CHAPTER FOUR

Damon's trying — and failing — to get out of his cell so that he can save Elena from the creepy professor. Until...

"No way." Nyx mutters as she stands up, looking at the barred door that just opened.

He can't find her once he's out, and Nyx can't tell him — or anyone else, for that matter — where she is, so he leaves to get backup. Nycole, on the other hand, goes to stay with her sister.

"Subject 83182 appears conscious." Professor Psycho says as he looks over Elena.

"Where am I?" She questions.

"Why? Look familiar?"

"What is that thing?" She asks as she looks at some old-timey machine a few feet away from her. "What are you doing to me?" She pulls on her restraints, but she's not strong enough to get out of them.

"83182 resume prep for blood dialysis." He says into a recorder and then places a mask over her face. "Count from ten. Nine, eight, seven, six, five..." She's falling asleep. "...four, three, two..."

"You sick son of a bitch! Let her go!" Nyx yells as she paces back and forth at the foot of the medical bed that her sister's strapped to.

The ghost leaves Elena and the doctor that Nyx has oh-so-affectionately nicknamed Professor Psycho to find Jeremy, Bonnie, and Sam.

"Please hear me!" She yells as she tries to get their attention. "Come on, Jer. Open up your mind. Please! Just hear me!" She begs.

She tries everyone after Jeremy, Sam, and Bonnie can't hear her. Damon and Stefan. Carter. Caroline. Dean. Matt. The thought of looking for Tyler crossed her mind, but she abandoned that thought as quickly as it came, and simply went back to check in on Elena and the mad professor.

He's draining her of her blood and talking about how she could possibly justify Damon's actions for killing all of Aaron's entire family. He then justifies his own actions with one word. Science.

"This is the single time that I have ever wanted to kill a human..." Nyx says through clenched teeth as she walks up beside the mad scientist. "I want to treat you the way you treat your subjects." Her face is inches from his, and he's none the wiser. "That way you can experience your own Jekyll and Hyde complex, you sick, sadistic, monster."

He opens up a journal and turns to Elena to read from it. "June 25, 1995. Incredible findings today. After enduring three thousand volts of electricity, the subject continues to have a heartbeat. June 26. More success. Subject was exposed to four thousand volts today. Seizing continues after electrocution. Flesh remains hot to the touch." He finally stops.

"You're a monster." Elena tells him.

"This isn't my journal, Elena." He says as he looks down at her. "These are the hand-written medical findings of Dr. Grayson Gilbert." He shows her. "Your father."

"What?" Both of the twins mutter at the same time.

The rage leaves Nyx. It's replaced by this cold and empty feeling. The next thought to cross her mind is that that's only​ a few days after their seventh birthday.

"Everything I'm doing to you, I learned from him." Professor Psycho says, and Nyx looks down at her sister through glassy eyes.

"This is my dad's clinic." Elena mutters as she looks around — a fact that Nyx noticed a long time ago. She was furious. "We're in the basement."

The last time Nycole was down here, she saved Damon from being burned alive. She almost didn't make it out herself.

"Was your dad's clinic." Hyde corrects. "Then your town council burned a whole bunch of vampires down here. Now, it's just a condemned building in Mystic Falls where no one will find us."

"Well, I officially hate this place ten times more." Nyx says as she looks around. "John has officially redeemed every last bit of my hatred."

—

"I get it, you miss me." Nyx says as she paces back and forth at the foot of Dean's bed. "But I need you to grow a pair, get back in your car, and go save my baby sister!"

He groans as he throws the blanket off of himself and gets up. He's only in his boxers and his hair is a complete mess; his face is covered in days old stubble. He goes into the bathroom and leans against the sink, his head down so he can't see himself in the mirror.

"Please." She begs as she walks up behind him. She can see them both in the mirror, and he looks like hell. The byproduct of drinking at a bar all night and then getting thrown out after last call. "I need you."

Dean lifts his head and looks at his reflection. His eyes are all red and he looks like he hasn't slept in weeks. He's pale, an odd change from his usually lightly tanned skin. He moves to get in the shower, and Nyx sighs as she turns away from him. She shakes her head and then just disappears from the crappy motel room.

She shows up in front of Damon and starts jumping up and down. "Mystic Falls. Get back in your pretty blue Camaro and drive back to Mystic Falls." She looks between him and his brother. "Oh my God, please hear me. Please."

After trying Bonnie, Sam, and Jeremy again — with no luck, again — she goes back to the basement to fantasize all of the ways that she'd kill Mr. Hyde. If she could just be corporeal for a few minutes. Hell, she'd take just one more minute so she could end this.

"When did you meet my dad?" Elena asks.

Professor Psycho is looking at different vials of blood. "He was working with Augustine to turn vampire blood into a magical cure-all to fight disease, cure cancer, save the world." He says as he sets the vials down.

"Do you know if he ever brought a vampire down here?" She asks, but he doesn't answer. "I remember me and my sister coming down here as kids. There was something about this place that always creeped us both out." She tells him, but he continues to ignore her. "Wes, I saw Enzo when I woke up. I know he's alive. Where is he?"

"He's on a little day trip. Apparently he has some unfinished business with your friend." Hyde says as he turns around to face her.

"What did you do?" She asks as Nyx stands up from where she sat on the charred steps.

"Damn it!" Nyx snaps and then leaves the basement to find the brothers.

—

"21051."

"Enzo?" Damon looks at him where he's sitting in Professor Psycho's classroom.

"It's been a while, mate." Enzo says as he stands up.

"Who the hell are you?" Stefan questions.

"Lorenzo... But my friends call me Enzo." He tells him as he walks over to them. "Kidding. I don't have any friends."

He holds his hand out to Stefan, who turns to look at his brother for answers.

"Enzo's another Augustine vampire. Our cells were next to each other." Damon tells him and Aaron as Nyx appears next to him. "So, we're here to meet somebody — Wes Maxfield. You know him?" He asks Enzo.

"He's not coming." Nyx says as she gets in front of him. "Please. Please hear me." She sounds less and less hopeful every time she says it. She feels it too.

"That's your first question for me?" Enzo asks incredulously. "Not how are you? How did you survive in that fire I left you to die in?" He questions.

"Uh, does somebody want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" Aaron asks.

"I'd love to. Have a seat. I've been waiting seventy years to tell my story." Enzo tells them, and Nyx just leaves, unable to watch whatever happens next.

She goes to find Sam. He's at the grill with the twins and Carter. They're eating, and she sighs as she pushes her hair away from her face. She looks at the older boy.

"I'm sorry, Sammy. You're only twenty-four, you weren't supposed to get saddled with your brother's responsibilities." She walks over and kneels down in front of him as he plays with Everly. "I wish I could help you. And I wish that you could hear me."

Nyx leaves the grill and finds Damon fighting with Enzo outside of the college, but the latter seems weak.

"While you were out running wild, I had one single thought, that I'd have the pleasure of killing you." Enzo says before running at his old friend. He grabs Damon's throat and then black lines start to run up his arm.

Damon grabs his wrist and removes his hand from his throat. "Enzo, look at me."

"Bloody poison!"

"Where is she? Where's Elena?" He questions. "Tell me where she is!"

"Or what?!" Enzo looks at him. "You never see her again? It might be good for you to know what it's like to miss someone for the next sixty years."

"I've already got an idea what that's like." He says, and then Enzo starts to fall, but he quickly catches him. "Enzo, look at me." He says as they collapse to the ground. "Enzo, where is she?! Where is she?!"

Enzo's entire body is covered in his veins as something black travels through them. He couldn't answer Damon even if he wanted to.

Giving up, Nyx leaves the vampires to whatever happens next, and she goes back to the basement of her father's old practice. She sees Elena still strapped to the same table, and that sinking feeling in her stomach deepens.

"I've tried, Elena." Nyx says as she looks at her sister. "I've tried so hard. But there's just nothing that I can do. Ghosts aren't meant to interact with the living. And now I can't talk to Jeremy or Bonnie or Sam, and I don't know why. I can't save you, little sister."

She stays until she hears Stefan show up inside the building. He saves Elena, and then Nyx simply disappears from the basement.