The Bourbon Diaries ✢ The Vampire Diaries FanFiction ✢ TVD FanFic ✢ TVDU FanFic

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Stefanie Salvatore

Present day

The Hanging Fields, NC

With the Coven gone, Stef wanted to run towards Flick, to pick her up from the ground that Ava had thrown her upon while rushing to get her out of the car. Instead, taking just one step left her head spinning. All she could do was stand, her fingers pressed against her eyes, leaving Zara to help Flick instead. She suddenly felt too warm, the pressure in the air had become uncomfortably thick and heavy, her clothes too restricting. She heard the voices of her friends as they came towards her, and she removed her hands, her eyes going in and out of focus. She was so dizzy, all she wanted to do was sleep.

Raid was the first to approach her and she pasted on an exhausted smile, still committed to basking in her friends' celebratory cheers---specifically, Phoenix's celebratory cheers, who was loud enough for the rest of them.

Her smile then turned into confusion. Raid had stopped less than three feet away, stumbling backwards, as though he had hit something on his way to her. He held his hands in front of him while he made his way forwards again. Eventually, he paused, his palms turning white as he pushed against the air in front of him, unable to get closer to her.

"Stef, what's happening?" he fretted.

Stef mirrored his efforts, finding that she also couldn't reach him. Her hands pushing outwards, pressure turned into pain the harder she pressed. There was an invisible barrier in front of her, solid but entirely clear. What was this? Why was this happening? She had to force herself to focus, her heartrate skyrocketing, instinct battling against exhaustion as she pressed her hands against every direction around her, finding no escape.

She was trapped.

Suddenly they were all there. Gabe and Phoenix attempting to use their vampire strength against the barrier, which wouldn't shift, and Raid using magic to try to burst and burn his way through. Nothing was working.

Stef's panic gave way to a feeling of nausea. The howling of wind whisked and whistled through the oak tree, the branches drawing in the air around it. It was too harsh, too near, and getting louder and louder.

Gabe interrupted the sound that only Stef could hear. "Zara, where's the Coven?!" he shouted as Zara returned with Flick.

"They've gone," she replied, her arms wrapped around the pale, trembling teenager.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure," she confirmed.

"Fuck!" he shouted, slamming his fists into the barrier in frustration. Seeing Stef holding herself upright, one hand pressed against the barrier, her body leaning heavily into it, her head lowering, Gabe quickly ran to face her. "This is the magic from the channelled witches."

"I know," she mumbled softly, her head still lowered, still spinning.

Raid brought his face down, trying to meet the direction of her gaze, his voice desperate and concerned. "Stef, what do you mean?"

The hushed whistling had become lower, the rhythm and pitch changing, the noise becoming more recognizable as she separated each one from the dozens of others joining it. Some of the sounds emerged clearer from the others, spitting out heated and fierce. Some were distant. Some were close. Some were mumbles. Some were words.

"I can hear them," she breathed, her voice constricted by dread and debilitating fatigue. "They're angry."

Raid shot a look at Gabe. He knew who she was talking about. How could they be trapping her after helping her? This made no sense.

Gabe still needed the confirmation. "Who?"

Stef raised her head, but she wasn't looking at Gabe. Her eyes went past him, looking towards the grassy knoll where they previously stood. "The witches who died here," she replied, her heavy eyelids opening wide at the dozens of hazy figures stood there, translucent white mists with human shapes and no features, some moving, some still, but all of them restless. "They're suffering. They made a mistake. They want to atone."