Happy New Year!

And so sorry it took me this long to update, I promise I'll try to get my updates quicker this year.

I apologize for any typos, please enjoy!

"Come and take a walk on the wild side
Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain
You like your girls insane
Choose your last words
This is the last time
'Cause you and I, we were born to die"

-Born to die-

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Elena's arm was linked through her best friend's as they walked the length of the fifth avenue, not stopping to buy anything but marveling themselves at the beauty in each showcase like they had been doing ever since they were teenagers idolizing Carrie Bradshaw.

Best friends since childhood Bonnie and Elena had been together through the hardest and happiest moments of their life, and though they didn't see each other as often as before, as a result, one of them studying abroad, whenever they were together again it was as if time hadn't passed at all.

"I am still in awe that after all this time you are finally doing your brother," Bonnie said earning herself a pinch in the arm and wide eyes aimed at her direction.

"Bonnie eeww, don't say it like that" Elena's nose scrunched as the words swirled around in her head. Though always her hero, Elena had never seen Damon as her brother, he had always been more to her.

The shorter girl laughed under her breath "I'm joking; I just think it's kind of weird"

"Judgy much?"

Bonnie chuckled and rested her head against Elena's arm "You know I love you"

Elena breathed in her best friend's familiar perfume and released a content sigh "Oh I've missed you" She said as she squeezed the other girl's arm tightly "Don't you leave again please"

Bonnie exhaled loudly as she threw her head back and smiled "Sorry girl, the Spanish sun awaits for me soon"

"Spoilsport"

The two girls burst into laughter, so wrapped up in each other that they almost didn't realize they were about to bump against another girl and her several shopping bags.

"Elena?" The girl said as their eyes met "Hi, how are you?"

Elena smiled as she stared at the already familiar face of the blonde girl in front of her "Caroline, hey. This is my friend Bonnie, Bon this is Caroline, Stefan's girlfriend"

The two girls exchanged a friendly handshake while Elena helped the blonde girl balance the bags in her hand, the brunette couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips at the sight of Caroline's shopping, the girl was a walking talking cliché and Elena couldn't help being amused by her.

"I've heard so much about you," Bonnie said as she stared into the other girl's blue eyes. Knowing the Salvatore family as she did, she still couldn't believe Stefan had decided to get serious with someone who wasn't Valerie, the girl he had been in love with since he was only a child.

The blonde's eyes lit up with excitement "You have? That is great!"

Not knowing how, the blonde ended up joining their little excursion, though she did force them to go inside almost every store they passed, Elena found herself having more fun than she remembered. It had been a long time since she had a full day of girl time. People at school didn't like her that much so she was mostly a loner, for this reason, to have the chance to unload a bit of her burden with friends again was a breath of fresh air.

Once they tired themselves with their excursion they decided to stop at a small pizza place and stuff their faces with .99 cents slices of delicious cheesy pizza before parting ways with the promise of brunch sometime in the week.

As Enzo drove them back to Bonnie's hotel Elena couldn't help the sadness to invade her, she rested her head against the cold windowpane and watched the streets pass them by.

"You're quiet," Bonnie said in a whisper as she reached to squeeze her hand.

Elena released a tiring sigh as her attention went to her best friend "I like her"

"Caroline?"

Elena nodded, unable to stop the way her eyes glimmered with unshed tears "She is so bubbly and happy all the time, it's impossible not to like her"

Realization dawned on Bonnie, her face blanching as she squeezed Elena's hand tightly "She is not Stefan's girlfriend by coincidence, right?"

"No, she isn't"

"Damn"

Elena moved closer to her friend and proceeded to rest her head on her shoulder "Sometimes I really hate this life Bon" She whispered low enough that Enzo wouldn't be able to catch her words "I just wish things could be different"

Her friend exhaled deeply before placing a gentle kiss to the crown of her head "I'm sorry Len, I truly do"

Elena closed her eyes and let herself be lulled to sleep by the movement of the car, her day had been a good one but as the night settled around her, she couldn't help but think in how all good things went bad and a fear started invading her that the bad was just waiting for her around the corner.

She was quiet as she sat in the back of the Uber, her eyes lost in the trees passing by as they neared her childhood home; tired of feeling like a prisoner, Elena had managed to escape Enzo's watchful gaze and headed to see her father to tell him she wanted to get a job and for him to stop paying her tuition. Damon had been right, it was hypocritical of her to detest what they did for a living and continue benefiting of it, she wanted none of that.

Elena had been excited when the idea came up after her day out with Caroline and Bonnie, but that same night Damon had come back home with a black bag filled with his bloodied clothes and with more than just a couple of bruises on his face.

She had submerged his clothes in a bucket filled with a weird substance he used to remove the stains and had sat on the bathroom counter to patch him up and care for his bruises like she had done so many times in the past. He had been silent the entire time, darkness unlike anything she had seen before had turned his once bright blue eyes into black stones, she hated to see that look on his face like he was someone else and not the man she had fallen in love with.

All the excitement of her earlier news vanished with the realization that no matter how hard she tried she could never escape that life, not if she wanted Damon to be part of hers. He was rooted in that world, his soul so stained she feared there was nothing left to salvage.

He curled around her that night, his head resting on her chest as her fingers played idly with his hair, he went to sleep before here but had a restless night, whimpering and twitching every once in a while. Elena ached for him, ached for the torment that haunted him and refused to let him go.

The car getting to a halt made her come back to the present, she took a deep breath and exited the car before thanking the driver. Her mind was so lost in dark thoughts that she almost missed the vintage blue Camaro that was leaving the entrance, her brows furrowed as she watched him go, completely unaware she was standing a few feet him from him.

With the frown still present on her forehead, she continued her walk towards the house and after a quick greeting to the staff in the kitchen, she headed in direction of her father's office.

She found the door ajar and when she opened she spotted him sitting behind his huge mahogany desk, a troubled look on his face which quickly transformed to surprise when he saw her standing at the door.

"What is going on?" Elena asked with a bit of trepidation as she stepped into the room.

"Sit down," He said in a hard voice as he motioned towards the chair in front of his desk, long gone was the look of surprise in his face.

"Is something wrong?" Elena asked as she did as instructed.

John Gilbert leaned back in his chair, his hands folded over his stomach as he drilled his daughter with a stare she hadn't seen in his face since the time she poured tomato soup in her dress in one of his dinner parties when she was twelve.

"I know"

The words echoed in the wide room, Elena felt her stomach sinking at the accusation in his voice. She took her trembling hands to her legs and fisted the fabric of her jeans in it "Know what?" She asked while she tried to sound as casual as she could.

"About you and Damon"

Elena knew it was coming and yet she couldn't help her face from blanching and her heart rate speeding up at hearing the actual words leaving her father's mouth, a nervous laugh erupted from her mouth and ended as sudden as it had come when she saw the stern look on John's face "Okay, this isn't awkward at all" She closed her eyes in an attempt to gather her bearings and explain her father that what she and Damon had was special, but when she opened them she found a manila envelope in front of her "What is this?"

"Open it"

Elena gave him a quizzical look but reached for the folder anyway. Her fingers peeling back the top gently before extracting the content from inside "God…" Shaky hands dropped the pictures into the dark wood desk "I don't understand—"

"He just delivered them to me minutes before you walked inside"

Elena's eyes filled with tears as she remembered Damon's car speeding out of the driveway "Why?" She asked while her attention was focused on the images in front of her, the crudeness of watching Damon pounding into her from behind in his apartment, the place that was meant to be a haven for them.

John made a disgruntled noise before looking at her with pity "Oh Elena, you've always been too good for your safety" He said "Damon is just using you to get to me"

Elena's eyes left the pictures and moved up to find her father's gaze "Get to you?"

"He means to overthrown me" John spoke harshly "He wants my place as the head of the family"

"No, he doesn't"

John rolled his eyes at her, a clear dismissal of her words before standing up and heading towards the window, arms crossed behind his back as his gaze settled in the yard extending outside the window "The fool believes that having you on his side will smooth things out for him" A dark bitter chuckle slipped past his lips "He wants to pit us against each other"

Elena shook her head vehemently "You're wrong"

"Ask him then" John turned around to face her and once gave her that pitiful look Elena hated so much "Ask him if my downfall isn't his main goal"

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she stared at her father "But you— you've raised him"

"And the dog has bitten his master's hand" John sighed and walked to her, his hands finding her hair and caressing it in a way he hadn't done since she was little and her mother was still alive "I'm so sorry you got caught me in the middle of this, darling. I never meant for this to happen, I could see how attached you were getting to him, which was why I was adamant he went to Italy back then, but I never thought he would do something like this"

"But why?"

Elena felt the urge to cry her heart out, to allow her father to console her like he once had done when she was little but there was something inside her that didn't feel right, that didn't allow her to be that vulnerable with him again.

She pulled away from him and stood up, her hands going to the pictures in the table and tearing them up.

"Damon has the foolish notion that I had something to do with his father's death and this is some kind of vendetta" John kept speaking even while she ripped away the paper with a mad force, the words jarring to Elena's ears "As if! that poor man killed himself, we all know that"

Elena looked at the torn pictures in front of her for a second before her attention went to her father, who was now looking at her quietly, something dark hidden behind his clear eyes "I— I need to go" She said, suddenly feeling the need to go as far away as she could from that place.

John gave her a cold smile, so unusual in him that it chilled Elena to the bone "Why don't you stay the night? We can have dinner together like we did when you were little"

She shook her head as she started backing away from him "I don't think— I need to be alone"

He sighed tiredly, his hands going to rest inside the pockets of his pants "All right then, I am just one call away if you need anything. You'll always be my little girl, Lainey. Don't you forget that" Elena gave him one last look and turned around, her body at the threshold when she heard the words behind her "The Salvatores only care for themselves, chose your allies rightly"

She rushed out of the house in a haze, her fingers searching her Uber app and her feet carrying her out of the propriety, but it was as if she wasn't aware of it. Her mind kept going back to the pictures, to the betrayal burning in her stomach, to the doubt spreading in her chest and to the incessant fear that was crawling underneath her skin.

Elena stepped outside the car and into biting New York night air without remembering anything of her trip back to the apartment building, she said goodbye to the driver who had the good sense of remaining quite the entire journey and proceeded into the building where she knew he would be waiting for her if the twenty missed calls were an indication.

She stood in front of the stark white door to the apartment and took a deep breath before finding the keys and putting them in the lock; she stepped into the apartment as if in some kind of trance; her body was doing the movements but her mind still hadn't caught up with her, it was lost somewhere else, in the scattered pictures on top of her father's desk.

The minute the door clicked behind her she heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the foyer "Where the fuck have you been?" Damon's harsh words reached her ears even before he arrived in front of her "Enzo has been searching for you everywhere" He only took a minute to glance at her before motioning for her to go into the hallway that led to the bedroom "Pack your bags, we are leaving"

The words were delivered seconds before he turned around and headed back to the living room. Elena's brows furrowed, her brain stepped out of that hazy fog that had surrounded it "Leaving?"

She followed Damon into the living room and found him in front of his coffee table, an open case with several guns open on top of it "Something big is coming and I need you safe when it happens" He murmured the words without sparing her another glance, his hands busy with the devices in front of him.

"So you can kill my father?"

An eerie silence followed her words, the temperature dropping to the point Elena felt the hairs at the back of her neck standing up. Damon's jaw clenched as he inhaled deeply through his nose, Elena went to move a step closer but flinched back when his head swiveled abruptly towards her.

"What are you talking about?"

Elena stared at him, at the man she had worshiped her entire life and couldn't phantom the idea of her father's words being true, but there was a nagging doubt eating up at her, demanding answers for once in her life.

"I know everything"

Damon laughed, a dark bitter sound that send shivers down her spine "I highly doubt that's the case" His words were harsh and cold as he moved towards her.

Elena raised a hand in front of herself in an attempt to stop him from getting closer "You can't use me against him! This is all some sort of revenge plot"

Damon's nostrils flared, his eyes burning bright and dangerous "Son of a bitch" He said through clenched teeth "You know me better than that Len"

Elena felt a stab in her chest at the words he spoke. Her mind was in a complete battle against her heart, she knew deep inside that Damon cared about her, but her father was her father, why would he choose to hurt her?

"Do I? I know Damon of course, at least I think I do" The words left her mouth before she could stop herself "But I don't La Parca, not really"

Damon's stance changed completely, and at that moment Elena realized that she had never seen the true monster he was, not really. Because he was in front of her now and it was nothing she had seen before "So this is how is going to be" The words were hollow, cold and made something break inside her "Took you very little to turn against me, bonita"

"What do you want me to think?!" Elena cried out as she took her hands to her hair and pulled in despair, her legs wobbled as she stumbled back.

He craned his neck from side to side while a dark shadow crossed his features "Right now, I don't want you to think anything. I just want you to pack a bloody bag!"

Elena reared back at the venous quality in his voice, her body heaving with fear of him for the first time in her life. She wiped the tears that had slipped from her eyes and raised her chin in his direction "I won't do as you say! You have no right to boss me around" No matter how truly afraid she might be, she couldn't give him the chance to see it and use it against her.

"The fuck I don't, get in the room and pack a bloody bag!"

She shook her head "I won't go anywhere with you!" She gave him one last look and felt her soul-crushing even more because she couldn't recognize the man who was standing in front of her "I'm going back home, and I mean my apartment" She turned around to get to the door but had moved only two steps before she felt his strong arms holding her from behind.

"No, you won't" He whispered into her ear before she felt one of his hands moving towards her face.

"What in the—" The words died in her mouth as he pressed a damp cloth to her mouth, Elena fought him for a couple of seconds before everything started turning hazy around her, the feel of his strong arms and his lips on her forehead were the last thing she was aware of before the darkness took her in completely.