From Maggie, date March 2022 Hello Friends... I have replaced this chapter with a new and improved proofed one. There are a few changes in the story, no plotline changes, however, I did add some scene lines and dialog... Hope you like it
Chapter 2 – This is Hell
Stefan falls to the ground, he hears the sound of his body colliding with the floor beneath him, only it isn't the earthen dirt of the tunnel ground, it is slightly plush, yet hard and woven. Lying flat on his back, Stefan opens his eyes, looks straight up and recognizes the dark oak vaulted beams crisscrossing above his head. He adjusted his weight on his arms to slightly sit up, and immediately felt the pain of the burnt flesh. He looked down, his wedding tux was melted to his arm, he could see the charred blood and skin where he should see the fine black fabric of his tux sleeve. The realization overwhelms the pain, Katherine is gone, she isn't in his arms, and he realizes the dagger is also gone, does that mean it is in hell with her. He looks at the burns, the hellfires touched him, the way that he had tangled his arms with her body, to secure her, to keep her from escaping. He knew the hellfire had to have touched him, to do that the fire had to have gone through Katherine to get to him, he was sure of it. He felt the heat of her burn on the front of his entire body, just before it disappeared. He felt different, his soul felt different, his heartbeat felt different, there was a joy, a peace inside him, it worked, the brothers had finally done it, call it a win, redemption, or whatever, he knew, his last thought on earth was love for his brother and his brother's last thought for him was love, they finally found true peace. He took a breath, all his loved ones were safe, Caroline, the twins, Elena, and his heart went heavy, he especially hoped Bonnie was safe.
He looked around, where exactly was he? He shakes his head, he is at home, in his living room, the fireplace blazing. Was this his heaven or his hell? He looked at his charred flesh, he felt the pain of the burn, he wasn't sure what heaven was, he didn't think it came with pain, he was too much of a realist to think that his afterlife would be without pain and suffering. As he looked around, he knew he was in the Grand Hall of the Salvatore Boarding House, it was exactly as he and Damon left it this afternoon when they discovered Katherine impersonating Elena. His home, his refuge, the place he came back to, the one place he could feel connected to Damon and Caroline, to his eternal vampire life. He thought he could survive pain and suffering here, was this hell? Or could Damon be right, was his redemption there with the people he loved, finding true love in Caroline, saving Damon and Elena, did he find peace? Stefan tries to stand up, he bumped his head on something. He looked up and saw what he hit his head on, Elena's empty coffin. He turns to walk away from the coffin and slams into an invisible wall. Stefan puts his hands out to feel around, he slowly walks around, feeling his way over the surface of the barrier looking for an opening. After 10 minutes he has been up and over the coffin, along the edges of the floor in a complete circle, he realizes that he has been spelled into a 10-foot radius bubble of Elena's coffin. He started to think he had not earned redemption after all. As he sat on the floor he wondered why this was his hell.
Caroline vamp speeds into the Armory finds Bonnie passed out on the floor. Caroline holding Bonnie in her arms, "Bonnie… Bonnie, wake up... Ric, she has to be ok. I can't lose her too. Bonnie." Bonnie stirs "Care, I did it. Hell didn't win." Bonnie sat up, wiped the blood from her nose. "Katherine? Is she back in Hell?" Caroline hugged her, "I don't know. Ric and I just got back to here." Caroline leans her chin on Bonnie's shoulder and whispers, "Elena, do you feel her?" Bonnie pulls back and looks directly into Caroline's eyes, "Yes, she is ok. I can feel her, our link is as strong as it has always been." Bonnie smiled as she saw hope come back into her dear friend's eyes, "You and Ric take the girls, they are Gemini, they can siphon the barrier spell that Kai put up at the school. They can get to Elena. Take Elena home, put her in Damon's room, I can spell it shut from here, my blood is still in the doorways and window sills, from the last time, we needed to put a boundary spell around his room." Caroline looked at her friend with real concern in her eyes. Bonnie continues, "Care, I will join you soon... I have to make sure Hell is sealed and Katherine is gone. I'll use the tunnels, my locator spell will work better the closer to the bell I am, we have to make sure the dagger is in Katherine, in Hell." Caroline "I can't say 'Don't do anything Bonnie Bennett like' because you always will and do. Just be very careful. I can't lose any more people I love tonight." Bonnie pauses "I know what Stefan did. Care, I'm the one that told him about my powers and the spell. I can use magic to see what happened to Damon & Stefan. Maybe I can…" Caroline started crying "Stefan didn't make it. He left me a message, he was going try to save Damon or die with him." Caroline dropped to the floor with Bonnie "He told me 'Family first' Stefan could never live without his brother. He has always chosen Damon. He knew he would again. In a way, I think Damon is Stefan's soul mate. Elena, she tried to tell me, once a long time ago. I didn't understand until today. Stefan and Damon will always be brothers first, and the loves of our lives second." Caroline stood up and lent a hand to Bonnie. Caroline "Are you sure you have the strength for this? It's not exactly around the corner. The tunnel is almost 5 miles long." Bonnie "Yes, I need to check the entire tunnel. I will be fine, my magic is stronger than ever." Bonnie paused, not knowing whether to explain that she now has her entire ancestry magic to tap into anytime she wanted to. All she had to do was call upon them, she had earned her place as the matriarch of Bennett magic. Sheila and the rest of the coven spirits had blessed her before Bonnie had woken. Bonnie took Caroline's hand "I was blessed by the Bennett Coven spirits, I have all the magic I need to protect myself. Now go, Elena needs us." With that reassurance, Caroline used her vamp speed, leaving Bonnie as she turned toward the burnt doorway that leads to Hell's Bell.
Caroline climbed into the car with Ric and the twins "Bonnie is ok, she is going through the tunnel to make sure Hell is closed and Katherine is in it. We need to take the twins with us to the basement at the High School, they should be able to siphon the force field from the room Elena is in." Ric sounds relieved, "Elena is alive?" Caroline took a deep unneeded breath, "Bonnie told me, she felt the connection is still intact." Ric starts processing his thoughts out loud, "Bonnie thinks the girls can siphon the barrier because they are Gemini, right? Regardless, of Kai being in the prison world or the Gemini leader, as Gemini, the twins have a better chance of siphoning Gemini magic, then she has to break the barrier spell or at least can do it quicker than she can." Caroline confirms his thoughts, "That is more or less what she said. We can take Elena home. She will be safer with us until Bonnie puts a barrier spell on Damon's room to keep her safe until we can get a better plan together. I just hope this all works." The car turns the corner, a street light ray catches her attention as it sparkles from her diamond engagement ring sitting on top of her wedding band on her finger. Caroline takes a deep breath. Ric hears the breath, he puts his hand over hers and squeezes. He knows not to say any words, she doesn't need him to. She has lost Stefan before, he knows Caroline grieves in her way, and right now she has a task in front of her. Ric speaks, "We are almost there, you get the girls out of the car. I'll pick the locks. Let's bring any more attention to tonight's 'Hellfest' than we have to. Matt has enough on his plate to explain." Caroline holds in the tears, "You're right, I didn't even think about how much Matt has to deal with over this." She always appreciates how Ric knows her, he never pressures a situation, now is not the time, she tells herself, Elena and Bonnie are still in danger, Katherine maybe still out there. Now is not the time to mourn her husband of one day, Stefan would want her to protect the family, their family, All of them. Family First.
Bonnie headed down to the tunnel entry through the vault, she felt a warm sensation come over her body, she looked around, she didn't see anyone, her physic abilities were on high alert, her heart knew it was Enzo. Bonnie spoke out loud knowing she was the only one in the tunnel, "Enzo, I'm on my way to the Bell, I have to find out what happened, make sure Katherine is really in Hell. I don't know, maybe see if Damon and Stefan survived by a miracle." She paused and felt pressure around her hand, as though someone was holding it. She continued talking out loud, "I'm so glad you are with me. I love you." She kept walking, using her cell phone light, she saw the charred walls, there were sparkling crystals that brighten the tunnels as she walked, 'chemistry at work' she thought, that much heat created gemstones in the cave walls. Bonnie's witch was working hard in her thoughts, 'nature always finds a balance, something so evil creates something so beautiful.' Bonnie had been walking for over an hour, she had been using her magic to remove the blackened, scorched parts of the tunnel walls. Bonnie wanted to make sure if someone had found their way into the tunnels, they wouldn't wonder what had happened to create the scorch marks, Mystic Falls did not need more physical evidence of supernatural events. Bonnie smirked, and for Damon, she wouldn't let any part of this battle with Katherine show, Katherine had lost, Bonnie wanted to make sure that Good would prevail, that history would show light, not darkness was shining through Mystic Falls. Her best friend gave up his life, Damon would NOT die in vain, he earned his peace, his goodness would be what people would see, not the darkness of the woman who in the end could not destroy his humanity. She saw the glow from doorway outline, for a brief moment, she let hope that was in her heart fill her mind, she started to run, the words came out of her mouth quietly "please be alive both of you, one of you, Damon, Stefan, evil didn't get both of you... please."
Bonnie slowed as she reached the carved-out archway to the church's underground cave, she exhaled deeply when she saw Damon laying face down on the ground. Her first thought was 'No stakes protruding, no scorch marks, he could be alive.' She ran to him, grabbing his shoulders, something was different, Damon was different. She touched his face, it was red and blotchy, he was feverish to the touch, he was sweating, he was breathing. Bonnie yelled, "Damon... Damon.. wake up, open your eyes." Bonnie shook Damon, she looked around. Where was Stefan? She looked on the ground, there were two sets of men's footprints leading to the tunnels, only one broken shuffled set back. Stefan must have shoved Damon out of the way, Stefan took Damon's place in the line of hellfire with Katherine. Bonnie remembered her last conversation with Stefan "What do I need to do?" Stefan had made up his mind. Bonnie whispered, "Damn him", refocused back to Damon still in his wedding tux, she took his tie completely off and unbuttoned the top buttons, his breath was labored, and something else that she wasn't expecting at all, Damon was bleeding, she noticed a pinprick of blood was coming from his neck, she looked around. There it was, on the ground in the corner of the doorway, a syringe, with a red hue around the plunger. Bonnie was putting the pieces together, Stefan removed the cure from himself and gave it to Damon. Then he took Damon's place in the tunnel with Katherine, saving his brother and sacrificing himself to hell.
Bonnie cried as she held Damon in her lap, "It's going to be ok, you are going to be fine." She wasn't lying, Damon was in transition from vampire to human, the cure was working, based on what Elena described, this might take a while. Bonnie pulled out her cell and called Matt. She paused for a moment to listen as he bombards her with questions, finally to interrupt, "Matt, yes, I'm ok. I need your help. It's Damon. I found Damon. I'm in the cave at the tunnel entrance under the church." Bonnie paused to wipe the tears that had stained her cheeks. "Stefan gave him the cure, Damon is transitioning to human. Matt, Stefan is gone. Katherine is too. It worked, Hell is closed and Katherine is officially in it for good. Can you come to get us, I need help getting Damon home." Bonnie paused while Matt told her where he was and how long it would take him to get there "Ok, We are safe, we will be waiting." Bonnie brushed Damon's hair to the side and wiped some of the dirt from his cheek, "Ok, you big baby, Matt's on his way, he was halfway there already. Just hang on. Don't you dare give up, Elena needs you. Stefan's gone, Care needs you. Whether you like it, you need us." She wiped his cheek again, "Damn it, Salvatore, I need you. You said you would never leave me again. You promised. Don't make me hate you again." She leaned down and whispered when her lips touched his forehead in a sisterly kiss, "Please".
Caroline and the twins are standing in front of the Broiler room door. Ric is on the other side of the doorway with Elena in his arms. Caroline was talking to Bonnie on the phone, "Bon, we are at the high school, everything is quiet. Ric has Elena, she is ok. Let's get this spell down, so we can get Elena out here. What do we do now?" Bonnie answered, "Since Kai spelled it, it's Gemini magic. The girls can siphon it, it's their family magic. It will be drawn to them. Put me on speaker." Caroline adjusted the phone so that the twins could hear and see their Auntie BeeBee "Hey my special little witch nieces. Are you girls ok?" Lizzie and Josie "Yes, Auntie BeeBee, it is dark and smells funny. There is a lady on the floor, is she hurt." Bonnie smiles and adds confidence to the tone of her voice "No, lovelies, she is another Auntie. She is Uncle D's special Princess. She is in a deep magical sleeping spell and we need to get her back to the house so that Uncle D can wake her up with a very special kiss that breaks magic sleeping spells. Now to make this happen we have to do some magic ourselves and I need your help. Remember how we worked together in the fire." The girls bob their heads up and down "Yes, that was not scary so much with you there" Lizzie said while holding Josie's hand. Bonnie made sure her voice was calm and reassuring, "Mommy and Daddy are with you, there is nothing to be scared about, I promise, you are smart witches now. You can do this, all you have to do is repeat after me, you have done this before ok." The girls "OK" Bonnie continued, "Each of you stand by Daddy and Auntie Elena, Lizzie can you hold Auntie Elena's hand and with your other hand hold Josie's hand. Josie, you do the same thing with Auntie Elena's other hand and hold Lizzie's hand too. Let me know when you are ready for our special magic spell." Bonnie felt it when the girls connected to Elena, she wondered if she would be able to feel the boundary spell lift. Caroline was so proud of her daughters, "The girls are ready" Bonnie "Ok my lovelies, here we go repeat this Merabas Hic Libatal, Confremun Signas. Omus Quisa Tentum Exalis, Merabas Hic Libatal. Confremun Signas. Omus Quisa Tentum Exalis." The girls repeat each word one at a time, just as Bonnie says them. Bonnie "Ric, try to leave the room. See if you can get Elena out now." Ric picks up Elena and walks right out the door. The twins jump for joy, "We did it, yeah." Josie was dueling excited, "I'm going to tell Uncle D he can kiss her now." Bonnie looks down at Damon, she speaks into the phone, "I'm so proud of you girls. You can both tell him. Now go with Dad and get in the car, it's time to go home." Ric agreed, "Let's get out of here, I want to get everyone to the house before we have more supernatural friends saying Hi from Hell."
Matt walks into the cave, he takes in the scene, Bonnie is sitting on the ground with Damon's head on her lap. Damon's face is covered with dirt, the front of his shirt, suit, and pants are also covered, and his tie is lying on the ground next to Bonnie's leg. Bonnie looks up at Matt with dried tear stains on her cheeks, he says in a hushed voice "Bon, is he alive?" Bonnie answers, "Yes, he hasn't moved. He is breathing, that is it." Matt goes to her, squats down, and takes Bonnie's chin in his hand, "It's Damon, he is too much of a pain in our ass to completely die. He is going to around for centuries to torture our children and children's children." Bonnie opened her other hand, Matt stared down at the empty syringe that lay in her flat palm "Stefan injected Damon with the cure before he daggered Katherine and went to Hell with her." She brushed Damon's hair, "Damon is human." Matt took a moment to comprehend what that meant, "Bon, let's get him out of here." Matt lifted Damon by his arms. Once Damon is upright, he puts his arm around Damon's waist and Damon's arm around his shoulder. Bonnie stood up, grabs Damon's other arm, and does the same when she hears Damon whisper, "Magical kiss, you made me, Prince Fucking Charming." Bonnie knew Damon could not see her face, she let out a breath of relief, her friend had his sarcasm intact, she knew he would be ok. She wasn't sure how he was going to deal with being alive without Stefan, living as a human, living as a human while Elena was sleeping, this was a good sign. Damon Salvatore was still in there.
Bonnie turns her head and looks at Damon. His sparkling sapphire blue eyes are bloodshot and grey, they look like he was on a month-long bender with no end in sight. Bonnie couldn't be happier, she let his arm go and she twists into his body, hugging him as tight as she could. Bonnie had tears running down her face, holding onto Damon like her life depended on it, "You're going to be ok. You're alive. You're going to be ok. Everything is going to be ok." Damon is leaning on Donovan, his strength hasn't returned, he could feel his legs and arms now, "Ouch, Bon. I'm human, be careful, I bruise easily now." Bonnie loosened her grip and moved back into place underneath his arm, to help support his weight, "Can you walk?" Damon was moving his head slowly from Matt to Bonnie, "I'm working on it. My strength is coming back. I was paralyzed for a long time. I couldn't move when Stefan…" Damon closed his eyes and took a deep breath "Then the hellfire took him... I couldn't move... Bon. I couldn't do anything at all." Bonnie tried to comfort him, she knew what Stefan was going to do, she told Stefan about her magic, about the spell, the words 'Tell me what you need me to do?' came to her mind, those were some of the last words Stefan spoke to her, "I know Damon. I'm so sorry. Let's get you home. Caroline and Ric have Elena. They are on their way to the boarding house now. Let's get you back there too." Damon leaned on Matt and Bonnie as they walked out to the cars. Matt helped settle Damon into his Camero's passenger seat, Bonnie reached over and secured the seatbelt around him. Damon looked at the seatbelt as Bonnie got into the driver's seat and turned on the engine, "I'm human. Stefan is gone, my brother is dead. For 145 years, I could have loved him, been brothers with him, but no, my pride, my selfishness, my stupid anger, I wasted all that time. I miss him and it has only been hours. How am I going to deal with days, months, years?" There was a long moment where only the sound of the engine and the tires rolling along the roadway could be heard, Bonnie thinking of grief and pain of losing Enzo, she understood all the regret and the thoughts about wasted time. She knew the thoughts that were plaguing Damon's mind, as much as she wanted to say something comforting, she knew there wasn't anything that would lessen the pain he would feel from today on, so she said what she did to survive, "We deal with one moment at a time." Bonnie took Damon's hand, he looked into her eyes and saw her pain, knowing exactly who she was thinking of. Damon turned his head toward the front window and stared at the illuminated roadway in front of them, "Moment One, here we come."
The twins run into the door of the Salvatore Mansion. Lizzie yells, "Zio.. you smell funny" Caroline hears and vamp speeds through the door, she falls to her knees, tears flow down her face. Josie runs to her mother, "Mommy did you fall. Where is your booboo? I can kiss it." Caroline takes her daughter in her arms, "No baby, I didn't fall, I'm just so happy." She puts Josie down and walks to Stefan. She slams straight into the force field. Stefan smirks, "I was hoping it was a one-way kinda deal." Caroline put her hands up all over the barrier wall, as Ric walked in the door with Elena in his arms. Ric stumbles in shock from what he sees, he catches himself with Elena still in his arms, "You are not dead, how did that happen?" Stefan throws his arms up and shrugs his shoulders, "I have no idea. One minute, I have Katherine pinned and daggered on a one-way trip to hell. The next I am falling on the rug Damon brought from Egypt. I really don't know. I'm burnt rather crispy fried." Holding his arm up to show Caroline and Ric, Stefan started explaining what he knew, "This arm was pinning Katherine's arm behind her, the hellfire had to go through her before it touched me. This one was around her and wasn't so lucky. I still might need the coffin." Ric bounced Elena in his arms to re-adjust her from her slipping, "Where should I lay Elena down?" Caroline talks while staring at Stefan and multi-thinking, "Damon's bed, she will be comfortable and safe. Bonnie can spell it when she gets here. Girls come here, Mommy needs you to do some more magic." The girls come running. Caroline puts her arms around her daughters, she cradles them close to her body, "Do you remember what you did with Aunt BeeBee at the High School to get Auntie Elena and Daddy out of the Broiler room?" The girls nod their heads yes. Caroline smiles and squeezes them "Can you feel the bubble that Zio is in?" The girls hold their hands out and each of them hit the barrier, their hand bounces back. The twins look at their mom with bright eyes, Caroline is concerned, "You felt that, did it hurt at all?" Both girls shake their heads 'no'. Caroline looks at each of them, "Do you remember how you siphoned the magic from the door that Daddy was in? Can you two try to do that again?" The girls are so excited, they get to use magic twice in one day, Mommy and Daddy are always telling them not to use their magic. Josie and Lizzie look at each other like they just hit a jackpot. Caroline says "Let's get ready, here are the words Auntie BeeBee had you say, ready?" The twins nod their heads. Caroline presses play on her phone " Merabas Hic Libatal, Confremun Signas. Omus Quisa Tentum Exalis, Merabas Hic Libatal. Confremun Signas. Omus Quisa Tentum Exalis." The girls repeat the words, each putting a hand on the barrier. A pink hue glows around each of their hands, and little sparks start to ignite. That startles Josie, "I don't like that" Caroline puts her hand up and touches the barrier "It's still there. That is weird." Ric comes into the room. Caroline "Did Jo ever talk about a type of magic that Kai couldn't siphon?" Ric answers with a bit of confusion in his voice, "What, No. She said that was the problem, there wasn't a type of magic that Kai couldn't siphon, including binding spells from other covens or types of magic. That is why they had to create the prison world for his and this world's protection. Why do you ask?"
Bonnie and Damon pull up to the Salvatore Mansion, Damon "Moment 287 over. Moment 288 is going to be a bitch. I'm not sure how I can walk through doors." Bonnie smirks "How are your legs doing? You don't have to worry about walking if your legs are working yet." Damon looks at her with his signature evil eye. Bonnie winks "I'm your best friend, if I can't give you a bit of grief in a time of misery, who can?" Bonnie took Damon's hand and looked directly into his eyes, "You can walk into those doors because Elena is in there. Everything we do from this moment on is to get her back. You and me, we need her, not in 60 years, we need her... NOW." Damon has very little strength, he squeezes Bonnie's hand back. Matt pulls up behind the Camero in his squad car. He walks over to Damon's door "Ok, Let's get you into the house. How are those legs? Feeling anything in them yet?" He pulls Damon to his feet and catches him as his knees buckle. Matt chuckles, "Guess that answers that question." Damon puts his arm around Matt's neck. Damon feeling very uneasy, "Donovan, I owe you big time now." Matt sneers at Damon "Damon, you have always owed me big time. As a human, I can beat it out of you any time I want to. We are on an equal playfield now, old man." Damon wasn't sure if that was a threat or a promise.
Bonnie and Matt bring Damon in the doors of the Salvatore Boarding House, Caroline vamp speeds to them, she picks up Damon, "What's wrong with him?" Stefan answers, "I gave him the cure. He is in transition." Caroline shrieks, "Oh no" She understands what that means for Stefan, once the cure is out of his body, the aging process speeds up. Her mind races back to Katherine, when Silas drink the cure from her, how many months was she alive before she took over Elena's body. Caroline looked at Stefan with a horrified look in her eyes.
Damon heard Stefan's voice, he looked up and saw Stefan standing in front of Elena's coffin, nothing registered in his mind other than his brother was standing, alive, saying words, breathing, alive, and not in hell, Alive, "Stefan, your alive!" he used all his strength to walk over to his brother, his arms extended, he lounged straight into the barrier spell, fell backward to the floor and passed out.
