A/N: Hey, guys! This is a request I got from a friend of mine on tumblr, which was inspired by an AU prompt that suggested that the characters are involved in a rebellion against the government, but I changed it to just a rebellion because it was more fitting to me. When I began writing, it turned out to be too long for a one-shot, so I decided to make it a mini story with three chapters! There's also some Bamon in here as well as moments between Stefan and Bonnie, besides all the Defan. I hope you enjoy it and I will appreciate your reviews!
Damon's POV
I was sitting at a table in our favorite bar, the only place we could rest after a long working day at the mines, surrounded by a bunch of dark dirty faces, bruised and battered hands, eyes full of hope.
Stefan, my little brother, who joined the working class just six months ago, was on the wooden squeaky chair next to me, fiddling with the hat in his hands, listening to me carefully as I spoke up to everyone here. He looked up to me. They all did.
I've been working in the coal mines for four years now, because someone had to figure out a way to support a fourteen year old teenager just after we've lost our mother, the only living parent we had at the time.
Our father died ten years ago, at an incident in the same mine we were working at right now, leaving my mother to deal with two boys and try to feed them on her own. I keep thinking that all this working screwed up her health, she barely slept for four hours a night because she had to saw shoes and clothes for the factory she worked in, and try to keep us all fed and well-dressed.
I assume in a way, that's what's going to happen to my brother and me too-working will take the best of us. Stefan has already started coughing and he's been there for six months, I was way worse than him by now, but of course I was trying to put a good face for him-he was afraid of something going wrong and ending up alone in the world, but he never hesitated when he decided to join me underground and get his hands and face dirty just because me and my fiancé have found out that we're going to have a baby.
He said he could never go to college anyway and that he had to find a job, so why not at least work with me. I was against it at first, but then I really didn't have a choice-it wasn't a big town, he couldn't find another place to work at and things were tight at home-we were barely holding up, so he didn't even ask me when he went to sign up his contract-he just did it out of the goodness of his heart.
But now things were getting worse and I was trying to fix them somehow, though I had no idea if I would manage to do anything at all.
"Okay, guys so the plan goes like this-we go there on a Thursday morning and gather in front of the elevators. We refuse to get underground and start working until they consider, that they could bring their rich fat asses to us and hear our demands." a loud "Hell yeah" goes around the table and glasses are raised
"But, but!" I lift my hands up, trying to calm them down. I don't know how it even happened, how I was the person to come up with this "No violence, okay? That's what they want. They want to provoke us, to make us out to be these savages who are willing to hurt them, but we have to be wise about this, do you understand?" I look at every single one of the guys sitting around me and they all nod, letting my words sink in, they trust me, they believed in me and if I screwed them up, then this whole thing was for nothing.
"What if we don't manage to change anything?" one of the guys, his name was Tom I think, he reminded me of my brother "What if after all of this, they just fire us? Or decide not to pay any attention to us at all?"
"They need us more than we need them" I explain the simple truth "And as far as not paying attention goes" I sigh "they let ten of our people die last week. Our friends, co-workers, who were also fathers, husbands, brothers. If we allow this to die out and not raise our voices while we still can, then we can't really call ourselves people, because I don't know about you" they were all mesmerized by me, I don't know how I did it, but I felt like they're not even breathing when I spoke like this
"But I can't live with myself knowing that they let them die like dogs under the ground, buried in this hell on earth. We all seem to be sympathetic and care about them, thinking how their wives and children are suffering, but we don't really stop and think that one day this could be happening to our families." they all silently agreed with me and stared down at the dusty old table, holding their beers with their black rough hands.
Every now and then someone would look up at me with glassy eyes full of hope for a better future and they would appear to me like a shiny starts in the darkness of their sooty faces, breaking my heart in two.
"Speaking of that" Ric, another one of the workers and a good friend of mine "I talked to Matt's wife Caroline and she said that they'll come and support us on Thursday."
"Okay, that's good. I think we should do something for them too, maybe bring them some stuff for the kids, food, clothes things like that, make sure they have our support."
"I'm on it" Tom promised with his hoarse voice and I nodded gratefully at him.
We repeat the plan once again and after we finish our beers, they all stand up, pat me and my brother on the shoulder and leave or move to other tables.
"Come on, we should go" I urge Stefan, who's staring down at his almost empty glass, but he doesn't move and I can see he's lost deep in thoughts, so I squeeze his shoulder with a smile on my face-when he did this, it's like he shut himself off from the whole world and it was hard to bring him back "Hey, what's in your mind, kiddo?" I ask him and he turns to me, trying to give me a fake reassuring smile that everything's alright.
"I'm fine, Damon" he promises and this time he squeezes my shoulder
"I know this expression, Stefan" I keep urging him to speak up "You furrow that eyebrows only when you're worried, so what is it brother?" he sighs and runs his hand through his messy hair whose blond color is currently hidden by a thick black layer of soot. He coughs a bit and takes a sip from his bear to calm his burning lungs down
"I agree that we have to stand up to them and I won't to fight more than anyone, but I'm worried that you're the leader of this whole thing, brother" he admits "It's dangerous."
"What are you talking about, it's not only me-you've been helping me this whole time, talking to the guys, spreading information, convincing them, that we have to do something. You've been actually way more helpful than me-all I do is talk for five minutes and hope they still haven't given up the idea of fighting for their own good."
"No, Damon, you don't only talk, you lead them. Your words are not empty promises, they bring hope in their eyes. Me?" he shakes his head and smiles sadly to himself "I'm just helping you out, but you are the person who makes them believe that they have to stand up for themselves and that is good, but it's also foolish and it can bring you troubles. You have a kid on the way, don't forget that."
"I'm not" I promise as I put my hand on the back of his neck and pull him to my chest "It's all good, kiddo, don't worry."
"Ugh, I'm not a kid, Damon" he protests as he tries to get away from me, but I pull him harder and hug him tight.
The truth is, I was kind of scared for Thursday, not because of me, but because I didn't want them to hurt Stefan. I had to make sure he is at the back of this chain of humans forming in front of the elevators, but I knew that he won't ever let me get myself in the front lines if he's not there to join him.
He feels that I'm worried and he hugs me tightly back as I bury my hand in his messy blond hair and remember a time when we were kids before our father died and how happy the two of us-how loved we felt, because our parents loved us more than humanly possible and despite the fact that we were so poor, they did their best to raise us to be young bright people, who won't give up no matter what life throws at them.
I remember Stefan and I sleeping in one bed, because there was not enough space and we had only two rooms and a gloomy dark kitchen. My little brother, he would often have nightmares and that worried me-he wasn't supposed to be so stressed for a five year old kid. He would wake me up in the middle of the night, tears running down his face and I would pull him to my chest just like now and soothe him until he falls asleep.
He has nightmares now as well, though not every evening. They're awful and they wake me and Bonnie up sometimes. I don't know what is wrong and why he's like that but I don't like it because he can never catch enough sleep and he had to work underground all day long, on top of it he was already coughing a lot and that woke him up easily.
I did that too and I hated myself for ruining my fiancée's sleep, especially when I knew she needed all the rest she could get since she was pregnant and working her ass off at the factory, sewing clothes and shoes just like my mother all day long. I had to make her give up soon and stay home so she could rest more-she was losing weight instead of gaining it and that was freaking me out.
"Come on, let's go home" I say and Stefan finally agrees, throwing his jacket over, grabbing his orange helmet and following me outside.
It was a cold February night and it was lightly snowing. We were dressed in our work clothes, all dirty and dark, in total contrast to the snow surround us. I look down at my shoes and realize that I can feel the wetness in my right foot, which made me curse silently-I had to ask Bonnie to fix them if she can. Staring back at my brother who was walking next to me, I realized how cold he must be with his old worn out jacket, which used to be mine and I scold myself for not taking good care of him.
When we get home, I urge him to get to the bathroom first and take a shower, even though we both knew there won't be any hot water-we were used to the cold by now, even though it was below zero outside.
"And here's my beautiful wife making dinner for her favorite idiots" I say as I enter the kitchen and embrace her with my big strong arms while she keeps staring down at the pan where she's cooking up the meal.
She stretches out and cups my cheek and I turn her around holding her waist with my rough dirty black hands. She smiles and I lean down to kiss her, gently, slowly, it's my way of showing her how much I love the fact that I'm finally home to her and my baby.
My hand instinctively moves to her belly and the baby bump and I caress it , feeling the life growing inside her-our little son or daughter, we still didn't know, because we couldn't afford going to the doctor again after the first time, which confirmed she's pregnant. It's been months since that happened. I was hoping that finally next week we would manage to get to it.
"Hello, little fella!" I whisper as I kneel down and kiss her tummy. She smiles and buries her hand in my ruffled hair, chuckling "You've been good to your mother today?"
"Damon, why do you keep insisting that it's going to be a boy?"
"Because I know you want a girl and I have to keep teasing you." I respond and she chuckles lightly as I stand back up. I let her cup my face and pull me to her lips once again, but this time I lift her gently up and put her on the counter, deepening the kiss and even slightly staining her face with my dirt. She huffs annoyed but lets me continue teasing her with kisses down her neck.
"Damon" she whispers "We have to talk."
"Talk about what?" I say in between the wet kisses that I leave down her neck, hoping that I'll be lusty enough for her to forget why she's kind of mad at me right now, but soon I feel her grabbing the end of my hair and pulling me roughly back
"Damon Salvatore, don't try to seduce me!" she hisses and I sigh tiredly as I pull back from her and take off my dirty jacket tossing it on the chair angrily.
I've just come home from a long day at work and I wanted to be with her, but nope, I guess today I was out of luck.
"That protest that you're guys organizing" she begins as I lean down and start cleaning on the sink, rubbing my face with the soap and coughing out loud.
"What about it?" I ask tiredly as I look for the towel and I feel her handing it to me. She huffs when I stop rubbing my face, and pulls it away from my hands, wetting it again and cleaning up my forehead as I apparently left some soot linger there.
"I don't like this." she announces "It will get both you and Stefan in trouble."
"We'll be fine, Bonnie" I try to shake her off as I head to the couch and lie down to rest my back a bit-I'm hurting like hell.
Soon after my brother joins us dressed in fresh clothes, no trace of dirt on his face and he smiles at Bonnie, greeting her and asking her how she is, but she responds abruptly, not really happy with my answer and he notices it as he sits down on the table and looks between us like a kid staring at his parents and in many ways we were like his parents-I was still taking care of him despite the fact that he was bringing just as much money on the table as I did and Bonnie loved him like a brother. They were very close and he often said she's his best friend.
"What's going on?" he finally dares to ask and I huff out annoyed
"What's going on is that Bonnie here is being a pain in the ass about us being involved in the protest."
"You're not only involved Damon" she raises her voice and Stefan sinks a little big in his chair, so am I when I realize how angry she is "I saw Caroline Forbes today and imagine my surprise when she tells me my fiancé is organizing a riot tomorrow and she's supporting it and how grateful she is that you of all people are leading it, because Matt valued your opinion and looked up to you so much."
"Bonnie-" Stefan tries to intervene and get me out of this thing
"Uh-uh! You guys" she throws her hands in the air tired of our shit "Do you know what you're getting yourselves into? These people are powerful! They let workers die there and managed to cover it all up, so that no one out of this state knows what's going on. A stupid protest is going to be a piece of cake for them."
"It's not a stupid protest" I raise my voice feeling offended at her statement as I sit up in the couch and cross my hands on my chest
"I am trying to make a difference here, to actually help people because one of these days, I might be buried right there with them when a stupid accident occurs because they don't fix or take care of things and then you will be left to take care of a child all by yourself." I stand up as I explain passionately my point and she gives me a confused look
"And no matter what it costs me, I won't stop fighting, because I know what it's like for a kid to grow up without their father and Stefan here" I nod to my brother "is aware of the struggles that this causes and I'm not going to let them to do this- not to me, not to any other family anymore. If you don't understand or accept this, then there's nothing I can do about it, but I'm not going to stop because I'm scared" I finish as I angrily head off the room
"Damon, wait!" I hear her say, but I'm too angry and I know my brother would stop her from following me, because he's aware I need some time on my own.
I go to our room and slam the door in their faces. I know I shouldn't have burst out like this, but I was pretty much pissed off and very cranky right now and I should probably apologize to her later, but I'm so damn exhausted that all I can do is take my clothes off and lie down in our bed, letting myself fall within minutes, thinking how she'll be so pissed off, that I stained the sheets with my dirty hair and my bloody full of blisters hands, which she usually cleaned and patched up, but not tonight.
I feel her gently shaking my shoulder after what seems like minutes, but it's probably hours. She's smiling apologetically at me and I immediately feel guilty for yelling at her
"Hey" she whispers "Come on, you gotta eat." she urges me to get up and I sit up in bed smiling at her. I brush away a stand of hair behind her ear and pull her to my chest
"I'm sorry, Bon" I apologize "I feel awful, I should've never yelled like this."
"No, I am sorry for ever doubting you. You were right." she looks up and plays gently with the end of my hair, smiling at me as she says so "Someone has to do something and I'm glad that it's you. I'm proud of it." she assures and it makes my heart swell a little, which is why I lean down and give her a sweet kiss on the forehead "I'm just worried, that's all."
"We'll be fine" I promise her, even though I'm not sure what is going to happen, but I know that I have to believe that things will be alright, that we will win this thing and make a difference. We had to.
Because this was hell on earth and we kept going through it, but the problem was-there might never be an end to it and no matter how hard we wished to come up on the other side, there was no such thing-we had to create it with our bare hands and our loud voices.
She pulls me up and leads me to the kitchen where I notice Stefan already napping on the couch. He had nowhere else to sleep-there was only one bed, which was in our room and Bonnie found this old couch in her parent's house and brought it here so he would have somewhere to sleep that is not a mattress on the floor. I knew that it was very uncomfortable for him and it made his back hurt more, but he wasn't complaining at all-that was my brother, welcoming every difficulty in life with a smile on his face.
As I sat on the table and Bonnie put down the bowl of soup in front of me and brought me more bread I noticed that she has patched up his hands already and he was slightly shivering. This was the coldest room in the house and he always slept with a sweater on, cause he would've frozen to death with this hellish winter outside. We had a small fireplace in our room that kept us warm but he…he had nothing and as I watched him slightly shiver I clenched my fist and sighed tiredly at the realization, that I wasn't taking good care of my brother.
I notice that Bonnie is too tired already, so I sent her to bed while I eat my soup. Lately it's been nothing but soup or beans for us. We haven't eaten meat in two weeks if not more and I knew both Stefan and I needed it so we could have more strength to work. But the truth is, I was mostly worrying about Bonnie-she was carrying a child and she was barely eating enough for two. I hated myself for it. And I hated the fact that Stefan gave all of his salary to us, so that we could be fine. I can't imagine what's going to happen when the baby's born.
"Why are you moping again?" I hear my brother's hoarse voice and I notice he's opened his eyes for a moment again, he's so damn tired for a nineteen year old kid.
"I'm not" I say as I stand up and put the bowl in the sink. I grab the warm kettle from the cooker where Bonnie left it and fill him a good cup of hot tea just as he starts coughing somewhere behind me
"Here, you could use something to warm you up." he grips the cup with his hands and takes a good sip and I smile as I watch him.
"Thanks, brother" he says with his still sleepy voice. I myself take a good sip from the bourbon which we kept in the drawer above the sink and feel it burn my insides. I needed something to help me fall asleep easier.
Stefan furrows his eyebrows at the sight of me doing this, either because he wants some too and I'm not sharing or because he doesn't approve, but I don't give him the opportunity to say anything because I go to get him another blanket and cover him up better. He's just finished his tea and is lying back on the pillow, his eyes half closed, he's already dozing off again.
I tuck him good with the blanket and ruffle his hair
"Sleep tight, kiddo" I say and he mumbles something under his nose, he's probably dreaming already. I take a few minutes to look at him and his tired face and when I'm sure that he's no longer shivering, I go back to our room and pull Bonnie to my chest, making sure I keep her and the baby as warm as I can.
Next day I wake up Stefan in five in the morning, because we need to get to work first and gather everyone in front of the elevators. We don't eat anything, we just grab a cup of coffee-it turned out we were running out of it too-and we headed there in the cold February morning, freezing as we walked and watched the sun come up.
When we got there most of our people were already waiting for us. My brother went to talk to some of the younger boys and as we planned, we decided to put them on the left side so they won't be as close to the guards if they come up and decide to fight us. Our bosses have hired many people to work for the security department, exactly because they were afraid of protests and they basically had their own small police force, which of course could never outnumber us, but still had guns and truncheons and people were afraid of getting hurt, which of course, I understood.
We've decided that we'll be silent in our protest today, that we won't yell or provoke them, that we'll try to be as peaceful as we can, so when we've all gathered we put our hands over each other's arms and made what looked like a human wall of angry dirty coalminers.
"You scared, kiddo?" I ask Stefan as I throw my arm over his strong shoulders and he looks up at me with a big smile as he shakes his head
"With you by my side, I can never be" he announces and I smile, ruffling his hair.
At first, things do not go as planned. One of the guards come to us and tries to make us go in the elevators and get to work and of course we refuse and we boo him. I tell him that unless someone comes to talk to us and is willing to discuss things with us, we won't move even an inch. He laughs in our faces and leaves.
We continue standing there, it's cold and we're starting to freeze. Some of the guys sit on the ground and light cigarettes, other take out coffee cups and sandwiches and start eating. Ric and Tom pass me a bottle of bourbon to warm my frozen cheeks and I give Stefan some, even though I wanted him to stay sober right now-he was the smarter one, the one with the bright ideas and I wanted to keep him by my side in case I screwed things up. The oldest worker and a good friend of mine, who we called the Captain, lights a fire and some of the guys gather around it, other stay close to us and we talk. I'm trying to keep them all together and convince them not to destroy our rows, because if they do and we leave, then it all goes to hell.
Late in the afternoon, we all get back on our feet and start singing as we see some of the bosses staring at us from the building opposite of the elevators leading to this hell underground. From up there we probably look like a big army, whose only weapons are its voices. The feeling of unity and the idea that we were actually fighting for something here and wanted to be taken seriously, lightens our hearts and we all burn with a fire inside that can ruin those bastards watching from upstairs.
I guess they expected that we would give up at noon and go work, because we needed the money, but we didn't. I managed to convince each and every one of these workers that they have to stay, even though some of them really wanted to just go home or get to work so they have something to bring home at the end of the day, but they didn't.
Stefan helped a lot with this too-he was taming the younger ones, the people from his generation, former classmates, who hated their lives and whose blood was still boiling with anger and resentment towards these people, but who were also unsure as if how this would change things for them and who got easily bored with being so silent all the time. They wanted to yell and scream, toss rocks and fight the guards, but I knew we had to start this peacefully or else we would provoke them and turn out to be the bad guys here-that was not our goal.
Finally, when they realize that we're not giving up like that, three guards and one of the suits, I think he was the manager come to talk to us. They approach us cautiously and the guards are surrounding this stupid idiot, who's afraid that we could hurt him, which makes me smile.
"Okay" he begins "I'm here to talk. Who are the leaders of this charade?" everyone go silent and look up at me and my brother. He smiles as he puts his hand on my shoulder and together we step out of the crowd.
"We are" I say with a steady voice. The suit nods and looks at us all with disgust as if we're not worthy of even existing in his presence.
"Come on, we will talk" he says as he nods at the building.
The guys behind us start yelling supportively stuff like "Kick, ass Damon!" and "Don't let them control us, brother!" and it makes me smile. Stefan follows me as we head to the main building and I slightly furrow my eyebrows when the guards surround us as well from both sides.
I swallow hard, hoping that this is not a trap and decide to act tough, but also not to provoke them right away.
They lead us inside and much to our surprise, we don't end up in another room or anything else right away. We get on the second floor and as we pass by the windows I notice our guys staring from downstairs and cheering loudly for us, waving their fists in the air and smiling-they counted on us and we could never disappoint.
We end up in a relatively big room, which looks like a small palace-the furniture are fancy, there are long shelves full of books, some stupid plants sticking up from every corner as well as something which looked like a sculpture of an old man near the windows. There is a big desk on the other side which is empty much to my surprise and I don't feel really comfortable with the guys still on both our sides. I clear my throat as the manager stands opposite of me and smiles devilishly.
I step up and decide it's time to get to the bottom of this.
"So are we going to discuss matters with you or are any of the other actually important people running this shithole going to join us?" he laughs in our faces and I watch him turn around and cross his arms on his back for a moment before speaking up.
I don't recall his name good, but I think he was Elijah-one of the Mikaelson brothers. This family owned eighty per cent of the company, they were important businessman people and very famous figures in the town's history. People in the entire state knew and feared them-they didn't own only one mine, they had four as well as other companies across the country.
"If you think anyone's ever going to actually take you seriously, you're deluding yourselves" he says with his deep voice and nods to the guards surround us.
Before I know what's going on I feel someone kicking my ankles and I fall to the ground. Stefan grunts somewhere near me as well and when I turn to the left I see his blond head there, anger filling his eyes.
I can't really do anything, I try to fight them as I turn around and attempt to get up but they kick me in the stomach and I realize that they're no longer two-they're more and as I turn to my brother's side, I see three people kicking him in the stomach as well as the face
"You, bastards!" I yell out "Leave my brother alone!" but one of them takes out his truncheon and hits me hard as another one actually steps on my hand and I feel the bones there cracking.
I yell out from the pain and I try to get away or at least grab my brother's hand and pull him to me to keep him safe, but I can't. They're kicking me everywhere and I'm squirming on the floor, I feel the blood on my face and in my mouth and I spit some of it out, my right eye hurts and my hand is burning up just like my guts where they keep kicking and hitting my back or my head and I feel as if I'm going to collapse soon, but my brother's yells and grunts keep me up-I had to get to him, so I kept fighting and trying to stand up until eventually they stopped.
I opened up my eye and saw Elijah staring from above us-the anger burned me up more than any pain ever could and I tried to curse him, but before I opened my mouth he spoke up to the guards
"Bring them up and take them outside" he smiles" The people have to see their heroes." I feel two of them grabbing my arms and bringing me up to my feet. When I look to the left, I see Stefan and his messed up bloody face. They've stripped us of our jackets and our shirts like animals and the bruises and cuts on our chests made us look ridiculously weak.
"Stefan" I whispered and he shook his head, trying to assure me that he's fine, but I knew he wasn't-he looked worse than me and I think they did it on purpose, because they knew how angry I would get when they hurt my little brother.
They take us outside, drag us practically and I can't bring myself to look at the guys standing there waiting for us. When they realize that we're being brought back beaten almost to death, I hear their gasps and their loud voices until we approach them and stand only a few feet away and the silence consumes us all. They stare at us with fear and worry in their eyes, but I see something else as well-respect and anger. They are angry as hell just like I am for doing this to us.
Elijah walks up before us and stretches his hand to me and my brother.
"Whatever you think you're doing, stop it!" he says out loud so everyone can hear him. The wind is chilly and we're sitting on our knees, bloody, bruised and completely humiliated, the guards were holding us tight so we wouldn't try to stand up though I don't think that's necessary-we could barely keep our eyes opened.
"Or you'll end up like them. Any protest activity from now on is completely forbidden-try to rebel and you'll realize how small and insignificant you are. You can't fight us!"
Our people welcome his words with complete silence and I sense the fear that they feel right now-it's in the air and it's making it hard for me to breathe, that or just my injuries prevent me from doing so, but I feel like I'll collapse any minute now.
Elijah turns around and smiles at us again
"If you two don't show up for work tomorrow, you're fired" he announces and I swallow hard. He knows far too well that we don't be able to stand on our feet, let alone work and I can't even clench my hand right now, but I know it has swallowed.
He attempts to surpass us when I hear my brother's voice
"You might've crushed and destroyed a small wave today, Mr. Mikaleson" I turn to him and see him lifting up his bloody face, his eyes barely opened, blood coming down his right cheek form a cut above his eyebrow "But know this-the ocean is enormous and strong-it can drown you whenever it wants."
When he speaks up the crowd in front of us strops breathing for a moment and so do I. We all know he just pissed Elijah off and internally we're joyful that he had the guts to do so-to shove the truth down his throat-we were many, we were angry and we could beat him up.
I've never felt more proud of my brother and I smile as I watch him give Elijah a look full of anger and resentment. My heart clenches though when I see the boss nodding to one of the guards-he raises his truncheon and I yell as I realize what he's about to do.
"Brother!" I scream when I see it fall on the right side of his head. He doesn't even let a sound out, he doesn't have the strength to cry out in pain and I watch them dropping him to the snow. The minute he's down they let me go and I rush to his side, turning his weak light body to me.
The rest of the workers yell out and many of them come by my side and surround me and Stefan.
"Stefan! Stefan, brother, talk to me!" I beg him as I lift up his hand in my lap. He's bleeding out and so am I-I feel sick when I see him trying to look at me with his sad green eyes. He stretches out his hand and grabs my wrist as he grunts painfully ".Stefan, you'll be okay, I promise, you'll be fine!"
"Damon!" I hear Ric's voice behind me and he puts his hand on my shoulder. When I lift my head up I realize that everyone's surrounding us and kneeling down trying to help us
"My brother" I whisper "My brother… they hurt my brother. You have to help me" I beg Ric and he nods
"I will." I look down at Stefan and see how slowly his chest is rising-he can't breathe. His blood was coloring the snow and making me feel sick. It was either this or I was going to collapse from my own wounds
"Ric…" I say as I look up begging him to do something "I..I can't" I say as I feel myself falling on the ground. Stefan's hand is still somewhere in mine but I don't even have the strength to squeeze it. Ric leans over me and starts shaking me, trying to make me talk, but I feel myself losing conscious and everything goes dark.
