[*Chapter Thirty-Six*]

Might want to grab some tissues!

Darcy exits the bathroom, towel drying her damp hair. Once satisfied, she tosses it in the hamper. Shuffling across to her vanity table, she picks up the comb and begins combing her long tresses. Her mind whirls in shambles with countless thoughts spinning on a loop, making her head throb with irritation. Voices... Voices that sound familiar yet also foreign. Flashbacks were playing on repeat, most of the people who reside in her dreams, the other half with the agonising screams echoing around her skull. Her screams...

Her phone vibrates on the bedside table, pulling her out of her shaded mind. Setting down the comb, Darcy patters over and peers down at the message on the lock screen.

Dickmon 🧛

Open the window.

She frowns, looks at the time, 11:30 pm. What the hell does he want? Cutting around her bed, she pushes aside the curtains and unlocks the window. Sticking her head outside, she looks around for the annoying ass vampire. Not seeing him, she calls out. "You have 5 seconds, or I'm locking the window... 1, 2, 3, 4-,"

She jumps at the thump on the side of the house and screams at the face materialising in front of hers. Not thinking, she rears her arm back and punches them in the face. She curses at the person's familiar whining tone. "Dammit, Damon, don't do that!" she exclaims, shaking her hand.

The dark-haired male groans, holding his nose as he climbs inside. "Thanks for the lovely welcome!" he said sarcastically.

Darcy looked at him as if he was stupid. "Well, who's dumb idea was it to jump out on me?" she rants away until another bang sounds from outside grabs her attention, followed by snickering. She groans as another figure climbs inside her bedroom.

"You too?" As if one wasn't enough.

"Told you scaring her would be a bad idea, " Stefan said. His stupid face beams with pleasure.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. You're so funny, " Damon drones rolling his eyes, still holding his nose. He points at Darcy with his free hand. "And you're a bitch."

Stefan smirks smugly at the dark look crossing her face. He crosses his arms, leaning against the vanity table beside Darcy's chest of drawers. He gazes at the Huntress. "Can you do it again?"

Still staring Damon down with a sharp glare, she replied. "Trust me. I'm tempted."

The cold night air nipped her bare legs making her aware of her attire and the wandering eyes. Darcy pulls down her oversized tee, making sure it stretches down her thighs. She is not ashamed of her body, but there are two guys in her bedroom: one who's a pervert at the best of times and the other... his girlfriend is sleeping across the hall. The Raven beauty shuffles her way to her bed and slips under the covers in a crisscrossed position.

Her eyes track Damon as he's now recovered from his bitch fest and wanders around her room, eyeing her jewellery resting on her vanity table. He's not surprisingly edging closer and closer to her chest of drawers. She smirks, glancing at her bedside table and picks up the television remote control.

"Anyone gonna tell me why it looks like we're about to have a sleepover right now?" She inquires, gazing between the two.

"That's because we are, " Damon said, fingering a picture frame of a man and woman he does not recognise. He knows it's not the Gilbert's, for he's seen those scattered around the house. Darcy's parents? He analyses the picture and the girl sitting on her bed. He shows Stefan; a frown materialises on his face.

"Did you get cougar cooties?" She asked Damon with a sly grin.

Stefan laughs. "I had to pry her off, much to her displeasure."

Damon smirks, setting the picture down. "That woman's a riot." He bobs his head at the Protectress. "And you're an evil woman. I didn't know you could be such a bitch."

Darcy shrugs, not denying his statement. "So? She needed to know a few home truths. Who am I to decline such? But back to why you're both here."

"As you said, sleepover?" Damon said as he opened her underwear drawer.

Darcy reared her arm back, releasing the remote and lobbed it at the back of his head. "Next time, I'll chop them off."

"I don't know why you're giggling like a girl over there, Stefan. Don't think I didn't see you peeking."

Stefan stifles his chuckles; his hand stuck to his mouth. "I didn't do anything!"

"Say that to your eyes that were playing peek-a-boo."

Damon curses, rubbing his head. "Do you have a 'let's abuse Damon' button?"

"I do when you touch my panties. Now step away and be a good boy, " she pats the space beside her.

He complies and sits down, and wiggles his eyebrows. "If you wanted me in your bed, you should have said."

She ignores him and looks back at Stefan, not needing to say anything for him to follow.

She flicks the youngest head. "Out with it. Why are you here robbing me of my poor sleep?"

The brothers glanced at each other, and the animated atmosphere soon sobers up, smiles and laughs evaporate to worried frowns and intense faces.

"Elena told me about the dreams. She tried passing them off as..." Stefan swallows thickly. His forest green eyes roam around her bare face, seemingly searching for something.

"As normal childhood nightmares," Damon mutters, clenching his jaw. An irritated look washes over his face. He lies down on the bed, arms resting behind his head, and turns his head slightly so Darcy can see the interest shining in his icy views. "Stefan was worried they might be more than dreams. He's right. They sound too graphic. Are these the same as when we were in Georgia?"

Darcy's silent for a few moments whilst grabbing her thoughts. A crease forms in between her brows as she chews her cheek gums. "Yes and no. I don't know what happened back then. It had been the first in year's and that I was awake too. That's never happened. It felt like something was trying to force itself in my head while an opposite influence was projecting it."

Stefan shifts onto his side, propping his arm up and rests his head on his fist. "Like mind compulsion?"

Darcy looks at him thoughtfully.

"When a vampire compels a human, we can do that through eye contact. This ability can allow us to get into a mind and alter their actions to what we want them to do, " Damon elaborates. "I don't think it was a vampire. I was with you that day, and Stefan or I haven't tried compulsion on you before."

Darcy suddenly laughed hard until tears escaped her eyes. "Well, that's bullshit." She turned to Stefan, her pink lips beaming. "Stefan here did, didn't you?"

Stefan startled, looking at her, shocked. "How? How did you know? Why didn't you say anything?"

Damon sat up, his eyes shining with joy. "Oh, this is going to be good."

He never gives up, does he? Darcy rolls her eyes, far too amused for her own good.

"I have always known. I remember. The day Grayson and Miranda died. You were there. Whilst I tried getting Grayson out of the car, you suddenly dropped in the lake and helped bring him up to the bank. After he died, you attempted to compel me. 'I'm sorry to have to do this. You will not remember this. Your parents and sister had an accident. You managed to have your sister, but not your parents'."

Stefan's mouth flopped open like a fish. Darcy nudged his jaw, knocking it shut. "You'll catch flies like that, " she teased.

His eyes were wide with astonishment. "What? Why didn't you say anything?" He shook his head, amazed.

"So, you've always known about us?" Damon said, looking equally stunned.

Darcy's eyes twinkled a little before dulling again. She looked down at her wringing hands, fiddling with a loose thread. "Yeah. Elena is alive because of Stefan. I couldn't go staking him, could I? I'll always be thankful for that, " she squeezed his hand, sending him a grateful smile.

Grayson had begun training Darcy when she turned ten. He was vigorous about compulsion and bloodthirst. He made sure she always had vervain on her body or absorbed.

"You're smart after all, huh?" Damon whistled with sarcasm.

She snorted, "I'm dumb as shit."

The eldest Salvatore froze and then jerked his head to the side. "Do not say it... God, please don't say it's a regular occurrence!" he pinched his nose, bracing for the inevitable.

Darcy winced, veering around to Stefan, "save me," she mouthed.

The idiot turned his head away.

"In my defence, I was sick the day before, and besides, we've never encountered vampires before. So, it wasn't needed," she said, raising her hands in defence when Damon jumped off the bed and began having a rant about why she always has vervain on her and that he was purposely going to come over every morning to shove it don't her throat. Blah, blah, blah. She switched off at that point and waited until the giant baby finished with his tantrum.

"Finished?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Uh-hu, let's get back to the point. The compulsion didn't work."

Stefan coughed, a red tint blossoming his cheeks. He rubbed his neck. "That could be because of the animal diet. As we know, I'm weaker."

Damon hummed, shaking his head side to side. "Hmm, that is true, Brother," he stares at Stefan with a cautious expression. "She could be immune."

Stefan shoots the thought down, "She would need to be a vampire or a witch. Darcy's very much human."

Damon glances at Darcy as she goes back and forth, trying to keep up. "She does have a unique blood scent. We don't feel like draining her dry."

"Not really. A witch can perform mind compulsion too," Stefan said.

Damon sits up and clicks his fingers. "Ah, that be why Bree shrivelled up and rotted away. She must have been trying to get into your head."

"Damon. She said something else was projecting, as in pushing out, " Stefan said, his voice laced with wariness.

"Then a witch would need to be highly powerful for that to be possible. If there's another, they must be strong to be able to push Bree out and fry her veins," Damon disagreed, shaking his head. "The only one I know of that was more substantial than Bree is Sheila Bennett. And she wouldn't touch that stuff."

"What stuff?" Darcy asked.

"Dark magic. Witches like to think they have a belief in the balance of nature. Dark magic is not as well for us vampires. For example, We are not classed as 'natures habitant' because we are not meant to be created in the first place, " Stefan explained.

"They like to call themselves The Servants of Nature," Damon said, using quotation marks and rolling his eyes.

"I think this is something to ask Bonnie. Maybe she has a journal or something?" Darcy said. Although she didn't really want to involve anyone else. Who knows what could happen if that was the case? If Bree got killed, would the same happen to Bonnie?

Her mind wanders, trying to decipher if there had been another witch in Georgia? Surely Damon would have known? They knew Bonnie was a witch. But was that because of the similarities with Emily? Is that how they can distinguish a witch coven? No, there's got to be more.

"Could there have been another?" Darcy asked Damon, voicing her racing thoughts.

Damon pauses, playing with the lamp, making Darcy release an almost happy sigh. He had been clicking it on repeat the last ten minutes.

"I can't say. Vampires can't smell witches. They can hide their scent or whatever witchy juju bull crap they do."

"So, Bree was the trigger?" Stefan clarified, the lines on his forehead enlarging.

Think any harder, Stef, and they'll pop off your head, Darcy thought, trying hard not to snicker.

"I think that's what we can work from, " Damon said. He nudged Darcy, gaining her attention. "So, the nightmares and the blood episodes have been happening since the trip to Georgia?"

She thinks, twisting her lips. "That night. It's odd, though; there's never been a trigger before. When I was younger, Grayson and Miranda thought they were typical nightmares, but then the flashbacks began along with ear-splitting pain, " she looks down at her hands, hiding the pain in her eyes.

"I see people who are foreign but also familiar. There's so much loss and pain; it fees real. I can feel. I wake up screaming, my bones breaking and my skin burning. There's a girl. A girl with black hair. She wears a white dress. To this family she's always with, she is their everything. The glue that holds them together. Then she dies."

"How did she die?" Stefan asked, wiping his eyes. "And what about the voices? What do they say?"

"She died tried saving her brother, but she was too late. He died too."Darcy murmured, shaking her head, a sigh escaping her lips. "They start as whispers and ends with screaming."

"Why does it end with screaming?" Damon asked, withstanding the urge to punch something, so he doesn't have to see the misery on her face.

She blinks, brandishing the tears that desperately want to fall. But she won't. She's not allowed to break. "They scream for the girl. Beg for to come back. But she can't. It's already too late. The dreams stop there and then play on repeat."

"Omg, that's awful. How did you do it? Darcy, how do you wake up and continue as normal?" Stefan asked? He finally resists and pulls her in his arms. One hand stroking her hair and the other squeezing around her lower back. He looks at his brother, who appears to be fighting with his emotions. Damon stares back with a vacant emotion. Dig a little deeper; you will see the ache he buries inside for the girl.

"There's more, isn't there?" Damon affirmed.

Darcy nods, inhaling deeply. She pulls away.

"What is it?" Stefan asked, feeling himself holding in an unnecessary breath.

"Me. I see me. I'm the girl in the dreams."

How would that be even possible? How can she be the girl when she died, and Darcy is right there in front of them?

💜🖤💜

She feels so lost and broken—an empty shell used as a toy to protect the family. Hell, she's not even a Gilbert. Darcy doesn't know who she is. She's still searching, pushing through debris, grasping onto the edges, yet she is sinking. Drowning. The voices. The people in the dreams feel foreign but also like home. A security blanket she lost as a child. A film on a playback, memories of fun times, laughter, and tears. And then it veers into a living nightmare. The blood, teeth, claws, and the distraught faces she sees as she takes her last breath.

A lone tear slides down her cheek. She goes to brush it away only to stop as it halts her, tilting her jaw until she's looking into Stefan's beautiful eyes.

"You don't need to hide, Darcy. You don't need to feel ashamed. It's okay to cry. You're not a machine made to feel no emotions. You will crash and burn if you allow yourself to lock everything away. I did it myself all these years. Don't punish yourself, Darcy. Let us be there for you, for you don't know how much you've helped us. We want to help. Let us do the same for you, " he pleads, brushing aside her hair obscuring her eyes.

Darcy pulls away, shaking her head in refusal. "I can't. If I allow myself to feel, I'll break. Everything will break around me, and then who will be there for Jenna, Jeremy, and Elena? What will happen if something happens to them? How would I protect them if I'm allowing the darkness to grip me?"

"No, Darcy. That is not true. You don't have to protect them all. That is not your job. You're just a young woman who will eventually start her life. Jenna can hold the fort for a little while, " Stefan denied grasping her head so she can the truth shining in his eyes. "For once, do something for yourself. We want to help you. Like you're enabling us."

"I can't. I can't, Stefan, " Darcy whispered. She pulled away, covering her face as the dam broke, her body shaking with suppressed sobs. Arms pull her into a warm, comforting chest. She clings, finding solace in the familiar scent on the leather jacket.

"I'm only going to not be an ass for this once, and after tonight, we shall never repeat what I say, got it? No, 'aww, has Damon gone soft, or OMG! Who knew Damon had a heart?' Yes, I know I'm an awesome bastard...we can flaunt about that later, " the smirking idiot said, rendering them laughing at his lunacy.

"I've never met someone who has questioned my morals more than myself. When I first arrived in Mystic Falls, I had a goal in place. I promised Stefan an eternity of misery. I wanted him to feel the burden I felt for a hundred and forty-five years. The loss of Katherine had rendered me thirsty for bloodshed. I wanted to paint that on him and this town. But then something strange happened.

This frustrating girl suddenly appeared and spiked me with vervain. She didn't stop there; she proceeded to knock me on my ass every time I stepped on the wrong path. The times I posed as a threat towards her family, she was there blocking my way. No matter what lengths I went, she was there. I think she has a damn siren that wailed whenever I was in the vicinity. She wouldn't have any of my shit. Anyone's shit. Especially to those who targeted those she cared for.

I despise humans and think their existence is pointless; they are just a meal for my survival. They lack morals, common decency, and they have no self-respect. They are always poking their noses where they aren't warranted. Then one day, this remarkable woman changed my perspective. It was the day she took Vicki Donavan's life on her hands, so my brother wouldn't spend the rest of his life beating himself up, detesting he took away an innocent life. She knew how much he loathed himself, how he battled with blood lust. She stopped him from going down a slippery slope. She knew how he despises himself even when becoming a vampire is not his fault.

That night, she asked me to give Vicki a decent burial because she had a shitty upbringing and was hooked on drugs to pass by, while her brother provided the bills, and her pathetic excuse of a Mother opened her legs. Her life sucked, and strangely the girls didn't like each other. Yet, because of her brother's teenage boy obsession, she wanted the girl to have something decent for once, even if it's a place I dug up in the cemetery.

And she still amazes me today. Floors me. I've watched her put everyone before herself, even people who she had just met for a few hours, only for me to snatch them away. She still cared, gave them her time. Only for me to invade it all. But she's still here, and I honestly don't have a clue why." Damon paused, his eyes glowing with a mesmerising sentiment: adoration.

He pulls back, maintaining eye contact, absently caressing her cheek with his thumb. "That girl is Darcy Gilbert, and she's pretty damn fucking amazing. I won't sit here letting you belittle yourself when I know you're stronger and better than that. Let Stefan and me help. You helped us, so let us return the favour."

The moral of the story, this girl proved him wrong. Because she's the most loyal, compassionate, and considerate human being he ever had the pleasure of meeting. She opened his eyes to what love truly is and made him realise he had been living a lie for all his vampire existence and when he was human. Damon should feel be angry. Hell, he should be tearing Mystic Falls apart and draining the residents of the blood. Yet, here he is, sitting next to the girl who has awoken Damon Salvatore.

-

Stefan stares at his brother, gazing down at the girl in his arms with a gentle look.

Not many know; there was a time before they became vampires. His brother used to be a caring and compassionate young man. He had a heart of gold and would reach no bounds to give a helping hand to those he loved and cared for. There was a time they used to be the best of friends. His brother was the biggest role model in his life. Stefan looked up at him. Admired him. Loved him.

Even now, a hundred and forty-five years later, past all the hardships and heartache. He still loves him.

The very man who promised him an eternity of misery.

Many would look at the person Damon has become this day and would not recognise that man he once was. They would see him for how they want to. A vampire with no heart. A heartless monster. But right now, in this instant, Stefan sees his big brother. His best friend.

A sharp ache pierces his dead heart, and his eyes blur with unshed tears. That look. A look he once received as a young child. Something he has yearned for many years. A time ago, months, Stefan would have felt jealous of such action. Yet, he finds he's oddly not. He's grateful.

He is indebted to Darcy.

This girl is a true blessing, one that Stefan shall always cherish. She has never once turned him and Damon away. She saw past the faux exteriors and the stone-cold heart. Past the sealed barriers and perceived Damon and him for who they were — Two broken men.

A miracle was born—their miracle. Darcy is pulling his brother from that dark place and mending the broken pieces. And Stefan has never been so thankful before.

It scares him. Terrifies him even. If Darcy was ever to be taken away from them. He doesn't know what lengths he or Damon would go to get her back again if that was possible.

They would tear the world apart until Darcy was back in their grasps.

~

💜🖤💜

Man, some major feels going on here. Girl's eyes leaking like a tap over here. Hopefully, I've cleared up some loose ends and possibly sparked some ideas... If you need anything clearing up, I'll help the best I can.

Let me know your thoughts... Hate it? Love it?

I will need some recovery, but I should have the next update up in two days. I promise Darcy will be back to her badass self ❤️‍🔥