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Chapter seven: The night of the comet
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Emily and Nora roamed the town square. The two were handing out pamphlets for the comet watching event that night. Caroline Forbes had basically shoved the rectangular papers in their hands and ordered them to hand them out.

"Take this pamphlet." Nora demanded to a couple walking by. They took it and sped away.

"You're supposed to ask if they want it, not scare them." Emily commented.

"Hey it worked, they took it." The shorter girl shrugged.

"Okay, just don't let Caroline catch you doing that."

"Where is that crazy girl anyway?" Nora's eye's furrowed looking around.

"She's not crazy and she's hard to miss in that bright yellow dress."

"She is crazy, and I'm out, heading to the grill, if you're smart you'll join."

"I'll meet you there, I'm just going to pass a few more of these out." Emily replies holding up the rather large stack of pamphlets in her hand.

"Suit yourself." Nora said stacking her pile on top of Emily's and walking towards the grill.

When Nora entered the grill the last thing she expected to see was Vicky Donovan back to work, with a bandage over her neck and acting brand new. She also didn't expect for her to be talking to Jeremy. The two were laughing, before Jeremy pulled out a bottle of prescription pills from his pocket and handed them to her. The familiar pit in her stomach intensified when she saw the smile on Jeremy's face and just like that she was exiting the grill and heading back to the town square in a hurry.

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    "What is Damon doing here? Why did he come?" Zach Salvatore asks the two brothers standing in front of him.

"Because I came home." Stefan replies. "Just like this one." Stefan adds gesturing to Vincent.

     The truth was Vincent always knew of his brothers whereabouts, whenever he left one place to go to another Vincent was told. He wasn't proud of the amount of people he's compelled to spy on his brother, but given Stefan's past, Vincent felt like it was his duty to make sure his brother doesn't go off the rails again.

     "He wants to make my life miserable. That's how he enjoys his." Stefan continued.

     "Well he's putting us all at risk. This girl in the hospital could talk." Zach states.

     "She won't." Stefan said as he finished buttoning his shirt. "I took care of her."

     "You're sure?" Vincent asks. His brother not drinking human blood means his abilities and strengths are very limited. So even if Stefan believes he took Vicky Donavan's memory away the girl could wake up tomorrow and run around the town screaming 'vampire'.

     Stefan sighs. "I'm not sure, I don't know how well it worked, I'm not as strong as you or Damon."

     "So what happens if it doesn't work?" Zach asks.

     "I don't know, I'll deal with it." Stefan responds, except he's looking to Vincent when he says it. He knows his brother is going to try and fix things, and he knew his brother would succeed. But Stefan was tired of having Vincent clean up all of him and Damon's messes.

     Stefan finished putting on his Jacket and is getting ready to leave. 

     "I'm coming with you." Vincent states grabbing his own Jacket.

     "Is she worth it.. uncle Stefan, this girl you came back for?" Stefan didn't respond to Zach's question before making his way to the door where Vincent waited for him.

     The car ride over was awkward for the two brothers. Vincent did want to bring up Elena, tell Stefan that it wasn't a good idea to crash her life all because she looked like Katherine, but he reframed from it. Of course Stefan didn't hold back the questions of his own.

     "Are you feeding on her? Emily, Elena's sister." Stefan asked but it was more of an accusation.

     Vincent was taken back by the question. "No, of course not." Vincent paused. "Your friend Lexi has introduced me to the wonderful world of blood bags." He said trying to lighten the mood and take away the tension. It didn't work, Stefan went back to being silent for the rest of the car ride.

     When the two brothers reached the town square a lady handed them candles. Vincent was a bit confused  that she handed them both un-lit candles and Stefan noticed. "Someone's supposed to light your candle, and you're supposed to pass it on." Stefan explained.

     "Ah." Vincent nods. Just as he was about to speak again, Stefan's eyes landed on Elena, and he began to walk off.

     Being left alone Vincent scanned the crowd, people gathered and sat on picnic tables looking up at the comet in the sky. His gaze stopped at the familiar brunette laughing with her friend. Emily also noticed him and his flameless candle. She said something to the blonde she was with and made her way over.

     Vincent noticed the hesitancy in the way she walked, so he met her half way. When they'd finally reached each other Emily motioned towards Vincent's candle.

     "My friend says that comet is a harbinger of death or something." Emily laughs. "Apparently it's going to release hell in our town now."

     "Hm, yet here we all are celebrating it."

     "Town events here happen every week, any excuse to have one." Emily informed.

Vincent sighs. "Good to see Mystic falls hasn't changed."

"When was the last time you were here?" Emily asks.

Vincent freezes at the question and rubs his chin, looking for an answer. Looking for a lie. He couldn't quite tell her that last time he'd been here was over 100 years ago. "Umm, when I was younger." He vaguely answers. 

Emily bounced on the heels of her feet. "Very non-specific."

Moments passed in silence, Emily was grateful it was a comfortable silence. She found it strange how she felt more comfortable with basically a stranger than she did with her own friends. To ease her mind, she told herself that he didn't have to be a stranger.
"Hey, you wanna come with me back to the grill? We just hang out, play pool-"

     "That would be great." Vincent replies without hesitation.

As Emily and Vincent walked towards the table everyone was at, Emily saw how Caroline's eyes peaked of interest. "I'm sorry." Emily whispered to Vincent as they approached.

"What do you mean?-"

"Hi I'm Caroline!" The blonde began holding out her hand to Vincent. Vincent took it but little did he know Caroline was going to pull him down into a chair and bomb him with questions. Elena glanced at Vincent then back to her sister. A smile played on the girls lips. It was rare for Elena to see her sister with a guy, it's not like Emily hadn't ever tried to be involved with boys, it just never worked out.

     Right when Caroline was about to ask Vincent about his social security number, Jeremy Gilbert approached the group with a look of concern on his face. "Hey has anyone seen Vicky?" The boy asks.

     "You're her stalker. You tell us." Tyler said leaning forward on the round table.

     "I can't find her!"

     "She probably found someone else to party with. Sorry pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced." Tyler retorts.

     Elenas eyebrows furrowed as she turned to Tyler. "What's with the pill pusher?" She asks.

     Tyler nods his head back to Jeremy. "Ask him."

     "You wanna do this right now?" Jeremy exclaims. Anger filled the boy, and Tyler's snarky comments weren't helping.

     "Are you dealing?" Elena says angrily.

     "She's never gonna go for you." Tyler says lowly.

     Completely forgetting his sisters question Jeremy looks at Tyler. "She already did, over and over and over again."

     Tyler scoffs. "Yeah right."

     "You slept with Vicky Donovan?" Caroline cut in. "I mean, Vicky Donovan slept with you?" Emily's face formed a grimace at Caroline's remark, she so desperately wanted the conversation to end and not talk about her younger brothers sex life.

     Emily turned to a very quiet Vincent and mouthed an 'I'm sorry' to him. She'd like to say this wasn't a common occurrence between everyone, but she'd be lying if she did. Tyler was always being an asshole and causing havoc, and Jeremy loved to provoke him, leaving everyone else getting caught in the crossfires.

     Matt faced the whole group now. "You know what, how about all of you shut up and help me find my sister?" His glare remained on Tyler a second longer than everyone else.

     "We'll check the back." Bonnie chimes in.

     "I'll check the square." Matt told everyone.

"I'll come with you." Jeremy said to Matt, but was intercepted by Elena. "No, no, no, no. You are coming with me." She said grabbing Jeremy by the shoulders.

Once everyone was out of sight. Emily turned towards Vincent. "I'm going to go help look."

Vincent stood from his seat. "I'll help, I gotta find Stefan any way, he's my ride, and he might leave me here."

Nora arrived at the almost empty table with a tray of drinks. "Where the hell did everyone go?"  She asks.

"Vicky's missing, everyone's helping Matt find her." Emily explained.

"Attention whore." Nora grunted. 

"Nora!" Emily exclaimed.

"What? I speak the truth." The teen shrugs laying down the tray. She takes her own drink and faces Emily again.

Emily sighed. "Me and Vincent were about to head out."

"Vincent?" Nora questions.

"Yeah." Emily turns around to find the spot Vincent was just in empty, she searched around and found him nowhere. "That guy's always disappearing." She says in disbelief. She lets out a sigh before turning back towards Nora. "We better go help, and while you were getting drinks there has been a lot of revelations in your absence." As Emily and Nora walked, Emily explained the what had just happened.

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Remember to take care of yourselves <3