ISABELLA POVI woke up in a cold, dark abyss. And the second I did, I ran. I knew where I was, I hadn't been stuck in here in years. And even then, at the lab, I didn't have anything to be afraid of. I didn't have Max's torment. I didn't have Stefan's betrayal. I didn't have The Underground's followers. I was a blank canvas then. I didn't have anything. No fears, no doubts, just my soul, my undamaged and pure soul. But now, as I walk around in my own mind, I'm not just myself anymore. They're all here.This deep black void was no longer empty.The first person I saw was Max. He was with Stefan, they were laughing over some drinks, "I've gotta say, Stef. You have become quite the loyal man since I first met you." As the echo of Max's voice flew through me, I felt a sharp pain in my head."Thank you, sir. If I may, you have certainly become quite the leader. I must express my congratulations for finally finding the girl," My legs then betrayed and began to slowly inch towards them."Yes, I know she will be quite the hassle, but there is no challenge I can't accomplish if I care enough. And trust me, I care about this one," he pulled out a small photo of me when I was in the lab, "her power has got to be one of the most useful ones I've seen in all my years of living like this."Stefan grabbed the photo out of Max's hand and began to examine it closely, "Hmm... she seems so... plain. I can't imagine her ever truly being a part of our ranks," The sharp pain in my head grew worse."Oh, but that's just it. She will never be one of us. The members of The Underground are meaningful people who will stop at nothing to get what they want. She's just too weak for that. I can use her, Stefan. She may be a worthless brat, but that won't matter once I break her," I could feel my heart begin to flutter in unsteady increments.Stefan let out a light but genuine chuckle," I like the sound of that. I would be happy to help you in doing so, only if you'd like. I know your ways, sir. Break her using your talents. Let her feel your breath down your neck as you ruthlessly take her as your own."Max let out a content sigh and put his hand on Stefan's shoulder," I will do so with the utmost pleasure."I couldn't take it anymore. I began to run again only to stumble into Stefan standing right in front of me with a malicious grin, "How does it feel, Bella? How do I make you feel? Do you enjoy it when I casually converse with the man who hurt you?"I looked up at him with tears streaming down my cheeks,"No, no, please no."I didn't give his form time to respond before I ran in the other direction, only to be stopped again, but this time, by Max," What's wrong, pet? You have nothing to fear. It's just me. You're stuck in here with me." I booked it again only to hear the sharp, stabbing echoes of 2 men's laughter behind me. My head felt like it was about to explode."Hey, where do you think you're going, Eleven," I look up to the only person who has ever called me by that name."P-Papa?," he wasn't just Papa. He had blood pouring out of his impossibly pale skin, completely drained of life.He let out a chuckle, "You dare call me that? How could you do this to your very own father and still call me that?."More and more tears spilled from my eyes," Oh, Papa. I-I'm so sorry!""Sorry?," He let out another laugh," how could a blood thirsty, souless monster be sorry?"I looked at him with nothing but guilt, "I-I didn't mean to. I swear, Papa!"His face got more and more gray as he began to yell more and more insults in my direction, causing me to crumble to the floor, "I'M NOT A MONSTER! I'M NOT A MONSTER! I'M NOT A MONSTER!" I kept screaming at the top of my lungs, begging for the torment to stop. Until... silence.I looked up and lowered the hands that I now realized were covering my ears. He was on the ground, laying dead. This made me quickly crawl to him.I began to violently shake his lifeless body, "I DIDN'T MEAN TO! PAPA, WAKE UP! WAKE UP!," He didn't wake up, though. Instead, his lifeless corpse began to vaporize under my hands.All I could do was scream in agony as I curled up into the fetal position and began to rock myself back and forth."What are you doing down there?" I look up to see Damon in his usual leather jacket and jeans. Suddenly, my tears began to stop.I ran up and wrapped my arms around him, holding on for dear life, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Damon. I'm sorry I was so unhappy to see you. I'm sorry, I thought Stefan was better. I'm sorry, I'm just sorry, " My words began to become incoherent, with apologies sprinkled in every few seconds.I felt a strong hand begin to stroke the hair on the back of my head, "It's okay, Isabella. You could never hurt me. You aren't strong enough. You'll never be strong enough."I looked up only to find him gone and my hands clutching nothing, empty space. I stumbled back in confusion only to see Mike, Lucas, and Dustin joking with each other in the distance. As I walked closer, I realized I couldn't make out their voices. They were just muffled echos.They all suddenly stopped and looked at me with a straight face, completely silent. That was when I noticed they were wearing the same clothes as they were on the first day we met. Before they matured and before their true vampire instincts kicked in. Before they turned on me.I stood still as a statue, frozen in terror. My mind was telling me to run, but my body began to inch closer and closer to their stiff forms.As I did so, their blank faces transformed into smiles, and they all held out their hands as if wanting a handshake. Reluctantly, I gave each of them one.As soon as I touched Mike, he began to grow into his present self. The same happened with Lucas and Dustin. I stumbled backward and felt tears begin to form again. They still had smiles on their faces, but they were no longer out of warmth but out of manipulation.At this point, my mind finally began correctly communicating with my body, and I began to sprint, I didn't want to see whatever messed up vision of them that was about to occur. But, as I ran, they didn't get any farther away. It felt as if I was on a treadmill, but unfortunately, this treadmill wasn't still. It was sliding closer and closer to them.I heard the muffled echos again and turned back around to face them, they were laughing and joking with eachother like before, but this time they were constantly glancing and pointing at me as if I was the center of their conversation.I once again remained still, aware there was no escaping, whatever messed up nightmare these 3 were going to spit in my face. But, even though it was in Hell, the non-progression of their actions bored me. It must have been 10 minutes of banter from the boys, and I tried my hardest to figure out what it meant, but I couldn't.I began to slowly turn around and walk away with boredom, constantly looking behind me to make sure I was getting farther from them. But, then I ran into Max again. He wasn't in his normal clean attire. His pale pink T-shirt and khaki shorts were covered in blood splatter, "Why, pet? Why do you look for pain. You see, as the 3 who hurt you aren't hurting you anymore, and instead of safely remaining in their view, you come looking for more trouble."I gave him an angry glare, and the saddness of my past turned into anger at an alarming speed, "GO AWAY, GO AWAY, GO AWAY!!!" I yelled it at him with them force to no avail."Go away? Why would you want me to do that? You came to me in your sad little mind, and now you want me to leave? It seems that even in your own head, you can't deal with the consequences of your own mistakes," what angered me the most was that he was wearing the same look on his face that he had when I first woke up in my room 3 years ago. He had a friendly smile and was standing in a comfortable pose.The realization hit me, "You're Max."He chuckled, "Who else would I be?" I gave him a look of confusion, "No, you're Max. The same Max I met in my room. I thought I saw through your manipulation, but you were just manipulating me into thinking that."He gave an amused smile, "Oh, so the little weapon has finally figured something out, hmm? Why wouldn't my manipulation work on you, pet?""If you were capable of covering all of your madness that night, then why didn't you stop me then, instead of fighting with me for months?" I was no longer sad or angry, I was eager for the truth.He gave a small laugh, "Young, naive, little pet. I can't answer that. I am composed of your emotions, torturing you from the inside out. You know all these horrible things are true, and that's why you see them, but you don't know why I did what I did. It's killing you, isn't it?""Y-you're wrong. None of this is true. None of this is real!" I had gained a new level of confidence, but it quickly faded when Max had been replaced with Mike, Lucas, and Dustin chattering again. But. This time, I could make out their words."She's so naive.""She's so weak.""She'll never be one of us,""She's clueless.""She really thinks we care about her?"The saddness came back. I crumbled back up into a ball and began to fully sob when I felt a hand on my back. I flinched away and refused to lift my head out of the safety between my knees."You can't hide from this, Isabella," it recognized Stefan's voice, "you can't hide from the truth. You can't hide from your mind."Then I heard a blood-curdling scream come from my own mouth as I began to rock back and forth, my body trembling violently.The hand on my back disappeared, and after what seemed like an eternity, I was able to lift my head up and glance around, just hoping that it was over. And, to my surprise, my mind was empty again. It was calm, just like it used to be when I was in the lab.I lifted myself up from off the floor and began to walk around again, hoping that the suffocating pain I was feeling would dissipate.I walked around in the serene, silence. I felt the calmness rush over me until I heard him again, "Your ignorance truly is shocking, pet."I ignored the voice and continued to walk, "Oh, dear. You're even worse than I thought. Even after all of this, you still refuse to acknowledge the truth. Even in your own mind, you remain completely blind to who you are."Tears of anger flooded my eyes as I walked. I realized he was right, but I did it anyway. I accepted my weakness, but as I did so, I found it much easier than facing the reality that was surrounding me.I walked for hours and hours, listening to Max's words over and over, ignoring them as my legs traveled into the endless pit of nothingness.As I ignored the pain of his words, his voice began to fade. And soon I was left alone in my mind, once again. Blocked out from every sentimental thing in my mind and how much torment each of them caused me.DAMON POVI held her limp hand, doing my best to read what was happening in her mind, but it got more and more intense and I found myself letting go of her every few minutes just to escape the chaos. I sat there with her for 4 hours, attempting to find some sense into the feelings she was experiencing, and even though I had much more context than the average person, I was unable to understand.Eventually, I stopped trying, I decided to just feel her pain as it ran its course, but then everything seemed to stop.I listened to her once racing heartbeat as it slowed down to a steady rhythm, and I sighed as I watched all her pain go away.The relief was short-lived, though, as I finally grasped why she was no longer swirling around in the storm of chaos that was her mind.I got engulfed in worry and nearly forgot where I was. That was until my small flip phone bagan to ring.
I picked it up and looked at Stefan's pixalated name on the screen, I felt as much relief as my system would allow me to feel in this moment and picked up. But, before Stefan could say anything, I told him, "she turned her humanity off."