Bad Blood || The Vampire Diaries [1]

16: Southern Comfort

   Two long and boring months have Stefan and I been with Klaus. He's been on a long search for werewolves, which I've come to learn are particularly rare. Two months of searching with leads that left to empty houses and empty parks. My guess was that they've learned about the infamous hybrid and decided to hide. One of Klaus' leads was for a man named Ray Sutton in Memphis, Tennessee. If found, he would be the first werewolf that would be turned into a hybrid. 

    "This is the house," Klaus hummed, smirking as we got closer to a house in the middle of nowhere. The house was big, with a white picket fence, a swing on a tree, and the comfort of having neighbours miles away.

   Klaus sped out of the car as soon as Stefan stopped. It felt as if I could finally breathe when he was no longer in the car. I finally let out a breath that had been caught in my throat, passing a hand through my hair. Was I suffocating when Klaus was near? His presence alone made me want to blow my fucking brains out.

   "I'm suffocating," I confessed, pushing myself to the edge of my seat so I could take a closer look at Stefan. He kept a tight hold on the steering wheel, his knuckles white and his mind probably filled with thoughts of murdering Klaus. "We're doing everything he bids. Would we even wipe his ass if he asked for it?"

   "We did tell him that we would do everything," Stefan sighed, glancing back at me. "Clara, you didn't have to make the deal with Klaus. You should have let me do it, alone."

   "What can I say?" I chuckled, looking down at my hands. "I'm a budding hero. "

   "You're in love," he chuckled.

   "Was in love," I corrected him. "I want to stop loving him, Stefan. I don't want to continue to think about him and have my chest cave in when I remember that he doesn't really love me anymore. So, I'm going to start saying it until I believe it."

   "I think he still loves you," Stefan breathed, watching me. "You were going to get married, Clara, and then you suddenly died. He was heartbroken to the point where he pushed himself onto Katherine to forget. Your sudden death messed with us all." He turned from me and looked at the house, saying no more. "It's my turn."

   I wanted to know what had happened after I died, whether my mother sobbed over my grave and whether my father tried to sooth her. Whether my sister spent her time in my room, watching my bed, reading my books, playing my instruments in hopes that I would somehow come back miraculously. I wanted to know whether my brother drank himself to the point of passing out as he remembered the wonderful and bad times we had. Did my father blame Damon for my death, or did he allowed it to pass by and blamed himself? I wanted to know the answers to all of these questions, but Stefan didn't really want to speak about it. Did my death truly affect them all in the horrible way he made it seem?

   "I can go instead," I proposed, laying a hand on Stefan's shoulder. "You don't have to do this, Stefan. I know how much you hate it."

   "I appreciate your concern, but I have to do this one." He ran a hand through his hair and got out of the car. I followed, ready to stop him. He stepped in front of me, hands in his pockets as he stared at the house with a frown. "You've killed in my place already, and I can't have you continue to do that. Klaus will catch on sooner or later, and knowing him, he'll do something horrible. I have to do this, Clara." With no other word, he sped to the house. 

   I sighed and got back the car. The hot summer night made me put the cars' AC to maximum, making the leather seats feel like cold against my arms. Tennessee summers were hot, I've come to learn, with temperatures that reached more than a hundred. I lowered the window to hear what was happening in the house. The only thing I heard was Klaus telling Stefan to kill the girls in the house, a door close, and them screams echo into the hot night. Klaus' oncoming figure held a smirk around his red lips. He finished his walk and got to the passenger's seat, looking out the window.