**Chapter Two**
Visions
I was starting to HATE Mystic Falls. I literally didn't have any negative feeling towards basically anything in my hometown. There was just one thing that was causing me to want to run back to Cali and hide with Terra and Marco. Since coming back to Mystic Falls, I've had more visions that a week in California. Two of which came to me in a booze-induced dream. Getting visions while asleep was second only to getting them while swimming or driving. It wasn't, like, deadly bad. But they were still bad. In fact, they fucking sucked. Visions were the worst, and it was all Mystic Fucking Falls fault.
Yes, I was blaming the entire fucking town. Because I was hungover and I was cranky and I had to go to fucking school.
Plus, I knew that the two visions I had while asleep was going to be on my mind all day. Both of which had a recurring character. Damon Salvatore. The first dream had been rather...intimate. He was fucking and feeding on my friend Caroline. Only I had been in Caroline's body. It was a mindfuck. And she didn't deserve that shit, being mind controlled and turned into a breathing blood bag. That may have been my fate, but Caroline Forbes didn't deserve it.
I didn't find the second dream-vision nearly as important as the first. Just Damon feeding off of my history teacher. No big whoop.
There was a sick feeling in my stomach when I finally decided to leave the comfort of my bed. And it wasn't just because I had gotten obliterated the night before. At least not completely. Today was destined to be a bad day before it even started.
With a groan, I threw back my sheets and pressed my fingers to my tired eyes. I was so not ready for the day. It was my first official day back, so that right there made the day a million times worse. But if I didn't go, Terra would be on my ass, distance made no difference. So with a huff, I finally climbed out of bed and stumbled to my shower. I still reeked of wine and whiskey.
After pulling on a pair of flared blue jeans and a black dragon printed tank top, I reached for my lacey black pumps. I honestly had to patience for school but I knew that I needed to go. Staying back again would be a nightmare. I didn't bother with breakfast, instead, I just stopped for a large coffee before I left for Mystic Falls High. I had no clue how my silver Nissan Altima was sitting in my driveway that morning but I didn't question it.
"Listen" I heard Bonnie say to Elena. They didn't see me yet. "I'm not saying don't date the guy. I'm saying take it slow."
"You were the one that said to go for it" Elena pointed out as I fell into line beside the,
"What's with the 'about-face' Bon?" I asked, causing both of my friends to jump. They weren't expecting me. It took them a moment to get over their shock before both girls were hugging me.
"It's not an about-face, El" she told me. "Elena's single for the first time in our entire high school careers. It's the perfect time to play the field."
Elena laughed out. "Oh, Cuz I'm soo that girl."
"Yea I really can't see Elena going out with a new guy every weekend" I laughed as well.
"Okay" Elena sighed. we stopped walking and she turned to Bonnie. "Seriously, what are you not saying?"
"It's stupid" Bonnie sighed.
I couldn't help but fiddle with the lapis beads of my hamza necklace "What is?" I asked.
"Spit it out" Elena demanded.
"I accidentally touched Stefan... and I got a really bad feeling."
Raising an eyebrow, Elena asked, "Is this the whole 'witch mojo thing?"
"Witch mojo thing?" I knew that Bonnie was a Bennett witch, I just didn't know if she knew that yet.
"Grams keeps telling me I'm a witch" Bonnie waved off. "And no. This is me expressing concern about one of my best friends new boyfriend."
I really didn't want to stick around for this conversation. With the pain seeping into my bones, I knew there was one place at Mystic Falls High where I could get what I needed. "Hey guys, I'm gonna head out," I told them. Bonnie and Elena just waved their goodbyes and I walked off with my heels clicking on the pavement. Once I was out of their eyesight, I veered off from the entrance to the school and towards where my cousin hung out with her stoner friends.
I didn't smoke all that often, but a joint every now and again helped with the pain.
"Hey, Jer" I said with a little wave, I wasn't all that surprised that Jeremy Gilbert was over here. Elena had told me that he had been hanging out with Vicki and partying a lot.
"Elena send you over here?" he asked, I just shook my head and motioned for him to give me the joint he had in his hand. With a raised eyebrow, he did and watched as I took a hit. "I, uh, I didn't know you smoked."
"I dont," I told him as I exhaled a long trail of smoke before adding "Not often at least. But I had a shitty night and a shitty morning, so..." I trailed off with a shrug before passing the joint back to him.
"I'm glad you came back, Ellie," Jeremy said as he hit the joint. "I think you might be the only one of Elena's friends that isn't on my ass about this."
"I'm not a hypocrite," I told him with a shrug. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't agree with all the pills and whatever else. But pots fine. Pot won't kill you."
"You know, I remember back before you moved, you always used to wear dreamcatchers" he commented, when I arched a brow he lit another joint and handed it to me. "I just noticed that you weren't wearing any. So. What's up with that?" he asked with a chuckle, causing me to snort.
"You're not supposed to notice shit like that kiddo" I laughed. Jeremy was like the little brother I didn't have. Then, suddenly, our light banter was gone as my cousin Vicki approached.
"Hey, El" she waved, as if what happened last night didn't happen. "Jer, I rock" she stated, coming to stand next to Jeremy. "I scored two tickets to the Posers Saturday night. Their playing at the Rat."
"You and Tyler have fun" Jeremy commented, handing the joint back to me. It took all I had not to laugh at Jeremy turning down Vicki. She may have been my cousin, but she was kind of a slut.
"Don't be like that" she told him. "I want you to go."
"What you're not worried that you're screwing the stoner geek," Jeremy asked, sarcasm dripping from his words.
"I think everyone already knows" I smirked, my eyes were closed and I was savoring the feel of my buzz. Blinking my eyes open, I nudged Jeremy's arm slightly as I passed the joint back to him. Vicki's gaze drifted to me slightly before turning back to Jeremy. I'm surprised that she wasn't more confused as to why I was over here.
"It's not even like that anymore," she told him "So now we can be friends and just hang."
"Tell me something, was it the drugs? Were you sleeping with me because of the drugs?" Jeremy asked.
Not wanting to stick around for this particular conversation, I took another quick hit from the joint before saying my goodbyes to Jeremy and Vicki. Since it was my first day of school, I had to make my way to the front office and get my schedule and locker number before class.
Thankfully I carried a travel sized bottle of my favorite body spray. I just needed to dip into a bathroom so that I could not reek of weed. At least not completely. As I walked through the halls, I saw Stefan and Elena standing in front of our lockers. I should have known that they knew each other, Mystic Falls was a small town.
I just wondered if Elena knew about Stefan being a vampire.
"There's more to me than just...'gloomy graveyard girl" I heard Elena tell the vampire. With my heels clicking on the shiny linoleum floor, I walked over to my friend and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. I really missed her.
"It's true" I smirked. "There is a whole other Elena Gilbert that you have yet to meet, my good sir. She was into everything when we were kids, gave me fucking whiplash" I added with a giggled. Then I pulled away from Elena, hoping she wouldn't catch on to the fact that I was as high as a kite. "It's nice to meet you, Stefan, right? I'm Amelia, but you can call me Ellie."
"It's good to meet you, Ellie" Stefan nodded with a smile before turning back to Elena. "And I can't wait to meet her," he said, "When will that be?"
"Soon," Elena told him, closing her locker when the bell rang.
"It's the sole reason I came back" I exaggerated with a smile as we left the lockers.
"So, Ellie, I'm having a small 'get-to-know-you' dinner at my place. We can easily make into a 'welcome-home' dinner too. Think you can make it?" my best friend asked me.
"I literally have nothing going on, since I just got back yesterday. So yea, I'll totally be there" and with that, the three of us went our separate ways.
Like most schools, Mystic Falls high offered a bunch of different elective language courses. Not just French and Spanish. I had been taking Latin and German back in California, but I could only pick one here. So I went with German.
I was sitting in class with my notebook in front of me. I had been doodling crows and hamzas since the beginning of class. But suddenly, there was something different about the page. Something I don't remember writing.
The crow I had drawn was suddenly holding a scroll in its beak. I only recognized a few words written on the page, like the numbers eight, fourteen and twenty-two. But the rest was lost on me. Just as I went to look them up in my text-book, my teacher walked over to my desk and looked at my drawing.
"Between the numbers of eight, fourteen and twenty-two. The man will perish." Mrs. Jordan read from the page. "What brought this on, Miss Crossen?" she asked me.
"I-I don't know. I just...drew a crow" I shrugged and Mrs. Jordan accepted my not-really lie. I knew that it was a message. This was only my second time getting a vision like this, I liked it waaay better than the feeling-of-death visions I usually get. Terra had told me that dreams like this were closest to prophesy. Crazy Gypsy Shit is what I usually called it, but I loved my crazy gypsy shit. So it was all good.
Classes were a blur for the rest of the day. The German words I had written in class were at the forefront of my mind. It was obvious that someone was more than likely going to die. But what the hell could the numbers mean? It all just made no sense. It was also obvious that it had something to do with Damon, but that was probably from our bond more than anything.
It was in history class that I knew who was going to die. I remembered my dream-vision the second I saw Mr. Tanner. I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner.
"World war II ended in..." Tanner started off his history class. "Anyone got anything?" he asked again when no one answered. "Miss Juan?" the girl in question simply shrugged. "1945."
I can say that I wasn't really paying attention to what Tanner was saying. My eyes were all but glued to Bonnie Bennett, who was sitting at her desk, doodling in her notebook. And I recognized the look in her eye, it was the same look I got whenever I had a vision.
"Miss Gilbert" Tanner called on my friend, snapping her out of her silent conversation with Stefan. "Pearl Harbor?" he asked.
"December 7th, 1941" Stefan answered for her.
"Thank you, Miss Gilbert."
"Any time" Stefan responded, causing the class to giggle. But Tanner, being the ass he was, saw that as a challenge.
"Alright," the teacher smirked. "The fall of the Berlin Wall?"
"1989. I'm good with dates, sir" Stefan answered.
I listened with an amused smile as Stefan continued to put Tanner in his place. Naturally, being a vampire, Stefan knew just about every major event in the last, like, hundred years.
"Ha!" Tanner exclaimed loudly, causing me to jump in my seat. "It ended in '52!" he said, clearly thinking he had gotten the better of his student.
"Uh, actually, sir, it was '53," Stefan told him.
"Look it up, somebody" the teacher ordered.
"It ended in... 1953" I stated a moment later after pretending to look it up on my phone. I knew that Stefan was right, I mean dude was there after all. Plus I hated Tanner, so I plastered a shit eating grin on my face as the douche's face puckered like he was sucking a lemon.
The next thing I knew, the class was over and we were all released from Tanner's hell. However, I had been roped into going to cheerleading practice-slash- tryouts. Where I knew for a fact that one of the girls were going to try and get me to try out. Not. Happening... Ever. I had heard, of course, about Stefan Salvatores epic football skills. Maybe if Stefan joined the team, the Timberwolves would actually win a game.
"Oh my god, you're here!" Bonnie cheered when she saw Elena and I walked out on the field. "Ellie, now that you're home are you gonna join the team again?" she asked me, just as I thought she would. No magic necessary.
"Yeah right" I laughed, sitting down next to the CD player and removing my glittery heels. "I may be pretty, but I like food and I sure as hell can't move like that."
"I can't be sad girl forever," Elena told Bonnie. "The only way to get things back to the way they were, is to do things that were. Oh, and you're coming to dinner tonight" she added. It wasn't a question.
"I am?" Bonnie asked with a smirk as they both started stretching.
"Mmm-hmm" Elena nodded. "Kind of like a 'welcome back' thing for El" she added. "You, me, Ellie, and Stefan."
"Non-negotiable, Bon," I said when I saw the look on my friends face. She was taking this 'hating-Stefan' thing a little too far. I mean, yea, he's a vampire. Bonnie didn't even know that yet, barely believed the truth about herself. Yup, definite witch-trait. Instant vamp-hate.
"You have to give him a chance," Elena told her seriously.
Bonnie's lie was extremely obvious "Tonights no good," she told us. "Have you seen Caroline" she changed the subject and I bit my lip. I had a feeling about what our blonde friend had been doing all day. "I've texted, like, a hundred times."
"Don't change the subject Bonnie Bennett" Elena laughed. "You're going to be there."
There was no room for argument and she knew it. "Fine!" Bonnie huffed before pouted playfully. "I'll go."
Elena giggled "Good."
"Yay, now I won't be the awkward third wheel" I laughed as well, digging my toes into the soft grass. Humming at the feel of the power of the earth.
The cheerleaders all sat on the ground, doing various stretched and chatting with each other. I knew for a fact that it never took this long to start practice. Especially with Caroline Forbes running the show. She was a perfectionist.
"Seriously, where is Caroline?" Bonnie asked.
"I don't know" Elena shrugged.
"I mean, I know I haven't been around for a while, but I know that this isn't like her" I added. "Chicks never been late to literally anything in her entire life."
I was pretty sure she was born a few days before her due date.
"Try her again" Elena sighed.
Just as Bonnie put her cell to her ear, I could hear the distinct sound of heavy rock music blaring, easily drowning out our 3oh!3. Elena seemed to hear it too, as the both of us looking to the parking lot to see a gorgeous older modeled blue Camaro. With Caroline in the front seat. My heart pounded against my rib cage when I caught a glimpse of Damon. What I was confused about, was the slight roar of dull annoyance towards seeing Caroline
When I finally caught his blue gaze, my breath hitched. As soon as our eyes met, he smirked and revved his engine. I tried and failed, to fight the blush that rose in my cheeks when Damon motioned for me to call him.
The moment he sped from the parking lot, my cell phone chimed with a text.
'We need to talk, gorgeous.'
Caroline was a bitch all throughout practice. Not that her behavior was all that surprising, Caroline has always been a bitch. But it was like she had some form of self-entitlement to her now that it was publicly known that she was screwing an older guy. Mostly her bitchiness was directed towards me and Elena, though. It was like she was taking out her Stefan-jealousy out on Elena. Which was stupid.
I also learned that she was the reason why Damon had my phone number. She had said he was curious about me, and basically that he wouldn't shut up about until she gave in. So, naturally, Caroline was taking that out on me. Which was also kinda stupid...kinda.
I gave Elena a ride home after practice. In her driveway, Elena asked if I wanted to just stick around until dinner and do homework with her. But I declined, telling her that I wanted to head back to my house and get changed, maybe video call Terra. Though I did promise to show up early to help her and Bonnie set everything up.
I drove around for a few hours, debating on whether or not I should text Damon back. I really wasn't expecting to find my Destined when I came home. I figured that was the only reason why I was reacting this way towards him being with Caroline. Cuz he was an asshole otherwise.
"Fuck,"
I had lost track of time and if I didn't get home right now, I was gonna be suuuper late. Quickly I turned around in a random driveway and sped off towards my house. Once through my front door, I kicked off the sparkly silver pumps and stripped out of my jacket and tank top, As I made my way to my room, I texted Elena to let her know that I'm basically on my way before texted Terra and telling her to call me.
It was when Damon texted me once more that my heart started pounding in my chest. I had been slipping on my hot pink pumps and almost tripped when I read the message.
'See you tonight' was all he had sent.
It was when I was sitting in my car that I worked up the courage to text him back. 'I don't know what your evil plan is, and really I don't care' I told him. 'But you're right, we do need to talk.'
With I took off towards Elena's house.
Walking into the Gilbert household was always like coming home. All these years later and nothing about that had changed. Well, except there were some people missing, of course.
I didn't bother knocking, none of us ever did. And after stepping over the thresh hold I started walking towards the kitchen, knowing that's where Bonnie and Elena would be. I didn't even bother saying anything as I walked over to the cabinet and pulled out the dinner plates.
"You explain it," Bonnie said. "Last night, I'm watching 'Nine-0', a commercial break comes on and I'm like 'I bet it's that phone commercial!' And sure enough, it's that guy and the girl with the bench, he flies to Paris and he flies back. They take a picture..." she trailed off.
"Oh come on," Elena said, her voice sounding as if she was on the 'non-believer' wagon. If only she knew. "That commercials on a constant loop."
"Fine" Bonnie huffed. "Well, how about this? Today I'm obsessed with numbers. Three numbers. I keep seeing eight, fourteen and twenty-two. How weird is that."
So I was right, Bonnie was having a vision today during history. Considering her lineage, it really wasn't that surprising. And I just knew that I was going to catch some bitch-vibes from her at some point for not telling her or helping her. Hopefully, she would understand that it wasn't my place and that our magic is different.
"Maybe we should play the lottery" I joked, before sending Bonnie a reassuring smile. "You talk to your Grams yet?"
"She's just gonna say I'm a witch," Bonnie said as she dumped the pasta we were having for dinner into a large bowl. "I don't want to be a witch. Do either of you want to be a witch?" she asked.
"I don't want to be a witch" Elena wrinkled her nose.
"I wouldn't mind." I shrugged, earning me curious glances from my friends. "What? If people actually researched shit, they would know that witches are nothing more than epic forces of nature. Far from what we see in the movies and stuff..."
Silence. That's what I get for opening my mouth. Shocked silence.
"You and your research" Bonnie rolled her eyes playfully before turning back to Elena. "And putting it into a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody," she said, causing the love-struck brunette to laugh lowly.
"Elena, where are the serving spoons?" I asked, pulling open the drawer they used to be in.
"Middle drawer on your left" Bonnie answered just as Elena opened her mouth.
"Ok, so you've been in this kitchen, like, a thousand times" Elena defended.
"Yea that's it" I muttered with a roll of my eyes. Elena just glared playfully as the doorbell rang.
It was when Elena went to let Stefan in that Bonnie pulled open the drawer in front of her. A look a fear flashing over her face.
"You okay, Bon?" I asked.
Bonnie just gave me a sad look. "I don't want to be a witch."
"You might not have a choice, hun" I sighed. Normally I would give her a hug, but I didn't want to trigger a vision for her or me. "Besides, I think it's pretty fucking rad."
Dinner was silent and awkward after that. The three of us barely even spoke as we ate. Mostly got to know Stefan, and filled the girls in on life in California. Well, not all of it, obviously. Couldn't tell them about how my soon-to-be uncle was my aunts Destined Vampire and not too long after the wedding, he was going to be turning Terra into a vampire too.
Or that I had magic that was slowly killing me. And that my only salvation was Stefan's evil vampire brother.
No instead I told them about my 'normal' life across the country. I told them how I had a small group of friends. Ones who I would miss, and others I definitely wouldn't. I told them how one of my best friends, Bitch-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named had slept with my boyfriend at the time, Cheating-Man-Slut. My descriptions of the two caused Stefan to choke on his drink in laughter. And I could have sworn that Bonnie's lips gave a flicker of a smile before she donned her resting bitch face mask.
"Did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asked her sort-of-boyfriend.
"Well, he let me on the team. So I must have done something right" Stefan told us as he recovered from his 'choking'. Yea you don't need to breathe, buddy, but nice try.
"Bonnie, you should have seen Stefan today" Elena directed towards our friend, trying to get her to engage more. "Tyler threw the ball right at him and..."
Bonnie just cut Elena off with a snap "Yea I heard." She was trying so hard not to glare openly at Stefan. She was failing and I resisted the urge to shoot my heel foot out and kick her with my expensive shoes.
Witches, like me, have a sixth sense for the supernatural. Except witches always assume the worst of any other supernatural creature.
"Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" Elena prompted after a small silence.
"It's some pretty cool stuff" I added as I bit into the ziti.
"Um, divorced. No mom, live with my dad." Bonnie evaded.
"Witch stuff, Bon," I told her. "Elena was talking about the witch stuff."
"Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches" Elena filled in, looking at Stefan.
"Like I said, pretty cool stuff" I nodded.
"Cool isn't the word I'd use" Bonnie shook her head.
"Well, it's certainly interesting" Stefan spoke as if sensing her wariness of the subject. "I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic Druids that migrated here in the 1800's. And the Boyash Gypsies came here not too long after" he added, his eyes snapping to me briefly.
So the vampire knew what I was.
"My family came by way of Salem" Bonnie informed. I kept silent though. I would have my chance to talk to Stefan about vampire-gypsy business, sooner or later. Right now was about building a friendship between Bonnie and Stefan.
"Really? Salem witches?" he asked.
"Yea" Bonnie chuckled nervously.
"I would say that's pretty cool."
"Really?" Bonnie was actually surprised by his answer. "Why?"
"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity" Stefan explained, causing Bonnie to finally smile.
"Yea, they are," she said, finally proud of her lineage. Bonnie was one of my best friends and I really hoped that she could be one of the very few witches who don't have a deep hate for anything supernatural.
"Plus they were super smart" I added, causing the other three to look at me. "In school, we learn about the bogus trials. But if you actually look at the history, the townsfolk were just randomly killing" I explained. "The victors may write the stories, but the witches were smart enough to hide their trail, to hide in plain sight."
"Ellie likes to research anything that will prove her teachers wrong," Elena told Stefan.
"Just because they're the teachers doesn't automatically make them smarter than me, and I'm just there to knock them down a few pegs" I shrugged, a glass of wine in my hand. I knew that Elena's house wouldn't have booze that I could touch, so I brought a bottle of wine from home. "B-T-W, I love how you owned Tanner in history earlier. He's a dick and that shit was priceless" I told Stefan, who chuckled. He went to say something more but was interrupted by the doorbell.
"I wonder who that could be?" Elena asked, standing from her chair to get the door. A familiar shiver went down my spine, my magic reacting to who was on the other side of the door. Meeting Stefan's eyes, I could tell that he knew who was here as well.
"That's an interesting necklace, Ellie" Stefan stated, motioning to my blue and silver prayer beads.
"Thanks" I smiled, fiddling with the small silver hamsa at the end. "Family heirloom. I'm sure you can relate" I grinned, my eyes cutting briefly to the large blue ring on his finger. Glancing over my shoulder, I could hear Caroline's perky voice. And for the first time in my life I wanted to take my fork and shove it into my best friends skull. I blame this stupid fucking curse.
"That's a hamsa right?" Stefan asked. I don't know if he knew I needed a distraction or not, but I was thankful for it none the less.
"Yea" I tipped back my wine glass before reaching for the bottle I had brought. "Yea. Bonnie's not the only one here with a cool family history" I winked at my friend.
"What's a hamsa?" Bonnie asked.
"It's a talisman of protection," I told her. "Kind of like the cross or a pentagram, star of David, all that. It's a representation of blessings, power, and strength. It also deflects the 'evil eye'. I don't know much more other than that though" I lied. I know a lot more than I could say right now.
My friends knew about the dreamcatcher I had tattooed on my ribs. They didn't know about the hamsa tattoo on my hand. The entirety of the tattoo was the underside of my hand, the eye of Horus sitting dead center.
No one could see the tattoo, though. The ink was spelled to be invisible to anyone without gypsy blood. At least, until I was turned.
"Hope you don't mind" I heard his voice. It's tone causing me to shiver. Downing the rest of my second glass of red wine, I stood with Stefan and walked over to the door.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked his brother, who was stuck in the doorway.
"Waiting for Elena to let me in" Damon responded with a grin.
"I need something stronger than wine" I mumbled before passing the small group who had gathered at the thresh hold. Not making eye contact I walked over to the love-seat where I had dropped my purse earlier. A bottle of whiskey was inside. If I was going to endure this, I was going to need a good buzz.
Plus, right now, the booze was the only thing keeping my emotions in check. But it was helping the pain that sung through my veins. At this rate, the others were going to stage an intervention.