Chapter 5 – R.I.P. Mr. Tanner
Next day I was determined to find out more. Starting with why was the town supernatural central besides the nexus being here, moving onto why was the one and only witch claiming the nexus for evil seriously weak ending with who's who in species.
Reading the founders journals the night before I had found out nothing. They said pretty much nothing to help me out and I had the distinct feeling they were 'touched up' after the facts as well. I thought about casting a spell to uncover their secrets but if there is one thing I learned from the Charmed ones, is that the longest way around is usually more fun.
So I put the books in my attic, put another layer of protection in the small room and stopped to grab coffee at the only place to eat or drink in this town before going to my morning classes. Main Street was full of police cars going up and down.
"Coffee please"
I told the tall dark skinned guy behind the counter and turned around to observe the scene. In one table sat the family I saved from the drowning, joined by a teenage boy and another woman in her mid twenties having breakfast together. Well, the mother was keeping the peace; the father was scolding the kids for getting drunk. In another table sat the blond girl and the witch from the history class I observed, the blond seemed to be drunk as well and upset. The witch was ignoring her as her attention was at a guy dressed in a suit reading his paper in the corner doing his best to remain out of sight.
"Here you go miss"
The waiter handed me a big enough coffee mug to swim in. I smiled pleasantly
"Thank you. What happened?"
I pointed to the sheriff going from one drunken teenager to the other looking more and more upset.
"There was a party in the woods last night and a high school girl was attacked. One of the waitresses at that. Both she and her brother work here, poor kids"
I tuned him out as we went on and on about how there is no father in the picture and the mother has gone off with a fling leaving the children to raise themselves. According to him, the girl, Vicki was a sophomore and she had it coming by flirting with everything male and he pitied the brother, a junior, for having to put up with her. She'd live though. I never cared much about gossip and I was always careful not to spread it but his tone had me gripping my swimming mug of coffee and struggling not to throw it at his eyes...
I almost chocked on my coffee seeing the other guy from the vision show up and order black coffee. I don't think he noticed me, luckily so I drank my coffee slowly people watching and making connections.
The brunette guy was eye flirting both Elena and Caroline. The witch averted her eyes and left the moment he stepped inside the establishment and so did the guy in the suit who looked happy. Elena flirted back smiling until her mother stood to leave and took her more than slightly drunk children with her. The caramel haired woman refilled her coffee and waved as they left. The father however walked to the sheriff and the two spoke for a while before he nodded and left as well. Liz left too taking her daughter with her and soon all teenagers were gone as the morning rush ended abruptly and... Oh crap it's time for school. Paying for my coffee I rushed out of the grill and almost ran over the caramel haired woman as she kicked her car angrily a few times.
"You okay?"
"Jones is gonna kill me if I'm late again"
"Greg Jones?"
"You have him too?"
She furrowed her brows
"Yeah and he's gonna kill me too. Want a ride?"
"Please?"
"Hop in"
The moment she closed her door we were off
"Jenna"
"Bella"
We talked friendly during the ride. She told me she's the baby sister of Mrs. Gilbert and that she was on her last semester at her PHD in Art History.
"I can't believe you're only 25. Do people get PhD's that young?"
I asked amazed and she laughed
"I had a bad breakup in high school and kind of ran away. I was never a grade A student but immersing myself in my studies helped dealing with it"
She shrugged. I nodded pulling to a slot and we both grabbed our crap and ran to the auditorium moments before class started.
After a long day of classes I returned to Mystic after making sure to move some classes around so that the days I'm observing don't overlap with my classes (like today) so I was free to keep the notes needed for this observing thing to work out.
Class was once again tedious (with more than half the students still intoxicated or with bad hangovers) as Tanner was harassing them far more than teaching them. It was obvious that he promoted the class to the students he had on his good side during football and demoted the rest.
Can't say it wasn't satisfying how he'd trap Edward too though. This is quite interesting considering Edward's mind reading cheat though. I filed that to ponder about it later on as the class was won over by Stefan (who showed up in a varsity jacket) and Jasper (who was quite clearly ignoring his wife and mate by sitting next to Rosalie).
'For people that split town and left me a cold message, they sure do an amazing job of not ignoring me now!'
I thought catching the pleasant looks on their faces and feeling nothing but joy from them. I returned it with an equally cool of my own and returned my attention to class.
I remained behind when the bell rang for lunch to tidy up some papers when I saw the watch Tanner wears forgotten on the table. I grabbed it, intending on finding where he is and hand it over but...
8
The back of someone's head
Fireballs
14
Blood on gravel
Mr. Tanner with blood oozing from a cut on his neck
22
The brunette guy with blood on his chin and red eyes
I gasped my vision returning. holding the watch tightly I ran out of the classroom and closing my eyes I tried to remember if I saw anything to help me figure out where the heck the attack would take place. Remembering Mr. Tanner was coaching I ran to the field but it was empty. Maybe the parking lot?
Making my way there I saw the numbers again. Science building was numbered '8'; the parking space on which Mr. Tanner was standing on was '22'.
"Mr. Tanner"
A voice shouted. I ducked behind a blue Prius and watched the scene unfold, feeling glad there was no one around. Emmett? Emmett and Mr. Tanner spoke for a while and in the end coach nodded and handed Emmett a whistle. Emmett left grinning madly and Mr. Tanner pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
"A coach that smokes. Highly original!"
I mumbled to myself. Suddenly a door opened and both Stefan and the brunette guy, Damon as Stefan called him, appeared. They were fighting. Mr. Tanner went to separate them telling Stefan he didn't permit fights. Stefan nodded while Damon mocked him for being a good little 'human'. A van entered the lot and parked on parking space number 22. The last two numbers were '14'.
"Hey"
I called out going to them. Muttering the excuse of the watch I asked tanner to walk me to my car as I made up that someone creepy was hanging around there. He agreed and with a glare he ordered Stefan to run 5 miles. Damon opened his mouth to make fun of Stefan when all three men fell to their knees screaming in pain.
Turning around I instinctively threw my hands up freezing everyone. On the other side of the lot stood Bonnie the teenage witch her face scrunched up also frozen but she got over it fast. Her hands created fire and she began throwing fireballs at me. I ducked to avoid one before I used one of my own to hit her. She screamed in pain and ran away.
"dammit"
Time began moving again. I was thrown down by Damon whose hands began to squeeze my throat. I kicked him and when that didn't even faze him I threw the still lit cigarette straight in his left eye telekinetically.
He growled, punched the ground and ran away. I sat up to see Stefan standing up as well, his mouth red with blood treaking from his lips to his chin. The lifeless body of Mr. Tanner by his feet. A pair of red fangs gleam in his mouth and his eyes reddened with large black pupils and lots of veins underneath them. He saw me and ran way too fast at me grabbing me from the neck
"You didn't see anything"
He growled looking at me straight in the eyes, his grip on my neck tightening. For the second time in my life I froze in fear and out of self preservation I nodded my agreement repeating the words. Pleased with that, he threw me on the ground and ran after the other guy. I began coughing before crawling to the fallen coach and checked for a pulse.
There was none. I stood up on shaking legs, grabbed my fallen bag and got to my car driving much too fast away.
"911 what's your emergency?"
"There is a dead man in the high school parking lot"
Driving home as quickly as possible I was now certain of three things. There are vampires in Mystic Falls, more traditional ones than the Cullens. All the local witches seem to be black and I lost my first innocent.
