Chapter 2

Scarlett and Alexa stood a few feet away from Mystic Falls High School, next to a stolen 1964 red Chevrolet Chevelle, one of Sara’s favorite cars.

The hazel-eyed girl huffed impatiently before turning to her…girlfriend? Friend? Ex?Whatever. “So what’s the plan?” she asked her.

Alexa locked eyes with the girl and ignored the sudden close proximity as she answered, “Judy told Franklin she needed to come back to the school and get her stuff. So I’ll just swoop in, knock her out-“

“Why not just take it before she gets here”, Scarlett suggested, rolling her eyes at how dramatic this woman could still be.
Alexa looked up in thought. “And you actually think that’ll work?”

The Salvatore smiled, “It’ll be the perfect plan. They’ll be confused and hints like this will leave them to believing something’s off.”

“Is that what we want?”

“I don’t want to catch them by surprise”, Scarlett pointed out. “I want them to know that I am here and that I am very pissed off.”

“Touché. Now come on”, Alexa said quickly grabbing her hand and leading them into the school. “Tell me you know where her locker is”, Scarlett whisper-yelled as they rounded several corners.

Alexa didn’t say anything as she walked ahead of her and up to a locker and punched it open. She turned around and smirked before grabbing the dress Judy planned to retrieve.

“Let’s go.”

---

GILBERT HOUSE

The pair walked up to the house in silence until the youngest Salvatore stopped them. “What is it?” Alexa questioned with worried eyes.

Scarlett sighed. “This…what we’re doing, is going to get a lot of people killed.”

Alexa huffed out a laugh. “You don’t think I know that? I don’t really care who dies. As long as it’s not you again.”

The younger vampire shook her head. “I don’t think you understand the severity of this situation. Im…not the same, Alexa. The girl you met in 1864, the sweet innocent Salvatore daughter, I can slowly feel her slipping away.”

“So can I”, Alexa mumbled but Scarlett dismissed it. “I just don’t want you to be disappointed.”

“Why would I-“, The girl began but then her eyes went wide. “Hide”, She quickly said to Scarlett who furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”

“Someone’s home”, Alexa whispered.

Scarlett quickly ran out of sight as soon as the front door swung open. Alexa walked up the steps and as soon as she did, Brad came into view.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, secretly hoping Judy would truly sound that surprised.

“Failed and feeble attempt at doing the right thing”, Brad answered.

Scarlett, who was up in a tree above the house stared at the scene with mixed emotions. She missed her brother and seeing him brought up bittersweet feelings.

Brad reached for the dress and her bag. “Let me take this for you.”

Alexa smiled softly. “Thank you.”

Brad sighed, “You know, I came to this town wanting to destroy it. Tonight, I found myself wanting to protect it. How does that happen? I’m not a hero, Judy. I don’t do good. It’s not in me.”

“Relatable”, almost slipped out of Alexa’s mouth but instead she said, “Maybe it is.”

“Nah, it’s reserved for my brother, and you…and Bonnie…who, even though she has every reason to hate me, still helped Franklin save me”, Brad replied sadly.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Alexa asked, honestly uninterested.

“Because she did it for you”, Brad stated. “Which means that somewhere along the way, you decided that I was worth saving. And I wanted to thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome.”

Brad leaned in and kissed her cheek. He pulled away and they look at each other for a long moment. He hesitantly leaned in again but this time to kiss her on the lips. Alexa pulled away slightly but Brad grabbed her and pressed his lips against hers once more.

Scarlett felt her blood boil at the sight. Even outside of 1864, Brad Salvatore still got away with a lot. She let out a sigh of relief when Aunt Jenna opened the door and interrupts them.
Alexa’s eyebrows raised. “Hi.”

Jenna looked pissed. She whipped her head toward the inside of the house as she said, “It’s late, you should probably come inside.”

Alexa looked at Brad as she took Judy’s dress from his hands. She went into the house before Jenna closed the door in his face.

“What are you doing?” Jenna questioned once they were alone. Alexa shook her head, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Outside, Brad looked at the house before touching his lips softly. Scarlett gritted her teeth and gripped one of the tree’s branches to break it off and drop it, it missing Brad’s head by just a couple of inches. He looked up in confusion at the now still and vacant tree before shrugging it off and leaving.

Later on that night, John Gilbert, Judy’s biological father is in the house, cleaning up the kitchen. He goes to open the fridge and when he closes it, Alexa is stood there with a straight face.

He jumped back in surprise before breathing out, “You scared me.”

“Sorry”, Alexa shrugged, walking to the counter.

A moment passed before John sighed, “You know…I first met Isobel when I was a teenager. I fell in love with her instantly, although I’m pretty sure she never loved me. She was special. A part of why I hate vampires so much is because of what she became, how it ruined her. And I never would have sent her to Brad had I known she wanted to turn.”

Alexa studied him as she put away the dishes, not having a single care toward what he was going on about. Boy is this about to get fun, she thought to herself.

“It’s my fault”, John continued. “I’m telling you this because I hoped maybe you’d understand.”

Alexa nodded, “Thank you.”

John smiled before asking, “Can I help?”

She looks at his ring before saying, “Sure.” And at that point, Alexa had quickly chopped his fingers of the hand that displayed the Gilbert ring. She roughly pushed him back against the sink as he screamed out in agony.

Realization then dawned on him as he whispered, “Alexa?”

Soon, Scarlett walked in and that’s when he almost passed out. “Oh my god.”

Alexa’s face contorted as the veins under her now dark eyes became prominent. “Hello, John. Goodbye, John”, She said before stabbing him right in the stomach.

He dropped to the floor as Scarlett looked on, hands folded behind her back with pride. Alexa smirked and walked up to her.
Before anything else could happen, the front door began to unlock causing them both to flee.

Judy walked in after ending her phone call. She heard John’s screams from the kitchen and she quickly ran to him. Alexa appeared again, taking a long look at her doppelgänger causing John to choke out, “B-Behind you.”

Judy sharply turned around but there was no one there leaving her confused.

A few blocks away, Scarlett waited as Alexa caught up to her. They hopped into the hazel-eyed girl’s stolen car and drove off.

“So that was the doppelgänger”, Scarlett said and Alexa nodded. “Yup.”

“Clearly my brothers are still obsessed with you”, Scarlett mentioned rolling her eyes. “Brad mostly”

Alexa hummed as a smirk ghosted her lips. “You sound jealous almost.”

Scarlett kept one hand on the wheel as she reached up with the other to push her dark tresses back with a slight smile. “Come on. I don’t do jealous. At least…not anymore.”

“Why not? It was so fun getting you all riled up back then just so you would claim me”, Alexa grinned.

Scarlett shook her head but smiled nonetheless. “You were trouble. Still are.”

“Yeah but now that you’re back, I have someone to be trouble with. Right?”

Scarlett bit her lip. “Why, of course.”

They pulled up to the motel but as soon as Scarlett stepped out of the car, she hunched over and clutched both sides of her head.
“What’s wrong?” Alexa rushed out after shutting the car door. “Sara. Scarlett.”

Scarlett gritted her teeth as she felt sharp pains shoot throughout her entire body. A fresh wave coursed from her toes all the way to her ears as Alexa struggled to get her to the motel door.
Once they were inside, Alexa flipped the light switch on just as Scarlett fell to the floor. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help”, Alexa whined slightly as seeing Scarlett like this caused a burning in her chest.
She pulled out her phone and called the one number she knew they would be dialing a lot these days. “Hey, look I know I told you to leave but…we need you.”

A half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Alexa removed the wet rag she was currently dapping onto Scarlett’s hot and sweaty skin and went to answer it. “Thank you for coming.”

“I was this close to not coming actually”, Mila said holding up her forefinger and thumb to each other. She looked at Scarlett who lied on the bed, curled up with a slight shake. “What happened?”

“That’s what I was hoping you could figure out”, Alexa softly said.

Mila slowly walked over to the bed with furrowed eyebrows as she studied the newly alive vampire. “Could be hunger.”

“How can you be sure? I mean, she was fine just up until an hour ago”, Alexa mentioned and Mila folded her arms as she walked over to the door again. “Well when a vampire is unexpectedly brought back from the dead, their hunger levels increase more than usual. The urgings get pretty…bad. Really bad actually.”

Alexa shrugged, feeling in control again. “Okay, so we’ll just bring her dinner.”

Mila tilted her head to the side, “I think it might be too late.” Before Alexa could ask what she meant, the witch said, “She’s gone.”

Alexa spun around to see the spot Scarlett recently occupied, empty. “Shit.”

“Looks like she went and got dinner for herself”, Mila said, a laugh evident in her voice. Alexa quickly gripped her throat and pushed her against the door. “Do you find this amusing?”

“How could you not?” Mila choked out. “I mean, you are the ruthless vampire bitch who doesn’t give a damn if people live or die right?”

“This is different. Scarlett’s never dealt with other vampires or even hunters before. This city’s crawling with both. She wouldn’t know what to do and we’ll end up back where we started. With her…dead”, Alexa said finally releasing her grip on her neck.

Mila coughed. “Then you better find quick.”

•••••

“What makes you think she’d be in a hospital?” Mila questioned in a bored tone.

“Because she’s smart”, Alexa muttered as they crept through the dimly lit hospital. “It’s where the blood bags are.”

“And the people apparently”, Mila sighed, stopping in the waiting area where dozens of bodies were scattered across the floor. There was blood painted on every inch of the room, it almost looked as if the hospital walls got a new paint job.

“Any other time, I’d be proud but the timing is impeccable”, Alexa sighed. She took another step and as soon as she did, a bloody hand grabbed her exposed leg. The pile of bodies moved and opened up as Scarlett pushed them off of her.

Alexa’s eyes went wide as Scarlett sat up, eyes still dark and void and the veins underneath them still poking out of her skin.

“Sara”, she whispered.
“I’m still hungry Alexa”, Scarlett whispered.
After a beat, Mila mumbled, “I told you.”

Alexa ignored the comment as she tried to pick Sara up off of the floor. “Okay-hey it’s okay. Come on-“

“No!” She shouted pushing the girl away from her. “I need more.”

“We can take some blood bags back to the motel”, Alexa said and Mila hummed. “Blood bags won’t suffice, we all know that.”

“You know, my time as a vampire was very short-lived. But during that time, I’ve always wanted to know what a witch tasted like”, Scarlett said in a low voice as her eyes focused on Mila whose eyes expanded in size.

Alexa quickly stepped in front of Scarlett’s view and Scarlett squinted her eyes. “You haven’t gone soft on me have you?”

“Mila is to be trusted for now”, Alexa said.

The witch scoffed. “For now?”

Alexa looked at her. “Yes, for now.”

Just as Alexa turned back around, Scarlett was already in front of Mila, viciously biting into her neck flesh but not enough to kill her just yet. The witch dropped to the floor and Alexa’s eyes grew wide.

“Now,-” Scarlett began with a soft breath. “Would you be a dear and put her in the back of the car for me?”

And just like that, Alexa’s control was slowly being dismantled.