Eternal Pain

I decided to take a break from my current story to start working on this new idea that came to me. This starts during episode 1x17, just after Damon, Elena, and Alaric got Stefan out of the house with the tomb vampires. The story follows canon up until this point.

I do not own any of the characters, I'm just borrowing them. Enjoy!

Scene (In the woods, Elena is dragging Stefan to their waiting car.)

Elena POV

"Come on Stefan, we have to keep going. You can't stop now." I'm exhausted from dragging Stefan all this way. Where is Damon, why couldn't he help? I hope Alaric and him get out all right. Nothing sounds safer than a house full of pissed off tomb vampires.

"Crap!" I call out as I fall to the ground. My hand is bleeding. It's not a bad cut, just one more injury to add to my long list.

"Are you ok?" Stefan asks.

"I'm fine. Come on, it's right over here." I pull him into the passenger seat as I go around to start the engine. We're in trouble now; the ignition has been ripped out of the car. I turn to Stefan and scream as I see Frederick burst through the window and pull him out of the car.

Frederick has Stefan and is beating the crap out of him. I'm powerless to help unless I can find something…wait, Alaric left one of his vervain darts in here. I grab it and get out of the car. Frederick is so busy stabbing Stefan with a branch that he doesn't see me come up behind him.

"No!" I scream as I stab the dart into his back. Frederick collapses to the ground.

"Stefan, Stefan are you ok?" I pull the branch out of his chest. "Stefan, please be ok!" Blood, he needs blood, I think. I look down on my cut hand. "Here, Stefan, drink." He's struggling against me. "I need to you drink, please Stefan." Finally he listens to me and starts drinking from my hand. "ouch" he's bit into my wrist now. "Stefan, Stefan, don't you think that's enough?" I cry out to him. I'm getting light headed. I hear a noise behind me, and I'm thrown into one of the trees. I feel the wind knocked out of me as I watch the beast that is in Stefan come out and kill Frederick. He stakes him with the same branch I pulled from his stomach. I see Frederick turn all veiny and gray as he collapses to the ground. I still can't breathe to call out to Stefan, I just lie there and watch as Stefan turns back to me. Gone is the man I love, all I see is the monster. I can't even scream as he comes towards me, no longer satisfied with my wrist, he sinks his fangs into my neck. I feel my life force leaving my body. I can't believe this is it; I'm going to die here in these woods, killed by the man I love. Poor Jeremy, he's going to lose another family member. I know Jenna will take care of him, but this is too much pain for one person to bear. I quietly slip into darkness, welcoming the quiet to come.

Damon POV

As pissed off as I am right now, I'm thankful that Pearl and Anna came home when they did. I'm not sure that Alaric and I would have made it out of there alive if she hadn't called off her vamps.

"That was fun." Alaric looks at me with a strange look on his face. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I know you hate me. Guess What? Everyone hates me. But you can't deny it. We were bad ass!"

His right hook hits me right in the jaw, knocking it out of place. Alaric is looking at me in a pissed off way. I adjust my jaw and feel it pop back in. "Yeah, I deserve that," I say as I start laughing. Alaric starts to join me a little bit. I knew I liked this guy.

We're almost at the car when I smell the blood. Alaric and I race towards it. I'm momentarily frozen as I see Stefan feeding in a frenzy on what looks to be an unconscious Elena. "Stefan, STOP!" I call and he turns and our eyes meet for a second. The ripper is here. In that second the entire world changes. I see him bare is fangs at me, and then I see his skin change to gray. No. No! This cannot be happening. Stefan is looking down at his chest at the stake that is protruding out of it. He almost smiles as he collapses to the ground. "NO!" I scream.

My brother, after all these years, he cannot be gone. I clutch his body to me, that last shred of my family is dead. The last piece of my humanity. I feel the tears fall. They are the last I will ever shed. What's the point? I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Damon, we've got to help Elena." I hear Alaric say to me. I turn and I see the stake launcher in his hand. I throw his hand off of me. "You did this! How could you? He was my brother!" "Damon, I.." I snap his neck with a satisfying crunch.

Elena. He's right. I need to help her. I knell down next to her. Her heart is barely beating, she doesn't have long. I rip into my wrist with my teeth and put it up to her throat. "Drink, Elena, please. You're all I have left…" It feels like forever before I feel the slight pull on my wrist. Finally, she's drinking. "It will be ok, you'll see, it will be ok." I'm not sure if I say it for her or for myself. I pick Elena up and run her back to her house as fast as my legs will carry me.

"What did you do to her?" I hear the accusation in Jenna's voice as I stand on the porch, Elena still unconscious in my arms.

"I didn't do anything; I'm just going to take her up to her room. She's had a long day." I carry her up the stairs and lay her down on her bed. "It will be ok. I know it will." I say again, more for my benefit this time. As much as I want to stay here with her, I can't let him just lay out there by himself. He needs me, one last time. I lean down and give her a soft kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back later." Not wanting to deal with Jenna again, I jump out the window, heading back into the woods.

Elena POV

Urgh…. I stir to consciousness. Why am I not dead? I remember Stefan's face when he came after me. How can I ever forgive him? Was it my fault for feeding him my blood? How did I get back here?

"Elena, it's time for Damon to leave," I hear Jenna call. Damon? Did he bring me home? I look around my room, not seeing him anywhere.

"I mean it Elena," Jenna says as she comes in my room. She looks around shocked when she doesn't see him here.

"Hi Jenna. I'm assuming Damon brought me home?" I ask, hoping for some answers.

"Yeah, he brought you home all passed out and in his arms. Have you been drinking? Something seemed off about him. He didn't flirt or make any rude comments. What's going on?"

"Uh, I'm not sure Jenna. I must have been drinking. Have you seen Stefan?"

"No. Speaking of, where did Damon go? I swear I didn't see him leave."

"I don't know. I woke up alone." Just then I hear the doorbell.

"Must be Ric," Jenna says, "We were supposed to have a date tonight; I think he's coming to apologize for standing me up. I just might need to make him work for it a bit." She winks as she heads down the stairs.

Might as well get up and see what's up. I check my phone, no messages. Hmm… I start to hear a commotion downstairs.

"What are you talking about Ric?" I hear Jenna's voice start to rise.

"Jenna, calm down. You need to know what's going on in this town."

I rush down the stairs at the sound of this. No Ric, it's not up to you to tell Jenna about this crazy world we live in.

"Ric," I call, "It's so nice to see you." Ric seems startled by my appearance. A look of guilt washes over his face.

"Elena. How are you, are you ok?"

"Ok, what is going on?" Jenna asks, "Were you with Damon tonight? Just how much was Elena drinking?"

"Jenna, I…I…." Ric doesn't seem to know how to continue.

"Jenna, I'm fine. I had a bit too much to drink and Damon brought me home. Damon was hanging out with Ric, so Ric's just checking to make sure I'm ok. Right, Ric?" I look at him imploringly.

"Um..Yeah. That's it. I'm sorry for missing our date Jenna; I was just too distracted to notice the time." Ric manages to stammer out.

"Well, don't make a habit of it. And next time, why don't you drive Elena home instead of Damon? It just seemed way to intimate the way he was carrying her. Where was Stefan when this was going on?" Jenna asks. Alaric looks guilty again and stairs at the ground. I'm waiting for this answer too. Does Stefan feel guilty? I should go to him, where is he?

"I'm not sure if I'm the right person to say anything," Alaric begins. Just then the front door opens and a teary eyed Jeremy walks in.

"Jeremy, what's wrong?" I rush over to him.

"Leave me alone. You knew, you knew all along. She's dead. She's dead and she's never coming back."

"Who's dead, Jeremy?" Jenna asks.

"Vicki. I can't believe she's gone." Jeremy rushes up the stairs to his room.

"Oh, no. I better go check on him," Jenna calls as she heads up the stairs to his room.

"He knows." I say, turning to Ric. "What are we going to do? Where are Stefan and Damon?"

"Elena…" Why can't he look at me?

"Ric, what's going on?"

"We need to talk. Will you come outside with me?" He leads me outside to our porch swing. This can't be good.

"Ric, just tell me what's going on."

"Elena… I don't know how to tell you this, but Stefan's dead."

"What? No…No…no…" I feel my world start to go dark. This can't be true. Stefan can't die, he's a vampire. Vampires don't die.

"Elena, I had to, it was the only way to stop him."

"You!" I feel disgust as I move away from him. "How could you? He didn't mean to hurt me! I fed him my blood, this was all my fault!" Alaric did this. I don't understand. Why? This can't be true. He's home healing. I know that's where he is.

"Elena…I know you hate me right now, but it was for your own good."

"You don't know anything. He's fine. He's home. He's waiting for me." I start running down the street I hear Alaric calling for me, but I don't care. I know he's fine. He's worried about me. I'll just go to him. Everything will be fine.

I feel like I've run for hours, maybe I have, but I finally reach the boardinghouse. I don't knock; I just go in and call, "Stefan?!"

"Stefan?" I yell this time. I don't hear anything in the house, it's eerily still. I head up the stores toward his room. Maybe he's sleeping. It was a long day. I enter his room and look around. He's not here. I'll just wait for him. Everything will be fine. He's fine.

I hear the door open downstairs. I rush down the stairs, I see Damon pouring himself a drink. He looks remarkably not like himself. His shoulders are slumped and he's covered in dirt and grime. I've never seen him look anything but perfect. What's going on?

"Damon?" I softly call. He looks up at me. I see more sadness in his eyes than I have ever seen in my entire life. His eyes are puffy and all the light is gone.

"Elena…" He softly says. He quickly downs his drink and pours another one.

"Damon, where's Stefan?" At the mention of his name, Damon's shoulders start to shake. I rush over to him and hold onto him. He's shaking and crying. What is happening? Damon looks so broken.

"He's gone…Elena…He's gone and he's never coming back." Damon collapses to his knees.