I woke up but I didn't feel well rested at all. All night, I kept thinking about what had happened with Emily; what she had told me. Not human? That sounded ridiculous, but the more I thought about everything that was happening with me, the more it didn't. Then again, Emily had broken her century-and-a-half old deal with Damon, so her reliability didn't seem stellar.

I got out of bed, grabbed a notebook and a pen, and started jotting everything down. I could figure this out.

Mind reading for as long as I can remember—can't read: Bonnie, Stefan, Damon

Don't need vervain to resist compulsion

"Bad feelings" started a couple months ago: unable to breathe, headache, nausea, vomiting
Examples: Vicki's first bite, Tanner's death, my own neck wound, Vicki being turned

(Recently no more bad feelings? Damon almost fed on Bonnie and it didn't happen)

Creepy whispers "One will die tonight"
Right before Lexi's death

Strange dream
A forest and a voice
Old picture of Elena in 1864

I stared at the notebook, trying to figure out what this all meant. Then I recalled Bonnie, Stefan and Damon weren't the only ones I couldn't read.

I'd always been able to read Vicki. But right after she turned into a vampire, I tried, and yet all I could hear was white noise. That was it! Vicki, Stefan and Damon were vampires. Bonnie was a witch. I couldn't read the minds of the supernatural.

Excited, I edited the first line in the notebook.

Mind reading since forever—can't read: Bonnie, Stefan, Damon, Vicki (can't read the supernatural!)

Next I added Emily's words, to jot down the complete picture.

Emily Bennett said I'm not human
A powerful spell was placed on me and only recently broken

I closed the notebook. It felt oddly relieving to write it all down. Sometimes, I felt like I was going crazy with all the secrets I was keeping. Maybe it was finally time I told someone.

For now, though, I had to go to school. There was a career assembly today. I put the notebook away.

When I walked through the hallway, I noticed through Jeremy's ajar door that he had his sketch pad out. While it brought conflicting feelings about the compulsion to the surface, it also made me smile. Jeremy hadn't pursued his artistic abilities since the car accident, and I knew he really enjoyed it.

"So is there an update on the Stefan situation?" Jenna was asking Elena downstairs.

"He knows how I feel and where I stand and I know where he stands but it doesn't matter," said Elena. "He's leaving. Moving away."

I already knew this. Stefan was leaving as to not bring more danger into Elena's life, and Damon was probably leaving too, without Katherine and Stefan to keep him here. It felt strange, after everything that had happened, to picture a normal life without vampires. Though I didn't think 'normal' was attainable for me, even without the Salvatore brothers.

Surprisingly, I would even miss Stefan. I had been wary of him since learning he was a vampire, warier when learning he had a violent past, but he had been so good to my sister who had needed it. And we had bonded.

As for Damon… Good riddance. That was the truth. I wouldn't miss him. That was a lie, but I ignored the little voice in my head that was calling me out.

"Yours leaves, mine returns," Jenna said.

"Logan?" I asked. I knew things hadn't ended well between the two.

"He's back," Jenna confirmed. Me and Elena groaned. "I didn't let him past the front door."

"I hope you slammed it in his face," Elena said.

"I would have paid to see that," I said.

"It was a medium slam. You didn't miss much," Jenna assured.

"Three strike rule, Jenna," Elena warned. "You're not even allowed to watch the news."

"Exactly," Jenna agreed. "No more Logan 'Scum' Fell."

I went to school and attended my classes, but I kept zoning out. I couldn't stop thinking about what Emily had said; putting off dealing with it until after school was proving harder than I thought.

After my final class I went to what would become the career assembly. They were still setting it all up. Not many exhibits were finished yet, but I did notice the art exhibit seemed done already. I headed there, curious if Jeremy had contributed—he was kind of shy about his art, though, so I doubted it. But it never hurt to check it out.

I didn't find a drawing of Jeremy's; however, I did see one of Tyler's old drawings on display. He was shy about his art, too, but he had shown me a couple of sketches when we were dating, this one included. I felt nostalgia like the jagged edge of a knife. Sometimes I missed Tyler.

I got the sensation that I was being watched. I whirled around and saw a familiar face.

"Damon?" I asked. "Weren't you leaving?"

"Disappointed?" he quipped, but his face was serious. Something was going on. "I need to talk to you."

I sighed. "Fine." I followed him to an empty hallway. I smirked. "What's the sitch?"

"I need your help," Damon said, all business. I was a little creeped out by how serious he was being. He wasn't pulling any of his usual smug facial expressions.

Then his words dawned on me. He needed my help? My eyebrows raised as I scoffed. "This should be good."

"There's another vampire in town."

Oh, come on! "You're kidding."

"Nope. Someone got attacked, and it wasn't me. Wasn't Stefan either, obviously."

Ugh. This was just further proof that my life would never be normal again. If it ever was.

"So what do you need me for?" I asked. He pulled a compass out of his pocket. On second glance, a very familiar compass. "This is—"

"I know," he interrupted. "It's the Gilbert compass. It tracks vampires."

I looked at it more clearly and saw that it was pointing to Damon.

"Huh," I said, nonplussed. "Okay. But why do you want to track this vampire? Aren't you leaving Mystic Falls?"

There was his typical smug facial expression again. "You sound so hopeful."

"Well, things were a lot quieter without you around."

"Since when do you like quiet?" He scoffed. "The girl who dared me to kill her certainly didn't seem scared of a little danger."

"Oh, so you suddenly know me now?" My eyes narrowed. "You tried to attack my best friend yesterday. Don't act like we're friends."

He rolled his eyes before looking at me patiently. "Once this new vampire is gone, you'll be rid of me forever." He smiled wryly. "Just like you want."

"Look at that, dreams do come true," I deadpanned.

I used the Gilbert compass to track down where the vampire was hiding. Damon kept his distance because he interfered with the signal. It took a while, but I located the vampire.

To my reluctance, we had to exchange phone numbers for this to work. I called Damon and told him what I'd found. He arrived soon after.

Damon took the device from me and placed it in his pocket. "That was it. You can go home now."

I froze. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. I had a bad vibe—not one of my vomit-inducing bad feelings, thankfully, but a sense that something was wrong.

I bit my lip. "How about I stay here and wait for you instead?"

He lifted an eyebrow. "Worried about me?"

"Hardly," I said, squinting my eyes slightly. "Seriously, why are you even helping get rid of this vampire? You could've just skipped town. You certainly don't care about anyone in it." My voice got pointed at the last part as I quoted him from the night Emily destroyed the crystal.

He stiffened, before shrugging. "I don't like anyone taking my spot as the bad guy here. I've got dibs."

I couldn't tell if he was telling the truth, that it was the only reason he was helping.

Damon moved towards the abandoned warehouse, then hesitated. "If you hear things going sideways in there, you should get out of here."

I lifted an eyebrow. "Worried about me?"

He rolled his eyes. "Or not. Your choice. Get ripped apart, what do I care." He went inside the building.

I stayed behind, feeling a small burst of disappointment again at hearing those words which was ridiculous. It faded quickly.

A minute passed. I jumped, startled, when I heard gunshots and the sound of Damon yelling out in pain. I got out my phone. I called Elena, but she wasn't picking up. I tried Stefan next, no luck either. They were probably both at the career assembly.

For a moment, I considered leaving. This was sideways, alright. But… It didn't sit right with me. I let out a grunt of frustration. Dammit, was I really going to go in there, for him? After all he had done and all he would probably do?

…Apparently, I was. I sneaked inside the warehouse, making sure to be as light on my feet as I possibly could. As I got closer, I could hear voices. This was stupid. What was I even doing? I didn't have a weapon or anything! Maybe, though…I could get close enough to the vampire to catch him off guard, and then Damon could get the upper hand.

The vampire's back was to me, but Damon could see me just fine. He glared at me. 'Go,' he mouthed.

The vampire didn't notice. "Why am I so overly emotional?"

I knew that voice. I had to stifle a gasp when I placed him as Logan Fell.

"All I can think about is my ex-girlfriend," Logan said. "I want to be with her and bite her and stuff."

"Well, you probably love her," Damon answered, his jaw clenched. His eyes kept darting to me whenever Logan was distracted. "Anything you felt before will be magnified now. You're gonna have to learn to control that."

"What about walkin' in the sun?" Logan asked. "I'm a morning peson. You can walk in the sun, which by the way is pretty cool. The council'd never suspect you."

While Logan rambled, I sneaked closer.

"That's not in the journals." Journals? "The founding fathers, they passed down their journals to their kids," he clarified when Damon asked. "Come on man, ya gotta tell me. How can you walk in the sun?"

"Who turned you?" Damon shot back.

"How do you walk in the sun?" Logan repeated.

"Who turned you?" Damon asked again.

Jesus, they were stubborn. Distracted by their back-and-forth, I accidentally bumped into a pole. My eyes widened. In the distance, Damon gave me an exasparated look.

"…Melanie," Logan greeted, standing before me in no time thanks to his super speed. I swallowed. "How's Jenna? Is she good?"

"She's doing great without you," I said nastily before I could stop myself. Dammit! I never had a filter when it came to facing down dangerous vampires, apparently.

Logan's let out his vamp face as he snarled at me. I took a giant step back, but that was as far as I got. He grabbed me and held onto me with ease, dragging me back to where Damon was.

"I'll kill her," Logan threatened while I tried to break free but couldn't.

"Then you'll never know," said Damon. My eyebrows raised a little. I'd half-expected him to shrug while Logan did his worst.

Logan cocked my head to the side, exposing my neck. Every breath I took came out shaky. I should have listened to my gut earlier—we never should have gone inside the warehouse. But it was too late for that now.

I prepared to feel the sensation of teeth sinking into my neck for the second time when Damon called out, "Wait! She's got vervain in her system."

I most definitely did not have vervain in my system.

Logan paused, before scoffing. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Go ahead," Damon dared him. "Do it. But don't be surprised when the vervain weakens you and I rip your heart out."

I waited to see if Logan would call his bluff. After what seemed like an eternity, he didn't. Instead, he threw me down. I fell on the ground. Just when I began to feel a glimmer of relief, I rolled around and faced Logan again, only to see him holding a gun.

I frantically began to scramble backwards, my eyes not leaving him.

"Fine. I'll do it the old-fashioned way." Logan smirked, before aiming his gun at me.

Damon was in front of me in a flash. A dozen bullet wounds entered his chest in rapid succesion.

I flinched and covered my ears at the explosive sound. I could not believe he had done that for me.

"I have things to do, people to kill," Logan said after he was done. "Guess I needed a little headstart."

He used his vampire speed and disappeared.

"Holy shit. Holy shit," I said hysterically as I uncovered my ears.

"You're gonna have to pull them out," Damon groaned.

"What?" I exclaimed. "No!"

He gave me a look, but it was dulled by the pain he was obviously in. "Seriously? I just saved your life," he paused to let out another groan, "it's the least you could do."

"Okay," I said softly. I steeled myself, taking a deep breath, before getting to work. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was going to have to try.

I began to pull bloody bullets from his body. At one point, I had pulled out enough that he could do the rest. Relieved, I looked away. I wiped my bloody hands on my shirt, probably ruining the shirt forever; it didn't matter.

"Why did you save my life?" I asked after he'd pulled out the final bullet. "I can't believe you did that."

"Neither can I," he said, voice angry. I looked at him with surprise. "How could you be so stupid to just go in here—"

"I heard gunshots," I defended.

"So? I had it handled!"

I scoffed. "Yeah, that's what it looked like."

We stood up. He frowned at me and tilted his head. "You know, I'm wondering. Why didn't you use any witchy woo to make Logan back the hell off?"

"Because I'm not a witch, okay?!" I snapped before I could stop myself. "Can we not do this right now?" I really didn't feel like explaining the contents of my notebook to him, after what just happened. Also, Logan was still on the loose. Didn't really have time for a longwinded explanation.

"Fine," he told me, raising his eyebrows. "What do I care?"

"Yeah, you've said that before. Then you took a dozen bullets for me."

He sighed, exasparated. "What do you want me to say?"

"I'm confused you saved my life, that's all. Last time we saw each other you threatened to rip out my throat."

"You threatened me first. Bad move," he told me, smirking again, before he shrugged. "Besides, that wasn't exactly a great day for me. You remember."

He found out the girl he'd been pining for since 1864 couldn't be saved after all. 'Not a great day' was an understatement. I still remembered how lost he'd looked afterwards. Yeah, that had not been the best time for me to pick a fight with him.

I plastered on a fake smile. "Wow, is that your version of an apology?"

"Don't push it," he said wryly. He glanced around the warehouse. "We should go."

We went outside. "Now what?" I asked.

"Now I track down Logan. I'll let you know when it's done—call me if he shows up at your place."

"Okay," I said while nodding. "But right after he's dealt with, I'm deleting your number."

His mouth twitched. "You know, if I had feelings, that wouldn't hurt them."

I stifled a laugh.

After I got home, I immediately took a shower to wash off the blood from pulling out the bullets. After that, I felt much better—though I was still filled with disbelief over everything that had happened, Damon saving my life most of all. He was still an asshole, but I did feel gratitude.

No one else was home—Jenna, Elena and Jeremy were all still at the career fair at school. I decided to go there as well, taking the car me and Elena shared as the others must have gone in Jenna's car.

I ran into Stefan before I found Elena.

"Hey," I greeted. "Have you seen my sister?"

"Melanie. Damon called and told me what happened." Stefan held eyecontact with me. "Are you okay?"

I smiled, touched by the concern. "Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks."

"Logan's here at the school," he grimly informed me.

My smile dropped. "What?"

"We should find Elena," he said. I nodded, and we headed off to find her together. I kept shooting him glances while we walked. He noticed, but didn't say anything until it got ridiculous. "Is…everything alright, Melanie?"

I bit my lip. This was probably going to sound crazy. But Stefan was alive in 1864. If anyone would know about the old picture of Elena I saw in my dream… Well, Damon would probably know too, but I didn't feel like asking him.

I sighed, giving in to my curiosity. "This is probably going to sound really, really weird… But do you know anything about an old picture of Elena? Like, really old. …1864 old."

He abrubtly stopped walking. I stopped too, glancing at him. His eyes were wide. "You know."

Okay, then. Stefan definitely knew what I was talking about, but his reaction was really weird.

"Know what?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

"About Katherine," he said grimly.

"What does this have to do with your ex?" I asked, incredulous.

Now he was confused, too. "…There's a name on the picture, you didn't see it?"

"No." It had been blurred out in my dream. "Can you start making sense?"

Stefan sighed, world weary. "Katherine and Elena…they look exactly alike. The way that twins do."

I stared at him for three seconds as I processed, before hissing, "What?"

"I don't know why," he said. "And we don't have time to argue about this. We have to find Logan."

"Fine." We began walking again. I just couldn't believe it; it hadn't been an old picture of Elena at all—it had been a picture of Katherine. Stefan had been dating a twin of his ex all along. "Does Elena know?"

"She doesn't," he said like it pained him.

I was about to ask if he'd only been dating Elena because of her looks—maybe Damon wasn't the only one still pining after Katherine—but I didn't get the chance.

"What don't I know?" Elena's eyebrows were raised.

"Elena!" I said, a fake smile making its way onto my face. "You're here. Um." I turned to Stefan. Let him think up an excuse. "What doesn't she know, again?"

"To which city I'll be going," Stefan lied. "After I leave Mystic Falls."

Right, he was leaving. They were broken up. Maybe…maybe if they were never going to see each other again it didn't matter. Maybe Elena didn't have to know.

"I don't want to know," she scoffed, still thinking we were talking about cities and not Stefan's ex.

"Good. Let's find Logan," I said quickly.

I spotted Matt standing by an exhibit and made my way to him. I asked him if he had seen Logan and he replied that Logan was taking Caroline home.

I forced a smile and thanked Matt before retreating back to Elena and Stefan. I turned to them. "You got all that, right?"

Stefan nodded, tense. "Stay here."

He hurried away.

Elena and I looked at each other with fear. Caroline was our friend and now she was in danger.

I thought about how Caroline and I weren't on great terms because she thought the seance had been a prank. Added to that, I had been skipping more and more cheer practise lately, when I was supposed to be her co-captain. Why hadn't I taken the time to make it up with her?

"Hey." Elena put a hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of it. "She's gonna be okay."

Elena talked a good game, but her hand was shaking and her lower lip was trembling.

I shook my head, tears prickling at my eyes. "You didn't see Logan. He would have shot me full of bullets like that." I snapped my fingers.

"What?" Elena's eyes went wide. Oh, crap. "When did you see Logan?"

"Earlier," I said, before reluctantly admitting, "I was with Damon."

"Damon?" She stared at me with disbelief. "Mel, he's bad news. You have to stay away from him."

"He saved my life, actually." I shook off her hand. "And I only went with him because he needed a—" human. But I wasn't one, if Emily Bennett was to be believed. "Someone who's not a vampire. It's a long story and it doesn't matter now."

After a long, anxious wait, Stefan returned.

"Caroline?" Elena asked immediately.

"She's okay, I took her home," Stefan said. I let out a huge sigh of relief. "She was shaken up, but all she knows is Logan attacked her, nothing else."

"Where's Logan?" Elena asked.

"Damon's dealing with him."

"As in...?" she trailed off.

Stefan just nodded. "You saw what happened tonight, right? I mean you understand why we can't be together?" he urged. "You see it?"

Okay, we just got to awkward town. "I'll leave you two alone," I muttered, walking away from them.

On my way to the school's exit, I called Bonnie.

We exchanged greetings, after which I asked if she was still at the assembly.

"No, I left a while ago," she answered. "…Are you okay? You sound weird."

Bonnie was always so perceptive. "Some stuff happened today," I admitted. "I could really use a friend."

"Is this 'stuff' related to the supernatural?"

"Yep," I sighed. "Can I come over?"

"Sure thing. I'm at my Grams'."

I was hit with a realization. Bonnie's Grams was knowledgable about witches, specifically Bennett witches. Maybe she would know what Emily had meant. Excited, I told Bonnie, "Okay! I'll be right there!"

I hung up and hurried to the car. I got in and hooked up my phone. Then I drove to Sheila Bennett's house. I knew where it was by heart because Bonnie spent more time there than at her actual house—her mother had left and her father was always busy with work, so she could often be found at her grandmother's house instead.

On my way there, my phone rang. I hit the answer button.

"Hello?"

"Mel." Elena was crying.

I was instantly on high alert. "What happened?"

"Me and Stefan made up, but then… Katherine, I found a picture of her and—" Elena cut herself off with a sob. Oh no. "Stefan implied that you knew."

Wow.

"Knew what?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Seriously?" she snapped, hysterical. "I look like her! I look exactly like her!"

"I'm sorry, Elena," I said softly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she wailed.

I let out a breath. "Okay, look, just…I'll meet you at home, okay? We'll talk."

My conversation with Bonnie and her Grams was gonna have to wait. I got ready to turn the car around when out of nowhere, a man appeared on the empty road. I slammed my breaks but I was too late. I hit the man with my car. The car flipped over. I was sitting upside down, stuck.

"E…Elena?" I called out, but I got no reply.

With trembling hands, I tried to search for my phone, but I couldn't move. My breathing was harsh. I turned my head to look out the window, only to see the man I had just hit with my car get up like it was no big deal. Then he began approaching me.

I pulled against my seatbelt, trying desperately to get out of the car.