Chapter 1

The summer is going to end

on a rainy day like this

he packed his house and left her

The previous occupant that resided at the Bennett household left the house as is, well except for all their personal items and pictures. But besides those things, everything was left as it was. The whole place was completely furnished, except for one room: the second bedroom upstairs. That room was perfectly clear in oppose to the rest of the house. The walls in that second bedroom were painted salmon pink, and Damon, irrationally annoyed by the girly color, actually considered painting it over right at that very second, but he wasn't staying in this house long so it was no big deal, really. Damon was only here to look for Stefan and the minute he found him (or the minute he found quiet life to be too boring and overbearing) he was going to leave Mystic Falls behind him just like he did 50 years ago.

Moving into the Bennetts' apparently hastily vacated household was not originally Damon's plan. He'd hoped he'd be able to move into his family's Boarding House that had been vacated since the last known Salvatore died 10 years ago. However, when he arrived back into town, the house was long gone, burnt to the ground some 8 years ago, someone in town had told him, and Damon really had no choice but to buy another house. A lot of money and some compulsion got him the place in 2 weeks.

He could have stayed at a hotel or maybe rented an apartment, but Damon wanted something he could come back to just in case he didn't see his brother for another 50 years and wanted to find him again. He'd have to rent it out or something when he was leaving. Maybe hire someone to check on the place twice a year to make sure it isn't burned to the fucking ground. Maybe when he found Stefan he could give him the house since his brother had a taste for quiet, peaceful things. It'd be like a peace offering or a gift.

Sorry I was a shit brother and left you alone for 50 years, here have a house!

The house itself gave him weird vibes on the first night he stayed in. It was perfectly normal, but something about it was unsettling. Maybe it was because it was so quiet. After spending the last 30 years of his long, seemingly never ending life living in city apartments where there were a lot of cars, music, and people, coming back to quiet Mystic Falls was a bit of a culture shock.

But nothing about the house was out of the ordinary. After a while, he soon began to brush off his uneasiness and ignore the weird tingling he got on the back of his neck once in a while. And if the house creaked at night… well, it was a semi-old house built in the 70s. Old houses tended to make noises didn't it?

After a month, Damon concluded that his search for Stefan in Mystic Falls was a bust. No one around town recognized his picture and the only person who knew the name Stefan Salvatore were people who had an interest in the past of Mystic Falls and once in a while they saw his name at the library when they studied old Founders journals.

Coming up empty handed every time frustrated Damon. He was never patient and level-headed like his brother was. He was abrupt and hasty and this town was just so boring. He didn't make any efforts to meet and greet with his neighbors and he ignored them when they rang the doorbell, so he had no one to talk to. He didn't like people much anyway, so he wasn't exactly lonely. He was just antsy for some fun. Bad fun. The kind he had while he was in New York, and Rome, and London. Dancing from sun down to sun up and taking a few wild girls back to his apartment or hotel to fuck and feed on…

There was no place to party that hard in Mystic Falls, though. The closest thing he saw to fun here was a place called the Mystic Grill. He drove past it once a week ago and it looked buzzing with fresh faces, both teens and adults alike. He needed a drink and he wouldn't mind flirting with whatever Mystic Falls had to offer, so he figured why not.

He ordered a bourbon at the bar and nursed it quietly, uninterested in all the conversations around him, but hearing them anyway. It was only 30 minutes before he was approached by a leggy brunette. She introduced herself as Amanda – or was with Amelia? Alice, maybe? – and she basically eyefucked Damon as she offered to buy his next drink.

As Alice(?) started to go on about her job, Damon took notice to a group of friends watching him from across the room. He could hear them talking about his looks and who this mysterious stranger was amongst themselves. He caught eye contact with one of them and winked then he smirked when Amelia (Alicia? Ashley ?) put her hand on his thigh and leaned closer to bring his attention back to her. She licked her lips and practically purred into his ear.

"You wanna get outta here?"

Yes, Damon most definitely did.

Ashley was a wild child and Damon barely got her into the house before she was climbing all over him, her tall long legs wrapping around him like a vice. He fucked her right there in the hallway, her high pitched gasps and yelps echoing off the walls. It was rough and wild and it was just like his nights in Italy. The only thing missing was the perfect view that his apartment offered, but the boring four walls would have to do for now.

Alicia bucked up and scratched her long fake nails down his back. Seeing her blissed our face beneath him made him hungry.

"Hey," He said as he slowed his thrusts down to a rocking motion. She looked up at him with a wide smile and sleepy eyes. "Do you want to see something cool?"

Amelia smiled, "Yeah."

He held her gaze and let the compulsion flow out of him and into her. "Promise you won't be afraid."

"I promise." She said immediately, her smile fading away completely, her expression dazed. "I won't be afraid."

Damon smiled. "Good."

And with that he changed, fast and almost immediate. His fangs sprang out, and spider-web veins under his eyes protruded. Amanda gasped, shocked, but not afraid. "W-what?"

Damon sank down, his lips closed around her neck, and with a swift bite, her sweet, thick blood began to fill his mouth. The girl beneath him was lax, but only because her body and mind were confused. She felt like she should be afraid, but something wouldn't let the emotion pull through. The bite in her neck started to burn, the pain seemingly snapping her out of her haze, and soon, she began to struggle.

Damon gripped her arms and held her still as he drank more. After a few more seconds, he pulled back with a deep breath, feeling warm and sated all over. He closed his eyes and licked his lips, chasing the taste of that delicious blood.

The sound of a loud noise startled him out of his bliss. He turned around to see a vase on the floor, broken into a dozen pieces.

"You're disgusting." A voice said behind him. The voice was female and it was very soft and breezy, almost like a wind. If Damon wasn't a vampire, he probably wouldn't have heard it.

Damon rolled off of whatever her name was (he wasn't pretending to know her name anymore at this point) and stood up. He glanced around, half expecting to see someone standing there, but the place was completely empty. Maybe he was hearing things. He looked down at the girl he just fed on. She was staring up at him with a confused expression on her face.

"You ok?" She asked as she rose up shakily. Her neck was still bleeding and Damon had a hard time tearing his eyes away from the wound.

"Just thought I heard something, that's all." Damon replied, looking around again.

She smiled up at him. "Wanna take this upstairs?"

Damon hesitated. He was a little creeped out, but it was nothing more sex and another feed couldn't help.

Damon's lips covered what's-her-name's wound as he led her upstairs. His hands held her up by her hips as she stumbled and giggled, nearly tripping over several steps as Damon continued to lap on her blood stained neck.

When they reached the top step the girl turned around in his arms to kiss him roughly, cutting her bottom lip on one of his fangs. She yelped and tried to pull away but he pulled her back in and sucked, closing his eyes to savor the taste of her blood. When he opened his eyes again he noticed a dark figure at the end of the hall. Pulling away from the girl, he craned his head to the side to get a better look and…

There was a girl standing at the doorway of the second bedroom upstairs. She was wearing a strapless blue and black prom dress that was covered with dust. She wasn't wearing any shoes and her long hair was elegantly styled in loose curls even though it looked a bit messy. A faint, eerie glow seemed to surround her like there were a million little faint lights under her skin.

She was staring right at him, her fists clenched tight and her face stormy.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked her, stepping away from what's-her-name.

The girl froze, an odd expression coming over her face. She uncurled her fists and took a hesitant step towards Damon. "You can see me?"

Damon rolled his eyes. Maybe this girl was at a party and she took too much drugs and broke into his house. "Of course I can see you! You aren't invisible. Get out of my house before I throw you out. Who are you? How did you even get in here?"

"My name is Bonnie Bennett. This is my house." The girl said, staring at Damon with an expression mixed with wonder and slight annoyance. "This is my house and I can't leave. I've been trying…"

She trailed off, but her eyes were still scanning him like she couldn't believe what was happening. Damon thought whatever drugs she was on must have been excellent. Obviously this girl was confused and high, but she needed to leave. He reached forward to grab her wrist and the girl backed away, eyes wide with fear. He reached out again but his hand passed right through her.

That couldn't be. She wasn't a fucking hologram. He tried again and this time she stayed completely still, watching as his hand went through her again. It was like he was grabbing air.

"Who are you talking to?" A voice said behind him. Damon turned around to look at the girl he brought home. She was wearing a freaked out expression, arms folded across her bare breasts in a lame attempt to conceal herself.

Damon didn't know what the fuck was going on. He turned back to the young woman - Bonnie - but she was no longer there. He looked around frantically, trying to find her, but she was gone.

The only trace she left behind was the door to the second bedroom left wide open.

Damon compelled the girl to forget this night along with his face and told her to leave. After she was gone, he searched the house from top to bottom. He checked up in the attic, he checked all the bedrooms, and he checked the basement. There was no sign of Bonnie.

His last stop was the second bedroom upstairs. It was completely empty but he looked in there anyway. Of course there was absolutely nothing there when he looked. He even looked in the closet and it was completely clear.

Either Damon was going crazy or there was a girl here earlier who completely vanished without a trace. Damon would like to think of himself as pretty sane (as sane as a 130 year old vampire can be) so he doubted that he was seeing things. Where did the girl come from? Was she a ghost? But Damon knew ghosts didn't exist. He thought that he would have encountered a ghost in his long life if they did in fact exist.

But what other explanations were there?

He thought about it as he laid in bed an hour later. By the time sleep started to take him, he came up with nothing.

That night Damon dreamed of someone crying. He couldn't see who was crying, but he could hear the sobs and it echoed throughout the house and in his head long after he woke up. It drove him crazy.

Later that morning, Damon stopped by the only high school in town; Mystic Falls High. He had no idea if the mysterious girl from last night was even still in high school, but it was worth a shot. He needed to find out who she was so he could confront her and let her know that breaking into someone home in a drunken/high stupor was lame. (Yes, he was back that to that theory since it seemed to be the only logical and possible one).

After parking his car, he examined the courtyard where various students were lounging and chatting, waiting for classes to start. He got out of his car and approached the first group of students he came in contact with. The group of girls stopped chatting when he walked up to them.

"I'm looking for someone named Bonnie Bennett." He said. "Any of your guys know her?"

The group of friends looked at each other and back at him.

"Bonnie Bennett?" One of them asked.

"Yes." Damon replied. "Bonnie Bennett. Brown skin, brown hair, about 5'2''…"

The group was silent for a while before one girl pulled out her cellphone and fiddled with it for a while before handing it to him. "That's the girl you're talking about?"

Damon glanced at the screen. A picture was up showing Bonnie and another girl smiling at the camera.

He nodded. "That's her."

"Um, Bonnie died 2 years ago." She said, reaching out the take her phone back.

Damon blinked. "What? But I just…"

His voice trailed off and he thought about the weird noises in his house and the sobbing and the voices… He thought about Bonnie saying that she could never leave the house, HER HOUSE, right before she vanished like she was never there.

"What happened to her?"

The girl shrugged. "She died right after her senior prom. No one knew why. It was a big deal here for a while because it was such a big mystery… Are you new in town?"

Damon didn't answer, he just turned and walked straight back to his car.

She was dead. Bonnie was dead, but she was currently in his house.

She was a ghost. There was no other explanation for it.

TBC...

Author's note:

Firstly, sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes! Please point them out to me so I can fix them!

I thought of this story while listening to Soley's album We Sink on repeat and the story itself it based on The Sun is Going Down II. I've been kinda obsessed with ghosts lately (I've been reading fics, listening to fanmixes, buying books) and I've been obsessed with vampires and Bonnie/Damon forever, so I figured why not write an AU about Bonnie being a ghost and Damon falling for her?

I've recently been told to make a tumblr, so all story information will go there. I'll also answer question there if you want. Later I'll post the dress I imagine Bonnie wearing over there too.

My tumblr url: ddarcyz