Chapter Sixty-Five: Wake Me Up

Feeling my way through the darkness, guided by a beating heart
I can't tell where the journey will end but I know where to start
They tell me I'm too young to understand
They say I'm caught up in a dream
Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes, well that's fine by me
So wake me up when it's all over, when I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost
~Avicii

He turned over with a groan. Slowly he could feel the vervain drain out of his system. The only aching burn left was inside his throat, he was thirsty. The sunlight, now blazing in the room, stung his eyes as he forced himself to stand up. Then he heard his name being called. "Damon?"

He turned towards the doorway to finds Stefan standing there, his eyes wide and questioning. Stefan stepped into the room slowly and started for the disoriented Damon, but then stopped. His foot hit something. He bent down and picked up the object on the floor.

Stefan's eyebrows pulled together as he stared at the empty glass syringe in his hand. Then he looked at his brother. "Damon, where's Nilly?" he asked urgently. Damon looked around, a hand going to his forehead. He let out a startling roar of anger, grabbing the closest thing in arms length and sending it hurling to the other side of the room.

"No, no, no!" he shouted. Stefan flashed over to him and gripped his brother's shoulder, the other hand still around the dart. He shook him hard, forcing Damon to look at him.

"Damon, where is she?" he asked again.

He looked at Stefan, his eyes seething and defeated. "Gone," he answered.

Something wasn't right, Nilin couldn't see anything. The room was pitch-black. Slowly she rolled on to her side, sliding her hand over the bed and on to the nightstand next to it. It was empty, nothing sat on top of it. Not a lamp, not an alarm clock, nothing. She felt her heart begin to pound in her chest as she sat up groggily. Where was she?

Nilly slid her legs off the bed, placing her feet on the cold ground carefully. She made her way across the room, one foot in front of the other. Hands out in front of her, she skimmed the wall for a light switch or door knob. Her knee slammed into something, a wooden table, and Nilly cursed under her breath.

Still cautiously feeling along the wall, she hit something metallic and round, a door knob. A breath of relief blew out of her mouth. She tested it, turning the knob slowly. Shock ran through her when it clicked open. Praying for it not to make a sound, Nilly inched the door open. She popped her head out and looked down the hallway. She didn't recognize this place at all.

It looked like an old cabin that out-of-towners stay in during the summer. The hallway was lined with wooden panels and a long red rug. Photos of sail boats and pressed flowers hung on the walls. With a deep breath Nilly closed the door, everything went dark again.

With her hand still on the door knob and her head leaning against the wood, she stood there in the pitch black, forcing even breaths out of her mouth. She didn't need to know where she was to know that she was in trouble.

Nilin had made the next move before anyone else could. She had came down to the finally decision. No going back. Accept, Process, Move on. Everything she knew was behind her. Her friends, her family, her life, gone. She had signed her name and now she didn't know where she was or what was going to happened to her. One thing she did know though, Christian was somewhere in shooting distance.

The moment she took a step out of the boarding house, he was already waiting for her. And that was the last thing she could remember. Taking a hand off the door, Nilin felt her wrist. To her relief, she could feel the silver chain around it. Kneeling slowly in the dark, she rolled her jean leg up to make sure the stake she had slipped into her boot was still there. It was a god sent that it was. Carefully she removed it from her sock and tucked it into her back pocket.

Then, once more, she creaked the door open. This time Nilin stepped into the hallway and out of the dark room. She closed the door behind her silently. Her footsteps were muffled by the worn rug as she made her way down the stairs. The first floor looked much like the second with wooden walls, carpeted floors and sparse furniture. The furniture that was actually in the room was draped in white cloth.

As stealthy as humanly possible, Nilly made her way across the room. She went to the big wooden door and with some delusional hope, tried to open it. It didn't budge of course. He must have it locked from the outside or something, like a prison cell. Despite Nilin's best effort, panic slowly began to drip into her.

As she stood there, staring at the lock hoping that her mind would work, behind her she heard the slight creak of old wood floors.

"Nilllllin," a voice called for her suddenly. Ice slid down her back and her fingers dug themselves into her palms. "Where'd you run off too?" Christian's voice echoed through the cabin. Nilly swallowed hard. Hide, hide, hide! Her brain screamed at her. But of course she never listened to that.

Instead she quickly made her way across the room to what looked to be the kitchen. It was just as barren as the rest of the house, and had that thin layer of dust that seemed to blanket everything. She backed up against one of the tiled walls, a hand gripping the stake behind her back, and waited. Nilin held her breath, straining to hear anything. Then a voice called out near her, he was getting closer. "Playing hide and seek with a vampire, not a genius idea." Christian informed her. She clamped a trembling hand over her mouth as she heard his footsteps coming in her direction.

"Normally, I would play along," he said. "But you caught me in a bad mood," he called to her. She was quiet, counting his footsteps. Then they stopped. "I'll give you one last chance, though. Crawl out of your pathetic hiding spot now before I drag you out," he said, the last word ending in a snarl.

Everything went silent. Her fingers burned with the grip she had on the stake. Suddenly, Christian was standing in front of her with a sick smile in on his face. "I win," he said, his hand snagged her hair and yanked her down. In the same instance Nilin brought the stake from behind her back and attempted to ram it into his stomach. But tears blurred her vision and pain slowed her reflexes. Christian had ripped it out of her hand and was now towering over her.

"I expected more from you," he growled. Nilin let out a startled screamed he leaned down and wrapped a hand around her ankle. Nilly kicked her legs, hoping she'd land a blow. He sent her flying across the room. Her body slammed into the wall. She scrambled on to her feet as fast as she could but Christian was faster. Before she knew it, there was a hand snaked around her throat, pinning her to the wall. Her fingers clutched his hand, trying to pry him off.

"I told you I always get what I want," Christian purred, his hand squeezing tighter. Nilly let out a startled gasp for air. She continued to struggle relentlessly. Using all her power, she sent her knee right into his groin. It wasn't enough though. His grip loosened for a second, allowing Nilin to take in a breath of air but then he recovered.

Christian pulled her closer and then slammed her back into the wall. An old wooden clock on the wall above her came crashing to the ground because of the force she was hit with. "When are you going to learn how to behave?"

"Screw you," Nilly cursed and Christian just laughed. His hand disappeared from her neck suddenly, causing Nilly to slide down the wall. She took a deep inhale of air. Her eyes never left his back as he walked over to the window, staring out the glass panes.

"I knew eventually you would see it my way Nilin," he said with his back to her still. "I mean how many more of your loved ones did I have to hurt to get my point across. It was all getting very repetitive, I was about to kill one of them again," he told her casually.

She could feel her heart clench up in her chest. "What do you mean by again?" she asked him. From the corner of her eye she noticed the smashed clock next to her. She sent her hand out searching for one of the splintered pieces. But before she could get a hold of anything long enough to be efficient, Christian turned around. Nilin shot her hand behind her back again.

"Yes, again," he grinned. Then he began laughing. "Oh, come on now. You honestly believed Daddy Dearest just had a simple heart attack? I mean, I knew you were dumb, but I thought you'd at least catch on to this one," he slithered over to her and crouched down to her. "I had to draw you out of hiding somehow," he further explained.

Nilin couldn't help her watering eyes or the stricken look that came over her features. "You killed him? You killed my father?"

"I did. Effortlessly, I might add," he grinned as he stood back up. "It's simple when you have a witch working for you. Their spells are pretty nifty. A simple incantation and your father's heart stopped, just like that."

She couldn't breathe, there was something in her throat. With all the strength in her being, Nilin tried to fight back the tears. Christian had planned to hurt her family from the beginning. He started with her father. Her poor father, who everyone assumed had drank himself to death. But he didn't, he was murdered. He was murdered by Christian. The tears quickly dispersed as anger took their place. She finally understood the saying seeing red.

"Why would you kill him? I would have gone with you, I would have never let you hurt him," Nilly shouted. Christian laughed again, turning his back to her once more. This time Nilin didn't waste anytime. She slid her hand across the tiles, searching for anything. Her hand enclosed around something and she retracted it behind her back.

"You made me angry," he told her, facing her again. He took a step in her direction. "I need to teach you a lesson, but to do that I needed to find you first."

"You're a monster," she bit out. Her jaw was clamped tight and her body shook with tension.

Suddenly he was right in front of her again, peering down. Nilly shrunk closer to the wall as his boot prodded her leg. "Stand up," he ordered. Nilly kept her eyes down, her head turned away from him. She didn't move a muscle. "I said stand up!" he roared again. Still Nilin didn't move, he began to reach for her. "You little piece of…"

Her hand shot out and jammed the sharp piece of clock into his knee, shoving it right under the knee cap. He staggered back, yelling curses and her name as she rocketed out of the room. She sprinted for the stairs. There was no use in trying to escape again. He would have all his bases covered.

As her foot hit the top step she was violently ripped backwards by her hair. The stinging pain in her scalp was quickly over come by the pain of tumbling backwards down the stairs. She hit the landing on her back, groaning in pain. The darkness began to enclose around her as a throbbing hot pain spread through the back of her skull. Nilin struggled to move as his dark figure came to tower over her. The it all went black again.

"We're wasting time," Magnolia said, slamming her hands down. They were all standing around a table in the middle of the room. They had set it up on the second floor of the book store a few days ago. It was littered with maps of Mystic Falls and the surrounding areas. Now it was the center of their attention. "For the last hour and a half all we've been doing is yelling and pointing fingers. This isn't going to help us save her." Magnolia explained. She captured each pair of eyes; soft hazel, crisp green, crystal blue and burning black.

"The problem is we don't have anywhere else to look." Stefan said, his arms still around a red eyed Elena who clutched to him hopelessly. "We've scoured this entire town over and over again, and we've come up with nothing." He paused for a moment, looking down at Elena, then back at Magnolia. "That's saying that if she's even in town still."

"She is," Damon and Shellie said simultaneously. Heads turned towards them. Damon had been standing by the window overlooking the street and Shellie had been cross legged on the couch, her eyes zoning out and refocusing constantly. Neither had said more than a few words nor moved a muscle since they all met there. Now both had a stern look on their faces.

Damon turned back to the window, falling into to silence again as Shellie stood up. She came over to the table, her face looking drawn. "I saw something, a flash, but something. It was of the future I'm sure of it and it didn't make a lot of sense."

Now everybody's attention was on Shellie, even Damon walked over to stand a few feet behind her. "Well, are you going to share with the rest of the class?" he asked humorlessly.

"I saw wings," Shellie revealed quietly. The room went silent for a moment, then the questions erupted from the rest of them.

"Wings? What do you mean wings?" Elena asked, stepping away from Stefan.

"What? Do you mean like a bird?" Damon laughed dryly. "That's helpful."

"Was there anything else in the vision? Anything at all?" Stefan questioned. The murmur of voices grew louder as they began questioning each others questions. Shellie's eyes widened at the onslaught. She tried to stutter out responses.

Then a keen whistle pierced every ones ears and they all turned to Magnolia. "Calm down a little, people. It's like World War III in my head," she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Shellie, could you elaborate for us?" she asked, looking over at her cousin.

Shellie nodded. "I've been trying for hours to get something, anything that has to do with Nilly but it's like she's this black hole. I can see everything around her, but not her or Christian directly."

"But you did see something, right?" Elena asked.

Again Shellie's head nodded. "Yeah, wings," she answered. "It was just a quick flash of wings and nothing else. I don't know what it means or where it came from, but it had to do with Nilly."

"And how do you know that?" Damon asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I just do, it's the same reason I know she's somewhere in Mystic Falls." Shellie said, facing him.

"How come you can't see her?" Elena asked, breaking the silence. "What does that mean?" She looked between Mags and Shellie.

"My best guess," Shellie said, sitting down on the couch, "he has a witch blocking us or creating some kind of magic protected bubble for him."

"Well lucky for us we have a witch on our side too," Damon commented as he leaned on the wall.

"Yeah, but that might take hours." Magnolia said walking over to him. "By the time Bonnie would be able to crack the spell and reverse what ever magic is preventing us from connecting with Nilly it might already be to late," she explained. "And that's saying that she could even decode it in the first place."

"Well what else do you have in mind, because we might as well be sitting around and twiddling our thumbs for all the good its doing?" Damon shot back. Magnolia eyed him as the waves of emotion rolled off of him and hit her.

"Head, exploding," she said tensely. She sighed with the almost instant relief that came as he regained control. "There is one thing we can try." She turned to Shellie, "We can try to strength the little connection we already have."

Shellie sat up on the couch, her eyes widening. "That might work," she smiled.

"Does someone want to explain to us what the hell you're talking about?" Damon asked. Magnolia turned to him slowly.

"We're still connected, us and Nilly," she began. "Shellie's flash of a vision proved it. So if we can take that and make it stronger Shellie might be able to break though."

"And how do we do that?" Elena asked.

"Well, we need to use a base. Something or someone who is anchored to Nilly," Magnolia explained.

"What about me? Could you use me?" Elena asked eagerly. "I mean, she is my twin after all."

"Yeah, if she's good for a kindey transplant she should be good for this," Damon commented, raising his eyebrows. Magnolia turned to Shellie, feeling the lift of Elena's hope running through her. She looked at her cousin for an answer, but Shellie shook her head.

"I've been using you Elena," Shellie said. "You're the reason we got that snippet of vision. It's not strong enough," she turned back to Magnolia. Magnolia's hand went to her forehead as she closed her eyes and tried to think. The room went silent again, but then it came to her.

"Embody her," she said, dropping her hand from her eyes. Shellie locked eyes with her and nodded.

"That could work," she agreed slowly. Shellie stood up from the couch and walked back over to the table. Someone cleared their throat, breaking the two girls' gaze.

"What are you talking about?" Damon asked, glaring a little. Magnolia sighed and looked at the stone cold vampire, giving him her own glare.

"It's a technique Servitors use to link with their chargers, it's difficult to get right but it can work." Magnolia explained. Damon's scowl seemed to waver a little as the new plan bloomed.

"Well how does it work?" Stefan asked. Shellie pulled her hair back in a high pony tail and rubbed her eyes before she explained.

"I have to open myself up, basically. I can do that by bonding with her mind but first I need to put myself in her shoes, literally," she said.

"How do you do that?" Elena asked, coming over and taking Shellie's place on the couch. Mags went over to sit next to her. She was quickly joined by the large Lee-Roy who all but sat on her lap, whining slightly.

"Well, who was the last person to see her?" Shellie asked, looking around the room. It went silent as eyes went to Damon who was still leaning on the wall. Shellie walked over to him cautiously, keeping a little distance as she felt the tension suffocate the room.

She held her hand out to him, palm up. After a moment of Damon's cold eyes staring at her, he uncrossed his arms and placed his hand on top of hers, barely touching. Shellie closed her eyes, drawing her power out and searching for anything. She felt the beginning of pressure start to build behind her eyes.

Still she saw darkness behind her eyelids but then she realized that it wasn't her eyes seeing it. Shellie let out a surprised gasp as she felt the link connect. But just as it happened, the vision snapped back and ended. A frustrated growl escaped Shellie's mouth as her eyes opened and she saw the blackness of Damon's analyzing her. She realized she was squeezing his hand tightly and quickly dropped it.

"I was so close, I almost got it this time," she explained, throwing her arms up.

"Well don't stop now, try again." Damon urged with a new tone to his voice, offering his hand again. Shellie rubbed her eyes again, grasping for anything. There had to be another way.

"Okay, I can try something else," she nodded. "What was she doing the last time you saw her?" she asked Damon. A smirk spread across his face and Shellie's eyes widen in comprehension. "Oh, um," she swallowed hard. Her cheeks grew red.

"Will it help?" Damon asked, stepping closer to her. Shellie's eyes darted around the room.

"Uh, I think so. I mean, yeah it should," she answered. She looked behind her to where the other three sat. Magnolia shrugged at her as she tried to hide her grin. Elena's and Stefan's eyes were locked on the scene in front of them. Elena's eyes as blue as Nilly's and wide with hope. She turned back to Damon. "It can help strengthen the connection, yes."

Damon's smirked grew before he quickly leaned in and kissed Shellie. Her eyes snapped closed immediately. She gasped against his lips as she finally felt the explosion of pressure between her eyes and the vision unfolded in front of her.

Author's Note:

Hello my lovely readers. Happy almost New Year! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I love love love not having classes. It's the best. So that is why this chapter is so long, it a little end of the year present! Tell me if you guys like it. Some serious intense stuff happened. I'd love to read your reviews. So please do leave them. See you all next week!

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