DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. If I did Damon would run around shirtless a lot like Jacob in twilight, but I wouldn't feel guilty about it because at least he's not 17.
Her body is still cold, my fingers want to pull away for warmth but I can't seem to get my body to move. For the fourth time this week I forgot to breathe. I take in a deep breath inhaling the fragrance of remorse and the damp air around us laced with the smell of decay from the rotting wood. Now just the sound of the noise of the water dripping from the broken pipe in the corner fills the air, no longer any hearts beating with the three bodies in here. Nothing can escape her withering touch. How could I have let this happen to her?
"Please Elena don't feel guilty over this." Damon's words cut through my thoughts, I pause looking up at him as I am still holding my friend who is laying on the cold ground.
"How can I not? I let her die…in this foul place." My words come out harsh but not against him, its my anger towards Katherine that is causing it.
"I don't know how many times I will have to be repeat this to you but I will, its not your fault. Right now though we really should be getting her out of here." Damon leans down closer to me grabbing Caroline by her waist. I keep my hand wrapped into hers in a small hope that maybe she will feel safe. I can't seem to take my eyes off of her, I can slowly see the changes happening. Her skin is becoming paler, something that I wasn't sure was possible with Caroline. I hear her body changing, the noise is excrutiating. The sound of her bones hardening with each crack. I can even hear the tears in her veins as the blood is trying to pump through them again. I cringe in disgust and pain all while trying not to lose my grip on her hand. My mind flashes back to the night that I was turned, something I had been repressing. The excrutiating pain, it makes your body feel like it is burning with embers from the inside out all the while like someone is breaking every piece of you one by one.
Damon stands up as I stand with him. We slowly walk up the stone steps to the main part of the building. We make it inside into the cold night air, the crispness of it biting at my cheeks. I don't let it bother me though as we keep walking to the car. Damon opens up the back door getting ready to place Caroline in the back.
"Let me sit with her?" I ask, my eyes pleading with him. I can see the pain in his eyes. I know that its all for me. He nods his head lightly as I get into the back seat. Damon lays Caroline down so her head is resting on my lap. A moment later the engine roars to life, I don't bother to pay attention to the scenery as I keep my eyes focused on the girl in front of me. I run my hands through her matted hair, most of the blood in her tips already dried. I feel a tear fall down my cheek and onto Caroline's lifeless face. I wipe it away quickly.
"It shouldn't have been that way." My voice was barely a whisper, nothing human ears would have been able to pick up. The tears are coming full force now and I have to move my gaze ahead of me so I can stop crying the corpse on my lap. Damon doesn't say anything which just makes a part of me feel terrible for him having to see me this way.
"Don't think that." His voice is quiet, I look up in the review mirror to see his blue eyes looking back at me.
"You shouldn't have to go through this with me. You shouldn't have to be feeling this way." His eyes become more fierce as I say the words to him.
"I go through this by choice, just remember that. I go through this because you are nothing like her." His words hit me hard, causing more tears to come out.
"That's not true, I manipulated you into coming out here tonight and I said those horrible things." My voice is trembling as the car falls silent for a moment.
"I know what you did Elena. Its not really manipulation when I can see right through you." His voice almost sounds playful which causes my bewilderment.
"But how? I tried my hardest not to think about it so you wouldn't hear." I hear a small laugh come from him which causes me to glare at him through the mirror.
"Because you just aren't capable of manipulation. Besides what you were doing tonight wasn't for self gain, it was for someone else. It only proves more of the differences." For a moment I get so mad that I almost forget that Caroline is still laying across my lap. I cross my arms over my chest in a child like manor.
"You better be lucky we aren't alone right now otherwise I would hit you." I move my eyes to look out the window, the tears finally not falling. I can still feel my eyes brimmed with water. My mind flashes back to all of the times when I was human and Damon would be his arrogant self, something that I was accustomed to. How we use to bicker back and forth, I never really noticed how playful it was. How it always ended with something be thrown at him or me being hit. Its something that I have missed in this darker days. A small smile plays on my lips as I think of all of the memories, these ones much more clearer in my new life. I look up again at Damon to see a smirk across his chiseled features. It takes everything in me not to roll my eyes at him. The car comes to a stop, I didn't even realize we were back at the boarding house.
I wait for Damon to come around to the back seat to get Caroline out before I get out of the car. When he finally has her in his arms I get out shutting the door lightly behind me. We walk up to the front door, the sound of the gravel crunching beneath our feet. I open the heavy wooden door for him. Damon swiftly takes Caroline to the couch laying her down. I pull up an ottoman next to the couch, sitting on it to be near her.
"I'll go get a warm towel for you to clean her up with." Damon says as he watches my eyes scan over her. I just nod as I wrap my fingers into hers again.
"What happened?" I hear Jeremy's voice just as he is coming down into the parlor, Anna right in tow behind him.
"Katherine happened." Anna says the words for me, I look up at the both of them with my eyes reassuring her words.
A piercing scream breaks through the air. I let my hand drop from Caroline's as I push the ottoman back a little to see Caroline looking at me with frightened eyes, screams still resonating from her mouth. I try to grab her hand again to calm her down but she pulls away quickly.
"Caroline its me." I say as calmly as I can but I can tell that she isn't listening. She pulls her legs up to herself as the jacket I had put on her begins to slip a little showing the already healing wounds from the scratches that were running across her chest. Within seconds Damon is in the room in front of Caroline, his hands on her shoulders.
"Caroline, its Elena…" His words are cut off as Caroline pushes him away with full force. Damon stumbles back, his eyes wide.
"I remember, I remember everything you did to me. Everything she did…but I remember you…what you are. You used me." The fear seems pushed aside as anger seems to have taken dominance. I try to move closer to her, her eyes focused on Damon.
"Caroline I know this is a lot to take in but I really want to help you." I'm able to take a seat on the couch next to her, she doesn't push me away like I thought she would. Instead her eyes look at me for a recognition, something to give me away.
"When we were 11, what promise did we make?" I can tell that she is serious. I can't really blame her.
"I promised that no matter what I would be there for you, Bonnie was there too. It was a rainy day and you had just found out about your parents. We were in your house and I remember you crying. I remember how much Bonnie and I tried to help you through their divorce. I also remember I gave you my favorite necklace to try to cheer you up." I give her as many details as I can hoping that it will spark something in her.
I feel her arms fly around me, her body pushing against mine. The soft sobs coming from her muffled against my hair. I wrap my arms around her, holding her tightly. "I know that this is really hard Caroline and we can talk about it later if you want to, but just know that I'm here for you. We're here for you." I try to put emphasis on the we're aspect, hoping that she knows that Damon will help her too. "Lets go upstairs." I say to her and I feel her lightly nod against me. I pull away from her, her eyes red from her tears. My heart wants to break knowing this life that is in store for her.
At least she's not dead. I shoot Damon a glare as soon as I hear it. He shrugs as Caroline heads towards the staircase. Let me know if you need anything. His voice is more serious this time and I know that he is saying it more as to care of me than her. I smile lightly at him, a welcoming thought from all of this darkness.
I walk with Caroline up the stairs and point her in the direction of one of the spare rooms. "You should get cleaned up, there should be clean towels already hanging up in there."
"Why did she do it?" Caroline blurts out the words, her back to me. I fumble in my head for an answer.
"I don't know." My voice is quiet, wishing that I could give her something better than that. Caroline keeps walking to the bathroom, right at the entrance she turns around to look at me.
"Did you know?"
"Know what?" I ask her, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
"That Stefan was with her." If my heart was still beating it would have stopped. The world seemed to stop for a moment. "He was there…watching the door. That's why I thought it was you, Stefan was with her." Before she gives me the chance to say anything she walks into the bathroom shutting the door behind her. My mind was spinning, a hundred thoughts a second. Of course we had our suspicions for Stefan to be with Katherine, but this? To turn Caroline? I didn't think that he would do something like this.
I run down the stairs in what would have been a blur to anyone else's eyes. The three of them are in the parlor, I stop with all of their eyes on me. "Don't any of you dare let him in here! I swear to God if I see him!" I don't even finish my threat as I go to throw my fist into a wall. Damon's hand is there to stop me though.
"Who? I'm asking before you break all the décor." Damon asks his hand still tightly around my balled fist.
"Stefan! He was there! He helped her do this!" My eyes are blind with fury, I want nothing more than to hunt him. To find him and make him regret every moment of what he did tonight.
"I wont let him in here. I wont let him near you." I hear the emphasis on the last part. I know that he wont. "I can't have you running around in a bloodlust though." I can still feel as if my blood is boiling I let my fist drop to my side, Damon's hand finally letting go of me.
"Why did you turn her?" Stefan screamed at Katherine who was casually sitting in an oversized armchair playing with her curled hair. Stefan was pacing back and forth as Katherine watched amused by his stress.
"I didn't intend to originally but things got a little hot and heavy in there and changes were made." Katherine said with a smile on her face remembering all of it.
"Yeah I heard!" Stefan screamed again making the smile on Katherine's face fall.
"Things change. That's how life works, even this life. You always have to be prepared. You always need to be able to think on your feet and handle what ever is thrown at you. Why do you think I've been alive for so long? Its definitely not from doing what you are right now." Katherine was now in front of him, her dark brown eyes looking into his.
"I know its just now they will know I was there." Stefan says to her, his voice quiet as his eyes searched everywhere in the room but Katherine's eyes.
"Were you not ready to give her up yet? I told you that life was over. Elena left you a long time ago, probably before any of you even realized it. Regardless of their bullshit little love connection she would have ended up with him eventually." Katherine sat back down on the chair, obviously not amused.
"I thought that it was a myth, I had hear about it so long ago." Stefan said, his voice almost lost.
AN: Sorry there haven't been any lemons lately. I've been trying to build more of an actual story. I'll try to squeeze some in soon. Thanks for all the support.
"Because there hadn't been a recording in hundreds of years, yeah I know. You'll eventually learn a lot of things that we hear aren't myths."