8 The Founder’s party – II

It was close to night time. Mark was standing near the lake with a glass of champagne in his left hand, enjoying the music filled with public chatter. He was staring in the foggy lake with his out of focus eyes, as if he was reminiscing about something.

Mark took a sip of champagne and closed his eyes, after a couple of seconds he opened them with a frowned face. He turned around and saw Damon walking towards him alone, with his condescending smile and a bottle of bourbon in his left hand.

Damon stopped a couple of feet away from Mark and throwed the bottle towards him for him to catch. Mark caught the bottle his left hand with ease. Damon looked at Mark and started laughing.

"I knew you were not human when you squeezed my hand, it felt as if my bones were gonna get powdered."

Damon spoke while looking at the glass of champagne on the ground with still champagne, without any hint of ripple in it. He had a mocking smile as he started walking towards Mark.

"Now why don't you tell me what're you doing here, in this town?"

Damon sneered as he looked in Mark's hazel blue eyes and his expressionless face, but instead of his hazel blue eyes, all Damon saw was darkness, pitch black darkness.

Damon stopped smiling and looked around, but wherever he looked there was only pitch black darkness devoid of any sounds. He waved his hand right in front of his face but it was so dark he couldn't even see it, even if it was half a feet away from his face.

He then decided to walk around but as he turned around and took his first step, it made a splashing sound, as if he was walking in the shallow pool of water.

"Ok, fun time's over. Come on out now."

Damon spoke while glancing around, looking for Mark, but he couldn't help but feel a dreading sensation, constantly looming over him. The situation was becoming serious as the time slowly passed.

"You think this is funny? Let me out of here, right now."

Damon started panicking and shouted but he couldn't even hear his own voice in this lightless, soundless void, that he was trapped in now.

He started sweating even as the temperature was going down. He was like a prey ready for slaughter, waiting for his predator. Damon then heard a low growl, which made him feel a shiver go down his spine. His heartbeat was going through the roof. He decided to turned around to look, but what he saw when he turned around, made him froze as his face twisted with fear.

There was two gigantic crimson moon hanging in the pitch black void. As he stood in a shallow water body, he started hearing horrible high pitch roars filled with anguish and pain and countless murmurs begging, as if they were suffering from an immeasurable amount of anguish and pain.

Damon closed his ears with his hands, to escape from the hellish ravings, which was driving him mad but it didn't mattered as he heard a loud demonic growl which made his much desired silence to return.

He looked up at the crimson moons and it appeared that the moons had a crimson sea flowing on their surface. That appeared to be drowning everything. This blood colored sea boiled and formed a gigantic pitch black eye with crimson pupil on each moon, staring right at him.

He lost control of his muscle movement. He couldn't move his body and his surroundings started to get blurry. After some time as his focus became clear, all he saw was his own headless body slowly falling in the shallow pool of crimson blood and then he blacked out, embracing the eternal darkness.

Damon's POV:

"Aaaggggghh"

I woke up with an intense pain in my head as if someone was piercing red-hot knives through every inch of my head. The pain was so intense that was brain was unable to process it.

I fall down on the ground, the world around me blurred and my breathing slowed down, my body started twitching uncomfortably.

What I was going through just couldn't be explained in words. Even though I wanted to scream, no words escaped my mouth.

It was finally after some time had passed that I was able to somehow control my body, as my chest heaved up and down unevenly, gritting my teeth, I grabbed onto the grass as my fingers dug through the soft soil. I clenched my fists with all my might and looked around, I was back at the party. The low melodious music mixed with chatter rung inside my head.

I stood up hurriedly and looked for Mark, but he was nowhere to be seen. I looked at my watch and just 10 minutes have passed.

'I went through all of that in just 10 minutes.'

"What was he? And where was I?"

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and tried to remember about the hell I went through, but as I tried. The horrible head splitting pain returned.

"Agggh"

I grabbed my head and tried again. But no matter how hard I tried, my memories were becoming vague but the mad ravings was as fresh as I heard before.

I picked up the bottle of bourbon that was lying beside me and chugged down a mouthful of it, after that I stood up.

"I've to warn Stefan about him. Why was he here? I should get out after getting what I came for."

I started walking towards the mayor's house, paying no attention to the crowd that was eyeing me strangely, as I prayed not to come across that monster again.

Mark's POV:

I looked at Damon's body spasming all over the floor as I bend down and leaned forward to pick up my glass of champagne but suddenly I started coughing. I can taste the sweet ironic taste coming inside my mouth. I pulled out the red handkerchief from my front coat pocket and wiped the blood from the corner of my lips.

'I can't use my authority fully in this condition. I hate being this weak but I've to confirm those rumors about her.'

I again bend down and picked up my champagne glass while putting down the bottle of bourbon right beside Damon and started walking towards the mansion.

As I was walking towards the mansion I came across many couples dancing over a sweet and melodious serenade. I noticed Elena's gaze, while she was dancing with Stefan, but I paid no attention to her and went inside the mansion.

I looked around and couldn't find Bonnie so I increased my senses to listen to all the chatter, murmurs, laughter and heartbeats. I closed my eyes and focused on every sound. I found her, she was on the second floor.

I went upstairs through the stairs to my left and walked inside a large dining room and there she was alone, unknowingly practicing her magic, lighting all the candles in the room.

She saw me as I stood near the pillar of the dining room with as innocent smile as I could muster.

Bonnie's POV:

'This party's becoming boring as the time passes. Where is Mark? He said he'll be gone for just a couple of minutes to look for Mayor Lockwood and its past 30 minutes now.'

As I was sitting in the dining room, I noticed a candle flickering on the table. It's started to annoy me.

'I wish if it just blow out by itself.'

I again looked at the candle and was startled seeing that the candle was blown out. I looked around to see if any of the room's windows were open, letting the drift in, but they were all closed.

'It had to be a coincident. There's no way I'm psychic or whatever grams kept telling me about.'

As I was busy with my inner monologuing Mrs. Lockwood came in and called for the servant. As soon as the servant came inside, she started yelling at him for not lightning the candle at the dining table.

After shouting and throwing insults at him for a couple of minutes, she went outside. The servant stood there with his head hung low and a dejected look on his face. He sighed and went outside to look for matches to light up the candles.

'It's my fault but why does she have to be so rude about something so small.'

I again looked at the candles on the dining table. I closed my eyes and imagined the candle to lighten up again, after some time I opened my eyes but the candles was still blown out. I was a little upset as I was hoping for a miracle.

'It was all a coincident after all. Let's get out of here and look for Mark.'

As I turned around and started walking towards the entrance, I noticed there was sudden flashes of light behind me, which made my shadow flicker. I turned around and shocked at the sight of all the candles at the dining table, at the chandelier, on the walls lightened.

As I was admiring my work, I noticed Mark standing near a pillar with his innocent smile.

I stopped and looked at him with shocked filled face of mine.

'How much does he saw? Don't tell me he saw me lighten the candles. I've to get out of here.'

But as I turned around and took a step towards the second entrance, I heard his voice.

"Wow, it's amazing, Bonnie. I didn't know you could perform magic?"

I turned around and looked at him. He was looking at me with a cheerful smile. I stopped.

"Magic? And how do you know about it?" I asked as I stood several feet away from him.

"I've only heard stories about the witches from John when I was young, and I researched about them but meeting you confirms that they exists." He spoke with his excitement filled voice and started walking towards me. I was startled and took a step back. He stopped too and looked at me with a sullen look on his face and spoke.

"I see you don't want to talk about this. Ok, I'll keep your secret, but if you want to know more about yourself or just want to know more about the supernatural world, feel free to contact me anytime." After that he started walking towards the exit.

After reaching the door he stopped and turned around, as he looked at me, he spoke.

"You don't need to be afraid of yourself because what you did now was amazing." He flashed his genuine smile and left.

Mark's POV:

After talking to Bonnie I left the mansion and went towards a more quite place. As I was strolling through the crowds, I picked up another glass of champagne from the waiter. Its night time now with a full moon hung in the sky, unobstructed by the clouds, illuminating the lake.

I walked towards the lake side with a bench illuminated by a European style lamppost, dying the surrounding in the shades of yellow. As I sat on the bench for some time, I was interrupted by a greeting. I turned around and it was Elena.

"What are you doing here all alone and not enjoying the party?"

"Nothing much, just needed a little quite time and who said I'm not enjoying the party?" I smiled as I raised the champagne glass, which was in my left hand.

"So, you're here alone, night gazing at the lake while everybody enjoying themselves at the party, hmm." She squinted her eyes at me.

"Oh, believe me. I often enjoy the beauty of nature no matter however cruel it may be." I spoke as I stared toward the moon.

"Cruel?" she followed my eyes and glanced at the moon.

"Don't mind me just reminiscing." I left out a chuckle.

As we were conversing, I heard a women's muffled scream. I squinted my eyes and looked towards the direction, where the scream came from.

"You heard that?" I asked Elena

"Heard what?" She looked puzzled.

"I heard a women's scream coming from that direction." I pointed towards a shallow wood clearing to my left. After couple of seconds I heard the scream again and ran towards it at humanly speed.

"Wait for me." I heard Elena's voice, I turned around and saw her following me.

After running for a couple of seconds we reached the spot and saw Caroline lying on the ground, unconscious.

"Oh my god. What happened to her?" Elena started panicking.

I Walked towards Caroline, bend down my knees and leaned forward to checked her pulse and breathing. She was alive. As I shook her a little, she woke up screaming. She was terrified as she looked around for someone and tried to leave, but Elena stopped her.

"What happened to you? Are you alright? We need to call an ambulance." Elena took out her phone but before she could dial 911, Caroline shouted.

"I'm alright. It was just an animal ok. Now if you would excuse me I've to go." After that Caroline Picked up her purse and left.

Elena looked worriedly at the leaving figure of Caroline, she excused herself apologetically and followed her behind. I was left alone. I looked at the moon with my lips curving upwards forming a chilling smile as I held an ember crystal to my eye level.

"Finally I've found you. I have a lot of questions from your maker, that's bugging me for a while. Let's get you to your rightful owner shall we." I laughed as I left the place.

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