The Vampire Diaries: Little Shadow

Chapter 2

 She put on a sassy look and told Damon "I can take evil any day, it's people being assholes for no goddamn reason that I can't stand"
   With a speed that was just a blur even to me, Damon reached out to her neck wanting to snap it, and by some miracle because it was way too unbelievable to be called skill, this 5 feet tall thingy jerked back just an inch away from Damon's hands "Ooh, snapping my neck? That's a classic, jerk!"
  She left Damon hanging midair, shocked and confused AGAIN.
When she thought the fun was over, she just went ahead to sit on the pavement, resting her head on her knees, as if she hadn't just escaped death by an inch, as if she hadn't encountered a killer, as if she hadn't pissed him off. She just sat there as if fully confident that Damon wouldn't try strangling her again.e   I know better of course. I stand between the both of them, eyeing Damon cautiously and concentrating really hard to give him the much needed message to back off. For the first time in forever he does actually listen, he just gets in the car giving me a split second to decide whether I want to join him, I don't of course.
  As I watch, my beloved brother drives off leaving long dark marks on the street as he disappears towards a direction that isn't either home or the grill.
  It was still raining, and we'd gotten all soaked up, but the weirdness of the situation was by far more breath taking than the pouring rain on a mid-August night.
  I do that one thing, my brother hadn't even considered doing "Hey you feel like grabbing something to eat, and maybe give our clothes a chance to get dry?"  She doesn't look up, she is wearing a black hoodie, which is too big for her and she just snuggles herself to it, then just like that, without giving it much thought, she gets right next to me and says "Sure".
  I took her to the only place that I was sure it would be Damon-free, a cheap dinner. We go inside to find out that just like the exterior; the interior is that all-American-next-to-the-road-diner too. Nobody liked this place, which made me even more comfortable, we were sure to be the only ones standing there for the rest of the evening. We order burgers; she actually orders veggie-burger, which makes me wonder how on earth would someone who orders vegetarian burgers claim to be a blood-sucking demon of the night. She takes off her hoodie and flattens it really well in order for it to dry faster. I was now standing next to a child who wore a red spider-man t-shirt, torn jeans and red converse sneakers, I can't help but think to myself that she is odd in every aspect of life, human and inhuman. I hadn't cared much to notice her features before, but now that we were standing under neon lights, I couldn't help but notice that her hair was really black while her skin was white, almost pale. Her hair was relatively short and kind of spiked, it made her look like she'd just gotten out of rock concert. She had brown eyes and long dark eye lashes, her lips were shaped beautifully, but they were dry and just a tiny bit shaking. What I liked most about her features was her chin; somehow it had managed not to lose its child-likeness.
"You say you're like me..." I pause to see her reaction.
  "What?!" she asks, and I understand immediately what she'll say next, I can't help smiling. "Nah, man I never said that. I'm way cooler than you."
"I was referring to the part where you don't grow old and have to drink blood in order to keep being 'cool' for a long, long time" 
"Oh, that..." she says sipping her ice-tea, again wouldn't most kids order coke?!
  "Yes, that... Care to tell me why your heart sounds normal and yet your abilities are even better than Damon's?"
  She takes a deep breath as if to brace herself for the longest speech she's ever given "Well for a starter, my abilities are not better than Damon's. My reflexes are quicker, true, but that's only because my reflexes have always been quicker than average, even when I was human. One other thing I brought over to this side is also the ability to sense what people are feeling. Not like a magic thing, but before, I used to always try to understand other people, try to understand the reasons behind their actions and now I guess I've just gotten a little better at it. Or at least this is what I think, what do I know about stuff that were supposed to only be fiction anyway."
That was quite similar to my beliefs on vampirism, not that I've been giving it much thought to be honest, the heightened senses just seem like the most logical explanation "But you didn't tell me about your heart" I tell her, that's the most intriguing part.
  "My heart is the reason why I'm stuck at 13 years old in the first place. I was born with a heart condition that didn't give a crap about therapy, I needed a heart transplant. Call it bad timing, bad luck or even karma, but it just happened that when the situation got critical there were no fitting donors, so my doctors thought I should get an artificial heart instead. They didn't want to risk waiting any longer for someone to show up and say 'Here take my kids' heart and give it to this chick whom I don't even know.'
I personally hated the idea of having to walk around in tubes, but then they played the "tubes are bad, dead is worse" card and I just had to suck it up and go for it. I did it for my parents, I didn't really care if I lived or died, but I guess that's just a teenage thing, but anyway I was under open heart surgery, which means I was losing a lot of blood and they had to use other people's blood on me in order for me not to bleed to death. One of those stupid blood bags must have been with vampire blood, because next thing I know I'm in the ICU feeling thirsty, but other than that I was hella fly." She pauses snapping us both back into reality, she has a way with words, she is someone who makes you want to listen to every single thing she has to say "For months I asked myself why would someone do that, was it just a fun activity to see who wakes up as a vampire in a four-story hospital? More than why, I couldn't understand how did they do such a thing. When my dad donated blood they ran a bunch of tests to see if there was any kind of virus on him, or if he was ill, or if he was on drugs, how could they have sneaked in a whole bag of vampire blood without having someone catch them? That was of course before I realized there was something called compulsion. So I guess my heart beats "normally" because it was made to imitate a real heart, blood of course flows throughout it much quickly than a human because otherwise I doubt it would be biologically possible for me to be a vampire."
I was shocked and angry and sad "I'm so sorry" I tell her, because I truly am. She shouldn't have gone through that, she was just a kid then.
"Nah, it's fine. My life used to suck anyway, at least now I get to do all the things I've always wanted. I've learnt to see the silver lining ever since I was a tiny. A visit to the doctor meant a new toy, an open heart surgery meant getting straight A's at school for the whole semester and waking up as a vampire meant I got to be free, well kind of.
To be honest they used to piss me off so much, but I never told them, not my parents, not my teacher, not even my friends. I didn't need their pity, I was doing just fine without it, but they needed to say or show it, it made them feel better about themselves and I didn't want to take that away. People usually make themselves feel terrible, so any chance I get to make them feel a little better I take it. Plus, getting huge teddy bears and ice cream on weekends isn't that awful after all. I am quite the talker, huh?" she finishes with an honest, huge grin on her face.
  For a minute there I can do nothing except stare at her.
  "Hey you never told me your name or your true age?"  I try to give our conversation a more casual turn.
"My name is Tatiana Evelyn—just call me Ellie though, as for my age..." she says and looks up at the ugly, old clock on the wall behind me. Somehow I was expecting her to tell me her age in years, months, days and minutes but instead she turns to look me in the eyes and tells me "I will technically be seventeen in about seven minutes"
  I've been through hell in my hundred years, while she's been through hell and back in just seventeen?!
"I don't believe you" I tell her,
"You believe that I'm a vampire with a fake heart, but not that I was born on July 12th?! Ten points to common sense" she always has a smile and a sarcastic comment right at the corner of her lips I guess.
"Well then, sorry I didn't get you any presents" she smiles so big this time that her eyes almost close, and I smile back at that.
"It's okay, this was awesome, thank you so much" she takes the hoodie, but doesn't put it on.
"Do you have some place to be?" I wanna take her to Elena, to Damon, to everyone. They have to meet her.
  I haven't been this fascinated by someone ever since meeting Elena.
"Nope, I was just gonna show myself around town and find a hotel when the sun comes up, why?" she asks and her eye brows come a little closer, forming a V shape right above her nose.
"Well it's Mystic Falls and you don't get much of a choice here when it comes to hotels, there are mostly just boarding houses, like mine used to be. Why don't you come with me and we'll get you a room. You are new to this, you can also pick up a few tips, I am after all at least a century older than you" she smiles again. "Thanks, that is so kind of you..." she looks at me and I remember I never told her my name. "Stefan" I tell her.
"Well Stefan, I'm flattered you asked me, but I can't really risk your brother strangling me on my sleep" the kid had a point there. "Listen Tati—Ellie, my brother won't lay a finger on you, you have my word on that, and besides when Elena is around he is on his best behavior"
  "Who's Elena?" she asks.
  "Elena is my girlfriend" I tell her.
  "She a vampire too ?"
  "No, no she's not, Elena is human" I see the confusion getting the best of her for a bit.
"Does she know?" you've got to learn about us almost as much as we do about you, eh kid?
"Yes she does, sweetheart. I want you to know that I have not compelled her. There is a plant called Vervain, that plant protects humans from us, we can't compel them if they have it on them, we can't feed on them if they have it in their system, Elena and all my other friends have been wearing Vervain jewelry for a long time now. Not to protect them from me, because I would never do anything to harm them, but to protect them from other vampires"
 "Ew, don't call me sweetheart, what the hell?!" and then curiosity gets the best of her "How can Vervain stop us? Is it like magic? Or cursed? Or—"
"No Ellie, Vervain is just poisonous to us, just like some mushrooms are to humans" she is one curious little thing.