Bonnie looked up from the pale, ashen lady to Elena who seemed as though she had just seen a ghost. Well maybe considering 'Silver' was a quarter-inch close to being transparent due to her pale skin and hair, this might count. It took the usually gallant Elena some courage and force before she finally withdrew her hand. The lady however, was still staring at Elena – somewhere in between awe and terror, and with each second that past, those ice rings around her pupils seemed to enlarged and contract, forming a synchronized pattern. The sight made Bonnie sick.

"Um…" It was Elena who stuttered while Bonnie quivered behind her. "I don't know who you're talking about."

Dear Diary,

I had a dream last night – about Stefan and well, I cried when I woke up. Diary, I just can't bare another day knowing that Stefan isn't here. I'm starting to miss him and by miss I mean crazy miss. I need someone to talk to right now and the only person who qualifies is Stefan. We tell each other everything, or at least I can tell him anything and be assured that he'll keep it safely. Bonnie, Meredith and I swore not to have secrets between us but sometimes, I just need to keep some things to myself right? Like what happened when Bonnie and I helped out for the Fells Church Gala Dinner.

I have a strong hunch that Silver-haired lady is up to no good. I mean, Diary, if you were just there to see her eyes and that ring around her pitch, black pupils! Oh Goodness, the sight! And she knows who I am! With a touch of my hand, she instantly figured out who I was. Now isn't that something to worry about. After all, Elena Gilbert is supposed to be dead and now some, suspicious looking person might go around telling everyone the opposite. Of course, no one would believe her – duh, but what if she's just more that human?

What if she's a form of Power and she might hunt me down. Oh God, I don't even want to think about it. Sigh, see diary. That is why I need Stefan. He listens to me and right now, he'll probably stroke my hair and whisper sweet words into my ear to tell me that everything will be alright. Then, he'll cradle me in his arms and pull me into that sweet embrace that would get me to melt in his warmth and forget everything.

I think, besides sucking on blood, Stefan sucks the bad things out of me and we'll end up sharing those pessimistic thoughts together, drown in those hard times together – just the both of us, facing anything and everything together. Oh dear, my eyes are teary and I've gotten a blotch of smeared ink on you. Damn. It's night and I better go. Bonnie's snoring loudly beside me and even when I have her for company, it isn't the same as having Stefan.

Oh I miss him.

Love, Elena

"Stefan."

Stefan's teal, green eyes flew open when he heard her coo beside him. He turned to find Katherine lying beside him with her fangs soaked in blood. Stefan studied his bleeding neck, and then shifted his glance at her but Katherine merely giggled innocently like a little girl on the prairie.

"I might have taken a little extra this time." She chirped while he sat up, grimacing.

"Katherine, I gave you a lot of blood last night and you're taking more this morning?" Stefan looked at her and Katherine merely ran her slender fingers through his tousled hair.

"My energy keeps dying out very fast. I won't be fully reenergized with blood alone." She began and Stefan peered at her from the corner of his eyes.

"I've been put under a witches curse."She started and he saw a thin film of translucent fluid misting her eyes. "They've got my Power, my strength and my soul and the only way to free my soul so I can get back what I've been robbed off is by drinking this elixir."

"I don't get it?" Stefan murmured and tenderly wiped a solitary, leaked tear from her rosy cheeks. Katherine sighed with poise and sunk into his arms.

"Stefan, what you see of me now – me here, is just my body and my mind. My soul – the true, inner me is kept locked and starving and tortured in a witch's cell." She commenced and felt his warm arms rubbing her shoulder. "That's why I get so hungry because my soul is controlling my body to feed it. My powers and strength are with my soul." She blinked and Stefan watched another pair of glistening tears dribble down her cheeks and straight to her chin. They fused to form a teardrop before falling down onto her velvet, maroon gown.

"What about the elixir?" Stefan posed. "Where can we get it?"

Katherine shook her head miserably and sat up.

"You can't find the elixir, Stefan." She whispered and pulled her long, strawberry-blonde hair to one side so that she bared the other side of her neck. "It's made."

"How?" He queried while he struggled to avert his glance from her chalky, translucent neck that bared her aorta. Stefan could feel hear the gushing sound of Katherine's sweet blood in her pulsating arteries. They were inviting him for a taste but she seemed to not realize the perspiration trickling down the side of his face. She seemed oblivious to his desperation.

"They call it the antique blood."Katherine began. "The combination of the blood of the silver stallion and the bloods of a Vampire of the Founding Family and a Witch successor of the Harps coven." Before Stefan could say a word, she went on.

"Salvatores are Founding Families and I've got you." She traced her lips over his and leaned down to kiss him. "But the other two…"

However Stefan was long gone. Reenergizing….reviving Katherine meant getting her back in full shape and getting her Power back but what would happen then? If Katherine comes back, clearly hungry for revenge, what would happen to his relationship with Elena? Being with Katherine meant a thousand words to him but at the same time….he still had Elena, his fiancée.

Elena's beautiful oblong face and diamond eyes flashed in his mind and Stefan slowly exhaled as he slouched back against the rough, prosaic walls of the tomb. He thought of Elena and her glowing smile, her childish laugh and heart-wrenching eyes. For a moment, he felt his lips edge into a tiny smile as he allowed his jade green eyes to witness all of their old memories but just as another memory was on the brink of playing, Damon appeared before it could end and Stefan felt the green monster awaking in him.

Damon. He pulled his lips back over his teeth savagely and felt the anger burn in his dark irises. Of course, now it struck him. Elena wasn't the guilty one, it was Damon. Damon had a habit of influencing and winning people over. With Damon, Elena was a traitor but if he were to get eliminated…

Then Elena would be his all over again.

"Stefan."

Stefan turned when he heard Katherine call him.

"What do I get out of this?" He was surprised at how rough and raucous his voice sounded.

Katherine looked a bit hurt and she didn't do anything to conceal it either.

"You get me." She caroled and interlaced their fingers together. "When a gallant knight saves his princess, he gets her all to himself." She uttered the last phrase very slowly as though each word was separated by full stops. Stefan felt his heartbeat double at each second Katherine's face grew closer and closer to his. For a moment, he felt asphyxiated but then he remembered that vampires don't breathe in the first place.

Katherine's face was only an inch away from his that he could smell the fragrance emanating from her silky hair and the make out each detail in her cobalt eyes. He realized that her eyes hadn't been thoroughly blue from the start. It was more like a diamond that stole the colours of the rainbow by refraction and only reflecting pure white light to get it to sparkle. Katherine blinked and Stefan saw a hint of orange as her eyes opened before settling into her normal shade of ocean blue.

"And you get to make up for your betrayal." She whispered, locking her eyes onto his. "And mend my broken, fragile heart." Her voice was nearly inaudible even as she drew closer and closer to his ear.

Stefan felt a tingly sensation as the thin film of air that separated her moist lips from his dry skin vibrated. It was like a wall, a barrier keeping them from contact but with Katherine's powerful, seductive vibe – he doubt the barrier could last.

"And you get to kill Damon." Katherine murmured with a sinister hint of an evil crackle behind her determined voice.

Stefan was taken aback but before he could argue, she had already spoken.

"I listen to you in your nightmares every night, I sense it in your eyes whenever we talk about him." She exhaled and the warm breathe tickled his neck. "You hate him Stefan, you loathe Damon and you want revenge."

"You'd never kill Damon, Katherine." Stefan spat. "You love him."

"I loved him." She growled between her protruding fangs. "Not until he decided to erase me and open his heart to that human who stole my looks." She snarled at the word 'human'.

Elena, Stefan gulped.

"Anyway…"Katherine went on and caressed his left cheek. "I won't be the one to kill.." She whispered and licked her pale lips. "You will."

And before he could argue, she sank her teeth into his neck.

Elena hugged her bare legs closer to her as she sat on her window sill and looked out at the slow-moving town outside. Once in a while, she would see wrecked, old cars drive by with their stereos on so loud as though trying to flaunt how urbane they were in this small, isolated town. But, strangely, she was thankful that cars still drove around Fells Church. With all that has happened, it took a mountain of courage for a driver to speed down the 'haunted' roads of this town. The cars seemed to be the only ones moving, the only ones with life in this town and the only thing that reminded her of the past.

Before everything happened, Fells Church was a small but jovial town. Just like any ordinary towns, there were parties and gatherings and events that required everyone to dress up in neon or bright coloured clothes instead of the black, medieval gowns they wear now since the only gathering thrown these days is funerals. How lachrymose, Elena thought and sucked her breath in.

She was the high school prom queen with the cutest jock as her boyfriend, Matt. She was ignorant and carefree and perhaps every girl's dream. Elena Gilbert used to be perfect and always night. She set trends and made boys yearn for her but now…

Elena shook her head and blinked another pair of tears out. Here she was looking like the most pathetic girl longing for her lost fiancé who ditched her on their wedding day. Great, what a transformation.

But strangely, Elena didn't feel regretful or angry. All she wanted was for Stefan to come back. She needed him right now. She wanted to feel his warmth and look into his innocent yet mysterious, jade green eyes. She wanted to cry and never stop so he could be there to comfort her. She wanted to know that he was okay and still thought of her, still remembered her.

Elena took another deep breath just as another pair of cascading tears escaped her eyes.

She never thought she'd see herself as the girl who cries over a boy. She never thought she'd see herself as the girl who gets dumped. Oh Stefan, Elena thought. You've changed me. You're like a positive drug that changes someone to be better but where are you now? Where have you gone?

Elena took another deep breath and slouched back to lean back against the walls. She felt tired and exhausted having not slept for three nights in a row. She couldn't stand it anymore. Nights without Stefan were hell and it was worse when she thought about what she was doing to fix this : Nothing.

She wasn't doing anything to look for him or get him back. She wasn't doing anything to even figure out where he was or how he is. Oh dear God, Elena sobbed and put one hand up to her forehead as another pair of translucent tears trickled down her cheeks. Stefan, where are you? Come back…come back, please.

"Thank God you're here." She heard a voice and the door to the bedroom slammed shut. "I didn't think I could stand another trip to Bonnie's or Meredith's to look for you. Where have you been Elena?"

She turned her head towards the voice and found herself staring at…not exactly the Salvatore brother she had wished for. He was dressed in his usual pair of black Armani jeans and leather jacket that complimented his asphalt hair and eyes. Damon had an old book in his arms and his expression changed the minute he saw her face.

"Oh no."

Elena almost smiled at his first reaction. Clearly she had expected a normal person to ask her if she was alright but then again, Damon wasn't normal so she guessed 'Oh no' was good enough.

"Sorry, just ignore it." She told him and wiped her tears away. At the same time, Damon eyed her curiously as he approached her.

"Do humans always apologise when they cry?"He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned back against Stefan's mahogany study. Elena tossed him a look but he seemed truly clueless.

"Oh come on, I was a human three hundred years ago – you don't expect me to remember do you?" He rolled his eyes only to find a new layer of mist formed over her glossy, blue eyes. "Oh no."

Elena resisted herself from laughing when he said it again and it was easy since before she could take a second to laugh or smile, she felt another batch of tears pouring out onto her soaked cheeks.

"I don't think it was something I said…..right?" Damon posed and Elena miserably shook her head. Great, here she was crying to her boyfriend's brother and probably the world's most useless person when it came to comfort. Heck even Tyler Smallwood would have done a better job.

"Um…" Damon pressed his lips together, never tearing his gaze off of her. "You don't expect a…uh, hug do you?"

Elena choked on her stifling tears to manage a short, laugh.

"From you…no."She told him truthfully and he seemed relieved. "But it would be nice to have one."

She looked at Damon, expecting him to get up and give her at least a pat on the back, but of course, he didn't. Instead, Damon merely sat there staring at her like she was some kind of fascinating outcome of an experiment. Like an alien to him.

"So why are you crying anyway?"

Nice, Elena thought sarcastically. Straight to the point. How could one possibly not find comfort with Damon?

She sighed and tucked her russet, brown hair behind her ears. "I was just…"She sighed and pressed her lips together. "I was just thinking about your brother."

"Stefan." Damon snorted, saying his name for her.

"I mean, don't you miss him Damon?"She wondered but he merely shrugged as though this whole thing wasn't a big deal.

"I've been without my brother for as long as…a hundred years?"He raised an eyebrow as though wanting her confirmation. "Give or take. But we weren't exactly…."He twitched his Greek nose and cleared his throat. "Smitten."

"But did you miss him?"Elena watched his body muscles relax as he hopped on to sit on Stefan's study instead of merely leaning against it. "I mean, like…for a moment or…"

She didn't need to try any longer to elicit the answer from him since surprisingly; Damon seemed open about the truth.

"'Course I did." He told her and drummed his fingers against his thighs. "Especially the first time we got separated, you know…after the whole Katherine incident."Damon rolled his eyes when he uttered her name as though the incident was pathetic and probably wasn't worth fighting over. "When you've been brothers for gee hmm, sixteen years?"

Elena nodded attentively.

"And suddenly you're just separated for a century."He clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Nu-uh. Not good." He sighed – it wasn't a remorseful or regretful sigh but more like 'Oh well, those days' kind of sigh. "But of course, we made the whole separation thing easy by thinking of how much we wanted to kill each other." He exaggerated on the word 'kill' and strangely, Elena found herself bemused.

"But the both of you are still alive." She concluded and watched Damon nod.

"Yup."He licked his lips. "Miraculously, Surprisingly…and in a way, quite thankfully."

Elena giggled and she watched the corner of Damon's thin, sinister lips curl into a smile.

"Anyway."She went on when there was nothing but monotonous silence between them. She found the voiceless vibe awkward but Damon didn't seem the least bothered. Instead, he looked up from his book when she spoke.

"You uh, were looking for me?"

"Oh yeah." He snapped his book close and put it aside. "Wait, why weren't you at neither Bonnie's nor Meredith's again?"

She sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Guess, this place felt more like home." She murmured then stopped. "Speaking of which, where were you this whole time? You weren't…here."

"Library, doing research most nights. Out and about hunting…yeah, that's about it."

Elena nodded. "Anyway, you were looking for me…?"

"Yeah, I found out about that night...about the silver-ish liquid." He commenced and stood up. "Your book was pretty decent." He held up the old book he had carried when he first walked in. "But I've got some extra facts I think you might want to look at. They're in the living hall."Damon gestured at her to follow him and voluntarily, Elena got up to approach the door.

He stood by the doorframe, waiting for her to exit first since in his words 'Ladies first' but just as he closed the door behind them, Elena heard him call her name.

She twirled to see him approaching her and then unexpectedly, Damon dropped one of his lean, muscular arms onto her shoulder. She stood there baffled for a moment.

"Does this count as a hug?" He looked at her from behind those dark eyes.

Elena felt her lips curve up into a smile before she finally giggled and rested her head against his shoulders.

"For a guy who doesn't do hugs…"She began and looked up at him as they walked. "This means a lot." She beamed and kept her eyes locked on his for a moment.

Damon caught her staring and raised an eyebrow. "Now you don't expect me to say something like 'awww' right?"

Elena rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Hey, hey, hey!

Was the Vampire Diaries episode last week awesome or what?! I love, love, love the ending where Damon and Elena sit in the cellar together with Stefan…well, you know ;) Haha!

Okay, here's the next update.

Thank you so much for the reviews, favourites, story alerts. They mean so much to me! I hope you'll like this one!

Enjoy!