A/N - Hello everyone. So I just watched tonight's episode and I'm kinda feeling some mixed emotions, so if any of you feel the same way, lets talk! Im also really annoyed that they are giving us a second mid season break.
To be honest, I've been really busy for a while and I almost forgot to put this chapter up, but luckily I remembered just in time, for you guys. I love you all and thank you again for all your support.
Elena felt paralyzed as she watched Damon. Her sole focus was on him. He was on his knees, his hands clutching at the stake protruding from his torso. He looked up from the wound and his eyes meet hers for a moment.
Then he fell over.
Even with her vampire speed, it seemed to happen in slow motion. She rushed towards him, ignoring the commotion surrounding her, ignoring the, now stone, body of Klaus. She caught Damon before his body hit the ground, holding him in her arms.
"Come on, Damon, you're alright." She begged. "Please. I know you. I know you are alright." She stared into his unseeing eyes, crying for them to focus on her. For them to give her any sign of life.
Breathing irregularly, she brought her wrist up to her mouth and bit down. She shoved it against his mouth, forcing her blood into him. "Come on, Damon, drink. You have to drink it. It's going to be okay. Just drink." He didn't move.
She knew it was no use. She had seen the light go out of his eyes before she had reached him, but still she tried. There was no way he was going to die on her. Not before she got the chance to tell him the truth.
"Damon?" Came a strangled cry from behind her. She shook as Stefan sat down next to her and took his brother's head in his hands. "Damon! You can't leave me!" He grabbed Damon's shoulders and shook them. Hard. "You are not dead. You can't die! I need you! I need my brother!"
Stefan let out a scream of agony, and then collapsed.
Elena felt tear after tear stream down her face. She didn't try to wipe them away, but clung to the body of the man who had saved her life in more ways then he realised.
After a few moments, Stefan stood up. "I have to go." He said, his voice suddenly calm. He walked back into the house, probably to leave through the front, and left Elena there.
"Elena . . ." Caroline said, her voice sympathetic but reasonable. "We should-"
Elene cut her off, struggling to keep herself from screaming, "Please just leave." She glanced at Max, showing that she was directing that request at both of them. They obliged and Caroline herded Max back into the house.
Now she was alone. Alone with the bodies of Klaus, Kol and Katherine. And alone with Damon.
She brushed a hair out of his face as a tear fell to the wood deck she was sitting on.
"How could you, Damon?" She managed to whisper, her voice weak. "How could you let yourself die after what you said to me, and before I got to say what I wanted to say?" She shook her head, looking up for a moment. "There were so many things I wanted to say to you. I just couldn't. It was the wrong time. It was the wrong place. I was still with Stefan. I was still with your brother." Suddenly as slight smile broke through all the tears. "I guess technically I still am with Stefan but . . . I don't want to be. Do you hear me, Damon? I don't want to be with Stefan. Our relationship isn't working. You know that. You've known that longer then me. It hasn't worked since he turned. He is different. We don't work. And I don't think we ever would have, even if he was still human." She paused. "But you, Damon. You're different. You've always loved me, haven't you? You finally got to tell me that, and I pushed you away. You got to say what you wanted to say. But, now you'll never get to hear me say what I want to say."
She took a breath, knowing what she was going to say next, preparing herself. She didn't care that there was no one around to hear her say it. As soon as she said it out loud, she was admitting it to herself. There would be no going back. "Damon Salvatore, I love you." She breathed a sigh of relief as she finally got the words out. "I love the way I can always count on you to protect me. I love the way you smile when I laugh. I love the way you tease me whenever you get the chance. I love you." She broke down into another fit of sobbs. "And now you'll never know just how much I loved you. You'll never know how you, out of all the people I've met over the centuries, have made me feel most alive. You'll never know how real my love for you felt compared with that I had for your brother. He made me forget my troubles for a moment. You made them go away for good. With you, I could have taken on the world." She shook her head again in sorrow. "I need you back."
Stefan couldn't believe what had just happened. He stumbled out of the house, delirious with grief. He knew he shouldn't have left the safety of being with his friends, but he didn't care.
He continued walking, not sure where he was going. He felt the familiar feeling of hunger begin to pull at his gut. He knew what what would happen next before it did. He would wonder upon some unaware jogger or passerby, and he would rip out their throat trying to get every last drop of their blood.
Ever since his transformation, he had been feeding on people. He had been careful about it. He moved almost all the bodies and hid them in the basement of his house, where he knew Damon never went. There had been a few times when someone had showed up and he was forced to leave the body there, but he had done his best.
He knew he was a savage. A monster. But he didn't care. At least not while he was feeding. Once he was done, he always felt guilty. He tried to put them back together, but it would be too late by that point. Stefan knew just how powerful the pull of hunger could be and how strong it made him feel. He loved that feeling, even if it was only for a moment.
But this hunger was different. This time it wasn't only about the taste of the blood or the rush of strength he got from it. This time, he knew it would be about more than that. It would be about turning off the pain. He wasn't able to handle the pain of his brother's death and he knew it.
Just as Stefan predicted, he soon spotted an unfamiliar girl walking along on the sidewalk. He cut across the street and stepped in front of her, cutting her off.
She stopped short, startled by his sudden appearance. "What do you want?" She asked, not mean, but not trusting either.
Stefan tilted his head to the side, sizing her up. She was young, maybe about 20. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, leaving her neck exposed. "You want to know what I want?" He asked her. Of course, it had been a rhetorical question, but Stefan didn't really care. "I want my brother back."
With these words, she seemed to soften. "You lost your brother recently?" She sounded sincere.
"He wasn't supposed to die. No one was supposed to die. This was not how the night was supposed to go."
She seemed confused. "He died tonight?"
Stefan didn't reply. He continued staring at her.
"How did he die?" She asked. At this point, she seemed more curious than scared.
Stefan sighed and began slowly walking closer to her, telling her his story. "We were going to take down Klaus. We had a plan. We used Katherine as a decoy. We had someone assigned to neutralize each of his siblings. And then it all went wrong."
Stefan could hear her heart beat quicken and she began slowly backing away. He grabbed her arms and looked into her eyes. "Don't move."
Like everyone else, she immediately tried to move, but failed. His compulsion worked. He continued. "Klaus found out it wasn't really Max. A new sibling of his showed up and ruined everything. And then Max showed up and Damon just had to go and be the hero. She was supposed to die anyway!" Stefan found himself yelling now. "Why couldn't he just let her die! But no, instead he jumps in front of her at the last second and gets himself staked."
The girl's eyes were open wide with fear, but she was still paralyzed in place. Stefan focused back on her. "So you see, I don't really have another choice. I need the freedom. I need the rush of power. I need to quench my hunger."
Her eyes followed his as he studied her, and she managed to squeak out, "Are you going to kill me?" He had told her not to move, but he hadn't said anything about talking.
He hesitated a moment before replying. "Yes." With that final word, he lunged, his fangs growing out and digging into her flesh in a moment. As the taste of blood hit his lips, he made his decision. He couldn't live with the pain. Digging in deeper to the girl's neck, he flipped the switch on his emotions.
Matt stifled a cry as he watched his best friend tear into the flesh of an unlucky passerbyer.
He had followed Stefan from the party. Stefan had been acting extremely odd for a while now and Matt was worried about him. When Stefan had stormed out of the party, more upset than usual, Matt had decided to follow him.
What he witnessed was something he never expected. His friend, whom he knew since birth, was a monster.
Matt stood in the shadows in shock as the girl fell to the ground and Stefan pulled back, looking around to make sure he was alone. Matt quickly got down, hiding behind a car parked on the street. Stefan didn't see him.
Slowly, Matt sneaked another peak over the car's roof. Stefan was gone.
Bonnie knew that she had succeeded. Klaus was now a large rock. But Jeremy was lying dead in front of her, his heart not beating.
"No." She said to herself. She was not going to let him die. Not now. Not when they had just gotten together. She wouldn't lose him.
She put her hands over his chest and began pumping, trying to get his heart to start beating again. She continued this for as long as she could, but nothing was happening.
She saw a tear land on his face and realized that she was crying. She quickly wiped them away and leaned back on her heals. Obviously, human methods were not going to save him.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, this time letting her hands hover over his heart. She began chanting again.
She felt the familiar rush of power channel through her, into him, as she chanted, but she wasn't sure if she would be strong enough this time. She could hear her ancestors warning her, telling her to stop. She ignored them. Her nose started to bleed, as her chanting grew louder. This was not going to work. She wasn't strong enough. She kept going.
Finally, with a final rush of power, she heard him take a deep breath as she collapsed, blacking out.
A few seconds later she came to, Jeremy's worried face hovering over her's. "Bonnie, are you okay?" He asked.
She grinned and sat up, nodding. "Yeah, Jeremy, I feel fine." They both broke into huge smiles. Suddenly she realized where they were. They were still at the dance, in a hallway to the side. She turned to Jeremy. "We should go check on the others."
He nodded and they headed back out on the dance floor, scanning the room.
Caroline and Max made their way over. Caroline quickly gave Jeremy a large hug. "You're still alive!"
He smiled and hugged her back before breaking it and glancing at Bonnie. "Yeah. All thanks to Bonnie."
Caroline nodded, looking vaguely in Bonnie's direction, but her eyes seemed to go right through the witch. "Speaking of which," Caroline said. "Where is Bonnie?"
End of Book Three
Gah! So how was that cliff hanger?
I know you probably all hate me now, but I really am a sucker for a good old fashioned cliffhanger, especially if I'm the only one who actually knows where it's going next. I had a whole lot of fun writing this chapter and this book.
Don't worry, I will obviously be back. I couldn't leave you hanging like that for too long.
I will probably end up posting the first chapter of Book Four in a few weeks because I still haven't even planned the whole thing out, let alone begun writing it. I just have to get past the next few weeks of me being in a musical and then I should have loads of extra time just screaming at me to write.
Again, please leave me a review to let me know what you think or if you think im evil or whatever. I love hearing your feedback.
Thank you again for all your support.
