If anyone walked in on Stefan at that moment, they would probably look at him with brows furrowed and ask him if he had (finally) gone insane.
Stefan sat on a chair, his back leaned on the back of it, his fingers connected, his hands sitting on his lap, and the lines on his forehead were creased. He stared intently at an object sitting in front of him on a table. It was the box containing the weapon that would potentially stop Klaus once and for all. He stared at it, but the longer he stared, the more sure he was he would get nowhere.
He wanted to understand the writings in that silver box. Bonnie read them, and she said it was some kind of ancient language- a witch language- and that she would need a few days to be able to translate it.
He wanted to understand it now.
One of Stefan's best (and sometimes, worst) traits was being patient. He couldn't tell exactly how and when he lost that.
The silence of the Salvatore's Boarding House made Stefan feel uneasy. He had grown so accustomed to all the noise in his home that hearing nothing but the sound of the wind blowing on leaves from a tree on the other side of the street felt so out of the ordinary he couldn't help but feel like something was missing.
Elena had taken Caroline to a shopping trip. The last time Caroline left the house was two days ago, when they retrieved the weapon from the cave, and she was so close to going insane she started begging everyone to take her out. Stefan said no, of course. He didn't want to see her outside the house. It was too dangerous.
But when did Caroline ever listen to him?
When Stefan was about to wonder where Damon was, he heard the front door open. Tired of the silence, he was downstairs in a matter of seconds.
"Whoa, take it slow! Did you miss me that much?" Damon shot him a wry grin.
Stefan left out a light chuckle. "You wish."
Damon sighed happily when he threw himself on the couch. "So, where's barbie to your ken?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Caroline? She's with Elena. They're out shopping."
"Nice. Our girlfriends like each other. We should be thankful for that, what with our history and everything."
Stefan gave Damon one of his signature icy glares. "She's not my girlfriend. Aren't you tired of making that joke yet?"
"Let me think about that for a second." He said, scratching his chin. "Nope. I can do this forever." He smiled and Stefan shook his head disapprovingly and was about to leave when he heard Damon's voice once again. "Alright, I'll stop."
Stefan turned back, then, smiling ironically. "Thank you, brother." He sat next to Damon. "So, where were you?"
Damon shrugged. "Out."
"Hm. That explains a lot, thank you."
Damon rolled his eyes. "I was just talking to some people. Kind of... compelling them to let me know if anyone strange comes into town. Because unlike everyone else, I actually do remember Klaus is hunting you and your precious human down, so I'm taking precautions."
"We all remember Klaus is hunting us down. We just can't do anything about it, Damon."
"I know, Stefan, I know." He replied.
"Good."
An awkward silence fell in the room, Damon unsure of what to say and Stefan wondering why Damon was suddenly so irritated by their situation.
Stefan knew things would eventually take their toll on Damon. Damon changed a lot in the five years Stefan was in New York, but it didn't mean he became a totally different person.
Damon cleared his throat. "So, um," He got up awkwardly. "I'm gonna wait for Elena upstairs."
"Sure."
Damon glanced at Stefan one last time before disappearing. Stefan felt like someone had just punched him in the guts when he saw Damon's eyes. Damon was tired, angry, and the worst of it all, Damon was scared.
History was repeating itself. Stefan was once more making his brother pay for his mistakes.
But was it really that much of a mistake this time around?
Stefan heard as Caroline and Elena arrived, giggling and talking as they entered the house, tired from the shopping trip. He was back in his room, writing in his journal. If you could call staring at a blank page trying to come up with the right words writing. They were both happy and it almost made Stefan happy, too, but the look on Damon's face from earlier kept reminding him that things weren't as happy and shiny as he wanted them to be.
"I'm gonna head upstairs, take a shower and get some sleep. I'm exhausted! Who knew Mystic Falls could actually make you tired from shopping?" Caroline said.
Elena laughed. "See? I told you. Mystic Falls may not be a New York kind of town but, come on, it's not that bad."
"When you get past the vampires, the witches, the werewolves, the hybrids and whatever else is out there, yeah, it's not that bad."
"Funny." Elena said seriously and then let out a giggle.
Stefan heard Caroline's footsteps heading to her bedroom. He sat down on his bed, sighing. In a matter of seconds, Elena was in her and Damon's room, with a smile that was shown just in her voice.
"Hey, babe." Damon said, almost ironically.
"Babe?" Elena questioned. "Oh, wow!" There was a pause, and Stefan knew they were kissing.
He decided to stop listening, then, not interested in invading the couple's privacy, but then Elena noticed something was wrong with Damon and when she asked what was it, he sighed, and next thing Stefan knew, he was listening to his brother talk about his feelings like he never had before.
"I'm just tired, Elena." He said. "Tired of everything. Klaus is somewhere right now, plotting, waiting. He might kill us all. I'm not afraid of dying, but this is just unfair. I wake up every morning and I think, 'Hey, I can die today. Elena can die. Klaus can show up and kill everyone', every day, that's my first thought."
Elena sighed. "I'm sorry, Damon."
Stefan could tell she didn't know what else to say, and if Stefan were in the room, he wouldn't know either. "It's not your fault.
'It's mine', Stefan thought.
"It's no one's fault but Klaus', I know. He's a jerk. I don't understand why he was so... obsessed with Caroline. What is it with this girl? She's just a human, a powerless, defenseless human, and everyone seems to just get obsessed with her."
"Caroline is something." Elena agreed. "But I think the reason Klaus is so mad is that Stefan left him. Klaus hates being alone, that's common knowledge. Stefan chose Caroline over him, abandoned him completely. Five years, Damon. Even Klaus had to start caring about someone that had his back for five whole years."
"But still, it always goes back to Caroline. Why did Stefan leave Klaus for her? Klaus threatened him, and he knows Klaus is more powerful than all of us together, yet here he is."
"Caroline is important to Stefan."
"Very." Stefan could almost hear in his voice the same look Damon gave him every time he walked in on Caroline and him talking.
Elena giggled. "Yes, very important. And Stefan is also very important to Caroline. They're really fond of each other."
Damon seemed to forget his previous annoyance. "That's an understatement. Have you seen the both of them? They should get it on already."
Stefan rolled his eyes. "Come on. They know it's not a good time to 'get it on'. But I think it's just a matter of right place, right time." Elena said.
"Do you think she's the one? For him, I mean. He hasn't been exactly the luckiest guy in the world when it comes to relationships. Do you think this time it will be different?"
"If you don't end up falling in love with her too, I think they might make it." She teased.
"You're too funny today."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Damon kissed her, and she started giggling.
Stefan stopped listening, then.
He laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. He refused to think about what Damon and Elena talked. He didn't want to think about it, he couldn't. But it was like his mind had another mind of its own and those words kept replaying, over and over on his mind, just like a broken record.
Why would they say that? Caroline was not the one for him. He wouldn't, he couldn't think of her as anything more than a friend and someone he needs to protect.
He couldn't make the mistake of falling in love with a human again.
Not again, he told himself.
The next morning, Bonnie had called early to let them know she had finally translated the writings in the box containing their weapon against Klaus. She was bringing along the weapon, since she had it since the day they retrieved it from the cave. She took pictures of the box and left it with Stefan, but promised to return the weapon as soon as she knew exactly what to do with it.
She arrived a little while after lunch, weapon safely hidden in her backpack laced with a protective spell, and a notebook under her arm. Stefan noticed how happily Caroline greeted her, and how, despite Bonnie's unspoken but always present annoyance at the fact Stefan had yet another human dragged into their world, she returned the greetings just as gladly.
"So, I did some researching." Bonnie said, putting the notebook down, in front of the four pairs of curious eyes rounding her. "I found out what those writings mean. They're an ancient language used by witches. A secret dialect, actually."
"You mean like a secret code between witches?" Caroline spoke up, and Bonnie nodded. "That's cool."
Bonnie smiled. "Anyway," she continued, "These writings are almost like instructions. It says here," she points to the first words of the box, "these exact words: If one cannot be killed, one can be put to sleep. Forever, and ever, and for the whole of eternity, a sleep so deep one will mistake it as eternal death. All it takes is one hit; and then, darkness, for as long as the weapon stays in its place."
"That works exactly like the daggers, then." Elena said, extremely focused on the notebook.
"Yes." Bonnie replied. "There are also two words in the weapon. They're so small, I almost didn't notice."
"Well, what do they say?" Damon asked.
"It says 'Heart deep'."
Stefan furrowed his eyebrows. "Heart deep?"
"We gotta stab him in the heart, and it's gotta be deep." Caroline said, nodding her head.
Stefan couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Okay!" Damon said, slapping his hands together. "We have an apparently functioning weapon, then. What do we do now?"
Elena bit the inside of her cheek, running her hands through her hair, still examining the notebook. At Damon's words she looked up, a determined look in her face. "We wait for Klaus. And then we put him to sleep."
The others nodded, and Bonnie caught Stefan's concerned gaze, giving him a small smile. "We have a way out now, Stefan. It's gonna be fine."
Stefan felt a hand on his shoulder, but it wasn't Bonnie's- they were across the room from each other. He looked to his side and was faced with Caroline, eyes big and blue and staring at him, showing him she genuinely believed everything was going to be okay, trying to comfort him and make him believe things were finally looking up.
He couldn't do anything other than smile at her, thanking her with his eyes. Trying to, at least. Stefan was never good at unspoken signs and untold feelings.
He would try for her, though, because she managed to do it all so effortlessly, he would be damned if he couldn't get to show her he cared.
"Where's the weapon?" Damon asked, breaking Stefan and Caroline's eye contact, without even meaning to.
"It's in my backpack." Bonnie said, pointing at a black and blue backpack sitting next to her on the couch. "I'll get it for you in a minute. You put it back into the box and you hide it, in a safe place. We can't afford to put it at risk of being found.
"Does Klaus know about this weapon?" Caroline questioned.
"I doubt it." Elena said. "If he did, he would have compelled a human already to get it for him. Klaus wouldn't allow such a weapon to be out of his reach. He's too paranoid for that."
"Let's hope you're right." Stefan said. "As much as he is paranoid, he is also smart. We don't know what goes on inside brain. I'm prepared for the worst."
And he did, in fact, prepared himself for the worst. All this time, that's all he had been doing: waiting for the worst to happen.
He realized he had also become too paranoid to believe they had a way out.
A way that involved everyone happy and safe in the end, at least.
Someone ringed the doorbell.
Stefan felt his stomach drop.
No one he knew ringed that damn doorbell. Sometimes, he even forgot they had one. People would walk in and out of the house, never bothering to ring the doorbell or knock.
Yet, someone ringed the doorbell, and something inside Stefan knew it was trouble.
Damon thought the same thing, because he motioned at Stefan with his head, telling him to go upstairs. He didn't, though. He decided to only hide himself and watch the whole thing. If he needed to help Damon with anything, it'd be better if he wasn't upstairs.
Damon opened the door, smiling. "Yes?" He didn't recognize the person.
"Hi. Is Caroline home?" A tall, brown-haired guy asked, grinning from ear to ear.
"Who?" Damon's voice and eyes didn't falter, not even for a second. Stefan, on the other hand, felt like he was about to throw up.
The man tilted his head, his eyes mocking Damon. "Are you sure you don't know who that is, Damon Salvatore?"
"I am. And I don't know your name."
The man scoffed. "You'll know it soon enough." He turned his back, walking away. But then he stopped and turned to face Damon once again. "Tell Stefan Klaus is coming for him."
He was about to walk away again, when Damon suddenly saw Stefan walk by him, only a flash. Stefan's anger was too strong to contain when he heard Klaus' name, and he did the only thing he could think of: he ran to the man, and, in only a few seconds time, jumped on him, pinning him to the ground.
The man tried to fight back, but it was helpless. Stefan could notice he was a new vampire, probably only months old. Stefan punched the guy's jaw and a grunt of pain left his mouth. He positioned both his hands on the guy's head and snapped his neck, getting off of his seemingly lifeless body.
"Are you gonna help me out or not?" He said, almost out of breath. The guy was not as strong as him, but still, he was strong.
Damon nodded, and yelled for Caroline to invite the new vampire in.
"What the hell happened in here?" Elena asked, eyes almost popping out of their sockets. There was blood everywhere, a trail that lead her to the basement, where she found Damon and Stefan looking at their little homemade cage, watching as someone came back to life.
Stefan noticed Elena and sighed. "Klaus sent him."
Her breath caught in her throat. "So he knows we're here?"
"I wouldn't say that. Stefan knocked the guy to the ground before he could tell him anything." Damon said. "But if we keep him here for too long, Klaus is definitely going to suspect something."
"I have an idea." Caroline's voice suddenly ringed through the corridor, and the three vampires looked at her intently.
"What kind of idea?" Stefan asked, concern dripping out of his voice.
"Call Rebekah." She demanded, her voice confident.
Review pleaaaseee?