Hey, everyone! Two more episodes until the finale...hope you all enjoy this chapter! Review at the end please.

Disclaimer: Chapter 1 please :)

What Lies Beneath

The music blasted through my ears as I walked into the dorm room early in the morning, drenched inevitable human sweat. After a twenty-minute jog, sweat was necessary for a body like mine. I'll admit, jogging was probably not what I should be using to calm myself, but you know what they say—old habits die hard. I slightly danced as I walked into the room, moving my head up and down in the cool down exercise, completely oblivious to the outside world.

Then, I felt the headphone being ripped out of my ear, and I made a slight sound of disapproval as I turned to face Caroline, who had been the culprit.

"Hey…" I whined, looking down at the dangling headphone. With a sigh, I paused the music and took out the other one. "If you wanted my attention, Care, all you had to do was ask."

"I yelled out your name like ten times," Caroline returned pointedly, but it wasn't in an angry tone. I sighed.

"Oh, well. What's up?" I asked, pulling out the headphone jack and throwing the pair somewhere on my bed. I took a swig of the vervain water I had started drinking religiously after last night's episode with Enzo. He really drained me bad—I wasn't well off until ten minutes before I decided to go for one of my ex-routine jogs. I wished I had more time for them, but in a town when each day, you have something new to fend off, there was really no hope. Though those runs with Matt were always fun…

All of a sudden, I heard a slam, and I jerked, turning around to face Elena, who was holding a suitcase in her hand. "Pack a bag, sis. We're going on a vacation."

Turns out, Elena needs to work on her meaning of a vacation.

"Who in their right mind would ever think this was a good idea?" I murmured to Stefan and Elena while the three of us walked behind the car to start unpacking. Apparently, the Travelers were coming after us, and this meant that we needed to be hidden. Somehow, this involved Bill Forbes's cabin out in the middle of nowhere. I was quite skeptical of how long we were going to be in this place. "It's a terrible one!"

"Well, what did you want me to say?" Stefan whispered beside me as he opened the trunk so the three of us could start unloading bags. "'No, Damon. It will be awkward to have all of us confined in Caroline's dad's cabin because I killed your best friend and your girlfriend's lying to you about it?'"

I sighed. "I think we should tell him," I confessed, mainly because I was now hyperventilating. If Damon found out, he would hate me. I would hate myself. Damn it, why did I have to be friends with Damon's brother? It would be much easier if we hated each other.

Elena looked at me with widened eyes. "No. No, no, Madeline, you can't do that." She was practically scoffing the words. "If you tell Damon, there's no telling what he'll do. He might turn his emotions off again."

"But it's…wrong." I gulped down hard. I felt bile in my throat, like I was trying to stop myself from puking up the truth. "What if you two are wrong? What if he can hold it together?"

Stefan shook his head. "I really don't trust him with that," he admitted.

I frowned. "Quick question: do you not trust him to hold it together because Enzo's dead or because you were the one that killed him?"

Stefan sighed. "Either. Both. I—I don't know," he confessed to me.

"Either way—" Elena began, helping Stefan out, but before she could continue, Caroline and Audrey emerged from their dad's cabin.

"Good news!" the blonde Forbes shouted out loudly, running over to us as Audrey just walked at a normal pace. Instantly, the three of us shut our mouths and didn't speak a word. "The vampires don't have to be invited in!" Caroline laughed, stopping when she reached us. Then her voice turned dark, "Which is actually super sad if you think about it."

She inhaled sharply and Stefan hummed in response. Audrey had now been standing with us for a while, right next to Caroline, and the two Forbes were suspicious as hell, given away by their facial expressions.

Audrey gestured to Stefan, Elena, and me. "Are Caroline and I interrupting something or…?"

"No, no!" Elena blurted out in a way that sounded so much guiltier than it was supposed to be. I stiffened, seeing Audrey and Caroline's growing skeptical faces.

But I couldn't blame her. I was a terrible liar myself. "We're just…um…uh…" I laughed nervously, and Stefan looked around for something to say.

"Unpacking!" he shouted, again, guiltily. This wasn't good. I closed my eyes and reveled in our embarrassment as I heard the shift of the grocery bags on the ground. "We're unpacking. Here you go." He held out his hands for Caroline to take the bags, and she did, with certain confusion.

"Err…thanks," Caroline said, unsure, and she turned to walk away. As Caroline left us, Audrey looked at Stefan, who gave her a completely guilty smile that he couldn't help but expand.

"Uh…yeah, okay, I'm just going to go help Caroline with the groceries or something," Audrey muttered, and as she walked away, Elena spun around to look at me.

"Everything will be fine, Madeline, just…" Elena exhaled deeply, as if worried. "Don't tell Damon. If you don't want to lie to him, just say nothing." She gave me a hopeful glance, turned back to Stefan and probably gave him a smile, before turning away to walk into the cabin that the vampires were gladly able to walk inside. When she was gone, Stefan turned around, sighing to himself.

"You're an idiot," I told him, crossing my arms.

Stefan sighed again. "I know."

He reached forward and handed me my bag, which I took with grace. Really, I'd just thrown random shit into it and tried not to focus on the fact that I was lying to love of my life. Seemed sort of drastic when I put it that way, but nevertheless, it was totally true.

"So…where's Damon now?" I asked, trying to make the question sound like I wasn't dwelling."

"Helping Luke set up."

I scoffed, "Helping Luke? Really? He's avoiding me again, isn't he?" It was a punch to my stomach, of course, but it was also confusing, too. He brought me home last night; he confessed his undying love…it sounded like an exact page from The Notebook or something. The only thing left is for us to die in each other's arms.

Stefan scowled at me. "You honestly think he doesn't want to be around you?"

I laughed bitterly. "Actually, Stefan, that's the exact reason he's avoiding me. I think his exact words were 'I can't see you. If I do, I'll ruin everything'," I quoted Damon, sighing heavily at my own disappointment.

Stefan puckered his lips. "Tell me, exactly, how many times that conversation's been running through your head?" I looked over at him, unwilling to answer. But my silence gave Stefan my answer, anyways. "Right. Look, you said he brought you home last night."

"Yeah, but that was an extreme circumstance! Enzo drained me off all of my Superwoman blood," I teased, but it really wasn't funny. According to Stefan, my blood made Enzo ten times stronger than what he should've been.

"So maybe there's a lesson to be learnt from it." Stefan shrugged, closing the trunk as I handled the last bag of groceries that I juggled in my human arms. "Play the damsel-in-distress more often and you'll get to spend more time with him."

"Shut up, Stefan," I laughed, hitting him in the side with the grocery bag that was easy to swing with the turn of my hips. "I think that's more Audrey's game. She never plays the damsel," I pointed out.

Stefan shrugged. "That's just not her scene."

"Yeah, but you were all White Knight with her yesterday with your whole, 'Stop! I killed Maggie, now let her go'," I mocked Stefan this time in a deeper, more brooding voice. Stefan chuckled softly.

"You do the worst impressions." I shrugged at this, and then we heard something behind us, and we looked to see Caroline and Elena on the porch.

"You know, for a doppel-target and an instant witch's brew, you two seem to be taking this all in stride," Caroline almost praised us, leaning against the wood frame of the house. Stefan grabbed the wine box that he had set down on the ground earlier.

"Yeah, well, you know…" Stefan trailed off, shrugging as I walked around him and up onto the porch. "A tribe of ancient wannabe witches want to drain Mads, Elena, and me of our blood and, uh, eliminate supernatural beings? I've had worse."

Elena joined me as I walked into the cabin, which was old and so familiar. I spent one week out of my youthful summers here with Caroline, Audrey, Bonnie, and Elena. It was our hangout place of the three years in middle school. When high school hit, though, it wasn't really all that popular with the four of us anymore—it was more boys and beaches for them and stay-at-home Friday and Saturday nights for me. Of course, everything was shot junior year, but no need to relive that.

I was putting away my clothes in the drawers of one of the guest bedrooms when I heard something behind me, causing me to jerk out of surprise. You'd think I'd get used to vampires sneaking up on me.

"Cozy."

I turned around to find Damon standing at the threshold, leaning against it, as he liked to do with almost every threshold in the world. It was his awkward, yet comfortable stance. I recovered from my heart attack eventually, just to have it speed up again when I realized that Damon was talking to me, finally. But then, the thought of my lie washed over me, and I began to panic rather than flutter.

"Yeah, it is. It's…a little scarier in my mind, though," I admitted, chuckling softly as I turned around and grabbed more clothes to put away. "Caroline's dad could tell one hell of a ghost story."

I didn't see Damon's face, but I heard his tsk of disapproval. "Yeah…I hope that dickwad's spirit isn't floating around anywhere." Enter Bill Forbes, Damon Salvatore's least favorite person. Actually, Damon has a lot of those. I don't think Bill even makes the Top Five. Maybe the Top Ten.

I chuckled again, unable to control nervous laughter. "Speaking ill of the dead's disrespectful, Damon."

"I respect that he's dead. How about that?" Damon countered, earning me to laugh yet again. I could hear him shift at the doorway, and when I turned around, he walked further into the room. Things went painfully silent, but I tried not to notice him. It would be too hard. Eventually, Damon spoke. "I'm…supposed to be avoiding you."

"Yeah, I'm fully aware of that part," I mumbled, and I could see him look up at me out of the corner of my eye. Then, he dropped his gaze, and I snuck a glance at him to find his hand trailing on the one, single, lonely bed in the room. My heart was pounding in my ears at this point, a fact that I'm sure Damon was aware of. "The question is, is that what you still want?"

I was hopeful, I'd admit. I didn't really know what he was going to say, but when the first word came out of his mouth, I knew it before he even said it.

"Yes." I nodded disappointedly, turning my head down to grab another set of clothes. Then, he spoke again. "No." I looked up at him, surprised. But, then, he just turned slump. "I don't know. After last night, I just…" Damon trailed off, as if pained at the mention of it. Eventually, he spoke again, "All I know is that I need to keep you safe."

This made me disappointed—yet again. I didn't want to be kept safe if it meant not being with Damon, but there was the little issue of my blood turning black and making the Traveler's spell work. If that happened, there would be no Damon to be with. What killed me the most was that I wasn't sure how long this was going to last. A day? A week? A month? A year? How long before it was…safe?

None of this mattered. If I brought it up, Damon would counter, and it would be an endless cycle. I wasn't ready for that.

I cleared my throat. "Well, Luke's done with the cloaking spell, right? Stefan, Elena, Caroline, and Audrey are here so we should all just be peachy. You can leave if you want—"

"You kicking me out?" Damon asked, his eyes full of amusement. I frowned at him, but there was a smile on my lips that I couldn't stop from forming. At this, Damon smiled, but it was bittersweet. After a while, he said, "I'm really sorry Enzo came after you, Madeline."

At the mention of Enzo, I began to panic. I couldn't lie. I could not lie. I just couldn't handle it. Seeing him now, face-to-face, while he talked about his best friend that his brother killed, knowing that I was keeping a secret from him…it killed me. His eyes, they were so blue and misty and…so sad. I couldn't handle it. I tried to slow my heart rate down and turned away from him.

"I told you, I…I get it. He wanted revenge against you."

"I know. That's what made it my fault. He was hurt."

I sighed and, without turning around, spoke to him again, "It's not a big deal, Damon."

"It is a big deal," Damon returned, his voice harsh. "He almost killed you, Mads. Do you know what I would've done if you…" I shut my eyes tight, and Damon stopped in the middle of his sentence, trailing off. It was a while before he spoke again, roughly now. "So I'm going to hunt his ass down, I'm gonna whip some sense into him, and I'm gonna make him apologize to you in person, okay?"

In person? I thought. Don't hold your breath.

I turned around, nodding and scoffing at the same time, but I kept my mouth shut for the love of all that was holy. If I said something, I would crack. I was a terrible liar, and if I even looked into Damon's eyes, I would spill the whole thing. I was weak, damn it, weak.

Elena's words came back to me, and I shut my mouth instantly, locking it tight. If I couldn't lie, I would say nothing.

"Madeline…" Damon trailed off, tilting his head so that he could look at me. "What is it?"

I looked up at him and made sure my eyes did not focus in on his face. "Hmm? Nothing, nothing. I could just…really, really use a drink."

Damon nodded at me and then jerked his thumb out the door. "I'll go get you a soda—"

"Nope," I said as I shook my head vigorously and moved towards the door. "I'm going to need something much stronger."

Apparently, Stefan and Elena had gone to get some firewood together, but I knew the real reason of what they were doing out there together—talking about Enzo. I desperately needed to talk to someone about it, but I felt like if I got going, I would never stop and would just blurt the whole damn secret out to Damon, anyway. It was harder by each increasing minute as we both walked around the kitchen together, skillfully avoiding each other. Caroline and Audrey were perched on the wrap-around bar that framed the kitchen with a big sunhat in between them. Audrey picked at a bowl of cherries while Caroline was writing on something and throwing these slips of paper into the hat.

"Hey!" Damon warned, walking over to the counter in front of Audrey and Caroline. He turned to Audrey. "Munchie! Those are not for you!"

"Shh," Caroline hissed at him. "I'm thinking." While Caroline inhaled sharply, earning a round of confused glance from Audrey, Damon, and me, Audrey picked at another cheery, to which Damon slapped her hand away and grabbed the bowl from her. Once the bowl was down and Audrey gave him the winning grimace, Damon reached forward and picked out a piece of paper from the hat that Caroline was throwing slips of papers into. "Hey!"

"'Area fifty-one?'" Damon read aloud, intrigued. Caroline leaned forward and snatched the paper from him.

"Stop!"

"'JFK assassination?' What the hell is that?"

"You're ruining the game!" Caroline complained, snatching back the other slip of paper from Damon's hands. I groaned in synch with Audrey as we both realized what was happening. Damon looked back at me.

"What? What game?"

Audrey answered for me, pulling Damon's attention back to the counter. "Caroline's setting up charades again."

"Caroline," I groaned, grabbing one of the cocktails that Damon had made, which were perfectly out in the open on the counter. "Aren't we a little too old for charades?"

Caroline scoffed. "You're never too old for charades. Our theme is secrets that people think they're getting away with."

I froze in my steps and felt my heart race speed up. Damn it, Caroline! Why are you so nosy?

"Well, Meryl Streep," Damon began, holding out a card in his hand and giving a completely dumbfounded expression. "I love to know how we're going to act out 'Watergate'."

Caroline mumbled, "I'm sure Team Stelena will figure it out."

Audrey snapped her head to the side. "First of all, Caroline, you just implied that Stefan and Elena are going to be on a team together, and second of all, what in the hell are you trying to get at?"

Caroline bit her lip and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, Audrey…I really didn't want to bring it up with…everything…"

"Caroline, what are we missing?" I asked briskly, sort of confused and afraid. I was still panicked, but this new comment had me reeling. Did she know about me lying to Damon? Or was she simply just making a statement that Stefan and Elena were dating again? That I could shut down in no time.

Caroline looked up at me, and then at Audrey, and then sighed. "It's probably nothing." She waved it off.

Damon reached forward and grabbed the pen out of Caroline's hand just as she started to write again, causing the blonde to shout at him before Damon spoke, "Speak."

He turned around, clipped the pen on his shirt, and behind him, Caroline let out a deep sigh. Audrey and I both watched, waiting for her to clarify, but our reasons were completely different.

Caroline threw her head to face Audrey. "Audrey…I love you, but…I mean, aren't you a little worried about Stefan and Elena? Don't you think that they've been a little…?"

Audrey cocked an eyebrow. "A little what, Caroline?"

"Mm…" Caroline groaned, not wanting to speak. I held my breath to refrain from counting all my chickens before they've hatched. Sure enough, Caroline said my worst fear. "…Secretive? I mean," Caroline threw a glance to me and I tried to keep my alarmed expression dialed down. "You were with them! They were all…hushed and whispered at the car this morning. And they're getting firewood out of the shed, together, which apparently takes twenty minutes!"

Damon stopped doing whatever he was doing, and as I opened my mouth, Damon took any hope of words I'd had right from me. "Now that you mention it, I brought up Enzo to Elena earlier and she got all defensive."

I scoffed, but on the inside, I was literally panicking. Thank God, Caroline diverted the conversation with a shake of her blonde hair. "No! No, I'm not talking about Enzo. I'm talking about Stefan and Elena."

Damon peered around at Caroline and raised an eyebrow. "How much have you had to drink?"

Caroline let out a tired sigh. "Come on! I'm trying to explain something here! Elena's bored, Stefan and Audrey haven't really…defined anything."

"Caroline, breathe one more word, I don't care if you're my sister, but I will stake you in the chest," Audrey hissed at her, but gave her sister a bittersweet smile. Caroline whined.

"I'm sorry, I just feel like—"

All of a sudden, the cabin door opened, and in walked Stefan and Elena, surprised and confused as to what was going on inside. The four of us at the kitchen stiffened, and I gave an alarming glance at Stefan and Elena, who caught it immediately. So many secrets, accusations, and lies, I just couldn't keep up.

"Cocktails!" Elena exclaimed, gesturing towards Damon's famous alcoholic beverages waiting on the counter. "Good call."

"I'll…uh…make a fire," Stefan announced as Elena walked over to grab a drink. Immediately, I put mine down and answered him even though there wasn't a question to be responded to.

"I'll help!"

I thought I might be able to get past it, just for Caroline's sake, but no.

It's official—I hate charades.

The music was lightly on in the background, and Elena was up on her feet, acting out a bunch of stupid gestures that Stefan was trying to guess. I sat with Audrey, Damon sat with Caroline, and the four of us watched as Stefan and Elena tried to win during their drunken stupor. I wasn't going to lie; I was pretty hammered, for a human. They, however, were hammered for a vampire. That was ten times worse.

"Uh…think! Ponder! Um…brain! Um…I don't know…" As Stefan shouted out these words, Elena changed her gestures, trying to get him to guess. "Uh…" Stefan slapped his hand down on the couch and shouted, "Skull!"

"Yes!" Elena exclaimed, jumping up and down as he got the first part of her riddle. "Okay, um…"

She began to do another gesturing round, and Stefan shouted out random words pertaining to her gestures, and then Stefan shouted. "Bones! Skull and bones!" Elena nodded happily and they slapped both of their palms together in a high ten before Stefan gloated and Elena laughed girlishly in a gloating manner. Stefan and Elena were creaming all of us, and I was the only one who knew what was really going on—which caused me to down drink after drink after drink. It was when I brought my third shot up to my lips that Damon took it out from underneath me before I was even allowed to taste the alcohol, and he downed it for me before straightening.

"Okay! Let's play a little gamed called Never Have I Ever," he suggested, glancing across the room.

"Ugh, I don't think I'm drunk enough," Elena complained.

Beside me, Audrey jumped up, getting the hint. She was pissed off that Caroline made her take me as my partner because her elder sister wanted to test her theory. So far, she was getting angrier by the minute. "Oh, that's the whole point Elena! Come on, it'll be fun. I'll go first." She looked across the room. "Never have I ever…died."

I sighed, and everyone but Audrey took a drink—including me. I still died for Silas's ritual, like it or not. I took a small sip, and then Stefan spoke again. "Oh! Uh, never have I ever been…um, possessed by my evil doppelgänger." He threw a pointed glance toward Elena, who blew air through her lips unattractively.

"Mean," she accused, drinking. When she finished drinking, she spoke, "Never have I ever been fooled by my evil doppelgänger while she was pretending to be me."

As everyone drank, I paused. "Wait a second, do you mean when she was in your body or just on a regular basis, I'm a little confused…"

Elena sighed. "Fine, for you, let's say…never have I ever been compelled by my evil doppelgänger to be her lapdog."

I frowned at my sister. "You make it sound like it was fun." I pulled the alcohol to my lips and drank slowly, trying to conserve.

"Yeah, that was a low blow," Caroline admitted.

"Tough but fair," Damon countered, shrugging. All of a sudden, Caroline turned to Elena.

"Never have I ever kissed a Salvatore brother."

I sighed, feeling awkward in the space next to Damon and Audrey, who was sitting next to Stefan, but regardless, Audrey and I tapped our glasses together and pulled them up to our lips before Caroline amended her statement.

"Today."

Suddenly, no one drank. I certainly didn't kiss Damon or Stefan, Audrey seemed to have not kissed Stefan, either, and Caroline was pointedly waiting for Elena to drink. She even shrugged and prompted, "So are you going to drink…?"

Elena looked at Caroline with angered eyes. "Are you implying something…?"

"Well," Stefan sat forward. "I'm going to get another round. Does anybody—?"

"Never have I ever lied about where Enzo is," Damon blurted out suddenly, and I felt my pulse speed up. But what hurt me the most was the fact that Damon wasn't focused on me—he was focused on Stefan and Elena solely, waiting for one of them to drop the ball. It made me feel ten times worse, knowing that he didn't even doubt me in the slightest.

No one drank, and the lies just kept piling up.

"Okay, what is going on?" Audrey shouted frustratedly.

Stefan shrugged. "Nothing, obviously, because nobody's drinking."

"Well, clearly, you know the rules of the game, right brother?" Damon said pointedly at his brother. I felt like doubling over. "If you lied, you drink."

"Oh, no, I…understand the rules." Stefan, you're outright lying, I wanted to shout, but I couldn't. I had to keep a promise to a friend. But, then again, my boyfriend sat next to me and didn't even suspect foul play. I was going to lose my mind if I sat in the room one more second than I needed to, and when I saw Damon's gaze slowly drift from Stefan to me at the sight of Elena watching me carefully, I cleared my throat and stood up.

"I…I'm going to get ready for bed, uh…" I tried to walk carefully out of the corner as I mumbled a small "yeah" and tried desperately (and failed) to get out without tripping over my own feet. I didn't want to see Damon's blatantly obvious look of confusion while I walked off, breathing almost heavily, and went upstairs to my room.

Immediately upon entering, I heard the sounds of dishes being cleared downstairs, and I stripped down and walked into the bathroom, hoping to clear my head. Elena always said she thought taking baths cleared her head, so I turned on the warm water in the tub and fussed with the bubbles to get the liquid to be spilled on the bottom of the tub. Baths weren't really my scene, but I would take any help I could get. Lies and lies and lies, when would they end? I couldn't keep a secret for shit, I was a terrible liar. Why did Stefan feel the need to tell me this? Burden me with this? It was eating me up alive!

The guilt consumed me, but I pushed it off as I watched the water level rise in the bathtub. I checked the hot water temperature and, upon finding it satisfactory, I sighed and released the towel around my body. Once I turned off the knobs and climbed into the bathtub, feeling the burn that resided around my ankles and increased as I sank down, I began to feel a calming wave wash over me. God, Elena was right for once. This is relaxing. I sighed to myself, keeping my body afloat in the water that soaked me in the tub. I almost, just for a second, forgot about my surroundings.

And then, just when I started to feel safe, I was being pushed under the water, and the liquid filled my lungs while I thrashed back and forth, not caring about how the water was sloshing over the tub. I tried to pull my head up, but something forced it down, keeping it underwater. My legs were thrust into the air and I slid against the bottom of the tub, my breathing entirely impaired. The sloshing of the tub was loud in my water-filled ears, but I could still hear it.

Something pulled me up out of the water, just enough so that I could breathe again. I shouted for help as loud as I could before I was thrust back into the water with seemingly no one pushing me into it as far as my vision could tell. This time, because I'd gotten a good breath, I was able to sustain longer under the water, but it was still frightening to the very max. I was pulled back up again, forced back down, and it seemed to be an endless cycle to make sure that I wouldn't drown. Once in a while, I coughed up water, but it wasn't enough to get all of it out of my lungs. An acrid taste of soapy liquid traced my mouth hit air when I was finally released and I collapsed over the side of the tub, gasping for air that I was deprived of. All around me, soapy water spilled over the tub, and I felt a sting in my eyes from the soap. All of a sudden, there was a warm set of hands around me, and my name was being gasped through a pair of lips with so much concern, it was frightening.

"Madeline!" I was breathing heavily enough that my gasps masked Damon's soft words. I felt his strong hand pull me up to a standing position and I doubled over, coughing up water as he pulled me out of the tub and wrapped my previous towel around my dripping body. "What happened?" he demanded. I could see him clearly now, but I looked around to find the son of a bitch who'd been drowning me.

"There…" I gasped for air, and I felt Damon's hands rubbing my arms, covering them in inconvenient goose bumps that I didn't pay attention to. "…was someone in here."

"Who?" Damon questioned roughly, his eyes fixated on me. I kept them moving around the room for any sign of familiarity, but there was none.

"I-I don't know. I-I didn't see anyone, but I was…" Now I was just plain exhausted from the drowning. "I was being pushed under water." Damon's hands collected soap that resided on my face, and I tried to still his hands with mine.

"Okay," Damon breathed at a pace that was level with mine. He now said in a lighter tone, "I'd blame it on the spirit of Bill Forbes but…I don't think you're his type." Oh, no, I bellyached in my mind, realizing. "Besides, why would a ghost be targeting you?"

Damon was so clueless, it killed me ten thousand times over. When his eyes caught mine and I was sucked in, I could feel my heart pound, and I could feel it all start to rush up. I quickly shielded my eyes, and he saw this as a warning sign.

"Madeline…" he whispered. "What?" My breathing quickened. "Hey, hey." He kept me at a length suitable for the both of us but tried removing some of the soap from my hair, and when he asked me what was wrong, I got his name out, but that was it before I spilled the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I'm a terrible friend, and an even worse girlfriend.

Stefan hadn't even ended the phone call with Bonnie talking about who was on the Other Side that could harm this plane, and it wasn't long before he said a name that was recognized by two other Forbes girls that stood behind him.

"Enzo's dead?" Caroline gasped, and Stefan turned around, ending his phone call. Stefan stared, caught, at the red-haired human who looked at him with an expression that made him feel ashamed.

It was time to come clean, he realized, just as Elena walked down from upstairs, caught as well.

"Yeah," Stefan admitted, hanging his head. "I, uh…I killed him." This was the point of no return now.

"And you didn't tell us?" Audrey asked softly, but her voice had an edge to it that only she could manage. An angered edge, but a compassionate one all the same. "Who else knew, Stefan?"

"I did." Audrey and Caroline turned around to see Elena bounce down from the last stair, slapping her hands against her thighs and shrugging. "I…uh…I saw it happen. Stefan didn't have a choice, Enzo forced himself off of Stefan's hand and Stefan pulled his heart out with it. It was his act of revenge."

Things went painfully silent before Caroline scoffed. "So…my powers of deduction really suck." She turned back to Stefan. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it's complicated," Stefan defended himself, and as if it weren't complicated enough, Damon walked in.

"Enter the complication." Stefan felt a wave of hurt as his brother stopped just by Caroline and said in a slightly angered tone. "Enzo's dead. You killed him. Madeline told me."

Caroline whipped around. "So you didn't know either?" she asked.

"Nope." Damon clenched his fists tightly as Caroline came to her own little realization.

"And…their secret really was about Enzo," she admitted, ashamed.

"Yep."

"You guys think we can talk about this some other time?" Stefan tried, realizing the fact that Madeline was just almost drowned by a member of the dead seeking revenge on Damon.

"By all means, brother," Damon spat, "At your convenience."

"Listen, the Other Side is falling apart and I think it's allowing Enzo to mess with us," Stefan blurted out without listening to his brother, who just squared his jaw and realized that being angry wasn't the priority at the moment.

"Enzo!" Damon shouted, looking around the cabin. "You in here?"

"I don't reckon I miss this," Enzo groaned to himself as he lounged on the couch by the fireplace, watching the five remaining residents of the cabin while they could not see him.

"Because knock it off!" Damon finished with a slight angered tone.

"Wait a second." Audrey sighed and held up her hands. "This doesn't make sense. If Enzo wanted to kill Madeline, he wouldn't have drowned her. No one just goes for drowning. The surefire way to kill someone is to wound. And…it's probably something Enzo would do," she admitted.

Enzo chuckled to himself. "Smart girl. I guess the Forbes tagline comes with an awards certificate or something."

"Maybe he's just trying to scare us," Caroline suggested.

"Warmer," Enzo agreed, but no one said anything. He threw his hands up. "Come on! You've almost got it! What is Enzo up to?" He sat straight in the chair now, still not able to be seen by anyone, and he waited for the person who was smart enough to realize his diabolical plan.

Damon looked around, and then he realized. "Drowning Madeline was just a distraction." Enzo smirked to himself. "He found a way to kill us all in just one fell swoop."

Immediately, Damon darted for the door, followed by Caroline, Stefan, Elena, and Audrey, and Enzo just leaned back in his chair. "Did I mention I missed you?"

All five of them ran outside, only to find the circle they'd placed Luke in broken and empty, a sea of smoke where the candles had been pinched out. Damon groaned to himself. "Crap."

"Where's Luke?" Elena asked, looking around the cabin.

"Who knows?" Damon answered her, his voice hard. "But we better find him before the Travelers find us."

"Vampires go out to look for Luke," Damon announced loud enough for everyone to hear. Elena, Caroline, and Stefan were already halfway out the door with Damon just a second behind them. "Humans stay in here."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Audrey scoffed, moving towards the door. "Get out of my way, Damon—"

"Red, I swear to God, I will rip out your spleen if you take one more step," Damon warned in an icy-tone voice that I hated to hear on him. I felt so guilty for telling him…I felt so guilty for lying. Damon's barely said one word to me after I told him of Stefan's betrayal. The raven-haired vampire's eyes drifted up to mine and he pointed at me. "Watch her."

"I don't need to be watched, Damon." I tried to make my voice sound light and soft—understanding. "We can come with—"

"Madeline." The word sent cold shudders down my back, and I think it did with everyone else in hearing range. Stefan, Caroline, and Elena were all just outside on the porch, waiting for Damon. I could see Stefan direct Caroline and Elena in another direction, and I swallowed hard, fighting back an argue. Damn. If I argued now, he would hate me for the rest of my human life. "This is not up for discussion this time, you will stay here."

He said nothing more but violently opened the screen door leading to the outside world in which I was forbidden to escape to. The demand made me seethe, but it also made me want to stab myself in the back. I was such an idiot. And hadn't Stefan just said something about playing the damsel-in-distress earlier on this morning? Stefan needs to stop giving advice. I hated being the damsel. Let someone else play it for crying out loud. But I guess the Gilberts are magnets for that role. Even Jeremy sometimes, to be honest.

Audrey looked back at me, rolling her tongue on the inside of her cheek. "You do realize that you lied, right?"

"Yes."

"Not just to Damon, but to me, too?"

"Yes."

"And you realize how pissed I am?" This time, I nodded silently. "Good. I'll go fix us a drink."

Audrey and I, condemned to stay inside, did nothing but wait for Stefan, Elena, Caroline, and Damon's return. We waited by the clock, watching the minutes go past, making sure that we were aware of our surroundings. Eventually, Caroline and Elena came back empty-handed, and a few minutes later, Stefan, Damon, and Luke all came back together, earning a relieved sigh from all of us. Damon was convinced that the Travelers had found us in that short window of time that Luke had the spell down, so he went straight to packing. I heard, from the hallway, Stefan grunt, and Elena say something to Damon, and then there was a door slam. He was pissed. Beyond pissed. I didn't need to see anything to know that he was. I just knew. Stefan and Elena talked for a moment, but then he left, and Elena went upstairs. Audrey was packing and I knew that I was next to pack my bag. I decided to get it over with before Damon came into the house and yelled at me for the second time tonight. So, I packed my things and brought them downstairs, only to see Damon frustratedly throwing suitcases into the back of his Camaro.

I sighed heavily before I went out to meet him, despite all of the nerves in my body telling me to give him time. I just couldn't do it. It was painful, not just for him but also to me, nevertheless I had to do it. I apologized and apologized, but I don't think an apology would suffice right now.

"Hey," I tried.

Damon responded to me, but didn't turn around. "Hey, we're leaving. Pack your stuff."

I nodded. "I-I did. It's in the living room. I just…" Now he turned around, but he gave nothing away in his expression. "I just wanted to come out and see how you were doing."

"I'm in a hurry." Damon shrugged. "You should be, too. The Travelers can find us." He bent down and picked up one of the last suitcases, but I wasn't willing to give up so easily.

"So…that's it?" Damon turned around at me, confused. "I get it, big bad Travelers and everything, but you're just not going to talk about this with me?"

"What's there to talk about?" Damon proposed, a certain bitter taste in his voice. I sighed.

"Please, Damon, you don't know how sorry I am for lying to you—"

"I don't care that you lied," he cut me off in a light voice. He shrugged seeing my frown settle upon my lips. "Really." Then he turned back, put the suitcase he was holding in his hand into his trunk, just as the confused words left my mouth.

"Okay…being distant, I get. Yelling, I get. But…this?" I gestured at him. "The calm, cool, collective Damon, I just…I don't get it. Why are you being like this?"

Damon turned around at me. "Because you were right to do what you did, Madeline. You wanted to protect me so that I wouldn't spiral because if I spiraled, we would be right back at square one with each other…yet again."

I felt my stance shift from defensive to more comprehensive and understanding, and he continued. "But I didn't spiral. Despite every nerve in my body wanting to break something or hurt someone or do all the wrong things for all the right reasons, I am holding it together the best I can…" Damon trailed off and his eyes trailed all over my face, sighing. "…for you. For you, okay? For you. Because I don't want you to stand there and have to admit to someone that you have a boyfriend who likes to go on murder sprees in his spare time."

I wanted so very badly to correct him—to say that I accepted him, but there was no changing Damon Salvatore's mind. When he had an expectation for himself, he fulfilled it, and there was nothing I could do about it. In his mind, I was still the same eighteen-year-old innocent little human he had fallen in love with. Though that idea was null and void now, he still thought of me that way. I didn't blame him. It wasn't easy for people to accept me as being mature, even though I was fully capable of it.

"But you're still mad at me," I concluded with a soft sigh.

"Of course I'm still mad at you," Damon practically scoffed while he put away the last suitcase he had by his feet. And then he turned around with soft breathing. "Because being around you drives me nuts. And not being around you…drives me nuts," he repeated desperately, his eyes drifting from me to places around me.

I stood there, confused beyond a single belief, and I couldn't help but say, "I don't know how to fix that, Damon, I just don't."

He stared at me, almost in pain watching as I tried to comprehend the situation he was trying to come up with, but the thing was, I was telling the complete truth. I didn't know what he wanted me to do about it because I felt the same way. There was no solution. Absolutely none.

We stood there, a few feet apart, and I watched as Damon clenched and unclenched his fists without ever taking his crystal blue eyes off of mine. And, then—metaphorically, of course—he threw himself with his eyes closed, plunging into an abyss we called our indescribable relationship.

He kissed me hard, soft, platonically, wildly—it was a complete contradiction in itself. But he kissed me like he meant it, the first kiss I'd had with him since we sat on the porch in front of the Salvatore house. And I never fully appreciated a kiss before, I never fully appreciated a kiss with him before, until this moment. This was a moment when, after all the lust we'd been harboring, it was put to the side and we were back in the old days when a ruthless murderer fell for an eighteen-year-old human who had never once fallen in love with a man before in her life.

Damon pulled away, his taste still lingering on my lips, and I found it hard to come back to reality after getting a kiss I'd so desperately waited for. His hands were in my hair, moving from my jaw to in the dark strands, as if cherishing them. I knew he liked me better as a brunette. The blonde look was just a good kick for him.

I opened my eyes slowly to find him, yet again, staring into mine. There was something in his eyes today that made me want to fall so hard I never got back up again. It was a common trend with him.

I let out a soft, far from amused laugh. It was more of a breathless chuckle. "What was that for?"

Damon's fingers brushed through my soft hair, and I felt a shiver run down my spine.

"Because I've had a really crappy day," he defended himself, but I wasn't amused by the situation at all—rather stunned. "And I needed it."

I pleaded for him to do it again—I pleaded for it over and over and over again in the few seconds that he was left staring at my lips, but then he removed his hands from my hair and brushed past me without a single word so that he walked inside of the cabin to get my suitcase and the suitcases of those who were left. I couldn't put my thoughts into emotions—whether to be happy or sad, it just slipped away from me, and I spun around, only to come face-to-face with myself.

She tilted her head at me. "Another exhilarating kiss from Damon Salvatore?" A tsk left her lips. "You're getting bad, Madeline. Real bad."

I gasped, now afraid, more afraid than I'd ever been, but then I stumbled into something, and she completely faded away as a hand clamped over my mouth, muffling the cries that I hoped to gain Damon's attention. And, this time, it was no ghost who was holding me down.

It was Markos.

Hope you all liked the chapter. Review!

Love,

BellaSalvatore1918

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