The open window caused the curtains to move with the breeze. They danced slowly, only fastening their pace when the breeze strengthened. When I closed my eyes, I could hear everything. I could hear Rose and Damon downstairs, Stefan and Elena in his room, wooden chimes clacking against each other in the distance, birds singing their songs, leaves dancing through the ground and air, cars speeding by. It was a soundtrack of everyday life, and it sounded beautiful. The mixture of voices and nature was lovely.

   Three knocks on the doorway caused me to stop listening to the outside world and pay attention to the world that was inside the house. By the door, with her arms crossed, stood Elena with her brows slightly furrowed. It was the face she made whenever she thought of words that she wanted to say. I had spent enough time with her to recognize her facial expressions.

   "Hey," she greeted. "You okay?" She walked in with her arms crossed.

   "Who told you?" I asked her with a small smile. "Was it Damon or Stefan?"

   She closed her mouth and spread her lips into a small smile. "Uh, both?" She took a deep breath and took a seat in front of me. "There was a news report about an animal attack last night. At first, I thought it was Elijah that killed them, but he was at my house. Rose was... Well, she couldn't have done it. You're the only other vampire here, Clara."

   "I feel honoured that I wasn't your first choice." I leaned back on my hands, tilting my head slightly to the left.

   "Don't you feel remorse?" she asked in disbelief. "You killed a family, Clara!"

   "I'll send flowers to their funeral," I derided. It reminded me of the talk I had with Damon when I killed two people and made their deaths look like a car collision. I said the same thing, that I would send flowers, and I did! This kill was just like that one. I was immensely hungry, and I killed that family because of it.

   "Which flowers should I send?" I continued, standing from the bed. "Roses? No, those represent love. How about marigolds? They represent peace. Maybe a bouquet of orchids, pansies, lilies and lavender. They all represent peace, so why not a a bouquet of peace. Rest in peace family I killed."

   "You would fit better in a theatre company," Damon said, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. He looked at Elena. "Where's Stefan?"

   "He left," she answered. "I need you to talk to him. He's convinced that he has to find Isobel, but I think that's gonna upset Elijah."

   "No, can do," he breathed, shaking his head. "I'm with Stefan on this one, but if you could play nurse for a little while..."

   "It's not necessary," Rose panted from behind him.

   "It is necessary." I grabbed my sweater from the bed and looked at her. She looked deathly sick, almost as if she would drop dead at any moment. I smiled in her direction, hoping to calm her erratic heart.

   "Elena is a do-gooder," Damon mused. "It's in her nature, she just can't resist. Clara, with me." He grabbed my arm and began to pull me out.

   "What? No!" I whined. "I want to go home, Damon!"

   "Can't let you leave my sight since what happened last night," he smiled at me. "I need to keep an eye on you."

   "Then cut it out and give it to me," I sarcastically said, pulling my other hand out.

   "Damon." Elena stopped us when he opened the door. "Is she going to die?" She was talking about Rose.

   "Probably." He shrugged his shoulders. "The wolf bite caused some kind of infection and it's getting worse."

   "Like poison?"

   "I don't know, Elena." He rolled his eyes. "I'm not an expert in the field."

   "I'm sorry." She frowned and crossed her arms. Whenever she was uncomfortable, she crossed her arm. I took notice of that.

   He shrugged his shoulder, his hand tightening around my arm. "Death happens. We come, we go. Sooner she dies the better. It's gloomy as hell in here." He turned and walked out of the house.

   "Damon," I yelped. "Damon. Damon, ouch! Hey, I get it that you like it rough, but you're going to break my arm."

   He let go of my arm and furrowed his brows as he looked down at me. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Now, get in the car." Almost as immediately as it left, his demeanour came back. It was the behaviour of hiding everything he felt and really wanted to say.

   "Where are we going?" I asked after a few minutes of absolute silence. He didn't even turn on the radio, which indicated that he was in no mood for smiles. Damon was sad, he was angry because Rose was dying as we spoke.

   "The Grill," he answered without looking at me. "There's someone there that I need to talk to."

   "The werewolf?" I guessed, furrowing my brows slightly. "You're going to talk to the werewolf?"

   "I need to see if there's a cure," he sighed. Damon said no more. He had grown to care for Rose over the days he'd been with her. And, to be honest, I was jealous. I knew that if I were in Rose's place, he would let me die. Why wouldn't he? No longer did he care about me like he did before.

   We arrived at the Grill in minutes. Angrily, Damon marched in. I walked behind him, and bumped into his back when back I entered. Stefan had stopped him.

   "What are you doing here?" Damon asked him.

   "I'm waiting for you," Stefan replied. "Listen, there's a lot of people here."

   "Oh damn," Damon sarcastically sighed. "There goes my plan to rip her spleen through her back."

   "Hey, listen, I know you're upset about Rose..."

   "Why does everyone think that I'm upset about Rose?" he asked, glancing from his brother to me. As he spoke, I looked around. I could smell humans, but at the same time there was a distinct smell. Obviously, that distinct smell must have been the wolf. It came from a blond woman eating breakfast.

    Damon marched to her, and I followed. She glanced up and continued to eat with a ghost of a smirk around her lips. "Well, if it isn't the one I meant to kill..." she teased. "I'll have to get that right next time."

   Before Damon could say anything, I pushed by him so I could be the one that threatened. "You won't live to see another full moon," I told her. "Unless you tell me how to cure a wolf bite, then I'll consider not ripping your heart from your chest."

    She looked at me, the fork pressing to her lips. "Hmm," she hummed. "Promise?"

   I shrugged my shoulders, "Yes."

   "Bite me." She stood, but I gripped her arm tightly. From my hand, she looked up at me. "I'm not afraid of you. Either of you."

   "Then you are very, very stupid," Damon smirked.

   "How's your friend? Rose, is that her name?" She was mocking Damon for caring about her, and that made me glare at her. Was I angry? No, because I was like her. I would have mocked, I would have joked about it. But that was if it were my enemy, not a friend. Right now, this woman was my enemy. Her mocking made me want to slap her. "Have the chills started yet? The unbearable pain?"

   I stepped in by gripping her arm tighter, pressing my nails. "If there's a cure, tell us or start watching your back."

   "Did I mention the dementia?" she continued, glancing from me to Damon. "It'll eat away at her brain. Soon, she'll be rabid. You want a cure? I'll tell you the only cure that exists: take a stake and drive it through her heart." She pulled my hand away from my hold, my nails dragging the other direction and creating five long gashes on her jacket. Where the gashes were, red began to decorate the corners. She glared at me. "You should start watching your back, vampire."

   "I could go for wolf blood tonight." I licked my top lip then snapped my teeth in her direction.

   She narrowed her eyes at me. "Vampire arrogance," she hummed. "Damon here had the same thing when he threatened me. And look how it played out."

   I grabbed her hand and squeezed until I heard a crack. When she tried to pull away, I tightened my grip even harder. "If it were a full moon the situation would be reversed, but it's not. You're not as strong every other day, so I wouldn't pick a fight with a big bad vampire that can rip your heart out of your chest before you can even try to bite me."

   "You're making empty threats," she hissed, pulling her hand away from my hold. Her fingers were bent in ways they shouldn't have been, and that made me smirk.

   I crossed my arms and looked into her eyes. "We'll just have to wait and see," I surmised. She kept her eyes on me for a few seconds, then turned and left. I let the air that was held in my throat out and turned to look at Damon, a small smile spreading around my lips. "I think I can say that's the first time I've ever threatened a werewolf."

   "Are you crazy?" Damon hissed, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of The Grill. It seemed that he had a knack of grabbing on to my arm because he had done so many times. "Clara, you just threatened a werewolf. A werewolf, Clara! Their bite is poison to us and you decide to threaten the one that bit Rose? What the hell is wrong with you?" 

   As he continued to lecture me about how I was completely crazy for threatening a werewolf, twilight faded into inky sky. Charcoal black, covered in thousands and millions of bright specks. I loved that you could see star, after star, after star, a never ending void of light that projects no means of guidance to my eyes.

   "I'm taking you to your house," Damon sighed, interrupting my inner monologue about stars. "Jules doesn't know that you have it, so you'll be safe there."

   "It's not a full moon," I groaned, rolling my eyes. "I'm okay anywhere."

   "I don't want to risk it, Clara," he yelled. "Rose is already a goner, I don't want you to be the same, okay?" His grip tightened around the steering wheel, his knuckles whitening from the pressure. After a few seconds, he released his harsh grip and began to tap his fingers on the smooth leather. "I'm taking you to your house and them I'm going to check on Rose and Elena."

   "You care," I mumbled, looking to the side of his face. "Oh, Damon... I'm sorry."

   "Why does everybody think—"

   "Because it shows!" I interrupted him. "Damon, it shows that you care about her. It's as clear as day." I let out a small smile when he looked over at me. "Fine, I'll do as you say. You can take me home. If something happens, and you need to talk, you know where to find me, okay? Even though Caroline invited me to some barbecue at the school, I will obey you and stay at the house. Happy?"

   He rolled his eyes at me, but nodded. There was a small smile that appeared when he looked away, and it faltered to a straight face when he saw that I was still watching him. Minutes later, he dropped me off at the house and hurried off. I took a deep breath and walked in, immediately locking the door behind me. Just like I said I would do, I locked everything except my bedroom window. 

   I decided to take a shower so that I could get the stench of werewolf blood from my nails. Then, I dressed myself in simple sweats and a long sleeved shirt. I wanted to act human, and drinking coffee was human enough. So, I made myself some disgusting coffee, watched some shitty TV show on the TV, and then decided that it was enough. Without hesitation, I pushed myself out to the backyard and took a seat on the grass.

   A canopy of luminous stars hung amongt the ocean of blackness above me. Some were dull, merely flickering into existence every now and then, but there was an adequate amount of shimmering stars to illuminate the dark night. The trees looked like charcoaled versions of their daytime selves. Little shadows dancing with the breeze, ballerinas with dangling tutus.

   Memories of my past began to materialize in my head, things I no longer wished to recall. I remembered my parents, how they used to tuck me in at night after reading a bedtime story. They used to tell me a tale about an owl and a cat. It was a poem, but my mother loved it to the point where she told me every night. 

   For the owl and the cat, it was love at first sight. The owl would serenade the cat while gazing at the stars and strumming on a small guitar. He, the owl, describes her as beautiful. The cat responds by calling the owl an elegant fowl and compliments him on his singing. She urges they marry, but they don't have a ring. They sail away for a year and a day to a lang where Bong trees grow and discover a pig with a ring on his nose. They buy the ring with a shilling and are married the next day by a turkey. They dine on mince and quince using a 'runcible spoon', then danced hand-in-hand on the sand in the moonlight. 

   The sound of crunching grass made me turn to see an approaching figure. Damon stood behind me, hands deep in his pockets and a somber look in his face. His lips and neck were covered in blood, and he stared at me with wide eyes. 

   "Damon..." I stood up. "What happened?"

   He faltered towards me, almost like a drunk. One foot slowly in front of the other. He reached me seconds later and stood only inches away from me. With a sigh, he allowed his head to fall on my shoulder. Hesitantly, I laid my hand on his waist, my fingers brushing against the smooth leather of his jacket. 

   "What happened?" I repeated.

   "I had to kill her," he said, barely any emotion in his voice. "I had to, Clara, she was in so much pain..."

  I wrapped my arms around him as soon as he finished. There was no need for him to say any more, I knew that he meant Rose. The venom from the bite must had driven her crazy, and maybe then Damon decided to give her peace. The look that was in his eyes when I first saw him revealed all. And with the sadness seeping from his very being, I couldn't help but hold on to him. We fell to our knees, and I continued to hold him as he continued to rest his head on my shoulder. 

   Damon looked up at me, then, brows furrowing and head tilting to the side. "Why do you care so much?" he asked. His breath stunk of blood and alcohol, an awful mixture for vampires. 

   "I just do," I answered, laying a hand on his cheek. I ran my thumb through his bottom lip, slightly cleaning the blood. "I just care."

   "You shouldn't," he sighed, pulling away from me and laying down on the grass. "You really shouldn't care about me, Clara. Didn't I... Didn't I break your heart? I loved Katherine when I should have been in love with you. How can you care about a guy like that?"

   I sighed and took a seat besides him. "I ask myself that every day," I mumbled, mostly to myself. Damon lifted his head and laid it on my lap, keeping his eyes to the sky. 

   "You think..." he sighed again. "You think that if I never loved Katherine, would we still be together? I mean, would we marry like we were going to? Would we have children? Can you imagine little Damon's and Clara's running around?" He continued to speak about the past, about a life that I had dreamed of. 

   Being dead, I dreamed about the life I could have had if Katherine didn't mettle. I would have been Clara Salvatore, married to Damon Salvatore, three children, a big house, and a big smile on my face every day. Damon was the love of my life, the man that made my lips quiver into a big grin whenever he looked at me. He was the only thing, the only being in the entire universe, that made me feel like I was on fire when he touched me. It wasn't that horrible fire where you burn and cry; it was the good fire that began at the pit of your stomach and rose to your chest, causing your heart to wildly beat, and then it finished in your head, where you couldn't think straight. Even when we were courting, I used to think of the future. Not the future where we were both vampires and had no romance, but the future where we were still humans and were already dead because of old age or whatever sickness was happening then.

   To be honest with myself, I missed being human more than I missed being with Damon.

   "Want to know something?" Damon continued. "I still love you. Do you know how screwed up that is? One hundred and forty five years and I'm still hung up on a girl that wants nothing to do with me. And you know what's even worse? I broke her heart. Not once, oh no, but twice. Maybe it was more than twice... I was a screw-up, and I still am. Maybe my father was right; I am irresponsible."

   "Damon," I stopped him, bringing my fingers through his hair. "What Giuseppe thought of you made no matter to how you were. You were... You were amazing. You were the best thing that ever existed. There was this charm to you, and maybe that was why your father thought different. When you left the Confederate army, he called you a coward, but what did I call you?"

   "Reasonable," he quoted. "You said I was thinking with my heart instead of my brain. Something like that."

   I smiled and continued to brush my fingers through his hair. "And you survived," I whispered. "Did you know that I was terrified that you would never come back? I told Anna that I'd be a widow before I even got married." I chuckled and pushed his fringe away from his forehead. "And I always had a thing for a man in uniform, especially that night when you came back."

   He scoffed and looked at me, a playful smirk on his lips. "Hmm, I remember that night well." Damon stood and pulled me up with him. He took a few steps back and looked at me. Under the moonlight, Damon reminded me of a fallen angel. He was so beautiful, so tragically beautiful, like a sculpture. His dark hair, the icy blue eyes, and the physique of a Roman god. Maybe that was what he was. Maybe Damon was Pluto come to this world because the underworld was just too boring.

   "You were watching the sky from your window," he recalled. "And I stood under it with my hat between my hands. I called your name, but you didn't answer. So, I called it again, and this time you looked down. There was this look on your face that made me smile, and I didn't know whether it was because I saw you again after I thought I would die or because I just missed you too damn much." He stopped when he was inches away from me, and gently laid his hand on my cheek. "You ran outside and jumped on me, kissing every inch of my face with tears on your face." His thumb brushed up and down, causing a shiver to rise from my spine. Damon leaned closer to me, lips a few inches away from mine. As he spoke, I felt both his breath and his lips brush against mine. "And finally, you kissed my lips."

   His lips brushed against mine, almost like air. It made me crave more. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him to me, crashing my lips to his. There was nothing else that ran through my mind except his lips on mine and his hands scavenging all over my body. 

   He pulled away when we made it inside the house, and pushed me against the wall. "You kissed me so much that we stumbled to the woods." He pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth. "And we wanted-no, needed more. So, I pushed you against a tree and continued to kiss you." He pressed his lips to mine for a few seconds, and then pulled away with his eyes closed. Slowly, he opened them. "Just like I remember..."

   I pulled him to me and kissed him more, wanting more. Were we ever strangers? I'm not sure we were. That day I first saw him was something even then, though I didn't know what. I wonder if there's an element of time that allowed us to feel a strong love, like an orange glow bursting over a dark horizon. It was light for our eyes only, something to carry us through this life. It was the dawn of the person I am today, the person I would be. I would give up anything in the world for him.

   In his embrace the world stopped still. There was no time, no wind, no rain, no sun. My mind was at peace. How could it be that Damon still felt like before? Pure. Unselfish. Undemanding. Free. I felt his body press in, soft and warm. This was the love I'd waited for, prayed for when I was human. I inwardly thanked God and hugged him all the tighter. Finally, I was home.