Bite

14

He couldn't sleep. Stefan couldn't tell if the room was too hot or too cold. His neck hurt and his legs were cramping. Finally, he gave up, pulled on a shirt over himself, and walked to the kitchen. There was Ashara, looking annoyed and closing the fridge door shut.

"Oh my god, there's nothing to eat." She pressed her forehead against the fridge. She then jumped up and turned around.

"Yikes, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He put his hands in front of him. "You couldn't sleep either?"

"Not really. I hardly sleep at this point." Ashara sighed, looking at him. "Fuck this shit, I'm getting some Wawa."

"Egg?" He looked at her. Ashara chuckled.

"Does it mean egg in another language?" She looked a bit confused.

"Yeah, in Cree, I think." Stefan could feel his cheeks turning pink.

"Well, it's like a gas station where they sell snacks and food." Ashara looked at him.

"What's a gas station?" He asked.

"Do you know what a car is?" She asked me, grabbing something from a box near the fridge.

"I do."

"Well, that's when you get food for the car." Ashara looked at him. "You want to come along?"

"Sure." He responded. They walked outside and got in a smaller blue chair. He opened the door to the right side of the car and sat in. Ashara sat in the front left seat and turned the car on, backing out of the yard and into the road.

"Thanks for bringing me along." He looked back at her. She was moving buttons at the front.

"It's three o'clock in the morning. Devil's hour." She chuckled. This was the first time Stefan got to see the outside. There were houses with cars on the road, patches of woods around them. They passed by a few abandoned houses and a few rectangle shaped buildings.

"Ashara then stopped at a building with bright lights and boxes with cars beside them. She turned and parked in front of the store. She turned off the car and they went in. He was a bit taken back by it. There was lots of things on multiple shelves, a few machines in the background with some kind of colorful item spinning in them. There was a section that was walled off with two of those mirror things-TVs maybe?- in front.

There was a lot of food there. There was a smaller box with a shelf in the center.

"Stefan?" Ashara was closer to him. "You okay there?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He looked at her. "I don't know what to get food wise."

"Well, there's mac and cheese and hoagies and pretzels..." Ashara sighed. "I didn't think about that, you're not used to that."

"You're right, I've been in a marble box for the last two hundred and fifty years of my life." Stefan chuckled. "I do know what two of those are and I'll take them."

"Pretzels are by the register." Ashara motioned the area to him. He walked up to the counter and grabbed one. "If that's one of them. Did you want mac and cheese or a hoagie?"

"Mac and cheese." Stefan remarked. Ashara was hitting buttons on the screen.

"Did you want something to drink?" She looked back at him.

"I-Damn, I've only had water for the last few days. Maybe a soda or something?" Stefan looked back at her.

"That works." She hit buttons and then she took out a card from her pocket and slid it through the screen. She grabbed a piece of paper and walked beside him. In a few minutes, their food was ready and they walked out. They went back to the car and sat down. Stefan opened the packaging for the pretzel and started to eat.

"You know, if you had told me four years ago, I'd be eating Wawa at three am with the freaking god of werewolves I don't think I would have believed me."

"And if you told me that I'd be doing this with a demigoddess I wouldn't have believed myself either."

"Just curious, but why did you become a Hunter?" Stefan looked at her. "You don't really seem like the bloodthirsty type."

Ashara sighed.

"I used to be in love with a werewolf. He broke my heart and then his friends broke me. After all, Tzirihime found me and saved my life." She took a bite of her sandwich. "After all, I put all my energy into destroying them. I've never been the same girl since."

"I'm sorry." Stefan looked at her sadly. "I know that feeling."

"Yeah, it sucks, doesn't it?" She continued to eat. "I mourn her, I've wept for her but I know she's gone. All that's left.....is me at this point. I used to blame myself for what happened."

"Don't blame yourself, Ashara. Those monsters were to blame for it." Stefan tore a piece of pretzel off. "Also where were the ones you killed back then?"

"I killed Cain and Desmera. Cain was one of them. Jon was my ex and the one who ran off with Anastasia." Ashara looked at the window. "I don't regret it one bit either."

"I hope not." Stefan continued to eat as well.

"Cain's the one who left this on me." Ashara showed him some rather vicious looking claw marks on her arms. "And this of course." She motioned to the area between her collarbone and shirt. You could barely see it but it looked like a claw mark above her breast. "So that's why I unleashed the hounds on him, specifically."

"Ouch." Stefan hissed a bit. That had to hurt. "Anyway, I wanted to apologize to you earlier."

"Hmm?" Ashara was already halfway through her sandwich. "It's fine, we kind of started it."

"But you tried to help me and I scratched you.I was a total dick to you for no reason too. And after finding out what happened to you, I feel even worse."

Ashara started to cry. Shit. God, you're a fucking failure, Stefan thought to himself.

"I'm sorry, I-" He leaned over to her.

"No, it's fine, it's not you, it's just-" She was trying to wipe her tears. "That's the first time someone has apologized to me in a while."

"That's sad, actually." Stefan looked down.

"And I'm sorry for what I said." Ashara responded. "Thanks, Stefan."