Specimen

Chapter two

sorry it's short. anyway, comment :)

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I thought about his proposition. I didn't even know if I could make fire. I had done it before, with candles, but here it was so cold, it felt... confining in a different way than the walls around me were. It was something deeper, more suffocating

A slow hum started up again and I took in a sharp breath, involuntarily. Icy air started pouring from the walls again, all of them, even where I had found safety before. I knew this time, without knowing how I knew, that the walls would not open for me again.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Elena Gilbert tapped her fingers impatiently on the window's trim. The sound of it fell into a perfect rhythmic pattern like the rain that fell outside before she stopped abruptly and, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice, said again, "Where is she?"

Bonnie was an hour and a half late and she had not picked up the last three calls they made.

Stefan placed his hand under her elbow and gently lead her away. The window of the boarding house overlooked the driveway and road. Trees marked the edges of the woods and were turning a slight red color to mark the beginning of fall. It was after senior year but before any of them would start college.

"She said she was going to get here early," Meredith mumbled from her spot on the couch. She was stretched out, laying on her stomach with her ankles crossed and a magazine laid flat on the cushions in front of her face. Propped up on her elbows, she shifted her weight to look at the doorway.

They all  knew that Bonnie was the latest to rise and would, of course, be the last one there if she was driving herself to a morning gathering.

"Maybe she saw the hazy weather and decided to go back to bed." Matt walked in and leaned his shoulder against the cool siding of the open livingroom doorway. Despite his attempts to look alert and awake, Elena could tell he hadn't slept well the night before. Dark crescents  shadowed under his eyes and his blond hair was unkept. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for someone else to say something.

"The little witch is a no-show?" Damon asked from the other room. He raised his voice just enough so they would hear him, only Stefan could really tell that he had raised it at all. "Darn."

The only reason Damon ever showed up at the boarding house was to inconvenience them, keep tabs on them.

Elena scowled. She could tell he was smirking, mocking them with his sarcasm. But if there was anything else she knew, it was that she would have the last laugh. Damon missed her, too, Elena was almost certain, no matter what face he put on.

They had last seen each other three days ago. Mostly, they met at the boarding house. Over the summer, it had officially because the second home to all of them as they spent countless nights there together.

The sound of crunching gravel wafted into their waiting ears.

"Finally." They were supposed to be going on a tour of Delcrest. They were going to find where all their classes were and check out the shops around town.

Damon could easily tell that the car that drove up wasn't his redbird's. First, it didn't make the right noise. Second, the aura was all wrong. This aura would more closely match a middle aged man, someone who was down to earth and exceedingly boring.

In other words, it was nothing like his eccentric redbird's.

Damon swirled his glass in his hand, watching the blood swish to the sides with a slight interest. Of course it was never anything he would wear - he would stick to his usual black - but the unusual red always had been his second favorite color, even as a young boy.

He found no reason to get the door if it wasn't his redbird or Elena on the other side, so the persistent knocking came twice before the boy - Mutt - went to answer it.

"You're la.... not Bonnie," Matt said as he swung the heavy door open.

Outside stood a man in his thirties holding a brown box in one hand. It was no larger than a sandwich and appeared to be lightweight, judging by how he let it hang loosely in his fingers.

"That's very observant of you, boy," the man replied, holding out  a clipboard. "I need you to sign." He pointed to the smudged ink line on the paper. It was wrinkled by the slight water damage.

Matt grabbed the pen from the top and scribbled his name in a messy scrawl above the line. "Thanks, dude." The man passed him the package and checked his watch at the same time. He had a long day ahead of him and his car was full of various boxes.

Matt inspected the label as he let the door swing shut behind him. "Damon, it's ... uh.... it's for you, actually." He wondered vaguely why Damon was having things delivered here but it made sense that he wouldn't have a mailbox ... wherever he usually stayed. Matt didn't actually know. He didn't care to know that much about Damon. The guy was evil, that was enough.

 

Damon stood and snatched the package out of Mutt's hands with interest. There was no return address. He unfolded the brown wrapping quickly, wondering if it was from Sage or one of his many enemies.

The package included two things. The first was a small, folded paper. Unfolding it, he saw that it included an address and nothing more. The second item was a photo, wallet sized. A majority of it was a plain flat color, almost a green like it had been taken with nightvision on. In the middle was a girl he recognized instantly. She was folded over, staring out into the darkness with a terrified look on her face as if she had seen something there.

Bonnie.