Civil Twilight
That simple crush included listening to heavy metal or talking about each other grievances concerning their siblings. Jeremy always left a flashlight turned on in the left-hand corner of his bedroom window when he wanted Vikki to come up. She would joke that it was “girly” of him. But it worked. And she would usually sneak home around 1 or 2 a.m.
The light was on tonight, in the window. Vikki swore that she could see it from a mile away. Maybe that was one of the new perks of this vampire life? Enhanced vision? Vikki rushed to the house, finding the tiny key that Jeremy had left under one of the banister’s on the porch, when they started hooking up, when Jeremy started doing drugs. But it wasn’t the drugs. It was repression. And once forgotten feelings. Years and years of it. Vikki took the key, put it through the hole, and took a step forward to let herself in the house, yet she could not enter. An invisible barrier barred her. And then she saw Jeremy coming down the stairs, befuddled and anxious in a pair of boxers and a white t-shirt.
“Hi, Jer…”
“Why are you just standing there, Vik? Come in right now!”
The statement in and of itself was more or less a command, and it seemed to do the trick. As Vikki noted when she stumbled into Jeremy’s awaiting arms, the invisible barrier cut and erased. Jeremy held her in his arms, just feeling relief and a sense of completeness wash over him. She was safe. Vikki was safe. He led her upstairs, into his bedroom, and they sat on the mattress together, just holding each other.
“What happened to you?” Jeremy whispered into Vikki’s ear, stroking her hair.
“Nothing, I was just a little freaked out, that’s all.”
Her breath was hot against his cheek.
“I missed you, I was worried. You have to stop this.”
“I know… But it’s not what you think…”
“I mean it Vik…”
“It’s not what you think, okay!”
“That’s the thing with you, Vikki! Your delusional…”
“Delusional!”
“Listen, I know I’m no expert, I’m not the perfect guy, but there’s so much more to life than getting stoned all the time. And believe it or not,” Jeremy took Vikki’s hand into his own, staring into her eyes. “I know this because of you. When my parents died, I felt like crap. Like nothing mattered crap. And then I started having these moments, these tiny moments of clarity, and you were in every single one of them. Everything was so clear. That’s why I know you are not a ‘waste of space, small town lifer’, your that girl. You’re that girl Vikki. The one that makes me feel that I don’t need to be anything else than who I am. And the drugs just aren’t me. I’m the clean-cut kid, who did have this dark period growing up. But that doesn’t mean that I need to leave you behind. ‘Cause… I love you.”
Vikki sat there, shocked. To stunned to answer. But none other than the intoxicating smell of Jeremy’s blood elicited the images that muddled through her brain. She could almost taste it on her dry tongue, she was starving. The images, the taste, the fantasy, it blazed hot enough to eclipse everything that Jeremy had just said, the love and trust and care emanating through him. It was too vivid, all to real for her to stand it.
Vikki stood up from the bed, heading towards the door. When she didn’t answer him, when she got up to leave, Jeremy grabbed a hold of her, wanting to shake her. He’d never seen her like this before. But Vikki, with her new supernatural powers and superior strength, escaped from his grasp, and fled the room. Because she loved him too. She couldn’t hurt him. He used to be just a boy to her, one that she hung out with, than one that she had used, and than one that she had fallen for. Than, suddenly, he had turned into this man who had brought her to her senses.
Though it was hopeless, Jeremy ran after her. But Vikki had already disappeared. And in the frame of the swing open front door of the Gilbert house stood none other than Stefan Salvatore.
“Jeremy, what is going on? Is everything okay?”
“No, it’s not… Vikki, she just- she’s just… I don’t know…”
“Listen, can you please tell me where Elena is?”
“She isn’t here.”
“But I need to speak with her.”
“I don’t know where she is.”
Fear plunged through Stefan’s stomach, a filling in the bottomless pit. Elena was in trouble, he knew it. And this was his entire fault.
“She didn’t tell you where she was going?”
“No, she left awhile back. Wait- what’s wrong?”
Jeremy had become aware to the obvious look of panic on Stefan’s usually passive features, he was rushing out of the house, Jeremy following close behind. Just as Stefan and Jeremy left the house, they could see two familiar forms make their way up the road. Walking swiftly, through the clearing and behind a thin veil of darkness, Elena and Damon came into view. Though the hands at his sides relaxed, and his shoulders slumped in relative relief, the look of horror and confusion of Stefan’s face was apparent. And Jeremy was rather painfully and innocently oblivious to it all. He didn’t know after all, the truth about the Salvatore brothers.
Despite Elena appearing in one-piece however, Stefan was startled. There she stood, walking up to him beside Damon, perfectly calm, with a remote, dreamy quality about her expression. She almost seemed in a daze, she looked exhausted enough. She had had the scare of her life, afteral. Beside her, Damon’s eyes almost settled languidly yet alert on Stefan’s frame, as if almost anticipating a move of attack. Yet, Stefan just stood there, waiting for the pair to come closer.
Jeremy ran up to Elena, as she opened her arms to him. As the brother and sister embraced, Damon walked up to Stefan.
“What happened, Elena?” Stefan asked her, ignoring Damon’s position in front of him.
“Jeremy can you go into the house?” Elena asked her little brother, hoping he wouldn’t ask any questions. Jeremy nodded, walking past the trio, two vampires and one mortal girl, onto the porch and into the house.
“It was just, someone came after me and-“
“Someone came after you!”
“Yes, but it was fine, Damon saved me.”
And behind them, Stefan and Elena could hear the sound of Damon scoff. He was too smug for his own good.
“Really, it was no trouble. But, if I heard you scream my name it would have been better incentive.”
Shaking her head, Elena passed both brothers, and closed the door to the house, going inside.
As the door slammed shut, and the sound died down, the rustle of the trees in the mild wind suddenly became startling, and, as Elena observed, spying on Stefan and Damon from the tiny kitchen window, the tension was apparent, the lighting of a match would have sounded like a sharp explosion, with the smoldering anger rolling beneath the surface of every encounter between the two putting out the dim flame.
“Was that true, Damon?”
“Well, considering how righteous your little cheerleader is, I would consider that she would absolutely loathe even the very thought of telling a lie. But… wait. She isn’t your little cheerleader anymore is she?”
The smirk on Damon’s face widened, as Stefan made his way closer to him.
“No, but I was right about one thing.”
“And what is that little brother?”
“That you do have some feeling in yourself for her, or you would not have saved her tonight.”
“Oh please, Stefan. I’m an evildoer, like you said. My so-called conscience is to finely tuned for self-deception. I know what I want, and more importantly what I feel. Or, I guess I should say what I lack to feel. I’m just the villain.”
And, kicking at the soil with the sole of his leather boots, Damon made his way back to his car parked at the clearing to the woods, the stars illuminating his black ensemble, as he glowed like a dark angel in the faint, blue light.
“It’s Iscariot, isn’t it?”
Damon turned to look at his brother, clearly amused.
“You came up with that all on your own, I’m impressed.”
Stefan smiled faintly, shaking his head. And, making his way toward Damon, he faced his brother, and as it looked as if Stefan would almost have touched Damon arms with his own hands, they recoiled back, and into his jean pockets.
“Listen, I am grateful for what you did tonight, for Elena. But it still doesn’t change anything. Just because I’ve accepted what you’ve done, doesn’t mean I have to accept you.”
Damon put his hand on Stefan’s shoulder, nodding, lowering his head to level with his, to look him straight in the eye.
“And you are still my enemy tonight, as you will be in the morning. I expect nothing less. After all, if I didn’t have someone like you to make miserable for the rest of eternity, what on earth would I do to spend time?”
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