Amelia Salvatore

Sunshine And Torture

Boredom was something I'd grown quite used to over the past few months. At first, it had been incredibly annoying, but I'd learnt to pass the time by going to my happy place, which involved picturing people's horrible deaths. Either that or playing Angry Birds.

At that very moment, I was sitting in the front seat of a black SUV with my feet up on the dash, reading Lord of the Rings for the hundredth time. It was one of the few books I'd brought with me. As I understood it, we were currently in Tennessee, literally in the middle of no where. Well, there was a house, but that was about it, and no doubt my brother was ripping the resident humans to pieces. Stefan had a bad habit of doing that, especially lately. The screaming that came from the house confirmed as much.

I didn't look up from my book when the door opened and someone sat in the driver's seat. I'd done my best in ignoring my evil hybrid dick of an ex-boyfriend for the last couple of months, but apparently his favourite past time was annoying me. So I annoyed him back.

"I'm bored," I sighed.

"You can go in and join him if you like," Klaus replied.

I scoffed. "I'd rather not be stuck with leftovers, thank you very much."

Klaus chuckled. "Don't worry love, you'll have plenty of options soon enough."

"You know, I was expecting something interesting from this road trip," I mused, flipping the page. "But so far, all we've done is gone place to place in search of a werewolf pack while Stefan leaves a pile of body parts in our wake."

"It was your decision to come along, sweetheart," Klaus reminded me.

"As if I'd let my brother go off with you of all people," I snorted.

"And here I thought you'd joined us because you'd missed me," Klaus smirked.

"There's a reason why you haven't seen me in fifty years, Klaus," I stated.

"You always were one for dramatics," he remarked.

I rolled my eyes. "I mean, I at least thought Elijah would be coming with us, so I wouldn't be as bored, but oh no, you had a tantrum and put a dagger in his heart."

"My brother conspired to kill me," Klaus scowled.

"So did I," I pointed out. "In fact, I was the one who helped Elijah come up with the plan."

"Let me guess, you planned to run off into the sunset together," Klaus stated sarcastically.

I grinned, turning to look at him. "Ooh, somebody's jealous." Klaus rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. "You know," I continued. "I always did enjoy Elijah's company more yours. He was much more... interesting."

"Is that so?" he muttered bitterly.

"He was such a gentleman," I sighed, satisfied with the reaction I was getting from Klaus. "Even when he was ripping someone's heart out he managed to look classy." I observed Klaus with a smirk. He was glaring at nothing in particular and drummed his fingers impatiently against the steering wheel. I laughed. "If I had've known it was this easy to rile you up, I'd have started annoying months ago."

Stefan exited the large white house, and I wasn't surprised to find him covered in blood. I sighed irritably, and Klaus was clearly pleased by my annoyed demeanor. I made a face at him in return. Stefan got into the back seat and the smell of blood hit my immediately.

"Enjoy yourself, mate?" Klaus asked, smirking at me while he spoke to Stefan.

"Yeah Stef, have fun ripping their heads off?" I asked sarcastically.

Stefan sighed. "Can we go?"

-

Plenty of options, as Klaus had put it, turned out to be the customers of a bar called Southern Comfort. I scowled as we entered the bar the following day. We were here for a reason, and that reason was Ray Sutton, the werewolf Klaus had been looking for. The werewolf in question was sitting at the bar, wearing a flannel shirt and dirty jeans. He had untidy hair and his beard was short.

"Ray Sutton," Klaus stated, leaning against the bar beside him. "I've been looking for you everywhere. We started in Florida, then Tacoma, where we met a young chap who you used to work with before you moved to Memphis, now he pointed us in the direction of two lovely young ladies, and they led me here, to you."

Ray glanced nervously at Klaus. "I think I'll be going."

He moved to leave, but Klaus stopped him, grabbing his arm.

"Not so fast, mate. Now you're kind are very hard to come by."

Ray when to leave the opposite way, but I blocked his path.

"Not a good idea," I smirked.

Ray looked from me, to Stefan and then to Klaus.

"Vampires," he glared.

"Well aren't you a smart little cookie," I commented.

"Yes, my friend's here are vampires," Klaus answered. "And they compelled everyone in this bar, so there's no use looking to them for help." Ray looked around at the civilians before looking at Klaus. "I however, am a different kind of monster. I've got some vampire, I've got some wolf."

"What?" Ray asked incredibly.

"I'm a hybrid," Klaus announced. "And I want to make more of me, so I'm going to need you to lead me to your pack."

"You can't compel me," Ray blurted.

I chuckled. "Oh sunshine, that is the least of your problems."

Stefan got the bartenders attention and ordered a drink before pulling a small draw string bag from his back pocket.

"We're going to play a little drinking game, Ray," Stefan said. He pulled out the contents of the bag, which was a dried plant stem. "It's called truth or wolfsbane."

-

I tried to drown out the sounds of Ray Sutton's screaming as I fed from a young blonde girl who'd been up at the bar. Ray was currently tied to the wall, and Stefan was using his body as a target as he threw wolfsbane dipped darts at him.

The girl I was feeding from slumped and her heart stopped beating. With a sigh, I dropped her to the ground and stood up to stretch. I stepped over her body and walked over to observe Stefan having fun.

"Had enough yet?" Klaus asked from beside me, gesturing to the three dead bodies lying around the stool I'd been sitting on.

"What?" I asked. "I'm bored."

My focus was drawn back to Ray, who screamed again.

"You know, Ray, this could all stop," Stefan told the werewolf. He threw another dart, which pierced Ray's neck. "All you gotta do is tell me where your pack is."

"I can't," Ray spat.

"I know, I know," Stefan sighed. "You've got that whole loyalty thing going on, but none of us are leaving here until you tell us, so you might as well save yourself a lot of pain."

Ray didn't reply, he just glared at the ground, squinting slightly in pain.

I sighed. "You're never going to get anywhere, you know," I said to Klaus.

Klaus observed me for a second before turning to Stefan.

"Stefan, why don't you let our Amelia have a shot at it for a while?" he suggested with a smirk.

Stefan shrugged and gestured for me to go ahead. With a pleasant smile, I moved to the table that Stefan had placed the darts and the scotch mixed with wolfsbane.

"Just a fair warning," I began, turning to the werewolf. "My brother here is a lot nicer than me. I'm a rather impatient person, Ray, and I've grown bored of you not cooperating, so I'm going to try a different tactic to get you to talk."

I picked up the scotch and walked right up to Ray, who swallowed nervously. I held up a plastic eye dropper I'd taken from behind the bar.

"They sometimes use these in bars to measure the amount of alcohol a customer may want," I explained. "But I've found a much better use for them."

I placed the eye dropper into the scotch and squeezed the until the tube was full of wolfbane mixed alcohol. I set the glass down and moved closer to Ray, using one of my hands to force his left eye open.

"Now I can imagine that this is going to be very painful, so I'm going to give you one last chance to tell me where your pack is," I smiled. Ray swallowed again but didn't say anything. I sighed. "If that's how it's going to be..."

I squeezed the eye dropper and Ray screamed as the wolfsbane burned his eye. I watched with fascination as it fizzled and left a trickle of blood running down his cheek. I could hear Klaus laughing from behind me and I stepped back, not wanting blood on my clothes.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman approach Klaus and I listened in curiously.

"I have some information for you," the woman said. "I saw their brother at the farm house."

I turned and watched them curiously. The girl walked away and Stefan frowned.

"My brother still on our trail?" Stefan asked.

"He's getting closer," Klaus said with narrowed eyes. "I'm going to have to take care of that."

I was by their side in the blink of an eye, not liking where Klaus' intentions were.

"Allow me," I suggested.

"And why should I do that?" Klaus asked.

I glared at him. "Because I have no guarantee that you'll leave my brother alive."

Klaus smirked. "Very well then."

I left the bar, thankful that I had an excuse to leave. Damon had been persistantly calling me ever since I'd left Mystic Falls, and after a few weeks, I'd started ignoring them. No doubt the Doppelganger was so tragically worried about Stefan.

Much to my good fortune, somebody happened to have just parked their car and was getting out. The car itself was beautiful. Hell, I'd take a '69 Dodge Charger over an SUV anyday. The flat black paint job was a little faded, and the rims were no longer shiney, but that didn't bother me.

I was infront of the owner in a second. The man jumped surprised by my sudden appearance.

"Give me your keys," I compelled him.

The man complied and I flashed him a smile before heading over to the Charger. One thing I could say about the guy was that he liked to keep his interior clean, which is something I was thankful.

As I pulled out onto the road, I couldn't help but think about my Mustang at home. I'd missed it terribly over the past few months, and I sincerely hoped that Damon hadn't been driving it for any reason. If it wasn't in perfect condition when I got back, I was not going to be happy.

-

It was night fall by the time I reached Mystic Falls, and instead of just finding Damon's Camaro and my Mustang outside the Salvatore boarding house, there was about two dozen cars. I parked the Charger and got out, the sound of loud music reaching my ears. There were people everywhere, all underage teenagers drinking beer from plastic cups.

Before I headed inside, I quickly examined my Mustang, making sure that everything was the same. Thankfully, it was. With a distasteful expression, I passed by the two people up shoved up against the wall with their tongues down each others throats. I literally had to push my way through the front door, as the doorway was crowded with people.

"Excuse me," I muttered, shoving my way through the crowd. "Excuse me." One guy decided it would be fun to ignore me "Move," I scowled, picking him up by the back of his shirt and moving him out of my way. I wasn't worried about exposure, these people were all too drunk to tell their left hand from their right.

I kept my eye out for Damon, but I couldn't find him in the living room or the kitchen so I headed into the study, which was considerably less crowded. Sitting on the couch were two familiar faces and I nearly sighed with relief as I headed towards them.

"Amelia," Jeremy Gilbert stated, surprised by my appearance. "You're back!"

"No, I'm not," I answered. I looked at Matt Donovan, who was sitting beside Jeremy. "Matt, last time we spoke you were aiming a rifle filled with wooden bullets at me."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Matt replied, a little sheepishly. "I guess I was a little freaked."

"No kidding," I scoffed. "Why is my house filled with drink teenagers?"

"It's Elena's birthday," Matt stated.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course."

"What are you doing here?" Jeremy frowned. "I thought you were with Klaus and Stefan."

"Yeah... It's complicated," I replied. "You wouldn't happen to know where my brother is, would you?"

Neither of them did, so without further explanation, I left the room, avoiding physical contact as much as I could as I passed by the sweaty people. I was hoping I wouldn't be spotted by anyone else, but apparently fate wasn't on my side.

"Amelia!"

I glanced to my left to see Caroline looking at me incredulously. I avoided the blond swiftly and headed down the hallway and into the parlour, where I found just who I was looking for. Damon was standing with Alaric and Andy, Damon's personal blood bag, and each had a glass of scotch in their hands.

Alaric was the first one to spot me. "Amelia?" he frowned.

Damon turned at the mention of my name and let out a sigh, his expression torn between annoyance and relief.

"I've been calling you for months," Damon scowled when I reached his side.

"I know," I replied. "It's been rather annoying." My tone turned serious as I looked at him pointedly. "We need to talk."

"Is Stefan with you?" Andy asked curiously.

"Alone," I pressed, ignoring Andy.

A few moments later, Damon and I were in his room. He shut the door and turned to me expectantly. Though I hated to admit it, I'd actually missed Damon a bit. What with being stuck with Klaus and Stefan, who was as broody as ever, even though he was a ripper, I'd missed being able to banter with my brother. But that didn't distract me from why I was here.

"You need to back off," I warned him.

"From what?" Damon asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Have I ever told you that you lack subtlety?" I mused, browsing the small stack of books sitting on the dresser. I turned to Damon with a glare. "Klaus knows you're following us, he has for a while, so you need to stop before he does something drastic."

"Well maybe I wouldn't have to follow you if somebody would return my phone calls," Damon snapped.

"I said I would keep an eye on our brother, Damon, and that is exactly what I'm doing," I scowled. "Forgive me if I'm not going to call you every five minutes to give you an update."

"Yet so far you've given me nothing," he retorted.

"Because there's nothing to tell!" I said angrily. "Stefan's a ripper again, Damon, and you and I both know that he's not just going to come back from that."

There were several reasons why I hated Doppelgangers, and one of them was that they had terrible timing. Elena burst into the room, her eyes going wide when she saw me. I rolled my eyes and hissed an angry sigh.

"Amelia? What are you doing here?" she asked. She looked from me to Damon. "What's going on?"

"Not now, Elena," Damon snapped.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena demanded, ignoring him.

"Do everyone here a favour and go away," I glared. "This is none of your concern."

"It is if Stefan is involved," she insisted.

I scowled at her. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but Stefan doesn't care about you anymore. He's too busy ripping people apart."

"No," Elena said adamantly, shaking her head. "I know Stefan. He's not like that."

"You think Stefan's always been such a do gooder?" I asked with a smirk. "You should have seen him in the '20's. His body count was almost as impressive as mine."

"I know what you're trying to do," Elena stated. "But it's not going to work. I'm not giving up on him."

I ran my hands down my face. "You are so stupid." I looked at Damon. "Why don't you tell her, Damon?"

"Tell me what?" Elena demanded.

Damon sighed. "I've been tracking them."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because Amelia's right, Elena," Damon scowled. "Stefan has left a trail of bodies up and down the eastern seaboard."

"W-What?" she gasped.

"Stefan's gone, and he's not coming back," Damon told her harshly."And your an idiot to think that he will."

"Now run along," I smiled in annoyance. "The grown ups have to chat."

As soon as the Doppelganger was gone, I let out a long sigh and walked over to Damon's dresser, where a welcoming bottle of whiskey was. I poured myself a glass, thankful that the Doppelganger was gone.

"Is it just me, or had she gotten more annoying?" I asked.

"So what exactly is Klaus' plan now that he's broken the curse?" Damon asked, ignoring my remark.

I rolled my eyes. "He wants to make more hybrids. We've been hunting down werewolves for the past three months. It's been such fun."

"Fantastic," Damon said with narrowed eyes. "More hybrids to deal with."

"Don't worry," I mused. "If everything goes his way, I don't think Klaus will come back here. He doesn't like small towns."

Damon was quiet for a moment. "How far gone is Stefan?"

I sighed. "There's still a part of him, however small that part may be, that's still clinging to whatever humanity he has left."

"At least there's that," Damon mused.

"Don't get your hopes up," I replied. "With the way he's going, it'll probably be gone by the end of the week."

"Great," Damon muttered sarcastically.

"Don't sound so disappointed, Damon," I smirked. "Both you and I have been trying to get Stefan to turn his humanity off for decades."

"Now's not exactly the most ideal time," Damon returned.

"Oh, I get it," I said. "You're concerned about the Doppelganger's feelings." I chuckled. "You should be happy, Damon. Stefan's gone, you get the girl. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Stefan is with Klaus because of me, Amelia. I can't just sit back and do nothing," he scowled.

"Sure you can," I shrugged. "Stefan knew what he was doing when he made a deal with Klaus. He's a big boy now."

"Yeah, but it's Klaus," Damon scoffed. "He'll probably turn around and kill him without a second thought."

I sighed after a brief hesitation. "There's a reason why Klaus didn't use Stefan instead of Jenna in the sacrifice. This isn't the first time Stefan's been on a ripper binge with Klaus before."

"What?"

"Stefan knew Klaus in the '20's," I revealed. "And you know how Stefan was back then."

"Why didn't Stefan say anything?" Damon frowned, obviously annoyed by this fact.

"Because Stefan has no idea," I answered. "Something big went down and Klaus had to compel Stefan to forget about him."

Damon stared incredulously at me. "And you only mention this now?"

"It wasn't important. It just would have confused things. Besides, he only knew Klaus for a month or two," I shrugged. "But even so, they were friends. Klaus won't kill Stefan." My phone buzzed, signalling a text from Klaus and I rolled my eyes. "I've gotta go." I walked to the door but turned back before opening it. "I'm serious about you backing off, Damon."

Damon rolled his eyes, which I took as an agreement.

"Try not to get yourself killed," he said.

I smirked at the subtlety of his concern.

"I'll try."

-