The Unknown Variable

Part 6

If he had only known how difficult it would be to gain Damon's trust, he would have taken him home with him immediately.

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Damon slammed his eyes shut for the umpteenth time as he sat in the living room of his safe house.

He had had the home for as long as he could remember, it wasn't lavish, or something many would consider fantastical.

However, the home had been his since he was human.

The house was a two-story wooden cabin in the middle of the woods.

With three bedrooms and a singular bathroom, it wasn't exactly a place many would picture him hiding out in.

Oddly enough, he did not remember how he had come into possession of it.

Just like the pendant, its origins were a mystery even to him, but he had been using the house since he was 14 years old.

It had been the main escape from his father, who had decided that Damon was now of the proper age to be caring for the books for the plantation.

'As if he had planned to give him the family business instead of using him for free labor till Stefan was of age,' Damon thought bitterly as his eyes slid open again.

Ever since he stepped into the house, he had been hearing and seeing things. Things that weren't there, people that weren't there.

Damon honestly was starting to believe he was losing his mind.

First, he had heard someone calling his name in the woods with Elijah, then that same voice had said that the pendant would protect him when Stefan and the rest of the Scooby Gang had attacked him.

Now, as soon as he walked into the house, he could have sworn he had seen a blonde-haired man lounging in the living room.

When he had turned to get a closer look, however, he had been gone.

He had, of course, searched the rest of the house afterward but had turned up empty-handed.

While checking the master bedroom in the house, he could have sworn he had heard a man's voice speaking while a child was laughing in the background.

Damon still couldn't get the man's words out of his head.

This will be our home, for now, cub. Soon we will leave, and you will be causing mayhem right alongside the rest of the family.

For some reason, those words had brought forth emotions he hadn't felt in a long time.

Embarrassment, Joy, Hope, Fear...Love; he hadn't felt most of those until recently.

The last one he could have sworn he hadn't felt since his mother passed away; she had always been the one to care for him after all, so she was the only one he had truly ever felt familial love for, at least he thought she was the only one.

After all, Giuseppe Salvatore was a lot of things but, he would never be counted as a proper parent in Damon's eyes.

As for Stefan well, Damon had always cared about him in his own way but, sadly that care had not seemed to have been reciprocated.

So, to suddenly feel as if someone cared for him again after a century of being unwanted.

Damon truly felt like the world was spinning out from underneath his feet with every new piece of knowledge that he acquired.

So much didn't make sense in his head right now, and he had no idea how to fix it or if it could even be fixed.

How does one fix the feeling of losing their grasp on what is happening around them?