Briana's POV

There was silence in the house.

Rose stared at me, jaw hanging, with a look of utter shock and surprise, which made me even angrier with her for thinking that I could never love. Upstairs, there was no longer the sound of even Damon's breathing, let alone his casual steps around the room. Everyone had seemingly just froze.

"I'm in love with him, okay?" I said quietly, my voice betraying my fury with hints of darkness and despair.

My face was wet and I swiped hastily at my tears, turning back to grab the doorknob. Before my fingertips dared to brush its polished surface, a hand closed around my wrist. It was not Rose's. He put a finger under my chin and tried to tip my face up to look at him, but I jerked away stubbornly.

"Look at me, Briana," he murmured. And so I did.

Damon looked more pained than I'd ever seen him- and I'd seen him tortured by some of his worst enemies. His silvery blue eyes were glaring right through me, it seemed, trying to tear the deepest secrets right out of me with their gaze. I told myself I'd never seen a face more beautiful, and I meant it. But beauty be damned, for I'm sure no one will remember me for my beauty when I'm dead.

I'm dying, soon.

Suddenly I was so sick of... everything. My life that I'd unintentionally built here. I'd been looking for my one last kaboom before I left this world, my way to go out with a bang, and yet all I'd found was a way to leave a trail of broken hearts- including mine- and friends that I will never be around to forgive. I hated this new world, my name, these people, this century for manipulating me into this weak-minded creature who would be willing to be some golden-hearted noble bitch who would die for- for... what?!

Love!

"Not Briana," I hissed through clenched teeth, ripping open the door. "It's Annice."

And I stormed out into the night.

Damon's POV

I watched her go. I knew there was nothing I could do but watch and wait for the chance that she might look back. Rose had disappeared once more, and I regretted ever having gotten near her, let alone sleeping with her. What did it get me? A jealous Briana- no wait, Annice- and her dark, envious exclamation of her love for me. I would rather have her go back to being my one friend who still had the guts to play tricks behind my back.

I wanted to go back to when I was first a vampire, just after my twenty second birthday. I would've looked for her. I would've found Annice, searched all over the world for her. Or better yet, when I was in the Confederacy, I wouldn't have let her go after she kissed me. I would've held tight, even through Katherine and all her bitchy scheming.

Because that's what you do when you love somebody.

A shrill ring blared from my pocket. I jumped, finding that I had been staring at the door this entire- I checked the clock on the front screen of my phone- eight minutes since she ran out the door. Flipping the top and pressing it to my ear, Alaric's voice erupted in my skull.

"It's her, Damon," he hissed. There was a metallic click like the lock of a door.

"Who?" I snapped, irritated.

"Jules! The one we think is a werewolf!" His voice was dangerously low, like he was straining not to yell. "I'm in the Grill-"

"Of course you are," I muttered and opened the door, for some reason afraid that I would see her standing there. A scheme was forming in my mind. "Just stay there and act casual. I'll be there in a minute; I have a plan."

"Fine. See ya then." A staticky dial tone echoed from the phone and I slammed it shut, running out into the darkness.

Rose's POV

I can't believe I'd done it. My last friend. Damon would never go near me again. Annice would hate me forever. And it's all my fault.

[Briana Is Now-] Annice's POV

I stared up at the side of the quaint little house, frowning, teetering on the edge of indecision. Sighing, I jumped up on the windowsill, leaving my meager trunk on the lawn and knocking my knuckles on the window.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," I whispered at the glass, fogging it up to a silvery white. Randomly, I wrote 'hi' backwards in it.

A moment later, a figure came into view. Jeremy's eyebrows pulled together, but he didn't hesitate to open the window.I was holding on to the siding so hard that there was a small groan sounding from the wood. Wincing, I loosened my grip, trying not to fall. The Gilbert boy looked at me crossly.

"What are you doing here?" he said softly. I scowled at his abrasive, quiet tone, but didn't dwell on it. I stuck my leg through the opening and he stepped back, shocked. "Wait- you've been invited in?"

"No, but I'll explain that later. You said we were friends, right?" I tumbled on to his floor unceremoniously, surprisingly lacking grace. He cocked his head like a confused bird and stuck a hand out.

"Um," I took his hand and pulled myself up, smiling broadly, "yeah, sure. What does that have to do with you being in my house? Elena would flip!"

My eyes spun in their sockets and I plopped down on his bed, snatching up the sketch pad on the night stand. I'd only caught a glimpse of the rather frightening pictures in there when he ripped it from my hands. My lower lip jutted out in a demure pout, which he completely ignored. I spent years perfecting my 'sexy pout'!

"Oh, Elena," I drawled, my voice chiseled with sarcasm, "forget what she thinks. This matter is between you and me." He couldn't resist the urge to inquire to my motives. "I'm here because I have recently... ended my stay at the Salvatore boarding house, and I needed a place to stay. Friends do that, you know, let others crash at their place, right?"

He gave me a blank stare, completely caught off guard.

"You want to stay in my house," he stated flatly.

"Yup!" I fingered the blue comforter spread sloppily across his bed, and looked away shyly. "Actually I was planning on staying in your room. I'm pretty sure the only other room in your house for me to sleep in is, er, your parents." The temperature dropped a few degrees.

"Oh, yeah, well," he scratched the back of his head, "We are friends, but I'm not really sure if I can-"

"Trust me? Because you really don't know much about me?" I finished, shrugging. "Yeah, but let me stay, then I'll tell you all about me..."

I sounded like a tease, but I was actually afraid to tell him. The second and last person I had told about my origins was Damon, and Katherine was the first. Rose hadn't even known. My track record wasn't exactly stellar. Temptation burned in Jeremy's eyes, and I knew I had him twirled around my finger.

"Fine," he groaned and stuck a finger in my face. I went cross-eyed trying to stare at it. "But only for a few nights, and try not to get caught." I covered his hand with mine and pulled it away from my face.

"Of course." My lips twisted into a cat-like grin, my eyes flashing, and I reclined lazily on the bed. "And where do I get to sleep? Because I rather like it right here. You could come snuggle up next to me." He rolled his eyes with an intensity that could match the best of eye-rollers. The best being me.

"Ha- no," he joked with an undertone of seriousness. His fingers curled into my shirt and pulled me off the bed with a jolt. "You shall not sleep in my bed. And don't you have luggage, or something?" I thumped myself on the forehead.

"Oh, yeah, duh. I forgot." I'd left my stuff out in the yard.

I dive-bombed through the window and landed in a more panther-ish style on the dewy grass, grabbing the trunk by its scratchy black strap. In a moment, I was back on the floor of his room with my meager belongings sitting contently on his carpet. I began unpacking things, putting them in choice places around the room, a flurry of organization.

"Hey, slow down, Briana-"

I stopped short and put a finger to his lips, my other hand clutching the fragile wooden box of potions and antidotes, poisons and concoctions. I enunciated quite clearly, "It's Annice, now. Not Briana." He pulled back slowly, as if I was a wild animal who might bite his head off.

Well, that's not exactly far-fetched.

"Right... new place, new name deal. Okay, whatever," he rambled softly, his eyes flickering to the door every now and then. my head tilted to the doorway, where I heard Jenna downstairs watching the news, and Elena padding around her room. And then... something else.

A very familiar something else.

"Shush," I directed at Jeremy.

There was a small gasp, and then the small bump of a door being shut. I could her the conversation, though, but obviously she wasn't expecting any other super-hearing beings in her house- except, you know...

"Elijah!" I scream-whispered.

Jeremy's POV

So, I'm sitting there on my bed, casually drawing in my sketch pad, when there's a knock on my window. That alone scared me out of my drawing-induced haze. But when I walk over there, it's not an evil monster who I'm sure would like to drain me of my blood or even one of those idiot Salvatores. It's effing Briana. But apparently, she goes by Annice, now.

She asks me to crash here. Very stupidly, I say yes. She asks to sleep with me in a non-sexual way. Luckily, I had enough sense to say no. She says Elijah's here... I panic. I didn't know everything, but I knew enough to tell that he was the uber-bad guy. Did I really just use the prefix 'uber'?

"Elijah? Here?!" I rasped, suddenly hoarse and out of breath.

I ran my hand through my hair and Annice once again pressed her finger to my lips. Is it strange that the only thing I got from that experience was that her hands smelled like one of those 'seductive' lotion-thingies that you smell when you walk by Bath & Body Works at the mall?

"Yes," she replied angrily, "and he will hear you- and more importantly, me- if you don't shut up!" I clammed up. And then, her eyebrows shot into her sunset red hair. "Your sister's got some balls." She said it so quietly I could barely hear her. I kind of wished I hadn't.

"Thanks?" She shushed me again.

About thirty seconds later, she pulled me down to sit on the bed with her, her box of fancy supernatural items still in her hand. Even yet, I had the throat lozenge for Bonnie sitting in my desk drawer in a little ring box. Annice's expression was mix of dismay and fear, and before I could blink, she was peeking out the crevice between the edge of the door and the wall. Then her eyes went wide, and she spun away, her hair a fiery fan around her porcelain face.

"Eeep!" she squealed like a little girl, flipping her hands around and darting from spot to spot in my room with no apparent purpose. "I think he might have glimpsed me, but he's gone now."

"Did he see enough of you to know who it was?" She shook her head uncertainly.

"I don't think so, but he did have this really freaky look on his face and what if he did see me? What if he blows my whole plan and I'm stuck for another hundred years trying to catch my siblings-" I pressed my finger to her lips (turning the tables, here) and her ranting came screeching to a halt.

"Look," I said authoritatively, "you'll be fine. Even if he did see you, all he could have noticed was one of your eyes and maybe a lock of red hair. And you were gone in a thought! He couldn't have seen-"

"But what if-" I placed my hands on her shoulders.

"You'll. Be. Fine."

It's a mystery to what made me do it. She just looked so flustered and frightened, the weight of so many searching, hidden centuries on her back, and a certain sadness in her eyes, that I did. I gathered her up in a brisk hug, crushing her to me, finding that her head fit perfectly in the crook of my shoulder. It was odd, as if she molded to me like two pieces of Play-Doh pressed gently together.

But eventually, after we had stood there for who knows how long, we had to separate. Unlike me, she didn't seem to find it slightly awkward when we did. In fact, she had a certain sense of closure about her, acceptance. Like a lost puppy who'd found a home, curling up at the end of their master's bed.

"Annice?" I asked softly. She looked up at me blankly. "Why did you leave Stefan's place?"

I hated referring to it as Damon's place for two reasons: 1) Elena is over there all the time and I hate knowing that that creep is there with her, and 2) I just flat out hate Damon. He's a dick. Who killed me. Because my effing sister wouldn't kiss him.

Wow.

Annice looked away, shocking me with a little blush that crept up into her cheeks. I didn't know vampires could do that, but then again, she is pretty weird. And then another thought hit me like a cannon blast.

"Wait- did you say your siblings?" Her eyes went wide, and she opened and closed her mouth rapidly, trying to supply an answer. Every suspicion in my mind rose.

"Well- I, uh-"

"I think it's time you started explaining yourself."