Stefan eyes, wide and frantic, were darting everywhere—from Leo's horrifying face to the dark woods, searching for an answer, an escape, anything to make sense of what he was seeing. In his panicked scramble backward, his sweeping gaze dropped down, landing on the weather-beaten wooden planks of the porch floor.
There, caught in a small, shallow depression where the wood had worn down, was a puddle of leftover rainwater. It was just a small, dirty patch of water, no bigger than his hand.
The dark, cloudy sky above was reflected in its still surface. He could also see the blurry, dark shape of the Salvatore house looming behind them. And then, as his eyes focused, he saw a third thing reflected there.
It was Leo's face.
Leo watched as Stefan, his face twisted with pure terror, shoved him away and scrambled backward. The vampire's fear was so strong it was almost a physical force in the air. A flicker of confusion crossed Leo's mind—Why is he so scared of me right now?
He followed the direction of Stefan's wide, staring eyes. Stefan wasn't looking at him anymore; he was staring at the porch floor. Leo's own gaze dropped down to see what was so interesting.
There was a puddle of rainwater there. It was dirty and shallow, but the surface was still. In it, he saw a reflection. It was his own face looking back up at him.
For a few seconds, all the noise and tension of the night just stopped for Leo. The simmering anger at Stefan and Damon completely disappeared. Instead, a deep, quiet curiosity took over. It was a simple, almost childlike wonder.
He tilted his head slightly to the left. In the puddle, the reflected face tilted the same way, mimicking him perfectly. He was completely captivated by the image. A soft, thoughtful hum escaped his lips. He felt no fear looking at it. He was fascinated.
A faint, almost invisible smile touched the corners of his horrible, cracked mouth. He spoke quietly, his words just for himself and the thing in the water.
"Well," he murmured to his own reflection. "Aren't I a sight?"
As he stared at the cracked, red face in the puddle, and his thoughts, which had been a jumbled mess, suddenly lined up with cold, clear logic.
This change, this scary face... it didn't just happen. It came out when he lost his cool. When Stefan started talking about right and wrong and what his parents would want,It just grated on his nerves. It made him angry. That hot, sharp feeling of irritation was the trigger. It acted like a key, unlocking something deep inside him that he hadn't fully controlled.
A simple rule became clear: the madder he got, the less he resembled a human being. This monstrous form wasn't a costume he decided to wear. It was his real appearance surfacing whenever he stopped making the effort to seem normal.
It made perfect sense. He hadn't summoned the power. He'd just stopped holding it back.
His quiet study of the puddle was over. He lifted his head and looked away from the water. His eyes found Stefan. The vampire was still on the ground, pushing himself backward with his hands and feet. One of Stefan's hands was raised, a trembling finger pointed straight at Leo in a gesture of pure dread.
Leo rose to his feet. He reached down and casually brushed a bit of dust and gravel from the front of his jacket sleeve—an everyday, meaningless action that felt completely out of place given the horror of the situation. He took a breath to speak. When the words came out, his voice had its usual tone and volume, but it carried a strange, heavy quality. It was a normal sound that somehow felt threatening and wrong, vibrating with an implied danger that settled unpleasantly in the chest of anyone who heard it.
"You're trying to teach me right from wrong, Stefan. You're begging me not to turn into a monster."A soft, humorless sound escaped him. "The irony is almost beautiful. You are wrong in your most fundamental assumption. You are not speaking to a man who might choose evil."
He took another slow step forward. Stefan flinched back, trembling.
"Let's get something straight," Leo said, like it was obvious. "I am not a bad person to begin with.But you and your brother keep poking me. You're trying to force a reaction, to make me into the monster you're afraid of."
He let the words hang in the cold air. His smile held no warmth as he continued.
"So here's how this ends,Stefan. I'm giving you one chance to fix the massive mistake of provoking me. It is the only possible way for both of you to walk away from this gravel driveway alive. To save your own lives.One opportunity for salvation. Take it, or everything ends here, tonight."
The fear was still there, freezing Stefan veins. But underneath it, something older and harder stirred: the will to survive. This devil was offering a path out. A tiny, desperate hope cut through the terror.
He swallowed hard, forcing the muscles to work. It was a hard, painful motion that did nothing to bring moisture to his mouth. His chest felt tight, making it difficult to pull in a full breath. But he knew he had to speak. He had to find out the price.
He pushed the air from his lungs, forcing his vocal cords to tense and vibrate. The sound that came out was rough, like stones grinding together. It wasn't his normal voice. It was the strained, scratchy sound of someone pushing past sheer terror to communicate.
"W-What chance?" he managed to get out, the two words breaking the heavy silence that had fallen over the porch and the dark woods around them. In the utter quiet, his own voice sounded strangely loud and foreign to his ears, as if someone else had spoken.
He took another shallow, shaky breath, his eyes fixed on Leo. The question was the only thing that mattered now. There was no room for pride, for negotiation, for anything else. He needed the terms.
"What..." he repeated, forcing the word out more clearly, "...do I have to do?"
Leo's smile stretched wider across his face. But his eyes didn't change. They stayed just as cold and empty as before, watching Stefan without any real feeling.
Then, without another word, he turned his back on Stefan. He began walking slowly toward his car. There was no hurry in his steps. Each footfall was deliberate and calm on the gravel. He was taking his time, making Stefan wait.
As he walked, he focused on his own breathing. He deliberately forced the tight, angry feeling in his chest to loosen. He pushed the irritation and the dark energy back down, locking it away inside himself. It was a conscious choice, like closing a heavy lid.
As he did this, the frightening changes to his face began to reverse. The deep, bloody red color that had covered his skin faded, like a stain being washed out. The rough, cracked texture smoothed over, becoming even and normal again. The terrifying black pits that were his eyes shrank away, the dark receding until his ordinary brown irises and white sclera were back in place.
By the time he reached his car, the transformation was complete. He leaned back against the driver's side door, crossing his arms. He looked like any other teenage boy—messy black hair, sharp features, wearing a simple jacket. There was no sign of the monster that had been there just moments before.
He did not turn his head to look at Stefan. He did not glance in the vampire's direction at all. Instead, he tilted his chin up and fixed his gaze on the night sky above them.
The sky was a deep, solid black. There was no moon visible. Thick clouds had rolled in, completely covering it, blocking its light. Not a single star could be seen either. The clouds formed a heavy, dark blanket that stretched from one horizon to the other, leaving the world beneath feeling closed in and darker than usual.
"Here is the only way you both live," Leo said,his voice low and quiet."You will lock your brother up. Not just for now. Forever. You will put him in the basement. You will make sure he drinks vervain every day. So much that it burns inside him and makes him too weak to use any of his powers. You will make his forever life a forever prison."
Finally, he turned his head and looked directly at Stefan. His expression was relaxed. The lines of his face were extremely smooth and might even have seemed gentle. Then he smiled. It was a good smile, the kind that should look friendly and open. But it is not.
"It's the right punishment for someone who has a long life," Leo continued, his voice detached."To have forever, and to spend all of it alone in the dark. No fun and fights. Just… nothing."
In his mind, Leo knew the future story. Damon got out because of Zach. That won't happen now. Leo being here changes everything.
"This is me being nice, Stefan," Leo said, his voice final. "I am giving you a job. Be the guard for your brother forever. It is much better than what I will have to do if you say no."
Leo did not wait around for an answer. He saw in Stefan's defeated posture that his fighting spirit was all gone. The vampire understood there was no real choice; the only option left was to obey. With the matter settled, Leo turned his back and walked the final few steps to his car. He opened the driver's side door, but before sliding in, he paused. He turned his head just enough to look back at Stefan one last time.
"One more thing," Leo said, his voice cutting through the quiet. "Send Zach away. Get him out of this house and this town. If you don't, you will never see him again." He stated it as a simple fact, another non-negotiable rule.
Then he got into the car, closed the door, and started the engine. He shifted into reverse, the tires crunching on the gravel as he backed up, turned the wheel, and then drove down the long driveway, his headlights cutting two paths through the dark until they disappeared.
Stefan stood alone in the sudden silence, watching the red taillights grow smaller and vanish. A numb, heavy feeling settled over him. His mind, which had been screaming with panic, finally began to quiet down. The immediate threat was gone. He was alive.
The strange, specific order about Zach flitted through his thoughts. Why Zach? He didn't understand the reason, but he felt a deep, instinctual weariness. He did not have the strength left to chase after the car, to demand an explanation face-to-face with that devil-like face. The question felt too dangerous. So, he mentally pushed it away, shoving it to the back of his mind to deal with later.
His eyes finally drifted from the empty driveway to the heap on the gravel a few feet away. His brother. Damon's body was still and broken. He was not dead, but he looked like a broken human body. Soon, his vampire healing would fix the injury, and he would wake up. But when he did, he would be trapped. He would be conscious but unable to move, unable to speak, helpless.
A cold, heavy realization settled in Stefan's chest. He had to move. He had to act now. If Damon woke up while still out here in the open, anything could happen. But more importantly, if Leo came back and found that Stefan had not even started to follow his orders… the consequences were too terrible to picture. The threat was too fresh. He couldn't risk it.
As he came near Damon's body,Leo's words echoed in his head.His brother is a killer. He's a predator. Stefan looked down at his brother's unconscious face. It was true. Damon had caused so much pain, for so long. He had murdered, tortured, and destroyed lives for fun. For over a century, Stefan had tried to reason with him, to stop him, and had failed.
A dark, quiet thought whispered inside him. Maybe this was right. Maybe an eternity of darkness and weakness wasn't just a cruel punishment from a monster. Maybe it was a kind of justice. For all the people Damon had killed, for all the families he had ruined, maybe a prison that lasted forever was the only fair sentence.
He finally got Damon across the threshold and into the dark hallway. He would have to get him down to the basement. The reality of his new life crashed down on him. He was no longer just a brother. He was a jailer. His only purpose from now on would be to keep Damon locked away, to feed him vervain, to maintain the prison.
***