The Banshee Teacher || TVD [BEING REWRITTEN ON MY PROFILE]

Chapter Forty-Three

"But pain's like water.
It finds a way to push through any seal.
There's no way to stop it.
Sometimes you have to
let yourself sink inside of it
before you can learn how to swim
to the surface."
Katie Kacvinsky

Fire surrounds Bri. The flames creep towards her, the grass singeing as the blaze closes in. Brilliant orange flames flare higher as they grow nearer.

A cacophony of breaking bones fulls her ears, but all she feels is the heat from the fire. The cracking and snapping continue as the air around her warms.

Her heart burns, and suddenly the cacophony ends. All she wants is for the cacophony to continue.

The flames, now close enough to touch, bring an overwhelming sense of fear with them. Anxiety and fear crawl up and down her spine, before coursing down her arms and stopping in her fingertips.

Her back itches, stopping seconds before her heart burns again.

Blazing orange flames turn grey and cold. All she wants is for the colour to return and the flames to burn.

Grey fire encroaches across the grass until it's dancing across her skin. Instead of warmth and light, the flames bring cold and darkness.

Her blood shrinks away from the blaze, pulsing through her veins with a mind of its own. Trying to escape the foreboding sense the fire brings, her blood courses rapidly throughout her body.

And then it stops, and all signs of life surrounding her start disappearing.

Sharp green blades of grass beneath her turn brown, curling in on themselves as they wither and shrivel until eventually vanishing into the dirt—as if the grass had never existed.

The cold grey fire retreats from her skin, the dancing of the flames ending as they shrink back. Returning to their original position, the flames continue shrinking, until they die out.

With only dirt beneath her and darkness surrounding her, Bri feels nothing.

And then, even the dirt disappears, and she is left with nothing beneath her or around her.
Only the full moon above her, until that too disappears.

Now, there's nothing.
Nothing but the dark and the cold.
Nothing but the overwhelming feeling of death.

"It's okay Bri," a soft voice calls, "You're okay."

Skylar watches Bri's shaking form—maybe she's shivering?—as she kneels next to the redhead's bed, her voice soft and soothing as she tries coaxing Bri awake.

After a few minutes without success, Skylar sighs worriedly, pulling her phone out as she scrolls through her contacts, and dialling.

Nothing below, nothing above.
Nothing to either side.
Nothing in front, nothing behind.

Nothing everywhere.

Scarlet energy doesn't come when called.
An echo is the only reply she ever receives.

And although there's absolutely nothing, Bri finds herself calling apologies into the void.

Damon arrives at Bri's house a minute after Skylar called him. The worry in the teen's voice is enough to worry him—worry him enough that he vamp-speeds to their house in his funeral attire.