Previously on:
I miss school the next day and the day after that. My nights are filled with horrific images and my days are filled with paralyzing fear. I can tell my mom is worried when she's not knocking on my door or at work, she's pacing downstairs. I can hear the constant tap of her shoes. By the second week, she bursts through my door and demands I go to school, but I look ragged and I have bags under my eyes so she leaves me alone. What she doesn't know is that I'm not feeding anymore. I haven't had blood since the boarding house almost two weeks ago. I am starving myself. I have no reason to do it except that I am so consumed by my fear that I cannot leave the house.
Chapter 10:
Damon's POV:
It's been three weeks since the fight with the wolves and things have gone back to relatively normal for everyone. I am still nowhere closer to finding out what Katherine's after, but at least none of us have seen her or the wolves anywhere.
I'm about to open the front door to go see Alaric, we've been mapping out all the places the wolves could be hiding out, when the door swings towards me. In front of me is a blonde I haven't seen in years.
"Is Stefan here?" she asks. He is, but I don't want to tell her that. Lexi has been known to come by and stay awhile. Every time, she comes to see Stefan, she stays for months. She's like this annoying mosquito I can't get rid of. Plus, aside from Stefan she is the most judgmental vampire I've come across. "Killing people is wrong, Damon." She says in her little whiny voice. The girl drinks human blood, for gods sake.
"Stefan…" she yells and runs into the house and up the stairs.
"Please do come in," I say sarcastically to no one and walk out the door. At least, I won't have to deal with her for another couple of hours.
When I get back from Alaric's, Lexi and Stefan are planted on MY couch in front of the bookshelf, drinking MY bourbon and giggling about something probably insignificant. I try to go upstairs and settle in with a book, but their laughter follows me. I am so glad that Stefan can have fun, when our ex girlfriend is out there somewhere trying to kill everyone we know. I am whipped away from my thoughts when another wave of hysterical laughter reaches my room. I can't take anymore of this. I grab my leather jacket off the back of my armchair and rush out of the house.
At first, I consider going to Elena's. With Stefan occupied at the boarding house, Elena will be free and up for a good time, but Elena will want to talk about feelings, and the only thing I'm feeling right now is that I want to put my fist through the nearest wall. I can't describe this unbearable rage I have inside, but it's consuming me. It has been ever since Katherine has come to town.
My next thought is to go check on Caroline and I turn away from the route that will take me to Caroline's mostly because I annoyed that somehow after Elena, pesky chipper Caroline became his second choice. Instead, I end up at the Grill, where I spend the entire night throwing back bourbon. I have almost reached a nice mellow mood, when Sheriff Forbes settles in on the bar stool next to me.
"Liz." I say, raising my glass.
"Hello, Damon." She says and goes back to staring at the beer that's been placed in front of her. I look her over and realize that she looks as ragged as I feel.
"What's wrong?" I ask. I'm not sure I want to know, but she is a friend and what if it's something supernatural that I should be aware of.
"It's Caroline," she says and I straighten in my seat.
"What's wrong with her?" I snap. God, please don't let it be Katherine or the wolves again.
"She's locked herself in her room. She won't come out for food or school. The one time I managed to see her she looked so sick, and she won't let me help her," she says. There's a pause. I' m not sure what to say to that. The last thing I wanted to hear about was how much Caroline's been suffering.
"She'll be alright. If it'll help, I can come by and try to talk to her." I say. Mentally I cringe. Why did I offer to do that? I don't think that being near me will do Caroline any good.
"It can't hurt, everyone else has tried," she says. After that I am in no mood to keep this conversation going and I excuse myself. I'm not ready to go back to the giggling Boarding house yet, so I head to Caroline's.
When I get there all the lights are off and peeking into the window after climbing the tree next to the house, I see that Caroline is asleep. Even in sleep, he can see what everyone is talking about. She's a skeleton of the girl he knew, and she seems restless. Her pretty pink lips are set in a firm frown and her hair is a disheveled mess. She looks like she could use the sleep, so he resolves to come back tomorrow. He'll have to remember to bring some blood bags to put some color back in those cheeks.
Showing up at Caroline's the next day, I can tell something is wrong immediately. Even before I see anything out of place the panic in my gut is rising. It's the same feeling I got that night, Caroline was tied to a freaking tree. The door is unlocked and I've been invited into Caroline's house before, so I head upstairs. She's not in her room. There's a small balcony in her Mom's room and I find her there, standing in front of the open balcony door, fiddling with her sun ring. She hasn't heard me and I don't make my presence known. I want to see what she'll do next. Now, that I have a chance to observe her in the light, I can tell she's been crying, a lot. She hasn't been feeding which attributes to the skeleton appearance, I've noticed before.
Suddenly as if she's made some sort of decision, Caroline tears of her sun ring and step towards the open balcony door. I realized what she's trying to do, thankfully before she's stepped outside.
"What the hell, do you think you're doing?" I say and pull her, spinning her so she's facing me.
Next on: Will Damon be able to talk Caroline out of her mood? Plus some fun scenes.