We raced home faster than I had ever seen anyone drive before, and much, much faster than was deemed safe. Damon was losing blood quickly and though he tried not to show it, I could tell he was in pain. It was kind of distracting to see red all over the seats and dripping over everything he had touched. Like an awful scarlet ghost of where he had been.

We got back to the house in record time and I helped him inside. Getting the key in the lock was a nightmare but eventually we were in.

Someone screamed in the kitchen and I almost lost my grip on Damon's shirt. Who was in my kitchen?

I guided Damon to the sofa and sat him down before I ran to the kitchen. The first thing I saw was the blood. Red handprints were smeared over the door frame and the table and there were drips of scarlet on the floor leading to an altogether larger puddle underneath a girl sat on one of the chairs around the dining table.

"I. Have. Been. Waiting" She gasped quickly then screamed again and tumbled onto the floor clutching her stomach. I rushed forward and tried to pick her up. Her pretty white shirt was mostly red and there was a knife shaped hole in her abdomen where blood was pouring out.

"Stay there" I ordered

"Like I have a choice" she muttered. Jade was the girl who was currently in agony on my kitchen laminate. I knew her from school a little. Nice girl but she wasn't quite as good at math as she perhaps thought she was. She must have been at the party but I didn't understand why she was at my house and not in hospital where she should be. I grabbed a towel and knelt next to her pressing the cloth against her wound. She whimpered a little but put her hand on it to keep it in place.

"Perfect" Damon said sarcastically and he staggered to the doorframe and clutched it like a drowning man. I supported him to another chair and managed to sit him down.

It only then occurred to me that I had two stab victims around my dining table. What a night I was having.

I grabbed the cordless phone out the living room and dialled Stefan's number. I held the phone between my ear and my shoulder while I quickly poured two glasses of water. I didn't know much first aid but I was pretty sure dehydration wasn't going to help either of these two right now.

"Don't call an ambulance" Damon called weakly from across the room.

"I'm calling Stefan" I replied

"And?"

"Voicemail" I said and tried again. I put both of the glasses, now full, next to my patients and pulled up a chair next to Damon. He rolled over and put his head on my lap. I used my free hand to run through his tangled, blood and vomit matter hair. The phone went to voicemail again so I cursed at it and set in on the table.

I wanted to breakdown and cry. This was the only time I had had to put everything into perspective and it was downright scary. I didn't know what to do and I was terrified that those people would come back. And I had two severe stab patients that were refusing treatment.

It was a few minutes before I realised lights were flashing against the wall. Rhythmic yellow flashes coming through the window from outside.

"You said you didn't call them" Damon whispered from my lap

"What?" I asked confused

"Don't let them take me" Jade whimpered from behind me. I sat up, alert instantly. I couldn't understand what was going on but I knew it was bad.

There was an almighty crash from the hall and voices carried into the room. Someone had broken into the house. I stood quickly, careful not to jostle the already weak Damon on my lap and took a defensive stance near the door.

About five people dressed in green jumpsuits came in the door carrying two stretchers each with medical bags perched on top. I knew instantly that they weren't medics.

"We need to get through here" One of them said roughly trying to push past me

"No you don't" I said standing in front of her. She stopped pushing and took a small step back looking me squarely in the face. Then without missing a beat her hand snapped back and she punched me square in the jaw. I staggered a little, enough to let three of them through, but it wasn't a very hard punch and it was mostly the heels that let me down.

Without a word two of them dragged Damon onto the stretcher and tried to take him out the door.

"What do you think you're doing?" I cried "You can't take him!" I pulled on the shoulder of one of the men carrying him but he shrugged me off. Behind me Jade cried out as she was taken too but she was lower on my list of priorities.

"Stop now" I started pulling and scratching at whichever of them was closest but they continued to carry him out through the hall and into the street.

"No, Damon!" He was trying to resist but he was already weak. One of them punched him in the chest and I heard two distinct cracks as two ribs snapped under the pressure. Damon flinched on the stretcher then promptly went very limp and his head lolled to one side in unconsciousness. A small line of blood leaked from his mouth and across his cheek.

I screamed and I fought but the kept pushing me back and I watched them load Jade and Damon into the back of the ambulance. I couldn't stop it and as the others leapt into the ambulance I collapsed on the doorstep and cried.

I had no idea what happened to either of them but that was the last I saw of them for the night. I sat on the doorstep for hours just crying. It was cold and I was still covered in a mix of blood, alcohol and vomit but I just couldn't find it in myself to care. My cheek stung like a bitch as the saltwater flowed into the still open gash there but that just made me cry more.

I must have fallen asleep there because the next thing I remember was Stefan carrying me into the bathroom and laying me in the tub. He looked like hell. All scratches and bruises and dirt. What parts of his clothes that weren't ripped, were stained with the unpleasantness of the night.

"How long had you been out there?" Stefan asked as he reached up and turned the shower on. I gush of water hit me and the water ran from clear to a rusty brown colour underneath me.

"They took him" I whispered still in shock more than anything else. I didn't watch Stefan as he started to unknot my hair with a brush, I just stared at my hands twining themselves together "They just took him"

"There was nothing you could have done" Stefan said calmly even though his brother was missing and I could tell it hurt him. His sadness along with my own brought a new round of tears but thankfully they didn't show under the stream of the shower.

We both cleaned up in silence then retired to each of out room to deal with out misery on our own.

It was a few days later before I go back to normal tasks and I realised what was going on. I just woke up that morning and suddenly my head was clear. No more pain, no more misery; just a feeling of relief. Damon was gone, but I could handle it.

I got out of bed, washed, dressed and started to clean the house; all the normal day-to-day things that I did before. I noticed Stefan doing the same as he mumbled a "good morning" from his bowl of cereal. He picked up a letter he had been reading next to him and handed it to me. It was a printed letter with thick paper and fancy writing. Official. It read;

Dear Mr S Salvatore

We would first like to say how sorry we are for your loss and send our condolences to the family and friends of Mr Damon Salvatore. We realise this is a sad time for all…

I'd already known he was dead. Of course I did. I saw him being taken by those people and the reason I fought so hard was because I knew I wouldn't see him again if I let him go. But seeing it in writing came as a shock still. I sat down hard in one of the chairs but kept reading

… and would like to invite you to along with all the others affected to a ceremony to celebrate their lives and begin to make arrangements for their funerals…

I dropped the paper as I realised what the letter was saying. There was to be a ceremony for everyone who died that night at the party and during it some funeral parlours were going to advertise their services like some market stall.

"That's sick" I muttered

"But practical" Stefan mused "I can't not go. I need to see him. I need to know that he is okay"

"He's dead!" I screamed "How can he be okay? How can you turn up and sort out the practicalities when your brother was murdered in cold blood a few days ago? Then pretend that you cared for all the other that died too. We didn't know them Stefan! We didn't know their names or their hopes or dreams and most of all we didn't save them. It's our fault…" I trailed off miserably as I came to my own conclusion. The reason I hadn't been able to think straight, hadn't been able to get off the porch, hadn't been able to get out of bed.

"It's my fault" I whispered horrified. But by saying it things started to click into place in my head. Those people were after Damon and I let slip about the party. And I begged Stefan to go too. It was my fault Damon was there, my fault those people were there, my fault anyone got hurt. If Stefan was at home they could have run and called the police. If we were all at home they might not have even tried to hurt him. It would have been just a normal night.

I looked quickly again at the letter on the floor. The date was marked at today.

As it was, we both went. Both trapped in our own worlds and trying to get through it. Mine was a world of guilt and despair which was amplified when I saw the hall filled with other mourners, some just children. We walked past one women sobbing about how her daughter was dreaming of university. I guessed the oldest people there must have been 18. The whole thing was a tragedy but I couldn't yet feel that in my little bubble.

"Mr Salvatore?" Some one called from a few feet away. We both turned to see and employee walking over to us with just the right amount of sadness in his expression to be considered sympathetic.

"Mr Salvatore, I have been told there is a special room set up for your brother next door. You and your…" he trailed off and looked my up and down "Friend should come this way" He turned on his heel and made a beeline for the other side of the hall to an unmarked door. He opened it without a word and as soon as we had stepped through it clicked shut behind us. I had a sudden awful feeling in the pit of my stomach and tried the door handle. It didn't move under my hand. I shot a terrified look at Stefan who looked back with the same thought. The bastard had locked us in.

I took a cautious step into the room and started to look around. The room was clean and white and empty but for a few chairs and thick white curtains that draped on the walls at intervals. One in particular caught my eye as it had a red spot on it. I stepped away from Stefan for a closer inspection. It looked almost as though someone had spilt red ink on it from the other side. I reached towards it slowly and started to pull it aside. An ungodly smell came from it as soon as I touched it and I gagged hard but refused to let it stop me. And so I ripped the rest of it back quickly to get it over with.

"Stefan" I meant to shout but I was so shocked I could hardly even hear myself. I lost all control of my body as I stared at the atrocity before me. I just couldn't seem to look away, my mind had some morbid addiction to the sight before me and my eyes refused to move.

It was Jade. Well in truth it was her corpse; still clothed in a blood soaked party dress covered in cuts. This on its own was ghastly enough, but she was hanging from a huge meat hook that was attached to the wall and pushed through her shoulder leaving red and pink trails of muscle and ligament pouring from the hole next to her collar bone.

I tried to scream but my throat was dry, I tried to move but I was frozen. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. Stefan came up behind me and I felt him staring over my shoulder. He moved round the room ripping the curtains from the rails revealing another body behind each. Some I knew, some I didn't; but each made me feel worse and worse.

"No" Stefan gasped. It was the only thing so far to break me from my reverie. I turned and this time I did scream. Across the room, given the same treatment as the others was Damon.