Stefan POV:

Shaking. Shaking all over. I ran out the door, across the fields, and into the nearby woods.

What have I done? What have I done? I am a monster. I hurt the woman I love. I hurt Elena. I am not myself anymore. I can't keep living like this. Maybe I should go away. Maybe I should kill myself. I never wanted to be this way. I should just-

"Well, well, well, look what we have here," I heard from behind me.

If it weren't for her sneering, taunting tone, I would have sworn that Elena was behind me, but I knew deep in my heart that it wasn't her. It was the other woman I had loved.

"Katherine," I managed to grit out before turning towards her.

She was casually leaning against a tree, twirling a twig in her perfectly-manicured hand. Slowly, she lifted her head and placed the twig between her teeth like a Spanish dancer with a rose. Her eyebrows wiggled suggestively as she stepped closer to me.

"Go away!" I snarled and attempted to turn and run, but she had anticipated me, and I was shoved onto my back with her standing above me.

Her black leather boot's spiked heel pined me down to the wet earth, and her eyes shown with mischief.

"What do you want?" I groaned and laid my head back, figuring I might be there for awhile.

"I told you-I want you. And not just this façade that you've been putting on, either. No, that will not due. Not for me. You see, Damon's already there-he's embraced his gift, but you...you have-what's the right word? Oh! Dishonored me and my gift to you," She hissed, pressing her heel down, slightly puncturing my chest cavity.

I knew it was useless to argue with her, but I couldn't help but reply,

"I'm not that person anymore. I was never that person."

Briefly, her foot lifted from my chest, but the relief was short lived. Quickly, her heel lifted my chin so my eyes could meet her lusty, venomous gaze.

"Why do you defy me? Your sire? Have you no respect?" She drawled with a hurt expression before grinning.

Honestly, the grinning scared me more than the glare, because I knew that whatever pleased her was something bad. Somebody was about to get hurt.

"I love you, Stefan. Please remember that. I'm doing this for you," Katherine cooed before gesturing a "come-hither" motion with her fingers into the darkness.

At an agonizing pace, a small, quiet girl I recognized as Amber-another girl from the Miss Mystic Pageant, I think-came into view. She looked terrified-and with good reason. It would have been better for her if she was already dead. With fearful, pattering footsteps, she wandered over to Katherine, who slung an arm around her shoulders like they were best pals. I watched the girl gulp worriedly as Katherine tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear. Gently, she stroked her face before looking back down at me.

"I found this little, lost lamb wandering around the property. That was stupid on her part but great for us, right, Stefan?" She asked sweetly.

The girl was obviously compelled, so she nodded compliantly.

"Katherine," I warned, but it was no use.

"Little lamb, my lover has been having some trouble controlling himself, you see. I thought he might need a little pick-me-up after ruining his chances with his poor excuse of a replacement girlfriend for me."

"Katherine!" I barked with fear for myself and this girl.

"Hush! We're just going to have a little snack, and then you can go back to your little debutante ball," She explained lightly.

Unable to look away, I kept my eyes glued onto Katherine's fingers brushing the hair off Amber's shoulders before her lips descended, sucking passionately on the skin there before biting down. The bite was deep; blood spilled immediately down the front of Amber's clothes. Amber fell to the side as Katherine licked her lips with a zesty moan. Her eyes pinned me down with an animal magnetism that called to the inner depths of my soul. I tried to fight it, I swear, but it was the siren call imbedded in every immortal's birth. We were born hungry, and we were never fully satisfied, no matter what we wanted to tell ourselves. This was my nature. Why was I fighting it? Elena was done with me, and besides her, I had no reason to exist as I had been.

"Get up-you're ruining your suit," Katherine reprimanded and reached down her hand for assistance.

I took it.