Considering the fact that I had just discovered that not only was I a druid from an ancient race of magical beings, but that vampires, witches and a whole bunch of other supernatural freakiness was actually a thing, I think I took everything into stride with outstanding acceptance. I chose not to tell my parents anything about the fact that I could do magic, seeing as it was better and safer for them the less they knew about the supernatural world. Their ignorance about everything was what protected them, and I wanted to keep them safe at all costs.
Through the knowledge passed down to me, I was given all the tools I needed to practice using my powers gradually, gaining confidence and control. It was simple things at first, lightning candles, moving water, shaping earth, making flowers grow and nurturing my strength until it steadily grew with each passing day. Thanks to me, we now had a very impressive garden at home where every flower and plant came back to life, much to my mom's delight and she often sat outside to work so that she could enjoy the flowers I had cultivated to return from the deadened weeds they had become thanks to our terrible gardening skills.
This magic stuff was crazy. There was so much information in my mind that most of the time, I didn't even know where to begin. Sometimes things would come to me easily, but other times I would spend hours, even days, agonising over something until I finally reached the answer I wanted to know. That part was frustrating, but this entire process was actually a whole lot of fun once I got over the feeling of being completely insane and accepting the fact that magic, and apparently vampires, were actually a thing.
Once I got over that, it allowed me to then panic about the fact that vampires were actually a thing. It was horrifying, and as I thought about the attack I'd gone through, I touched the scars on my neck from Stefan's fangs after he'd bit me. I didn't really know what to do about that information, so for a day or so I just sat and tried to puzzle my way through everything. Stefan and his brother Damon were vampires, that much I knew for certain because otherwise, it just wouldn't make sense. I also suspected that Caroline was a vampire too since she had been able to compel me as well, which was a vampire thing.
Then there was also Elijah, an original vampire, as he'd told me. He had promised he would be here on my birthday to help me make sense of it all and answer any of the questions I might have. Honestly, I was disappointed that he hadn't shown up at all, but I put that aside for the time being, wanting to continue figuring out everything else. Since I'd become aware of everything, I could clearly see that Bonnie was actually a witch and that Luka also had magic, though I'm not sure if calling him a witch was the correct term. Warlock, maybe? Anyway, I hadn't seen him for a couple of days now so I chose not to worry about him.
Although it took some time, I finally came to terms with everything. "So I'm a druid who might be able to see the future, a whole bunch of people I know are either vampires, witches or just somehow mixed up in all this supernatural stuff, and here I am just standing here like a moron." I muttered to myself as I stood facing my window looking out into the backyard. I was so not looking forward to school the next day. How was I supposed to sit in class with people knowing that they were either blood sucking vampires or witches?
Should I tell someone? No, I doubt anyone would believe me, and even if they did that might draw attention to me being not entirely human, and I wanted to keep my devastating powers of natural disasters on the down low. So, with every shred of desperation and calmness I possessed, I forced myself to go back to school and just tried to avoid everyone I knew. Especially Stefan. If I saw him, I get the feeling I wouldn't be able to keep myself from screaming. That experience had been terrifying, I'd almost died and here I was in the same school as him. It was almost unbelievable. All other times we'd met or spoken, he was just so nice. Next thing I know, he's trying to rip my throat out.
Rubbing my scars on my neck gingerly, I kept my head down and just talked myself through getting this day over with. I figured the first day would be the worst. Though, I was a little twitchy considering the fact that Stefan was literally sitting only a few desks over from me. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the image of his blackened veined eyes and protruding fangs out of my head, or the feeling of him biting into my neck and drinking my blood like I was a portable water fountain.
Elena and Bonnie were both in my class too, and I knew that they had been there that night as well, so I just gripped onto my pen and tapped it continuously against my notepad out of distress. I feel like a rabbit that's just caught sight of its prey, and all I wanted to do was just run away as fast as I could, maybe set him on fire or something. He'd deserve it, considering he did nearly kill me. Stay cool, Ophelia, you got this. Just observe them for a while before confronting them, and then see where we go from there. Thankfully Alaric came in at that point, allowing me to focus my attention on something else instead.
"Hello, class." He greeted, making my eyebrow shoot up curiously. What's with him? He's never that formal. In fact, something about him was just…off. Ever since my Awakening, I was way more aware of people and whether they were human or had some magic about them. Alaric had taken time off work for the past couple of weeks or so, meaning we'd had a cover teacher, but now that he was back, I couldn't quite help but feel like there was some kind of energy surrounding him. "What are we learning today?" He thumbed through one of our textbooks as I sighed softly, figuring I was probably just overeating due to the fact I was sitting just a couple seats away from an actual vampire.
"With the decade dance tonight, we've been covering the sixties all week." One of my classmates supplied, so Alaric nodded his head and dropped the book down and turned towards the board.
"Right, the sixties." He seemed rather unsure and unprepared for the lesson, which was definitely not like Alaric at all, and his mannerisms were all wrong. Maybe I wasn't mistaken, Alaric wasn't acting like himself at all. "I wish there was something good I could say about the sixties, but actually, they kind of sucked. Except for the Beatles, of course. They made it bearable. What else was there? The Cuban missile thing, we walked on the moon, there was Watergate…"
"Watergate was the seventies, Ric." Elena spoke up, smiling at Alaric until several students looked at her, making Elena quickly correct herself from her slip up. "I mean, Mr Saltzman."
"Right. It all kind of mushes together up here, the sixties, seventies. Thank you, Elena." And so our bizarre and rather haphazard lesson continued until the bell, where Alaric didn't even set any homework. I hung back after class, packing things up slowly as Alaric leaned back against his desk, watching Elena leave so I spoke up after a moment.
"Mr Saltzman, are you feeling okay?" I questioned him, frowning at him as I tried to figure out exactly what felt off about him. Alaric turned his head, looking at me with a clear expression of blankness. He had no clue who I was. He didn't even recognise me.
"I'm fine, thank you for your concern. You should probably hurry to your next class." Well, I guess that was a clear dismissal. Awkwardly agreeing, I glanced at him suspiciously as I passed, a lingering sense of unease following me. Alaric was one of my favourite teachers, he and I were rather friendly with each other and were on first name basis. He always had a book recommendation for me whenever we talked, and sometimes I'd have one for him in return or we'd just talk casually with one another. That guy in there hadn't had the first clue who I was and sure as hell didn't know my name. That wasn't like Alaric at all. Should I maybe mention something to someone? Maybe Bonnie, but I wasn't really on talking basis with her anymore, or any of the supernatural lot, to be honest.
There was no way I was going to talk to Stefan, and seeing as Elena was always attached to him at the hip, I couldn't talk to her either. What if they don't believe me? Or they figure out that everything they'd ever compelled me to forget was no longer in place? I had no idea what they would do, and I wasn't sure I could trust them. Quite honestly…I wanted to see Elijah. Even though he had compelled me to trust him, he had also given me his word he would protect me, and I just had this feeling that he'd meant what he'd said. I had no idea where he was and had no means to contact him. Ugh, why couldn't he have at least left a phone number?
Well since Elijah was a no show, I guess I was on my own from here on out. I guess it wasn't so bad, the magic wasn't hard to keep under wraps so long as I my emotions didn't get the best of me, and actually I was getting pretty good at fine tuning it all. The day went a lot better after classes were over and all the students going to the decade dance were helping set up for it, painting signs, hanging up streamers, blowing up balloons, there was a lot to be done and commanding this ship was none other than Caroline Forbes, head of the dance committee. I avoided her too, though several times she had called out to me wanting to talk but I'd quickly disappeared in order to hide. I was not in the mood to be talking to any vampires, since I knew exactly what they could do.
Somehow I managed to make it through the day until the dance started, and I kind of regretted having signed up to helping out. It meant that I spent all night clearing up abandoned cups and plates of food, refilling when things ran out and generally being bored out of my mind. The sixties wasn't exactly my favourite time period, I hated the fashion and I felt like a dork dressed up as a hippie. I just wanted to get this night over with and get away from Stefan and everyone else who had converged on the dance floor. Just as I was stopping someone from trying to spike the punch bowl, the music stopped and everyone stopped dancing to listen to Dana, one of the girls on the dance committee, who spoke over the microphone.
"Thanks for being here, everybody." An applause and cheer answered her, however I had to quickly snatch at a guy's wrist to once again stop him from trying to pour alcohol into the punch from his flask, glaring as I told him to beat it. My annoyance caused a spark of electricity to shoot out of my hand and shock him, forcing me to let go as he jerked back with a yelp of pain, but thankfully this meant that several teachers turned to see him with a flask in his hand and he was then no longer my problem, though he pointedly called me a buzzkill as he was marched off. "We have a special shout out tonight. This is for Elena." Dana was saying as I dusted off my hands, hardly even paying attention. "From Klaus." Klaus? I feel like I've heard that name before somewhere.
Putting it aside for the time being, I looked up and smiled when Matt came over, dressed up in a very dashing suit. "Let me guess." I lifted my hand, making a face as I tried to figure out who he was before I snapped my fingers. "J. F. Kennedy."
"You got it." He grinned a little bashfully, awkwardly pulling at his sleeves before asking me for two drinks for himself and Caroline.
"Sure thing. I got punch, juice or water. Take your pick." Opting for two cups of punch, I ladled the fruity concoction into two plastic cups for him to take. "Hey are you okay Mattie? You seem a little…shifty." I said to him, noticing how he was worriedly glancing back over at Caroline, like something was bugging him. "You've been like that a couple weeks now. Is there something going on?"
"No, no I'm good." He tried to tell me, but I knew him better than that so I gave him a look, putting my hands down on the table in order to lean towards him, emphasising the fact that I did not believe him one bit. Seeing that he wasn't fooling anyone, Matt swallowed nervously and tugged at his tie. "I can't really talk about it, sorry Lia, but thanks for worrying."
"Hey." Reaching out to him, I rubbed his arm a little to try and comfort him before he could turn away from me. "You can talk to me about anything, you know that right? Is it something about Caroline? I thought you guys were doing better. Did something happen?" Looking carefully at his face, I could tell that something was really bothering Matt. In fact, I'm pretty sure something was scaring him and I seemed to hit the nail on the head with Caroline as he'd twitched when I said her name. "You know you can trust me with anything, Mattie."
"I know, I know it's not…I just can't tell you. I promised to keep this quiet and if I tell you, it would just make everything so much worse. Just do me a favour, okay? Stay away from Caroline and the Salvatores. Don't try getting close to them." Part of me grew suspicious, wondering if maybe Matt knew something about them being vampires, since he'd mentioned the Salvatore brothers along with Caroline, and they were the only vampires I knew about in town. Maybe that's what's got him running so scared.
"Sure, not a problem." I assured him, letting my hand slide down off his arm to let go. "Take care of yourself Matt. Come to me if you ever feel like you're in trouble." Thanking me for worrying about him, we both shared a smile with each other before I watched him walk away back to Caroline with their drinks in his hands. Now I was really worried about Matt. If he knew about Caroline, then that meant he was probably in danger, but I got the feeling that Caroline didn't mean him any harm. I couldn't be sure about that, so I made a note in the back of my head to investigate after the dance to figure out what was going on between them.
It took me a while, but when I suddenly remembered the conversation I had with Elijah in the park where he talked about his brother, I almost yelled at the realisation. Niklaus. Elijah had said his brother's name was Niklaus. Was that the same guy? Elijah had said he was dangerous and that I should stay away from him, did that mean he was here already? What was he after? In all our conversations, Elijah had never really told me much about what was going on, mentioning once that his goal was to kill his brother and that Elena was the key to finding him. Elena. Looking around, I realised that she wasn't in the dance hall, in fact pretty much everyone I knew to be involved was gone, and more than that I could feel a powerful presence within the school. Magic. I could feel magic.
Wanting to find the source and oddly feeling unafraid considering the fact I had enough power of my own to protect myself, I left my station in order to go looking. It was easy to follow since it was so powerful, in fact I felt several layers of different magic converging at one spot, and it lead me to the cafeteria. The lights had already blown out and through the locked doors which I couldn't push open, I saw sparks flaring everywhere inside, papers and posters blowing across the floor as Bonnie stood there, surrounded with magic which she channelled repeatedly at another figure, which I quickly recognised as Alaric. Or at least, who I thought was Alaric, but wasn't exactly him.
On the other side I could see Elena and Stefan trying to break in through the doors which had been sealed shut with Bonnie's magic, and although I could probably break through the seal, I stayed still. For a few moments, I just stood and appreciated the power of Bonnie's magic, surveying quietly to try and understand what was going on. There was no way I could tell for sure who was the bad guy in this scenario, and there was no way I was going to bust in there like some superhero and just magically settle everything.
I watched as blood started pouring out of Bonnie's nose, something in her beginning to waver until I sensed and could almost literally see her magic start to work upon her instead, cutting her off and sending her into a deathlike sleep. It was more than a little unnerving, making me jolt as she suddenly fell to the floor and her magic settled. At first I thought she was dead, but then I noticed that I could still feel her magic, still feel the life inside her body that had been locked away, so there was no way she was dead.
My hand reached out outwards the door as Elena and Stefan burst in from the other side, but just as I did so, Alaric appeared and wrenched them open, stopping only from surprise at seeing me there. Before I knew it, he'd grabbed hold of me and I felt an unsettling feeling of displacement in my stomach like motion sickness, suddenly vanishing from the school hallway to appear outside out back, panicking and grasping hold of the hand that had clamped down over my mouth. "Now this really is a shame. Sorry love, but I'm afraid you saw something you weren't meant to. The only question is, do I kill you or just compel you to forget?"
With his hand directly touching me, I could feel with perfect clarity that it wasn't Alaric who was in possession of his own body. Someone else had taken over, someone dark and dangerous, someone who instinctively made me fear him as I recognised the power and strength he possessed. My ancestors had told me about possessions, it was an old type of magic that had been used across the ages for different reasons, and luckily, I also knew how to banish it. Taking a deep breath, I made my hands come alive with heat, gathering fire beneath the skin so that they glowed a brilliant golden orange and burned Alaric so suddenly that he cried out from the pain and immediately let me go.
Sucking in a deep breath now that my mouth was uncovered, I whirled around as Alaric, or the guy possessing Alaric, fell to his knees and stared at the burns on his hands as they healed, not expecting me to have any kind of magic or power. Before he could recover, I grabbed hold of his head and pressed my fingers to his temples, looking deeply into his eyes as I felt power and magic burst within me, focusing on the element of light so that I could banish the person possessing Alaric. In the back of my mind, I began to see the image in my dream of the five people standing behind me, only this time when I turned, I saw one of them more clearly than before and not just Elijah. He had fair hair and light eyes sharpened and honed over centuries to the point of being weapons in themselves, deadly yet captivating as if meant to draw in unwitting prey before making the kill. I stared at him, eyes flickering as I looked into Alaric's eyes and saw someone else staring back at me until slowly, his name rose to the surface of my mind, just as it had done with Elijah. "Niklaus."
The shock was clearly evident in his face as Niklaus struggled against me, unable to move as he seethed, struggling to even take breath as I pushed through his mind, wanting to get him out of my favourite teacher so that Alaric could have his own body back. I could feel him fighting against me as the magic that had put him there struggled to stay in place, but I easily scraped away at the magic until it was completely undone and all at once, I filled Alaric's head with a blinding white flash and Niklaus was gone even as he yelled in outrage. Yanking my hands back I gasped for breath, kind of shocked that I had actually succeeded before I jumped to catch Alaric, now fully himself again. "Okay, I did not think this one through."
Now I had an unconscious teacher on my hands, as well as a multitude of questions that couldn't remain unanswered any longer. I needed to know what was going on, and I needed to know now. "Come on Ric, help me out here. Just try and stand up a little." I grunted, pulling his arm over my neck and somehow managed to partially drag and carry him over to my car before dumping him in the back. If I wanted these questions answered, I figured I'd have to go straight to the source. The Salvatore brothers.
As much as I hated the idea of actually stepping into the vampire den, I figured at this point I didn't really have a choice. I mean, what happened to Bonnie? Why was there some guy from my dreams possessing Alaric? What the hell was going on with this town and do I need to think about moving out of here with my parents? All of those questions needed to be cleared up, so after a few steady breaths to gather my courage, I turned the key in the ignition and made my way up to the Salvatore house, knowing that that was where I was going to find them. I just hope they're not hungry.