My Return (Vampire Diaries) (Book Seven)

I Carry Your Heart With Me

Stefan nodded. "Yeah."

Nora gave us a skeptical look, picking up a very old looking ceramic vase from the nearby shelf.

"Not gonna find him in there," I told her.

Nora dropped the vase.

I rushed to catch the vase before it fell to the floor. 

Nora smirked. "Fast reflexes."

"Faster than you think," I told her, putting the vase down on the nearby table. "Look, I get it. Okay?"

"You got me," Damon told them. Nora walked across the room, purposely knocking over a jade glass statue. I rushed closer to catch the statue before it fell to the floor, catching it within inches of the floor, putting it up. Nora smirked, picking up a framed picture of Alaric and Jo. I hastily took it out of her hands so she couldn't break it. Damon sighed. "Oscar turned the tables, and he knocked me out, and he took off. I lost my one and only bargaining chip."

"Then why isn't Oscar answering his phone?" Mary Louise asked in disbelief.

Nora saw the door to the bathroom was ajar, walking over to look inside.

Stefan watched her.

"I mean, the guy doesn't want to be found," Damon told them.

Nora pushed the bathroom door open, revealing no one to be inside, surprised. She turned to face us in annoyance. "Why don't I believe you?"

Mary Louise sighed dramatically. "Well, this is pointless. Come, Nora."

Mary Louise gave Nora a significant look, walking toward the door.

Nora reluctantly walked toward the door, pausing in the doorway, dropping her nearly-finished smoothie on the floor, making the remaining contents splatter over the floor.

I sighed, closing my eyes in annoyance. "Yeah, I'll just throw that away for you." Mary Louise and Nora smirked, walking out, leaving. I sighed, looking at Stefan and Damon in annoyance. "You're right about them. They're classic bitchy, neurotic, insecure mean girls." Stefan and Damon nodded in agreement. We walked toward the window, watching Mary Louise and Nora walk across campus. They did not notice that Oscar's body had been hung out the window by a sheet that had been wrapped around his chest. Luckily, it had gone unnoticed by the students outside because it was Halloween, and most of the campus was decorated with Halloween supplies, anyway. Damon and Stefan made sure that Mary Louise and Nora were gone and that they hadn't seen Oscar, starting to work on retrieving him. A student dressed as a zombie glanced up at us, looking confused, though he seemed to believe Oscar was simply a Halloween decoration. I distracted the student's attention away from Damon, Stefan and Oscar by smiling fakely and waving to him. "Hey."

The student walked away, leaving.

Damon and Stefan pulled Oscar's body inside, carrying it toward the door.

"Screw it," Damon told us. "Let's just get this guy to the furnace."

I walked toward the door to open it.

A pretty college girl walked inside, looking at us blankly.

Damon and Stefan put Oscar down on the couch, hoping not to draw too much attention.

I looked at the girl nervously.

"Uh, wrong... door," Stefan told her awkwardly.

The girl rolled her eyes, holding a cream-colored envelope toward me.

I hesitantly took it from her. "Hmm. 'Kay." I opened the envelope, reading the letter aloud in confusion. "'A message from Miss Nora Hildegard, dictated but not read. For every hour that Oscar isn't returned, a Whitmore student will die. Starting now.'" The girl stabbed herself in the neck with a letter opener, gasping for breath, blood trailing from the wound freely. She started to fall. I caught her as she fell, horrified. "No!"