144 Out With It I

I lurched, nearly falling to the floor in shock. This was simply too much for my eyes to comprehend. I simply couldn't believe it― I had just seen him alive a few days ago, talking about what Blaise was like as a child, and now he was… dead. Or possibly very close to it. I could not tell if his heart was still beating.

"Doctor Thomas! Damon, we need to get a doctor!"

"He is — was — the doctor," Damon corrected himself, "and there's no point crying out for him," Damon said simply, wrinkling his nose as he continued to observe the rest of the room while pulling me up from the floor with one arm."He's deader than a doornail."

"But how?" I hastily changed my question, since the cause of death was blatantly visible to anyone who had a working pair of eyes. "I mean, who could have done such a thing?"