Eternity in Fear

Elena walked into a surprisingly empty house. It seemed lately that everyone in what was left of her family was busy being with someone else. Jeremy has been enjoying his time with his new girlfriend, in secret of course. And it would seem that Jenna and Alaric took quite a liking to each other as well. Elena was glad to see Jenna moving on, not only because Logan was a complete douche bag…but also because Logan was a douche bag with a blood lust.

She was about to pop a hot pocket in the microwave, when her phone began vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out, surprised to see the caller ID read: Matt. “Hello?” she answered, curiously.

“Hey, Elena, glad I could get a hold of you. You’ll never guess who showed up at my place today!”

Elena laughed, feeling completely stumped. “Who?”

“Tracey…you remember, my cousin?”

Elena was completely shocked, and excited all at the same time. “You’re kidding! Oh my God how is she?”

“Pretty good…she looks great, and apparently managed to survive her first year at college. Anyway, I was thinking a bunch of us could meet up at the Grill and catch up? I have work tonight, but I’m sure I could stop by and visit in between breaks,” he suggested.

“Yeah, of course. That would be great. See you at 7 then?”

“Seven it is.” Elena slid the frozen food back into the cardboard box. Could it be that normalcy was finally returning to her life?

“Elena, what a nice surprise,” Damon smirked as he opened the wooden door, knowing all too well that she was approaching.

“Hi, Damon,” she said briefly, “is Stefan home?”

“Why do you ask?”

She rolled her eyes, “Ok, Damon, I appreciate you saving Stefan like you did, and I understand that you’re still experiencing a lot of pain, but I can’t keep the pity act going on forever.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, almost nearly reaching a bitter glare. “I don't need your pity, got it?” he said quietly.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Stefan asked, looking back and forth between Damon and Elena.

“Elena just invited us to go out and spend the entire night with her! So, where are we going?” he smirked.

Elena gave Damon a hard look before turning to face Stefan. “One of my oldest friends just came back to town for a visit and Matt is bringing her over to the Grill.”

“Sounds like a blast!” Damon cheered, grabbing his leather jacket and leading the way out the door.

Elena and Stefan exchanged concerned glances as they walked to her car. It might not be such a good idea to unleash an emotionally unpredictable vampire on Tracey’s first night back…but it looked like there wouldn’t be any other way.

“Aww, you look so cute in your uniform!” Tracey teased as she got in the passenger seat of Matt’s truck.

He rolled his eyes, “Hey, someone has to pay the bills around here.”

Tracey stared at the passing scenery as a single question constantly penetrated her thoughts. “Matt, where are Vicki…and your mom?”

Matt glanced over at her briefly, unsure how to answer. “You know how my mom can be. You actually just missed her. She came back for a couple weeks…I…well, I wanted her gone, Trace. She was just messing everything up. And Vicki, uh, I honestly don’t know where she’s at right now. Jeremy was the last one to see her. Said she was dropping out of school and headed out for a drug-induced crazy trip.”

“I’m sure she’ll be back soon, Matt. One of these days she’ll realize she’s making a mistake…that’s why I stopped before it got out of hand,” Tracey said, recalling her days back when she was obsessed with the stuff.

“Yeah,” Matt said quietly. An uncomfortable wave of silence descended upon the truck. Luckily, the Grill wasn’t that far away.

It didn’t take Matt long to spot a group of people over by the pool tables. “Ah, it looks like you’ll get to meet Elena’s new boyfriend,” Matt whispered with a laugh before they approached the table.

Elena and Tracey made eye contact first, and they both screamed as they ran to approach each other. “Tracey, what are you doing here? I almost didn’t believe Matt when he told me…it was too good to be true,” she gushed.

Tracey shrugged, “I had enough of Pennsylvania. This is where I belong…and where I will be spending the rest of my summer vacation.”

“Alright, well you guys get the party started…I’m gonna go clean off some tables,” Matt announced.

Caroline weaved her way around the table and wrapped her arms around his neck. “How about a kiss?” she asked with a small smile. Matt couldn’t resist the look on her face and leaned in for a kiss. Tracey felt her jaw drop as she ran over to Caroline.

“You and Matt are a thing?” Tracey asked excitedly, sincerely shocked at how much things really had changed around there.

Caroline nodded, “Yep, our two month is coming up soon!”

“Speaking of boys,” Elena added, “I’d like you to meet my boyfriend. Tracey, this is Stefan.”

He stepped forward with a smile and shook Tracey’s hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said.

“Now that all the catching up is taken care of, let’s get this party started!” Tracey cheered grabbing a stick off the wall and breaking the triangular set of balls up across the pool table.

“Nice shot,” Bonnie said shocked.

“What can I say, the years have made me quite talented,” Tracey laughed.

Having Tracey back in town felt just like the good old times – at the beginning of high school, even way back to grade school. It was almost as if she had never left…but despite that feeling everyone all knew that was a blatant lie. Seeing her again brought back memories to everyone, except Stefan, about the whole reason why Tracey left Mystic Falls in the first place.

Her parents did a good job covering up what actually happened, and perhaps no one but Tracey could honestly say what happened. Moreover, Tracey, and Caroline for that matter, were completely out of the whole circle of knowledge when it came to the facts that Stefan and Damon were vampires…a group of starved vampires were out in hiding…countless people have died…and that the worst was still yet to come. She probably didn’t even hear that Elena’s parents had died.

Everything looked the same, but no matter how hard they tried, they knew it wasn’t, and never could be.

As the night wore on, eventually Elena, Stefan, and Tracey were left sitting in a booth, reminiscing and getting to know each other. “Remember that one time we convinced Caroline to dress up like a goth for one day of school sophomore year?” Tracey laughed.

Elena replied, “Oh my God I almost completely forgot about that! You know, I don’t think we could get her to do that again, even if she was drunk.”

“Yeah, I’d have to agree with you on that one…I can’t even picture that.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure one of us has pictures somewhere,” Tracey said.

“So, are you going to be staying with Matt?” Elena asked.

Tracey nodded, “Yeah, I just got here a couple hours ago, actually. It was weird being back at first.”

Again, images of Matt’s backyard flashed in Tracey’s mind, and she tried to repress them by guzzling some water.

“Is it…is it hard being there?” Elena asked, concern in her eyes.

Tracey knew it was going to be addressed sooner or later, and she would’ve much rather preferred the “later” option. “I tell myself to forget about it. But it’s so damn hard, Elena. Being there…seeing the very place where it all happened.”

“You know your parents spent a lot of time talking with Sheriff Forbes and Logan…do you know what the news said the next day, after you left?”

Tracey had no idea what her parents came up with to cover the truth, so she shook her head no. Elena explained, “On his report, Logan said that…that you were near ODing and began losing touch with reality, hallucinating. They said that you thought you were being attacked, but weren’t able to realize that you were attacking yourself…something along the lines of using a broken glass bottle to inflict the wounds…”

Tracey felt her face contort in horror. How could her parents make her out to be some sort of lunatic like that?! “I can’t fucking believe that!” she fumed, “I know what I saw that night. A man approached me…”

“Tracey, what exactly did he do?”

Tracey felt tears lining the edges of her eyes. “There’s no point in hearing what I have to say. It’s…impossible.”

“I know that I have no idea what’s going on here, but please Tracey, it sounds like you do know what happened…it’s important you tell us,” Stefan pleaded. Both of them seemed truly interested.

Tracey considered telling them, thinking that maybe if she told someone else, they could help. Just as she was about to explain, another person sat down at the table. He was wearing a black leather jacket…and had those piercing blue eyes.

Tracey froze in place, staring at the man. Her body trembled in his presence as she tried desperately to assure herself that this wasn’t real. She wanted to warn Elena and Stefan that they were in danger, but she could hardly breathe. She suddenly scooted out of the booth and stood on wobbly legs.

“I…have to go…I need some fresh air,” she mumbled, running for the door.

Without hesitation, she stepped out into the pouring rain and leaned up against the wall. This cannot be happening to me, she thought as her tears began mixing with the raindrops.

Elena and Stefan turned to face Damon with suspicious stares. “Hey,” he defended, “I didn’t do anything wrong for once. Guess I better go find her and bring her back to the party.” Damon stood up and walked calmly toward the exit. He didn’t care for that girl’s reaction and he was going to fix it.