Chapter Sixty-Six: Victim
House full of roses, a letter on the stairs, a tape full of messages for anyone who cares
Collage of broken words and stories full of tears, remembering your life 'cause we wish you were here
Nothing is harder than to wake up all alone. Realize it's not okay, it's the end of all you know
Time keeps passing by but it seems I'm frozen still
Scars are left behind but some too deep to feel
And some say this can't be real and I've lost my power to feel tonight
We're all just victims of a crime when all's gone and can't be regained
We can't seem to shelter the pain inside. We're all just victims of a crime
~Victim
*TRIGGER WARNING: T rated violence ahead. Enjoy.
The stiff soreness that radiated throughout her body was accompanied by the splitting pain in her head. Slowly she opened her eyes, forcing them to stay open as the world seemed to spin around her. With all her strength she pulled herself up on her elbows and looked around.
Nilly was sprawled out on the bed she had woken on before. Only difference now was that a lamp in the far corner was on, casting its dull light around the room. She sat up farther and felt the back of her head. It was wet, her hair matted to the back of her neck. When she pulled her hand away she saw that her fingers were smeared with blood. The mattress under her was stained red as well.
Fighting a groan and the flipping nausea in her stomach, Nilly placed her feet on the ground. What now? Should she find another weapon? Or was that as pointless as her last attempt?
Just as her eyes began to search the room for something she heard a steal cold voice. "Well, look who's finally awake." Nilly suppressed a shiver as she slowly angled her body to face the door. There Christian stood, his metallic eyes glaring at her. Uncrossing his arms, he stepped out of the doorway and slithered to the foot of the bed. "That little stunt you pulled wasn't very nice," he informed her. "I had a hell of a time pulling it out."
He walked over to the other side of the bed, right in front of Nilin. His jeans touched her knees as he towered over her once more. "You're pretty powerful for one of them," he said as her chin was painfully jerked up, forcing her to look at him. "I didn't think you'd last this long."
"I'm offended. You've underestimated me," Nilin said, her eyes sharpening. She surprised herself by the solid tone in her voice. With an inner smirk she realized how much she sounded like Damon. He'd be proud.
"Clearly," he agreed, forcing Nilly's attention back on him. She felt the hand that wasn't anchoring her chin crawl up the side of her arm. She drew back, trying to gain space but he had her dangerously trapped.
"Why me?" she asked, her voice softer than before.
He laughed as his fingers slid up her neck and began to tangle in her hair. "Why you?" he repeated, still chuckling to himself as is Nilly had made a joke. "Well, you were just too easy, Nilin," he began. "Quiet, innocent, naïve, broken, defenseless, just too easy," he laughed, gripping her hair now. "But you, you also had something special. I have to admit I've admired you the most."
"How many?" Nilly asked, trying to ignore is prying fingers. "How many girls before me?" The room seemed to ring with his laughter now as Nilin kept her eyes locked on him.
"Too many, my dear. I'm a very very old vampire," his eyes twinkled. "But I'll have to say, I'm going to enjoy you the most. Maybe I'll keep you around a little longer than the others."
Nilly felt the acid rise in her throat as her stomach lurched. She couldn't hide the look of disgust that crossed her face. Christian just seemed to enjoy it. He leaned in closer to her, she felt like she was suffocating. His lips slammed in to hers and before she knew it she was under him. He pressed all his weight down on her as he kissed her. Nilly couldn't move, she was trapped between him and the mattress.
She felt his hand begin to inch up her shirt slowly. Nilly began to fight back. She turned her head away, her fingers scratched and clawed at him. Quickly he disabled her, pinning her hands above her head and wedging her legs between his. She felt the burn of tears sting her eyes as his mouth traced down her jaw and to her neck. Her head thrashed back and forth and he pulled away, grinning sadistically at her.
"I told you to behave," he said, ordering her.
With a new wave of anger and the strength that it brought with it, Nilly managed to rip one of her hands from his grasp and send it flying across his face. The force left her hand throbbing and Christian down right seething. A snarl ripped through his lips.
Suddenly Nilly was off the bed and thrown on to the floor. Before she could even process what was happening she was flying through the air again, over the bed and into a wooden amour on the other side of the room. A sickening cracking noise emanated from her side and it felt as if a rib had buried itself into her lung. Her breathing grew painful, the burning pain spread.
She was in the air again, this time though being carried roughly. Faster than any human, Christian lugged her through the house. He deposited her onto a cold concrete floor. Nilly rolled a few times because of the force he threw her down with, each time felt as if she was being stabbed over and over again.
She only had enough time to realize that she was in the cellar of the cabin before he closed in on her again. In one movement Christian was across the room and holding her up against the damp brick wall. His face had transformed. Eyes blood red, veins greatly predominate and fangs lethally barred. "The others before you begged for their lives at first, then they begged me to kill them. I bet you're a beggar, Nilly. Let's fine out, shall we?"
His head darted to Nilly's neck and the searing pain of her skin being ripped at coursed through her. She couldn't think of anything else then wanting the horrible pain to end. He drank forcefully, not slowing or showing signs of stopping. Nilly let out a blood curdling scream as he bit down into her again. She felt the wetness dripping down her chest, soaking into her shirt.
She screamed again and felt the new stinging pain on her cheek as he slapped her, sending the side of her head into the wall. Then it all stopped. She was pulled off the wall and forced to stumble forward. Her knees and hands hit the concrete hard. She stayed there stunned for a moment. Her arms felt like they were about to give out and her head was swirling.
Christian walked passed her, grabbing the back of her shirt and lifting her on to her feet. "You're lucky," he snarled. "We have a guest." His hand released her as he left the room. Nilly collected herself, trying to fix her tattered stained shirt and ripped jeans. Tenderly she touched her side where her ribs felt cracked. The slightest brush of her cotton shirt shortened her breath.
Then she moved her hands up. A hiss of pain escaped her lips as she probed her neck. She held her hands there to slow the bleeding.
Her self-examination was cut short when she heard the echo of voices coming into the room. Nilin stepped out of the concrete cellar, and through the heavy wooden door. That led her to a dark and damp corridor which led to the stairs. Nilly stumbled along and up the steps a little, trying to keep as quite as possible.
"I held up my end of the deal, now it's your turn." A woman's voice rang. Nilly tried to peek out of from the stairway to the cellar and through the kitchen doors.
"Yes, give me a little time to enjoy myself and then I'll uphold my part," Christian promised, his voice persuasive and calm. She heard the woman huff and Nilin cranked her neck to see around Christian, but he was blocking her view.
"Sugar, I don't work with vampires often so I expect to be satisfied with the outcome of our little agreement," the woman said. Immediately, Nilly knew the voice. Her memory was filled with road trips, tequila and honesty hour.
"Don't worry Bree. You'll get what you want," Christian promised, finally stepping to the side to reveal the Georgian witch. Nilly's jaw dropped along with her stomach. She stepped forward.
"Bree?" Nilin asked, walking across the tile of the kitchen and into the living room. The witch's brown eyes widen in shock as she took in the battered sight of Nilly. "I- I don't understand." Christian stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest and grinning. "I haven't seen you since Damon took me to Georgia. Right before…"
"I showed up to play," Christian finished her sentence, waving his hand with a sickening smile. "I'm good but not that good. I need a little help every now and again."
Bree looked uncomfortable, her eyes darted everywhere else but Nilly. Nilin kept her hand to the wound on her neck as she tried to comprehend all of this. "Why?" she asked hoarsely.
"He killed Lexi." Bree shrugged. "She was my best friend, Nilly. Damon killed her. For what? To get rid of the suspicion that he created. He needs to have a little taste of his own medicine. So if a little human blood has to be spilled," she shrugged again.
"But you're helping a vampire a hundred times worse than Damon. This isn't what Lexi would have wanted!" Nilin shouted. Then she realized something. "What did he promise you?" she asked, her heartbeat picking up. "Bree, what is his side of the deal."
"If I keep track of you and keep you hidden, he'd kill Damon." Bree said blatantly. Without a moments notice Nilly snapped and lunged forward at the witch.
"You bitch!" she screamed, but before she could reach Bree Christian had grabbed her. "Don't you dare touch him!" she screamed, turned to Christian. "You swore you wouldn't hurt him or my family if I went with you. You promised!" she banged her fist on his chest.
Her thrashing was ignored as he easily pushed her to the floor. Nilin looked up through her snarled hair at the stunned woman in the doorway. She looked between Christian and Nilly, her head snapping back and forth with her curls. "I'm sorry, Nilly," was all she said before she back tracked out of the cabin, leaving Nilly alone, and hopeless. She had just cursed out her last chance of anyone helping her.
"Where were we?" she heard Christian say as he crouched next to her. This time Nilin couldn'thold back the shiver that ran through her.
Shellie suddenly shot forward with a gasp. "What happened?!" she asked in delirious confusion. She looked around the room frantically. She had been lying on the larger couch in the book store. Stefan, Damon, Elena and Mags were all standing around her. Two of the four had irritating smirks on their faces.
"You passed out," Elena finally explained. Shellie stood up from the couch, quickly running fingers through her hair.
"I what?" she questioned.
"Wouldn't be the first time that's happened," Damon remarked. Magnolia smacked his shoulder, trying to hold back her laughter. Shellie's cheeks flared red and her eyes scorched them. Their budding friendship was starting to get on her nerves.
"I didn't faint because of that! It was because of the vision." Shellie defended. Then she realized what she just said. "I had a vision! I saw something!" she screeched in excitement, grabbing Elena's shoulders and shaking her.
"Of what,?" Elena asked with Shellie's onslaught. Shellie released Elena from her grasp and scurried over to the maps.
"I saw two places, two possible encounters and two outcomes," she spoke quickly. "But I never caught the actual end, only the details leading up to them. It was all a weird collage of images, which explained the whole passing out thing, but I think I managed to separate them."
"Well?" Damon asked, looking at her squarely as the others gather around the table.
"Here," Shellie pointed to a place on the large map of Mystic Falls. "This was the one place I'm sure I saw," she explained, tapping the paper.
"The cemetery?" Stefan asked, peering down at the map. "What did you see there?"
"Like I said, a blur of things." Shellie said. "Me, Magnolia and Bonnie walking through the headstones mostly," she clarified, trying to remember everything.
"You said you saw two places, what's the second?" Elena asked, bracing her hands on the table top.
"This is where things get tricky, this place I saw more often and in greater detail." Shellie answered, looking around sheepishly. "The only problem is I don't know where exactly it is."
"Wait, how could you—" Damon began to say. Shellie held up her hand.
"Let me finish, thank you," she told him. "I know the general area, it was somewhere here," she pointed, "in the Old Wood. It was an open meadow," she finished, scratching the back of her head.
"A meadow?" Damon asked, his eyes widening a little.
"Yeah, I know it's not a lot but—" Shellie went to defend but Damon interrupted her.
"No, no. I know what place you're talking about," he said and all eyes snapped to him. He stood, arms crossed over his chest and staring intently down at the maps.
"What do you mean you know this place, Damon?" Stefan asked.
"Well I don't know it, per say, but Nilin did," he barely explained before he lapsed back into silence.
"Can you further that explanation for us?" Magnolia asked, leaning against the wall and watching Damon carefully. He seemed to pull himself out of his thoughts.
"Her dreams, or nightmares really," he said. "They always seemed based around this meadow, I never understood it until now…" his voice trailed of again. Shellie looked to Magnolia.
"Could she have dreamt of her future?" she asked with complete cluelessness. Mags shook her head as she pushed off the wall and walked forward.
"Her future? No. Her fate? I'm not entirely sure," she said simply.
"What do you mean you're not entirely sure?" Damon asked, his voice sharpened with annoyance. Magnolia looked at him, cocking her head to the side.
"There's no handbook for this kind of stuff, vampire," she answered before she turned back to the table.
"Well, witch," Damon said slowly. "How do we figure this out then?" The corner of Magnolia's lip twitched up in a small smile. But then she quickly dropped when she realized she shouldn't be smiling. The emotions in this room were becoming so overpowering that she was loosing grip on which were hers and which were the others.
She rubbed her temples with her fingers. "We split up," she said simply. "Shellie saw herself, Bonnie and me at the cemetery so that's where we'll go. Since Damon knows this meadow, you three head there. Any objections?" she asked looking around. Stefan looked over to Elena, his eyes filled with worry and distress.
"Elena…" he started slowly. She shook her head forcefully, gripping his hand.
"You know I have to go," she said quietly. "I'll be fine." A look of defeat washed over Stefan as he nodded his head and pulled Elena into him. Magnolia looked over to Damon. He was staring out the window again and she knew he was far way. A sinking feeling came over her when she realized he might stay far away if they couldn't get Nilly back soon.
"I'll go call Bonnie," Shellie said, heading down the stairs with Lee-Roy flanking her.
Magnolia braced her hands on the table, staring down at it. Plans and schemes filled her head. "This has to work," she said to anyone listening. "We've covered all our opportunities. Which ever way this goes down we're going to find Nilly."
"And Christian," Damon said, his back still towards them. "Which means we'll need some weapons." Finally he turned to face the other three. "Any idea where Nilin would have gotten a vervain tranquilizing dart?" he asked, his eyebrows rose.
Elena lifted her head off of Stefan's chest. "Alaric Saltzman."
Damon nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "I think it's time we give the local vampire hunter a visit," he smirk. They all looked around at each other, and all seemingly were in a state of agreement for the first time this entire day.
Author's Notes:
Hello my lovely readers, and welcome to the New Year. Let's hope 2014 will be even better than 2013. Here's the first part to this chapter. Very seriously, mildly dark, not something I write too often. Let me know what you all think thought, okay?
I just want to say thank you and welcome to all the new followers I've gained in the past two weeks. Thanks for sticking with my story, I am so grateful. Keep up the good work guys, and see you next week.
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