I came to and my first thought was that my head really hurt, then I noticed him standing over me; angry and confused.
I became aware that I was lying on my back in a wood, there was someone standing over me- he looked angry and wary.
"Oh crap," I moaned, his face remained expressionless but I could see the fury in his eyes. He'd been in my jeans pocket while I was out and had found my phone, I could see it in his hand. "Is this some sort of phone? Why do you have a picture of my brother and me on it?"
Oh shit! I'd forgotten about the background picture that I took when I got my new phone. "It's a mobile phone- Americans call it a cell phone. Where am I? What's the date today?" He gave me a sharp look and his eyes narrowed, there was no getting out of this.
"Look, you're not going to believe me when I tell you and right now I don't know if I'll make any sense anyway. My head hurts and I've done something to my leg. Can we go somewhere warm with painkillers and I'll explain."
"No. Explain now, or your next words will be your last," the fangs extended but he didn't move. "My friend is a witch, she's still discovering her powers and she found an old spell for time travel. She translated the spell using a Latin dictionary and I tried to stop her but she'd already cast it, I tried to stop her but I got caught up in it. Only judging by your accent I'm guessing that I travelled to another continent as well as back in time. I don't want to tell you much, or else it might affect the future." He looked at me with suspicion and doubt, then with a movement so quick I didn't know what was happening I was in his arms and he was carrying me through the woods.
"Where are we going?" I heard the fear creep into my voice, this wasn't my Damon and there was no telling what he would he do. "Somewhere warm with painkillers," came the reply and I relaxed a little.
"Where am I and when am I?"
"A small town in Virginia called Fells Church and the year is 1992, to be precise 14th July 1992." By now I was in the Ferrari and we were driving across a bridge that was built over a large river- I guessed this was the new Wickery Bridge, Damon put his foot down and we sped over it.
We didn't talk until we came to a huge rundown house that from the looks of it was the boarding house.
He opened the door to my side of the car and helped me out as I leant on the car door for support, "wow. Nice house," I said as I caught my breath.
"It's not mine, it's a boarding house but the old lady that runs it won't mind." No sooner as he said that then the old lady in question came to the door, "oh you poor girl! Look at the state of you, bring her inside and I'll get her cleaned up and a hot cup of coffee inside of you," then she bustled back inside and suddenly I found myself in Damon's arms in a large kitchen, he set me down gently and I sat in the chair behind me while Mrs Flowers made me a cup of coffee and gave me a flannel to clean myself up with. "You've badly sprained your leg, you got anywhere to stay?" she asked, "erm, no I haven't."
"Thought not. You can stay here if you like, I'm sure your nice young man here will be able to give you money for food and clothes if you don't have any," I opened my mouth to protest but before I could say anything she continued with "and don't you mind about paying me any rent either. You can help me with some housework when your leg's okay." I turned to Damon with my mouth open and he looked equally surprised, but his expression soon changed into his usual expressionless mask, "you take good care of her now, d'you hear me?" she winked at Damon as she shuffled out of the kitchen.
I swallowed a couple of aspirin and took a gulp of coffee; I put my head in my hands and sighed. The chair at the other end of the table was drawn and as he sat down. "Warm and with painkillers, now I want an explanation before I become bored with you and kill you," I couldn't help it; I swear it came out before I could stop it. "Don't be such an arse Damon, I'm not buying time and I fully intend to tell you what I can," I looked him in the eyes and they were stone cold, big oops.
"Don't be a stupid fool, girl. I'm extremely dangerous and I could kill you any time I liked and there's nothing you can do about it, in fact, you'd be dead before you realised what was happening to you."
"Fine. Whatever. I'm not getting into an argument with you, I hurt too much and our arguments usually involve me getting hurt anyway." He looked surprised and angry, so I told him briefly that I was from the future where I lived with him and his brother in a large house. I also told him that I was a close friend of both of them and then I asked politely if I could have my phone back.
He whipped it out of his pocket and I watched as he brought up a picture of Elena, Bonnie and I on the sofa with a glass of wine in each of our hands. "Tell me about this picture and I might let you have it back," I swore silently that I would never have another camera phone ever again if I could go back right now, but of course that didn't happen. "No, please Damon. I can't; I want to, but I can't."
"I don't like you, whoever you are. Oh I know you're telling me the truth but I don't like humans who withhold information like this from me," he was standing over me and was holding my head back by a fistful of my hair, my neck was exposed and his face was within a hair's breadth of mine. "Tell me, who's the blonde girl in the photo?"
"No. Did I mention that you can't influence me as someone who was once very close to my heart taught me how to block it." He snarled and suddenly he bit me, I cried out as his drove his fangs into my neck, I tried to relax into it but he lifted his head and bit me again.
By the time he finished I was very weak and my neck had several marks on it, he had wanted to make me suffer and he achieved it with aplomb, he stood over me and glared. "Tell me."
"No. I can't and I won't." I wasn't scared, just very upset and hurt by my treatment, he snarled again, blood still around his mouth. He threw my mobile on the floor and the back fell off, but his eye was caught by two passport sized photos that fell out, he picked them up and stared. I saw the one he was staring at and explained, "I was trying to have my passport photo taken and you ran into the booth at the last second, it turned out to be a great photo."
"And this one?" His voice sounded strangled, he showed me the other one and I tried to laugh but it hurt too much. "I got Stefan to help me get my own back on you by interrupting you while you were having yours updated." He flipped it over and my heart stood still as he read the writing on the back out loud.
"This means war sister. It's in my handwriting, but sister? Where did you get this from? This has to be a forgery as I'd never be so stupid as to trust a human like you, who do you think I am? My brother?"
"You're not your brother and I'm well aware of that fact. You're a dangerous psychopath that doesn't trust anyone whether they're human or not. When you do open up and start trusting people it just takes one wrong move by that person for you to go psycho and hurt them both mentally and physically! So fuck you Salvatore!"
I stood up suddenly from the chair completely forgetting about my ankle, I cried up and ended up in a crumpled sobbing heap on the floor. Damon just stood there, I could almost feel his shock at being spoken to like that from a human, especially one that he had just bitten. "Is everything okay in here? I thought I heard yelling," came the voice of Mrs Flowers. "Everything's fine, she just tried to get up from her chair and forgot about her ankle. No need to worry, I'll take care of her." I could hear him say smoothly. "Just you make sure that you do," came the reply, then she shuffled away.
I crawled on my hands and knees over to my phone, then sat on the floor putting it back together. "Are you always this much trouble?" he sounded fed up and dare I say it resigned, as though he was about to give in.
"No, sometimes she's even worse." I sat up and cleared the hair from my face, there was another Damon in the kitchen- this was getting weird.
He moved slowly around the old Damon and knelt next to me, "let's get you home," his voice was as cold as steel and it cut me deeper than the bite marks on my neck, but he picked me up and walked up to the other Damon with me in his arms. "Go back to the woods, none of this has happened and you will just carry on with what you were doing before."
Then he muttered some words that sounded like Latin and we suddenly back in my room in Grove House.
He lay me down on the bed without a word and went to walk out. "Damon." He whipped around, his eyes coal black.
"What?"
"Thank you and I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what Elizabeth? Sorry for presuming that I was only after Bonnie's blood and not her? Or Sorry for being my brother's mouthpiece when he didn't have the courage to come forward and tell me himself?
I'm beginning to wish that I hadn't met you, I hate the way you waltzed into our lives and turned everything upside down. I hate the way you flirt with me and then hide behind your boyfriend, I hate the way every time we have an argument you leave the house and then suddenly it's all my fault for forcing you out.
You're trying to change who I am and I hate it, Elizabeth, but most of all I hate the fact that you're a stupid, pathetic, clingy woman who's mentally a fucked up teenager who blames all her failures throughout her life, on her parents divorce at the age of ten and most of all I hate that I can never look you in the eyes again without remembering what I've done to you even though I know that you forgive you and what you did was the right thing."
I stared, my jaw open, I'd never heard him talk about his feelings before and by this outpouring I suddenly felt that I'd pushed him over the edge.
"I'm sorry for everything Damon. I'll do anything I can to make to make it right, I promise." I could just about whisper by now, my throat was so sore. "You can't change Elizabeth, that's just it! You're a pathetic fool who's always the victim, what's even worse is that if it weren't for you I wouldn't be living this stupid charade." His eyes were blazing with anger, I didn't know what to say but after being called pathetic for a second time the tears had been replaced with my own anger and Damon had done something that no one had done to me for years- he pushed my self destruct button.
"How dare you! I never asked for any of this! You're the one who turned up on my doorstep the day after I met you to borrow my books, because you couldn't be bothered to buy yours! I went for a walk in the park and you two turned up- so tell me how it's my fault that you're living this 'stupid charade' Damon? I may be fucked up teenager in my head who blames everything on my parents divorce, but you've been fucked up far longer than me and you blame all your woes on Stefan- tell me Damon, do you blame him for your mother's death? You blame him for Katherine's death I know that. If you can't stand me or this place then fuck off back to Florence and stay there!" I screamed at him.
He snarled at me, a barely contained snarl and then he was gone, leaving me alone in my room.