Singing Blood

Smells Like Teen Spirit

"So the pressure of your punch ejects the stakes," Alaric explained to Elena as he demonstrated how to stake a vampire with a sleeve and two stakes hidden inside it. It was around half past six in the morning and the sun had barely risen over the horizon, but the vampire hunter and the doppelgänger were already out in the woods, dressed in their training clothes.

Elena hadn't been able to sleep for more than a few hours. Anger and worry were spooking through her head. Anger about Stefan and Damon not respecting her decisions and the fact that she was constantly manhandled by vampires and worry about what no humanity-Stefan would do next. She had finally given up on trying to find some sleep and instead decided that she needed to do something productive. She wanted to learn how to defend herself from vampires. Luckily Alaric already been awake and answered his phone at the first ring.

"Easy enough," she commented after having watched him staking the mannequin with a punch to the chest.

She took the sleeve from him, put it on and let her fist fly into the mannequin's chest.

Nothing happened.

She furrowed her brows.

"That's weird."

She tried it again but the stakes wouldn't eject from the sleeve. Elena let out a frustrated groan.

"Must be jammed or something."

"You're not strong enough," Alaric stated. "Better start lifting some weights, put some meat on your bones."

She gave him a faint smile.

"Thanks for not sugar-coating it."

Alaric pulled a metallic, bottle-like container out of his bag and showed it to her.

"You know what this is?"

She nodded as recognition flashed across her face.

"A vervain grenade. I've used one before."

"Then you know the element of surprise is your only advantage when it comes to a vampire." He pulled the pin and threw the grenade in her hand. "Surprise."

"Oh my god."

Elena threw the grenade in the air where it exploded a second later. Then, she glared at the vampire hunter and angrily pulled off the sleeve.

"This isn't a joke to me, Ric."

Alaric scoffed.

"You think I'm joking? Vampires will take whatever they want. They will hurt whoever they want. And they'll do it without remorse. It's their nature."

"You don't have to use pronouns," Elena told him, a dark look on her face. "You can say Stefan."

He sighed and looked at her intently.

"Look, I get why you're here. Stefan hurt you. You don't want it to happen again."

She grimaced.

"But you think that I'm crazy. To believe that I can protect myself from a vampire who's flipped the switch on his humanity."

"I think you found a way to get out of bed this morning," he corrected her, giving her a reassuring smile. "And that makes you the strongest person I know. I think that you can do pretty much anything."

"Erin, Estelle! Breakfast is ready!" I shouted into the corridor before placing down the plate with pancakes on the dining table. It was half past six in the morning and I was well rested and ready to start the day. The new school year had started and Stefan and Niklaus were back in town, so nothing could dampen my mood today - or so I thought.