Humanity 3 "The Renewal"

Chapter 6

ASHLEY’S POV

My eyes are wide open well before my alarm goes off. I take a deep breath before pulling the blanket back and getting out of bed. I walk over to my mirror and pull my hair back to reveal the horrifying bite mark from Stefan.

I cover it with makeup as someone knocks on the door. I hurry down the steps and open the door to find Alaric standing there.

“Good morning.” I smile weakly. He nods without saying anything. He looks really rough, but I’m glad that he’s here.

***

We’re in the middle of the woods and I watch as Ric punches the mannequin with his stake sleeve ejecting the stakes into the mannequin.

“So the pressure of your punch ejects the stakes.” He explains as he does it again.

“Easy enough.” I shrug before throwing my fist at the mannequin and failing to trigger the stakes.  I shake my head and turn to Ric. “That’s weird.” I try to play it off. “Must be jammed or something.”

“You’re not strong enough. Better start lifting some weights. Put some meat on your bones.” He says, his voice monotone.

“Thanks for not sugar-coating it.” I say, rolling my eyes.

He reaches into his bag and pulls out something that I’ve used too many times. “You know what this is?” He asks.

“Vervain grenade. I’ve used one before.”

“Then you know the element of surprise is your only advantage when it comes to a vampire.” He says as he pulls the pin out of the grenade and hands it to me. “Surprise.” He smiles and I panic before throwing the grenade into the air.

“Oh my god.” I yell as it explodes. “This isn’t a joke to me, Ric.” I say firmly.

“You think I’m joking?” He asks me. “Vampires will take whatever they want. They will hurt whoever they want. And they’ll do it without remorse. It’s their nature.”

“You don’t have to use pronouns. You can say Stefan.” I tell him and he takes a deep breath.

I know this is about Stefan. That’s the whole reason I asked Ric for help. I’m tired of feeling completely defenseless all the time.

“Look, I get why you’re here. Stefan hurt you. You don’t want it to happen again.”

“But you think I’m crazy.” I add. “To believe that I can protect myself from a vampire who’s flipped the switch on his humanity.”

“I think you found a way to get out of bed this morning. And that makes you the strongest person I know. I think that you can do pretty much anything.” He says with a smile as he hands me the stake sleeve.

I smile at him before sliding it back onto my wrist and walking back over to the mannequin.

***

I arrive at school with Bonnie, Caroline, and Elena. It’s clear that everyone isn’t in the best spirits but it’s the first day of school and we need to at least try to be happy. Elena and I haven’t really talked about last night, but we don’t have to.

We know what happened and we don’t need to think about it anymore.

“Here we are. Senior year.” Caroline says happily as we stand in front of the school together.

“Anyone else thinking it should feel slightly more empowering?” Bonnie asks.

“Okay. So prank night was a bust. But we are accepting it, and we are moving on.” Caroline tries to stay positive.