[Paris' outfit for the next day is at the very top.]

꧁ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ғɪᴠᴇ ꧂
ᴛʜᴇʀᴀᴘʏ

❝I don't know. Maybe I just need someone to talk to. Someone who could help me, do better.❞

♠

PARIS LOOKS AT the vampire with wide eyes while Damon looks at her with such calmness. He knows that even if she's here, she won't be scared. But it still pains him to think that she's only not running away from him because of the compulsion.

"You...You're..." Paris trailed off as she points her index finger at him.

"A vampire. Yep." Damon replied, popping the 'p' in the end. Paris furrows her eyebrows and averts her eyes from Damon when she starts to think about something.

"Why am I not running for the hills?" Paris asked as she gazes back on him. Damon makes his way towards the brunette but surprisingly, Paris isn't going anywhere. She remains in her position even though her mind is screaming for her to run.

"It's the compulsion." Damon said as he takes each step towards her. Paris looks at him strangely before she speaks. "Compulsion? Like, mind-controlling or something?" Paris asked.

Damon finally reaches the young lady and they stood two feet apart, the vampire towering the human. "Close enough." He answered and gives his usual smirk at the end.

Paris remains still in her position as she scans the figure before her. It's confusing her that even though she's aware that he's a vampire, she isn't making any move against him. Or even away from him. But somehow what Damon said, actually made sense to her. Which is again, weird, since she doesn't believe in all those stuff.

"So you're saying that you can make me do whatever you want?" Paris asked again, this time, she feels threatened by what he could make her do but it is all masked by the compulsion, making her look like she isn't scared about anything right now.

"Frankly, yes." Damon said shortly. Paris's eyebrow raises as she is taken aback by his honesty, and of course, this whole weird situation.

"If we're going to do this, I need to know everything about you first." Paris demanded. The confidence and the fearlessness that she's showing still confuses her while she walks past the vampire and sits on the edge of the bridge.

"Like, everything?" Damon repeated. Deep down inside him is scared to actually open up to her even though she would forget about it when she's not with him. But still, she would remember it every time they would talk, and it makes him nervous to even think about what her reaction would be.

"Everything." Paris answered. The vampire hesitates for a moment before he goes to approach the young brunette and sits beside her.

♠

They have been sitting on the same spot for two hours, talking about Damon's history ever since he became a vampire. Paris learned that this town is filled with vampires. And that the one who tries to attack her was Klaus who is actually an Original hybrid.

She learned about the recent problems that they faced and how her sister Meredith know all of this and not tell her. Despite every shocking piece of information Damon had told her, she focused on one thing. The fact that her sister knows about everything supernatural and not tell her.

"Does she think that some herb would protect me?" she said angrily.

"Well, obviously it didn't work since, you almost became Klaus's main course." Damon answered. Paris rolls her eyes at him due to the lack of a filter for his thoughts.

"One more question..." Paris started. Damon averts his eyes from the beautiful view before them and towards another beautiful one beside him. "...Why are you doing this?" she asked with a serious look on her face.

Damon looks at the brunette with a blank expression on his face as he thinks for a moment. Why is he doing this?

"I don't know. Maybe I just need someone to talk to. Someone who could help me, do better." Damon explained. Paris looks at him with a curious look on her face, as if she's trying to figure out something. There's something that he's hiding and she can see it. She just doesn't know what it is.

"So this is like... therapy?" Paris asked. Damon furrows his eyebrows. He's trying to decide whether or not he should consider it. "Close enough." he just answered.

The young lady glances at the vampire beside her and examines him as if she's trying to remember every detail of his face. Damon then looks at her and is taken aback by the way Paris looks at him. She looks so calm. Even though it's the compulsion's effect on her, he still likes the way she's acting around him. How she "accepts" him, if you could even call it that.

"You're desperate." Paris suddenly blurted out. And her comment made Damon grimace and he obviously disagrees with what Paris said even though deep down, he knows what she's talking about.

"What? What do you mean I'm desperate?" Damon replied, still wearing the confused look on his face.

"You're desperate, or else you wouldn't vamp-acadabra me just to keep you company." Paris said. Damon was already grimacing when she told him he was desperate but his grimace grew even wider when she said that.

"First of all, was that supposed to be funny? Because it was beyond awful. You could use some of my expertise. Second, it's called compulsion. Don't attempt to make any of... that ever again. Third, no, I'm not desperate. I just thought it would be a good idea for us to hang out but unfortunately, I was wrong." Damon said.

Damon starts to walk away from Paris because as usual, he's scared of where this conversation would go. Paris doesn't let him go far since she said something that even he didn't expect.

"You're a coward!" Paris shouted.

Damon turns around with an annoyed expression on his face before he spoke. "I'm what?"

"You're a coward. You hide behind that facade of yours, pretending that you don't care about anything when in fact, you care about everything. You even compelled me to keep you company because you need someone you can pour out your feelings with because if you keep this act going, you're going to lose it."

"I am losing it already because of your nonsense!"

"No, you're losing it already because you hate that I'm right!"

Damon's hands start to curl into fists as he tries to calm himself down so that their fight would no longer escalate.

"We're done here." Damon said before he vamp ran away from Paris. His disappearance made Paris angrier, but what she doesn't understand is why she's angry.

She can feel all the anger wanting to expel from her but she has no idea why she's feeling all this anger.

The young lady walks home and finally reaches the Fell's Residence then made her way to her room. She shuts the door and leans back on it while she tangles her hands with her her brown hair, grasping her head to try and block out all the anger that she's been trying to bottle up ever since she started walking home.

She starts to take deep breathes and as she did that, she slowly goes down to sit on the floor with her knees against her chest. She eventually calms down and she feels relieved that everything in her is relaxed.

A tear escapes her eye unknowingly and she wonders what happened. She was just on her way back home after school and then the next thing she knew, it's already night time and she's standing in the middle of the Wickery Bridge.

She sits down on her bed and rests her hands on top of the covers. She takes a few deep breaths to calm herself yet again due to the fact that she's having another memory lapse, like the one she had the night of the dance.

Paris shakes away the thought and decides to change into her sleepwear so that she could go to sleep since she still has school tomorrow.

She lays on her bed and closes her eyes. For some unknown reason, the young lady thought of the one person she least expected before she falls asleep. Damon Salvatore.

♠

Paris basically ran towards her classroom because she is almost late to her class. She blames the soothing feeling of the water raining down on her while she showered, and the fact that she forgot her car at school, don't know how that is even possible.

Luckily for her, her teacher is late as well. Therefore, she is safe.

She sits down next to her friend Dana. Dana reaches out for her and Paris glances at her.

"Me and the girls are planning to stroll out of town later tonight. You coming?" Dana offered.

Of course! I want to come with you.

Paris thought. But what came out of her mouth was the exact opposite. "I can't. I have plans." she answered. She scolds herself mentally on why she said that. She doesn't even have any plans tonight.

"Again? What are you doing tonight anyway?" Dana said a bit hurt that Paris once again cannot go with her.

"I'm meeting someone." Paris blurted out. Even she surprised herself with the details that she's giving Dana. She doesn't even know what the hell she's talking about.

"OMG. What's his name?" Dana asked.

"It's a secret," Paris answered. Before Dana could complain, their teacher enters the classroom and starts the discussion.

♠

School is done and the whole day, Paris was avoiding the same topic Dana had been forcing to bring up since the first period.

She walks out of the school and notices her car parked on the school's parking lot, asking herself repeatedly why she had completely forgotten to take her car home.

She climbs in the car and starts the engine before she drives away.

While she is driving, she has this powerful urge to go to the Wickery Bridge again and she can't shake it off. She wants to go there. She needs to.

Before she knows it, she's at the Wickery Bridge, looking straight at the man through her window. And it's none other than the man she thought of before she fell asleep.

She opens the door and climbs out of the car. She approaches him before he turns around.

An uncomfortable feeling starts to surge through her and her brain making her feel a little dizzy and once it was gone, she remembers everything again.

"Seriously? Am I going to be like this every day?!" Paris snaps. Damon rolls his eyes at her and reaches for the bottle of bourbon that he had brought with him.

"Here we go again." Damon just replied.

"I thought I was losing my mind last night! I was angry for no reason and I wanted to lash out but I had no idea why. I was having another memory lapse and it was driving me crazy!" Paris ranted.

Damon takes a few sips from his bourbon before he glances at the young brunette. "That's how compulsion works." he replied.

"Then undo it." Paris demanded. Damon tilted his head and narrows his eyes at her. "And why should I do that?" he asked.

"Because my sanity is not a toy for you to play with."

"You are not even a toy for me to begin with."

"Then undo it. I know that you care about me or else you wouldn't choose me." Paris said with a more softer tone. The two are only a couple of inches apart. The lack of distance and the soft voice of the brunette somehow made the vampire feel vulnerable. And he doesn't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.

"I can't." he muttered, while he stares directly into her eyes.

"Why not?" she muttered back. Damon looks down for a moment before he glances back at the young lady.

"I need you."

♠

Hey guys! Yes, I know it's been a while since my last update. But I was just so busy with school and exams and our high school dance. So you could say that I was REALLY busy. But hey, here's an update.