Chapter thirty five

Rehab

Elizabeth

I groaned, my eyes fluttering open. I was in the basement of the boarding house, tied to a chair with chains. I tried to snap them, but I didn't have any strength. I groaned again when I remembered that I had been caught in the act of playing one of my games by my brothers and Lily.

"Finally, you've been out awfully long, Elizabeth."

I sneered at Lily when she walked down the stairs. "So, I'm guessing that you're putting me through rehab again, right Lil?" I said my voice hoarse.

"I'm gone two weeks, and you're so off of the rails that you have a basement full of innocents. I'm starting to think that I just can't leave you alone, Elizabeth," Lily said, ignoring my question. The answer was obvious.

"I was just having a little fun, Lily," I said innocently.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Watching reality TV and making fun of the stars is fun. Eating junk food is fun. Going to the beach just to check out hot guys is fun. Ripping innocent people apart is not fun."

I shrugged. "We have different views on what's fun, then," I said, before raising an eyebrow. "How'd you find me, anyway? And what'd you do with Poppy?" I was a little pissed off at her for just leaving me.

"I know your style, Elizabeth, and you left a trail of bodies behind you with your signature all over it. And Poppy ran away before I could do anything to her." Lily started soaking ropes in vervain.

"Where are my dear brothers? They should join us; it's about to get really fun." I smirked at her. I knew what Lily planned to do to me, but it wouldn't work this time.

"I wouldn't let them see you like this. It's about to get really ugly." As if proving her point, Lily suddenly focused her gaze on me, and I let out a howl of pain as she started draining my body of blood.

She stopped, and I panted, sweating. I let out a humorless laugh. "Your mind tricks aren't going to work this time, Lil. Your whole rehab, 12-step program isn't going to work on me this time. I'm beyond saving now," I told her.

"No." she gritted her teeth. "I refuse to believe it. The Elizabeth who's my best friend is still in there somewhere, I know it."

"Hate to break it to you honey, but she's gone. You're stuck with little ol' me now." My smirk widened.

"Lily, let me see my sister!"

"Ooh, this is going to be fun," I said, as Damon stormed down the stairs. "Hey there brother. No need to shout. I'm right here."

He stopped when he saw me. I was covered in blood and sweat, a cold, emotionless look in my blue eyes that we shared. I wasn't his Lizzie anymore, and he knew it. "Okay Elizabeth, this is how it's going to go. You're going to turn your humanity back on and turn back into my sweet, innocent, pain in the ass little sister we all know and love. Sound like a plan?" Damon crossed his arms over his chest and stood stoically next to Lily.

"Nah, I don't think so. Having my humanity was so… boring. I like not having it off, makes things more interesting. Oh, and I was never innocent, Damon. Not with my humanity on, not even when I was human. You can talk to Klaus- I was pretty dirty when it came to the bedroom." I smirked at him, enjoying the face he made.

"What, Damon? Didn't you know that your sweet, innocent baby sister lost her virginity to the most feared original, the hybrid?" I asked innocently, batting my eyelashes.

"Oh, I so do not want to have this conversation. I think I'm going to vomit," Damon muttered.

"Go back upstairs, Damon. You don't want to see this- trust me," Lily murmured, pushing him towards the stairs.

Damon fixed her with a glare. "She's my sister and I'm not going anywhere until she's back to normal," he said stubbornly.

"Yeah Damon, pull up a chair. If I remember correctly, the beginning's always really fun. Better yet, get Stefan and we can have a nice family bonding session," I said sarcastically.

As if on cue, Stefan walked down the stairs, and I smirked at him. "It's about time you joined the party Stef. I'd hate for you to miss out on all the fun."

Stefan ignored me. "How long do you think it's going to take, Lily?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "It depends. To get her humanity back on is one thing, to get it to stay on is a whole other. She's stronger than she was last time, but I think the fact that she has you two back helps."

"Please, you think I care about our so-called family? We were as dysfunctional as it gets, even back in 1864. You two should've stayed dead," I told my brothers.

"Well, we don't always get what we want, do we?" Damon retorted, pretending that my words had no effect on him. But I saw him flinch slightly.

"If you two insist on being here, you need to know what you're going to witness. It's not going to be pretty at all. She's going to scream and cry and beg you two to let her go. She's going to say very cruel and harsh things, but you can't let it get to you. If it gets to be too much, feel free to leave," Lily told my brothers.

"I'm staying until Elizabeth is Elizabeth again," Stefan said seriously, and Damon nodded.

Lily sighed. She didn't want them to see what was going to happen to their sister, but they were clearly dead-set on not leaving her. "Okay, but don't say that I didn't warn you," she muttered, before turning her attention back to me.

Lily replaced my chains with the vervain-soaked ropes, and I hissed in pain as it sizzled and burned my skin. "Is that the best you got, Lily?" I asked through gritted teeth.

She ignored me and turned back to my brothers. "The first step is to drain the blood from her body. That's the easiest step, but the hardest to watch," she informed them.

She turned back to me, and focused. Suddenly, I started screaming out in pain, the blood being drained from me again. Tears started forming in my eyes as I screamed out at the pain. Lily stopped, and breathed heavily.

"Please," I whimpered, turning to my brothers, tears shining in my eyes. "Why are you letting her do this to me? You're my big brothers; you're supposed to protect me."

I would do and say anything to escape from the torture Lily was putting me through. I was trying to use Stefan and Damon's love for me against them, and it would've worked, if Lily wasn't there. I saw sympathy and guilt flicker in both of their eyes.

"Don't buy it, she's trying to manipulate you two into letting her go," Lily dismissed, before turning her gaze back to me.

I felt the blood slowly and painfully leave my veins. I screamed and shook in pain. It wasn't the first time I had the blood drained out of me, but you never got used to the pain. "Please! Please stop it, please!" I shrieked.

Lily stopped again, and turned to face my brothers. I could see their resolve wavering under my screams. "I know, I don't like it either. But it has to be done, okay? If you want your sister back, it has to be done," Lily insisted.

Damon sighed. "Continue."

"All of you are so pathetic. You're pathetic hypocrites," I growled. "I know that all of you have killed. Even you Lily, with your holier-than-thou attitude. I bet you've all been worse than me."

"The difference is that we're not like that anymore, Elizabeth," Lily said evenly.

I screamed and shouted and pleaded the next hour as Lily drained me of my blood. I yelled harsh and cruel things at them. I wanted it to stop. I didn't want my humanity back, I didn't want the pain.

"You're the most pathetic out of all of them, Damon," I snapped. "You're unwanted and unloved. Dad hated you, mom was always disappointed in you. You spent the next century pining over a woman who chose your brother over you- you're pathetic, and I absolutely hate you. I wish you stayed dead."

Damon didn't show any emotion. "Honey, I've been called much worse." He shrugged.

Eventually, I was drained of any blood. I panted in the chair, my veins feeling like sandpaper. I craved blood, I needed it. "What do we do now?" Damon asked Lily.

"Now we make Elizabeth feel," she said softly, her eyes never leaving me.

"Why'd you turn your humanity off in the first place, Elizabeth?" she asked me.

I shrugged, managing a smirk despite my pain. "I'd thought that I'd switch things up."

"It was because of Jeremy, wasn't it?" Damon asked. "Turning your humanity off because of a bad breakup, Lizzie? Really?"

I glared at him. "I couldn't care less about Jeremy," I snapped.

"You love him, but you had to let him go for his own safety," Stefan mused.

"It must've broken your heart, Elizabeth, breaking up with Jeremy. How'd it felt, knowing that your love for him was putting his life at stake?" Lily asked.

"I don't love Jeremy!" I screamed, feeling the door holding my humanity rattle behind me. "I'd love to drain him dry, if I could get my hands on him."

"Yes, you do. You love him so much, that losing him caused you more pain than you imagined it would. I know you Elizabeth. I know that you fall fast and hard, but that when you do fall in love, you don't fall out of it. You love Jeremy, even now you do," Lily insisted.

I didn't respond, trying to hold my humanity in check. The three must've sensed that the current topic wasn't going to get them any farther, so Lily changed it. "What about Klaus? You loved him too, and he shattered your heart into a million pieces."

My brothers didn't look too comfortable with the new topic, but Lily didn't change it. "He betrayed you, Elizabeth. You loved him unconditionally and he didn't return that love, did he? He never said 'I love you,' he never told you that he cared. It was all about blood and sex with him, and when he was done, he moved on to the next girl in your town," Lily said harshly.

"Lily," Damon muttered, frowning. She was being cruel, and she knew it too.

"I have to, Damon. I have to make her feel," she murmured.

I closed my eyes, that door shaking rapidly inside of me, threatening to burst open. "I don't care," I whispered.

"What about all of those poor, innocent people you killed, Elizabeth? Think about their families, think about how the light left their eyes as you sucked the life out of them. Think about all the children who'll have to grow up without any parents, and the parents who lost their children. Do you feel guilty, Elizabeth? Do you feel anything?" Lily exclaimed.

I let out a shaky breath. I did feel. I felt so much pain and guilt, it threatened to kill me. I tried not to feel, I tried not to care, but I couldn't. Lily had managed to get that door open, and my humanity was back on. I was feeling again.

"All those poor people…" I whispered, my throat tight with tears. What had I done? "I'm a monster, a horrible monster."

Stefan, Damon, and Lily all exchanged looks as I started to cry from the pain that I had held back. They had done it, I had my humanity back. But what if having it back caused me more damage than they had original intended?

~LG~

A/N: the next chapter's going to be really intense, I can promise you that. Elizabeth's humanity isn't going to come back without some consequences.

Thank you to: vdemily, Paris101, and Pickle Paige for reviewing!

Review, por favor!

~Abby :)