Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or anything associated with it!

To my fans, thank you for your patience! This isn't a very long chapter but it's something to (hopefully) hold you over until this weekend. Also, to my fan, Lala, I replied to your review with another review since I didn't have another way to contact you and I didn't want to post another non-chapter chapter, if that makes sense. Anyway, it's on the review page, as is a reply to Helene08 :) Thank you guys! I hope you all enjoy.

Damon's POV

"Damn it. Her phone is going straight to voicemail."

Where the hell could she be?

"Let's not panic. She could have just gone out." Caroline says and I instantly remember why we always butt heads… I'm not an idiot. She clearly is.

"Gone out where, exactly? There is no town to go to, she drinks blood from a blood bag, she dropped her classes this semester—"

"And she's been pretty attached to Damon since he got back, understandably. I mean, he did just come back from the dead."

I look at Bonnie in shock. Thank God someone else here has a brain.

I hear footsteps behind us and the front door opens.

"What's going on?"

Good, maybe my baby bro will know where she is.

"Please tell me you've seen your favorite ex-girlfriend."

"Elena?"

I roll my eyes. I take that back about him being able to help.

"No, Katherine... Yes, Elena."

"She's missing?"

"Stefan, I don't have time to play 20 questions with you. Have you seen her since last night or not?"

He shakes his head. "I just assumed she was… with you."

My God, is that all people think we do? I mean, okay, yeah, we do that a lot but they have such dirty minds.

"No. She was gone when I got up."

Stefan gives me a look and I know what he's thinking. She's done this before… run off and, according to Stefan, almost killed people.

We have to find her.

Elena's POV

The dead eyes of each of my… victims… they are haunting me. I can still see them staring at me, begging why. I wish I had the answer to that, myself. I don't know why. All I know is that I am responsible for the deaths of six people. I know because I just got done burying six bodies, the bodies of strangers with lives and dreams and families. They were someone's sister or brother, daughter or son, mother or father… Tears spring to my eyes as I realize that I could have unknowingly forced on a child the same fate I suffered, to be an orphan. It was the worst pain I'd ever felt until I lost Damon.

My heart aches at the remnants of the pain I suffered for months without him here and it makes me long for him. I just want him to hold me and tell me that everything is going to be okay. Or, in more of a Damon style, tell me that he's going to find out what's going on and kick the ass of whoever is responsible.

I smile a little and brush the hair back from my face, realizing my hands are still a little darker than normal despite the rigorous scrubbing I did of myself in a nearby river. Or maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me. Am I losing my mind? I feel like I did when I was affected by the Hunter's Curse, overwhelmed, unable to control myself or separate my hallucinations from reality.

I grab my phone and sigh. I don't recognize these woods and I don't really know which way to go but I pick a direction and start walking, sure that I'll have to come to a road at some point. Looking around the forest, I'm suddenly struck by a feeling of déjà vu and I realize that the scenery is almost identical to those in the dreams that haunted me for months after Damon's death, reliving the same moment of realizing he was going to die setting off the explosion and dealing with the fear that he might not come back… then having that fear realized and experiencing his death over and over again. I shudder and start walking faster, ready to leave this melancholy feeling behind.

I'm not sure how long I've been walking when I'm suddenly struck by the feeling that I'm not alone. The sounds of the forest have disappeared and it gives me an eerie feeling. I hear a faint sound somewhere to my left, maybe a car door closing, and voices but they sound muted, almost, like they are talking underwater. They must be just outside my range of hearing but it's getting clearer as they walk closer to me. Panic blooms in my chest and I have the urge to run, terrified that I might not be able to control myself in the presence of a human. What if I lose it and kill someone again? I don't even know how this works, yet. Am I turning into a Ripper like Stefan? I can't. I can't risk it.

But as I turn to flee, I hear a familiar sound.

"This is it. This is where Bonnie's locator spell pointed us."

Stefan. His footsteps halt and he sighs.

"Yeah, well, Bonnie has been dead for a few months, so, maybe we should have asked one of the other witches at our disposal to find Elena."

And Damon.

"Because, judging on the fact that we're standing in a forest in eastern Kentucky, I'm going to guess that her skills are a little off." He continues.

Kentucky? What?

I hear Stefan chuckle.

"You know Liv and Luke are still working on healing Lucy. And she did it twice, Damon. We both know this is where it pointed us."

"I'm just saying, it doesn't make any sense. Her car isn't out here." He pauses for a second and, for a second, I think he's heard me. I hold my breath, not ready to be found. "Besides, why would she be in Kentucky, of all places?"

They are getting closer and I'm torn. Every part of my body is screaming at me to run to Damon, to throw my arms around him and kiss him until my head is spinning from lack of oxygen... but I'm covered in the blood of strangers and shame starts to creep through me. How can I explain this? I don't know what's going on with me and he just got back… I can't put something like this on him when he's endured so much already. I can do this on my own. I will do this on my own.

Before I can change my mind and give in and call his name, I slowly bend and pick up a rock, throwing it as hard as I can in the opposite direction of where I heard their voices originate from. Less than half a second later, I hear them racing towards the rock's landing. When the sound is too faint to hear, I rush in the other direction, away from Damon, away from the reminders of the immoral acts I've committed, away from the piercing dead eyes that I still feel on me from beneath their shallow graves.

Damon's POV

Well, it's looking like this was a wasted trip. What a surprise. No Elena here in good ole Kentucky. Her phone is still going straight to voicemail and the longer that she's away, the more I'm starting to believe that Stefan is right and something strange is going on with her. More than nightmares and panic attacks.

I call Bonnie on our way back to the car to chastise her for her poor witchy skills but think better of it. I mean, she was dead for a while. Obviously being a witch doesn't come back as naturally as being a vampire because I came back just as distinguished in that field as I was when I left. Then again, not everyone can be me.

"Hey. Surprise, Elena is not in Kentucky. You got anything else for me?"

She sighs. "Hold on a second." I hear some jostling and assume she's putting me on speaker phone.

"Hellooo?"

"God, can you give me a minute? Three months in Purgatory doing nothing and you're still not any more patient."

"Nope."

Stefan raises his eyebrows.

"Are you guys done bickering like an old married couple?"

I roll my eyes and start to prod her again when she cuts me off.

"Huh. That's strange. It's saying she's still in Kentucky but more eastern, almost out of the state. That doesn't make any sense—"

I can't hear anything she says after that because something catches my eye, glinting beneath the dirt and I walk over to examine it.

"Never mind, Bonnie. I'll see you when we get back."

I hang up before she can reply and bend down, picking up the silver chain necklace adorned with a small disc engraved with a lemniscate and the initials E.G.