For Seastar.
Stefan finds her in a place called Fell's Church. It is a quaint little town. He has to be careful; he is new and strange and though he doesn't actually place his eyes on Katherine, her Power permeates the air of the town like a fog. Perhaps that is why he is able to blend in so well, just a simple transfer student from another country. Everyone is acting strangely, men and women, children and animals. They are killing one another, attacking without provocation. If he cared, he might try and stop it. But his purpose is fixed and clear, and when he needs to feed, his actions don't cause any alarm.
There is a girl at the school who looks like Katherine, so much so that he does a double take in their history class. It would have been comical if not for the fact that he had had his fangs out, halfway to tearing out her throat. Katherine is a consummate hunter, if nothing else, and that was the only reason he hadn't killed the girl on the spot - because she didn't behave as Katherine would. She doesn't smile like Katherine either, with the hint of violence sleeping just below the surface. This girl's smile is wide and innocent and carefree and the sight of it nauseates him.
A boy at the back of the class, Matt, watches him like a hawk. But Stefan isn't the only monster in the room - the stink of werewolf is overwhelming. There is a girl with red hair and a touch of the fae about her and a tall girl with dark hair who thinks about vampires from time to time. It alarms him, the touch of the Old World in this strange new place, but they are all children with no idea of who or what they are.
Thinking of children makes him miss his brother with a near physical pang of sorrow. He doesn't want to remember him, not now. Not ever. His brother is dead, killed by Stefan's own hand and when Stefan had woken up in the family crypt the next day to an eternal unlife, his brother had stayed cold and dead.
He lives in the chapel in the cemetery, with only ghosts and corpses to keep him company. He spends his evenings walking through the cemetery, trying to find something that isn't human to satisfy his thirst. He is there one night when the moon is full, and the sound of screams floats to him on the wind. He sends out a thin tendril of Power and senses blood and fear and death and that stench of werewolf he sensed in the classroom. He has half a thought, the old Stefan does at least, of turning and finding this unfortunate girl, of killing the werewolf and saving the day. But that streak of heroism in him died a long time ago.
In class the next day, he feigns shock and surprise at the news that the girl that looked so much like Katherine was found dead that morning, killed the night before by what police suspected was a wild animal. Through it all, the werewolf sits there, smirking like the cat who got the canary, and Stefan supposes that's what he is. Later the werewolf is standing in the parking lot talking about 'giving the bitch just what she needed'. His friends laugh and high-five each other. That evening, Stefan takes another stroll in the cemetery under the full moon, and when the werewolf jumps out at him, diving for his throat, Stefan breaks its neck. He lets it lay there on the ground until the sun rises and the wolf becomes human again. The fear in the boy's eyes is laughable but warranted. Stefan drains him dry and acts just as shocked and surprised in class the next day when the teacher announces that another student has been killed. The cemetery is closed to the public and Stefan finds he enjoys the solitude.
In the end, he finds she is right under his nose, literally and figuratively. She sleeps in the crypt beneath the church, a princess waiting for her prince to wake her. But his princess drinks blood and bathes in human misery. He made a promise, to himself, to his brother, that he would kill her for what she had done to him, what she had done to them. She had driven a wedge between them, forced them to fight one another for her affections, forced them to kill one another. He swore, nearly 400 hundred years ago that he would kill her and then kill himself.
In preparation, he kills three men. Three grown, strong men with good blood. He drains them dry and the backlash of Power that floods his veins nearly kills him. It drives him to his knees and burns like acid, but when he comes back to his senses, the world is brighter and his reflexes faster. He can kill her now, he is sure of it.
But the sight of her, resplendent in her white dress and blonde hair, is too much for him. He has been separated from her for nearly five hundred years. Being next to her again is like breathing fresh air after an eternity underground, like spring after the longest winter ever.
"I am so tired," he says.
She holds open her arms. "My darling boy," she says. "Welcome home."
END
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