CENTURIES, stefan salvatore [1]

Heart of Darkness

CHAPTER 55: HEART OF DARKNESS

The Salvatore Boarding House

Finn Mikaelson was dead. Sure, Natalie didn't really know him, but there was the fact that everyone thought that the originals were still linked and they'd kill all of them. Finn, Elijah, Klaus, Kol, Rebekah. All of them. But when Bonnie was forced to unlink them (and they killed Finn), they noticed that only one died. Well, more than one died, seeing as it was revealed that every vampire from an original's sire line would die, meaning that if every original was killed, every vampire would be killed. Luckily, none of the Mystic Falls gang were descended from Finn's bloodline, which was very lucky for them.

But then they found out that one of the last remaining white oak stakes was hidden by Alaric's evil alter ego, the killer and vampire hater. But then Damon and Elena went to pick up Jeremy so they could figure out which sire line they all descended from and not die. Leaving Stefan and Natalie back to babysit.

Originally, Stefan kept himself upstairs, allowing Natalie to barely notice he was there (which she was very pleased about because of her not feeling obliged to blurt out a confession about sleeping with Kol). So Alaric was reading in the basement, Natalie was sitting inside the cell, babysitting him in complete quiet.

But as Stefan finally walked downstairs, Alaric started speaking. "Do you know how hard it is to fall asleep when that is what you're supposed to do?"

Stefan sent Natalie a small smile in greeting, thinking that they were on better terms now that they had that one day of bonding over searching for stuff to help Alaric out (kinda), but her eyes only widened and she turned away but he shook it off and turned back to Alaric- "Well, look, I know it's not easy so-" he held up a bottle of whiskey. "Damon suggested that I bring something to help speed up the process."

"What the hell." he shrugged, sitting up as he out his copy of Moby Dick down. But then he glanced at the 17/163 year old vampire in front of him with an offering look as he grabbed the bottle. "You know, I'll feel decidedly less pathetic if I don't drink alone."

Stefan smiled at him as he grabbed a chair and placed himself next to Natalie. He grabbed a glass that he brought with him, allowing Alaric to pour some whiskey into it. "Oh, I am one step ahead of you."

"My tu-" "No!" Natalie was cut off by both the males at the same time, making her pout as she lowered herself on her chair and glared at her father, still not wanting to look at Stefan all too much.

"So, road trip, huh?" Alaric brought up Elena going to Denver with Damon, as mentioned before, to find out where Rose was descended from, since she sired Katherine, who sired Stefan and Damon, who sired Caroline and Bonnie's mom.

Stefan shrugged, not really wanting to talk about Elena exploring her feelings for Damon at the moment. "Yeah, I needed to stay here."

The almost insane man shook his head slightly, wanting more of an answer out of him than that simple thing which gave him almost nothing. "Why? I mean, why you? You know, it doesn't take much to babysit me while I sit here waiting for a psychotic break. Natalie's probably enough."

"Well, unfortunately, we only have a limited amount of time." the vampire responded, his gaze on the floor now, knowing that what happened if they ran out of time wouldn't be pretty.

"First of all, I take offense to you not thinking that I'll be able to do what has to be done after the limited amount of time," Natalie started, Stefan smiling as he heard her break out into one of her Natalie-ish comments. "Second of all, limited amount of time before what?"

"Before we have to resort to other methods."

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After that awkward moment, the three didn't really have much to talk about. But after a while, they knew that Elena and Damon must have gotten to achieve something, anything, during all this time being away, it having been hours.