May 2, 2010 - Elena's POV

Unconsciousness swept over me a few seconds after Klaus first sank his disgusting teeth into my neck, draining the life out of me.

The eerie glowing and the shadows cast from the licking fires that stood nearby danced in my vision. In moments, I had felt weaker than ever in my life and my eyelids began to droop in defeat as Klaus grew stronger. My senses dimmed; I could barely hear Stefan scream 'no,' and the smell of the burning blood that had filled my nostrils only a moment ago soon faded into the background.

My eyelids grow heavy. My limbs quickly become slack and I can disgustingly feel Klaus sucking another pint of my life source from my body, another pint of my precious blood.

The fire, Stefan and all the surroundings begin to blur in my vision as my eyes flutter closed.

All sound is cut off, all smells soon fade, all senses are dulled and useless. The last thing I am conscious of is Stefan's last torturous scream of misery for my sake, and then blackness takes over, pulling me from the world of the living.

Goodbye.

/./..././

"I just need to say something," He began. Darkness seeped into her memories, engulfing all that stood around Damon, but leaving him in clear focus.

Elena had a sharp intake of breath when he took a step towards her. "Why do you need to say it with my necklace?"

He looked confused for a moment, his lips puckering like his words were trying to fight their way past them, and he blinked hard before saying, "Well...because, what I'm about to say is probably the most selfish thing I've said in my whole life."

She knew where this was headed, and she took a step back, giving Damon a stern look and saying, "Damon, don't go there."

"I just need to say it once," He pleaded, closing the distance between them to a mere three inches. She was holding her breath as she looked up at him, stiff as a board. "You just need to hear it."

Oh, she did not like where this was going. It opened up emotions, options and ideas that she didn't want to deal with in her lifetime, let alone during all of this confusion with all of the different troubles going on now! And who was to say that Elena didn't also love him? What if she did? What if she didn't? If she did, would she be where Katherine had been back in 1864? Stealing love from both brothers, toying with their emotions, making them later regret that they'd had any connection with her at all? No, Elena didn't want that. She never wanted to be like Katherine, she never wanted to follow in her ancestor's unwise footsteps.

"I love you, Elena," He stated, finally admitting what he'd been wanting to say for the past year. "And it's because I love you... that I can't be selfish with you, why you can't know this. I don't deserve you. But my brother does."

His hand reached up, his fingertips resting by her ear as his thumb stroked her cheekbone. "God I wish you didn't have to forget this..."

She looked up at him with sympathy and remorse, confusion clouding her wide fawn-like eyes, shaking her head only slightly as he finished, "But you do."

Quickly, Damon compelled her, telling her that she would forget the conversation, despite how much it saddened Damon, and that the return of her necklace would be a mystery.

Then, without another glance back, Damon zoomed out of the bedroom, leaving her curtains to flutter in the wind coming from the open window like nothing had ever happened. At the time, it had seemed like everything was normal and right in the world.

But a feeling of dread remained even after Damon compelled her, leaving Elena with a feeling of sadness and desire that had an apparently unknown cause.

/./..././

I remember.

Could Damon, strong and unbreakable Damon, really have admitted and confessed all of that to me at one point?

The way the memory surfaced, in third person, was odd, since I saw myself in that little room that I've known since a baby, and I saw Damon looking at me with such a loving look that it took my breath away. It shocks me, as I am on the verge of becoming conscious once again.

This memory that had been pushed down for so long changes everything. It changes the ideas that I have had of Damon. It changes the way that I will look at him. It could even change the way that I look at Stefan, too.

Still. It was just one memory, wasn't it?

So it shouldn't do any harm.

Eventually voices arise as I lay unmoving and still.

"Did it work?" Inwardly, I smile when hearing Stefan speak.

Damon replies, "I- I'm not quite sure." He sighs heavily, an undeniable emotion filling his voice when he continues, "She's awake. Alive. She's breathing normally now!"

"But... Damon. Think about it," Stefan counters, "Why do you think it took her the whole night to finally wake? Why did it not just take a few hours, like Bonnie's spell had promised? Add this long night with the blood that you fed her and viola! There you go. A-"

"Vampire," Damon whispers, almost inaudibly.

I can hear the frown in his voice as he refuses to believe Stefan's rational ideas, "But she can't be! Bonnie's spell should have worked; John should be dead and Elena should be human!" His voice grows louder as he grows angrier.

Silently, I frown into the hazy situation as my mind awakens from my sleeping zone. I had never noticed it before, but Damon's so cute when he's sad and angry. But it's so upsetting at the same time!

I'm so glad that Stefan and Damon made it back alive after that dreadful battle with Klaus. I wonder if they won? If they... No, I can't think that way. It's not an option right now. I cannot let tears spill for I am currently immobilized.

And, oh, Bonnie! I wonder if she's okay. If she's even alive. I still cannot believe that she gave up her life for mine and Stefan's and Damon's and Jeremy's and Alaric's and John's and Caroline's and Tyler's and Matt's and... even Katherine's. Even though I would become a vampire, a creature that Bonnie finds repulsing, my best friend would care enough to freely give up her life, use her powers and disobey the oldest of witches, all so that she could save our friends, family and so that Klaus could finally be killed. That's an awful lot to give up.

And Caroline. Oh, shit, Care's going to be so pissed when she hears about how Stefan and Damon killed Klaus! Or, at least, how I assume they did. She's going to be so upset that she missed all the action. Caroline; Caroline's an in-action type of girl. She likes to see it firsthand so that when she whips out her phone, the firsthand gossip is correct and out there for everyone in cyberspace to see!

Or that's how she used to be. Now she's much more sensitive to feelings and all, which undoubtedly makes her a great friend - not better, not worse, just different - and definitely increased her overprotective trait.

And who else could possibly fill in for my brother other than Jeremy? Jeremy, my sweet and brave little brother. He's been so calm through all of this craziness lately. I wonder why. I know that it couldn't be easy; after Anna and Vicki both dying as vampires, it couldn't be easy to have to grasp the fact that your sister would become one. It couldn't be easy to grasp the fact that your girlfriend may die because of her outstanding witch abilities. It also couldn't be easy to try to realize the fact that your aunt died for some sick sacrifice to turn a vampire into a true hybrid; heck, I know what that feels like, and let me tell you, it's downright terrifying and heartbreaking. And on top of all of this, we've also lost our true parents; his birth parents and my childhood parents.

Family. John. What to say about the dad who began as my uncle, progressed into an enemy, unveiled that he was truly my father, went behind my back, and currently claims to be protecting me? There's not much, actually. Sure, he's an ass. Maybe even a bigger one than good-intentioned Damon. But John also is my true father, and since the accident what have I longed for most? A father. And here he is, magically shown up and prepped, trying out to fit in the role of someone who's supposed to take care of me, keep me from danger and prepare me for the dangers of the outside world all while giving the child complete happiness. And yet... And yet he can't ever fit this role. For as much as he tries to accept the love of my life, he also cannot put the past behind him. He won't accept Stefan for his true and kind nature. John won't look past Stefan's outer appearance and even try to see what a good person he truly is. And for this reason, I can't truly accept John as my father. But he will always be my funny and caring uncle. That I can promise.

Another person: Alaric. Poor Ric; his first lover voluntarily died and left him, the second got her life stolen away? What a sad and tragic ending to each of the relationships. I feel really bad for him; I can truly sympathize with his pain, for even though I loved Jenna in a different way, I'm sure that I'm as hurt as he is. And who's to judge if he sits drinking for the rest of his life? We all brought this impending doom upon him; Damon drew Isobel away from Ric and turned her, and the rest of us all obliviously put Jenna right in Klaus's hands. It is truly tragic.

Finally. Stefan and Damon. And Katherine too, of course. What do we do? Where do we all go from here? I know for a fact that Katherine tells the truth; she's here for Stefan, no doubt about it. I can see through that facade that she performs for everyone, which she's been performing for the last 400 years at least. She's here for my Stefan. And I'm not going to go down without a fight.

Katherine seems to think that I love Damon. Just like she did at one point. And maybe she's right to think so. Or maybe she's not. But either way, he's out in the cold right now. I'm fighting for Stefan against this bitch who might be my almost-friend, but even so, I won't give up the love of my life for someone who's lied, manipulated, cheated, mistreated, hated, sacrificed, and betrayed as much as she has. No, it just won't happen in this lifetime.

"Vampire." Damon repeats, dragging my now-alert mind from the wave of memories that crash down upon me.

Stefan sighs, and I can just imagine him rubbing his neck with his right hand, frustrated as to why I won't wake and why I appear to be inattentive when he, my true and glorious love, speaks.

"Yes. Damon, we've already talked through your idiotic and selfless actions, remember? So don't keep repeating what we already know."

A loud boom and the shattering of glass shake me from the deep, dream-like state that I rested in. Assuming that Damon threw his bourbon glass that he always drinks from across the wide room, I pause in between breaths, shaken and afraid for what will come next.

"Don't you dare talk back to me, Stefan. I'm still stronger than you, you pathetic, weak child," Damon scoffs, "You'll eat sweet little bunnies and tiny nibbling chipmunks as soon as you're done here, so you can power up to try to take on your own big, stronger, healthier, smarter brother? Well it's never going to happen. Did you ever tell Elena about that person you drained just last week? What about little Susie from down her street? Declared missing - ha! What a lie!"

Breath held, I wait in anticipation for one of them to blow first. This time, though, it isn't one of them blowing things out of proportion first - it's both of them.

Stefan hisses, "Damn it, Damon! She may be able to hear, you know! And she never loved, or will love you, so don't flatter yourself!"

This, of course, was the last straw for him. Pieces of wood rain down atop of my unmoving and cramped body when a fist pummels the house's structure in anger. "Don't you go around talking about love, Stefan. 'Cause last time I checked, you weren't holding up your end of the deal with Elena."

At last. Feeling the very last wakefulness seep into my soul and body, feeling my mind begins to reawaken from this state of dreariness. My eyelashes twitch ever so slightly. Oxygen fills my lungs as I breathe deeply in and out, quite soundlessly.

Finally, after my eyelashes flutter open into the world of the living, I allow my eyes time to adjust to the bright, amplified senses and sights that surround me. Before now in my life, any other time my eyes were open or my ears were listening, the sights, sounds, smells, feelings... all of it was incomparably dull to this electrified world.

Mind suddenly overactive, I agilely spring to my feet in awareness of all around me. Instinct guides me as a crouch down behind the fluffy red velvet chair, not yet noticed by either of the brothers in the room, as they are the only people in it at this time.

When Stefan slams Damon roughly against the wall, I feel the need to step in. It would be too much pain for me to bear if one or the other of them get hurt... It would be heartbreaking to see them tear at each other after getting along so nicely for this almost-full-year that I've known them.

"Stefan! Damon!" My voice wavers slightly as I softly but urgently call their names, each name having much emphasis and force behind it.

Startled, the two forget momentarily what they are doing and glance at me, astounded that I'm alive and well. But their pause has alerted me of the position that they're in. Stefan has a make-shift stake poised in mid-air over Damon's back, and Damon has a sharp table leg tilted upward toward Stefan's heart from the front, both of them ready for the final kill. Did my so-called death really break up their alliance enough that they would automatically try to kill each other over me?

Damon is the first to overcome the momentary stupor and disbelievingly stare at me with his beautiful icy blue eyes, asking me silently to forgive him. As an attempt to break out of the killing mode that the brothers were in, Stefan simpers like a child caught red-handed, breaking the penetrating silence and asking:

"E- Elena?"

Thank you so much for reading!

Thoughts? :)