Okay, so I decided to put the second chapter up early. Tell me what you think! I could really use all the advice I can get since i'm a beginner. Let me know if there's something I can improve on. Thanks guys! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything


Bonnie felt like crap.

It had been a little over a fortnight since she had last seen Damon. Since he had told he loved her. And if she was being honest with herself, she missed him. More than she thought was humanly possible. She'd been crying for what felt like months, her eyes red and swollen. She had no appetite and couldn't sleep. After everything they had been through together these past few months, after everything he had done for her, she had thrown his feelings back in his face. He had opened up to her, and she had turned her back on him.

In her defence, she knew what he was like. And she knew what she could do to him.

Yes, she wanted to believe that he was in love with her. And yes, she could admit to herself that she was in love with him. That was easy. And she didn't want to deny it; it felt good to say. But over the last couple of months, every time she had wanted to tell him so, a voice in the back of her mind kept telling her This is Damon. He's not the settling down type. Not now. Or are you forgetting what he went through with Elena? And she'd chickened out.

Until the night Damon showed up wanting to help her; wanting to comfort her. She couldn't stop herself. She wanted him so much. So she had kissed him. And he had kissed her back, and it had been amazing. Until she realised what she had done. After that she had avoided him at all costs, and it was working; until they decided to give into their attraction. And when Damon had been in danger, when that crazy witch had come after her through him, she knew she couldn't lose him. He had saved her that night. If he had remained unconscious a second later...

She shivered at the memory. She was totally drained after that battle, physically and mentally. And Damon had helped her, despite what she'd done to him. She'd become his new Elena: always having to put his life at risk to help her. But Elena had never hurt him; not physically, at least. And she loved him too much to have him in danger-not for her, but because of her. To think he had an obligation to protect her when he should be protecting himself-by staying away from her. She just didn't know he would profess his love for her that day, which made it all the more harder to let him go. He didn't know that of course; he just thought she didn't feel for him as much as he did for her.

But after the roller coaster of emotions he put her through, the past two weeks she spent crying like a little girl, she knew that if she could go back in time and relive these past few months differently, she wouldn't change a thing.

Six months earlier

Bonnie could feel something following her. The past six months she had been travelling through Europe, deciding to defer college for a year. Next year she would be joining Caroline, Elena and Stefan, but for now she needed to rediscover herself outside of Mystic Falls. Right now she was in Venice, enjoying some of the sights. But every now and then she would get the feeling someone was standing right behind her. Only, she'd turn around and there was no one there. She'd put it down to paranoia, until two witches tried to kidnap her while she was walking back to her hotel. They'd come out of nowhere, but Bonnie was no novice. It was easy to neutralise the threat, despite there being two of them; but Bonnie decided it was time to move on. She'd been in Venice a little longer than the other places and figured the attackers were rogue witches trying to take a fellow witch's power for sport.

At least up to the point where she walked into half a dozen witches trying to take her down in London. Again, they were hardly a threat. Bonnie was a Bennett, one of the most powerful of her line. However the fact she had been attacked twice in the space of a fortnight was troubling. She decided six months was long enough to find herself and returned to Mystic Falls, Virginia on the earliest possible flight.

When she returned to her home town, she felt as if it were somehow more peaceful. The original family had packed up and moved to New Orleans, and she had taken care of Silas before graduation last year. But still, she couldn't help but feel as if something had followed her back. So instead of going straight home, she went to the Grill to see Matt. Like her, he had deferred for a year in order to make a little more money before starting college.

"Bonnie!" He called as she walked through the door. "What the hell are you doing back? I thought you were off to see the world?" he said with a grin on his face.

Bonnie laughed. "Yeah, well, nothing compares to the comfort of home. So I figured I'd cut my trip short." She hesitated, and then looked over her shoulder.

"What is it?" Matt asked, "Is something wrong?"

"No, no! Nothing's wrong," Bonnie assured him, "I'm just being my usual paranoid self I guess."

"Well, it's great to have you back Bon," Matt said. "We all have to catch up when the rest of the gang is back in town."

"Absolutely." Bonnie gave Matt a hug before leaving and made her way to her car. As she was walking she began to hear voices. Ghosts, she realised. After dying and then miraculously coming back while the supernatural veil was down last year, a side effect was her being able to hear the voices of supernatural beings that had passed. It only happened when she was in Mystic Falls. She recognised their frantic whispering as warnings. Something was coming for her. For a second she felt dizzy. She hadn't needed to worry about any of this for months now. Now she was right in the middle of something else, and she didn't even have any idea what it was. She couldn't talk to Matt about it; he had his own problems to stress over. So she decided to go to the only other person who still resided in Mystic Falls.

As she drove up to the Salvatore boarding house, a sense of nostalgia washed over her. So many things had taken place here. Now she was coming back and about to ask help from the last person she wanted to see today. As she got out of her car and walked toward the front door, the voices spoke up again, even more frantic this time. She spun around, and just managed to see a shadow disappear before she ran to the front door. She entered as fast as she could and slammed it before anything could get in. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the door. She was breathing hard from the adrenaline that kicked in when she saw the shadow. She was so busy trying to calm her breathing that she didn't notice a figure standing right in front her until she opened her eyes and screamed.

"Hasn't anyone ever taught you to knock, witch?" Damon remarked.