Chapter Fifteen: Girl on the Run

The punishment for horse stealing was death by hanging. Elena shook her head as she tried to get rid of the thoughts that wouldn't stop circling in her head. She needed to stop thinking about the what-if's. All that mattered at this moment was to get Jeremy back. Especially if Jeremy was at that location. And to get to him, Elena needed a horse. She obviously didn't have one.

She did know who did though Damon and Damon wouldn't care if she borrowed one tiny horse for a few hours, right? Besides it wasn't like she was going to keep the horse. She would bring it right back.

If Damon was upset then she would offered up her body as payment and they would be even. Besides from the town gossip that she heard Damon used to have a brother, so he would understand Elena's struggle. Elena felt her cheeks flushed pink when she reached the Salvatore stables.

The workers were nowhere to be seen and Elena guessed that they must have gone home already. There was no light in the house and she thought that Damon was either asleep or he was not at home and in all honesty, Elena did not want to knock on the door.

The stable was right there. Elena went towards it, grateful that there was a lamp. The stable was filled with dozens of horses, each of them finely bread. Though to Elena they seemed much larger than she had anticipated and in all honesty, she was no horsewoman.

She picked the smallest horse that there was available, a white mare. She was pretty with a long blond mane and she seemed gentle compared to the other, more aggressive looking horses. She opened the gate and let the horse out. The horse seemed to look at Elena with curiosity, but at least she wasn't attacking her.

"I won't hurt you," Elena said gently as if the horse could understand her. The horse seemed to understand her as Elena somehow managed to get on top of the horse. The horse whined a bit, but at least she didn't try to throw Elena off.

Elena stroke her head gently as the horse started walking outside of the stable. It was time to find her brother.

She wasn't here. That was the first thing that Damon noticed when he went inside The Moonstone and saw that Elena was nowhere to be found. The only one that seemed to be working today was Caroline and the poor girl seemed to be getting hounded. Pearl really needed to get some new girls.

He waited for a while to see if Elena would show up, when he didn't, he took a seat at a small table. A hurried Caroline came over ten minutes later. "Sorry, Mr. Salvatore. Today is busy. Can I get you anything?"

"Bourbon." Damon said. "Is Sapphire-Elena, here?"

"She's sick, I think." Caroline said hurriedly as she went over to the bar. Damon frowned when Caroline told him the news. Why hadn't Elena told him that she was sick? Then again, he and Elena hadn't really seen each other since Damon had taken her virginity. Caroline brought him his drink and Damon moodily sipped it, wondering why he had even bothered coming.

He suddenly saw Madam Pearl walking hurriedly around the saloon as if searching for something. He stood up and went towards her. "Madam Pearl, can I help you look for something?"

"Damon," she smiled. "By any chance is Elena with you?"

Damon frowned. "No, of course not. She works here!"

"I know that," Madam Pearl said irritably. "She told me that she was sick and I told her to take the night off. I went to check on her and she wasn't there."

Damon looked around. "Do you think that someone could have possibly taken her?"

She bit her lower lip. "It certainly is a possibility, but we would have saw, right? Either way, Damon I know how fond you are of Elena. If you wouldn't mind, could you search for her around town?"

Damon nodded. "I'll go to the stables and get my horse. I'll let you know if anything comes up." Damon walked quickly to his horse, his mind racing. Where on earth could Elena be? Was she really sick? Had she been kidnapped?

He noticed that the light inside the stables was turned off, which meant that someone had been inside. He re lit the lamp and noticed that his horse Trixie was gone. There was a pink ribbon on the floor. He knew that the ribbon belonged to Elena, he had seen her wear it a few times and had remarked that it matched her flushed, pink cheeks. Elena had been here. Had she stolen Trixie?

Elena didn't seem much like a horse thief, but Damon was pretty sure that she had been here. He grabbed his own favorite horse, Max, and muttered curses under his breath. He needed to find her and demand an explanation.

Elena was lost. She didn't want to admit it, but it was obvious that she was lost and she had nowhere to turn. More specifically she didn't even know where she was. She had expected to see a sort of town by now, but all she saw was darkness.

The sky rumbled behind her and only made her more nervous. She felt like an idiot. She should have done this in the morning or when it wasn't so dark. Damon would have understood that she wanted to borrow one of his horses even if she didn't exactly know how to ride one yet.

The horse started getting scared and it started whining and moving around and Elena was afraid that she was going to throw her off. Elena was confused, she kept turning around. The rain started pouring hard.

Someone grabbed the back on her neck roughly so that she wouldn't fall when Trixie gave a mad gait. Elena at first felt like she had been held back by an act of God or because she was going to be kidnapped.

Instead she saw Damon's furious blue eyes. "Are you out of your stupid mind?" he demanded. "You could have been killed. You don't even know how to ride Trixie!"

"Damon, what are you doing here? It's so far." Elena said.

"It's not far," Damon snorted. "It's three miles from town, you must have been running in circles."

Elena flushed red. "That can't be truth, I've been riding for almost two hours."

"Well, it is the truth." Damon said as he frowned and tied a rope around Trixie's neck. "Come on, we need to get you to some shelter. It's raining and you're going to get sick. Lord, knows you are already in enough trouble. Come, now."

"Where are we going?"

"To my house."

-End of Chapter Fifteen-

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