Eternity in Fear

Tracey had always been a rather active dreamer, especially when nightmares occurred. She had a series of bad and dangerous experiences involving sleepwalking and sleeptalking.

Her mind was in a wild frenzy suddenly. All she kept thinking about was that night years ago in Matt’s backyard. Although the event itself remained the same, the horrific man before her looked different.

The haunting black eyes…the viciously sharp teeth…but this time the man that stood before her was Stefan, not Damon. Stefan was the man who attacked her. Stefan is the monster.

Stefan is…

Suddenly, she fell off the bed and onto the hardwood floor. Her eyes bolted open as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings. “Where am I?” she mumbled, clutching her aching skull as she crawled back up onto the bed.

“You’re at my place,” a voice said from a corner of the room. Damon stepped forward with a smirk as he noted Tracey’s confusion toward him. She knew who he was…but something didn’t quite register in her mind.

Hadn’t he been the one Salvatore brother who she believed was the man who attacked her that evening? What happened to her hatred? How come all she felt toward him now was wariness and curiosity?

Damon quickly grew tired of the inquisitive look she was displaying. “Here, let me help,” he offered, rolling his eyes slightly as he speedily ran downstairs to grab her wet clothes from the previous night out of the dryer.

“Uh, thanks I guess,” she mumbled, taking the clothes from this strange person.

He was about to say something else, but the doorbell rang out shrilly in the house. “Guess I better go answer that,” he shrugged, speeding back downstairs.

Elena wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t get a hold of anyone via cell phone, so she decided that she had no choice but to ditch first period and head to the Salvatore place. She was sure that Alaric would let her off the hook just this once for missing his class.

Elena felt her heart skip a couple beats every now and then as she began walking toward the front porch of the boarding house. She knew something was wrong, and logically, that would explain why she felt so…scared going into her own boyfriend’s house.

She gave the bell beside the front door a strong tug and waited for someone – hopefully Stefan – to answer. Damon answered the door with a broad grin. “Elena, what a nice surprise. Wait a minute…today’s a weekday. Shouldn’t you be at school?” he taunted.

“Damon, where’s Tracey? I haven’t heard from her since you said you’d take her home,” she replied, shoving her way inside.

Damon closed the door behind her and watched her walk so gracefully into the nearby parlor. “Nothing to worry about. Her and I had a fine time last night, honestly. She’s upstairs right now.”

Elena knew that Damon hardly ever considered time spent with humans to be “fun” unless he was feeding on them…or toying with them. “Damon, what did you do?” she commanded firmly.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself,” he smirked, knowing that Tracey was about to descend the stairs without even having to turn around and see.

Elena felt slightly relieved when she saw Tracey approaching them – but she stopped cold halfway toward the stairs. Both sides of Tracey’s neck looked like they had been incredibly mauled – so much so that it didn’t quite make sense for her to even be alive due to the blood loss alone.

“Oh my God, Tracey, what happened to you?!” Elena cried, freeing herself from her shocked stupor.

Tracey shook her head a few times as her brow remained furrowed displaying her deep confusion. “I-I don’t remember, Elena. Everything seems so messed up…”

Elena glared over at Damon, knowing all too well what probably happened between them. Damon clearly used his compulsion on her before making her into a meal. Elena felt a sudden, thick amount of self-hatred explode inside of her for her stupidity in trusting Tracey in Damon’s care, of all people.

She changed her course of direction and headed toward Damon with burning anger and determination. She angrily shoved his chest with most of her strength, disregarding the fact that it hardly had any desired effect on him.

“You better fix this right now, or else I’ll–.”

He leaned forward, staring at her dangerously. “You’ll what, Elena? Surely you wouldn’t kill me. Look, if it makes you feel better I can fix Tracey’s boo boos.”

He slid past her, purposely causing his shoulder to slam into hers. He casually bit into his wrist and grabbed Tracey’s hand, pulling her into him. He shoved his bloody wrist into her mouth and forced her to take in the blood. Within seconds, her neck was back to normal, without any sign that she had ever been so brutally chewed on in the first place.

“Are you okay?” Elena whispered, carefully hugging Tracey while glaring at Damon over her shoulder.

“Y-yeah I guess. Ugh, Elena, my head is killing me! I can hardly remember anything after we met up at the Grill last night. All my memories feel like they’ve been tampered with.”

Elena was about to continue her interrogation, but stopped short when she saw Stefan enter the room. Tracey suddenly shrunk back in fear as she stared at Stefan with a horrified expression.

“It was you,” she mumbled, “you attacked me that night…?”

Elena was confused. At first, it sounded like Tracey was accusing Stefan, but then it sounded more like she wasn’t so sure about it. Elena did, however, understand that Tracey was referring to the night she was attacked in Matt’s backyard.

She didn’t understand why she thought it was Stefan, though. Stefan wasn’t even in Mystic Falls at that time… Stefan’s face held a horrified mixture of regret and confusion.

“Tracey, what are you talking about?” he asked, addressing Tracey but glaring at Damon knowing that he had something to do with all of this.

“Why does everyone feel the need to be giving me such hurtful stares this morning?” Damon cried out, feigning the feeling of hurt.

“Oh, let’s see…you basically kidnap my friend, drink her blood, and mess with her memory,” Elena snarled.

“Hey,” Damon held his hands out in defense, “for what it’s worth, she enjoyed it…and I think that clearly Stefan is the one who should be the recipient of the death glare today, I mean look at how he’s caused Tracey to totally shrink back into the corner.”

Stefan couldn’t believe this was happening. At first, he thought all he had to worry about was Damon telling Elena that he had bitten Tracey first, but now…now Tracey is so afraid of him for some reason, and he was almost positive that it didn’t have to do with last night.

“Y-you just stay away from me,” Tracey said, hiding behind Damon.

“Stefan…did you do something to her?” Elena asked quietly.

It was then that Stefan realized he was royally screwed in both cases. Damon made it so that it wouldn’t even have to be him who revealed the truth.

“E-Elena, it was Stefan who bit me first…Damon joined in after,” Tracey explained, “and my mind is telling me that it was in fact Stefan who attacked me in Matt’s yard…but that part I feel may not hold as much validity for some reason.”

Elena’s eyes widened in shock and horror as she stared at the man she thought she loved. This had become more than just him chewing on Tracey…it also meant that he’d been drinking human blood this entire time, without her even knowing!

She stalked over to her boyfriend and slapped him as hard as she could across the face, not really caring that it probably wouldn’t hurt him as much as she’d wish. The pale red mark that had appeared on his face vanished in seconds and was instead replaced with an intense hurt look.

“Elena, I –.”

“Just stop, Stefan. Stop with the lies and secrets. Tracey and I are leaving,” she said firmly, grabbing Tracey’s arm and leading her out of the boarding house.

After the sound of an engine revving up was heard outside the door, Damon closed in on his brother, mockingly applauding. “What have you done, Damon?” Stefan asked with a pained expression on his face.

“No, brother, what have you done? How could you have so heartlessly attacked that poor girl twice?”

Stefan’s eyes seemed to pierce Damon’s as he searched for answers. “It was you, wasn’t it?” he spoke softly, “you attacked her back then…and used last night’s weakness to mess with her memories.”

“We have a winner!” Damon smirked cruelly. “Now that the new girl has her fear of me under control, I can really start to have some fun.”

Stefan was relieved that Tracey would be going back to Matt’s tonight. But regardless, he needed to make this right. Damon had no right to be tormenting her like this.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Elena asked worriedly as she parked her car in the school’s parking lot.

Sure, no one would really take class seriously now that summer vacation was just a week or so away, but that didn’t ease Elena’s mind.

Tracey nodded as she got out of the car. “If I went back to Matt’s place, I’d just be alone until he got back. The last thing I want is to be alone right now.”

Tracey followed Elena on and off through her classes, occasionally stopping every now and then to catch up with a teacher she used to have. So many people gave her sympathetic smiles, which were honestly starting to bother her. She was almost positive that the bandages on her neck didn’t help her situation.

It was noon now, which meant Tracey had to find her way back to the cafeteria to meet up with Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie for lunch.

Noticing that none of them noticed her amongst the masses of people walking around, Tracey smirked to herself as she sneaked up behind her friends. Hey, just because she had a horrific night/morning did not mean her afternoon had to be ruined.

Just as she was closing in, she ended up freezing in her tracks as she caught wind of the conversation they were having, assuming no one was listening to them.

“I feel so bad for Matt. First his mom makes out with Tyler, then they find Vicki’s body in a shallow grave,” Bonnie sighed.

Caroline cringed as she recalled stumbling down the slippery hill and discovering the corpse in the first place. “What the hell? Is Vicki dead?” Tracey demanded, slamming herself down into the last available seat at the table.

Everyone looked surprised, but unfortunately it wasn’t by her own design. “Y-you didn’t know?” Elena asked.

“I was just under the impression that Vicki ran away or something. Why would Matt not tell me about that?” she replied, suddenly feeling betrayed. Actually, it wasn’t just Matt…everyone at this table knew about Vicki’s death, yet no one cared to tell her that her own cousin was dead.

“He probably didn’t tell you yet because he wanted to protect you. We haven’t seen you in so long…he didn’t want to ruin your time here.”

“Well, it’s a little too late for that,” she spat.

Tracey felt tears stream down her face as she ran out into the school’s parking lot dead set on nothing more than retrieving her things from Matt’s house and finding another place of lodging.

Tracey groaned as her tired legs continued pushing forward, allowing her body to keep moving down the main road. She could only imagine the crazy looks people would give her as they drove by. But that was honestly the last thing on her mind right now.

Matt’s house was quiet and empty when she arrived, as she expected, considering Matt was still in school, totally unaware of her anger. She made her way to the spare room and shoved all her belongings back into the duffle bag.

With one last look at the house she thought she knew, she went out the front door and back down the long road, having no clue what to do or where to go.

She expected Elena or someone at the table to tell Matt eventually, and she refused to wait around and see. It was close to 2:30 now and the sun was directly overhead.

Just when exhaustion about overcame here, a car pulled up next to her at a slowed speed. She heard the sound of the window rolling down and a voice ask.

“Need a ride?”