**Chapter sixty four**

What's dead doesn't always stay dead

*Damon*

The twenty four hours following Hailey's death were the most painful twenty four hours in Damon's life. It was his fault that she was dead, he knew. If he had just ran faster, he could've saved her.

Damon didn't know how long he was in the middle of the woods, cradling Hailey's body to him, begging her to come back. Eventually, he stood up and carried her back to the boarding house. When Elena saw Hailey in his arms, the bullet hole in her chest, she didn't believe it at first. But then the tears came, and Damon was forced to watch Hailey's best friend sob into his brother's chest.

Damon wanted Elena to be mad at him, to blame him for Hailey. It was his fault. But Elena didn't. She saw in his eyes that he was feeling the pain of Hailey's death a thousand times stronger than she was. She didn't say anything to him, but when she went to take Hailey from him, Damon gave her a menacing glare. Hailey wasn't leaving his arms anytime soon.

Eventually, Damon was forced to put Hailey down. Besides the blood, bullet wound, and paleness, he could almost pretend that she was asleep, that she wasn't gone forever. He put her gently down in the basement, and he kissed her forehead before he left. When he walked back up to the living room, Elena was still sobbing into Stefan's chest. Suddenly, Hailey's memory in the boarding house was suffocating. Damon had to leave. He couldn't bear watching Elena cry anymore, and he needed to get to a place that didn't remind him of Hailey.

Damon settled for a cliff near the edge of time. He considered jumping off of it, just to make the empty, raw pain eating him alive go away. But he would heal, he'd still have to live with the pain and the guilt and the loss. He would have to live with them forever.

Losing the person you loved more than anything brought you unimaginable pain. It was the kind of pain that never went away. It haunted you until the day you died. It ate you alive, made you feel dead. You could never recover from pain like that, you could only pretend.

Damon stayed at the cliff all night, letting the pain eat him alive. Just as the sun was rising, he got a phone call. He almost expected to hear Hailey on the other line, but then with an ache in his heart, he knew that it was probably just Stefan.

"What?" he asked in a dead sort of voice.

"Thant's not a very polite way to greet somebody, Damon," a haughty voice trilled in his ear.

It could've been Elena's voice, but the cold, arrogant tone made it very clear who it was. "Katherine," he growled fury and loathing washing over the raw pain inside of him.

"Still mourning over that fairy, I assume. Be careful Damon- that's very human of you."

"What could you possibly want, Katherine?" Damon asked coldly. It was Katherine's fault that Hailey was dead, almost as much as his. Though Holly pulled the trigger, and Damon wished he had done more to her then just snapped her neck.

"You."

"Bullshit. 146 years of history seems to show the opposite. In 1864, you were cheating on me with my brother, and then you avoided me for the next century and a half."

"Maybe so, but it's possible to love two people at once," Katherine argued. "But that's not the point. I just wanted to offer my condolences."

"Bullshit," Damon repeated. "You wanted Hailey dead; you were going to kill her."

"I don't share, Damon. You were mine once, you still are. Besides, I'm the jealous type," Katherine told him.

Damon resisted the urge to tell the bitch off. He wasn't hers. His heart would always belong to Hailey. "What are you say?" Damon asked suspiciously.

"I always have a plan B," she said proudly. "Just in case I couldn't kill the little bitch myself, I compelled her mother into thinking that her daughter was a vampire- I thought that it would be dramatic."

Damon's eyes widened. Katherine was more at fault than he had originally thought. "I'm going to kill you," he growled dangerously.

"Don't be that way, Damon," she sighed.

"I'm going to rip you limb from limb. I'm gonna rip your heart out and shove it down your throat," he continued, letting his anger take over.

"You can't Damon," Katherine said, and he thought that he heard a speck of concern in her voice. "You love me."

"I thought I did, not even too long ago. But the thing is, I'm not capable of love anymore, Katherine. That part of me died with Hailey."

"Well, good luck with that Damon. I'm not even in the country anymore."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I have all of eternity to kill you, Katherine. The beauty of it is that you'll never know when I'm coming for you," he told her before hanging up.

That was his next obsession, kill his last obsession. It might get him through a century or two, but he couldn't run from the pain forever. He couldn't run from Hailey forever. He didn't know what to do without Hailey. He didn't know how to handle his pain.

Damon went back to the boarding house, knowing his next plan. Thankfully, the sobbing Elena was gone. When he went up to his room, a new round of pain jolted him. All of Hailey's' belongings were still in his room, and he tried not to look at them.

He started packing up all of things. He had a plane to catch. He packed only the necessities, like clothes. Whenever he accidently touched one of Hailey's things, he jumped away like it had burned him. Her scent still filled up his room- vanilla and flowers.

Suddenly, the image of Hailey sobbing in his arms for the first time popped into his dead. It was right after Ava died, and she had clutched him to her like he was a flotation device and she was going to drown without him.

Damon jumped and blinked the memory away. It gave his pain intensity- Hailey was an adorable crier, if there was such a thing. He began to pack again, feeling sick. He didn't want to remember any more of his memories with Hailey. But his mind wasn't going to let that happen.

Damon saw Hailey's smug smirk, her sad, tear filled eyes. The day he admitted his love for her replayed in his mind, followed by when she agreed to spend forever with him. Damon gasped, and sat down on his bed. He couldn't forget Hailey, he couldn't move on from her- she wouldn't let him.

Instead of fighting the memories, Damon closed his eyes and let them continue to play in his hand. He heard every laugh, heard her say not to say that he didn't care about her, and watched her make eyes at him at the founder's ball. He saw her undress for him the first time they had sex, and listened to her tell him in a tight voice that he would always love Katherine. The loop played all the way to the night they met. Damon saw that sexy smirk grace her lips, and knew that he wouldn't feel all this pain if it had never existed.

Damon's eyes flashed open, and he stood up. He started packing again, like his trip down memory lane had never happened, but he slipped his picture of Hailey into his bag. Suddenly, he heard a meow- a sad, heartbroken one. He turned around to see Ellie pad towards him.

It was the first time that the cat hadn't bolted from the room when he entered, and Damon suddenly found himself sympathizing with a cat. "You miss her too?" he whispered, as Ellie jumped up onto the bed.

She meowed and settled down onto his bag. "You can come with me, if you want. I think that Hailey would want me to make sure that you didn't starve to death," Damon mumbled, feeling stupid and crazy for talking to a cat.

But Ellie wasn't just any cat- she was Hailey's familiar. The cat purred and rubbed against his arm. Suddenly, Damon was glad that he was taking Ellie with him. Hailey would've wanted him to.

Feeling the urge to leave grow stronger, Damon hurried up with his packing. He was interrupted when Stefan knocked on his door. "I'm going to take Elena home and then… and then I'm going to bury her," he told Damon quietly. Not even Stefan could bear to say Hailey's name.

Waves of pain washed over Damon. He wanted to tell Stefan not to bury Hailey, in case there was any small chance that she might come back. But the dead fairy was just decomposing in their basement, she wasn't going to wake up. Ever.

"You're going to be gone by the time I get back, aren't you?" Stefan asked suddenly, noticing the bags.

"That's the plan," Damon answered after a short pause.

Stefan nodded, expecting Damon to take off as soon as he walked into the boarding house with Hailey's body in his arms. "I'm so, so sorry Damon, that you lost her. You don't deserve to have this happen to you, and neither did Hailey," Stefan told him quietly. Both brothers flinched when Stefan said Hailey's name.

Damon didn't respond, and Stefan left his brother be. He didn't want him to leave necessarily, but he thought that it might do Damon some good, not to have memories of Hailey haunt him everywhere he went, and that would happen in Mystic Falls.

Ten minutes later, Damon was almost done packing, when suddenly, Ellie started hissing madly at the door.

"Where are you going?"

Every fiber of Damon's being froze at that voice. He believed that he would never hear it again, and he was sure that he was just imagining it. Slowly, Damon turned around to see a person that he never thought he'd see again.

Hailey Ellis.

*Hailey*

I gasped loudly, as air filled up my lungs. My body felt stiff as I sat up. There was a pounding in my head, and everything felt… different. At first, I had no idea what had happened to me. Then my fingers brushed over the bullet hole in my chest, and I remembered.

I was dead.

I shook my head slightly, as I looked around the small, dark room that I was in. I recognized it as the basement of the boarding house. How did I get there? The last place I remembered being was in the woods, bleeding to death.

I was dead, my mother shot me. Yet, I felt alive. I didn't feel like a ghost at all. I ran a hand over my face, when it suddenly occurred to me.

I was in transition.

I shook my head slightly, wondering how it had happened. I didn't remember drinking any vampire blood, but I was sure that I was transitioning into a vampire. My eyebrows furrowed, and my gaze wandered to the ring on my finger. My eyes widened suddenly, as things that Victoria had told me came back to me.

"It's as old as the original fairies. Witches created it, to block out some of the darker magic from the fairy wearing it. It's composed of magic, vervain, and vampire blood," Victoria had told me about my ring.

Vampire blood…

I knew that you needed to ingest vampire blood in order to become one, but would wearing vampire blood work too?

"You would come back Hailey; they always find a way to come back," Victoria had told me, while explain why she needed the knife to kill me.

My ring had turned me into a vampire, it had saved me from being completely dead. But mostly, it got me back my forever with Damon.

Suddenly, my desire- more like need- to see Damon hit me like a train. It was almost unbearable. It was like I loved Damon even more, being in transition. Turning into a vampire amplified your feelings and personality, it must've amplified my love for Damon.

I got up slowly, trying to take in my body changes one at a time. My teeth ached, and my body felt stiff and sore. I was starving, like I had the munchies. I was definitely changing into a vampire.

I made my way out of the basement and up into the living room. It was empty, and I was worried that no one was home. I needed to see Damon, I needed to be in his arms. I was sure that Damon, Stefan, and Elena thought that I was dead, and I couldn't continue to let them think that. As I walked through the living room and towards the stairs, I suddenly passed through a patch of sunlight. I grimaced, as it hit me like I had a hangover. The sun wouldn't burn me, but I would still be sensitive to it.

I slowly walked up the stairs, nervous yet impatient to see Damon at the same time. I heard soft noises coming from our bedroom, and stood outside of the door for a few seconds, before pushing it open. I saw Ellie on the bed, growling at me. But the person in front of me was the one that held my attention.

Damon had his back to me, and his posture was crooked, like he could barely stand. I barely noticed the bags on our bed as I took him in. but then I noticed them a second time, and my eyebrows furrowed.

"Where are you going?" I blurted out.

I watched Damon stiffen at my voice, before slowly turning around to face me. When his blue eyes focused on me, I melted. I felt content, just standing there while he gazed at me like I was a ghost. But then, I was suddenly pinned to a wall by my neck.

"Damon-" I choked out. "It-it's me!"

He let go of me just as suddenly, and backed away like I had leprosy. "I'm insane," he muttered, as Ellie continued to growl.

"You're not crazy," I assured him. I just wanted to be in his arms.

"You're dead," he snapped bluntly, before flinching at his own words.

"So are you," I retorted.

"What?" he breathed, his eyes wide. Damon started walking subconsciously towards me.

"I'm turning into a vampire," I told him bluntly, before holding up my ring. "Apparently, Victoria forgot to mention that if you die while wearing this ring, you'll turn into a vampire."

He just stared at me, taking in all of my words. I shifted impatiently, before running into his arms, not being able to take it any longer. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, hugging me as close as he could to him. I buried my face in his chest, while Damon rested his head on top of mine. We stayed like that for a long time, and I was too content to move away.

"If you ever do that to me again, I'll kill you myself," Damon mumbled into my hair.

I smiled softly into his chest, before pulling away to kiss him. It was needier than I intended it to be, but Damon didn't seem to mind. His arms snaked around my waist, hugging my even closer to him. The kiss suddenly turned passionate and lustful, and I tugged at Damon's shirt. He helped me remove his shirt, before ripping my own off. That's when I remembered the bullet in my chest. It didn't hurt, but it felt really uncomfortable.

I pulled away, and Damon frowned. I gestured to the bullet in my chest, and he smirked slightly. I was glad to notice that there was life back in his eyes, that they weren't dead anymore. "Need help with that?" he asked.

"Yes please," I said with a playful grin, before sitting down on the bed. Ellie stopped hissing, but she still kept a distance between the two of us.

"Ow!" I whined, as Damon tried to get the bullet out of my chest with a pair of tweezer-like things.

"Stop moving and it won't hurt," he told me, before pulling it out. I hissed a little, and stared down at the whole in my chest.

"It'll heal when you complete the change," Damon reassured me, before pulling me into his arms ago. Damon didn't seem to want to let me go, like I might disappear again if I wasn't in his arms. I didn't mind it though, I wanted to let him go as much as he wanted to let me go.

"I'm starving," I mumbled into his shoulder after a while, and Damon chuckled slightly.

"Let's go fix that," he told me, before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of our room. Damon pulled me down to the basement, to the cooler where he kept all of the bags of blood. He pulled one out, and my mouth watered at the sight of it.

"Are you sure about this, Hailey?" Damon asked, opening the bag for me. We both knew that he would force me to complete the change if he had to.

I smiled up at him, and kissed him quickly. "Very," I assured him, before taking the bag of blood. I wanted this just as much as he did.

I hesitantly put the bag of blood to my lips, and took a long gulp. Suddenly, fangs poked out of my mouth, my eyes turned red, and the veins under my eyes darkened.

I was a vampire.

The end

~LMF~

A/N: thank you a million times to every single reviewer for this story. Thank you to every reader and ever favorite and alert add. It means a lot for your support.

I couldn't kill Hailey, it was never a possibility. I'm a believer in happily ever afters.

I mentioned in an earlier chapter that I had surprises. The first and probably most exciting one is that there will be a sequel. I never intended there to be one, but I've grown too attached to this story. I'm going to be co-writing it with vdemily, and if she hadn't offered there definitely wouldn't be one. I can't promise that the sequel will be as long or as regularly updated as LMF, though. I don't know when I'll be posting it, I don't even have a title for it. Also, because there's going to be a sequel, there isn't going to be an epilogue.

The second surprise, is that I'm going to be writing a prequel for this story. A long time ago, I mentioned writing a story about the original fairies, and I decided to go for it. It will be an Elijah/OC and Klaus/OC love story. It has the tentative title True Love Never Dies, and I expect it to be out next week, maybe.

Again, thank you for all of the support. I hope you're looking forward to the sequel and prequel!

~Abby :D