"And you didn't even ask for his name?!" Elena was shocked and I raised my shoulders in a helpless manner.
"I just didn't think of it!" I tried explaining it but Elena as well as Bonnie were both shaking their heads. Since I told them before the first period they had been bugging me all day about the handsome stranger. We were at the party marking the beginning of the new year of school, standing close to the bonfire since it was already pretty dark. All in all both of my best friends were interrogating me for about ten hours now, which had only been interrupted by classes and stuff like that.
"So basically you got no name and no phone number." Elena interrupted my thoughts and I nodded embarrassed.
"I know, it was totally stupid not to ask.", I admitted.
"I would have asked right away!" Bonny grinned and Elena nodded in agreement.
"Really?" I was skeptical about that but couldn't help to grin as well.
"Of course. Not all of us are as confused all the time as you are." I looked at my best friend before I burst into laughter.
"Sure thing, every woman on this planet except for me would stay perfectly calm and collected when meeting the hottest guy ever.", I remarked sarcastically and continued before Elena could say anything to that. "Do I have to ask Stefan how calm you were at your first meeting?" Her eyes widened and I raised my eyebrows in triumph.
"Ssshhh!", Bonnie reprimanded and gently poked into my side. "You want to rat out Elena? He could be around somewhere." The dark haired girl made a general gesture towards the crowd around us, consisting mostly of already drunk and partying teenagers. I looked around and just shrugged my shoulders.
"I can't even hear my own thoughts. If he doesn't have super hearing, I doubt he will be listening in on us.", I got back at her when Elena interrupted us.
"I am not even interested in Stefan!" Bonnie and I shared a sceptical look.
"Sure…", Bonnie commented, smirking.
"I am not!" Elena tried her best but still wasn't very convincing.
"Elena… You can see from a thousand miles how much you like him." She looked at me and started mumbling.
"I really don't know myself…"
"'Just admit it, Elena!'", Bonnie kept up the pressure.
"You really don't need to hide anything from us.", I joined in and our friend let out an exaggerated sigh.
"'Oh, okay, so he's a little pretty.'" she finally admitted.
"' He has that romance novel stare.'" I had to suppress a wide grin at Bonnie's words. But she was right. Stefan looked at Elena as if there was no other woman beside her on this planet and as if he was ready to save her like a knight in shining armour any minute. Somehow as if he had sprung from a fairy tale book.
"And so they stared deeply into each other's eyes…", I started in a very poetic manner.
"To find their souls reflected.", Bonnie ended my sentence in the same manner and all three of us started laughing loudly. The alcohol we had been drinking all this time out of the red cups slowly started to take effect.

"'So where is he?'", Bonnie asked once we calmed down and Elena and I started looking around as well. While doing so, I caught sight of someone I had been avoiding all evening.
"Oh shit." I mumbled and made a small step to the side, so that I was now hidden from sight behind my best friend.
"What's wrong?" She looked confused, first at me and then at our surroundings.
"Your brother is here. And apparently he is looking for me!" Elena looked over her shoulder and caught sight of him as well.
"Well… Maybe you should just…"
"Disappear? Already on it!" I cut her off before she could start again on how I should maybe just talk to him. I separated from her and Bonnie as fast as I could and almost fought my way through the crowd and towards the woods. I had already allowed Elena to talk me into giving Jeremy yet another chance but since he didn't even think it important enough to show up for a date, I really didn't see any reason to help him! And I definitely didn't want to hear any more excuses!
I had almost reached the woods, where I was sure he wouldn't search for me, when someone grabbed my arm.
"Alie!" I heard his voice and closed my eyes for a second. Damn! Slowly I turned around only to give Jeremy an indifferent look.
"What?" I didn't even try anything to mask the annoyed tone in my voice. He looked to the ground in shame.
"I was looking for you…", he said with a low voice and I knowingly raised my eyebrows at him.
"Oh really?", I asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. "What a coincidence, since I did the same yesterday. Because I had a feeling that we were supposed to have a date!"
"I am sorry.", Jeremy mumbled and I forcefully pulled out of his grasp.
"You know that sentence by heart by now, don't you?" My voice was bitter and I lifted my hand to stop him from answering. "I don't want your excuses, Jeremy." With that I turned away and started towards the woods again. I knew that it might have been the wiser decision to return to the party instead but I didn't want everyone, including my friends, to give me weird looks. On top I just wanted to get away from Jeremy.
"Alie!" I heard Jeremy behind me and knew he was following me.
"Leave me alone, for fuck's sake!" I was getting angry. Why couldn't he just leave me be?
"Please! Let me explain!"
"No!", I shouted angrily and turned around once more. "I gave you God knows how many chances! I am so done with the disappointment and I can't even listen to you making excuses anymore, just so you can get it off your conscience! You know what you owe me?! To at least have the decency to give me some space, so I don't have to hear you apologizing all the time!" I didn't even wait for his reaction but walked deeper into the woods, this time faster so he wouldn't think of following me again.

After about ten minutes or so, I stopped to catch my breath. I couldn't hear anything apart from the rustling of the wind in the leaves and I let out a sigh. I missed the old Jeremy. The one I grew up with and who would have never just left me waiting on a date. His old self, which I had almost fallen for. I felt some stray tears on my cheeks and quickly brushed them away. No! I wouldn't start crying over him!
A cracking noise behind me startled me out of my thoughts.
"Hello?", I asked softly while the feeling I had yesterday krept up inside me again. The feeling of being watched, this time even more pressing.
"Jeremy?! Is that you?", I asked, this time a little louder and took a hesitant step forward when I noticed the fog slowly creeping around my ankles and left me shivering. This definitely wasn't Jeremy…
"Run! Get out of there!" Despite the loud voice in my head, for the love of it I couldn't move a muscle. Something inside told me that whatever was watching me, would attack the second I made to run away. I stood there motionless when I heard a second crack right behind me.
Shocked I whirled around, the same second something grabbed my hair from behind and forced my head to the side brutally. I screamed in fear but fell silent the second I felt a piercing pain at the exposed side of my throat.
Something wrapped around my upper body, effectively pinning my arms to me like iron restraints, preventing me from fighting back or moving at all. The pain in my neck seemed to spread into my whole body, leaving me weaker every second. I would have collapsed to the ground if it hadn't been for the creature or person behind me.
What was happening? Who or what was doing this to me? And would it kill me? A frightened whimper escaped my lips as that thought crossed my mind.

Suddenly the bruising grip loosened and the excruciating pain in my throat lessened as well. But before I had the chance to turn around and get a look at what had attacked me, I was pushed away and fell to the ground since I had no strength left. My arms gave out under my own weight and my head hit something solid and hard. Slowly everything faded into black.

Damon's POV

Faster than any human eye could have followed, the dark figure ran through the woods, as far away from the unconscious girl as possible. Deeper into the forest until the noises from the partying teenagers and the girl's rattling breath finally stopped.
The figure stopped once it reached a clearling, long abandoned by mankind. The pale moonlight illuminating the man leaning against a tree while breathing heavily. His pale skin a ghostly contrast to his black clothing and the crimson red blood of the girl staining his face. The hand that wasn't on the tree combed through his ravenblack hair while he tried to regain composure, a battle he lost. With an angry scream he punched his fist against the tree, leaving a noticeable dent in the bark.
He had hesitated! He hesitated again! Why couldn't he bring himself to just do it?! Damon closed his eyes in another weak attempt to calm down, only achieving the complete opposite. When he opened his eyes again they were blood red with dark veins protruding from underneath them.
He had lost control. Inside the emotions were waging war against each other and he was unable to put a stop to it. And all just because of this girl! The girl with Evie's face!
Again he punched the tree which made a pitiful noise upon the impact.
How many decades had he spent locking away his feelings? Vampires didn't have the ability to turn off all emotions for nothing. No remorse, no conscience and of course no sorrow or pain. Damon's vampire existence had prevented him from all that. But then he came here and saw her. Nathalie… Evie…

He didn't see the girl, he saw the woman he loved more than anything. The one that had been taken from him too soon. And within seconds the wall he had built up had crumbled away like sand and all emotions had washed over him.
First he saw Elena. With her it had been a shock which he recovered from. It was a riddle to him why the spitting image of the reason to return to Mystic Falls didn't affect him as much as the one of his former fiance, who had been dead for almost a hundred and fifty years!
"She is not Evie!" At least that was what Damon tried to tell himself every time he saw her… When he looked in her eyes… He saw the woman he wanted to marry before she died. Damon shook his head.
He didn't want to see her! He didn't want those feelings! They distracted him from what he came here to do! That had been the reason why he wanted to kill her in the first place. So he didn't have to look at this delusion ever again! But he had failed. For the second time.
Yesterday it would have been so easy to kill her. In the middle of the night, in a dark alley, without witnesses. But then he heard her voice, heard her sing. Evie had loved to sing… He couldn't bring himself to attack her. No, instead he had talked to her just to be reminded of Evie even more!
He let out a short and emotionless laugh because of his own stupidity. He made something hard even harder on himself. And today… Forcefully Damon swallowed down the anger about himself. Today had been even worse. He had her! He only had to keep going and she would have been gone! And when he heard her whimper and felt her panic, he couldn't do it again! Because he was too weak! He would never be able to kill her as long as she remained Eveline for him.

In this moment it struck him like lightning. If she didn't remain Evie… If he could find differences… If she became someone else… Then he could end her! This meant he had to get to know her but it was better than living through the memory of Evie every day without being able to do anything about it. And then he could focus on the woman he came here for.
A small smile crept onto Damon's face.
Katherine.
But first he needed to pay his brother a visit.

Stefan's POV

As fast as he could Stefan headed home while a thousand thoughts kept playing over in his head. Damon was here! There was no other explanation. He knew it the second Jeremy had carried Nathalie out of the woods and he saw the bite marks on her throat.
Of course it could have been any vampire since she was all by herself in the woods. But in contrast to all the other victims up until now shee was still alive. No vampire that had been just hungry would have left her to tell the tale. Only someone who knew her face and wanted to play her…
Stefan knew that this was just his assumption and that there were a million other reasons why the vampire left her alive. But he couldn't push the thought that his brother was responsible away.

He reached the old boarding house and entered the entrance hall. Without looking left or right he made for his room upstairs.
"'What's going on?'"his nephew asked concerned.
"'Someone else was attacked tonight, Zack, and it wasn't me.'" Stefan answered without looking at him upon entering his room and closing the door in Zack's face. He immediately knew that he wasn't alone. His feeling was proven right when a crow suddenly came in through the open window and turned into a very familiar man as soon as it landed on the balcony's railing.
"'Damon.'", the blonde said with a cold voice while inside he was feeling entirely different. Only now did he realise how much he had hoped to be proven wrong with his assumption. Now both, Elena and Nathalie, were in great danger.
"'Hello, brother.'" Damon answered evenly cold with a sarcastic undertone. The dark haired man had a half smirk, that never reached his eyes, plastered on his face.
"'Crow's a bit much, don't you think?'" Stefan asked motioning towards the bird.
"'Wait till you see what I can do with the fog.'", Damon answered while entering the room.
"'When did you get here?'" Stefan had no patience for his brother's boasting.
"'Well, I couldn't miss your first day at school. Your hair is different. I like it.'" Damon's voice had a mocking tone to it. While talking he had started observing the room. The grin slowly appearing on his face matched his tone. Stefan couldn't help but to roll his eyes at this behaviour.
"'It's been fifteen years, Damon.'"
"'Thank God! I couldn't take another day of the nineties. That horrible grunge look? Did not suit you. Remember, Stefan, it's important to stay away from fads...'"

"'Why are you here?'", Stefan cut in before his brother could continue his monologue and his patience could wear any thinner.
"'I miss my little brother.'" The dark haired man didn't even try to mask the obvious lie.
"'You hate small towns. It's boring. There is nothing for you to do.'" Stefan shook his head.
"'I've managed to keep myself busy.'" Damon was still pacing around the room, now slowly circling his brother like a lion would do with his prey.
"You killed them." Stefan's patience had now reached its limits. "You killed everyone you attacked since you arrived. Except for that girl tonight. Got any explanation for that?" For a second he thought he saw anger wash over Damon's face but it was gone in the blink of an eye.
"Maybe I was just done feeding." He answered without looking at his brother. But Stefan didn't need to see his eyes to know there was more to it than he let on. A whole lot more.
"'Why are you here now?'" That had Damon put a stop to his pacing and he turned to face Stefan.
"'I could ask you the same question. However, I am fairly certain your answer can be summed up all in one little word… Elena.'" He let out a short mocking laugh. "'She took my breath away. Elena. She's a dead ringer for Katherine.'"
"We both know this isn't about Elena!" Stefan felt the anger starting to boil underneath his skin.
"Of course it isn't. There are far more interesting women in this town… and interesting doppelgangers.'" The raven haired man grinned again and looked at Stefan. " But for you it is about Elena. What would you do if I suddenly took an interest in her?"
Stefan could only shake his head. Damon tried to distract him on purpose and for that matter tried to make him mad. But he wouldn't get any answers today...