Chapter ten

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I didn't receive the usual call from Bonnie the next morning asking me if I wanted a lift to school. I instantly felt immense depression as I realised I didn't know how long it would take until my friendships would continue on as before. Hell, I couldn't even picture us going back to normal.

It was like my first day back all over again.

I plastered a bright smile on my face for Jenna and Jeremy, with hysteria leaking violently through my cheery attitude. I was almost surprised neither of them said anything. I so badly wanted to pretend like this was over, but the nagging sensation at the back of my mind continued to sound off a warning alarm. I couldn't focus at all during the day, the same droning hum that filled the classrooms and hallways of the normalcy of the student body. Bonnie had no classes with me today but I didn't need that to know that she was avoiding me. Caroline didn't show up to any classes having compelled her teachers into believing she was on vacation with her mum.

Compel.

I felt like Alice, trapped down the rabbit hole, where down is up ... and my best friends' non-human abilities are part of the normalcy. I leant back onto my locker and let my head roll back.

"Elena?"

Jeremy's voice brought back my facade of scary cheeriness. He took one look at my face in blatant confusion. "Uh... have you seen Vicky?"

I lost my mask in that instant. "Vicky? Is she your-

"You know what? Don't bother."

"No wait, Jeremy." I waited until he turned back around, "What's going on?"

"It's Vicky. She's missing from the hospital."

I had completely forgotten about her attack. "What do you mean, she's missing?"

"I mean that when Matt went to discharge her from the hospital, her bed was empty. No one could tell him where she's gone."

"Wouldn't she be with..." I looked at Jeremy's resigned face. "I don't want to hear it Elena, just... have you heard something."

"Well according to my 'assumptions', shouldn't you have been the first person to hear from her?"

"You know what forget it." He swiped his arms out in front of him and turned around. He turned his head over his shoulder, "The one time I come to you for help, you shove your prejudice back in my face."

I couldn't keep my mouth closed as frustration burst out. "It's not prejudice when it comes to my brother and drugs." A few people stared at me in the hall way before continuing on. Their continuation to me meant that Jeremy's state was old news, and it aggravated me even further. I slammed the palm of my hand into the door of my locker.

The day would just get worse on out from here, and by now I had come to accept that there was nothing I could do to prevent it.

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I was about to walk home when I saw the bus heading out of town that travelled along the only road leading west out of Mystic Falls... that went right past the boarding house. I ran across the road and hailed the bus driver just before he pulled away from the curb.

"One to Wickery Bridge please."

I waited for the bus to roll past me and pick up speed before I walked across the road heading towards the Boarding house around the corner. The last thought that had run through my head last night before sleep finally found me was the look on Damon's face before he punched a hole in the wall and shot out from the tomb.

His emotions seemed to be laid out raw. It was hard to see him so unbelievably enraged, compared to his usual arrogant self. It put me on edge to think how he would be when he was finally pushed over the edge... and it terrified me. I swallowed my fear and pushed open the front door.

Loud rock music vibrated off the surrounding beams in the walls and slightly shook the floor boards of the house.

"Damon?" I walked past the large stairwell towards the living room, where the music seemed to become louder. I rounded the corner to see four half naked girls in nothing more than ridiculously tiny laundrette... and vicious bite marks in various locations over their bodies. They were dancing around each with a different form of alcohol in their hands, almost looking as if they were on some sort of high... or compulsion.

I turned to the side to see Damon blind drunk swoop in and wind his arms around one of the girl's waists. He kissed her neck before plunging his fangs in and talking long pulls. The girl made a small noise of want before he pulled his lips away from her neck. "Mmm... how do I taste?

"So much better than your friends. But shh don't tell them, they might get jealous."

I walked over to the stereo and pressed the stop button. Damon lifted his head up in a vague squint, revealing hour blind drunk he really was.

The empty bourbon bottle fell from his fingertips as he hung his head back in mock defeat. "No, Buzz Kill Bob."

"Can we talk, Damon?"

"Anything you say to me you can say in front of them." He sent me a mischievous smile and bowed his head back into the girls neck, keeping his eye locked with mine. "They're really good at keeping secrets."

He saw the look on my face and let go of the girl. They all came together and slumped against one another on the couch as Damon came staggering into the hall way towards me, picking up a half empty bottle of bourbon on his way.

He came and stood wobbly in front of me, the stench of alcohol potent on my senses. "You're worried about me, that's nice. Don't be." He took an unnecessary swig from the bottle. "There's no need, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? I spent the last one hundred and forty-five years with one goal. To get in that tomb." He pointed his finger softly on my chest. "I succeeded. Granted Katherine wasn't in there to be rescued, but why dwell?"

He lent back stumbling a little before continuing. "It's so liberating, not having a master plan, because I can do whatever the hell I want."

I took a step away from him trying to keep his eye contact as well as my distance. "That's kind of what I'm afraid of."

"Relax, I haven't killed anyone." His eyes strayed above my head with a slight mocking smile "in... too long."

I nodded my head over to the drowsy girls, on the verge of passing out, slumped against one another on the couch. "Those girls?"

Damon's seemingly blurring vision followed mine, "Will end up in their dorm... with headaches... thinking they blacked out." His tone sounded almost reluctant, like he knew it would satisfy him more just to kill them. I shuddered.

"Business as usual." He looked back at me as he spoke drunkenly raising an eyebrow at me, "Predictable, you don't seem like you pulled me over for just a pep talk. So drink up" He pushed the bottle into my stomach, "Spill, Elena."

I took hold of the bottle, with no intention of drinking out of it, from his slipping grasp and looked up at him I had come here to see how he was doing, but he didn't seem to be in the sharing, caring mood. So I asked him about what had been bothering me since Jeremy had spoken to me today. "Do you remember Vicky?"

"Vicky. Vicky... Vicky. Elena, are you really trying to get me to remember the girls of my past right now? That's like looking for a needle in a hay stack."

My anger started to leak through as his tone regarded Vicky's attack with little concern. "Well, try to remember, it's important."

He leaned into my ear and whispered, "Nothing's important."

"Vicky Honeycutt. The girl you attacked at the Lockwood residence... a few nights ago?"

Why would he be concerned? Especially in this state? It still didn't prevent the venom in my voice from coming out.

His eyes seemed to squint in attempt of memory. "Oh yeah, perky little mosey brown thing, right? What about her?"

"She's missing from the hospital. The one you put her in."

"Meh... she was fine when I left her."

"Did you... change...?"

"What you're trying to say is getting lost in translation here Elena. Spit it out. Did I what?"

"Did you change her?" I jutted my chin out, to more profoundly place myself in a stable and determined position.

He sent me a wicked smile, before it faded in boredom, clearly seeing that I was not going to be joining in on his games. "No I didn't. Don't worry about her; she's probably off to find another dealer. She'll be fine."

He stumbled away from me and over towards the girls on the couch. "Where were we?"

The girls began to wrap themselves around him before he latched his teeth onto one of the girls thighs. I couldn't contain the shudder as I looked on in horror for the girls. I began to wonder if they were really compelled, they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"Elena, if you want to join... I could give you a private session. He wagged his eyebrows towards me, letting his tongue slowly lick the blood of his lips.

I raised a bored eyebrow at him before turning my back and walking out the door.

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I got home to see blue and red flashing lights producing from a single sheriff car. A pang of alarm sent through me as I prayed to God no more of my family members had died. I walked inside and quickly assessed the place.

Jeremy was resting against the kitchen counter talking to a Caroline's mother, the sheriff, while Jenna was looking on anxiously from the couch. Had Jeremy finally been done out? What would that mean for Jenna?

"What's going on?"

All three pairs of eyes turned towards me at the sound of my voice. Jenna went to speak but was beaten to it by Sheriff Forbes. "There's a little issue with the whereabouts of Miss Honeycutt."

My eyes flew to Jeremy, who was blatantly avoiding my gaze. A horrible gut wrenching feeling clenched tightly through the muscles surrounding stomach. Vicky was 'sheriff material' missing. Sheriff Forbes let out a small sigh and began to run me down with the information. "She hasn't been seen since she was meant to be discharged from the hospital." Well, as much as police could supply the public with, whether she was a close family friend or not.

I swallowed back my frustrated retort at the crap amount of information. What she'd just said had already spread through the high school by second period. "What about Matt and her Mum?"

"Matt's at home and hasn't heard from her, and his mother's in Miami, we're unable to reach her." Still dead end information. It was typical of Matt's mother to be trying to cling on to some semi-rich low life, leaving Matt to pick up the pieces.

"So do you have any leads?"

"We'll let you know when something comes up."

Meaning they were hiding leads... or they had squat.

Sheriff Forbes flipped her note pad closed and pocketed it. She could see that she was more likely to give out information rather than get anything else from us. She obviously knew that Jeremy was in love with Vicky, but didn't know how their friendship had started. Which even though was wrong, was good that it wasn't known by police.

The door closed quietly and I turned my direction of gaze back to face Jenna and Jeremy. As soon as Jeremy caught my gaze, he roughly pushed himself away from the table. I followed him and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"Jeremy, wait."

"No, Elena." He turned around with resentful eyes aimed at me. "I asked you if you'd seen her, you haven't. I..." He stopped what he was about to say, restraining his frustration before sighing. "If you hear anything just let me know."

I wanted to talk to him more, but at the moment I should just be happy with him speaking to me. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and let my hand drop from the banister.

Where would Vicky have gone?

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I drove Jenna's car to school the next day knowing that I'd need it for my destination afterwards. As I drove to the boarding house I tried to convince myself that Damon wouldn't still be in grieving stage. He was the only person I knew that could actually do something about Vicky's disappearance.

The door was wide open as I pulled up the front. Either Damon had decided to ransack everything in his liquor cabinet and trash the place, or something was worryingly wrong.

"Damon?"

"Nope."

I looked to the side only to be slammed into by what felt like a semi trailer. My muscles felt like they'd been beaten by a baseball bat, and before I could gather my bearings, I was wrenched up by my throat and slammed into the pillar.

"Elena." Her fingers were like steel around my jugular, her voice pleasant... and vicious.

"Vicky?" I lost air as I rasped out her name in surprise.

"Hello. You know, you are one popular girl." Her appearance had only slightly changed but it was enough. Vicky had been turned.

She was twiddling something absently in her free hand. "You know, I used to think you were wonderful. You dating Matt, then getting married and have babies..." She dug her nails harder into my throat, letting droplets of blood trickle down my neck. A dark edge swarmed her irises "Let's get one thing straight here. You had my brother whipped for fifteen years. Fifteen years. And then you dumped him. When I look at you, all I see is trash. I would love to rip your throat out," she let loose a small giggle, "I'm actually finding it hard restraining myself, as you can tell, but I came here to deliver a different message." My vision was slowly blurring at the corners as my head seemed to swell from loss of oxygen.

"I have a message from Katherine. She says game on."

I was suddenly dropped, and I slumped to the ground at Vicky's feet. My breath came back in large gulps, but wouldn't enter my lungs. I began coughing and wheezing trying to get it back. "Elena!"

Damon was suddenly crouched where Vicky's feet had once been. His hands lifted my head up wiping away the slick hair stands that had stuck to my sweat beaded head. Nothing was making its way to my lungs. It was like I had breathed in a bucket load of water.

I heard a faint groan and looked up to see Damon's face contort into pain before he slumped forward.

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Just to let you know, so I don't cop a boat load of trouble, I have used some quotes from the Vampire diaries show and mixed it into the chapters throughout my story. It's a good way to maintain the character's persona as I mould it to my own story. Next Chapter up tomorrow.

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