Bloodlust → Stefan Salvatore [1]

The Dinner Party

I set one of Jonathan Gilbert's huge journals down on the counter beside Stefan. He looks over at me, confused, as I flip it open to a marked page. "What? Did you find something?" He asks. I tap down on the writings.

"Read." I demand. Stefan reads it out loud.

"I knew I was about to die, no one can outrun a vampire. But I did see who killed me, and I indeed recognized him. His name was Stefan Salvatore." He sighs.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" I ask him.

"It's not something I'm particularly proud of." He shrugs.

"Why?" I ask him. He shuts the journal, and begins wrapping the leather tie around it.

"We were angry at the founding families for what they did to Katherine. We wanted revenge. I didn't know about Jonathan Gilbert's ring yet. I didn't know that he'd survive."

"He described you as a monster."

"That's what I was. I want you know the truth... but I want you to hear it from me. Just weeks after I became a vampire, I relished in it. I took it to the darkest place I could. Eventually, all the guilt caught back up with me. For everything, what i did to my father, my brother. I had to turn it off. It was the only way I could survive."

"It sounds like you were Damon." I joke, causing Stefan to laugh, but his smile fades quick.

"I was worse." He admits, "I spiraled, for weeks, months. Hunt, prey, kill. It was all I knew."

"And no one caught onto what you were doing?"

"For the most part. There was a war going on. The thing about war time, endless, anonymous blood supply. One day, I was cut off."

"Cut off? By who?"

"Alexia Branson. As she was known back then."

"Lexi? That's how you met her?" I ask, Stefan nods in reply, "What was she even doing in Mystic Falls?" I ask him.

"She had heard it was a good place for vampires. You know, had no idea that they'd all been massacred. She needed a place to crash, so I brought her home with me." Stefan chokes on his words.

"You okay?"

"Talking about her brings up things that I'd rather forget." He tells me. Like Damon killing her?

"Then we don't have to, Stefan." I hold his hand in mine.

"Stefan!" I shout from my parents room, as I stare down at the Jonathan Gilbert journal. He runs in behind me. "What? What is it?" I point down at the page, he looks down at it.

"It's all research on the original vampires. Just pages and pages of questions and scribbles." I begin flipping through a bunch of pages, until I come across one with a dagger drawn down. "What's that?" I ask him. He doesn't answer. I begin to read the writings out loud, "The wood from one tree and one tree alone, and ancient white oak would bring death to an original vampire. When the tree burned, all hope was thought to be lost." I look over at Stefan. "He was trying to figure out how to kill an original." I look down at the journal, and continue to read.