CHAPTER III ―

WE'RE GOING TO HAVE SOME FUN!

𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐁𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓. She'd tossed and turned while the scene of Damon's red eyes, black veins, and glinting fangs flashed in her mind every time she closed her eyes. It had gotten so bad that she'd completely avoided sleep, sitting in the middle of her bed, blankets swallowing her, the lamp on the side of her bed on to illuminate the room. Nothing seemed to work to calm her down enough to catch a wink of sleep...

She'd gotten ready for school in a daze, both of her parents had already left for work with a kiss on her forehead as she pretended to be asleep, so she'd gotten dressed without the feeling to impress anyone. Since both of her parents were gone, Colby had found the usual note on the kitchen counter with a granola bar and a bottle of orange juice. At least there was breakfast, even if she wasn't hungry.

Every little thing made her jump, Colby found. Even when it was herself making the noise, everything had her on edge. It'd taken her fifteen minutes to calm herself down in the school parking lot, sitting in her Prius. How could one little nightmare feel so real?

Diana had found her and instantly known something was up.

"Something's wrong." She'd stared at the curly-haired brunette with piercing eyes.

Colby shrugged, spinning in her locker combination. "Nothings wrong." Lie.

"Yeah, just like nothing's wrong with my little brother." Of course, Diana had seen straight through Colby's little fib. "There's something wrong. You haven't slept, I can tell."

Another shrug. "It's whatever." Diana rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and leaning against the locker next to her best friend's.

"Stop pushing it off, Colby. Tell me." It was a demand this time.

Slamming her locker shut, Colby snapped at her concerned friend. "Nothing's wrong, Diana! Just stop!" With that, the Montenegro girl stomped off to class, leaving behind a slightly stunned Diana and whispering students.

"Just great," Diana muttered, walking off in the opposite direction.

...

The day went by fairly quickly and Colby found herself in her last class of the day. "Alright class!" Tanner shouted to get everyone's attention. "Today we're going to be talking about battles."

The whole class groaned together and Tanner glared at everyone. He'd easily started into his lecture, but Colby couldn't bother to listen. She was staring out the window again, thinking... she'd ignored Diana the entire day, too mad at herself for snapping at her concerned friend. She wished she hadn't snapped so harshly at her friend, she hadn't deserved it. The gut wrenching feeling of guilt hit Colby like a ton of bricks.

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties resulted in this battle?" Mr. Tanner questioned the class, his eyes scanning around the room for his first victim. "Ms. Bennett?"

Bonnie looked up from her notebook, and everyone seemed to stare. She looked like a deer in headlights, obviously not knowing the answer, nor paying attention. She shrugged. "Um... a lot? I'm not sure. Like a whole lot." She nodded, a sheepish grin on her face. The entire class laughed with her. Tanner rolled his eyes.

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett." Tanner snapped. There was a slight look of surprise on the Bennett witch's face, surprised by his degrading and somewhat insulting comment. Although, Mr. Tanner hadn't noticed and scanned the room for his latest victim. He'd stopped onto Matt, thankfully missing the Montenegro girl.

"Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?" He asked. It was Elena's name that brought Colby out of her stupor. She couldn't see the Gilbert girl's face, but the lack of response and shaking of her head revealed that she had no clue.

"I'm sorry, I-I don't know." Tanner sighed and shook his head, pointing a mean and judging finger at her.

"I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena, but the personal excuses ended with summer break." Colby frowned at his harshness. You could practically cut the tension in the room with a knife.

"There were three-hundred and forty six casualties. Unless you're counting local civilians," Stefan speaks up, his eyes glancing at Elena before he settled back onto Mr. Tanner. He'd seemed shocked, before he quickly recovered and raised an eyebrow at the student.

"That's correct, Mister...?"

"Salvatore."

"Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here in Mystic Falls?"

"Distant," Stefan replied, his eyes flickering to Mr. Tanner and back to Elena's back.

"Well, very good," Mr. Tanner mused with a short nod. "Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle."

"Actually, there were twenty-seven, sir," Stefan corrected, looking back to Mr. Tanner with a cold stare as he continued to talk. "Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss," Mr. Tanner's head hung as he let Stefan continue. "The founder's archives are stored in Civil Hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner."

...

Diana leaned against her best friend's car, arms crossed as Colby walked up towards her car. She could feel the nervousness running off her best friend as they both stood there in utter silence. "It's alright, Colby." Diana had spoken first, breaking the awkward silence, a small smile on her lips. "I shouldn't have pressed so hard."

Colby's big brown eyes met Diana's hazel one's. "I shouldn't have snapped," she said, remorsefully. "I should've just told you what was going on." Diana noted she looked utterly tired and emotionally drained. "Can I tell you on the way to my house?" The two had agreed to go to Colby's house to get ready for the party in the woods tonight.

Diana nodded, pulling her best friend in for a hug. "You can tell me anything." The two girls hugged tightly, their bond like sisters.

As the two pulled back, a familiar voice called out. "Hey, Colby!" The two brunette's turned around to see the Bennett girl walking up to them with Elena. "Are we gonna see you at the party tonight?"

Elena and Bonnie's smile were bright and hoping. "Uh, maybe? I'm not really sure yet," Colby shrugged. "It'll probably be last minute." Elena's smiled dimmed a little.

"Please? We could catch up, just like old times!" Colby's heartstrings tugged at Elena's willingness to fix their friendship. "C'mon, Colby." Diana stayed quiet as she pressed her lips together. She reminded herself that this was Colby's decision.

Colby sighed, looking down at the ground as she pursed her lips. "I guess we'll be there," Colby finally decided, earning a cry of happiness from Elena, finding herself wrapped into a hug.

"I'll see you tonight!" Elena called as she walked off, arm in arm with Bonnie. Colby turned back to a smirking Diana.

"No comment."

...

Later that night, Colby found herself weaving between bodies of all shapes and sizes, before she made her way to the bonfire. It was starting to get a little chilly, and she wished that she'd worn something other than shorts, boots, a t-shirt and flannel. It definitely wasn't warm enough. She'd lost Diana early into the night, finding her making out with Vicki Donovan, which wasn't anything new. Diana was non-committal, but loved breaking hearts and going about, just as she didn't have a preference in gender. It was the one thing that Colby loved Diana for, her openness.

Putting her hands towards the fire, Colby tried to warm up, eyes scanning the drinking and dancing teens. She didn't understand how all of them could be getting shit-faced drunk. Ignoring the rowdiness as best she could, Colby tried searching for Elena. Rubbing her hands together, Colby looked straight on, through the flames and straight to someone. It was him. It was Damon, Stefan's dangerous brother and his eyes were piercing her...

They were blue, but not like a regular blue. These were as cold as ice and bright like a glacier. They had a spark of mischief combined with a twinge of danger. There was something else there, but she couldn't find the proper word to describe it. Damon's gaze held her own and Colby shivered. His skin was pale, but not paler than her own ivory skin.

A sudden shout next to her caused her to look over, only finding that someone had split their drink on another. Glancing back to where he'd been with his piercing gaze, Colby found he was gone and instead spotted the Gilbert boy stomping off. She'd instantly sprang into action, knowing that an angry Jeremy generally meant Elena wasn't far behind, as bad as that sounded.

Walking into the woods, Colby followed the path that lead to the Falls. Surely Elena had to be there. Suddenly, a chill went up Colby's spine, an eerie feeling that someone was watching her. Colby looked to her left, frowning as she looked right, finding no one. She swallowed, gripping her arms to fight the chill. Looking around once more, Colby walked on again. A twig snapped and she'd jumped.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" Colby called out, hearing nothing but the party in the distance. She swallowed, eyes scanning the dark forest, expecting to see someone, anyone staring at her, only to find no one.

Taking a deep breath, Colby marched on, feeling a burning gaze into her back. It caused her to walk faster in hopes of reaching someone, anyone. Just as she was going to break into a sprint, a sudden gust of wind made her stumble back and lose her footing, finding herself falling to the ground.

Bracing herself for the impact of the cold, hard ground, it never came. Instead, Colby opened her eyes to find the same pair of piercing blue ones from earlier. She let out a startled scream that was instantly covered by a hand. "Ah, ah, ah," it was him. Damon. He was taunting her. "We don't want to alert anyone now, do we?"

Colby trembled in fear as he held her up, slowly putting her back onto her feet. "I'm going to take my hand off your mouth and if you scream, you're dead, got it?" Colby was too scared to talk, so she'd only whimpered and nodded. If this was what Stefan meant by Damon being dangerous, she wished she'd stayed home like she originally planned.

Taking his hand off her mouth, Damon smirked down at her, the moonlight illuminating her beautiful features. Damon wasn't blind. She had extremely long and dark eyelashes that brushed her cheeks when she blinked, large and innocent doe brown eyes, ivory skin so effortlessly clear and soft, and to frame her entire face, beautiful brown curly locks. In all means, Colby was angelic. Too bad Damon wasn't an angel, but a demon sent from hell instead...

Damon's smirk widened when a whimper escaped her lips as he moved a curly lock from her face, pushing it behind her ear. Her heart was beating fast, a constant thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump... he could practically taste her blood on his tongue already, watching the jugular in her neck throb. She was practically on the verge of a panic attack at the rate of her heartbeat. She was utterly terrified.

"Did you like your dream?" Colby's eyes widened. How did he know? "I thought it was quite... thrilling," he purred. "The way your heart raced and how you went for the knife, very fast thinking, pretty girl. I was pleasantly surprised."

Colby swallowed, her eyes meekly meeting his. "H-How?" she stuttered, body trembling. She was like a lamb ready to be devoured by the lion. Damon's eyes shifted from the piercing blue to a startling red, veins crawling under his eyes and fangs illuminating in the night.

"This."

And a scream suddenly echoed throughout the forest as fangs harshly dug into the fragile neck of a young girl, blood beginning to pour from the open wound. Damon harshly bit down, meaning to inflict pain onto the doe-eyed girl, finding himself obsessed with the taste of her blood. It wasn't bitter, like fear usually makes blood, but sweet, like honeysuckle. Damon yearned for more as he bit down harder, earning another scream and whimper from her lips, losing himself in the taste as he just barely stops himself.

Colby's body dropped to the ground with a thud and a whimper escaped her lips. She was drained, quite literally. Unable to move or talk due to the blood loss, beginning to find herself going in and out of consciousness. Damon leaned down, adjusting Colby's head, forcing her to look at him through hazy, fearful eyes. He moved a piece of bloody hair from her face, staring at her skin as the bright scarlet painted her ivory skin like a masterpiece. "You should be flattered, Colby. I normally don't leave my meals alive, but you and I..." he leaned in towards her ear, "we're going to have some fun."

That was the last thing Colby heard before she lost consciousness.

─ ✧: *✧:*✧ ─
long over due and I'm so
sorry, but I'm thrilled with
the plans I have for this story!
lmk your thoughts!