AN: Four chapters left for this story. Hope this chapter didn't throw anyone off. I felt the need for Alaric and Stefan interaction. Please let me know what you think by leaving a review. Thank you guys for reading and all the support!

Chapter 11

The moon hung high in the sky. It was a clear night and the air was crisp. A cold tall glass filled to the brim with a pale orange color was clutched in his grasp. His eyes were tired and bloodshot. Days of not grooming or showering had left him scruffy and attracting the unwanted company of flies. He swatted them away as he raised the glass to his cracked lips.

"That's the last one," the burly man behind the counter said. "Pay up and go home."

"I'll pay up when I'm done." Alaric replied glancing at him with slanted eyes. "Pour me another tall one."

"Didn't you hear the man? You're done my friend." A voice came from behind him and with a slap on his back. He spun around in his chair to see the chiseled body and pearly white teeth belonging to Stefan.

Alaric shook his head. "Must be an echo in here." He chuckled and let the last of the drink pour down his throat.

He wasn't sure what had come over him, but he found himself at the local bar many nights now. When he wasn't wasting away in the basement working on his inventions, he was here. A part of him was missing.

"Hearing things now, Alaric?" Stefan sarcastically asked. He took a seat next to him. A pint was pushed his way down the bar. "I must say you are getting crazier. Didn't think it was possible."

A sharp twinge of anger flowed through him, but he brushed it off.

Maybe making this his last drink would be a wise idea, before he had reached his full level of annoyance. He knew he was odd, but he didn't need to be reminded of it. Nor did he need to be mocked for it either.

"Say, how about you stay and we'll see who is crazy enough to drink ourselves under the table? Huh?" Stefan flashed an ugly smile at him.

"I'm leaving." He huffed and slapped his money on the table.

"I'm only kidding. Can't you take a joke you kook?" He taunted him again with his cracks. Stefan was moving dangerously close to being knocked on the ground if he didn't shut up.

Picking up his coat from the chair, he sauntered out. He was halted though as Stefan had to get his last words in.

"Make sure you say hello to Elena for me." Stefan yelled. "Haven't seen her around town lately. Hope you don't have her locked up in that house."

Like someone pulling the strings on a puppet, he stood straight up. His head was held high and his eyes were looking off into the distance. Elena. Why hadn't he even thought about her until now? In fact, he couldn't recall the last time he had seen her. Maybe he was going crazy indeed.

Something wasn't adding up. He knew it. He felt it.

Marching over to Stefan, he slid next to him at the bar. "When was the last you saw her?" He asked frantically.

"Maybe a week ago." He answered. "She shot me down, but Elena doesn't realize we are destined to be together. Hope you don't mind me asking for her hand in marriage."

Marriage? Alaric couldn't process his egotistical banter at the moment. His head was swimming in a dark sea. The logic was there, but he just couldn't reach it alone. The mention of her name had triggered something in his brain. His neurons were going wild sending red flags, but for what?

"And you haven't seen her since?" Alaric asked quickly.

"Have you?" Stefan laughed. "Seems you're taking a turn for the worse. You can't even remember seeing Elena, the person who you live with. Maybe all those fumes and blows to the head have made you crazier than ever."

"I am not crazy!" He screamed. His hands were tugging at Stefan's shirt.

"Get off me!" The bellowing voice belonging to Stefan yelled.

Being thrown like a boulder, Alaric fell to the ground with a thud. The sound of scuffling chairs and tables could be heard. His right shoulder ached with a familiar pain. The aggression of Stefan and the physical toll it took on his body had opened another door in his mind. He was beginning to remember vivid images that he could not recall until now.

A large, old house was far off in the woods. The dark corridors of a deserted home and being intrigued by the antiques had caught his eye. Something fast and big was running past him. He wiped around calling out in the shadows. His body was crashing and his head was spinning as he felt it being crushed by a great force. Two menacing red-hot eyes stared at him. Cold, wet stonewalls surrounded him. Blood oozed from his veins. The sound of his name being called out woke him from his daze. She was there. She was fighting for him as the eyes belonging to a monster had returned. It was Elena. She was pleading for his life. The paws and growl of the monster strangling him and threatening him to leave and never come back, to forget what he once saw was now all coming back. It was flooding his brain. Alaric jumped to his feet.

"Elena!" He exclaimed.

"Elena isn't here you fool." Alaric looked around. The whole bar was now enjoying the show.

"She is in the woods, in a house with a beast!" He shouted.

Concerned expressions and whispering voices surrounded him. Stefan with his boyish smirk and rolling up his sleeves approached him.

"You really have lost it you old kook." Stefan teased. "A beast. There is no such thing."

He was desperate for them to understand. Alaric spoke wildly. "But I saw it! It has her. We have to go save Elena!" Mad with discovery and fear, he paced around looking to see if anyone would believe him. No one did.

"Looks like someone has gone off the deep end." He uttered loud enough for everyone to hear. Laughter filled the bar.

"I'm telling the truth!" He pleaded.

Not a soul in sight believed him. He was crazy, old Alaric, the insane inventor.

Elena was in deep trouble. He knew what he saw and he knew what he heard. She was still there, but was she alive? From what he had gone through there was no chance she was in one piece. The monster was malicious and something to fear. He understood the myths of the forest now. He had experienced them first hand.

"Elena is there. We have to do something." Alaric cried. People were turning away from him while Stefan mocked him in the background. "Won't anybody listen to me?"

"Oh someone will listen to you." Stefan shouted. Two large men wearing badges and with guns hooked to their hips were walking toward him. His fate was walking straight toward him, while Elena's was left to be unknown. "How about the walls of cell."

A cackling laugh came from him. Alaric tried to resist the policeman, but his hands were forced behind his back and cuffed. In the eyes of the watchers, he was being disorderly and over served. His crazy state of mind that most locals assumed he was in did not help the case either. He was out of luck.

More laughter and clanking of glasses followed by loud music came from inside the bar as he was escorted across the street to a holding cell. He had to find a way to get them to believe, to understand Elena was in real danger. They all were all in trouble if the beast ever got loose.

"I'm sorry, Elena." He whispered as the cuffs were freed from his hands and his body was thrown back into a cold, damp stonewalled cell.