The moon hangs high, illuminating the sky. Theo was completely passed out, slumped against a tree. The forest was silent until it wasn't anymore. In the distance, faint light and music could be seen and heard.
Theo stirred with a low groan, his head throbbed in slow, punishing waves, every pulse echoing the memory of fists, speed, and impact. The tree against his back felt harder than it had been before. The quiet wasn't peaceful; it was watchful, as if the woods were holding their breath around him.
Theo sucked in a breath and immediately regretted it. Pain lit through his ribs, sharp and electric. Muscles screamed in protest, refusing to allow any movement he might make. His body was already starting to knit itself back together, warmth buzzing beneath his skin, as his veins faintly glowed before fading again.
In the distance, music drifted through the trees. Theo tilted his head towards it, eyes narrowing. The sound felt like a mockery compared to the stillness around him, like two worlds combating and feigning ignorance.
Pushing himself to his feet, stumbling for half a second before regaining his balance. Theo exhaled slowly, rolling his neck as another ache flared and settled. Sending a glance at the tree he used as a pillow.
"Guess I'm late for the party." He said as he stepped forward.
Leaves crunched beneath his boots. The glow grew stronger. Music tangled with the roar of the falls. The night felt thinner now, like fabric stretched too tight.
Then the system cut through the air inside his mind.
[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: GODLY PRESENCE (Dormant)]
[DESCRIPTION: A faint manifestation of divine authority leaking from an incomplete Thunder Core. The user unconsciously exerts pressure within a 5-meter radius, inducing instinctual unease in Tier 1–2 beings.]
[STATUS: PASSIVE – UNSTABLE]
Theo exhaled slowly.
"Five meters, huh…" he muttered. "Try not to scare the civilians."
He stepped past the treeline.
And the night shifted.
***
Lanterns swayed above the crowd near the falls. Laughter danced across the water. Music wrapped around warm bodies and careless smiles.
At the edge of the party, Stefan stilled mid-smile.
It wasn't a sound. Not a scent. It was more like a presence that Stefan hadn't sensed before. The pressure being eluded was both wrong and unstable.
His fingers tightened around the cup in his hand until the plastic bent inward with a soft crack. The air felt heavier, like gravity had leaned closer to listen.
'No,' he thought. His gaze drifted towards the tree line, the forest stared back at him, dark and endless.
Across the clearing, Bonnie paused mid-laugh, her expression flickering. Her brows raised as the air around her prickled. She looked around but couldn't find the source of this strange presence. It felt natural but very wrong.
Theo emerged from the treeline, silhouette framed by the cascading glow of the lanterns. His boots left faint impressions on the soft grass, but there was a rhythm in his steps, a quiet dominance that tugged at the edges of everyone's awareness.
Elena, who was nearby, was the first to spot him. Walking towards him, she threw a punch at him, hitting him square in the chest.
"Ouch, was that really necessary?" he muttered, not really feeling her strike.
"You're late. What took you so long? The party started around an hour ago," she narrowed her eyes at him. "There was something I needed to do first," he said, thinking back to his fight against Damon.
Theo's train of thought was cut off by her grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him closer towards the party.
Elena tugged him toward the center of the party. "You're not disappearing again." "I wasn't disappearing," he said with a straight face. "You vanished," she said, staring at him. "That's just dramatic rebranding," he said, going back and forth with Elena.
Theo let himself be dragged deeper into the party, lantern light washing over him like it was testing him for cracks. Music pulsed. The falls roared. People laughed with the reckless confidence of mortals who assume nothing is watching.
Five meters.
His invisible perimeter moved with him like a quiet storm cloud with social anxiety.
A guy holding a red cup blinked and suddenly forgot what he was saying. Another shifted his weight, rubbing his arms as if the temperature had dipped by a single, specific degree that only his spine could measure.
The invisible pressure rolled forward with him like an awkward bodyguard who didn't understand personal space.
Red Cup Guy blinked twice. "Wait… what was I saying?"
"You were explaining how you almost went pro in middle school," his friend said flatly.
"Oh. Yeah. That...Why do I suddenly feel like I owe him money?" He looked at Theo. Theo didn't break stride. "You probably do."
Elena shot him a look. "Be normal."
From a few feet away, Bonnie Bennett approached them. "Okay," Bonnie muttered, stepping closer. "What is that?"
Theo blinked. "What is what?" She gestured vaguely at him. "That thing. Around you. It's like the air forgot how to breathe." Elena laughed, pointing a teasing finger at her. "Are your supposedly witch senses tingling?"
Bonnie didn't look away from Theo. "I'm not a witch, I'm a physic there's a difference". "Anyway, I still don't trust that Stefan guy, remember that vision I told you about?" she said, looking at Elena. "Yeah, I remember Bonnie. I'm not exactly too old to be forgetting things, who do you think I am, huh, an old woman in a teenager's body?" Elena said, raising her eyebrow.
Theo, who was caught in the middle of these two, started to contemplate how he ended up in a situation like this. 'Oh, right, it was because I decided that I could be a hero and try and stop an armed robbery,' he thought as he snuck away from the two girls.
Nearby, Stefan was watching him like a hawk. He couldn't tell what happened to Theo, but he was different than when he met him. Stefan, however, was certain that Theo was not human and wasn't going to stop until he found out what Theo was.