A/N: Short chapters come with the simple fact that I haven't watched Vampire Diaries in forever and my depressed mood. Hope you'll stick around for this. And thanks for the reviews.
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Cailee was so cold as she lay there in the darkness. She could feel a cold layer of powder covering her body, leeching away the last bit of her warmth. Shivers had given way to violent shudders what did little to warm her body. Frost was forming on her hands where she breathed on them. Her tears were frozen little crystals on her face.
"D..Da –Dam-on," she whispered, her teeth chattering. "Wh-why d-d-id you l-lea-ve m-me?"
She was starting to feel really sleepy. Part of her was worried about it because she had learned about this kind of thing in Health. But there was a part of her that was whispering to her of the peace to come.
They promised that the voices would go away. She'd be in a place where there would be no more headaches caused by the voices mixed with the voices of others. There would be no more hallucinations of people falling to pieces. She'd no longer see herself do unspeakable things that frightened her. Everything would just melt away and she would be safe and happy for the rest of time.
But what about Damon? she wanted to ask. What will happen to Damon if I go? Will he go back to the way he was, feeding on different women each night? Killing people for the thrill? Following Elena blindly?
She blinked back more tears. Or will he give up? Will he mourn over my death for years until the pain becomes too unbearable? Will he lose the will to live and find some vampire or beast that will end him forever? Will I lose the man I love for an eternity because I am too weak to continue in this cold?
Oh Damon! I love you! Please, hear me in this darkness! I can't live without you and I know that it wasn't you that said those hurtful things to me. It was simply a hallucination. But, you must be cross with me…I want you to know that I never meant to hurt you all those times and that…I have always been in love with you. If you had asked me for anything, I would have given it to you in a heartbeat, but…what good is that knowledge now? I'm dying and I'll never get to see your face again…Oh, I would be happy forever if I could only see one more hallucination. A hallucination of your face that would follow me into the next life as I close my eyes…it wouldn't be as good as the real thing but it would be enough to give me comfort…
"Damon…" she whispered, closing her eyes against the darkness. "I… love y…"
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Damon tore through the woods, leaping over stumps in his haste to get to Cailee. All he could smell was snow. Cold, wet snow that was choking the scent of his love every second. He couldn't smell Cailee no matter how hard he tried.
"Are you sure that your friend can't get a better location?" he demanded, whirling on his brother. "'The woods' isn't a great indicator of exactly where we can find Cailee!"
Stefan stopped running. "Bonnie isn't an expert witch yet. She tried her best."
"Well, her best wasn't good enough." Damon muttered, looking around. "For all we know, Cailee has already moved out of these woods. Or worse, she's fallen in a hole and died of hypothermia…" His eyes narrowed. "If she's dead, this town is going to be destroyed."
"Why would you threaten your hometown?" Stefan asked, walking off in a random direction. "I thought you didn't get attached to women."
"Cailee's different," Damon said, following after his brother. "She's something special…you wouldn't understand since you have the run-of-the-mill girl with Elena." Stefan shot him a dirty look. "Look, Cailee treats me as if I'm just a normal guy. She doesn't care that I'm a vampire. She just treats me like I'm a human who she loves enough to move the stars for. We do everything together and I've spent so many hours talking with her, getting her point of view of the world that is so close and so new to me…" He sighed. "Again, you wouldn't understand."
Stefan ran a hand through his hair. "But she's sick Damon."
"Don't you think I know that by now?" Damon shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked over the snowy ground. "I knew she was sick when I met her. I thought she'd make the perfect person to get a quick meal from – that she'd be easy to shag and leave. But she wasn't. She was…so different from everyone else I've encountered. The sickness, it's only made me want to protect her more…I still want to protect her from her demons, but…"
"We'll find her," Stefan promised, reaching for his phone when it rang again. "It's Elena again…Maybe the zeroed in on her…"
Damon continued walking away from his brother, straining to hear even the faintest breath. The woods around him were silent and snow was covering every inch of it. He strained to smell anything familiar that would lead him to Cailee.
Damon…
His eyes widened as he caught a whiff of blood. Her blood. It was cold and congealed, but it was still strong enough to lead him to her.
"Cailee!" he called, rushing through the trees as he followed the scent. "Cailee hold on! I'm coming for you!"
Please don't let me be too late, Damon sent his prayer up to the cosmos.
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A girl was struggling to hold her books with one hand and open her locker with the other. Elena noticed her when Stefan caught the book that slipped out of her hand.
"Do you need some help?" Stefan asked, smiling at her.
Elena reached over and opened the girl's locker for her. "Hi, I'm Elena."
"I know you," the girl said. "Both of you…um, you're in the same Chemistry class as me. I sit closest to the door, so it's understandable that you don't know me. I'm kind of quiet, you know?"
Stefan put her book in her locker for her and noticed a strange white scar on her shoulder. His glance had Elena looking at it too. It was in the shape of a bite mark.
"What's your name?" Elena asked.
"Oh, my name's Cailee," the girl said, flashing an uncertain smile.
Elena noticed that Cailee's eyes never stayed focused on her or Stefan for more than a few seconds at a time. It was like she was looking at something that they couldn't see.
"Thanks for your help," Cailee muttered, pulling out a batter black journal before closing her locker. "It was nice to meet you."
"Where did you get that scar?" Stefan asked before Cailee could make an escape.
Cailee's eyes widened. "What?"
"That scar," Stefan said, pointing at it.
Cailee closed a hand over it and looked away. "I don't know…It must have happened a long time ago because I don't remember getting it…"
"It looks like someone bit you," Elena said. "A v-" A look from Stefan made her shut up. "Who would bite you?"
"An ex-boyfriend? I told you that I don't know. Please, I have to go. There's someone waiting for me outside."
"But-"
"It was nice to talking with you, bye." Cailee ducked her head and walked briskly through the front doors of the school.
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Elena handed Bonnie a can of pop. The witch kept her eyes trained on a map of the woods that Elena had managed to find. She was looking to see if Cailee's location changed.
"It's too bad we can't tell if she's okay or not," Elena commented, taking a sip of her own drink. "She hasn't moved in hours."
"My magic can't tell us everything yet," Bonnie commented with a frown. "All we can do is hope that the boys find her before something really bad happens to her."
"How do you know Cailee?" Elena asked.
Bonnie looked up from the map with a small smile. "I met her in the library one day. She was talking to thin air, trying to decide which book to get. I offered some helpful advice and she started talking to me instead."
"Didn't you think it was weird that she was talking to thin air?"
"A little, but then again, I had heard the rumors about her. But she was so different from what the rumors said she was." Bonnie smiled and looked down at her hands for a moment. "She was happier and…she acted, well, sane or as sane as she could, given her circumstances. I couldn't help caring about her and becoming her friend. She trusted me and told me the secrets she'd been keeping from everyone. About Damon and her illness."
"Did she ever attack you?" Elena asked, thinking about her own run in with Cailee a day ago. Her face still smarted from Cailee's hand.
"No."
"And she told you about her relationship with Damon?"
"She didn't tell me who he was by name, but I knew who it was when she started talking about how darkly handsome he was and how he always acted macho around everyone but her." Bonnie looked back at the map. "That's how I knew she would be with Damon when she went missing. From what I heard, he would do anything for her…"
Elena nodded and tapped her fingers against the side of her drink. "He would. It's strange to see him acting like that though. In all the time I've known him, he's never kept a steady relationship with anyone. Humans are playthings to him, good for an occasional snack and tumble in bed. He dumps them almost as soon as he gets them. But then he meets Cailee and everything changes. It's like he became a completely different person as soon as she stepped into his life."
Bonnie's smile widened. "True love will do that to anyone. Finding your soul mate after hundreds of years will change a man or a vampire. Remember Katherine and how she treated him like dirt? Well, he's finally found someone that loves him for who he is, not for what he can give her. Not for the entertainment or the great sex. He's found someone who loves him because of the heart he has and the way he is. And he's found someone that he can drop his guard around and love entirely." Her eyes twinkled in the dim light of the kitchen. "You should know about this because the same thing happens daily between you and Stefan."
Elena felt a flush of heat warm her face. "I don't know. Stefan and I fight a lot and I haven't been a great girlfriend."
"No one ever is," Bonnie commented. "But you're great for him like Cailee is for Damon." She looked down at the map and frowned, her eyebrows furrowing. "That's strange…"
"What?"
"The light showing where Cailee is, it's fading," Bonnie whispered, looking up with wide eyes. "I think we're losing her!"
A/N: Sounds kind of like a hospital show at the end, doesn't it? Oh well…Please review and I'll get cracking on the next chapter.