Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC.

Chapter Four

Damon opened the door to his and Stefan's dynasty. It moaned open and Damon's loud footsteps echoed through the timber walls. Stefan followed with light footsteps whilst Alice made no footsteps, only the look of awe as she stepped inside. Damon had agreed to help Stefan search for answers, because Damon had a question that needed to be answered too.

Pouring himself a glass of Bourbon, Damon then led his visitors up to his chamber. He set his glass down on a nearby table before rummaging through a box from beneath his bed. On the other hand, Stefan noticed a familiar bra lying on the covers of his brother's bed. A bra that belonged to Elena's. Stefan bit into the inside of his lip, urging himself not to say anything.

"Ah." Damon said, pushing the unwanted files of paper back into the box. Stefan inched closer to check out what his brother had found, whilst Alice's curiosity sent her into Stefan's room.

"What is it?" Stefan said.

The older Salvatore presented a picture similar to the one Stefan had of Katherine from 1864, except this one was different. The younger Salvatore took it from his brother's grasp and glared at it with astonishment.

Alisa Romanova 1886

Stefan stared at it with a blank expression. The girl in the picture had almond shaped eyes, elevated cheekbones and Alice's archetypal slim nose. Actually, it was Alice. Stefan's mind replayed his recent dreams and all of a sudden he started to remember her. He remembered the softness of her skin, the loudness of her laugh. He even remembered how happy he felt. The warm feeling inside that made all his enquiries disappear. But the only enquiry he couldn't seem to erase was how he had forgotten her? Surely he wasn't compelled to forget, no vampire can compel another vampire.

"The look on your face tells me you remember." Damon spoke, his piercing blue eyes squinting.

Stefan's face was tough to comprehend. He looked muddled and livid yet he also looked cheerful. "October 1886, we were supposed to get married when she came back from Russia, but she never showed up." He recapped.

Alternatively, Damon grabbed his Bourbon and finished the remaining liquid before agreeing with his brother. "You see what I don't get, is how you both don't remember each other. But I remember her and she remembers me." Stefan didn't reply, he only blinked. "I mean I get that I'm the handsome brother but you two –" He paused pointing his finger at Stefan. "You had a love as epic as Elena."

"February 1922." A voice spoke from behind them. The brother's turned around in unison and looked at Alice with a mystified expression. "I finally managed to get to the US so I could find you, but you were gone." Alice paused, leaving Stefan lost for words. "I remember it all now. I don't know how, but I do."

Stefan was lost for words. How was it that when he remembered so did she? How could they both even forget each other? "I was in Chicago. Why didn't you come back?"

By now Alice and Stefan had remembered every waking moment they had spent with each other. All the laughs, the tears and the fear. They remembered but they couldn't remember what it felt like. It all just seemed like a distant memory that was better left forgotten.

"Something happened on the way to Russia. My Father had to attend some business in Bulgaria. Business that involved Katerina Petrova." Alice started to explain, her Russian tongue slurring the R's in Katherine's name. The russet-haired revealed the picture of Katherine that Stefan owned, the one that almost looked like Damon's picture of Alice.

Damon made a vomiting sound. "The evil slut vampire? We've all crossed her once." He insulted, rolling his eyes. When Stefan saw Katherine's face his eyes fell to the timber floor.

"We became very close and she eventually asked me who had my hand in marriage. When she found out it was you I noticed something had changed in her. She started cancelling all our plans, until my Father invited her to our house that we owned in Bulgaria. Katherine stole my diary; she read all my secrets and my desires for you to walk in the sun and to spend eternity with you. Except I didn't want the omission of becoming a vampire." Alice sounded like she had learnt this by memory. As if she had just experienced this yesterday. Almost like the long forgotten Alice was, little by little, coming back to life. "Katherine offered to make a deal with me. She told me that if I killed myself every night then you could walk in the sunlight without a ring, in return that I didn't go home back to you."

Damon's eyes narrowed. "How did she do that?"

Alice glanced over to the older Salvatore and there was a look in her eye that gave Stefan uncertainties. He all of a sudden, had this impression that Alice was hiding something. "She used a witch and secretly bound mine and Stefan's memories of each other." Alice hesitated and reverted her stare back to Stefan. "After that she manipulated me, she killed my family and compelled me to forget about you. If I forgot about you then so did you. I spent the rest of my life searching for something that could fill the emptiness inside me which eventually lead me here."

"Well that's Katherine for you." Damon joked, trying to ease the situation a little. Nobody replied. Silence loitered within Damon's chamber and there was nothing but an awkward atmosphere. Damon sighed. "Elena will be home soon. But you're welcome to stay."

Stefan looked back to his brother and shook his head. "No we'll be on our way." He gave the picture of Alice one last look and thought deeply. "You don't mind do you?" He asked politely.

Damon half-smiled. "Go ahead."

With a forced half-smile, the avocado-eyed Salvatore shut the door to Damon's room, following Alice out and into the car. Stefan's eyes peered over at the time on his car. 9:15. He figured that she was going to be slumbering soon so he pushed on the pedal firmer.

When they arrived back at Caroline's house Stefan stationed his car on the sidewalk before opening the door for his friend. The two hadn't muttered a single word to each other ever since, but Stefan felt the need to let Alice know that he wasn't mad at her. How could he ever be mad at her? He let Alice walk first to the front door but when she touched the top of the porch she stopped. Stefan was hasty to react when he realised what was going on; he used his immense speed and caught her tumbling body in time. Carrying his long-lost sweetheart up to Caroline's room, he laid her deceased body to rest for the night. Afterwards, he groggily ambled back downstairs and laid down on Caroline's buckskin couch where his eyes could no longer hold themselves open.

"Damon it was a kiss, it didn't mean anything."

Stefan hid behind the wall and eavesdropped on the conversation. He was hoping it wasn't what he thought it could be.

He heard his brother's voice riposte, "It did Alice. It meant something and you know it."

"I'm sorry Damon but I love Stefan."

The young Salvatore heard ruffling, it sounded like his fiancée was gathering her dress up and trying to run away. But something caught her in the moment.

"What are you gonna do when he can't control himself? Because I'm pretty damn sure that once he gets a taste of your blood he won't be able to stop. Who's going to save you then?"

"How do I know you won't do the same? I trust him. I would even die for him Damon, don't ruin this."

Stefan heard Damon scoff. "Right. I get it. It's always the good brother that gets the girl."

"Damon –"

"No Alice. I get it okay? You don't like me because I kissed you. I always ruin everything. It's who I am."

"Everyone makes mistakes Damon. We're all human."

"But I'm not human. I'm a monster!" Damon growled.

"All monsters were human once."

Stefan bravely peeked around the corner to check out what was happening and he saw what he didn't want to see the most. Alice slowly inclined in and laid her lips against his brother's. Her hands released her large dress from her grip and Stefan surveyed soundlessly, he could do nothing but watch. Drawing away, Alice smiled warmly and said something but Stefan's hearing was interrupted by a bandwagon pulling up on the side. Alice then ran away to meet up with her parents to get ready for her departure to Russia.

Stefan hurriedly used his speed and joined her parents at the front of their house, appearing as if he were waiting for Alice. He saw her running towards him with that same blissful smile. Except he noticed something had changed, her smile, it appeared disconsolate. She looked anxious to see him.

"Alisa your dress." Her Mother scolded in her coarse Russian tongue. Alice nodded and flattened out her clothing.

"I've made plans with the designer. She said my dress will arrive the day I come back." Alice declared, grinning at him. Stefan forced out a weak smile and nodded. The horses to her carriage whickered as her Father mounted inside.

"Alisa we have to go." Her Mother insisted before looking at Stefan with appreciation in her eyes. She greeted him with a hug. "I can't wait to call you my son-in-law Stefan."

"The pleasure's mine Mrs Reynolds." He replied proudly.

Alice's mother sniggered, "I thought I told you to call me Anna."

Stefan chortled and nodded as if he were agreeing. "Anna. It's my pleasure to be calling you my mother-in-law."

Anna smiled broadly and Alice observed her Mother scramble into the carriage. "I better get going."

Stefan was devastated by what he saw but he knew that if he even let it bother him for 2 minutes the wedding might never take place. He would never be able to have ownership of Alice and her love. He wasn't one to hold grudges, and he knew that the best thing to do was to forgive her right there and then. It would be terrible to leave her distraught over a silly kiss. Alice said it didn't mean anything anyway so why should he even let himself care?

"Write to me." He begged taking hold of her slim waist just as she was leaving. Alice positioned her hands on his shoulders and nodded slowly. "I love you." He said.

Alice enfolded him firmly and she whispered softly in his ear, "Always and forever."

Stefan awoke to the sound of rustling coming from above him. He listened closely and decided to venture upstairs to look at what was happening. When he reached the uncanny rustling he saw Alice, with a change of clothes, standing in front of an open window with her arms folded.

"Alice?" He called out taking a step inside.

The russet-haired swivelled her head around and observed as Stefan inched closer, his boots making echoes in the room. The vampire overlooked his past love and wondered what could've happened if she returned home. Stefan wouldn't be in Mystic Falls, he would be out there travelling the world with his wife. Except reality set in and punched him in the face. The supernatural world always had consequences even when you didn't expect it to.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I needed some air but I didn't want to –"

Stefan stopped her midway through her sentence and chuckled. "It's fine." Alice put on a weak smile and her cohort furrowed his eyebrows. "What is that?" He asked her. She too, knitted her eyebrows wondering what on earth Stefan was talking about. "That smile. You used to give me that face when you were down."

Alice shrugged her shoulders before inhaling deeply, her gaze staring out the window. "I spent 127 years searching for you, only to find nothing but ache in your eyes." She laughed at herself. "I didn't even know what I was searching for until now." Stefan didn't reply. "Did you ever come looking for me?"

Alice rotated around to face him and he sighed. "I spent the next decade looking for you. I even went insane that I started killing people and then I turned into this Ripper. I couldn't stop."

He could see that her eyes were wet with tears that she tried desperately to hold back. Of all the times he'd spent with her he'd never seen her cry with joy. It made him warm inside, like the butterflies in his stomach were going ballistic. Even seeing her cry made him tear up inside. Stefan was never usually like this but Alice, she knew how to bring out the true human in him. He grabbed her face and melted his lips on hers. There was an electric feeling he felt surging through his lips. Like a numbness that he didn't want to feel. There was something in between them stopping them from feeling each other's heat. Stefan pulled away with confusion.

"Your lips." He stated, his eyes looking straight through her. "I can't feel them."

Alice held his hands that were still positioned on her soft face. To Stefan if looked like she was gripping on tightly, but inside neither of them could feel each other. She couldn't feel his bleak skin just as much as he couldn't feel her warm touch.

"It's the curse Stefan. It's a curse that stops us from ever being together."

Your reviews make me feel so happy so thank you so much! Please continue to leave them as they are my motivation to continue with this story since I'm not capable of finishing stories such as The Return.

I wasn't really too happy with this Chapter but Chapter Five will be better, I promise. I hope you enjoyed.