Chapter 1

Bonnie Bennett was almost certain she was going to die. She was pretty sure a stab wound to the stomach was not healthy and more so when you were in the middle of the woods miles from any medical care.

She could'nt remember exactly how she got here or where here was exactly. She could not recognize any of the surrounding forestry. The forest did not seem like any of the forests surrounding mystic falls. It was stranger and darker than any forest she had ever been in, she could not see much but she felt as if she was not alone, as if someone was watching her under the cover of the shadows that abounded this forest.

She did not know what this place was or who it was she felt watching her, but she knew that very soon she would be beyond knowing anything at all, or at the very least she would be somewhere where it would be unimportant. She had wondered where the supernatural creatures went and she guessed now she would found out.

Bonnie Bennett did not .Instead she woke up in a comfortable bed that was not her own surrounded by the concerned faces of Damon, Stefan and Caroline.

Bonnie shot up into a sitting position "where am i? what happened to me?"

"You're at the boarding house" Caroline answered, taking a seat beside Bonnie on the bed, " how are you feeling Bonnie?"

Bonnie wasn't sure. If Caroline meant physically, than she was completely fine. There was no aches and pains, no bleeding. She didn't even feel bandages underneath her shirt when she pressed her hands to where she had been stabbed. What had happened last night? She couldn't have just dreamt it all, it had felt too real. Too painful.

"I don't know. I thought I was going to d-"

"Die? You did" there wasn't just concern on Damon's face, but a bitter sort of anger aswell.

"What do you mean?" Bonnie knew what was knew what he was going to say but she wanted to pretend that she didn't, that for a second there was other possible explanations for her apparent survival

"You're a vampire now" Damon said, his blue eyes staring intently into Bonnie's green ones "I turned you"

Bonnie took a deep breath, her face taking on a panicked, horrified expression

" I couldn't just let you go out like that, alright?" Damon in response to her expression, his tone defensive and frustrated.

Caroline pulled Bonnie into a tight embrace "it's going to be OK Bonnie, I promise. we will get you through this"

"I just don't understand how it happened. How did I end up like this?" Bonnie said, turning herself in caroline's arms to look her in the eye.

"We don't know" Stefan answered with a sigh, running his hands through his spikey blonde hair "We found you about two days go in the woods opposite the boarding house, unconscious with a knife sticking out of your stomach"

"I was out for two days?"

Stefan frowned " Yeah. Damon tried to heal you with his blood but you were too far gone for it to work. So Damon made the decision to feed you enough of his blood so you would…"

"Become a vampire" Bonnie finished for him, in the resigned tone of someone who was used to misfortune.

"An undead life is better than no life at me" Damon argued

"You don't understand" Bonnie countered "My magic Damon! It's gone. Again"

The anger in Damon's voice when he responded was match for Bonnie's "So you would rather be completely dead than be without your magic? is that what your telling me right now?"

"No thats not what I'm sayi-" Bonnie cut herself off with a groan of frustration. He didn't get it, he never would " this isn't what I wanted for myself"

Damon looked away before he spoke again "I know Bonnie, I know"

A silence fell over the group then, heavy and awkward and slightly mournful. Stefan was the first to break the silence " I know this is hard...but it's up to you what happens next. You can decide to feed and transition fully or you can decide to just...let yourself drift off"

It was then that Bonnie noticed the cooler by the door filled with, she presumed, blood bags. She thought about what it would be like to drink one, about what it would be like to take one and drink it down, squeeze out every last drop like it was some kind of gory juice more she thought about it, the more her hunger grew. Well not hunger, that wasn't the right word. It was more of a burning really. She began to feel as if she was burning from inside and the only thing that would put out the fire was in that cooler. She also thought about what it would mean to just let herself drift off into the great beyond. She thought about how she wasn't truly ready to do that just yet.

Bonnie asked for one of the blood bags.

After she had fed bonnie had wanted to be alone after she had fed, needing time to process what her life would be like now and the gang respected all of five minutes.

Damon was the first to intrude on her privacy, two hours later, brandishing a bottle of bourbon. He looked a little less distressed and little less guilty than he did before. She supposed that a part of his guilt before had been that he had tried to save her with his blood, only to force her to die in a more drawn out, painful way.

"I didn't feel like drinking alone" he explained, as he took a seat beside her on the bed " how are you holding up?"

"ok i guess" she answered and it was the truth. She felt fine now since she fed and sequestered herself in a room at the salvatore boarding house. The real test she thought, would be when she had to face the real world.

Damon threw her a funny look then, one she couldn't quite decipher. "here drink this, it will make you feel better"

Bonnie grabbed the bottle Damon offered and took one long gulp. She felt the burn of it as it slid down and suprisingly she did start to feel a bit better.

"Who knew you could knock it back like that?" Damon said with a raised eyebrow

Bonnie took another swig from the bottle before handing it back, "its been a long week"

Damon chortled but made no other turned her head to look at admired the sharp, chiseled lines of his face and how soft his inky black hair looked against the white pillows. She thought about how two of the buttons on his shirt were open and if he unbuttoned one more he would practically be thought about his thigh pressing against hers on the bed, the warmth from his leg emanating into hers and how good it felt. Bonnie shook her head. Clearly, the bourbon was going to her decided that it would good idea to break the silence that had fallen between since Damon took a drink, and that she would do that by asking one of the questions that had been bothering since the shock of waking up from dead had worn off

"Damon...where's Elena? Has she woken up?"

Damon took another drink from from the bottle before he answered her " I don't know. We can't find her"

"what do you mean you cant find her! where could she possibly be?"

"I don't know" Damon answered " All i know is that when we had done all we could for you and Stefan went to see if she had woken up, and she wasn't there"

Bonnie ran her hands through her hair "What the hell is going on?"