A/n: Hey guys, so I've gotten a lot of questions about why this is taking so long to update, but I need you guys to understand that coronavirus is really affecting me too.

I was fired, my lease goes out in like two months, and I'm barely making it by right now. I'm sorry, you guys, but fanfics just haven't been my priority as of late.

I will continue to update when I can, and like I said before, I will be changing the story towards the later chapters. You'll probably see more new content in the story once I hit chapter 20.

Love y'all, and take care of yourselves.

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Nyctophilia: def. love of darkness or night; finding relaxation or comfort in darkness

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Chapter 12: Stab Me In the Eye, Please.

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Caroline moves to use me and Bons as her respective headrest and footrest as Stefan dusts himself off.

He doesn't look as angry anymore, instead, more or less calm, maybe even pensive.

Vicki is clearly still very confused, but decides not to push her brain too far, instead looking up at Stefan and clearly prepping to whine about something else.

"Hey, um, I'm hungry. Do you have anything to eat?"

Caroline rolls her pretty blue eyes, clearly annoyed with Vicki's commentary, as well. Stefan takes it in stride however, quickly walking over to the table and grabbing a mug of what I assume is animal blood with the way the elder Salvatore scoffs.

"Here," Stefan says, handing the cup to her gently.

She looks at it with a raised eyebrow before looking back up at him.

"What is it?"

"It's what you're craving," is his cryptic answer; me and Bons having to stifle either a scoff or a laugh, not sure which.

Damon groans slightly, not even looking up from the newspaper.

"Don't lie to the girl. That is so not what you're craving. But, it'll do in a pinch. Right, Stef?" The Eternal Stud asks, coyly.

"What is it?" Baby Vamp asks.

Damon smirks, "Yeah! What is it? Is it skunk? Saint Bernard? Bambi?"

"Go on," Stefan gently says to Vicki while ignoring his brother, like she's a child, "Give it a try."

Vick takes a sip, and by her face I already know; if I end up a vampire, I am not doing the 'vegetarian' route. I can't even do that in real life.

Speaking of which, once I'm sober: burgers.

"She's new," Damon inserts, "She needs people blood. She can't sustain on that stuff."

Bonnie sighs, "Thank god, for a second there, I thought 'blood' was some taboo vampire word you guys couldn't say in social circles."

I raised an eyebrow as Care chuckled on my lap.

She has a point.

"Yeah," Vicki starts obstinately, "Why can't I have people blood?"

"Because," I interrupt, feeling just a bit salty, "Misery loves company."

Damon barks out a laugh, and Stefan looks at me like I'm the devil incarnate before turning back to Vicki, "Because it's wrong to prey on innocent people, Vicki."

The eye roll that me and Damon share is powerful.

Damon shakes his head at his brother's idiotic logic, "You don't have to kill to feed. Just find someone really tasty and then erase their memory afterwards. It's so easy."

"No, no, no. There's no guarantee that you can control yourself, okay? It takes years to learn that. You could easily kill somebody, and then you have to live with that for the rest of your life— which, if I haven't made clear, is eternity," Green eyes bore into Vicki, clearly urging her to choose the most difficult path.

"And the best way to teach her, Stefan, is to slowly get her used to the thirst and train her self control on the regular stuff, not start off with decaf," Bonnie argues, "No offense, Vicki— but, Stefan.. she doesn't have great self control as it is. Trying to get her on your strict diet when she's already predisposed to being 'ripperish' even as a human is a terrible idea."

You tell him, Bons.

Caroline nods, closing her eyes as I start running my hands through her hair, "Yeah, Stefan. No offense, but if you guys are trying to keep her a vegetarian vamp; I don't want to help. She'll end up either killing someone or dying. It'd be a total waste at the risk of our lives."

I glance up at Stefan, and his eyes are hard and defiant on mine.

There was no way he was going to actually think about this and change his mind. His way of life is unsustainable even for him, but he was too stubborn to realize it. I glance over at Bonnie, and find she's already looking at me with tired eyes.

Fine, then. He can learn the hard way.

"I, Alessia Bennett, hereby call for a renewed vote by the war council. A or B?"

Simultaneously, they glance at Stefan and Vicki before looking back at me, both replying, "B."

Well, that's that.

Both pretty men and Vicki look at us three in confusion before Stefan snaps back to the issue at hand.

"Hey, look at me," Stefan says to a rapidly more disinterested Vicki, "We choose our own path. Our values and our actions, they define who we are."

I can't help but groan at Stefan's overwhelming cheesiness.

"Good life lesson, Mr. Rogers; but, it doesn't apply when there's no moral ramifications for the alternative option," I scoff sarcastically.

"Ooookay, Count Deepak. I am out of here," Damon says in a fake happy tone, before turning his sharp blue eyes to me petting Caroline's pretty blonde head.

"You coming?" He asks with a dark arch of his brow.

I'm a little flattered at the invite, but I shake my head, answering, "Nah, Care owes me a milkshake, so we'll leave as soon as we're sober. Not to mention, we brought her car."

He shrugs, heading out of the room, and I sigh.

We shouldn't have drank this much. I don't wanna be here anymore.

I can tell the sentiment is shared by my two besties by the sour looks on their faces. Vicki then licks the rim of her cup, looking back up at Stefan.

"Can I have some more?"

Ugh.

Then— as if the universe itself decided today was 'Shit On Alessia' Day'— I hear the one voice I specifically do not want to hear bright and early in the fucking morning.

"Stefan?" Elena calls out, and I see Bons tense up out of the corner of my eye.

Caroline opens one cornflower blue eye and sighs in exasperation, throwing her arm over her face dramatically before moaning, "Noooooooooo."

Stefan exits the room, and I look over to check on Bonnie.

"You gonna be okay, Bons?"

She nods firmly, "Yeah. I've been putting it off, might as well get it over with."

Caroline throws her arm back off her face, "Have you mentioned the witch stuff to her yet?"

"Yeah," she sighs, closing her olive eyes tiredly and taking another large sip of bourbon, "But, I'm pretty sure she wasn't taking me seriously."

Vicki decides to insert herself in a specifically three way conversation.

"Wait, you guys are witches? I thought that was just the town joke."

I roll my eyes, choosing to ignore her so we don't fight, "Well, she'll take you seriously now. I'm gonna need another drink for this."

Suddenly, Vicki leaves the room, probably hearing Stefan and Elena shit talking about her.

I hear several sets of footsteps approaching the room, and I make with pouring myself a large drink. I'm like an inch from the top of the glass tumbler when Vicki stomps in, followed closely by Stefan. Finally, Elena walks in, and she licks eyes with me first, causing me to take a large swig of the drink in preparation.

"Alessia?" She asks, clearly extremely confused, "What are you doing here?"

I shrug as her large doe eyes start scanning the room, widening comically when they see Bonnie and Caroline in the room.

She frantically looks back and forth between us and Vicki before nervously saying, "Oh my god— Bonnie, Caroline, you need to get out of here!"

Not me? Rude.

Both Bons and Care look in shock at Elena already being very aware of what's happened to Vicki. I see them start to connect the dots that Elena has been aware of vampires for a hot minute, and she just hadn't told them about it. In all fairness, neither had they though, so.. yeah.

"Elena," Bonnie starts slowly, pushing Caroline's legs off before standing up unsteadily, "Me and Caroline already know."

Her doe brown eyes won't quit blinking widely as Doppelena starts pacing a bit, clearly not processing the information very well.

"W-wait. So, you guys knew all along?" She asks, a judgmental crease appearing between her brows, and I sigh.

"Calm down, Elena. The only one who's known about the supernatural from the get go is me. Care and Bons only learned very recently because I told them. I should also mention for time's sake that me and Bonnie are both full blown witch bitches."

Doppelena then sets her gaze on me, clearly furious, "And you didn't think to tell me?!"

I squint at her, clearly confused by her logic, "Why would I tell you? I don't like you."

"I'm aware, Alessia," she sneers back, "It's called 'human decency'!"

"Must've gotten lost in the mail," I reply boredly, promptly lifting Care's head back up so I can sit down again.

It isn't even entertaining to argue with Elena Gilbert. The girl is a perpetual 'fun' black hole.

Elena rolls her big brown eyes before turning sharply back to Bonnie and Caroline.

"And why didn't you guys tell me?" She asks, clearly hurt, "You're supposed to be my friends."

Cue an eye roll from me as Bons sighs, "Probably for the same reason you didn't, Elena. I was still trying to get you warmed up to the idea of me being a witch, remember?"

Elena blinks back at her reasoning being thrown back at her face, before looking towards Care, who drunkenly waves her off, "Don't even, Elena. We aren't on speaking terms at the moment."

Told ya she holds grudges.

Elena sighs, clearly exasperated and worried, before looking at Stefan for a sign or something that this was all a joke. Meanwhile, said Salvatore was looking at me with a clearly frustrated expression, mixed with something deeper. Anger, disappointment, fear, something positive, who knows?

"Let's all talk downstairs. We can discuss everything more comfortably in there," he finally says after a beat of silence, and Caroline turns and groans into my stomach.

"Of course I have to get up right after I got my pillow back," she mumbles into my stomach, and despite my foul mood, I laugh.

*

So, here we all were, a veritable Losers Club each with a cup of coffee. Me, Care, and Bons all sipped our coffee in silence, no longer caring about the entire Vicki situation. We'd only hung out with her for a few hours, but were entirely ready to not do it again. I didn't care whether she survived or not, I just prayed that if she did she'd be shipped far, far away, because otherwise, she'd be somewhat part of the Goof Troop and I had no inclination to see her on that regular of a basis.

"Coffee is our friend," Stefan says delicately to a more obstinate Vick, "It's the caffeine, it circulates through our veins, and it warms our body so we're not so cold to the touch."

Must be the same for alcohol, Damon's chest was toasty when I cuddled into it. Mmm... Damon's chest..

Vicki groans, taking me out of my delicious daydream, "Well, what if I want to drink human blood?"

"You can't," I say while taking a long sip, not looking at Stelena as they snap their eyes towards me, "It'll offend Elena and Stefan's delicate sensibilities."

Elena scoffs, "Just because you don't have any morals, doesn't mean she shouldn't."

I roll my eyes, and Caroline responds for me, Queen Bee 'nice' voice and all.

"Totally, instead we'll just force her to follow your morals! I'm sure that won't backfire. Might make her a little two-faced, though."

Elena scoffs, folding her arms, and I can't stop the satified grin that works up on my face. Stefan soon turns back to Vicki, "You're gonna have to learn to live with that urge and fight it on a daily basis, one day at a time."

Bonnie suddenly stands up from her seat, glaring hard at Stefan, "This is stupid, and I'm sober enough to where I don't need to listen to you feed this girl anymore bullshit. Vicki is already an addict, and you're doing the one thing that isn't going to help her because you're too prideful to listen to your brother. Come on, guys, we're leaving."

There's that Bennett brutal honesty.

Elena stands up as well, reaching for Bonnie's arm, and I glare at her when she pulls my sister back, looking at Bons nearly pleadingly.

"Bon, Stefan has lived like this for a long time and he hasn't hurt anyone," Yeah, right, "He can teach her how to live without being a monster."

Bonnie looks sadly at her best friend, slowly pulling her arm away, "You don't know that, Elena. Stefan's way of life is unsustainable for vampires and requires an insane amount of willpower to do for even a short amount of time. He's living off of the human equivalent of wheatgrass, and he'll fall off the wagon again someday. And, I'm going to be so sadfor you when that happens, Elena."

Then, she turns and walks out of the dining room. Me and Care set our coffee cups down, the latter smiling at Stefan and Vicki.

"Thanks for the coffee, Stefan! Best of luck, Vicki! I'll tell your brother you're okay," Then, Care Bear promptly files out.

I shove my hands in my pockets, starting to walk away, but stop and turn to Vicki.

"Vicki, my phone number is on the upstairs table. If you need help, call."

And with that, I turn to walk to the car and, by god, hopefully head to get a burger.

That's the last branch of good will I'm extending to her.

If she dies, she dies.

———

"Alessia! If you don't hurry up in there I'm gonna piss myself!" Bons yells through Caroline's bathroom door. Finishing off rinsing the dye out of my hair, I quickly wrap it in a towel.

"Hang on! It was hard to rinse out this color!" I yell back, trying to throw on my sweats and tank top over the towel, and not doing a very good job of it.

Finally, I shrug it on before yanking open the door, promptly being shoved out of the way by a Bonnie who looks like she's about to actually wet herself.

I thought she was just being dramatic.

Suddenly, Care barrels out of her bedroom, fully dressed in a sexy Queen of Hearts costume.

"LET ME SEE!" She shouts cheerily before promptly yanking off my towel headdress and making my 'still somewhat dyed' curls hit my tank top. I already know it's ruined forever.

She gasps excitedly and I, in turn, glare at her with hardly any real heat behind it.

"Look what you did, chica! Now my favorite beat up tank is gonna have weird orange spots."

That's right, I've gone full-on ginger.

She seems to think on it for a moment before snapping her fingers, "Oh! I know what it looks like! You have penny-colored hair!"

I raise an eyebrow at how blonde that sounded, "You mean copper?"

She smacks me on the shoulder, grumbling about how I knew what she meant before shoving one of her shopping bags from yesterday into my hands.

"You can thank me later," she announces before taking off like a butterfly down her staircase.

I glance inside the bag, seeing pieces for an angel costume within.

I swear I love that woman. She understands that I love the irony of the subverting expectations— unlike SOMEONE I know.

———

Me, Bons, and Care Bear strut into the neon Halloween party, and I feel my excitement grow.

The amount of cockiness I feel is slowly growing; mostly because the more I look around the crowded party, the more I realize that we three are literally the finest pieces of ass this town has to offer.

Jesus, I'm so vain.

We walk around a bit before we see anyone we actually like, 'anyone' being Matt and Tyler. Ty is in a Roman or Greek costume; who knows, I'm not cultured. And Matt is wearing... the exact same couples costume he wore with Elena last year.

Oof.

"Hey, guys!" Tyler shouts in greeting over the music, clearly buzzed already as he throws an arm over me and Caroline.

He looks over at Caroline momentarily, "Now, your costume makes sense, Caroline," then, he turns to me, "But yours makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."

I smack him on the chest.

"Oh, shut up. I could be an angel."

Everyone else looks at me like I've spoken gibberish, and I roll my eyes.

"Whatever."

Matt turns to us with kind, but worried eyes, and I feel a bit of guilt already swirling in my stomach. It's making me a bit glad that I had given Vicki a second chance.

"Hey, have you guys heard anything from Vicki? She acted super weird at the house and I'm worried," Matt confesses earnestly.

Caroline gives him her most reassuring smile, and I'm surprised at how genuine it looks.

"Don't worry, Matt. She's just trying to get clean. It's a good thing."

Matt smiles warmly back at her, and it makes me happy to see the people I actually give a shit about happy. Suddenly, Vicki comes up to our circle, Stefan and Elena close behind her. She hardly pays attention to Tyler, instead urgently glancing from me to Matt.

Stefan and Elena also rapidly join the group, firmly keeping their concerned eyes on Vicki.

Said baby vampire looks around nervously, before snapping, "I told you both to quit fucking bothering me!"

She then grabs my arm and starts dragging me away from the crew; perfectly gentle— considering that she has super vampire strength at the moment. I see the rest of the gang barricading Stelena off as Vicki races me down a purple hallway.

Vicki stops us, looking desperately into my eyes.

"I need your help, Alessia. I can't do it. I can't live off of animal blood! It's not enough. I feel like I'm about to lose my fucking mind."

I raise my arms in an attempt to get her to relax, "Okay, okay, calm down. We can figure something out. But, first thing's first, we need to get you the hell out of Mystic Falls. No offense— you don't have to stay gone forever. But, you do need someone to show you the ropes where you won't be recognized so easy. This town has a council that does not like vampires, and you will be killed if you get caught here."

She nods slowly, "Can I take Jeremy with me?"

I raise my eyebrow.

"The dork is fifteen. Someone is going to put out a missing kid poster, probs Elena, so I wouldn't recommend it. But, if you want to— you can try. I'm not your mom."

Vicki deliberates for a second, before I see her perk up, grabbing me once again and leading me further into the maze of hallways, "You're right. I can't have cops trying to chase after me anymore than they probably will."

Oh, I get it. She just likes having a choice.

Like any other bratty teen, if you force her to do something, she'll do the worst thing she can do out of spite.

How stupid.

She then let's go of my arm at an intersection.

"I can hear Jeremy down this way," she sighs ruefully, glancing down before looking at me again, "I want to say goodbye. Meet me over by the buses in five?"

"Sure."

She jets off down the neon green hallway covered in spider webs and I heave a sigh.

This was going to be maximum effort.

———

So, I go open the back door to go outside at exactly five minutes; lo and behold, Stefan is about to pierce a very vampy-looking Vicki— who happens to be latched onto Elena's bleeding neck— with a sharp pointy stake.

I quickly throw my hand out to move Stefan away from staking Vicki, whispering a quick, "Incendia," which the. lights said vampiress' hand on fire.

She yelps out in pain, quickly releasing Elena to pat her flaming hand out, before turning to snap at me venomously.

"Don't you fucking dare, Vicki. I just saved your ass from being impaled on a stick— but, if you jump at me, I won't hesitate to kill you myself," I threaten.

Vicki's veins slowly disappear from beneath her green eyes as she gets a handle on her emotions.

She looks down apathetically at Elena who's holding her still-bleeding neck, and then at Stefan who apparently had accidentally impaled himself in the stomach when he got sent back to the wall.

"You guys are no help at all," she says before spitting out some of Elena's blood on the floor and walking over towards me. Jeremy looks very freaked out, but not nearly as freaked out as he did in my memories when Vick had died.

I dust off my hands, glancing over at Stefan, "You guys clearly don't have the handle on this that you thought you did. I'll take care of this, you take care of that," I gesture towards Jeremy shivering on the floor.

And with that, we left.

Told Matt she was going to rehab, and promptly threw her on the latest cross country bus to New Orleans.

They were a shitton of vampires under Marcel Gerard down there, and I sincerely doubted they'd be upset about teaching a pretty baby vamp the lay of the land. Not to mention, it was a touristy place, so even if she did fuck up, it'd stay relatively hush-hush.

Vicki Donovan gave me a warm smile as she left.

I think she forgives me for being a homewrecking slut.

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A/n: So, I let Vicki live! Matt doesn't get a lot of wins, so I figured I'd let this one slide. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for all the comments!! Love you guys.

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