Ayla was startled awake with another one of her recurring dreams. The dreams were happening more frequently now and she didn't know why. She took her sketch pad that was sitting on her nightstand and flipped through the pages. Almost every night was the same.
A full moon. Rings of fire. A bleeding heart. And then the man. The man with glowing amber eyes and a set of sharp fangs.
None of it made sense to her, but she was fascinated by it. Captivated by it. So she drew every aspect of her dream, trying to make the slightest sense of it. But she never could.
Ayla wasn't expecting the raven haired man from her father's wake to be walking towards the door as she walked down the stairs in her workout clothes. She looked at the man who eyed her up and down with a small smirk. She just sighed at his very obvious action of checking her out.
"Ayla, right?" His eyes landed on her chest before flitting back to her face.
"Yeah." She nodded, crossing her arms over her chest, wanting his eyes off her. Unfortunately it had the opposite effect, his eyes leering at her sports bra covered chest. "And you are?"
"Damon Salvatore." She put her hand out towards him and he eyed it for a moment before shaking it. Almost instantly, Ayla was flooded with an array of emotions; anger, resentment, guilt, distrust, darkness. All of which caused her to pull her hand away from his quickly.
"I haven't seen you around much. You live with Mason?"
"He's my uncle."
"Right." He nodded, eyes narrowing at her. "I knew your dad. Didn't know he had another kid. He never mentioned it."
"I doubt he wanted to advertise the fact that he once cheated on his wife."
"Persona non grata. Must be rough."
"Well, I'm late for my run, so... see you around."
"I'm sure you will." He watched her start walking out the door. "You ever need an exercise buddy, you let me know. I can help work you out. I excel in many physical activities."
"Gross. Does that line actually work on women?" She saw the smirk on his face fall when she looked back at him. She didn't hear his response as she rolled her eyes and began sprinting off.
Ayla was sitting in her bedroom by herself, looking at the photo album that contained pictures of her and her mother when she was growing up. She hadn't seen any of the pictures in months, not wanting to pack the whole album when she moved to Florida.
"You miss her?" Tyler asked her, nodding to the photo of her and her mother dressed up as witches for Halloween when she was eight years old. She didn't overlook that irony.
"More than ever." She closed the photo album and looked at her brother, who was leaning against the door.
"Well, how about instead of being all sad and lame tonight, you come out to the fair with me and Mason?"
"I don't know." She looked at him with distaste. "I don't exactly have many friends here anymore."
"Yeah, that's why I am so kindly offering to spend some of my precious time with my baby sister."
"You're barely four months older than me, dick." She got off of her bed and smacked him lightly before following him out to find Mason. They both laughed as they walked into their father's office.
"What are you doing?" Tyler asked first. Her eyes narrowed on Mason as he stopped searching through the office.
"Huh?" Mason looks up worried. "Nothin'. Just killin' time. Waitin' for you two."
"You looking for something?" Tyler asked, pointing to the desk.
"Yeah, actually." Mason looked to Ayla whose eyes were still staring narrowly, trying to figure out what was going on. "You know where I can find any family artifact stuff? The heirlooms?"
"You blow through your trust fund already?" Tyler scoffed, with a smile on his face.
"Just ask his shitty truck." Ayla whispered under her breath.
"I did that when I was 22."
"Then what could you possibly want with the heirlooms, Mason?" Ayla spoke up with an accusatory tone. She had a feeling that there was another reason Mason wanted to stay in Mystic Falls for awhile.
"I'm just looking for this old piece of my mom's. My dad gave it to her when they got married. Has... sentimental value. Probably passed down to your dad. Should still be in the house here somewhere."
"What's it look like?"
"It's a moonstone." He put his hand up. "About the size of a hockey puck; old, ugly, minimal monetary value."
"Hey, man. Whatever." Tyler laughed. "Um, ask my mom, I guess."
"Yeah, cool. I'll do that." Mason looked at Ayla.
"You two ready to go?" She spoke up again, still eyeing Mason.
"Yeah." They nodded, following her out of the room.
Ayla was walking around the fair by herself, looking for Mason and Tyler after she had gotten a drink. She sighed looking at her cell phone as she continued walking around, wondering where they could be. She didn't expect to stumble upon Damon Salvatore who had his arm wrapped tightly around Jeremy's neck.
"This is what we're not gonna do." Damon whispered in Jeremy's ear, his grip tightening. "We're not gonna walk around like we're invincible when it's this easy for me to end you."
"What the hell are you doing?" She spat at the older man, pushing him back with a significant amount of strength. Damon let go of Jeremy's neck before looking at her with surprise mixed with suspicion. He put his hands up in surrender as she moved to Jeremy's side, looking at him as he coughed and tried to catch his breath. "Don't touch him again, Damon."
"Ah, little Ayla Lockwood."
"It's Cabot, you dick." She spat, he looked at her again, his eyes not leaving hers.
"If you wanna tell people what I really am, go ahead and try." Damon shrugged, looking back at Jeremy. "I will shove this ring so far up your ass, you'll really have something to choke on." He threw the ring in Jeremy's face, causing Jeremy to immediately pick it up. "And next time, your little girlfriend won't be there to save you."
"Fucking asshole." She yelled at him, causing people to look at her. Damon just smirked before walking away from them.
"You need to stay away from that guy." Jeremy told her, putting the ring back on his finger.
"Yeah, I have no problem with that." She looked back at him. "Are you okay, Jer?"
"I'm fine, Ayla." He refused to make eye contact with her.
"Are you sure?" She reached out for his hand.
"I said, I'm fine!" Jeremy yelled at her. She jumped back at the tone of his voice. He looked at her before shaking his head and walking away. She watched him walk off, feeling an intense amount of loneliness. Ayla sighed out before walking towards where a group of men were cheering at the arm wrestling matches. She rolled her eyes as the bell rang again, signaling the match being over. She could practically smell the testosterone lingering in the air. She watched from afar as her uncle Mason beat Tyler. She knew that he had an unfair advantage but smiled anyway.
"All right, he's the champ." Tyler announced. "Who wants to go next?"
"Uh, Stefan wants a go." Damon called out. She looked over to him, seeing the cute boy who was with Elena in the garden the day before during her father's wake at the Lockwood Estate.
"Yeah, sure. I'll, uh— I'll give it a shot." Stefan stuttered out.
"Go, Stef." Tyler spoke up, causing people to clap out.
"Get him, Stef." Damon called out, making eye contact with her.
"My brother over there thinks I can beat you." Stefan spoke out, Ayla just tilted her head with narrowing eyes.
"Your brother's wrong." The bell rang out. She could see the amount of fight that Stefan began using, his eyes looking worried when Mason slammed his fist down. Mason high-fived Tyler when the bell signified he was once again the winner. All Ayla could do was stare at the brothers who were whispering before walking away.
Ayla walked away from her family, not wanting to be around the testosterone anymore. She walked into the school and toward her old locker. She could practically see her and Jeremy standing next to each other, him smiling at her. Her going in to kiss him. She trailed her fingers across the locker, thinking of times before everything went awry. Before everything changed. She stood quietly and all alone when she heard a door slam shut.
"Oh, hey blondie." A familiar voice spoke up. "They let you out?"
"I remember." She immediately knew it was Caroline's voice. She felt bad for not going to see her while she was in the hospital. But with coming back to town and her father's wake, she hoped Caroline understood why she didn't go to see her right away.
"What do you remember?"
"I remember how you manipulated me... you pushed me around, abused me, erased my memories. Fed on me." Ayla's head popped up, eyes widening. She heard stories from a few of the packs that her and Mason ran with back in Florida. She never wanted to believe them.
"You're crazy." Damon spoke and she could practically hear the smirk in his voice.
"Well, the memories have been coming back in pieces."
"You can't remember. It's impossible. I mean, unless you were becoming a..."
"I have a message from Katherine." Caroline stopped for a minute. "She said, 'Game on.'"
"Wait-" She heard a collision and was nervous that Caroline was in trouble, before she could walk down the hallway and help her friend, her friend spoke up with attitude.
"You suck." Caroline spat, she heard the door slam again. Ayla ran out of the gym, looking for her uncle. She needed to tell him what was going on here, and then they needed to get the hell out of Mystic Falls. She heard screaming from the parking lot and then an alarm going off. She ran quickly over there to see Mason jumping, his eyes turning amber. She saw him smack a man roughly, as Tyler laid on the ground.
"Mason!" She screamed at him, hoping it would be enough to calm him down and realize what was going on. He looked at her and nodded, signaling that he was okay.
"Come on." He helped Tyler up. "Let's go."
"We need to get the hell out of here. Now!" She told them, leading them to run off towards the car.
"You need to explain whatever the hell that just was." Tyler looked to Mason, but he didn't respond. "Ayla?" She just shook her head.
"Leave it alone, Tyler."
"Leave it alone?"
"Tyler!" Her uncle yelled. "Leave it."
A few minutes later they arrived back at the Lockwood Estate and Tyler opened the door, letting them both into the house.
"Alright, we're home. Safe territory. Enough with the silence."
"Told you to leave it alone."
"What was that move you pulled?" Tyler continued.
"Brazilian Martial Arts." Mason explained, Ayla just rolled her eyes at the completely idiotic reply, but figured it was better than the truth. She guessed it was probably more believable than the truth too. "I took some classes a while back."
"Don't lie to me."
"I'm not lying."
"Ayla!" He yelled, trying to get her to respond. "I saw something!"
"You didn't see anything." Mason told him, and boy did she wish that werewolves had the ability to compel others.
"I saw your eyes. They glowed."
"Reflection of a car headlight, maybe. That's all."
"Reflection of a car headlight?" He scoffed. "You really expect me to believe that?"
"Tyler! Hey, you wanna know what you saw?" Mason yelled. She hated when he yelled, it reminded her of how her father would always yell. "You saw me pissed off that I had to pull your delinquent ass out of a fight."
Tyler just clenched his jaw and gave them both a dirty look. He nodded angrily before walking away from them. Ayla watched him leave, waiting for a moment before she turned back to her Uncle Mason.
"We have a bigger problem than Tyler." She whispered to him. "Vampires."
"What are you talking about?"
"There are vampires all over this goddamn town, Mason. We need to get the hell out of here."
"The Salvatore brothers. Caroline Forbes. God knows who else." She shook slightly. "We need to pack our shit and leave. If they find out what we are, they will kill us."
"We can't leave yet, Ayla."
"Uncle Mason, please. I feel something dangerous... and it's coming."
"That's all the more reason to stay. We need to stick around to make sure nothing happens to your brother. He needs us." She just nodded her head, trying to shake the fear off of her.