She was shaking uncontrollably as she felt the car come to a stop.
Her arms and legs were tied up, and she had tape around her mouth again, something about Klaus not wanting to hear her annoying cries anymore.
Elena didn't really know why, nor did she care.
All she knew was that Stefan was dead.
At that point, it didn't matter to Elena what Klaus did to her.
She felt nothing as Klaus shoved a bag over her head to carry her to god knows where, and she felt nothing as the bag was lifted revealing that she was back in the same cell that she spent the better half of her life in.
No physical pain in the world could come close to the emotional pain she felt after seeing Stefan's body sprawled motionlessly on the ground.
Elena barely acknowledged Klaus's presence as she curled up into a ball silently weeping into the cool stones.
She rocked herself against the ground unable to move due to the ropes, and her cries were stifled by the duct tape covering her lips.
Memories of Stefan engulfed her brain as everything around her faded away.
Greif was the only emotion she could feel in her shattered heart.
She closed her eyes and took herself to a place far away from where she was.
The grief and heartache became a foreign concept to her as she imagined that she was back at the lake house.
Stefan's arm was around her as they sat together on the couch and in between them lay their tiny child.
Elena almost smiled as so much warmth and love spread throughout her being as she imagined this.
She could see the pure joy in Stefan's eyes as he looked at the small being resting between them and Elena felt complete.
She lost herself to completely inside of her thoughts that she could hear Klaus shouting at her an inch away from her face.
She was finally brought back to reality when she felt terrible sharp pains in her stomach that seemed like they would never stop.
She opened her eyes to see Klaus continues kicking her in the stomach while she laid there unable to move.
Elena just curled herself into a ball against the cold ground as she felt Klaus beating any signs of life out of her stomach.
She couldn't protect herself as the unbearable pain seemed like it would never end.
All she could do was close her eyes and pray that she could be with Stefan again one day.
She just wanted to die.
Klaus looked down at her curled-up whimpering form with a smirk before he left her alone in the cell.
The fun was only just beginning.
Stefan knew that the only way to find Elena was for him to think about where she could be and devise a plan.
He tried his best to calm down but everything in him said that thinking won't bring her back.
He knew he had to do something and he had to do it fast.
Something terrible could be happening to Elena with every passing second.
Suddenly a horrid realization swept over Stefan.
There is only one person in the supernatural world besides himself that knew of Elena's whereabouts, and that person was Damon.
Damon had to have been the one who tipped Klaus off about Elena.
He is the only one that could have.
Stefan sprinted as fast as he could back to the boarding house. `
He will get Damon to talk, and he will do whatever it takes to get the truth out of him.
Not even a second later Stefan burst through doors and quickly spotted Damon.
"WHERE IS SHE?" Stefan roared as he slammed his older brother against the wall.
"I don't know who you are talking about little brother," Damon said as he attempted to shrug Stefan off, but Stefan forcefully shoved him back into the wall.
"Damon, where is Elena?" he growled through gritted teeth as he began to shake with rage.
"Ohhh Elena… right," Damon said with a smirk, "She's probably dead right now… or at least wishing she was."
"If you do not tell me where Klaus took her right now, I swear to god Damon I will kill you," Stefan threatened.
"Well your logic is a bit off because if you kill me you will never find her," he said with a smirk, "You need me," he whispered in Stefan's ear before pushing Stefan off of him.
Stefan's patience was thinning and he knew with every passing second something terrible could be happening to Elena.
The thought of her in pain drove Stefan to his breaking point.
He needed to do something fast.
Quickly Stefan broke a leg off of his chair and stabbed it into Damon's stomach slightly piercing his heart.
"That's where you're wrong," he said shoving the stake further into his stomach, "I will kill you and then go find her myself, but if you just tell me where she is then I will keep you alive."
Damon just looked at him and still refused to speak.
"So you are not going to tell me huh?" Stefan said as he removed the stake from his stomach only to stab him again but this time piercing more of his heart.
He staked him where it wouldn't kill him, but right where it would cause him an unbearable amount of pain as long as it was lodged there.
Damon let out an agonizing groan before he finally spoke up.
"S-She's h-hidden in a c-cell under a sh-shack off the b-border of Virginia," he breathed out as he collapsed to the floor.
Without a second thought, Stefan left the stake in his brother's stomach and ran faster than he ever had before.
He needed to find Elena, and he needed to find her fast.
_
About an hour later Klaus returned to Elena's cell and approached her limp body.
Her breaths were extremely shallow, and she was barely holding on to consciousness.
Blood was pooling all around her streaming out of her stomach, and her arms and legs were still tied up.
The duct tape remained around her mouth, and Klaus realized that her condition did not make her much fun.
He quickly ripped off the duct tape causing a faint whimper to escape her lips.
"He's dead… he's dead… he's dead…" she slurred ever so softly as tears continued to trickle down her cheeks.
"Oh, would you shut up already," Klaus said as he bit into his wrist and forcefully shoved it into Elena's mouth.
Elena began to gag as Klaus's wrist lodged itself between her lips and the blood gushed down her throat.
Her wounds began to heal, and she started to regain consciousness as Klaus continued to force his blood into her system.
"That a girl," Klaus sneered as he finally pulled his arm away leaving Elena heaving on the ground coughing up masses of his blood at a time.
When she was done more tears streamed out of her eyes as she thought about Stefan and pain consumed her causing her to fall back to the ground.
"He's dead, he's dead, he's dead," she repeated again as if those were the only words she knew how to say.
She sobbed against the stones as she drowned in despair.
"SHUT UP!" Klaus yelled as he smacked her hard across the face causing her head to smash against the ground.
Elena was shaking as she tried her best to stifle her sobs, but it was no use.
The only place she wanted to be in this world was in Stefan's arms, and that was the only place she could never be again.
That thought alone took her to a place of darkness and misery that she will never be able to get herself out of.
Suddenly Klaus grabbed her right arm and slowly bent it back to the point where it was on the verge of breaking but still intact.
Elena's screams could be heard from miles away and the echo of her gut-wrenching shrieks caused a smile to spread across Klaus's lips.
"Now I'll give you a real reason to cry," Klaus sneered before he snapped her arm backward causing Elena to wail as pain consumed her.
Her eyes began to roll into the back of her head as she began to lose consciousness again due to the trauma her body was experiencing.
Everything began to turn black around her until suddenly she was choking on blood once again as Klaus forcefully put his wrist in her mouth gagging her in the process.
He gave her enough blood to keep her barely awake, although not enough to mend her broken arm.
He wanted to keep her awake enough to be in constant pain without the escape of losing consciousness.
He got really close to Elena, so close that she could feel his hot breath on her skin.
"Entertain me you worthless slut," Klaus breathed out as he got closer to Elena, although she slightly turned her head and muttered no with the last ounce of strength she had left.
She remembered when he used to force her to "entertain" him and chills ran down her spine as she remembered what he would make her do.
"You know what the punishment is if you refuse me," he said as he pulled out a sharp knife causing Elena to whimper as she continued to writhe in pain against the hard stones.
Her arm hurt so terribly that all she wanted to do was succumb to the darkness, but Klaus wouldn't let her do that.
"First I will cut off your hair, then your fingers, then your toes, and I won't stop until you do what I want," he said quietly as he closed the gap between them waiting for her to do what he asked, but she still refused him.
She used to always comply immediately, and Klaus was impressed by her stupidity.
"Remember you asked for it," he said as he began to slowly cut off large chunks of her hair forcing Elena to watch as her long chestnut locks fell to the floor around her.
She curled herself in a ball as Klaus continued to unevenly saw off her hair.
Piece by piece she watched in silence as her hair piled up on the ground, although she refused to give in.
She was completely Stefan's, and no matter what Klaus did to her she couldn't let him touch her like that.
"Still no?" Klaus asked as he brought the knife away from her unevenly cut hair and rested it on her pinky finger.
Elena just barely shook her head, although as Klaus began to saw the knife back and forth over her flesh she panicked.
"P-Please d-don't h-hurt m-me," she whimpered as blood squirted from her finger.
"Then kiss me," he responded as he licked the blood away from her finger.
Elena braced herself as Klaus roughly picked up her limp body from the ground and secured his hand on the back of her neck so she couldn't resist.
As Klaus's lips got closer to hers she closed her eyes and imagined it was Stefan kissing her, but despite her best efforts it was impossible to do that.
Stefan was always so incredibly gentle with her, and every time he touched her skin all she could feel was love, but with Klaus, it was the exact opposite.
He was so rough with her, and he took what he wanted without a care.
It was like she was nothing and the only reason she was put on this planet was to satisfy his needs in that moment.
Stefan made her feel so special, but now that feeling was long gone.
She didn't matter… she was nothing.
Silent tears streamed down her cheeks as he began to remove her clothes giving him a better view of her bruised and broken body.
"You have gotten fat since the last time I have seen you," he said as he inspected her body after removing her top.
"What was Stefan feeding you?" he asked maliciously as he pinched the barely existing skin around her stomach causing her to duck her head away in shame.
"It was probably all those damn pregnancy cravings," he said with a small chuckle, "good thing I got rid of those for you," he taunted as he began to roughly kiss around her stomach, almost as if he was reminding her of the damage he had done there.
Elena's silent cries continued as she mourned for Stefan along with the almost certain death of her unborn child.
She just wanted the pain to end.
Before Klaus could go any farther his phone began to ring.
He groaned in annoyance at the interruption and finally broke away from her to answer it.
Elena quickly got a glimpse of the caller ID and gasped when she saw who was on the other line.
"Damon, what do you want? I am in the middle of something," Klaus asked him aggressively with Elena still shaking in his tight grasp.
Elena couldn't hear what Damon said on the other line but the longer Damon talked the angrier Klaus got and the tighter his grasp became around her body.
After a while, he abruptly hung up the phone and dropped her to the ground before quickly leaving her cell without a word.
Elena did not even have time to process what had happened before Klaus was back with a large metal bucket filled with water.
"Get in," Klaus ordered as he pointed to the bucket.
Elena shakily walked over to the bucket and stepped in the freezing water.
"Get all the way in," he said as he towered over her forcing her to submerge herself deeper into the bucket.
Her body began to shiver rapidly as her lips began to turn blue due to the temperature of the water.
She was so confused about what Klaus was doing to her because he has never made her do this before.
He began to tie her arms together causing her to cry out as he roughly outstretched her broken arm.
He then connected the rope to the bucket in order to trap her down there not letting her escape.
Through her tears, Elena realized that Klaus was wearing gloves and was being very careful not to touch the water.
Suddenly it hit her, the water was filled with vervain.
Before she could do anything about this realization Klaus was gone, leaving her all alone tied up in the freezing water.
"This is just a little safety precaution so no one finds you," Klaus said as he came back with a lid.
"I should be back soon," he said before sealing the lid around the bucket leaving her in complete darkness.
_
Stefan sprinted out of the boarding house as fast as he possibly could.
The only thing on his mind was saving Elena.
He would stop at nothing until she was safe in his arms again, and he knew the only way this could happen was if Klaus was dead.
Stefan reached into his pocket making sure that his white oak stake was still there.
He was in possession of the last weapon that could kill an original, and he was determined to use it to kill Klaus.
Stefan tore across the border of Virginia bursting into every shack he could find searching for one with any signs of a hidden cellar underneath it.
When he entered the next one he came across he was automatically met by none other than Klaus himself.
He has never felt this kind of blind fury before in his life.
He wanted to murder Klaus in the most painful way that he could imagine.
"WHERE IS SHE?" Stefan shouted as he stormed the small shack desperately searching for any signs of where she could be.
"You know, I just got a call from Damon, and he told me that you would come here," Klaus said with a smirk on his face.
He silently laughed to himself as he thought about Elena in the vervain-filled tub just underneath them.
He truly made her untouchable to all vampires.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?" Stefan continued to shout as he approached Klaus.
"My advice is that you leave Mr. Salvatore," Klaus snarled as he approached Stefan.
"No," Stefan spat back, "I will not leave until Elena is in my arms again."
Suddenly Klaus violently pushed Stefan against the wall and pressed a wooden stake against his chest before saying, "If you do not leave I will kill you, and then you really will be dead."
Stefan knew that if he didn't act quickly his plan would fall through.
He quickly pulled out the white oak stake and without hesitation, he stabbed Klaus right in the heart.
He didn't even watch as Klaus's body turned to stone because he was already desperately searching for Elena.
Moments later he found a patch of discolored floorboards, and he realized that they could be lifted.
Underneath the floorboards was a staircase, and Stefan knew that this was where Klaus was hiding Elena.
He sprinted down the stairs frantically praying with everything in him that she was okay.
Once he got down there his heart dropped… the cellar was empty.
In the middle of the cell, he saw long strands of brown chestnut hair on the ground causing a sense of panic to arise in him unlike he has ever felt before.
He knew they belonged to her.
Suddenly he could hear faint breaths coming from the bottom right corner of the room.
He quickly followed the sound and approached a metal bucket that was shoved in the corner of the cell.
Without another thought, he carefully removed the lid and his heart instantly shattered into a million pieces at what he saw.
The sight in front of him would be engrained in his memory for as long as he lived.