The Curse |~| Damon Salvatore

Chapter 2 - Episode 1

Just as I finish doodling hearts and stars all over my notes I hear Mr Tanner ask, "How many casualties resulted in this battle...Mrs. Bennet?"

She looks up surprised from her notebook, and fidgets slightly with her pen. "Um...a lot? I'm not sure, but like, a whole lot," she says, and I hold back a laugh.

He looks at her, not amused by her answer. "Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Mrs. Bennet. Mr. Donovan? Would you like to take this opportunity to over come your embedded jock stereotype?"

"It's okay Mr. Tanner, I'm cool with it."

He turns to Elena, "Hmm. Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know," she answers.

"I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena. But the personal excuses ended with summer break."

"Hey, there's no need to pick on her. She's not the only one who didn't give an answer. Ask me I'll tell you," I say, in defense of Elena. I have always hated this guy.

"Now y-," Tanner starts, getting angry with me, but is interrupted by Stefan.

"There were 346 casualties. Unless you're counting local civilians." I turn to Stefan, and see him glance at Elena.

"That's correct. Mister...?"

"Salvatore."

"Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic falls?"

"Distant."

"Well, very good. Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle."

"Actually, there were 27, sir. Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The founder's archives are, uh, stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner."

I smile at the dumbfounded look on Tanner's face. Well I know who I'm going to for help with history homework.

*****

Bonnie, Elena, and I stand in the middle of the school kickoff bonfire, me occasionally drinking from the red cup in my hand, talking about what happened today.

"Just admit it, Elena," Bonnie says in an attempt to get Elena to honestly say what she thinks of Stefan.

"Oh, okay, so he's a little pretty."

"Shut up, a little pretty? You need glasses or something, cause that man is good looking. Too bad he doesn't have any cousins or siblings around." Elena just rolls her eyes. "You know I'm right."

"Well, personally I agree," Bonnie holds up her cup and I tap mine to hers, "He has that romance novel stare."

"Speaking of green eyes, where is he?" I say, looking around the party and seeing no sign of him.

"Bonnie, why don't you tell us. You are the psychic one," Elena looks to Bonnie.

"Hmm, you're right. Okay, give me a sec I need to concentrate according to grams."

"Hold up, let me find you a crystal ball," before I can grab anything, Elena picks up a bottle and hands it to Bonnie.

Their hands touch, and suddenly Bonnie spaces out. A few seconds later, she pulls her hand back, looking as if she just saw a ghost.

"What just happened?" I question.

"It was weird, when I touched Elena I saw a crow."

"What?" Elena's face takes on a look of fear and confusion.

"A crow. There was fog, a man. I'm drunk. It's the drinking. There's nothing psychic about it. Yeah? Ok, I'm gonna get a refill." Bonnie walks off leaving Elena and I.

"You wanna tell me why you got so freaked out?"

"Well, earlier, I was in the gra-" Stefan walks up to us and Elena stops talking.

"Hi," he says, obviously his full attention is on Elena.

"Hi," she says back, and I take that as my cue to leave.

"I'm gonna go," I say, turning around and heading toward a keg. Once my cup is half full, I walk off into the woods to get away from the music and crowd.

A couple minutes later I hear Vicki telling someone rather desperately to stop. I jog in that direction to see my brother holding her against a tree, while she tries to push him off.

Anger builds up in me at my dumbass twin, and I begin heading over to them, but Jeremy reaches them before me.

"Hey, leave her alone," he yells.

"You know you're starting to get on my nerves Gilbert!"

"Yeah, well I'm sure I'll be a hell of a lot worse," I say walking up and pushing Tyler. "What the hell were you planning on doing. Forcing her to have sex with you with a party going on not far from here. God, sometimes I don't understand how we're related."

"Just go, Tyler, get the hell away from me," Vicki says and Tyler turns back to her.

Tyler starts to say something, but takes a glance at me, and walks off.

"I'm sorry about him, Vicki." With that I turn and head back to the party, trying to find a drink to loosen me up. Tyler can be just like Dad sometimes. He gets drunk, then angry and forceful. I get angry, but I'm not as impulsive as him, well most the time anyway.

I look around for someone to talk to. Elena is still talking to Stefan. Caroline looks drunk, and is talking to some random guy that I've never seen before. When I see that Bonnie is alone I head over to her.

"So, what do you think the lovebirds are conversing about?"

"Conversing?" She laughs.

"Okay, fine, talking. Sorry, I like to have an interesting vocabulary."

"I don't know, maybe the stars, their love for writing, about how much gas costs," she says the last one with extra exaggeration.

"Their love for writing?"

"Didn't Elena tell you Stefan mentioned that he keeps a Journal too?"

"No she didn't," and just as the words finish leaving my mouth, I see Elena chase Jeremy into the woods.

"Uh oh," I say and then I hear Elena yelling.

"Somebody help!" I look at Bonnie, before sprinting over to her and Jeremy.

I look down at Vicki, and see bite marks and blood dripping down her neck. "Oh my God," I say. They lay her on a random table, lots of people are yelling, freaked out and scared. I take a closer look at the bite on her neck. Those look human.

*****

Later that night Zoey, Elena, and I all sit in Elena's bedroom, eating chips and watching Grease.

"John Travolta looks so good," Zoey says, fanning her face dramatically.

"We've seen this a million times," I say laughing.

"Okay, but the way I see it, he just keeps looking better." I roll my eyes, when I hear a crow squawk, and look towards Elena's cracked window. I swore she closed that.

Elena gets up, looking flustered, and swipes at the bird. This day just keeps getting weirder.

Welp this finished episode 1. I'm still trying to decide exactly how I want Damon and Camilla meet. Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter. Should be updating soon.