Stefan and Damon had been walking for a few minutes in absolute silence—listening for any sign of an impending sacrifice. One would think they ought to hear any sound they needed, but the forest seemed to come to life as soon as the sun went down.

The only thing either brother could think was that they wouldn't get to her in time—but neither would voice their qualms as they trumped through the woods. Finally after walking for an excruciatingly long amount of time, they received a sign of the sacrifice.

Elena's screams.

Speeding into action, the two brothers finally came to the scene of their nightmares. Granted, Elena was still alive, and Klaus's attention seemed to be on the podium at the edge of the clearing. Silently running to the circle of flames Elena seemed to be trapped in, Stefan tried to get Elena's attention. When she turned around, the brothers saw a broken girl—not the woman they had both fallen in love with. Just as Stefan was going to ask what happened, he saw John's lifeless body a few feet away from him.

"Oh, Elena…" Stefan whispered without drawing Klaus's attention, "It's going to be okay. We're going to get you out of here, okay?"

Elena whimpered, "No. I'm not going to let John's and Jenna's deaths be for nothing. I have to do this, Stefan."

Of course, Damon wouldn't take no for an answer. He zoomed to the fire and tried to jump through to her, but ended up in a heap 10 feet away—the combination of fire and magic too much for him. Klaus spun on his heel, fangs extended, and scowled.

"I see you two just couldn't stay away," Klaus growled, "I guess that means you'll get to see her die." And with that, the ancient vampire nodded to Maddox and Elena's saviors were thrown to the ground with what seemed like invisible stakes. Elena's previously emotionless voice painfully yelled out.

"No! You can't take anyone else from me!" Elena sobbed frantically as she watched Klaus stalk closer to the Salvatore brothers.

"I can do whatever I want, sweetie," Klaus stated, then thought for a moment, "but I'll leave them this once. Now, are you ready?"

Suddenly, the fire was gone, and Klaus signaled for her to come to him with a nod of the head. When she was within arms' reach, he pulled her to him. Twisting her head to meet his eyes, Klaus had a moment of sincerity. "Thank you, Elena."

Elena glared at him through her eyelashes. "Go to hell."

Klaus slowly turned the young doppelganger around, and he finally saw the beauty and naïve bravery in her—even as tears rolled down her face. His lips found her ear, and he whispered, "Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight…"

Softly, his lips touched the hollow at her throat and felt her pulse quicken. Fangs slid into skin, and Elena automatically felt herself weakening. As the blood was sucked from her body, she vaguely felt Klaus's arms wrap around her torso—but her senses were quickly dulling as Klaus killed her. With the last bit of strength she possessed, she shifted her eyes to Stefan's face. The last thing saw as a human was her love's face filled with pain.

And then she died.

Klaus dropped Elena's lifeless body to the ground, feeling a surge of power rush through him. He stumbled back as a crash of lightening shot through the clearing and into the original's body.

"I can feel it—the power," Klaus growled as he smiled like a psychopath. While Klaus continued to cheer about his newfound power, Damon and Stefan realized that they could move again. Stefan slowly inched his way over to Elena, and he remembered the vampire blood in her system. But somehow, this didn't manage to cheer him up anymore.

Stefan reached up to push a stray hair off of Elena's face, but as soon as he touched her face, three things happened at once.

First, Maddox fell to the ground in a boneless pile—dead. Second, Klaus let out a blood-curdling scream as his body smashed into the tree behind him. But it was the third occurrence that caused Stefan and Damon both to gasp in shock. Elena suddenly shot up gasping for breath—having been dead for less than a minute.

Elena was alive.

Okay, so another semi-short chapter. But the next one is longer-I promise! But anyways, I hope I served the show justice (yet again), because as I've said a billion times, I freaking LOVED the sacrifice scene :) So send me some comments, because the ones I got last week were great! Remember, feedback is love, people. So read and review!

-kiki :)

On another note, since there's no episode to rant about, I'm going to change it up a bit! I've been thinking about my next fan fiction (which won't be started until AFTER both of my current ones are done-I promise!), and would love some feedback! So here it is:

"After an extremely traumatizing experience in Mystic Falls, Elena runs away. She establishes herself in the New York City publication industry as the president of a prestigious book publish company and tries to forget everything that happened in Mystic Falls before she left—including her best friends and personal love triangle, the only people she had left. While the job is as close as she gets to her real dream of being a writer, she's secretly miserable. One day out of the blue, Damon/Stefan shows up and tells her to come back to Mystic Falls because the reason she left is back and threatening the town. After extreme hesitation, she leaves her New York life and returns with him to face the back-lash of her exit years before. As she tries to save the town and people she once loved, she also has to work through the pain, anger, and sorrow she buried years before when she left Mystic Falls for a better life."

Opinions? Comments? Critiques? I know this topic has kind of been run into the ground on the website, but I really want to have a whack at it :) I'm going to keep it as far from other stories as possible, but there's always room for overlap-especially when there are over 20,000 stories JUST on the Vampire Diaries. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me what you think :)