A Mirror's Reflection

A/N: Hello everyone! And holy ****, so many reviews on the last chapter! Thank you all so much!

They made me very glad. I'm very pleased all of you were enthusiastic about the last chapter and I always enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas. Many add to nice twists because more often than not you lot point something out I hadn't thought about (like the conversation between Non-Elena and Mister Martin for example) and that way I can nicely fit it in the story.

Even if that will be done later:)

Anyway, here is chapter Eleven. I wonder what you all make of this…

o.O.o

I woke early to a steady rain drumming against my windows, my cheek pressed against the cool glass. Outside looked grim, grey and dark, lights flashing by with every passing car, making a soft phishing sound and I hadn't been able to fall asleep again.

I had curled up on the window seat with several pillows propped up behind me, laptop balancing on my knees. Without much to do, I'd been Googling information for my History assignment, when suddenly curt, even squawks pierced through the air.

A bird pecked insistently on a windowpane and I almost dropped my laptop off my lap. It was large, dark and it obviously was either a raven or a large crow. I highly suspected the latter and stared at it as it pecked its beak against the glass of the window. My brain slowly started piecing things together and my eyebrows rose.

"Damon?" My eyebrows furrowed together and carefully I slipped on a long vest and my slippers and tiptoed out of the house.

The trees in the backyard swayed in the slight wind and rain clung stubbornly as fat drops to the foliage around me. Peering up into the stark branches, I made out the black shape of a large crow. I was quite certain it was the one I'd seen before and I cocked my head to the side.

"Damon?"

The bird cocked its head to the side, looking at me with beady eyes and then — the sudden rasping caw made me wince — it launched off its perch and lurched forward. Flapping its wings, it soared in a downward arc disappearing into the darkness between two trees and then Damon suddenly appeared, stepping out onto the wet grass.

It was almost as if he'd materialized out of thin air and I bit on my lower lip.

"Elena."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, wrapping the long vest tighter around my body.

"I saw you today." He replied breezily.

"Oh?"

"At the Grill."

"Oh," I grumbled and I felt my face blanch ('shit') and plucked at a loose thread.

"Yeah, 'oh'." He agreed. "A sacrifice? You and old-and-creepy are planning a sacrifice?"

"It's none of your business, Damon," I grumbled.

"Planning your sacrifice. Believe me, that is my business." He snapped.

Breathing out harshly, I looked up at the inky smear of the night sky, dotted with dark, swirling clouds. The dewy grass was starting to saturate the hems of my striped pajama pants and I stared down the wide slope of velvet lawn.

My hair was hanging loosely at the base of my skull, fluttering in the slight wind, and Damon— Damon remained standing in front of me. He smelled distinctly of alcohol and I swallowed. Or I tried to.

"Damon, why do you even care?"

"I don't," he was quick to assure, too quick and I frowned.

"Then why—"