(1) Just Magic (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Five

Cassandra manages to find a quiet little stump of a tree to sit on in the woods as the party goes on around her, it is a little more packed than she thought it was going to be, which makes no sense actually. It's a high school party. There is beer and no adults. Of course, this place is going to be packed with teenagers. Elena holds out a bottle of beer to Cassandra who looks at it a moment before she takes it from Elena, but won't be drinking it. She hasn't touched a drop since the night of the accident. It was a party she was at that night. She was drinking that night. She can't bring herself to have any now. She's not ready for that step. But she will hold onto this bottle, keep her hands occupied. Bonnie stands with the two sisters, glancing around before turning back at Elena.

"Just admit it, Elena." She teases Elena who gives her a look back, Bonnie raises an eyebrow in question. Elena sighs.

"Oh, okay, so he's a little pretty," Elena admits. Bonnie smirks victorious, Cassandra just shakes her head, amused.

"He has that romance novel stare" Bonnie adds, Cassandra just rolls her eyes.

"I don't like him" Cassandra mumbles under her breath, Elena and Bonnie look at her. Elena frowns at her, Cassandra just shrugs back. She doesn't want to get into it. Mostly because she is not sure they are going to believe her. She doesn't like him because she had a bad dream about him does sound stupid.

"Any particular reason?" Elena asks her, Cassandra can't answer that honestly.

"Intuition" Cassandra answers and shrugs. It is the best she has without just blurting out.

"So where is he?" Bonnie asks.

"I don't know. You tell me, you're the psychic one." Elena teases slightly.

"You're a psychic?" Cassandra asks. She's missed out on a lot of conversations recently, clearly, this is one of them. Bonnie shrugs a little and gives her a sad smile.

"So Grams tells me..." Bonnie answers. "Okay, so give me a sec. Grams says I have to concentrate."

"Maybe you need a crystal ball." Cassandra offers with a smirk, Bonnie shoots her a look but Cassandra just hands over her beer bottle. Bonnie takes it and touches Cassandra's hand. Bonnie spaces out for a while, comes back to her senses, and abruptly pulls her hand back. "What?" Cassandra asks her. Bonnie shakes her head. "What?" Cassandra pushes a little, because of that look, the way Bonnie looked at her then means something happened.

"It was weird. When I touched you..." Bonnie lets out a breath and glances at Cassandra. "All I saw was this red mist..."

"What?" Elena asks as she looks between the two of them.

"Red mist" Bonnie repeats, staring at Cassandra. Bonnie then shakes her head, clearing whatever it is from her mind. Coming back from whatever it was. "I'm drunk. It's the drinking. There's nothing psychic about it. Yeah? Okay, I'm gonna get a refill." Bonnie then walks away quickly. Cassandra pulls a face and cocks her head, scrunching her nose a little.

"What was that about?" Elena asks, Cassandra shrugs and stands.

"I'm going to check on her" Cassandra offers.

"Yeah" Elena agrees and then watches as Cassandra follows after Bonnie. She needs to find out what Bonnie really saw. Though this proves Cassandra is not the only one going through some major changes, Bonnie appears to be too.

...........

Bonnie is at the collection of coolers and crates of beer cans and bottles. Cassandra swears she can even spy a few mini-wine bottles too, clearly, someone has raided their mother's stock. Bonnie is peering into one of the coolers, just kind of staring. Whatever she felt when she touched Cassandra has shaken her.

"Bonnie?" Cassandra asks as she approaches her friend, Bonnie picks up a couple of beers and then turns to Cassandra.

"Sorry about that" She hands a beer to Cassandra who takes it from her with a small smile "I don't know what happened..." Bonnie reluctantly whispers. Cassandra sets her hand on Bonnie's shoulder, a flicker of red mist around her fingers, she turns her hand a little and lets her mist enter Bonnie's head, both sets of eyes turning red as Cassandra reads her mind, flicking through to find what she had seen when she had touched her. Bonnie was telling the truth, she saw red mist, which's basic and explainable. But she also saw glowing eyes. And a crow. The eyes, same as the mist, makes sense, but the crow? Nope. Cassandra doesn't even like birds. With their creepy beady little eyes. She pulls the mist back from Bonnie, letting it seep back into her fingers before she pulls her hand back. "I didn't mean to freak you out" Bonnie continues as if nothing happened.

"You didn't" Cassandra assures her softly. What she saw doesn't explain her reaction. It could mean anything. There had to have been a deeper feeling that she can't see. They both turn a little and watch Elena and Stefan talking. Cassandra clenching her jaw slightly, fingers tightening around the beer bottle. Something about him being near Elena really, really sets the hairs on the back of her neck on edge. A tingling in her spine is warning her that he is dangerous and she sure as hell doesn't want him around her twin.

........

Cassandra makes it past an hour. She is pretty proud of that fact. She was worried she wasn't even going to last sixty minutes. But here she is. She still doesn't drink. Instead, she just carries a bottle around, every now and then pouring a bit of it out and onto the ground just to kind of offer the illusion that she is drinking. She smiles at a pair of girls from her year that greet her as she passes them. She's not really popular, and she doesn't have many friends, just Bonnie and Caroline, but people still know who she is. Mostly because her family has been the talk of the town since the accident.

"Somebody help!" Elena's panicked voice breaks through the sounds of parting. Cassandra frowns and turns to seek out Elena. Sees her with Jeremy as they carry an unconscious Vicki out of the trees and towards the party. Matt is instantly moving towards his sister followed by Tyler. Cassandra weaves through the crowds of people now gathering to watch. She doesn't care for Vicki, at all, but she cares for Elena and Jeremy.

"Vicki? Vicki, what the hell?!" Matt asks.

"What happened to her?" Tyler adds, Matt looks around at those that are just standing there and watching.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" He pleads with them, someone does pull out a cell phone and dials.

"Everybody back up, give her some space!" Tyler pushes at some of the crowd to make way for them.

"It's her neck. Something bit her. She's losing a lot of blood." Elena points out, her voice breaking with the fear that has come from this. Cassandra cocks her head and then backs into the crowd. She honestly can't bring herself to care too much about what has happened to Vicki. She still hates her, with deep anger.