Damon groans as he falls limply to the cold concrete ground beneath him. Despite the sharp pain throughout his body, he still attempts to get up and defeat his attacker, the one he used to call friend.
"You're not gonna fight back?" Alaric asks effortlessly, stake in his hand and ready to plunge.
Damon groans more, dry blood staining his lips and chin.
"You're kind of invincible, Rick." He offers, but flattery won't get him out of this mess.
"Don't call me that." Rick spits as he brings one leg up and kicks Damon's abdomen, "We're not friends." Damon looks weakly up at Alaric.
"We were."
"Well, our friendship was part of the problem," Rick continues, looking down at Damon with anything but mercy and remorse, "it's what kept me weak. It's also why it took so long for the real me to break through." Damon struggles to get up, propping himself on his elbow. "And now I'm gonna break you." Rick takes another strong swing at Damon with his foot, but at this point, the pain is just background noise. All Damon can think about now is a different kind of pain. The kind that you can't see, but hurts even worse than anything that could draw blood. The kind that came from the one person he could truly count on. The one person he needed most.
"I love him, Damon..." The words reverberated in his head endlessly, and if he were human, he could imagine what a headache he'd have from it. Nothing could be worse than this. Trapped in a room with his only friend on earth, the same friend that wants to end his life for good, afraid and utterly alone.
"It's always gonna be Stefan." Damon knew this from the start, so why did her words hit him so painfully hard? He was a fool for believing he had even the slightest chance at happiness with the only person in the world he's truly and unconditionally loved.
"Maybe if you and I had met first..." If only she knew that they had, in fact, met first. That one word that will haunt him forever; maybe. Things would be different if he hadn't made her forget. If he had just left her with the memory of his mysterious gaze, his words of intrigue and desire. If only she'd known how in love with her he's been since that moment, even if he hadn't realized it yet himself.
He lay on the chilling pavement of the street, still and straight as a statue. The sky was a painting of darkness with splatters of white twinkling specks. Damon imagined how free he felt the first time he flew in the clouds, his black, ravenous wings flapping in the atmosphere. He hadn't morphed in a long time, and something about this night made him want to.
He had come back to Mystic Falls, his home, to save Katherine. His true love of almost one-hundred-and-fifty years, locked in some tomb and no doubt suffering from desiccation. For the first time in too many years to count, he was happy. Excited even. For he was going to see her beautiful face again. He was going to hold her delicate hands, and look into those beautiful chocolate brown eyes, and tell her how much he's missed her. How much he loves her. He smirks at the stars above him.
"I know, Bonnie, you're right." His thoughts were interrupted by a woman's voice, so incredibly familiar despite how many years it's been. Damon's head jerks to the side to see where the voice is coming from. "I just can't bring myself to tell him. At least not tonight." When his eyes adjust in the darkness he sees... No. It can't be. Without hesitation or thought, Damon's in front of the woman in a gust of wind. "I'll call you later." She says as she hangs up the phone. He can't believe his eyes.
"Katherine." He breathes, the joy almost unbearable, the confusion overwhelming. Though he can't fight the thought that this isn't, indeed, Katherine. She seems different somehow. Then he smells it. The blood coursing through her veins. He listens for her heartbeat, and inevitably hears the rhythmic thump thump thump.
Her eyebrows furrow in confusion as she looks behind her, possibly to see if this mysterious man is speaking to someone else, but remarkably, they are the only two in sight.
"Um, no, I-" Damon's face falls, his joy fading quickly, replaced instead with disappointment. "I'm Elena."
"Oh, you..." He conjures up the words in his head to reply, unable to shake the wave of emotions he feels in this moment. It's times like these he remembers why he shut off his humanity. "You just look..." He sighs, his expression changing as Elena's grows more confused, "I'm sorry." He says, taking a few cautious steps toward Katherine's doppelgänger, "You just really remind me of someone." This, of course, is an understatement. This woman looks exactly like Katherine. The only difference was in her hair. Straight, sleek and smooth. Very opposite from Katherine's loose curly locks. Plus, he can't deny the urge to rip into her throat. When her expression doesn't change, he tries a different tactic. "I'm Damon."
She eyes him suspiciously, and rightfully so. He's surprised she hasn't run away screaming by now.
"Not to be rude, Damon," she starts, "but it's kinda creepy that you're out here in the middle of nowhere."
"You're one to talk." He jests, a friendly smirk playing on his lips. "You're out here all by yourself."
"It's Mystic Falls. Nothing bad ever happens here." Damon laughs internally at the irony of her statement, and even lets a little of that internal laughter escape his lips. Elena suddenly feels intimidated under his intense gaze, and feels compelled to explain herself. "Got into a fight with my boyfriend." She explains, raising her phone up as if it's evidence.
"About what?" He presses, holding up two hands and adding, "May I ask?" Elena just shakes her head.
"Life. The future. He's got it all mapped out." Damon is overwhelmingly curious to hear more about this human, this Katherine look-alike. He doesn't quite know what it is, but there is something about her. Something that has nothing to do with Katherine.
"And you don't want it?"
Elena shrugs. "I don't know what I want."
"Well, that's not true," he says, "You want what everybody wants." Her beautiful eyes, familiar and captivating, pierce into Damon's questioningly. She tilts her head to one side, a sweet smile tugging on her lips.
"What? A mysterious stranger who has all the answers?" This earns a laugh from Damon.
"Well, let's just say I've been around a long time." She smiles curiously at him, almost flirtatiously, intrigued by his mystique. "I've learned a few things."
"So, Damon, tell me. What is it that I want?" He feels compelled to tell her that she wants exactly what he had wanted in 1864. Exactly what he had gotten. With Katherine.
"You want a love that consumes you," he says, remembering how Katherine's hands felt running down his chest, "You want passion," the feeling of her soft lips on his, "and adventure," her mischievous grin and playful games. Elena looks up at him in awe, her heart racing a bit, her body unable to move as he inches closer and closer to her with every word. "And even a little danger." He remembers her piercingly sharp teeth boring holes into his mortal skin. His smirk has her mesmerized, but she quickly snaps out of it, challenging this intriguing man.
"So what do you want?" She smiles, waiting for his answer, but it never comes. Damon is caught so off guard by this that he's unable to reply. He just lets out a pathetic sigh, pondering the thought in his mind. What do I want? Has it really taken a human girl to bring this question into his mind? Because up until now, he was sure of what he wanted.
There's an abrupt beeping and flashing of headlights as Elena turns to look. "It's my parents." She says, turning back to Damon, but suddenly he's right in front of her, only inches away from her face, his piercing blue eyes boring intensely into her chocolate ones. He doesn't waste any time.
"I want you to get everything you're looking for." He says, his pupils dilating and contracting vigorously. "But right now..." He knows he should tell her to forget. To go back to her normal human life without so much as a second glance at him. But Damon has always been selfish, never one to let it be. "You should probably go home and get some rest. Can't plan your future on an all-nighter, can you?" She laughs at this, looking over at her parents car, watching as it pulls up in front of her.
"C'mon, honey." Her mother calls, waving her to the car, "We've got a long night of talking to do." Elena sighs, turning to apologize to the mysterious stranger, but when she turns back around, he's nowhere to be seen. He's left Elena relentlessly unsatisfied, confused, and with only one thought left in her mind; maybe I'll see him again.
A/N Sorry for the suck-y description, I'm not that great at them. Basically, when I wrote this a couple weeks ago, I wrote without the intention of continuing. It was just supposed to be a One-Shot and that's it. But, typical me, I forgot to mark it completed, and now I feel obligated to write more since it's gained a few followers haha (thanks so much by the way!) So I'm not really sure where this story is going, just to warn you, it's probably gonna be spontaneous because like I said, I hadn't planned on continuing. Please feel free to leave me reviews with suggestions, it would help out a lot! Thanks for checking it out - I really, really appreciate it! :)
UPDATE Okay, don't hate me, but I've decided to just leave this as a oneshot. I'm sorry, but with school coming up soon and the plethora of stories I'm already in the middle of, I just can't start a Delena one... hopefully someday I'll be able to pick up on it, but as of now, I really don't feel like writing it anyway. :P