ghost [k. parker]

• CHAPTER 2 •

CHAPTER 2: sight-spotting

ALTHOUGH ROMA WAS twenty years old, she had never been to college. By now, her life was made up of missed opportunities and everything just shy of normal. So seeing Whitmore College, filled with happy people roughly the same age as her, was like a punch in the gut. She tried not to let herself get too distracted and quickly brought her hand to her knife in her boot, to draw some magic to perform a locator spell.

"Veni," she whispered, allowing the magic to flow into her system. "Satis."

For her locator spell, she didn't need any possessions of Elena Gilbert whatsoever. Her magic worked differently, her own trademark. She pricked her hand with the pin of badge and a drop of blood appeared in the middle of her palm. Her thoughts focused on Jeremy Gilbert, at the bar and him saying his sister's name. Swiftly exiting her car, she looked to her palm to see the direction in which the blood was travelling, then followed it.

It was a short walk to the dorm, and when the droplet of blood lead her to a particular door, she wiggled her fingers to make the blood disappear then knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door opened to show a very smiley blonde.

"Are you Elena Gilbert?" Roma asked, not really seeing any similar features to Jeremy.

"No, I'm her roommate Caroline. Elena's out at the moment, are you her friend?"

Roma didn't know whether to lie or deny and just ask Caroline for it instead. Eventually, after a few seconds of awkward silence she hesitantly replied, "Sure."

The girl squealed, dragging Roma by the arm inside. "I can't believe Elena actually made a friend, especially after all that's happened. You can wait for her inside."

Caroline didn't give Roma an option, seating her on the bed and staring at her intently till she gave a reply.

"You mean, after Bo- Bonnie died, right?" She hoped that she had gotten the name right and that she was playing the role of Elena's friend well, despite never having met the girl.

"Well yeah, but also her boyfriend died too, Damon. Did she not tell you about that? That's expected actually, she hasn't talked about it at all, or cried or had a breakdown. She's handling it so strangely- has she said anything to you?"

Elena's roommate sure did like to talk a lot to strangers. Roma had no reply to this overwhelming amount of information about Elena's psychoanalysis.

"Erm... no?" When Caroline looked at her expectantly for more words, Roma decided to move on from this dorm. "Listen, do you know where I could find Elena?"

"You go here, don't you? I mean she could be at the cafe but she has to be on campus she literally just left before you came in. You missed her by like five seconds." That would explain why the blood took her here. As she didn't know what Elena looked like, it was hard to track her down with just what little knowledge she had.

"Thanks, Caroline. It was nice meeting you."

She waved goodbye to the girl who looked ecstatic, glad that that conversation was over with. Even though 'the cafe' was not very specific, she wouldn't have a hard time finding one on campus. Caroline must have assumed that she was a student who hung out there with Elena often, which was the opposite of the situation.