Second to last chapter!(i think). I don't think this was the best but it accomplished what I needed it to so it's okay.
The last person Matt expected to see when he got home was Damon Salvatore-but that was exactly who he found sitting on the couch facing the entrance to the living room, black-clad legs stretched out in front of him and polished leather boots propped up on the coffee table.
"Hey, Donovan," the elder Salvatore greeted him in a falsely friendly tone, a single corner of his pale mouth turned up in a half-sneer. "Did you miss me?"
Matt stopped in his tracks, skin prickling uncomfortably. Elena had told him that Damon was back from the dead-and that he was back to being his old murderous self-but Matt hadn't thought he would come after him. He hadn't even thought he would be able to get into town to do so.
The things we don't know can hurt us
"Damon," Matt returned the greeting in a tone of forced calm, hoping Damon wouldn't be able to see his hands trembling at his sides. "What do you want?"
Damon leaned forward, a familiar distinctly predatory look in his blue eyes-which, Matt noticed, were glowing like nothing he had ever seen before.
"There's something I need you to do for me back at your old house, and I thought I'd ask you in person," he answered, still in that deceptively casual voice.
Matt wasn't fooled by it, though; whatever Damon was "asking" him to do, it couldn't be anything good-and he wasn't very keen on finding that out the hard way.
"And if I say no?" he retorted, clenching his jaw and preparing himself to put up a fight-however futile that might be.
Damon didn't look at all fazed by his answer; in fact, he looked almost as if he'd been expecting it.
"You haven't met my friend Enzo yet, have you?" he said, raising two of his gloved fingers and gesturing at something behind Matt. He heard the sound of rushing air and, when he turned around, he found himself staring up into the merciless black eyes of another, olive-skinned vampires.
Enzo, as Matt assumed he was, shot him a distinctly wolfish smile and added, "I'm the one who gets people to do things they don't want to do-and you're going to go back to your old house if I have to drag you there by your ankles. So, what's it gonna be?"
The former quarterback swallowed hard. His instinct was to get the hell out of there, but he knew there was no point-Damon and his friend would probably catch him in a heartbeat-so it looked like he had no choice except to do what they wanted.
"Fine," he surrendered, trying to sound as though he wasn't terrified of whatever they had planned. He steeled himself and headed back toward the front door. "Let's get it over with, then."
His back was turned so he didn't see the two vampires share a vicious smile as they fell into step behind him.
He hadn't been back to his old house since Tyler had given him his-except to grab all of his clothes and things when he was moving in-but he'd never thought he'd dread coming back.
Then again, he'd never thought he'd have two vampires forcing him to return, either.
He didn't know what to expect when he pulled out his keys and unlocked the door-but he found out he was right to be afraid. The second he crossed over the threshold, he was hurled across the room by an unearthly blast of frigid air that chilled him to the bone and made it impossible to struggle.
He cried out with a mix of pain and shock when his back collided with the far wall and his head thrashed back involuntarily. His panic grew even more when Damon blurred and appeared directly in front of him, eyes blazing cold fire.
"What the he-?" Matt started to yell, but he was cut off by a sudden agonizing cold that spread thickly throughout his insides and froze his vocal chords, rendering him unable to form words. The only thing he could do was watch as Damon removed the glove from one of his hands and pressed it hard against the base of his throat.
At first, Matt didn't understand what he was doing-but then, he felt the cold start to worsen, and, when he looked down, he saw ice blooming around Damon's hand and spreading rapidly over his neck and chest.
A bloodcurdling scream erupted out of his mouth as the sensation of the ice tearing ruthlessly through his skin overcame everything. He could feel it puncturing his arteries and freezing the blood in his veins so oxygen couldn't make it to his lungs. It made him so cold that he lost the ability to move; he could hardly even breathe.
However, he was still able to see Damon's friend approaching him as well, a sadistic smile on his thin lips as he extended one of his own gloved hands toward Matt and Matt's eyes went wide when red-black motes sprayed from his fingertips, making the ice expand even quicker and further when they made contact with it.
A violent shiver rattled the human's entire body, and he clenched his teeth against the crippling, all-consuming pain. So, this was what freezing to death felt like; of all the ways he thought he would die, this had never been one of them. Killed by a vampire, sure-but definitely not like this.
As the ice covered more of his body, slowly, but surely, he began to lose all of the feeling in his body. It became harder and harder to draw breath; his vision began to blur, and, because of what Enzo was doing, steadily became darker and darker until he could barely see.
He slumped to the ground a few seconds later, frozen in the fetal position and unable to even catch himself. The last thing he saw before his vision faded completely was Damon and Enzo standing over him without a single trace of pity.
Damon watched as frost covered Matt from head to toe, turning every inch of flesh mottled blue with cold, and found that he didn't feel a single ounce of remorse. He'd wanted to kill this boy for so long; Matt Donovan was, quite honestly, the most useless person he'd ever met. It was only thanks to the protection of all of his supernatural friends that he'd survived this long. If Elena and Stefan hadn't stopped him so many times before, Damon would have drained the quarterback dry a long time ago.
There was no one to get in his way this time, though; Enzo was the only one around and they both needed Matt Donovan to die for their shared goal. His time was finally up.
Damon found himself smirking with satisfaction as the blonde human's last breath was forced from his lungs, and he crumped in on himself, looking like someone who'd gotten caught out in a bad blizzard.
Smirk widening, Damon bent down and patted Matt's corpse mockingly on the arm.
"Don't worry, Matty," he whispered into the dead man's ear in a tone of feigned reassurance. "Your death was for a good cause. You can be sure of that."
He heard Enzo chuckle as he straightened up and put his glove back on. He felt there should be something happening now-and he wasn't disappointed.
"Enzo," he said when he saw something move underneath the dead man, tone changing as he grabbed his partner's shoulder, eyes lasering in on the spot of floor there.
It begins
Enzo looked in the same direction just in time to see a section of the white tile morph into what looked almost like a trap door-but there was a lock on it.
The younger vampire's forehead creased.
"Why isn't it open?" he wondered with unconcealed consternation. "I thought killing this bloke was the last seal."
Damon poked his tone into his cheek. He didn't have an answer.
But something else did.
There is still one last thing you need to do
That voice, the same voice from their visions, the one they'd heard during the rituals to awaken Enzo's powers and locate the Chrysalis, suddenly filled both of their heads, blocking out all other sounds.
You need the male doppelganger
Luckily, he is coming to you.
Stefan was inside the Forbes' residence with the blonde vampire and Elena, discussing what their first move in finding out what Damon was up to, when, all of a sudden, a deep rumbling voice came unbidden into his mind, blocking out the two women.
If you want to know what your brother is doing, go to the Donovans' house-and go alone.
Another frown line appeared on his already extremely overcrowded forehead, and a shiver went down his spine. Something strange was definitely going on with him; first, he'd felt that shift in the air when he'd returned to town, and now he was hearing voices.
His first thought was that both those things must have something to do with his being a doppelganger-but, when he looked at Elena, she didn't appear to be sharing in this phenomena like she had the last one. So, perhaps they were actually two separate things, he posited-assuming that that voice had been real and not just a hallucination or a hoax.
Whatever the case, he needed to know what was going on.
Deciding to take a chance, he took a sharp breath and got to his feet, causing Caroline and Elena to cut off.
"I'm going to go back to the boarding house," Stefan lied, tucking a hand into his jacket pocket. "Maybe Damon will be there, and I can somehow get him to reveal why he's doing all of this."
Only you
Neither of the other two vampires seemed to suspect that he wasn't telling them the truth because they let him go without a fuss. "Okay," Elena said, nodding her agreement with his plan. "That could work. But be careful, Stefan."
"I will," Stefan assured her, deliberately not mentioning that it probably wouldn't matter if he was careful or not; if Damon wanted to hurt him, he would, and there was nothing anyone would be able to do about it.
With that sobering thought, he turned and exited the Forbes' residence, starting to make his way toward the Donovans'.
Dreading what he might find-but knowing he needed to get there sooner than later, he drove faster than he normally would. He probably broke a few speed limits on the way, but he got there in record time.
When he arrived, he could see right away that there was something off. For one thing, the front door was wide open-and, for another, the entirety of what Stefan could see of the inside of the house was blanketed in frost and shadows.
He sped out of his car without stopping to think-or properly close his doors-hurtling into the house with his heart pounding in his ears.
Enter your grave
Well, the voice turned out to be right. Damon was there-but he wasn't alone. Enzo was by his side, and lying at his feet was a frozen-and clearly dead-Matt Donovan.
"Welcome, brother," Damon greeted him brightly as Stefan's eyes widened. "We've been waiting for you."
"What did you do?" Stefan demanded instead of responding, running over to the human's corpse and examining it with a horrified expression.
Enzo and Damon shared a look behind him, and Enzo rolled his eyes expressively.
"We made a necessary sacrifice," the British vampire stated bluntly, his voice characteristically unrepentant. "You'll be thanking us when we finish what we're doing and the world no longer looks at us as something to hate and kill."
Stefan's (pretty much permanent) frown deepened with confusion.
"What are you talking about? What are you trying to do?" he questioned, eyes shifting over to Enzo.
Damon stepped forward, waving his gloved hand in a dismissive gesture.
"It doesn't matter," the elder Salvatore declared. "Because you hate what you are, and wouldn't go along with it, as usual." He paused-then suddenly, he was right in front of Stefan, hand closing around his throat, lifting him off his feet and slamming back against the frozen wall.
"You know, somehow it seems like we always end up back here: me on one side of a fight, and you on the other," he mused conversationally, as if Stefan wasn't currently struggling for breath in his clutches.
He leaned in close, steel-blue eyes like shards of ice beneath his thick ebony lashes and breath creating icicles on his brother's lips as he continued.
"This time, Stef, you're on the wrong side," he intoned, voice dropping to barely above a whisper as his upper lip curled with disdain. "You remember what I did to you back in that bunker? Get in my way again, and I'll make that look like child's play. I'm not fucking around anymore, brother; any protectiveness I felt toward you evaporated the second I found out you gave up on me-so, I suggest you back off-because if I don't kill you, someone else will. And they won't be nearly as merciful as me."
With that, he yanked his hand back, dropping Stefan gracelessly onto the floor.
Stefan crumpled pitifully at his feet, grasping at his throat and coughing hard as ice continued to crawl up his neck, freezing the air in his windpipe. Black spots danced before his eyes as he tried-but failed-desperately to get oxygen back into his lungs.
Damon took a step toward him again with deliberate slowness, like a predator advancing on his prey. Stefan saw him raise his hand like a dagger, and, before he could move, his nails cut across Stefan's throat, knocking him out completely.
At the same time that Stefan fell unconscious, as his head hit the floor, the lock on the trap door shattered, and the door flew open, revealing a cavern-like passageway that seemed to be lined with some kind of phosphorescence.
A doorway to another world
Damon stepped away from his brother, eyes widening fractionally at that sight. He didn't know what he'd expected to see, but it definitely hadn't been that.
On the other side of the room, Enzo let out an impressed whistle.
"Now there's something you don't see every day," he commented, sounding both wary and excited at the same time. He looked over at Damon, arching one of his dark eyebrows. "I guess we're going down there?"
Damon took a slow, measured breath, inching closer to the door so that he could peer further into the tunnel.
He could see the thread again, and this time it was pulsating, as if to let him know that they were closer than ever before. This was it: the resting place of the Chrysalis.
"I do believe we are," he replied truthfully. He looked back over his shoulder to meet Enzo's gaze, holding out one of his gloved hands and adding in a reassuring tone, "Together, like we've been doing all of this."
The statement made Enzo smile, and he strode up to the trap door, taking Damon's hand and allowing himself to be lead. Knowing that he had Damon with him for all of this-that Damon was only doing all of this because it was what he'd wanted-lessened his fear greatly. Whatever they found, they were in this together.
The way it should be
"Lead the way," he said to his partner, inclining his head.
Damon gave his hand a light squeeze, then, gripping it tight, he leaped down into the cavern in a single fluid motion, taking Enzo with him.
