kissed me quite insane. five

.

her beauty was intimidating, for this reason she was admired from afar, yet no one ever came close

.

.

.

Locked away beneath the Salvatore Boarding House, starvation ravages Damon with a beastly intent. In truth, it's his own fault for getting caught down here. He's known Stefan for over a hundred years now — the spiked drink never would've satisfied Stefan's sense of self-righteousness.

"How long have I been here?" Damon forces out, the words more of a strain on his desiccating body than he would like.

"Three days," Stefan responds from the other side of the door, a twinge of smugness glittering in his voice.

"What are you doing?"

"During the Dark Ages, when a vampire's actions threatened to expose or bring harm upon the entire race, they would face judgement. They sought to reeducate them rather than to punish them."

Ah, just as pretentious as Stefan Salvatore.

( Disgusting. )

"You know what will happen if I don't feed on blood," Damon says hoarsely, splayed out on his back, muscles screaming for warm, decadent blood.

"You'll grow weaker and weaker. And eventually you won't be able to move or speak. In a week, your skin will desiccate, and you'll mummify. A living corpse. Unable to hurt anyone. Ever."

"So, what, you're just gonna leave me in the basement forever?"

"I've injected you with enough vervain to keep you weak," Stefan replies ( and it's there, hiding in the thrumming tone of his voice. The delight of a predator catching his prey ), "Once your circulation stops, I'll move you to the family crypt and then in fifty years, we can reevaluate."

Damon groans. "I'm stronger than you think."

"You always have been. But you're not stronger than the vervain and we both know it. I'm sorry. Didn't have to be this way."

But it did. It has been for over a hundred years. All over a woman.

( A woman he didn't want, but had anyway. A woman Stefan wanted, but didn't have. Not really. )

The itch of gloves ghosts over Damon's face. His eyes snap open, but all they see is darkness.

( But she was darkness personified. )

—

Elena's still shaking from seeing Vicki in her bathroom this morning. After the slow, quiet hell the last three days have been, the last thing she needed ( or expected ) was to see Matt's twin sister in her bathroom, dressed in one of her brother's shirts like they were a couple.

( It just reminds her of everything she doesn't have. )

Not to mention, the last time Elena had seen Vicki was in Jeremy's arms, a hole torn into her neck and bleeding rivers of blood and staining Jeremy's hand, purging the last few shards of innocence he still possessed.

Caroline snorts as Elena finishes her rant. "Oh, please, Lena. It's so obvious that Jeremy had a crush on her. I just thought Vicki would never give in to him."

Elena's hackles raise. "Vicki's lucky to be with Jer. But Jeremy ?"

Bonnie rolls her eyes, squeezing Elena's shoulder in comfort. "Yes, we know. No one's good enough for your precious little brother. Now, what's this about you and Stefan, Care?"

Elena tenses as Care groans, her head resting against her locker. "He hasn't called in three days. Y'know the last message he left me? 'Uh, hey, Caroline, there's, uh, something I have to take care of. I'll, um, explain in a couple days. Bye.' Can you believe him?"

Bonnie's lips are pressed flat as if to say yes, yes I do.

"And that was after he told me he might be falling in love with me!"

Elena's heart nearly falls out of her chest in a bloody, gory mess. " What? "

Caroline sighs deeply and as much as Elena hurts right now, it's so painfully obvious that Caroline's hurting too. Whatever Stefan's feeling, it's replicated in the agony that shines in Caroline's eyes. Abruptly, the blonde straightens. "I refuse to be one of those girls whose whole life revolves around some guy. So, the Sexy Suds Car Wash is tomorrow. The football team and the band have committed. Well, not all the band, just the ones who can pull off a bikini. I want in-your-face sexy — I mean, it's a fundraiser, for God's sake."

Elena sinks into herself as Bonnie scoffs.

( All that love, all that pain — for nothing? )

( The fairytales never prepared her for this. )

—

When Stefan shows up an hour late to the Grill, after commandeering Caroline during the school day and promising to explain his mysterious absence after confessing his maybe-love for her, Caroline feels like this is just the final nail in the coffin.

Just this morning, she was plagued by another strange dream ( of an awful pain that left her breathless and crying, of a babe ripped from her arms all too soon ) and the only thing that brought her out of her misplaced grief was the weight of Stefan's heirloom looped around her neck. It was a reminder of something that felt like more than just the dreary, grey ordinary of Mystic Falls.

It felt something worth fighting for.

Now, it feels like it's slipping through her fingers and no matter how tightly Caroline clutches to it, it just keeps on spilling.

( It feels like a betrayal. She was meant to have something better than this. )

"I'm really sorry. It was unavoidable," Stefan says like it explains everything. It explains nothing.

"What was unavoidable?" Caroline demands sharply, arms crossed at her front like some sort of shield. It's her armour and Caroline is knee-deep in the trenches.

( Why is everything a battle? She just wants to lay down her sword and rest. )

Stefan's eyes duck low and he swallows his secrets, his Adam's apple bobbing. Caroline scoffs, deposits the money for the drink she'd ordered and stands to leave. With unbelievable gentleness, Stefan's nimble fingers wind around Caroline's wrist. She shakes it free.

"No, Stefan," Caroline snaps, "No. You left me waiting for an hour and you can't even give me any sort of excuse as to why. And then let's recap: there's some weird shit going on between you and Damon and it's clearly about Dorothy, who, yet again, you won't tell me a single thing about. What am I supposed to think, Stefan? How am I supposed to believe —"

"I know you." The words are simple and short, but they ring with a certain deadly foreboding that has Caroline's hairs raising. She whirls, coming face-to-face with a husky man with midnight skin, his dark, unfathomable eyes pinned on Stefan. There are ghosts haunting his gaze. "My God."

"I'm sorry?" Stefan replies and it should be innocent ( but it's all danger ).

"I know you," the man repeats confidently, unblinkingly, "How can it be?"

How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? The words repeat on and on like a broken record in Caroline's head. Her eyes flutter to Stefan and try to peel back his Apollo-glazed skin and his Aphrodite-hair and tries to look. But he's all iron and steel and refuses to budge.

"I think you have the wrong person, sir," Stefan responds politely with a civil smile, but it's too sharp to be pleasant.

"You haven't aged a day." Caroline's mouth unhinges slightly. That voice of acid and daydreams cackles in the back of her skull.

Stefan himself looks shocked ( like this wasn't meant to happen ) and stutters out, "I'm sorry. Excuse me." He turns to Caroline. "Hey, can I take you home, and we can talk about it?"

The hand on her lower back pushes her forward, makes her understand that it's not a request. She gets the sense that it's also slipping through Stefan's finger, but what — Caroline will find out, by hell or high water.

—

Never say Stefan Salvatore isn't a romantic. After all, there's a reason Caroline believed he had a romance-novel-worthy stare.

That night, he manages to ply Elena into letting him into Caroline's home, complete with a bag of food, ready to be sliced and diced into Caroline's favourite meal: lasagna. If there's one thing immortality has provided him with, it's the time to learn how to cook.

When Caroline ventures from her room to find him in the kitchen, slicing up the celery sticks into equal portions and the sight of her has him winded, still, even after all this time together.

( It will never be enough. )

"Stefan, look," Caroline sighs, wary and guarded and it nearly breaks his undead heart. He never wanted her to see him as an enemy, something to defend herself from. He wanted to be her sanctuary: where she could undo her armour and set down her sword and not have to look over her shoulder. "I get that you want to make up for what —"

He cuts her off, displaying a hint of his desperation, "You wanna know me, right? Well, if you're gonna dump me,I figure you should know who you're dumping."

Something in her fiery gaze softens a little. Just enough.

"So, let's start with Dorothy."

( Even saying her name causes his hand to tremble. Just a bit.

She was always a storm, always something that refused to be tamed. )

( Maybe that's why she was so attracted to Damon. )

Caroline is silent as she waits for him to continue.

"She was the most beautiful girl that I had ever met. It was love at first sight for me. She had this gorgeous porcelain skin and the brightest smile I'd ever known at the time. And no matter the situation, whether it was sad or happy, she knew exactly what to say to make you laugh. But, Dorothy could also be selfish and greedy, especially when it came to her own possessions. But, honestly, that just made me love her more. I loved her because she was imperfect, so much that she was perfect.

"Enter Damon. I still don't really know what happened between him and Dorothy, but something obviously did. He's never really explained it. All I know is that I did some things that I'm not proud of. And my biggest regret is not being able to make it right before she died.

"I miss her . . . but, not as much as I used to. A part of me will always love her, but I've grown enough now that I can love someone else as much as I loved her. Like you, Caroline."

Caroline smiles like the sun and it warms him head to toe.

( Enough to burn away the ash-like taste of lies on his tongue. )

—

"That'll be $20." Caroline takes the proffered money, only recognising the man on her second perusal of his form. "I saw you last night. You were talking to a friend of mine. At the Grill."

The man pauses, considers almost. "Well, I thought it was somebody I knew."

"Stefan Salvatore." The weight of his name in her mouth is a heavy thing, brimming with secrets even now he still hasn't spoken. Last night, when he finally opened himself up to Caroline, he was still hiding, still evading. Caroline was desperate to sink her claws into him, peel him open and see every dirty little thing he was hiding from her.

"No, it can't be. It was just my mind playing tricks on me."

"Where do you think you've seen him before?"

"When I first moved here, I stayed at the Salvatore Boarding House. Stefan was just passing through to visit his uncle. I mean, none of us knew he was even here until the attack."

"Attack?" Bells are ringing, and none of them are good.

"His uncle got killed. Mauled by an animal in the woods."

"Zach?" Caroline blurts before she can think, "Was that his uncle?"

The man shakes his head. "Joseph."

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't think I'm familiar with the story."

The man huffs out a bitter chuckle. "Well, how could you? I mean, this happened years ago."

Caroline leans forward, eyes piercing. "Are you sure about this? That the man that you saw, that you know, his name was Stefan Salvatore?"

"Yes. I remember his ring and his brother."

"Damon?"

"Yeah. Stefan and Damon Salvatore."

Ah. The original Salvatore brothers.

"When was this?"

"It was early June, 1953. Yeah. June 1953."

She feels like she stumbled on a secret she was never meant to uncover.

( With her, it was only a matter of time. )

—

Caroline rushes home, determined to uncover the mysteries that seem to plague Stefan Salvatore wherever he treads.

She just can't remove that image she spied in the reflection of her window, over the sink where she washed the spilt blood splashed across her hand — the image of a monster crawling across Stefan's face. But when she turned around, it was gone, leaving only a pensive-looking Stefan peering at her under golden lashes.

Joseph Salvatore + animal attack is typed into the search engine and Caroline is restless as she waits for the results to load. The first one that pops us is exactly what she's looking for.

( So why does her stomach sink? )

It's an article from the fifties, with the headline: ANIMAL ATTACK KILLS ONE emblazoned at the top. It describes the vicious attack that left a great tear in Joseph Salvatore's, the community's beloved recluse, neck and drained completely of blood.

And there, in the grainy black and white photograph, hidden in the corner is a man. A man with all-too familiar angles and features — a Greek tragedy come to life.

Caroline can't breathe.

—

Elena's mind is fuzzy, bogged down by memories and voices and the slight of ice-blue eyes that have plagued her throughout the day.

( Help me, Elena. Help me. )

Abruptly, there is frantic knocking at her door and Elena shoots up from her bed, running down the stairs as she yanks the door open, her face a picture of confusion as she spots a pale-faced and frightened Caroline.

"Care, what the hell —"

"Stefan's a vampire."

( There's no going back now. )

—

oops. uploaded a day late :)

i was very excited for this chapter bc i can finally bring in more of dorothy, but it was actually kinda hard to write steroline in this chapter. they are so complex and it was hard getting into their states of mind. hopefully it should be easier next to chapter and we finally get our first proper look at dorothy!

all the favs, follows and comments mean so, so much to me and i can't thank you enough.

bye :)