Chapter 1:

Meredith tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep soundly. There was something keeping her from rest, an aching feeling that something was terribly wrong. But for the life of her she couldn't figure out what is was. Descending the stairs the next morning, Meredith stood halfway down the stair case, turning her whole body to face the cream wall. It was that picture, the one she'd seen at the boarding house last night, of the girl with the brown hair and unusual green eyes with the unhappy expression on her face. But what would we be doing with the picture? She thought, searching through her brain. Meredith couldn't find any reason for the picture of Melinda Lockwood to be hanging on her wall, expect maybe her family knew the girl before she'd been killed.

Unhooking the picture from the wall, Meredith walked down the rest of the stairs, making her way into the kitchen. The smell of bacon and eggs surrounded the small room. Lilly Sulez was standing in front of the stove, flipping an egg to cook it both sides just what her daughter always asked for them, eggs sunny side up and two slices of bacon. Meredith wasn't one for taking risks unless she had to, and just like she never took risks she ate the same breakfast every day. Most people would find it boring, but then again Meredith was never like everyone else, while all the girls in her class wanted to stand out like Elena, Meredith was more than happy to sit on the side lines and watch Elena take the lead. It never bothered her.

"Mother?" she asked, leaning back against the titled walls of the kitchen.

"Yes?" Lilly answered, turning from the stove to face her daughter, a smile on her face just like always. No matter what was going on in Lilly or Richard Sulez's lives, they always put on a happy smile. When their daughter entered the room, though Meredith knew this, she never called either of her parents on it. Meredith didn't like change, and calling them on the weird habits would only do that.

"Why do we have a picture of Melinda Lockwood?" she asked, holding the framed picture in front of her, so her mother could have a better look at the sad little girl.

Lilly raised her brow in confusion, looking intently at the picture, before shrugging her shoulders in defeat. "I have no idea sweetheart, your father picked out all of those old photo's," she finally answered, turning back towards the stove to finish up the cooking. Knowing that her father wouldn't be home until at least eight o'clock, Meredith hook the frame back on the wall, a sense of foreboding creeping up on her little up little, but she shrugged it off. She wanted everything to go back to normal. Walking back up the stairs, Meredith decided to get ready to pick Bonnie and Matt up in an hour, to go visit Elena, and promised not to let the picture of the girl get to her. It's probably nothing she told herself,keeping her fingers crossed.

After last night's disturbing events Damon decided to stop by the boarding house the next day, trying to get his mind off the flaming mirror. Maybe he'd had too much to drink and it was making him hallucinate? What could some great power want with Meredith Sulez? But thinking about it, Damon realized, he really knew nothing about the dark haired girl, with the legs that seemed to go on forever; the only thing he knew was that her grandfather had been attacked by one of them, but apart from that he knew nothing about the distant girl. Expect that she wasn't found of him, which was obvious from the coldness she produced towards him.

Walking through the door with ease, already being invited in many times before, Damon stalked through the house, looking for his dear little brother. But Stefan was no wear to be seen. Walking up the long staircase a group of voices caught him off guard. Listening closer, he recognized the high pitched voice of Bonnie, which meant Meredith would be there to, not that she seemed very aware of the flaming mirro; as soon as she turned around it became normal again. Walking further down the hallway with unnatural quietness, Damon could feel four heart beats, he could feel their blood rushing through their veins, making him lick his lips, but he wouldn't dare try and kill one of them. Even the boy, he couldn't take the after math that would concur from Stefan, as he tried to stab Damon in the heart with stake.

"I'm offended I wasn't invited to this gathering," he said in an arrogant tone, walking into Stefan's bed room. All eyes in the small room turned to face him, hatred being the main emotion displayed, but Damon didn't take any notice. He flashed a wide grin at Elena, who smiled back. Even with the mind of a child I still like her the best,mused Damon, walking further into the room until his eyes landed on Meredith. She was sitting furthest from him, her head resting her on the arm of the couch. She looked utterly tried, and the bags under her eyes were proof.

"What do you want Damon?" Stefan asked his older brother, well aware of the looks he was flashing Meredith. In all the time they'd spent in Fell's Church, Damon had never shown any interested towards her, and this scared Stefan who thought of the dark haired girl as a friend.

"Ouch. I'm hurt little brother," said Damon, sarcasm dripping from his voice like acid. But it didn't matter that Stefan didn't want him there, because he didn't have the power to stop him, and in Damon's books power was everything. Of course his younger brother was well aware of that.

"Seriously Damon, if you came here for a reason please share it with me," Stephan pleaded, running a hand through his wavy black hair. He'd had enough of feuding with his brother; he didn't want it to seem like a war zone every time they were in the same room as each other, but Damon just wouldn't cooperate. It was always his way or the high way.

Meredith had her eyes closed at this point, the Salvatore brothers arguing was just a faint noise, like a bee buzzing around her ears. But it didn't bother her, apart from that there was no other sound in the room. Everyone else was giving their attention towards the two brothers. Feeling a hand touch her face, Meredith opened her eyes slowly, to see Elena's child like expression looking at her with worry. Sitting up properly, Meredith flashed an unconvincing smile her way, causing Elena to frown. Straightening her shoulders, Meredith stood from the couch, turning towards Bonnie and Matt. "I think that enough for now, we'll come back tomorrow," she said, Bonnie folded her arms across her chest, looking towards her with confusion.

"We just got here twenty minutes ago," she complained, using her eyes to silently ask Meredith why they had to leave.

"I know Bonnie, but I'm not feeling well, I just want to go home," Meredith explained, shuffling her hair around in frustration. Something was definitely wrong with her; she wasn't her usual calm self, and she could feel her fingers begin to tremble slightly.

"You go. I'll take them both home," answered Stephan, giving her a warm smile. After saying her goodbyes to everyone, Meredith exited Stefan's bed room, unaware that Damon was following her. Her hands were still trembling slightly, and her breath had thickened. She was afraid to pass by that picture on her way out for some reason, because she hadn't started feeling different until she saw the picture, and what about Mrs. Flowers warning. Maybe a good night's sleep was all she really needed.

Damon walked behind Meredith out of the room, noticing she was too lost in thought to realize his presence behind her. Damon could feel the fear radiating from her body but couldn't pinpoint towards what her fear was directed at. But he continued to follow her down the stairs and out the door; he was quite surprised that she actually glanced and made eye contact with him but was obviously to tired to put up a fight. Standing a couple of feet behind her, he watched as she pulled the keys from her purse. He could see the shiny silver shaking silently, soon realizing it was because the girl was shaking herself.

Meredith was always cool and collected, it seemed like nothing ever fazed her, so Damon was taken aback by the events that were unfolding before him, thinking that maybe what he saw wasn't a hallucination, and that something was really wrong with her. Now all he had to do was figure out what. Damon wasn't one to care about humans at all, in fact he'd agree if someone where to call him selfish, but there was something in the air, and something about the girl that stood before him that made him want to get involved. He always loved the thrill of a mystery. A low thud, caused his head to snap up looking towards Meredith's figure, bending down to pick up the keys she'd dropped.

"Maybe you shouldn't be driving," he said, speaking for the first time since watching her. Meredith turned to face Damon, the keys in her hands.

"Maybe you should mind your own business," she spat, trying to placing the car key in its slot but failing miserably. Meredith looked towards Damon, as his hand touched her car door.

"What?" she muttered with frustration. She didn't feel like fighting with Damon; all she wanted was to go home to her comfy bed.

"Let me drive?" he asked casually, taking the keys from her hand without her even noticing. Meredith began to laugh, throwing her head back as she did so.

"Why would you want to be nice to me?" she asked, looking at him with a bewildered expression.

"Because if you crash, then I'll smell the blood and probably kill you, if the impact didn't," he lied, trying to cover the real reason with an arrogant comment, stepping back lightly Meredith nodded her head, watching Damon place the key in the slot without any trouble at all. Walking over to the other side, she opened the passenger side door, stepping inside the car, letting a sigh escape her lips. Meredith knew she shouldn't trust Damon; he wasn't a good person, but she knew she shouldn't be driving and didn't want to alert the others to the problem. The car ingestion caused Meredith to awake from her thoughts, looking towards Damon who was pulling out of the parking spot towards the center of Fell's Church.

"Well, someone was tried," chuckled Damon, looking towards the dark haired girl's sleeping figure in the passenger seat. She looked scared as if she was having a bad dream. He didn't take much notice keeping his eye on the road; the roads were quiet and Damon wasn't really paying much attention. Suddenly Meredith thrashed to the other side of the seat mumbling the words "Melinda Lockwood" over and over. Melinda Lockwood?Damon asked, but something was so familiar about that name, it was like it was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't verbalize the words that wanted so badly to fall from his lips.

Walking through the doors of her house, Meredith couldn't help but wonder why Damon was being so nice to her. He'd never shown any interest before, he'd always favored weak Bonnie or beautiful Elena, but never really her. "Meredith?" called the husky voice of Richard Sulez, Meredith father. Meredith suddenly remembered the picture, and a new found energy rushed through her veins, causing her to walk into the den with a skip in her step.

"Yeah it's me, dad," she answered; entering the den. The television was on, but the sound was off, and she made her way over to her father, sitting down right opposite him in one of the wooden chairs her mother had bought from an antique shop in New York.

"By the way dad, why do we have a picture of Melinda Lockwood?" she asked, trying to sound causal, but inside she was on the edge of her seat to find out.

"It was a gift from a friend, but the strange thing was when ever your grandfather looked at the picture, or walked passed it, he couldn't stop muttering the words 'beware of the mirror,'" her father mused, shaking his head silently. Meredith looked towards her father once more, before sprinting towards the picture. Those were the exact words Mrs. Flowers had used, down to the latter. Climbing the first four steps Meredith looked towards the framed portrait, noticing something that made her heart skip a beat.

The girl was smiling.

A/N: everyone please review and let me know what you think