Disclaimer: The author of this story does not own The Vampire Diaries and its characters. Any character or story plot found in the story that has nothing to do with The Vampire Diaries is an original of the author.

The dawn of a new day…

The first thing Elena Gilbert had thought when she woke up… feeling neither living nor dead…

She ran her fingers through her long silky blond hair and stared at the mirror into her lapis lazuli blue eyes. "What do I do now?" She had asked herself as she stood up staring at her satin night gown with thin straps and a length that reached and inch above her knee.

She looked down her long limbs… they felt weak, heavy, and languid. Her usually milky white and silk smooth skin was pale…

"Elena?" It was Aunt Judith… Almost two months ago… She found out that her niece had died and become a vampire and died and came back to life as a human. But, she didn't know that Stefan Salvatore and his brother Damon were also vampires. All Elena told her was, that she'd become a vampire because of a 500 plus year old jealous vampire look-alike named Katherine Von Swartzchild, who had fallen in love with the Salvatore's and wanted to make them both hers.

"I'm coming down in a minute, Aunt Judith…" Elena slipped out of her night gown and into her tub…

"Elena…" Came Aunt Judith's voice again as Elena slipped into her black skinny jeans, red sweater, and black ballet flats.

"I'm out…" She was already on her way down the stairs.

"Breakfast?" Aunt Judith was nervous to be around Elena… She didn't know if she was still the same girl she knew almost a year or two ago.

"Why are you so nervous around me?" Elena asked. "It's not as if I'm still a monster! Dying twice doesn't change my ways…" She stormed out of the house without saying a word to Aunt Judith or her four-year-old sister, Margaret, and burst into the car.

Bonnie McCullough and Meredith Sulez, her bestfriends and members of their very own group The Velociraptor Sisterhood, had moved out of Fell's Church, Virginia… Bonnie went to Atlanta to stay with her cousins and Meredith went to Europe to look for Alaric Saltzman, who was practically her boyfriend.

"Elena!" It was Caroline Forbes, her best friend and enemy… Her auburn hair, and the color of her eyes haven't changed at all, also her attitude, as sour as ever… "How are you?"

"Never better!" She lied as she fought back the tears that wanted to escape. "And you?"

"Well… I'm good…"

"Elena!" Called a voice from behind her.

"Stefan?" Elena turned.

"Wrong…" It was Matt Honeycutt. He was laughing. The blue eyed, blonde, football quarterback and her ex-boyfriend was behind her.

"Matt…" She wasn't amused.

"Hey… Why so down?" Matt asked her.

"Matt…" Caroline warned. "Leave her alone… you know what she's been through…"

"Elena… I'm sorry…" Matt whispered.

"You don't know what you're being sorry about, Matt… Leave me alone…" Elena spat the words through clenched jaws.

"Matt… Why are you here anyway?" Caroline asked. "Didn't you say that you were going to study Washington for College? This is Robert Lee High…"

"Same goes for the both of you…" Matt fired back. "Caroline, shouldn't you and Elena be at UCLA or somewhere? Like you both planned? Same college for the two of you…"

"For your information Matthew Honeycutt… Elena Gilbert and I are in the Welcoming Committee and we're still fixing some things before we officially start summer…" Caroline grabbed Elena's hand and brought her to the committee office.

"You're in the Welcoming Committee? You've got to be kidding me, Caroline…" Elena mumbled.

"I entered the committee for the sake of nothing to do, 'Lena…" Caroline said. "And besides, I do help in the committee…"

"I'm not so sure if I can leave this place…" Elena whispered.

"This office? You're not sure if you want to leave this place?" Caroline mocked. "Are you sure? Okay, you can live here if you want…"

"This school, Caroline! This school!" Elena cried.

"I've heard that R. Lee High did have a college… once… until…" Caroline stopped.

"Until?"

"I'm sorry, Elena… I don't think I could tell you…"

"Caroline?"

"Fine! There was a college until the Salvatore Brothers burnt it down in hot pursuit for Katherine."

"W-what?"

"Some centuries ago, they found Katherine walking around, like some succubus, picking guys up from their dorms and leave them bloodless at the Dean's office's doorstep…" Caroline took a deep breath and ignored Elena's tears, it was painful to ignore. "They saw her in a lounge that had a gas stove and all flammable things, hanging out with some young professor and student…" She grimaced. "The brothers were horrified and they lashed out their Power at the flammable stuff and burnt the place down… the fire reached the entire college building… The brothers escaped and so did Katherine… the professor died but the student remained alive…"

"How do you know all this?"

"That student was my several greats grandfather…" Caroline said. "And the professor was his older brother…"

"Oh God…" Elena cried and ran out of the office and into the parking lot.

There stood Damon Salvatore… Seductive, brooding, and mysterious…

"You and your brother can go to hell…" Elena yelled at him as she tried to shove him aside.

"What's with the attitude, love?" He caressed her cheek and she didn't pull away. "Not pulling away, love?" He cupped her face in between his hands.

"Let go of me…" She whispered… but she didn't mean it at all.

"Let go of you?" Damon asked. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure as hell… now let go of me, Damon…" She really tried to pull away this time.

His lips landed gently onto hers and he gave her the lightest and sweetest kiss.

Elena's skin was tingling with heat all over… her lips were melting into his… and her arms were holding him tightly.

"Elena, we have to stop…" Damon whispered minutes later. "Unless, you want to end up with bites on your pretty neck…"

"I don't really care…" She sounded drugged. She was clinging onto him like a leech and he didn't mind.

"Elena, what would you do if Stefan were here right now?"

"Stefan's back?" She immediately let go and got back to the real world.

"No," Damon said.

"Then, you can go back to whichever dirt hole you came from…" She spat and started to walk home.

"That was harsh!" Damon called out with an amused voice.

"Elena?" It was Elena's little sister, Margaret.

"Yes?" Elena turned to face Margaret.

"You're not really dead, are you?"

Elena wanted to yell. "No, of course not… Who told you that I was dead?"

"Aunt Judith said that you died and that you're not really here…"

"A-aunt Judith told you that? H-how could she? Margaret, don't believe a single word she says, okay?"

"But, Elena…" Margaret was teary eyed.

"No. Listen to me, Margaret… I'm alive… do I look dead to you?"

"No…"

"Go out and play with someone…" Elena left Margaret in the hallway.

Her room was cold… even if the air conditioning was off.

"Elena…" It was Aunt Judith.

"You told her that I'm not even here?" Elena hissed. "Why the hell did you say that?"

"Don't use that language on me, Elena."

"Is that who I am? Elena? Are you sure?" Elena said sarcastically. "Maybe I'm just Dead Girl or Elena the not so Gilbert, right? Are you sure if I even have a name? Or maybe, I really am not here right now; and I'm back at the Shi no Shi with Stefan!"-She gasped, she let it slip out-. "Oh God…"

"You were where with who?"

"No where!"

"Elena."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Where did you say you were?"

"Get out of my room!" Elena yelled and shoved Aunt Judith out and slammed the door shut.

"I don't think I've ever seen you that way before…" Damon's voice was heard from behind her.

Elena turned and he was sitting on her window sill. "Who let you in?"

"Myself… and besides, your window was open, Elena…"

"I didn't leave my window open…"

"Yes, you did…"

"Get out of here, Damon…"

"I'm not leaving, love…"

"Where's Stefan?"

"Stefan, the little nuisance? He's back at the Shi no Shi, darling…"

"You liar…"

"Oh, I'm not lying… Need proof?"

"Give…"

Damon reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. "Here, read it and… weep…"

"'Dear Lovely Little Love,'" Elena read. "'The island of Shi no Shi…'" She skipped so many lines because she couldn't take it… It was hurting her; every word scalded her. All that the note contained was three paragraphs worth of lovers' nonsense, warnings, and silenced cries of shame…

"You knew he was going! And because you hate him, you let him go!" Elena yelled as she tore the paper into shreds and threw the pieces at him. "You'll be the reason for why I'm going to be alone!"

"You won't be lonely now…" He whispered as he hugged her and let her cry onto his shirt.

Elena was alone…

And she didn't want to be alone at all.

Damon was no where to be found either. The day was dark and foggy, also raining and misty.

Meredith was still chasing Alaric and not answering her phone somewhere in Europe and Bonnie had left her cousins to look for Meredith.

It was as if Elena was the only one not looking for someone to chase after.

Aunt Judith was making hot cocoa for all of them and trying to spike Elena's drink with vervaine… the vampires can't handle the plant, Elena can, because she's no longer a vampire…

"Aunt Judith, if you're trying to kill me, look for a smarter way… Vervaine can't stop me…" Elena smirked at her worried aunt.

"Elena, I'm not trying to kill you!" She faked sounding offended.

"Yes, not trying but going to kill me…" Elena grabbed the mug and drained it and made coffee.

The phone rang and Elena grabbed it from Aunt Judith.

"Gilbert Residence… Judith Gilbert speaking…" Elena imitated her Aunt's voice.

"Oh… Is…" It sounded like Bonnie and she sounded hesitant to say "Elena,"

"Bonnie?" Elena asked.

"Elena?" She sounded so bewildered.

"Hello, have you found Meredith?" Elena asked.

"YES! I have found her! In Notre dame…"

"Really?"

"Yes! Have you found Stefan?"

"Found?"

"He's missing, right?"

"Missing? He left!" Elena yelled as she brought the cordless phone up to her room.

"No joke?"

"Do I sound like I'm in the mood to be joking?"

"Why are you so angry and tense? I just called back to tell you that I've found our best friend and all you can do is sound unsurprised? Did something happen to make you sound like this?" Bonnie was surprisingly and unexpectedly angry.

"Do you really want to know what happened?" Elena hissed.

"I have the right to know, I'm your best friend…" Bonnie sighed, she sounded as if she were also begging.

"Fine…" Elena shut her eyes and started talking. "Remember when I… died after Katherine and I were in this fight for Stefan and Damon?"

"Yes… why?"

"Remember that something happened to me? I stopped using my voice and I was floating like a balloon?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, two months later now, Stefan left for the Shi no Shi… for the second time…"

"Second time? Why?"

"Even Damon and I don't know…"

"Excuse me, did you say 'Damon and I'? Did I hear wrong?"

"Oh God, Bonnie, it was really nice talking to you again, Ms. Best Friend…"Elena hung up and tossed the phone onto her bed.

"Were you really intending to be that mean to your best friend?" It was Damon, sitting on her bed.

"Yeah, and to you, too…"

"Oh, come on, Elena! You and I both know that you can't hold a grudge against me or Stefan that long! Let alone your best friends!" Damon was exasperated. "Ha!" He choked out. "Your best friends! You can't just chuck them out of your life! 'Oh, Hi Bonnie, Hey Meredith, it's me Elena! I've chenged and I don't like you guys anymore, bye now!'"

"Look who's talking. You chucked your own brother out of your life. Isn't that much worse?" Elena asked. "I mean, family..."

"I may have a brother... but he never did anything worthwhile..."

"Oh, do tell..." Elena fluttered her eyelids in a childish mocking way.

"Don't you have a sister to attend to?"

"Oh, Margaret's with my "Aunt"," She rolled her eyes as she set herself on her bed. Her house phone rang again. "Hello, Judith Gilber speaking..." She imitated her aunt again.

"Oh, Hello, Ms. Gilbert." It was Caroline.

"Caroline?" She returned to her normal voice.

"Oh, God, Elena... That was you all along?"

"Yeah... not everyone knows that I'm alive again... Why do you think I only decided to fix the Committee files when the school was empty?"

"Oh, well... I need to tell you something..."

"What?" She heard Caroline burst into tears. "Caroline... what's wrong?"

"Matt... he... I found him-"

"You found him what? Caroline, what happened?" Panic and fear was rising in hear. "Caroline, what happened to Matt?"

"He looks as if he's...d-dying..."

Elena was frozen. The phone fell out of her hand and its batteries fell out and scattered onto the floor.

"Mutt's dying? Poor thing..." Damon grinned in spite of himself. "Mortally Unable To Talk..." He chuckled.

"Damon, shut up!"

Elena rushed into Matt's house and saw him lying on the couch. Still... his breathing was labored... his chest was heaving and taking pain every time it rose. "Matt?" Elena whispered as she walked closer.

Caroline was standing in one corner crying like there was no tomorrow. "I found him like that when I got here..."

"Elena," Matt wheezed. "I knew you'd come... you always come..."

"Matt you're not dying..." Elena choked. "You're not..."

Matt blinked... and...

Elena and Caroline screamed.

"This is just the beginning," Someone said from the doorway of Matt's house. "His death is only the beginning..."

Elena turned. "Lexi..."

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