TW: SA MENTIONED IN CHAPTER. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

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kissed me quite insane. three

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love opened a mortal wound. in agony, i worked the blade to make it deeper

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Damon Salvatore is not a good person.

Maybe it was because of the fact that his mother died young, or that Stefan was forever the apple of his father's eye or just because he was just born evil ( or maybe it was her ), but regardless, Damon knows he will never know what heaven's glossy gates will look like.

Now, he stands before a girl with brown hair and brown eyes and grief written so plainly on her face that nothing short of death would remove it from her face. Even then, Damon still thinks that the sorrow on her face would leave its mark.

He catches her eyes in his, feels the rush of compulsion, the melody of that ancient power wrought from the stars themselves, the unholy blood that surges through him as he commands her.

"Stay still," he says and the girl goes unnaturally still, her face slack and her pupils so wide they gobble up her whole iris, "Good."

Damon leans in close and his plan unspools in his mind.

He'd made an oath long ago, underneath the stars and blood on his mouth, that he would make the rest of his and Stefan's immortal existence living hell. Then, he would follow his brother into death and make sure that his body would roll in his grave.

As soon as Damon saw her — Caroline Forbes, the girl who's face isn't really hers — Damon had baulked. And then he had laughed. Of course his brother had gone after the blonde with the merry laugh and the fiery eyes. Of course, of course, of course.

He'd chased her throughout the day, sent his crow to kick that heartbeat into overdrive, a useful party trick from an old wiccan friend, sickened at how the way the sunlight had bounced off her curls. How innocence rolled off of her in waves so potent it nearly drowned him.

Innocence doesn't belong on a face like that.

"Do as I say," Damon intones and the girl — Elena Gilbert, he thinks — nods and responds flatly:

"Do as you say."

( He's unsure why his stomach drops so, why his undead heart twists so. )

He leans in, the evil, sickly plan clear as a crystal in his mind's eye. Then, his lips brush hers and Damon freezes.

( "Just do as I say, my darling. You'll adore what I'll do to you — I promise." )

Elena Gilbert is replaced with golden tresses pinned intricately into a bun, eyes of the sky and a smile that could make beasts cry and angels fall.

A smile that hides the clawed hands and bloodied fangs.

A violent kiss.

Damon rears back abruptly, face leeched of colour and eyes wide and frantic. Panic blazes through him, heart thudding so thunderously Damon is convicted that he's returned to life for a mere moment, and there's teeth and blue eyes and a mouth as red as blood —

( "Why do you run from me so, my darling? You know you adore me." )

Damon gags, sagging against the car as he breathes raggedly, his breath sawing out of him like glass shards — a shattered vase of what he used to be. Of what he could've been.

( It's been a hundred years and her claws still dig deep. )

"Are you okay?" Sweet as a hummingbird, cautious as a gazelle, Damon's eyes snap to Elena Gilbert, standing still as a statue, but her face is pulled down in a frown, and something too much like kindness glimmers in those petrichor eyes, "What happened?"

"Nothing," Damon bites out, pushing himself to his feet, even as his legs shake. In an instant, Damon chokes the panic that rages, stills his breathing. His face is still pale. He catches Elena's eyes again and commands, "Forget this. Go home."

Elena's face slackens once more, repeating his orders dutifully before marching off to her car and sliding onto the seat. Damon doesn't wait around, flying for the Boarding House, ducking into the bathroom and heaving the blood he drank that day into the toilet.

He leaves behind a ruined masterpiece of scarlet.

He slumps against the sink, his legs finally buckling, the back of his head rattling against the cupboards as he squeezes his eyes shut, like he can block out the lilac gloves that itched as they ran over his skin and the ache in his neck in the marks she left behind.

Damon Salvatore curls into himself and sobs.

( He vowed to himself a hundred years ago that he would never end up like her. )

( Now look at him. )

—

"I'm just saying, Care," Bonnie argues as Caroline climbs out of the car, the breeze pulling at her hair and prickling at her eyes. Caroline huffs as she slams the door closed a little too hard, wilting ever so slightly under Elena's disapproving stare as she also exits the car, "You're a high school student. This is the perfect time to play the field."

Caroline fails to bite back a soft chuckle. "Where's this coming from, Bonnie? Just yesterday you were telling me to go for it with Stefan! Can you believe this, Lena?"

Elena nods and smiles in agreement.

( Caroline ignores how tight and strained it looks. )

Bonnie's lips twist in a tell-tale sign. "Nothing. Just forget about it."

"No, Bonnie," Elena argues, striking like a snake and wrapping a hand around Bonnie's wrist, "Look, just tell us what happened."

Bonnie sighs and her conviction crumbles. "It's nothing — I just accidentally touched Stefan . . . and I got a really bad feeling."

Caroline swallows. Electric blue eyes — too blue — flash in her mind.

( She got a bad feeling too. )

"Is that it, Bon?" Caroline says, frowning and Bonnie rolls her eyes and begins to walk away, "Oh, no, Bonnie — come on! You know I didn't mean it."

Bonnie whirls back, furious and fierce and a certain light in her eyes that has Caroline's mouth filling up with cotton balls. "It was bad bad."

"Is this the whole witch-mojo thing again?" Elena questions, a smile dancing on her face. She looks more alive, yet somehow deader than she did before this all started.

Bonnie shakes her head and a strained form of a smile jumps to her lips. "You know what? I'm just concerned. This is me expressing concern over one of my best friend's new boyfriend, okay?"

Caroline's heart warms and her smile is nearly blinding. She steps forwards and smothers Bonnie in a hug, her soft embrace colliding harshly with Bonnie's tense muscles. Caroline reaches out, winding a hand around Elena's waist and dragging her into the hug. "And I love you for it, Bon, but I promise there's nothing to worry about. Stefan's great. I'm great. It's all great, Bonnie."

Bonnie smiles. Caroline pretends like she believes it.

( Destiny cackles and magic broils in the blood. )

—

The years have passed like a waterfall: loud and unerring in their violence. After a while, the slow trickle of the river had merged into the roaring thunder of crashing water and the years Stefan lists off in history class, realising they are long behind him, makes something bite and pull at his chest.

( He feels cheated.

He will never know what it means to having the thrill of everyday being your last meaning something.)

( But then he never would've met her and that's a price Stefan isn't sure he's willing to pay. )

But, as Stefan's eyes collide with Caroline's, he finds himself soaring, rocketing above the cloud by the push of her bright, adoring beam and those sunny-day irises that are more intoxicating than adrenaline.

For once, there's something more than just the expectation to live that keeps Stefan going.

—

Stefan hasn't seen Damon in a while, and that can either mean one of two things: a good thing or a very, very bad thing.

Considering that Damon had made it his immortal life's mission to make Stefan's life as miserable as possible and that the last Stefan had seen of his elder brother was just last night, something dark and ugly and nefarious simmers in Stefan's gut.

( Bitter are the wars between brothers. )

Only the gleam of Caroline's golden skin in the sun keeps Stefan's teeth from chewing through his bottom lip, stopping his fingers from twisting the daylight ring right off his finger in his anxiety. He watches closely as Caroline delves into the group of Bonnie and Elena, their smiles lively in teenage naivety.

"Oh my God, Elena!" Caroline chirps, "I can't believe you're here!"

"Yep. Can't be sad girl forever. Only way to get things back to the way they were is to do things that were." Stefan doesn't miss how Elena's eyes briefly flick to him and he sighs. He knows the look that gleams in those petrichor eyes all too well.

( O, Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo? )

"This is amazing!" Caroline giggles, "Oh, girls, we have plans tonight. Dinner at mine, okay?"

"What's the occasion?" Bonnie grins and it's rather amusing how quickly that grin slides off butterscotch features as Caroline replies:

"Oh, just so you, me, Elena and Stefan can all get to know one another."

"Care," Bonnie groans and there's the heavy, metallic scent of magic on Stefan's tongue, "Why?"

"C'mon, Bon," Elena pipes in and there's the spice of blood and life and grief and longing clogging up the air, "You have to give Stefan a chance."

"Thank you, Lena. Just come to dinner tonight. I promise there's nothing to worry about."

"Tonight's no good."

The slant of Caroline's brows and the twist of her lips brings an adoring smile to Stefan's lips. "Don't you dare change the subject, Bonnie Abigail Bennett. You're coming."

Bonnie groans, loud and clear enough that Stefan wouldn'tve needed his vampiric hearing to catch it. "Fine. I'll go."

Even Cleopatra couldn't hold a candle to Caroline Forbes.

—

"How were tryouts? Did you make the team?" If those words had come from any other mouth, they would've been full of brotherly pride and eagerness. Coming from Damon Salvatore, they're nothing short of derisive.

The elder brother in question reclines in Stefan's desk chair, boots propped up on the desk, Stefan's journal clasped possessively in his murderous hands and a malicious thread to his lips and an icy gleam to his eyes.

"Very Emerson, the way you reveal your soul with so many —"

The journal is torn from Damon's fingers.

The smirk still remains.

"Adjectives."

"What're you doing here?" Stefan snips ( there's still a part of him that craves for his big brother's affection more than blood ).

"I've come to apologise." Those words don't belong in the mouth of Damon Salvatore. "I've been doing some thinking, some soul searching and — I want us to start over. We need to put the past behind us. You're my little brother, and if you wanna live a normal, happy, human life then I want that for you. Maybe I can do it too. If I can learn to be a non-living living person . . . maybe there's hope for both of us."

( There's no hope for either of them. If only they knew. )

For a moment — for a single moment — Stefan lets himself believe it. Believe that Damon has managed to claw himself from the misery and sorrow that has chased them both, but the laugh that tears free of his throat instead dashes Stefan's hopes more cruelly than his mother's life.

Damon moves past Stefan, slapping him on the chest like they've just shared one of the funniest jokes they've ever told ( and maybe it is ).

"Y'know, it doesn't have to be this way, Damon."

"Of course it doesn't," Damon replies and this is the Damon Stefan has come to know, "I saw Caroline today, BTW — that means 'by the way' — she was at cheerleading practice. She looked very perky. Good on you, brother."

Something ugly and monstrous ( something that comes with you back from the dead ) rears its head and Stefan steps closer, his fingers curling into claws and preparing to rip but Damon only huffs out a laugh in response. "Simmer down. I didn't even go near her. I'm looking for my own cheerleader, anyhow."

Like everything Damon says, it sounds like a threat.

( It also sounds like a cry for help. )

—

Eight. Fourteen. Twenty-two.

Eight. Fourteen. Twenty-two.

Eight. Fourteen. Twenty-two.

The numbers recycle on and on in Bonnie's skull, too much like a broken record — a broken record she can't yank from the record player no matter how much she tries to force her mind to focus on other things.

Always, without fail, her mind returns to those three numbers.

Briefly, Bonnie wonders if she's going insane.

Then, Stefan Salvatore comes knocking at Caroline's door and Bonnie's got bigger things to confront — like the doom and gloom that swells in her gut at his presence; the film of tangy, coppery blood in her mouth every time their arms knock together or their hands brush across the table.

But even in Stefan's heavy, cloudy presence, those three numbers keep whispering in the back of Bonnie's mind like a terrible, awful chant.

Then, there's another rap at the door and Caroline goes to answer it, Bonnie on her tail, some invisible hand pushing her forward.

And there's Damon Salvatore and Bonnie's mind screeches to a halt.

—

There's a chipper call of "Brother!" and a jangle of keys. Elena frowns, swallowing down her mouthful of pasta as her gaze travels to the visage of a tall man dressed in black like it's his second skin, a smug grin on his lips that's ever so slightly chilling.

( Where Stefan is the eye, Damon is the storm. )

Stefan practically leaps out of his chair, rushing down the hallway to the doorway. Elena's not blind to how he pushes himself between Caroline and his brother.

( Some deep-seated instinct, some forgotten memory, tries to scream. )

"Damon." Stefan's voice is deep and almost like a growl. "What're you doing here?"

Damon's ensuing smile is nothing short of sharp. "Aw, don't be like that, Stef. I was just dropping off your keys since you left them at home. And I also brought some cake."

Caroline ducks past Stefan with a delighted gasp and Elena pads down the hallway, intrigue chewing away. She sidles up next to Bonnie, whose face is slack and sallow. "Oh, that's so nice! Thank you! You should come —"

"No, Caroline," Stefan commands and it's so deep it rattles Elena's bones. Ancient instinct pushes Elena to wrap her hand in Bonnie's, the warmth of her pale hand warming the icicles of Bonnie's copper fingers.

Caroline frowns and there's that fierce fire in her eyes igniting once more — I will show you hell — as her gaze snaps to Damon. "Ignore him. Come in. More's the merrier."

As Damon steps over the threshold, chocolate cake in hand, something shifts in the air.

( Elena has the distinct sense that a predator has snuck into the den. )

Stefan's jaw sets tightly, his throat working, his glare nothing less than poisonous as he glowers at his elder brother. In contrast, Damon's grin is blinding.

The Salvatore siblings are a paradox of flesh and bone. Where Stefan is golden and gleaming, an angel with white wings, Damon is all hell and brimstone, a demon with a sinful smirk.

( Both are dangerous. Neither can be saved. )

Elena swallows down the inexplicable fear as she steps forwards, introduces herself. She's not quite sure why she keeps Bonnie positioned behind her, but she doesn't question it. Not as Damon's grin falters for a split second and he takes her hand.

Elena tries to keep her shivers at bay.

Tries to ignore the oil slithering over her skin at his touch.

—

Caroline is used to feeling insecure. When you're friends with Bonnie Bennett and Elena Gilbert, it comes with the territory.

But Caroline is not used to feeling like she's losing.

"The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up." Again, it's that her ( that woman; that Eve to Stefan's Adam ) and that awful feeling of having the first place medal slip through your fingers burns in Caroline's throat.

"Her?" Caroline repeats and she doesn't miss the way Stefan tenses against her ( Caroline doesn't miss much. She doesn't miss how Bonnie is silent and burdened, how Elena is lovesick for more than just her parents ), "Who's her? Is this your ex?"

Damon's head tilts. "Oh, has my baby brother not told you about his ex yet? The one that got away?"

Now that stings.

( Caroline doesn't know it yet, but she didn't get away — she ran like hell. )

Stefan clears his throat. "Damon, stop."

"But don't you think the beautiful Caroline deserves to know, Stef?"

"I do, actually," Caroline says, leaning forwards to place her drink on the coffee table with just enough force to describe the betrayal running through her, hotter than acid. She only slightly cools when Elena's hand slips over her wrist, cinching tighter than chains. It's a silent message: I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, "So, who is she?"

There's a pause. History swells and blood pours.

"Dorothy. Dorothy Vance."

( AKA the difference between life and death. )

—

Something inside her is telling her to run away. Run far.

She doesn't know where it comes from. Thinks it's been there since birth.

Fly away, little bird, the voice in her blood croons, older than she thinks possible, before the wolf gobbles you up whole.

But Stefan isn't a wolf.

He's still a predator.

After all, what prey manages to heal quick enough where there was once blood marring that angel hand and now there's nothing more than pristine skin?

( Only a predator could. )

Caroline swallows down her fear.

( The suspicion persists.)

( So does the urge. )

—

Bonnie is getting used to the feeling of doom swelling in her gut.

What she's not used to is how it pops as her eyes train on Tanner's mauled form.

When she sees eight, fourteen and twenty-two, she throws up.

( "There's no going back now."

"You say that like they had a choice."

"I know. Marvellous, isn't it?" )

—

hi. me again.

ik you're probably wondering why i changed the sa storyline. i myself have never been sa'd ( thank god ) and im not aware that i know people who have. even then, i really don't feel comfortable writing it ( i can barely feel comfortable reading it ) so any mentions of sa im going to keep brief.

personally, i dont really like damon in tvd. if we removed the whole sa storyline, i think i honestly couldve liked him, but after what he did to caroline, i just couldnt feel anything more than a vague indifference towards him. i dont like stefan much either tbh, but i prefer him way more than damon. so when i came up with the sa storyline for him, i was uhmming and ahhing about adding it. at the end of the day, i knew i needed something to add to that scene bc damon was there for a reason and i couldnt just say damon left out of the kindness of his heart bc thats not how the writers portrayed him and its not even how i portrayed him.

but thats the heavy stuff. if i offended anyone, pls contact me and ill fix it. :)

now heres the lighter stuff! i actually planned to have this chapter out tomorrow, but i finished it quicker than i thought so here we are. now that ive finally introduced dorothy, im really excited for the rest of the story - especially the flashbacks. i think its really obvious now that dorothy isnt katherine but blonde :)

also im getting out of control. klena is nowhere near to being introduced, but im already thinking of doing an elejah version to this story :/ send help.

all the reviews, favs and follows mean so, so much to me so to everyone who's even read this, thank you so much. i never expected the amount of attention this story would get so quickly and im over the moon :D

bye 3