Damon hung on to the hope that maybe she was hiding somewhere in the house. He searched every room and closet the house had to offer. Elena wasn't there. Strangely enough, neither was Caroline. Enzo couldn't possibly want anything to do with her, so where could she be? He was furious. His night with Elena had been going so good and then this of all things was the outcome. Damon ran his fingers through his messy hair. He sat next to Stefan and waited for his brother to gain consciousness.

Slowly, but surely, Stefan started to come to. His eyes blinked heavily, and his hand shot to the back of his neck when he sat up. Stefan rolled his head from side to side, trying to relieve the stiffness.

"Is everything ok?" Stefan grumbled.

"No, everything is not ok. You were being an idiot and let them take Elena," Damon growled.

"I don't know what you are thinking, but that bitch snapped my neck. I could care less if they took her now. Where's Caroline?"

"Elena wouldn't snap your neck, grow up. They must have taken Caroline too, she's not here either," Damon said.

Stefan's face went pale. Of course he wouldn't care until Caroline was involved in it. He also looked confused.

"Yes she did Damon. I was talking to her, she hugged me and thanked me for protecting her, and then snapped my neck like it was nothing."

"No Stefan she didn't. For one, Elena's arms are only for me to be in. Take that as a warning. Secondly, there's some things I need to tell you. Things that even I have hidden from you for quite a long time, but now they are as relevant as ever."

Damon pulled Stefan with him to his car. When they both got in Damon grabbed the papers he had retrieved from Elena's house out of the back floor boards. He handed them to Stefan to read. Stefan had to pull out his cell phone for light enough light to look over them. Damon waited to be bombarded with questions.

"Whitmore? Augustine? What is this Damon," Stefan was puzzled.

"It's a medical research facility. Was, I mean. They operate on vampires to try and find cures for human illnesses. Mainly, it was torture with a supposed good-intention. It wasn't," Damon explained.

"How do you know of this place?"

"I was there. You went on a ripper binge, and I went on a bloody vacation, think of it that way and it seems less bad," Damon smirked.

"And you never told me? Anyways, what does this have to do with anything?"

"You just didn't need to know, with all of your already present humanity problems I didn't want to guilt you. But, while I was there the scientists assigned us all numbers. They were our identification, our names, etc. for when they needed us. I thought those numbers disappeared whenever Augustine was demolished, but they weren't. I saw them again recently, on Elena's living room wall, and connected the two."

"Why didn't you share this with me? Why were you doing this on your own? I could've helped Damon," Stefan sounded hurt.

"Because I didn't want you to know Stefan. This was my busniess, Elena was my person to protect, and those numbers brought up way too many things that you wouldn't understand."

Stefan continued flipping through the pages in the packet.

"Look up the number 20150," Damon stated blankly.

Stefan did and opened up the page wider, showing the picture to Damon.

"That is Lorenzo. We had shared a cell together. Now look up. 20149."

Stefan pulled Lorenzo's page out and then proceeded to look for the next ID number. His face was in shock when he saw the woman's picture.

"Is that Elena," is all that Stefan could muster up.

"No. That is Katherine Pierce. Dead ringer for Elena, but only half as wonderful. She's the one I'm presuming snapped your neck so she could get you out of her way. Also, they both have Elena and hopefully Caroline as well."

"So that's what the numbers meant? Still it doesn't make sense to why they would come after Elena, Damon. It just tells who they are."

"And there's a third number Stefan. Don't interrupt with those questions yet, I will get to them. Find 20151."

Stefan tore out Katherine's page and placed it on top of Lorenzo's before he started flipping the pages again.

"Damon. That's you. Isn't it? I can tell. You look so horrible there, though."

It was true, that picture of Damon was one of the less appealing ones Stefan had seen. His raven hair was longer than usual and matted with blood in some spots. His eyes weren't the crystal blue he was used to anymore, but more of a dull gray tinged with red spots. There were cuts all over his face, and his cheekbones looked hollow. Damon had looked horrible.

"I was basically desiccating in that cell Stefan. What do you expect? That's not the point, though. Stefan my number was on that wall along with theirs. They tied me to it with them. I spoke to Lorenzo outside of the house and he had said they didn't even know I was alive, so why would they put me up there with them?"

"I don't even understand why Elena is the one being targeted here? Or why you are involved with them. None of this makes sense Damon," Stefan eyes him.

"Her father. He was a scientist there. He cut up and diced some vampires in his time and obviously now they've come back to haunt him. Once they were finished with him and his wife they turned to his kids, but one of them wasn't there for the occasion. Now, to finish their jobs they are after Elena," Damon tried to explain quickly.

"But again, why are you involved Damon," Stefan was pushing for an answer.

"Long story short. I made a pact with them. We all had an ingenious plan to escape from there and it worked...for me. Enzo and Katherine didn't make it out. I didn't turn back for them. I let them get caught and taken back. I thought the guards would have killed them, so it would've been useless to try. According to Enzo when they finally did escape they had also presumed I hadn't made it out and was killed. Now that they know I'm alive, they are furious with me, and because they know I care about Elena it's a bigger motivation for them to kill her. Make sense?"

"In a way. What are we going to do now? How will we even find the girls?"

"I haven't quit figured that out yet, but I think I know where to start," Damon smirked.

The engine roared to life and the two brothers sped out of town and towards Whitmore College.