Sheriff Forbes questioned everyone about Vicki's disappearance. We all had the same story to tell: Vicki left town and we had no idea when she was coming back.

After the questioning, we went back home. Elena and Jenna were both pouting because of their break-ups—Jenna with Logan and Elena with Stefan. Jeremy was doing homework, of all things. I went upstairs.

Sometimes, I was nostalgic for life before the accident. When I still enjoyed cheerleading. When Elena was still on the squad. She used to have this spark in her eyes and a taste for mischief, but it died when our parents did and she spent all her time writing in the graveyard.

I used to fantasize with Caroline about our futures. We had everything planned. After graduating high school in Mystic Falls, we would go on vacation somewhere glamorous, like New York or Paris. We would go to college somewhere far away, too, in a big city nothing like Mystic Falls. We had scrapbooks, ranging from prom to our weddings.

But Elena wasn't the only one who lost her spark. I started smoking and hanging out with a completely different crowd than the cheerleaders, alienating me from them. Even after I quit smoking, there was a rift there that hadn't yet closed. I kept myself busy, throwing myself at school work, but in the process, I began spending less time with my friends.

As for Jeremy before the accident… Instead of the drug-using emo brother he had become, we used to play pranks on Elena together. He watched all my favorite movies with me, even if they were girly. Though he was self-conscious about it, he drew. He was a real artist, but he gave it up after the accident.

All I used to want was for things to go back to how they were before. But now, as I watched Jeremy be light and happy again, focusing on homework instead of drugs, I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of wrong.

Did that make me a terrible person?

It wasn't like I preferred the weeping version of my brother to this happy one. But it wasn't real. Jeremy loved Vicki, and Vicki was dead, and he never got to deal with it. But what was I supposed to do now? Go to Damon and ask him to uncompel Jeremy, bringing back all of that pain and loss? I didn't want to actively pursue my little brother's suffering, even when it was the right thing to do.

I was sitting on my bed and watching an old comfort movie. Jeremy knocked on my door and I paused it.

"Hey," Jeremy said. "What are you watching?"

"The Princess Bride," I answered. That movie never failed to cheer me up, and I could use some of that lately.

It was one of the movies we used to watch together, and it was clear Jeremy was thinking about it, too. "Can I join?"

My eyes traveled to the sheet of paper in his hand. "That's not why you're here."

He looked sheepish. "Yeah, I wanted to ask your help with my homework. There's this challenging question, but I'd rather watch a movie."

For a moment, all I felt was guilt, hot and cold at once. It passed. Besides, I really did miss watching movies with Jer.

I smiled and patted the space next to me. "Get over here. Before I change my mind and force you to be responsible."

Jeremy laughed as he lied down next to me. "I think that's Elena's job."

I unpaused the movie, and we watched Westley declare that death couldn't stop true love—all it could do was delay it a while.

After the movie ended, I helped Jeremy with his challenging question. When we finished, he left to go finish the rest of the homework in his own room. I decided to follow his example and catch up on my own homework. I was behind because of all the craziness lately.

"Hey, Mel."

I looked up and saw Bonnie. I grinned. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just hanging out with Elena." She hesitated. "I needed to show her something, and I have to show you, too."

I lifted an eyebrow. "Okay…"

"Before I start, you have to promise not to tell anyone," she said.

I was starting to get an inkling what this was about. I had recently found out Bonnie was a witch when Damon confirmed that witches were actually real. I had a feeling she was about to tell me.

"I promise not to tell anyone you're a witch," I told her solemnly.

Her mouth fell open. It was kind of priceless. "How did you know?" she demanded. "Did Elena just text you, or something?"

"I have excellent intuition?" I tried. She was still frowning. I sighed. "Okay, actually, there's something you should know, too. And you have to promise not to say anything."

"Don't tell me you're a witch, too," Bonnie joked a little nervously.

I let out a laugh before sobering. "With the existence of witches, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch that there are other things out there."

"I'm following..." she said.

"I don't know what Elena's told you," I said. Though, knowing her, she probably hadn't said anything. "But vampires are real. Stefan and Damon are both vampires."

She let out a disbelieving scoff, but as she looked me in my eyes, she could see that I was dead serious. "You're not pulling my leg?" she checked anyway.

"I swear to you, Bonnie Bennett," I said. "It's true."

"Oh," she said quietly. "That's…"

"A lot. I know," I said. "After I found out vampires are real, I learned witches are, too. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out all the weird stuff happening to you was related to that."

She nodded. "It's weird, huh? All the jokes about being a psychic and I really am a witch."

"Honestly, after the week I've had, it's not that weird," I told her honestly. "I did see you light a car on fire. With your mind."

We laughed.

After it died down, Bonnie bit her lip. "You don't think I'm a freak now, do you?"

It took a while for me to even process those words, that was how ridiculous they were.

"Bonnie, no." I reached out and grabbed her hand. "Never." It was the earlier nostalgia and reflection that spurred me to say, "After the accident and my whole life imploded, after I never thought I could ever be happy again, you were there for me. You were my rock."

She tried, "Anyone would have done that—"

I interrupted her. "Where you go, I'm going. If you're a freak then so am I."

Bonnie gave me a vulnerable smile. "Thank you, Mel."

I pulled her into a tight hug.

After Bonnie left, Elena left too. She went to talk with Stefan.

I didn't know what to think about that. How could a relationship between them ever work out? She was human. She was mortal, and his food source. It couldn't last. But Stefan had made Elena happy again, which was so heartening to see after all this time. I didn't want her to lose that.

Caroline called me and said she was throwing a party at the Grill. After she hung up, I got ready for the party.

I left my room when I heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Hey, Lena," I greeted.

Elena made it upstairs. "Hey." She sounded tired.

"How did it go with Stefan?"

"There was a girl in a towel." My eyebrows turned up. Elena elaborated, "Lexi, she's a friend of Stefan's. I got confused and kind of assumed…"

"Oh," I said, my face scrunching up. "I'm sorry."

Elena shrugged, but I could tell this was affecting her. She changed the subject, "Anyway, why are you all dressed up? Are you going to Caroline's party?"

I noddd. "Will you come?"

Elena smiled. "Yeah. I wasn't going to, but, I've changed my mind."

Elena and I headed to the Grill together, but we quickly went our seperate ways. I noticed Stefan at the pool table with a pretty blonde—I had to assume that was towel girl. I wanted to talk to Bonnie and Caroline, but the two seemed to be in an argument I didn't want to get in the middle of.

All the booths were occupied so I sat down at the bar, bored. The bartender eyed me warily, wondering if I would ask him to serve my underage self alcohol. I smiled at him and shook my head. I just wanted somewhere to sit.

As I watched the bartender serve people drinks, I heard a whisper. I couldn't make out what it was saying. I looked around, but no one sitting close to me was whispering. I heard it again—it was very soft, but it was clearly there.

I frowned as another person joined in, and another. Several people were supposedly whispering now—but I could see no one actually doing the whispering. Was I the only one who noticed this? What the hell?

The door closed behind me. The whispers grew louder. Someone a few seats over slammed down his glass. The whispers grew louder. But I still couldn't make out what these people were saying. It was incredibly frustrating, and no one else was noticing it, and I wanted to scream. The door closed yet again, and then someone took the seat next to me.

"Hi, you're Elena's sister, right?"

Blissful silence filled my ears, despite the fact that the Grill was quite loud. The whispers had stopped.

The blonde continued to speak. "I'm Lexi, an old friend of Stefan's."

"Melanie," I introduced. Her wording dawned on me. An old friend of Stefan's. "You're a vampire."

She chuckled at my bluntness. "I am," she said. "You have to know, me and Stefan are just really good friends. I'm his BFF, but I'm no threat to your sister's relationship with him."

"Why are you telling me? I'm not Elena."

Lexi shrugged. She seemed very laidback, not at all like the other vampires I knew. "Stefan tells me that you are new to all this." She gestured at herself. "You must have questions. I can answer them."

"Out of the goodness of your heart?" I questioned sceptically.

She didn't take offense. "I have this thing, for helping people. I'll admit, it's not always a good thing. I tried to help Damon once, you know."

I considered the Damon that I knew and concluded it was an epic failure. Patronizingly, I said, "I can see you do fantastic work."

She still didn't take offense. She just laughed. "Hey, I never claimed my success rate is perfect."

Despite myself, I was starting to like her. Enough to take her up on her offer. "I don't even know where to begin," I admitted. "Is Stefan really as harmless as he seems?"

Lexi let out a breath. "Starting with the hard questions first, eh?" I frowned. Why would it be a hard question? "Right now, yes, he is. He hasn't fed on human blood for decades. Let's just say that's for a good reason."

It wasn't hard to fill in the blanks of what Lexi wasn't saying. It was clear Stefan had a past. One just as bloody if not bloodier than Damon's.

Not wanting to dwell on it, I asked my next question. "What is it like? To be a vampire?"

"All our emotions are heightened," she replied. "We feel everything more strongly. Hate and love both."

"Do you have love?" I asked curiously.

"I do." Lexi smiled. "My boyfriend makes me feel human. He gives me a connection to that distant part of me that died when I turned."

Wow. "That's really romantic."

I had never really looked at it before, from a vampire's perspective. They weren't born as predators with superpowers. They were human, once. It never occured to me that they might miss it.

Lexi and I talked some more, but eventually she left to go back to Stefan.

When I was alone, the whispers started again. I tried to shut it out. I saw Elena walking towards me and suddenly the whispers became clear—like someone was whispering right in my ear. Except it wasn't just one person, it was a whole cacaphony of voices.

"One will die tonight." All the whispers repeated that one phrase, using different voices and different tones.

"Mel," Elena said as she touched my shoulder, having finally arrived at my seat. Without even trying to read them, her thoughts entered my mind. She wanted to ask me why I told Bonnie about vampires. I could hardly focus on it.

"I have to go," I told her as I ran for the exit.

The whispers stopped when I was outside. I tried to get control of my breathing.

"Mel!"

I turned around. Elena reached me and grabbed my shoulders.

"What happened to you?" she asked, concerned.

I painted a smile on my face. "I just needed some fresh air."

She gave me a once-over. "Are you okay now?"

I nodded. We went back inside. I was afraid the whispers would start again, but they didn't. But while the whispers were gone, the fear was not.

One will die tonight.

I knew it in my bones—it was the truth.

And it terrified me.

The night dragged on. I watched everyone with wariness, afraid that any moment something bad would happen or someone would spontaneously drop dead.

I noticed Bonnie and Caroline avoiding each other; I noticed Matt and Tyler by the pool table; I noticed Lexi and Elena having a conversation; Jeremy, Stefan and Damon were here too, somewhere. In my gut, I knew it wasn't just going to be some stranger. It had to be one of them. But who?

Bonnie sat down next to me.

"Hey." She sighed. "Caroline's avoiding me."

"Why?"

"She gave me a crystal a while ago, which apparently belonged to Damon, not her. Now, she wants it back." Bonnie gave me a look, and I caught her drift easily.

"Which means Damon wants it back."

"Exactly," she said. "I'm worried, Mel. Especially knowing what I do, now."

Worry began gnawing at me as I considered it. Caroline had failed in getting the crystal back. Damon had killed for less.

"This crystal…" I said carefully. "How important is it to him, exactly?"

Bonnie frowned. "Well, Caroline's been pretty insistent. Even insulted me a couple of times. So, important, I guess."

There was a chance I was losing my mind and those whispers weren't real, but in a world of vampires and witches, I couldn't afford to take that chance. Not with Caroline's life on the line.

I let out a slow breath. "Bonnie, listen to me very carefully. Go to Caroline and stick with her. It doesn't matter that she's angry with you, this is life or death. Be prepared to use your magic to protect her."

If she could set cars on fire, she could set vampires on fire, too, right?

Bonnie looked incredibly alarmed, but to her credit, she didn't question it. She immediately left to go find Caroline. I wanted to follow, but that was when I noticed something strange.

Sheriff Forbes and her deputies came barging into the Grill, looking like they had an important purpose. At first, I thought they were just here to break up the party—underage drinking, maybe?—but then they marched up to where Damon and Lexi were sitting. Before I knew it, they were catching Lexi in their arms. They'd injected her with a syringe, and she'd just…collapsed, couldn't hold herself up anymore. They began taking her away.

I tried to exit the Grill to follow Lexi but kept getting stopped by deputies. Luckily, the back exit wasn't guarded. I went through it and it led me to an alleyway.

I was startled by what I saw: Sheriff Forbes shooting bullets at Lexi. I found a nearby car and hid behind it, so I wouldn't be spotted. Lexi was weak from whatever the deputies had injected her with, but she still managed to fight them off. She charged towards Liz. Before she could attack her, though, Damon appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

He had a stake.

Realization that I was wrong about tonight's death hit me just as he drove the stake straight through Lexi's heart. My own heart hammered against my chest and I had to look away when her skin began to go gray—just like Vicki's had. She was dead.

I stood behind the car, motionless, until I realized that I might be spotted by the sheriff or one of her deputies. I didn't want that, so I dropped to the ground, hoping I was quick enough and that no one saw me.

I hadn't known Lexi for long. I didn't know how much blood she had on her hands. But I couldn't help but think, over and over: she didn't deserve this.

At a distance, I could hear Elena and Stefan arguing—no doubt Stefan was furious about Damon murdering his best friend. Closer to me, I could hear Sheriff Forbes talking with Damon as if they were friends. Stranger still, she seemed to know about vampires.

I didn't move from my position on the ground, behind the car. I was too dazed. Not just by Lexi's death; but by the fact that I'd known it was going to happen. Bad feelings were one thing. Now creepy whispers?

I kept getting warned when something bad would happen, but I was never able to stop it. My fist clenched. What the hell was the point?

"What are you doing here, Melanie?"

I gasped at the sound of Damon's voice—I hadn't heard him approach. My eyes narrowed when they met his, and I ignored his question entirely. I stood up. "Why would you do that?"

"I had to get the council off my tail," he answered, quick and easy. "They were looking for a vampire, so I gave them one."

"What council?" I asked incredulously.

He lifted an eyebrow. "The secret council by the founding families. Against vampires, of course."

Right. Sure. Of course! At this point, why not.

"If you had to pin the blame on her, you could've just waited until she left town."

"What do you want me to say?" he snapped, before mocking, "You want me to say I'm sorry?"

"If you're not, then you're a special kind of monster," I told him, scowling.

"In case you haven't noticed, I am a monster," he told me with an exasperated hand gesture, but there was thunder in his eyes.

"I just don't get it," I said, shaking my head. "All of this, just for one woman? She died more than a century ago. Don't you think it's time to move on? Eat some ice cream. Listen to sappy songs. Don't kill your brother's best friend for a ghost. "

He tensed before he faked a chipper smile. "You wouldn't understand."

"That much is clear," I agreed. "Just… There is only so much Stefan will take from you. Killing Lexi?" I arched my eyebrow. "If I were you, I'd start looking over my shoulder."

I walked away, my legs trembling. First Vicki and now Lexi. Two deaths in a row.

I had a feeling there would be many more to come.

We're starting to deviate from canon a little, as Bonnie learns about vampires earlier.

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