Eternity in Fear

Tracey Donovan exhaled a stale breath of relief as she felt the plane skid slightly along the runway. Flying wasn’t her favorite activity, but then again neither was spending the summer at her parents’ house. A trip to Mystic Falls would do her some good, or at least that was the best she could hope for. It had been such a long time since her family moved away, she wasn’t sure that her old friends would even remember her.

She groaned as she saw the excessively long line winding around the rental car counter. The last thing she wanted was further delaying of her arrival. She dug into her purse and pulled out a small memo notebook that she used to jot her thoughts down from time to time. Absent mindedly, she found herself writing the date ‘June 1st, 2005’ between the lines. Of course returning to her hometown would bring back memories…particularly the bad ones.

Tracey was spending the night over at her cousins’ house…their mom was out of town again, so it was the perfect place to hide out, pop some pills, and smoke some weed. Tracey, Vicki, and some of Vicki’s stoner pals fell in and out of hazed laughter and uncontrollable babbling.

“Hey…I’m gonna go grab me a Dr. Pepper,” Tracey announced to no one in particular as she crawled up the staircase.

The house was dark upstairs, which made Tracey wonder why they were hiding in the basement in the first place. She shrugged it off, clearly not crashing down from her buzz just yet. As she reached into the refrigerator, she heard a loud noise outside…it kind of sounded like something ran into the trashcan.

“Ooh, maybe it’s a raccoon!” she exclaimed, running outside and scanning the narrow yard.

The only wildlife that she found in the yard was a menacing crow perched up on the twisted pole of the weathered metal fence that surrounded the yard. “Creepy…,” she muttered, turning back around to walk inside, disappointed.

But when she spun around, she found someone blocking her path. Due to her lack of awareness and lack of a full moon, she was unable to identify who was in front of her.

“Matt, is that you?” she asked, squinting in an attempt to clear her vision.

“Nowhere near,” the stranger replied, grabbing forward and slamming her up against the vinyl siding of the house.

“You wouldn’t happen to have anything to eat would you?” he asked nodding toward the opened door.

“I’m sure there’s something in there…” she breathed out, suddenly feeling very frightened.

“Now why would I bother walking all the way over there, when a perfectly delicious meal is sitting right in front of me,” he replied, leaning in closer.

The light in the kitchen flickered on as someone closed the door. Through the thin lining, Tracey could tell that everyone else finally took the party upstairs. But as she turned back to her attacker, she realized that she was now able to see him in this newfound light.

He was near perfect in the looks department – vibrant blue eyes, thick dark brown hair…a face she could never forget. But his features suddenly contorted into a nightmarish appearance. His eyes turned black as small red vein-like lines crawled along his face. Fangs emerged from his gums and without a further word, he placed one hand tightly over her mouth before sinking his fangs deeply into her warm, inviting flesh.

He didn’t care whether she died or not, just so long as he was filled. Besides, he’d be leaving town soon…he needed to make this quick. Her body eventually stopped struggling against his grip and fell limp against his chest. Once he was done with her, he let her body fully drop to the ground. Blood pooled out of the gaping hole in her neck.

He took just one moment longer to observe her face. She was pretty, honestly, he thought, such a shame she needed to come outside.

“Miss? Excuse me, miss?” the receptionist asked, growing slightly impatient.

Tracey blinked a couple times, shocked that she actually managed to get lost in that horrible memory. She apologized quickly and requested a red Mustang convertible as her rental of choice. She didn’t care what the cost was, Tracey was determined to enjoy herself this summer – regardless of what might ever try to get in her way.



“Soo, what do you think the chances are that all of this weird supernatural stuff is going to die down now that school’s almost over?” Bonnie sighed, as she joined Elena and Stefan at the lunch table.

Stefan allowed a small smile to appear on his face as he said, “Well, you’re still going to be a witch and…I’m still going to be a vampire…”

Bonnie gasped and chucked an apple at his face, which he easily caught in time.

Elena laughed as she watched the scene. It was nice to see her best friend and boy friend finally getting along. In fact, it was even enough to allow her to forget about whatever danger may lie in the future. That can be handled later. “You know what? That may all be true, but that shouldn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves,” she added.

“Wow, someone’s in a good mood today!” Caroline observed as she sat down at the table, Matt trailing shortly behind her.

“Are you still gonna throw your annual end of the school year party?” Bonnie asked.

Caroline grinned, “Of course I am, silly! In fact why don’t you two boys go throw around a football or something? Us girls have some serious planning to do.”

“Actually, I think I’m just gonna head back home. Got work tonight,” Matt said, waving to the group before heading off to his truck.

Stefan also decided it would be best to return home as well…after all, he never knew what to expect from Damon.

Even though five years have passed since Tracey had been around the area, she still remembered all the back roads. The sun was setting soon though, and being alone on a relatively empty forested road didn’t sound too appealing.

The city finally came into view after turning one more corner. Just as I remembered it, she thought happily, driving past the Grill. But her smile disappeared as soon as it had arrived.

As she rolled to a stop after reaching a red light, her eyes caught a glance of a man wearing a leather jacket…with black hair. He didn’t notice her stare, and she made sure to turn the other way before he could. There’s no way that could be the same monster. He was walking around while the sun was still slightly up, after all.

Just to be safe, she glanced over in that direction again…but the man was no longer there. “Just get a hold of yourself, Trace, keep the past in the past already,” she told herself, turning onto Matt’s street. She felt her heartbeat return to a relatively more normal pace as she grinned mischievously, imagining how shocked him and Vicki would be to see her.

Tracey parked her car on the gravel driveway leading to the back door of the house. She refused to cringe, even after passing the area where the attack happened. “This is supposed to be fun,” she reminded herself, reaching down and taking the spare key out from under a nearby ceramic plant pot. Some things never change, she thought with a smile as she unlocked the door and stepped inside.

As soon as she shut the door behind her, she heard the other door near the front of the house shut simultaneously. She headed over to the living room and, for the first time in five long years, came face to face with her cousin. Matt stared at the girl standing across from him in the living room. It was a face that he thought he’d never see again…especially the way her parents reacted after the…accident.

“Tracey!” he exclaimed, running to her and wrapping his arms tightly around her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“It’s summer vacation, silly…or at least for me it is,” she laughed.

“Well, I figured, but I mean how are you here? Do your parents know?”

She scoffed, “It’s their fault we had to move away from here in the first place. I honestly don’t give a shit whether they find out or not. You wouldn’t mind if I crashed here for the summer, right?”

Matt gave her a sympathetic smile. He may not have witnessed her attack, but he knew almost all too well what she was going through…after all, Vicki went through the same thing. He needed to get his mind off these bad memories.

“Of course you can stay here…it’s kind of…lonely,” he replied, knowing she’d just assume that his mom and Vicki ran off again. He couldn’t bear to tell her about Vicki’s death…not yet.

“God, Matt, with a hesitation that long I was almost worried you were gonna say no!” she laughed, playfully punching his arm.

He shrugged, “You’re cute when you’re all anxious like that. Anyway, I bet you’re gonna want to meet up with everyone else, right? A lot of things have happened since you left…”

A smirk formed on her face. “Wait, did you and Elena finally take it to the next level?!”

He smiled – fake, but convincing nevertheless – and said, “Yeah, actually last summer we dated for a couple months, but it didn’t really work out. She’s with a new guy now.”

Matt wasn’t ready to fill in all the empty holes just yet. It might be too much for Tracey to handle upon first arriving.

“Aw, I’m so sorry Matt,” she replied, giving him another hug for comfort. She still couldn’t believe that Elena would pick someone over Matt…from eighth grade, Tracey was sure they’d end up getting married…so then, who could be better than him?