Chapter 25 ~ Tortured

The next morning after Halloween, couldn't have come quick enough for Damon. He had barely rested during the night and was physically as well as mentally exhausted. He made himself a pot of coffee and drank the whole thing before leaving the house.

Damon arrived at the Sheriff's office that day, just before nine. He was escorted by a deputy into the Sheriff's office to wait for her.

Sheriff Forbes walked in, surprised to find Damon there so early in the morning.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Salvatore?" she inquired curiously.

Damon smirked at her, laying on his usual charm. "I was just wondering how things have been around town lately?

"Why? Have you heard something?"

"No, nothing like that. I just figured with Halloween last night, you never know what kind of strange things might have happened."

The sheriff shook her head. "Nothing here in town, but a couple towns away there have been a couple of mysterious animal attacks in the past few days."

Damon was bothered by this news. He knew that the attacks were probably from a vampire or perhaps more than one, which was unsettling since Vella was missing. He thanked Liz for her help and asked her to let him know if there was any news, she made him promise to let her know if he heard anything.

Damon went home to let his brother know what he had learned. His brother in turn called Elena, who told Alaric, who had still been at the house. Alaric, hearing the news, drove over to the boarding house to see what he could do to help.

Damon was so worried and distraught, he could barely think straight. It was Stefan who suggested that Damon and Alaric drive to the town the attacks happened in, so they could investigate. Stefan wanted to stick around and make sure Mystic Falls was protected while they were gone.

Since it was the only possible lead they had, Alaric and Damon headed to the town with the mysterious attacks. They checked out the locations of the attacks, but all they managed to figure out was that it had been a vampire.

On the drive home, Alaric finally asked the question that had been bothering him all day. "What would vampires want with Vella? She doesnt have any enemies, does she?"

Damon knew Vella didn't have any enemies, but he knew who did, him. A deep pang of guilt suddenly washed through him, he would never forgive himself if something happened to her because of him and his past. He never answered Alaric's question either, but Alaric knew not to push him, he was looking frantic and deadly, so he left it alone.

Neither Alaric or Damon said another word to each other the whole ride back to the boarding house. Alaric dropped Damon off and headed back home.

Damon went up to his room when he got home. He looked around at all the things that reminded him of Vella. Her clothes from the night before were still laying on the bed, from when she changed into her costume. Her make up kit was still sitting open on the long dresser. Her purple silk robe was still hanging on the back of the door and the scent of her was all over the room. Damon looked around at everything, feeling devastated, like something large was sitting on his chest making it difficult to breathe. He slumped down on to the bed with his head in his hands and let a couple of silent tears roll down his face.

"This is my fault," Damon began muttering to himself quietly.

Damon's heart was breaking. What had began as a dull ache, was now so painful he wanted to die. He hadn't really realized until today, how much he really loved Vella and couldn't live without her.

Damon sat on the bed feeling pitiful for a short time, before getting up to pace around the room feeling frantic and lost. He tried to think of anyone who would want revenge on him, but the list was so long he didn't think he would ever narrow it down.
As the day turned to evening and the sun was going down, Damon was laying on his bed half way between awake and asleep. He had been spending his time reliving all of the moments he had shared with Vella, when suddenly he had an epiphany.

Damon ran down the stairs to find his brother sitting on the couch reading a book.

"I think I know who might have done something to Vella," Damon began to explain. He looked at his brother trying to say it out loud, but he found he couldn't.

Stefan looked at his brother with concern. "Who?"

"You aren't going to like my answer, brother."

"It can't possibly be that bad, can it?" Stefan asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Remember when I went out of town to get Vella's necklace?"

Stefan nodded.

"The woman I got it from told me that Katherine didn't want me to have it."

"Katherine!" Stefan exclaimed. "You think Katherine had something to do with this?"

Damon could feel his brother's panic now as well as his own. Neither one of the brother's ever thought they would see Katherine again, nor did they want to.

"But why, Damon? Why, Vella? Why now?" Stefan asked, knowing his brother would have no idea.

Damon looked at Stefan with a look of fierce determination. "I don't know, but if she hurts Vella, she's going to wish she had never met me."

Stefan laid his hand on his brother's shoulder. "You and me both, Damon."

The silence that followed this exchange between the brothers was as powerful as words. Both of them understood exactly how the other felt at this moment, no words were needed.

Now that they knew who they were possibly looking for, it would make it a bit easier to search for clues.

Damon and Stefan made sure their cell phones were charged up and left the house to search for clues. Damon called Alaric and let him know what they were up to and to make sure that he would keep an eye on Elena and her family while they were out on the hunt, which he agreed to do.

The brothers began by searching at opposite ends of town, Damon took the North and East and Stefan took the South and West. They began by searching for old or abandoned buildings and any other type of building that a vampire would be able to occupy without having to be invited in.

As Stefan made his way towards the south part of town, he came upon a bunch of warehouses and old buildings to search. The first three buildings he came up empty. but as he approached the fourth, walking through a copse of trees, he found a discarded cell phone. Picking up the phone, he examined it carefully. He thought it looked like Vella's, but he wasn't sure.

Stefan pulled his cell phone out of the pocket in his black jeans and dialed Vella's cell phone number. Almost immediately the discarded phone began to rang and the call display read; 'Stefan's cell.'

Stefan, excited by the clue he had just found, flipped open his phone to call Damon and let him know what he had found, but before he finished dialing his number, something hit him from behind that sent him flying. Stefan landed face down in a bunch of grass and weeds, as he tried getting up to see who had attacked him, everything went black, he was unconscious.

When Stefan became conscious again, he had a hard time opening his eyes, they felt heavy. He tried moving around a bit, but soon realized he was chained up to something by his arms. His arms were chained and he was slightly hanging, his feet barely touching the floor. He managed to open his eyes slightly, taking some time to focus in the darkened room. Glancing forward from where he was chained, he realized he was in an empty warehouse. As he tried to struggle loose of the chains that were binding him, he heard sound coming from beside him. With some effort, Stefan managed to get his feet flat on the floor, twisting around to look for what was making the noise, to his shock and dismay, it was Vella.

Vella was hanging by some heavy chains as he was, only she was able to touch the floor with flat feet. She was hunched over slightly and looked unconscious. Her skin was so pale and dry looking and she had several wooden stakes protruding from various places on her body, dried blood was staining her clothes, which was the old wedding dress she had been wearing as a costume the night she disappeared. She was quietly moaning in pain.

"Vella?" Stefan whispered. "Can you hear me?"

Stefan repeated this a few times, but Vella never answered him, so he decided to save his strength.

It was a short while later, when a door, almost directly in front of Stefan, about 100 feet away, opened and three dark figures walked into the room. They walked closer and closer to him, until they stood about ten feet away.

"I'm so glad you're awake, Stefan," called the voice, which Stefan immediately recognized as Katherine's. "My boys usually get carried away with the vervain."

Stefan was stunned, he wasn't sure what to say or do. It had been 146 years since he had last seen Katherine and he had hoped to never see her again.

Katherine walked closer to Stefan, stopping about a foot away. "It's a shame things have to be this way," she said in an eerily quiet voice. "But you got in my way." She stuck her hand into a bag one of her minions was holding and pulled out a long wooden stake, pausing for a second, she then thrust it deep into the soft flesh in Stefan's upper left thigh.

Stefan screamed out in agony. Even in the darkness, Stefan could see Katherine was smiling with pleasure at his pain.

"Awww, I bet that hurt, didn't it?" Katherine taunted. "The vervain on the end helps. As you can see, Vella seems to have liked it."

Stefan looked away from Katherine for a moment, glancing at Vella, who seemed to be moaning a bit more now, then looked back at Katherine.

"Why are you doing this?" Stefan asked through gritted teeth.

"That's simple," she replied with an evil grin. "Because it's fun."

"But why hurt, Vella? What did she ever do to you?"

Katherine looked over at Stefan, glancing over at Vella then back to Stefan again. "She didn't do anything, but Damon did."

"I don't understand."

Katherine laughed evilly. "Why does she matter to you, Stefan? Is your brother sharing her with you, like he did me all those years ago?"

Stefan narrowed his eyes at her angrily.

"Oh no, did I offend you?' she asked sarcastically, enjoying the taunting immensely. "You were always so sensitive, Stefan. I see time hasn't changed anything."

Stefan just glared at Katherine angrily, not able to get any words out.

Katherine stood still for a minute just glaring at Stefan, until Vella began to stir.

"Ah, now comes play time," she said happily as she walked over to Vella, grabbing her by her hair. "Guess who is here with you, my dear?"

Vella's eyes opened wide, looking hopeful. She tried looking around but Katherine pulled her hair backwards, forcing her head up.

"Stop it!" Stefan yelled. "Leave her alone!"

Vella's look of hope was dashed when she heard Stefan's voice.

Katherine began to cackle maniacally. "Aww too bad it wasn't Damon, but this will be almost as fun." She stuck her hand out at one of her minions, who in turn handed her another stake, which she drove straight into Vella's left shoulder.

Vella screamed weakly, having little strength for much else.

Katherine turned her head to watch the look on Stefan's face as she drove the stake through Vella. The look of pain on his face made her squeal in delight.

Stefan was now livid. He couldn't stand to be here and watch while Katherine tortured Vella, he needed to get out of here, the quicker the better. He tried to break the chains, but he knew they were made of iron and there was no chance he would ever be able to break them.

Katherine watched Stefan carefully as he struggled to get out of his chains, completely amused. She watched until she was bored and then without another word, her and her minions walked out the same door they had come from.

Stefan looked over at Vella hoping she was still awake. "Vella?"

Vella moved slightly and moaned. It took alot of effort but she managed a whispered, "What?"

"Are you okay?"

All Vella could do was moan in reply, she had no strength for anything else and she was in too much pain.

"I swear I will get us out of this," Stefan promised, even if he wasn't sure how he would.

It was a few hours later when Katherine returned to have some more fun torturing Vella. Stefan did his best to anger her, so she would torture him instead, but Katherine didn't fall for it. She was getting too much pleasure out of his misery and if he wasn't alert it wouldn't be as much fun for her.

Katherine continued her visits every few hours or so for the next day. Vella's face was becoming even more sunken and gray now and she had stakes protruding from almost every place on her body. She no longer screamed as Katherine would plunge them into her body, she was too debilitated to make anything more than quiet moans and whimpers. The only thing that kept Katherine entertained was Stefan's distress.

Stefan wasn't sure how much more he could take before he went insane, he prayed Damon would find them soon.

A/N: I was going to wait to post this chapter, but I changed my mind. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

Thanks for reading!