MONSTER, stefan salvatore [2]

True Lies

CHAPTER 11: TRUE LIES

The Quarry

He held her in his arms, feeling the heat of her body against his as they stared out onto the water as they were on a blanket by the quarry, simply feeling each other there as he tried once again to hold on just because of the though of her being out there and being alive and happy, he knew that he couldn't give himself enough credit to say that he made her unhappy. He, of all people couldn't have been able to bring her down.

Natalie smiled as she laid against his chest, his arm wrapped around her wait as they stared at whatever they could see. "We could be doing anything right now, Stefan. Be anywhere. Why here? Why this?"

Stefan tightened his grip on her, trying to ignore the fact that this was all a figment of his imagination and that the real Natalie was not anywhere near him. "These are the good moments... the simple ones, the ones that matter. These are the moments that keep me from falling apart."

Natalie pushed herself up, keeping herself up by her arm as she looked down at him with a wide smile before leaning down as she used her hand to cup his face as she allowed their lips to meet comfortingly. But when she backed away, she seemed sympathetic. "This can't last forever. You're just distracting yourself."

And without warning, Natalie suddenly started to cough up water, spitting  out in front of her as a way for Stefan's mind to tell him that, once again, he was dying.

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The Dorm Room

Natalie and Caroline had gotten the job of searching through Megan's things so they could find any indication as to why she would have any sort of relationship with Elena's dad, and would actually keep a picture of him on her phone. It just didn't make sense as neither Caroline or Elena had ever heard of him before.

But as Natalie and Caroline were almost through all of their late roommate's stuff, Elena walked into their dorm room, having vistited Megan's memorial and seeing a really large amount of people there. "Megan's memorial outside is growing by the minute."

Caroline rolled her eyes dramatically, seemingly getting annoyed by how much attention her death was getting. "Ugh, college kids are so dramatic. She was on campus for, like, one day. She couldn't have made that many friends."

Natalie gave her best friend a look. "Ehm, Caroline, need I remind you that she's dead? As in poof, gone, away, no more life. Wouldn't be kinda, I don't know, stupid to compete with someone who is poof, gone, away, no more life?"

The blonde glanced at her apologetically with a slightly tense smile. "Sorry, I'm in a mood."

Elena nodded in understanding, but had heard about what had happened between the blonde and her hybrid boyfriend, or, rather what didn't happen between the blonde and her hybrid boyfriend. "You talked to Tyler?"

The blonde suddenly gained a much more bitter look at the mention of her absent boyfriend. "He's deferring from enrolling and deferring from returning my phone calls, so I'm deferring from having sex with him ever again."

Natalie and Elena exchanged glances as they snorted at her words. "How's the snooping going? Any explanation why our vervain-laced," Elena held up a bottle of Megan's protein water. "Vampire-slaughtered roommate had a picture of my dad on her phone?"

"No." was Caroline's simple response.

Elena suddenly seemed as if she remembered something and handed a folder to Natalie. "Oh, um, I went by the hospital this morning- Megan's death certificate. It says she died of suicide. No mention of the gaping vampire-bites on her neck. So, whoever signed off on the cause of death was part of the cover-up, just like the Founders Council back home."