VIENNA--••--DS&SS

•• Chapter Forty Four ••

Vivian had never imagined the day would come. After being locked away for so long, she craved to know the feeling of love again. To feel something other than loneliness and pain. Since the previous night, she's felt like she could walk on air. Both of them. She had both of them again. After everything, after Kathrine, despite Klaus, despite Elena, they still chose her. She was numb with giddiness as she and Stefan sneakily made their way towards a mansion.

She felt Stefan's glance and she couldn't help but smile, even though he didn't necessarily return one himself, she knew he was at least appreciating the idea of no longer being tied to someone who's only caused him confusion and misfortune.

  At least that's how she saw his previous relationships. But who was she to judge?

  When they reached inside, the smell of wood and dust mixed with the light stench of death reach her nose unwelcomely. The sound of her clicking heals surely gave their presence away as they slowly approach what Vivian would assumed eventuality would become a living room; quite ironically, she mused.

"I'm surprised you're still in town." Klaus said, as a coffin is wheeled away by a hybrid minion. "I gave you your freedom, you could've gone anywhere."

"I live here, Klaus." Stefan says, as he leans against a pillar of wood. Vivian walked around a bit, examining the table full of half cut planks and tools.

"Well, if we're playing this game, then, if, I was here first."

"You know, I don't like your hybrid friends." Stefan tells him, as he refills his cup. "They're everywhere."

"Like a growing, annoying, disease." Vivian muttered.

"I want them gone." Stefan demand.

"Yeah, well, uh, I kind of like having them around."

Vivian sighs, "Because they're your only friends?"

"You know, I'm hurt. I hoped that, after I'd free you...that we'd pick up where we left off. But here you two are...guzzling Vervain like the rest of them, I'm sure. So much for friendship."

"Friends don't strip friends of their free will." Stefan argued

"Okay, granted, yeah, that was a little extreme."

"Friends"" Vivian said, stepping a little near Klaus, "don't threaten their friends to forget everything they've ever known."

"Again, extreme. I just get a little moody, you know. Just ask my siblings. Speaking of whom, isn't it time you handed them over?"
Stefan stepped beside Vivian, who stood right in front of the Original.

"Klaus...get your hybrids out of Mystic Falls or I will remove them myself."

"Hmm. You see, if you continue to threaten me, I'm gonna be forced to retaliate. Kill people. And it'll get a little messy again."

"So? Do whatever you want, I don't really care. Or, you know what? Maybe I do. Yeah. Yeah, maybe I care so much....that I drop Elijah in the Arctic."

"Well, maybe I'd be willing to lose one brother if that meant killing yours. And maybe the woman your both obsessed with." He smiled, sending a wink to Vivian.

"Try me. Let's find out."

"Everything okay?" A voice speaks from behind them, Vivian turned her head and watched as the minion hybrid slowly came closer.

"Everything fine, Mindy. Vivian and Stefan were just leaving after failing to make their point." Klaus says. Vivian and Stefan share a look and in one swift movement, Vivian grabbed the saw laying in the table and sliced it against Mindy's throat, cutting off her head.