𝐒𝐀𝐅𝐄𝐓𝐘 𝐍𝐄𝐓, ᵗʰᵉ ᵛᵃᵐᵖⁱʳᵉ ᵈⁱᵃʳⁱᵉˢ

𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 + 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 & 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭

𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

still at the boarding house, stefan, elena, and phoebe all stood on the porch.

elena was still rubbing her sore throat, feeling a mixture of fear, anger, and annoyance,''she threatened me''.

''she's on edge. imagine every sense in your body operating at super speed. i mean, she's uncomfortable in her own skin, and then when you throw in her other issues--''

"how long before it settles?'' elena questioned, cutting stefan off,''hours? days? weeks?''

''there's no rule book'' he answered.

''well, how long before you learned to control it?'' phoebe asked, turning to stefan, already wondering.

''a while, but i didn't have anybody helping me. i had to do it on my own. the thing is it's hard to resist certain people, especially when you're new. it's difficult to separate your feelings. love, lust, anger, desire--it can all blur into one urge--hunger'' stefan explained to the two girls.

elena furrowed her eyebrows, in confusion,''what does that mean?''

''it means that jeremy can't see her, not now. she might not be able to resist him, and she could hurt him'' he stated.

''or worse'' the brunette added.

''i'm not gonna let anybody get hurt'' he assured the two, who looked very stressed and worried.

phoebe nodded to that, believing him,''we should get going''.

elena nodded, in agreement, tears glistening in her eyes as the two turned to leave.

''elena--'' stefan started, but elena cut him off again.

''please, stefan. there's so much i can take''.

phoebe and elena then left, leaving stefan to look after them, knowing he had to make this right.

~~~~~~~~~~

daylight went and turned into night when phoebe, elena, and jeremy decided to go to the halloween festival going on at the high school.

phoebe was dressed as a dead gypsy with fake blood on a tambourine; same as last year.

elena was dressed as a dead nurse, with a fake hand and everything, also same as last year.

and jeremy was dressed as himself.

he was too worried about vicki to dress up as anything.

the three were walking toward the school and jeremy scared a few kids, earning a smack on the shoulder from elena.

phoebe chuckled as jeremy rubbed his aching shoulder.

inside the school, elena almost immediately made eye contact with matt, who was dressed as a dead surgeon, which is what he was last year too.

the two smiled at each other and made their way to each other, with phoebe and jeremy following along.

''you went with last year's costume, too, huh?'' the blue-eyed teen asked, grabbing a hold of his fake foot.

''yeah. i didn't know that i was coming till an hour ago'' elena responded, also holding onto her fake hand.

"me neither'' matt agreed, before they high-fived each other with their fake body parts, stifling a laugh.

the teen broke his gaze from elena toward phoebe,"and you are also going with last year's costume''.

''yeah, well, i didn't have time to go shopping'' phoebe shrugged with a smile,''oh, well''.