Visitation (Vampire Diaries) (Book Six)

Chapter 14__Stay

Everyone was staying goodbye to Jeremy today because he was leaving town and going to art school. 

Never saw that one coming.

Alaric, Matt, Tyler and Jeremy were at the Grill, having drinks and having a goodbye party for Jeremy.

I could only assume that I would run into Stefan or Damon there, so I was deciding to avoid them.

But I couldn't say alone in Tyler's dorm, because the freaking branding spell was getting worse by the second, getting my coat, walking toward the door, opening it, about to leave. 

I stopped when I saw a box on the floor in front of the door, looking at it in confusion, looking around for anyone that could have left it here. I didn't see anyone, pulling the box into the dorm, closing the door, looking at the address on the box. 

It said Whitmore College, the dorm building and the dorm room number this one was in. 

And it had one name, but no return address.

Nicola Salvatore. 

What the hell? 

I found a knife nearby, cutting open the tape, opening the box up, looking inside to all of the photographs inside of frames inside, pulling them out, seeing the darkness about all of them. Whoever took them went to the extreme, but I kind of liked the extreme. 

Still confused about how they got here, I turned the one in my hands over, looking at the photographer's name on the back of it.

Sarah Nelson. 

I looked up in confusion. 

~~~~~~

I went to the Grill since I didn't have anywhere else to go, relieved to find that neither Stefan or Damon were here, sitting at the bar. 

Matt walked toward me hesitantly.

"And where have you been, Donovan?" I asked. "It's not like you ditch out on your job." 

"Just talking to a friend of mine," Matt answered. "So... what's up?" 

"Bored," I answered. "Feeling like the world is crashing down around me, and I need a drink, stat." 

"Okay," Matt told me. "Got it." He poured me a drink. "Coming right up." 

"Thanks," I told him, taking the drink, taking a sip.

"So... you're not pissed?" Matt asked.

"You're gonna have to narrow that one down just a little bit," I told him. "I'm pissed about a lot of things." 

"But you're not pissed at me?" Matt asked.

"Why would I be pissed at you, Matt?" I asked. "You were just talking to a con artist who was pretending to be my sister before Enzo killed her trying to get information out of Stefan." Matt looked confused as to how I knew that. "You told Tyler. Tyler told me." 

"Right," Matt said awkwardly. "Did Ty give you a name as to who the con artist and what your sister's name would've been?" 

"Nope," I answered. "And I don't want to talk about it anymore. The more that I talk about it, the more I..." 

I didn't finish, gazing off, having a rapid series of flashbacks of everything bad that Stefan and Damon had did, or every bad thing that happened to me because of them.