Lois was being haunted.

She was certain of it.

Jenna had a night class which meant that she wasn't at home, so Elena had taken over the unspoken duty of babysitting Lois.

Unfortunately for Lois, that meant accompanying Elena to the high school football game that was happening at the school.

"You're not in your uniform," Lois murmured, looking over at her older sister as she drove them over to the school.

Elena grimaced, "I, uh, I quit actually."

Lois blinked in surprise, but didn't respond.

It was surprising to her considering all Elena had spoken about over the summer was 'getting back to normal' and normal for Elena Gilbert was being on the cheerleading team with Bonnie Bennett and Caroline Forbes.

Lois wasn't stupid, she could tell that Elena's heart really wasn't in it anymore, but she was still a little surprised that Elena had actually quit.

Her sister was not a quitter.

"You seem surprised," a voice spoke from the back seat of Elena's car.

Lois forced herself not to jump in surprise, instead choosing to wrap her fingers tightly around her seat belt and forcing her gaze out of the window.

The boy pouted, "Must you ignore me?"

Lois pressed her lips together firmly and squeezed her eyes shut.

She had hoped that by ignoring him he would grow bored and disappear.

It hadn't worked so far.

"You okay, Lois?"

It took a moment for her to register that it was Elena speaking and not the ghost, the realisation making her snap her eyes open.

"Yes, sorry..."

Elena didn't seem convinced, but she never did. Lois wasn't a good liar, and ever since the incident at her dinner gathering, Elena had been hovering like a helicopter parent and walking on eggshells as if Lois was going to break at any moment.

"We never used to lie to each other. When did we all stop talking to each other, trusting each other?"

Lois wasn't sure if it was a rhetorical question, but didn't answer anyway, instead choosing to press her lips firmly together ignoring Elena's burning gaze and the burning gaze of the ghost in the back seat.

⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱᐧ.˳˳.⋅

"Wait! Let's be honest here," Mr Tanner's voice boomed across the crowd of gathered students. "In the past, we used to let other teams into our town and roll right over us!"

The crowd booed in response.

"But that is about to change!" Mr Tanner continued and the crowd cheered.

"We've got some great new talent tonight starting on the offence, and I'm gonna tell you right now, it has been a long time since I have seen a kid like this with hands like these. Let's give it up for Stefan Salvatore!"

Lois noticed Tyler looking pissed not too far away from her, muttering about it being unfair, "This blows."

Her gaze flicked along the sea of faces before falling on one similar to her own.

"Hey!" She called, walking over to Jeremy. "You shoved off babysitting duty to Elena because you weren't coming to this thing, now you're here?"

Jeremy had the decency to look sheepish, "Sorry, Lo."

Lois rolled her eyes before jokingly shoving her brother, "Just say you don't want to hang out with me, jeez!"

"Is that Jeremy?"

"Wait, no! Ty! No. Leave him alone."

The voices were closer now, and Lois recognised them to belong to Tyler Lockwood and Vicki Donovan.

"Don't look so down," Tyler jeered. "You can have her when I'm done."

Lois barely had time to register what was happening before Jeremy hit Tyler.

Then both teens were on the floor, landing blow after blow on each other.

Snapping out of it, Lois began to shout alongside Vicki, "Stop, you're hurting him! Tyler! Tyler, stop!"

Out of nowhere, Stefan Salvatore appeared and grabbed Tyler's wrist, "Hey! He's down, enough!"

Seemingly blinded with rage, Tyler reactively punched Stefan in the gut. Lois watched as fear flashed across Tyler's face when Stefan didn't react at all. That force of a punch should have had Stefan sprawling on the floor.

"Eloise, move!"

Shivers wracked her body as Lois leapt out of the way. Her mind was reeling from the sensation of the ghost boy trying to grab her, presumably to pull her out of harm's way.

The other part of her mind was trying to comprehend the scene unfolding in front of her.

Jeremy picking up a broken glass bottle, swinging it towards Tyler.

Elena screaming out in fear, "Jeremy, no!"

In the same moment, Matt Donovan tackling Tyler Lockwood.

Stefan Salvatore's hand being sliced by the bottle.

Then everything started moving normally again.

Lois lurched forward, knocking the bottle from Jeremy's hand as he stared at it.

Her quiet, "Are you okay?" was muffled by Elena's much louder, "What the hell, Jeremy?!"

"Put your head up, you're bleeding!" Elena continued.

"Elena, you're meant to lean slightly forwards," Lois corrected, tilting her brothers' head and ignoring the flashing images. "He could choke."

Jeremy jerked away from Elena, snapping, "I'm fine."

Elena scoffed, "Yeah, you smell fine."

"Just stop, okay?"

Jeremy stormed off and Lois looked between her sister and brother.

"Will you go and check on him? Let me know if he's okay?" Elena asked, her mood suddenly sullen.

Lois nodded, but Elena was already turning to Stefan to analyse the cut from the bottle.

"Jeremy, wait!"

⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱᐧ.˳˳.⋅

Jeremy had disappeared from sight and all the fluttering auras of the students around her had Lois feeling sick. She'd tracked down Elena for her keys and sought refuge in her car until the game was over.

"Damon Salvatore attempted to compel your sister to kiss him," a voice spoke. "She hit him."

A laugh bubbled up and escaped before Lois even realised what she was doing. She was supposed to be ignoring the ghost, not acknowledging his existence.

"So you can hear me," The voice continued, and Lois turned to face the boy who was sat in the driver's seat. "You do wound me when pretending I do not exist, darling."

Lois bit her already chapped lips.

"I'm... I'm sorry. I'm not normally a rude person, I swear. It's just... you appeared out of nowhere and I'm the only one who can hear you, let alone see you and it's a very confusing situation for me, okay?"

The boy blinked at Lois' rambled speech, a smile creeping across his face.

"Yes, well, I apologise for my part in that," He said. "But you must understand, I have spent over one thousand summers alone, unable to interact with my surroundings, I was quite excited when I saw you looking at me."

Lois blushed, "I wasn't looking, I was staring. You're..."

"Covered in blood?" He supplied, watching as Lois' face turned to one of unease. "Yes, it appears that my untimely death must haunt me in more ways than one. I do apologise if I frightened you."

"I wasn't frightened of you, I was frightened for you. I wondered what had happened and if I could help... before I realised that you were, uh..."

"Dead? That is very kind of you, my darling, but I am afraid that the damage has already been done."

"Why are you here?" Lois asked abruptly, before covering her mouth with her hand apologetically. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just... why me?"

The ghost boy shrugged, "I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that... But I would like to stick around, if you'd let me?"

Lois blinked in surprised, she hadn't expected the ghost to ask her if he could continue haunting her.

"I, uh," Lois stumbled, but quickly recovered seeing the subtle fear on the boy's face. She couldn't imagine being alone for so long and then having the one chance of communication being taken away. "Sure, why not? I'm already the local lunatic, so talking to a ghost shouldn't be that big of a change."

The boy beamed in response, his smile showing quite how youthful his features were.

"Oh, this is fantastic news! I realise we have not exchanged formal introductions as of yet, what with you ignoring my existence, but allow me to introduce myself," The boy smiled charmingly. "My name is Henrik, Henrik Mikaelson."

____

AURA COLOUR CHART

red: energy, strength, anger, lust, passion, ego

orange: self control, ambition, thoughtfulness, courage

yellow: optimistic, happy, intellectual, naive

light green: peaceful, healing, compassion

dark green: deceitful, jealousy, moody

light blue: fear, indecisive, sensitive, skepticism

dark blue: spiritual, loyal, creative, kind

violet: wisdom, intuition, highly spiritual

indigo: benevolence, highly intuitive, seeker

pink: love, sincerity, friendship

grey: depression, sadness, exhaustion, low energy, skepticism

brown: greed, self-involvement, opinionated

black: lacking energy, illness, imminent death

white: perfect balance