Hey guys, I´m back! This chapter was difficult for me to write and I´m still not quite content with it, but I hope you´ll enjoy it anyway. There also will be another chapter tomorrow to make up for the long wait!

It didn´t took them long to carry Damon to the sofa in the living room. It was much more difficult to convince Matt that it was ok to leave them alone. "Honestly, Matt. I´ll be fine!", Elena told him for at least the sixth time. She shot him a scrutinizing look. "You don´t have to worry about me that much."

Matt didn´t seem to be happy. He was leaning against the wall in the living room, opposite to the fireplace. His hands were buried deep in the pockets of his jeans, and he had been staring at Damon´s still forms for the last minutes. Elena wasn´t sure what he was thinking. It certainly wasn´t something good. Finally, his eyes left Damon and he was looking at her again. "I could just stay until he wakes up. It´s no problem."

Oh, that would be a really bad idea, Elena thought darkly. She could never allow Matt to stay with them. She had endangered him enough as it was. She firmly shook her head no. "You´re acting as if Damon is a stranger, Matt. But he´s not. He´s my… friend. There´s no reason for you to worry." Elena hoped that Matt hadn´t noticed her hesitation before saying the word friend.

"He is a stranger, Elena. At least for me!"

Elena sighed. She was thankful for Matt´s help, but right now he was really staining her patience. The risk that Damon might wake up every second was still present in her mind. And right now, all she was doing was wasting time. Without further thinking about it, she went over to Matt and took him by the hand. "You´re ridiculous Matt and you know it", she told him sternly, while pulling him with her to the front door. To her relief, he was following her without resistance. When they reached the door, she looked up at him and smiled apologetically. "I really appreciate your help, Matt, I do. But you have done enough already. I can take it from here. Besides, you could go back to the party and at least try to enjoy the rest of your evening."

For a second, Matt seemed to be undecided but then he sighed and seemed to accept her decision. "If you want me to leave, I leave. But I´m not going to go back to this party. It actually was lame to begin with." Elena rolled her eyes. "Yeah, these kinds of parties can be a bit… snobbish."

For a second, Matt laughed, but then he turned serious again. "Just promise that you´ll call if anything happens, ok?"

"Of course, Matt. And thanks again for helping me."

Matt looked away shortly. When his eyes found hers again, he seemed much more serious than was normal for him. "Elena, I would always help you. But to be honest, I still think you should have asked Stefan for help. I´m still not sure why you didn´t."

Elena sighed uncomfortably. She had hoped that Matt would just let this slide. She nibbled on her bottom lip while she tried to come up with an answer. "I know this must confuse you", she said in order to stall some time. "It´s just…not as easy as it seems. It´s really all I can say. I´m sorry, Matt."

She didn´t need to be a genius to see that her answer didn´t convince him.

Matt looked at least as uncomfortable as she felt. "I know I´m the last person in the world who has the right to say something like this, but Elena, are you sure that it´s good for you to be around the Salvatore brothers? It´s just… You seem… different since you know them." He seemed unhappy with the situation. "I´m worried about you."

Despite everything, Elena felt warmth flood her body by hearing his words. She was almost sure that she had never deserved Matt in the first place. It was just unbelievable that after all she had done to him… all the pain she had put him through… he was still worrying about her that much. For a moment she regretted ever leaving him. How much easier her live would be if she would be still his girlfriend. But she had closed that door a few month ago. And there was no going back now. She would simply have to live with the decisions she had made.

Elena smiled at him sadly. "You don´t need to worry about me, Matt", she lied. "I know this situation seems strange, but I promise, I have everything under control. But could you promise me something, though?"

He raised his eyebrows in question. Elena bit on her bottom lip. "Could you promise me not to tell Stefan about this?" Just after the words have left her mouth, Elena felt her eyes widen in surprise. She had never intended to ask Matt for this. It must be the compulsion, she realized with horror. She just did everything so that Stefan wouldn´t realize something was wrong… Just. Fucking. Great.

Matt was looking at her as if she had lost it. She could see all his doubts, all his confusion written right on his face. However, Matt being Matt, he nodded, nonetheless. "Fine. I´ll promise… but Elena, whatever this is, you should really start to work it out, you know that, right?"

Elena´s eyes fell on Damon´s still forming and she nodded grimly. "Believe me Matt, I´m working on it. I´m working on it."

When Matt had finally left, Elena went over to Damon and mustered him carefully. This time she was sure that he was still out cold. A short gaze on her watch told her, that it had been about 20 minutes since she had drugged him again, so there should be some time left for the last part of her plan. She was aware that it would be the most difficult one. Up to now and with Matt´s help, it hadn´t been too difficult to carry Damon. But, obviously, she could not simply leave him here on his couch like this. No, if she wanted to get rid of him, there was only one place she could bring him.

Taking a deep breath, Elena took hold of Damon´s leg and started pulling with as much force as possible. It wasn´t too difficult to get him down the sofa but afterwards the real work began. After having pulled him another meter in the direction of the cellar, Elena was already sweating. The dead weight of his body was almost too heavy for her. Still, the adrenaline that was pumping through her body, did it´s part and after some time she had succeeded in dragging him to the door that led down to the basement. Letting go of Damon´s leg for a moment, Elena opened the door and looked downstairs. The stairs leading down to the basement were steep and Elena was certain that she would have never been able to carry Damon up these stairs… fortunately for her, getting him down there should be much easier. Being not overly concerned with Damon´s well-being, she quickly dragged him to the edge of the stairs and then simply pushed him forwards. It took her another 30 seconds and a lot of effort but finally she had pushed him far enough so that his body tumbled down the stairs and collapsed on the bottom. The sound reverberated in the silence of the otherwise empty house. When Elena looked at him motionless body, she was almost sure that no human would have survived such a fall. Of course, Damon would not even feel it afterwards.

Only allowing herself a small break, she hastily went downstairs as well. Her eyes scanned the area and focused on one of the cells. One of them was filled with vervain. The other was empty. And the door was currently standing wide open. She only had to drag Damon a few more steps and then she would be safe from him. Even he couldn´t escape from these cells. She was surprised that she had really made it to this point. Before this moment, she had not even dared to hope that she would succeed in actually locking him in one of his own cells. Euphoria was floating her body. She had done it, she thought in amazement. She had really done it! Her body felt much lighter. Deep down, she knew she must be on the brink of breakdown. She had lost a lot of blood today and the lack of sleep was doing the rest… but in this moment, she felt more energetic than maybe ever before. Who had thought that she, a mere human, could win against a vampire? But here they were. Damon was still unconscious, and she was only a step away from locking him up. It was almost too good to be real.

Intend on not losing the advantage she had on him right now, Elena quickly went over to Damon´s body and dragged him the last meters. It almost felt easy now. She left him, at the bottom in the middle of the cell and quickly went to the door. It closed with a defying boom. Elena quickly bolted it shut. Through the thick bars, her eyes found Damon´s body and she smirked grimly. Oh no, he wouldn´t be able to get out of here again. He had underestimated her and now he would be paying the price. Taking a few steps away from the door, Elena leaned against the wall and slowly slid down. She hugged her knees against her body and rested her chin on them. There was nothing left for her now than waiting. The exertion of the day suddenly seemed to be crashing down on her. Fromone second to the other, her eyes felt heavy. A moment ago, her whole body had been filled with adrenaline but now the silence was pressing down on her. Maybe it would be nice to close my eyes, she thought groggily. Just for a moment… A second later she was fast asleep.

Elena woke from a banging noise. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to make some sense of her surroundings. Her backside hurt and when she moved, she realized that she was sitting on hard concrete. She groaned and tried to find a more comfortable position.

"Ah, someone´s awake.", she heard a voice say and it was this second that she remembered what had happened. Her eyes flew open.

The light in the basement hadn´t changed; but maybe it never did. Everything looked exactly as it did before she had fallen asleep. The only thing that had changed and that told her that some time must have passed was the fact that Damon was awake. For a fleeting second, Elena wondered if she really had it in her to face him – but then she shoved the thought away. There simply was no point in it.

Slowly, Elena pushed herself into a standing position. Her mouth felt dry, and her eyes hurt from lack of sleep. Even though she had succeeded in putting Damon into that cell, she still felt like hell. Everything that had happened, had left a strain on her that suddenly seemed difficult to bear. For a second, she wished for nothing more than a hot bath and a night of full of sleep. Maybe tomorrow, she reassured herself. Tomorrow she could recover. But right now, she had to be strong. At least for a few more hours.

When she finally found the courage to look at the cell, she hoped that all her expression showed was willpower. Her eyes found Damon´s and she didn´t look away. She wanted him to know, that she had won. She wanted him to know that she wasn´t weak.

Damon was standing right behind the bars. His hair seemed a little bit more ruffled than normal and there were small strains of dirt on his black shirt. Otherwise, there was no sign that he had just been drugged twice. He was returning her gaze directly. The intensity of his blue eyes was creating shills all over her body. They seemed so cold that Elena had difficulties to remember how it was to feel warm. Just looking at them made her feel like being stuck under a sheet of ice. For days now, she´s been trying to break through. But just looking at him right now, made her feel like she never could.

Don´t be ridiculous, Elena, she scolded herself. You´ve won. He can´t get out of there. However, these thoughts did nothing to make her feel any better. For a moment, Damon seemed to be content with just looking at her. Elena had the feeling that he was looking right into her. As if could guess every single thought of hers, just by one look. What he was thinking, however, seemed to be forever elusive. She had no clue what was really going through his head. Could not decipher the meaning of what had happened in the last days. Could not even start to guess where Damon intended to go with this situation. Even right now, his face was like a mask. Elena had expected to see anger, but there was just nothing. He simply seemed cold. The silence between them stretched, became uncomfortable. Elena started to wish that she was anywhere but here. Finally, Damon´s mouth morphed into a smirk. There was a hidden danger in the way he was looking at her, that made goosebumps appear all over her body. She tried to tell herself that there was no reason to be afraid of him anymore. It wasn´t that successful though.

"I have to say that I´m almost impressed," Damon spoke slowly into the thick quietness that was surrounding them. His eyes were mustering her from head to toe. "Of course, I expected some kind of resistance. But this…" He looked around in the basement cell. "This really surprised me. I didn´t thought you´d have it in you."

Elena duck her nails into her skin in an attempt to remain calm. It was so easy for him to make her feel uncomfortable. Her heart was beating faster only by hearing the dark tone in his voice. "I told you that I´m not going to stand by and let you do this do to me," she whispered and was surprised how small her voice sounded in the big basement. She really needed to get a grip on the situation.

In a way, Elena had expected him to react angry by hearing her words, but all he did was smirking. He still acted as if he was totally at ease and this unnerved her even more. For a moment, he continued looking at her, before walking away from the bars and leaning against the opposite wall, crossing his arms before his body. His gaze was still kind of indifferent while he mustered her. "I hope you realize that you´ll have to pay for this when I´m out of here", he told her casually.

Elena gulped. Don´t let him get to you, she told herself. She knew he was just trying to intimidate her. But two could play this game. She had enough of always being afraid of him. Elena crossed her arms before her body and leaned against the wall behind her, mimicking the pose he was currently in. Her eyes were shooting daggers at him. "Too bad that you´re never going to get out of here, Damon. This fact kind of let your threats appear a little bit less…you know… threatening."

Damon laughed and for a moment Elena wished that he would become angry instead. At least this would be a normal reaction. She hated that he was still acting as if he had the upper hand.

"I´m curious. What exactly do you expect to happen? Will you just leave and hope that I don´t find a way to escape?" He cocked his head to the side. "Because if this is what you are planning, I can safe you the effort and tell you that this will never work out for you. Not to mention how angry that would make me…"

Elena refused to be intimidated. "I´m quite certain that you are in no position to threaten me, Damon."

He shrugged. "I guess there we disagree." He pushed himself away from the wall and walked over to the bars just again. His blue eyes were searching hers. They were looking at her with such an intensity, that it almost took her breath away. She felt as if he was caging her in. She hated the effect he had on her. As always Damon seemed to be able to see right through her. A small smile started to grace his lips which seemed to be promising her all kind of hell. "How about that:", he said slowly, his dark voice reverberating in the basement. "I´m going to offer you one last chance. Let me out of here and apologize for this stunt and I promise I´ll be… merciful. That´s much more than what you could expect after you´ve fucking drugged me and locked me up."

Elena stared at him. She couldn´t believe the nerve he had. "Do you think I´m stupid? I just got you in this cell, why the hell should I let you out?"

Damon wasn´t fazed by her words. "It´s your decision Elena, but I would suggest you think about it carefully. It´s the only chance I´m going to give you. Let me out of here now and we can forget about it. We can move on." He shrugged. "or stay stubborn and hope that you´re right and I never get out of here because if I am, I´m going to make sure that you thoroughly regret every rebellious thought that ever ran through this pretty little head of yours." He smirked. "That´s a promise."

Elena had enough of all his threats. She glared at him angrily. "You know what I think, Damon? Even though you won´t admit it, you actually are afraid right now. You are too arrogant to ever have imagined that I´ll be able to put you in this cell. You never expected this to happen. And now, you just started to realize that you are at a disadvantage. But if you really think I let you out because of some threats, you are sorely mistaken. No, Damon, you are going to pay for what you did to me. And in the end, you´ll regret it. That I promise you."

Damon had listened to her tirade silently. His eyes seemed to burn holes into her. "You are going to regret this, Elena", he told her darkly. "I´m going to make sure of it."

Elena rolled her eyes at him. "You can act as self-confident as you want, Damon. The truth is, you´re not going to get out of there. You have lost."

"Lost," Damon huffed dismissively. "We´ll just have to see about that." He turned around and moved over to the little bench that was placed on one of the walls and sat down. It was the first time that Elena had the feeling that drugging him with vervain actually had affected him. Now, when she looked at him, she could have sworn that he looked a bit paler than normal. But of course, Damon would never give her the satisfaction of seeing him weak. He crossed his hands behind his head and made himself comfortable before looking at her again. "I am curious, though," he admitted after a while. "How do you think this will work out for you? I mean I get it. You drank vervain so that I couldn´t compel you anymore. Clever move by the way. And now you´ve got me here… , but how to move on from here? You´re compelled to keep this a secret. You can´t tell Stefan about it. And you can´t kill me as well. So, what will you do, Elena? If you leave me here, Stefan will find me eventually and I´m sure I will get him to let me out. He´s my brother after all."

Elena looked at him silently. She hated to admit it, but Damon had summed up the problems she was facing quite accurately. She had thought about it almost the whole day. And she had only seen one solution.

"You´re right", she admitted. "If I leave you here, Stefan will find you and you will tell him some lie and he´ll probably let you out. Which means that I will not leave. I will simply stay here and do nothing at all." Her words forced Damon to raise his eyebrows in disbelieve. "Nothing?" Elena nodded earnestly. "Yeah, nothing."

For a moment Damon still seemed to be confused, then her plan dawned on him. "At some point Stefan will start asking where you are."

Elena made herself more comfortable. She did feel a little bit more in control now. "Did I tell you that I never said goodbye to Stefan before leaving the party? It can´t be long until he starts worrying about me."

"And then he´ll search for you. And when he doesn´t find you at your home, he´ll come here and hear us in the basement." Damon´s eyes narrowed. "but even if he finds us here, you´ll still not be able to tell him what happened."

Elena knew that Damon had a point there. She had been horrified when the compulsion had forced her to ask Matt to keep the events of the evening a secret from Stefan. She had not thought that it would influence her that thoroughly. And even right now, Elena wasn´t completely sure that the compulsion would not force her to do something so that Stefan wouldn´t find them here. But she also wasn´t going to admit these doubts to Damon. Elena tried to appear as nonchalant as possible when she answered him. "Maybe I´m not going to be able to tell Stefan what you did… but despite what you think, Stefan is not stupid."

Someone else might have been confused by her sentence but Damon had always been quick. She just had to look at him to know that he completely understood her plan. His eyes mustered her. "What you are telling me is that Stefan will come here, and he will find me in the cell. He´ll also probably smell the blood." Elena nodded. She carefully tugged on the scarf that was still covering the bite mark on her neck. "And then he will see the bite marks you left on me," she replied, while her fingers had already loosened the knot. Damon´s eyes narrowed at her while he watched her every movement. "I compelled you not to take it off."

For the first time this evening, Elena felt as if she really had the upper hand. She even managed to throw him a sweet smile. "You did," she agreed before grinning victoriously. "But then you took it off yourself when you bit me in the office of Tyler Lockwood father. Unfortunately for you, this undid your compulsion." She threw the scarf away from her and looked directly into his eyes. "Your bad."

If Damon was angry about this, he didn´t let on. All he did was raising an eyebrow. "I really did underestimate you, didn´t I?" He cocked his head to the side. "Ok, let´s suppose Stefan will find us here. What´s next? He´ll see me in the cell and he´ll see the bite marks on your neck. I guess even my brother will be able to count one and one together."

Elena nodded. "It´s true that I cannot tell him what happened. Maybe I´ll even be forced to tell him a lie." She shrugged. "But it won´t matter. If faced with this situation, Stefan will realize that I´m compelled. And after he understands what you´ve done to me, you can be happy if he decides to just let you rod here and not kill you right away."

To her frustration, Damon didn´t seem to be overly worried. "Nice plan," he said while making himself more comfortable. "Of course, it will never work."

Elena eyes narrowed at him. She hated that he still had to act that confident. It kind of unnerved her. He had no right to still act that superior. She had caged him in his own basement for fucks sake! "And why is that", she gritted out angrily.

But Damon only shrugged noncommittedly. "You´ll find out in time, Elena. So, enjoy the time where you still have the upper hand. I assure you, it won´t last long."

"You´re insufferable."

He smirked. "So I´ve been told."

Elena threw her hands in the air in frustration. She shot him one last angry glare before turning around with determination. "You know what, I´m not going to talk to you any further, Damon. Rod in hell for all I care." With this she went over to the wall opposite of the cell again and slid down to the floor. From this position she wasn´t able to see Damon anymore which really was a blessing. For a second, she expected Damon to get angry by being ignored, but all he did was laugh. She could hear him shuffle a bit on the ground and was almost certain that he was searching for a comfortable position to lay down. The vervain really must have taken a toll on him, Elena thought silently, while she also tried to find a good sitting position. Otherwise, he would never let me get away with this.

Now that they weren´t talking anymore, silence settled over the room. Elena felt happy about it. She had no real motivation to talk to Damon anymore. All his threats were giving her a headache. She just wanted it to be over. Stefan will be here soon, she told herself. And this will be over. She simply had to believe it.

Just like earlier, Elena felt the toll the day had left on her. Even though she had slept a bit, she still felt tiredness in every bone of her body. But at the same time, some nagging voice in her head told her that it would be silly to close her eyes again. She couldn´t let her guard down. Not now. Not when she was that close from getting rid of Damon. However, it was difficult to stay awake. Her eyes felt heavy, eyelids falling close again and again. It was only Elena´s determination that kept her from really falling asleep.

Elena wasn´t sure how much time had passed when she heard it. Time didn´t seem to be a concept that existed within the walls of this basement. At first, she wasn´t sure if she had really heard something or if it had just been her imagination. She almost stopped breathing, while she listened intently, and then there it was again. Footsteps! she thought with excitement, her tiredness nothing but forgotten. Stefan was coming for her!

Elena looked at the bars of Damon´s cell, but there was no reaction from within even though he must have also heard it. Maybe, he´s asleep, she thought and couldn´t help but smile brightly. Right until the end, she had been worried that something might go wrong. She had fretted that Damon would be able to find a way out of the cell before Stefan arrived, but her fears seemed to have been unnecessary. Luck finally seemed to be on her side.

Pushing herself up, she turned around to the door of the basement. In this moment, someone was opening it. Light from upstairs fell into the dark basement and for just a second Elena was blinded by it. The light made her squint. A person was walking downstairs now, and a strange feeling started to appear in the midst of her stomach. It took Elena a moment to realize where this feeling was coming from. But then it dawned on her with full force. The silhouette was much too small to belong to Stefan. Her eyes widened when she recognized the person that had just reached the last step of the stairs.

"Caroline?" Elena asked in disbelief while she stared at her friend. "Wha…What are you doing here?"

Oh, not what Elena expected! What do you think will happen next? Leave me a review!:)