Hello, my readers. We've got a lot of Delena in this chapter that is focused on Harper who appeared in S2 of TVD, he was one of the Tomb Vamps that escaped thanks to Anna freeing her mom. On with the show…

Chapter 28: New Year, Still Me

Fingers twitching. Heart pounding. Sweat making his clothes wet. Eyes flicking around the room. Harper knew they were there. They always were. Somewhere in his house. His parents thought his new medication—the one that Dr. Maxfield had prescribed—was helping. He had smiled, eaten, had not continued to scream in the middle of the night, and gone to school, without argument. In their eyes, it would be okay to go away for the weekend and give Harper his first taste of life on his own.

His parents had been well-intentioned when they packed their bags and walked out the door. Besides, his friends were coming. A little sleepover to pass the time. More like they were talked into playing babysitter. Harper didn't care. He just didn't want to be alone. Not when they were there, with him.

A knock sounded at his door and Harper jumped. His head rotated toward the sound; coming from the direction of the front door. He couldn't move. His muscles would not expand and contract. More sweat. He needed to take a shower. He couldn't take a shower because the shampoo would run down his face and burn his eyes which he couldn't close. If he closed his eyes, he couldn't see them and then it would be all over. Maybe it was better that way. If it were finally over. No more fear. His stomach turning, wobbling and squeezing.

Again, that knock. Harper felt his eyes fill with hot tears. He didn't want to be a coward. He wanted to be like everyone else. He wanted to have fun with his friends. To go out. To see a live ball game, without seeing them and screaming. Of being sedated. Or hospitalized. Of scaring his friends, and their friends, who thought he was a freak but were polite enough to not say it aloud.

"Harper!" a voice shouted from near the window. Harper suddenly jumped off the couch, falling on the floor and whimpering.

"Go away!" Harper cried, placing his hands over his ears and rocking back and forth. "Go away. Go AWAY!"

"Harper, it's us!" the voice yelled to him.

"Go away. Go away," Harper chanted, gritting his teeth together, feeling them smashing and grinding in his mouth.

Then the door opened, wide, like a giant's mouth, about to vomit up another kind of monster. "NOOOOooooo!" Harper screamed, moving to crawl to the stairs. If he could get to his room and lock the door; he might be safe.

"Harper. It's me!" Elena's voice sounded and then she knelt in front of him. She had dropped to her knees, looking deep into his eyes like a wolf. Like a Timberwolf. Harper wasn't sure that it was really Elena. It could be one of them. They could make themselves look like anything they wanted to.

"Man, Harper, what are you doin,' buddy? We brought popcorn and Groundhog Day. We know you love Bill Murray," Damon's voice sounded close by and Harper heard the sounds of plastic rustling but the Elena who could be a monster thing still knelt in front of him, staring into his eyes. He couldn't look away. If he did, and she wasn't Elena, she might attack him. His Elena, his friend, had attacked people, but not like the monsters who would rip him apart, blood and guts flying everywhere.

"Harper, when we were five, I got lost in the woods and you were brave and you helped me find my way home. You were so brave, Harp. You're always my hero. So let's go watch the movie. Please?" Elena slid her hand, slowly, toward his.

Harper felt the warmth of her hand, close around his and he closed his eyes, sighing in relief when the Elena, who was not a monster, pulled him into a tight embrace. "You're okay," she said. "You're fine. We're all fine."

They got up and Damon grinned at Harper. "My man, you want pop, coffee drinks or hot chocolate with the popcorn?" He asked, pulling out Pepsi, Starbucks coffee bottles and a box of hot chocolate mix.

"Hot chocolate's okay," Harper ran his hand up his arm. His friends were normal. Well, Damon was normal. Elena had never been a hundred percent normal, at least not to other people. But she was nice to him and that's all that mattered to Harper.

"It's just us?" Harper felt worried that they might have invited their other friends who didn't understand him. Caroline tried to be nice. She once tried to teach him a game but the monsters in it reminded him of the ones that only he could see and he had an episode and had to be sedated after attacking Klaus and Jackson with a baseball bat. He felt bad about that. He hadn't known it was really Klaus and Jackson. Cami, Tom's new wife, was okay. She was quiet. Quiet was nice. He wouldn't mind her coming over but Tom had a temper and he tended to become angry. It scared Harper, badly.

So it was good. Just the three of them tonight. It would be like when they were little and made forts in his bedroom before the episodes got really bad. This he could do.

Elena walked over to the DVD player while Damon left the room to make their snacks and drinks. Harper sat down on the couch, taking long, calming breaths like he and his therapist had talked about. "Your parents gave us a spare key," Elena explained while she fiddled with the DVD player. Harper was not allowed to touch the thing after he tossed the last one through the window. He thought it swallowed his mother's fingers and had begun to speak in Latin.

"You okay, Harp?" Elena inquired, pausing and glancing back at him.

"Paranoia. Not severe. Not to the point that he will try to kill anyone. But Harper suffers from paranoia. With proper medication and supervision, there is no reason that he can't live a healthy and productive life," Dr. Maxfield had announced, looking at Harper's parents. No one asked Harper what he thought. Although he was eighteen—only for a month—they still thought he was a little boy. Their little boy. Their poor, damaged, little boy. He saw the hope in his mother's eye. His father's sigh of relief. They had given up hope of normal after the last two stays at Mystic Falls' sanitarium.

"Thank you," his parents said.

"Here's his prescription," Dr. Maxfield's mouth said.

Harper knew that Dr. Maxfield did other things with his mouth. His shiny, white teeth smiling—last winter—at Katherine Gilbert on her way out of the grocery store one day. No one knew that Harper heard things he wasn't supposed to hear. They didn't know that when his parents left Harper in the car and he saw Dr. Maxfield step away from his car, look around and then approach Katherine. They didn't see Harper seeing Dr. Maxfield, kissing Kat who was sixteen at the time. Nor did they see Dr. Maxfield's pink tongue moving between Kat's lips that looked so much like Elena's.

Harper had sat inside his parent's car, shivering, seeing his friend being kissed by his doctor. But that was Kat. Not Elena. Lena kissed boys. Lots of boys. But not men. Not men who gave Harper medications to make his mind stop seeing things that only he could see. Things he lied to his parents about not seeing. Like he didn't tell anyone that he saw Dr. Maxfield's pink tongue in Kat's mouth.

"Harper, are you okay?" Elena placed a hand on Harper's arm and he jerked.

Elena pulled her hand away, staring at Harper, her eyes widening just a tiny bit. He knew she didn't want to speak to him or to make him think she was afraid of him. "I'm okay. I was thinking," Harper explained when Damon came back with their popcorn.

"And here we go," Damon said, sitting the popcorn down. "I'll right be back."

"What were you thinking about?" Elena coaxed, patting Harper's knee.

Harper put his hands together, fingers twirling as he looked at the TV screen. "Nothing."

"You were pretty taken with that whole lot of nothing," Elena giggled. "Come on. Tell me. I can keep a secret."

"A secret? What's a secret?" Damon asked, walking into the living room with three mugs of steaming hot chocolate. He handed one to Harper, one to Elena and then sat down, wrapping an arm around Elena's shoulders while she snuggled into him.

Turning to his friends, Harper examined them, trying to understand what was different about them. They never touched; unless they were smacking each other. They usually argued about everything. Now they were touching and not arguing. "Are you two…?"

"A couple?" Damon laughed. "I guess." He glanced at Elena who rolled her eyes.

"In your dreams, Salvatore. I don't do together. Sex is sex and if you start getting all gooey on me, so help me God—" Elena turned in Damon's arms, waving a finger at him when he cut her off with a kiss.

Harper smiled. He knew they liked each other. He just wished he were normal or semi-normal so he could kiss a girl without fearing that she would turn into a monster and he would scare her away.

"I hate you," Elena grumbled, nuzzling Damon's nose with her nose.

Damon chuckled. "You love me."

"Nope," Elena said, kissing him and Harper turned back to the movie and blew on his hot chocolate. "Hey, Harper, we're going to go upstairs. But just for a minute," Elena said.

"It's going to last longer than a minute," Damon snapped.

Elena rolled her eyes, getting to her feet and taking Damon's hand. "You wish. Come on."

"We'll be back soon," Damon promised Harper.

"Okay," Harper sat back, hearing his friends' laughter on their way up the stairs along with the slap of their boots against the wooden staircase.

Watching the movie, Harper felt warm and happy. His friends were happy and Bill Murray was frustrated; yelling at the sky.

Harper woke up. The sun had gone down. His hot chocolate was cold on the coffee table. The TV screen had turned blue. He did not hear anything. Not even the sound of his friends' laughter. He felt desperately alone. Quivering, Harper looked around him. No one was there. Absolutely no one. They had left him all alone. His friends got sick of him and they left. His parents would not be home until Monday and it was only Saturday.

Curling up, Harper pressed his face into his knees. He began to cry like he did when he was ten and couldn't sleep because the monsters were after him in his dark room. He rocked back and forth on the couch.

After a while, Harper realized that he had to go to the bathroom. He did not want to make a mess; so he got to his feet. He feared he might pee on himself like he did when he got really scared of something. But he had better control now. His hand moved to the bannister. The wood felt solid beneath his fingers. That was good. Solid was good.

His feet took him up to the second floor. He turned to the left, walking down the hallway and twisting the bathroom door knob. He didn't look in the mirror that he passed on his way to the toilet because, sometimes, the monsters were waiting there, for him to find in his own reflection.

Unzipping his pants, he sighed, feeling relieved. He'd made it. He could act like an adult and not like a little kid who peed his pants the minute something terrified him. Zipping his pants back up, he moved to the sink, carefully avoiding his reflection as he cleaned his hands, dried them and then left the room. He paused when he heard a sound down the hallway.

"Damon, did you hear something?" a voice said.

But his friends had left. Harper's body pressed to the wall, his back against the wallpaper, his heart slamming against his ribcage. The monsters took the key from his friends and now they were in the house, with him.

"Damon?" the voice called again. This time impatient.

"It's probably just Harper," another voice said to the first monster. "Harper, is that you?" the voice called, light appeared and then Damon came out of the room.

Harper blinked at Damon. "Is it really you?" he asked.

Damon smirked. "Of course it's me. Who else would it be? Sorry. We went to sleep. Is the movie over?"

Harper nodded. He knew that it wasn't really Damon. Or if it was, the vampires got him. He would have to find some holy water, a stake and take care of this himself.

Elena came out of the bedroom in a sheet. She rolled her eyes. "Geez, can you two let me know what's going on?" she groaned. "For a second I thought a serial killer came in and was going to kill us all." Turning her back, she went back into the guest room.

His heart hurt. They got Elena, too. Shaking his head, Harper spoke to Vampire Damon. "I'm going to my room. To get another movie." He watched Vampire Damon closely.

"Cool," Vampire Damon said. He turned and went back into the guest bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Harper walked down the hall and into his room. He knew that the people who had been his friends—but were now vampires—could hear him, but he had to try. Opening his chest, he pulled out a vial of water blessed by Father O'Connell last Sunday and a piece of wood he made in shop class.

Moving in front of his door, he gripped the two items to his chest, listening for movement in the hall. When he heard the Vampires leaving the room down the hall from his; he waited until he couldn't hear them anymore before coming out of his room. He slipped the stake into the back of his pants and the holy water into his jean's pocket.

Harper could hear the two Vampires talking and laughing as he eased down the stairs. When he appeared, they looked up at him. He saw Vampire Damon remove his lips from Vampire Elena's neck. "Hey, man. I'm going to make some more popcorn. This stuff is cold."

"I'll eat it," Vampire Elena said, snatching the snack from him.

Vampire Damon rolled his eyes. "Good for you. I like mine hot."

"I know you do." Vampire Elena winked at him, placing a foot on his butt and nudging him out of the way of the TV screen. "Move quickly!" she ordered him. "I'm getting cold and you're my blanket."

"Yes, ma'am," Vampire Damon chuckled on his way to the kitchen.

Harper walked down the rest of the stairs and came to stand beside Vampire Elena. She looked so much like his friend, and sounded like her, too. But he knew what he knew and had to do what he had to do.

"What are you doing?" Vampire Elena quipped. "Sit down!" she grabbed him by the arm, pulling him down beside her and leaning into his shoulder. "TV sucks. Do your parents have Netflix? I want to watch Orange is the New Black."

"You can, if you ever go to visit Vikki," Vampire Damon retorted, coming in and shoving her feet off the end of the couch. Vampire Elena threw her feet in his lap. "Get me a Pepsi," she demanded, picking up the remote and flicking stations. "Oh, look, Grey's. Too bad Yang is gone. She was cool. And Torres. And look at what they're doing to Karev? Can you believe this, Harp?"

Harper shook his head, slipping his hand into his pocket, he pulled out the vial and threw some holy water on Vampire Elena's shirt. "Hey, Harp, what are you doing?" Elena complained, pulling her wet shirt away from her chest. "I don't feel like entering a wet t-shirt contest tonight."

"What's going on?" Damon asked, coming in and staring at Harper who flung holy water in his face.

When nothing happened, Harper felt confused. Maybe he'd done it wrong or they had learned to resist holy water. Pulling out the stake, he brandished it at the pair of Vampires.

"Harp, what are you doing?" Vampire Elena put up her hands in front of her chest. Vampire Damon moved in front of her.

"Get out! You're not going to make me into one of you!" Harper shouted at the Vampires.

"Harper!" Elena moved from behind Damon. "We're not vampires. Okay?" she held out her hand for the stake. "Please. Give that to me?"

Harper trembled. His heart continued to pound while Vampire Damon stared at him, his body poised to pounce if Harper tried to attack Vampire Elena. What if he was wrong?

"Harper, please, give me the stake?" Vampire Elena came closer, her hand wrapping around the piece of wood.

Harper let go of the stake and fell onto the couch. Tears began to run down his cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what's real."

"It's okay, Harp. It's okay." Elena sat down, rubbing his back gently. "You're going to be fine."

"Should we call his parents?" Damon asked, shifting from foot to foot.

"No. We just need to remind him of what's real and what isn't. We can do that." Elena nodded at Damon. "We all have demons. And we all need friends who are willing to help us chase them away. So we're going to do that this weekend."

Damon deflated. "Cool. Now what?"

"We're going to make a fort." Elena took Harper by the hand and Damon set the popcorn on the coffee table. They went upstairs and brought down sheets and things they needed before making a fort to hide inside. They spent the next two days living in the fort and telling stories about brave heroes and heroines who beat the monsters who came for them. It felt like they were all five again.

When Harper's parents came home at six a. m., they found Harper and his friends, lying in their fort, fast asleep while Bill Murray continued to curse beavers and the world. Harper had had one, not-so-normal weekend, for an eighteen-year-old male, about to graduate from high school at the end of the year. But who needed normal—when he had that weekend—where he knew how to be brave.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Answer to guest review:

ScarletRose: Thank you for reviewing.

Peace,

Jessica