Author's Note: It has been 3 years since I have updated this story but here we are. I might just give this another attempt.
1864
When Elena regained consciousness, she found herself to be looking at an open blue sky. She was surrounded by trees, completely alone and very disoriented. Her surroundings were quite beautiful, it was a cloudless day, the trees were swaying lazily in the breeze and the ground was littered in white flowers peeking out of the dirt. As Elena stood up and brushed herself off, she realized that she had no idea how long she had been unconscious. It could have been minutes, days or years, she couldn't differentiate. But more concerning was that she was in a forest that was completely unfamiliar to her. With a shudder, she recalled the last moments of her memory, and the incredible pain she had felt. She didn't feel it now, which was a relief, but what had caused it? Elena felt uneasy. Then, a thought struck her. Her phone! She could call Bonnie or Caroline and they would take her home. She yanked it from her pocket and went to make a call, but the phone did not respond to her touch. The screen remained blank and it appeared to be dead. Well, her next best bet was finding a human with a phone. Elena sniffed the air, but no humans were close enough for her to smell them. While pondering which direction to head next, a sudden noise interrupted her thoughts.
"BANG!" It was the sound of a gunshot.
In reflex, Elena ducked. Of course, she needn't have worried, the sound of the bullet had come from a faraway location and with her vampire power of healing; a bullet was no concern. Instead she decided to find the source of the bullet, so she headed east in the direction of the noise. Though she had one small problem. It was that Elena did not have any shoes, as she hadn't been wearing inside the dorm. Elena frowned. Her feet would suffer for this, but she had no choice. She started her walk over fallen branches and rocks. As Elena got closer, she began to hear the sound of men laughing in the distance and again
"BANG!"
Elena then saw a small stream in front of her, clear blue. Rather than taking a detour, Elena walked directly through it. She was close now. She could hear the men more clearly. "Good shot Mr. Lockwood. That's two pheasants in a row! You will have quite the feast by the end of the afternoon." The men chortled. "Well, Mr. Salvatore I expect you've shot almost as much as I" the other voice replied. Mr. Salvatore? That was an interesting coincidence, Elena thought to herself.
"BANG!" yet another shot had been taken.
At this point, Elena was just on the fringe of a clearing where the men appeared to be. She peaked out beneath the cover of the trees and was quite surprised with what she saw. Though the men were not facing her direction, she could see that their outfits were quite strange. There were about six men, and they were all wearing long coats and long pants. This was odd attire for hunting, didn't people usually wear camo? Elena thought. Perhaps she had intruded on some kind of recreation of history. Those were quite popular events in the south. Elena's parents had even taken her to some when she was younger. She walked out of the cover of green and into the open clearing.
"Excuse me" she called to the men. "I was wondering if someone could help me."
The group of men turned around to the scandalous sight of a young girl barefoot and in trousers, and the shock they felt was apparent on their faces. However, their shock was no match for Elena's when she saw the face of one of the young men standing towards the front of the group.
"Is that really you?" she asked incredulously to the man that stood before her with pale skin, blue eyes and raven black hair which appeared slightly curled at the edges.
He looked her with incredulity, but there was no recognition upon his face. It was all too much for Elena in that moment, the strangeness of her situation was more than she could comprehend. Without understanding, she collapsed in a heap at the feet of what appeared to be the doppelganger of the love of her life: Damon Salvatore.
Present day
It was around 1:00 am by the time Damon reached Elena's dorm room. It was his second time there, the first being when he had dropped his girl off and helped her move into her room. That seemed like long ago now, but her beautiful, excited smile was still vivid in his mind. He knocked loudly on the door and then attempted to twist the door handle open, but it was locked. Within seconds though, the door had opened to reveal Caroline Forbes who had an expression of panic upon her soft features.
"Where is she?" Damon demanded.
This caused Caroline to burst into tears and it was a minute before she could speak.
"We don't exactly…know where Elena is. Bonnie is trying a locator spell right now though."
She edged back to allow Damon room to enter. His eyes immediately swept the room. Nothing seemed too out of place, other than Bonnie who was huddled in the corner attempting to find Elena with her spell.
"What the hell happened?" Damon asked furiously.
"I don't know exactly," Caroline replied through her tears. "Bonnie was trying to show us the past and Elena's phone went off and a few seconds later she just…disappeared. I have never seen anything like it."
Damon's mind was racing, it was incredibly stupid to use magic for games like this, and Damon was angry. But most all, Damon was scared. In fact, he was terrified. Elena was his life, and he loved her more than anything. Suddenly, Bonnie stood up.
"She's gone" she told them, her voice hollow.
Damon vision turned red, and he sped over to where Bonnie stood and grabbed her.
"What have you done, little witch?" he said in a low and menacing tone.
It took less than a second for Caroline to get between them and to stand in front of Bonnie protectively.
"This is not Bonnie's fault. If anything, you're the one who called her during the spell! And, you're the shitty boyfriend that never even came to visit his girlfriend, "Caroline added.
"Guys! Shut up!" Bonnie said, raising her voice. "Elena is not dead, but she does need our help."
"Where the hell is she?" Damon repeated. "I'll go get her now."
Bonnie sighed, and looked between the Caroline and Damon.
"It's not that simple Damon-"
"What's the problem? Did you accidentally send her all the way to Australia?" Damon said sarcastically.
Caroline, who been staring at the wall lost in thought, suddenly turned to look at her friends.
"Because" she started slowly as began to understand. "It's not a place exactly, it's a time." She looked to Bonnie for confirmation.
Bonnie appeared pained as she spoke, "Elena is no longer in the 21st century Damon. She's in the year 1864."
