As Elena fought against the restraining hands that were trying to force her in the car she brought her head in sharp contact with the car door, paralyzed for a moment, she fought the nausea that rose up. Tried to call out for Bonnie to run, get away. Then everything went fuzzy, Elena knew she was losing consciousness. She fought against it, but she still fell silently into the dark. When she woke up the air in the car was thick with the smell of sweat and beer. She tried to twist around and sit up, but a sharp slap sent her back down. Changing strategy Elena lay quietly trying to listen to determine where she was, she could not smell the perfume Bonnie was wearing, that was good, it must mean that she got away, Help would come soon. She just had to hold on till then. Although it was so dark that she could only see the faintest hint of a silhouette where her captor was, she shut her eyes. Somehow it seemed as if by doing so she could shut out the night and the fear that was screaming in her brain.
"Is she still out?" A voice, rough and slurred asked.
"Naw, she's just playing possum, aren't you?" Elena got a vicious dig in the ribs from her captor sitting beside her. She bit down hard on her lip but refused to give him the satisfaction of responding.
"Good, because we are here, haul her out." The vehicle shuddered and jolted to an erratic halt under the inebriated driving.
After some creative curse words aimed at the driver, the men stumbled out of the vehicle. There were four, maybe five? She must be in a SUV then, then the side door was flung open and rough hands grabbed her feet.
Elena struggled as she was forcefully pulled out of the van. She tried to twist and kick, she thought this would be a good time as any to escape; they were very drunk, Elena only wished that it would work in her favor. Looking around as she fought, Elena took stock of her location, she seemed to be in a abandoned area with warehouses on either side, there was nothing like this she knew of in Fell's Church. Where was she? How long had she been out? Before she could gather more information she was kicked behind the knees and went down hard, smacking her chin on the pavement. She landed in a puddle of dirty, sticky, filth; it had a harsh chemical smell, like oil or tar.
One of the men spoke,
"Hey, we were just out for fun, I don' wanna get in trouble, let her go if she does not wanna party. Party pooper." His slurring words were met with laughter from his friends.
'I me'n it, I out of here." The bravado of his words was somewhat lessened by the fact he was violently sick right after.
Elena raised her head slightly and saw him stumble to the ground, passed out.
She had a desperate hope in the back of her mind that the others would be influenced by their companion's words. But it was a vain hope, there was but one thing on their mind right now…
Then someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up, she screamed as her arm popped. She felt someone wrapping cord around her hands. She struggled, but was too well secured, again she got another blow behind the knees, but this time they did not let her fall. She cried out in pain again as her weight fell on her arms and shoulders. They found a rag from somewhere and stuffed it in her mouth; it had a horrible, chemical, greasy taste to it. It was hard to breathe.
One of the men made crude comments about her appearance, she shuddered, revolted as she saw him reaching for his zipper in anticipation, he moved it up and down, his eyes tiny and mean, she felt frozen with fear, much as a mouse might freeze under the lethal gaze of a snake.
"That is strange, I never felt this terror around Damon, and he could do far more than these drunken louts." Elena thought randomly, her heart hammering so hard it was almost painful.
Then came the nightmare, as she was held closely one of the men pulled out his pocket knife, he grinned savagely at her and took a step closer. Her eyes went wide with terror and she started to tremble. In a quick motion he sliced through her shirt. He gave a growl of impatience when he saw she had a tank under it, this time Elena fought as the knife approached, fought as hard as she could, not caring that her lungs were burning for more air, not caring that there was a knife blade so close to her flesh, at the time she did not feel the gashes she was receiving from the blade for her trouble. She continued the struggle as her jeans and bra were slashed off, but was beginning to feel the burning cuts from the blade. Bile rose to her throat, burning and bitter, she coughed and gagged, gasping for air but the rag prevented her from drawing enough oxygen into her lungs.
She tried to scream, but only muffled squeaks came out."This cannot be happening this cannot be happening" she chanted to herself.
"Stefan, where are you, please, please, please, Stefan, I need you.
Oh God, this can't be happening! Where is Bonnie? Where is help?
No,no,no,no, I must get away, I have got to get out of here. I am not a victim, I am a fighter, and I will not let this happen to me!
Oh, God, what am I to do?"
Then she was thrown down, her head smacking the pavement with a hollow thud.
Her last thought was a plea to Stefan to save her.
There was music playing somewhere, languid music that seemed almost to be stretching to infinity. Then there was the cheerful chanting of children"Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!"Then the laughter changed to the lecherous sneers that she must escape from.
She looked about her, it was dark. But somehow she knew that she must be very careful, she was on a tightrope and death was waiting for her if she took a false step. Holding her breath she took the first wavering step, as she did so the horrible truth dawned on her, there was not beginning or end to the tightrope, it was suspended in the sky with no anchor.
This was her eternity, the children started to shriek and laugh in glee, "We ALL fall down. We all fall DOWN!" She wanted to scream at them to hush, did they not see how important it was that she concentrate?
She looked about desperately for help, but whenever she caught a glimpse of someone, suddenly they vanished into a pile of ash and the wind blew them away. Elena wept.