Summary: Callie Forbes was insane...or, at least, that's what everyone thought since she was locked up after claiming a werewolf killed her best friend. Now, after two years, she's back in Mystic Falls and ready to continue on with her life. Unfortunately, no one in Mystic Falls stays in the dark for long.
I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined. I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned.
- Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield
"Sasha!" Callie called as she walked through the forest, shining her light in different directions and hoping she would come across her best friend. "Sasha, where are you?!" She stopped as she came across a large tree with an X carved into it. Sasha's father had put it there as a marker for the two young girls; they weren't supposed to go pas that point without either him or Sasha's mother. Looking behind her, Callie could just barely make out the red of Sasha's parents tent. They were still sleeping, but Callie had to go past the line. Sasha had...
"I'll be quick." Callie nodded to herself. "They won't even know I'm gone." And with that, she walked past the tree and deeper into the dark forest.
She had no idea how long she had been walking; finding Sasha had not been as easy as she hoped, but Callie wasn't going to quit- not while Sasha was still out there and potentially in danger.
A twig snapped behind her and Callie gasped as she spun around and shined her light. There was nothing there. With her heart beating three times as fast, she hesitantly turned back around and picked up her pace.
"It's just the dark." Callie told herself. "Dad always says that the dark plays tricks on your mind." But then a loud, high pitched scream sounded and Callie jumped in fear. She knew that scream. "Sasha!" She yelled before running off towards it.
She ran for only a few moments before she found her friend, but she wished that she hadn't; laying on the cold forest floor with blood covering her ripped arms and torso was Sasha. Her dark brown eyes stared up at the moon and refused to move their gaze. Callie, as afraid as she was, ran to help her friend, but stopped when she heard and saw a man limping out from behind a large tree. He was completely naked with dark hair and pale skin covered in blood. He limped towards Sasha's body until he caught sight of Callie. She gasped and back away when she saw his eyes turn a deep yellow color.
"Run..." He gritted out, but Callie was frozen where she stood. Suddenly, a loud snapping sound broke through the air as his leg bent at an odd angle and her fell to the ground. Callie was still frozen in fright. She flinched every time another one of his bones snapped until he looked up at her and, through the agony of his injuries growled at her. "RUN!" He yelled again, this even louder, but it was enough to send Callie running.
"Mrs. Franks!" Callie screamed as she ran. "Mrs. Franks!" With how fast she was running, she made it back to the campsite in less than half the time it took her to wander away, but she skidded to a stop when she saw what still left of it.
The tents had been shredded apart and the supplies seamed to have been thrown and strewn every which way. There was blood and body parts everywhere and Callie didn't hold in her scream.
A loud growl sounded from behind her and Callie turned around to see a large wolf with glowing amber eyes starting back at her with barred teeth and blood covered fur. Instead of freezing in fright like she had earlier, Callie turned and ran straight to the truck that was parked on a few feet away from the campsite- the wolf growling and running for her the entire way.
Luckily for Callie, the back door was unlocked and she quickly got inside before shutting and locking the door, causing the wolf to run into it and push the car a few inches backward. Without hesitation, Callie got down from the seat and slipped into the small space beneath it just in time before the glass of the window shattered down on the seat.
"Callie!"
Callie's eyes popped open as she was brought out of her dream by a familiar voice. Immediately, she shot up into an upright position and nearly hit her head against her sisters.
"Whoa!" Caroline barely managed to move out of the way before they collided and saw the way Callie's eyes darter around the room and her chest quickly rose and fell with each pant she took. "Callie," She took her younger sister by the arms, causing her to jump. "Callie, it's me. It's Caroline. You're okay."
Realizing that she was in her room and no longer in the dark forest that was her dream, Callie allowed herself to calm down. "I'm sorry." She apologized.
"Bad dream?" Caroline guessed and she nodded. Reaching over to the bedside table, Caroline picked up the small pill organizer and dumped the section for Monday into her own hand before handing it out to her sister with a glass of water. "Here. Mom says these will help."
"Right." Callie nodded. How could she forget about the first of many stipulations that came with her release; those stupid pills.
It had only been a month since Callie Forbes had been released from Blue Meadow Psychiatric facility in Atlanta, where she had resided for exactly two years, four months, three weeks, and five days. She was supposed to be in longer since the psychiatrist at the hospital thought that she was still disturbed and holding onto her fantasy about what had happened in the woods all those years ago. Thankfully, however, the psychiatrist who had referred her mother to the hospital had decided that Callie was ready to come back and that keeping her locked up would be damaging to her reintegrating into society.
Grabbing them, Callie went to take them before she noticed an odd looking red pill. "Is this a Skittle?"
Caroline nodded. "And tomorrow, you get a M&M. Like when we were kids." Handing Callie the glass of water, Caroline stood up from the bed. "Now take your pills and get dressed. Today is a very important day." Then she left, trusting the Callie would actually take her pills.
For one short second, Callie thought about throwing them out- all they did was make her compliant and- according to her doctor- happier, but in the end took them. The last thing she needed was to be the depressed psycho on her first day of school in two years. Psycho was bad enough.
After drinking her water, Callie went into her closet to find something to wear. Her wonderful sister had taken it upon herself to buy Callie new clothes seeing as the only ones that would be in her closet were for a thirteen year old- Caroline had even come home early from cheer camp to be there when Callie arrived home from the hospital. The only problem with letting Caroline pick out her clothes was that she and Callie didn't have the same sense of style- well, more like Callie had no sense of style considering the hospital had a strict policy on what could be worn. Her style for the past two years had consisted of a gray sweater and gray sweatpants.
Looking at the closet full of pastels and lace, Callie sighed. "You need this." She told herself quietly. "You need to dress happy- you need to act happy...you need to be happy."
So there she was; ten minutes later dressed in a knitted, cream colored sweater over a button down and a pair of white jeans. She had tried to make an effort with her hair and put it in a braid going down her back.
"Hi," She said into her mirror with a smile. "My name is Callie Forbes. Yes, I did go to a mental institution." She said, answering the unasked question. "But now I realize that the stress of my traumatic ordeal caused me to imagine things." She gave another smile. "Yes, I'm much better now." Letting out a breath, Callie nodded before going to put on her boots. Had she stared into the mirror a few moments longer, she would've seen a flash of her sisters hair through the crack between the door and the door frame.
There was nothing quite like the first day of high school. Callie had dreamed of the day where she would finally become a student at Mystic Falls High and take over the empire of gossip, fashion, and cheerleader hierarchy that her sister had spent her entire high school career creating.
But that had been two years ago when she was thirteen. Now, at fifteen and the main source of gossip, Callie just wanted to get through the pitying looks, laughter, and judgement as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that seemed to be asking for too much.
"So, I got mom to use the Sheriff card to get you switched to the same lunch hour as me so that you won't have to sit alone." Caroline chattered away, purposefully paying no mind to the looks that people were sending her sister. Unfortunately, Callie hadn't inherited the confidence gene that every other Forbes seemed to have. "You'e got an extra free period after. You'll have to spend it alone for now, but maybe after I get the cheerleading team up and running, you can spend it practicing..." Callie had tried to listen, she really did, but at some point she seemed to block out the sound of Caroline's voice. She tried to tune back in, but her attention was pulled away once more as Caroline walked her past the trophy case in the front hall of the school. Of course, the first place trophy Caroline and her friends on the cheerleading team had won in Freshman year sat front and center, but Callie's eyes just seemed to glide past it and settled on a different trophy.
While it was small in size, it was also a golden first place trophy, but that wasn't what caught Callie's eye; it was the photo in front of it.
At only thirteen years old, Callie and her best friend Sasha had entered the high school science fair- well, technically they were apart of Caroline's experiment (which they had done for her). With Sasha's interest in robotics and Callie's overall knowledge, they had made a flash that ran on the body heat of the hand holding it. They had won first place and gotten their picture in the newspaper. Caroline had been generous enough to let them take all the credit, seeing as how she was just the way to get them into the science fair.
The picture taken of them that day was the only one Callie had of her best friend when she was in the hospital. It was the photo that Sasha's dad had gotten printed on a T-shirt because he was so proud. It was the photo that sat on the mantle of the fireplace in Callie's house and the photo that Sasha had put on their self made time capsule that was currently buried somewhere in the woods.
"Callie!" The blonde jumped and turned to see her sister looking at her expectantly. "Did you hear anything I said?"
"Uh, sorry." She shook her head before glancing back at the photo. "I'm, uh...I'm gonna go get some air." Then, before Caroline could stop her, Callie started down the hall. Caroline moved to go after her, but stopped when she saw the photo that Callie had been staring at.
At thirteen, Callie had been a mess with braces, frizzy blonde hair that had never seen a pair of scissors, and a love for Care Bears that rivaled whoever created them. She had been the biggest dork that Caroline had ever met and she had barely paid attention to her sister during that time.
"I miss you." She sighed before walking off to find her sister.
After leaving Caroline, Callie had pushed her way through the first door she could and found herself behind the school in, what she could only guess was, the loading docks.
There were a dozen or so teenagers littered around smoking, drinking or making out, but Callie paid them no mind. She could practically feel a panic attack coming on. Digging into her bag, she quickly located the bottle of pills inside and pull them out before twisting off the top. Ignoring that instructions that told her to only take one, she tossed back two before putting them back in her bag and swapping them out for her bottle of tea. Pulling off the top, she took a couple a gulps. "Are you okay?"
Lowering her bottle, Callie whirled around to see a guy. He was around her age with slightly floppy dark brown hair and matching eyes. Despite the fact that his lanky body was shrouded in black, she recognized him immediately. "I'm fine." She insisted and he raised an eyebrow. "Really, Jer. Promise." His eyebrows furrowed at that.
"Do I know you?" He asked and Callie rolled her eyes.
"Ha-ha." She deadpanned. "Very funny. Come one, Jer. It's me." Nothing. "Callie." He shook his head. "Callie Forbes, AKA the Fireside Girl to your Driftwood Scout? I snuck out after curfew every Halloween and helped you egg Mr. Tanners house!"
"Callie?" She nodded. "I haven't seen you in forever. Not since they shipped you off to the nut house." That's what Callie had always liked about Jeremy; he never thought about what he said before he said it. He was one of the only people Callie knew wouldn't walk on egg shells around her. "I was supposed to come visit after the introductory period or whatever that crap was, but you got your visitation rights taken away."
"Yeah," She sighed. "Caroline visited me and she got upset because the hospital wouldn't let her to give me my Care Bear and she knew that I couldn't sleep without it and then I started crying because I wanted to go home and the doctors decided that it was best if I didn't have any more visitors for a while."
"I wrote you tons of letters, but you never wrote back." He told her. "I thought I was boring you so I had Elena decorate them with glitter."
"Did you know that you can turn fold a piece of paper into a sharp knife?" She asked back. "I didn't, not until I demanded to know why I couldn't be given my mail. They didn't even give it back to me when I left. They're mailing them to me."
Jeremy just shook his head in disbelief. Not that she hadn't been given her mail, but that she was there. "I can't believe you're here." He admitted, astonished. "A lot happened while you were gone."
She nodded. "Yeah, Caroline told me about your parents when I was allowed calls. I'm sorry, Jeremy."
"It's not your fault." He shrugged. "And it's not like anyone can change that."
"How's Elena?"
"Bottling up her feelings and trying to...I don't know, be there for me, I guess, but between her and our Aunt Jenna, it just makes me feel-"
"Smothered." He nodded. "So, if you won't let Elena be there for you or Jenna...how do you cope?" Digging a hand into the pocket of his hoodie he produced an orange bottle. "Drugs?"
"Didn't I just see you down happy pills with iced tea?" He asked, putting the pills away at her judg-y tone.
"Yeah, but I have a perscription." She pointed out, crossing her arms.
"For what?"
"Prozac." Jeremy scoffed before going into his jeans and pulling out a small baggie. Taking her hand, he dropped the baggie into it.
"My stuffs better." He promised. Jeremy expected her to laugh in his face and give him back the pills; that what thirteen year old Callie would've done. She had been thoroughly scared straight by D.A.R.E warnings her mother had shoved down her throat about the weed man after she found a cigarette in her room.
"Do they help with panic attacks?" Was what he got instead.
"They help with everything." Callie put the pills in her pocket before looking back up at Jeremy.
"I'm not a druggie-"
"Neither am I." He assured her just as the bell for first period rang. "C'mon," He offered her his hand. "I'll help you get through the rest of the day and you can help me."