Casting Shadows

Chapter 1 - Bonnie

Silas searched with his mind for Stefan in the water. He heard him struggling in the safe, his hands beating against the door, taking gasping water filled breaths, choking as he drowned, one last gulp left him as he died.

Silas smiled with satisfaction and entered Stefan's mind. As the magic held within his vampirism healed his body, it left his mind open to his influence.


Stefan was in the boarding house, standing in front of a window, bright light streaming inside, giving off a surreal feel to his surroundings. His gaze swept the familiar room, an off feeling in his chest, that something wasn't right.

He could taste the lingering saltiness of water.

His chest felt tight, as if it was pushed down with pressure.

A smirking figure appeared across from him, his own face looking back at him with malice.

"Wha-" The words strained to pass his lips.

"Your destiny is not what you think." Silas spoke, the smirk widening on his face, "She is not your destiny."

Water began to lap the edges of the room, murky water spilling from Stefan's mouth as he struggled to breathe, trying hard to understand Silas.

The dark was beckoning him back.

Just before the water consumed him he heard one last thing. One last whisper lost to the rush of water filling his lungs as he gasped awake.

"Caroline is..."


Silas blinked away the connection with Stefan's mind. He had planted a seed within Stefan's mind, a spark he would not understand but may come to know as he drowned over and over in punishment.

He fell in love with the wrong doppelganger.

A true crime to overlook one whom wore Amara's face. Her beautiful perfection millennium ahead of Elena's plainness.

For such a slight Stefan would spend forever drowning until somebody got a clue and rescued him.

Silas turned away from the quarry's edge, walked to the vehicle and drove off. He needed to gather his strength, to reach his full potential for the next part of his plan.

He needed to find the Anchor to the Other Side.


Three months later

Stefan struggled in the water, his hands banging uselessly against the door of the safe, bubbles escaping his mouth as he drowned for the hundredth time, each new death caused him to lose hope that anyone would be coming for him. That anyone even realized he was missing.

Damon; the brother he loved more than anything and had sacrificed everything for. Elena; the girl he had loved, the former love of his life, and current love of his brother. Caroline; his best friend, his sober sponsor, his personal ray of sunshine, his... something more.

Stefan would be lost to the water forever while Silas lived his life with the people he loved most. His eyes closed as the water consumed him once again.


Stefan imagined that he is standing at a window, bright light streaming inside, when Damon approaches him from behind, handing him a glass of bourbon.

Damon stared at Stefan's back, "Wish I could say it gets better."

Stefan continued to stare out the window, "The answer's 'no,' Damon."

"Why? So you can keep dying and coming back to life? You've felt nothing but sheer agony for three months." Damon voice was full of sympathy for the pain his brother was going through, "You hallucinate conversations with me to have something to do. Just turn off that pesky humanity switch."

Stefan shook his head, "Won't take the pain away."

"Yeah, but it'll turn off your misery. Your fear, your hopelessness." Damon responded.

"And then what, huh?" Stefan turned around to face Damon, his eyes red with the emotions he clung on to, "Let's just say that you actually notice that I'm gone, let's say I get out of this. What good is it if I'm a monster again? How is that better than any of this?"

Damon was silent for a moment, just staring into his brother's silently pleading gaze. He raised his hand to clasp Stefan's shoulder, "Just turn it off." His voice was soft, "Turn it off."

Stefan stared tearfully at Damon, searching his eyes before finally closing his and preparing to turn off his switch. His eyes snapped open as he felt soft hands cradle his cheeks, and he looked directly into the eyes of his best friend, "Caroline?"

"Don't do it, Stefan." Caroline stroked her thumbs against his skin, "You are so much stronger than you think."

A tear slipped down his cheek as he shook his head, "No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are." Caroline disagreed, her eyes shining as she pleaded with him, "Don't lose that part of you that cares, Stefan. Don't lose who you are."

Stefan raised his hands to clutch Caroline's against his face, his eyes over spilling with tears, his voice hoarse, "I don't think I can do this forever, Caroline."

"It won't be forever." Caroline's face brightened with determination and she vowed, "I will come for you, Stefan."

Despite feeling himself being pulled under by the water rapidly filling his lungs, he couldn't help but believe her. Whatever Caroline Forbes put her mind to she would succeed.

Stefan smiled.


Bonnie has the vaguest memory of when she crossed over. The memory fading the longer she was on the Other Side. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a faced she had seen everyday of her short life on the face of her best friend. Caroline.

She didn't know what it meant. How could somebody wearing her best friends face be on the Other Side? Elena was the doppelganger as far as she knew, but what else would explain what she saw. Two faces the same, every detail the exact, except there was something different about the other version of Caroline, she was in stone. Bonnie remembered, she was stone... like Silas had been when she and Jeremy found him.

She recalled the story that Shane had told them all so very long ago.

"...a very powerful witch, a witch so powerful in fact that Silas, that was his name, created a spell that would grant him immortality. Now legend says that Silas did the spell with the help of a lady witch who loved him, a woman named Qetsiyah. Sadly for Qetsiyah, Silas wanted to give immortality to another woman, so Qetsiyah killed her and buried Silas alive, leaving him powerless, immortal, and alone. This might actually be the origin story of "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn."

Silas wanted to give immortality to another woman who wasn't Qetsiyah; her own ancestor, and so she punished him by cursing him to spend eternity alone on a remote Island, starving and alone. Was it possible for the other woman that he loved to be an ancestor of Caroline's?

Thinking back on when she was hiding from Silas and trying to fool him, he had chosen Caroline to make her do what he wanted, not her own father, but her best friend. He had shown an unnatural obsession with Caroline, hunting her down and hurting her.

Her thoughts drifted off as she listened to her dad talk to the residents of Mystic Falls at the end of summer celebration. She couldn't help but smile, letting out a sad laugh, tears in her eyes as he talked about her. Then she became confused as Stefan walked on the stage.

It soon became obvious to Bonnie that it wasn't Stefan up there but Silas after he influenced her dad, "Oh my god!"

Silas spoke to the assembled crowd, then tested the strength of his physic powers by commanding them, "...Everyone stop talking."

The crowd fell silent.

"Well, that worked." Silas curled his lip, "Now let's try this: No one make a sound, or move a muscle."

The square was utterly still.

Bonnie looked around at the deathly quiet and unnaturally still crowd around her. She turned back to the stage to see Silas walk over to her father, pull out his knife and slit his throat.

Bonnie screamed in pure agony, clutching her stomach as she watched her dad fall to the floor of the stage. She ran to the stage and crouched over her father, sobbing as she watched him die, unable to see her as he took his last breath and found his peace without her. He was human, she was a witch, he would go straight to an afterlife that would never include her as being supernatural she was cursed to roam the Other Side for eternity.

"Well, now that I have your attention, I need a favor. I need you to find someone." Silas felt the strength of his powers flow through him as he influenced the crowd, "You all know Elena Gilbert. Well, the girl I'm looking for looks exactly like her."

Bonnie realized something as she sobbed over the body of her murdered father. She was dead, and therefore Silas' mind tricks couldn't work on her, he couldn't show her any face bit his own true one.

Silas' true likeness was Stefan, not the face of a monster he had shown her. She thought she was stronger than him, that she could no longer be influenced by him, and that she was the only person beside Qetsiyah that knew his face. She cried harder, Silas had never stopped manipulating her, Qetsiyah hadn't disfigured him, he was just another doppelganger.

Oh God, Stefan and Caroline... They were the doppelgangers of Silas and the woman he loved.

Bonnie knew instantly that her earlier thoughts were correct. The woman in stone was the perfect copy of her best friend. A hysterical laugh built up in her chest, the death of her father while she stood powerless to do anything throwing her sanity to the wind as her world crumbled again, a single thought in her mind, trying to distract her from the devastation lurking just underneath.

Are any of my friends not doppelgangers?


Stefan was hallucinating that he was lying on a blanket near the quarry with Caroline.

"We could be doing anything right now, Stefan. Be anywhere. Why here? Why this?" Caroline rolled on her side, her head cradled in her hand as she looked at Stefan.

Stefan turned his head to gaze at Caroline, "These are the good moments... the simple ones, the ones that matter. These are the moments that keep me from falling apart."

Caroline smiled, reaching out with her other hand to stroke her fingers along Stefan's cheek. She shuffled closer, her head now resting against his, their eyes locked in a heated stare. She caressed his cheek and whispered, "I won't let you lose yourself."

"I know." Stefan smiled, before curling his hand in Caroline's hair, tilting his head up he pulled her in so that their lips met in a soft kiss. He moaned quietly to himself at the feel of her against him, this felt right, and perfect, and god... why had they never done this before?

Caroline pulled back after several passionate minutes, "This can't last forever." Her eyes were wide and full of sympathy, "You're just distracting yourself."

Stefan's face became stricken as watched Caroline clutch her throat as she began choking and coughing up water. Tears filled his eyes as saw her in pain, his heart ripping apart in his chest, his own breathing becoming labored as he felt the water fill his own lungs as he started drowning again.


Silas whistled happily as he drove to Whitmore for a little distraction. Killing the mayor may have been unnecessary but it was fun. The look of panics on the sea of people was highly amusing, and after just one word from him he got them all to stop talking and just watch as he killed the mayor right in front of them. An added bonus was that the mayor was the father of the little witch who'd tried to turn him to stone before she so obviously died and the spell broke.

He parked his car, and made his way to the dorm of his love's shadow self. He had not seen her in three months, a self imposed exile as he gathered his strength for what was to come, and he couldn't have the distraction that her lovely face would cause.

Silas knocked on the door and waited for one of the two doppelgangers in residence to answer it. To his utter joy, Caroline herself opened the door.

Caroline's eyes widened in surprise that Stefan was at her door. She had not seen or heard from her best friend in months as he tried to heal his broken heart in Portland. A luminous grin took over her features and she pulled Stefan into a bone crunching hug, "I've missed you so much!"

Silas let a grin cover his face as he buried his face in Caroline's hair, breathing in her delicious scent, wrapping his own arms tightly around her waist. He skimmed her thoughts, seeing only genuine happiness at Stefan's supposed return, and a need for her best friend. Silas was more than happy to fill that requirement before Damon, or Elena, or one of the other idiots from Mystic Falls tells Caroline that he was back. For now, he would just enjoy being the cause of her happiness.

Caroline released Stefan from her bruising hug with a blush, her grin still wide on her face, she took hold of his hand and led him over to her bed. Sitting next to one another she started on her questions, "How was Portland? Did you have a summer fling?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively before hitting his stomach, "Why didn't you call me?"

Silas just smiled at Caroline, her joy and happiness at seeing him; well seeing Stefan, made his heart skip a beat. Amara always had the most prettiest smile he'd ever seen, and Caroline's proved just as breathtaking. Without thinking, he ran his hand down her arm to slide his fingers through hers, "You are entirely too precious, Caroline."

An immediate blush covered Caroline's cheeks, her eyelashes fluttering, and she swallowed. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Stefan, he had a serene smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye.

Silas knew this was the last time he would be able to just talk to Caroline, as tomorrow she would know what he'd done and who he was, and he knew she would never look at him with unbridled trust and happiness again. It would be his only chance.

"Stefan...?" Caroline's voice trembled at the look in Stefan's eyes; it was hunger, determination, with a hint of sadness. What was he thinking?

Silas didn't want to do it like this but he knew she would never let him otherwise, "Be still."

Caroline's eyes widened as her body obeyed his command. Oh my god that meant that this was Silas in front of her and not Stefan.

Silas cupped the back of her neck, his eyes moving between her lips and her eyes, licking his lips in anticipation of tasting her, "You are just as beautiful as the woman I've loved for the last two thousand years. You have the same spark as her." He ducked his head down, a smirk curling his lips, "You share the same face. Is it any wonder that I've managed to fall in love with you?" He nuzzled his nose against hers, teasing himself with her close proximity, "I'll still love her, of course I do, I will never not love her, and will continue to make sure we spend our afterlife together when I die. But..." He looked deeply into Caroline's eyes and whispered huskily, "I just need one taste of you."

Caroline could only stare, her heart thumping widely as Silas bridged the gap between their mouths and kissed her deeply. A rush of something spread through her veins, not a fire but an ember, unbelievably feeling almost right, even though this was Silas.

Silas curled his hand into her hair, moaning deep in his chest as her taste filled him. She was perfect in his arms, her body pressed against his as he thoroughly loved her mouth. If this was the only time he could kiss Caroline than he would take it for all it was worth. He nipped at her lips as his other hand ran up and down her back.

Caroline stared up at Silas, her breathing heavy, her chest moving rapidly. She was utterly speechless at how great that kiss was, and disgusted that some part of her – okay, a rather large part of her – had enjoyed it.

Silas smiled lovingly into her confused blue eyes, his hand moving from the back of her neck to cradle her jaw, his thumb brushing against her soft skin as he influenced her one more time, "You will go to sleep and all of this will feel like a dream. I will feel like a dream."

Caroline's eyes felt heavy, her eyelids fluttering, her body became slack before she fell into Silas' waiting embrace. Fast asleep.

Silas cradled her gently in his arms, breathing her in for the last time before laying her down on her bed and covering her with a blanket. He ran his fingers through her hair, smiling at her as he brushed his mouth against hers again, "I love you."

Silas gazed at her, stroking the back of his hand across her cheek, before abruptly moving away from her and leaving the dorm, and Caroline, behind him.

Goodbye, Caroline...

TBC

AN – Sorry this took longer to get out than I would have liked. I kinda got carried away writing a few other fics – haha! Hope you enjoyed it!