Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).
So this is a story I've been thinking about for a very long time. It wasn't intended to be a Delena story, however I am able to adapt it in a fashion. The premise of the story is the same, just the characters and some other details are different.
This is different as the story is AH and AU, which is a new approach for me. All of my other stories have had links with the show, this one does not.
I am not abandoning Inaction's and Consequences, I have the next chapter started, but depending upon how this story is received, I may put more time into this one until it is finished. I expect it to be a little bit longer than Entombed in the Past, although hopefully not by too much.
This first chapter is mainly an introduction to the situation, more of a prologue than anything.
The story is rated M for later content.
I hope you enjoy it.
Elena looked out of the window of her carriage. It was spring, the trees were turning green once more and spring flowers were shooting up from the ground. It was a nice change of scenery from the hustle and bustle of Chicago, but scenery would be the only thing nice about it. She was making her first trip to Mystic Falls, the birthplace of her husband Stefan and where he was starting his new appointment as the local Methodist minister. It was a small town in Virginia, and Stefan was the youngest son of one of the founding fathers, the late Giuseppe Salvatore.
They pulled into the drive as the carriage made it's way up to what was a large antebellum house, presumably Stefan's childhood home, which had now passed down, along with the family business to his older brother Damon. Elena had never met Damon as his late wife Katherine had been on her deathbed at the time of hers and Stefan's wedding. Since her passing, he'd thrown himself into the family business and hadn't had the chance to visit his brother and new wife in Chicago. Not that Elena cared, one Salvatore was enough for her, if Stefan was anything to go by, two would be intolerable. However, Elena knew there was more to the story as to why Damon hadn't visited than Stefan had let on and had only discovered the snippets he allowed her to learn since.
Unfortunately for Elena, this was what she would have to endure for the next few months while hers and Stefan's new house was being built. Damon had reluctantly agreed to let them stay there until the new property was finished, as Damon had insisted they allow the family of now late Pastor Young, to continue to live in the home they'd resided in for almost fifteen years. Instead Damon was paying for a new house for Stefan and Elena to move into. Although this may have seemed like a generous gesture, it was more likely to do with not wanting to have Stefan living with them too long. There was clearly bad blood between the brothers, although Stefan wouldn't tell her what it was about, although it was clearly related to Katherine. Not that she would dare ask, Elena didn't want to risk the wrath of Stefan's anger. She just hoped Damon was less volatile.
"We're here." Stefan told Elena, who simply nodded and cast her eyes down.
Elena had a role to play. She was the dutiful, subservient wife of the local minister. Stefan was the man of god, and his word was absolute. However, Elena did wonder if god would wholly approve of her husband's behavior. The man in front of the crowds, preaching to them, delivering the word of god, was not the same man she knew when they were alone in their home. According to Stefan, she was just a mere woman who knew no better.
The carriage drew to a stop and Stefan quickly jumped out, leaving Elena to wait for their driver to bring the step and help her disembark. She got out and took a look at the large house. It was a beautiful large white plantation house with green shutters. However Elena's heart sank. Size made no difference to the prison of her bedroom. The perfect marriage she thought she'd into, which was now more of a sham. She took a deep breath as she headed towards the door, where it appeared nobody was there to greet her now Stefan had left her there and the driver was taking their luggage from the back of the carriage.
Suddenly a woman who was clearly a servant, appeared in the doorway.
"Good afternoon to you madam." the woman said "Are you Mistress Elena?" she asked.
"Good afternoon to you. Yes I am." Elena replied.
"Mister Salvatore asked me to come and attend to you. My name is Emily." she curtsied and smiled, which put Elena immediately at ease.
"My husband is gracious." Elena replied.
"Not Master Stefan. Master Damon." Emily told her. "He says he's sorry he couldn't personally greet you, but an emergency came up, one of the workers out in the field has gotten hurt." she said. "Would you like to come inside?" she asked as Elena nodded.
Emily led them inside to a hallway. This house was grander than anything she'd ever been in before, which said a lot, considering Elena was the daughter of a wealthy doctor from Chicago. She knew Stefan was from a very wealthy family, with a large plantation and logging mills, but she never expected this type of grandeur. In Chicago they'd had a large home with staff, but nothing on this scale of grandness. Elena could tell the house looked much smaller from the front facade as it was covered with some trees. Once inside there seemed to be a maze of rooms, which she knew was going to take a little time to get used to.
Firstly Emily showed her the parlor, then the dining room. After that was the library, the informal sitting room, a music room. the study plus a multitude of smaller rooms for the staff to prepare for various occasions. There was even a small ballroom. There was a set of steps to what Elena assumed was the kitchens, wash rooms and probably some of the servants quarters.
After the downstairs tour, Emily showed Elena upstairs to the various rooms. Elena counted what looked to be seven different bedrooms. Much to Elena's dismay, Emily showed Elena to hers and Stefan's room. Shed been hoping they would be sleeping in separate beds, to give her some respite from him, but according to Emily, Stefan had been adamant they slept in the same room. Stefan had never mentioned their sleeping arrangements, but Elena had hoped etiquette would prevail and she'd be allowed her own room, but clearly Stefan wanted the world to see the farce of them trying for a family. Not that it was likely to happen, Stefan was usually too drunk to manage anything other than what would only be determined as an almost immaculate conception.
Deciding to make the best of a bad situation, Elena wandered around the bedroom and the servants who were putting their clothes into the closets and drawers. There was a doorway, which led a separate room for bathing which housed a beautiful porcelain bath and matching wash basins and chamber pot. There was another door which was a hidden stairway to allow the servants to fill the bath and change the chamber pots without walking through the main house.
When Elena returned back to the bedroom, most of the servants had finished their unpacking, it was just Elena's jewelry which needed to be attended to. Most of it was her mother's, therefore it held enormous sentimental value. Deciding she didn't want to risk anyone breaking anything, she offered to put her boxes away herself. This left just her and Emily alone in the room.
"Where is Master Stefan?" Elena finally asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
"I believe he went straight to the study to find Mister Salvatore. He didn't come out, therefore I assume he stayed to wait for him." Emily replied awkwardly.
"Thank you Emily." Elena smiled. "I'll go wait in the parlor." she said as she went downstairs and sat down on the couch. "That will be all." she added as Emily nodded and left Elena to her own devices.
Elena stood up and began to look at the paintings around the room. There were various family members, including Stefan's father, Giuseppe Salvatore and his mother Lily. Stefan's mother had dies when he was only ten and his father when he was seventeen. As a result of his father's death, Stefan had decided to join the church and become a minister. His brother Damon had taken over the family business and had soon married a woman called Katherine. From what Elena could gather, Katherine had been toying with both Stefan and Damon, however once their father died, she chose Damon. Elena could understand why, as Damon was clearly a man of wealth and would make a very respectable husband. However, she knew this was partly the reason for the bad blood between the brothers, something of which Stefan refused to talk about with her.
Stefan hadn't been without inheritance, but he told Elena he'd refused the wealth in favor of becoming a member of the clergy. When he told her this, Elena foolishly believed him, but that was before they were married, when two years ago Elena was young and naive. Since then she'd learned a lot of things about her husband, and she suspected his inheritance had been secretly spent on alcohol and gambling. Certainly not the godly things he preached in church.
When Elena met Stefan, she thought he was perfect. A trainee minister, handsome, respectable, gentle and loving. Or so he appeared on the surface. Her father had been proud of match his only child had made, however Elena suspected he might feel differently if he knew the real story. Stefan had manipulated many truths to gain Elena's hand in marriage. The first thing he failed to mention was Katherine. As far as Elena had known, Katherine was simply Damon's wife. It was only after they announced the wedding did Damon tell Stefan about Katherine being pregnant. Although his reaction to the news hadn't concerned her at the time, looking back it was clear something was amiss.
After he'd heard the news of Katherine's pregnancy, he'd disappeared for a week. Elena had been frantic with worry. However when he returned he told her he'd been to see Damon to congratulate his brother in person. At the time Elena hadn't the faintest idea of how far Mystic Falls was from Chicago, so she believed he would have made the journey there and back within a week. After making the journey herself, she knew he'd been doing something else. Something she didn't dare ask about. Not that she cared any longer. However, it had made one thing abundantly clear, he was upset about Katherine's pregnancy.
Matters were further compounded when Katherine was taken ill ten days before their wedding. She died the day they got married, along with the child. Stefan was devastated, far more than one would expect for his sister-in-law whom he barely saw. As they were newly married, Elena had not met Stefan's temper, therefore one day just after the wedding, while he was at church, Elena had gone through some of Stefan's things. There she found letters between him and Katherine, some dated recently. She even found a photograph of her. That startled Elena as she noticed she bore an uncanny resemblance to Damon's wife. As she began to read the letters, she was shocked by the content. Elena didn't understand a lot of it, but she was fairly certain the letters were of a sexual nature. What was abundantly clear was their relationship had continued after she'd married Damon and he'd joined the church. Elena even wondered if Stefan had still been having sexual relations with Katherine while he was courting her; and even whether the baby might have been Stefan's. But she'd never gotten that far as Stefan had arrived while she was reading his secret correspondence.
This was the first time Elena had felt Stefan's fist. He didn't touch her face, or any part which could be seen by the public, instead he thumped and kicked her in the stomach. When he saw he had hurt her, he apologized profusely, telling her it would never happen again and that she had driven him to it. Elena understood, she'd gone though Stefan's private things and it was wrong of her to do so without asking, therefore she'd deserved the beating, or so he said. As his wife, Elena had a duty to stand by Stefan and not complain. His word was law, and as a man of god, his word had even more credence.
Katherine's letters were not all Elena found. There were empty whiskey bottles hidden around the house. This surprised Elena as Stefan had always seemed completely sober, and as a Methodist minister, he preached abstinence from alcohol. At first he'd continued to keep them hidden from her, but eventually he stopped hiding the fact he was getting drunk.
Elena couldn't be sure the alcohol had started after Katherine's death or whether he'd been hiding it from her all along. What she did know was how much it was hindering them having a baby. The night before she got married, her Aunt Jenna had gone through what to expect from her wedding night. Jenna was her mother's sister and as the only female figure in her life, Jenna had gone about explaining to Elena the ins and outs of the bedroom in typical Jenna fashion, which was the scandalous method. Her aunt was already married, thus she went into great detail about what to expect, including suggestions of how to avoid pregnancy.
This information, although helpful in theory, had turned out not to be of much use to Elena. Stefan was too distraught about Katherine's illness and probable impending death on their wedding night, that they slept in separate beds. This continued for the first two weeks of their marriage. Then when Stefan found out about Katherine's death they'd shared a bed. However it wasn't anything like what Jenna had described. There was no pleasure derived from the act, instead it was cold and callous on Stefan's part, as if he were punishing her for Katherine's death.
Since then, they'd shared the same bed every night. Sometimes he would want to 'fuck her' as he would describe it. On her part, Elena would just lie there and let Stefan get on with it until he was finished. However as the alcohol intake increased, the less he managed to finish. He was usually asleep before he had the chance, and Elena would have to gently push him off her, so he didn't wake.
Just a couple of weeks after Stefan first performed his conjugal duties, she bled as usual, a sign she was not with child. Elena didn't know whether to be happy or sad about that fact. Maybe Stefan would mellow with the presence of a child, or maybe it would further fuel his temper. She couldn't be certain. What was completely aware of was Stefan's disappointment in her lack of pregnancy. He was absolutely livid and blamed it on Elena, although she knew he had played some part in it. She felt his fists once more, again hiding the bruises he'd caused her. This time he didn't apologize, he claimed if Elena hadn't just lain there like a dead fish, they'd have more chance of conceiving a child.
Elena wasn't entirely sure whether or not this was a lie, therefore the following month she tried to move about a little bit to see if it made a difference. However once again all Elena got was her monthly bleed and Stefan's fists in her belly.
As time went on, Elena would find herself on the end of Stefan's fist more and more frequently. Even for small things such as there not being fresh flowers every day in the house. It had got to the point where he would beat her instead of speaking to the servants when anything was out of order, even when whatever happened, had nothing to do with Elena.
After two years of marriage, Elena had lost touch with her friends. She felt alone in the world, even though she still had her beloved father and Aunt Jenna. However as a woman, she had no say in her own future. As the wife of a now ordained church minister, divorce was completely out of the question. Her only role in life was to have children, to pretend to enjoy being part of the church and to take beatings from her alcoholic, abusive husband. All she could do was pray for some divine intervention to save her from the cycle of abuse she was receiving at Stefan's hands.
Instead of being answered, god seemed to want to make her life even more miserable. Stefan had received word he was to return to his home town of Mystic Falls and take up the role of minister at the local Methodist church as the previous Pastor had passed away. This meant Elena now had nobody to turn to. Instead she would probably have to become more active in the community, which would be difficult considering how much pain she was usually in from the bruises Stefan inflicted upon her.
The only hope Elena had was the familiarity of Mystic Falls having a calming influence on Stefan, which in turn could lead to less alcohol and fewer beatings. It was unlikely, but Elena could only hope this would be the case.
Suddenly Elena heard a commotion and a man's voice which she did not recognize.
"You mean to say my brother has been alone in the study all of this time?" the man said angrily. "Didn't anyone think to have every bottle of whiskey removed before they left him there?" the man, who Elena presumed must be Damon, didn't seem to wait for an answer. "Of course not. You all know what he is like, he'll have gone through an entire bottle by the time I get there." he snapped, his voice and footsteps growing louder as he neared the parlor.
Elena was shocked by this statement. It was clear his brother was fully aware of Stefan's alcohol issues, which begged the question as to how long his drinking problem had been going on. Suddenly the footsteps stopped outside the door to the parlor and Elena heard somebody say something quietly, although it clearly wasn't Damon. Elena smoothed her skirt, just in case she was about to meet her brother-in-law.
Suddenly the parlor doors swung open, there stood the owner of the voice. The man in front of her shook her to her core. He had raven hair and the most stunning blue eyes Elena had ever seen. Damon was the most attractive man Elena had ever laid eyes on. It took all of her might to not blush at the sight of him. The thought which went through her head to stop herself was that Damon was Stefan's brother and Stefan was also handsome, although nowhere near as comely as Damon. But Stefan had a black heart, the inside was as ugly as the outside was beautiful. If this were to apply to Damon, Elena dreaded to think how awful he could be. That last thought sent a shiver of unease down her spine, and Elena wished to be anywhere else than in the room with another Salvatore.
Damon walked over to her and bowed. "Good day dear sister. I hope I find you well." he said as Elena offered her hand for him to kiss.
"Thank you dear brother." Elena curtsied. "I am very well. And yourself?" she asked.
"I am much better now I have had the pleasure of finally meeting you." he replied with a genuine smile which lit up his entire face.
All of a sudden there was the noise of a slamming door and approaching footsteps. Damon turned to look in the direction and Elena glanced up only to see Stefan in the doorway.
"Damon." Stefan said angrily.
"Hello brother." Damon scowled.
I would really like some feedback on this story as to whether I should continue with it or not. There will be dark themes, which I'm sure is already quite obvious from the opening chapter, but I do assure you this version is a Delena story.
If you like the story, please like, follow or review. Reviews inspire me, correct my mistakes, allow me to engage and answer questions. They also help motivate me to get the following chapters out quicker.
Mandzipop.