AN: Okay, so I have to admit that I was losing inspiration on this, but thanks to the wonderful idea that NifadaDraculEadred's wonderful idea, I have returned with a new liking to this story. Okay, so this chapter is sort of filler, but I promise that more will happen later on. Please, please, please keep reviewing if you'd like to read more. Thank you so much for your support so far, I never thought I'd get this much for this story. Thank you again, and enjoy. Oh, and by the way, I know that I never put a disclaimer in any of my stories, but yeah, I own nothing (sadly). Thanks to any of you who read this, even though it was sort of just informative, nothing really said. Okay, so now to the story. The review button is down at the bottom of the story when you're done, so it's not that hard to miss it and "forget to review". That's right I'm on to you. Okay, seriously though enjoy this chapter, I'll try to upload the next one tomorrow night.
Chapter 6: Alone
Stefan didn't know what to think, when he woke up alone in the house. He remembers hearing his brother's animalistic scream, and then nothing. He manages to stumble out of the house, and into the forest. He's got to feed, if he wants to gain some control over the situation at hand. He doesn't know where Damon is, but he can't care about him right now, at least not until he feeds and regains some semblance of his strength.
He can't even remember exactly what had happened, and he attributes that to the fact that he doesn't feed like normal vampires do. He really needs to straighten out his diet, and gain some sort of control on human blood, otherwise he might not be so lucky the next time.
When he finally finishes feeding off of the animals of the forest, he rests against a tree for a moment and puts his head in his hands. He can already feel the light from the start of the new day beating down on him. Yesterday started out relatively well for him and then he was ambushed. He wonders if Damon's back at the boardinghouse, screaming about the blood on his precious Persian rugs or that the decor that has been mercilessly destroyed and damaged. He's not ready to go back to that headache right now, so he figures that he'd wait in the forest for a while longer, before he decides to face that.
He looks down at his shirt and notices with displeasure how it's ruined, covered in blood and torn to shreds. This is another article of clothing that he'll have to get rid of now, and that's just great! He can't help the biting sarcasm, and he wants to scream at Damon for his apathy in trying to find the tomb vampires. He knows that his brother could have been more forthcoming about that quest. Hell, the sheriff, gave him numerous ideas of places to look, and Damon neglected every single one of them, saying that he had it covered. Damon's going to have another thing coming if he tries to blame this on Stefan, that's for sure. It's not Stefan's job to be looking for these vampires, it was Ric's and Damon's job, and maybe John Gilbert's, but then Damon decided that Ric was getting in the way on one of the searches, so he snapped his neck and left him in his car by the side of the road, alone, while he searched. Now Damon and Ric aren't speaking to each other, and so as a result Damon has been spending more and more time moping around the house, and less and less time searching for the murderous, vengeful tomb vampires that should have been taken care of weeks ago.
The hunters that came to town about a week ago are just causing added trouble and also halted Damon's efforts even more, because instead of searching for the vampires, he spent that time trying to figure out a way for the hunters to leave, to outsmart them, and to play a joke on them at the same time. Stefan wonders why Sheriff Forbes hasn't found any of this out. It's not like his brother is being exactly subtle about this, about his distaste for ridding the town of the new hunters, and at the same time trying to make fools out of them. Stefan wants to throttle his brother for his stupidity in compelling that Winchester guy back in 92, into thinking that they were vengeful spirits, thus leaving the door open to more hunters. Damon's got no one to blame for his problems than himself, and Stefan knows that he's completely justified if he blamed him as well. He can't wait to tell his brother "I told you so". Damon's supposed to have taken care of this a long time ago, and instead he's been completely ignoring the growing problem.
Stefan looks up at the sky and notices that it's well into the morning, so he decides it's about time he started heading back to the boardinghouse.
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"You've got to be kidding me!" Stefan hears as he enters the boardinghouse. He rolls his eyes, because it's just as how he expected it, Damon screaming. He expects to see his brother staring down a blood stain on the Persian carpet willing it to leave the premises or disappear, and normally he would make some sort of sardonic comment about it in semi-good humor but not today. Today, he's going to scream his head off at his brother, scolding him for his stupidity.
What he finds inside stops him dead in his tracks, though. Damon is standing over a rug, fuming, but it's not the rug he's fuming at, it's the fact that the three new hunters are in front of him, wielding machetes, while Ric is standing on the sidelines unsure of what to do. As he gets closer he notices a body at his brother's feet.
"Well, well, did you enjoy your Stefan-time?" Damon asks, as his brother enters the house.
"Damon, I'm not going into this with you…this is your fault. Every last bit of this mess could have been avoided, but you just had to do things your way." Stefan says as he approaches his brother.
"My fault! How in the world is this my fault?" Damon asks incredulously.
"Don't play stupid, Damon, you know that this whole situation with Fredrick wouldn't have happened in the first place if you hadn't have been so anal about getting Katherine out of that tomb, and then when they're out wreaking havoc, you do nothing about it, and just mope about the fact that Katherine never loved you—" Stefan stops himself before he can say more. He admits that was cold and a horrible thing to say, especially in front of others, but he can't help it.
"Oh yeah, because she was too busy, being in love with you. I was too much of a play thing for her, is that what you wanted to say? Well, congrats, Stefan! This is all my fault, just like every other disaster that happens, I mean that's what you tell your precious Elena isn't it? I'm the cause for every tragedy that has ever happened over the past one hundred forty-five years." Damon sneers.
"Don't make this is a pity party for yourself, Damon! Don't you dare go there! You knew full well that those tomb vampires were out for revenge and you just let them be and didn't even bother looking for them." Stefan growls. He knows he should apologize for what he said, but he just doesn't want to.
Damon growls and is about to charge into Stefan, when Ric stands up to try to calm them down. "Out of my way, Ric."
"Damon…" Ric warns. Damon takes a breath, to try to calm himself, and just as Damon's about to drop it, he notices that Ric and Stefan exchange a glance of understanding.
"What am I on a leash now?" Damon shouts.
"Damon, just don't." Stefan says.
"Out of my way, Ric." Damon snarls.
"Not going to happen." Ric says.
Damon looks down at his friends hand and notices that Ric has his ring on, and just when Ric gets the idea of what's going through his friend's head, he's about to protest, Damon's next plan of action, but Damon's too quick and he snaps his neck and Ric falls to the ground lifelessly.
Dean, Sam, and Bobby are shocked and freaked out. Damon rushes at his brother and then shoves a detached chair leg into his brother's stomach, just below his heart, "Enjoy!" Damon sneers in his ear just before speeding out of the house and disappearing.
Stefan grunts as he hits the floor, and he pulls the stake out. Stefan notices that Ric is being surrounded by the three hunters.
Stefan stands up, a little shaky at first, but then manages to regain his bearings, "I'm sorry about Damon; he's just upset." Stefan says as he approaches Ric's lifeless body.
When Stefan notices that the three hunters are staring at him warily and are unsure of what to do, he sighs, "I'm sorry for my brother's behavior, but I have no intention of hurting you. I came to this town, seeking a normal life, a human life, and I'm not going to hurt you, you have to believe me." Stefan tries to placate.
Just as he's finished, Elena walks into the room. Her smile quickly turns into a frown of concern, "What happened here?" She notes the two lifeless bodies, and three distraught hunters, not knowing if today was their last day. "Hey…you're the…" Elena frowns, she doesn't understand what's going on here. "Stefan, what's going on, what happened?"
"Damon's upset if you can't tell." Stefan answers grimly.
Elena nods in understanding and allows her eyes to trail over the room and the damage done to it. She then notices that one of those bodies on the floor is Ric's. "Oh, my gosh, Ric!" Elena rushes to him.
"It's okay, he's wearing his ring. Damon checked for it, I saw him." Stefan states.
"That still doesn't make it okay, Stefan. Come on, Damon killed Jeremy while he was wearing the ring, and that doesn't mean that that was okay either." Elena growls.
Dean, Sam, and Bobby can't help but feel completely out of place. They went from being terrified, to confused, and now they just feel awkward. They're not even sure how that happened, but then again this is a weird situation, and they've gotten themselves in the middle of it.
"I'm sorry…" Dean's the first to speak up, "But I don't understand what's going on here, what do you mean by he's wearing his 'ring'? He's dead."
"The rings were created by a witch to bring any normal person back from the dead if they're ever killed by a supernatural entity." Stefan explains.
"I'm sorry, what?" Dean asks.
"It's hard to explain, but Damon killed him knowing that he'd come back. It doesn't mean that he won't come back pissed as hell, but hey…that's Damon's problem, not mine." Stefan tries to make a subtle joke, but it doesn't land.
"You're right it's Damon's problem, I don't ever want to see him again, after what he did to Jeremy: I hate him." Elena states defiantly.
"Jeremy's your brother, right?" Sam asks.
Elena nods, "And Damon killed him, just snapped his neck in a fit of rage, because things didn't go his way."
"He must have known Jeremy was wearing the ring, he wouldn't have done it otherwise." Stefan tries to soothe.
"He didn't…He was hoping that Jeremy still had vampire blood in his system, and that's why he did it, but I'm fortunate that he had his ring on." Elena shakes her head.
"What the hell?" Dean exclaims.
"You have to have vampire blood in your system, when you die to come back a vampire." Stefan explains.
"You have to what?" Bobby asks.
Just as Stefan's about to answer, him, a harsh gasp, brings their attention to a resurrected Ric. Stefan and Elena immediately jump to his aide. "Hey, Ric, take it easy." Stefan says as he helps the man sit on the couch.
Ric grunts and groans and puts his head in his hands. "Oh gosh, that hurts." Just as Stefan's about to say something in response, Ric looks up at Stefan, "You know contrary to popular belief I don't like being killed, okay. The first time, okay, I forgave that. I was trying to kill your brother and he killed me instead, that was self-defense, but the second time and this time, I've had it."
"Damon, knew you were wearing your ring." Stefan states.
"He knew I was wearing my ring the last time, too, and so he thinks that I'm his punching bag. It's not okay!" Ric announces.
"I know that. None of this is okay, but I'm just saying that Damon has his reasons and you know he wouldn't have done it if you weren't wearing that." Stefan points the ring on Ric's finger.
Ric scoffs, "Sure he would've. He would have just killed someone else's wife in front of them and then befriended the other widower."
Stefan sighs.
"Why are you trying to defend him?" Elena asks.
"Because after everything he's still my brother, and some part of me is hoping that the man that died back in 1864 is still in there somewhere." Stefan explains, when Elena and Ric both scoff.
"You know it's really nice that you're all spilling your hearts out, but does anyone want to give us a basic rundown of what the hell is going on?" Bobby finally demands.