Prologue

Dark, you can't come soon enough for me.

Elena Gilbert's head is swimming in a dark haze. Her head hurt and she felt heavier than usual, like she had slept for longer than she should have. Her cheek is pressed into a mattress on the floor, her shoes are on and she doesn't have a blanket. That much she can tell. It takes effort to un-stick her eyelids but when she does she can see. . .

There's darkness. It's everywhere. There's no light to permeate it. No windows, no moon, no lamps, no cracks. There's nothing, completely pitch black. She can feel it pressing in on her in all directions. She can't tell where she is, she can't sense if there's anything around her. . .she could be nowhere for all she knows. Maybe she'd gone blind. Maybe this is what not existing feels like. Maybe this is death.

The rapid beating of her panicked heart proved otherwise.

Elena didn't know how long she'd been stuck in this room. She tried to tell herself to stay calm but it wasn't working. Her breath was coming in short quick spurts and she could feel herself starting to sweat. She hurriedly patted her jeans in search of her phone but, of course, there was nothing there.

Of their own accord her legs started crab walking her backwards, scurrying until she hit the wall. "H-hello?" She nearly sobbed.

Hearing nothing, she swallowed her tears as she used the wall to guide her into a standing position. Slowly, painfully, she inched her way around the perimeter of the room feeling for a door or a chair, or anything really that would help her gauge where she was. She tripped over something that she later deduced was a toilet, but that and the threadbare child's cot she'd woken up on seemed to be the only company she had in her cell.

She refused to admit to it to herself that she had no way out. There had to be something. A seam she had missed, a crack in the plaster. She went around, and around hoping each time to find something different to give her an idea. Each time more frazzled than the last, desperately fighting the urge to cry or scream or just let her heart burst. All she needed was one thread of hope. But the more she tried and the less she found, the more she broke.

By the time Elena gave up, she was at her wits end. The thin grasp she had on her gut wrenching terror had slipped completely and she found herself screaming and pounding on the walls with the little strength she had. Begging for someone to please let her out. To please help her.

"Help me," She whispered pitifully, knowing that no one could hear her, her face crumbling into despair. And soon, her spent body followed into a heap on the floor.

She was gone again, into the darkness of her mind. And she knew, just knew, that she wasn't going to be lucky enough to wake up from this nightmare. This situation had become the norm for her. This was her life now, being trapped and afraid, with no way out.

x

There was a time when the darkness comforted her. It meant the day was over and she could fall away into the numbness that it brought to her. She didn't have to exist if she didn't want to, and most of the time. . .she really didn't want to. That was after her parents died. Before that…everything was lightness. She was happy and normal and free to be a stupid teenaged girl falling in love with her best friend. There were no shadows in her life.

Now there's nothing but. She is a darkness. She breathes it. Attracts it. Lives it.

She wallowed, as her brother had: quietly, pathetically, alone. When she met Stefan she finally thought she could feel the sunlight creep back into her life. He made her feel normal and happy again, like there was still love and goodness waiting in the world for her. But she soon found out how wrong she was. He just made her not as lonely in the life that had become so desolate.

And then there was darkness in the form of a man and he redefined the word. He was beautiful and psychotic. The only thing light about him was his eyes…but they didn't covey that lightness. Those eyes were filled with so much ice it could physically chill her if she stared into them for too long. She spent a good portion of her time knowing him secretly terrified of him. But now, when she found herself trapped in this overwhelming, all consuming darkness, the only thing she could hope for was that he'd find her. That he was, at that moment, coming for her, to save her.

One of them, both of them. It didn't matter.


A/N: Okay, this is my first story in a very, very long time. I wasn't planning on writing it but my awesome friend, Sandy pressured me into it.

It's going to be sort of based around my interpretation of the song Dark Come Soon by Tegan and Sara. If you haven't heard of it/them I suggest you go listen if only because I think they're amazing.

So, read and please review! I need honest feedback. :)