16. Discomfort

            I had the strangest dream that night. It was weird. I wasn’t watching the dream, I was actually in it. It was pretty vivid, too, but I only remembered flickers. I remembered getting up off the couch, searching for Damon, and shockingly feeling the urge to stab him in the heart with a stake. Then I remembered yelling and some sort of fight. I couldn’t tell if I had won in the dream—that was just one of the parts I didn’t remember.

            I pinched my eyes tighter together. I tried to stretch, but something felt wrong. My legs could move, but my arms had a hard time going anywhere. My brows knitted together. I tried to get my arms at my sides. I couldn’t.

            I was immediately confused. I opened my eyes to notice I wasn’t in the living room. I was stuck back in Damon’s room, and it looked to be morning judging from what light I saw through the windows. How did I end up here? I swiveled my head around to lock my eyes on a rather odd and semi scary sight.

            I was handcuffed to the bed.

            Immediately, I fumed. My wrists were hurting, and my arms felt exhausted hanging in the air, held by the cuffs. I bit my lip, jiggling my arms. No slack. There weren’t many explanations that came to mind when it came to figuring out how I ended up this way. The one I could only think of was that Damon decided to have a little fun with me while I slept.

            Sometimes I wondered how I could stand him for all the things he’d done around me, whether taking blood from me—but I let him do that—or teasing me, or even cuffing me to his bed.

            I was still fully clothed, though I saw bruises blotched on my arms. I hissed. First I was cuffed to the bed, and now there were bruises on me. What the hell happened last night?

            “Someone get me out of these things!” I demanded, my voice echoing in the large room.

            The clatter of feet broke the quick silence following my dying echoes. Elena was the first to barge in the room, Stefan right on her heels. I was surprised Damon didn’t come in since it was his room.

            “Would either of you be so kind as to tell me how I ended up like this?” I growled, using the cuffs to help me sit up in the bed.

            “You wouldn’t believe us if we told you,” Elena whispered.

            “Try me. You’ve got to remember I believe in vampires, werewolves, and witches now. I’m sure whatever you have to tell me I’ll believe.”

            “You tried to kill us last night.”

            “C-come again?” I croaked. I had tried to kill Elena, Stefan, and Damon? My head tilted to the side in befuddlement.

            “You tried to kill Damon at least,” Stefan corrected. “It was the middle of the night when you tried. You came out of nowhere. It was really odd for you. We could tell you were sleepwalking, but I don’t think having the urge to kill someone while sleepwalking is normal…”

            “So I sleepwalked and tried to kill Damon?” I recapped slowly. “That doesn’t sound right.”

            This sounded a lot like the dream I somewhat remembered. Was my dream what really happened last night? Were Stefan and Elena telling me the truth? The dream had to be a coincidence.

“Oh, it gets better,” Elena muttered. “You were as strong as anything. Stefan and I had to step in when we heard what was going on. That’s sort of why you’re stuck to the bed like that, Fay. We had to restrain you.”

            “So cuffing me was the best option?”

            “Pretty much.” She shrugged.

            “Can you get me out of these, please?”

            Elena didn’t need a key to do so, she ripped them off. I rubbed my wrists, tenderly skimming the bruises on my arms with my fingers. I looked to her and Stefan for an explanation for those as well.

            “He had no choice but to fight back. He didn’t want to hurt you. You tried going for us, too,” Stefan admitted, looking gravely at me. “We tried to keep your injuries to a minimum.”

            This was so weird. I never had a history of sleepwalking, and even if I did, it wouldn’t involve wanting to kill somebody in the house. Something wasn’t right with this picture.

            “Was there anything else that happened last night?” I asked hesitantly.

            “No, thank God,” Elena breathed.

            “Speaking of Damon, where is he?”

            “He went out. Most likely he’s stealing blood from the hospital to replenish the stock we’ve got around the house.”

            “You keep blood bags in the house?” I paled.

            “How else do we take human blood, Fay? We don’t go hunting for victims like he does.” She snorted. I saw her brown eyes flicker anger for a second. No doubt she reminded herself of Damon’s feedings off me.

            Still in my nightwear—and feeling a little sore—I slipped out of bed. Elena was already making me breakfast while I showered. The hot water did nothing to help my bruises, not that I expected it to. My ribs felt a bit tender; no doubt someone got a shot there last night when I supposedly tried to kill them. This was going to bother me all day now, the fact that I was almost a murderer. I wanted to be anything but. It was against my personality to become something like that—so cold and heartless.

            After I dressed, I ruffled my wet hair with a towel and dragged myself into Damon’s room to look myself over in the standup mirror. I looked okay, though I saw bags under my eyes. When had I looked a little discolored? I touched my face. It had to be from the lack of sun. I didn’t feel sick or anything.

            “Are you going to try and stake me again?” Damon teased. “I’m up for another fight.”

            I jumped when I saw him in the mirror. I put a hand over my racing heart as he stood behind me.

            “I thought I’m not supposed to see your reflection?”

            “Ha ha. You’re hilarious, Faith.”

            I smiled grimly. “Elena and Stefan told me everything.” I shook my hair.

            “Do you have a habit of sleepwalking with the intention of murdering people at night?”

            “Did you seriously just ask that question?” I crossed my arms across my chest. “This doesn’t make sense.”

            Neither did the twitch in my hands that I randomly got. I balled them into fists, but they fidgeted, trying to unclench. They were itching for something—but what?

            “Whatever injuries I gave you last night, I’m sorry.” He rubbed my arms, resting his chin on my head. “You came after me, like you wanted to rip my head off—not that you could.”

            “What do you think this is?”

            “I don’t know, but something tells me it reeks of magic.” He wrinkled his nose to emphasis his point.

            “You think this is part of what James did to me?” One of my eyebrows raised in consideration.

Hmm, that sounded possible. James had done something to me. There was no way he had left me on the floor in the bedroom without doing something.

            “It could be. I’ll see if Bonnie can get over here to make sure.”

            I clasped my hands together. My nails bit into skin, wanting something. I still couldn’t understand what they wanted. Did I want to do something that I wasn’t thinking of consciously?

            “Can I leave the house today?” I wondered. “Maybe fresh air might help me. I’m feeling a little…stressed and confused right now.”

            “I won’t be allowed to go out with you, not while Elena is your shadow,” Damon grumbled.

            “I don’t mind that. You need some time to do stuff on your own, anyway. Distancing ourselves might be a good thing. It’ll keep up the charade even more.”

            Damon kissed the back of my head before disappearing. I shook my head and walked out to meet Elena. While I ate, I brought up my idea. Elena said she didn’t mind, but she wanted Stefan to watch over me this time. I saw that coming, but I acted indifferent about it. Besides, I could use the time to actually get to know my cousin’s boyfriend. It was hard to have a simple life when the people around you were in a different world that was kept secret from most people.

            When Stefan learned he was being my guard for the day, he seemed okay with it. He told me it was up to me what we did. I just told him a nice walk in the woods seemed fine. After all, I needed to get over my fear of the woods. Just because I had one bad time in there didn’t mean I couldn’t go in them for nature walks.

            We walked at a leisurely pace. I sounded extremely noisy compared to Stefan. His feet never made a sound on the grass. Other than my feet being obnoxious, there was silence between us. I wanted to break the ice somehow, but I didn’t know what to say.

            “Have you had any weak moments yet today?” Stefan asked quietly. I got startled, stumbling a step, but recovering quickly.

            “Nope,” I confirmed, “which is definitely a good thing. I think I was just tired or something that day.” A nippy wind attacked my face. “Hey, remember what you and Elena told me about last night?”

            “Yes.”

            “I was thinking…what if it had something to do with the attack on me two nights ago?” I asked slowly. If Damon couldn’t suggest it at the moment, I could.

            “Hmm…” Stefan silently mulled over my question. “That could be possible. But how would we know for sure?”

            “We would ask Bonnie.” I shrugged, dipping my eyes to the ground. “If there was something magically wrong with me, I bet she’d figure it out easy.”

            “Is it really worth asking her, though? What if it’s nothing?”

            “Stefan, do you honestly believe that when the hunters invaded the house that night they did nothing to me?” I stopped, putting my hands on my hips.

            “You never know.” He stood face-to-face with me now.

            The sun poked out from behind the clouds, nearly blinding me. I almost expected Stefan to burst into flames, but then I saw he wore a ring similar to Elena’s. No doubt it was bewitched so he could be walking outside with me right now.

            “Aside from all the supernatural stuff, how’d you and Elena meet?” I asked curiously, wanting to get on a lighter subject. “I’ve been curious since day one, but I never got the chance to really ask.”

            “High school. How else?” He chuckled.

            “No, I mean like—did you go introduce yourself to her? Vice versa? Did you just run into each other?”

            “I think we eventually got the courage to introduce ourselves to each other. I think it was just after that that we started bonding.” He shrugged. “Then things took off from there.”

            “How long did it take for her to learn about you being a vampire?”

            “Not long, actually. She was a bit uneasy about me after a while when she knew, but that changed after Damon and I saved her from another vampire.”

            “So that’s it? She never got scared of you? You guys just got together after that? Drama-free?”

            Stefan crossed his arms. “There’s no such thing as a drama-free world.”

            “True,” I mused. “So, are you going to give me details, or do I have to fish them out from Elena and Damon? Or should I go to Caroline and Bonnie?”

            “There’s a lot that’s happened since then, Faith, so much that you might easily get lost.”

            “Can you give a short summary?” I pleaded.

            “Probably not.” He smiled.

            “There’s that much?” I pouted. So much for staying on a lighter topic. I can still keep it going somehow. I’ve got to keep the subject on them. “How did Elena become a vampire?”

            Stefan seemed a little bit uncomfortable.

            “You don’t have to tell me if it’s a problem,” I added quickly.

            “No, it’s okay,” he assured me. “She drowned in a river when her car went off Wickery Bridge, but she had vampire blood in her system. She got turned a little over a year ago.”

            “What about you?”

            “I turned in eighteen sixty-four.”

            “Wow. That’s a long time.”  I gave a low whistle. “Do you sometimes wish you weren’t a vampire?”

            “Yes and no,” he admitted. He started walking, I reflexively followed him. “Going through what I have since I became a vampire was—and is—a lot, some of it was almost unbearable. Even now, sometimes I wish I wasn’t here—but other times I’m glad I am. I’ve found someone I love even though she’s become the very thing she and I didn’t want her to turn out to be.”

            “So you wanted her to stay human?”

            “Yes. Nobody should really have to be this way. I think it’s just a cruel thing that happens to good people.”

            “You’re getting dark and deep here, Stefan,” I said uneasily. “Does everybody feel that way, when they first realize what they are?”

            “Oh, I doubt it. I mean, at one point in time, I loved this life. In fact, not long after I turned I was in love with the new life. Believe it or not, Damon was the sensible one at the time.”

            “You’re kidding.” I snorted. “I can’t really associate that kind of behavior with him.”

            “Being the responsible brother role constantly switched between us. For a while now, I’ve been the responsible one.”

            “I can see it,” I said thoughtfully.

            My head throbbed painfully. A dizzy spell started to creep on me. I came to a halt, shutting my eyes, hoping to defeat the dizziness. Breathe in, breathe out, I chanted mentally. Breathe in, breathe out. In, out. In, out. I opened my eyes to feel even dizzier. Well, that didn’t help.

            Stefan noticed, stopping to gaze at me.

            “Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

            “I don’t think so,” I whimpered. “I think I need to sit down.” I plopped a seat on the grass floor, pressing my head between my knees.

I continued to suck in long breaths and blow them out slowly. I flinched when I felt a hand rubbing my back. No doubt Stefan was being patient with me. My nails dug into my palms, fighting the urge—whatever it was. That was starting to annoy me, the unknown urge my hands wanted to do.

            After a long minute, I picked my head back up.

            “Any better?” Stefan asked carefully.

            “A little.”

            “Maybe fresh air wasn’t the best idea.”

            “Maybe not.”

            “Come on, let’s get you back.”

            Stefan tugged me up. I felt him get stiff next to me. I shook my head a fraction to try and help the dizzy feeling. If anything, it made it twice as worse. I groaned, but Stefan shushed me. He twisted his head around, green eyes narrowed in suspicion. While he was looking at the perimeter around us, I stared at him nervously. Did his super hearing pick up something mine couldn’t? Were the hunters in the area, spying on us, waiting for the right moment to spring?

            “What do you hear?” I muttered lowly.

            “I think someone’s watching us,” he whispered. He scanned the trees around us intently.

            “How do you know? Can you see them?”

            “I can hear them breathing.”

            “What do we do?”

            “Walk back casually.”

            We made an effort to walk back as casually as possible. Stefan didn’t hesitate to glance over our shoulders to see if his suspected watcher was following us. My heart beat loudly in my chest. Was Stefan just paranoid like I was, or was he serious? Had Chase or Brooke decided to come looking for me and we happened to cross paths?

            I blanched. What if they suspected Stefan was a vampire? Would they follow us back and try to attack the house later on? I started hyperventilating. My thoughts were starting to scare me. My anxiety made Stefan usher me back to the house a little quicker—at a human pace, of course.

            When we crossed back into the house, we heard Elena’s and Damon’s voices coming from the living room. With Stefan still hanging onto me, he guided me to where Elena and Damon were. Their heads were already cocked towards us before we even came into their sight. Elena’s mouth dropped a little bit. I saw Damon’s concern in his eyes.

            “What happened now?” Elena panicked, leaping to us. She felt my face. “Did hunters find you?”

            “No, Faith just felt a little dizzy,” Stefan explained, handing me over to Elena. “Fresh air didn’t really agree with her.”

            “I’ll say.” Elena put her cheek to my forehead.

            “I’m not running a fever, I’m just dizzy,” I snapped.

            “And bitchy,” Damon piped. Elena and I shot him dirty looks. “Somebody came down with PMS.”

            “Watch it, Damon,” Elena growled at him. She put her attention back onto me. “Do you need to lie down?”

            “Yeah, I think so,” I confessed. “By the way, we might’ve been watched while we were out.”

            “What?”

            “I’ll give you a full report,” Damon assured Elena as he passed us. “Stefan and I are going to have a little talk.” They both disappeared down the hallway.

Elena put me on the couch. Immediately, I felt uncomfortable. That damn lump in the couch hurt my back. I sat up, staring at the cushion.

“What, Fay?” Elena asked me.

“Elena,” I started slowly, “has the couch always had a lump in it?”

“Umm…no. Why?”

“It’s been there since last night, and it’s been bothering me.”

I patted the cushion; it felt solid in one area. Elena patted the same area. Her eyes met mine, confused. We both threw up the cushion. My heart dropped into my feet, Elena rose and slowly backed away.

I had been lying on top of a wooden stake without realizing it. 

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