She ran as fast as she could, hoping to get away from whatever was chasing her. She never saw the face of the monster causing her so much fear but she knew better than to take a stop and look back. She tried to catch her breath, but refused to allow herself to stop for a second. He was getting closer and closer by the moment, it'd be a matter of seconds until he'd capture her, ending her life for good.
"Elena my darling, haven't you learned not to run for me," he called out, allowing his dark voice to echo throughout the empty undergrounds. His laugh haunted her like no other, sending shivers up and down her back. She felt her blood crawl beneath her skin. This was it, he was almost caught up to her.
She stopped. Dead end. She felt the tears streaking down her cheeks as she begged and begged to the God above that somehow a magical passage way would open up, sending her to her freedom. She punched the stone wall almost positive that she had just broken every bone in her hand. But the pain was nothing - nothing to what she was about to feel. His shadow crept up from in front of her, she knew he was close.
Slowly a pair dark leather shoes appeared beneath her eyes. She allowed her head to travel up and witness the fancy dressing of whoever this unknown man may be. She was mesmerized almost by some sort of unbreakable compulsion. She looked up, hoping to catch a glimpse of her murderer before he took her life. Suddenly his head snapped up, revealing his blood covered mouth along with a set of two very, very sharp teeth.
"No!" Elena screamed as she shot up out of her bed, quickly grabbing at the blanket that laid beneath her. Within seconds Caroline was sitting besides her, comforting her best friend.
"Elena, calm down, it was just a nightmare. Look, we're still here in our dorm room. Deep breaths," she coached, placing on hand on her friends shoulder and the other on her back.
Elena looked around slowly, soon realizing that Caroline was correct. She recognized the light blue bedroom walls and oversized mirror that Caroline had insisted was necessary to the new dorm room. Elena chuckled to herself lightly as she realized that she was crying over nothing, after all, it was just a nightmare as Caroline had said.
"This one was more horrible than before Car, they keep getting worse. It's the same thing over and over and over. Like some kind of vampire is chasing me which we both know is impossible. I don't know why I even get so worked up over it, its not like a vampire will magically appear out of a children's storybook to attack me," laughed Elena.
"Regardless of why you're having these crazy nightmares, we need our sleep. Or at least I do, I have this huge math test tomorrow that I'm almost sure I'm going to fail. So try and relax and get some sleep, we can get a coffee tomorrow and discuss it," Caroline replied as she crawled back under her comforter, turning over to face Elena.
"You're right, thanks Caroline," Elena smiled before slowly shutting her eyelids, allowing her to drift back into a peaceful slumber which continued all the way until she was awoken by the sunlight peaking through the blinds covering the windows.
XxXxXxx
She wasn't one to lie, she was still extremely shaken up by the previous night's events. It wasn't like it was the first time it'd happen to her, in fact, she'd been having these reoccurring dreams since her eighteenth birthday which was more than a year ago. As much as she tried to tell herself not to look into the situation, it was surprising hard to get the nightmares off her mind. It was almost like they controlled her every move.
Elena sat alone outside of the local coffee shop with her nose buried deep inside the book that was assigned to her English class. Caroline was supposed to have met her here over twenty minutes ago, but never showed up, at least not yet. Elena figured her math test had taken longer than she had expected. Luckily, she came prepared. This way she was able to get some school work done as well. Her thoughts were interrupted as her waiter appeared besides her table, ready to take her order.
"Good evening, my name's Stefan and I'll be your waiter this evening. Anything I can get you?" he asked politely. Elena looked up to find a pair of deep green eyes, along with a strong bone structure and light brunette colored hair. If she were actually looking, she'd attempt to flirt with this young man.
"I was actually waiting for my friend," she said quietly, offering him an small smile, however, Stefan's eyes were focused on something behind her. She turned around to follow his gaze, only to find a black crow perched on a nearby street light, looking at her with almost curiosity. As Stefan's look pierced the bird it let out a loud caw before flying away into the distance.
"Sorry about that, I have a bad history with crows," replied Stefan, "Just let me know when you're ready."
"Weird," mumbled Elena.
XxXXxXXXxX
"And then out of no where this gigantic crow is just like having a stare off competition with my waiter. Could my day get any weirder?" she shouted from the nearby bathroom.
"Oh spooky, sounds like something you'd see in a horror film," replied Caroline as she used a large blush brush to apply a shade of light pink to her cheeks, "Not that I've seen any good horror films lately with my boyfriend being gone and everything. I really wish Tyler wouldn't care so much about mixed martial arts."
"Do I really have to bring up my last ex?" joked Elena, "At least you actually have a good boyfriend. Let's look at my past, shall we? Matt, the young man who turned gay on me; Harper, the crazy stalker who was plotting my death; and my favorite, Alaric, the thirty-five year old who pretended to be ten years younger."
"Well maybe if your waiter wouldn't be so into crows, you two could have hit it off," she giggled in response.
"May I add that it was you who encouraged me to get involved with all these guys," smirked Elena, "I don't think I should take anymore relationship advice from you Caroline. No offence."
"None taken," she laughed aloud, "Come on lets go. God forbid we're late to the sorority welcoming party. Vicki would kill us. Just think, you might meet a hot guy there to take home and have a night that you won't remember."
"Caroline!" shouted Elena, laughing fully.
The moment they arrived at the party they were able to tell this would be night filled with drunken teens and possibly fights over Vicki. The music was blasting as loud as possible and teens were running all over wearing barely anything. It was a surprise that the cops hadn't shown up yet.
"Remind me again why I agreed to come here?" Elena groaned. Parties weren't her scene - especially parties like these.
"Because your best friend in the whole wild world begged you to because her dreamy boyfriend agreed to show up and she was afraid to come along incase he ditched her, and you know your best friend loves you more than anyone else," Caroline grinned. She instantly spotted Tyler and let out a little shriek of happiness as she ran over to his side without a second thought, leaving Elena alone.
"Great," she groaned as she made her way over to the beverage stand. "Beer, beer, beer, beer."
"I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you that you wasn't a beer kind of girl," stated a smoothing voice from behind her. Elena turned around quickly, welcoming a pair of ice blue eyes with her own chocolate ones, "You see, beer girls are usually not worthy of my time, while the others well… are."
"Do I know you?" she asked cautiously. This guy didn't even know her name and he was trying to flirt with her, but God, was he hot.
"Sadly, you don't which is really your own loss. I would want to know me if I were you," he replied sarcastically, causing a cocky smirk to appear upon his face. She wasn't sure on whether or not to be offended or to go along with the playful flirting.
"And you are?"
"Damon. Damon Salvatore, but you can call me the hot irresistible stud muffin," Damon threw back at her. This was definitely a guy she would describe as a player.
"Elena," she replied slowly, feeling him capture her tiny hand in his own before placing a light kiss on the surface.
"A beautiful name for a beautiful woman," he replied softly. He had to be on top of his game tonight. If he said one thing wrong and sent Elena flying off in other direction she'd be lost and it'd be extremely hard to rescue her. He had no idea why he was trying so hard to protect this weak human, perhaps it had something to do with the identical features she shared with his first love Katherine. Katherine, oh how his heart yearned for his true love to come back to him. However, sadly she was burned in the church back in the 1800s.
"How old are you?" she asked curiously, not like she was interested in him or anything.
"Twenty-three, and you Dear?" he replied with a hint of amusement. If only she had known his real age, which happened to be around 159 years old.
"Eighteen," she answered slowly. She looked off into the distance to see Caroline and Tyler fighting, but was unable to make out any words. Her instincts told her to make her way over to see if everything was okay, "It's been nice talking to you Damon but I really have to go catch my friend before she hurts herself. I'll see you around."
Damon smirked to himself as he watched her walk away, if only his baby brother would be here right now. Damon would enjoy himself as he rubbed his success with Elena in Stefan's face, causing an argument to abrupt. He'd be watching Elena alright, just not as she expected to see him as.
