World Around Me

“Isobel’s research here in Mystic Falls was rooted in folklores and legends, but at the time I thought much of which was fiction” Alaric explained to Elena, my brothers, Isria and I as we all stood in the living room of the Salvatore house; we wanted to know anything about the Lockwood family and we wanted to know now.

“Aside from vampires, what else?” Elena asked our history teacher as I took a seat on the leather couch as this didn’t feel right to me; if someone was looking into my family then I wouldn’t be happy and I’d do everything that I could to stop them before they found anything out.

“The lycanthrope, why do you suspect the Lockwoods?” Alaric asked as I shared a look with both of my brothers which explained the way Mason acted at the carnival but could they really exist; none of us have ever come across a werewolf and the four of us have been around for over a hundred years.

“Because vervain didn’t affect the Mayor at Founder’s Day, but the Gilbert device did and it affected his son Tyler” Damon told Alaric as he glanced over at me quickly to give me the ‘told you so’ look as we came to terms that werewolves may actually be true; being a vampire I thought I would have an open mind about this but I was struggling to get my head around all of this.

“And at the school carnival his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behaviour when he fought with one of the carnival’s worker, we were hoping that Isobel’s research could help us figure it out” Stefan said as I felt Isria take a seat beside me because she knew that I was having a hard time hearing about this; I had always been one of those people who only believed something when I saw it with my own two eyes.

“Well, all her things are still at Duke. I mean her office is still there, she’s technically still missing so I guess we’re allowed to have a look around” Alaric said to us which caused Elena to start making plans on taking a small road trip to Duke but Stefan had promised to be here for Caroline; she was still having a hard time with her new vampire life so Damon and Isria offered to go with Alaric and Elena.

Mystic Falls Woods

“Isn’t killing cute defenceless animals the first step in becoming a serial killer?” Caroline asked Stefan as he was showing her how to hunt rather than drink from a human; I leaned against a tree as I watched them both because this is how Stefan taught me to hunt although back then we did drink from humans.

“Well, you sort of skipped the serial killer and went straight to vampire. Caroline, if you’re not serious about all of this I think you should tell me” Stefan said to her because we had already gotten Bonnie to charm a ring for Caroline so she could walk in the sun; I still didn’t know how Stefan got Bonnie to agree as she was still hurt over Caroline attacking a guy she liked.

“No I am. Look, I swear that I am okay? I just haven’t been in the sun for days, everyone is at the swimming hole having fun and Matt is there. And he finally told me that he loved me but I have been blowing him off and now you want me to eat bunnies, I’m kind of freaking out okay?” Caroline blurted out all in one go as she looked between Stefan and I as we started laughing; we didn’t mean to but we just couldn’t help it as we know exactly what she was going through right now.

“When someone becomes a vampire, all of their natural behaviours get sort of amplified. As a human I cared deeply for people, how they felt. If they were hurting I felt their pain and I felt guilty if I was the one who caused it, as a vampire all of that got… magnified” I explained the best that I could to Caroline so she wouldn’t have to figure it out the hard way like my brothers and I did; I was sort of jealous that Caroline has so much help because my brothers and I only had each other.

“So you're saying that now I'm basically an insecure, neurotic control freak... on crack?” Caroline said as she looked at us nervously because she knew controlling her hunger and now her emotions was going to be hard; but it’s something that all vampires had to go through and some gained control faster than others.

“Well, I wasn't gonna say it like that but yes. Listen, let’s hunt okay? And then after that we’ll go to the swimming hole” Stefan said to Caroline so she’d try harder because Matt was the key to her becoming a good vampire who could control herself around human blood; both Stefan and I knew that it’d take time for Caroline to gain control which is why we would be around her today.

“Really? Oh thank you so much Stefan!” Caroline said to him happily with a wide smile on her face before she turned serious so she could hunt before seeing her boyfriend; it didn’t take us all that long to be finished with hunting so we headed over to the swimming hole sooner than we expected, but as we arrived we saw Mason leaving in his truck as he looked at Stefan and I on his way past us.

“Stef, do you really think that the Lockwood’s could have a werewolf gene running through their family?” I asked my brother as we stood back to watch how Caroline went with being around her boyfriend Matt but it was clear that her jealously was getting the better of her; I just needed to know what he thought when it came to the Lockwood’s because I still didn’t know what to think.

“Honestly? I have no idea Bella, I mean I saw Mason at the carnival and he wasn’t fully human. If he’s not a werewolf then he is something else” Stefan told me honestly which I knew he would and it’s what I needed to hear; we had been too busy with helping Caroline that we hadn’t called Elena or Isria to give us an update.

“Deep down I know that but I don’t really want to believe it… one of us should go over there and talk to Caroline” I said to my older brother as I looked at him with a smile on my face as I didn’t make any movement to head over to Caroline; Matt had just walked around from her but I was trying to keep my eyes off of Tyler who was busy flirting with girls.

“Don’t rush over to her Bella, I’ll go talk to her” Stefan said as he kissed the side of my head before he walked over to Caroline and I was starting to think that maybe he was catching onto the weird friendship I sort of had with Tyler; as it was starting to get dark Tyler told everyone to leave when my brother rushed back over to me.

“Stefan what’s wrong? Where did Caroline and Matt go?” I asked him as I looked around but I didn’t see them anywhere through the crowd of people who were leaving; Stefan placed his hands on the sides of my face which caused me to look at him and I instantly knew something was wrong.

“Elena just called me and they found a legend about werewolves, it’s a full moon tonight Bella and according to the legend… a werewolf bite can kill a vampire” Stefan explained to me as worry showed in his eyes which I don’t see often because he always makes sure to be strong around me; we broke apart before we ran off deeper into the woods so we could find Caroline.

“Stop it! Caroline stop! Listen to me. We need to get out of these woods now, we need to leave” I yelled when I found her drinking blood from Matt’s neck so I ran over to her and roughly pulled her away from him so she wouldn’t kill him; Matt fell onto the ground and he was going in and out on consciousness which was for the best because he needed to stay low right now.

“What was that?” Caroline asked as she stopped freaking out over hurting Matt as we heard a noise sound from somewhere around us and I knew it wasn’t Stefan as he appeared in front of us; suddenly noise started to sound from all around us like we were being circled by this thing.

“We’re going to run and it’s going to follow us, we need to lead it away from Matt. You two need to run as fast as you can, do you understand me? Go, go!” Stefan told Caroline and I as he made sure that Matt wasn’t going to move and put himself in even more danger; I grabbed Caroline’s hand as I made sure she ran as fast as she could but I slowed down slightly so I was a bit closer to Stefan who was behind us.

We reached the old Lockwood cellar ruins when Caroline stopped running and asked us what we were running from; I knew she wanted to know but she did have horrible timing as we needed to keep moving.

“It’s a werewolf, he will try to kill us and he can!” Stefan told her as we both stopped running and a few seconds later we were joined by Tyler who had been down in the old cellar; I didn’t know who was more annoyed that now Tyler was in danger because I knew that I was but so would Stefan.

“Hey, what are you guys doing out here?” Tyler asked us and I was just about to lie to him about the reason why we were here when Caroline’s fear filled screams interrupted us; I looked over to see her laying on the ground with a black furred werewolf standing over her.

I was so scared that I couldn’t even move to react or help Caroline as this was the first werewolf that I had ever seen; Stefan on the other hand did act as he ran at the werewolf and pushed it away from her with all of his strength which caused Tyler to yell out at us, I watched at the werewolf looked at Tyler before it simply ran away from us.

Salvatore Boarding House

I left the woods to come straight home as Stefan helped Caroline get Matt home as she needed to compelled him to forget what truly happened tonight but I just wanted to be in the safety of my own home; Damon and Isria were already back from their road trip to Duke which I was glad about because I just wanted my oldest brother.

“Damon, it’s true. It’s all true” I said to him softly as I walked straight into his arms which were open waiting for me and as soon as I was in his arms I felt safe like nothing would hurt me; Damon kissed the top of my head as he picked me up off my feet before carrying me upstairs to my bedroom like he always used to do when I was younger.