You're all perfect, mwah xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxo
32
The dry cleaners bag hung on my door, something I don’t recognize being there, contained three things; a black blazer with red piping and school crest on the right pocket, a black pleated skirt and a white shirt .pair of black knee socks are folded in the bottom. Hmm, not bad.
The clothes fit perfectly, only the fact they’re school uniform makes me gag.
As I put on the crisp white shirt, manoeuvring my arms into the sleeves, a sharp burning sensation between my shoulder blades blinds me for a seconds, trying to stay upright, I jerk the shirt away from me , the two shoulder blades touching the middle of my back as I bent into the shirt seem to cause the pain, I grit my teeth and try again, only to stumble forward onto my knees.
For one tiny second I just give up, what is wrong with me? Why does it hurt so much? Where I was bitten, it should be healed and painless, good as new and creamy white skin should be flawless.
I cry, I just cry, what am I doing? The door opens behind me leaves me kneeling on the floor sobbing into my hands over the pain in my back, in my bra and pink pyjama shorts , what else can I do?
“There there love, drink this, it will help with the pain” the familiar velvety smooth British accent, I expect a drink, whisky has become a favourite of mine, the bitter burning makes me feel a little more human.
But no, it’s a wrist. A smooth pale wrist. I raise my head to look at him, what the? He raises his eyebrows, gesturing at the wrist. I bite down hard.
Vampire blood is not like human blood, it doesn’t smell enticing, but there’s something about this that makes me forget that I was ever in pain.
………………………………………………………..Damon……………………………………………..
8:33 AM.
8:34 AM
8:35 AM
Counting the minutes through the night was something that I had been doing since the night of the Masquerade ball, when we found Elena with Travis and Rose a few days later, both Stefan and I had been hoping Ashlin was with her, Katherine’s evil spell had affected Ashlin as well as Elena , I knew she’d be fine, vampires were made of stronger stuff, but when we asked Elena about Ashlin, she was as broken as I was. Everyone panicked, and then her Aunt called the police. I counted the minutes it took for Rose to die from a werewolf bite; counted the minutes it took for me to drink a whole bottle of whisky.
Sue was easy to manipulate, but even then she took some convincing. Rose, the werewolves, it was all too much. Every situation that I’d found myself in, I could practically hear a snide comment, something that Ash would say, in my head. Every press conference, appeal for information. The News showed pretty photos’ of her, most believed she was dead, but Elena, Stefan, Bonnie, Matt and Caroline, even the mutt Tyler Lockwood, believed she was alive, they even joked that it would take a lot more than a simple murderer to kill Ashlin Fell, for Christ’s sake, I texted her every single day, I stopped leaving messages after between us and everyone else in Mystic Falls filled up her voicemail.
I reached over and grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV that hung on the wall. The news was on, and the overly perky newscaster, Andy something or other, was yet again parroting on about Ashlin Fell, Mystic Falls’ troubled teen, my phone vibrated, a text from Stefan
Are you watching the news?
Of course brother I replied. The same story, new words. This seemed to be some kind of special report.
‘And again we return to the case of Ashlin Fell, the founding family member and troubled teen of Mystic Falls.
Ashlin Fell is seventeen years old and was last seen at the Lockwood Masquerade ball two months ago today. Her trail disappeared at the site of the grisly murder of Adam Johnson, and 18 year old boy from Atlanta, Georgia, believed to be having a secret relationship with Miss Fell’
“As if she would go near that dick!” I shout at the TV. Stefan is stood at the doorway, with a solemn, brooding expression on his face, watching the TV from there.
‘Miss Fell was a troubled teen and after the death of her friend Vicky Donavan, also troubled with problems of substance abuse, is believed to have sent her over the edge.’
The TV flickered to an interview with Ashlin’s dad, who had arrived back in town a few weeks ago, to my distaste, he was a slimy and rat faced man, and if I hadn’t just been a suspect in her murder and disappearance, I would find some way of taking Ashlin’s little brother, Josh away from him.
‘Her mother is also imprisoned for the murder of a young woman, which is also said to have taken its toll on Ashlin. So far there has been only one suspect in the case, Mr Damon Salvatore, a local resident and founding family member, also having a relationship with Miss Fell’
They showed a picture, just a hastily taken one of Ashlin and me, walking down the main street, looking like we’d just come out of the grill. I don’t know when the photo was taken. Ashlin was holding a take away coffee cup, we were both wearing ray bans and black leather jackets and shirts, Ashlin wearing black leggings with those god damn knee high doc martens, I was wearing my favourite boots and black Armani jeans.
‘Robert Fell has expressed concern about this relationship, with Ashlin Fell at 17 and Mr Salvatore at age 24, and he said he wished his wife and family had informed him of this outrage. Mr Salvatore has been cleared of all allegations and Sue Forbes, sheriff of Mystic Falls, has said they are pursuing new leads’
“What a dick” I say.
“Imagine if they knew the real age gap?” Stefan asks, trying to joke but the light hearted words don’t match his deep frown lines. “Oh lighten up Stefan; I can see moss growing in those wrinkles”
“How can you joke when the one girl who actually made you feel something human is dead?”
“Stefan, you made the first joke” I say “And she’s un dead”
Stefan runs his hands through his hair and leaves the doorway, as the news report continues.
‘The search for Ashlin has been extensive, reaching out of Mystic falls to Georgia, Atlanta and the surrounding cities but no progress has been made’
The screen flashed to an interview with Alaric, who was garbling some crap about how he believed Ashlin had turned her life around the past months, how she was making more of an effort; how he hoped she was still alive. To make it even more believable, he even said she was ‘in everyone’s prayers’, sometimes I actually believed he was a teacher, with comments like that.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“So tell me again why my life is suddenly dependant on drinking your blood?” I asked Klaus, as we sped through the city with he top down, this was the first time I’d been outside in nearly a week and the bright day was unbearable even with my daylight protection necklace tucked down the front of my shirt, so I accessorized with totally amazing huge Gucci sunglasses that were probably worth more than Matt’s car, I drank a yummy large caramel macchiato from a drive through Starbucks, the sugar keeping the cravings away.
“Because, I am an original vampire, who is also a hybrid.”
“Sooooo?” I drag out, like duh, “ok so I’m not that smart, explain a little more please”
“So when I break the curse that I cleverly disguised as the sun and moon curse, I will be a full hybrid and my blood will cure a werewolf bite”
“Ok but you’re not a full hybrid, so why were you messing with werewolves in the forest and why am I still walking?”
“I was…experimenting, seeing how far I could get the werewolves without breaking the curse, it’s very tedious. And original blood will serve as a delayer of death from the bite.”
“So that means that we have to go back to Mystic Falls” I say, remembering the disastrous trip to Isobel’s office at Duke. Doppelganger = Elena=Mystic Falls=Damon. Great.
“Not until you get me my witch.”
“Why do you need some kid , you already have like, 3 witches” I say, his eyes turned on me , still driving way over the speed limit. “I want Greta Martin.”
“Ok, ok, chill.” I say, as he makes a sharp turn into a school parking lot.
“You have her picture?”
“Yes. I have lunch money too. Thanks for asking, buhbye” I wave and get out of the red roadster. I push my sunglasses down to see the school but wuickly put them back on again. According to Klaus, I’m officially a missing person. As I can’t do anything about that until my return to Mystic Falls, I may as well play at being a new person.
And darlings, if you know anything at all, you’ll know that this school won’t know what’s hit them.
I mean, Ashlin Fell hasn’t, but Vanessa Mort has.