Eat Your Heart Out

It was not going to be a good day. It was not going to be a good day because I had back to back nightmares last night that involved Jeremiah and Damon. The fact that they both made it into multiple dreams at the same time freaked me out – because they kept trying to save me from the other.

Dragging my feet down the linoleum tiled hallway of the high school, I finally made it to my locker, managed to get it open, and switched out my morning class supplies for my afternoon ones and grabbed my lunch. An arm reached above me and placed black fabric where my lunch had sat previously. I blinked a couple times and turned to see Stefan, arm gently wrapped around Elena’s shoulders.

“You’re hat.” He said using his head to point back at my locker.

“Oh, thanks.” I replied, shutting it slowly so that hopefully it wouldn’t make too much noise.

“Are you okay, Kris?” Elena said as we headed into the cafeteria together.

I nodded, letting out a yawn. “Just a rough night of sleep,” I gave her a small smile of reassurance.

“Do you think you can make it through practice today?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed at me like a concerned mother.

I chuckled. “Still would have to go even if I couldn’t,” I replied as Caroline ran over to greet us.

~*~

“We have one week left to practice this so it needs to be basically perfect now!” Caroline ordered as we, the crew, sat on the stage, looking down at her. “I know everyone is tired and
I mean, I am too, but we have to pull through. We are almost at the end of all this and it will be completely worth it, I promise. Thank you for your time and see you tomorrow!”

We all let out quiet groans and headed behind the stage to gather everything. It was about 8pm and I still had a ton of work to do when I got home, not to mention making something that was not blood for my brothers – since they wanted to try and keep certain human qualities.

Swinging by my locker, I grabbed the books I needed for my homework and my hat, shut the door, and headed out the side door toward the parking lot Aiden said that he would be waiting for me. Stepping out into the chilly air, I walked briskly to the red car, excited to once more be surrounded by heat, except that’s when the headache hit again – ten times worse than before.

I fell, hard, dropping everything and clutching my head. I felt that someone was repeatedly bouncing cinderblocks on it. I let out a cry, tears streaming from my eyes, as the pain intensified each passing second.

Someone knelt beside me, grabbing my arm and placing a warm hand on my back, mumbling something I couldn’t hear because my hands were covering my ears. One of the hands moved onto mine and gently pulled it away from my right ear.

“Kris, can you hear me? What’s wrong?”

That wasn’t Aiden’s voice.

“Make. The pain. Stop!” I choked out, letting out another painful scream as the pressure built in my head.

“You’re going to have to get –“

“Get away from her!”

That was Aiden’s voice.

“I’m just trying to help-“

“Yeah, sure, just like last time-“

“I didn’t do anything last time, you fucking moron! I-“

“BOTH OF YOU STOP!” I shouted lifting my head quickly to look between my brother and Damon, which proved to be a bad idea and I immediately put my head back down. “I just want the pain to stop!” I cried slightly, covering my ears again. Maybe it was an intense migraine.

There was shuffling and muffled words and someone picked me up with ease. I wasn’t sure who at this point, and I really didn’t care. I kept my ears covered and my eyes shut and was placed in the back of a car. I was never sure of what happened next, because the pain became so bad that I passed out.

~*~

When I came to, I near had a heart attack and went back under because Eric’s face was right next to mine. “Good morning, sunshine!” He said almost too happily, he took a step back, giving me a chance to breathe and look around the room.

There was white – just a whole lot of white.

I was in a hospital.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Because we wanted to run a MRI on you to see what’s causing these headaches. However, we won’t get the answers for a couple of days.”

“You can come home after they figure out what’s wrong with you,” Aiden finished, arms crossed as he sat rigid in the plastic chair by my bed.

“But why?” I whined, immediately getting a look from my brothers. “Can’t you give me some ‘fruit punch’ and we’ll be off on our way?”

“Because these have been happening for a few years, and they are starting up again. I’m afraid that it may be a pretty long term deal that needs to be fixed.” Eric explained, sitting on the edge of my bed and patting my leg gently.

“Now, you have been asleep for about four hours now, and Eric and I need to get some food into our system. We’ll be back in a bit. Until then, get some more rest.”

“But I just got up-“

Eric stopped me, his pupils dilating as he spoke. “Get some rest until someone wakes you.”
I repeated what he said and nodded, instantly finding it hard to keep my eyes open. Both brothers walked over to me, kissed my forehead, and left about the same time my eyes closed. A fleeting thought ran through me, since Eric compelled me to sleep. Where the hell were my rings?

~~

I walked through the silent halls with confidence, easily convincing the night nurse to make an exception to the visiting hours rule. Ah, here it was, 305 A. I stepped inside only to find her fast asleep. Her breathing was so shallow, it looked like she was dead.

I snorted.

Gently lifting her left hand, I flipped it over and stared down at the scar that stared back up at me. There was no denying it – this had to be her.

Sitting into the plastic chair that was left by her bed, I kept a grip on her arm, trying to rack my brain about how much blood I had given her at the station all those years ago. The wounds should have healed completely, no scars whatsoever. Surely I had covered my tracks properly.

“What’s so interesting about that scar?” She slurred, her free hand rubbing her eyes before she turned and looked at me, not fully recognizing.

“How did you get it?”

“Brothers said a big dog got loose at the station and attacked me. Don’t really remember it actually happening. Eric said that I was suppressing the memory.”

Or someone was suppressing it for her. But really, now? A dog at a train station? “A dog at a train station?”

“Yeah, we were headed back to an airport, and that station in Chicago was going to get this there.”

They had her on something good if she was telling me all this and had yet to recognize me.
“There’s no marks on top.”

She just shrugged, rolling her head towards me.

“Are you sure it’s a dog.”

“’T’swhat my brothers said.”

“But are you sure?”

“I told you, I don’t remember anything.” She was starting to wake up now, I could see it in her blue eyes. I had little time to do this.

“You shouldn’t believe it. And you should ask your brothers what truly happened.” I compelled her, thumbing the scar. The man in her dreams, did he reopen these at some point?

She was awake now. “Damon? What are you doing here – why did they let you in? Visiting hours are way over by now.”

“I know people, and I just popped in to make sure you were still alive. Interesting story of your dog bite, by the way.” I added a smirk.

She stared at me blank for a moment, then her eyes widened. “What all did I tell you?”
“Just enough,” I replied, dropping her wrist and re-focusing on her eyes. “I was never here.
You woke when a nurse came and got you, and then fell back asleep.”

Her eyes closed and her head fell back onto the pillow on the bed. I pulled the covers up a bit more around her and silently left the room.

This was going to be easier than I thought. All I have to do is come it tomorrow, play the role of one extremely concerned about her, and she’ll be gushing information to me in no time. As long as those damn rings stay off her hand.

Silently, I disappeared into the night, heading home for a good night’s rest.