**Chapter twenty eight**
The hot new guy
*Hailey*
Elena and Stefan didn't take my new friendship with Damon very well. I know what a shocker. I didn't want to tell them at first, but I learned my lesson with keeping secrets from Elena.
"No way, Hailey. We can't trust him." she exclaimed during the car ride to school.
"I don't know about that, Elena." I said, leaning against my seat.
"What do you mean?" Stefan asked curiously from the driver's seat.
"I trust Damon. Besides, we're in a kill or be killed situation. It's us, team awesome- a nagging human, a vegetarian vampire, and an alcoholic psychic- against 5 bazillion tomb vamps. I think we can afford to add an arrogant vampire to our side." I said sarcastically, and Elena glared at me for calling her a "nagging human."
"What if he betrays us? It's not unlike Damon to trade sides." Elena argued.
'Not in a situation like this." I argued. "The tomb vamps hate the Salvatore brothers, and besides, he's already attacked them to protect me. There's no way they'd take him onto their side, and there's no way he'd go in the first place."
"Hailey's right." Stefan agreed, surprising me.
"Wow, Stef, you just went up a ton on my like-o-meter." I said, teasing him. Stefan smiled at me. Though, Elena looked angry.
"Damon's not someone we want against us, and the more people we have on our side, the better. Hailey's right, we're heading into a war, and the enemy's got a huge advantage. Besides, they want all of us dead, including Damon." Stefan said, and Elena sighed at his logic.
"Lena, do you trust me?" I asked her abruptly.
"Of course." she answered right away.
"Then you can trust Damon. I can't explain why- I don't even know myself- but I trust him. If he screws us over, then I give you permission to nag me the rest of my life, and my after-life." I said.
She looked at me, before sighing and giving in. "Fine, but I don't like or trust him." she said, before slumping in her seat.
"I never said you did," I responded, smirking victoriously.
Elena, Stefan, and I walked to class, and I kept getting looks that I ignored. I was used to staring. It was like this after my dad died. Stefan excused himself to use the bathroom, and Elena and I walked to History alone. Then suddenly, Elena stopped and hit my arm.
"Ow!" I exclaimed, hitting her back.
"Hot guy, straight ahead." she said. I looked and caught my breath.
A gorgeous guy was walking straight towards us, and was getting a lot of attention from the female population. I could see why- he was hot, with messy dark brown hair and hazel eyes. A part of me couldn't help but compare him to Damon. Damon won, though I chose to ignore that part.
"My morning just brightened up considerably." I said, not taking my eyes off him.
The warning bell for class rang, and I turned regretfully away from the hot new kid. Suddenly, Elena took my backpack from me, and dumped all of its contents out of it, before running away.
"What the hell, Elena?" I shouted at her retreating back. She just giggled in response.
I sighed angrily, before getting on my knees to restock my backpack. Why'd she do that?
"Are you okay?"
I looked up at the voice to come face-to-face with the hot new kid, and suddenly, Elena's actions made sense. Oh, I was going to murder her in her sleep.
"Fine." I said gruffly, turning away. "My friend just thinks she's funny, that's all."
"Oh, okay." but I heard him kneel down beside me, and started picking up my stuff.
"Here." he said, handing me a pile of books, magazines, and food wrappers.
"Thanks." I said in my same tone, zipping up my backpack.
I wasn't being nice to hot new kid because, for one, I'm not a nice person. And two, I had enough boy problems in my life, I didn't need another.
"You're welcome." he said easily, overlooking my cold shoulder.
I stood up, and slung my backpack over my shoulder, and started to walk towards history class, when he called, "Hey, can you help me? I don't know where my class is."
I turned around to face him, and looked at his cute face. Why was I being such a bitch to him? Because of Damon? There was no chance in hell that we could ever happen again.
I took a deep breathe, then nodded, and he smiled, before jogging to my side. "What's your next class?" I asked, in what I hoped was a nicer tone.
"Chemistry with Mrs. Brown." he said, looking down at a schedule.
I snorted. "Good luck with that." I said. "She's a major bitch."
He laughed. "I'm Nathan by the way." he said.
"Hailey." I said, managing to smile at him.
We stopped in front of a classroom, and I said, "Welcome to hell, Nathan. I hope you enjoy your stay."
He laughed again, and I found that I liked his laugh. "I'll see you around, Hailey?" he asked, going to open the door.
"If you're lucky enough." I called over my shoulder, already walking away.
That wasn't too bad. He was nice. I was still going to kill Elena, though.
I walked to History, and was five minutes late, but that was a good thing. The teacher chose to ignore me and continue on with his lecture. I sat down next to Stefan, and noticed that the seat on his right was empty. I raised my eyebrows at him.
"Went home sick." he mouthed, before turning back to the teacher.
I nodded, and let my mind drift off. I thought about the hot new guy, and how he might just help me move on from Damon. It stupid and heartbreaking, letting yourself continue to fall for a man who was in love with someone else. I wouldn't let myself get hurt any more than I already had. That's where Nathan might come in.
~LMF~
It was during math class when it happened. I started getting an all too familiar headache, and immediately got a pass to go to the bathroom.
Thankfully, the bathroom was empty, so I curled up into a corner of the bathroom, and waited for the vision the come. A few minutes of excruciating pain later, it did.
I was walking outside to get the mail. It was so cloudy, that there wasn't a ray of sun in the sky. I was the only one outside. When I pulled out the mail from the mailbox, and turned to go back inside, I suddenly heard something. A noise, coming from the woods across from my house.
I turned and looked at the spot I heard noises coming from. Then, I walked slowly backwards to my house. It could just be me being paranoid, but I didn't trust strange noises when I was just by myself.
I turned around, and started walking back to the house. Suddenly, I was pulled to the ground by my ankles.
I let out a piercing scream and started kicking my legs, my brown hair flying everywhere. It was no use though; the vampire easily dragged me into the woods.
I was slammed against a tree, and a hand pressed against my mouth, to stop me from screaming. I distinctly heard, "The families will pay for what they did to us." before something bit into my neck, and everything went black.
I gasped, and jolted up, as my eyes cleared of blood. I was filled with dread. No, no. I couldn't let that happen.
I jumped up, and started running from the bathroom to the closest door I could find. I didn't have a car, but I didn't care. Her house wasn't too far from school.
"Hey! Ms. Ellis! Where do you think you're going?"
I stopped, and turned to look at a teacher I didn't know, but who obviously knew me.
"Home." I said, crossing my arms over my chest, and covering my eyes with my bangs to hide that they were bloodshot.
"I don't think so, Hailey. Now get back to class." he said, before going to stand in front of the door.
I rolled my eyes, though my feeling of dread increased as I walked slowly back to class. What was I going to do? Before I walked into my class, I got an idea. I ran back to the bathroom, and dialed in Damon's number in my new cell phone.
"Hello?" I heard his voice answer on the second ring.
"Damon!" I said, silently thanking the gods.
"Hailey? What's up?" he asked, sounding curious.
"You need to get to Elena's house now!" I said, hoping that he'd do it. I couldn't lose her, I couldn't.
"Why?" he asked, sounding more curious.
"The tomb vamps are going to kill her! She went home early, and I just had a vision, and the stupid teachers won't let me leave! Please Damon, you can't let her die! Please!" I babbled, feeling tears starting to fall down my cheeks, and I wiped them away.
"They're going kill Elena?" he asked.
"Yes! Please stop it, Damon." I begged.
"Don't worry." he said, before hanging up.
I sighed and ran a hand over my hair. I couldn't help it, I was worried. I couldn't lose Elena, she just wasn't my best friend, and she was like my sister.
*Damon*
Damon hung up on Hailey, and then ran a hand through his hair. The tomb vampires were going to kill Elena; And Hailey wanted him to stop it.
He didn't know what to feel when it came to Elena's death. She didn't like him, but she meant a lot to both Hailey and Stefan, and he didn't necessarily hate either of them. He pretended to with Stefan, because it was easier to hate him than to forgive him.
She also looked like Katherine, though Damon wasn't so sure about Katherine anymore. He groaned, He knew that he had to stop Elena's murder. If he didn't, Hailey would blame him the rest of her life, and he would feel guilty. It was hard to believe, but it was true.
So, Damon ran to Elena's house. When he reached it, Elena was walking to the mailbox. She stopped and glared when she saw him.
"What do you want, Damon?" she said, while Damon looked around the empty neighborhood, looking for any signs of vampires.
"Get back in the house, Elena." he said, not taking his eyes off the woods in front of him.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Get back in the house." he repeated.
"Why?"
"Because if you don't, you're going die." he said simply.
"What the hell are you talking about, Damon?" she said, more confused than ever.
"Hailey had a vision that you're gonna die, so now I'm forced to play the hero. So get back in the house, before a tomb vampire turns you into his lunch." he said irritably, finally taking his eyes off the forest to look at her.
Elena's eyes widened, but she nodded, and started walking back to the empty suddenly, Damon saw a blur that only he could see, run right at Elena. Without thinking, Damon pushed Elena out of the way, and was slammed into the garage door. He heard Elena scream from her spot on the lawn.
"Get in the house!" he screamed at her, throwing a punch at the vampire. He heard Elena sprint into the house, as Damon slammed the vampire into the ground. Holding him there, he took a branch from nearby and plunged it into his heart. Then, the vampire was dead. It was over.
*Hailey*
After school, Stefan and I hurried over to Elena's. She was fine, just freaked out. Damon was long gone, though Elena admitted she trusted him a bit more than before, which made me happy. I was just glad that she wasn't dead.
I tried calling Damon, but he was ignoring my calls. I was pretty sure he didn't want people to start thinking he was a good guy now. But the truth was, Damon started being a good guy a long time ago.
Now I was curling up in my bed for some much overdue sleep. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I was in a room, and it was like I was a ghost. I was watching everything, not having it happen to me.
There were two people in the room besides me, and they both looked very familiar. They were kissing, and it was pretty heated.
Suddenly, the girl pulled away, and I saw who they were. I felt an unpleasant jolt in my stomach. It was Damon and Elena.
I felt a surge of unwelcome jealousy, and then I remembered how outrageous this was. Elena hated Damon, and was in love with Stefan. She'd never kiss him.
Then I got a good look what they were wearing. It was very old fashioned, probably from the 1800's. Something suddenly hit me. It wasn't Elena, it was Katherine. I was in some sort of weird flashback. But who's?
The answer became clear a few seconds later. A pretty girl knocked on the wall, wearing a dress like Katherine.
"Am I interrupting anything?" she asked in a familiar voice, smiling a knowing smile.
"Of course not, Victoria." Katherine answered, turning away from Damon, who looked at her like she was the center of his world. I felt sick to my stomach watching them, and focused my attention on Victoria.
We did look exactly alike, it was like looking in a mirror. Same face, same eyes, same body build, same long jet black hair with bangs that covered our eyes. It could've been me talking to Katherine.
"Good, because I need your help if you are not too busy." Victoria's eyes flickered to Damon and then back to Katherine.
"Of course, Tori. I will meet you there." she said, then Victoria walked away.
Since I didn't feel like watching Katherine and Damon's make out session anymore, I followed Victoria. She walked out of the house, and started down a road. I had to jog to keep up with her, and she acted like I wasn't there.
A few minutes later we stopped in front of an old Victorian house, one that looked very familiar to me, for me different reasons. One, it was the old Ellis manor, now in remains, where Elena and I used to play as kids. Two, it was where my strange dreams kept taking place, the one of a girl burying a box.
Then I noticed that Victoria was holding a box, just like the one in my dream. She looked around to see if anyone was around, then opened it to reveal an old, bloody knife. It looked old even in the 1800's.
"You should not be opening it out in the public like this."
I jumped, but Victoria smiled and turned to face Katherine, who smiled back. "I can't help it. It so beautiful." Victoria said wistfully.
"It does hold a certain attraction." Katherine said, looking down at the jewel incrusted knife.
"We need to hide it." Victoria said, closing the box, and then looking at Katherine.
"I know, and I think the tunnels under your house would be best suited." she said, and Victoria nodded.
"You're right."
The two girls started walking towards the house, and I followed them. I couldn't keep my eyes off the box, because of what it held. I felt drawn to the knife, though afraid of it at the same time. Like a moth to a flame.
Suddenly, I fell to the ground, and woke up from my flashback/vision/dream thing. I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the darkness of the night. I think my room got darker.
I realized that I wasn't in my room. I was facing the ruins of an old, beautiful house. The Ellis manor.
How the hell did I get out here?
~LMF~
A/N: Thank you to: jacquline, SomebodyWhoCares, AubreySalvatore, aireagle92, and Kimmy W. Smith for reviewing!
Reviews inspire me!
~Abby :)
