Night 59: F01-F10 Hallway

[inconstancy]

Whoa, was that supposed to be normal? Alarms were going off, and the next thing she expected was some dudes coming in with heavy artillery to give her a hard time. This was pretty unusual, and it left Ramona on alert. In a way, she half-expected this to be some point in the story when there was a time limit keeping her on a set restriction. If she

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[broodings]

Stefan's hand went up automatically the block the flashlight coming at him (she might as well have been swinging at him in slow motion for all the good it did; he missed this-) but Elena pulled herself back in time. He smiled down at her, half-hiding a laugh, and ignored how well he could hear the frantic thudding of her heart.

"We did when I couldn't do it any more," he admitted. It wasn't that he specifically made a point of sneaking up on her; he just... didn't think about it. Although, he couldn't deny getting a little enjoyment out of her surprise sometimes. "But Elena, look." Before she could say anything, Stefan lifted the knife in his hand and drew it across his bare arm, near the elbow.

Why he thought of this as the best way to illustrate the return of his full vampire strength, Stefan wasn't quite sure, only that the healing of his extensive wounds was the first thing which had let him realize it was back. The sharp pain of the knife slicing into his skin was a nice reminder of why he didn't normally do this kind of thing. Even with his "powers" restored, he was still only as strong as the blood made him.

Said blood welled at the cut for a second before the skin knitted itself together again in front of their eyes. He rubbed his finger over it to wipe it away (a drop in the ocean compared to all the dead animal blood on his clothes right now), and there was no longer any sign of injury at all.

"Whatever device they were using to hold us all back, it's... off. Or broken. I'm not sure which one. But there's monsters everywhere - I think the military's sent them to stop us." Stefan flipped the knife in his hand and held the handle out to Elena, his expression suddenly serious again. "Hold onto this. I'll protect you, but in case we get swarmed before we find Damon..."

[lookslikeher]

"Nh- Stefan!" Her mouth pressed shut right after her outburst, and she almost took his hand in hers, like she could... fix it somehow, but the wound started to mend itself before she had the chance to. She smiled then, almost ridiculously so because maybe if Stefan had his abilities back, the rest of this place was starting to lose its hold on them too. Maybe they could get out...

She carefully took the knife from him, though she didn't know where to put it. Not that she was very focused on the knife. That smile sobered as she took in his clothes, and it was hard not to let her wariness show.

"Monsters... Did something attack you?" Strangely enough, or maybe not, she was hoping he'd tell her that he went hunting or something instead. It was better that trying to wrap her mind around him being tracked down by the monsters in this place. Though if he had gone hunting, there's no way a rabbit or something would have left that much blood behind. ..Right?

'Kay, maybe a rabbit living at Landel's would. God. She couldn't figure out if she was happy or nervous, at this point, she felt split down the middle between the two. Either way, she took a deep breath and moved closer to him, letting the knife settle at her side while she reached up with her other hand to brush her fingers along his cheek and really look at him.

"You're okay, right? You didn't... do anything to get your abilities back? Nothing weird happened? You can tell me." It just seemed to good to be true. Even with the monsters targeting them; that wasn't exactly new or different. But the last time she (well, the two of them) encountered a Stefan Salvatore with full vampire abilities, it had been the shadow of his past self. She didn't think for a second this was the same case, but something dark made that possible, so maybe something like that was happening again tonight. She hoped with everything she had that that wasn't the case.

[broodings]

"What? No. Elena..." Her touch was warm against his skin, and he turned towards her automatically, no doubt in his heart over how much he trusted her or the intent behind her questions. Stefan didn't blame her for wondering - his first thought had been that Landel's had never given him the opportunity to do anything to get his strength back, but he'd tamped down the resentment quickly. It made him feel guilty to think that she might be right in her suspicions, even though anything he would do here would be for the purpose of protecting her.

It felt nice, it felt good, to have the power to protect Elena now. Each thump of her heartbeat rang clear in his ears, but for once it was a comforting sound, the way it had been before they'd come here and he found himself hungry all the time. Stefan cupped her face with both hands, and leaned in to touch his forehead to hers.

"I wouldn't. I promise. Not without telling you." He pulled away in order to look at her face again. "It's everyone, not just me. I think they're sending the monsters to keep us contained until they can get our abilities under their control again." Stefan tensed suddenly and glanced back down the hall, where the pink glow of the walls faded into darkness again. Noises scraped behind the walls, inhuman and chittering. "Something's coming. We should go."

He took her free hand in his, and hurried out of the hall.

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