CHAPTER 1

(This takes place a little while after the Originals Dance) Rated M

Elena sighed as she looked herself in the mirror.. Tying her hair into a high pony tail, she thought deeply about all the things that had taken place recently. So many things had been happening. She kept wondering how things had gotten so complicated. She took a second to gather herself and headed out the door, grabbing her bag on the way. Her phone rang, it was Damon. This was about the 8th time he had called her this morning. She kept ignoring it, but she knew she would have to answer him eventually. He'd sent her a text earlier saying that they really needed to talk. She disagreed. The last thing they needed to do was get into ANOTHER fight. She knew she had really hurt him the other night at The Mikaelson's dance. The words just slipped out of her mouth. She hadn't meant them the way they sounded. But she knew that's how he'd taken it. The look on his face… pure pain. It was all she thought about that night and the next morning. She had felt so terrible about everything. For asking for Stefan's help behind his back.. Then having Stefan literally BREAK his back.. All so she could talk to Esther for 20 minutes. But she knew it was the right thing to do. The originals were finally vulnerable. This chance wasn't gonna come around again. And she knew Damon would never have let her go in by herself. She couldn't have taken the risk of something happening because he was worried about her. But Rebekah.. Rebekah of ALL people! Just the thought made her stomach hurt. What the hell was he thinking? A part of her knew it was just to get back at her. And she deserved it she supposed. 'I mean, what did I expect him to do?' she thought, 'Did I expect him to go home and cry? Drink a blood bag and be back to his normal, snarky self by morning?' She didn't know why this even bothered her so badly anyway. It's just Damon.. Why did she care who he sleeps around with? But deep down she knew… The amount of hurt she felt when she saw them together at his front door. She immediately realized what had happened.. And it killed her. The way Rebekah looked at her didn't help either. She looked.. Down on her.. Like she was some unclean peasant that needed to be sent away. Not good enough to be in her presence. Elena had felt humiliated the whole way back to her house. Shocked and confused about it all. She just couldn't understand why Damon picked her. HER! 'She tried to KILL me ! More than once! Doesn't that mean anything to him?' Elena wondered. A fire roared up in Elena's belly. She had to stop. This train of thought was pointless. All it would do was make things worse. She couldn't bring herself to answer her phone after that. They hadn't talked in almost 4 days. But she just couldn't bring herself to press the green button.. To hear his voice. He would say something and she knew she would cave. She'd forgive him and everything would be okay again. She didn't want it to be okay.. He really hurt her. She made up her mind she wasn't gonna let this one go.

"Elena?" She was startled out of her trance by Alaric staring at her from her couch. She realized she'd been standing there staring at her phone for who knows how long.

"Oh, morning, Rick," She said as she shoved her phone into her pocket.

"You alright?" He asked, looking a little worried, "Yeah.. yeah I'll be fine." She answered, attempting to ease his mind with a slight smile. "I'm off to Caroline's. She needs to talk to me." She said while slipping on her flip-flops.

"Isn't that what cell-phones are for? It's 8:00 in the morning," he said,

"She said it had something to do with Klaus? It didn't sound like a conversation to have on the phone." Elena replied.

"Klaus? Since when does Caroline know something about him that we don't?" He said with a sigh. He looked tired. Elena could tell he wasn't sleeping well. Sometimes she'd hear him up at night, watching TV or walking around.

"Yeah I don't know. But I'll call you if its anything important."

"Yeah, ok." He said shortly. She gave him a long look before grabbing her keys. She worried about him. Something just hadn't been the same about him for a while. She wished she knew how to help. "Ok well she's waiting for me so I better get going. I doubt I'll be back for lunch, so just do whatever." she stated.

"Ok," He answered. She started out the door when she heard him shout after her, "OH! Hey! Damon said to have you call him."

She just rolled her eyes and shouted back a 'Whatever' as she closed the door. She knew Alaric would understand.

Later that afternoon, Elena got back into her car and headed for the Mikaelson Manor.

She couldn't believe what Caroline had just spent hours telling her. She was convinced it was some sort of trick. And Klaus was sure as hell not going to bring Caroline into his sick, twisted mind games. Elena would make sure of that.

She knew it was probably stupid to go alone. But she knew no one would let her come if she'd told them.

Her excuse to leave Caroline was that her and Alaric had lunch plans. She didn't like lying to her friend.. But she didn't have a choice. Klaus was NOT getting Caroline involved in all this.

She started to get a little squirmy as she pulled into the long driveway. The house looked so much different in the light. And without all the lights and decorations it looked.. Creepy.

She was determined though. 'No turning back now, ' she thought to herself as she stepped onto the porch and rang the huge doorbell.

The wait seemed eternal until she heard the door began to creak open. To her surprise, it wasn't Klaus who answered. It was someone much worse…