BORN TO DIE, stefan salvatore [1]

33 - THE DINNER PARTY

BORN TO DIE
THE DINNER PARTY

MADELEINE FELL ASLEEP THAT NIGHT, DETERMINED TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT. She'd never had insomnia before but lately she spent nights lying awake in the hours of three am. Maybe it was the stress of everything going on that she didn't even realise she was feeling a lot of the time. Her world moved too fast that she barely noticed what emotions she felt half the time. She had numbed herself to any emotion that could get in the way of saving herself or Elena or anybody. Emotions just got messy. So if she was sad or angry or even elated, she buried it.

Late at night was the only time that feelings caught up with her and it disrupted her sleep. Thoughts and feelings of the past few weeks would reel through her head like a carousel on crack. Hell, the past year. 

So when she lay in bed with nothing to worry about except the fact there was no solution to save either Elena or Madeleine from certain death, Madeleine told herself she needed to sleep. She knew her dad was determined to work into the early hours of the morning, researching the knife up until he collapsed of sleep deprivation. 

Madeleine lay with her eyes closed. A simple task yet it had been two hours and she still hadn't fallen asleep. She heard creaks around her but she assumed it was her father finally going to sleep. It wasn't uncommon for things in Mystic Falls to go bump in the night.

She continued to toss and turn until she settled for lying on her back. Sometimes people are just paranoid and other times people just want to kill you. Madeleine gasped as a pillow crushed against her head. She wriggled, kicking and scratching against the hands that pressed her down. She felt her nails dig into the person's skin but they didn't move, not even a flinch, they just pushed harder. Madeleine felt her airways close up. This was definitely not how she thought she would die. Supernatural creature or not, Madeleine used her powers to inflict pain. Her attacker groaned in pain and let go of the pillow as they clutched their head. The witch scrambled out of bed. The attacker was lying on the floor. Madeleine had let go of her hold over them so she could see their face but the person was faster. The grabbed the lamp of her desk and swung it into the side of the blonde's head. Madeleine collapsed to the floor, her vision going blurry as blood trickled down her face.

The assailant dashed past her into the hallway. Madeleine heard her front door close before she even managed to push herself into an upright position.

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Madeleine managed to clean herself up on her own. It was about time to invest in quality first aid kit. She cleaned the up the blood that had trailed all the way down her chin and disinfected the wound. Once all the blood was cleared it showed only a small cut.

Madeleine went back to bed, not wanting to disturb her dad or anyone else at that moment but she didn't sleep.

In the morning she told her dad about what had happened and in turn reinforcements were called. Caroline was the first to show up, wrapping Madeleine in a hug and a hundred questions. Damon allowed himself into the house. He observed the shaking witch on the couch with a blanket over her shoulders and a mug of tea made by Caroline. Her father sat beside her and Caroline sat on the coffee table in front of her. "What happened?"