Chapter 1: Of Thoughts Unspoken

She threw her head back and laughed out loud, a proper belly laugh that bubbled up and echoed down the corridors of the school. Caroline and Bonnie subsequently dissolved into helpless giggles: all three of them basking in the glow of a shared joke among friends. The laughter attracted the attention of the milling students, and bought smiles to their faces.

What must it be like, Damon wondered, to have such an effect on those around you? How can you harness that kind of power – the power to make others like you – simply by being? He lingered in a doorway, unnoticed, as the three girls went about their normal business. Chatting about what so-and-so had worn to this-and-that party, and how ill-advised this has been.

To the casual observer they seemed like perfectly normal girls. Their conversation was casual and engaged on a shallow level of human awareness, and their appearance was wholesome and – somehow – full of sparkling life. It was easy to forget that here stood two vampires, one of doppelgänger heritage, and a witch of great and terrible power. Damon remained entranced, as ever unable to take his eyes off the expressive contours of Elena's face.

He had come to the school with the intention of finding Stefan; although he had apparently decided that he didn't want to be found. So instead Damon seemed to have fallen victim to his usual pastime of Elena-watching. Not productive, but certainly enjoyable.

Life had quietened considerably since the veil had dropped back into place, and although everyone else seemed to be enjoying the respite – the girls were excited about their incoming graduation, Stefan was planning the best course to present Elena with the Cure, the Originals were comfortably back in their seat of being all-powerful in a Silas-free world – Damon didn't trust it one little bit. It wasn't just the manner in which everything resolved itself, which was inexplicable at best, but the speed at which everyone seemed to forget their impending doom. It was like magic... annoying, memory-altering magic.

Damon scowled at his thoughts, and again remembered why he'd wanted to locate Stefan. Word on the grapevine was that Klaus had somehow fathered a child, which was making all sorts of a hullaballoo in the vampire underground. Would this child be part-vampire? And, if so, would that make it an organic Vampire? Something that no one had thought possible. Damon at least needed something to put the group back on their guard again; this happy acceptance of life worried him. And even worse, they had nothing to talk about but soppy feelings and when Elena was going to take the Cure. Something he'd rather not think about if possible.

"Damon."

Jolted out of his quickly spiralling thought pattern, he found himself staring into impossibly deep brown eyes. "Hello, Elena."

"Are you alright? Has something happened to Stefan?"

Damon narrowed his eyes slightly in reaction to the unbidden concern over his brother. "Nah; just can't stand a day without him by my side y'know?"

She rolled her eyes at his flippant comment before frowning slightly. "I haven't seen him around here today – I thought you two had something planned?"

"Nope. Well, I'm sure he can't have gone far. Catch you after classes, girlfriend."

He took too much pleasure in the surprised widening of her eyes as he turned to walk away. Calling her that had become one of his latest habits; it had the combined advantage of winding her up and reminding her of what had come to pass – and what had yet to come. She'd made a decision once, and he carried that pain with him every day. He was already dreading the next decision she would make, as he knew this would be the final one. The one that would drive a wedge between him and Stefan for good.

"Damon," she called after him. "Take care." He turned to look at her quizzically. She shrugged; "I just... have a feeling."

As he walked away he felt the darkness settle back in around his character, as it always did when he left her. He left the school and turned right heading along the road to the parking lot. A sharp pain in his head stopped him short, it intensified quickly bringing him to his knees. It felt like his head was being split in half, similar but different to when a witch caused repetitive aneurisms... this was more... burny. And then he blacked out, sprawling face-first in the Mystic Falls dust.

A faraway figure watched impassively, a mischievous glint in their eye. This was going to be fun.