"Damon!" she quietly uttered in shock. Damon struggled to get to his feet.

"Emily. Thank god. Please," he hauled himself at the barred window and hocked his hands around the metal rods. At his approach, Emily took two steps away from the door. "Please. You gotta let me out," he says, voice sick and scratchy.

"Wha-What are you doing here?" she asks, fairly confused.

Damon.

Locked up in a cell.

Uhhh, what the hell?

"Stef-" Damon cut himself short.

Maybe it wasn't wise to spin a false story of how his brother was a mad man who'd trapped him here for no reason.

The truth certainly wouldn't work either.

"Stefan put you here," Emily finished for him. Damon exhaled tiredly.

"Just open the door, Emily. Please," he said.

"Why? Wh-" she paused short as she eyed around in distraught, and spotted a freezer at the end of the room.

Her eyes widened.

A body?

She hurried towards it.

"Emily!" Damon called. She ignored him as she opened,

and found two dozen bags of blood.

Her heart immediately hammered in her chest, and, for a moment, she felt light headed. Her eyes were wild wide, and her breath was shaky.

Damon sighed.

"You always knew the truth. Don't act so surprised," he said.

Emily acknowledged his words as facts.

She let the freezers door drop and stepped away from it.

"Hey!" exclaimed Zach, Damon and Stefan's nephew, the human who everyone believed was actually their uncle because he looked older. Emily's heart jumped at the intrusion.

He came near Damon's cell. "What are you doing here?!" he demanded of her.

Without warning, Damon puts his arms through and pulls Zach towards him by the neck. Zach is shocked, and immediately attempts to break free, but Damon is too strong to resist.

"Open this door, Emily! Or I'll kill him!" he threatens.

There was clearly no scenario in this, especially with Zach now, that he could convince Emily to willingly open the door, so this was his best, and maybe last, shot of escaping.

Emily panics.

"No. Don't-khjgkh," Zach stutters as Damon shuts him up by tightening his chock-hold on him.

"I'll kill him, Emily! Are you really gonna let that happen?" Damon pushes.

'Shit!' her mind screams.

It felt like the longest half-minute she'd ever experienced as she stood there, debating whether to run for her life,

or to save the man opposite her, and risk her life.

Yes, she came armed, but could she take him?

Was the year and a half of training enough?

Was she physically strong enough to fight him,

a vampire?!

…Would she make it?

Literally ignoring all of her fears and thoughts, and as if running on instinct, she rushed to the door. In spite of Zach's strangled screams of rejection,

she opened it.

With door a quarter parted, and Damon's eyes lingering on her darkly from behind,

she ran for it, leaving Zach and hoping she'd supposedly saved him.

But when Damon tried to chase her, and Zach, from the floor, grasped his leg, Damon wrathfully turned to his jailer,

and snapped his neck.

…Then,

he turns his attention to the fleeing Gilbert.

"Emily!" he yelled, stumbling and struggling to run with his starved, weakened form.

She didn't wait, she ran as fast as her feet could take her, looking back every few seconds in fear of capture.

She spotted him rushing after her through the hall, and almost lost her footing from crippling horror.

She made it to the front door, unlocked, and opened it. She stormed out and didn't dare slow down.

She turned mid-way to her car upon hearing him scream, and saw that he'd stopped.

…Gradually,

slowly,

she stopped too.

From that distance, with him still in the house, on his knees in the shade, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her as Damon seemed redder than humanly possible,

And soon returned to normal.

Her eyes widened in realization.

Fighting against all sanity,

she walked back to the house.

He was heaving from the running; so was she.

She crouches down opposite him in sheer curiosity, and caution.

"The sun," she says. "Now it hurts you," she notes strangely. Damon smirks in mock.

"You just wait till nightfall, Em. We'll see who's laughing then," he retorts, succeeding in striking her with raw fear.

"I'll tell the sheriff," she confidently says. Damon chuckles at that.

"You really think I can't take her, or her so-called taskforce?" She considers his counter, and her fright escalates, but then

he didn't look so high and mighty now.

And she soon pieces together why.

"…You couldn't take Stefan though," she retorts.

Surely this was what Stefan was 'dealing' with for the past several days. Surely this was why they both disappeared the night of the party.

His amused expression

melts to one of anger.

"He won't trick me this time," he shakes his head once, as if vowing revenge as he rose back to his feet and she immediately did the same, taking a step back.

She had to ask.

She had to know.

"Is he like you?"

Damon grins.

"You know what? I'll let you toss a coin over it" he says. Emily clenches her jaw in frustration.

"It was you, wasn't it?! The animal attacks. You killed all those people! And Caroline! You were gonna kill her too, weren't you?!" she demands. Damon eyes her menacingly, the bearer of all the things he wanted unsaid, a threat to his presence.

If only he could reach her, the problem would end, and, more pleasantly, she'd cease to speak.

"Emily, let me make something very clear," he takes a step closer towards the sun-light, and she takes another one back. "I may not be able to get through this door," he approaches the cabinet to his side, with the vase on its surface, "but this can," he says, taking it into his palm, and facing her once more. Her heart jumps, and her eyes fix in alert. "If you don't get out of here in the next thirty seconds…I'm gonna throw it at you," he smirks like a mad man.

Taking the hint, and fearing releasing another word,

she turns,

and rushes back to her car.

XXX

Her car tires screech to the side of the road as she parks near the carwash. She jumps out of the vehicle, master-locks it, and runs for it to the crowd.

She stops short when one of the many cars being washed bursts into flames!

Emily's heart jumps in fear, and her eyes widen in alert.

Opposite the car, a few feet, was Bonnie Bennet, glaring without blinking at the flickering fire.

Emily storms towards her, just as Stefan does the same.

Emily pauses opposite Bonnie, then freezes completely with Stefan's threatening presence. The car behind sounds with the sizzling fires, and Emily is snapped out of it. She takes hold of the Bennet's upper-arms and shakes her. "Bonnie! Bonnie!" she calls. The Bennet suddenly blinks rapidly,

and the fire dissipates.

Emily looks to see so, so does Stefan and all the surrounding. She faces Bonnie, who speaks next, again. "What? What happened? Did I do that?" she asks in confusion.

"I think you did," Stefan says from beside Emily in concern, striking the Bennet with gradual fear.

"Bonnie, listen to me. You need to go to your grandmother, and get this under control, do you understand?" she insists. Stefan glances at Emily, the girl who knew too much for her own good.

"Get what under control?" Bonnie warily denies.

"You know what! Go! Now!" Emily impatiently tells. Bonnie nods repetitively and runs off in fear,

fear of herself.

"Stefan," Emily calls for his attention. He turns from looking at the fleeing Bennet to her. "I…I did…" she releases a shaky breath, washing a hand through her hair. Stefan is fairly worried by her tone and state, her shaking hand. "I…went…to your house…"

His eyes widen.

"Looking for proof, and I…found Damon-"

"Did you let him out?!" Stefan yells angrily and in sudden panic, causing the frightened Gilbert to jump.

"I-I had to! He was gonna kill your uncle!" she tells, her eyes watering. Stefan cups his lower face and his gaze fixes away, eyes wild.

"I have to get there," he says, turning on his heels.

"Wait! I'll drive you!"

XXX

"…Emily. Calm down. I know why you did it," Stefan tells quietly. The Gilbert wipes her persistent tears of shame and fear with the back of her hand. 'I had to. You forced me to,' she refrained from speaking her mind.

But Stefan had to know.

"Did you tell Elena?" She shakes her head.

"No. I…," she faces him momentarily. "Are you a vampire too, Stefan?" she asks.

"…Yes," Stefan forces out worriedly. Emily shakes her head in disappointment, placing her elbow on the door's side and her palm on her forehead.

"God…" she uttered.

"But, I'm not like Damon, Emily. He chooses to feed off of people. I don't. And I would never hurt her, Emily! I would never hurt Elena!" he insists.

"How can I?!" she yells, then lowers her tone. "How can I believe that?!" she asks in rejection. "All those people killed," her heart aches at her own words.

"That wasn't me. That was Damon. Emily please. Don't tell Elena," Stefan begs from beside her.

"Are you kidding me?! How can I not tell her?! How do you expect this to ever work with her in the dark?!" she demands.

"I'll tell her eventually, I just…" he quiets. Emily reads his pained expression.

"…You're scared she'll want to leave you," she finishes for him. His silence is enough of an answer.

They finally arrive at the house.

The sun was close to fully setting.

"Stay in the car," Stefan says to her as she parks and he climbs out in haste.

XXX

"Oh, shit," utters Emily, witnessing her aunt's car park opposite the Salvatore mansion. Elena climbs out just as Emily does. The former stops short as her older sister approaches her in haste.

"Emily? What are you doing here?" she asks in confusion.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Emily retorts. Elena lets out a shaky breath and washes a hand through her hair.

Emily's heart jumps, and mind deduces a conclusion she refused.

"What's wrong?" she asks. Elena stays silent for a long moment. She opens and closes her mouth several time in reluctance, or disbelief.

"I…I found…I don't even…know what I found…What it means…He's…Stefan's a," she speaks incoherently,

but Emily understands every word.

Just then, the man spoken of exits the house with a wooden stake in hand. He stops short at the steps of the porch upon spotting Elena, who in turn rushes towards him in determination. "What are you?!" she demands.

Stefan immediately glares at Emily, who was close behind her sister. "I didn't tell her, I swear!" she quickly says.

Elena's eyes widen.

She sharply turns to her sibling. "You knew?!" she asks in complete and utter shock. Her reaction is enough for Stefan to believe Emily, who sighs tiredly.

Elena is hit with realization. "…Of course you knew," she quietly utters. "That's why…the wooden stake, the gym, the reason you almost kicked Stefan out last night!" she exclaims.

"…Yes," Emily confesses. Elena's mouth remains parted in disbelief.

"I…How long?"

"Since I found the journals," she says.

"That was years ago! Back when mom and dad were still alive!" Elena exclaims. Stefan takes this in.

So, this was how she knew so much. The Gilbert journals.

Emily remains silent in confirmation. Elena turns from Stefan, to Emily, to Stefan once more, feeling a sense of betrayal. "…What are you?" she sternly repeats.

Stefan descends the few steps, and stops opposite Elena, who in turn stumbles back into Emily fearfully. Emily balances her sibling with hands on her shoulders.

Stefan feels a pang of pain in his chest, sorrow. 'She's scared of me,' he thought, knew.

Regardless, he did owe her the truth.

"Everything you know…and every belief that you have is about to change…Are you ready for that?" he asks. Emily inhales tensely.

"…What. Are you?" Elena pushes persistently. It took him a minute,

as if saying it aloud would make it real,

for all of them…

"…I'm a vampire…"

To Emily, hearing the full statement out of his mouth, was as if knowing it for the first time, and had the same, hammering effect on her heart, as when she'd seen the blood bags in his basement.

They wait for Elena to speak, and she finally does, but not coherently. "I…I I…hmph," she breathes, tears shimmering in her dark brown eyes.

Emily decides it was time to act.

"Okay. Elena," she starts, blocking her sister's view of Stefan. "It's okay," she says.

"How can you say that?!" Elena rejects. Emily inhales from tension.

This would not be easy.

She faces Stefan. "Go find Damon. I'll handle this," she says.

"Damon?" Elena asks in confusion. "He's a vampire too, isn't he?!" she shouts.

"Go," Emily repeats to Stefan, who was worried and fairly scared of losing Elena. "Go!" Emily snaps him out of it.

Stefan zooms away, disappearing before their eyes and causing both girls to gasp.

It takes them a minute to move.

XXXXX