• • • •

"Vicki Donovan," Faith called out her name with a smirk as she walked up to the brunette who was talking to Jeremy Gilbert in the Mystic Grill. Once in reaching distance, the siphoner pulled the older girl into a hug. "Thank god, you're okay. I visited yesterday, but you were still asleep."

Vicki smiled as they pulled away. "Yeah, Matt told me."

"Are you feeling okay?" Jeremy asked with his hands stuffed inside his black jacket pockets.

Vicki sighed. "I hurt."

"Well, they gave you something for that, right?" Faith questioned.

"Yeah, the kid stuff, nothing with an 'o' in it," Vicki said, making all three of them laugh a bit. "I think they were on to me."

Faith's eyes shined at the sight of a bottle of pills in Jeremy's hand. Before Vicki could grab the bottle, Faith grabbed it and started counting the number of pills inside the bottle. With a shake of the bottle, Faith smirked at Jeremy. "Jeremy, you're my favorite Gilbert, you know that right?"

Her statement made Vicki and Jeremy laugh. The young Gilbert gazed at the brunette girl in front of him. "Knock yourselves out, literally."

"Thanks, Jer," Vicki told him as she shook a pill into her hand before popping it into her mouth before handing the bottle to Faith.

The siphoner ignored her friend's and Jeremy's conversation as she stared at the bottle of pills in her hand. Faith wasn't stupid. She knew doing drugs was bad and all the other things parents would tell their children, but Faith was an orphan. Her mother 'died' when she was three and her father died when she was six. Circe Everly wasn't her mother. She was Faith's torturer.

Getting drunk, high, and her constant times she jumped off Wickery Bridge were her attempts to escape her cruel life.

And Faith Everly didn't know how long she is going to be able to live how she is. She was a ticking time bomb. A time bomb that could explode at any moment.

"Faith?" At the sound of her name, she raised her head to meet Jeremy's dark brown eyes that shined with worry.

Jeremy's eyebrows only furrowed at Faith's eyes. Crystal blue jews gleamed under pools of tears, trying to keep the tears from escaping. He didn't notice his hand reaching up to her face until the slightly older girl flinched away. Faith cleared her throat before blinking away her tears and a sad smile appeared on her lips.

"I gotta go," she whispered as if she wasn't allowed to talk. "See you later, little Gilbert."

The dark-haired boy was used to the older girl to be sarcastic around people her age, and polite around adults, so he was worried when Faith looked like she wanted to cry. He knew Faith Everly as the girl who was strong. Who didn't make a big deal out of having bruises and scars on her body when she was younger. He didn't know what to say and Jeremy only watched in confusion and sadness as Faith Everly walked out of the grill.

• • • •

"Trouble in paradise?" Faith spoke up as a certain green-eyes vampire walked past her. Stefan studied the young girl leaning against a brick wall. Her crystal blue shined with amusement, yet they seemed to be yelling that something was wrong. His eyes trailed down to her hand were a lit joint was.

Faith brought up the joint up to her lips before a light smoke blew out from between her lips. Noticing a certain Donovan walking up to them, Faith dropped the joint and smashed it under her foot before faking a beautiful smile.

"Hey, Matt," she greeted the blonde, walking up to stand next to the vampire.

"Hey," he said, glancing at Stefan. "Have you seen my sister?"

At the mention of Vicki, Faith's expression turned worried. "No, I was supposed to meet her at the grill with Jeremy. Was she not there?"

"No, I can't find her," Matt sighed. "She's missing."

"We'll keep an eye out for her," Stefan replied as he began to walk away from the two teenagers.

"Hey," Matt called out to the vampire and Stefan paused to turn around at Matt. "I saw you at the hospital yesterday."

At the comment, Faith furrowed her eyebrows at Stefan's direction as both Matt and she waited for the vampire's response. The siphoner's jaw clenched as Stefan feigned to be confused at the comment before answering that he was visiting someone at the hospital, but Faith knew the vampire was lying. She rolled her blue eyes as Matt's jealousy seeped through his defense against the vampire.

Faith took notice as Stefan's posture stiffened and tilted his head as if he was listening to something. Instantly, Faith grabbed onto the vampire's arm before turning to Matt with a sweet smile. "We'll keep an eye out for Vicki, Matt. Now if you'll excuse us."

She didn't wait for the blonde's response as Faith pulled Stefan away. They stopped when they were away from human hearing reach as Faith's blue eyes darkened as she glared threatening at the vampire. She knew her glare probably didn't intimidate the vampire, but she had blackmail.

"Where does your brother have Vicki?" She interrogated him.

"What are you-" Stefan began to talk, but Faith scoffed and rolled her eyes at the vampire's stupidity.

"Stefan, you're cute, but your looks don't fool a witch," She observed as his forest green eyes widened at her. "Especially since the Everly family has lived in Mystic Falls since the very beginning, so you better start talking, vampire or Elena might not live long enough to love you."

Defeated, Stefan grabbed hold of the siphoner's forearm, and soon they were on a rooftop where Damon held Vicki by the arm near the edge of the roof. Damon smirked at his brother's appearance, but faltered a bit at the sight of the Everly 'witch'.

"Not bad," He commented before smirking. "Have you been eating bunnies?"

Faith scowled at Stefan. "Seriously, bunnies? Quite pathetic, Stefan."

"Let her go," Stefan ignored his brother and the 'witch'.

Damon shushed Vicki, glancing over the edge. "Really? Okay." He pulled the brunette closer to the edge making the other three to exclaim in fright, but Damon only pushed the brunette towards Faith.

Faith caught her friend by her arms as she tried to keep the older girl up. Vicki was too frightened to stand up on her own since her legs shook and seemed to not have any strength. The brunette looked at her, scared and confused.

"Faith?" She whimpered her name. "What's happening?"

Damon trained his eyes on his brother. "I don't need her to be dead, but...you might. What attacked you the other night?"

The question was directed to Vicki. The brunette turned her attention to the blue-eyed vampire as she sniffled, "I don't know. An animal."

"Are you sure about that?" Damon questioned her as he tried to get near her, but Faith countered up magic to pop as many blood vessels as possible in his head. He groaned, glaring at the siphoner and kept his distance from the two girls as he kept his eyes on the brunette girl. "Think. Think about it. Think really hard. What attacked you?"

Vicki thought for a moment before she flinched causing her nails to dig into Faith's skin. "A vampire."

"Who did this to you?" Damon asked, tasing his voice slightly.

"You!" The scared brunette growled, tears flowing down her face. Faith's heart clenched at the sight of her only friend in fright, but she never experienced this feeling before. She's used to feeling emotionless or amusement, but not guilt. She had no idea what to do. She didn't know how to make her feel better.

"Wrong!" Damon told the brunette and a confused expression appeared on Faith. She was sure the vampire that attacked Vicki was Damon.

"Don't," Stefan pleaded and it dawned on her. Damon was going to compel Vicki that it was Stefan that attacked her, not Damon. If it were anybody else, Faith would be enjoying the situation, but this was Vicki.

She glared at Damon as magic concentrated on the blood vessels in his head. Damon let out a growl of frustration as he held his head in pain.

Without much thought, he used his vamp-speed to throw Faith against a wall causing Vicki to fall on the ground.

Faith gasped in pain as she slumped against the brick wall. There was burning pain on her back and the back of her head. Her vision kept darkening, but she kept blinking to keep herself awake. She could feel the wetness of her blood flowing down the back of her head to her neck.

She didn't have time to worry about Vicki as she knew if she didn't heal now, she could get brain damage or die.

When the thought crossed her head, she paused.

She could die.

She could be free from her mother. From the numbing pain that she caused.

Her breathing became labored as she could feel her life, slowly seeping away.

"Faith!" She looked up to see Stefan's face close to hers. His green eyes were surrounded by red and the veins around his eyes were a dark color and protruding against his skin. He seemed to be in more pain than her. Then again, she was the one bleeding and he was a vampire.

"Hey! Don't die!" Stefan worried as her eyes seemed to dull. Under the night sky, he could see her skin paling and hear her heart slowing down.

"Why not?" She whispered, meeting his green eyes. "Why can't I die?"

His eyes widened, slightly at her question. She wanted to die.

He tried his best to keep control of his bloodlust as he picked her up and used his vamp-speed to take her to the hospital. She might want to die, but Stefan wasn't going to let her. Not yet.