A/N- I didn't put an author's note on the last one. I was busy, and I wanted to release a chapter out. Quick question, should I release them chapter by chapter (where you have to wait for about 4-7 days for a chapter), or should I just write some chapters and post them all out in one day (But you have to wait for a while for me to write them)? I have school now, and with school come a load of homework and studying. School is so stressful, haha. So it might take longer than usual to write and publish chapters. Please let me know!
Disclaimer- I don't own the TVD characters, but I do own my own characters in this story.
Chapter 12- First Meeting
He wakes up to a burning sensation. It feels like a pit of fire is raging in his stomach, and that he is being burned alive. His muscles are aching with every movement, and his head is pounding so hard. He can feel blood rushing through his body. His body is pouring out blood. His skin isn't pale anymore; it's red and blistery. He has a burning desire to get up, but he doesn't want to. He knows that it's going to hurt and make his injuries worse. With his luck, it's likely that his already-healed injuries would burst open any time now.
He sits underneath the big tree, providing him a large area for shade. He sits contemplating whether or not he wants to get up.
I can just sit here and let my organs shut down and my blood flow to stop. It won't be hard. It's actually easy. I can enjoy my last few moments just looking out into the deep forest. No biggie. But what if Vaughn comes? If Vaughn comes, then I'm definitely toast. I won't be able to outrun or fight against him in my condition. I'm a dead man. There's no way out of this alive.
If I'm sitting here, am I wasting my energy or saving it?
There's nothing in this dense forest. Nothing. I can't drink any blood because those bastards raised the acidic level on blood. It tastes like vervain. The red and delicious blood is now tasting as spicy and burning as ever. I'm scared to drink the blood. Wow, Damon Salvatore scared? That's a first. But then at the same time, a vampire getting trapped in a forest with his evil doppelgänger out to get revenge has never happened before, so I guess I can really say that there is a first for everything.
There're some patches of grass, can I eat that? Can I be a vegetarian vamp? Is there even such a thing as that? I hear that kids sometimes eat paper, and since paper comes from trees then maybe I can eat the tree. Back then, if kids ate paper they would get slapped so hard that their mouth would feel numb. The paper was precious back in the days. Now people just tear them off as they go. This generation is crazy. There're so many trees here, I probably can't count them. But since I have nothing else to do, why not. There's one with a squirrel crawling up it. I could always just-
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... The rules. That's how many rules there are.
He scrambles to his feet and tries to find his way back to the house. His head is blurry and he keeps on thinking of the rules. He trips a couple of times, and he tries to avoid as much sunlight as possible, granted that he still is burning from the contact he had with the sun.
After a minute of vamp speeding through the woods, he gives up, and starts to scan his surroundings. A huge oak tree is to the left of him, and it would provide some shade for about an hour or so. He bends down, putting his hands on his legs, breathing hard. His heartbeat is so loud, it fills the whole forest. He speeds to the tree, and collapses against it. He groans out in pain, and he can feel himself deteriorating. His skin is starting to get cold.
Stefan is never going to come. I'm going to desiccate in here without anyone knowing. Damon feels exhausted. His stomach is grumbling, and falls in a trance, until he hears a rustling noise in the tree above him. He looks up at the shaking tree.
All of a sudden, something jumps down from the tree up above him. A girl. She growls, and her eyes light up in bright yellow. Damon stares at her, his mouth wide open. He's too weak to move. He feels lightheaded and nauseous. He can feel his empty stomach churning something up his throat. He coughs and everything comes exploding out. He feels small and weak, something he has never felt before. He doesn't know what is going on with his body. He's a vampire, not a human. Vampires don't get sick. He throws up some more, and the girl just stands there watching him, showing no signs of disgust or disapproval towards him.
"Who are you?" Damon says, in a whisper-like manner, his throat feeling dry. He starts coughing more, and blood rushes out of his throat. He closes his eyes, tears dripping down. He feels sick and he doesn't like the feeling of throwing up. His mouth tasted bitter and murky. He breathes in and out and lets his heart slow down. He opens his eyes, and sees the woman- now sitting down.
"I'm Seraphina Caverly, who are you?" Seraphina asks, leaning into Damon.
"Damon…" He says out loud, in an unsure way, as if he didn't even know his name. He tugs at his stomach, and crouches together. He holds his head, and rolls around underneath the shade. Sweat beads are starting to form on his blistered face.
"Damon…?" She replies, unsure what is going on. "Are you okay?" Seraphina asks, walking towards the murmuring Damon. In one quick snap, she breaks his neck, and Damon stops moving.
His terror-filled eyes flutters open, staring at the dark tree high above him.
"What happened?" Damon asks out loud. He looks at the brown haired girl sitting next to him, slowly stroking his hair. "Who are you?" Damon starts to crawl away.
"Seraphina. I'm Seraphina. I already told you, did you forget already?" Seraphina asks, staring at Damon, her brown eyes widening.
"I'm sorry. I really don't know who you are." Damon croaks out. "Where am I?"
"Damon... You're in the forest. You tried to kill yourself, but I saved you in time." Seraphina replies back. Her fingers are intertwining with each other.
"Damon? My name is Damon? Oh right, I am Damon. I'm Damon Salvatore." Damon hisses out. He starts coughing and falls back onto his back.
"Damon Salvatore. What is the last thing that you remember?"
"I'm not sure." Damon grips his head and starts messing with his hair. "I don't know, I don't know." He whimpers out, his hands curl together, in a fist. He starts hitting his head, confused and angry.
"I know that I'm a vampire." Damon says, his eyes brightening up. He sits up, his back against the tree.
"This might be a problem… I'm a werewolf." She said, uneasy. Damon immediately starts crawling backwards. He doesn't know why he's crawling back, or why he's so scared. It's instinct, and he can't do anything about it. He's scared, and it's getting to him.
What is going on? Why can't I remember certain parts of my memory? Where am I? What happened to me? Why am I so scared? I hate myself.
"The full moon isn't coming for about four more days. So don't worry, I won't hurt you, I promise." A pause of silence falls upon them.
"So, do you have any siblings?" She asks.
"Yeah, Stefan." His mind is clear as day when it comes to Stefan. He could never forget about Stefan. He doesn't know what happened between them, or he was, but he loves his brother. But another feeling flies into his brain when he thinks about Stefan. It's hatred.
"But I hate him." Damon mutters out in disgust. His brain tells him that he hates him, while his heart tells him otherwise. He's torn.
"Someone's coming to meet you, Damon." Seraphina cheers out. "Let's go to the house. We can talk in there." She says, enthusiastically.
Damon looks down at his fingers. He knows something is missing, but he can't quite put his finger on it. Something is wrong, but he doesn't know what it is. He hesitantly gets up, and stumbles a little. He takes a step, and he immediately falls back down. He pants and breathes hard.
Flashing images of a ring clouds Damon's mind, hammering down his skull. It's like as if 10,000 miniature people crawled inside of his head and started to hammer his skull, trying to crack it. Blood is pouring over the ring images flashing in his mind, and Damon doesn't understand it. His heart is thumping rapidly, and his brain sparks like 4th of July sparklers. There are fireworks in his mind, about to set off and explode. He can't comprehend what is going on inside his head. It's a bunch of weird and twisted images flowing into his brain all at once.
"STOP!" Damon screams out, his voice scaring away the birds. His blue eyes roll backwards, replaced with lifeless and black pupils.
"Damon?" Seraphina cries out, scared. She doesn't know what to do.
"I don't know what's wrong with me. Please help." Damon cries out. His scared and shaky voice rings into the air. His voice doesn't match the black and dead eyes he has.
"You're okay. It's going to be okay." Seraphina coaxes, trying to calm him down. She crawls to Damon, putting her hand on his shoulder. Damon flinches away at the touch of her. His voice is pleading for her to help him, but his eyes say otherwise.
"Don't touch me! I need help, plea-" Damon starts coughing blood up. It stains the dirt, the blood sinking into the ground. He stops coughing and blood is dripping down from the sides of his mouth. "I don't need help. I'm perfectly fine the way I am." The cold Damon speaks out. Seraphina was surprised at the sudden change in his voice. He takes a thick wooden branch near him and stabs it through his stomach. He immediately falls down, his eyelids falling over his eyes.
"DAMON!" Seraphina screams out, scrambling to her knees.
She pulls the stake out, and rubs her hands on his face. She lays his head on her legs, and grabs ahold of his hand.
He's shaking and squeezing her hands. He's scared to let go. He's scared that if he does let go, everything he did would disappear. He would lose, and he can't let that happen. He needs to hold onto her hands. He's slowly sinking into the bottom. If he lets go, he's going to lose everything he has ever accomplished. His hand is starting to sweat, making it clammy. She ignores the uncomfortable feeling of sweat, and continues to let him hold her hand. She doesn't want to let go, but she knows that she eventually will. Vaughn will make her let go, and until then, she's going to hold onto him tight.
"You'll be fine. You're going to be okay."
He can't breathe. He's drowning in his own mind. There are so many empty spaces in his memory; he doesn't know what is real and what's not.
This is just a dream.
An image of Vaughn floats into his empty brain.
Is that me? Am I the villain in this story? I'm not the victim; I'm the person who caused all of this. I've destroyed Stefan's life. I failed to protect Elena. If I did protect Elena, I would be in that coffin, not her. If I didn't destroy Stefan, he would never have those years worth of guilt from being a ripper. I forced him to become the monster he tried so hard to bury. I dug it up and took it out. It's all my fault. I'm worthless. No one ever loved me. Not even my mother. It was all just an act. I faked my way through hell to get out. Stefan gave up on me, and so did Elena.
Somewhere in his confused mind was a section full of his lost memories. He locked himself out. He needs a key to unlock those memories, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack, if the key was the needle. It is possible; it just takes a lot of time and effort. Something Damon doesn't have. A person can find a needle in a haystack; they just have to be careful not to be stabbed by it. But if you do take the time, that haystack will just be a pool of hay surrounding you, a pool of your mistakes. You have to go through the hay to get to the key. Damon has to go and relive his mistakes to unlock the door. But sometimes memories can leak out. And somewhere in his spaced brain was the rules. They are the rules that he has to obey. He doesn't want to, but he has to comply. It isn't an option.
"Rule one, always listen to me and do what I say. Two, don't try to run away. Three, you will always reply back with a 'sir' or 'ma'am' when talking to any one of your captors. Four always ask before you do. Five, do not disobey any of your captors, including me. Six, don't tell your captors and I what to do. Seven, do not lie to any of us. Don't break them." Seraphina whispers slowly to Damon.
She brings her free hand to his heart, and releases a warm feeling into his cold body. She continues whispering, filling his mind with it. She gives the sleeping Damon a weak smile as she chants, each time increasing the volume.
He immediately starts to cough up blood. Seraphina looks at him like he was a lost puppy. She feels bad. She doesn't want to do it, but she has to pay her debt to Vaughn. She needs to protect her family.
She continues to whisper to Damon the rules, trying to engrave it in his mind. He opens his eyes for a quick second, and they're filled with blood. His mouth is stained with red, with dry blood all around his mouth. His eyes pour out red liquid, and he finally takes the plunge, and lets go of her hands.
Thanks for reading guys, and I really appreciate you reading this! Thanks for sticking with me! I love all of your support, and I really like to read your reviews. It gives me motivation to write more. And this is another long chapter! Just wanted to show my love for all of you guys who are still reading. Review, favorite, and follow this story to get the updates! Let me know if you have any ideas or plot for this story, and I am most likely going to use it, if I find a good place to put it! I'll give you guys credit for the idea! ;) I'm going to go and work on my homework now, and if I finish early I might write some more!
-angelaapann
