STEFANIE SWORE SHE MUST BE THE MOST UNGRATEFUL DAUGHTER TO EXIST.
Not once had she called her parents or picked up their calls when she started college three-and-a-half hours away from her home of Mystic Falls. The guilt came back every time her phone rang with her parents' caller IDs flashing on the screen, but she never allowed herself to succumb to the guilt and pressure. She knew the unrelentless nagging would last throughout the day if she did answer, on top of the scolding remarks for never picking up in three months.
Stefanie gazed at her phone screen a second longer than she should have, and, with a heavy sigh, pressed the power button to stop the buzzing and let the call go straight to voicemail. Let the consequences build than to face them at the moment.
She threw her head back over the couch edge, staring up at the ceiling in an attempt to sober up. Her half-full solo cup had been long forgotten over the dizziness that made her decide for the nth time to never drink again. She silently cursed at herself for heeding her friends' badgering to join a bonfire in the woods. Slow blinks kept her eyes from burning and head from pounding like a relentless drumbeat that seemed to rival the echoes of a marching band. She swore her skull would crack open at any moment and gush out a mélange of alcohol and brain fragments that ribbon out like intestines.
It did not help that those same friends sat on either side of her on the patio couch, chattering away about something that she only caught pieces of through the ringing in her ears. "Ugh." She groaned, voice scratching her throat from dryness. "Why did I listen to you two nitwits?" Her hands, heavy like dead weight, finally came up to massage her temples with eyes squeezed shut.
"Hey! You're the one who said that a bonfire party is reward for completing midterms." Roop gasped in indignation. Stefanie imagined her friend's jaw dropped in disbelief— in which she turned out to be right when she lifted her head to see Roop's reaction. The latter's brown eyes gave away that her outrage had been faux.
Stefanie shook her head slowly. God, how her head felt so heavy like a bowling ball. She thought she could feel her brain sliding side to side as she did so. "Really? I don't remember saying that." The slur in her speech long gone, her words became clearer but her voice still raspy from dehydration.
"I knew she was gonna say that." Minerva called out from her right side, almost so loud that Stefanie had gone half-deaf in that ear. "I told you we should have recorded her, so she doesn't pin it on us like the last," Minnie counted silently on her fingers, "four times!" She shook her head in a disappointing 'tsk' and flopped back on the couch with crossed arms.
"The alcohol made her forget again, it's not my fault!" Roop argued childishly, flicking Stefanie's forehead (who yelped at the infliction and rubbed the skin with her palm to ease the burning sensation.) She imitated Minnie's flop on the couch and crossed arms with a sulky pout.
Stefanie would have laughed if she had the energy to do so. The dizziness, albeit lessened, did not go away and only blurred her vision of the somewhat distant bonfire. "Alcohol turns me into a depressive philosopher and not weebs that talk about creepy Hatsune Miku songs like you two."
"Okay, Socrates." She recognized the sarcasm in Minnie's tone without having to face her. "The next time we party, remind me to hook her up with a guy and not a drink." Minnie jested not-so-subtly to Roop, who giggled in return.
Stefanie pinched the bridge of her nose with a loud sigh. She loved her friends, she really did, but sometimes, they can be too much for her. They also reminded her of her annoying younger brother— who she left back home for college— in a good way; for that, she felt guilty for leaving him to be the only one under the hold of their controlling parents. A passing breeze reminded her of her current situation and pulled her out from her thoughts once again. Goosebumps rose on bare skin from the chill. "Don't think hanging out at an abandoned house in the woods counts as a party." Stefanie had never dared to go inside in thoughts that an eldritch horror may be living inside and waiting to eat her alive. The only reason she had gotten close to the house had been the worn-down couch she currently occupied with Minnie and Roop.
"It's a party if there's a bonfire and like a hundred other people." Roop stated in an obvious tone.
Stefanie's eyebrows scrunched in slight judgement and confusion. "What bonfire and people, the one that's like a bajillion feet away from us?" An exaggeration, but nonetheless, a valid one in consideration that the trio had placed themselves outside the ring of warmth from the bonfire. They were close enough to have some people lingering out and around the house, but not enough to be crowded and heated. "Really, I–."
A bloodied body dropped from above on the wooden steps in front of her.
[written on august 5th, 2023
well then, that's definitely a start... the chapter is rough and short 🫡. pls don't mind LOL. it'll start to get better once the plot progresses.
feel free to leave a song that any chapter reminds you of.]
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thorned enigma ; tvd
FanfictionStefanie Salvatore is persistent and insatiable in her thirst for knowledge. She's had a knack for solving mysteries and reading cases as child and pursues her passion after high school. Upon completing her first week of midterms in university, anim...
