I don´t know people! This chapter really took me longer than I thought it would. I got planned out what scenes I wanted but when I sat down to write them – nothing! I hope you´ll still enjoy reading my nothing that turned into at least something :) At first we´ll have a look at how Elena´s doing in the present day and then it´s back to Damon. The Damon, Caroline, etc, scenes all take place on the day AFTER they first discovered that Elena is missing. I think that´s how I will start all of the upcoming chapters, first an Elena POV in the present and then the other POVs on the days after the abduction.
Chapter 2: Get it going
Elena´s POV
(present day)
Every time he comes into my room my breathing slows down. Which is strange, considering that I´m scared beyond belief right now. Shouldn´t my heart beat super fast, shouldn´t I be completely breathless from the anxiety? - Well I´m not.
Time just seems to stand still whenever I hear his slow footsteps coming in my direction. He´s never in a hurry, never trying to get over with his visits quickly. I don´t really think that he enjoys them but he´s acting like a robot that is just doing the task that it´s been programmed to do.
So I wait. Wait for him to open the door to my room. The door makes that ugly high pitched noise every single time, it must be really old. But it´s a much welcomed interruption of the silence that is starting to make even the thoughts in my head seem like they´re screaming at me in devastation.
I guess I´m so calm when he comes because it means that he hasn´t forgotten about me. That´s my biggest fear, that he´ll just leave me on my own in this room, stops feeding me, stops giving me water. That he will stop giving me the things I need to survive.
And also I´m getting used to the routine. Every evening (at least I think it must be evening outside) he comes and unties my hands. Then he gently, slowly rubs my wrist with some sort of lotion. I don´t know what exactly it does but I have indeed noticed that they´ve never been bleeding (I test that daily on my trip to the toilet by licking them) and rarely sore. Licking my wrists, searching for blood is vital for me. It´s this irrational belief that him taking care of my skin, making sure I´m not physically hurt means he still cares about me. Means that he won´t do anything to me, let me live.
Next there is our way to the bed. It took me days to figure out we weren´t just walking towards it straightly. No, we walk two circles around my room until he let´s me sit down on the edge of the little bed. The bed wasn´t there from day one. On the first night here I had to sit on the chair the entire time. Only on the next day did he come into my room and I only heard him dragging something that sounded heavy with him. That must have been my cot.
After I sit down, he removes my sweatpants and my hoody. I don´t think that before he abducted me he´s ever seen me without clothes on, but I got used to it and he never ever touches my underwear. He brought me clothes on my second day as well, non of my own ones, I could smell that they´ve been newly bought. He obviously didn´t plan all of this!
He supervised me as he brought me to the little toilet in the back of my room and instructed me to change that day. Of course – I still had the blindfold on but I never heard him shut the door of the restroom and also; I almost felt his stare on me as I did. In all honesty – I´m glad that he didn´t make me wear the clothes I was wearing when I first came here. I had planned on meeting with Damon that day so I had dressed extra nicely in skin tight jeans and a strapless top. Wouldn´t be so comfortable right now.
The strangest thing happens once I´m lying on my cot, on my back and after he has tied my legs to the edge of the metal bars holding my bed. Every night as I´m lying there he strokes my hair twice and kisses my forehead. And then he says "good night little girl". It´s the only time he ever talks, ever lets me know it´s really him and every single night it makes me cry. Because he says it so full of affection and sadness that it breaks my heart.
Sleep never comes easy to me after that but eventually it does. After all when I weak up in the morning, it´s obviously not because of bright sunshine tickling my face but him untying the ropes on my legs.
He brings me to the toilet, let´s me dress myself and then it´s back to the chair. I get breakfast which he feeds to me and then I have to wait. Wait for him to come back, give me something to drink or eat or let me go to the toilet again. I can´t recall in what order it happens, but I know that I would surely notice of he missed any of our appointments. And it would scare the living hell out of me. That´s why I never panic anymore when I hear him coming.
Damon`s POV:
(22 days prior)
Shit, this is not getting us anywhere. I never thought it would in the first place but Blondie can be pretty damn bossy when she wants to – not that that really surprised me!
Thank´s to her we´ve been looking through Elena´s phone for the last two hours. And she doesn´t allows us to do anything halfheartedly! So I´m reading all of the text messages she has ever send or received since she bought this phone. God, all these conversations about boys with her girlfriends and I can´t even enjoy them the slightest. If the circumstances were different this would be more than my fair share of daily amusement! I learned a lot of her preferences this way, too.
Like that she likes men shaved. And how she imagines a perfect first date. That could come quite handy one day... But then again. This weekend should have been our first date session. I wanted to spend time with her, carefree and far away from the seriousness of our every day lives.
I had planned to take her out, show just how much of a gentleman I could be – and then kiss her senseless! And now all I have of her is this fucking cellphone while she is held captive god knows where! The guilt is threatening to overwhelm me every second I look at the screen of the cursed device. She was so close to my car. And I was early. I should have seen her, should have helped her, just should have done something.
But I didn´t and now she has to pay the price for my utter failure. And all I can do for her, to help or just keep my self occupied so I don´t do anything stupid, is looking at her thousands of pictures, reading stuff that is non of my business.
What suddenly snaps me out of my miserable self pity moment is when after scrolling down her text messages I see the ones that she exchanged with her precious ex boyfriend. I feel the blood rushing to my face in anger just thinking about him. I tap the last message and start reading again.
He seemed to have called her cupcake. Lame as hell! Elena is a grown woman not something pink and sparkly you´d buy at the bakery. Even though nicknames are my specialty, I´ve never been into calling women food names. That´s ridiculous and something only those guys do who are probably more of a girly girl than they´re victim of nickname misuse! And after what that Stefan guy did to my girl, it´s obvious that he really isn´t anything close to a man. Mans don´t hurt women, that´s as easy as it gets.
Other than further egg on my disgust and hate for that guy. If I´d ever happen to see him again justice for damaging Elena´s perfect face would sure as hell not be the only thing I´d do! For a moment I revel in my violent fantasies involving him and me and a whole lot of unpleasant things I plan on doing to him but then I get a grip on myself. I´m better than that guy, I mean, not that I´d miss out on the opportunity on making sure he he learns EXACTLY how a woman should be treated, but I won´t let him pull me down to his level.
When Caroline suddenly rushes through the door and sits down next to me on the couch and asks me if I found out anything and I get to add a "I told you so" after the no I haven´t, I do it with less arrogance than I would usually have – after all I learned a few interesting facts by investigating Elena´s phone thanks to her order to do so.
She sighs shakily and buries her head in her hands. Suddenly I feel like an ass. I´ve always been good at pushing problems far away from me. Just joking about them, drinking a few shots of bourbon maybe and everything but being sensible and helpful.
The difference – important difference – is that all problems I had to face in my past were usually just my own problems. I don´t really do close relationships so when something went wrong and I was left picking up the damn pieces I could ignore all responsibilities and shut down without anyone else being hurt by it.
The only time when my actions actually have made a big impact (big bad one) on someone, I messed up so badly that Every few months I still have to drown a hell of a lot of guilt in parties and being even more of an ass than usual towards my roommate. The girl I hurt back then, I know she has recovered from it but I won´t ever get over the hollowness in her eyes those days.
But now – Elena is gone, she could be god knows where and all I´m doing is bickering about what nicknames her ex boyfriend used to call her by. So I do something that is about as much of a normal day occurrence for me as Micheal Jackson fangirling over Justin Bieber in whatever afterlife he´s in right now. I reach out for Caroline and pull her into my chest. She sobs silently and I try to be somewhat comforting towards her by awkwardly stroking over her hair a couple of times.
She seems to be appreciating the gesture since she snuggles closer and leans her head on my shoulder. But we can´t just sit here and cry. We need to do something, damn it! So before she can completely lose it I ask her what I should have the moment she walked through the door:
"How did it work out at the police station. When will they start searching for Lena?"
One more sob and then Caroline straightens herself up back into a sitting position. Thank god that she´s strong. Elena could have a made a whole lot of a worse choice regarding her best friend.
"She hasn´t been missing for 24 hours yet, but they agreed with me to start their search already. They said they wanted her phone and they´ll come here in about half an hour. So until then we have to make sure we are ready to answer all questions they may have regarding what she did yesterday in all necessary details."
I can´t help but roll my eyes. I stand up, raise my eyebrows and smile sarcastically; "So I guess that means we need little Gilbert? It´s getting better and better!"
Caroline just nods and raises up as well. Elena´s brother had fled about two hours ago to get their aunt Jenna. I´m not sure what it´ll help to have even more desperate and panicked estrogen running around here but it seems like they are sure we need it. And since Jeremy didn´t want to tell her the news on the phone and also he was conserned about her driving when she was so worried about Elena and blah, blah, blah – well he just said bye and drove away. Great help that guy!
And since wherever Aunt Jenna was right now seemed to be about an hour and a half away there was no way they´d be here in half an hour to help the police. Which simply meant that everything would have to wait again and that meant it would take longer till anything could be done.
It takes me more than a little bit of self control not to slam my fist through the wall right now. All I want is to see my girl, as fast and soon as humanly possible. This is all so wrong and I´m damn tired of sitting around here and not being able to really do anything. I want to find her, and all the while I´m expected to restrain from even looking for her.
"I need to get out of here Caroline. I – this doesn´t make sense, I think I´m losing it if I´m locked in here for much longer!" I can hear my own voice break in the middle of the sentence and hate myself for being so weak. After all I´m a grown man, I´m supposed to be under control and hold it together right now. But she understands. Her eyes are full of concern, not only for Elena but also for me.
I gotta treat her more nicely, that´s for sure.
"It´s ok Damon, I can handle it. I´ll stay here and deal with the police. Just make sure that you are able to help me when you come back – don´t shut down right now, we need you. Elena needs you to function right now!"
She´s right. I owe it to my girl to be able to control myself. I need to stay calm but for that I first have to take a break and clear my head. So without getting even more worked up by trying to find the right words to thank Caroline and tell her I appreciate her and that I´m more than glad that she´s here, I just squeeze her arm and hope she understands.
Once I´m outside I start running. I haven´t really moved much since yesterday and now that I can finally do something about it I really feel all the pent-up energy inside of me. I run and run and run and slowly I feel more and more calm.
Running has always helped me to get a new perspective and a better outlook on things. A better outlook on what´s really important. And right now the only thing that´s important is doing whatever I can to help find Elena. I don´t need to be the hero, don´t need to be the one who discovers her first. All that matters is that in the end I can hold my girl in my arms and tell her that I´ll never let her out of sight again, that next time I won´t mess up again. I just want a fucking chance to prove that I won´t mess up like that ever again!
But if I want to be helpful I can´t think about who has her, if they hurt her and if she is scared and alone right now. I gotta concentrate on my job here. And I´ll have to make sure that Caroline doesn´t break down entirely. Good. That´s a plan. A plan always helps and I feel able again – able to face reality.
So I slow down. I go back and look down at my wrist watch. It´s noon, the police should be here every minute. When I open the door to Elena´s home to which I now have a key I an see the relief on Caroline´s face. She might have said that she could deal with the cops on her own but that was clearly not fair to her.
She offers me a small smile and holds up a cup. "Some more coffee?" I nod breathlessly and sit down at the kitchen aisle. The hot, steaming liquid helps me to focus some more and when the bell rings to reveal this shit is going to get real I feel more anxiously expectant than scared. Sure – My relationship to cops has not been the best during my past but hey! It´s not about me this time and that´ll help to face them with less prejudice on my side. Let´s see. So I wait while Caroline hurriedly sets down her own cup of coffee on the counter. I watch her straighten her top once more and the slightly panicked look in her eyes tells me that she is just as anxious as I am – even if it´s probably for very different reasons.
Caroline´s POV:
Two uniformed men enter the hallway and my hearts keeps beating so, so fast. I´m scared that I´ll do something wrong. That I´ll forget an important detail while talking to them. That because of me they might not be able to find her. I want to do everything right but their looks are so distant and yes – I know that these two have probably done this many times already even in such a small town as Mystic Falls, that they´ve seen it all. So I´m more than relieved when I see my mom walking through the door behind them. She´s not in her uniform, she most likely had plans for the weekend that didn´t include working.
But she still came – for me and for Elena who has pretty much been like a second daughter to her ever since Elena and I built our first sandcastle together in nursery school. At times I´ve been jealous because of their good relationship but now I couldn´t be happier for it. And suddenly I feel guilty that I didn´t even stop by at her place when I dropped Elena of. She is my mum and looks so worried right now.
"Mummy!" I softly exhale and quickly let her close her arms around me in a reassuring hug. It´s so good to have her here. She will know what to do. I haven´t really ever been interested in her work in the past but I know she´s good at what she´s doing.
"I got a message that one of the Gilbert children was reported missing. So I came here as fast as I could. Why didn´t you just tell me right away. The officers said you already knew for almost 24 hours. I´m sure I could have done something." she sounds a bit disappointed but even stronger than that there is sadness so very evident in her voice. She´s sad that I didn´t trust her enough to come to her.
I want to apologize, really. But I don´t know what to say to her so I´m kind of relieved when one of the officers behind us clears his throat, reminding us why we´re all here in the first place. So we both let go of each other and I walk everyone to the kitchen.
Damon is stilling sitting on the same spot were I left him. He looks different right now. I´m only used to the cocky player Damon Salvatore who fell for my best friend. But now he´s nervously tapping his fingers on the counter and the look on his face tells me he´s anywhere but in the Gilbert kitchen at the moment. So before entering the room I try to call out his name as softly as possible, haoping to snap him out of his current state of mind.
His head quickly snaps towards me and for a second, barely visible, he looks so lost, like he has no idea what he´s supposed to do. HE needs a hug, clearly and as soon as the people leave I´ll give him one. He´s not as much of an ass as he might think he is. He is a good guy and I know he feels guilty for what happened.
At least he seems to get his shit together now since he hops of the bar stool and shakes hands with the two officers and my mum. When he introduces himself as Damon Salvatore, Elena´s boyfriend my mum looks at me more than a little bit confused.
I just shrug my shoulders. Now is not the time to explain all of that crap. And before she can say or ask anything the officers already start their interrogation.
We have to answer questions for hours. At first it´s quite easy (appearance, age, courses at college, friends) but not too long into the "conversation" it start´s to become a little more tricky.
For example the questions of what Elena did yesterday and the day before that. We have no idea and when they ask who lived in this house with her we can only say names and that non of them is anywhere near. Whenever I look at one of them, I clearly see the frustration in their faces. The only thing holding them back from getting indignant towards us,who are everything but helpful at the moment, is probably my mum standing next to us, I suppose.
It´s really good she´s here!
When they seem to be done with their game of 20/20 we politely (well Damon is not that polite) have them sit down and wait in the living room while we assure them that Jeremy and Jenna will probably be here in less than an hour. They don´t look happy but probably don´t ave a better idea than waiting for them either.
I hate that they don´t know what to do. They´re just sitting their on Elena´s couch and eat the sandwiches they brought. I hate how they don´t seem to be bothered at all that Elena is gone. Have they done this whole procedure so many times that abducted people are not more than routine? All I want right now is shake them, kick them, make them do something. Anything but nothing really.
My mum stays in the kitchen with us and after serving her some coffee she sighs exhausted. "I´m sorry that this isn´t going faster. I wish I could do anything to speed it up but that is just the way it works. We have to trust that everything will work out in the end!"
I know she is just trying to help and encourage us not to lose faith but when I hear Damon mutter something like "Don´t care about going faster, want it to go at all" I can totally relate to that. But she´s my mum and yeah – she just wants to protect me. I guess she must have thought about how it would be if I was the one to be missing by now.
My mother is not a very emotional woman, she is strong and usually quite distant. So her behavior now means a lot. Means that she´s scared and overwhelmed by the situation. Like all of us are.
Well – everyone but the two lovely men in the living room who are still eating lunch and have the impudence to make jokes about their last arrest. Idiots!
We are all more than just a little bit relieved when we hear a key unlocking the front door and Jeremy walks in with a red-eyed Jenna right behind him. As soon as she sees me and my mum and the officers she sobs twice before she can get herself back under control.
She hugs us all, even Damon who looks slightly disturbed by it. "I – I shouldn´t have left." she whispers once she is done. "This is all my fault."
"No, Jenna. Non of this is your fault ok!" I quickly reassure her. "It´s only the fault of the person who abducted her."
The officers seem to finally get going now as they sit down with her and ask her the same questions that we weren´t able to answer earlier.
We hear things that are new to me as well. Like that Jenna and Alaric had a pretty bad fight the day before and that the Gilbert boys had reacted more than bad when they heard the news of Elena and her ex boyfriend who was going all Muhammad Ali.
The cops exchange a serious look when they hear those news and I see that one of them writes down something on his notebook.
"So" he slowly says. "Do any of you have any theories of what could have happened yesterday. I mean, we´re obviously going to investigate in every direction possible but – we´d like to hear your opinion."
I lock eyes with Damon. This morining we had a pretty serious conversation. It had taken place just before Jeremy had left and for all these hours we stuck with our decision.
We all agreed not to think about the who. I´m sure we all thought the same thing but we also knew it would drive us crazy to really imagin it. So we decided to wait until it became necessary to form any kind of theories or ideas.
Seems like now is the moment. And when I see Damon slightly nodding I take a deep breath.
"We think it´s Stefan Salvatore who waited for Elena in the forest and abducted her. We think he´s holding her somewhere against her will right now. It was Stefan, I´m sure."
Whoo, over with it. I think that Damon and Caroline are like destined to be friends and even though on the show they seem to rather hate each other, I think sooner or later they´re gonna figure out that the show-Stefan is a little more than JUST a buddy and then she´ll need someone new!
I´ll go on holiday again tomorrow and even though I hope I´ll be able to write, I´m can´t promise anything. But I´ll be back on Sunday and then their will be at least one more chapter till my school starts again.
If you want to make me happy, leave a review below :)