Stefan pulled his face away abruptly, storming to the opposite side of the room before slamming his fist into the wall. His other fist joined it, slamming into the bricks, leaving crumbles falling to the ground. “Maybe I do! So what? There’s nobody left to pull me off. Lexi’s gone. She has been for a while,” he said, his voice low. He brought his head to the bricks, his forehead resting against the cool stone. He closed his eyes, the switch teetering in his mind. “I just want all the guilt gone.”
Evie slowly approached Stefan, coming to stand beside him at the wall. “There’s me. I’m here, and I will do anything I can to support you in this. But ultimately? It’s all on you. It’s always going to be on you, and you have to accept that.” When he admitted that he just wanted all of his guilt to go away, she softly added, “It won’t. You can shut off your humanity. You can run rampant through the towns and cities for a couple hundred years. It will still be there waiting for you because it’s a part of you. Your past is a part of you, but it doesn’t have to define you or your future. Choose to do something more. To be something better.”
“How can I be something better when all I’ve done is hurt people?” The pain was evident in Stefan’s voice as he spoke. There was part of him that wanted to speed out of there, out of Evie’s grasp while her guard was down, and a plan began to formulate in his head. “It’s always going to define me. A Ripper? It’s who I am. It’s what I am. It can’t be changed.” The truth hit home as he spoke. He couldn’t be changed. Not forever, anyway. Lexi tried before, but it didn’t stick. Why would it this time? He just needed to feed. There was a burning ache in his belly that brought him back to the present, to his plan. Taking a few quick steps back, he placed himself between Evie and the door. “I can’t be changed,” he said, raising his head so his darkened eyes met Evie’s before he backed out the door, speeding out of the residence to find a warm body to feed on.
Cisco backup 