Love is an unfair game. There are no rules, no balances. It's easier to lose than win. But what happens when a love is at a dead end? What happens when the future is not up to the players anymore? All their choices in the past, they lead them to now, and now is a dead end for their love. What do you do when you don't lose love but you have it taken away from you?

Elena's mind was feeling numb. Confusion, despair, fear had taken over her senses, her thoughts. Her gaze was blank as she was staring at Elijah's pale figure floating on the water. His fangs and veins had now disappeared but his chin and lips were still covered in blood. He looked strangely weak and vulnerable. He looked lost and that's what he was. He had lost the one thing that was defining him for the past thousand years; his vampire nature. The cure was running through her veins and he had fed on her, which cured him too. It all made sense now. That's why he stopped feeding from her so fast, that's why he was feeling cold. Like from far away, she could hear the screams and cries of the rest of the passengers on her boat. The sailor was leading it further and further from the monstrous man in the water, in agreement to the passengers' pleads. They were about to leave Elijah there, to freeze to death. It was all her fault. She shouldn't have asked him to feed on her, they would have found another way. Now he was doomed and it was on her. Elena looked around, in search of the girl she had met earlier, seeking for support. Sooner or later she spotted her, staring at her in pure terror and disgust, just like the rest of the passengers. She noticed that most of them had sat as far away as possible from her, even if the boundaries were limited anyway. The more she realized how alone she was in her mission to try to save Elijah, the more she spiraled into despair.
"We have to get him…" she murmured under her breath.
She had to think fast. There wasn't much time. She stood up on the boat, focusing her attention on the sailor.
"We have to go back and get that man aboard. It's your job to save your passengers. Do your freaking job!" the tone of her voice escalated to a tough yell. "We have to save him!" she continued, averting her gaze back to the spot on the water where Elijah was still lying.
"He is a monster, didn't you see him? He tricked you into drinking your blood." the sailor answered to her calmly. "Forgive me ma'am but my job is to save my passengers and that won't happen if I bring a monster between them."
"He is not a monster! He will die, don't you understand?" Elena kept yelling. She felt her eyes tearing up. She wasn't sure if it was because of the cold or because of her anger, frustration, agony.
"How do we know that you are not a monster like him?" one of the passengers, an old woman said suddenly.
"Maybe we should throw her off board too!" another agreed.
Elena put her hands on each side of her head. Everyone was now arguing about her innocence, about how she brought Dracula and the Devil to the boat, others were even blaming him for what happened to the ship. She felt like the whole world was going round. She only managed to whisper one single word "Stop" but no one heard her. Everyone was busy pointing fingers and making theories about the situation. She couldn't explain to them the whole story and expect them to understand. So she gave in to her impulses.

She jumped into the water. Instantly the cold took over and numbed her body parts, fortunately not enough to keep her from moving. She quickly searched for Elijah's floating body and gathered her strength, to swim towards him as fast as possible. She didn't look back. She didn't even bother to hear what the passengers were saying about her actions. None of them could save him; none of them could save her.
She reached Elijah fast enough, finding him in a state between consciousness and unconsciousness.
"Elijah…Elijah!" she tried to yell but the cold only allowed her to mumble. Her lips were swollen from the low temperature.
He didn't respond, he only managed to blink. For a moment she thought she saw a faint smile forming on his bruised lips but she wasn't sure. She wrapped an arm around him and dragged him along as she tried to swim towards a plank floating on the water nearby. There was fairly enough space for both of them, yet she managed to fit both of their bodies pretty much fully on the plank. She sat next to his lying, weak figure and took his face in her hands, cupping his cheeks. Her hands were way too cold but so was his skin, given that she could barely feel she was holding anything.
"Elijah…" she whispered again. He wasn't reacting and that was what worried her more. He didn't have much time. She didn't know what to do to change that. "Elijah please…look at me…talk to me." She whimpered, her voice breaking at the end. She leaned down and laid her forehead against his, letting her eyes fall shut. Warm tears ran down her cheeks, warming her up slightly. She cried silently. One day ago she was feeling free; almost happy with him and the strange kind of romance they shared. He had given her exactly what she needed at that period and she couldn't be more grateful. He had given her mortality again and now she took his away as well and condemned him to death. He was just one more person dying because of her. Back to the same old routine she had grown sick of.
She didn't realize it as he lifted his hand and slowly dragged it down her back in a tender careless; slowly as he didn't have more strength. "Elena…" his voice then came to her ears, husky and hoarse. She quickly lifted her head from his and looked at him. Her vision was blurry from the tears. She could tell his eyes were half open; he was looking at her. Without giving it much thought, she came closer again and pressed her lips to his icy, bloody ones, briefly before she pulled back, sobbing.
"I'm so sorry…so sorry." She whispered and leaned in to kiss him quickly again.
He brought his hand to her cheek, keeping her face in front of his now.
"It's not your fault. This tragedy, this life you have, it's not your fault. Sometimes it's not just about our choices. Sometimes bad things just happen." he mumbled; his words were barely understandable but there was enough silence for her to hear him closely. "Ever since I met you, Elena…You always reminded me how beautiful it is to be human. Now…that you are one again, you've gotten your light back. But me…" he paused for a few seconds, coughing. Elena put one of her hands on his on her cheek, encouraging him to continue, indicating that she is there for him. "Now that I am…human, I realize that…I can't be beautiful anymore."
Elena frowned. She wasn't sure what he meant by his last sentence but she knew that wasn't true. She had seen him doing terrible things and still he remained the most decent vampire she had ever met. She shook her head but he continued before she could disagree.
"All these years…this blood-lusting life has corrupted me. I can't go back to being the human I was. It's been too long…and I've been a beast…if I go now, being human will remain a happy memory to me…and that's what I want." He nodded slightly and managed a faint smile up at her.
"No. You are not going anywhere now. We'll be saved and then we will figure out what to do with your humanity. Elijah, have faith. Have hope, like you've always have." Elena whispered whilst gripping his hand firmly. She didn't want to be pessimistic; they would get through this. She just had to truly believe it. She didn't want just another death on her shoulders; but most of all, she didn't want to lose one more person she cared about. He deserved to live, to try to be better, to change, to build a happy, fair life with no more blood and monsters.
"Our time together…it will remain a happy memory to me…too." he continued, without commenting on anything she said. "It's not just your compassion…it's you, you are a gift…you are a miracle to me…Thank you, Elena…"he finished and gave her yet another soft smile, which quickly faded again. His gaze remained still, always on her. But it wasn't focused now. It was blank.
Elena let go slowly of his hand, only to see it drop next to his side. Lifeless. Dead.
"No." Elena muttered and shook her head. "No." she repeated and grasped his shoulders, shaking him gently as more tears started running down her cheeks. "Nooooo!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and collapsed on his chest, slamming her fists on it as well. He wasn't breathing. He was just plainly and utterly dead. He would never come back to life as he always did. He would never talk to her again, look at her with that soft, tender gaze of his, he would never touch her or kiss her again, he would never be around her again. He was just dead. Just dead. She buried her face in his wet shirt, crying and sobbing loudly, without even realizing how much time passed without her stopping.
At the end, once her eyes felt dry enough, she pulled away and ran her fingers down his eyelids, closing his eyes. She remained there, sitting next to his dead body, looking at him. He looked so peaceful. He deserved to have peace; but she always thought that peace can be found in other places too, apart from death. She brushed her fingers through his hair and down the side of his face, taking in the image she was witnessing, locking it in the saddest, darkest quarters of her mind. Then, she leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his cold, lifeless lips once again prior to whispering against them. "Goodbye." Using all the strength she had left, she pushed his body off the plank and let it drop into the water. She watched it sinking and going down towards the bottom; his features faded till he became just a white figure and lastly, vanished completely from her sight due to the big depth of the ocean. Elena brought her fingers up to her lips, touching them, cleaning them from the bloody drops she had gotten from Elijah's mouth. They were numb, probably purple from the cold. She didn't feel sad anymore, nor desperate. She just felt nothing. She laid on her stomach on the plank and used her hands to make it move by splashing the water. She blew the whistle of the lifejacket the sailors had given to all the passengers before they got aboard the lifeboats. Sooner or later one of the lifeboats would hear her and come to take her aboard. That's what happened.
Elijah Mikaelson was gone; but his memory stayed with Elena forever, for the rest of her human life. He remained in her heart as her lost, forbidden, doomed love.

We don't always get what we want in life. Unfortunately, it's more often that we have what we want taken away from us than earning and keeping it. That's the sadness of life. That's the sadness Elena Gilbert had to deal with for the rest of her life. No matter what you to, to fix your wounds, no matter how the bleeding stops, the scars remain. Elijah was a scar on Elena's heart. He never faded.

So this is the end of the story. I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading, reviewing, following and favouriting the story as well as me as an author. I would also like to apologize for the late updates and the sad, probably disappointing for some of you ending. People in reviews asked me not to have Elijah killed but…the genre of the story was "Tragedy" so you've been warned about what you were getting into. Nonetheless, thank you and I hope you enjoyed the story. Cheers. xoxo