Almost No Hope
A/N: Hey guys! So this is my first complete story, I've written little one-shots before, but never a full story. This will be very loosely based on Lost, but you didn't need to have watched the show to understand this story. This will be a Stefan/Elena story even if you don't see much of it in this chapter. Don't worry, I'll get there. Anyways, read up and I hope you enjoy!
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to embark on an adventure, a much needed one at that and we can't be late. Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Caroline said full of excitement. She was being her normal control freak, planner self. That was coming quite in handy at the moment actually, seeing how everyone in the Salvatore boarding house was running extremely late.
"Care, we've been ready for the last thirty minutes now. I don't see what's taking them so long. Damon and Elena are obviously fighting per usual, but what's taking Stefan so long? I know he's not taking this long to decide what outfits he's going to bring." Bonnie said dramatically. Caroline didn't respond, she just kept pacing the living room back and forth. Bonnie was not a very patient person, she could only wait for so long. She and Jeremy had been packed and ready to go since last night, she didn't see why the others couldn't do the same. Jeremy was starting to get antsy, like a little child. He kept on shaking his leg which in result was shaking the table Bonnie and him were currently sitting at.
"Jeremy! Will you cut it out and sit still for five seconds?" You'd think he would be more patient, since I made him wait three months for sex and all, Bonnie thought. He started giving her those wounded-puppy dog eyes, what he always did when she snapped at him. Giving in, she placed her hand over his, "I'm sorry. We're both not being very patient right now. I just really want to get going already. I mean, don't you? We're going to Australia, Jeremy, that's kind of a big deal." Jeremy smiled at her and said, "I know, Bon. I'm getting impatient too, but we'll leave soon. If we don't leave in the next ten minutes, I'll personally go referee that death match we all know Damon and Elena are having upstairs and you can go drag Stefan away from whatever he's doing, probably fixing his hair." Bonnie just laughed as a frustrated scream came from the corner.
"This freaking hotel can't get anything right! I booked us to check into our rooms at 5:00pm and somehow the stupid manager mixed it up and now we can't check in until midnight! What the hell are we supposed to do in Australia until midnight?" Caroline huffed, apparently I'm the only one in the world who can plan a damn thing correctly, she thought.
The clicking of heels was heard coming down the stairs. That could only be one person.
"Oh no," they all simultaneously said.
Strutting down the stairs like she owned the world, Katherine looked at the group like they were beneath her. Even though she was human now, she hadn't lost her confidence. "Oh, yes. That's right children; the cute one is coming on your little trip. You should all be grateful that I'm even gracing you with my presence." Flipping her hair, she walked over to the couch to sit down.
"Who the hell invited you, Katherine?" Said an exasperated Caroline. She was already as stressed as she could get, she didn't need Katherine Pierce of all people coming along to ruin her vacation. Although, she did think that she would provide for some humorous entertainment here and there.
"That would be me." Stefan stood at the top of the stairs, afraid of the controversy he would have to face by inviting Katherine on their trip.
Caroline threw her head back in frustration. "Seriously? Come on, Stefan. This is Katherine we're talking about here." From the corner of her eye, Caroline could see Katherine sticking her tongue out at her.
"You all know that she's human now, she needs to be protected. There could be anyone out there looking for her right now and we need to make sure they don't find her." Stefan gave them a stern, parenting look that said deal-with-it-she's-coming.
Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy all grunted.
"Fine, whatever." Caroline sighed. "But Katherine, I swear to God if you ruin my trip and prevent me from basking in the Australian sun, I will kill you." Ending with a long breath, she turned on her heel to leave the room.
Katherine snorted in amusement. She yelled back, "You do realize that you're a vampire right? You can't actually bask in the sun. Well, you could try taking off your daylight ring, that could work. You'd get a real nice tan then!" She smirked, leaning back on the couch with a smug look on her face.
"UGH!" Caroline grunted from the hallway.
They were all getting really impatient now. Damon and Elena still hadn't came downstairs.
A vase flew by Damon's face. "You are such an asshole! You are seriously refusing to go on this trip just because Stefan is coming?" Elena was fuming. So what if Stefan was coming? They were friends. How could they not be after all they had been through together? Damon knew they were friends, he'd known that all along and he suddenly had a problem with it as soon as this trip came up.
"No, Elena. I said I don't like it that he's coming. Of course I'm still going. But I just feel like lately you've been pulling away from me and… running in his direction." His voice was full of hurt. Of course Damon had noticed for the past month or so that she had been spending more time with Stefan. At first, he reasoned in his head they were just friends. They lived in the same house; they couldn't just ignore each other. Soon, he was waking up in the middle of the night to find that she was not there next to him. She was downstairs talking to Stefan. He'd listened in on one of their conversations one night. They talked about everything. Life, love, interests; everything that Damon and Elena didn't talk about.
Elena was silent. It was true; lately she had been spending more time with Stefan. She'd been wondering often what would've happened if she had never been sired to Damon. Honestly, and she'd never admit this, she truly believed she would still be with Stefan. And maybe it would have stayed that way. Her and Stefan. Forever. An eternity.
"Elena?" Damon spoke in a weak voice, becoming frantic. "Do you even love me anymore?"
She froze at his question. Did she? Did she still love Damon? Of course she did. Did she love him the same way he loved her? Elena was starting to question herself on that. "Of… Of course I do, Damon. Can we please just go on this trip and then we can sort all of this out when we get back?"
In that moment, Elena saw clear and utter pain on his face, but there was another thing she saw. She saw him giving up. Plain and simple, he was giving up. They both knew that she still loved Stefan, but neither of them wanted to say it out loud. They were going to go on this trip and either act like nothing happened or ignore each other, but they were going to put off their problems. This vacation was happening to get away from all the chaos and that is what they were going to do. But in their hearts, they knew the reality. It was over for them.
"Sure. Let's just go." And with those four words, Damon's walls were back up. Elena knew that he would shut out everyone and not allow himself to care from then on. It needed to be done though. She couldn't go on letting him think that everything was okay when it wasn't.
Nothing was okay. It hadn't been for awhile.
Once they were all finally ready, they headed to the airport. They arrived to find that they were going to be taking a private jet. No surprise there, Caroline always had to go above and beyond. "Nothing, but the best for my friends," she said.
"Don't get me wrong, Care. This is really great, but is it really necessary?" Bonnie asked. She was always the one who worried about money. She probably didn't realize that Caroline compelled the airline to let her use the jet. She wasn't going to tell Bonnie that though, since she usually frowned upon vampires using their abilities to get what they wanted.
"Oh Bonnie, this trip is going to be great, so of course I had to make every part of it as glamorous as you are," she said sarcastically. Bonnie made a certain hand gesture towards her, but it wasn't a thumbs up. They both laughed.
"Alright, alright. Break it up Barbie one and two. Let's go," Katherine said. She sounded irritated and tired. Probably one of the perks of being a new human.
The seven of them piled into the jet, settling into their respective seats. Stefan went with Katherine, Bonnie went with Jeremy, Elena went with Caroline, and Damon was all by his lonesome. Stefan noticed this, but didn't say anything. Why is Elena not with Damon? Stefan thought. Actually, everyone thought that was weird. Caroline wanted to ask Elena what was going on, but with all these damn vampires on the plane it was going to be hard for her not to be overheard.
Soon, their pilot came out and introduced himself.
"Welcome aboard, everybody, my name is Boone Carlyle and I'll be your pilot today. Your flight duration will be roughly twenty hours and we should be experiencing a smooth flight for the time you will be here. We are about to take off so if everyone could buckle their seatbelts and stay there, that would be great." Boone was about 5'11 with sandy brown hair. He spoke in a rough, deep voice and had a bit of scruff on his cheeks. His face was handsome, good cheekbone structure, and quite frankly Caroline and Katherine were checking him out not-so-discreetly.
"Thank you," purred Caroline and Katherine at the same time. They sharply turned their heads to each other and, oh boy, if looks could kill, well, they would both be dead. Caroline had just broken up with Tyler a few weeks ago so of course she was on the rebound, but Katherine was just naturally flirty.
Bonnie and Jeremy were in the corner snickering like little children, Stefan was trying to hide his smirk from Katherine, Elena looked downright depressed, and Damon was clenching a glass of scotch in his hand so hard that he could almost break it.
With that, Boone left and went back to the cockpit, giving Caroline and Katherine a pretty good view.
"Damn," Caroline said, fanning herself.
"That man has an ass you could bounce a quarter off," Katherine crudely said. They all gave her a look, even Damon. "What? I'm just saying." She shrugged and looked out the window as the plane was about to take off.
All of them buckled in, getting comfortable when the familiar rumbling of the plane started. The engine droned to life and the jet started moving towards the air strip. At the air strip, it stopped, and then started up again, gradually gaining more and more speed until it was taking off into the sky. Oddly enough, none of them were scared of flying, so it had been a fairly calm atmosphere until about midway into the flight.
Damon was wallowing away in self-pity, drinking his scotch, when he overheard something a little suspicious. The only two stewardesses on the plane, whispering.
"When do you think he'll do it?" The blonde one said.
The other looked anxious, like she was waiting for something to pounce at her. "I don't know. But they've got to sleep at some point right? He could do it then." She said in a quick, hushed tone.
"But what about the humans? What if they fight back?" Said the blonde, nervously tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
The other one quickly looked around and Damon jerked back to his scotch, going unnoticed. "It doesn't matter. He'll sedate them or something. Don't worry, Judy. Boone has got this covered."
That's where Damon tuned out. Boone? He thought, isn't that the pilot guy? What the hell are they talking about?
Deciding he'd had enough their whispering, he begrudgingly got out of his seat and started towards the stewardesses. As soon as they saw him coming, they went stark white. It was like all the color had drained out of their faces. That's when Damon knew something was wrong.
"Hi, ladies. Whatcha talking about?" He said menacingly.
It looked like the blonde one, Judy was her name, was going to faint. The other one spoke up. "Um, nothing sir. Could you maybe go back to your seat? We're experiencing some, um… turbulence."
"Turbulence? Strange, I don't feel anything," he said, turning up the theatrics. "Just like I won't feel anything when I rip your vocal chords straight from your throat if you don't tell me what you were talking about." They both gasped, the blonde even started shuddering.
Damon pushed the other one against the wall. "What's your name, dollface?"
"B-b-brenda," she stuttered out, her brown hair starting to glisten with sweat under the pressure.
"Well, Brenda," he said. "If you don't tell me what your little pilot, Boone, is cooking up in that cockpit of his, I just might have to kill your friend Judy here. And when I kill, it isn't fast, or merciful." Damon started walking toward Judy, slowly, but frighteningly. "You've got about three seconds."
"One…" He closed his hand around Judy's throat, not too tight, but not comfortable either.
"Two…" Damon's vampire face appeared, his fangs ejecting. He turned his head to show Judy his face. Judy was about to scream, but he clamped his hand over her mouth.
"Thr-" He was cut off by a something being stabbed into his shoulder blade. Vervain. He was suddenly grateful to Stefan that he had been making him drink vervain every day now. He looked back and saw Boone, the pilot, standing over him with a triumphant smile and a needle in his hand. Damon pretended to play wounded, so he could strike back at the right time. "You're a vampire hunter?" He said, making his voice croak to be convincing.
"That's right I am. And I will kill every last one of you on this plane if I have to." Boone smiled maliciously.
"Well," Damon said. "I don't think that's gonna happen." He jumped up and quickly tore into both of the stewardesses' throats until they were drained of blood. When he looked up, Boone just stared at him in shock and surprise. He obviously had no idea that the vervain would have no effect on Damon.
"Surprised?" Damon said. "Well you should be." He dove at Boone with all his vampire strength, knocking him over and started feeding on him. He sucked him dry until he heard the sound of a gun cocking behind him. The co-pilot. Damon leapt for the gun and ferociously ripped the co-pilot's heart from his chest.
"Oops," was all Damon said. He smiled satisfactorily, proud of himself for getting rid of the problem. He walked back out to his seat, completely forgetting he was covered in blood.
"Damon, oh my god! What happened?!" Exclaimed Elena, rushing to his side to help. Hmm, she actually cares, he thought.
Stefan was also at his side, quicker than lightning. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Oh everybody hush," Damon said with a roll of his eyes. "Turns out the whole crew were in on some freaky exterminate-all-the-vampires plan. Don't worry though, I killed them all." He smiled, showing the blood all over his teeth.
Caroline gasped. "But Damon-," she was cut off.
"But nothing, blondie. I solved the problem, all by myself. It's all good."
"Damon what-"
"Caroline, it's done. Over. Finished. Can we please not-"
"DAMON!" She yelled.
"What?!"
"Who's piloting the plane?" Caroline shrieked.
For once, Damon was out of words. Maybe killing both the pilots wasn't exactly a good idea. "Um, well, you see… no one, I guess?" Before Damon could even get his sentence out, the plane lurched forward and everyone slid down the front.
Stefan started crawling toward the cockpit.
"Stefan!" Elena shouted. "What are you doing?"
"I have to try and do something or this plane is going down, fast!"
He made his way to the pilot's chair. Shit, what do I even do here? He thought. Stefan had never piloted a plane before. How in the hell was he supposed to guide them to safety? He didn't know, but he had to try. He started pushing buttons that he thought would maybe help, but it turned out they did the opposite. The airplane started shaking immensely and Stefan knew they were doomed. He looked below the plane and his worst fears came true. If they were crashing, they were going to be crashing into the ocean. How convenient, Stefan thought sarcastically.
The plane was starting to decrease in altitude and they were all in a panic. Stefan had to do something. No one else was taking the lead, so it looked like he was going to be the one giving orders. "Everyone get in a seat!" He shouted over the noises of the rumbling plane. "Buckle your seatbelt!" He shouted yet again. It was hard for some of them to get a seatbelt on with the extreme turbulence they were experiencing, but soon everyone had their seatbelt on.
"Everyone just hold on!" Stefan yelled. He too was nervous, but he also had the people that he loved to think about. Jeremy, Bonnie, and Katherine, the fragile humans he felt responsible for. Then Caroline, his best friend, the one person he could talk to about anything. Damon, his brother; They may have gone through hardships, but he still loved him. He didn't want to see anything happen to him.
And Elena. The love of his life. Stefan couldn't imagine a world without her. A world without her was like living without breathing. His breath quickened at the thought of losing her. He had to protect Elena. If anything were to happen to her, his whole world was lost to him.
The plane's shaking was becoming too radical and the oxygen masks popped out from above. Jeremy, Bonnie, and Katherine put them on. It was useless to the others, they were vampires; it didn't really matter if they could breathe or not.
All of the sudden they were spinning, no, the plane was spinning. The left wing was on fire until it abruptly broke off, along with the tail of the plane. They were rapidly declining in altitude and everything in the plane was being sucked out the back. If they weren't buckled in, they all would've been drawn out the back of the plane by now. They were plummeting to the deep, blue abyss of the ocean and there was nothing they could do about it.
Stefan looked back at Elena and he knew that this could be the last time he ever saw her face, so he had to say it now. He mouthed the words "I love you" to her. He knew she might not feel the same way, but she nodded tearfully and grabbed his hand. He then looked at Damon who looked like he was ready to embrace death as a welcomed friend. All things that Stefan ever did wrong to his brother ran through his mind at that moment. He wished he could have taken them back right then. He'd do anything to take them back. Lastly, he looked to Caroline. She was on the verge of tears, but dammit, she was still going to hold it together for everyone else. She gave him a small fearful smile and grabbed his free hand.
The plane staggered forward and the nose caught on fire. Everything shook with ferociousness and everything was ablaze. Damon finally took a look at his brother.
"Stefan, I'm sor-"
Then the water flooded in.