A/N: This piece was written as an entry into a Halloween writing contest on Tricky Raven. I chose to use the prompt "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

No Fear

Softly, the music flowed through the open windows of the Salvatore mansion as Damian swayed drunkenly to the melodic lyrics. Every year since Jenna Gilbert's death, he had made sure that his best friend was duly entertained on this particular day to keep his mind from dwelling on his deceased girlfriend.

All our times have come

Here but now they're gone.

Seasons don't fear the reaper

Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain.

"They don't write songs like this anymore." With drink in hand, Damian danced in front of the huge bay windows of his study with his scotch sloshing about with his movements. "It's all about money, sex and drugs. No real meaning in the lyrics nowadays."

Watching his friend's antics from his reclined position on the couch, Alaric replied with a smirk. "I'd agree, but you left out the booty shaking." He smirked as he raised his own glass of scotch for a sip of the burning liquid. "Lots of booty shaking…"

As if on cue, Damian's phone rang with the lyrics of "Bootyshaker", making them both chuckle. Knowing who was on the line by the ringtone, he answered. "Yeah, Caroline, what do you want?" His inebriated dancing didn't stop as he raised his glass to his lips for another drink.

"Where the hell is she?!" Frantic, Caroline's voice shrieked through the phone.

"Where the hell is who?" Damian continued, unperturbed by Caroline's drama. Her behavior and over the top reactions to most anything that happened ceased to surprise him. In fact, her constant drama was part of the reason why he broke it off with her so long ago.

"Elena…dammit, I thought she'd be over there with you two." Caroline's words cut straight through the alcohol induced haze in Damian's brain, finally making him pay attention.

"No, she's not with us, not today." Suddenly completely sober, his brow furrowed as Damian took a seat by the fireplace. "Elena has never approved of the amount of alcohol that I drink even though she's well aware of the reason why I do." Damian huffed in agitation, glancing at Alaric.

"Um, we've got a problem then." Caroline explained as she paced back and forth in Elena's room. "You see, she was cooking last night when a loud thunder strike hit during that bad storm, causing her to cut herself pretty badly. She begged me not to take her to the hospital. You know how she hates the hospital now…"

"Caroline, don't tell me you gave her your blood, and then, you lost her…" Growling, Damian shot up out of his seat to begin pacing furiously. "If anything happens to her because of you, I swear I'll…." His fear of Elena being turned into a vampire against her will as a result of Caroline's negligence churned through him.

"I know, I know, I know. I messed up, but I couldn't help it, but the smell of the blood in her kitchen got to me and I had to go feed, Damian." Caroline's eyes teared up in fear and guilt over what might have happened to her best friend. "We have to find her. She can't have gone too far."

"We'll be right over." Curtly, Damian hung up the phone as he turned to Alaric, who thought of Elena as his niece. With a simple glance, he knew that his friend heard the entire conversation. "If we can't find Elena before someone else does, I will personally pull Caroline Forbes apart, limb by limb." With that, he stomped out the front door with an equally furious Alaric following close behind.

As he parked the car in front of the Gilbert house, Damian noticed Jeremy getting out of his car, dressed in more formal clothes than he would usually wear. "Hey Jeremy, have you seen Elena?" Damian asked as he and Alaric walked in the young man's direction.

"No, I haven't." With a frown, Jeremy replied. "She should have met me this morning at the cemetery so we could visit Jenna's grave together, but she never showed." Perplexed, he asked. "Why? Has something happened?"

At that moment, Caroline came flying down the stairs. "I've found her!" Waving Elena's cell phone in her hand, she stopped at the bottom, in front of them. "She's on Highway 42, where it crosses the Holston River. The magic of GPS tracking…"

Quickly becoming frightened, Jeremy sputtered. "That's the Wickery bridge…where mom and dad died." He turned to Damian. "It's where she would have died if it had not been for…"

With a nod of his head, Damian finished the sentence for him. "Stefan…" Ever since his brother had broken up with Elena, his anger and aggression levels had been off the charts. Once the more controlled and predictable of the Salvatore brothers, no one could foresee his next move anymore since he broke up with Elena and turned off his humanity switch.

Fearing for the worst, Damian began to give orders. "Back in the cars. Jeremy, you ride with Caroline. We have to get to her in time." He could not…would not….let anyone harm Elena Gilbert because his love for her was too great, even if he could never admit to it out loud. As much as Elena might have loved his brother, he would not be able to stop himself if his brother laid a hand on her. It would mean the end of that Stefan Salvatore's life.

Water….water everywhere. In her mind, she saw her father's frantic gestures towards the man that became her savior, telling him to save her, instead of her parents. She felt the gentle hands, pulling her from the wreckage yet again and leaving her parents in the submerged car to perish.

The wind on the bridge had picked up, pushing her slightly off balance as her toes peeked over the edge of the bridge. Brushing her windblown hair out of her face, her eyes gazed down at the river's torrential waters produced by the previous night's rainfall. It always rained on this day, the day her aunt Jenna died.

"Jenna…" Tears trailed down her face as her last memory of her aunt pushed its way into her mind, much like the water flooded the car that night that altered her life forever. The flames of the witch's fire circle spell licked at her yet again as she replayed the moment in which Jenna gave her all in hopes of saving Elena. "I failed you, Elena." Jenna's last words made her feel hopeless, helpless and alone, but all of that was about to change.

Determined, the gun in her hand was cold and lethal, calling her name as she glanced at it. Pulling the trigger would bring her the opportunity that she would otherwise never have, a chance to fulfill her need for revenge that had come to burn so brightly in her heart, becoming something that she craved more than life itself. Once upon a time, Stephan would have reasoned her out of this sort of rash decision, but now that he was gone, leaving her heart an empty shell. Slowly, her steady hand raised the gun to her head as she inhaled deeply, readying herself.

However, a sudden screech of brakes stayed her hand. One by one, they got out of their cars to run out onto the bridge in hopes of stopping her, but little did they know that Elena took great pains to plan this entire scene. The knife cut and subsequent healing through vampire blood gave her the exact opportunity that she wanted.

"Elena….please, don't." Alaric spoke to her first from where he stood with Damian, Caroline and Jeremy. "You know this is not the answer to the pain you feel inside. It won't make the pain go away."

Turning towards her remaining friends and family, Elena shook her head. "You don't understand…none of you do." Tears began to fall hard and fast down her cheeks as the vision of Klaus stabbing Jenna with that wooden stake only a few feet from her as she screamed played through her mind once again. "I can't escape and I have no alternative." Great sobs shook her entire body, but her hand held the gun firmly in place. "I wanted to help her, but I couldn't because I'm not like any of you. I'm only human."

With a calculated eye, Elena watched as her true intent hit Damian and Jeremy at the same time. She wasn't trying to kill herself in the traditional sense. Their body language betrayed their frantic search for a way to get the gun from her, and her body off of the bridge's edge without endangering her fragile human life.

"NO! Don't come any closer!" Elena yelled as they tried to step within arm's reach of her. "You think I don't know who's the weakest here? Do you truly believe that I can continue to stand by watching my family dwindle away one by one and my hopes of having a somewhat normal life blown away by forces that I have no hope of ever controlling?" She shook her head. "I can't do this anymore. It's time that I was given a chance to right the wrongs that have controlled my every move since the night my parents died."

Slowly and deliberately, her eyes traveled from Alaric to Jeremy and finally to Caroline. "I can't have my parents or Jenna back and love is lost to me." Then, she stared pointedly at Damian, who still denied that he loved her, believing that he was not the best choice of the Salvatore brothers for Elena Gilbert. "A mere human with only a brief life span on this Earth and no special powers other than the ability to die all too easily, unable to avenge the wrongs done to her. Well, I'm changing that today."

Before anyone could reach her, she pulled the trigger. The bullet went straight to her brain, killing her instantly as her body pitched over the edge of the bridge and into the churning waters of the river below. What the bullet might not have finished, she knew the waters would, giving her the opportunity for her long sought revenge. As her body plunged into the frigid water with the screams of Caroline and Jeremy calling out behind her, Elena Gilbert regained control of her life, only in a form that would be without fear.

Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn't go on
Then the door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew and then disappeared
The curtains flew and then he appeared
Saying Don't be afraid.

As the fast current pulled her under to what would have been an icy death, a strong hand took hers again. Turning her head, she found her true savior's face only inches from hers, his love for her shining in his eyes. She knew that he couldn't let her meet this new life without being a part of it himself. Throwing his former regrets and worries to the four winds, Damian pushed his own fear aside to claim the love that he had denied himself, his Elena.