Welcome to my little fanfiction.

Before I start, I wanna say two things:

1) English isn't my native language. If I make mistakes, feel free to tell me (in a nice way). I'm here to learn. Please excuse if my writing style doesn't please you, I'm trying my best, but this is the first time for me to write in another language than my native one, so please don't bother too much with weird-sounding expressions.

2) I'm in the mid of my A-levels, I might not be able to post regularly. I'm gonna try it tho. I've got the whole story planned out, so I really plan on finishing it.

I hope you'll enjoy my story :)

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Chapter 1

It's been months since I last saw him. Months since our lips touched for the last time, months since I told him I had chosen him over Damon. Not that I didn't care about Damon, I did, I still do, but I came to the conclusion that I couldn't give up Stefan for Damon. I loved him, he was my saviour, our relationship was my safe haven. Going back to him was a guaranty for my own happiness, and for his. Choosing Damon would have meant adventure and excitement, love and passion but it would also have meant hurt and fights. As bad as it sounds, Damon was used to being rejected by me. Sure, after Stefan was taken for the first time and went off the rails, we had our moments, but I think he had always known that I belonged to Stefan. He was hurt, I knew it and it hurt me as well, but he drowned his pain in liquor and learned to live with it. I thought I had lost him for a little while but then Stefan disappeared. He was the first to volunteer to go looking for him. After all, he was his brother. We knew Stefan had not planned on leaving. It sure as hell wasn't like him and he did not take any belongings with him. We had to deal with the truth – someone had kidnapped him, and we had no idea why. Or who. First thing we did was calling Bonnie for a locator spell. It did not succeed. After realizing this, I thought he was dead. I was ready to collapse, it was worse than being staked in the heart. I felt grief spreading through my veins, this incredible sadness was filling my entire body and I burst into tears. Damon pulled me in his consoling hug and I sobbed into his shirt. He was devastated. And then Bonnie said something which brought my hopes up. It is my light and I still cling to it. As desperate as I am right now, I s till have this glimmer of hope that's keeping me from eternal grief and total devastation.

"He might be cloaked. I'm sure he is. Why would someone just kill him, without leaving a trail, without giving a reason? Only evil people kill without a reason and evil people are sloppy. We would have found his body. Somebody has him cloaked. Maybe they wanna blackmail us. Or they're punishing him. But I'm sure he's alive."

I heard Damon's sigh of relief.

"Good thinking, little witch", he said. "It's true. If someone had killed him for no reason, we would have found him. If he had given anyone the reason to kill him, he would have told us. Or his killer would have told us he's dead. That's the whole point of revenge, take it from me."

"That means... either someone is blackmailing us or someone has captured him because he wants something from him. And if it's punishing him, he's probably still alive.", I concluded.

We all knew that was only part of the truth. While the possibility existed that he was cloaked, he could as well be dead, his corpse thrown into the ocean. We just couldn't even start thinking it. As long as there was still hope that he was alive, we had to cling to it. Therefore, we considered our options.

"Possibility A", Damon summed up, "Someone took him hostage to blackmail us. In that case, they're gonna come to us. All we have to do is wait. Possibility B. Someone kidnapped him and is keeping him in captivity. Maybe a little torture, maybe not."

"That is so not funny, Damon", I interrupted.

He ignored me.

"In that case, we have to find out who. Who could have a reason to capture him? Where could he be? Maybe someone is forcing him to go off the rails again, like Klaus did. Then he's gonna leave a trail of bodies. THAT should not be hard to miss. We have to keep our eyes and ears open. As for possible enemies, we may have to go through his diaries, if you and I have no suggestions who it could be. Lexi would be really helpful right now", he sighed.

"Too bad you killed her", Bonnie commented angrily.

"Yeah. My bad", he replied. I could tell he was actually sorry, even though he tried to hide it through his snarky answer. Possibility C. He's dead., a voice in my head said.

And then we started. With each day, we got a little less optimistic. Caroline joined in, her mom promised to provide us if any suspicious murders occurred. They didn't. Nobody messaged us with any demands, nobody tried to blackmail us. We went through his diaries, dividing up certain periods of time among us. I noticed that Damon chose to deal with his ripper days, trying to protect me from too much knowledge. He and I knew that Stefan wasn't responsible but I knew he feared it would disturb me. I was grateful and admired how selfless he was. I knew he still loved me and if he just showed me the ripper diaries, it might have increased his chances since it would probably make me despise Stefan, at least a little bit. But he wanted to protect me from the truth, he wanted to keep me as happy as possible, he wanted to keep my memories of Stefan intact. It broke my heart to see how much he loved me, how sincere his love was. And if I could, I would have given him what he wanted, but I could not.

We checked some people we thought might be involved. Some of them were dead, some could not be found. Some of them didn't remember him. None of the suspects seemed to have done it.

As time passed, we ran out of options. I couldn't rest, knowing he was out there. My heart was aching to see him alive.

After we checked suspects, we checked every name that ever occurred in his diaries. We listened to the news, hell, we started to check incidents where blood bags had gone missing. That was not as easy since we didn't want to cross any angry vampire's pass.

Since Jeremy and Alaric had left for Denver to spend a better life there, I basically moved in to the Boardinghouse. I slept in one of the guest rooms, but most of the time I was in front of the fireplace. Damon and I sometimes watched TV together. We knew we shouldn't stop working but it was so damn tiring. No results. Ever.

We grew closer, and we talked much during working. I got to know things about him that I wouldn't have guessed. I got parts of his life story, I got his favourite colour and his favourite food as a human. He cooked for me. When I cried, he hugged me and made me laugh with one of his sarcastic jokes. As much as I missed Stefan, I enjoyed every second I spent with Damon. I wouldn't want to go through this with anyone else.

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So, this it it. It's more of an introduction. The next chapter will contain some Delena action :) I would really appreciate some feedback!

Love,

Nina