𝐎𝐤𝐚𝐲, 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐤

- - -
❝It's not like it used to be
Whatever happened to me❞

Open Arms
~Gary Go
- - -

A week later, at the Salvatore Boarding House

Kat Gilbert had been a different girl before. Before everything had gone haywire in her life. Her parents drove off a bridge, she blamed her drinking for their death. She buried her annoying personality and thought before she said something to others.

And that transformation was hard. 

It somehow put her on edge that she had to see her friend go through a transformation herself, but in a different sense. Stefan had been teaching Vicki Donovan to hunt animals and repress her hunger instincts for a whole week.

That was one whole week of teetering in uncomfortable skin around Vicki, Jeremy, and Elena. The hours after school and the nights passed by like a jiffy. 

Before, when he let her in, Damon used to emit something short of a sigh and something long of a grunt when he let Kat in. But eventually his sounds turned silent as he concentrated more her silence to him. A silent truce which wasn't all that bad with this particular vampire.

Kat was the one who made it clear that Damon hadn't turned Vicki into a vampire (in Vicki's absence of course). Vicki said that she blacked out from behind and woke up at the edge of the forest. But no words were exchanged about the older Salvatore's inexplicable behavior the day he spent with Kat tied up.

Kat mentally wrote 'Day 8' on her checklist to check off in 12 hours that day. Those were the only 12 hours that she got to spend with Stefan. The rest of her free time was left to convince Caroline that what happened that day was all a big prank and trying to do damage control with Elena. Her twin was miserable and with Jenna was spending time at Whitmore, leaving the whole Gilbert residence at the helm of Kat.

"I don't understand why I have to stay cooped up here" Vicki pouts as she looks through the crack of the curtain to see sunlight "Why can't I just go home?"

Kat pushes herself out of her thoughts and smiles with a motherly smile, "Because you're changing, Vicki. It's not something you wanna do alone... How about we try that speed thing again huh?"

When they were little, Grayson Gilbert often took all the girls to the annual carnival where they spent their time riding foolish rollercoasters and eating cheap cotton candy. The moment Vicki realized that she had the cool power of superspeed on her side, she spent the entire first day whooshing around to every nook and corner of the Salvatore Boarding House.

Kat gives the girl a mischievous smile, but it isn't returned. Vicki huffs unenthusiastically, plopping down on the couch beside Kat, "I wanna go out."

Kat doesn't let her tongue slip that easily. She was told that Emily Bennett made the Salvatores their daylight rings. But Vicki was a drug addict and she wanted to be sure that she could help her control her urges before she goes out. Kat couldn't let any other person be guilty for something they could have controlled.

Damon plops on the other side of Kat as he flips frustratedly through the newspaper. He looked like a young man too peeved about his poor monthly salary as he scans every page of the already worn newspaper with vampire quickness.

"There's nothing about that Logan guy I killed in here. Not a word. Someone's covering it up, you" he points to Kat, "Find out who."

The Gilbert rolls her eyes, "I'm not doing anything for you because, A - I'm not your little pet and B... What I just said."

She had taken her own time to come to terms with the dark side of Logan and the supernatural element to his death. That didn't mean Kat was ready to go sniffing around the Council, especially not when she had two friends who were now vampires.

"What's this?" Vicki takes something shiny from Damon's fisted hand, only to reveal a compass.

Damon snatches it back from her and gets away from the girls, "This is a very special, very old compass." he waves it around mockingly in front of the Donovan girl, "What was Logan Fell doing with it? Aren't you curious?"

Kat didn't really understand the way Damon felt about Vicki. Sometimes, he treated her like a wasteful apprentice, while the other times he teetered between sex-toy and spiteful ally. And Vicki being Vicki, just went along with it without questions.

Stefan enters ceremoniously with a flask and a cup, throwing a barely-there smirk to his brother, "If you're so worried that somebody's onto you, why don't you just leave town, Damon?"

"Yeah," Kat shrugs smugly, "Why don't you Damon?"

Even though she'd seen the hidden gestures of his, she knew that a man like Damon Salvatore doesn't do things without a reason. And she doubted the reason he insisted on staying in town was any friendly than riding into a shark's mouth.

"Do you have anything to eat?" Vicki asks, eyes darting to the cup.

Stefan hands her the cup with a nod.

Vicki sniffs it like a child smelling boiled broccoli, "What is it?"

"It's what you're craving" Kat puts in, hoping to get her to drink it. Technically, it is what she's been craving, but not the exact type of what she's craving.

"Ha, don't lie to the girl Katherine," Damon's lips stretch into a meaningful smirk as he turns to Vicki, "It's so not what you're craving, but it'll do in a pinch, right Stef?"

"What is it?" Vicki sniffs again, now making a dramatic face.

Kat sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.

The older Salvatore settles his legs on an ottoman as he mocks, "Yeah, what is it? Is it a skunk? Saint Bernard? Bambi?"

Actually, it was a rabbit, but that was beside the point wasn't it?

"Give it a try..." Stefan encourages her with a nod forward, followed by Kat, "Go on."

"She's new. She needs people blood. She can't sustain on that stuff"

Kat glares at the constantly demotivating voice, "Damon..."

"Yeah," Vicki perks up with a pep in her step, "Why can't I have people blood?"

They'd been over this argument a lot of times and it all ended in the same way— Kat massaging a hot cup of coffee to her forehead while Stefan tried to massage the knots out of her neck.

"Because it's wrong to prey on innocent people, Vicki" Kat tells her patiently.

"You don't have to kill to feed," Damon says, "Just find someone really tasty and then erase their memory after wards. It's so easy"

"No, no, no" Kat shakes her head, averting her eyes to Stefan warningly. His brother just couldn't leave it be.

"There's no guarantee that you can control yourself, okay? It takes years to learn that. You could easily kill somebody, and then you have to carry that with you for the rest of your life, which, if I haven't made clear, is eternity,"

Kat was surprised every time she heard Stefan assuring anybody. He made such a patient instructor, always in control of his emotions as he tried to convince Vicki.

"Don't listen to them..." Damon rolls his eyes, eyes still scanning the papers, "They walk on a moral plane way out of our eye line. I say snatch, eat, erase."

"Hey, look at me," Stefan catches Vicki's conflicted attention with a serious face, "We choose our own path. Our values and our actions, they define who we are..."

"Okay, Count Deepak, I am outta here" Damon rolls his eyes and struts off, buttoning his shirt.

"Can I have some more?" Vicki licks her lips and without further words, snatches the flask from Stefan's hands. Kat purses her lips, nudging her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she looks to her best friend.

"Why are you wearing glasses?" Vicki frowns. This makes Kat sigh at her misfortune and looks down at her open AP English books. She woke up today with a terrible headache, her eyes feeling like they were being pulled out by strings. In hopes of trying to cool the sensation down, Kat had worn her glasses.

Vicki perks up to Stefan with a conspiratorial smile, "You know Stefan? Kat looked so hot even in glasses. The sass, oh my God you should see her let loose once."

This makes Stefan frown slightly with a confused smile "Where's that Vivi?"

Kat ignored Vicki's knowing look as she pushes her glasses up once again. Her cheeks flamed under Stefan's gaze when he called her Vivi. Apparently, Vicki thought only men who wanted to bang you, give you nicknames.

Kat shrugs with a smile, trying to ignore both the butterflies in her gut and the burning in her eyes, "She had to take some time off"

"And I wanna see her soon, it's getting boring around here!" Vicki interrupts.

Elena chooses that exact moment to come inside after the whole week "Hey"

His eyes immediately widen up to her appearance, making Kat think, this is why she had to take some time off. 

Vicki re-enters just after Stefan leaves the house to get more blood, "False alarm... My body's feeling really funky. It's a good funk, but it's weird."

She goes to the platform and picks up her phone, typing away a number, Kat doesn't object to that because that's a part of the 'normal' that she has to experience right now. It's not like she can call her family and tell 'Hey mom, I drink blood now, missed me?'

But Elena has other plans "...Who are you calling?"

Vicki doesn't look up from the screen as she says in a 'duh' tone, "Jeremy." 

That has Elena jumping up from her seat "Vicki, you can't see Jeremy anymore—" 

"Oh come on don't you start. I'm gonna see whoever I wanna see! Kat, tell her."

Kat puts her arm on Elena's, warning her, "Just... Leave it alone, it's okay"

When Elena looks at her, she shakes her head with significant wide eyes. They can deal with that once the girl is normal, at least on an emotional stage.

Elena of course, ignores this, "You want to be with him even though you could hurt him?"

Vicki looks up, her eyes narrowed into slits as she stomped, "I would never hurt Jeremy alright!" 

"I know you think that but I can't take that risk." Elena says, "You're gonna have to let Jeremy go now..."

Vicki scoffs, almost vamping, "Oh really? And how long have you been preparing the 'you're not good enough' speech? I'm assuming it predates the whole vampire thing."

Kat shakes her head as reassuringly as she could, sliding in between Elena and Vicki, "No! You're actually a good person Vic. What Elena means is just be careful with Jerry ok—"

"—All I am saying is Jeremy is not getting involved in any of this. I mean it, Vicki." Elena interrupts Kat's words, just angering Vicki more. Vicki growls, catching both the twins by surprise. She shoves Kat aside in one fluid motion, grabbing Elena by the throat to slam her against the wall.

One whole week with Kat and Vicki Donovan was in control. One fucking minute with Elena, and she was crashing.

"Let's get one thing straight, you perky little bitch. You had my brother whipped for fifteen years. Fifteen years and then you dumped him. When I look at you that is all I see, just so you know. And I'm gonna see Jeremy whenever I wanna see Jeremy, because I have some fun new toys to play with, and I won't think twice about ripping your little head of—"

Kat tears the girl apart from her sister, twisting her arm behind her back before her advantage of surprise wears off. Looks like Liz's one week women safety classes paid off.

"We're here to help you. Just listen to me, please Vicki!" 

Apparently, all their good relations are forgotten then. At that moment, Vicki forgot that Kat was her only friend since they were little. She forgot that Kat was the one who's been standing guard between her and her insanity. Vicki slams her free elbow into Kat's stomach, breaking the hold on her. She wastes no time in speeding upstairs.

Stefan comes into the parlor a while later to see a somber Elena bending over to Kat, checking for any bruises.

"What happened!" He runs towards us.

Kat waves him off "Vic just got a little... upset about the Jeremy situation. Don't worry, she's upstairs."

"But yo—"

"—I healed, no thanks to Elena," she glares at her sister, "Vicki probably won't want to see me for a while, but I'll come by later." she wanted to hug Stefan but settles for a small pat on his shoulder before she whisked Elena back home.

In the evening, Gilbert residence

Kat sees Elena moping on her bed. The lights in her room were purposely dimmed as Elena's eyes motionlessly stared at her ceiling. The outside world was abuzz with activity, bells ringing and baskets shimmying with candy and Halloween gifts.

"Get your ass up." Kat's voice booms from the threshold, "Right. Now."

"Go away Kat" Elena murmurs.

"Really? I really had no idea Miss Gilbert. Shall I give you a Nobel Prize for your deduction?" Kat glares at her twin. "You just have to learn to handle some stuff. The things you can't, you leave to me. Now get your moping body off that bed right this second or I'll pull you off myself."

"Fine!" Elena grudgingly props herself up with drooping eyes, "Why are you being so—"

She doesn't get to finish her accusation, too surprised by Kat's dress.

"We're going to Halloween your miseries away."

𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫

Hey peeps! Sorry for the slow updates! I just travelled states away by car and my eyes are being red bitches. I swear you'll get more answers about Kat, Damon and everything unsolved at this point in the next chapters! Oh and btw, what is the thing with online classes?! Oh, there's major disease on the lose and you're confined to your houses, so, here! - double/triple homework to pull your miseries away! Anyway, thank you for bearing with me all this while! Love ya'll so much.
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