Damon kept his word and stuck around New York. He'd disappear for a few days every once in a while, but he always came back. I was pretty sure he was looking for Katherine but he never brought it up.
My episodes still happened every once in a while, but there was nothing specific that could lead to her. For the most part the trances were shorter. There wasn't anything big happening. Sometime I drew Damon and whatever antics he got up to. A few times it was us having fun somewhere. A few times I drew his brother but he didn't really do much. He just sat around writing in a journal.
May 2008-
"Well shit." I cursed as I sat a coffee shop finishing up a final essay before summer break started.
"That doesn't sound good." Damon said appearing out of nowhere. "Are you going on another vision quest?"
"No. My building's going Co-op. I need to move. I hate moving." I said.
"That's the worst. I've actually been thinking about moving. It's getting really annoying to have to compel realtors away. Especially in a buyer's market." Damon said.
"We're in an economic recession." I said.
"Which means there are a lot of great apartments available. Might get a loft this time around." He said.
"Hm." I said as I started running numbers in my head. Moving was not cheap.
"There's a good one a few blocks from here I was going to look at. Want to come?" he said.
"In this area? Might be a bit out of my price range." I said.
"Not if you get a roommate." Damon said.
"Even with a roommate it'll be pricey." I said.
"Not if your roommate can get you a really good price. Like free?" He said and I gave him a look. "Are you really going to make me say it?"
"No I'm just wondering if you're being serious. You never struck me as the roommate type." I said.
"Well having a roommate isn't really a problem if the place is big enough." Damon said spinning my laptop and bringing up the listing on my laptop. "Like this place."
"That's a really nice place." I said. "Are you sure you want me to live with you though?"
"Are you kidding? You're a neat freak, you're easy to talk to, it'll be great." He said.
"If we do this there are going to be rules." I said.
"And now you're making me think about it." Damon said.
"No dead bodies lying around." I said.
"I'm not an animal Nora. I always leave my dead bodies in an alley or in the trash which is almost the same thing here." Damon said. "Come on it'll be fun."
"Let's go see the place first." I said closing my laptop and packing up.
Sure enough the place was amazing. Roomy, the kitchen was something straight out of a magazine. Washer dryer in unit. Utilities included.
"What do you think?" Damon asked.
"If this apartment was a man I'd marry it and make sure I get it in the divorce." I said.
"There's the realtor, I'm going to go work my magic." Damon said.
"Damon wait, it feels wrong to get this place for free." I said.
"The owner of the apartment is a stock broker that got rich expanding credit to lower middle class families and got just got a government bail out." He said.
"Screw him he can afford to give this place away." I said giving him the go ahead. Sure enough five minutes later we had a new apartment. By the end of the week we were moved in. I have to say waking up in the perfect apartment really changed your out look on life.
I woke up to the natural light coming in through the window with exposed brick. Damon opted for the upstairs bed room. I teased him about the vampire not liking the sunny room. Turns out he just wasn't a morning person and it worked out better for me because then I wouldn't have to hear him and his overnight guests.
One morning after I was all done with finals I was in the kitchen singing and dancing while making breakfast.
"You're in a good mood." Damon said walking in.
"I'm in a great mood. I kicked ass on my finals, I'm on summer break and I made waffles." I said. "Who doesn't smiles when they're eating waffles."
"Who are you and what have you done with my moody roommate." Damon said.
"Don't worry come September I'll be back to being all doom and gloom but for now…" I said serving him a plate. "Eat up. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
"Way ahead of you." Damon said biting open a blood bag and pouring it into his coffee mug. "So now that you're free for the summer, what are you going to do?"
"Not entirely sure yet. I have a few leads for a full time job as well as some freelance coding and graphic design jobs." I said.
"Sounds boring." Damon said.
"I'm one year away from finishing school I need to start padding my resume." I said.
"Well you could so that or I was thinking maybe it was time for another road trip." Damon said.
"You got a new lead on Katherine?" I asked.
"Screw Katherine. I meant a real road trip. See the sights, go to all the big music festivals, we could go to burning man." Damon said.
"I don't know Damon I feel like one of us need to be responsible here." I said.
"You are responsible all the time. You need to cut loose. You have your whole life to be responsible." Damon said.
"You do remember I'm cursed to die a young tragic death." I reminded him.
"Another reason why we should go." Damon said.
"Look I have an interview I need to start getting ready for. I'll think about it." I said.
"That's not a no." Damon said.
"Not a yes either…" I called out over my shoulder.
I headed down town and met with a start up who apparently didn't even have an actual office. Or office space. I would essentially be working from him for barely above minimum wage and it would be mostly grunt work. My freelance job I could finish in an hour. The day wasn't even half over and any plans I had for summer weren't even plans anymore. I was sitting on a park bench wondering what to do when a text from Damon came through. It was a link to a list of best stops for a cross country road trip.
I picked up the phone and called him.
"Alright I'm in." I said.
"That's great, do you want turkey jerky or just regular jerky?" he said.
"You're buying snacks?" I asked.
"No road trip is complete without snacks." He said.
"No jerky but gummy worms are a must." I said.
"I got you sour and regular." He said.
"See you at home." I said ending the call and walking back to the apartment.
Fun fact about Damon he really loved road trips. Like he insisted at stopping at every tourist trap on the side of the road, he knew the best hole in the wall spots and the two of us took carpool karaoke to a whole new level.
It wasn't until one particularly wild weekend at burning man where I ate what I thought was just a really good brownie whose recipe I was planning on getting before we left that I had another episode that went on for two days straight.
When I came to I was in a tent covered in paint and the walls were all painted and people were watching.
"Damon?" I said and he appeared in front of me.
"About time." He said helping me stand.
'What the hell happened?" I said.
"That brownie you ate was laced with a bit of weed… shrooms… maybe some LSD." He said.
"What?!" I said. "I just thought it was a really good brownie."
"Oh it was really good." He said. "But it triggered an episode and everyone thought it was a live art thing…"
"And you just let them watch?" I said.
"Relax, they all thought it was really cool, and they kept bringing you art supplies. A couple of people asked if you're draw something on their tents." Damon said.
"Dude." I said.
"Relax it was harmless you drew a cave and some stars and my brother and Katherine." He said. "No dead bodies anywhere."
"What about the church that's on fire?" I asked looking at the carpet.
"What church?" Damon said and I pointed down and he paled before turning to the cave. "Uh I didn't see that."
"But you know what it is?" I asked.
"Fell's church in Mystic Falls. That's the church all the vampires are buried under." Damon said taking out his phone and taking pictures of everything.
No one really suspected anything but just to play it safe we left early. Damon sent the photos to Bree to see if she saw anything to explain what it was I was drawing.
I took a really long shower to scrub off all the paint I had gotten on me and walked out to see Damon channel surfing.
"Took you long enough." Damon said.
"I was finger painting for two days it took a while to get it all off. Did Bree tell you anything?" I asked.
"Nothing except that the cave you drew was the tomb. She recognized some of the carvings on the wall." Damon said. "I don't get why you drew it. We already know Katherine's not in there."
"I don't control what I draw though it could be something else. Did you know anyone else in there?" I asked.
"The town was practically infested with vampires back then. I'm sure I've met some of them before but no one really important." He said.
"It'll make sense later. It always does." I said getting into bed.
"Tired?" he asked.
"I always feel really hungover after a vison quest." I said.
"Or it could be a real hangover from all the drugs." Damon teased.
"They should have labeled those brownies." I said.
"Well at least now we know how to trigger a vision quest if we ever need to." Damon said.
"Unless it's a life or death situation let's try not to do that." I said. "I feel like I got trampled by an elephant."
"Here." Damon said biting into his wrist. "This'll make you feel better. It's the ultimate hangover cure."
"Your blood?" I said slightly grossed out.
"Don't knock it until you try it." He said. I took a breath and drank a bit and I did almost instantly feel better.
"Really does work." I said. "Thanks. So where what's our next stop?"
"How do you feel about wine?" Damon said.
"I like it with steak." I answered.
"Napa valley music festival?" He offered.
"Fun." I said.
A few weeks later it happened again expect lucky for me it happened in our hotel room and it was the same drawings as before except this time Damon's brother was in the drawing with Katherine except this time her hair wasn't curled.
"Good to know your brother does something other than write in his diary." I said looking at the journal.
"This doesn't make any sense." Damon said. "If St. Stefan had reunited with Katherine, he would have found me and told me. He'd also be apologizing for her picking him."
"None of these drawings make sense." I said. "It's either all stars and constellations or the cave."
"You've been drawing the same thing all summer." Damon said as I started looking through all the drawings. I noticed that there was always something on the edges that wasn't clear. As I started moving them it started forming the moon.
"Pass me the other sketch book." I said putting them all over the floor putting together the overlaps until finally the constellations and the moon came together to form something else in between all of that. "It's a comet."
"Oh that makes more sense." He said.
"It does?" I asked confused.
"Emily tied the spell that sealed the tomb to a comet. Witches do that to boost the power of their spells which is why it couldn't be opened before." Damon said as I took out my phone and snapped a photo of the comet and constellations. "It's a rare thing only happens every hundred odd years or so. Last I checked it's going to happen sometime in the next decade."
"More like next year." I said.
"What? How do you know?" He asked.
"There's an app for that." I said passing him my phone.
"There's really no point to trying to open that thing now." Damon said giving me my phone back.
"Yeah." I said but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to this whole thing. Specifically Damon's brother and Katherine.
Sometime Later…
The months that followed went more or less about the same. I would occasionally get flashes of Damon's ex girlfriend. Sometimes it was his one night stand and a blonde man but as time passed he stopped caring as much about his ex girlfriend. He would just say she'd pop up when he least expected or wanted her to.
I didn't completely buy it but at least he wasn't in the angry murdering phase of the break up aftermath anymore.
In fact if you ignored that our fridge had an entire shelf full of blood bags, the murder scene drawings lying around and that Damon's one night stands walked out with bite marks instead of hickies we were pretty normal roommates.
It was around December I walked into the apartment after a really surprising turn of events.
"How'd it go?" Damon asked.
"I'm done." I said hanging my coat and letting myself fall on the couch.
"Vacation time." He said handing me a glass of whiskey probably to avoid our bi weekly whisky vs bourbon debate.
"No I mean I'm done with school." I said.
"You're dropping out?" Damon said surprised. "I suggested it months ago but I wasn't being serious."
"I'm not dropping out. I graduated." I said.
"What?" Damon said surprised.
"Yeah apparently me jamming all those extra classes for the past year and a half really added up." I said. "My counselor emailed me saying he wanted to meet today and he told me I either add another major or I'm done."
"You're done with school. This is great." He said. "Wait why are you making the face?"
"What face?" I said.
"The face you make when you're about to be a buzz kill." Damon said.
"I'm not. Really, I'm just surprised." I said.
"It's a good surprise. Go get dressed up we're celebrating." Damon said. "My roomie's a college grad!"
"I don't think it's hit me yet. I'm supposed to apply for jobs before graduating right? You know so that I can start right after? I don't know how this is supposed to work." I said.
"The way this is supposed to work is that you're going to get up go to your room and put on your best party dress because you just finished school and you're free! No more essays, tests boring lectures, 8am classes. You're free!" He said helping me up and nudging me towards my room. "Go we're partying!"
"Damon." I said not really feeling in the party mood.
"You have your entire life to stress out and be responsible. Tonight we are celebrating you and your giant brain that just finished college." He said. "I will go in there and dress you myself if I have to."
"You know if you wanted to see me naked you could just ask." I teased.
"I might take you up on that later." Damon said with a smirk. "Now go change."
"Fine." I said giving in.
Of course once we were out at the bar taking shots I still couldn't shake this feeling.
"Okay that's your third shot. Three is the magic number you should at least be a bit less tense not… this." He said.
"You ever get the feeling that… I don't know something's wrong?" I said and he was immediately on alert.
"Are you about to go on a Vision Quest because this is my favorite bar and I want to come back here." He said.
"No. It just have this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to be doing something or that something's missing?" I said. "It's weird."
"You're overthinking. Stop. No school, no job, no responsibilities. Turn your brain off. Just relax and have fun." He said but I wasn't going to drop this. "Alright, you need a plan for what comes next I'll give you one. We pack a bag and travel. Go backpacking through Europe for a few months or even better we follow a rock band around on tour. I know Coldplay has a world tour coming up. You love Coldplay."
"That's not a plan." I said.
"I have their tour schedule on my phone right now and they're in the UK and Ireland this month. We can get on a plane tomorrow morning and see them tomorrow night." Damon said. "You can visit the motherland."
"I was born in Long Island." I reminded him.
"The homeland of the Riley's." Damon said.
"That's just a name to me, nothing more. Besides if we're visiting homelands I'd rather visit yours." I said.
"Italy? I know this place in Florence now that is real Italian food." Damon said.
"I was actually thinking somewhere closer, you know a small town in Virginia, named something like Magic Cascade?" I said.
"We're not going to Mystic Falls. There's nothing there." Damon said.
"I thought you said you had a nephew there?" I said.
"Oh we are definitely not visiting Zach. Stefan's boring and broody but he takes it to a whole other level." Damon said. "Besides he doesn't really like me."
"Were you being your usual charming self?" I said batting my eyelashes sarcastically.
"I killed his pregnant girlfriend." Damon said and I almost chocked on my drink.
"Yeah that might put a damper on any family reunions." I said getting why visiting the distant nephew was not the best idea.
"Mhm now stop putting a damper on this night and dance with me." He said pulling me to my feet.
There were more drinks and I think I might have made out with a cute guy at some point during the night before we hopped to the next bar and that's where things got fuzzy.
I woke up the next morning in bed with my dress and heels still on and Damon spooning me as he groaned when the sunlight came pouring in.
"Uh…" I groaned.
"How do you sleep in here? Too bright." He groaned.
"I put the blinds down before bed…" I said before Damon's phone started ringing.
"No…" I whined pulling I pillow over my head.
"Shit we need to hurry we're going to miss our flight." He said.
"What flight?" I asked.
"Apparently we bought plane tickets." Damon said.
"What?" I said.
"I don't know I think my midnight snack was on something." He said.
"UH… I feel gross." I said.
"Let me get some blood in me and I'll fix you. Just…" He said drifting off to sleep before the phone started ringing again.
"Turn it off." I whined.
I don't know what I drunkenly agreed to but considering I had nothing better to do and most of my freelance work could be done from anywhere Damon got his wish and we went backpacking through Europe.
So my life wasn't exactly normal and boring but it was great. I had the perfect work life balance. Well work, life, supernatural balance. Who said it was impossible to do it all.
Well I had it all for a few months.
Until one late night after a show at the Moulin Rouge it happened again. Damon was finishing up with one of the dancers and when he got pack to the apartment we were crashing in I was scribbling like crazy.
I came to a few hours later to Damon looking at one of the drawings.
"Well this is new." Damon said holding one of a car driving off a bridge into the water.
"Wickery bridge?" I said making out the sign in the drawing.
"It's an old bridge in Mystic Falls. Do you really want to go there that badly?" He said looking at me in disbelief that I kept drawing his home town.
"Hey I'm happy right here in Paris. But I think Nature." I said before I saw a drawing of a car submerged in water with three people in it and something in the shadows I flipped through the other ones. "Or maybe Death has other ideas."
I picked one up of Damon's brother seeing the car fall from the bridge "Or maybe the message is for you?" I said.
"I don't think anyone wants me to see my brother." Damon said taking the drawing revealing the one under it.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." I said handing him a photo of his brother holding Katherine and pulling her out of the water.
"What the hell?" he said.
"I think it's time you talk to your brother." I said patting him on the shoulder and going to get some coffee since I was obviously not going to get any sleep.
"I haven't seen Stefan in 15 years when he was rocking 90's hair." Damon said cringing. "We don't really keep in touch."
"Not a problem, you know where he's going to be." I said.
"Why would I even want to see him? He's never tried to find me." Damon said. "I swore to make his life hell and I meant it."
"160 years is a long time to hold a grudge Damon. Especially when the reason for said grudge is not worth it. You said it yourself Katherine's a manipulative bitch. She played you both." I said.
"That's not the only thing I'm holding a grudge about." He said. "It's complicated. you know you're lucky you don't have any brothers or sisters."
"Yes because being cursed to have no family and be alone while I'm constantly reincarnated is a blessing." I said sarcastically.
"You wouldn't understand." Damon said.
"Try me." I said he glared at me before turning his stare to his drink. I sighed and sat down in front of him on the coffee table and nudged his foot to get his attention. "Hey. I may not know everything that went down between you and your brother but I do know that for some reason he and Katherine keep coming up in these drawings. They're not going away no matter how much you try to avoid dealing with it so if you really want to get back at her and really move on, you need closure."
"And seeing them is going to give me that?" Damon said.
"Maybe, and if it doesn't well you can tell him she was never in the tomb and torment your brother like you normally do." I said and that put a smirk on Damon's face.
"Tormenting Stefan is always fun." Damon said.
"I'll get us plane tickets…" I said grabbing my computer.
"Uh We?" Damon said.
"Yeah, we're probably not going to get a direct flight there…" I started before Damon vampire sped to the kitchen taking my laptop out of my grasp.
"No. You're not going." He said.
"What? Why not?" I said.
"Mystic Falls is a small town where a tourist passing through is big news. I'm not staying or even visiting. I'm going to pop in see what's going on with Stefan and get out before anyone notices I was there." Damon said. "And that's easier to do by myself."
"I can keep a low profile." I said.
"One look at you and the vultures will start circling you." Damon said. "Besides I haven't seen Stefan in 15 years, I don't know if he's still on the bunny diet or back to his ripper ways."
"Ripper?" I asked confused.
"You remember your drawings of the mangled and decapitated bodies?" Damon said. "A Ripper is what they call a vampire that's addicted to blood and does that. I personally like your pretty red head right where it is don't you?"
"Okay I see your point." I said. "But I can…"
"You're staying." He said ending the discussion.
"You're making me stay because you might kill someone aren't you?" I said seeing through the concern.
"That too." He called over his shoulder as he went to go pack.
