Something spread through the darkened streets of Mystic Falls. Countless more vampires appeared through the nights and made homes in the empty buildings, in the empty houses—all claimed to be friends of Julian's. And he welcomed them with arms spread open as if there was some great joy in seeing them once again. 

   These vampires were not friends. 

   They had heard the rumours of a small town in Virginia that was full of vampires that did whatever they wanted, vagabonds that thought they would be able to make a home here. I did not allow them to do so. 

   In the nights that more vampires had arrived, I had killed more than I could count. I drank the blood of both vampires and humans, indulged in it like the first vampire in existence did before his own demise. There was a difference in the taste, one as dulcet as strawberries covered in chocolate while the other was a taste I had accustomed myself to in the years I had been alive. Yet, I could not get used to it. I found myself drinking only a mouthful and leaving them to heal themselves as I went on to do something else. 

   The town became some kind of amusement park: darts and billiards at the half-destroyed Mystic Grill, human bodies littered around like pieces of paper that flew along with the wind with bite marks on their necks and arms, a continuous party in one building with flickering lights that could be seen between the spaces of the boarded-up windows, and street races. Yet, even in all the commotion, the town had not been destroyed. 

   When morning came, it was as if only dirt and dead leaves decorated the ground instead of empty beer bottles and cans. It began once again when night arrived. 

   I stood in the centre of it all, watching it all happen as if I stood in front of a screen to see a movie. 

   A part of me was tired of it. The taste of blood became the same as water, the music that echoed through an empty building and thumped against the glass windows like invisible hands slamming against it became headaches that pounded against my skull. So, I found another resolve to the speed and the destruction of cars.

   My car of choice was a black Chevrolet Camaro from 1968. I had stared at the car before I claimed it as my own, pushed away another vampire who thought he could have it. He was dead before he could even say anything to contradict my words. 

   "I told you I would fix your car!" A vampire said as he dragged his arm around my shoulders, his other pointed at the car in front of me. His deep laugh echoed through the small garage. "All I needed was a day and a half, now everything's new. An awesome paint job, an awesome new motor stolen from NASCAR in Sonoma, and no traceable license plate in case you decide to take it out of Mystic Falls."

   I leaned down through the open window to take a look at the inside. Pure black and leather. For a moment, I could imagine myself with someone inside the car, their arm wrapped around my shoulders as they leaned in to kiss me and whisper something I could not understand. Part of me knew it was the past, some memory that I had pushed long behind me and didn't care much about remembering. 

   I pulled back and leaned against the car, crossing my arms in front of me. "How did you steal a motor from Sonoma and had it brought here in one night?"

   Ellis stopped moving and pursed his lips. "Express shipping?" He laughed again and rolled his eyes. "Dude, I've been in this business for more than sixty years. I know what to do, and what I need, and have it here before anyone actually needs it. Why do you think I've been chosen for deliveries?"

   "You're useful for something," I said, pulling myself away from the car to grab the keys. "Let's hope you have everything needed in stock because it's gonna be needed in a few hours." I didn't wait for an answer. 

   He got in the car as I prepared myself to drive away, the excitement in him as palpable as the steering wheel in my hands. Yet, it did nothing to me. It was like a fly flying around my head, and no matter how much swatting I did it did not leave me alone. 

   A crowd had gathered in the middle of Mystic Falls, all vampires with cans and bottles of beer in their hands as some kind of music echoed from somewhere. Motorcycles lined the sides as if they were showing where the grand party would start and finish. 

   It was the most amount of vampires I had seen gathered together in my entire lifetime. 

   I stopped the car by another that revved the engine, yet the music overpowered the sound. Ellis laughed and hit the console with both hands before getting out, his laugh still reverberating as he took a stand between both cars. 

   Julian appeared, a wide smile on his lips as he squeezed Ellis' both shoulders. "Tell your friends to bring something back from their hunt," he said, his eyes pausing on me for a moment before looking back at the other vampire. "We need to stock the bar for happy hour."

   I revved my car, hearing the sound of the engine and the little shake in the inside. 

   "No killing dinner," Ellis announced. "On my count!"

   He counted down to one. The wheels on my car screeched as I pushed against the gas pedal. Cheers from the vampires around me became a distant sound as I sped away, the roar of the engine the only thing I could hear. 

   It was the only thing that brought something like emotion into me. The speed, the roar of the engine, the crash at the end where the car was in total pieces and I stood tall with cuts and bruises decorating my skin like some kind of proof that I was alive. That it still did not bring any kind of feeling out of me. 

   The car at my side sped faster the closer we got to the boundaries of Mystic Falls, the laughter of the driver the only thing I could hear alongside the engine. He stuck his middle finger up at me as he passed. Yet, as soon as he passed the boundary line of the town, the tires of his car popped and he skidded to a halt. 

   I stopped before I hit the boundaries, the metal of tire spikes glimmering like glass with the light from the streetlamps. Two figures emerged from the corner, one armed with a rifle.

   One vampire got out of the driver's seat and grabbed his head as he came close to the other figures. Another vampire got out of the passenger's side. His bones broke with a sickening crunch from one of the figure's words. The other figure shot his rifle several times at the vampire, and then stumped his boot on the head. The crunch echoed through the darkness. 

   Bonnie Bennett was the other figure. The one with anger radiating off of him like heat was Matt Donovan. His head turned to me, the blue eyes I sort of remembered full of hatred. He raised the rifle and shot at the window several times, the glass shattering all around me. 

   I hissed and pressed my foot on the gas pedal, turning the car around and driving back to the centre of the town where the party continued. The car skidded to a halt in the centre of it, and I got out and marched straight to Julian with my fangs threatening to leave my gums. "You better get your damn vampires on a leash if you don't want them to get killed by a witch and an idiot with a gun!" My hands when to the neck of his shirt, pushing him until his back hit the wall of a building. "It's no fun getting almost killed by Deputy Dumbass and Bonnie the Good Witch of the South." 

   Julian laughed. "What are you talking about?"

   I pointed behind me, at my car. "Want to tell me how the windows of my car were broken? Because I sure as hell can tell you that it was because I was shot at with wooden bullets."

   "I thought the police of this town were your friends," he cooed, pouting his lips. "Weren't those two your friends?"

   I almost growled. Instead, I pulled his head back and slammed it against the wall. "Get your vampires on a leash," I whispered, loud enough for only his ears, "or I might help those two idiots kill them because that would certainly bring me some kind of joy."

   Julian raised a brow. "Some kind of joy?" He repeated the words full of interest. "Are you beginning to get some part of your humanity returned to you with every kill you make, sweet Clara?"

   "No, but perhaps I might when I pull that thing you call a heart out of your chest and eat it," I snapped, pulling away from him. "It might taste better than werewolf heart, who knows?"

   He stared at me with a face full of interest, head tilted slightly to the side and mouth slightly opened. His hand laid on my chin, like a gentle caress. "You remind me so much of Lily..."

   I made a face of disgust and pulled away from his hold. "If I remind you so much of her, then you must be blind. I think I'm prettier." I did not wait for a response but walked away towards the Mystic Grill so I would waste away with whatever alcohol was left in the town.

   I took a seat in the back of the bar with one of the few closed bottles of vodka. The taste was abhorrent, like black pepper and lemon combined with briny water, but it was the only bottle in the entire town with the highest amount of alcohol—the perfect thing to give me a buzz if not entirely drunk. 

   By the time the bottle only had a hint left, the buzz had not yet arrived but time passed. The sun shifted through the few pieces of the window that weren't boarded up, illuminating a little space that was immediately covered by the vampires that could not be out in the daylight. Nothing passed through my mind in those hours, only pure silence as if I had been locked up inside a cell with everything boarded up. 

   I inlaid deeply through my nose and drank the last of the vodka, allowing it to burn my throat as it made its way down. Even though I felt nothing, I desired the buzz. Another piece of nothing that would be filled with alcohol, as much as it would allow itself to be full. It never became full. It always stood in the centre, never too full or too empty. 

   I stood to grab another bottle of alcohol that was closed on the counter in the bar, but someone grabbed it by the neck before my fingers closed around it. My eyes focused on the empty spot for a moment before I let my eyes move to the owner of the hand. Stefan Salvatore stood in front of me once again, a small and innocent smile on his lips. It was barely there, as if it couldn't exactly be there but it was and he didn't know what to do with it.

   I grabbed the bottle from his hand. "Anything else you want to discuss with me?" I turned to walk back to my seat, grabbed the shot glass and filled it to the brim. "Are you going to try to bring my humanity back by jabbering about your blooming love with my great-niece?" I laid my feet atop the table and downed the glass; I began to fill it before I finished swallowing. My eyes were only focused on the blank liquid that filled the shot glass, and then they went up to glance at the younger Salvatore. They immediately focused on the person behind him, on the tall man with the bluest eyes I had ever seen and black hair. 

   Something inside of me stirred. 

   I downed the glass and filled it again, letting my eyes focus on liquid instead of him. "I see the other brother made it back from the dead."

   "Clara." 

   The very sound of my name coming from his mouth made me stop, the glass halfway from my mouth. I didn't look up. "What?" It soured the taste of alcohol in my mouth, like casu mazu cheese.

   He took a step forward, in front of his brother and in front of me. His hand slammed down on the table, making what was in the glass to spill. "Why the hell did you turn off your humanity?"

   "Why the hell not?" I let myself look up at him, at the face I once felt something for. I clenched my jaw as I quickly looked back down, grabbed the glass of alcohol and downed it in one quick swallow.

   "You're an idiot!" Damon snapped, voice low and dangerous and full of anger. "You're an idiot for giving yourself to Julian and you're an idiot for turning off your humanity—you should have left me behind."

   I shrugged my shoulders and refilled my glass. "You should have said that before I did any of it," I said. "I wouldn't have listened to you."

   His hand went to my hair, pulling it down to make me look up at him. "Do you know what this is going to do you when we bring back your humanity?" His voice was a hiss, the anger palpable. "You are going to destroy yourself the longer you have it off."

   I slowly stood, keeping my eyes on his and feeling his hand on my hair soften into a caring hold. "Careful pulling my hair," I told him with a soft smirk playing on my lips; I laid my hand on his chest and took a step closer to him so that my chest would be pressed against his. "You know how I liked that when we slept together."

   Damon pulled me closer to him, his face too close to mine. "You are destroying yourself with every moment you don't bring yourself back from there," he said, his face softening. "Trust me, I know what that's like."

   "Do you think I'm going to become a mess as Elena did?" There was nothing more that made me smile than seeing the small hint of pain that flashed across his eyes. "Maybe, I will be out of your hair before she wakes up and you don't have to choose. I'll do it for you."

   Damon's eyes softened until there was nothing but pain. His hand brushed from the back of my head to my cheek, to the space between my cheek and neck. "I already chose, Clara," he softly said, as if it were only the two of us and no one else in the entire bar. "I chose the day you begged me not to take the cure. I finalised my choice the day you and Stefan took me to that house in the suburbs, the day of Ric's wedding and—"

   "You chose Elena," I reminded him. There was something stirring inside of me, and I did not like whatever it was. "You were going to take the cure to be with her. Romantic, really, if it weren't for her being put under a spell as long as the witch lives. Imagine if she chooses to live for a long, long time..."

   His jaw clenched. "I didn't choose Elena."

   Something inside me snapped. 

   I wrapped my hand around his neck and pushed him until his back slammed against the wall. "Do you think sweet words will bring back my humanity?" My voice was low, full of something that was a lot like anger. And that was something I could not have because anger was an emotion, and that correlated with humanity. I pushed it down until it was smothered to nothingness. "You, Damon Salvatore, are the very reason why I turned off my humanity. Do you think sweet words would bring it back when even I, even your brother over there, know that you would choose Elena in a heartbeat?"

   He stared down at me, a frown evident in his eyes. "This isn't about Elena."

   "You're right," I said as I tightened my hold around his neck. He writhed beneath my hand and tried to breathe, but he did not move away. He made no attempt to move away. It made me furious, so I tightened my hold even more until he let out a choked sound. "This is about you, isn't it? About how you couldn't save Elena, so now you're trying to save me. Here's some advice that should get through that thick skull of yours—stop trying." I let go of my hold and took a large step back.

   Damon doubled over, coughing as he held on to his neck and inhaled deeply through his mouth. 

   "I don't need saving," I told him, then let my sight land on the younger brother. "If any of you try to bring back my humanity, I will not hesitate to kill you both and then more." I ambled towards the nearest vampire and struck my hand through their back, pulling back their heart as if it were some root in the ground. Quick and easy, the body dropping at my feet and silence enveloping the bar. I let the heart drop near the body. "That's my last warning."

   Stefan stood beside his brother, in front of him for protection from me. "Clara, please."

   "My last warning," I repeated, my eyes moving toward the eldest brother. It was him that I stared at for a couple of moments, taking him in as if he were some kind of art that I admired. There it was, that something stirring inside of me as I looked at this man. Once again, I swallowed it down and smothered it with a mouthful straight from the bottle. "Do I make myself clear?"

   Damon pushed himself up with the help of a table in front of him, his hand on his neck as he inhaled deeply through his mouth. "You wouldn't dare to kill us," he said, "because it would destroy you."

   "And why do you think that?"

   "Because I know you better than you know yourself," he said with a kind of softness and harshness combination that made that ceratin something inside of me stir. A pebble thrown over a still lake, its ripples pushing and pushing until it hit the edges and bounces back. "And when you get your humanity back, you're going to feel more emptier than ever when you realise that it was you that killed us."

   I arched a brow and took a closer step to him. "What makes you think my humanity will return?" I closed the distance between us and stared up at him, my chest pressed against his. "Do you think there's something so precious that can bring it back? Whatever it was that you had last time is burnt. Gone. Amuse me, Damon, what do you think can bring back my humanity?"

   "Caroline."

   I smiled and shook his head. "No. See, if she came here I would not hesitate to kill her in front of the man who claimed to love me when all he wanted was to have his cock inside of her." I glanced over at Stefan, showing him the smile on my lips that held no apologies for my words. "I guess now that I'm out of the picture you're allowed to do just that."

   Stefan's eyes stared back at me with fury and sorrow, his hands rigid at his side. He looked away from me.

   Damon swallowed hard. "Stefan," he said. "You would have died for him."

   "The me with humanity would have died for him," I agreed. "Do you think the me without humanity would?" I chuckled and patted my hand against his heart, laying it there and allowing him to feel it.

   Damon leaned his head down, his lips centimetres near mine. "Me," he said. "It would destroy you to see me dead, Clara, and you can't deny that because you love me."

   "You're certainly being way too cocky," I mused. "What has you so sure that you're going to be able to bring my humanity back when you should be focusing on your own head." I chuckled and took a step back, glancing from Stefan to Damon. "Have the hallucinations started yet?"

   Damon went rigid beneath my hand.

   Stefan's eyes widened from where he stood.

   "You two should focus more on how to fix your heads instead of trying to fix me." I took a few steps back, keeping my eyes on the brothers. "Like I said before, my last warning."