A/N: I'm baaack! Thank you guys so much for reviewing, they seriously made my day. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I'm a huge procrastinator.

I won't do this all the time, but I really only listened to a couple songs while writing this (minus some certain parts) so I thought I'd recommend them. This - by Ed Sheeran and We Don't Eat - by James Vincent McMorrow. They really helped me write some of the more emotional parts.

Also, this story is unbeta'd, so sorry for any mistakes!

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy! Feel free to leave me a review telling me what you would like to see in the next chapter - I could always use some inspiration. :)

Darkness. Everywhere. The plunging abyss of the deep blue ocean left barely any light to be seen.

Debris from the plane was swirling everywhere. A few lights from the plane were flickering on and off. Stefan awoke and tried to take a breath, but it was no use.

The whole plane was flooded with water.

He quickly looked around to see if he could find anybody. Elena was behind him, still strapped into her seat beside Caroline. They were both unconscious. Now he was in a panic. Stefan wanted to get Elena out of there immediately, but he knew she would want him to get Jeremy and Bonnie to safety first. He also had Katherine to worry about.

He abruptly undid his seat belt and swam around the cabin of the plane looking for the others. There was just one problem. They weren't there. Okay. Stay calm, Stefan thought. Maybe they got out.

For then, there was nothing he could do about them. He shifted his worry back to Elena and Caroline, the thought of his brother drifting through his mind. Damon hadn't been seen either. He probably got out too, he's capable of taking care of himself, Stefan thought. There was a lingering doubt in the back of his mind though. He pushed the thought aside and focused on getting Elena and Caroline out of their seats.

He undid Caroline's seat belt, grabbed her hand and moved over to Elena. The latch on her belt was jammed, so he tugged on it and it came undone. Elena woke with a jolt, frantically looking around. She saw Stefan and started to panic.

Stefan placed his hand on her cheek, giving her a short nod. His emerald eyes told her that everything was going to be okay. That she was safe now that he was there. Elena sank into the feeling of his hand resting gently on her face, something she hadn't felt in a long time. She nodded back. She was ready to get out of this death trap of a plane.

Gripping on tight to Caroline and Elena's hands, Stefan searched for a way out of the plane. For a few seconds he lost hope until he saw Elena pointing to the side door that was no longer attached to the plane. He quickly swam out the door and into the open ocean. He was about 200 meters away from the surface.

It's not that he needed to breathe to survive, but Stefan was starting to have flashbacks to when he was locked in the safe deep in the quarry. He had just gotten over his PTSD; he definitely did not want that resurfacing. Starting to panic, he looked over at Elena and saw that she was watching him with certain worry, something he hadn't seen her direct at him in a while. With her looking at him like that, he knew he could overpower anything in that moment. Keeping that thought at the forefront of his mind, he swam as fast as he could to the top making sure Elena and Caroline were close to him.

Breaking through the surface of water, he took a gulp of fresh air. The air was warm around him and so was the water. They had to be somewhere tropical; the plane couldn't have gone that much off course from Australia.

"Elena? Are you okay?" He said, needing to know if she had been hurt.

"I'm fine, but Caroline hasn't woken up," she said. "Why hasn't she woken up yet, Stefan? And where's Jeremy and Bonnie? Stefan, what if they're hurt? Or worse?!" Elena sounded like she was about to break down. It was understandable. After all, they just went through a plane crash.

Stefan pulled her close to him looked her in the eyes. "Elena, I need you to look at me, okay? Just focus on my eyes," he said. "We will find Jeremy and Bonnie. Caroline will wake up. Everything will be okay, Elena. I promise you, everything will be okay," he breathed out. She was calming down, her breath slowing as she focused on him.

They hadn't looked at each other like that in a long time. That look that made them seem like they were the only two in the world. That look that said nothing else mattered as long as they had each other. That look that made them feel safe.

Elena broke their stare to take in their surroundings. When they'd first came up she'd seen nothing, but the open ocean. Now, she spotted an island in the distance. She could've sworn that wasn't there before.

"Stefan… did you see that island before?"

"No, I didn't. We were distracted though, it was probably there the whole time," he said with an amount of uncertainty in his voice. "Let's get to the shore and then we'll figure everything out, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Elena said. She was still suspicious though.

They underestimated the distance to the shore. It was about an hour swim and that wouldn't have been a problem with them being vampires and all, but they had to carry Caroline the whole time. Needless to say, by the time they got close to the shore they were out of breath and it was dusk.

There were about ten yards from the shore standing in the shallow water when Stefan saw something move out of the corner of his eye.

"Elena, did you see that?" Stefan asked.

Moving closer to the shore, they heard something rustling around in the trees. They just didn't know where it was coming from.

"What is that?" Elena asked.

Farther into the jungle they could see palm trees falling, almost as if they were being forced down by something. Then a loud crash came, sounding like the bursting of a million lightbulbs. More and more trees started falling down around them, rapidly growing in quantity.

"Stefan, what is that?!" Elena shrieked.

All Stefan could do was stand there, shocked and scared at what he was seeing. When it finally registered to him that the sound was coming closer to them, he picked up Caroline and grabbed Elena's hand and started leading them away from the sound.

Then came another sound. This one was much more terrifying than the last. It sounded like the rattling of a snake mixed with the grinding cogs of a machine running. That was added with the snarl and low pitched groan of something more frightening than death itself.

All of the sudden, it stopped.

They stopped running, now that they were on the beach.

"Stefan, what the hell was that?" Elena said, her breath slowing down.

Stefan gently put Caroline down in the sand and sat down on a nearby log, remaining silent. He was still processing what just happened. His mind was racing with all the different possibilities of where or what that noise could have came from. He had thought that this was just an island, a simple island. An island that was safe for them to stay on while they waited to be rescued. He had never been more wrong. What were they going to do? They had nowhere else to go. There was no boat or plane or anything that could get them off the island. How were they going to survive as vampires with no blood around? There was no way Stefan or Elena was going to let anyone feed off Jeremy, Bonnie, or Katherine, if they even found them. Stefan's breath started to race as he thought of the inevitable doom they were headed towards.

Elena noticed he was starting to panic.

"Stefan? Stefan, what's wrong?" She said, her voice full of concern.

His head jerked straight up to look at her, making her jump a little in surprise.

"Elena, what are we going to do? How are we going to get off this island? How are we going to survive? There's no refrigerator full of blood bags for us to go to anytime we want. There's not humans around for us to even think about taking blood from. And I'm pretty damn sure we can't go into the jungle because whatever that thing is that just made that noise out there, does not sound friendly! Elena, what are we going to do? How are we-"

His cracking voice was cut off by the feeling of soft hands being placed on either side of his face. Elena moved his face towards her so he could look her in the eye.

"We'll be alright, Stefan. I know we will. We have to be," she said, cradling his head into her neck, running her fingers through his hair. That's what she always did to calm him down when they were together.

They sat there for quite a long time, embracing. It was an unusual experience for Elena. Stefan was usually the strong one. He was the one who always had everything figured out. The one who was there while others broke down in front of him. Never had Elena imagined that they would be in this situation, let alone her being the one to comfort him.

After awhile, Stefan stood up, wiping his tear stained eyes on his shirt.

"I'm going to go, um," he sniffed. "Find firewood. We're going to need it."

Elena stared at him kindly for a second before responding. "Okay. You know where to find me," she said with a small smile.

He started walking down the beach. He had to get away. He needed time to think to himself. What had just happened between him and Elena? They didn't normally do things like that. But then again, this wasn't a normal situation. He supposed he could have blamed it on the crash, but where would that have gotten him. Nowhere.

How could he have broken down in front of her like that? He was always the one to be strong in times of stress like this. He could only count on one hand the amount of times he had let Elena see him like that. Broken and small and vulnerable.

The thought of everything had became too overwhelming for him. The thought of dying after all this time of being alive. The thought of being trapped on this island. The thought of never seeing his brother again. It was too much. He didn't think he would have been able to handle it all.

But Elena was there. With her gentle hands and reassuring whispers, calming him down and bringing him back to reality. Her hands running through his hair, promising him there would be a tomorrow. She gave him hope when he thought there was none. She was there for him, physically and emotionally. She made him feel safe and loved, two things he thought he would never feel again.

All those thoughts running through his mind caused him to be oblivious to the ominous presence lurking behind him in the forest.

Fortunately enough, he was already on his way back to Elena.

A gasp came from below Elena. Caroline shot up and started coughing.

"Caroline! Are you okay?" Elena frantically asked.

"What happened? Where am I?" She questioned, moving her head back and forth trying to take in her surroundings.

Elena quickly tried to think of how to word what happened. She didn't want to put Caroline in too much shock seeing as she had only just woken up.

"Caroline… the plane crashed. We're on this island now and the others disappeared somewhere. I- I don't know where we are," Elena said gently.

"Oh my god…" Caroline seemed to be completely void of any reaction yet, she was just staring down at the sand. She looked completely pale.

At that point Stefan was just returning.

"Hey, I brought-," Stefan stopped short and dropped his firewood when he saw Caroline awake. He ran to her side.

"Caroline! Are you alright?" He said, pushing her hair from her face.

"No, I'm not. Guys… I remember what happened, before I passed out." Her face was empty of any color now and her breath started to quicken. "The others… Jeremy, Bonnie, and Katherine… they got… they got sucked out of the plane."

"What? What do you mean sucked out of the plane? What do you mean, Caroline?!" Elena asked, panic seeping into her voice. Tears started to trickle down her face.

"I don't know what it was. It came out of the dark…" She said with a shaky voice. "It was darkness itself. It grabbed them and pulled them out of the plane." Caroline's voice was trembling now. "Damon wasn't grabbed, but after they were taken he swam out of the plane to go after them… I don't know what happened to him."

Stefan stood up and looked down at them.

"We need to find them. Now."

It was dusk outside when they started their journey into the jungle. Stefan made a fire before they went in so they could all have a torch to light the way. All of them had their reservations about going into the jungle at night, but they decided their friends were more important than any fear they had.

Of course, after Stefan told Caroline about the noise they heard earlier, she hesitated even more. Ultimately, she decided that her fear didn't matter. She was a strong vampire, there was no way she was going to be afraid of some silly noise in the jungle. She was definitely not afraid, no way.

It was silent up until about thirty minutes into their hike. Who other than Caroline to break the silence?

"So like, what happened while I was passed out? You know, besides the creepy monster noise in the jungle, anything interesting?" She asked.

Stefan looked to Elena nervously. He was pleading with his eyes for her not to tell Caroline about his mental breakdown. Caroline would just start worrying about him and he didn't want to burden his best friend with his problems. They all had enough problems as it was.

"No, not really. We were just waiting for you to wake up," Elena said. She turned to give Stefan a smile. He mouthed a thank you at her.

"Oh, sorry I kept you waiting. You know I really don't know why I passed out like that. I mean I'm a vampire for god's sake. Maybe I hit my head when the plane went down? Or maybe it was just the stress? I heard that high stress situations can make you pass out. Even if you're a vampire. Okay, it didn't exactly say if you're a vampire, that would've been weird. But I'm just assuming. Why else would I have-,"

Caroline's rambling was cut off by a piercing scream.

They all turned their head sharply to where the scream came from. The beach.

"Bonnie!" Caroline and Elena shouted simultaneously.

Using their vampire speed, they ran back to the beach as fast as they could. When they got back, there was a problem.

There was no one there.

"No! I heard Bonnie scream, I know it was her!" Elena shouted. She started to run down the shore, past a wall made of huge boulders. Caroline and Stefan followed her, knowing she wasn't making any of it up.

When Stefan and Caroline got around the boulders they saw Elena. They also saw Jeremy and Bonnie. Katherine was nowhere to be seen.

They were all standing around something. Caroline walked up to them to see what it was all about. Stefan saw her gasp and close her hand over her mouth.

When Stefan walked a little closer he could see what they were huddled around.

A body.

He took another step closer and then he saw it. He fell to the ground, his knees hitting hard rock.

Damon was lying in front of him, his face shriveled and grey with a stake in his heart.

The noise from the jungle came once again, this time louder and even more shrill, telling them that the island was not what it seemed to be at all.