Chapter Four:
Damon stood up and poured himself a drink at the table behind the couch. Elena watched him silently. Neither of them spoke after Amy left with Stefan. It was easy to see that both of their minds were reeling with what they had just heard.
How was it possible for Stefan to be so unperturbed by Amy's story? It was uncharacteristically cold of him to seem to not give a second thought to the safety concerns of her going back to her house in Burden, and rather out of character for Damon to care more about it than him. Stefan was the 'saint' out of the two of them, after all.
Damon swallowed a large sip of whiskey, then grimaced.
"I hope you understand how much danger Amy is in." he said after a moment. "Isobel may have told her that she was the safest out of the two of you, but come on, it's Isobel. She's never been very trustworthy. At least in my books. Just because she insinuated that Amy was safe, is enough to believe she's really not."
"We couldn't keep her here against her will, Damon." Elena said, sighing tiredly.
"You've said that already."
"Then I don't understand why you're still bringing it up."
"Really, Elena? You don't? Why don't I explain it to you then?" Damon snapped, rounding on her. "Klaus wants to kill you. Her. That little encounter you had with Elijah the other day is nothing compared to what Klaus can do. Katherine was never afraid of much, but I saw the way she spoke about Klaus, one time for a very brief moment, and she was scared."
"I feel like I'm missing the point, here." Elena said exasperated.
"The point, is," Damon continued, putting his drink down. "If we can't find a way to kill Klaus, he will, kill you. Both. And I cannot let that happen."
He turned on his heel, away from Elena, and walked out of the room.
~ . ~
"Amy! Hey, Amy!" Katie pushed through the crowded hallway to get to her friend who was heading the same direction as her. Amy glanced back over her shoulder and slowed as much as the wave of people behind her would allow.
The crowd for first lunch period was ridiculous.
"There you are! Where were you? I waited next to your locker for like, five minutes!" Katie said as Amy got in earshot.
"Sorry," Amy breathed, looking disheveled as her hair was in her face and her bag was pulling her cardigan off her shoulder. "I was in the library and I didn't hear the bell ring."
"Again? Jesus, what is it with you and the library this week? We've only been at school for one week and you're in there like it's your job."
"I just had some stuff I wanted to look up." Amy mumbled as she tried to adjust her strap back onto her shoulder, while pulling her cardigan back into place.
"Like what?"
"Nothing." Amy shook her head as they entered the cafeteria and the noise seemed to triple. She glanced around, eyes searching, then looked over her shoulder.
"Are you looking for someone?" Katie asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend. She was certainly acting strange.
"Mhm?" Amy asked, looking back at her. "What?"
Katie looked at her as though she has grown two heads.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why? Why wouldn't I be okay?"
"You just seem, different." Katie said slowly as if trying to figure out exactly how to describe her behavior. Strange, weird, sketchy, were also adjectives that popped into her head.
Amy shook her head, but in her mind, she was screaming. Yes, she was acting different. Ever since she had been brought home last Saturday, she had a feeling like there was someone watching her, yet whenever she looked around, there was no one. It was eating away at her nerves, making her jumpy and nervous.
She hadn't been sleeping well either. The nightmares she was having before were nothing compared to the ones that started the past few nights. Every night she awoke in a cold sweat, fear and adrenaline coursing through her body. Bags were forming under her eyes and it was obvious to everyone.
They came to their usual seats at the table in the back corner. Simultaneously they dropped their bags onto the table and sat down. Katie bit her cheek, watching Amy from across the table.
"Are you sure?" she asked tentatively. "If there's something wrong—you know I'm here for you. Is it Danica?"
"Danica?" Amy asked, taken a back. "No. She's the same as always."
Amy took her diary out of her backpack, turning in her chair to lean up against the wall as she put her feet on the chair next to her. Katie recognized the diary, and resigned herself to eating lunch in quiet. Once Amy pulled out her diary, there was no talking to her. Her focus was on the diary alone.
Dear Dee
September 14th, 2009
I can't shake this feeling that someone is following me. I can't tell if I'm psyching myself out or not. Maybe it's just an aftershock of being kidnapped. Maybe there really is someone out there watching me. Either way, it's driving me crazy. I can't go anywhere without looking over my shoulder. What if it's Klaus? Could it have been possible for him to find me that fast?
What if he was already in Mystic Falls? What if Damon and Elena are working with him and they kidnapped me for him? But that wouldn't explain why they let me go home. I mean, Damon was very against it. Elena agreed to let me leave after I told them about Isobel. Could that have been part of the plot? To get any information they could out of me, and in order to do that, they had to act like they were on my team, and now that I'm home, Klaus is watching, waiting for the best time to get me?
I can't breathe. I feel like something is crushing my chest, squeezing the breath out of me. I don't know how much longer I can take this—this feeling. Maybe I'll be better off just killing myself. At least then there would be half the chance of Klaus getting me, right?
Besides, I think my teachers are calling CPS on my foster mom because of the dark bags under my eyes from the endless nightmares of having my throat ripped out by some faceless vampire. That's the last thing I need right now.
Amy
The bell for the end of lunch rang, and she quickly put the journal back into her bag. Her stomach growled pitifully as she hadn't eaten any lunch at all. Nor had she eaten breakfast, or dinner the previous night.
The rest of the day went by tortuously slow. Katie met up with her at the entrance to the school as they normally did.
"Hey, do you want to come over tonight?" Katie asked, eying her worriedly. "My mom said it was okay."
"Thanks, but I have to go do something." Amy replied vaguely, glancing down at her watch. Because Danica had not invested in a phone for her, she wore the watch so she could tell what time it was. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
She turned to leave, but Katie reached out, grabbing her arm to stop her. "Amy, call me later, okay?" she pleaded.
"You know how Danica is about the phone." Amy reminded her evenly.
"I know, but-" she sighed, "Please, just give me a call so I know that you're okay before you go to bed."
Amy looked at her, almost as if seeing her for the first time that day. The look in her eyes, and the crease between her brows showed the concern that she had. That was not good. The more that people were concerned about her, the more they would try to get involved to see what the problem was, and she couldn't have that.
Forcing herself to put on a smile, she reached out and put her hand on Katie's shoulder.
"I'll call you, I promise." She assured her. "But I have to go, I'll talk to you soon."
She turned around, after giving Katie's shoulder a quick squeeze, and took off towards the street that led into town. As soon as she crossed the school property line, she stepped off the path and swung her backpack off her shoulders, kneeling in the grass to dig through it until she came out with a switch blade, which she shoved in her pocket after swinging the bag back onto her shoulders.
Glancing around, she headed towards the main library downtown.
~ . ~
"Come on," Amy mumbled to herself as she looked through the last book on vampire lore and myths. "There has to be more than that."
She had been through every single book she could find on vampires. If the word vampire so much as showed up once in the book, she had been through it. But she couldn't find anything useful that would help her. There were so many different myths about what would kill them or not kill them, or how they could do or not do certain things. Nothing she found was remotely helpful in any way, shape or form.
The library was getting less and less crowded as it got later and later. But that feeling of being watched was still raising the hairs on the back of her neck. Glancing outside, Amy's heart leaped in her chest, and she looked down at her watch. It was eight o'clock, and the sun had set twenty minutes ago.
"No, no, no." She muttered, pushing her chair back clumsily and grabbing her backpack from the floor. Her house was a good fifteen minute walk away, and she had no money for the bus or a cab. She didn't even have a flashlight.
She stood to the entrance of the library, looking out into the dark, her heart sinking. There was no way that Danica would show up and pick her up. She couldn't call Katie, because he mom worked nights at the diner and they only had one car.
"Shit." She spat, angry at herself for losing track of time, and stiff-armed her way out of the door into the night. She tried to convince herself that she was only imagining the feeling the being watched or followed, that there really was no reason to be afraid. She kept her eyes darting back and forth, looking for any signs of trouble. Even if she didn't have to worry about vampires stalking her, once she reached her neighborhood, she would have to watch out for the creepy men that occasionally tried to pick up girls.
That led her to wonder, would she rather meet one of those men, or a vampire? Depending on the vampire, she guessed she would rather meet one of them if they would at least give her a quick death. The sound of footsteps suddenly made her realize that there was someone behind her. Her heart began to beat quickly as she sped up the pace. The footsteps sped up as well.
She spun around, drawing the blade out of her pocket, but the footsteps stopped and there was no one there. Amy's hand was shaking and her breath was visible in the cool night air. Her body seemed frozen in place as she searched for a sign of anyone.
After a slow, short moment of seeing nothing but darkness, dimly lit by streetlamps, she turned around.
"Ahhhhh!" She fell backward, tripping over her feet and falling to the ground. Before she landed however, strong hands grabbed her arms and steadied her on her feet. In the scare light of the streetlamp, a pair of startlingly blue eyes peered down at her. "Damon?" she breathed, her voice hoarse from shock.
"So," he said tersely. "Do you still feel safe?"
