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Chapter 5

You're Undead to Me

"How's she doing?" Bonnie asks us I let her into the house.

I take a second to think about the question, "She's Caroline, in complete denial. No way in the world she's going to talk to me about it, so honestly I don't know," I admit. Over the past three days Caroline had just been contented to shut me out completely, in fact I was being completely stupid for even worrying about her.

Bonnie sighs peering at Caroline's door, "I'll talk to her, but somehow I don't think she wants to talk to anyone."

Bonnie starts to make her way to Caroline's door before I stop her with a single word, "Wait," Bonnie turns to face me again. There were lots of things that I wanted to ask her about Damon and about the witch thing, but I couldn't it didn't seem right. I didn't really need Bonnie to think I was hung up on this stuff.

"Nothing," I say shaking my head and moving back into the kitchen. Stuffing my books into my bag I tried to negotiate through my own thoughts, there was so much stuff I couldn't understand and at the heart of it all was Damon. Damon who had conveniently disappeared, at least that's what I hoped.

"Your sister scares me," Daniel comments as we navigate our way through the school halls. I look up ahead to where Caroline is organizing a group of her friends for some car wash and roll my eyes. "I mean didn't she just go through some guy drama and now's she doing this," Daniel adds in confusion.

I laugh, "Well shes not exactly human," I whisper.

"When do you think her people will return for her?" Daniel says whispering as well. I burst into laughter just as we past Caroline I couldn't help myself.

"Elouise," Caroline calls, making dread instantly fill up in my body.

"Yeah," I say stopping as she comes up to me.

"I'll see you," Daniel says quickly, anything to get away from my sister who didn't exactly have a track record of being particularly friendly to him.

"I need you to volunteer at the car wash," she orders me.

I stare at her; surely I had heard her wrong, "Pardon?"

Caroline sighs, "You heard me."

"Yeah but its for cheerleaders, people not like me," I argue, wondering where this even came from.

Caroline glares at me her aggravation building, "Seriously I need more volunteers okay and as much as you'd like to deny it you can pull off a bikini."

I look at her in shock, "Was that a compliment?" I question grinning.

Caroline smacks my arm, "No," she says firmly.

I raise an eyebrow at her, before everything clicks. "Your welcome," I tell her before walking over to where Elena and Stefan stand. I had figured out that by letting me into Caroline's popular circle was to her a thank you. Even if to me it meant work and social interaction I didn't exactly want.

"Have you sorted out Damon?" I question Stefan angrily as I stand before him.

Stefan looks surprised at my tone, "Yes," he says simply.

"Yes, that's it. What does sorting out Damon even mean?" I continue to question wanting to make sure Damon was long gone. Stefan opens his mouth to respond but shuts it again,

"Stefan where is Damon? He has some serious apologizing to do," Caroline claims as I turn to face her.

"He's gone, Caroline," Stefan tells her.

"Well, when's he coming back?" she questions.

"He's not coming back. I'm sorry," Stefan replies. I bite my lip from stopping myself from saying that it was nothing to be sorry for. Caroline I knew wouldn't appreciate it at all.

"This is a good thing, Caroline," Elena reminds her gently.

"I know that," Caroline agrees but her face betrays an entirely different story.

"Who are you talking to?" I ask Caroline as I stroll into her room.

"No Tiki don't do the one-piece," Caroline orders whoever she's talking to before pointing to something on her bed. I groan when I see the black bikini on the bed, I was still trying to figure out a way to get out of this.

"Don't even think about," Caroline hisses at me as if she can read my thoughts.

I sigh before reaching out to grab it from her bed but something stops me a voice, "Elouise," it calls softly and it sounds just like Damon. I look up to find a crow seated perfectly on Caroline's window sill. "You," I growl, this thing had caused an unnecessary fear of crows. I grab one of Caroline's pillows, "Just go away, you stupid thing," I shout throwing the pillow across the room.

"Elouise what is your problem?" Caroline questions picking up her pillow and looking over it for any marks.

"I don't like crows," I attempt to explain, knowing Caroline would never understand.

"Yeah well I don't like people throwing my things around the room," Caroline snaps in annoyance.

"I'm sorry," I say picking up the bikini and making my way out.

"Hey you can to this thing?" Elena says to me cheerfully. I stare at her, holding my hoodie closer to myself there was no way I was going to wear a bikini in front of all these people.

"Caroline made me," I explain.

Elena looks surprised, "Don't ask," I add quickly before she can say anything.

Elena laughs just as Stefan comes over to join us, "Hey you two," he greets us.

"Hey," I greet him, unsure how I felt about him with the whole Damon thing.

"This event is called sexy suds," Caroline tells us, looking over all of our attire.

I shake my head there was no way I was stripping down, "Have you seen Bonnie?" I ask Elena. I wanted to ask her about the voice and the crow because I couldn't seem to get it out of my head.

"Yeah she was just over there last time I saw her," Elena says nodding her head upwards.

"Okay, see you later," I say to both of them, making my way over to where I spotted Bonnie. "Hey Bonnie can talk to you for a second?" I ask her. Bonnie looks around to see if there's any cars before nodding,

"Sure what's up?" "The crow thing, I just I saw it again the crow and I know its going to sound crazy but I heard Damon's voice calling me," I admit except when I said it, I realized just how crazy I sounded. "Okay I'm crazy," I say before Bonnie can get a word in.

Bonnie frowns, "Maybe not crazy," she mutters before looking up at me, "Elouise promise me if you hear that voice again fight it," she tells me.

I stare at her worry coming up, "What, why? What is it?" I question her confused.

"I don't know, I don't understand what's happening, all I know is its not good," Bonnie informs me, "I have to go," she says shaking her head and walking away from me.

I gaze at the spot she was feeling hopeless, "I don't understand what's happening," I mutter to myself.

"Elouise," a voice called again so quiet I thought I'd imagined it. I spun around, "Help me, you have to," it says.

I look around searching for any sign of the crow and frown when I see it in the tree, "Lets get this very clear I'm not helping you, so leave me alone," I tell it, hoping that nobody caught me talking to myself.

"Hey are you alright?" Elena calls to me from the money table. I walk over to her, in truth I was shaken. When it happened once I could pass it off as nothing, twice was a different story.

"Fine why?" I lie to Elena, I didn't need her to think I was crazy.

"You look scared," Elena admits before turning away from me to face a customer, "That'll be $20. I saw you last night. You were talking to a friend of mine at the Grill," Elena says to the old man, causing me to frown.

"Well I- I thought it was somebody I knew," he stutters.

"Stefan Salvatore," Elena guesses.

The man shakes his head, "Nah it can't be its just my mine playing tricks."

"Where did you think you'd seen him before?" Elena questions, causing me to wonder where she was going with this.

"When I first moved here I stayed at the Salvatore boarding house," he explains, "Stefan was just passing through to visit his uncle. I mean none of us knew he was even here until the attack."

"The attack?" I repeat confused, none of this made any sense.

"His uncle got killed mauled by an animal in the woods," he tells us.

"His uncle, Zach?" Elena asks sounding as confused as I feel.

"Joseph," he corrects us.

Elena shakes her head, "I'm sorry I don't think I'm familiar with the story," she admits.

"Well how could you? I mean this happened years ago," he says to us.

"Grandpa you got to go. Mom wants you home okay," Tiki says coming up to help the old man. "He wasn't bugging you, was he? He's a little alzy-heimer," Tiki tells us.

"No he was sweet, give me a second," Elena says to me running back up to the old man. I take the time to try and process what's going on another Stefan didn't exactly make sense, and another animal attack. On top of what had already happened today it was all turning into too much.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Elena asks me as I mindlessly scrub a car.

I turn to her with hope in my eyes, "Yes, please save me," I beg her.

Elena laughs, "Okay come with me," she tells me.

"So are you seriously alright?" Elena questions me as we make our way to the other side of the car wash.

I consider the question for a couple of seconds wondering whether or not to tell her the truth, "No, I'm really not. Call me crazy but I'm hearing Damon's voice," I admit.

Elena looks at me, "Hearing Damon?" she questions.

"Yeah I'm crazy," I say to her, wishing I hadn't brought it up at all.

"Maybe not," she muses to herself as we approach her Aunt Jenna and the news guys.

"Hi Elena right, I think I meet you once when you were 9," Logan greets her as we approach.

"Your emotional maturity level when we were together," Jenna comments causing me to laugh.

"And Elouise right, the Sheriff's daughter," Logan says to me. I nod, confirming his guess.

"Is he enough in your good graces for me and Elouise to ask a favor from him?" Elena questions Jenna, causing me to wonder what the favor was and why I was here.

"If I do them a favor, will I get back in your good graces?" Logan asks Jenna.

"A reluctant maybe to both," Jenna tells us.

"Done," Logan agrees smiling, "wait. One condition dinner, tonight your house," he bargains.

"Fine, but your eating leftovers," she warns.

Logan grins, as if he's won some great prize and I guess he has, "What do you need girls?" he questions us.

"Do you have access to old news stories, say fifties?" Elena questions him, leaving me as confused as I was before.

Logan nods, "Yeah at the station, between the archives and the internet we pretty much have everything."

Elena smiles, "Great we have a report way past due, so it'd be a life saver," she lies to him, "yes it'd be amazing," I add, even if I still wasn't sure what was going on.

"Heading there now, let's go," Logan invites us.

"If anyone asks, you don't know where we went. We don't want Caroline to know we left," Elena orders Jenna.

She laughs, "My lips are sealed," she promises.

"So why are we really here?" I question Elena as Logan leaves, swinging around on the chair.

"I have a feeling," Elena tells me beginning to type.

I shake my head, "Let me rephrase the question, why am I here?" Elena turns to face me, her face expressing concern something I both didn't expect and wasn't sure how to process. "Would you believe I'm worried?" Elena asks me sincerely.

"Yes, I just don't get why. I mean why are you always so nice to me?" I question, revealing the one question I had always wanted to know the answer to.

Elena frowns searching for an answer, "I don't know, I guess I just thought sometimes you look like you could use a friendly face. Plus even though you try so hard to not be noticed, I know in reality you wish you were. And I guess with this Stefan and Damon thing, well it affects you too," she admits.

I stare at her unsure what to say, nobody had quite got me like that and most didn't care, "Thanks, so let me guess we're looking up the Salvatore incident that the old man talked about," I guess recalling the experience.

Elena smiles, "You got it," she says, pressing the enter as the search result comes up. It brought up a video of an animal attack but when the zoomed in on the nephew,

"Is that?" I question unable to believe my eyes.

"Stefan," Elena breathes in disbelief.

I push my chair back trying to breathe that couldn't be him it was impossible, "Its just genetics, they're related that's why he looks like him," I seek to explain.

Elena looks at my shock repeated in her eyes, "Elouise, that was him," she argues, saying the truth I was trying so hard to deny. Elena shakes her head beginning to pace, "I need to go home," she says to me.

I got it she had to process but that left me with a bad pit in my stomach, "I should go to," I agree.

"Do you know what's wrong with Caroline?" mum asks me as soon as I step foot in the door.

I close my eyes trying to focus, "I don't know, we don't exactly talk," I tell her, dropping my bag on the floor.

"I'm worried about her," mum admits.

"Of course you are but she's Caroline she'll live," I argue, making my way into the kitchen. I can feel mum follow me but its Caroline who gets to me first, "You left early," she accuses me.

I shrug, "I was over it and I was helping Elena with something," I tell her.

Caroline frowns instantly, "What is with you? I mean seriously I invite you to this thing so you'd make some other friends and stop trying to steal mine," she snaps at me.

I glare at her, how could she even think that's what I was doing. "What's wrong with me, what's wrong with you?" I hiss in annoyance.

Caroline rolls her eyes, "Really like it wasn't your goal this year, because that's all you've being doing," she accuses.

"That's not true, why are you so insecure?" I shout at her.

"Why are you even here?" she yells back.

"Girls," mum screams stepping in between us, "that is enough to your rooms now," she orders us.

"Happily," I growl, slamming my door as I enter. Jumping on to my bed I attempt to process my jumbled up thoughts. What we saw at the news station couldn't be possible, yet I was a writer and to be honest I thrived on the impossible. Animal attacks in this town had been quite often prevalent in this town, quite specifically the cause of death being drained of blood. Add to that Bonnie's vision, everything that had been happening in town since Stefan and Damon's arrival, I frown it couldn't be possible. Yet what if it was, that would be both amazing and completely terrifying at the same time.

Quickly I grab my phone, "Do you believe in vampires?" I ask Daniel as soon as he picks up.

"What why, no," Daniel stutters in confusion.

"I think I do," I confess.