"No! - No…" he began to shout as his voice grew weaker with every second that past. For weeks now, in the midst of the night, the same reoccurring nightmare takes a hold of Stefan. It starts off with him reliving the night in Monterrey, where he got his name called the Ripper. Everything seems to happen with such ease in the dream but in matter of seconds everything flips like a switch. One minute he is the one torturing and in the next instance he is confined in chains and pinned against a metal table. It was everything he had fear, to be on the other side of being tortured… being the one tortured. The thought brought a cold shiver down his spine. His back was moist with sweat that caused the skin from his back to stick against the table. His wrist were chained and locked up with steel chains, making it worse they were laced with vervain. With each movement his wrist burned in an agonizing sensation. "Why?" he whispered to himself very faintly, his voice was weakening, along with his whole body, even his mind. The amount of vervain the he had ingested had taken a toll on his body, the weight of the chains grew heavier and heavier to the point where they were too heavy to try and break from. He let out what seemed to be a slight grunt, as his face filled with sweat that ran down his face like raindrops. He tilted his head back and wondered his eyes around the room, it was dark everywhere he looked… besides up… above him hung a bright light that burned his face repeatedly. In immediate reaction he swiftly turned his face to his right hand and came to the realization that his ring had been removed, result of why the UV light burned his face. Naturally his breath came into rapid spurts, every time he brought his breathing to a normal rate a sudden jolt of fear engulfed him… before he could look up and face the fear, his vision became a blur and eventually his eyes rolled in the back of his eyes before passing out.
Finally after of hours of unconsciousness Stefan finally regained conscious but impaired nevertheless. He turned his head to the left, but his visions still could make out the blur face that hovered of him. "Why?" he asked as he licked his lips desperately needing some moisture to them… desperately needing some blood to heal him. The man with the blur face let a slight chuckle escape his lips. "Why not" he said mocking him as he brought his face closer to his, making sure that Stefan knew who had all the power in this scenario and to prove it the man held a knife that was dripping with vervain on the tip of it. The man let a loud devious laugh burst out as he brought the knife to bear skin of Stefan's chest and piercing through his skin with a subtle easy, Stefan gritted his teeth and clinched his teeth, fighting the pain that curved into his skin, his breath began to pick up massively and spit began to spit from his lips, to try and prove that he didn't not fear the man he lifted his head as high as he could and yelled in his face but at the same time the man gripped his throat and pinned it back to the table. The gripped around his neck began to crush his throat causing him to gasp. "Stefan… Stefan… you know better than that" he replied as he wiped his face from the spit and slammed Stefan's head back into the table. Impairing what little clear vision he once had. The man grabbed a needle that was filled with vervain and stabbed it into Stefan's neck and filled him with a little more vervain but not enough to cause him to pass out. "I'm going to kill you" Stefan mumbled as his head rock back and forth as he started to lose himself again. The man let a small chuckle escape his lips. "Of course you are… that's what they all say" he responded as let the tip of the knife drag down from the top of his chest down the middle of his stomach, cutting him deep and wide open. Stefan no longer had the strength to scream in pain, he just bite his teeth and tried to keep his breath normal. "I swear… I will kill you" he said sternly as possible in the give situation. In response the man scoffed and grabbed his cheeks quickly and whispered back "If you survive… Stefan" he smirked hovering his face over his and as he pulled away he threw Stefan's face to the side. "You're pathetic… simple… your weak… nothing…" he said disgusted. He let a scoff. "You want to see me for the monster I really Am." he asked rhetorically. "Just look Stefan… look hard and carefully at me… follow my voice and look at me Stefan!" he shouted. Stefan with all his strength followed his voice. Trying desperately to see the hidden face behind the blur… he tried to clear his vision by narrowing his eyes… but it still wasn't enough. "I can't" he replied. "Just look" he yelled through a devious smirk. "I can't!" Stefan yelled back. "Just look one more time Stefan" he demanded. Stefan let out a small breath in frustration but finally had enough strength to clear his visions, although it was slow…
"No… no!" his voice was weaken by the shock but turned angry by the result of what he had just witnessed. "Dammit no!" he shouted as he lifted his body that were confined by chains. The man laid a sly smirk on his face and nodded his head up and down as he walked over to him and snapped his neck… and in the same moment Stefan came to his senses and awoken from his dream, his breath panting rapidly and fast as he checked his chest for cuts but it was nothing.
It was just a nightmare.