Chapter 11: Children of the Damned

Caroline ended up bailing on the dance, going to the grill with Bonnie after letting Charlotte know they were leaving. Since she'd come to the dance with Billy, and she'd already spent the first half of the dance without him, Charlotte stayed behind and tried not to freak out too much about the whole vampire thing. That became a lot harder when Billy insisted staying until the last dance, meaning Charlotte had to wait 2 more hours until she could talk things over with Jeremy.

When the dance was finally over, and Billy walked her home, Charlotte's eyes kept darting past the streetlights to the shadows. She wasn't really listening to a word Billy said, and when he reached out for her hand she jumped, her heart hammering against her chest.

"Are you alright? You've been acting strange all night." First she abandoned him to find Caroline looking like she'd seen a ghost, then she was constantly looking over her shoulder the rest of the night.

"Sorry, I don't like the dark. My imagination goes wild," Charlotte brushed off his concern. As much as she liked Billy, she barely knew him. She wasn't about to confess her belief in monsters to him.

"I'm here. I'll protect you from anything that goes bump in the night," Billy said, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer to his side as they continued down the street.

There it was again, déjà vu. Billy had made a similar promise when they went through the haunted house. And even though she distinctly remembered leaving because she was about to hurl, another memory cloaked in shadows had her seeing Vicki with fangs and black eyes. Just like Anna.

"I'm sorry I wasn't the best date ever," Charlotte said when they her house came into view. She felt a little guilty for not spending more time with him at the dance.

"You were great. I get it, you wanted to hang with your sister too. It's going to take some time to get used to us."

It would take some getting used to. Especially when they never hung out before and Billy ran with a whole different crowd than her. A crowd that didn't seem too accepting of her best friend, not that Jeremy was clamoring to get along with Billy's friends. It made Charlotte feel like she had to juggle her time between Jeremy and Billy, which she could see quickly getting exhausting.

Billy walked Charlotte all the way to her door. Leaning in for an intimate goodbye, their kiss goodnight was interrupted by the porch lights flickering. With a soft 'good night' Billy disappeared down the walk. He was gone before Charlotte remembered he'd leant her his letterman jacket on the walk home. She'd just have to remember to return it to him on Monday.

"You couldn't have given us five more minutes?" Charlotte asked, shutting the front door beside her.

"Hey, that's what any good 50's parent would do. I'm just sticking with the theme," Liz defended, pulling Charlotte into a hug. "And now both of my children are home safe, my duty is done. I'm going to bed kiddo."

Charlotte waited until her mom was in her room before calling Jeremy.

…

"Alright, what happened when you chased after Anna?" Jeremey asked after climbing through Charlotte's window. She'd insisted she had to tell him in person. That it was too big, and too weird not to see his reaction and make sure he believed her. As if he'd ever not believe Charlotte.

"She attacked me," Charlotte sighed, sitting cross legged in the middle of her bed and hugging one of her pillows.

"What? Why?"

"Because I followed her. Jer her face did that creepy vein thing again. She had, she had fangs." It sounded completely mental when she said it aloud, but she hadn't imagined it. Anna's face was too close to hers for her to be mistaken.

"What do you mean fangs?" Jeremy asked as he took a seat on Lottie's computer chair.

"I mean two front teeth, longer and sharper than the rest; Count Dracula kind of fangs."

"You think she's a vampire?" Jeremy asked dubiously. He knew Anna's talk of vampires had freaked Lottie out, but he didn't think she really believed in them.

"I'm being serious Jer. She was crazy fast, and strong. You saw her eyes. That wasn't normal. And I've been having this weird sense of déjà vu from Halloween with Vicki. Do you think I'm crazy?" If Jeremy didn't believe her, no one would. And she needed someone to believe her. The possibility he wouldn't was never a real worry of hers until now.

Lottie looked about ready to cry. Jeremy had never seen her so upset, and she had been shaking when she returned to the dance. As much as Lottie hated scary movies, he'd never seen her react that badly to one. She'd really been freaked out. And he couldn't help feeling his own strange sense of déjà vu when she mentioned Halloween.

"You're not crazy." Moving from her desk chair to the bed beside her, Jeremy wrapped her in his arms. "If you say she's a vampire, I believe you."

"You're just saying that because you hate it when I cry," Charlotte grumbled, sniffling a little as she used the sleeve of her pajamas to wipe away her tears.

"No, I'm saying it because I trust you. You've never lied to me. And I can't explain away Anna's eyes no matter how hard I try. And I tried for the rest of the dance." While Charlotte danced with Billy, Jeremy had a lot of time to think over what could have freaked her out so bad. He always came back to Anna's eyes, the reason Charlotte followed Anna to begin with.

"What do we do now?" Charlotte asked. She couldn't just let it go and act like she didn't know Anna was a vampire, even when Anna had told her to pretend like it hadn't happened. Well, more like ordered her with her pupils weirdly getting larger. In fact, it was kind of like she tried to hypnotize Charlotte into forgetting everything. A tactic that hadn't worked, obviously.

"Google, duh." Retracting his arms from around her, Jeremy grabbed her laptop from her desk before settling back on the bed beside her.

Googling was a bad idea. The more they read, the scarier vampires became. And although she had seen Anna's fangs firsthand, there was one part that didn't line up. She could go outside during the day.

"Obviously not all the legends are true. I doubt she turns into a bat, and she ate garlic pizza at the Grill." Sure the whole being out during the day was a big part of vampire folklore, but not all stories got everything right. "We just have to figure out which ones are true, and which aren't."

They stayed up way too late searching the internet for commonalities between the stories. Jeremy even joined a chat of 'believers,' but most of them were people with fetishes. Charlotte ended up dozing off while Jeremy was in the chat room, her cheek resting against Jeremy's arm as he typed away.

She was startled awake a few hours later by a nightmare she couldn't quite remember. Her heart pounded and a tear streamed down her cheek. Blinking a few times until her room came into focus, her breathing slowed along with her heart when she realized it was just a dream. Jeremy was asleep beside her, the laptop set on her bedside table. Easing herself back onto her pillows, Charlotte slowly wrapped her hand around Jeremy's as a reminder she wasn't alone before closing her eyes and falling asleep again. She was dead to the world after that, not even waking when her mom stuck her head in to check on her before leaving for work.

Liz was a little surprised when she found Jeremy sleeping soundly beside Charlotte. She hadn't known he was coming over last night. It was nothing new for Jeremy and Charlotte to have sleepovers, albeit that was when they were younger. Perhaps she needed to set rules pertaining to boys being in Charlotte and Caroline's rooms, even if they were just friends. She would at least need to talk to Charlotte about not telling her when she had friends over. But that conversation could wait until after her shift.

…

"You need more milk," Jeremy said as he poured the last dregs over his cereal.

"Yeah, we're running low on a few things." They were out of eggs and frozen waffles too. Grabbing a Pop Tart, Charlotte put them in the toaster and waited for them to warm up before joining Jeremy at the counter.

"What are we going to do about Anna?" She asked, diving into the topic that had probably caused her night terrors.

"Avoid her until she leaves us alone. I'm not really confident in us being able to take on a vampire. No offense, but you're not Buffy." It shouldn't be hard to avoid Anna. She was homeschooled, so the only places they would run into her were the library and the Grill. Jeremy had no inclination to return to the library until his next paper was due, and the Grill was a public place. Anna wouldn't try anything in public.

"How much do you think that show got right about vampires?" Charlotte mused. Avoiding sounded like a good tactic to her, but she still wanted to know how to defend herself if it didn't work.

"Do you want to put holy water in a water gun and find out?" He still had some of the giant water guns they'd played with as kids in the basement.

"If it doesn't work we would just piss her off." Trial and error didn't seem like the best way to find out what hurt vampires.

"Good so it's settled, avoidance is the best solution right now," Jeremy said, offering Charlotte the last bite of his cereal in exchange for the last bite of her Pop Tart.

"So, what's the plan for today, then?" Charlotte asked, slipping off her stool to place Jeremy's cereal bowl in the sink.

"I remember you promising to watch whatever movies I want, and play a certain racing game." Jeremy had fulfilled his part of the deal. He'd gone to the dance, now it was Lottie's turn to come through. "So, movie marathon then gaming marathon after I shower?"

"I'll meet you at your house in thirty minutes." She needed a shower too.

Jumping in the shower as soon as Jeremy headed home, Charlotte closed her eyes as she let the water run down her body from head to toe. Flashes of Anna's face as she threatened her last night had Charlotte's eyes blinking open, her hand resting against her chest as her heartbeat went wild. Stepping out of the shower spray, she had to work at calming herself down. She had to remind herself that although Anna had threatened her, in the end she let her go when she could have killed her. Anna didn't want her dead. If she did, Charlotte wouldn't have returned to the dance.

Stepping out of the shower, Charlotte wrapped her robe around her and wiped away the steam from the mirror. Everything would be fine, she just had to force herself to focus on little inconsequential things to get her mind off of vampires.

Running a comb through her hair she braided it to the side instead of blow drying it. She chose her comfiest pair of jeans and an oversized sweater as comfort was key during a movie marathon. Grabbing her house keys, Charlotte stopped by Caroline's room to let her know she was heading out.

"How was the rest of your night?" Charlotte asked, leaning against Caroline's door.

"Pretty wonderful," Caroline smiled wider than Charlotte could remember seeing in a while. "Matt kissed me." Intrigued, Charlotte ran and jumped on her bed, begging for details.

"He left his car running in park at a stop sign in town and kissed me in the crosswalk just like in the movies," Caroline finished her story with an even bigger smile than when she'd started.

"That's definitely a leap in the right direction. I'm really happy for you!" She knew Care had wanted Matt to take things past the friendship stage. What a way to do it too.

"How was your night? Did you have a good time at the dance?" Caroline watched as Charlotte's whole body seemed to shrink, her smile falling from her face as fear settled in her eyes. "Did something happen?"

"No." The last time Charlotte tried to bring up vampires, Caroline had brushed it away, rather emphatically.

"I'm your big sister, I know when you're lying. What happened?" Caroline prodded, sitting up straighter. Charlotte didn't usually lie to Caroline. Hey normally had no secrets from the other.

"You won't believe me."

"Yes I will, now spit it out," Caroline insisted, pinching Charlotte playfully on the arm to get her to spill.

"Anna, the girl who's been helping me and Jeremy with his paper, she's a vampire," Charlotte spat out in one breath before rambling on. If Caroline insisted on knowing the truth, she was going to get it over with as fast as possible. Like ripping off a Band-Aid. "She came to the dance last night. Her eyes did this weird thing where they turned black and veins appeared underneath them. When I followed her after she left, she threatened me, flashing fangs."

"She threatened you?" Caroline asked, her face hardening.

"Is that they only thing you care about after all that?" She'd just said Anna was a vampire, yet all Caroline cared about was her threatening Charlotte?

"Yes. I don't care if she's a vampire, fairy, or troll, she does not get away with threatening my baby sister. What does she look like? I need to have a talk with her."

"You're not concerned I might be crazy?" Jeremy believing her was one thing, he had seen Anna's face go all creepy, horror movie like. Caroline had never even met Anna.

"I don't have to believe in vampires to believe you think she's one. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter to me. What matters is you don't get hurt or pushed around." Charlotte felt herself deflate a little. For a second she thought Caroline believed her. At least she didn't ridicule her for believing in vampires. Even though Care didn't believe, she supported Charlotte anyways. In a way, that was even better than her believing.

"It's fine Care. She doesn't even go to our school, so I'm just going to avoid her. Anyways, I came in here to let you know I'm heading to Jeremy's for the day." The last thing she needed was Care picking a fight with a vampire. Though it might be entertaining. Caroline was fierce when she was determined.

"You're bailing on dinner at dads?" Caroline asked. It was the third Saturday of the month. Mom always worked late and they always ate at their dad's.

"I already promised Jer I'd hang today because he came to the dance. Just, tell dad I say hi and I'll see him next month." Charlotte really had forgotten about dinner with their dad what with the dance and the vampire thing. But she couldn't lie and say she was happy she'd already made plans. She always found dinner at their dad's to be awkward, especially when his boyfriend was there.

"Fine, but if he gets us presents I'm keeping yours." That didn't bother Charlotte. She didn't like their father's guilt presents, like spending money on them could fix what he'd done to their family.

…

"I can't believe I agreed to this," Charlotte murmured, before hiding her face in a pillow. They were on their third horror movie and she just knew she would have nightmares again tonight.

"Don't worry, we can move onto games next," Jeremy chuckled, patting Charlotte's shoulder. He almost felt bad for making her watch scary movies, until he reminded himself he wore a costume to the decades dance for her.

"Hey Charlotte, are you staying for family dinner night?" Jenna asked as she passed by the living room.

"I don't want to intrude." She would sporadically join the Gilberts for their family nights back before the car accident, but she hadn't been to one since then. She didn't know Jenna had continued the tradition.

"You won't be, Elena is having guests over too," Jenna reassured her. "Besides, you're practically family anyways."

"Plus we still have video games to play," Jeremy added. He really didn't want to do an awkward family sit down dinner without Lottie as a buffer.

"Alright, I'll stay," Charlotte agreed just as the doorbell rang.

"Great," Jenna beamed, moving towards the door.

Rising from the couch, Jeremy removed the movie from the PlayStation and returned it to the case, switching it for the racing game Charlotte sucked at and had promised to play. Snuggling deeper into the corner of the couch, Charlotte froze when she saw Damon walking to the kitchen with Jenna.

"What is he doing here?" Charlotte hissed when Jeremy returned to the couch, nodding her head in Damon's direction.

"I don't know. I obviously didn't invite him," Jeremy muttered, his eyes narrowing at Damon. "Elena's dating his brother, maybe she invited him."

"I should go," Charlotte murmured. Uncomfortable didn't even start to explain how she felt around Damon. After what he'd done to Care, she'd be happy if she never saw him again.

"You belong here more than he does. This is your second home, I'm not going to let him kick you out." He wasn't about to let Lottie feel unsafe in his house because his sister decided to include her boyfriend's brother in family night.

"Please don't start something," Charlotte pleaded, pulling on Jeremy's arm to stop him from going into the kitchen. "I'll stay. You don't have to make a scene with him."

"We can stay in here and play until dinner. Maybe Jenna will let us eat in here." Jeremy just wanted to put Lottie at ease.

"I think the point of family night is to actually spend time with your family. I can suck it up for one night. Just put him at the opposite end of the table as me." If Elena wanted to associate with the creep, that was her prerogative, but Charlotte wanted as little to do with him as possible.

Grabbing the controller with the pink accents, Charlotte started creating her car to distract herself from Damon's unwelcome and uncomfortable presence. If she was going to lose, she would lose in style. And lose she did. Jeremy was laps ahead of her, even though she tried her hardest, when Damon came to sit on the arm of the sofa by Charlotte, causing her to crash her car.

"Hello kiddos, having fun?"

Charlotte ignored him, keeping her eyes on the screen as she watched Jeremy finish his laps. He'd automatically won once her car crashed, but he still had to cross the finish lane to end that race and start another one.

"What's wrong ballerina Forbes, do I make you uncomfortable?" Damon asked, leaning closer to Charlotte and making her scoot closer to Jeremy. It amused him how much he scared Charlotte. Even more amusing was how she'd stood up to him even though he terrified her. Stefan had questioned why he hadn't just removed Charlotte's memory of their altercation at the Founder's day party when he removed all memories of Vicki on Halloween. It was because this was way more fun.

"Leave her alone Dickwad," Jeremy muttered, pausing the game and looking at Damon.

"I'm just having a little fun, don't get so touchy," Damon retorted, backing off Charlotte but not leaving the room. Continuing the game, Jeremy crashed on purpose so they could start another race and Charlotte could at least have some sort of a distraction from Damon. When his phone rang, he momentarily paused the game again only to dismiss the text.

"It's Anna," Jeremy murmured to Charlotte. He didn't know what to do about her after last night.

"Who's Anna?" Damon chimed in, leaning over the couch between the two kids.

"Just this girl. She's persistent." Kind of like Damon was being. Why he didn't just leave them alone, Jeremy didn't know. He had to know he wasn't wanted there.

"You shouldn't talk about your side piece in front of your girlfriend?" Damon mock whispered, pointing a thumb in Charlotte's direction.

"We're just friends," they both muttered simultaneously.

"Right," Damon said. "So why don't you want to start something with Anna then?"

"Because she's weird and I'm not into her," Jeremy sighed as Charlotte and he returned to their game. "Shouldn't you be hanging out with the person who invited you here? Or did you crash our family night?"

"I would never crash something as lame as 'family night,'" Damon retorted before retreating back to the kitchen. Scaring Charlotte wasn't as fun when Jeremy was there.

"What did Anna want?" Charlotte asked, as Jeremy lapped her in the game.

"To meet at the Grill tonight. But I wouldn't want to go even if she wasn't a vampire. Beating you at video games is way more fun," Jeremy said glancing at Charlotte with a smile.

Damon left them alone for most of the night, until Stefan showed up. Then he came around again, asking about Jonathan Gilbert's journal and Anna. When he found out Anna had told Jeremy she was at the grill if he wanted a rematch in foosball,l he was all for driving Jeremy there.

"I don't want to go. If you want to meet Anna so bad you go. She has long dark hair, is Asian, and will be hanging out around the foosball table," Jeremy snapped when Damon tried to get him to leave.

"Fine," Damon huffed, finally leaving Jeremy alone.

"Poor Anna, even she doesn't deserve to have Damon creeping on her," Charlotte sighed.

"She's a vampire, I'm pretty sure she can take care of herself."

Stefan and Elena ended up leaving before dinner, and Damon had already headed to the grill, which made the family dinner have a whole lot less family. Charlotte didn't mind, simply because Damon wasn't there anymore and there was more food for them to eat. She piled her plate high with pasta and garlic bread, much to the amusement of Jenna. Charlotte was the only person she knew with an appetite that could rival Jeremy's.

Playing the role of responsible guardian, Jenna insisted Jeremy and Charlotte do some of their schoolwork after sitting on the couch all day melting their brains watching zombie movies. They retreated to Jeremy's room, where his school bag was, while Jenna cleared the kitchen table. She set the last dishes in the dishwasher when the doorbell rang. Curious as to who it could be this late, Jenna opened the front door to find a girl she'd never seen before standing on the front porch.

"Hi, I'm Anna. A friend of Jeremy's. He invited me over to hang out for a bit." The girl greeted her with a smile. Anna, she vaguely remembered Jeremy mentioning the name as the girl who helped him with his history paper.

"Of course, come on in. Charlotte and Jeremy are up in his room," Jenna said, opening the door wider for Anna to come in.

Thanking the woman, Anna stepped inside and climbed the stairs, pausing at the top to hide as Stefan Salvatore came out of the room at the end of the hall. Once he was down the stairs she came out of the shadows, glancing briefly at the door in front of her where she could hear Charlotte's voice, before continuing down the hall to Elena's room.

A/N I did my best with this chapter, so I hope you like it :) I'm still having fun writing this story so I hope you guys continue to enjoy it as well. Thank you for reading it, and for all those who review another thank you for letting me know your thoughts and making me even more eager to write the next chapter.

To the guest who told me not to be so hard on myself: I'm glad you liked the last chapter and didn't find fault in it as I did. I am often too hard on myself when it comes to writing, but I'll try to do better at not dragging myself down. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

Rach

xoxo