A/n: Edited on 2/25/2015
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 21: Numb
Mystic Falls
Present - February 16, 2011
It wasn't supposed to be like this. No one was supposed to get hurt.
Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes ducked under the yellow tap that surrounded the house and made it through the front door of their victim's house. As an experienced officer, Liz knew all the protocols like the back of her hand. It didn't lessen the lingering bleakness and darkness that came with her job. All she could do now is the best she can. Still, the death of this young girl reopened wounds she'd been trying to heal from the past few months. This was a loss of another young woman. Just like how Caroline died. Ridding her thoughts of grief, Sheriff Forbes focused on her job. Inspecting for any damage, she was surprised in what she found. There was no damage so far in the living room or the lower level of the house. It looked too clean and normal.
"Let's go upstairs to see what happened," she told her men and the CSI investigators. Surely, there had to be something if everything was picture perfect down here. Liz had enough sense to figure that out.
Before she proceeded to go up the stairs, a whole bunch of commotion and a flurry of voices echoed outside. Curious, she left the people to do their work while she investigated outside. She was greeted by a hysterical brunette and her vampire boyfriend trying all his efforts to keep her calm as possible, but to no avail.
"Where's Matt? Is he okay?" Elena asked frantically, trying desperately to get through the yellow crime tape only to be held back by Damon's strong arms. "Damn it, Damon! Let go of me!"
"Calm down!" Damon hissed as he tried to calm his hysterical girlfriend. "You're making a scene."
"Don't you get it, Damon?! April's dead! How am I supposed to calm down?" Elena continued to fight against him, her heightened emotions running wild and all the times for Damon to not care, this had to be the worst time. None of what he was doing helped Elena. It only made things worse.
"I get it perfectly, but you can't get any answers with you being hysterical. You need to calm down." Damon tried all he could to calm her. As much as he hated to be stern with Elena on this, especially in such a difficult time like now, they needed to clear on this. Not much would get done with emotions running high. Even with Elena's grief for a girl she knew. He remembered about Stefan saying Elena being able to feel grief more strongly than others normally could. Seeing it manifest here just by this only made Damon dread if something worse would come down the road.
"She's not supposed to be dead. She can't be. She's too..." Her words became incoherent as her heightened emotions of grief, regret, and guilt overtook her. None of this was supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to die. April was an innocent! Crying into Damon's shirt, Elena hung to him as he tried to comfort her as best he could.
The officers outside stood at their posts uncomfortably as they saw the eighteen year old's grieving cries. Seeing their dilemma, Liz decided to give them a break. "Let them through, guys. They're with me," she ordered.
The deputies obeyed their superior gladly and raised the yellow tape, signaling the two vampires to come through. Trying to calm down from her bawling, the brunette vampire never wasted a second to get under the yellow tape, going inside of the house at a brisk pace.
"Elena!" Damon called her name as he went after her.
Liz heavily sighed, wondering why she chose this profession in the first place all those years ago. She followed after the couple back into the house with her current job at hand here. Finding out what happened to April Young.
"Why don't you go see Matt? He's in the kitchen and could use someone right now." Liz suggested carefully, pointing to the way of where Matt was.
Elena nodded silently, looked at Damon one more time, and made her way from the living room. Damon sighed heavily, wondering if there was only something worse about to come their way as time passed. Turning to the sheriff, he knew it was time to get down to business.
"Where's the body?" he asked.
"Upstairs. Come on."
"Are any of them informed on what could it be in this?" Damon subtly mentioned about the supernatural possibility in this case.
"Only a selective portion. Most of them are just supposed to follow orders. We can't have everyone in town knowing about you." Liz answered shortly before departing the first floor of the house.
With that, both the vampire and the human sheriff hiked up the stairs and made to the second floor of the house they went. The familiar coppery smell of blood brushed Damon's nose as he came closer to what he assumed to be April's bedroom. The flashing of cameras and the rustle of workers swarmed all around in the place, busy with their jobs. Observing around, it was typical teenage girl's room with everything in it. The only thing that was out of place was the disturbing presence of blood. His blue eyes landed on the victim in this whole mess. He shook his head in shame at the cruel sight. She was too young to die.
Damon wondered if he really wanted to know about this. "How did she die?"
"That I don't even know. I called you over here for when anything strange showed up. You know how it goes. Besides, this is the first time I've seen the body. The coroner should have something." Liz didn't understand how she was coping with this. Looking upon April Young's misty blue eyes flashed memories of Caroline's body, which should be rendering her unable to work. Somehow, even in all of this, it didn't affect her. Hardly at all.
"What have you got?" the sheriff inquired as she watched the coroner finished examining the body.
"As for basics, you already know. The victim is April Young. Sixteen years old. Local high school student. I saw no outward evidence of drug intake or anything. She's most likely clean." The female coroner stated the obvious, which Damon and the sheriff already knew.
"Listen, Sherlock. We already know those details. Make way with the big picture here." Damon didn't have time to listen to all the boring information. The real interesting facts was in this room, and they only had a certain amount of time. Damon didn't like to waste it.
The redheaded coroner scowled at the handsome pompous ass by the sheriff's side. Sending Liz a look, the officer already had an answer. "He's part of the investigation. Just relay everything."
"Fine then," she answered and glared at the vampire, earning her a wisecracking half-smirk from Damon. Bending over the dead corpse, her gloved-covered hands removed the dark hair from the dead girl's neck, revealing two distinct marks in the pale flesh. "I found these marks around her neck, especially around the jugular. There's a multiple of those all around."
"God," Damon said as he took a closer look at the wound, "she was sucked dry."
"That's not the only thing either. Besides being drained of blood, there's other odd things I saw on the body." Both Damon and Liz watched as the coroner shifted closer to one of April's arm, raising it to show nasty, jagged and bloody marks through the ripped sleeve of her sweater.
Liz's mouth fell open at the wounds. "Are those...?"
"Yep, those are wolf bites alright." Damon answered the question nodding his head, inspecting the bites. "Very nasty ones. Whatever this wolf was up to, it made sure its target wasn't going to escape. If you look closer, it really had a deep grip where the teeth were."
Little did he know, that wasn't going to be the most strange or chilling instances that would be coming up next.
"So, what are we going to name the cause of death? Animal attack?" The sheriff highly doubted they could so easily pin that name on a case like this. There have been way too many cases of what you call 'animal attacks' or missing reports in Mystic Falls alone. She already has a difficult time as it is to keep it under control. It's not the best strategy to sweep it under the rug, but what choice do they have. They didn't want all the people of Mystic Falls to fall into a panic knowing the existence of vampires.
"Usually, I would just say it as a newborn vampire going on a blood binge, but the wolf bites and wounds throw that idea out the window." Damon had too much experience under his sleeve to call this a random murder or a random accident. No. From his experience, the way everything was laid out, the timing of the kill, and all the little nuances in between pointed to a certain direction.
This was personal.
"It would have to be murder then," the coroner spouted after she pushed herself up from April's cold body and stood by threshold leading to the bathroom.
Damon held back a growl of annoyance. The temptation to compel her egged him a little, testing his control. Liz saw this and decided to cover for the elder Salvatore. "What do you mean, Wheeler?"
Coroner Wheeler gestured with her head and simply pointed to the huge vanity mirror that hung on the wall. "I think you should see for yourselves."
Damon and Liz walked away from the corpse and followed the blood trail leading to the bathroom like the coroner just now. Both sets of eyes widened seeing the bloody (literally) message written in the mirror. Unwanted chills settled in the pit of Damon's stomach as he read the message aloud.
"'It's just the beginning, x-o-x-o.'"
What kind of message was that?
"Beginning of what? That's the question." The coroner questioned out loud, pondering over the case with obvious again, which Damon thought she had no business to be part of. Where did Liz get her employees?
"Can you do us a favor and please leave?" If Damon's sugary tone in his request didn't get past through the annoying coroner, he didn't know what else would.
Liz decided enough was enough, and there would be no need for trouble. "Go ahead downstairs, Stacy. We need to bring the body to the morgue, anyway. Maybe there's something we missed," she told her, gazing at the message in the mirror for anything else.
The elder Salvatore smirked at the dismissed aggravated coroner waving his hand a little in goodbye. More like a mockery of a goodbye. Good riddance, anyway. She got on his nerves. With just the two of them finally alone, they could finally get to the questions they were afraid throw down in front of witnesses.
"Okay, I think we can perfectly nail this as a murder done on purpose." Damon pointed out, crossing his arms over chest deep in thought. "No one would have this message behind unless they wanted to."
"Agreed. Knowing from experience, this isn't going to be the end of it." That already was an obvious fact. The big million dollar question was this: who would be the next victim? "Got any ideas of our guilty party?"
"I have a few ideas," Damon vaguely responded, his mind concentrated more on just one idea on who might have done this. "It's obvious with all of these clues, it points to not a vampire who did this. I mean, what other creature around here sucks blood and rips through flesh like a wolf? A hybrid."
It did make sense, Liz thought to herself, which really didn't sit well with her internally. Damon didn't miss the sheriff's lack of response as she was lost in thought. She was forever changed due to the loss of her only daughter. The vampire was familiar with the feeling of loss like any other person in this world. Losing a child, though wasn't listed under his experience. He'd like to think that he and Liz had some mutual understanding to some degree from working together enough with things like that. However, it was strained ever since Caroline died.
"Liz..." Damon spoke her name as he laid a hand on her shoulder. "You alright?"
Without thinking, the sheriff reeled back from the vampire's hand. "Don't touch me. I'm fine," she said curtly, a bit of tightness in her voice was released as she raised her own hand to signal Damon to stay away. She wanted her own space.
"I'll be right back." The weary sheriff said to the rest working.
Needing some fresh air, Elizabeth Forbes left the crime scene upstairs and strolled down to the front yard. Liz didn't pay attention to the eyes following her or the vampire traveling behind her. She walked a good distance from April Young's house until she came across a tree on the end of a street. Leaning against it, she took a deep breath to keep her own emotions checked. Why now? She'd been numb to everything else, drowning in her work and becoming more of a workaholic. Why that one girl's death to bring a flood of feelings she kept buried?
Leaning up against the hard bark of an oak tree, she tried to get a grip. The pain was still fresh. It hurt just as much since the day she received the news.
"Liz..." she heard her name again.
"What do you want, Damon?" The older woman wasn't in the mood for speaking. Hadn't he gotten the message yet?
"I wanted to say I'm sorry." The Salvatore answered honestly, waiting for the sheriff to at least look at him while they were carrying the conversation.
"Hmm," Liz said in a monotone as she turned around to face him; her face was expressionless. "For what reason?"
Damon shrugged his shoulders as he was unable to come up with a clear answer. How could he come up with anything for something like this situation? "I don't know. I guess I just felt like it seemed right just because."
"You have no reason to apologize. It's not your fault. Besides, no amount of sorry is going to bring her back." Liz couldn't even say her daughter's name. It's that painful. To be honest, a part of her was afraid at this point. Saying her name would finalize the reality she didn't want to contend to.
"Still, you shouldn't..."
"Shouldn't what, Damon? That I shouldn't have to go through this? That my little girl's gone because of something that could be prevented? Because of one selfish desire for something so meaningless? What do you want me to say, Damon?" She spoke in a deadpan, but the bitterness, anger, and a mother's grief clear in her eyes spoke volumes.
"All I'm saying is that..." It was so unlike Damon not knowing what to say. He was usually sharp as a whip. Always with something to say and would never fail use his voice. He appeared to be so sure in himself. Despite being the anti-hero in these parts, he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and knew what he was doing. Sighing heavily, he ran a hand through his dark hair. "I don't know what to say."
"My point exactly," Liz retorted. "I'll talk to you later, Damon. I need to go home."
Damon tried to call out to the sheriff, but she ignored him completely. Not even going through the convenient option of using her car, she opted for walking home this time. It wasn't far of a walk. Besides, she wanted the solitude. Maybe it could do her some good.
Before long, the weary woman managed to get to her home without any trouble. The empty house was silent as she went through the old routine of coming home from another shift. Unlocking the door, going inside, locking the door back, hanging the keys on the rack, and diving into the bed for much-needed sleep. Usually on late nights, Caroline would be deeply asleep, trying to get her rest for school. Liz wouldn't be seeing her in the morning anymore.
Finally in the safe haven yet prison that was her home, Liz crashed on the couch, covering her face with her hands as tears fell from her eyes. She opened the floodgate of emotion she held in for the rest of the long night. She didn't know how long she was there or how long she cried, but it was enough to accept the fact of how nothing was changing. She was still gone.
Getting her phone out, the sheriff dialed a necessary number, wanting to get to the bottom of this damn situation that happened tonight. "You promised that no innocents would get hurt! That was part of the agreement," she snapped into the phone.
Hearing from the receiving end, her control thinned away in little pieces. This wasn't supposed to happen. Listening to this just grated her nerves. "'Slight change of plans?' 'It was necessary?' You better be thankful that you haven't been - forget about it. You know what I'm saying. I don't need to explain."
As she listened from the other end of the line, she fixed herself some coffee, knowing it was going to be a long day ahead. "Don't remind me about it. Just do what you have to do, and we'll keep on our end. We don't need everyone in town turning up dead." Glad to be hanging up the phone, she took a long drag of her coffee, probably going through yet another coffee pot again.
Though the phone call duration lasted less than five minutes, it tired Liz more than she imagined. Keeping everything under wraps was tiresome indeed. Oh, well. As long things were taken care of, the people in Mystic Falls weren't going to get hurt or worse. They wouldn't be in the crossfire.
Still, she hated this.
Meanwhile...
"Matt, I'm so sorry." Elena apologized for the fifth time since she came to see Matt, hugging him tightly to her. She was in a better state than before, but not that much considering.
Matt didn't say anything because he was still shaken up from the ordeal. He didn't expect Elena's embrace, but he accepted anyway. "Can we go outside, please? It's too crowded in here."
"Sure, that's fine." The brunette vampire reluctantly let him go. How was she supposed to act with one thing after another like this was beyond her? It was the same pattern. Just when Elena thought she could keep things under control or any chance of hope came her way, it was dashed by something like this. She felt like she going in circles. Always repeating the same cycle every time something like this happening. "How's Jeremy taking it?"
The jock brought his cell phone out to check for any recent text messages. He browsed into the ones from Jeremy to see if anything new showed up. "Jer's still pretty broken up about it. He's pissed that he's being kept on lockdown and not being able to see what's going on."
Elena nodded, remembering and sighing in relief that at least her brother was safe. Ever since Caroline's funeral, she had to make sure for her own sake that Jeremy remained safe at all costs. Even if that had to mean separating from him. So, she decided to let Jeremy stay with Matt for the time being. With Klaus not being invited into his house, Matt could keep watch. Until Klaus was taken care of, he would stay with his best friend for his own safety. Meanwhile over there, she kept receiving updates about Jeremy training to be ready for anything and not start too lax.
"I can understand that. At least, he's safe from all of this." She said as she planted herself a seat on the wooden bench outside, exhausted from everything around her.
"Yeah." That's what all Matt said, his mind not the only one swirling with questions and doubt. He sat by Elena since there was no other place to rest.
Seeing the fatigue in his face, concern for him rushed through to Elena. "Are you okay?" she asked placing a hand on his shoulder.
Did she really ask that?
Matt shook his head. "No, not really."
"You can talk to me. You know that right," Elena reassured him gently. He could always talk to her about anything. She knew that he knew that.
Matt sighed. "Why do you do it?"
"Do what, Matt?"
"Why do you continue on looking for the cure? After everything that's happened, why?" He really didn't understand to be honest. Matt wasn't so quite sure what to make of it. Yeah, he was always going to continue to help his friends because that's who he was. He would always care and try to do what he can. It didn't mean that he couldn't question their motives. What was the logic behind their madness?
Elena's face changed into confusion, the similar look Matt had seen before with her doe-brown eyes. "I feel like despite everything, we can actually still go through with this. Don't you see? Once we get the cure, things will get better. People will get a choice."
"But is it really worth it, Elena? To go after something that seems like an impossible myth? Did Caroline have a choice?" Matt slightly snapped, his control over his mouth a little loose. He usually kept to himself about this, but he felt the need to voice his concern. Maybe seeing the hurt in Elena's face wasn't worth it. Sighing, he got up from the bench, running his hands through his hair as he tried to clear his head. "I'm sorry, 'Lena. I didn't mean that."
"No, it's okay. It's no big deal." Like hell it wasn't, but Elena wasn't going to do that. She was too kind-hearted and sensitive to do such a thing. All of them were still going through it with the loss of Caroline. Matt had every right to react. Trying to change the subject, she tried to figure out what happened earlier. "Were you there with April when she...?"
"No, but I heard some bits and pieces." Matt began to explain, fresh memories coming back. He had stayed up late watching some home videos of the old gang and how things used to be. Like the champion football game of their sophomore year. It was right before the holidays, everyone was so excited for Christmas coming. It was actually the first snowfall they've had in a long time. Things seemed so happy and easy back then, it was so opposite of now. "I was asleep when she called. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We were just having a friendly conversation."
"What happened next?"
Matt tried to swallow the lemon-sized lump in his throat. "She told me to hold on when she was going to answer the door. The phone wasn't on speaker so I didn't hear much. There was a couple of words spoken I couldn't understand. Some shuffling...maybe something else...I don't know. Then I heard the screams."
"You sure there isn't anything else?" Elena had to ask.
"No, the only thing that's happened now is that April's dead." He ran a hand through his blonde hair. "Who knows who's next now?"
"No one is going to be," she tried to reassure him. It was a small hope, but it had to be enough. "Regardless of what happens, we have a plan forming. Soon enough, all of this is going to be over. No more sadness. No more pain. We'll have a choice again. We can breathe again without Klaus breathing down our necks."
Elena gave him one of her hopeful smiles, but Matt knew her well enough. The smile didn't reach those chocolate eyes of hers. She was trying to hide the negative emotions and fears for her own sake, even if she tried for Matt too. Others were good masking their emotions, but she never was. It wore on her sleeve and lit brightly like a beacon. Being the good person he was, he tried to return a hopeful smile too and gently grasped her hand, squeezing it gently.
"Despite all of this crazy stuff, I'm with all of you, guys. I am, it's just been difficult lately." He didn't need to explain the details. All of them knew.
"Elena..."
Both of them turned their heads in hearing Damon's voice. That was Elena's cue. She couldn't help but welcome the exit. "I'll see you later," Elena said. "Be careful getting home. Send my love to Jer, will you?"
"I will, don't worry." The football player waved goodbye to her before he urgently left April's house to go back to his own, leaving just Elena and Damon to themselves.
"Let's go back home." Damon wrapped an arm around Elena's shoulder as he led her back to his Mustang.
Both of them got into the car silently with not many words spoken between them. Now being away from that, Elena was able to set aside the fake smile and let the darkness cloud over her for just a few minutes. The ride home was quiet since Damon interpreted her silence as a signal for him to be quiet too. It wasn't so bad actually. It gave him some time to clear and organize his thoughts with the information he absorbed from earlier. Thinking of plans to keep Elena safe were his top priority right now.
They pulled up to the boarding house with everything still weighing on their minds. Damon watched Elena, wondering what's going on. Deciding not to push it tonight, he unhooked his seatbelt and said, "Come on, it's getting late. Some sleep will do both of us some good."
"Do you blame me?" she asked so fast and out of the blue, Damon didn't understand.
"What? You're going to have to repeat that again." Damon said, sitting back into the driver's seat again as he waited.
"I asked if you blamed me." Elena answered him as she turned to him. "Do you blame me for all of this happening?"
Damon was silent for a moment, surprised by her sudden question. Coming off with his usual attitude, he sent her a reassuring, wisecracking smirk only Damon could pull off. "Elena, shit happens. This isn't something we can't handle. We've faced tougher things, don't you remember?"
"Yeah, I remember. But no one we loved died the last time." Except she died and Alaric's life was tied to hers. As Elena kept thinking about it, the same fact kept popping up in her face. Everything came back to her. No matter which way you look at it, everything was rooted back to her. She started all the chaos. Everything fell back to that one center point of it all.
And now, instead of losing family, they lost a beloved friend.
Damon was at a loss of what to do. Usually, he was pretty honest with her before, but now it had reached an impasse. It may not be shown...but...no. She can't know that. Not during this state of mind. Throwing his old tactics away for a moment, Damon's face softened to a more tender look as he grasped Elena's hand. "Listen to me, Elena. Despite everything, no one you love here is blaming you for that. They still care about you, and we're going to get through this. I promise you."
He brought her closer by kissing her urgently, reinforcing on what he said. This was all she needed now. The love and support of everyone she cared about was all she needed to keep her going. She didn't need to know about the silent pain still lingering in some hearts in this town, and what results that kind of pain it can deliver. He hated to hold back some of the truth away, but it was for her own good. He loved her too much. In fact, this furthered Damon's resolve in finding the cure for Elena. He loved her that much, and he didn't care about the rules or what else that could happen.
Love makes you do crazy things.
I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
Become so tired, so much more aware
I'm becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you
- "Numb," by Linkin Park