A/N: I am really sorry for disappointing you that much and not posting for so long. I have kind of lost inspiration to write about this story and I have focused on working on other things, but my muse came back a few days ago and I sat down to write. This chapter is longer and I tried to include everything in it, Defan, Stelena and even a little Bamon. I hope there are still people reading this and I would very much appreciate your reviews.


Elena's POV

Damon is holding me very tight and before I know what's going on he raises his hand up, digs his teeth into his wrist and then shoves it in my mouth.

I hear Stefan yell and I try to resist swallowing the blood. I wasn't exactly familiar with the turning ritual and how vampires became ones, but I was sure that whatever Damon was doing, might be the initiation of one.

Next thing I know, someone is pushing Damon back and I stagger to the wall, leaning on it in the last minute and trying to stabilize myself. I am breathing deep and trying to spit out all the blood I swallowed, but it's impossible, I can feel the burning sensation it leaves inside me. When I turn left, I see Stefan in his very weak state, pinning his brother to the wall and Damon laughing with his mouth bloody and his wrist almost healed.

"What the hell did you do!" Stefan yells at him, his voice, I realize, is barely audible and it takes Damon less than thirty seconds to push him away, in a very gentle manner, so as not to hurt him and turn back to me

"I did what you didn't have the guts to do" he says a bit venomously, but I realize he's just trying to bring his brother back to earth. We were enemies after all, we had to remember we are such "She tortured you and she's the reason you're almost dying. I want to make sure that you'll heal before I let her go and don't tell me it's not the smart thing to do."

"What's happening to me?" I ask afraid as I slip down the wall and brush away the blood from my mouth, I am terrified, for the first time since Damon caught me. "Am I becoming…" I can't say it out loud, but by the look of pleasure on Damon's face I can say that he enjoys my moment of weakness

"No!" now Bonnie intervenes as she steps closer to Stefan and his brother, looking at him furiously "You're fine as long as you don't die with his blood in your system." she doesn't even look at me, I can't say if she feels sorry for me or if absolutely everyone in this room hate me "You shouldn't have done this, Damon" she says coldly "Our agreement was that nobody gets hurt. I can walk right through that door now and not think twice about it!"

"You won't." Damon waves away her empty threats and acts as if he hasn't done anything wrong.

Stefan's eyes are pinned on me, but he's grabbing the wooden chest next to the door and trying to support himself, he tries to take a step forward and get to me, but Damon grabs his hand

"Don't you dare now!" he warns and I assume he's still afraid that I could hurt his brother "Let's get this over with!" he turns to Bonnie and I can see how pissed off she is.

She raises her hand and pins Damon to the wall, he suddenly starts squirming and trying to catch his breath and Stefan looks frantically between the two of them. I gasp surprised realizing just now that she was a witch. My father, he always dreamed of finding a witch and making her help him torture the vampires. I know he has seen one, but I on the other never had.

"You" she approaches him "Don't tell me what to do and what not, Damon" she says through teeth "I do what I want to do and I can kill you right here right now if it wasn't for the good heart of your brother and the fact that I owe you, but make no mistake" he's kicking his feet in the air and grabbing his neck as she tortures him "If you cross a line and hurt innocents I will kill you and Stefan won't be able to stop me. Are we clear?" she asks, but Damon just grunts so she twists her head a bit and that makes the pain unbearable or so it seemed

"Bonnie please" Stefan tries to intervene with his weak voice, but she doesn't even look at him

"Are we clear, Damon?" she raises her voice now

"Y-yes" he replies and she finally moves back and lets him drop on the ground.

He doesn't seem even slightly surprised or confused by her behavior. For what I knew vampires and witches hated each other. There was a reason that they were currently not trying to kill one another in this room but I was oblivious to it

"Damn, you've got fire, Bon-bon" Damon jokes as he stands up

"D-Damon" Stefan calls him and when I focus back on him, I see him barely standing on his feet.

Damon's attitude suddenly changes as he rushes to grab Stefan and throw his arm over his shoulders. The wound I've made myself only a few days ago on his right side is bleeding so hard that when Damon puts his hand over it, it has no effect at all. Stefan squeezes his eyes and breathes in heavily while Damon's eyes focus on me and I can see how much he hates me

"You" Stefan begins and looks at his brother "You gotta let her go" he nods at me, but I don't think he has the strength to look at me right now, though I do. I am staring at him and I feel so terrible for everything I did.

Yes, he was a monster, yes, he was a ripper, but there was something in him. Something else. A light that I could not even find in myself. He had a good heart. But he was also a murderer and I have never been more conflicted in my life as I am now.

Deep down, what my heart tells me, is that I shouldn't have done this-I should've never hurt him like that, but then I hear my father's voice in my head and I remember all the things he told me about vampires-I look at Damon and I see them as monsters once again.

They are the two opposites-Damon's darkness was as if surrounding him and I don't think I can ever find it in me to have compassion for a vampire like him and then there was Stefan-he was barely holding on, leaning on his brother's shoulder when his eyes fell on me and with one look he wished to tell me how sorry he is for what Damon did. After everything I put him through, he has it in him to be good towards me. I had such a hard time understanding this.

"I'm not letting her go until I am sure you're fine so stop arguing with me about that" Damon cuts him off once again and then turns to Bonnie "Can you take him while I tie her up?" he says. Bonnie hesitates and I can see that she's unwilling to participate in this "Come on" Damon pushes her" You know I can't let her go now, she'll run straight to her people and we'll be dead in a few hours."

"Fine, stop pushing me for godssakes!" she scolds him as she takes Stefan away from him and he leans now on her small shoulders

"He is dying, you damn right I'm going to be in a rush!" Damon spits back as he comes by my side, raises me up roughly, grabs my shoulder and leads me to a chair, where he puts me down and ties my hands and legs very tight so I wouldn't have the chance to get away. In the meantime, Bonnie has put Stefan down the couch, picked up her books and herbs and started making some kind of circle with them

"How are we going to do this?" Damon asks next as he throws another worried look at Stefan, whose eyes are closed and breathing very shallow "He doesn't have much time, are you sure you can pull this off?"

"I'll try" she responds as she keeps doing her thing

"What do you mean you'll try?" Damon raises his voice angrily "Can you do it or not?"

"Damon," she stands up and grips the small jar she was holding very tightly "You need to understand that this spell is a pretty difficult one and yes I might've not done it before, but it's your brother's best shot and considering that he has hours to live if we don't do anything, I don't think you have much of a choice." she cuts him off and he sighs, as he looks at Stefan who opens up his eyes and tries to raise himself a bit, but Damon places his hand on his shoulder and pulls him back down

"Don't move" he orders him then grabs Bonnie's hand and starts tugging her to the kitchen "We have to talk you and I" he tells her and she tries to get away from him but when she sees that this isn't another one of his tricks, she complies and Stefan and I are left alone.

At first he makes no attempt to move at all, I can see that his chest is barely rising up and down, his hand is resting on his side and even though the blood has lessened, it was still soaking his shirt-he looked like he went through hell.

"You know" he speaks up and opens his eyes "There's no need to be afraid. My brother will let you go" he says with certainty

"What tells you I am afraid?" I ask him curiously and he smiles

"I can hear your heart beating out of your chest, Elena" he states and I smile back. I've forgotten that he still has his vampire hearing "It will be fine."

"How do you do that?" I ask next and he raises his eyebrows confused "How do you find it in yourself to be good towards me after everything I've put you through? I just…don't understand" I admit it and he smiles again before closing his eyes for a minute and then swallowing down whatever pain he was going through only to open them up again

"You're not a bad person" he states "And I can't blame you for hating me…hell, I hate myself. You've just been told things that shaped who you are. Some of them are right, others not so much, one day maybe you'll figure the truth out for yourself" he explains "But you deserve a chance at doing so. I am sorry my brother dragged you here. He was desperate." I nod because I understand him. If it was Jeremy, I would find the person who hurt him no matter what it takes me.

"I think you're…a different vampire" I say my thoughts out loud, even if I am not sure why

"Different how?" he ask curiously and I smile as I look away, my heart is beating out of my chest and I am pretty sure he can hear it even in his weak state

"You have a heart" I reply carefully, barely audible and our eyes meet again. He smiles weekly and I smile back. In this moment, he looks exactly seventeen to me-he seems like a messed up, confused and very hurt teenager who has no idea what's going on.

"Stefan?" I call him out when he closes his eyes and doesn't open them right away. I furrow my eyebrows when I see him clenching his jaw "Stefan?" I raise my voice but he just shivers from the pain and I look at his wound-it's bleeding out so much again it's coloring the couch. He grunts in pain and I see how hard he's trying to fight the venom. This time, it's not passing-the pain is holding him prisoner and both him and I know what will happen once it passes.

He will die.

"DAMON!" I yell out loud

Damon's POV

"We have to talk you and I" I tell Bonnie and pull her to the kitchen, closing the door behind me so Stefan can't hear me, thought I highly doubted he could distinguish our conversation in the weak state he was in and with that girl in the other room. I was no fool-he wouldn't be so eager to protect her if there wasn't something else going on, but right now this was none of my concerns. I had to save him first, I could knock some sense into him later.

"Damon, what the hell, you know I have to prepare!" Bonnie scolds as she pulls away from me and I sigh tiredly as I run my hand through my messy hair "What is it?" she asks now more gently which almost makes me laugh-one moment she was pushing me against the wall by using her magic and next she was caring.

We had a strange thing going her and I. We've been through a lot. I've made a promise to one of her ancestors that I'll keep their lineage safe, which meant I had to keep an eye on Bonnie ever since she was born. She was a smart kid though, a tough one too.

She noticed me first when she was seven and she thought I was a ghost. At ten, when I was keeping an eye on her because her mother and father were fighting so bad on Christmas Eve that she couldn't hear her own thoughts, she came out on the porch and said "What is your deal with me, vampire". She was something, alright, and for the longest time our relationship has been just one of the many complicated things in my life. We were on either good or bad terms all the time-she would be mad with me and the decisions I made, or of me killing people when I was in a bad place. Other times we would have the best time.

"I want you to be honest with me" I look at her and grab the edge of the table, desperately needing something to steady me. What was happening to Stefan was taking its toll on me "Can he survive this spell?" she suddenly looks away and I swallow hard

"He's weak, Damon" she says barely audible when she looks up at me again "But I'll try" she promises "You can help me with that as well."

"How?" I ask hopefully as I take a step towards her

"The spell requires your blood and you going through it all with him" she explains and I listen to her patiently for the first time in ages "My grimoire says that you'll most probably end up in some alternative world while I'm doing the whole thing."

"And what will that be like?" I ask confused "Another place?"

"Most probably it will be some old memory of the two of you. The surroundings should be familiar" I swallow hard. My brother had the tendency to get himself in the worst of messes "Once there, you have to hold on to him tight and never let him go. If you break contact the spell will break too and everything will go to hell."

"So I just have to hold on to him?" I ask confused

"No, you have to go through with it with him, Damon" she tries to clear it out for me "He'll be in pain, excruciating pain, and you'll feel some of that too, but you should be the one to lead him out of that hellhole he's in." I take a step back and turn around, my breathing shallow for a moment, because I'm scared.

I'm afraid of screwing this up.

Because who are we kidding, I am Damon Salvatore, my specialty is fucking things up and I can't do that to Stefan. He didn't deserve it. He was a stubborn little brother who has been giving me headaches ever since we were still kids and human. He was doing so now. But I've always been there to save him. And I can't say I haven't screwed up before-I wasn't there at his worst, when he was a ripper and alone, when he wiped out villages and that guilt he carries inside-that's not on him, it's on me.

"Damon?" Bonnie calls me out "We don't have much time" she reminds me and I turn around, wiping away all kinds of doubt I have off my face and giving her a serious look

"Let's do this!" I say with determination and she nods.

I start walking towards the door, but before I can surpass her and just get to it, I feel her hand on my wrist and her pulling me back. I stop and at first I don't want to look her in the eyes. Then when I finally have the guts to do so, we keep our eyes on each other for a few minutes and when she feels like she has succeeded in calming me down, I find her palm and intertwine my fingers with hers, squeezing them gently, in a grateful way. I don't even realize that our heads are so close to each other that our foreheads are almost touching.

And then I hear that little girl's screeching voice.

"DAMON!" she's yelling and when I try to hear my brother's shallow breathing I realize that all I face is silence.


I vampspeed to the other room only to find my brother lying down on the couch, his blood soaking through his hand. He was barely conscious and when I lean down and I shake him a few times only to make him open his eyes.

"Stefan!" I call him out "Stefan, goddammit, you idiot, don't you dare do anything stupid now!" I scold him, but I am shaking on the inside "Stefan!" I call again "Wake up, come on, wake up!" I beg him, but he's not moving at all, so I don't hesitate to bite my wrist and shove it in his mouth. At first he doesn't want to start drinking, he's left with no strength, because he's dying "Come on, come on!" I urge him and then I feel him swallow once, then twice and I let a relieved sigh when he opens his eyes and looks at me with his disorientated eyes.

"D-Damon?" he says and I nod. He wasn't having a hallucination now, he was way passed beyond that, he was so worse, that I had no idea if we even had a few hours left, let alone a day

"It's fine, hold on!" I tell him as I look up at Bonnie who nods as she grabs the last few candles she needs to order and rereads the spell a few times "We're doing this now and you'll be fine" I console Stefan as I throw his arm on my shoulders and attempt to raise him up, but he lifts his hand up and makes me stop

"I want you to promise me" he says "That even if I die, you won't kill her" he nods at the girl who's still tied up on the chair and I want to kick his ass for this, because I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he would want to keep her safe when she did all of this to him "And I want you, to move on with your life, alright?" he asks of me again, but I don't have it in me to give him any promises-that meant that I'm willing to accept a scenario in which he's dead and I wasn't doing that.

"Get your shit together, Stefan!" I tell him as I finally raise him up and he yells out from the pain in his side as he starts bleeding again "It's time we get this over with and you get better so I can mock you and kick your sorry ass."

He attempts to smile as I lead him to Bonnie. She orders us to stand against one and hold each other's hands, which proves to be very difficult, because he's barely standing on his feet.

"You hold on to me and I'll keep you standing" I tell him and he nods lightly "Don't you dare let me go, alright? You hold on to me!" I warn once more

"Alright" he mumbles out and I try to give him a supportive smile when Bonnie approaches us with a knife. She takes my hand and makes a deep cut, which I don't mind, but when she grabs Stefan's one, I stop her

"Is this really necessary? He's bleeding already, can't you take it from somewhere else?" Stefan slightly grunts which is his way of showing me that he's fine and he's brushing my damn concern off but I don't pay any attention to him

"I'm sorry Damon, it has to be this way" she cuts me off as she grabs Stefan's hand and drives the knife through it. Then she brings our hands together and makes us hold each other tight while our blood starts dripping on the floor. Bonnie grabs her book and approaches us.

"Here we go" she whispers and I think it's to myself, but she's actually trying to encourage herself. I hear Elena's heart beating out of her chest, but I try to focus on my brother and Bonnie. I could always deal with her later.

I close my eyes not because I want to, but it's just because what happens when Bonnie starts chanting. I can't determine what's going on at first, I feel like something is pulling me back, but Stefan's hands and mine are still strongly holding each other. I immediately feel a dull pain on my right side, where's Stefan's big wound was and a throbbing pain in my head, where his big gash was and when I hear his weak voice calling me and finally open up my eyes again, I can't be more surprised.

We're standing in the middle of a field, but it's not just any place-it's near the battlefield, I can tell, it's dark around us and the ground is wet and muddy. I can hear the shots fired in somewhere behind us and when I turn around I see the familiar forest where Stefan and I fought the last battle of the war. My breath gets stuck in my throat-this is hell! We can't be back to the most awful time of our lives. We can't be back to war.

"Damon" my brother mumbles out my name and when I turn to look at him, I see he's dressed in his Confederates uniform, his hat is soaking out the blood from the gash on his head and the wound on his side is as fresh as it was when we were back in my flat.

I look down at myself and I realize that I'm dressed just as he is, except there are no wounds on me, though I can still feel Stefan's pain inside me. I assume we were connected now in some way and I was sharing some of his pain, like Bonnie said I would, but I was times better than he was

"Where the hell are we?" he asks me and I can see the tears in his eyes. War is his most awful nightmare as well as mine.

When he ran away from home to join me, Stefan came to find me in an awful mental state and during that time, he was the stronger one out of the two of us. He was younger, but he was my shoulder to lean on. He would bring me food and urge me to do our drills, he would cover for me when I got drunk and he would camp outside my tent knowing that I have nightmares and he had to get in before everyone has heard my screams. He held me in his arms and calmed me down, gave me water, took care of me.

That didn't change when we first went into battle together. I was a mess, I couldn't even hold my rifle up and shoot and when I did, my aim wasn't good and it all went to hell. I would've been killed numerous times if it wasn't for Stefan, who walked before me with his rifle, his hand always ready to grab my collar and pull me down or behind a tree. He saved my life on so many occasions.

After some time passed, I got a little bit better, with his help and when I did, I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and his own inability to sleep. That's when I figured out he has ruined himself for me, but still out of the two of us, he was still the stronger one. No matter how many times I tried to pick myself up, even if my hand steadied when it held a rifle, even if I was able to go through a night without a nightmare, he was the one who kept us both safe.

And the day we got shot was no different. He stood in before me and took two bullets before I knew what was going on. The next thing I remember, I was lying on the ground next to him. Then it was all a blur-but what I know is that on our way home, he was holding my hand.

And now I was holding his.

"D-Damon" he calls me out again and I realize he's warning me, for he is about to fall.

I pull him to my own aching body and try to steady him, I know well enough I can't let myself ever break contact with him so I kept his hand in mine at all times.

"Don't worry" I tell him "We're getting out of here" I start slowly helping him walk, but the thing is, I can't see anything before me or behind me, I can only hear the shots that are being fired and somehow I can say that they are getting close to us. I don't know where to take Stefan, because there's literally no place to hide-the forest behind us was full of soldiers and there was nothing but a field before us.

"Damon, you shouldn't have done this" he tells me, but I shush him and I move both our hands on his wound so we can close it. I swallow hard as I take another step-God, I can't imagine the pain he was going through if this is only half of what he's feeling. I barely find it in myself to carry him and walk.

And then the next thing I know, someone's shooting at us. One of the bullets passes inches from my head and I duck both me and Stefan, who yelps out from the pain he feels.

"Did we have to end up here of all places, goddammit!" I curse as I pull Stefan's body closer to mine and start tugging him

"Damon, stop, it hurts!" he begs me, but I can't stop, I have to get him through this damn field, I have to save him "God, slow down, I can't. I just can't!" he begs me

"You can. I am here" I calm him down as I keep tugging him. They keep shooting at us, I can even hear voices now, maybe someone was following us, how would I know I didn't even dare move "Come on, don't give up on me." I beg him when I see his eyes starting to close. He was going to pass out and I couldn't have this "Open your eyes, Stefan!" I shake him as I keep dragging him, one of the bullets hits my foot and I stagger, almost dropping Stefan down

"You have to let me go and get out of here!" he says through teeth when he sees the blood in my leg, but I shake my head

"Never!" I say and our eyes meet.

Whatever this place is, it's hell for sure. Both Stefan and I had so much nightmares after we came back from the battlefield and recovered from our wounds. This looked exactly like one of my own. It was part nightmare part what really happened-we were shot at that battlefield, but we never tried to run. We wouldn't do that.

And that's when it hit me.

We were running he and I. That's not what we would do.

"Stefan, do you trust me?" I ask him and he looks up at me, I can see the life leaving his eyes. Bonnie better be finishing that off, because soon, we would be done here.

"You know I do" he says and I smile

"Then, hold on to me very close." I whisper and he nods, because he just can't speak.

I grip him tight and turn us both around. We face the soldiers who raise their rifles and rush to us.

"Damon" Stefan calls me out one last time. We know they are coming for us, we can hear them approach us, we know what's about to happen "You should let me go."

"No way" I say once more and pull him tighter because I can feel that he's trying to get away. I know why he wants to do it-he wants to sacrifice himself once again and let himself die, leaving me with a way out of here and a life on my own, without him. But that wasn't going to happen "You have been sacrificing yourself for me over and over again. Now it's time to shut up and let me do this."

I hold him very tight when the first shot goes through my chest. The second and the third made me stagger because they are not only hitting me but him as well. The fourth and the fifth make me take a step back and then I lost count because no matter how hard I try to keep us up, we fall on the ground.

But I still don't let him go. Bonnie's words to keep his hands in mine are echoing in my head and when we're both lying on the muddy ground and the soldiers are passing by us, marching on, I turn left to my brother and he turns to me.

"Close your eyes, Stefan" I tell him as I keep holding his hand in mine. It's cold and damp and so is mine.

But Stefan closes his eyes and as soon as I am sure he's fine I do so too.

When I open them Bonnie is leaning down with a very worried expression on her face. I move her hand away from my chest and raise up, looking frantically for Stefan only to find him right next to me on the left, lying on the floor breathing heavily.

He still seems a bit weak, but he smiles and grips my hand back.

"It worked?" I ask Bonnie and she smiles

"It worked." she assures me and before I know what I am doing, I pull her in for a hug and keep her in my arms until I'm sure that we're away from that awful place of destruction and war.

Stefan's POV

I can see how happy my brother is that everything worked out. Or so he thought. He would never know that I am not exactly healed, at least as long as Bonnie keeps our secret. I had no intentions of screwing things up-this was my last chance to fix things between my brother and me and help him, because as much as he denied it, we both knew that there are things he's not proud of, things which are my fault.

He's as weak as I am right now, because we went through the same shit in that dream or whatever it was and we were exhausted. I have no idea what kind of fate it was that we were taken back to one of the worst moments of our lives, but I knew that whenever Damon and I suffered from war nightmares, we needed days to get back to our feet.

"Bonnie, can you take him to his room?" I ask of her when she helps him settle on the couch next to me after my brother realized that he's a bit more weaker than he supposed to. She already gave us blood, but we were both feeling like hell. At least that would pass and my wounds were no longer there. For now "He needs rest."

"No" Damon opposes as he throws the empty plastic bottle which was until a few minutes ago still full of blood on the floor "We have to take care of her" he nods at Elena who was still sitting on the chair tied up and observing everything with an extremely confused expression on her face. My guess was that she didn't get to see a witch perform a spell every day.

"I can do that" I assure him, but he shakes his head

"You're too weak" he loves fighting with me, if he doesn't oppose to anything, it won't be him.

"I drank enough blood, I can compel her and let her go" I say and I see Elena's eyes widen "The vervain must be out of her system by now and we should do it before anyone has noticed that she's been gone for too long."

"Stefan, I don't-" he begins again, but I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze it

"Let me take care of it. You go and rest" I say a bit roughly, because I want him to stop arguing with me and he finally sighs and lets Bonnie give him a hand and carry him to his bedroom. I know that she herself is very tired. The spell she performed must've worn her out and I hoped they'll both fall asleep and let me deal with this.

Once the door is closed and I've gathered enough strength I stand up, grab one of the wooden chairs and sit opposite of Elena after untying her hands first. I know that she won't hurt me now.

"Don't be scared" I tell her as I notice that she's shivering "I won't hurt you."

"Why not?" she asks next and her question takes me by surprise "It's only logical for you to hate me after everything that I did to you."

"I don't" I respond calmly

"I almost killed you" she slightly raises her voice "You were barely breathing on that couch only hours ago! If I were you, I would want to kill the person who put me through all that pain."

"Oh, make no mistake, Elena. I do hate everything that you did to me" I explain "I hate that cell that you locked me into, I hate your father, I hate the hunters, I hate all the ways they tortured me and I won't be able to forget any of it for a very long time. You cut out my insides, you shoved me against walls or repeatedly staked me, you poisoned me with so much vervain that I can still feel it even after Bonnie performed the spell. You destroyed me and I have no idea how I'll recover from that" I tell her in all seriousness and take a minute to let her process my words ass I lean back on the chair and check if my brother and Bonnie are sleeping already with my now restored vampire hearing-they are and I almost want to smile to myself. He was safe.

"So will you destroy me now?" she asks next

"No" I tell her as I lean back to her and take her hands in mine "You're just a kid. And yes you did all those things to me, but I decide today that I will see only the good in you. I've made mistakes when I was your age and I know what it's like to live a life that your parents have mapped out for you. I think I want to give you a chance to figure it all out by yourself. A chance that I was never given. I went to war, I came back shattered and then I turned, something which wasn't exactly my choice. I know that you being like that and doing all this is not your choice either. It's the choice your father made for you."

"Stefan, I am not a good person" she says next and I smile as I caress her hands

"We'll see about that. Take my advice-question everything they tell you. You have now seen a part of my world, you know it's not all black and white. Think about that the next time you cut into someone's stomach or drive a stake through a vampire's heart. There's always more to the story than they tell you." she smiles and nods, giving me a silent promise "Now, we have to get this over with. I can't let anything happen to my brother, so you understand that you have to forget. I'm sorry."

"It's okay" she assures "I am ready."

I nod and I know what I have to do, but I decide to give both her and me a minute, just to get ourselves together. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath and I have no idea what I am doing, but I know this-I have some feelings for her and they almost got me killed and they are what pushes me towards her now.

They are what makes our lips collide. And even though I know it's wrong on so many levels and that if Damon was here, he would be kicking my ass for even considering this, but I just can't help it.

Or maybe I let myself do this, because I know it will be for the last time. Our paths will never intervene again, there was no way for this to happen because it meant both her and I would be in danger. She was just a kid she had her whole life in front of her and I only had a year to fix everything between me and my brother and live whatever's left of my life.

I cup her cheek and bring her even closer to me. She kisses back and places her small hand on the back of my neck. Her heart is beating out of her chest, but I try not to listen to it, because I know it's not fair towards her. Instead I let myself drown in it, the way our worlds collide and I almost want to smile, because we are so different yet something's pulling us towards one another.

I don't want to let her go.

I can't.

But I have to and when I do, I see the tears rolling down her cheeks and I brush them away with my thumb. I cut her cheek with my hand and clear my throat.

"Goodbye, Elena" I tell her one last time and she tries to swallow down her tears

"Goodbye, Stefan" she responds

I sigh as I take a deep breath and take her hands in mine before looking her in the eyes.

"You'll forget that my brother ever kidnapped you, you will forget that he brought you here and that we did a spell that saved me, you will forget that you met a witch and you'll forget that I kissed you. You will forget everything about this day and if someone asks you something, you'll tell them you got drunk last night and spent the day sleeping."

"I spent the day sleeping" she repeats and I nod. It's working, I am not too weak to pull this off.

"Now you'll leave and you'll go back to your dorm and you'll have a good sleep. When you wake up, you'll keep on with your life and you won't think of Stefan Salvatore. You'll believe he died after he ran away, because there's no way he could've survived a werewolf venom and you'll close this chapter of your life."

"Stefan Salvatore is dead" she repeats and I nod, relieved that this is working.

I untie her feet and help her get to the door. I want to kiss her forehead or hold her hand in mine a little while longer.

But I know I can't.

So I just watch her leave and refuse to admit that there's something in me breaking apart.