First, I am truly sorry! I was supposed to finish this back in the beginning of February but stuff happened. Anyways, I want to thank you if you're reading this even after all this time! xo
Stefan is no longer breathing and neither is the audience.
Everyone's tense – and that includes the people on the backstage.
Caroline can hear Cindy complaining, saying she should have never allowed the Treat. They should be on the road already, driving up to the next town, the next show – but they weren't.
In the first ten minutes, Caroline was confident though. Because that's what always happens: she touches them, they die – whatever that means –, then they come back... Somehow. Life sets in again, their bodies burn with the shock. And it's strangely beautiful.
She's standing up in front of him, trying so hard to be patient.
Caroline's smile suddenly disappears, as she starts to get worried. It usually doesn't take that long. The fact that is Stefan's empty body she's holding only makes it a thousand times worse – it's like time were slow but mainly just lazy.
Fifteen minutes. The smoke that had come out of hidden places on the floor had dissipated and Stefan was still life-less. The lights are being turned on and off, someone in Caroline's team trying to make it look like everything was still in control – although everybody knows the truth. Something's wrong;
She looks in Stefan's face with deep expectation, wanting her face to be the first thing his eyes see. In any other situation, that'd be selfish but not today. She wants to comfort him, beg for forgiveness, kiss him even, because she should have followed Cindy's plan – no Treat tonight. Or ever. Caroline wants him to look into her eyes and see that, above all things, she's so sorry.
Twenty minutes.
The lights stopped blinking.
The crowd is upset, of course, but mostly saddened. Some people – girls and boys – can't hide the tears, escaping from their eyes with only the annoying purpose of ruining their make-up.
Caroline now is desperate, her heart beating just as fast as if she was running a marathon.
Twenty-five minutes.
Cindy walks in stage. Her eyes try to show support, but the truth is that she's thinking: Oh, I can't believe you did it again. Her mouth moves but Caroline can't hear a thing. Cindy was probably calling one of the guys – she deduces, when two of them get close.
"Don't touch him"
They all look at her, an early condolence showing in their eyes.
"He'll come back" Caroline continues. She turns her back to the audience for the first time, they who watch everything in a heavy silence. She have to fight herself to breathe properly otherwise they'd know that, after all the other Treats, after all those almost thirty minutes she spent with confidence, she's not sure. "He must...", she whispers.
The two boys get closer to Stefan, ready to take him out. Caroline interrupts them for the last time, using her own body to keep the one she loves safe. "I said no one touches him". Her voice finally sounds the way she intended it to; not only firm, but threatening.
Sitting on his lap, refusing to believe he is gone, she holds his face between the palms of her hands. Some memories flash in her mind – the day they first met, in the first day of High School, how they spent all those years pretending they didn't have a crush on each other since the moment they said hi. The day they started traveling together, their first show, their almost-first-kiss, all those firsts and all those days they had. She remembers the training and how they were so obviously made for each other. – She thinks of him. Then she thinks of them. And her lips press his lips as a request: don't go where I can't follow.
As it seems to happen quite often in places and people like these, his body comes alive. Like it's feeding from the heat in Caroline's body and giving it back when his lips also begins to move. Sharing heat, life – how ridiculous does that sound? Realizing he's waking up, she starts to kiss him better, harder, which leads him to finally open his eyes.
She stops for a second, to watch him, to make sure he's actually here. She looks at the perplexed crowd just to say, in her happiest voice, "I told you guys he'd come back!". She kisses Stefan again and he kisses her back, they both completely ignoring the audience applauding and the curtains closing.
Stefan inhales her perfume, wanting to breathe anything else but her smell. He moves his hips in the chair so he can hold her in a safer way and murmurs between another kiss:
"It's too sad... That I had to... Literally die... For you to give in"
"Give in to what?"
"To us, of course."