Chapter 2:

Meredith stood frozen, looking at the framed picture that hung on the wall. She could have sworn only hours ago the little girl's expression was grim and unhappy; now it was cheerful. It didn't make any sense. Running her fingers through her hair, Meredith climbed the rest of the stairs towards her bedroom, fearing that she was losing her mind at such a young age. What else could possibly explain recent events? Meredith was still calm enough to think rationally, and after all the great powers that had gone through Fell's Church, maybe she wasn't imagining any of this. But should she tell the others was the question; things had just gotten back to normal, and with Elena not being fully herself yet, Meredith decided that she should keep this secret to herself for now.

Entering her bedroom, Meredith walked up to the mirror examining her tired features; purple bruises underneath her eyes weren't exactly beautiful, and her hair needed a good washing. But she was far too tired to bother about those things. The words Mrs. Flowers had said, and now her grandfather popped back into her head. Beware of the mirror? Meredith couldn't fathom what they were talking about, but if both insane could they have possible both thought up the same warning all by themselves? Sharply turning away from the mirror, Meredith placed her hands on her hips, thinking about the supposed warning and all types of powers that could possible attack through mirrors.

The mirror stood behind Meredith, looking just like an ordinary mirror, with a dark brown mahogany frame, with flowers engraved at the bottom of the stand. But there was something different about this particular mirror; something lurked deep within, trying desperately to get out. And then it happened with her body giving the mirror her back. It burst into orange flames of light, and the mirror glazed over and the little girl was standing there, a reflection in the mirror, with no physical body; just a reflection. The girl was smirking, her arms folded across her chest, staying perfectly still, then she lifted her right arm up, extending it towards Meredith who was unaware of the action, and shot a white light from her hand, which shot through the mirror, and hit the dark haired girl in the back causing her to fall to the floor unconscious. Then flames died down, and the girl disappeared, but there were words left upon the glossy surface.

Melinda Lockwood walked through the forest close by to the boarding house, her family used to spend weeks of summer there, against her wishes of course. Melinda was never a happy child; a frown upon her face most of the time, it was plain to see that whatever her parents did to try and lift the girl's sprits was done in vain, because nothing could put a smile on the girl's face. Melinda had been sent out to play in the garden while the adults talked, but after half an hour of playing with her porcelain dolls, the girl grew bored, but knew she shouldn't go back into the house until her mother or father gave the word, and she'd always had a fascination with the forest that she was never allowed to enter.

Melinda, being too young, could never fathom why the forest was a dangerous place; animals were one of the only things she liked, what harm could a deer do? She questioned walking further into the murky abyss that was the forest. She wasn't scared of anything, and was calm and collected most of the time, but even though Melinda never really feared anything, she didn't like taking risks. But today was a special occasion; she was bored, and what do little children do when their bored?Get into trouble, Melinda thought answering her own question. Tapping her chin, Melinda stopped in front of a large maple tree. Getting closer, the girl inspected the tree, noticing a red substance on the bark.

Melinda was too young to understand the foreboding feeling that swept through her; she shrugged her shoulders and continued on her walk. A cold gust of wind passed by the forest floor, causing the girl to shiver in fear. But she didn't stop going further into the forest; with every step she took, it led her further in to trouble. What the little girl didn't know was behind her lurked something dangerous, something that hid in the shadows waiting for an easy prey. The dark shadow stalked behind her at unnatural speed, watching as the little girl dared to go further in the kingdom of the wild. It was like the girl wanted to die, or was too stupid to sense the underlining danger. Melinda stopped dead in her tracks, letting out a soft sigh as she realized she was lost, turning around franticly, fear finally setting in. She didn't know which way she'd come from; everything looked exactly the same. Looking with intense eyes, she realized that there was something or someone following her, hiding behind one of the large tree barks.

"Hello?" she called through the forest, her voice echoing in her silent surroundings, causing the girl to gulp in fear. The shadow found it amusing to watch the girl call for him, knowing that if the innocent girl knew the truth she wouldn't be calling for him to reveal himself.

Licking his lips the shadow, he could feel the young girls heart beating, the blood that coursed through her veins. Not being able to hide it any longer, he stepped out of the shadows revealing himself to the little light that wasn't covered by the tress, which acted like natural canopies. Melinda stood wide eyes as the man sepped into the light. He had thick black her and smoldering dark brown eyes, like expensive dark chocolate, but Melinda couldn't see the man clearly, and while his uncommon features stood out, she wouldn't be able to point him out on the street; not that she'd ever seen such a beautiful man walking along the streets of Fell's Church.

"Who are you?" she asked, taking a step back from the man. Everything about his screamed "runaway now!" But it wasn't because of what the man was doing; it was just the feeling that people would get when they stood too close to him. Chuckling darkly, the man took another step closer to the girl, causing Melinda's breath to quicken, and her heart to pump blood at a million miles per hour. The shadow could feel her heart beating rapidly, the fear she produced was pleasure to him; to feel her tremble slightly as he took another unwelcome step forward. To feel her throat get hoarse, and finally to see the first clear tears fall from the girl's unnaturally green eyes.

"Why don't you tell me your name first?" he suggested, taking another step forward. He was only centimeters from the girl now, so much that he could imagine his fangs ripping into the delicate skin on her neck

"M..m…meli...nd...da" the girl stuttered, never meeting the eyes of the scary looking man. With a smile the shadow bent down to one knee until he was level to level with the girl, and grabbed her chin between his figures, ignoring the sob that escaped the girl's lips. He forced the girl to look into his dark cold eyes.

"You're not afraid of me," compelled the shadow, looking into the girls now hazed over eyes

"I'm not afraid of you," she repeated, unaware of the words that fell from her lips; and then he chuckled darkly again before, piercing his fangs through her skin.

Meredith awoke from her dream with a terrible jolt, clutching to her heart for comfort. She couldn't tell if that was a memory or if it was all a dream, looking at her surroundings she realized she was on the floor, but couldn't understand why. Had she fainted? Looking towards her mirror, she noticed the words that were written on the glossy surface. Till death do us part.What could those words possibly mean, but the more important question running through Meredith's mind was, who wrote them? Could someone have snuck into her room while she was unconscious on the floor? Meredith thought that theory was pretty unlikely, why would a normal person write that on her mirror, and she'd never invited a vampire into the house, as far as she knew.

Standing from the floor, she examined the words more carefully, they were written in some red substance, getting closer she realized it was blood; someone had gotten inside and written a threat on her mirror in blood, but the thing that worried Meredith more was, what if they were still in the house? Exiting her bedroom with speed, she walked down the stairs, and into the kitchen finding nobody was there.

"Mother? Father?" she called, but no one replied. She was the only living thing in the house, at least she hoped. Tapping her chin, she pondered on what to do. This was getting beyond scary, and what about the dream she'd had of Melinda Lockwood? But she wasn't a witch! Why was she having flashbacks to another person's life?

Meredith thought about the flashback for a moment, being perfectly sure that it was a vampire who had killed the girl, just like some of the town's people had speculated. But who was the vampire that lurked in the shadows? She couldn't make out exactly who he was; parts of the flashback were being to get hazy, just like dreams, once you've woke up from them, but she did remember his cold dark brown eyes, and short black hair, and merciless dark laugh, but that wasn't enough to suspect anyone, and for all she knew, she'd never even meet the vampire before, or it was just a dream and nothing was real.

One thing was clear in Meredith's mind, she had to find out more and Melinda Lockwood, maybe then she'd realize it was all in her head, as she could go enjoy her time with her friends. Walking over to her dresser, Meredith picked out a pair of jeans and a red sweater before heading for the bathroom, her hands were trembling slightly like they had before, she couldn't get the scared girls image out of her head, or the man's chuckle; how he approached the girl without even caring about the clear tears that fell from her eyes. A monster was the first word that came to mind to describe the vampire, but then there was another vampire she described as that word.

Damon Salvatore sat in one of the stiff wicker chairs; the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare in his hands. Damon often stopped by Fell's Church public library/archive and sat down at one of the tables, knowing there would be perfect silence. Reaching the part were lady Macbeth was reading the letter her husband had sent her, detailing his meeting with the witches and what they had foretold, he couldn't help but let his mind wonder back to when he'd actually gone and seen the play live, when it first premiered so many centuries ago; nothing was more enjoyable for him then, watching those lines being delivered, the emotion, the sadness that you felt towards the end of the play when Macbeth realized that he'd done everything wrong, and that his beautiful wife was dead. Yes; in those times literature was about passion, not the drabble it had become today.

A bell ringing caused his head to snap up from lady Macbeth's soliloquy, his eyes landing on the large glass door, watching the person enter he realized it was none other than Meredith, her jacket rapped tightly around her, glasses covering her face. Damon couldn't help but think that lady Macbeth and Meredith had a few things in common, but as for the ambition Damon didn't think Meredith had it in her to kill other people for what she wanted, but the coldness was definitely there. Closing the book, Damon placed it down on the table. Standing up from the stiff chair, he ran his fingers through his black short hair before approaching the dark haired girl.

Meredith sat down in one of the library's chairs, opening one of the large archive books, which were available for all to see. She was more grateful than ever that the archive books were available to all, knowing her family wasn't a founding family, and wasn't in the slightest related to the Lockwood's. Her fingers skimmed over the rough cover, she could feel every bump and every crack that the cover had before opening it and starting down at its context. Meredith had just reached the time period she was looking for when a cough from behind her caused her head to snap up in that direction, letting out a sigh of exaspertaion. She looked towards the figure, folding her arms across her chest.

"What are you doing here Damon?" she asked. Anger was present in her voice.

"Oh, nothing. Just reading a little Shakespeare," he answered, pulling out the chair next to her before sitting down beside her.

"Well I'm busy," she said coolly, basically telling him to get lost.

"I can see that," he chuckled, looking at the words written on the archive pages. The words Melinda Lockwood catching his eye. It was the same name he'd heard her muttering, covering the page so she'd have to look at her, he flashed her a smile before asking, "Whose Melinda Lockwood?"

A/N: Thanks for reading please review. the next chapter will be coming very soon