The day after I had strangely decided to go out on a drive into the middle of nowhere for no reason, I decided to stay in town for the day rather than take some crazy adventure into the unknown again. Seriously, that was so weird and unlike me. Why would I have suddenly decided to just take off into the blue, especially without calling my parents first? Well whatever, mom was only a little worried and I still made it back before my curfew so all was good.
Since they were both at work today, I decided to head on over to the grill after school for some food, as I couldn't be bothered to make anything for myself and I felt like chilling in town rather than being home alone. Packing up a few things to take with me, I headed on over where I found Matt working, and the moment I saw him I remembered the fight from the other day. "Oh my god Matt, how are you? What happened at the party? You were acting so weird and violent." I said to him as he came on over to find me a table.
"Yeah, I don't know what happened really, I guess I just drank too much and it hit me wrong." Matt said to me before frowning. "Didn't you hear about Sarah though?" Seeing my vacant expression, Matt surmised that no, I hadn't heard about Sarah. Wasn't she one of the girls we'd been partying with? "She tripped and broke her neck after you ran out. Tyler told me afterwards since he knocked me out."
"What?!" I freaked a little too loudly, making several people turn towards me to glare before returning to their own conversations. Blushing slightly with embarrassment, I lowered my voice back down again so that I wasn't interrupting other people. "Are you serious? Sarah actually died? That's crazy man, what the hell happened?"
"I don't know, like I said I was out. Tyler must have punched me hard enough to put me down for a while, knock some sense into me or something." Matt answered before showing me over to a table with a booth so I could sit comfortably. "You want your usual or are you thinking about changing it up today?"
"I don't know. I just found out somebody died, I'm thinking maybe I'm not so hungry anymore." My stomach growled in protest, so I paused before opening up the menu. "Well I'll start with my usual chocolate shake, and I'll see what jumps out at me food wise." I decided, scanning everything as Matt started my ticket order but just before he went, I called back to him. "Hey, I'm real sorry about Sarah."
"Yeah, it's a shame." He agreed, giving me a sad smile before putting in my milkshake order. Having tried pretty much every meal and item on the menu, I went for one of my favourites then sketched whilst I was waiting in a fresh sketchbook, keeping the other one aside as a sort of dream journal. I was quite happy, sketching away waiting for my food to come to me. I didn't fail to notice that Caroline and Stefan showed up together, getting a table and also ordering food to talk, and not long after that Bonnie and Elena's brother Jeremy also arrived. At first Bonnie talked to the new kid who'd just showed up in town, Luka, I think his name was. We had a class together and I was pretty good at recognising new faces.
Sinking further into my booth, I hoped that nobody would notice me as I ate my food in my own time, Matt occasionally drifting over with an excuse of either cleaning up a table just so we can catch a few words from each other. I was glad that he was doing better. There was a slight fiasco before when his mom showed up, but I think they had a fight or something because she skipped town again pretty soon after. Anyway, I was quite happy sitting on my own, until someone came and disturbed me. Caroline and Stefan. "Hey! We were trying to call you yesterday but you didn't pick up. What's been going on with you?" Caroline asked me, all sweetness and smiles so I frowned at her, charcoal pencil pausing on the page.
"Are you serious?" I asked her, looking between both her and Stefan and instantly her smile started to fade as Stefan just looked at me with a slight frown of confusion. "You make a show out of becoming my friend, then you just suddenly stop talking to me for weeks and now you want to be all friendly again? Yeah, I don't think so." Returning to my drawing, Caroline floundered a little, unable to deny that she had done exactly that.
"I'm…I'm sorry, but we had a reason for it, I swear. It's not because we didn't like you or we didn't want to be your friend." She said to me but I didn't even give her a look, just continued drawing as I drawled with heavy sarcasm.
"Sure you did. Say what you want Caroline, I don't care. Can you guys please leave me alone?"
"We just wanted to talk to you about something." Stefan picked up, interjecting smoothly so I just arched a wry eyebrow at him.
"Oh yeah? What about? Do you even know my name?" I asked him and for a moment he had to stop and think, actually struggling for a while until Caroline whispered it under her breath.
"Ophelia?" I felt like giving him a round of applause but I didn't, deciding it wasn't even worth the effort. "Sorry, but can you just look at me for a second?" Ignoring him, I continued to draw, not even really paying attention to the picture that was coming alive on the page until Stefan reached over and grabbed my hand, making me jerk in protest.
"Hey what do you think you're do-?!"
"Be quiet, and answer my questions." Feeling a lull come over me, I stopped trying to fight him off and just looked at him. "Do you know anything about witches?"
"Nothing outside the general norm. They're people, generally women, who have magical powers."
"Are you a witch?"
"What? No of course not." Stefan's brow furrowed, continuing to study me closely as if to try and see something behind my eyes.
"Is there any possibility that you might be a witch, anything strange going on that you can't explain?" He pressed and this time I hesitated, immediately thinking of my strange dreams. It was my hesitation that made both Caroline and Stefan lean in closer, recognising that I'd thought of something. "Tell me."
"I'm not sure if it means anything, but I've been having reoccurring dreams. The exact same one a couple times a week. It feels so real, like I'm going to sleep only to wake up there." Lifting my sketchbook a little closer towards me, Stefan's eyes dropped down towards it and immediately he stiffened, freezing up before reaching to grab it from me. I wanted to stop him, keep him from taking my precious sketchbook but he'd told me to be quiet so I just let him have it, watching as he turned it around to face him, staring at the page where I hadn't even realised I'd drawn several portraits of the same guy. The one from my dream.
"How do you know this person?" He demanded, suddenly growing serious but I just looked at him quizzically.
"He's in my dream. I see him, so I sketched him."
"But you don't know him."
"No, I don't know who he is." Answering everything just like Stefan had asked me to, I suddenly began to think. Wait, why am I letting him look through my dream journal? That was private, and it was mine. It was like something clicked inside me, thinking I didn't have to let him just take my things, so I quickly snatched it back. "And this is private, so keep your hands off." A little taken aback by my unexpected spunk, Stefan had no choice but to let the sketchpad go.
"Who is that?" Caroline asked, leaning over to take a look at the portraits as Stefan looked more sombre and brooding than usual.
"It's Elijah, the guy who tried to kidnap Elena yesterday after Trevor and Rose took her." Wait, Elena was kidnapped?!
"Are you serious? You're telling me I'm dreaming up guys who kidnap girls? Am I going crazy?!" Panicking a little, Caroline told me to calm down so I did, where the two of them discussed it a little further until one of them called Bonnie over. I sat there quietly, completely in a trance until all three of them were facing me.
"Ophelia, I need you to remember what happened that night at the masquerade ball." Caroline said to me, and after a few moments, the memories began to resurface once more. There was a fight, Matt going for Tyler and I got scared and angry they were being such morons, then there had been that earthquake and all those freaky things with the fire and wind as well as the booze bursting out of the bottles to make them shatter. I also remembered the fact that Tyler had accidentally killed Sarah, so as I sat there, reeling from the memories, I began to hyperventilate. "Stay calm, now tell me." Caroline said whilst looking at me deeply, pulling me into another trance. "Was it you who made the earthquake and everything else happen?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Are you sure?" Stefan pressed and somehow, I managed to shoot him a wry look even whilst being hypnotised somehow by them. "Okay then, Bonnie. Can you tell if she's a witch like you?" Like her? Wait, Bonnie was a witch? No that's crazy, that can't possibly be true. What's going on? I flinched when Bonnie reached over and put her hand on my shoulder, closing her eyes and breathing deeply before frowning.
"I don't feel anything, she's not a witch." Bonnie said before drawing back her hand. "Maybe we were wrong. It could have been that other witch there messing around and it was just a coincidence." She suggested, but of course I had no idea what they were talking about.
"But what about those freaky dreams she said she's having." Caroline pointed out, grabbing my sketchbook and showed it to Bonnie who flicked through a few of the pages. "Stefan says that this guy here is the guy who came to take Elena away after she was kidnapped, but Lia has never met him before. If that's not witchy ju-ju, then I don't know what is."
"I can do some research on these runes or something, maybe I'll find something that way. There's this alter here, it seems to have some kind of symbol on it behind these figures here." Bonnie said, pointing at one of the pages, but I didn't really hear anything else after her saying she was going to take my sketchpad away.
"You're not taking my sketchbook." I said to her, starting to rise to my feet so Stefan quickly grabbed my hand, forcing me to look at him.
"You're gonna let Bonnie borrow your sketchbook." He said to me, but that just made me reject it all the more, fighting against whatever weird feeling that had taken over me, like I was partially dreaming and yet still awake. Dragging my arm out of his grasp and slammed my hands down onto the table with a burst of anger as I raised my voice, starting to regain control of my own body, thoughts and emotions.
"You're not taking my sketchbook!" As I raised my voice, the lights overhead suddenly sparked and the fuses all blew, causing several bright flashes before the bulbs all burst with glass shattering everywhere, making several people yell in the booths and tables that had been affected. I glowered at Bonnie who was staring at me in shock, in fact all three of them were. I snatched back my book and quickly closed it and stuffed it back into my bag, hoarding it to me as Stefan was the first to recover.
"Alright, we're sorry we tried to take the book, please. Sit down." He said and I slowly sat back down, still irritated but not angry like before, so this time when he made me focus on him again, I was calmer and susceptible to his trance again as Caroline whispered to Bonnie.
"She resisted the compulsion, that should be impossible right?"
"I don't know, I don't understand. She's not a witch but I definitely felt some kind of power just then, but it's all gone now." Bonnie whispered back, distracting me for a moment before Stefan began to instruct me carefully.
"Forget this conversation ever happened." Without any hesitation, I began to forget this entire conversation and when I blinked myself awake, I found myself sitting alone at the table, Stefan and Caroline talking back at their own table, though Caroline was looking at me strangely. I looked around, realising that there was glass on my table, making me frown.
"What the…?" I brushed some of the pieces off then looked up, noticing that the light overhead was out and the bulb was smashed.
"Hey, a couple of the lights blew out. Are you okay?" Matt questioned as he appeared, using a cloth to quickly gather up the glass.
"Yeah I'm fine, I didn't even notice it go out. That's crazy." I continued to frown, feeling like I was forgetting something but I brushed it off, focusing on this instead. "Can I help? Ugh, it's in my food, what a waste."
"I'll get you a replacement, sorry about the light I don't know what happened." Matt was very apologetic so I assured him that I was fine. Instead he moved me over to a new table, but as I walked I couldn't help but feel like someone was watching, so I discreetly looked around. Turns out, several people were looking at me. Caroline, Stefan, Bonnie, Jeremy, and also Luka and whoever the other guy with him was. Maybe his dad? I don't know, but it was kind of creeping me out so I decided to just bail out of there.
"You know what? Don't worry about it Matt. I think I'm just going to get out of here. Can I have the cheque please?"
"Yeah sure, I'll bring it over." He agreed, giving me one of his cute smiles before heading over to the register. It took a little longer than I expected, but when he came back it became clear why. The adorable guy had made me another chocolate shake to go. "Here you go, at least take that as an apology. My boss will kill me otherwise, you're one of his favourite customers." He said to me so I laughed, taking the offering with a smile.
"Yeah, because he knows my parents and I've been coming here pretty much every week ever since I moved here. I had better be a VIP by this point or I'll have a complaint or two for him." I said, taking a sip before sighing happily. "Thanks Matt, you're the best. I'll see you at school?" Assuring me we'd meet up soon, I reminded him about his paper that was due and that he could text me if he needed any help, sorting out the bill and leaving an extra big fat tip for Matt then quickly left before he could realise, otherwise he'd try and make me take it back.
Leaving the Grill, I sat in my car for a while sipping my milkshake and trying to decide where I wanted to go. It was still a couple hours before anyone would be home, so I decided to swing by the public library, completely unaware that I was being followed. I found one of my favourite spots in the library, took out a book to help me with my literature assignment then started to work, however barely ten minutes in, someone sat down in the seat opposite me, making me glance up and do a double take. "Didn't I just see you at the Grill?" I asked, looking at Luka suspiciously as he smirked at me rather cheekily.
"So you were looking at me." He fired right back with a very clear sign he was flirting, making me immediately become suspicious and wary.
"Yeah, I was also looking when you were getting all cute and friendly with Bonnie. Is that how it is? You just, jump from girl to girl whenever one catches your eye hoping one of them might actually throw you a line?"
"Ouch, that was brutal." Luka said rather appreciatively so I just rolled my eyes and put my ear buds back in so that I could ignore him and listen to music whilst I worked, however the clear signal that I didn't want to talk but Luka clearly didn't take the hint. "So I was thinking, since I'm new in town and you obviously don't have any friends, I thought you could show me around."
"Wow, who's brutal now? Way to point out the obvious." Glancing up at Luka, seeing him still smirking at me, I sighed heavily before pulling one of the ear buds out. "What is you really want, huh Luka? Trust me when I say I'm pretty good at telling when somebody wants something out of me. I'm excellent at reading people." I said to him which only seemed to intrigue him further.
"Oh yeah? What are you psychic or something?"
"Maybe, who knows? I bet I can even tell if you're lying. It's my superpower. Try me." Challenging him, Luka arched an eyebrow before thinking up a couple of statements to test me out.
"My name is Luka Martin."
"True."
"I'm the new kid in Mystic Falls and I am currently sitting in front of one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen."
"Hm, definitely true."
"I…had a dog once named Sandy."
"Lie." Catching him up on it, Luka gave a laugh before conceding it was in fact a lie.
"Okay, I had a cat name Sandy."
"True." So we played this little game for a while until Luka had to admit that I could in fact tell when people were lying to me. "You see? Now you know why I'm the lonely girl at the back of the class, I'm a freak. So if you want to salvage your social reputation, I suggest you stay far away from me." Telling him for his own good with a slight edge of exaggeration to try and get him to just leave me alone, I hoped that this would end our conversation but unfortunately, no such luck.
"Nah I'm impressed. Now I just want to get to know you more." Throwing up my hands slightly, I dropped them back onto my work.
"Seriously? Look I'm sure you're a nice guy and all, but I just want to work quietly and I'm not really interested in making friends. That cute smile will have to charm some other lady."
"So you think I'm cute?"
"Totally missing the point here." Despite the light banter, I guess Luka wasn't too bad. He let me carry on working after grabbing a book for himself and just sat there reading quietly, though I knew damn well he kept on peering over the top of the book to look at me. I couldn't figure out his deal, but I guess for now he wasn't being too annoying so I just let him sit there. I spent about an hour at the library before figuring that someone would probably be home by now, I started to pack up my stuff in order to leave.
"You heading out?"
"Yes, and this time don't follow me like some stalker." I warned him, giving him a look before making to move past him.
"Hey." Luka stood up and reached out for me, taking hold of my arm and didn't let me go. I felt a strange feeling overcome me, like a sort of…presence. It was like I could feel there was something different about Luka, and to be honest it kind of reminded me of Bonnie. It wasn't enough to make me think about it, but it did make me pause since even though I couldn't describe what it was that made him seem different. Pulling my arm free, I frowned at him. "Sorry, I just…I'd like to get to know you better." Getting the feeling that Luka wasn't going to give up anytime soon, I pulled the shoulder strap further up my shoulder before giving a jerk of my chin.
"I'll see you at school." Deciding to get out of there with a strong feeling that Luka wasn't exactly all he seemed and that he was acting all shady around me, I felt a weird tingle suddenly overcome my body. It was like hot needles prickling at my skin all over, but it wasn't painful. Just a strange sensation, but I could feel something of a warmth emanating from behind me so I turned around to look one last time at Luka with a frown. He had his hands turned outwards towards me, whispering something under his breath but when he saw me look around, he stopped and stared like I was the weird one.
Definitely get out of there, Ophelia. Whatever that guy's deal is, I doubt you want any part of it. So with a hurry in my step, I left the library and headed towards my car where I'd parked it under a streetlight, only to see a figure standing near to it. For a moment I thought I must have been imagining it, because although I couldn't exactly make out all of his features due to the shadows and the light clashing against each other, I did feel like I recognised him. He was there, then I blinked and he was gone, effectively freaking me out all the more. That face, I knew it well enough even with the shadows to know that I'd sketched it dozens of times, and only after a few moments did the name suddenly return from the depths of my buried subconscious, rising like a forgotten memory as I breathed.
"Elijah."