All recognized characters belong to their respective owners. Nadia is mine.

All none of them are here.

Truth be told I don't want them to be. Don't want them to see how pathetic I have become.

I sit atop my motorcycle, staring into the black visor of my helmet. I slowly, carefully hang my helmet from the handlebars. I put the kickstand down; making sure my bike is stable before getting off. Pulling my black leather jacket—

"Why do you always take my jacket? I bought you your own."

"Yeah, but yours is better."

"How? I mean besides the fact that it's mine."

"It smells like you. I can pretend you're hugging me when I wear it."

—folding it tenderly before placing it on the seat. I leave the keys in the ignition, no one comes out here. I remove my bracelet and lay it atop the jacket. I reach up into my hair, removing the delicately engraved hair pins. My hair falls heavily—

"Don't you ever cut your hair." His fingers ran through the ridiculously long, thick mass spread across his chest. "Never, you hear me?"

"Do you have some kind of hair fetish?" My chin rested on my hands folded on his chest. "I draw the line at hair fetishes."

"No." He paused. "My mother had long hair. Whenever it was down it nearly touched the ground. I was always amazed at how she could make it up into the hairstyles that she did."

"Oh." I thought. "Well I can't do anything with this. Certainly not those god awful hairdos from then. I'm drawing the line at it touching the ground. Just past my butt. No longer." I grinned at him.

He laughed, chest shaking with his amusement. "I suppose I can agree to that."

I gaped at him playfully outraged. "'Suppose' nothing! It's my hair!"

—ending just below my butt with just visible waves. The pins are laid ever so carefully on the jacket next to the bracelet. I stare at the carefully piled gifts, each one from him for various reasons. Birthday, Christmas, Easter, just because—

"Okay. Now open your eyes." He sounded giddy as a schoolboy having school canceled.

"Damon, I swear to God…" I trailed off, staring at the Ducati Streetfighter 848 sitting before me. "No. You didn't." I stared at the bike that I had ranted on and on about, never thinking that he was actually listening to me.

"So," he was giving me that 'I-know-I'm-amazing-feel-free-to-remind-me' smirk, but his blue, blue eyes were soft with affection, "you like it? Cause, let me tell you, buying this thing at the price I got without compulsion was a pain in the—"

I slammed into him, cutting him off mid-sentence with a searing kiss. "I love it! You! When did you get it? Why? It's not my birthday or anything."

He encased me within his grasp, answering me with a kiss that made my head spin. He pulled back, smiling a smiling he reserved only for me and only when we were alone. "I can't buy you something just because?"

"You-! I-! You just-!" I had no words to tell him how amazing and incredible I thought he was. So I decided to show him. I pulled back from the kiss, staring into the blue-black eyes that stared back hungrily. "I love you, Damon Salvatore."

His entire demeanor softened and the next kiss was more tender, loving. "I love you too, Nadia Turcotte."

—he does what he wants and damn the consequences. If there had been anything left in me to feel, I would have doubled over in pain. But I am too numb. Too tired. I have given him everything of myself and yet it still isn't enough. It never will be. Unfortunately I am only just now realizing this, just now seeing the wisdom in my friend's warnings—

"You're going to get hurt." Tyler's voice was rough, tone cautious.

"What? By hanging out with you? Tyler, if you were going to hurt me you would have done it long before now." I laid on my bed, head hanging over the edge upside down, landline on speaker phone next to my head on the ground.

"Not me. Damon. He's going to hurt you." He sounded so sure, so certain in his assessment of my boyfriend/lover.

"What?" I was taken aback, Tyler had been the only one not to lecture me when I had started dating Damon. "Why would you say that?" I was hurt that my only supporter was backing out on me now.

"Nadia." Tyler sighed, sounding more tired, older than any teenager should. "You know I love you, sis. I only want what's best for you. And I don't think that's Damon."

I flipped over, snagging the phone and dragging myself into a sitting position on my bed. I stared at the phone in front of me, disbelief running through my veins. "Ty…Ty why would you do this? I thought you had my back." Tears burned my eyes.

There was a shuffling noise as he moved from wherever he was into a different spot. "Di-Di, I will always have your back. That's why I'm saying this. I should have said it in the beginning but I didn't. I'm sorry, Di-Di."

—but I ignored them. I put my absolute faith in Damon Salvatore and he crushed it without a second look. My lapis lazuli necklace comes off now, resting within the bracelet. I reach for the last thing he gave me, hand shaking so, so badly. My right hand slides the ring from my left ring finger, I choke it hurts—

"Damon?"

He turned to me, what I like to call 'my' smile on his face. "Hold on a sec. Almost done." He goes back to whatever he was fiddling with before fully facing me. "Nadia Elisabetta Turcotte—"

I pressed a hand over my mouth, watching as the proudest man/vampire I know bend before me on one knee.

"Will you do me the honor of being with me for the rest of eternity?" Damon is the most serious and sincere I have ever seen him.

"Yes." My voice was a choked whisper. I was in tears, nodding in response to his question. "Yes, I will marry you." I held back more sobs as he took my hand and slid the ring onto my finger. He stood up and I flung myself into his arms.

"Thank you." The words are breathed into my hair, Damon holds me as tightly as he dare to with his 500 years of strength. "Eternity, Nadia."

I clung to him, deliriously happy. I had never expected him to propose to me. We knew how the other felt, there was never any need for us to broadcast it to the world. "Eternity, Damon."

—it hurts, make it stop. God make it stop. I can't force myself to take off the ring. I know that it was his mother's. I know how important it is to him. I know I have to take it off because otherwise it will become ruined. I close my eyes, ripping the ring off and putting with the necklace. I force myself from the sight of everything, turning and stumbling blindly into the forest. It is dark now—

"No." I barely breathed the word, taking in the scene before me.

"Di-Di what-? Oh no." Tyler grabbed my bicep, tugging me away. "No, no, no, no."

Damon, the vampire that I loved with everything in me, the man who had proposed to me only days ago was kissing Andie Starr, beautiful human news reporter. He seemed about to press her against the wall and fuck her.

Something in me broke. Splintered into pieces beyond repair. "Damon…"

He pulled away from the woman, casting a look in my direction. He froze, meeting my eyes. He looked about to come over but Andie tugged on his arm and he redirected his attention back to her. Dismissing me entirely.

Tyler forced me outside, away from the scene inside. "That fucking bastard." Tyler was enraged on my behalf, I couldn't seem to summon anything. His face shifted, teeth sharpening, eyes a glowing yellow. "I'll fucking kill him."

"Take me home." My voice reflected my inner deadness. There was nothing in my tone to indicate anything. "Take me home, Ty-Ty."

He cupped my face in his hands, fury draining away when he recognized the look in my eyes. "No. No, you do not get to do this to me. Not again." He sounded desperate. He rushed me to his house, forgoing his car in favor of his hybrid speed. He burst through the doors, ignoring his mother and sire entirely on his way up to his room.

"Tyler! What on earth…" Carol trailed off, taking in the expression, or lack there of, on my face. "Oh no. She was doing so well. She was being Nadia again." The mayor crouched before me, clutching my hands in hers. "Please, sweetheart, come back. Don't do this again."

"What is going on?" Klaus, the Original Hybrid, was standing in the doorway of Tyler's room, looking completely baffled. "Tyler, what—"

"He broke her." Tyler was cold and abrupt. "He broke her and now I'm going to kill him."

—but the sun would rise in a couple hours, ensuring my plan. I know exactly where I am going. The sky begins to lighten ever so slightly. I manage to get to the waterfalls that the town is so named for before dawn. I draw the gun from the waistband of my pants, making sure it is loaded properly with the safety off. Tyler will be looking for me soon. My dearest, closest friend—

Klaus seemed unnerved by my expression. He had come to see Tyler, but my friend was out. The Original Hybrid had decided to stay and wait, Carol had left soon after he arrived, desperate for a break from me.

I tilted my head at him. "Yes, Niklaus?"

He flinched back from his full name. He recovered quickly, leaning forward with his arms braced against his legs. "Why is Tyler so insistent on not leaving you alone, love? I had to force him to leave and do some things for me. I haven't had to do that to him before. Does he think you're suicidal? Are you suicidal?"

"Yes." My simple to-the-point answer took him aback. "He knows that if I'm left alone I will kill myself. He's been making me drink his blood everyday, you know."

The Original appeared disturbed by the casual, dead way I spoke of my own death. "Oh? Would this have anything to do with the reason he wants to go after Damon Salvatore?"

"Yes." Again I startled him with my easy response. "Damon broke me and now Tyler wants to break him. He won't though, Tyler that is. I made him promise me that he wouldn't."

Klaus watched me for several long moments. "So, what you're saying, love, is that if I left you alone you would kill yourself?"

I blinked. Had we not just gone over this? "Yes. Tyler hid all the knives and guns and obvious suicide objects from me. But there's the stairs. Or the balcony. Or the roof." There are an endless amount of options."

Before the Hybrid could respond, Tyler was in the room with us. The younger hybrid nodded toward Klaus before turning to me. "Di-Di, you haven't eaten. Eat." He shoved a plate of food into my lap.

I slowly put bites in my mouth, the food tasting like ash. Tyler and Klaus were discussing something, but I had to focus on forcing the food down my throat. Tyler would hound me until the plate was clean.

—I hate what I am about to put you through, but I am so tired. So, so tired of being hurt beyond repair time and time again. My back is to the pool of water below, I cock the gun. I can only hope that he will not be the one to find my body, but he will search for me until he does. I point the gun at my heart, steady in my decision.

BANG

BANG

The second shot is unintentional, but the first causes my nerves to jerk, pulling the trigger once more. For several brief moments I am still alive. As blood spills from between my lips I hear a howl of absolute anguish. I close my eyes. I'm so sorry my friend. But my dearest friend is not the last thought in my mind. The man I love is.

The emptiness of Death beckons me and I see his face one last time.

I love you, Damon Salvatore.

Eternity, Damon.