Book One: Panacea (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Nineteen

Elena and Stefan are standing at the punch bowl together now. They are watching Damon dancing with a girl. Elena laughs and looks up at Stefan.

"You really can't take him anywhere, can you?" She asks him.

"Uh, no." Elena looks across the floor and sees Noah in his hoodie. She turns back to Stefan.

"Stefan, the back corner." She whispers to him, Stefan looks in the corner.

"Get Damon." Stefan quickly walks across the dance floor, pushing students out of his way.

............

The boy in the hoodie has exited the dance and walks down a crowded corridor into another darker corridor. Stefan enters the corridor and sees the boy turn the corner. Stefan jogs after him, then when they are in the darkened corridor, he vamp-speeds over to the boy, grabs him by his hoodie, and slams him into the lockers.

"What did I do?" He asks, Stefan looks at the boy, confused.

"Where is he?"

"I was getting a soda, and then this guy gave me his hoodie." Stefan looks around, realizing he's been tricked into leaving Elena alone.

.............

Elena walks across the dance floor, searching for Damon. Her cell phone rings. She takes it out of her pocket and answers it.

"Hello, Elena."Elena pauses on the floor, terrified. "Here's what you're going to do." Elena looks around her for the source of the call. "There's an exit door behind you. You have five seconds."

"No"

"Or your brother dies." Elena looks over at the punch bowl where Jeremy is serving punch. Elena sees Noah standing near him, on his phone with Elena. "I can snap his neck so fast I bet there's not even a witness. Now, start walking." Elena starts backing up towards the door.

"Don't you dare touch him."

"Keep walking. Through the door." Elena keeps walking back across the floor. Noah starts walking past Jeremy. Elena, worried, continues to watch him, but Noah passes Jeremy without even touching him.

.....................

Diana's eyes track Elena, flickering between her and 'Noah'. She can see the fear on her sister's face, knows what she has to do.

"I have to go" Diana states and then hurries away, pulling off her shoes to move a little faster. Derek stares after her.

"Diana!" He shouts after her, she glances back over her shoulder at him before she continues on without stopping.

............

Diana throws open her locker and opens the hidden panel in the back, she's smart, she knows what she's doing. She pulls on a black hoodie and pulls up the hood before adding the eye mask and scarf.

.............

Elena runs down the corridor, looking behind her to see if Noah is following. She turns into another corridor and comes to a set of doors. She attempts to open the doors but they are chained shut. She turns back around and sees Noah walking calmly towards her. Elena rushes down a different corridor and opens the door to the cafeteria. She runs across the room and tries to open another set of doors that are also locked. Across the room, Noah flings open a set of double doors and before Elena can move, he vamp-speeds towards her. Diana runs into him, shoving him to the side and into the wall which buckles slightly with the force. She readies her bow and aims an arrow at him.

"Run," She tells Elena, Elena stares at her before doing so. Diana releases the arrow into Noah's shoulder and then takes off after Elena. She has no idea if there are other vampires here, other than Stefan and Damon, and she has no idea where they are right now, and she doesn't know if Elena is out of danger yet.

................

Diana pushes through some doors to find Elena alone in a room, she relaxes slightly and steps towards her.

"Look out!" Elena yells pointing behind Diana. She turns just in time to find Noah standing behind her. Diana reaches for an arrow from her quiver. But h grabs her arm and yanks her in towards him trying to get at her throat, Diana twists and throws her elbow back into his face before she pulls herself free. She jumps onto the table and flips over his head avoiding his arm. She twists to kick at him but he grabs her leg, pulls her in towards him then throws her across a table. Diana lands hard on the floor. Noah tosses the table aside and strides towards Elena behind him. Diana jumps up and runs at him just as Elena frantically grabs at a pencil on the floor and sits up.

 Noah grabs Elena from off the floor and pushes her against the wall. He extends his fangs and prepares to bite her, Diana launches herself onto his back and yanks her bow around his throat. Elena stabs him in the stomach with the pencil. Noah, unprepared for this dual attack stumbles back. Diana kicks at the back of his knees, sending him to the ground into a kneel. Elena prepares to attack again and Noah raises his hand to defend himself, but Elena's pencil weapon goes straight through the palm of his hand. Noah looks down at his hand and while he's distracted, Elena stabs him with another pencil, Diana twists with her bow and throws Noah across the floor before she places herself between him and Elena. Elena walks backward and bumps into a mop bucket. She turns around and grabs the mop from the bucket. 

"Here" Elena hands the mop to Diana who easily snaps it in half over her knee to create a stake. She spins it in her palm and shifts her stance, sliding her bow back onto her back. Noah rips the pencil out of his hand and gets up. As he advances towards Diana, she pushes Elena further back from her. In the following fight, Diana manages to dodge all of his attacks, granted she can read his moves before he makes them, he thinks about it too much. Damon and Stefan appear in the doorway and watch as Diana fights with Noah. She sweeps out his leg and kicks him away from her. Noah gets up from the floor ready to retaliate.

"Hey, dickhead" Noah looks back at Damon, who has a stake in his hand. "Nobody wants to kill you. We just wanna talk." Noah smiles and rushes back towards Diana, she grabs hold of his shirt, effectively pulling him closer and stakes Noah in the stomach. Noah grunts and falls to his knees. She stands up tall and cocks her head before reaching for the stake to kill him. Damon is instantly at her side and snapping his fingers around her wrist. "We need him to talk" He scolds her, she rips her hand from Damon's grip and glances around them. She backs up slightly, away from them all. She holds up a finger at them, indicating that she's giving them one chance to end this, and if they don't do it, she will. Stefan nods at her and she leaves them with Noah.