I burst awake, still screaming. I threw my hand to my neck, the sensation finally gone from both it and my wrist. However, Emily's necklace still hung from my neck. Once I had calmed down I looked around to find myself at the ruins of the Old Fell church.
I got to my feet, feeling for my phone, but not finding it, "Perfect."
I began walking in the direction of my house, when I heard a twig snap behind me. I whipped around seeing, thankfully, a familiar figure, "Stefan?"
"Tabitha? Hey, are you okay?"
I nodded, "I am now, I was having a rather realistic nightmare."
"So you sleep walk?" the vampire asked, walking over to me.
I shook my head, "Not normally. What about you? What are you doing out in the woods this early in the morning?"
"Uh, hunting."
I chuckled, "Oh, yeah, you drink animal blood. Sorry, I forgot."
Stefan suddenly touched my neck, "What happened there?"
I jerked away, considering it was the same spot Emily grabbed, "What? What's wrong?"
Stefan pulled out his phone and took a picture showing it to me. Right over my vein was a red symbol, burned into my skin. "Oh my god. She did it."
"What? Who did it?"
I yelled, "Emily! She-!" I tried to tell Stefan, but the mark began to burn again and my throat constricted. I couldn't breathe, speak, or even scream until the burning stopped. I coughed, breathing normally again, "God, that hurt."
Stefan was now in my personal space with a concerned look on his face, "What just happened? Are you okay?"
I looked into his eyes, "No, but I can't tell you." I pointed to the symbol, "Because this thing won't let me. I looked at my wrist and saw another one, holding it up to show the vampire, "And this one will prevent me from writing it down."
"Well, is there anything I can do?"
"You could take me home? I don't want Clark to wake up and not know where I am."
Stefan nodded, picking me up, "Hold on." I held on closing my eyes, feeling the wind whip around me. Vamp speed was awesome. Stefan stopped and steadily set me down, "Here we are."
I smiled, letting go, "Thanks, sorry for scaring you."
"No problem, but are you sure you're going to be okay?"
I admitted, "You know, I'm honestly not sure. We'll see what happens in the next couple of months. Have a good day, Mr. Salvatore."
"And to you, Miss Fell."
I snickered, walking inside and closing the door behind me. I walked into the living room, thankfully, Bonnie and Clark were both still asleep. I decided to forego my morning run and went upstairs to take a shower.
I washed away all remains of leaves and dirt from my body before getting dressed and applying make-up, especially over the symbols on my neck and wrist. I didn't want Bonnie to see them and worry that Emily had hurt me because she gave me the necklace.
I came downstairs and heard stirring in the living room. I saw Bonnie get up and I whispered, so as not to wake my sleeping babe, "Hey, how'd you sleep?"
"Amazing, no nightmares or dreams at all. A completely restful night."
I smiled, "That's good."
"What about you? Did you see Emily?"
I clenched, but immediately brushed it off, "Nope, I had a completely restful night too."
"Really?"
"Really. Nothing happened. Well, except I had a dream I was Queen Frostine of Candyland, but I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with Emily's talisman." Bonnie chuckled and I took off the necklace, handing it back to her, "Here."
"Thanks. Hey, do you mind if I take a shower?"
"Sure, go ahead. Hell, raid my closet for an outfit, I don't mind."
"Thanks, Tabs. You're the best."
I smiled slightly, watching as she bound up the stairs. I frowned slightly, I was happy to be rid of that necklace, but now Bonnie was going to, once again, be haunted by her ancestor.
After breakfast and dropping Bonnie off at home, the day went by slowly and in a blur as I tried to unravel Emily's mystery. Who would Katherine be running from? She was a 355 year old vampire at the time and Damon told me that the older the vampire, the stronger they are. Which then begs the question, what had she to fear? Any human or witch would have died a long time ago. Could it have been another vampire? One older than herself? It was a possibility.
So, whoever was chasing her was both older and stronger than her, why didn't she kill them? If she's cunning enough to fake her own death and keep the fact she was dead for 145 years, she could probably outsmart one big, bad vampire. Was she scared? Possibly. Would they still want her dead, after 500 years? Who, even if they were a vampire, could hold a grudge that long?
As the sun began to set, I realized there was no way to know the truth unless I found Katherine and asked her myself, or happened across the person hunting her. But even that was impossible since I couldn't even express that I knew Katherine was alive and not in the tomb at all.
After Clark had fallen asleep that night, I called Damon, "Miss Fell, what an unexpected surprise. How can I help you?"
"Hey, I was actually curious about something. You told me that Emily cast a spell to protect Katherine from the flames, how is that possible? I mean couldn't any of the other vampires sought refuge in the tomb under the church as well?"
Damon pased for a moment and then lied through his teeth, "No, Emily only cast the spell to save Katherine." I frowned as Damon asked, "Why?"
I shrugged, "Oh, I don't really know how magic works and wanted to make sure that by freeing Katherine we weren't unleashing a vampiric plague over Mystic Falls. I can only protect my son from so many things, Damon."
"Oh, alright."
"Goodnight Damon," I hung up the phone and threw it into the couch. I may not have liked Emily, but I didn't want Mystic Falls to be overrun by vampires. Damon would pay for lying to me, but just not yet.
I went online and began ordering tomahawks, Chinese ring daggers, swords of all eras, a compound bow and arrows, a bo staff, kammas, and sais.
I was going to turn myself into a living weapon, even if it took me years to master every single fighting style in the world.