"For it was not into my ears you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul"
-Judy Garland
Chapter Two: Toxic
Elena's POV
"Come on Damon" I sighed and helped him stand up and started helping him up the stairs and into my room.
I got him in there and let him lay down on the bed. He was barely staying awake, starting to drift off to sleep again. I smiled a little and kissed him on his forehead, he was like a giant baby right now that needed someone to take care of him.
"I'm gonna go check on Jeremy downstairs, you need anything?" I asked
"Orange juice" He said
"Okay" I laughed a little "I'll get you your orange juice"
I walked back downstairs and saw that Bonnie had a confused look on her face, that was starting to become common in this house with everything going on all the sudden. I walked past them and into the kitchen, got Damon his orange juice, and brought it to him upstairs. He was already asleep, but I let it there on my nightstand so that when he wakes up he could have it. I pulled the covers up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. I walked back downstairs now to see what was going on with Bonnie, Jeremy, Jenna, and Anna.
"What's with the confused looks?" I asked them
"…Elena, Jeremy was changed into a vampire by the woman I saw in my dreams" Bonnie sighed "The one I told you about that made Grams more powerful in my dreams while she was attacking me"
"…Is that even possible?" I asked
"This must be one hell of an old vampire we're dealing with here, older than Katherine" Anna sighed
"Well, what does this woman look like?" I asked
"Like, stop all train of thought instantly kinda beautiful" Jeremy said
"Long wavy black hair" Bonnie sighed "Even brighter blue eyes than Damon"
"Cherry red lips, and porcelain pale skin" Jeremy said
"Great, so we're looking for this freak of nature beautiful vampire that seems to be getting into people's dreams" Anna sighed
"Pretty much" Bonnie said
My cell phone went off and I answered it right away, noticing the number coming from the hospital.
"Hello?" I answered
"Elena," I heard Adrian's voice, he sounded kinda freaked out
"Yeah? What's wrong?" I asked
"…Something's wrong with Cassandra, she had a bad dream, she's still pretty shaken by it, I think you guys should come down here" He sighed
"…Alright, we'll be right there" I sighed and hung up "Seems like our new vampire friend made another visit"
"Cassandra?" Bonnie asked
"Yeah, Adrian said she was really shaken by the dream, we better go see if she's alright" I sighed
"We can't just leave Jeremy here" Jenna said
"Anna?" I asked "Could you watch Jeremy and Damon?"
"Sure, go check Cassandra" Anna sighed "I'll handle everything here"
"Thanks" I smiled "Let's go check on Cassandra" I sighed a grabbed the keys to the car
I drove me, Bonnie, and Jenna to the hospital, I knew Anna could handle Jeremy since he was way weaker than her since he was just changed, and Damon was passed out asleep up in my bedroom, she would be fine.
We finally got to the hospital and up to Cassandra's room, they managed to keep nurses from getting to her and knocking her out with some sedative to calm her down. She was sitting up in bed, Adrian was trying to calm her down, and she looked so…scared, it was just strange to see someone who was so tough get shaken like this, it must have been on hell of a nightmare. She finally relaxed enough to the point of talking about what she dreamed after about twenty minutes.
"A vampire?" I asked
"Yeah, same one from the other dream I had, except this time she wasn't chased off by Elizabeth, she was more powerful this time and made Elizabeth go away" Cassandra sighed
"Did she have bright blue eyes, long black hair, red lips, pale skin?" Bonnie asked
"Yeah…how-"
"Same dream" Bonnie sighed "And this woman that me and you saw, she's real, and she…changed Jeremy into a vampire last night"
"…Oh my god" Cassandra said "What does she want from us?"
"No idea" I sighed and noticed Jenna starting to get nervous again and since we weren't home, she deiced to start playing Mom to Cassandra
"So what happens next?" Jenna asked
"We either get her the hell out of Mystic Falls or…kill her" Bonnie sighed
"Killing her sounds like an excellent idea" Adrian growled, he obviously wasn't happy that this vampire was able to slip by and get into people's heads and cause them to well…end up like Cassandra
"Bonnie, were you…like this when you woke up this morning?" I asked
"Yeah, but not as badly shaken as Cassandra" Bonnie sighed "It was like…she was weak or something, she was trying, but she couldn't really do anything to scare me, she just made Grams attack me"
"…Maybe she didn't feed, vampires get really weak when they don't feed" I said
"From the power it sounds like she's using, she must be leaving a pretty nasty trail of bodies in the way" Adrian said
"Two people were dead in the forest this morning" I said
"We just saw another one dead, before I went to sleep, the town's maybe an hour away from Mystic Falls" Cassandra sighed
"At least she's not killing all in one spot" Bonnie sighed
"No, she's smarter than that" I sighed
"So…we have a powerful vampire on the lose that needs a lot of blood, and can enter anyone's dreams at will and cause them extreme nightmares" Bonnie sighed "How do we kill her?"
"…I don't know" I sighed
Anna's POV
I left Jeremy downstairs after giving him what was probably his third glass of blood, I needed to take him hunting, but I had to check on Damon first, see how he was holding up. I left Jeremy's room and walked down to Elena's. He was sitting up in bed, holding his head.
"Hangover?" I asked "That was fast"
"Everything happens pretty quickly when you're a vampire" Damon sighed and looked up at me "Where's Elena?"
"She went to the hospital with Bonnie and Jenna, something was wrong with Cassandra" I sighed
"Oh, okay" Damon sighed "Anna…I'm sorry I flipped on you earlier" He sighed "I don't know what came over me"
"…It's okay" I sighed and sat down next to him on Elena's bed "You just looked….scared and angry all at the same time" I said "You know Damon, if something's up, you can tell me, I'd like to think of us as at least friends" I said
"One of the few" Damon sighed "It's nothing though, that dream…other than the whole 'rare' thing with my mother…something happened at the end"
"What?" I asked
"It was like…someone flipped the switch, it turned from day to night and there was this…terrifying scream coming from the woods, blood curdling, and then I woke up" Damon said "Nothing really compared to what a vampire should be afraid of I guess, I just thought it was weird"
"You know, it could have been this new vampire running around trying to get into your head. She's gotten Bonnie and Cassandra so far from what I know, and she changed Jeremy" I said
"I guess so" Damon sighed "But this powerful?"
"Could be" I sighed "So…is that all that has you freaked?"
"No" He sighed "I've been thinking…about changing Elena and everything. I mean, I'm not afraid to…but…I just, don't want this life for her"
"No one wants this life Damon. But sometimes it's just…bound to happen, you know? If it's destiny, then there's nothing you really can do to change it" I sighed
"I can try" Damon said
"Sure, you could. And end up breaking Elena's heart in the process, because doing that would be the only way you could convince her to not live with you forever. And are you really ready to go back to how things were? You just silently wishing you had Elena while watching her be with someone else?" I asked
"…No" He sighed
"Because you love her, am I right?" I asked
"I love her more than anything" Damon said
"Then what's meant to be will be" I said "Nothing you can do about it" I sighed "Look…I gotta take Jeremy hunting, you gonna be okay?"
"I'll be fine" Damon sighed
"Okay" I sighed and stood up "We'll be back as soon as we can" I said and walked out of the room and back to Jeremy's room "ready to go hunting?"
"Yeah" Jeremy said and smiled
I followed him downstairs and out the back door, I was gonna try him with hunting animals first, if that didn't go over to well, which I knew it wouldn't, he was going to have to go…hunt someone. But I was hoping that animals would work for now.
"Anna" Jeremy sighed as we were walking through the woods "I…I'm sorry" He said
"…I forgive you" I sighed "For some stupid reason…I forgive you" I said
"Really?" Jeremy asked and perked up a little
"…Really" I said "BUT, I don't trust you"
"I can wait" Jeremy smiled "I can make you trust me again"
"You have enough time to now" I sighed
"Yeah, I guess so" Jeremy sighed
"Just wondering…you didn't ask her to change you, did you?" I asked
"No. I was just like, frozen in place, I couldn't move away from her even if I wanted to" Jeremy sighed "And when she like came out of the forest, there were a bunch of like, blood red leaves that fell from out of nowhere, and they only like…glittered in the moonlight"
"Sounds unreal' I said
"I thought I was dreaming truthfully" Jeremy sighed
"I would think that too" I said and the froze dead in my tracks and stopped Jeremy "There's a few deer nearby" I said whispering to him now "Go on"
"What do I do?" He whispered
"Just…let your instincts take over" I said
"Whatever you say" Jeremy smiled and started stalking off into the night after the deer
After about an hour and a half out there hunting, and Jeremy getting used to the taste of animal blood, we finally started making our way back to Elena's house. We walked in the back door and the first thing we noticed was…a kitchen table full of alcohol bottles. Literally, I mean, you could not see the table, there were so many bottles of scotch, rum, vodka, and god knows what else.
"What the hell?" Jeremy asked and then he froze in place, and I smelled it too, the scent hit you like a brick wall
I peaked into the kitchen and saw a dead body laying there, he was pretty much drained of all his blood.
"Damon" I sighed
"He did this?" Jeremy asked "I thought-"
"Damon hasn't been in his right mind today" I sighed and dragged Jeremy into the living room where Damon was, sitting in the dark, watching something on TV, pretty much wasted again.
"Anna, Jeremy, there you are!" He said, oh yeah, he was wasted
"Damon, why is there a dead body in the kitchen?" I asked
"I ordered pizza" He smiled
"And all the liquor?" I asked
"Pizza guy brought it" Damon said
"Of course" I sighed "Jeremy, find somewhere to hide all that damn alcohol and I'll get rid of the body"
"Ok" Jeremy said
Jeremy started getting rid of all the alcohol off of the kitchen table and I dragged the body out of the house. I ended up burying him in the middle of the forest, hopefully no one would find him. I made my way back to the house and when I got back , all the alcohol was gone and Jeremy was trying to talk to Damon, but it was no use, he was wasted.
"Get rid of his drink Jeremy, he's toasted" I sighed
"But I'm not done yet" Damon said
"Yes, your done" I sighed "Come on Damon, do you even see what your doing to yourself?"
"Doing what?" He asked
"Oh god, Elena's gonna kill me" I sighed "Damon, why?" I asked "Why did you do all of this?"
"I wanted to" He said
I sighed and just hoped that it would be a while at least before Elena and them came home from the hospital so Damon could sober up again.
Stefan's POV
"How can you do that?" I asked as I watched the tree's leaves change from green and healthy to blood red and fall to the ground and glimmer in the moonlight
"When you've been around for as long as I have, you get bored and start learning how to do different things" Aislinn smiled
And within a second, she made the leaves stop falling and the ones that were on the ground, blew away from here. She was powerful again after drinking from that man, in the end, we both drank from him and I was feeling guilt for killing him, but not so much…I guess staying with Katherine and being around all her careless attitude toward humanity made me numb to feeling any guilt. I guess you could say, she really did bring out that soulless side to me that I tried to ignore having for so long.
"What time is it?" She asked
"Uh…11" I said looked at my cell phone
"Oh…I better go" She sighed and stood up, brushing herself off from sitting in the grass with me for so long
"Where do you have to go?" I asked
"I have to check on something" She sighed "But we could hang out tomorrow" She smiled "Where are you staying, I'll come by in the morning" She said and showed off her ring that looked like Katherine's
"At this hotel about five minutes away from here actually, I forgot the name" I sighed
"I know which one it is" She smiled "I'll come by there, what room number?"
"216" I said
"I'll be there" She smiled and gave me a quick hug "See you tomorrow Stefan" She said
"Yeah, tomorrow" I sighed
And in the blink of an eye, she was gone, off to wherever she had to go to. I had to admit, she was definitely different from any other girl, vampire or human, that I had ever met. She was different, and I liked that about her. I think I actually…liked her. I never even thought of really looking at another girl for a while after Elena and Katherine, but it was just like I was drawn to Aislinn, in a different way than Elena and Katherine. With Katherine I was fascinated because she was different, I mean, I was human when I met her, and she was a vampire, there was fascination there naturally. And with Elena, at first I was drawn to her because she looked exactly like Katherine, but she turned out being so different from what I was expecting her to be. And now Aislinn, she was just…Aislinn, I don't think there are really any words that could describe her and do her justice. She was beautiful, graceful, elegant, and I think I might possibly love her already.
Elena's POV
Jenna, Bonnie, and I were walking into the house and there I saw Damon passed out in the living room, blanket covering him, and Anna and Jeremy watching some movie on TV right there next to him.
"Hey guys" I said
"Hey" Anna and Jeremy said simultaneously
"…So, how is everything?" I asked "And Damon woke up?"
"Oh yeah" Anna said "He woke up and came down here, didn't make it too far though obviously"
"Oh, okay" I said and followed Jenna and Bonnie into the kitchen and there on the counter was a half full Pizza box "You guys order Pizza?" I asked
"Yeah, Damon wanted some" Anna said from the living room
Jenna sighed and walked over to the fridge and just kinda stood there and looked in the fridge confused. I walked up behind her with Bonnie there too and I saw why she looked confused.
"Was there a party while we were gone or something?" Jenna asked walking into the living room now with two bottles of the many stuffed in the fridge.
Bonnie and I started opening cabinets and found liquor bottles in every cabinet.
"Oh. My. God" Bonnie said
"I know" I sighed
Jenna walked into the kitchen with Jeremy and Anna behind here and her face was frozen in shock.
"We can explain" Jeremy said
"I hope so!" Jenna said "Why is all of this even in the house?" She said
"Well…" Jeremy sighed
"I took Jeremy out hunting, Damon was fine when we left. When we came back there was a dead pizza guy in the middle of the kitchen floor and a ton of alcohol on the table which I told Jeremy to get rid of" Anna said and glared at Jeremy and he looked away from her gaze "But the body is buried out in the woods" Anna sighed "Damon was wasted when we got back, he passed out maybe ten minutes ago"
"Great" I sighed and walked past everyone into the living room where Damon was passed out drunk sleeping.
Why was it so hard to even stay mad at him for more than a few seconds? Again, his peaceful sleeping weakened what was supposed to be the anger that would put mountain lions to shame and make them look like kittens. My anger toward him went from Lioness to Fluffy Kitten. I sighed and went to sit down next to him and snuggled up with him under the blanket Anna and Jeremy had over him. He woke up and looked down at me.
"Sorry" He said
"Just get some sleep, we'll talk later" I sighed and wrapped my arms around him
"Okay" He sighed and wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead and in a matter of seconds, he was asleep again
"I'm gonna go home Elena, I'll come back tomorrow, we'll talk more about this new vampire" Bonnie said
"Alright, Bye" I said and watched her walk out the front door
After an hour of Jenna making Anna and Jeremy help her get rid of what seemed like thousands of bottles of alcohol, Anna and Jeremy decided to go watch a movie up in Jeremy's room since Damon was passed out here. I guess they must have made up or something because they just seemed back to normal already. Jenna sat in the living room and talked to me for another hour, mostly asking about what the hell was up with Damon, truth was, I had no idea what was going on in that vampire mind of his, but for now, I kinda had a feeling that nothing was going on up in his head, he was probably just blacked out. Jenna finally got tired and went up to bed. I was thinking of doing that too, but I decided to stay here next to Damon and sleep on the couch tonight with him.
I was drifting off into a nice peaceful sleep, when I was woken up by someone screaming in the house. I woke up right away and Damon's eyes flew open too. Without saying a word we both ran upstairs. It was coming from Jenna's room, her door was open and Jeremy and Anna were already in there trying to wake her up, but she was still asleep, and still screaming every few seconds. I ran up to her and shook her a little bit. Finally after a few seconds, she opened her eyes and she was done screaming. She looked up at me and then at everyone in the room, wide eyed, exactly like how Cassandra was at the hospital, except Jenna was worse. I sat down on the bed next to her and hugged her, she was really spooked, we didn't have to guess what happened, everyone in the room kinda knew already what was happening. After calming her down for five minutes, she was trying to tell us something, but she was still really shaken.
"T-There was this girl" She said "A-And at first, s-she didn't want to hurt me…But then…she became this m-monster" She was describing now "It wasn't human, or vampire, or anything. It was j-just so…terrifying" Jenna said and started crying a little "She wanted to kill me! And before she was t-this monster, she looked like the girl Cassandra was talking a-about"
"It's okay Jenna" I sighed and hugged her tighter "We know. We're gonna get rid of whatever this vampire is"
"She isn't a vampire!" Jenna yelled "She's…older than a vampire. I know that sounds weird, but she is" Jenna sighed
"…Older than a vampire?" Jeremy asked "Isn't that kinda impossible, I mean, vampires have been around since-"
"1462" Anna said "That's when the first vampire was made"
"How do you know that?" Jeremy asked
"When you live forever, you catch up on a lot of reading…and traveling" Anna sighed
"So what, are we dealing with like the first vampire ever made or something? Or apparently older than that" Jeremy said
"No…not older. The older vampires, back in the 1400s when they were first made, they were really powerful, they could shape shift, control different elements, it was crazy" Anna said "Over the years, we kinda lost interest in learning stuff like that, I mean, we could, but…we just don't. But most of the vampires from back when they were first made…their dead"
"Wait, most?" I asked
"Sure, a few are still alive, but I doubt they would come here." Anna said "They mostly live in Transylvania"
"…Isn't that where…you know, Dracula is and stuff?" Jeremy asked
"Oh yeah, he's one of the few still alive, you can't really kill him" Anna said
"Dracula is real?" Jeremy asked
"Yes, but this isn't Dracula we're dealing with Jeremy" Anna laughed "But maybe someone just as old as him, possibly a little younger"
"Great, just what Mystic Falls needs" I sighed
"There's no way to tell for sure until we see what she's really capable of" Anna said "Could just be a vampire with way too much time on her hands" Anna said hopefully
"All vampires have way too much time on their hands" Damon sighed
"True" Anna said
"Let's just get Jenna calmed down and we'll talk more about this later" I sighed and helped Jenna out of bed and led her downstairs
The last thing she really needed to hear was that the vampire terrorizing her in her dreams was as old as Dracula…and that apparently Dracula is real. I got her down stairs, made her hot chocolate, and sat down with her on the couch and tried to distract her mind by making her watch a movie.
Damon's POV
I went downstairs to Jenna and Elena and helped Elena calm down Jenna a little more. She was really shaken and I was guessing whatever this thing was, it was getting stronger from feeding, or feeding off of people's fear. I didn't want to mention what I thought about that right now to Elena with Jenna still as scared as a deer in the headlights. I wanted to tell Elena everything about why I was being such an idiot, like how I told Anna, but it seemed like every time I wanted to tell her something, the world decides to go to hell. And now not only did that dream have me freaked out, but when I attacked Anna…I didn't feel like myself, like something was making me do it, like something wanted me to attack Anna…
Suddenly, there were screams in the house again and that nearly caused Jenna to fly through the roof.
"It's okay Jenna" Elena said, trying to calm her down
I got up and took off toward Jeremy's room where the scream was coming from. I walked in there and found Jeremy pinning Anna up against a wall by her throat like how I did earlier. Elena came running in behind me with Jenna, and she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Jeremy!" Elena yelled
Jeremy turned toward us and his eyes were bright blood red, not his normal brown eyes. He looked at us like he wanted to kill us all, but focused back on Anna. I tried to move closer to him to rip him off of Anna, but he was ready to pounce on all of us in the blink of an eye and kill us all.
A/N: Thoughts?
First, there is a reason behind Damon's madness, you'll see :]
And what do you think of this new vampire that Stefan has an interest in?
And then of course the crazy dreams everyone is having?
Jeremy and Anna: I could never keep them apart, I just thought I should let everyone know this :] Just as I could never keep Damon and Elena apart.
Damon and Elena: Again, could never be kept apart [Team Delena! :P] but, it will get worse for them before it gets better again, after all, marrying a vampire can never be simple, right? ;]
Oh, and I love you all, and I love reading your reviews :] xoxo Avril