Save Me from Myself

It took me a couple of hours to clean the bathroom. The toilet tank was completely damaged and I still had to change the wallpaper, but overall I did a pretty good job and the entire house looked decent again.
As soon as I finished cleaning, I went to the living room to look for my cell phone that was placed on the coffee table. I heard it ringing a couple of times while I was in the bathroom, but I wanted to finish cleaning before chatting, so I completely ignored the calls. When I looked at its screen, I saw two missed calls from Damon and three text messages from him asking the same thing: "Where are you?". I was about to call him back when I heard the doorbell rang, so I put the phone back on the coffee table and went to open the front door.
"Hi, Maddy!" Kyle's voice greeted me as soon as I opened the door. "Thank God you're all right! I couldn't believe it when some neighbors told me what happened." he added before breathing a sigh of relief, then he squeezed me into a friendly hug making me chuckle.
"Hello, Kyle! Come on inside!" I invited him on a friendly tone, then he stepped into the hallway and then took a seat on the living room couch.
"Did the police find out who did it?" Kyle asked on a worried tone before taking a sip from a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.
"No, not yet." I shrugged. "Detective Wilkerson promised to call me as soon as they have any leads in the case." I added with a sigh of helplessness.
Kyle's eyes widened at the sound of the detective's name.
"Detective Wilkerson? Isn't he the one who investigated the murder of Dianne?" Kyle asked with a sharp voice while looking me in the eyes and I nodded.
Before we could say something else, my phone started ringing again. I grabbed it from the table and pressed the answer button before hearing Damon's worried voice almost shouting in my left ear.
"Finally! I've been calling and texting you like crazy in the past two hours. Where do you keep the damn phone?" he taunted me. "Where are you?" he added before I could reply.
"I finished cleaning the apartment." I replied with a weak voice.
"You went there all by yourself without even telling me?" he continued with anger in his voice.
"I didn't want to bother you again." I defended myself.
"I'm on my way. Don't go anywhere." he said on a serious tone, then he hung up without giving me the chance to reply.
"You really pissed him off." Kyle chuckled, making me feel even more uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry you had to listen to all of this." I replied awkwardly.
"Don't worry about it." Kyle said with a smile. "Is he the one you're staying at?" he asked curiously.
"Yes, he's the one who found me lying on the floor and he insisted to stay at his place for a while." I confessed.
"He seems nice." Kyle stated with a smile.
"His voice shouting in my ear was anything but nice." I muttered, making Kyle chuckle again.
"He's just worried about you." Kyle pointed out, making me smile slightly.
A few moments later, we heard a knock at the front door and I went to open it. Damon rushed inside ready to scold me again, but held back and just gave me a questioning look when he saw Kyle sitting on the couch.
"Hi, I'm Kyle Price, Maddy's neighbor." Kyle smiled as he stood up from the couch to shake hands with Damon.
"Damon Salvatore." Damon replied sharply, leaving Kyle with his hand in the air.
"Salvatore?" Kyle asked surprised. "Hmm, I knew you looked familiar." he added as he brought his hand to his chin.
"Ok, I knew I was popular among the girls, but now this is getting creepier." Damon mocked him, causing me to roll my eyes.
"Don't pay attention to him. He's not the friendly type." I informed Kyle, ignoring Damon's grumble.
"Isn't the Salvatore one of the founding families?" Kyle shrugged his shoulders.
"Actually, it is." Damon smirked as he made himself comfortable on the couch.
"How did you guys meet?" Kyle asked curiously, trying to change the subject.
"Long story, we don't want to bore you." Damon snapped.
"Ok, in that case I should get going. It was nice to meet you, Damon. Please take care of Maddy." Kyle replied politely.
"Certainly!" Damon faked a smile.
"I guess I'll see you guys around. Bye!" Kyle added as he walked out the front door.
"Bye!" I replied with a smile as I closed the door behind him.
As soon as Kyle left, Damon walked over to me and spoke to me on a tone that I didn't like.
"Come on, we're leaving." he ordered while grabbing my right wrist, causing me to stare at him with narrowed eyes.
"Let go of my hand!" I demanded visibly annoyed and he obeyed. "I need to take a few more clothes." I stated on a more pleasant tone.
"Sure, I'll wait on the couch." he replied with a soft voice before grabbing the TV remote.
I went to my room and packed a white lace top, a long black cardigan, two scarves and my favorite boots, then headed back to Damon. He was watching 'The Bachelor', one of the most stupid TV shows in my opinion.
"One day I will sign up for this show." Damon looked at me and said with a cheerful voice.
I just rolled my eyes and sighed, but I didn't reply.
"What? You're obviously not interested in me no matter how hard I try, so I need a plan B." he sneered.
"Let's go!" I sighed before grabbing the remote control from his hand and turning off the TV.
We left the apartment, then went to the parking lot and got into his car. After a couple of minutes of awkward silence we started to chat and the conversation was rather pleasant until he brought to discussion the fact that I went to the apartment without telling him.
"Why didn't you tell me about it? What if something happened to you?" Damon taunted me after slamming the front door of the Salvatore house.
"Are you sure you want to talk about this? Because I'm not the only one who's hiding things." I said accusingly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he looked at me confused.
"I'm talking about Katherine. Or maybe you'd like to discuss about the vervain." I clarified him.
His eyes widened in shock and surprise at the hearing of my reply. He was speechless for a few seconds, but then managed to respond.
"What do you want to know?" he asked with a weak voice.
"Who's Katherine and why does Elena think that you still care about her?" I asked, looking him in the eyes.
"Don't listen to Elena! Katherine is the reason why I don't get along with Stefan. I already told you about her that night at the lake, remember?" Damon replied with a husky voice.
"Oh, right..." I mumbled. "What about the vervain? What is it and what does it have to do with the bracelet that you gave me?" I wanted to know.
"It's just a herb." he replied with a small smile.
"What kind of herb?" I insisted on questioning him.
"A long time ago it was used for protection against evil spirits or so, but how did you find out about it?" he frowned.
"I heard Stefan and Elena talking about my bracelet and honestly it sounded much more important than just a random herb." I shrugged.
"It's not." Damon replied with a smile. "Next time you're in doubt just talk to me, ok?" he added on a gentle tone and I nodded with a brittle smile.
After the conversation I had with Damon, I went to the kitchen to eat some fruits and he went to The Grill to meet up with someone. Stefan wasn't home, so I spent the rest of the afternoon and the early evening alone in their huge house. It was about 7 when Stefan came back home with Elena and the three of us had dinner together. After washing the dishes, Stefan and Elena went to the living room as I headed to the library to read.
Once again my eyes laid on the books about vampires and I couldn't help but take one with me in the bedroom. I spent the next couple of hours reading a few chapters and I was about to close the book when the word 'vervain' caught my attention again:

'Vervain is a potent herb and also a vampire's most well-known weakness. If a vampire has physical contact with vervain, it will burn them. If a vampire ingests vervain, the vampire will become feverish and extremely weak. If a human ingests or holds vervain somewhere on the body (such as holding it in a hand or pocket, or wearing it in jewelry), the human is protected by vampire compulsion and entitled to free will.'

'What did I just read?' I thought to myself as I placed the book on the nightstand. 'I knew that Damon was hiding something, but I had no idea it was related to vampires. Why would he protect me from something that doesn't even exist?' I continued to question myself, still confused about my latest discovery.
Lost in my thoughts, I kept staring coldly at the walls until I heard a knock at my bedroom door. I shuddered, then quickly snuggled under the blanket and closed my eyes, pretending like I was asleep. A moment later, the door opened and Damon slowly walked inside the room. Before switching off the nightlight, he leaned down and gently kissed my forehead, then whispered "Good night!" with a sweet voice.
When he finally left the room, I sat up on the bed and pushed the blanket aside before switching back on the nightlight. For my surprise, the book about vampires was no longer where I had left it. Instead, a beautiful red rose had taken its place on the nightstand. I took the rose in my left hand and smelled it, then broke into a little smile as I tore up the petals like I used to do when I was a little girl. 'He loves me!' I giggled while spreading the last petal over the bed.
I closed my eyes for a brief moment, still smiling at my previous thought, but I suddenly woke up from my daydream as the word 'vervain' began swirling around in my brain. I tried to forget about it and sleep, but I just couldn't. Instead, I found myself tossing and turning the whole night, until I had enough of it and got up from the huge bed.
I sighed as I looked at my cell phone and found out that it was only 4 AM. I was tired, but apparently not tired enough to fall asleep, so I decided to go to the kitchen and drink a glass of water to moisten my bone-dry throat.
As I was walking down the stairs I started shivering in my thin summer pyjamas, since I was getting closer to a wide-open window. I rubbed my arms in attempt to warm myself up and rushed to close the living room window, but when I looked out the window I saw Stefan nervously pacing in the backyard while talking on the phone.
'Looks like I'm not the only one who can't sleep.' I thought to myself while staring at Stefan and trying to figure out what was keeping him awake. From what I could tell he was talking to Elena and I'm not usually interested in listening to other people's conversations, but this time I wanted to know what was so important that couldn't wait until the morning.
After a few minutes of eavesdropping, my mouth fell open when I heard Stefan saying "You're right, Damon can't find out that I knew Dianne Hastings."
I froze for a few seconds, then I pulled myself together and decided to continue listening to their conversation, but the next moment I heard footsteps and the light suddenly turned on.
"What are you doing?" Damon smirked as he walked closer to me and looked out the window.
"Nothing, I was just about to close the window." I babbled as I put my hand on the window handle.
At that point Stefan was staring at us with big eyes while Damon gave me a questioning look and then asked: "Were you spying on my brother?"