An hour away from Mystic Falls, Sabrina stumbled away from her car on wobbly legs, dressed in baggy grey sweatpants and an even baggier sweatshirt. The bell leading into the only gas station for miles in the Virginia countryside echoed painfully in her ears. She winced under the fluorescent lights flickering down each aisle. She fled toward the coolers, ignoring the cashier's flat smile and perfunctory greeting. Ripping the door open, she loaded her arms with as many water bottles as she could carry. The delicate hum of the refrigerators rolled around in her head. A pain flared in the back of her neck, signaling an impending migraine. She went to push up her glasses before realizing they weren't there. The fact she no longer needed her glasses to see was only one minor addition to an ever-growing list of 'Things-to-freak-out-about-later'. The more pressing matter was her skin and the fact that it was drying out and peeling off her body. If not for the physical reminder, Sabrina might have been able to convince herself the previous night hadn't happened. Her hands trembled thinking of it. She nearly dropped her waters.

She kicked the cooler door shut, shuffling toward the register.

The briny water had washed away the blood from her hands and face. The memories still remained just as wells as the dirt underneath her fingernails from the shoreline. She had killed two men and fled. A heaviness lay against her chest. She would never be able to escape that.

Ducking her head underneath her hood, refusing to meet the cashier's curious eyes, she slung the waters onto the counter as well as a Hershey bar she snagged along the way.

The cashier, an older woman who looked and sounded like Thelma Ritter, raised an eyebrow but began scanning. She stared at Sabrina's fast-peeling skin. "Y'know," the woman— Louise, her name tag read— began in a voice ruined by years of cigarettes. "You must've gotten pretty sunburned to peel that bad. You coming home from vacation or something?"

Sabrina's voice was hoarse. "Something like that,"

Louise proved undeterred in her investigation. "Whenever my granddaughter got sunburned at Virginia Beach last year, one of the lifeguards mentioned Noxema cream. I told Sue, I don't know. I don't think it'll work, but…"

Sabrina tuned out the rest of Louise's five-star review, waiting for her total to pop onto the screen. She found it harder to breathe the longer she remained in the sun's direct path through the glass doors and windows. She snatched one of the water bottles, opening it, and downing the contents in seconds. Instead of the cool liquid hitting her stomach, she felt the absorption seep into her arms, sliding down to her fingertips. Her skin remained crack but no longer felt like it would break apart into nothing.

"Probably good that you're gettin' all this water. You should grab some aspirin too." Louise reached under the counter. "Alright if I add that on?"

Because she wanted to leave, Sabrina nodded, handing over a wrinkled twenty-dollar bill. Something metallic clanged outside, and Sabrina's head followed the noise. A balding man next to the middle gas pump kicked another beer can. The tin-can hit the woman across him in front of their shared green pickup truck.

Her hands stung. Looking down, a gasp wrenched from her throat as her nails lengthened, sharpening to claws. The pain from her neck radiated to the back of her head. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, hissing when she accidentally cut her palm.

The man rushed around the truck, towering over the woman, shouting in her face. She watched as the woman curled into herself. Sabrina didn't feel the sharp pain in her palms again until she smelt the saltiness of her own blood. She snarled, baring razored canines at the man. Her eyes darkened, narrowing, searching for any type of water. The urge to drag the man under kicking and screaming barged to the front of her thoughts until…

Sabrina blinked suddenly. She forced herself to tuck away the predator under her skin, shoving away the violence until she could breathe again. She would not turn into something she wasn't. And Sabrina was not a murderer. A voice in the back of her mind whispered that she already was.

'You cannot hide from me forever,' a low female voice said into her ear.

Sabrina's eyes went back to the cashier. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Louise still held out her change expectantly. "Three dollars and eighty-seven cents is your money back,"

Sabrina let the cool coins falling into her palm ground her. Her fingers crinkled the new bills as she slid them into her sweatpants pocket. She took the offered plastic sack when Louise asked,

"Sure you're alright, honey? I don't want you to get out on the road and wreck yourself,"

Sabrina shook her head, pulling out another water bottle and popping it open. "No." She took a long drink, draining half the bottle. She gained no relief from it. "No. I'll be fine. I'm only about an hour from home. I'll make it,"

She itched to leave, to reach Caroline who was hopefully still stashed away at Reyna's house.

Louise brought an unlit cigarette to her lips. "And where's home to you?"

"Mystic Falls, just over the next mountain,"

Louise hummed. "Nice place. My niece likes a dress store there on Main Street." She brought her lighter up, and Sabrina flinched away from the flame. "Persnickety as all get out though," she said, blowing out a stream of bitter smoke.

"Thank you for the aspirin,"

"Sure thing, honey,"

Another crash outside and Sabrina watched the ruckus outside the glass door. She bit out, "Don't you think you should call the police? This is abuse,"

Louise's eyes tinged with regret even as she pursed her lips. Her fingertips crushed the end of her cigarette. Shaking her head, she replied, "As much as I would love to make that call, I can't,"

Sabrina's temper flared hot and wet in her chest against the cashier as her eyes flashed. "Can't or won't?"

"Jim's brother's the sheriff. Says no one can touch 'im." She gave a hollow chuckle. "If I wasn't two seconds away from my next heart attack, I would beat his ass myself with the baseball bat I keep behind the counter,"

When Sabrina looked back outside, she noticed a faint green glow around the man's heart. No such aura wrapped around the woman's rib cage. Sabrina smelled the impending violence as strongly as she had last night. She realized with a start that she was going crazy. The biting hunger returned as did that same low voice, saying,

'No such thing,'

She breathed in sharply, her eyes searching for anyone else in the gas station. She found no one.

The bell jingled again. The woman accompanying Jim brushed through the door, ducking her head, hiding smudged tear tracks. Sabrina saw them anyway. That was also when she spotted the newborn swaddled in a pink blanket cradled in the woman's arms. The woman quietly asked if the store had any formula. Sabrina stormed out the door before she heard Louise's answer.

Her hunger had not been completely abated by the water, but she knew what she needed, what she had to take. Her anxiety about the night before edged away as a sudden coolness washed over her. She approached Jim— had that been his name? She let her hood fall back, letting her long, wavy hair cascading down her back.

Every woman fought their own battles in their own way. She would be the monster in the dark if she could win a few for them. The hunger tore inside her abdomen, demanding more than cool water.

She felt his stare on her back. She knew he thought she would be like the rest of the women in his life— manipulatable, timid, expendable.

She wound around the next corner past her car. She heard his boots crunching against the gravel, following her tracks. Humming lowly, she noticed him quickening his pace, chasing the bait. She wanted his fear.

The voice whispered, 'We will have more than his fear. Take his heart,'

Her monster's face bled through to the surface. Her eyes sharpened much like a shark's precision while her fangs met no resistance that time. She dropped her bag of waters to the ground after he rounded the corner. Meeting his expectant gaze, she began to sing.

-O-

A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry about the delay. I've been struggling with my mental health recently, but I have the motivation back to write, especially this story. I hope this chapter lived up to expectations. I wanted you to see what's going on in Sabrina's head at the moment. But the next chapter does have Caroline in it, We will get to Mystic Falls, I promise! LOL! :)

Thanks