard to accept.

It sounded wrong to believe that Damon was a vampire and not Stefan. But that was because she trusted Stefan. Stefan was her friend. Stefan was kind, caring, funny and sweet. It was just hard for her to accept that Stefan was... well, a monster basically.

Willow sighed and turned onto her side, pulling herself into a fetal position. Why was she being so judgey of Stefan? If she was supposed to be his friend then maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt. Willow groaned, annoyed at her own thoughts. She just seemed to be going back and forth and it was making her more exhausted than she already was. Willow shifted on her bed, kicked off her shoes and moved to the top of her bed. Maybe it'd be better if she just slept on it. If she even could sleep.

But as soon as her head hit the pillow she could feel herself starting to drift off. Her eyes closed completely, and she was about to be asleep completely when she heard a ping signalling that she had a text message.

"Whoever is texting me better have a death wish." Willow growled as she yanked her phone out of her pocket. She looked at her phone, just wanting to know who it was. She saw that she had 7 phone calls from Raven and 8 text messages. All wondering where she was. She rolled her eyes, going to the recent message that she had gotten.

Sorry for everything. Sweet dreams. - S

Willow felt her hear flutter at the message. She brought the phone to her chest, and smiled. That one message had sealed everything. She would go to him tomorrow, apologise for acting like the worst friend ever, and accept him completely for who he was.

That ending kinda sucks, but whatever. It's late and I have a long shift in work tomorrow. Anyway, that's finally the end of the episode. We're now on episode 3. Good grief! This is taking forever! It's gonna take me 84 years before I manage to actually finish season 1 at this rate! Blame work for that. Like usual, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next. Just whenever I get five minutes. I'll correct grammar when I have the chance. I hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading, favouriting, following and reviewing. I really appreciate it.