Mystic Falls, Virgina: 1864

Stefan Salvatore steps out of his home, arms politely crossed behind his back as he prepares to meet the new guest that is currently arriving to the Salvatore estate by carriage. He was told about this person by his brother, and is now honestly interested, if not excited, to meet this woman for the first time.

His workers stand to the side as Stefan watches the horses stop, the driver calming the anxious creatures down before the carriage stops right at the front lawn of the estate. He then sets down a wooden stepping stool right in front of the door before opening it, revealing a ebony-skinned women who takes the gentlemen's hand and steps out. However, the next woman who exits the vehicle, is the most gorgeous woman the Salvatore kid has ever laid his eyes on. Her perfect olive skin, and red hair shine as her best features, especially when she then looks in Stefan's direction. She scans Stefan up to down and slowly smirks, appreciating what she sees from him.

Stefan then walks down the steps, approaching the girl with his face's best look. "You must be Miss Pierce." He notes as he crosses his arms behind his back once again, giving a polite bow in greeting.

"Please, call me Katherine." The woman introduces herself as she briefly holds Stefan's hand, bowing in return. During which, the man who opened the door, with rough hair and less expensive clothing quickly circles around the carriage. He briefly stops as he observes Stefan and Katherine for a brief moment, before then marching over and grabbing both suitcases that sit in the driver's seat.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, truly." Stefan tells her with a earnest smile, before nodding to his house. "Damon's been eager to see you before his next battle, come in." He then invites her into his home, which Katherine happily does. The man then steps next to the ebony woman, watching them both enter the house.

"That was easy, good for her." The man comments as he sets the suitcases down with a quiet chuckle. "Of course, I still don't think that this permanent trip will last, I give her a year before she eternally rests." He says with a hum, causing the woman to glance at him.

"You've been very cynical as of late, Lander." The woman notes, squinting her inquisitive eyes at him. "Why?"

"It's the end of the comet's influence my dear, soon, the earth will be met with glorious chaos." The man quips with a small smirk, looking up towards the sky with anticipating eyes. "Vampires have left more and more evidence recently. And my soul..... it's been changing..... less calm."

"Well, you better keep it in check." The women strongly advises with a look. "Comet or no, Katherine came here for a quieter life, as much as she can make of it, anyway." She reminds him, causing the man to burst out laughing.

"I'm no fool, Emily, I know what our 'mistress' really wants." Lander tells her with a look that shows it's knowledge. "However, I believe that it's not the Vampires that she should be wary of...." He comments, his eyes no digging around the Salvatores' massive estate.

"It's the humans...."

_________________________________________

Mystic Falls Hospital: Present Time

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

Y/N's eyes open, and he sees a spotty white ceiling above him. He then feels like he's on a different surface than the hot concrete he was on earlier. Now he's on something cool and soft. He blinks as his head gets groggy, and then looks down towards his chest where he now realizes where he is. The damn hospital, again.

"Y/N." He hears his name being said, and turns to his left to see his father quickly sitting up upon noticing that he's awake. "Hey, you okay?" He asks him, finally having got he full story on why he's gotten put here in the first place.

"What.... happened?" Y/N says in a weak voice, looking more like he just woke up from a long nap than anything else. All he remembers is that he was talking to Stefan, then a car blew up, then he suddenly got all this visions, while.... hearing something scream inside of his head.

"Um.... your friends said that you went into some kind of arrest after a car blew up next to you." Raymond tells him, really glad that he doesn't have any kind of burn scars on him. Guess he was just far enough to not get anything worse. Y/N then seems to nod as he tries sitting up a little bit, not liking the feeling of this hospital bed. "Hey, maybe you should-"

"I'm fine." Y/N instantly says as he gets up from the head, getting back on his own two feet. "I wanna go home." He tells his dad as he walks towards the bathroom, feeling like he needs a crap ton of water for his throat.

"Y/N." Raymond calls out his name before he shuts the door. "Do you know why you passed out?" He then asks him curiously, to which Y/N stands there for a few seconds, before eventually shaking his head.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Y/N answers with a shrug, knowing about as much as anyone else who witnessed it does. He then closes the door, turning around to face the mirror. He sight of himself makes him rub his hand alongside his neck again, where he still remembers feeling Jeff Warren stab him.

Jeff Warren..... and now he's dead.

The second school started, everything has done it's best to make almost every day essentially weird. From the animal attacks, to the sudden outbursts Y/N keeps having, to football.... And now cars suddenly combusting into flames for no apparent reason It makes him feel like he's living in a slightly different world.

What the heck's going on around here?

Meanwhile, while Y/N is doing his thing in the bathroom, Raymond is relaying his experience he had earlier tonight at the Salvatore boarding house, knowing that what he saw couldn't be explained with a Home Alone movie. "And you mean it?"

"Yes, I mean it. The Salvatore Boarding house. Zach is gone, and I almost got torn apart by his Vampire killer." Raymond repeats himself for the second time, letting out a big exhale as he feels like he's lucky to be alive, which frankly, he is. That steak couldn't either missed, or been dodged if he wasn't accurate with it.

"Alright, I'll send someone over to confirm it, though it'll take a while for me to get my guys to get a warrant." Sheriff Forbes responds, before sighing a bit at how they still have to abide by human laws while fighting supernatural creatures. "Let's hope we still have enough vervain to avoid compulsion."

"Check with David when you have it, I heard he got his recent batch he day before." Raymond advises before the two collectively hang up. He then rubs his hands along his face as he then goes to get a nurse.

Though, he's sure that Y/N will insist on leaving AMA anyway.

_______________________________________________

The two L/Ns then drive back to the mansion where the once peaceful silence turns into a random discussion about some of the oldest Hollywood movies ever made. Y/N's not sure how he got mixed into it, but with one sentence, he gets his father going. "No, I haven't seen it."

"Are you serious?" Raymond exclaims with a squint, while still keeping his eyes on the road. "You haven't seen Gone with the Wind? Not even once?" He questions Y/N as if he's an alien from outer space.

"Dude, that movie's sixty years old, and I've been having to use Netflix and the other five streaming services to keep myself from not getting bored until you showed up again." Y/N says in his defense, raising his hands up. "So, no, I haven't seen that divorce-filled rom com or whatever it is about."

"Rom com is definitely not the right word for it." Raymond remarks with a small chuckle, still apparently knowing the plot from beginning to end. "It's emotional, but not because it takes place in the Civil War or anything."

"Cool, cool."

"So I'm guessing you're all 'modern cool, all bad', hmm?" Raymond guesses with a weird face, causing Y/N to give him a look.

"What? No, listen, I've seen the monster classics, like Frankenstein, and Dracula, have you seen those?" Y/N questions, turning the interrogation around back to him. Raymond opens his mouth, but nothing comes out, causing Y/N to click his tongue. "See? Now who's out of though?"

"Okay fine, but at least I didn't stick to one single genre." Raymond remarks, causing Y/N to scoff.

"Oh, deer..."

"What?" Raymond questions as he gives him a look. "You know it's true-"

"No, DEER!"

Y/N points, but Raymond doesn't see the deer corpse being launched at the windshield of the car, causing everything to shatter on top of them. Raymond tries slamming on the breaks, but his hand slips on the wheel and while desperately stopping, the van still ends up hitting a steel fence covering the sewer area below the road.

The van then flips over, rolling down over the grass before eventually stopping with the roof now kissing the dirt. Most of the windows shattered, and the van completely out of shape, wrecked.

Y/N is now on the floor, where the windshield should be, his face somewhat red thanks to all of the cuts he just received from the glass. Despite the back of his brain getting hit a back from the bumps, he still manages to stay away, before feeling himself getting dragged out of the van through the passenger side.

"Come on, son....." Raymond says with a struggling voice as he pulls him out, before laying him down on his buttocks, his back leaning against the side of the van so he can somewhat rest. "Don't move." He tells him with a serious look, before slowly reaching to his pocket for something.

Y/N may look like he's only tired, breathing through his mouth. But mentally, he's scared as shit. Not only has he not been in an accidently like that before, but everywhere on his body hurts, as if the shards of glass made sure to strike every piece of skin that he has. And he can't find the strength the move, no matter how hard he tries. "Shh, shh...." Raymond shushes, strongly advises Y/N not to struggle with this body anymore as he holds him in place. The two cling onto the van's walls for dear life.

They then hear a loud thud, coming from their own van. Raymond then slowly pulls it the piece he was holding in his pocket, and waits..... Y/N then hears more thuds... like... someone's walking on the top of the upside-down van itself. But.... why? How did they do that in two seconds? And wasn't it a deer that crashed their car?

Again, what the heck's going on here?

Raymond then hears a thud much closer to them, and slowly begins to raise his gun upward. The figure seems to keep looking around, before directing his attention towards their side of the van. He doesn't see anything out in the forest..... until he then glances down.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

Raymond shoots at the person with his gun, and Y/N hears a shout of pain as he gets hit in the chest. He then pulls out a wooden steak as he tries moving in for the kill, but as he stands up, he looks around to see nobody in sight. The figure has disappeared in a flash.

Although it seems the coast is clear, Raymond keeps his guard up until thirty straight minutes, before his shoulders drop in a sigh of relief. He then quickly reaches for his phone so he can call and ambulance. He then glances at his son, who still stays there on the floor, unaware and confused. He sighs regretfully. He knew he should've done better to convince Y/N to wait for morning.

What an idiot he was.

___________________________

L/N Residence: Morning

Well.... thankfully, Y/N didn't have to lay down in a hospital bed for very long this time. However, he did have to get a few band-aids for some of the bigger scratches he's gotten. However, that's the last thing on his mind right now, especially when you had a deer and his ripped open stomach come flying at you in a milo-second slam into a car that you're in.

Y/N still thinks about every single piece of what happened, how the van crashed, how his father reacted, the gun, the other man he knows was there thanks to his screaming. None of that was normal, it's like the scene right out of a horror movie, right down to the Hollywood setup of it. All he could really do right now is watch TV this weekend, nothing else he can do. Even if he did have school, no way in hell is he going.

As he munches on popcorn and other chip bags on the couch, he tries ignoring his dad while he's on the phone, knowing that it'll just remind him of the man that tried to kill them. "I'm sorry, where was it?" Raymond queries the person of the phone, seemingly perplexed by what he's hearing. "Okay..... okay, yeah, I'll be there." He says before hanging up, exiting the kitchen and marching to the door. "Y/N! I gotta go! I'll be gone for a couple hours."

"Got it." Y/N blanky responds, stuffing more popcorn in his mouth as the crumbs fall onto his lap or the bowl. Raymond glances worriedly at him before grabbing his jacket. "You know what happened, didn't you?"

Raymond pauses, turning to Y/N. "What?"

"Last night, you knew where that deer came from, you know that someone was out there in the woods." Y/N points out. He doesn't look at his dad, but by the tone of his voice, it's clear that he's not a idiot. Raymond knows that he's suspecting something, but he knows that he can't tell him, for his own safety.

"I saw a man with a knife coming at us before I dragged you out of that car." Raymond tells Y/N, a half-truth. "It's why I pulled out my gun, I was just trying to keep us both safe."

"At the steak?" Y/N questions, causing Raymond to glance down with a sigh. Yeah, that definitely was no pocket knife. "Unless you picked up a very unique self-defense class, I don't see why something like that is necessary."

Raymond lets out a sigh, knowing that his son isn't going to buy anything he says. "It's not that simple."

"Yeah, I figured that one out." Y/N sarcastically remarks. "Like keeping stuff from murder scenes that happened ten years ago, and trying to pose them as stuff that belonged to us." He then mentions, hinting at the object in full display at the Lockwood Mansion.

"What are talking about-"

"You know what I'm talking about!" Y/N exclaims as she shoots up from his seat, walking over to his dad who stands there, way too up straight than someone should be calm if they have nothing to hide. "Gracewind Park? Goatman? You had the object with the same exact scratches on it as the ones on the photos, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out."

Raymond blinks, before looking at Y/N with a blank expression. "So what? You think the Goatman is real? That's he come to Mystic Falls and I'm keeping him a secret from you?"

"I think that you came back for a very specific reason." Y/N responds, pointing harshly at his father's face. "And that reason isn't because you wanted to 'stay with me more', it was the 'animal' that came to Mystic Falls. That got your attention, and you came back here because you wanted to save your town's rep-"

"I came because I knew you would be in danger!" Raymond suddenly snaps, the accusations of his selfishness eventually unloading onto him. Y/N pauses as his dad then closes his eyes and lets out a slow exhale. "Y/N, if I told you everything I believed in this world, you would think I've lost my mind. And honestly, sometimes I wish I did."

"So it's-"

"There are things that I would tell you right now, things I want to tell you." Raymond continues, not wanting Y/N to interrupt him while he's speaking. "But I can't, because I know that if you did, you could quite literally die."

Y/N blinks, not getting the analogy of that. "You're still alive." he points out, trying to see if his dad can be more specific if he's trying to convince him to mind his own business.

"Because I didn't have to have a deer thrown into my car to learn the truth." Raymond remarks with a grave expression on his face. He then lets out a sigh as he fully puts on his jacket. "I'll bring dinner." He tells Y/N before heading out the door, leaving a very conflicted boy behind.

Part of him wants to understand what he's saying, that he's trying to protect him.

But what if something comes along and pulls him forward?

____________________________________

Cemetary:

When Raymond then finally drives over to where the Vampires have supposedly struck again, he finds a much large crime scene than he expected. Police tape surround the cemetery as he parks on the other side of the road, the officers let him through as he examines the area. Bottles of booze, cigarettes, weed cigarettes, and a massive pile of something covered by a yellow blanket.

After a few seconds, he then notices Logan Fell and Sheriff Forbes next to the pile. "Never smelled one this bad before..." Logan cringes as he covers his nose in disgust, Forbes getting an eye of the charred corpses as she lifts the blanket. "Raymond, welcome to the party." Logan then acknowledges.

"Logan, Sheriff." Raymond professionally greets as he winces at the bodies. "What do we have here?" He queries, mostly referring to how they found them.

"Last night, while my men were cleaning up your car crash....." Sheriff Forbes begins, standing up as she glances around the crime scene. "One of the deputies ran into.... all of this. Three bodies being set on fire, most likely douses by alcohol." She guesses, judging that there's so much of it.

"And we're sure this was a Vampire?" Logan chimes in, still not a-hundred percent sure that this was just a fiend covering its tracks.

"I'm positive. You only burn a corpse to try and hide cause of death, and there are no shell casings." Sheriff Forbes mentions, before glancing to Raymond. "Besides yours, of course."

"We know who they are?" Raymond queries, unable to tell what they are thanks to them and their clothes getting a strong case of fire. Even if he did know a bunch of people who hanged out in area filled with graves.

"No, Doc will have to check their dental records." Sheriff Forbes answers with a shake of her head, the three then step away from the smelly corpses as they try to find out what they're going to do now. The town will only believe animal attacks for so long, especially when the beast was already caught. Also, no one will believe it was an animal that could breathe fire out of its mouth.

"What story should I run?" Logan asks Sheriff, knowing that they'll have to get more creative with the mountain lion out of the picture.

"Drug deal gone bad." Forbes suggests, causing both of them to look at her with skeptic eyes. "It's not too big a stretch." She says with a shrug, it's not flame throwers aren't illegal. Someone could have brought one. Logan slowly nods, accepting it for now, before giving the others some very good news.

"I got the Gilbert watch." He tells them, catching their attention. Forbes and Raymond nod.

"Good."

A cop then comes over, approaching the three. While not all of them, a good chunk of Mystic Fall's police force has also been addressed of Vampires and that they are actually real. Despite some skepticism, they understood the seriousness of it all soon enough. "Found this in the brush about ten yards away." The cop reports, handing her a leopard purse.

She searches and finds a lime-colored wallet, which she opens and finds the ID of the person who owned it. "Vicki Donovon." Forbes says out-loud, with some recognition that the others notice.

"You know her?" Raymond queries.

"I went to High School with her mother." Forbes explains as the other three nod.

"You think she's one of these?" Logan asks as he gestures towards the pile of bodies right top of the burned out campfire. Forbes nervously swallows as she considers it.

"I hope not."

"Hey." Raymond then raises his hand, feeling like he still has some questions that need to be asked. "We haven't explained why I'm here." He then mentions, looking at both Logan and Forbes with an inquisitive look. "Why did you call me? I'm a supplier, not a hunter." He reminds them, knowing that he's only gotten lucky so far.

"Well, change of plans my friend." Logan quips as Raymon turns to him, squinting. "After defending yourself against a Vampire twice, I think it's safe to say that you're in the wrong field."

"What are you talking about?" Raymond asks him as he glances between both him and the Sherrif, getting the feeling that he's not about to like what they are suggesting. With Forbes looking up with tense eyes, Logan smirks as he decides to be the one to tell him outright.

"Tonight, Raymond.... you and I are going to hunt down some Vampires."

_____________________________________

Mystic Grill:

Later that day, Y/N has his lunch at the Grill, unable to help his mind replaying earlier's conversation in his head. It's hard to tell if his father meant to hint that someone else is going on, or if he just gave up and let it slip, but it definitely hasn't prevented him from pondering about it.

At first, it didn't come across as odd. A couple gets mauled to death by an animal, then, Vicki gets attacked as well. Next, another couple goes missing in the woods, later found torn apart by assumingly the same animal, and Vicki goes missing yet again. And lastly, Tanner's death. And every time, it's the same pattern. Neck bitten, drained of blood.

At one point, Y/N pauses eating his meal. He remembers all of the stuff he found odd during those nights.

Even the ones he waved-off.

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"Dang it, I don't think this is helping man!" Y/N informs the others in slight terror as he can practically see how big the bite is. It's like someone used their entire mouth and created the first human made circle with their K-9s alone. As he glances up, he sees Stefan amongst the crowd of onlookers, seeing Vicki's body with a haunted look before jogging away into the darkness. Y/N squints in confusion.

Where the hell is he going?

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Y/N glances behind himself, seeing a person walking down the hallway, which isn't anything odd, but... that hairstyle...... isn't that Caroline's crush, Stefan's?

Feeling a strong sense of suspicion, Y/N goes to follows Stefan, trying to walk down the same, but faster pace as he is. Matt tries talking to Y/N, only to see that he's taking off down the hall. "Y/N?" He calls out, but the guy ignores him as he continues walking towards the mysterious visitor.

Y/N follows Stefan through the hallway, turning a corner he saw him take. There, he sees him going into a blood donation room. Yeah..... that's not weird at all. He marches down and goes to catch him in whatever he was doing. When he enters the room, he sees all of the patients and staff there, who only spare him a glance before going back to whatever they were doing.

Blinking, Y/N then sees a shadow of some silhouette through one of the curtains and speed-walks over, swiping open the entire thing with his hand..... finding no one in sight. "What the....." He utters, before seeing the open window near the hospital bed.

Matt comes inside behind him, and sees the guy standing there with an extremely confused expression. "What is it?" He finally asks him, wondering what prompted him to take off like that.

"That Stefan guy....." Y/N slowly explains, trying to find a way to lay it out a way that make sense. "I saw him leaving, and... he went in this room. I swear he was just here...." He explains, pointing at where the guy just disappeared. Matt squints and steps over, looking outside the open window to see the new guy.

"I don't see him." Matt tells Y/N as he turns back to him, closing the window back himself. "Are you sure he was here?" He asks again, just to make sure as he can tell that Y/N's currently looking like he just got suddenly dosed with acid.

"I don't know anymore..."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Hey!" Tanner calls out, mostly to Y/N as he's the second to last one to enter the locker rooms. "Where's Stefan? The game's about to start." He questions him, noticing that he's the only one not grabbing his equipment like everybody else.

"He was right behind me..." Y/N mentions with a point, prompting Tanner to march outside with a sigh. He then turns back to face Matt with a look. "Guess that's my cue to grab my stuff too." He mentions as he and Matt then split back to their lockers to grab the football gear.

.................

Matt abruptly bursts through the doors, looking panicked as all hell. "Call 911! Someone!" He frantically yells to everyone, trying to grab everyone's attention.

"Whoa, whoa! Matt, what's the problem man?" A random player asks him, grabbing him by the shoulders in a weak attempt to calm him down. As Y/N and Tyler listen, what the guy says next causes a chill to go down their spine.

"Coach.... he's dead."

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Every time something weird happened, Stefan was there, or nearby every time something with Vicki happened. And with each animal attack, Stefan behaved more strangely with his reactions. Panic, then calm, then completely expressionless. Visiting the hospital, finding Vicki on a rooftop.

But, no, what is he thinking? The mental montage he's playing in his mind doesn't make any sense.

Unless....

Before he can think any further, he hears his cellphone ringing from his pocket. He pulls out and sees that it's Matt calling him, prompting him to pick it up so he can stop assuming that Stefan Salvatore is a serial killer. "Hello?"

"Hey, bro, have you seen Vicki lately?" Matt immediately questions her, showing a little bit of panic in his face. "I've tried calling her, but she hasn't picked up the twenty times I have." He then mentions, and he can't be blamed for worrying. He got bit and lost twice. Well, the lost thing, the bitten thing's only happened once.

"Um.... no." Y/N answers shaking his head as too gets a bad feeling all of a sudden. "Have you asked Jeremy? I know that Elena mentioned that those two have started hooking up again." He suggests, however, Matt lets out a negative sigh from the other end.

"No good. He says he last saw her at the cemetery when they had an argument." Matt tells him, sounding like he's not gotten any good news so far from anyone. "Vicki's never usually high in the middle of the day, so part of me doesn't like shrugging this one off."

At the cemetery.

He and his dad were driving near the cemetery when....

"Y/N?" Matt utters, causing Y/N to snap out of his flashback.

"Y-Yeah, yeah, um...." Y/N rubs his forehead, scratching to figure out what he's going to do. "Um.... right, I'm at the Grill right now, I'll check to see if Vicki was supposed to show up for work." He offers, glancing around to hope that he's just assuming things are worse than they really are right now. "If not, I'll see what else I can do."

"Okay, thanks." Matt gratefully says, letting out a small exhale. "I'm sorry, I bet it's frustrating have to look for her all the time-"

"No, no, it's fine, call it a favor for both you and my brother, Jeremy." Y/N assures him with a small smile, standing up so he can partake in the search mission.

"I thought I was your brother."

"You know what I'm saying." Y/N tells him with a smirk. "See ya." He says before hanging up, he then looks around and oddly has a hard time finding any waiters. So, instead, he spots the bartender and decides to chat him up instead. "Hey, you know Vicki Donovan?" He quickly asks him, getting his attention.

"The girl with the bandages on her neck?" The guy queries, to which Y/N nods to confirm. "Yeah, she was supposed to come to work today, but hasn't shown up. The manger's pretty pissed about that." He then shares with him, before raising a brow. "Why? What's going on?"

"Her brother's looking for her." Y/N replies with a small shrug, acting as if it's not that big of a deal even though it probably is. "You haven't seen her?"

"No man, sorry." The bartender tells him with a regretting shake of his head. Y/N mentally sighs before nodding back, heading back to his table as he argues with his stomach that begs him to eat, despite the situation.

Where the heck did Vicki go this time?

___________________________________________

Mystic Falls, Virgina: 1864

Lander sets his plate of what looks to be a delicious set of ribs onto the table, however, it's actually going to be one of his soon-to-be-favorite pranks. He makes sure he sets every plate in front of each chair accordingly, head counting all of the house's guests and participants. "It smells good." Stefan comments as he steps into the dinning room, eyeing the ribs for himself. "I take it your Katherine's personal chief."

"More like favorite chief. She took me hostage so my services would never leave her." Lander jokingly replies, to which Stefan raises a brow, causing him to mentally roll his eyes. "I am jesting, Mr. Gilbert."

"Oh, of course." Stefan sheepishly chuckles, not knowing why he took that response seriously. "Sorry, with the war on, I've slowly began losing my sense of humor."

"Well then, let's get it back!" Damon Salvatore exclaims as he suddenly rushes in, smacking his brother on the chest with a big oval shaped ball. "Come on, brother, help me empty my stomach before dinner begins." He encourages with a cocky grin, causing his Stefan to laugh with a shake of his head as he follows him outside.

Lander watches them both leave, before taking a sip of a wine glass when he knows that nobody's looking. Those two can be a little entertaining, he'll give them that. "I hope you've remembered which cup to spike." A female voice chimes in, and the man quickly turns to Katherine Pierce.

"Of course, 'mistress', daily does of the crimson liquid, as always." Lander promises as he takes out a small flask and pours blood onto Katherine's wine glass, the color perfectly mixing with the wine so no one can notice the difference.

"Very good." Katherine complements with a satisfied smirk, taking a sip so she can test it herself. Her eyes close as she softly moans in pleasure, the taste on her tongue never getting old, despite drinking the stuff for two-hundred years. "Thank you, L/N."

"Of course, Mrs. Pierce." Lander responds with a bow, his smile hiding the fact that he wishes she'd stop calling him by his last name. As she notices the Salvatore brothers playing with the ball, she smiles as she heads outside. The 'chief' now dropping his expression into a small frown. "Oh, how she teases, pretending that the times I made love to her never existed....."

Emily tries to ignore his bitter mumbling and begins to follow with a tray holding a trio of drinks, before stopping as she observes the ribs. "We haven't made any stops for food." She notes, giving Lander a pointed look. "Where did you get this meat?"

"The carriage driver." Lander casually answers, before walking over and leaning closer to the Witch's face. "And his horses." He adds with a sudden creepy smile, which only makes Emily roll her eyes.

"I don't think Katherine will appreciate it if you fed the people giving her home human flesh for dinner." Emily points out, causing Lander to burst out in laughter.

"Oh, Emily! It's all for fun and games, why so serious?" He teasingly queries, earning a non-amused look from Emily. "Even if someone's notices, Katherine can easily compel them all to eat and forget that it doesn't belong to a men's arse."

He goes back into the kitchen, laughing some more.

Ah, the thrill of being a Wendigo.....

_________________________________________________

Lockwood Mansion:

"This is crazy, there has to be another way!" Raymond pleadingly demands as he marches behind Sheriff Forbes as they walk into the mansion. What Logan said has gotten him completely by surprise, and to hear it being a confirmed plan by the actual law enforcement has make him suspect that the entire council as lost its mind. "I got lucky, I don't know how many times I gotta tell you that. A father's instincts kicked in, and I got lucky!"

"You were trained for this, Raymond, that doesn't look like luck to me." Sheriff points out, causing Raymond to roll his eyes with a sigh as they step through the front doors. "If there's any chance that the Vampires knows of us, then they'll be expecting cops, not a businessman and news reporter."

"That does still not change the fact that this plan is far too risky!" Raymond exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air as he wonders if he's truly working with a group of professionals anymore. "I should be extracting vervain from the boarding house, not arming myself with wooden bullets!"

"Do you care about your son or not, Raymond?" Forbes suddenly questions him, causing Raymond to give her a rough look.

"Liz...." He says in a low voice, causing her to stop and let out a deep sigh.

"I know, that was a trap, I'm sorry." Forbes sheepishly apologizes as she then turns to Raymond with a much more earnest look. "But Raymond, you said it yourself, we need to use the element of surprise that we still have. Vampires always have control over us, now it's our turn." She then starts to plead to his inner hatred of Vampires, causing Raymond to glance down and put his hands on his hip with a conflicted expression. "Just..... trust me on this one, please?"

"You're lucky I'd take a Vampire's claws for Y/N." Raymond mutters with a subtle glare towards the Sheriff, before reluctantly following her to Mayor Lockwood's office. Inside, they see him currently unlocking a safe, the creaking signaling their arrival.

"I hope you guys have come with at least a clue on who our 'mountain lions' are." Mayor Lockwood remarks as he acknowledges them coming in. He opens the safe and begins searching through the many supernatural objects he currently has in his possession.

"We're working on it, Mayor Lockwood. All we still know is the description Raymond here gave us." Sheriff Forbes reports as Raymond stays silent with his hands on his hips. In other words, no new news at all.

"Doc ID the bodies?" The Mayor queries next, briefly glancing at her before digging through his things.

"A few townies. Notorious druggies."

"I suppose that'll make it easy for people to buy the story." Lockwood remarks with an accepting nod, before letting out a small sigh as he looks at both of them. "And Vicki Donovan?"

"She's not one of the deceased." Forbes relays to him, causing Lockwood to give her a perplexed look.

"Well, where the hell is she?

"We wish we knew."

"Sorry I'm late." Logan chimes in as he quickly enters the room as well, seemingly eager and willing to hunt down some blood-sucking animals. Raymond stares at him blankly, with still red eyes, before Lockwood turns his eyes to the reporter.

"You have the watch?" He asks him, and Logan nods as he fetches it out of his pocket. He opens up the golden trinket before handing it over to the Mayor, who takes out the clock part of the piece and sets it on the floor. Then, he takes out a tiny box from his safe, opening it to reveal a similar small clock with the same shape as the watch. He then carefully inserts it into the watch itself, twisting it until it makes an audible click.

Now, they have another weapon to use against the Vampires.

Lockwood stands up as he observes the finished project, before turning towards Logan and Raymond. "It's ready."

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it." Lockwood confirms with a nod, waiting for one of them to take it. Since Raymond is obviously still reluctant to partake in this, Logan is the one who takes the watch into his inventory, ready to use it when necessary, which is at nighttime.

Now smirking, Logan then turns to Raymond. "You ready?" He questions him, causing the guy to scoff with an eye roll.

"No, I'm not." Raymond bitterly remarks as he leaves the room, showing the others that he still hasn't changed his feelings about this gameplan of theirs.

Let's just get it over with.

_____________________________________________

L/N Residence: Present Time

The second he found himself back home, without his father being there, of course, he finds himself on his laptop, trying to find some way that human can fabricate bite wounds belonging to an animal. There has to be some explanation for what he's thinking, the coincidences are too many for it all to be a poor accident in Stefan's not-so-favor. Call it what you will, but Y/N needs something if he's gonna be able to sleep tonight without a metaphorical spider crawling in his ear.

During this, he continuously rings Jeremy's phone, trying to get in contact with him since he began reading whatever outlandish stuff he could get his hands on. He'll deal with anything crazy by this point.

Once again, he gets put to voicemail, causing him to drop the phone in frustration. Geez, what did poor Vicki do to always end up missing. I mean, yeah, she's a drug addict, and that's really bad, but it's like she's been cursed starting by getting attacked by a..... a....

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Oh yeah, that's the craziest part." Matt mentions with a small chuckle. "She said it was a vampire." He tells him, causing Y/N blink and do a double-take.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

A Vampire..... No, no, no, no, no. That's stupid, she said it was an animal when she woke up earlier, right? Maybe she just mistook it for one of the blood-sucking animals at first. That's what he wants to keep believing.

This causes Y/N to force himself into traveling back in time, and remembering what he saw and how he felt seeing those things. On that night of September, he was drinking in the woods, bitter from getting rejected by Caroline. And that's when he saw.... a man, on top of Vicki. He was there one second, the next, he wasn't. He started waving that off as his messy vision from drinking.

But then, he was still conflicted, he was sure that he saw a guy. So, he volunteered to go with Matt to pay a visit to Vicki, if only to confirm what happened in the woods. And there, he got his answer, but it wasn't enough for him.

He then started going into investigation mode and asked both Salvatores about it, with Stefan disappearing no matter which way he went. That's when he met Damon.

Damon Salvatore, the man he punched.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Right below her scarf, Y/N swears he can see a tint of.... purple, on a visible part of the collarbone. "What is that?" He then interrogates, causing the girls to look and see that he's pointing at the blonde's neck.

"Oh, it's um...." Caroline realizes what he's referring to, and begins stuttering her words. "It's.... i-it's nothing-" She tries answering, but Y/N can detect the yellow emotion from a mile away and immediately stands up to rip the skirt off.

Y/N and Bonnie both see obvious and brutal bite marks on her neck.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

On her neck.

The animals victims were bitten in the neck, all drained of blood...

No.... that can't be right. He must be losing it.

Yet again.....

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Good news, Damon's gone." Bonnie then continues, grabbing the boys' attention. "As in, left town, not coming back for a long time kind of gone. That's what Stefan's saying, anyway." She then relays to them. Y/N's a little surprised if he can be honest. Gone? Just like that? What prompted him to leave Mystic Falls so quickly?

"Huh, I didn't see that one coming..." Y/N comments with a hum.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Damon left town, after what happened at the founder's party. Y/N assumed it was because he wanted to avoid any assault charges pressed against him for bodily injury.

But now that he thinks about it. That only came from Bonnie, who heard from Stefan.

From Stefan.....

And now we're back to the beginning of the circle.

*Ring*

*Ring*

Hearing his cell phone ring, Y/N checks it to see Jeremy finally calling back, causing him to waste no time before instantly picking it up. "Hey, you there?" He instantly questions, shooting himself back up to his feet as he marches around.

"Yeah, it's me-"

"Jer, please tell me that you've found Vicki, because I think I'm starting to write up random conclusions in my head." Y/N tells him, conclusions that he's starting to believe are real as well. He goes through his many drawers, trying to find something he suddenly has the urge to have.

"Um.... yeah, yeah, that's exactly why I'm calling you." Jeremy admits, causing Y/N to briefly pauses as he listens intently to the next words Jeremy uses. "She just randomly barged into my house, and is now-" A sudden crash sound emits from the other end. "-raiding my fridge of all of its belongings. I've called Matt already, so-"

"Great, I'll be there."

"Wait, wha-"

Y/N hangs up before Jeremy can ask any questions. He marches into his closet and finds a random jacket he barely uses, wrapping it around himself and sliding his arms in sleaves. Then, he heads back to his drawers.

And opens up the one holding his M9 Pistol.

He takes it before jogging outside, deciding that he'll have to borrow one of his parents' cars again.

________________________________________________

Mystic Falls: Somewhere In the Woods

As Sheriff Forbes and her men create a perimeter/search zone around the area to look for Vampires, Logan and Raymond stay put on one of the dirt roads. The two stay there in a very painful silence, with Logan glancing at Raymond completely refusing to look in his direction, causing him to let out a sigh.

"Okay, let it out." Logan casually offers, causing Raymond to glance at him with a brow.

"What?"

"You're obvious pissed that I assigned you to this little operation without your consent, which is understandable." Logan explains with a small shrug, as if knowing that he would've said know if he asked him to do it otherwise. "So, come on, criticize me all you want." He encourages with a hand gesture, to which Raymond sigh.

"I'm not 'pissed' that you went behind my back with this shit, and got Forbes to agree." Raymond tells him, even though that is kind of a symptom of the problem. "I'm pissed because I know my son is out there, trying to figure out things he shouldn't have to learn. And possibly, get himself killed." He explains with a rough growl at the end of his sentence. "I mean, every other conversation we have, it's about the animal attacks, or dreams involving animal attacks. Something is pulling him in, and I should...." He vents, before purposefully stopping himself as he shakes his head at the reporter. "You know what? Why am I even bothering? No one here listens to a damn thing I say."

"Hey, come on, let's not exaggerate that much-"

"I literally asked you guys to wait until I finished gathering the herbs, and you pulled me into this forest anyway." Raymond cuts him off with a glare, causing Logan to raise his hands in surrender with a chuckle.

"Alright, alright, that's fair..."

The conversation ends as Forbes's police cruiser rolls up with it's beeping siren, parking right in front of them. She and her fellow deputy step out as the two men step forward to take their necessary weapons. "I got Stanley on the Moore Street entrance. The rest of us will cover other access points." She relays as she approaches with a couple guns in her hands. "Call him or call me if that thing goes off. Don't use the radio, cell phones only."

"Got it." Logan replies with an understanding nob, followed by Raymond as well.

"You've got eight rounds." Forbes then tells them as she shows them both the clip which has wooden bullets inside. Normal bullet don't do a damn thing with these, thanks to their undead bodies. The difference between them and wood isn't exactly clear, but it's important that they know the Vampire's weakness. "Remember, wood bullets won't kill him, but it'll wound him enough for you to get close and stake him." He reminds them, to which they both nod again. Logan hands Raymond his as they both insert the clips into their respective guns. "You sure you can handle this?"

"I shot one yesterday, didn't I?" Raymond remarks with a look, bitterly reminding them of why they enlisted him for this. "I'll make sure Logan doesn't cry when he gets cocky and shoots himself in the leg."

"Ha, ha." Logan sarcastically laughs, giving him a look. The deputy then both hands him a wooden stake, the finishing blow against these things.

"You ever staked a Vampire before?" Forbes questions with an observing look in her eyes, clearly wanting to make sure they know how to defend themselves before picking a fight with someone that will be stronger, faster, and more perspective than them.

Raymond glances up at her with a brow. "Have you?" He asks, and the look on the Sheriff's face tells him everything.

Good point.

________________________________

Gilbert Residence:

Y/N marches down the suburban area sidewalk, thinking that the should start considering getting some kind of bike for moments when he feels like the situation's really series and cardio can be swept aside for the moment. Meanwhile, he's been trying to contact someone, but it just keeps going to voicemail. "Bonne, you there? I know you're kind of a stressful place right now, but I think that witch knowledge of yours would be great right about now, please call back." He once again repeats in a mildly frustrated tone, mostly at just himself. 

He should've seen it, all of it, it was right there. Everything involving Stefan was weird, and now he thought it was just him being bitter about Caroline. But no, he really has been secretly involved in almost every crazy event that has happened during the entire month. His father knows it, and he knows it. 

This might be a stupid plan, but the only way to know for sure is to once again, make sure Vicki's out of either Salvatore's crosshairs. 

Once he gets there, a truck also rolls up in front of the house, and out of the driver's door, comes Matt who's no doubt here to pick up his siter. "Hey." He casually greets, to which Y/N nods back as they both collectively knock on the door. It only takes a few seconds before Jeremy opens it for them. "Where is she?"

"Come this way." He responds, nodding behind him towards the kitchen. "She's worse than I've ever seen, I don't know why she's high in the middle of the day." He comments while they walk.

"Probably because she didn't do it on-" Y/N comes in and instantly stops mid-sentence when they walk in and see the entire mess that once was the kitchen. Vicki's on the floor, chugging cans of something, while plates and containers of once wrapped food now litter the entire floor or kitchen island, or, well..... it'd be more accurate to say that it's all over the place. "What in the goddamn-?"

"You see?" Jeremy gestures towards her while she tosses another can onto the floor. "I've never seen the symptoms hit her this badly before." 

"What's she on?" Matt questions him as he softly walks over and observes his sister, getting semi-worried with what they're dealing with. He hasn't seen her like this either, neither has Y/N.

"I-I don't know." Jeremy admits, anxiously shrugging his shoulders. And when the dope dealer has no idea what an addict's dealing with, now's the time to be extremely concerned, and maybe panic if you don't know CPR. 

"Did you, um.... did you try making her pee on the food?" Y/N questions, causing Jeremy to look at him with a massive brow. "You know, drug test?"

"Dude, what the f-"

"I'm kidding." Y/N tells him with a hand. "In all seriousness, you sure she's not in withdrawal?" He then queries curiously, noticing how pained Vicki looks, the unnecessary sunglasses that she could be using to hide her red eyes. Her skin also looks..... slightly out of color. 

"Withdrawals with be scrounging for drugs, not food."  Jeremy points out, though not exactly sure himself. 

Matt kneels down in front of his sister, trying to get her eyes on him. "Hey, Vick, how you doing?" He asks her, trying to maintain a calm attitude. When he takes off her glasses, Vicki flinches away, as if scared of them falling out of her sockets. 

"Not good Mattie...." Vicki replies in a despairing voice of agony, tears falling out of her eyes. "I hurt...." 

"Okay, where's it hurt?" 

"My gum. My jaw hurts." Vicki moans, spreading her lips wide as she rubs her thumbs against the ones holding her K-9s. "My gums, there's something in my gums and it hurts." She continues complaining, the pain more clear by the way she expresses it."

"Like.... with cocaine?" Y/N utters with a blink, before snapping his head towards Jeremy. "You gave her cocaine?!" 

"Wha- No! I don't have that stuff, I swear!" Jeremy retorts, rapidly shaking his head. Now, the others are a little bit more worried than before. "Her friends at the cemetery were stoners, maybe they gave her the stuff."  He suggests, though Y/N glances down as her gets other ideas. 

"Yeah, or someone forced the stuff in her..." Y/N mutters, causing Jeremy to raise a brow at him.

"I should really get her home, she's not looking too good." Matt strongly advises as he softly puts his arms on the girl's shoulders. "Come on, Vick-"

"N-No!" Vicki abruptly shouts as she swats him away, curling further up into a ball.  "J-Just leave me alone...."

"Come on, Vick, don't be like that." Matt says with small frown, worried about what this high is doing to her. Y/N can't help but notice the other cocaine attribute, aggressiveness. This isn't looking too bright. "Let's get you home-" 

"NO!" Vicki swats him away again, only much more harder. "J-Just..... JUST TURN IT OFF!" 

"Turn what off?" Jeremy questions while the three boys share a very weirded out look. 

"The talking, the chatter, just turn it off!" Vicki explains in a not-so-helpful way as she stands up, shoving past Matt to go march towards the living room television. 

"Okay, now I'm just confused again..." Y/N remarks as they both follow her with complexed looks. When they walk inside, they see Vicki freeze upon seeing the screen, and they both turn towards the TV which is displaying the current news. 

Logan Fell, standing in front of a cemetery. With the mentions of Jeremy and Vicki originally being at a cemetery, it's enough to make them glance at Vic before Jeremy grabs the remote and turns on the volume. "...of a horror movie. Three bodies were found dead in what is believed to be a drug deal gone awry." He reports, causing Matt to blink. "The bodies have yet to be identified. They were discovered last night, over at the old Mystic Falls cemetery...." 

"That's where we were last night." Jeremy points out, pointing at the television screen.

"That's were I was last night." Y/N adds, causing everyone to turn towards Vicki. And for Y/N to put even more pieces together. 

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Oh, deer..."

"What?" Raymond questions as he gives him a look. "You know it's true-"

"No, DEER!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"I'm sorry, where was it?" Raymond queries the person of the phone, seemingly perplexed by what he's hearing. "Okay..... okay, yeah, I'll be there." He says before hanging up, exiting the kitchen and marching to the door. "Y/N! I gotta go! I'll be gone for a couple hours."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Y/N's starting to suspect that he and his father may have accidentally been caught in a crossfire of this, drug deal gone wrong. But now.... he's starting to wonder if it was actually a drug deal, unless dealers have developed an ability to throw dead animals at cars, full speed. "Vicki, what happened last night?"

"What happened, VicK?" Matt once again asks her when she doesn't reply to Y/N's own question. This ain't right, none of this is making any sense yet it feels like it does. Y/N's starting to feel like he's going insane with all of this. "I'm calling the cops-"

"No, don't." Vicki quickly grabs Matt's hand in protest, seemingly starting to panic. Her face like she's remembering something she doesn't want the others to know. 

"What happened after I left last night, Vick?" Jeremy asks as he turns to face her, now starting to regret his decision to leave. Vicki just stands there, not moving, tears stuck in place on her cheeks and eye lids. "Vicki, what happened?" He presses, causing him to suddenly be pushed by Vicki, sending him two feet across the room. 

"Holy shit!" Y/N exclaims as Jeremy groans when his back hits the couch. They quicky rush up to him, seeing that he probably just got a nasty bruise from that impact. "Jer, you alright?" He asks him with a worried look. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine." Jeremy quicky responds with a hand, a slightly embarrassed look on his face. The boys then turn to Vicki, shocked and somewhat scared looks on their faces. 

"Damn, Vick." Matt remarks as the front door to the house opens again, inviting two new people inside. Y/N blinks when he sees who one of them is. 

"What's going on?" Elena questions the situation, followed by Stefan who looks around at all of the broken plates and scattered food pieces with a knowing and concerned expression. Like he's seeing something he's witnessed before in the past. 

"She's really messed up." Matt reports as he looks toward Vicki with worried eyes, never seeing her sister lash out like that before. 

"Elena, back up." Stefan instructs after tapping her on the shoulder, getting very close to the girl. "Vicki, look at me..." He says as he puts a hand on her cheek comfortingly, when Vicki finally looks at him, his eyes begin pulsating. "Focus..... you're gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be fine." He says, and surprisingly, Vicki slowly nods as if automatically being calm. Before Y/N can ask, he turns towards him an the others. "Guys, take her up to bed. Shut the blinds. She's gonna be okay. Come on." He then advises, Y/N is more hesitant than the others, but eventually complies as they both guide Vicki to bed. 

Once upstairs, Y/N and Matt leave Jeremy with Vicki in his room, since she seems to want his kind of cuddling support at the moment. "You think that's still cocaine?" Matt queries Y/N a few seconds after they close the door. He looks completely lost, and Y/N can't say he blames him. 

"I don't know anymore...." Y/N confesses with a shake of his head, before catching himself saying the exact thing when he was left bewildered at the hospital. It reminds him of the second thing he planned to do. "Stay here." He tells him before turning around and heading back downstairs, leaving Matt behind to watch Vicki sobbing on Jeremy's shoulder. 

While walking down, he hears Stefan and Elena having a very quiet conversation, as if purposefully making sure no one can hear them. Once his foot lands on the last step, he can tell the creak that follows causes them to go silent. Y/N turns around, now knowing for sure that something's up. 

"Now..... will one of you mind telling me what the fuck's going on?" 

The second those words leave his mouth, Stefan and Elena both share a guilty look that's beginning to know that the girl isn't the only one who's figured things out. "Y/N, she's in withdrawal." Stefan tells him, causing him to stare skeptically. "You know that-" 

"No, uh-uh, that's not working on me this time." Y/N cuts him off, giving them both a look that makes it very clear that he's not an idiot. "You would've had me earlier, if Elena didn't walk in her with you, and you knowing exactly what to do.......... again." 

"Y/N, calm down-"

"Don't, Elena, I'm not in the mood for anymore lies!" Y/N snaps at her, before directing his glare right back towards Stefan, who stares at him with a blank expression. "All the times you happened to be right where the 'mountain lion's' victims were, that moment at the hospital, Caroline's bite marks that Damon obviously gave her." He stomps towards him, daring for him to try and make another excuse this time. "And now, that's twice that Vicki's suddenly lashed out at us, before suddenly calming down. Only this time, I got to see you working your hypnosis or whatever the crap you did to calm her down." He then lastly mentions, the last step he takes gets him close in Stefan's face. "You know exactly what's going on, don't you?" 

The silence that follows, with Elena anxious glance between the boys as one glares while the other just looks back, makes it very painful, like another punch could be thrown any minute. "Y/N, listen to me...."  Stefan says with very serious eyes. "You don't want know what you think you do." 

"Oh yeah? And why's that?" Y/N questions in a low voice. "Give me one reason why I should pretend that I don't care about you helping your brother cause so much damage, framing it as animal attacks, and then letting him flee town in half a week." He challenges, looking at Stefan as if he's a cop interrogating the underboss of a crime lord. "He's killing people, Stefan." 

"And I can't stop him."

"Why not?!" 

Stefan opens his mouth again, but before he can respond, a loud cry comes from upstairs. They turn around as Matt suddenly starts tumbling down the stairs, thanks to Vicki who starts bolting it out of the house. "Vicki!" Matt yells as he gets back up, still in one piece, with every else also giving pursuit. 

However, when they step out the door, Vicki's nowhere to be found, having vanished in the span of about three seconds. "I don't what happened!" Jeremy claims as he rushes outside behind them. "She was fine, and then she just.... she just freaked out." 

"I'm gonna go look for her, call me if you hear anything." Matt tells the others before jogging over to his truck to begin his resume his personal search-mission. Y/N then turns to the others who no-doubt know what's going on, deciding to let it pass until they find Vicki again. 

"I should start looking too...." Y/N says, giving both Stefan and Elena a subtle pointed look that goes unnoticed by Jeremy as he goes right, down the sidewalk to where he suspects the girl to flee towards, away from prying eyes. Stefan glances at him, wondering what if he'll tell other about his suspicions. After which, he whispers something to Elena, who whispers something back as he then goes his way. 

And here they are, back to square one, with Vicki going missing for a third time.

___________________________________________

Logan and Raymond are still patrolling the woods, looking for any hint of Vampires around. As the sun begins to fall behind the clouds and turn orange, it signals the time to be ready for anyone. The two slowly re-equip their pistols while Logan pulls out the watch.

After another hour, it begins rapidly turning in random directions, letting out a string of cranks with his turn. "Look." Logan taps on Raymond's shoulder, bringing his attention to the watch. It snaps one direction, only to immediately begin changing to another. "It's on super-speed, just like the books said." 

"You're supposed to be 'pumping me up' not making me feel more not ready." Raymond sarcastically remarks as they keep walking. The birds fluttering in the background makes his look around a little antsy, also not helping one bit. 

Then, it stops again with a click. Logan touches Raymond's shoulder, making him stop. "There." The reporter then points in the same direction the watch is. He then reaches for his phone and calls Sheriff Forbes as instructed. 

"Yeah?"

"I think we got something." Logan relays to her. "It's pointing towards the old cemetery."

"Headed your way." The Sheriff then replies, and Logan then hangs up before turning back towards Raymond.

 "Let's split and circle around, one of us will have to spot him then." He advises, and Raymond nods as they both split up, though only a few bits of distance away from each other so they're not out of eyesight.

Time to see one of the undead up close. 

___________________________________________

Mystic Falls: Hours Later 

It's Nightfall by the time Y/N gets to the forest, supporting the idea that he should get a bike. Vicki's afraid of something, and whatever it is, she wants to be afraid from other humans. Where else is there to go in down by the woods? She's used to places like the cemetery, if he had to guess, the first place she'd go to was something similar. 

So, he's now marching towards said cemetery with his gun still hidden in a holster under his high school jersey. And while even though he did bring himself a flashlight, knowing what happened to Darren Malloy and Brooke Fenton, part of him thinks he should stick to the shadows until he knows something else's out here with him. 

It probably wouldn't help anyway, not when a sudden fog starts wafting into the area. "What the heck...?" Y/N mutters to himself in confusion, watching the mist as it appears like it was on someone's command. He doesn't like this, not at all. 

Then, he hears a rapid gust of wind close by, and whips around towards it. However, thanks to the fog, he can barely see anything. That doesn't change the feeling of being watched though, so he slowly reaches for his gun while continuing to look around. Another gust of wind emits from behind him. 

He snaps around, pulling out and pointing his gun towards where it came from. His confusion mixed with a small concoction of fear struggles mentally with his body and he tries to remain calm despite knowing that this moment he's experiencing isn't supernatural. Whatever he saw that night. Whoever he saw on Vicki, whoever crashed his car.... wasn't human. "Can't see shit...." Y/N mutters as he decides to reach for his flashlight and give it a try....

Causing a figure to suddenly come at him with super-speed and grab the flight light with one hand before punching him in the chest with the other, causing him to lose his gun as well. The force of the person's knuckles is somehow enough to knock him very far back, his black slamming against a tree. Even worse, a pointy end of a tree. 

"Well, well, well. Not so very tough now, are ya?" A voice mockingly quips as it approaches him, a voice that Y/N recognizes. As he slowly looks up, wincing at his bleeding pain, the man steps out of the blurriness of the fog, revealing his face to Y/N.

"Damon?" 

"Bingo, Y/N. Congratulations. Ding! Ding! Ding!" Damon teasingly replies, briefly pumping his fist in the air as he does the bell noises. "You know, I was expecting something more, but I guess that punch back at the founder's party was just lady luck singing your praises." 

"You..." Y/N growls, his pain surprisingly going away as he finally stands up much easier, something that Damon notices with an interested look. "You were the one that did all this, didn't you?" 

"Oh, you mean your friend, Vicki and those other nobodies I killed? Oh yeah, that was me." Damon casually confesses with a shrug like it's no big deal. "Well, I definitely didn't have to, but getting to mess with my brother was just..... too good of an idea to pass up." He boasts with a grin on his face. Y/N's face grows red as he reaches for his pistol, only to realize that it's not there anymore. "Oh? You looking for this?" Damon teasingly holds up the gun he dropped while flying into oak wood. "Let me guess, you didn't even pack it with the right bullets either." He assumes as he does a test-run by shooting himself in the arm without flinching. His guess proves to be right as the hole heals back in seconds. "Wow, that is pathetic." 

Y/N mentally swears before once again glaring at him. "So that's it? This..... whatever it was, was all because of sibling rivalry?" 

"Pretty much, yes." Damon easily answers with a nod. "Though, obviously, I didn't just come here to cause some very amusing pain to a bunch of prey who definitely deserve it if they're gonna go out in the woods at night like a bunch of Friday the 13th victims." He goes on as Y/N glances back at the sharp branch, remembering how his father held a wooden steak while defending the both of them gives him an idea. It's small enough for him to grab and snap it apart so he can secretly hold it as a weapon. "And you know what the funniest part about it was? Stefan did all of the cover-up work for me! He compelled everyone to keep quiet, he cleaned up every piece of track I left behind. I didn't even need to-"

Y/N throws the branch at his face mid-sentence. It lands, allowing him to charge while he closes and holds his eyes. However, he makes it two feet before Damon fires the gun multiple into his legs and chest, causing him to fall down while screaming in agonizing pain. "You.... sly dog! You got me monologuing!" Damon realizes laughing as he points at him on the floor, wincing and roaring. 

However, his expression immediately changes the second he grabs and pins him to the tree with one hand, using the supersonic-speed from earlier. "Too bad you know nothing about Vampires." He then points out with a sanguine look. Y/N watches in horror as the veins around his eyes go black, and eventually, so do his eyeballs. 

His K-9s turn into fangs, and then.....

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

Damon cries out in actually genuine pain as his back is shot multiple times, forcing him to let go as they both fall down to the ground. "Y/N!" A man calls out in max volume, causing Y/N to turn and see Raymond holding the gun with wooden bullets. 

"Dad?" Y/N utters in confusion. 

"Y/N, get out of here!" His father quickly shouts, leaving no room for argument. "NOW!"

"But wh-"  

Y/N's cut off when Damon finds the strength to stand back and punch him in the face. As Y/N falls to the grass and leaves, he then super-speeds towards Raymond, who shoots him, only prove too late it's then knocked away before it can hit him again. "I know you.... you shot me." Damon notes as he begins choking the old man out. Then, his eyes shift again. "Well, it's a good thing I always get even."

"NO!" Y/N forces himself back on his feet as he takes the branch and jams it into Damon's back, successfully saving his dad when the Vampires once again emits a shout of pain. He lets go of Raymond while knocking Y/N away, holding onto his back with the branch still in it. 

"Alright, this is getting annoying..." Damon growls in frustration at having been stopped twice. So, he super-speeds to the gun again and pops a few more rounds into Y/N's chest. The teen falls to the ground, twitching. Having learned his lesson, Damon instead goes back to the father as he's reaching for his gun. "I don't think so, wanna-be hunter." He quips as he marches over and grabs Raymond by the throat. "Here's a taste of your own medicine...." He says before putting the gun to his chin, and....

The gunshot echoes across the forest. 

As blood splashed onto Damon's face, he reaches into the hole under Raymond's chin and takes a delicious sip from the new blood spout he's created. "Mmmm...... guns are still useful for Vampires." He comments while letting out a moan at the taste of his new victim's blood, glad to have at least one reward for getting almost shot and steaked. 

He then hears another loud gunshot in the distance, prompting him to casually let go of Mr. L/N, leaving him to fall like a puppet without strings. "Stefan..." Damon notes before speeding towards the source of the echo.

Meanwhile, Y/N barely manages to turn his head, seeing his dad's face. However, instead, his eyes are about as lifeless as Damon's. "Dad..." He utters out a weak, raspy voice, reaching his hand out towards him. 

However, he then realizes that it's no use, because it's now just a body. Dead, because he was so stupid into thinking he could go into the woods at dark, alone. 

That's the last thing he thinks about before his vision goes black....

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One Hour Later: 

Upon hearing the rapid number of gunshots, Sheriff Forbes and the Deputy rush over to the cemetery. There, they don't find a single creature in sight. The only sign of a Vampire in sight is the dead Logan Fell on the floor, bitten on the neck, drained of his blood. 

"Oh, God...." Forbes utters under breath, taking in the fact that this plan went haywire, really fast. Shee then observes his inventory, and notices that only his steak and gun have been left behind, as well as a used wooden bullet that's been tossed aside. 

"Sheriff Forbes!" A second deputy calls out from the side, and the two turn to see him rushing over with an alerted expression. "I found Mr. L/N, he's, well..... his brains have been blown out." He reports, causing Sheriff Forbes to mentally swear. She should've listened to her gut about the idea of bringing him along. 

"The watch, find the watch."

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Where is Y/N? He's at the edge of a small river, dead asleep, though not literally. The only sound that emits in the area is the waters, and the occasional rustling that comes from some nearby movement.

Then he wakes up, gasping as if he's a movie character that's had a nightmare, but really due to having not been using his lungs for a good while. He frantically looks down and checks himself. His high school jersey, jeans, and shirt still filled with bullet holes, but besides a bit of blood still left behind, he looks fine.... perfectly fine. 

How is-?

"Well, there he is, finally awake." A female voice remarks, causing Y/N to jump as he finds himself staring a girl skipping rocks until she turns around to face him. It's.... it's her, Katherine, right? "You took longer than usual to wake, guess taking those bullets out of you did do the trick."

"How...... am I.......?"

"Alive?" Katherine correctly finishes her sentence with a knowing smile. "Well, since you've taken the step of eating human flesh, your body has begun tapping into the hidden secret of your soul, your regeneration." She explains, as if Y/N's supposed to know what the heck that's supposed to mean. 

"But..... why am I here?" Y/N asks the other important question, he's clearly been dragged to a newer spot because she brought him here. But what was the point of that? 

"Well, I pretty much needed to find you before the cops did. They'd have just accept whatever story you told them, or they what suspected the Vampires compelled you to say, and sent you home." Katherine simply answers as she lays herself down next to him, before giving him an unapologetic shrug. "Sorry if you were expecting something heroic."

"Then it really did happen...." Y/N then utters, the emotions he didn't get to feel earlier are now resurfacing. "My dad..... he's dead, isn't he?" He brings up, already knowing the answer. Katherine awkwardly looks away, biting her lip. 

"Yeah.... pretty much." She tells him, knowing she's not good at this whole, sympathetic thing. Y/N doesn't cry, but it's clear that he's feeling grief deep down inside. He thinks about the entire events that happened before this and realizes that his father, despite not being blood-related, truly was trying to protect him. And he did..... to his death. 

"What is this?" Y/N then questions Katherine, who raises a brow as she isn't really certain what that's supposed to mean. "Why did you drag me out here if I was going to survive and be declared a witness anyway?" 

"Because I know who did it.... the one who killed your daddy." Katherine tells him, quickly getting more of the L/N's attention. "Also, it did kind of make me flashback to a time when......" She's about to think about a tragic memory, but snaps herself out of it before she can explain it to Y/N. "Look, the point is, I know Damon, and.... I've been hiding away from him and his brother for at least a hundred years." She tells him, not looking like she's trying to exaggerate. 

"Wait....." Y/N eyes slightly go wide as he looks her up and down, realizing what she's hinting at you. "You're a.... Vampire?"

"Yes.... I am." Katherine confesses with a nod, which would give the shell shocked Y/N a reason to run. However, he would've been dead and drained of blood by now, he knows that, so he stays where his butt is, and hears her case. "And now, when you unknowingly made me realize that both Stefan and Damon have returned to Mystic Falls, my first plan was to obviously just skip town while they didn't notice that I knew." She then shares with him. 

"But you didn't." Y/N notes, since she's obviously standing right here. "Why?" 

"Because I need you to something for me." Katherine tells him, causing him to squint his eyes in curiosity. "And, although this sounds selfish and manipulative of me, I now know that you won't say when I ask you to...... " She pauses really quick, making sure Y/N's listening before speaking her last words. "To kill Damon Salvatore." 

Y/N blinks. "Damon?" He asks in a small bit of surprise, not expecting that kind of request. Guess that was his fault for thinking she wanted a grocery list. "Why him?" 

"Because while Stefan's chasing after.... Elena, I've figured out that he came here.... for me." She says, and Y/N can see a scared expression starting to morph on her face. "I'm.... scared of him, Y/N. I don't want him to find me." She tells him, to which Y/N sits there for a few seconds..... thinking it over as he looks at the waters, before nodding at her. 

Then, he stands himself up, walking towards the currently moving water stream. Whether he's reflecting on himself in the water, or he's just mentally considering something else, he finishes it by taking off his ruined jersey and tossing it into the river, symbolizing a new version of himself. 

He turns around, back to Katherine who's been watching him, telling her one thing. 

"I'm gonna kill him." He promises with venom in his tone, and vengeance in his heart. Then, he walks away, planning to head home while thinking of the many ways he's going to make Damon Salvatore pay for taking the last bit of family he had left away from him.

Katherine watches him leave the entire time, before her lips trail into a sinister smirk.

"Very good."

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https://youtu.be/_DgngA3rMl0

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(A/N) What's up y'all? Hope you enjoyed that chapter, as it was one of the Episodes I had the most fun writing. (Yes, that includes killing your father without an 'I love you, son.') I'll probably be planning to move the updates to Tuesday instead of Monday, as I can no longer seem to finish each chapter on Sunday for some reason. 

Anyway, plz vote and comment, any counts as feedback, and I'll see you in the next one.