The monster in the shadows

Chapter 2

Damon hurried to his next class trying to get the girl who was always nice to him out of his mind. He hadn't even meant to let her in the way he did, but what had happened had been inevitable and had made her somewhat indebted to Damon.

It had all started one day while Damon had been trying to hurry to a class he had been late for. If his parent had caught whiff of him being late to class he would sure be punished for it later and that was one thing he didn't want at the moment. That's when he heard them. A girl with brunette hair the color of dark chocolate had been pushed back into a locker with a guy he knew as Stefan.

Stefan was the captain of the football team and as cliché as it was he was dating the girl he assumed was the girl being pinned to her locker by the force of Stefan's body. If Damon didn't know better he would have just saw it as a Stefan's primal way of making out with her, but judging by the girls' body language it was more than what it seemed. He also knew the look in the girls beautiful brown eyes. It was the look of fear. The same look of fear he had always seen from Lilly when their father was beating the shit out of her.

"Stefan please let me go."

"Come on Elena. I know you want me as much as I want you."

"Stefan we can so that later. We're going to be late for class."

Before Elena could make a move to leave Stefan slammed her into the locker. She yelped out in pain but Damon couldn't move. He was paralyzed by the thing he knew as fear.

Stefan's hand roamed Elena's exposed thigh and ran hid hand up her skirt tracing Elena's panty line.

"Stefan please don't"

"Come on Elena you were begging for it yesterday."

"Well I changed my mind now let me go!"

He slammed her against the locker again this time wrapping his hand around her neck.

"Listen here you stupid slut. I've heard you screwed half of this damn football team and I'm not going to let you go until you give me what I deserve for putting up with your ass."

Elena coughed as Stefan's hand squeezed against Elena's neck tighter making her lose her breath. He was starting to unbuckle his pants when Damon snapped out of the comotosed state he had been in and pulled Stefan away from Elena slamming him into a near by locker.

Elena coughed gasping for air and falling to the ground trying to regain her oxygen intake. He kneeled down beside her and tried to stroke her face but she pulled away. Damon mentally slapped himself. Of course she wouldn't have wanted to been toughed after what had just happened.

"Are you okay?"

"No." she sobbed rubbing her neck.

Pink had formed on it and Damon had no doubt bruises would start showing up tomorrow from where Stefan had choked her.

Just then Damon was pulled away from Elena and punched in the face, but unlike the times his father had hit him Damon wouldn't take the same punishment from Stefan. He punched Stefan hard in the gut and didn't give him a moment to recover when he hit Stefan's head to a nearby locker. The force wasn't enough to kill him, but it was enough to knock him out for a good few hours while he got Elena some place safe.

He walked to her again and helped her up amazed that this time she let him touch her. She looked at him with those chocolate brown eyes and surprisingly gave him a hug. She felt so soft and warm in his arms that he couldn't help but hug her back. She sobbed into his shirt and he stroked her hair just letting her cry it out. When the tears had stopped she looked up at him with those eyes of hers and gave him a sad smile that broke his heart.

"Thank you so much. I can't even begin to think what would have happened if you weren't here."

"Let's get you to the nurse. You might have injuries that I don't know about."

She nodded and they left to the nurse.

Ever since that day Damon couldn't stop thinking about her. The way her brown hair complimented those warm brown eyes of hers. The way she would always be polite to him despite his status as the school loner. But he knew he couldn't get too close to her. Unless he wanted her to get hurt again and a girl like Elena didn't deserve that.

Damon would just have to ignore her for now. He sat at his seat and let out a breath. Finally it was his last class of the day. Unfortunately, by some cruel twist of fate his partner for his class was none other than the girl he saved that day. Elena scooted her chair closer to is and flashed that bright white smile of hers. Was there any part of this girl that wasn't perfect?

"Hi Damon."

"Hey."

"So this new project is interesting. I mean what teacher 'marries' us and forces us to jot down our family tree to see what our family will be like."

Damon didn't say a word and handed her the list of his relatives and their genetic profiles that had been hell to obtain.

"I never knew you had a sister. What's her name?"

"Lilly."

"That's a pretty name."

"I guess."

She handed him her paper s they jotted down their family trees. Damon resisted the urge to write down monster on his parents names and took a deep breath that hopefully Elena didn't notice.

Finally after what seemed like forever the bell rang and before Elena could even blink Damon was out the door.