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On with the chapter.

New things will be revealed!

Damon thought that things were going to get better. But unfortunately, they didn't. It was fake hope he had in all honesty, because who would expect a seventeen year old girl to feel better days after being brutally raped?

After their little talk, Elena had turned to worse. It seemed like the numbness and calmness inside her passed and it turned to horror, nightmares and sorrow. She kept throwing up the food he gave her, her body was still bleeding and bruised, and she kept waking up screaming every night, her forehead glistening with perspiration.

The worst of all though was the fact that she kept refusing to talk to him. It seemed that after their little talk she shut him out completely, telling him that she was tired, hurt and had no chance of ever surviving.

But Damon wasn't going to let her give up. Not now, when he had seen what she has been through.

Yet a small part of him was scolding him. This was a common feeling in Damon, to be in this constant battle between right and wrong, but this time it wasn't that he was feeling bad for caring about a little human. No, that had been the right thing to do. In fact, ever since he went against Wes he felt freer. As if he was finally experiencing what freedom felt like.

He couldn't be controlled by his past anymore. And even though he could never find peace until he got his revenge, he knew that he couldn't hurt Elena anymore.

He took out a photograph from his back pocket, entitled "Kimberly Salvatore". A tear slipped down from his eye as he held the photo in his hands shakily.

"Let's play hide and seek, daddy!"

"Okay little bird, I'm going to give you a five second head start!"

"Okay!"

"1…2…3….4…5! Ready or not, here I come!"

Damon could hear the girl laughing, but he had to act that his little girl was great in hiding.

"Where's my little Kimberly? You are so going to lose…"

I was the one who lost, Damon added mentally as he stopped himself from thinking anymore. He had sworn that he would get his revenge for her sake, but even if he did, he wasn't getting her back.

It was no use, trying to forget Kimberly and his loving wife. He had tried that several times but it always failed after a few years. Even if he tried to let this Guardian mission take over him, nothing could help him fight the constant feelings of loneliness he felt when he was alone.

He stopped when he heard Elena's whimper of pain. Everything had been difficult for her, even breathing.

How was he to help her fight her demons when he was always concealing his own?

Tired of hearing Elena in pain, Damon took a couple of steps towards her bedroom before hesitantly opening her door. She was lying there, breathing with major difficulty. She raised a little bit when she saw him, but the pain in her lower body stopped her.

"What are you doing here?"

"No more," Damon said simply. "You don't deserve to stay in that bed. You deserve to be healthy."

"It's too late for that, Damon."

"No, it's not."

"You wouldn't understand. You haven't been through what I've been through."

Damon grabbed a chair and sat by her bed, calmly. "That maybe, but I have demons of my own, Elena."

"You're always saying that, yet I can't understand what demons you could ever have. You're immortal. You can never die, get sick or end up bankrupt…"

"Life is not easy, Elena. Not even for a vampire."

Elena looked at him in confusion.

"You wanted to get to know me once. I'm willing to share my story with you, if you want me to." He moved closer to her, wanting to check her injuries, but he didn't dare to touch her.

"Why?"

"No reason." Damon told her.

Elena nodded, biting her lip.

"I've been a vampire for over a hundred years, Elena," He started, clearing his throat. "I met a wonderful woman, who turned out to be a vampire, we fell in love and she turned me. I wanted to spend forever with her."

He shifted a little, uncomfortably. "Katherine was a great woman. She was incredibly selfless, caring and loving. She didn't feed on humans, instead she fed on animal blood and tried hard not to hurt anyone. She taught me that even though we were both vampires, we didn't have to be monsters. She told me that the main reason she wanted me to turn was to live forever, and not to hurt others. I started to control my bloodlust and things were going great. I had my family on my side, a nice house to live in, health and most of all, Katherine."

Elena inspected Damon carefully. He was not looking at her now, instead he seemed to have drifted off.

"I popped the question. I asked Katherine to marry me, telling her that just because we weren't humans didn't mean that we couldn't build a normal life together. We just wanted to be human with the exception that we could live forever. That's all," He told her, "Was it really too much to ask for?"

Elena didn't say anything.

"We got married and moved in to a house close to my parents. Yet we knew that we couldn't keep our secret from them forever, so I told them. It didn't go well at first, but they accepted it as time went on. However, we didn't want the entire town to know what we are, and because we never age we had to move into a new town. We tried to be normal. Through some compulsion, because women were not treated how they are today, Katherine managed to get a job as a teacher while I worked in an office. It was a normal, happy life. Then, one day I returned home from work and saw her crying."

"What happened to her?"

"She felt that something in our life was missing. Children," He added quickly. "Katherine wanted a child, desperately. We had discussed it countless of times before, and went to a lot of witches to help us procreate, but it was useless. I hated seeing her so hurt, so we decided to keep trying. We turned into the darkest of magic, in hope that we succeeded. And we did. Katherine was finally pregnant with a baby girl, Kimberly Salvatore."

"That's why you knew first aid…" Elena exclaimed, "That's why you knew how to help my sister."

"Yes," Damon told her. "Even though first aid courses weren't really available in my time, we did our best to make sure Kimberly has a healthy life. Katherine used to say that we were selfish for deciding to bring Kimberly into this world when she was surely going to end up like us, moving around and unable to settle down in one house or town. But then I'd remind her that Kim will be loved with this immortal, vampire heart."

He took a deep breath. "Soon, our world changed. We were happy…Katherine and I did everything you humans would do."

"That seems like a nice life," Elena closed her eyes, trying to imagine Damon as a married man with a kid. She couldn't.

"It was," Damon agreed, "Until a teenage girl knocked on our door one night, when Kim was five. She was wet and cold in the rain, and obviously my compassion forced me to invite her inside. Katherine liked her too and we offered her shelter as she said she was a teenage runaway who was abused severely at home. She showed us the burns on her wrists and the bruises on her body and I was quick to help her."

He cleared his throat. "She started to live with us because I insisted. Katherine accepted her as well, but then at times Katherine would tell me that she sensed that something's not right. Even Kim cried a lot around her. Then once, Katherine wasn't at home. I was dressing Kimberly when the girl…Courtney, came into the room dressed in revealing clothing. I don't know what happened, because I swear to you, Elena…I pushed her away. The next thing I remember is waking up with Courtney on top of me. I remember that I told her to stay the hell away from my family and threw her out on her ass. I never told Katherine what happened."

"But w-what…"

"I don't know," Damon replied. "I blacked out. All I remember is pushing her away and telling her that she should be ashamed for being dressed like that when she was alone with a married man." He sighed, then his eyes turned sad. "But that was the beginning of my troubles. A week later, I arrived home from work and I saw the front door open. I stepped into my house and found signs of struggle, shattered glass, blood, and worst of all, my wife and my daughter missing. Then, I found a note stating that if I ever wanted to see them again, I should visit a specific place as soon as possible. Only when I went there, I ended up kidnapped for over thirty years, and I saw my baby and my wife die right in front of my eyes."

A little cry escaped Elena's lips at this information. Her hands started to shake. "W-What?"

"They killed them," Damon told her. "They staked my wife and snapped my daughter's neck as I was experimented on for decades."

"Oh m-my g-God…Who w-were t-these people?"

They were not people. They were Guardians. Just like you.

"They were not people," Damon told her out loud. "They were monsters."

"Damon, you don't have to continue telling me this," Elena finally said when she saw that he was now frozen in front of her. "I'm sorry for your loss, I really am. I think I can understand why you're always so angry and lonely."

"You do?" He asked her sincerely, "Even though it's been over a hundred years?"

"I do," Elena nodded. "Time does not matter, Damon. They say time heals, but it's just one fat lie. I'm sorry for what happened to you."

"Thank you…" He finally said. "But don't. I don't deserve your compassion, Elena. I've done way too much to hurt you."

All because you're a Guardian, even though not even you yourself knows it.

"But not anymore," Damon said, convinced. He wasn't going to complete his mission. Elena was no mission. Elena was a girl. He gently grabbed her hand and held it in his. "I'm letting you go, Elena. Take your sister and leave. Start a new life, away from here."

"Damon?" Elena asked him, confused.

"Go, Elena. You're free to go."

I can't hurt you anymore. I cannot be stuck in the past, unable to move on.

All of it was useless. The Guardians, Dr. Wes, His missions…

Thismission-Elena.

They were all stupid. He was going to die anyway. At least maybe he'd save his soul.

"I don't want to go." Her little voice shook him out of it.

"What?"

"I want to get to know you, Damon."

Was this girl crazy? He hurt her. He had put her in harm's way countless of times for his own selfish gain. She was his mission!

"Like you, my compassion also makes me seem stupid," Elena told him, smiling at him gently.

"Don't," Damon told her. "Don't compare yourself with me."

"Aren't we both broken?" Elena told him, a few tears slipping down her cheek. "We both know loss, Damon."

He moved towards her as she opened her arms with difficulty to welcome him in her embrace.

He placed his head on her chest as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"We both know pain."

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