Ok guys, getting dark but trust me. I know you all do and it is heart warming. Thanks for all the love.
x
Chapter 9 TNB
Damon was livid. When Stefan tried to talk to him it ended up coming to blows until their throats were sore from screaming at each other. Stefan had been stunned when Damon had accused him of taking advantage and molesting him. Apparently Stefan was sick in the head, he'd come back wrong, he was not his brother anymore and hadn't been since he'd been taken by Silas.
Every word ripped his heart from his chest until he couldn't take it anymore and he'd packed his things and left. He had nowhere to go but he wouldn't spend another second in that house. He had never hated someone so much in his entire memory – which wasn't long to be fair but it was long enough. He never wanted to see Damon ever again and he intended to stick to that. He wouldn't turn it off this time, no he wanted the anger, he wanted to feel it fuel his veins. He didn't ever want to forget how Damon had made him feel. That way, he'd never make this mistake again, he'd never allow himself to be hurt like this again. His heart had been flayed raw.
He booked into a motel and drank himself unconscious. The next day he did pretty much the same thing, and the next day and the next day and the next day. Elena and Caroline both called and he was so angry, he couldn't be bothered lying about it. The effort it took to concoct some story was too much and he'd come clean and told them everything. Both of them were shocked and had tried not to be too horrified but he could hear it in their voices. They'd never understand. How could they understand when he didn't?
Elena offered to come home and help them sort it out but Stefan had refused point blank. There was nothing to sort. There was nothing between he and Damon any longer. They didn't have a past that he could remember. He didn't care about the 147 years they'd been brothers because they weren't his years – they weren't his life, they belonged to the Stefan who'd died – the one Damon grieved for and had wanted back. He wanted a clean break and this was the best way. He had grown fond of the girls now and he saw no reason to extract them from his new life but he made it clear to them both that he never wanted to even hear the name Damon Salvatore ever again.
Caroline was the most supportive and agreed that he would be better off in the long run. Elena on the other hand struggled with the idea. Despite all of the history and aggravation between her and Damon she couldn't help but fear that Stefan needed his family and Damon was the last of them. She was someone very much bonded to her family though. She needed that connection to her roots, especially now that she was a vampire and he understood why she felt concerned for him in his decision.
"Maybe one day, you will be able to talk about it." She'd advised but he didn't think so. Immortality meant for a long memory – he'd never forget how much Damon had injured him when he'd ranted at him in pure unadulterated loathing and disgust.
No. Never.
Then, Damon was missing.
Stefan had been drinking in his new favourite bar with a few new friends he'd made when Elena's call alert began to play. He pulled the phone from his pocket and answered, feeling merry and slightly inebriated.
"Hello!" He smiled and instantly he felt her tension crackle down the phone line like electricity.
"Stefan I need your help."
"What's wrong, are you ok?" He asked filled with concern.
"It's Damon." She said and he hardened immediately.
"I told you." He warned.
"Please Stefan, he's missing. He went to get some information out of one of my professors who we think is doing weird experiments on vampires." She explained and he smirked and took a swig from his bottle of beer.
Only in this girls' immediate circle could weird shit like that happen. He almost wanted to laugh. Had it not been for the fear so prominent in her voice he would have.
"And?"
"The professor did something to a vampire and he attacked Damon. He was feeding from him. I had to kill him before he killed Damon."
"Poor Damon. That'll be a nice change for him to be the damsel in distress." He did chuckle this time.
The thought of Damon being fed on and wounded filled him with immense pleasure.
"I had to leave him there to clean up while I dealt with the body. I left him with the professor still tied down. He was supposed to compel him to forget and come back to my dorm but he never came back. He's not answering his cell either."
"Maybe he's on a bender. You know how he gets Elena. The guy's a selfish douche."
"Stefan, I know how you feel about him but trust me, he wouldn't leave me to worry like this." She said pointedly.
"No. Not you." Stefan clucked his tongue while he considered that.
It had been obvious from the start that Damon still had feelings for the girl. He'd let her boss him around and no man put up with that unless they were either getting something out of it or weak with longing for them.
"Stefan, I'm worried something's happened to him. No one has seen the professor either. What if…what if the professor has him and he's…" Her voice broke as she thought on it and Stefan chewed his lip.
"What kind of experiments?" He asked, dropping his bottle in the trash and heading towards his car as she described how Jesse had began to hunger for vampire blood not human and he'd gone rabid as a result.
The thought of experimenting in animals bothered Stefan. He didn't like the thought of something sentient having their bodies used against their will in clinical trials for drugs, so the thought of it happening to a vampire made his stomach churn.
"Please I need your help to find him." She begged and he sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"I'm not doing this for him. I'm doing this because I don't agree with experimenting on an unwilling participant ok? If that is what's happening."
"Ok." She accepted and gave him the address to meet her.
They would start at the lab where she'd last seen Damon.
They searched the lab but found nothing suspect, other than a strange vagrant of an odour. Neither of them could identify it exactly and put it down to chemicals being used for sterilisation. They went to see if the professor was in his lecture theatre and also found nothing. They were at a loss. He spent the night with both girls as they told him all of the details of life at Whitmore – everything that they'd seen going on and he grew a little concerned. Something was very much up with this place and he didn't like it. It made his hairs stand on end.
Another day passed without much more to go on until Stefan was introduced to the Professor's ward. Elena had feared that Stefan wouldn't be able to remain focussed should he have known about the human, but Stefan played it cool and let her take the lead. He befriended the human and when she had gone off to a class that she had been told she would flunk unless she attended, he saw his opportunity.
He met up with the human and engaged him in the usual frivolous conversations that seemed enlightening to the college herd. This kid was different though, smarter and changed by a tragic family background that Stefan could associate with – not that he recalled his but it was the same difference he figured. He manipulated the boy into inviting him into one of the houses on campus, hoping to find clues as the kid's link to the professor, when he felt a stabbing sensation in his back and lurched forward onto the floor gasping.
He cried out and tried to look up to his captor when the vervain hit him and he collapsed.
His brain spinned in a murky stupor, his eyeballs rolling around in his head as though there was a roller derby happening in his head. He groaned and opened his eyes, trying to focus. Brick walls. No, stone. Stone walls. He blinked in confusion and sat up, feeling cold cement beneath him. Where the hell was he?
He let out a puff of air and looked around him. Iron bars. He was in some kind of cell. He looked around for his captor but saw no one. Just silence. Except there wasn't silence. Someone else was breathing down here. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind and noticed a small barred space in between the walls. The space seemed to open up into another neighbouring cell.
"Hello?" He called and moved towards the small gap, getting down onto his stomach to look through.
He could see bare feet and the legs attached to them but no face. He opened his mouth to speak again when he noticed blood on the feet and he paused.
"Hey. Are you ok in there?" He asked and heard a small huff.
"Be quiet or they'll hear you're awake." A voice whispered and he frowned.
"Where are we?" He whispered more carefully, looking around to ensure there was no movement outside of the cells.
"Hell." The whisper came back and he clutched at the small bars, testing their strength.
"Don't bother Stef."
He stopped at the mention of his name and tried to peer through to see his neighbour's face.
"Damon?"
"The one and only." The voice replied.
"What is this?" He asked and Damon finally moved into sight.
When Stefan took in the sight of him he gasped and Damon gave him a knowing look. He had blood all over his clothes and he looked weak.
"What happened to you?" Stefan asked, his eyes wide.
"Dr Mengele. What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you." He replied and Damon snorted. "Yeah, kind of a surprise to me too." He hit back and Damon's face fell as he looked to the ground.
"Are you hurt?" Stefan enquired and Damon smirked.
"I'm an unwilling lab rat Stefan, what do you think?"
"How about you cut the crap and just answer the question?" Stefan sighed and Damon paled.
"I'll be ok." He answered quietly.
"We need to get out of here. Elena knows there's something going on with this professor guy. She'll find us." Stefan said confidently.
"Better hope it's soon coz there's no other way out of here."
"So you've been here a few days and you're an expert are you?" Stefan huffed, raising himself on his knees so that he could test all of the bars, one at a time.
"After a few years you get to accept it brother."
Stefan froze.
"Huh?" He lay back down on his stomach to look at him in query. "What are you talking about, years?"
"I've been here before." Damon said gravely and the hairs on Stefan's neck began to rise.
"When? What are you talking about?"
"In the fifties. Courtesy of Jo Salvatore. Asshole sold me over as a medical slave."
"What? How long were you here?" Stefan could feel his sense of urgency rise with every comment from Damon and he grabbed the bars that separated them.
"5 years." Came the reply and Stefan felt horrified.
"5 years?! Where was I?"
"Calm yourself. You haven't forgotten. I didn't tell you." Damon looked to him.
"Why the hell not?"
"Because I got free and we were still on the outs back then. What was the point? It would have just been another thing for you to feel guilty about and it wouldn't change anything." Damon was so matter of fact.
"Ok, I'll roll that one around my brain a bit later. How did you escape?" Stefan pushed and Damon shook his head. "Tell me. It's not like I'm going to think you're any worse of a person than I already do."
Damon looked him in the eye at that comment and clenched his jaw.
"You don't want to know."
"Just tell me, if there's a way we can escape…"
"There isn't."
"Well how did you do it?"
Damon sighed and brought his knees in towards his body. Stefan didn't miss the flash of pain that crossed his face and he held his breath.
"Damon, what did they do to you? What will they…" He swallowed feeling nauseous and Damon closed his eyes.
"Just pretend to be out of it when they come. It'll buy you some time."
His words only made Stefan feel more afraid and he tightened his grip on the bars. Damon moved a little closer to him when they both heard a gate being opened up at the top of some stairs. Stefan looked to Damon afraid and Damon adorned a mask of indifference and stood up fully, using the bars.
Stefan couldn't see him, only his feet as he curled into the foetal position and pretended to be unconscious.
"You have some company. Hopefully you'll get on as well as you did with your last cell mate, ay Damon?"
Damon just growled in response and took a step back from the bars.
"Feeling feisty?"
"Bite me." Damon gave a mirthless snort and Stefan cracked his eyelids open enough to see Damon's feet flex in anxiety as the cell door was opened and he was pulled forward.
Stefan held his breath, his heart racing as he heard Damon being pushed along the corridor and up the stairs. What was this place? He moved to sit up when he noticed some writing on the wall, behind where Damon had been sitting. He looked at it closely.
"D.S 53'." It read and Stefan felt his blood run cold.
Damon hadn't been lying. He'd been a prisoner here and he'd never told the old Stefan…him. He sat up and resolved himself to check around the brick work. There must be something he could dislodge or dig through to find a way out or at least a weapon. As he searched the bricks with his fingertips he heard a blood curdling scream from above that had him frozen to the spot. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as his whole body focussed on his hearing alone.
Another scream of agony. He knew it was Damon. His knees felt wobbly and he fell onto them as he gagged into his hands. Nothing came up but he still wretched anyway to no avail. He panted as he tried to pull himself together.
There was silence for a few moments and then the terrible symphony began as Damon's screams and cries echoed down through the basement continuously until Stefan lay with his hands over his ears, he couldn't bare it any longer.
Mercy, please! My god, have some mercy on him!
