Being carefree was a very novel thing. Elena Gilbert hadn't felt it since the night before her parents had died. Feeling so at home she lay on Stefan's sofa in front of the fire place and just dozed. Stefan came into room and took in the sight. She was the love of his unusally long life, no doubt about it. He bent down and kissed her sleeping form. She stirred awake and reciprocated. When she giggled, he pulled away.
"I love you, Elena."
"I know," She replied. "I love you too."
Suddenly the room became icy. Elena could see her breath. Stefan's body stiffened and he noticed the fire begin to die. Elena could read him like a book. The switch had flicked to the 'worried' position. Carefree? What was carefree?
Damon's heart hurt. It had hurt for so long he was almost used to it. When something was trying to kill them his mind and body was occupied with keeping Elena safe. However at times like this he had nothing to focus on but his unreciprocated affections for his brother's lady.
The road ahead was empty and he pressed his foot a little harder on the accelerator. The sign for Mystic Falls drifted by and he re-entered the town that was as much a part of him as his own blood family. Wherever he was, he always seemed to wind up back up here. For better or worse.
The person in the middle of the road took him by surprise. Damon tried to stop, unsuccessfully. As the electronic dashboard clock flicked to midnight, his car swerved and hit the tree with enough force to knock him unconscious. The man in the road, still stood.
"Elena?" Stefan said. "Do you see that?"
His gaze was in front of the fireplace but Elena saw nothing but the fresh air. His eyes were wide with something between bewilderment and fear. As midnight chimed, Stefan crumpled to floor. Adrenaline shot into Elena's bloodstream. She yelled for the only other person she knew she could count on. Damon. It was an irrational call. She knew he wasn't in the house.
"Stefan, wake up!" She pleaded. "Stefan?"
Anybody else in an accident like Damon's would've ended up in intensive care. Vampirism had its perks, he was no more than dazed. The front of the car was crumpled around his legs. No amount of rapid healing on his part was going to change that. He was stuck. Going nowhere.
"Ah nuts!" he groaned.
The cause of the crash was still in the road. It was a sillouette but one could easily assume it was male. The man was slowly moving towards the wrecked car. Not walking but almost floating. It was such a serene yet painfully terrifying sight. Damon struggled against the bonds of the twisted metal to no avail. The being came closer. And closer. It stopped short of the car as if bracing itself for what was inside. Damon's blood turned to ice and the air around him turned bitingly cold. The warm scent in the air disappeared and the face of his father stared in at him through the car window.