Prologue

SPOV

Trust... That's all we had. We had our family and friends, but we trusted them. Klaus didn't have that. We all had done horrible things, but we trusted those in our lives. It was the only thing that separated us. It was the only thing that made us better than him.

"Yeah, you're right Stefan…" Caroline paused awkwardly. "Have you heard from Damon?"

"Yeah, he's still with Jeremy at the lake house," I answered her, but the suspicion was already there. Only a small pinch, but yet it was there. And it was the next question she asked that made that pinch grow into a full blow.

"Did he happen to mention where Elena was?" Caroline asked carefully.

There was an unnecessary pause. As if I was processing what she just said. I didn't need to yet I still continued as if I didn't know… Because I didn't want to know.

"Wait, why are you—why are you asking me this?" I wasn't going to let my mind find a firm grasp on anything until she confirmed it, but the look she gave me said it all. She knew I should know, "They're together. Aren't they?"

This time the look she gave me was slowly moving on to pity, "How together are they?" I asked unsure I really wanted to know the answer, yet I was sure I already did. I just didn't want to believe it. I couldn't believe because then everything was lost, and I didn't want to go back to that place. The place where there was no hope.

"Caroline, tell me. How together are they?" I asked her one more time. And that look, the one that was slowly moving to pity, it was there in full force. She was sorry when she didn't need to be. She did nothing wrong.

I did. I trusted. I trusted my family, or rather Damon to do the right thing. I trusted my heart and love to lead me in the right direction. And I trusted Elena with the decision she made to love me and be with me over anyone else to be enough to survive anything the sire bond would hold on her. And in just that short amount of time… I lost all the trust I ever knew.

I wasn't sure how it started. I was standing by the table and the next thing I knew the table was flying across the room at my hands. I couldn't say I blacked out, but I knew the pain was taking over.

Pain. Anger. Hurt. Rage. It was all tearing me apart.

A part of me could hear Caroline screaming at me in the background to stop. But I couldn't. That would mean it was all real. All the things I was feeling were real. I couldn't let that be true so I kept going.

After the table, I turned to the bookshelves. I tore them apart. Everyone book in our family room was on the floor. Many of them shredded in the process of ridding them from their place. I felt like mere seconds, but it could have been hours as I took the room apart piece by piece. It was toward the end that I once again heard Caroline's voice pleading with me to stop.

And I did stop. I stopped tearing things to pieces. I stopped destroying the room as I went. I stopped smashing everything that my hands touched. I stopped moving. I stopped breathing. I stopped.

I stopped everything.

"Stefan?" Caroline's voice only barely broke into my mind as I shut everything down...

Everything…