Julie's phone rang and woke her up at 6am. She was hot and sweating and out of breath. Her entire body was shivering and she knew she had been having a nightmare and she was happy she didn't remember it. She sat up and took a deep breath and ran a hand through her sticky hair. She sighed and shook her head.

Vampires, witches... She had a really weird dream last night. God...Please, let it be a dream...

She pushed the covers away and put her feet on the floor. She sighed again before she got up and went to the bathroom. She stopped in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection for a minute. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Elijah take Trevor's head off in front of her; proving her, she hadn't dreamed anything. She looked away and rapidly undressed.

The hot water wasn't making her feel any better and she stayed too long in the shower. She had a choice: have breakfast or dry her hair. Considering having breakfast meant "chatting" with her stepfather, Julie chose makeup over food.

She took a purple dress out of her wardrobe. It was short but not too short. She wore black flats and put her school books in the biggest handbag she had. It was white and it fitted just fine.

She walked down the stairs and heard the TV was on. Which meant her stepfather was up. She cleared her throat but he didn't hear her or didn't care to answer. She slowly walked to the kitchen where she took a small bottle of water and put it in her bag. She took an apple and started eating it. She went to the living room where she saw her stepfather was sleeping on the couch. Julie sighed. He must have fallen asleep in front of the TV when he came back from...wherever he went after work, last night. She looked around and saw two, three...six bottle of beers. Robert was still in his suit, his jacket was on the armchair. Julie decided to turn up the sound of the TV to wake him up. She waited to be sure he was awake before she left. She didn't want him to be mad at her for being late at work.

She got in her car and turned on the radio. She tried to distract herself from what happened the day before and she played songs from her favorite artists. She parked at the high school and she was a bit early. She liked to be early. If she wasn't early, if she was on time, she was late.

She got out of her car and as soon as she closed her door she saw Stefan Salvatore standing in front of her. She gasped and let her car keys fall on the ground.

"Stefan!" she breathed out.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said. He looked sincere. She took a deep breath as he picked up her keys. She gave him a small smile when he handed them to her.

"Thanks."

"No problem," he smiled back at her. "How are you doing?"

"Well..." Julie cleared her throat. "You're a vampire," she said and he chuckled.

"And how do you feel about it?" he asked and Julie laughed, nervously.

"You wanna be my shrink?" Stefan laughed and looked down, amused.

"I just want to make sure that you're okay," he said. "This can't be easy."

"It's not," Julie nodded. "But...it just makes the world more interesting," she shrugged.

Stefan laughed again. "That's one way to see it," he said.

"What's the other way?"

"Scarier?" he shrugged.

Julie chuckled. "Oh, no...it's definitely scarier," they laughed.

"I'm glad you're doing okay," he said. "If you have any question, don't hesitate."

"Thanks."

Julie thanked him because that was the polite thing to do, but she did actually have questions. She had a lot of questions. But one seemed more important. She wanted to know why she couldn't be compelled. But she was too scared to ask. She was too scared to know the answer.

"I'm sorry you got caught into this mess," he said.

"Not your fault," Julie told him. Then, she looked around. "Where's your girlfriend?" she asked.

"Elena stayed at home today, she wasn't feeling well."

"I see..." she nodded. After what happened the day before, maybe she should've stayed home too.

"But she's fine," Stefan quickly added. "Are you?" He looked concern. Julie raised he eyebrows and then chuckled.

"Yeah...could be worse," she said. "I could be dead," she tried to keep an amused tone but, in reality, she was scared. She was talking to a vampire and maybe she should be scared of him too. "So...you eat people," she said and Stefan raised his eyebrows and then laughed.

"I don't," he said. "I don't kill."

"Oh," Julie breathed out a laugh. "Good."

"You don't have to be scared of me," he told her.

"You saved my life yesterday," she said. "That kind of makes you a good guy."

Stefan chuckled. "Thank you," he smiled. "Come on, we'll be late for class."

They both walked in the school and she stopped at her locker and didn't follow Stefan after that. He was talking to Caroline Forbes, Bonnie Bennett and Elena's brother, Jeremy and Julie didn't want to meet any of them. Elena, Bonnie and Caroline were that popular group of friends that, not only didn't know her name, but they didn't even know of her existence. Julie never hated them but she never liked them either. Besides, getting to know them now probably meant getting involved in whatever mess they were in and Julie didn't want any part of it.

After school, where nothing happened, Julie saw Caroline and Stefan leaving together. She didn't really pay attention to it and drove home. Her stepfather wasn't there so she decided to settle in the kitchen and do her homework.

It was passed seven when she cooked dinner and figured out Robert must have been in some bar, getting drunk, as usual. She liked it this way. If he wasn't home, he couldn't yell at her. She cleaned and took a shower and then settled in her bed with her notebook and started to draw. She drew the only thing she could see. She drew Trevor's headless body lying in the dust.

She fell asleep with her notebook in her bed and the light of the sun woke her up in the early morning. She had a nightmare, again. And again, she couldn't remember it. She only remembered that Elijah was in it. She did as usual, she took a shower, got dressed, ate a fruit and made sure Robert was awake before she left the house. But when she opened the door she met with someone she thought dead. Her heart skipped a beat and she gasped. She wanted to step back but she was too afraid to move.

"You?" she breathed out.

"Hello, Julie," Elijah said. He didn't sound threatening. He didn't look threatening. But then, Julie remembered Trevor's head rolling on the floor and she rapidly tried to close the door but he stopped her. "I see the owner of his house is dead. I'm sorry for your loss." Julie frowned and took a step back as he stepped in the house. He looked around before he looked down at her. "I'm Elijah," he said. "But I see you remember me."

"It's hard to forget the person who cut the head off someone else in front of me," Julie answered with a trembling voice. She didn't know where she got the courage to speak and was surprised she actually said it.

"I apologize for that," he said and he sounded sincere. "Please, don't be scared. I won't hurt you."

"What do you want?" Julie asked in a whisper.

"I need you to get a message to your friend," he said. Julie frowned and shook her head, confused.

"What friend?"

"The doppelganger," he merely said.

"You mean Elena? She's not my friend," she told him. Elijah was now confused too.

"She's not? You got into some trouble because of her," he said. "Anyway," he sighed. "Just tell her and the Salvatores not to do anything stupid."

"Wh..." Julie shook her head, confused. "What does that mean?" she asked.

"Just tell them, please," he wasn't asking, he was ordering.

"Why me? I don't know them," Elijah looked down at her but stayed silent. He sighed and took one step towards her. He slowly approached his hand to her face and she looked at him with big eyes, trembling and scared of what he was going to do. When his hand touched her cheek she closed her eyes out of fear and waited for something, anything, pain, just like she would wait for her stepfather to hit her, but he didn't hit her. He stroke her cheek with his knuckles and then, tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"I'll be around," he said and when she opened her eyes, he was gone.

She stood there, dumbfounded and terrified. Her heart was beating so fast even she could hear it.

"What just happened?" she breathed out.

"You're talking to me?" Julie gasped and jumped and quickly turned around to see Robert standing in the kitchen. "Aren't you gonna be late for school?"

"Yeah," Julie cleared her throat. "I was just leaving," she told him.

"Have a nice day," he told her before he walked back in the kitchen. He was actually in a good mood.

"You too," Julie said before she stepped out of the house. She looked around to see if Elijah was still around but she didn't see him and she got into her car. She sat there for about 5 minutes, trying to catch her breath. She thought about what Elijah did and how strange his behavior was. Why would he be nice to her? Why would he even talk to her? She had nothing to do with Elena and she didn't want to get involved in her drama. Now, she didn't have a choice.

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