dance with the devil ✧ DAMON SALVATORE

chapter fifteen

The flight back to Virginia happens in a blur of events, and Jordan can't fully grasp what is happening around her. She clutches her backpack tightly to her stomach and chest, and she feels as if everyone is staring at her like the word 'nymph' is hanging above her head, with flashing arrows pointing in her direction. She feels marked. She feels like a deer in hunting season, and it terrifies her. How is she going to break the news to her family and friends that she is a nymph and that her mother possibly lived during the fifteenth century. Jordan inhales and exhales loudly, and before she realises it she is sitting in the taxi on her way home, and she wonders how she can ever relate Mystic Falls to home again when her whole life has been a lie?

She asks the driver to drop her off on Wickery Bridge, and he does so without question, although he does give her a strange look when she gives him 50 ponds. The taxi drives off and leaves Jordan with a dazed cloud swirling around her standing in the middle of the road

That the bridge is deserted, doesn't come as a surprise to Jordan. Although it is a vital part of Mystic Falls – it connects the town to the rest of Virginia – nobody ever likes to come here. Not before the accident, and definitely not after the accident. A layer of fog rests upon the surface of the river and spirals across the edge of the bridge. There is no sign of animal or human life, and the only sound that enters Jordan's ears is the whistling of the wind. Jordan understands why nobody wants to come here, because as she stands at the edge of the famous Wickery Bridge, she can almost feel the fog seep into her body, colleting all the life and happiness out of her before disappearing. She can imagine her parents driving here with Elena. Them caring more about Elena and her feelings than the fact that she ditched family night to go to a party. They were so kind, and Jordan misses them so incredible much.

The last few days, her biological parents have spooked through her brain more times than Jordan likes to admit, but as she stands on the Wickery Bridge that took the lives of her adoptive parents, she realises something. Even though Miranda and Grayson aren't her real guardians, in her memory, they will always be the best parents a child could ever wish for. She craves to see them one more time, to have them tell her how proud they are, and reassure her that she is going to be fine, because Jordan Gilbert is a strong woman. But they aren't here to tell her that she will uphold her façade. They aren't here to stop her from falling apart.

A strangled sob escapes her lips, and she turns away in an instant. Her feet pick up the pace, and before she knows it, she is running. With no destination in mind and tears streaming down her cheeks, Jordan runs as if her life depends on it, because in that moment, it feels like it does.

♛

The Salvatore estate shines in front of her in all its glory, and Jordan wonders in which year it was built and whether her mother ever stumbled upon it.

No matter which vein Jordan touches, she can feel her heartbeat thump. Without a destination in mind, she has ended in front of the boarding house. She wants to believe it is because of the fact that Elena, Stefan, and Damon are most likely here, but she knows that that is not the case.

She stretches out her arm to push open the door, and her eyes catch sight of her trembling hands. She moulds her hands into fists to stop them from shaking before opening the door and inviting herself in.

The warm and cosy fireplace greets her like an old and familiar friend, but the combination of people standing in front of the fireplace feel like a knife is being stabbed in between her midriff. "Damon?" His name leaves her lips with an ounce of vulnerability, and she can practically feel the hurt dripping from his name.

Damon lets go of Kelly at once, but he wishes he never did. He wishes he could keep on kissing Kelly's chapped and cherry red lips, to drink her in like he does with alcohol. Kissing Kelly while he ignores Jordan who stands in the doorframe would hurt him less than the seeing the look on her face.