My Return (Vampire Diaries) (Book Seven)

Requiem For A Dream

I woke up in the middle of the woods, in the same place where I had fell unconscious after Rayna had killed herself. I looked around the dark woods, noticing that the shaman, Rayna's body and the fire were all still here. I sat up, looking around.

Stefan and Damon walked closer worriedly.

"Nikki?" Damon asked worriedly. "Hey. Nikki."

I looked around, trying to gather my bearings.

"Nice and slow," Stefan told me. "Hey. How you feeling?"

"I don't know," I told them. "Just feel different."

"Considering that Rayna killed herself and the shaman cursed you to be the next Huntress, that's probably a bad thing," Damon told me.

Stefan and Damon helped me stand.

"Okay, here's how I'm feeling," I told them. "Starving. Famished. Like I can tear this entire town to shreds until it rains blood."

I walked past them.

Damon looked at Stefan. "Yeah, definitely not a good thing."

I saw the shaman, rushing toward him, biting him on the neck from behind, feeding on him until he died.

Stefan pulled me away from the shaman. "All right, that's enough. He's dead."

I turned to face Stefan, snapping his neck, pushing his body into the bonfire, watching him burn.

"Nikki, no!" Damon told me.

I pulled my sword from the rock nearby, spinning it around, slashing it through Damon's neck, decapitating him, killing him, watching the body fall.

I felt oddly empowered, walking through the woods.

      ~~~~~~~      

I knew that it wasn't real. I knew that none of this was real, because it was a repeating cycle.

And I did not want to wake up, because if I woke up, then it would come into a reality.

But it was so hard.

Every horrible memory of vampires I ever had turned even worse. Like whatever Rayna and the shaman did was twisting and corrupting my already disastrous memories.

I was in a Duke college campus class, sitting in a row, looking around in confusion.

Sarah was the teacher's TA, giving a lecture. "Now for our favorite subject. Anyone? Anyone? Vampires. Real or myth? Nicola?"

I smirked. "Myth."

"Wrong," Sarah told us. I looked at her in confusion. "Vampires are as common today as mosquitoes. They can walk in the daylight, kill from the shadows. Hell, some of your best friends might be vampires. So, what do we do when we meet a vampire? Anyone?"

We heard a girl's voice. "Invite them to the party."

Students laughed.

I looked over my shoulder toward the girl.

The girl was bleeding from the mouth, a bite mark on her neck.

I looked away uncomfortably.

Sarah chuckled sarcastically. "Very funny." I looked behind me, seeing a vampire feeding on a classmate. "Anyone else?" I looked around, seeing more vampires feeding on more people, horrified. Sarah walked toward me. "How about you, Nicola? What would you do, huh? Would you sit there, or would you run?" She pinned me against my seat. "Or would you fight back? Show me how to kill a vampire, Nikki."