"Elena?" Damon whispered, not believing what he was seeing. When she continued to gasp, clearly not dead, he scrambled over to her side. "Elena!"

Her eyes flew up to him. "Damon…?" she whimpered, trembling.

"Oh, my God…!" he gasped, grabbing her and pulling her into his arms and clinging to her tightly.

"What… what happened…?"

"You drowned! You were dead…!" he trailed off, his eyes widening as he pulled away to look at her. "Oh, my God…"

Elena, who was clutching his arms in a frenzy of shock and confusion, frowned. "What? What's wrong…?"

"Elena," Damon said slowly. "You died. You were dead for over ten minutes… what happened? What exactly happened to you?"

Elena looked down, thinking. "The party was just too much. I hardly knew anyone, and it was so loud… I went outside to get some air before Caroline forced me to blow out my candles… and Stefan was there. He said that he was back… and that Klaus was gone. But he… he lied. He brought me…" Elena looked around. "He brought me here. God, I was so stupid; I forgot to take vervain last night, and he knew… he grabbed my necklace and threw it, and then compelled me to stand still while he…" Elena looked horrified as she cringed away from Damon a bit. "He compelled me to stand still while he chained weights to me, and the he dragged me to the pool room… which was when you called." She looked up at him, tears filling her eyes. "Oh, Damon, I was so scared… I didn't think he would ever do anything to hurt me… but he heard you come in and… and…!"

Elena was gasping for breath, tears pouring down her cheeks as she sobbed.

"Elena," Damon said in a soothing tone, taking her chin in his hand gently, "Just take a deep breath, okay? Come on…"

He brushed hair out of her eyes and she grew even more hysterical as she screamed, "He threw me into the pool!"

Damon cringed at her shriek, and then she broke down, sobbing heavily into his already wet shirt. "Where were you? What happened…?"

"He wouldn't tell me where you were… Elena, he did it to get even at me for tracking him and Klaus. He knew hurting you would hurt me…"

"But he loves me! Stefan loves me! Why would he try to kill me just to hurt you…?"

"Elena… he did kill you."

She jerked away, narrowing her eyes. "What…?"

"You were dead. When I finally found you, I jumped into that pool and pulled you out. I spent a good ten minutes giving you CPR and that bastard just laughed at me." Damon looked down miserably. "You were dead before I even found you."

"I'm not dead! I'm alive right now…!"

Damon didn't reply. He knew there was only one logical answer for Elena sitting in front of him right now, alive; she wasn't. Obviously, Stefan hadn't been as much of a macho ripper as he had let on, and couldn't let Elena just die. Instead, he took her choice away… and turned her into a vampire.

"Elena… did anything else happen to you before Stefan threw you in that pool?"

Elena blinked as she thought, and then her eyes widened as a seemingly clouded memory seemed to return to her. "He fed me blood." She whispered in shock. "He fed me his blood!"

Damon's face fell as his worst fear was confirmed.

"No!" Elena screamed in a horrified high pitch. "No; no, he wouldn't do this to me! He would never do this! I'm not turning into a vampire! I'm not…!"

"Elena…" Damon whispered, feeling helpless.

"I can't turn! I don't want to turn…! No! No, no, no…!"

Her screams trailed off into sobs of denial as she slumped forward miserably, shaking her head.

Damon moved toward her, afraid to touch her. "Elena…?"

She looked up at him, her brown wide doe-eyes filled with tears and misery, and whispered, "I don't want to be a vampire."

"I know, Elena…" Damon said quietly, reaching out a cautious hand to touch her shoulder.

Of course, she flinched away, looking angry. "No, you don't! You tried to take my choice away before, too! You didn't care anymore than he did if I wanted it! Neither of you ever respect my decisions!"

She was glaring at him as she shakily got to her feet. "I hate you. I hate both of you!"

"Elena," Damon said as she stood and his voice broke. "Elena!"

He called after her as she ran out the door and tore out of the school, sobbing.

He moaned, squeezing his eyes shut. He should have killed himself. He should have just killed himself…

Could this night get any worse?

Of course it could, he thought, looking at his brother's body, Elena could have seen that.