Replaceable [Damon x OC]

Chapter 1

    Aelynn woke up quickly, her whole body shooting upright as cold sweat coated her forehead. Her breaths were quick and light as she brought her knees to her chest and rested her forehead on them with her hands pressed behind her neck. She rubbed her hands gently on the back of her neck trying to bring herself down from her dream. She could still feel the water in her lungs, the feeling of unknown arms grabbing her body, and the panic that set in over her body in those moments when she could swear she saw her parents watching her on the bank of the river. 

   "It's just a dream," she whispered, "only a dream." She lifted her head and looked around her room before glancing at her alarm clock. 3:38 AM seemed to glared back at her with its red numbers. 

   She let out a sigh before laying back down and trying to close her eyes again. When she realized it wasn't going to happen she slowly got up and left her bed to sit on a chair by her window. The blinds were open revealing the moon that was hidden behind a few clouds. She would end up sitting there until the sun rose, maybe grab a book and make coffee without her Aunt Jenna knowing. She always had thought it was funny how her Aunt was against her and her sister from drinking coffee, like it were some sort of drug. That was how most of her nights would end up going, waking up long before anyone else in the house and finding things to pass the time and to distract her, even if they were temporary. 

   -   -   -   -

   Once the sun rose, Aelynn put down her book and went to her closet. The first of school since the accident. She dug through the clothes she had yet to put away in a basket, leaving them to be crumble and wrinkled. She never minded the light wrinkles, not like Elena, her sister, did. Aelynn ended up settling on a pair of skinny jeans and a looser, pale orange short sleeve shirt. She paired the outfit with grey converse sneakers. 

   She walked in front of a full length mirror that was in the corner of her room, close to the corner adjacent to her door. Unlike Jeremy and Elena, she wasn't able to walk directly into a bathroom from her room, hers was right outside her door since she was on the ground floor of the house. She looked at herself in the full length mirror, her blue eyes had purple rings under them, she looked tired. Her eyes themselves, they held no light, no semblance of happiness. Aelynn grabbed her concealer and mascara and did her best to try and mitigate how tired and sad she looked. She let out a sigh and smoothed down her shirt before bending forward and gathering all of her hair to the crown of her head and pulling it into a quick bun. She pulled out some pieces of hair around her face and called it good before she turned to leave her room. 

   "Toast," she heard her aunt Jenna say as she rounded the corner to get into the kitchen, "I can do toast."

   Aelynn spied Elena by the sink where the coffee machine was placed. "It's all about the coffee, Aunt Jenna," she said as she poured herself a cup. 

    She watched as Elena sat the cup down on the island in the middle of the kitchen and gestured to the cup. An invitation to have that one. 

   "Is there coffee?" Aelynn turned her head slightly as she reached across the countertop for the mug to her younger brother Jeremy. 

   Aunt Jenna made a sound of disbelief, "it's your first day of school," she crossed the kitchen to her purse, "and I am totally unprepared," she finished as Elena poured Jeremy coffee and Aelynn sat on one of the chairs at the dinning room table. "Lunch money?" she asked, holding out three five dollar bills to them.

   Aelynn bit back her smile as Elena said that she was fine and watching as Jeremy swiped the money out of their Aunt's hand. 

   "Need anything else?" Jenna asked, looking down at the table, "a number two pencil?"