Chapter 1

June 1, 2013

Dear Elena,

It's been 18 days since we said our goodbyes to you. It's hard to believe. A part of me keeps expecting to see you walk through the door and we'll just chalk this up to another crazy chapter in our increasingly crazy lives. I'm sorry that this happened to you. I miss you. We all do.

I guess I should catch you up on what's happened in the past two weeks. Ric is not doing well. Not surprising. He's been hitting the bottle pretty hard. I don't think there's any liquor left in Mystic Falls. We're all worried about him, but nobody wants to say anything. It's not our place to tell him how to grieve. He really hasn't left Jo's house, other than to buy booze. We check on him, though...me, Caroline and Stefan. Stefan goes by a couple of times a day, just to make sure he can still hear a heartbeat on the other side of the door.

Speaking of Stefan, things between him and Caroline are awkward. He comes over a lot but Caroline always tries to avoid him. He likes her so much, it's kind of pathetic. But you know Care. She's punishing herself. As much as she wants to be with him, she thinks she'll make up for all the bad things she did if she doesn't let herself have him. She won't listen to what I have to say on the matter. She just tries to distract herself with other things, like decorating our apartment.

Oh yeah, we moved into an apartment. We left the dorm room, mostly because looking at your empty bed is too sad. We moved off-campus. I'm taking summer classes and Care is, too. I think she's just doing it so I don't feel lonely.

Matt's good. He's doing well in his police training. He's still working hours at the Grill, though. I check on him a lot because he always looks so tired. I just want to hug him and tell him it'll be okay. He misses you.

I'm sure you want to know about Damon. I wish I could tell you about him. He left town the day after we put you in the crypt. I call and text him every day, but he never responds. But I want you to know that I'm going to look out for him. I'm going to take care of him for you. I'm not going to let him spiral out of control and be his usual stupid self. He's in Arkansas right now. Random. I know because I did a locator spell on him. I'm going to give him some time to grieve you, to get himself together, and then I'll make him come home.

It's been quiet around here. Too quiet, if you ask me. When's the last time we went two weeks without some kind of supernatural freak show? I don't know what's coming, but I can feel it in my bones. My "witchy senses are tingling," as Damon would say. God, he's annoying. Is it weird that I miss him? He's like that irritating brother that pokes you in the back of the head all the time and makes you want to strangle him, but then when he stops, you miss it? I was obviously in that prison world for too long.

Anyway, I'll write again soon. Maybe not every day. That would be boring. You don't want to read about me and Caroline eating Cap'N Crunch and watching Spongebob, do you? I can see you smiling at that.

Love you.

Bon

...

Damon lay on his back, arms and legs spread out and resting against the pavement. He had been in that position for forty-five minutes and not a single car had gone by. That was okay, though. The waiting only made it more exciting. He stared into the black sky, listening to the sounds of crickets and other creatures as they moved throughout the forest. Arkansas was the perfect place for this, really. It was rural and mountainous and he could blame all his kills on wild animals.

It's what he had been doing for the past two and a half weeks.

He closed his eyes, content to take a nap on the highway, when he heard the sound of a car about a mile away. A small smile came across his lips and he waited with seasoned patience as the car got closer and closer, then screeched to a halt when the driver saw him. Damon heard the front door of the car open, and a man spoke.

"Hey, man, are you all right?" the guy asked.

"Help me," Damon said in his weakest voice. "I'm dying."

The man rushed to his side and as soon as he bent down to help, Damon sprang up and grabbed him. He pushed the guy into the front of his truck and grinned.

"Well, actually, I'm already dead."

"What the hell?" the guy asked.

Damon focused his attention on him and compelled him with, "don't run. Don't scream. You're going to stand here until I tell you otherwise. Understood?"

The man nodded slowly and Damon released him, satisfied when he didn't move.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting here," he said. "And I thought the roads in Mystic Falls were deserted."

"Are you gonna kill me?" the guy asked, his eyes wide with fear.

"I haven't decided yet," Damon said with a shrug. "What's your name?"

"Joseph."

"Joseph. Joseph. I like that name. I had a friend named Joseph once. Back when I was human."

"When...you were human?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, I'm a vampire. Did I forget to mention that?"

Joseph blinked several times. "You're gonna suck my blood?"

"Well, duh. I wasn't just laying out here for my health, Joe." Damon thought for a minute and then shook his head. "Jo. That was my friend's wife's name. Well, kind of his wife. I don't even know if they had said the I Do's before she got stabbed to death and she died along with their twins. It's been a bad year for Jos. You know who else it's been a bad year for, Joseph? Me. You want to know why?"

Joseph hesitated.

"Just nod and this will be a lot less painful," Damon said. Joseph nodded. "Well, first of all, I was stuck with a prison world with a judgey little witch. Then I got out of that prison world and went back home, only to learn that my girlfriend had erased me from her memory. And I felt guilty about leaving said judgey little witch behind. And then once everyone was back home and happy, Kai's crazy ass had to tie their lives together and I could only pick one, Joseph!" he screamed. "Elena or Bonnie. That was my choice."

He sighed and sat down.

Joseph hesitated again and then asked, "so who did you pick?"

"Bonnie," he said with a laugh. "Bonnie freaking Bennett. And I didn't have to, you know. I could have let her die right there on the floor. Nobody would have known. I could have told them that she was already dead when I got there and it was too late. They would have believed me. She's already died like ten times, they're used to it by now."

He rested his back on the ground again and looked up at the sky.

"But I didn't. I couldn't. She's too...good, you know? I tricked her, though. I let her think I was leaving her and the look she gave me..." Damon chuckled. "She'd be so mad if she knew what I was doing out here. 'Damon, you know better,'" he said in a high-pitched voice. "'Damon, you just can't go around killing people, blah, blah, blah.'"

"Who's Bonnie again?"

Damon groaned. "Haven't you been listening? She's my friend. The friend whose life is tied to Elena's and as long as she's alive, Elena's in a coma. You with me?" Joseph nodded. "Elena will wake up whenever Bonnie dies, but who knows how long that will be. Bonnie's a witch. Some of them live as long as vampires with all their spells and hocus pocus. And even if Bonnie just lived a regular old human-length life, who's to say that I will? I've got a lot of enemies out there, Joseph. One of these days, one of them is going to drive a stake through my heart and I'll never see Elena again."

He looked at Joseph expectantly, who blinked and then asked, "what does this have to do with you killing me?"

Damon sighed and hopped up again. "I have very poor coping skills. When my feelings are hurt, I lash out and do bad things. It makes it easier to share the pain with other people." He took Joseph's baseball hat off and put it on his head. "You got a girlfriend, Joseph? Or a boyfriend. Not judging."

"A girlfriend."

"What's her name?"

"Samantha."

"Samantha," Damon said wistfully. "You gonna marry her?"

"I want to."

"Have some cute little babies? A picket fence? A golden retriever?"

"I'd like that."

"How do you think Samantha would feel if they found your body decomposing on this highway?"

Joseph's eyes became fearful again and Damon could tell that he wanted to run, but the compulsion kept him in place.

"Look, man, please don't kill me," he begged. "I'll give you anything you want. You can have my truck. I've got some money in my wallet."

"I don't need trucks or wallets," Damon said, patting him on the shoulder. "I need to share my misery. Now hold still because I'm going to feed from you, and I'll try my best not to kill you."

Joseph's eyes widened to the size of saucers but he couldn't scream when Damon's face became a mess of veins and his fangs elongated. He ripped into Joseph's neck and drank every ounce of blood, not stopping even when he knew the man was dead. He dropped his lifeless body onto the ground, wiped the back of his mouth, and said "oops." He took the hat off, tossed it onto the body, and then hopped into the truck and drove away.

He kept driving through the mountains and towards more developed areas. He dumped the truck at the city limits of Little Rock, the capitol, and then he ran into town. He navigated until he found a hotel and compelled himself into a room. Once he went inside, he stripped his clothes off and showered, scrubbing of all the sins of the day. He wrapped a towel around his waist and spread his body out on the bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to fight off the guilt he felt. His thoughts were interrupted when his phone rang. He didn't have to look at it to know that it was Bonnie. He let it ring a few times, then after a minute or so, he got a voicemail alert. The witch was persistent; he had to give her that much.

Damon pulled his pants off the floor and fished through his pockets for the phone. He slid his finger across the screen to unlock it, then he lay on his back again as her voice filled the silence in the room.

"Hey," she said. "It's me. Calling you. Again. You can avoid me all you want, but I'm not gonna stop calling and checking on you. I hope you're not doing anything stupid, like killing people and throwing their bodies in the woods. Please don't be that cliche."

He smirked.

"Listen, Damon, I know you're upset. I know you miss Elena, and I know you probably partially blame me for that. But you're better than you used to be. You're different, so please don't go back to that place where you lash out because your feelings are hurt."

She sighed like she already knew he was making poor decisions.

"Something's about to happen," she said, in a tone that was much more serious than before. "I don't know what. I don't know when. But it's coming. I can feel it. We need you here. We need everyone here so we can fight. That's what we do, remember? You're not gonna leave me to do it all by myself, are you?"

Damon turned his head to look at the phone as she continued.

"I'm giving you until Elena's birthday to get yourself together. That's two months. Two months to do whatever the hell it is you're doing, then you need to come home. And if you don't, I'll come get you. I know where you are, by the way. Arkansas, really?"

"Let me guess, a locator spell," he said.

"Yes, I did a locator spell," she said, like she was responding to him. "And if I have to get on a plane and drag you home by your hair, that's what I'll do. You could at least call me and let me know you're okay. I'm worried about you. And despite everything, I might miss you a little bit."

His lips curled into a real smile.

"Two months, Damon."

The voicemail ended and he stared at the ceiling. He had two months before his little witch came calling. Time to make the most of it.