When I walked into the cell with Damon, I couldn't help but notice that Stefan was tripping out. He hadn't had anything to eat in a days and he also called me Katherine. I did kind of look like Katherine, but I was pretty sure that it was hard to confuse me for her. I decided that it would probably be best to leave him alone. I then went to get dressed, putting on a simple black dress with a black belt. I was didn't know what the belt was for since it wasn't holding up the dress at all. I still didn't understand fashion. I then went downstairs and began to prepare for school. Damon was there.
"Has he eaten yet?" I questioned. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't still be downstairs if he had.
"No." He answered. "You know this stuff will pass. He feels guilty over hurting that girl and for biting you. He'll be fine."
"Is there anything we can do?" I asked. I was concerned because I had never seen Stefan like that.
"It'll just be best to let it pass." Damon replied as she fiddled with the thing that Pearl gave me. I still didn't know what it was.
"Did you ever find out what that does?" I responded.
"No, but it doesn't work." He pointed out. How did he know it didn't work if he didn't know what it did? "Have you talked to your uncle lately?"
"I've been avoiding him and I've also been here most nights." I explained. It was a little weird sleeping in Stefan's bed when he wasn't there.
"So does that mean that you're going to be here again tonight?" He inquired. Did he expect me not to be or something?
"Yes, and there is nothing that you can do about it." I snapped. There were things he could do, but I was pretty sure that he wouldn't do any of them.
"There's plenty I could do about. I just choose not to." He pointed out. Just as I thought. "Have fun at school."
I knew that school would not be fun. School would definitely not be fun. For starters, Stefan wouldn't be there and I just didn't like school in general.
"So how are things with Elena? Has she said anything about me lately?" Anna questioned me in the parking lot. Okay, so there was still one good part about school.
"No, and Elena because she won't talk to me." I explained. I still didn't know what I had done to her.
"What are you two even fighting about?" She asked. Her guess was as good as mine.
"That's the thing. I don't even know." I responded. "I don't know what I did to make her so angry."
"She'll probably get over it." Anna reasoned. "How's Stefan."
"He's not good." I pointed out. "I don't know what to do."
"Well I wish that I could help, but I really can't. I wanted to spend the day with Elena." She responded. I really wasn't sure what exactly she would be able to do.
"You should. She's your girlfriend." I told her. "I'll be fine doing this on my own."
"I didn't think we're together right now." She told me. I hoped that they would get back together, even though there was a part of me that wanted Anna for myself. I couldn't give into that part since I was already in a relationship.
After school, I needed to head home and pick up a few things. It was becoming increasingly difficult to sleep without my bat, so if I was staying over, I needed to bring him with me. It could have just been anxiety about Stefan, but I was pretty sure that having him there would help. I also needed to get some more clothes. I decided to call Damon to see if Stefan had made any progress.
"What?" He answered. He could be really annoying sometimes.
"I was just calling to check up." I replied.
"I am fine, thank you." He quipped. I rolled my eyes. He knew that I didn't mean him.
"I wanted to check up on Stefan." I corrected.
"He's still the same, ever so broody." The vampire told me. "He hasn't eaten yet."
"There has to be something that I can do to get him to eat." I responded. "Does he have a favorite?"
"What are you talking about?" He questioned. I had a feeling that he knew and was just teasing me.
"You know a favorite kind of animal blood." I asked awkwardly. I tried to think if Stefan had ever mentioned that. He hadn't. I felt uncomfortable.
"Ew, gross." He commented. I was pretty sure that he was using humor to get through a tough time like many people. Of course, it didn't make Damon any less annoying. To be fair, I didn't know if anything could make Damon less annoying.
"Would it kill you to be serious?" I asked.
"Just hurry on over. I have things to do." He replied. What was he going to go hang out at the Grill or something?
"I would say drop dead but…" I declared.
"Stefan likes puppy blood, the really cute ones." He remarked before I just hung up. I closed the closet door and there was John. I jumped at the sight of him in surprise. Why was he hiding behind the closet door?
"Sorry." He apologized.
"It's okay. I was just leaving." I responded as I regained composure. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
"I was hoping that we could talk for a minute." He stated.
"It'll have to be another time." I told him as I began to walk away.
"What would your mother say if she found out that you were dating a vampire?" He asked, causing me to stop in my tracks and turn around. If I had any strength at all, I would have probably punched him.
"Considering she is one, I don't think she would care." I responded before I went out the down.
When I got to the house, I noticed Damon, but didn't acknowledge him because I went straight down to the basement because I wanted to see Stefan. I looked through the door and saw him looking down as I noticed a bottle of blood on the floor, which I assumed was from an animal. I also couldn't help but wonder how much had been spilled to get it in the bottle.
"You need to drink that." I told him. It was also a little bit irritating that he wouldn't listen to me. I was losing patience, even though I knew that I wasn't supposed to.
"I don't want to." I heard him mutter.
"Stefan, this isn't about what you want. You can't survive without blood." I pointed out.
"I don't wanna survive." He told me. At that moment, I felt like someone had punched me in the heart. I went upstairs with a frown on my face where Damon was packing some stuff up. I decided to tell him what Stefan had said.
"Why would he say that?" I asked him. Was actually feeling like he didn't want to live anymore?
"I told you he feels guilty." Damon reiterated. It sounded more like regular guilt though.
"He sounded serious." I pointed out. I didn't think he had any ways of doing it while he was locked up at least.
"It's typical Stefan martyr stuff." He explained. Damon did know his brother a lot better than I did, so maybe I could trust him but I just felt nervous about it.
"So where are you going?" I questioned.
"I have an errand to run with your stepfather. Don't wait up for me." He replied. That left a lot of questions, but I didn't even get the chance to ask any of them before he left. I was surprised that they were doing anything together when just a few weeks ago they wanted to kill each other.
I decided that I was going to go down once more. I was going to force him to drink the blood if I had to. I was definitely not going to let him just give up on his life like he wanted to.
I went to the door where he was still in the same position as before. I was annoyed that he hadn't moved at all. It probably was not the best way to go about helping him, but so far nothing else had worked, so I would have to go with a tough love approach. I did hope that he knew that I loved him.
"Why haven't you drank the blood yet?" I asked him in frustration.
"I told you." He replied. He hadn't told me anything. It looked like I would have to feed it to him myself. "Go away, Mary."
"No." I responded as I opened the door and walked in.
"What are you doing?" He asked me. Well at least I got him to show some emotion. "Get out of here."
"No." I responded as I grabbed the bottle. "Drink the blood."
"You don't know how stupid of an idea it is for you to be in here. I could hurt you." He explained. He wasn't even acting hungry. I was fairly confident that he wouldn't bite me. It probably wasn't very smart on the surface, but I knew what I was doing. Okay, so I was just winging it. Hopefully it would work.
"Do you think I'm scared of you, Stefan?" I asked him. "What are you going to do, bite me again? That wouldn't be very smart for someone who is trying to avoid blood at all costs. Now you are going to drink this if I have to force it down your throat!"
He knocked the bottle out of my hands and then looked away from me. It was at that point that I could see the hurt in his eyes. I think I needed to give him some words of encouragement. I hoped that I would be able to do that since sensitivity was not one of my strong points.
"Stefan, I'm fine. Amber is fine." I pointed out. "Damon erased her memory so she doesn't even remember you attacking her. "No one knows anything and you're going to be fine."
At that moment, I took his ring out of my pocket.
"Stefan, will you please just tell me what's wrong? This isn't like you, and I think this goes back to more than just you what happened the other night. I know that I'm not a therapist, but I want to know what's making you like this."
He then proceeded to tell me about what happened when he first turned. Like Damon said, the two of them were shot trying to rescue Katherine. They had had her blood in their systems and woke up in the quarry with Emily. They had decided that they weren't going to transition because they thought that she was dead. He had gone to visit his father to say goodbye to him where he found out that Giuseppe was the one that killed them. He then tried to kill him again, despite the fact that Stefan told him that he wasn't a vampire. Stefan pushed him away, inadvertently impaling him with his cane in the process. He then drank his father's blood, becoming the vampire that was today.
"How can you even look at me right now?" He asked with tears in his eyes. Did he think that I would be upset that he killed someone in self-defense? That wasn't even that bad.
"Because it was accident, Stefan." I pointed out. "You didn't mean to kill him. Come up stairs and we can talk about it some more and anything else."
"I did mean to kill most if not all of the others." He explained. That didn't really surprise me either. It probably took him a long time to get to where he was when he met me.
"We can talk about those too." I declared. "All I want is for you to feel like I'm someone that you can talk to. I've talked to you about all of my problems, and I just want you to feel that I'm someone that you love enough to tell me stuff."
"How can you be so sure that I'll get better?" He asked with a confused look on his face. Well for one, I was pretty sure that we had just had a breakthrough. That had to be a good sign.
"Because I love you Stefan and I know that you'll get better." I explained. I put his ring over by the bench beside him. "And when you're ready to talk to me, I'll be upstairs."
I walked out of the cell, leaving the door open so he could come and meet me. I definitely felt like we had made some progress. I went up to Stefan's room and suddenly I felt that someone else was in the room with me. It wasn't Stefan. I gave her a hug. I didn't think that she would just show up like that even though that was kind of her thing.
"How is he?" She asked.
"Well, I think things are improving." I admitted. "So, what are you doing here?"
"I need to tell you that my mom wants me to leave town and I think I want to go with her." She declared.
"No!" I argued. "You can't leave."
"Why not?" She challenged. "There are people here that want to kill me and it's not really even worth staying because Elena doesn't love me."
"Because you're the only friend that I have." I told her. "I know that things haven't always been the greatest for us, but I can't lose you. You and Stefan are pretty much the only good things that happened since I was turned into a girl."
"You don't need me." She argued. "You have your boyfriend. You'll be fine."
She started to walk away before I grabbed her. I nearly fell out the window before she grabbed me. She was holding me close. It was at that moment that I pressed my lips against hers. She then moved me onto the bed and we started to kiss each other hungrily. It was at that moment that I realized what I was doing and pulled away.
"Oh my god." I stated. "Anna, I can't do this. I'm with Stefan. Just please promise me that you'll stay."
I felt very conflicted. I had just cheated on Stefan. I knew that I wouldn't be able to tell him. I was pretty sure that I still loved him. Was my attraction to Anna stronger than I thought it was. I headed downstairs because I needed to think.
An hour later, Damon showed up.
"Ugh, you're still here?" He remarked. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell him what happened because I was pretty sure that he would tell Stefan.
"Were you expecting anything else?" I replied. I was trying my best not to act nervous.
"It was more of a statement than a question." He pointed out. It seemed like he was growing more accustomed to my presence. "How's Mr. Broody?"
"I think he's getting closer." I answered proudly. I also really hoped that he hadn't heard any of that. He couldn't hear things two stories up, could he? "How did the errand go?"
"It was a total bust, but I think that I witnessed the teacher having an existential crisis." Damon replied. I would have to ask the details of that, but now wasn't really the time for that. "Has he eaten yet?"
"Let me check." I responded as I went back downstairs. "Stefan? Stefan?"
I went into the cell, only to find that he wasn't in it and he wasn't wearing his ring either. I began to panic as I tried to think where he could possibly be, except I didn't have a fucking clue. Okay, now I was not hiding my nerves anymore. I also really hoped that he hadn't heard me. That was when I remembered something. He told me that the heightened senses only worked when he had blood. So he didn't know about that at least. While that was at least good, it didn't help the fact that he was outside without his ring. If he didn't come back by sunrise, he would die.
"DAMON!" I shouted as I ran upstairs.
"What?" He asked. "You don't need to yell. I have better hearing than you."
"He's gone and he doesn't have his ring with him." I explained as I breathed heavily. "He'll die when the sun comes up."
"Fine, let him if that's what he wants to do." The vampire replied. I wanted to slap him, even though I didn't think it would help.
"No, don't do that!" I shouted. "Stop trying to pretend that you don't care. Are you mad that Stefan killed your father? You can't possibly want him to die for that."
"How much of the story did Stefan tell you?" He asked. Was he about to tell me something that I didn't know? I didn't have time for that. I needed to find Stefan.
"He told me enough." I answered.
"I doubt that." He replied. "Did he tell you how I turned? How I was ready to die and then he came back a vampire, having broken the vow that we had made. Then to make things worse, he told me that he wanted me to turn. I said no, but he didn't give me a choice."
"Oh my god, that's why he feels so guilty." I realized. That didn't sound like something Stefan would do, but it would explain why Damon had so much resentment towards his brother after so long. "Damon if you have any idea where he is, could you please take me there?"
"Sorry, I don't really want to go out anymore tonight." He answered. Did that mean that he did know?
"Then tell me where he is and give me your keys so I can go there!" I replied. I didn't have a lot of time. Well I supposed if his plan was to die by sunlight, I had several hours, but he could change his mind and stab himself with a piece of wood and I really didn't want to take that risk.
"Check the quarry." He suggested as he gave me the keys. You know I was a little surprised that worked. I could have taken my bike, but it was probably easier to drive a car when I was hysterical than a motorcycle. "If anything happens to my car, I will kill you."
I drove there quickly, even though I knew I had a while until the sun came up. I found him seemingly hallucinating again. He also looked dizzy. He really needed to get some blood in him, but I was pretty sure that he wanted it to be from an animal, especially since having my blood was what started all of this.
I knew that I would have to say the right things here. I really hoped that I could do that. I was pretty scared. I wasn't scared of him even though I knew that he could kill me. I was more scared of him dying. Even if I did have feelings for Anna, I didn't want them to be resolved with his death. That would only make me feel guilty. I might need to take some time to resolve them, but right now I need to convince Stefan to keep living.
"Stefan." I told him as I got him to look at me. "Damon told me that you would be here. He told me the rest of the story."
"I should have died that night, Mary." He stated as he cried. This was going to be hard.
"You can't change that, Stefan." I responded. I was pretty sure time travel was not a thing. "I know that you have made some mistakes, but it's all in the past."
"Everyone that has died at mine and Damon's hands since that night is my fault. How can you expect me to live with that?" He asked. He shouldn't be blaming himself for someone else's actions.
"By accepting that there are some things that you can't change." I answered. He looked at me in shock. "When I look at you, do you want to know what I see? I don't a blood-thirsty monster that has killed scores of people, but a guy that jumped into the lake to save the family whose car had gone off the bridge. I see the guy that took a chance to get to know that would rather have a drink than talk about her feelings. I see the guy that got that girl to love herself for the first time since she became a girl and more importantly, I see the guy that I love."
I did love him. I couldn't deny that. I was a little confused, but I knew that I definitely loved him. I hoped that he could see that.
"It hurts me, Mary." He stated. "It hurts to keep fighting."
"Just because it hurts doesn't mean you should stop." I argued. I really hoped that this was going to work. I was starting to run out of ideas. The only other thing that I could think to do was kissing him, but kissing hadn't had the best results so far tonight. "I'll help you fight, and I'll be there if you stumble again. Just put this ring and come with me."
He then gave me a kiss and I put the ring on his finger. Everything was good at it felt good to be good. I wasn't sure what I meant by that, but I was pretty sure that I had definitely convinced him to keep living.
We headed back to the boarding house where I noticed that Damon was still up. You know I couldn't help but wonder when Damon usually went to bed. He seemed like a bit of a night owl and that wasn't just related to him being a vampire. I then realized that I didn't need to care about Damon's sleeping habits because they were not important. I wondered if I should try to call so we could talk, but it was probably something that could wait until morning.
"I'll leave you two to talk things out." I stated before I headed up to his bedroom. I had saved him once more, but he was the one who saved me first. I would just have to figure out what I was going to do now. I started typing a text to Anna, but I didn't send it.
So Mary and Anna ended up making out. Will Stefan find out about it? How will this change things, if at all? Please don't forget to review