𝔉𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔏𝔦𝔣𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔏𝔦𝔞 𝔏𝔞𝔲𝔤𝔥𝔩𝔦𝔫 ⚜️ ᴛᴠᴅ¹

CHAPTER Ⅵ

'Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism.' That's what you'll find when you search death on google. But for Lia death was a punishment. Everyone around her eventually ended up dead or missing. Someone once told me that death doesn't just happen to you, it happens to everyone around you. That's what happened to her the previous day. Another friend of hers ended up dead and she was refraining from talking or even thinking about it.

Lia walked towards the Salvatore Mansion as she knocked on the door waiting for someone to open it. She received a call from Katherine Pierce earlier asking for help with Stefan. Apparently, he was still having panic attacks and was dealing with the PTSD of being locked up in a safe all summer, drowning, and dying all over again. So, here she was standing at his door to help him it was also a way of not wanting to think about Jesse. You know she was using Stefan's mental-health-helping process as a distraction.

"You know, you have to forgive Elena, right?" Caroline asked standing beside her.

"Ok, alright. I forgive her. Are we done?" She asked not wanting to talk about Elena or Jesse or whatever happened last night. Caroline was about to say something when Stefan opened the door seeing a smiling Lia and Caroline standing there.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked as if he did not want the girls to be there.

"I'm your sober sponsor, and I heard that you needed help," Lia replied.

"Really?" Stefan asked in confusion.

"And I got Liz to drop off something for us to use." Lia continued as she stepped aside to reveal the Pierce & Franklin safe that Stefan was locked in all summer. Stefan stared at it like it was a ghost when Lia concluded. "Don't worry. We sanitized it."

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"I spent three months drowning in this thing. What the hell were you thinking?" Stefan asked looking at the safe that was laying on the library floor.

"I was thinking it's time for you to deal with the source of your PTSD," Lia replied turning towards him.

"And you're sure you're not just sublimating your feelings about what happened to Jesse last night?" Stefan asked wanting to know the real reason they were here.

"Feelings? What feelings would I have about my friend killing my best friend?" Lia asked sarcastically not wanting to enter that part.

"He was out of control, and Elena did what she had to do." Stefan defended Elena.

"No. Elena did what she thought she had to do, just like she also thought that Damon was good boyfriend material. Now you see where I'm going with this?" Lia asked raising an eyebrow.

"Anyways, aren't you a witch-vampire, whatever? What do you know about PTSD?" He asked confused about how she could help him.

"Well, I know that you tried to deal with it your way and failed, so now we're going to try it my way," Lia replied, walking towards the safe and opening it. "Plus I have dealt with it before." She finished as Stefan stared at the safe and then back at her.

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"Lia? Caroline? Do you even know what you're doing?" Lia heard Stefan's muffled voice coming from inside the safe.

"Yes, well it's in my textbook." Caroline replied as she flipped through a textbook entitled 'Clinical and Practical To Conquering Fear'. "Let me find it."

"Stefan, listen to me carefully, I know what you're feeling right now, trust me when I say I know. Just breathe normally and try to focus on one thing, like a memory, a happy one." Lia told him knowing how to deal with PTSD. Katherine was standing in the corner with crossed arms watching the girls with a curious but mischievous expression on her face.