Walking through the streets was strange to Charlotte.
Her body still felt as if it were asleep, and her head was starting to hurt due to the bright daylight.
Dressed in sweats and a baggy jumper, she knew she didn't exactly look desirable to any boy passing by. So instead of letting a boy try and romance her, she just picked a random good-looking boy off of the street. After feeding from him, she let him go. But not before disguising the bite mark on his neck as a small cut, like she always disguised them. The boy walked away from her looking dazed and slightly faint; but not enough to cause him to go to a hospital.
The blood had calmed her hunger, but the heat of it was scorching to her already inflamed throat. She looked around for water to drink, but the only water there was was from the lake, and it was dirty. So in the end, with her own home burned down, she admitted defeat to herself and made her way back to Stefan's little box room.
Once again, they were having a conversation about her when she entered.
With her throat now a a little better
"Talking about me is becoming quite a habit to you, don't you think? I feel very loved," she said coldly, causing ginger girl- who had her back to the door of Stefan's room- to jump in alarm. Charlotte's throat protested painfully at her, and she winced.
"You're back," Stefan said.
"Duh, meathead."Why on earth do I have to be related to this thicko?- Charlotte thought. But her voice was now turning into a whisper due to the pain.
He scowled at her.
"Have a nice lunch did we?" Damon said, smirking coldly.
She just nodded and smirked coldly back at him.
Everybody was silent, the two human girls shooting anxious glances at each other.
But instead of standing and smirking like she normally would have, the pain in Charlotte's throat was becoming too much, and she stepped past them to go into the small bathroom.
She cupped her hands underneath the pouring tap and drank from them. Coldness flood into her throat, taking away most of the fiery pain. She splashed some on her neck- as it was also burning on the outside.
She exited the bathroom after she thought she'd had enough water, and Stefan immediately said:
"We need to talk to you."
Charlotte just looked at him, tilted her head to the side a little bit, and smirked.
"Then talk."
Stefan glared at her, and stepped away from her so he could walk into his room. Charlotte sighed, bored already, and followed.
Every person in Stefan's room except Damon had an expression of determination on their faces, which Charlotte found amusing. A new boy with blond hair and blue eyes had joined them. Oooft- she thought. He's not bad for a guy that hangs around with Stefan... not bad at all.
The boy, at first, wasn't looking at her. But he looked up after a second of her entrance and Charlotte noticed his mouth drop open.
"Matt, this is Charlotte," Stefan said impatiently, oblivious to his friend making google eyes at her.
Then googly boy croaked out an 'uh-huh.'
"Are you the one that's been causing a lot of trouble around here during the last few weeks?"
Charlotte blankly stared at him.
"And what is it that I'm supposed to have done?"
"Bonnie's dog was killed a while ago."
There was a pause, in which Charlotte stared at him.
"So you think there's a villain in this town, a murderous, heartless, cruel criminal that kills everything in sight...because a dog is dead?" Charlotte found the situation incredibly amusing.
While Damon let out a short laugh,- which was more like a bark,- Stefan continued to stare at Charlotte in a serious manner.
"Like I said, that was a while ago. We found out who was doing that..." Stefan's eyes switched off Charlotte for a second to stare at the floor, then they were back on her again. "And we stopped it. But now there's another force that's doing the same thing, only worse. A girl was killed in an awful way, and she had never done anything to harm anybody. Strange bursts of Power keep coming from nowhere, and we have no idea whose doing it."
He stopped and looked at Charlotte with what he probably thought was a scary face, but it really made him look like he needed to take a big dump.
"So is it you?" His voice sounded cold and serious at the same time.
"No, it is not. I haven't killed a girl in this town." She looked at the ginger girl. "Yet."
The girl's eyes widened and she gave out a squeak of terror.
Charlotte laughed. I'm going to have fun scaring this girl- she thought.
"Have you been killing boys?" the blonde girl said, her eyes widening like her ginger friend.
Charlotte smirked. "Not in this town. In others close to it."
Everyone was silent while Stefan glared at her.
"Glaring isn't going to get you anywhere," Charlotte said sweetly to him, tilting her head on one side again as she did so.
"It's not right! Killing just for the fun of it!" he erupted angrily.
"Stefan, it's what vampires do. Accept it." Her amusement was now totally gone. Why is Stefan so insistent over killing when he's a vampire himself?- she thought.
"You're exactly like Damon." He shook his head in despair.
"Why, thank you, little brother," came Damon's cold voice.
"I'm not like him. First of all, he has a penis- I don't. He has black eyes- and I don't-" She heard Damon laugh, and even blondie girl and blondie boy couldn't stop a smile.
"You know that's not what I mean!" Stefan interrupted.
"I'm just pointing out the differences, Stefanie," Charlotte said, holding her hands up. She was sure the girly nickname would anger him.
She was right.
"Stefanie?!" he exploded, his face contorted in anger.
"Stefan-" blondie girl put a hand on his arm. When he became calmer, she spoke to him in a questioning voice.
"Should we bring Charlotte with us to see Vicky? I mean...if something happens...maybe if the murderer comes back...it would be good to have another person there."
Stefan looked at her, thinking over something.
"I'm not sure."
"Go where? My life does continue when I'm not around you lot- I do have other stuff I can do," Charlotte said extremely bored.
Stefan looked up from Elena to talk to Charlotte.
"A girl called Vicky saw- we think- the girl I mentioned earlier die. But she's a bit unstable, so we have to sneak into her house."
"You're sneaking into an unstable girl's house? You sure know a fun way to spend your weekend." Charlotte had a very funny image in her head of Stefan wearing a black mask and creeping around a teenage girl's room.
He glared at her.
"Maybe it is best that you come. If the Power comes again we may need you."
Charlotte hissed.
"Listen to me, I'm not a fucking dog! I don't come when called! And what the fuck does any of this have to do with me anyway? Why should I come?!" she snarled at him.
"You don't know how strong this Power is, Charlotte. It's always one step ahead of us," Stefan said, glaring at her fiercely.
"All I know is, this 'Power' as you call it, is not coming after me, I don't have to get involved."
"If you come with us, I won't tell your little human boy- whathisname, Lee?- that you're a vampire," said Damon.
Charlotte looked at him. He stood there smirking, arms crossed over his chest.
"Fine. Not because of you, Damon," she added, causing his smile to drop slightly. "Blackmail doesn't work with me." She glared at him. "I just don't have anything better to do today."
Damon stared at her, his face cold and hard. But then suddenly he started smirking again.
"Oh, while I remember, your other dear big brother wants to ask you something." When he saw Stefan shooting dagger looks at him, his smile broadened.
"What is it?" Charlotte looked coldly at Stefan.
Everyone in the room looked at him, waiting for him to ask his question.
"It's about those boys you're living with," Damon said when Stefan hadn't said anything.
"What about them?" Charlotte was getting seriously bored now. In a few seconds she would scare the ginger girl again out of boredom, she decided.
But still glaring at Damon, Stefan just put an arm around blondie girl's shoulders and said:
"It can wait."
Then he marched past Charlotte and went down the stairs, Charlotte watching him.
"What a little princess he is, such a dramatic exit," Charlotte said.
Damon laughed.
Bonnie started walking toward the door, but never took her eyes off Charlotte, obviously fearful of her. Blondie boy didn't stop staring either, but his staring was in a completely different manner from ginger's. He looked Charlotte up and down, an awe-struck look on his face. And when she smiled nicely at him, he nearly collapsed.
"Keep walking, Mutt." Damon's cool voice came.
Broken out of his reverie, blondie boy glanced at Damon then walked down the stairs after ginger girl.
Damon stood looking at Charlotte.
"I'm still waiting for my family kiss, you know," he said, smirking.
Charlotte smirked.
"I bet you never say that to Stefan now, do you?"
He narrowed his eyes at her.
"I won't let it go, you know. In fifty years time I'll still be asking you."
She sighed, swiftly kissed his cheek, and then walked down the stairs out of the boarding house.
Thank you for all your wonderful reviews! By the way I made some small changes to Chapter 6, but please make sure you read over it otherwise you might get a bit confused. :D And I've changed my name from 'domino94' to 'darkangel942', just so you know. Chapter 9 coming up soon. xxx
