Chapter 28: The Shortest Chapter to Ever Chapter

Elena flinched at the noise. The door clanged and a bluish light slapped her across the face. It was the first glimpse of anything besides complete darkness she had been granted in days. They only came to soak her ropes in vervain and stick a needle in her neck at night. Every. Night. She knew she should be tensing, readying herself to fight, but she was hardly strong enough to just lift her head and blink back at the stranger silhouetted in the doorway.

"Not a sound," the intruder ordered and it wasn't a voice Elena recognized, and she knew all the Alphas' pretty well, having spent the better part of her captivity listening to them bicker.

"Wh -"

"What did I just say?"

The shadow slipped forward and Elena squinted down at a dark-skinned girl with black hair and a hard face that reminded the vampire of Bonnie when she was angry.

"We don't have much time. Stay still and stay quiet and we'll both get out of here alive."

The stranger didn't hesitate before pulling something metallic out of her sleeve and sending it soaring toward Elena's restraints. The ropes ripped and Elena crumpled to the floor, landing heavily on her ankle and elbow.

"You just - broke my ankle," she swallowed.

"Sprained, probably. And I'm saving your life. Think that trumps a broken bone. Besides, you heal."

"Not now," Elena shook her head. "Too weak. Need blood."

"Vampire, you so much as look at my neck and I will put you down. Let's get one thing straight. I'm here because I'm being paid to be here. I can make money saving or killing someone else, got it? Suck it up, and be quiet. Now, come on."

The woman lifted Elena up, dipping an arm under the vampire's shoulders and dragging her from the room. Before they had even reached the threshold, the weight in her arms doubled as the girl went limp.

"Damn it."

The woman adjusted her grip on the girl, heaving the vampire up and over her shoulder before bolting. They were outside, down the block, and around the corner when Elena finally breached the surface again. She was mumbling Tyler's name as the woman pulled her on the bike behind her. Elena's arms were brought around the stranger's waist and she hoped it would be enough to keep the fading vampire from falling. It was nearly ten minutes later when Elena's head flopped against the woman's shoulder and she shuddered, nearly falling as Elena realized they were moving, and fast.

"Quiet," her unnamed rescuer ordered. "Stay with me. We're almost there."

"My neck," Elena reached around, rubbing the scars, now feeling the pain as she wasn't distracted with the other agonies of vervain against her wrists and oxygen escaping her lungs.

"From their claws," was the answer she received. "It's how they share memories."

"But I don't remember anything."

"Also how they steal them. Listen to me, no matter what happens, you hold on, okay?"

Of course, that was a lot easier said than done with vervain pumping through her veins, not to mention the exhaustion and blood loss and desiccation. Oh, and the mutating Alpha twins chasing them.

So it wasn't really a surprise when she woke up on a gurney as she was being wheeled through hospital doors, blurry memories of her mystery savior and electricity and a giant Alpha splitting into two.

"Hey, wait. Wait a minute. I know this one."

Elena closed her eyes and sighed through her nose in relief at the sound of Meredith's voice. Soon, the woman's face was hovering blurrily above her own.

"What happened, Elena?"

Elena glanced around, hearing the second set of wheels behind her.

"I'll be okay," she said, with a knowing look. "That woman. The girl, she's worse. Help her."

Elena was unconscious again before she could ask someone, anyone, to call Damon.

A/N: Shortest. Chapter. Ever. This one had a scene from the original plot/timeline paired with it, but since that got changed/cut, I didn't feel like respacing/reordering all the following chapters too.