Chapter 12: Blood and Lies
POV: Sam Barton
The high school parking lot after hours feels like a stage set for horror—empty, silent, lit by sodium lights that cast sickly yellow pools across cracked asphalt. Sam's Enhanced Speed clone perches on the gymnasium roof like a gargoyle, enhanced senses monitoring the area where, in canon, Mr. Tanner meets his violent end.
Sam sits in his car a block away, mentally linked to his clone, while Clone Two stands guard beside the vehicle with Defensive Shield ready to activate at the first sign of trouble.
The plan is elegantly simple: intervene without being seen, make it look like Tanner escaped on his own, save a life without revealing supernatural abilities.
"Damon feeds when he's frustrated," Sam remembers from his TVD knowledge. "Stefan's been cramping his style, Elena won't give him attention, so he'll take it out on the first available victim. In canon, that's Tanner. Not in this timeline."
Through his mental link, Clone One's voice carries urgency: "Movement. Damon's here, approaching from the west. Tanner's walking to his car—blue sedan, third row."
Sam's pulse spikes as he watches through his clone's enhanced vision. Damon Salvatore moves with liquid predatory grace across the parking lot, leather jacket rippling in the night breeze. His pale eyes have locked onto Mr. Tanner, who fumbles with his car keys while carrying a stack of papers that need grading.
"Target acquired. Damon's shifting to vampire mode—I can see the veins starting to show. Tanner's about to die."
"Intercept," Sam commands mentally. "Non-lethal distraction. Make it look random."
The clone blurs into motion, Enhanced Speed at thirty-five percent mastery now—fast enough to rival young vampires in short bursts. It drops from the roof to the parking lot in a controlled fall, grabs a fist-sized rock from the landscaping, and hurls it with superhuman accuracy at a car window three rows away.
The BMW's alarm explodes into shrieking electronic wails that echo off the school buildings like an air raid siren.
Damon's head snaps toward the sound, vampire features visible for a split second before smoothing back to human perfection. The distraction lasts just long enough for Tanner to notice the pale man approaching with unnatural speed.
"What the hell—" Tanner stumbles backward, terrified by something his rational mind can't process.
Damon snarls in frustration and blurs after the teacher, but Sam's clone is already implementing phase two. A second rock—this one aimed with surgical precision—strikes Damon in the back of the head.
The impact barely registers to a vampire, but it's enough to make Damon whirl around, scanning the shadows with deadly intensity.
"Who's there?" he calls out, voice carrying the kind of menace that makes prey animals run for cover.
The clone has already vanished, Enhanced Speed allowing it to blur between parked cars and into the treeline before Damon's supernatural senses can pinpoint its location.
Sirens wail in the distance—Sam called in an anonymous report of "suspicious activity" five minutes ago, timing the response perfectly.
Damon curses in a language that predates modern English, realizes the moment is completely ruined, and vanishes using vampire speed. One second he's there, the next he's gone like smoke.
Tanner stumbles to his car with shaking hands, adrenaline and confusion making his movements clumsy. He drives away moments before Sheriff Forbes and two deputies arrive to investigate the car alarm and anonymous tip.
[QUEST COMPLETE: SAVE MR. TANNER]
[MAJOR CANON DIVERGENCE ACHIEVED]
[REWARD: +500 EXP, +5 WIS (STRATEGIC INTERVENTION)]
[FUTURE ALLY UNLOCKED: ALARIC SALTZMAN]
[WARNING: DAMON AWARENESS ESCALATED]
The next morning, Mystic Falls High buzzes with gossip that spreads through hallways like wildfire. Mr. Tanner was attacked by "some psychopath" in the school parking lot and barely escaped with his life.
Sam sits in AP History, watching as Tanner teaches with visible nervousness that wasn't there yesterday. The man's hands shake slightly as he writes on the whiteboard, and he keeps glancing toward the windows like he expects his attacker to return.
But he's alive. He's breathing, thinking, existing in ways he never got the chance to in canon.
Caroline leans over to whisper, "Did you hear about Mr. Tanner? Some crazy person tried to attack him last night. I feel terrible for making fun of his bow ties."
Sam nods, hiding his relief behind concerned student expression.
"That's horrible. I'm glad he's okay."
"One more life saved. One more tragic death prevented. But at what cost?"
[CURRENT EXP: 3,300/3,300 TO LEVEL 6]
[LEVEL UP ACHIEVED!]
[+5 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE]
Sam allocates immediately: +2 VIT for survival, +2 INT for larger MP pool, +1 CHA for better negotiations with increasingly suspicious vampires.
[UPDATED STATS:]
STR: 10 | AGI: 14 | VIT: 19
INT: 21 | WIS: 25 | PER: 13 | CHA: 20
HP: 580/580 | MP: 465/465 | MP Regen: 25/min
That evening, Damon appears on Sam's porch without warning—no footsteps, no car engine, just suddenly there like death made manifest. Sam's clones flank him immediately, Enhanced Speed and Defensive Shield ready for action.
Damon slow-claps with mocking appreciation.
"Bravo, Diet Nostradamus. You 'predicted' another attack. How wonderfully convenient."
Sam keeps his voice steady despite the fear clawing at his throat.
"I told you before. I see things sometimes. Tanner was in danger, so I called the police."
Damon steps closer, ignoring the clones entirely—he's figured out they're not a genuine threat to someone with his level of supernatural power.
"Here's what I think," the vampire says, pale blue eyes glittering with predatory interest. "You're not psychic. You're something else. Something I haven't encountered in 145 years of existence. And I'm going to figure out exactly what."
He leans in close enough that Sam can smell bourbon and something darker—the metallic scent of old blood.
"Tell me what you really are."
Damon's eyes dilate with compulsion, the mental pressure stronger than Sam has ever felt it. Like steel claws trying to pry open his consciousness and drag out every secret he's buried.
But months of daily vervain tea have built up enough resistance to deflect even Damon's enhanced attempts at mental manipulation.
"I'm a seventeen-year-old guy trying to save lives in a town that seems determined to get people killed," Sam replies with complete honesty. "That's it."
Damon's jaw clenches with frustrated rage.
"You're drinking vervain regularly now. Smart. But vervain won't save you from me ripping your heart out if you interfere with my plans again."
The threat hangs in the air like poison, but Sam forces himself to meet the vampire's gaze without flinching.
"Noted. Anything else, or can I go back to my homework?"
Damon laughs—a sound completely devoid of humor.
"I like you, kid. Which is the only reason you're still breathing. But my patience has limits. Next time you get in my way, psychic or not, we'll have a very different conversation."
He blurs away using vampire speed, leaving only the lingering scent of bourbon and menace.
Sam collapses against his front door, hands shaking with delayed reaction. His clones exchange worried glances through their mental link.
"That was intense," Clone One observes. "He's running out of patience."
"And getting more suspicious," Clone Two adds methodically. "His investigation will intensify."
Sam nods grimly, already knowing what comes next. Damon Salvatore doesn't make idle threats. Eventually, the vampire will uncover enough inconsistencies to abandon the psychic explanation and start looking for more sinister possibilities.
[NEW QUEST: DAMON'S ULTIMATUM]
[WARNING: INVESTIGATION PHASE INITIATED]
[FAILURE CONDITIONS: SYSTEM EXPOSURE OR DEATH]
[RECOMMENDATION: INCREASE POWER LEVEL RAPIDLY]
As Sam climbs the stairs to his bedroom, exhaustion weighing on his shoulders like lead, he realizes the stakes have escalated beyond simple life-and-death scenarios. Damon's suspicion represents a fundamental threat to everything Sam has built in Mystic Falls.
If the vampire discovers the truth about transmigration, about System abilities, about clone creation—there's no predicting how he might use that information. Or whether he'd decide that Sam represents too dangerous a variable to allow continuing existence.
"Level 6 achieved. Four more until my third clone. But I need to get stronger faster than Damon can uncover my secrets."
Through his bedroom window, the lights of Mystic Falls twinkle like stars—each one representing lives Sam is trying to save, futures he's working to preserve.
Mr. Tanner grades papers in his apartment instead of lying in a morgue. Vicki Donovan sleeps in her own bed instead of a tomb. Jeremy Gilbert draws hope instead of drowning in despair.
Small victories. But the war is just beginning.
[PROGRESS TO LEVEL 7: 50/4,000 EXP]
[THIRD CLONE UNLOCKS AT LEVEL 10]
[ESTIMATED TIME TO CRITICAL MASS: UNKNOWN]
[DAMON'S INVESTIGATION: ACCELERATING]
Sam falls asleep to the sound of his clones maintaining vigilant guard, two versions of himself standing sentinel against the darkness that presses against Mystic Falls like a living thing.
Tomorrow brings new challenges, fresh complications, and the ever-present question of whether he can save everyone without losing himself in the process.
But tonight, at least, one more good man lives to see another sunrise.
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