Beyond the Blood

Chapter Five

Jenna was sitting on the sofa in the lounge, watching the news as it reported another animal attack in the woods close to the town; this time it was a hiker who'd been walking alone. She couldn't help but be a little nervous about the party that was occurring out there tonight. As she had said to Autumn yesterday, she doubted that an animal would be bold enough to attack a large group, but at the same time whatever this was didn't seem to be overly bothered by attacking people in pairs, as had been proved by the two people who'd run out of gas the other night.

She heard the sound of a car pulling up on the driveway outside the house. She glanced at the clock; it was only eleven, why were they back so early? The doorbell rang unnecessarily and she got to her feet to let them in, gasping in horror at what she saw.

Caroline was hurrying away from the door to help a man who Jenna didn't recognise, in his arms was the unconscious body of Autumn, her long brown hair falling over his arm.

"What happened?" she asked urgently as they approached the door, and then addressed the man, "Come in, and take her upstairs? Second door on the left"

The man nodded, his dark head bent, and entered the house before heading upstairs, carrying Autumn with apparent ease.

"We don't know!" said Caroline answering Jenna's question, "She had a bit of turn whilst watching the comet and she went off to get a bit of privacy, Damon found her just as she collapsed and then we just brought her straight back here"

"Alright, well you go upstairs and stay with her, I'll call the doctor out," said Jenna hurriedly. Caroline nodded, her eyes slightly wide with panic.

"Oh Caroline!" said Jenna as the girl started up the stairs, "Where's Elena and Jeremy?"

"I called them as we were on the way home, they're following" said Caroline before continuing on her way upstairs.

Jenna nodded after her, even though she couldn't see it, before turning to the phone to call the doctor out – her hands shaking very slightly. The front door opened when she was halfway through the conversation as Elena, Jeremy and Bonnie piled in. Jenna hung up the phone after the doctor confirmed she'd be there as soon as possible.

"Stephen," she heard Elena say, "Don't wait outside, come on in!"

Jenna shook her head slightly; who were all these new people?

She decided to ignore this issue for a moment and simply hurried upstairs to check on Autumn herself as the house descended into noisy chaos, each person in it trying to piece together what was going on.

She clattered up the stairs, nearly colliding with Caroline who was on her way down to inform Elena and Jeremy as to what was going on.

As she entered the bedroom, she saw the man, Damon, who had brought Autumn back standing near the window, looking fairly awkward – as if he didn't know whether to stay or go.

"You can stay if you want," said Jenna, answering his unasked question in an attempt to put him at his ease. He smiled in her direction as a note of thanks.

Jenna turned to the bed where Autumn was lying on her side; they'd clearly put her like that in case she wanted to be sick. She hurried over and felt her forehead – she was burningly hot, and yet her face looked peaceful and untroubled.

"How did you find her?" asked Jenna turning to Damon

"She was in the woods, wandering, I asked her whether she was okay, she said 'no' and then fell forward" he said, "I brought her straight back to the car and got Caroline"

"Oh okay, well thank you for –

"-JENNA!" came Jeremy's voice up the stairs, "Dr. Fell's here!"

Jenna hurried to the door and yelled out, "Alright, show her up!"

The next minute, the doctor, Meredith Fell, came into the bedroom, followed by Elena and Caroline.

"Alright," she said, immediately taking control of the room, "Can I examine her in private please, if I need any help I'll call"

Jenna faltered for a moment, "Can I stay?"

"If you just wait in the hallway," said Dr. Fell firmly but kindly. Jenna nodded and herded the rest of them out into the corridor.

"Alright, well I think I should go," said Damon, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans.

"Oh don't go," said Jenna quickly, "I think we're all going to need a night cap after this is all sorted"

"Well only if you're sure," said Damon

"It'll be fine," said Jenna with a quick smile, slightly taken aback by the intensity of the man's eyes.

"I'll go start sorting it," said Caroline, flitting off down the stairs. Jenna could hear her talking to Bonnie and Stephen downstairs.

"I'll wait downstairs too," said Damon, following swiftly after Caroline leaving just Jenna, Elena and Jeremy in the hallway.

"I don't understand," said Elena, "She was fine when we left her, and she was with her drink all night so it can't be anything like that…"

"Caroline said she was fine, literally until the comet passed over," said Jeremy

"Yeah, but that can't have done anything!" said Elena, "Our health doesn't get affected by big hunks of rock in the sky"

Jeremy just shrugged and nodded, "I know, I was just saying…"

"Well we'll just wait and see what the doctor has to say," said Jenna, knotting her fingers together.

A few moments later the door opened and Dr. Fell emerged.

"Well?" asked Jenna immediately

"Physically she seems okay, her temperature is running quite high however, so that needs monitoring," said Dr. Fell in a business-like manner, "Other than that I could find nothing physical, her resting heart rate appears to be normal, she's got no signs of any blood problems, no nose or eye bleeds are apparent, her stomach is fine, so that rules out most internal difficulties. The only thing I can really think of as a possibility is food poisoning, but seeing as all of you are fine…"

"Yeah and I don't think she's eaten anything that at least one or more of us hasn't over the past couple of days," said Jenna trying to remember.

"The only other thing I could find were two large bruises on her back, with scratches in the middle," said Dr. Fell with a querying look on her face, "Any idea what might have caused them?"

All of them shook their heads; Autumn hadn't mentioned falling or hurting herself recently.

"No idea," said Jenna, "But what now?"

"Well right now she's sleeping," said Dr. Fell, "She might wake soon, or it might a be a couple of hours; just make sure she's kept comfortable and keep an eye on that temperature. If she develops any further symptoms, or remembers anything about what might have caused this, please contact me immediately"

Jenna nodded, "Jeremy would you show the doctor out please?"

The doctor followed after Jeremy to be shown out of the house.

"It's so weird," said Elena as she and Jenna moved to go down the stairs after them.

"Is she gonna be okay?" asked Caroline, worried, as they entered the lounge.

"The doctor seems to think she's going to be fine; she doesn't know what caused it just by examining her, but has told us just to keep an eye on her," said Jenna

Caroline nodded, seemingly assured by this news and then said, "I've just made some tea, and there's some whiskey stood by the side of it if anybody wants a bit"

"Thanks Caroline," said Jenna heading over, "Now – who wants what?"

Damon stood with a cup of tea, laced with whiskey, in his hand, watching the scene of domesticity unfold in front of him. It almost made him smile; he hadn't seen anything like this for quite a long time and he felt a dull ache at the memory of something lost.

He hadn't said much throughout the evening, only deflecting notes of thanks that kept coming his way. He was, however, interested to find out more about what had happened tonight. He had been with Autumn for quite a large proportion of the night and she had been perfectly alright up until the exact moment the comet had passed overhead. Celestial events of that magnitude were rare, but Damon knew enough about them to know that they could affect supernatural events.

His mind had been toying with the idea all night; was there more to the girl upstairs than met the eye? If there was he couldn't fathom it out, and she apparently didn't know anything about it either. He hadn't noticed anything extra special about her, other than the fact that she and her sister were identical down to the last eyelash. Identical, and yet oh so different. He watched as Elena spoke to Stephen in the corner, her movements spoke of someone soft, caring and quiet, and yet passionate in defence of those she cared about. Autumn was different, he could sense something in her, an intensity or a yearning that he didn't feel in her sister. Stephen always had preferred the more demure ones, those with spirit but who held it beneath a polished surface. He, on the other hand, preferred a more rough and ready style, not uncouth by any means, but someone whose soul was so alive that it almost burned through to the surface.

He heard the creak of the floorboards above their heads before the voice came shakily down the stairs.

"Hello?"

There was a shared glance between the family gathered there and Bonnie, Elena and Caroline reached an unspoken agreement that they would go up to help Autumn.

"Alright, well that'll be our queue to leave," said Stephen with a glance at Damon who nodded in agreement.

"Well thank you both very much for your help tonight," said Jenna with a smile as they walked towards the door.

"Can you tell them I said goodbye?" said Stephen, "And that'll see them at school tomorrow"

"Give Autumn our best," said Damon with a small smile.

"Will do" said Jenna, "Goodnight guys"

With that they walked outside and Jenna shut the door behind them. They reached the bottom of the drive and Damon turned to Stephen.

"I'm gonna stay for a bit," he said quickly so that it would sound like a murmur to anything except supernatural ears.

"Why?" asked Stephen with a look of concern on his face.

"There's something going on beyond what any doctor can tell them," said Damon, "I don't know what it is but I just know it"

Stephen looked into his brother's eyes trying to find some notion of deceit in them, but he couldn't, all he saw was a genuine interest and confusion.

"Alright, but we'll discuss it later," said Stephen.

Damon almost rolled his eyes at his younger brother; he didn't have to explain anything to him, but somehow Stephen seemed to think he owed him something. To avoid an argument, he shrugged, and in the flash of an eye was gone.

Now it was Stephen's turn to roll his eyes; his brother always had a taste for the dramatics and the single crow's feather that landed at his feet told him that this time was no different. He looked towards the house and saw a large black bird, sitting on the windowsill of an upstairs room. He shook his head slightly, wondering what trail his brother was onto but then decided he would interrogate him later.

^^^

Bonnie sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for Elena and Caroline to come back. They had mutually decided to all stay here tonight and those two had gone off to organize sleeping arrangements and food. It was really late but midnight snacks were always a good idea.

Autumn was drifting in and out of sleep, her temperature still high. Elena had mentioned about the bruises that Dr. Fell had seen on her back and Bonnie wondered vaguely as to where they had come from. As she wondered Autumn stirred and smiled as she saw her friend sitting there.

"You know I don't need watching over," Autumn said, "I just had a bit of a funny turn"

"A bit?" asked Bonnie with a chuckle, "You made us all freak out tonight"

"Sorry," said Autumn, looking a little forlorn at the thought.

"It's fine, come on, give me a hug," said Bonnie, making Autumn smile as she sat up in bed, reaching for her friend.

Then Bonnie felt something like she'd never felt before in her life, the second her and Autumn touched it was if a massive electrical current had poured out of the girl in the bed and into her body, making her heart pound at what felt like a million beats a second. The sensation itself didn't hurt, but the impact when she hit the floor near the door, having been thrown backwards in some way, certainly did, and she let out an exclamation of shock.

"Bonnie?!" came Autumn's voice, as she swung her legs out of bed and stood up, her head spinning slightly as she did so.

"I'm alright," said Bonnie getting to her feet, her legs shaking slightly as she did so, looking closely at her friend.

"What the hell was that?" asked Autumn, sitting heavily down on the bed as her legs gave way, partially from shock, partially from exhaustion.

"I have no idea," said Bonnie, "It was if you'd shocked me; did you feel anything?"

"No" said Autumn vehemently, "I was just hugging you and then all of sudden you were on the floor over there. What on earth could've caused that?"

Before Bonnie could answer the door slammed open and Caroline walked in, dragging a mattress behind her.

"What's up?" she asked, taking in the shocked faces in the room and also Autumn's changed position.

Bonnie shook her head slightly at Autumn, denoting that it would be silly to try and explain it to someone when they couldn't even figure it out themselves.

"Nothing," said Bonnie with a smile, "We're fine"

Caroline raised her eyebrows as if she didn't believe them, but decided to let it go, "Alright, well Elena's just gone to get the other mattress – she should be back in a minute"

Autumn nodded and moved to get back into bed as the others busied around the room, getting the arrangements all set up so they could be comfortable for the night. If any of them had cared to look, they would have seen a large black crow on the windowsill turning to fly off into the darkness of the night.