"Where is my ring?" Damon demanded with a groan.

"Won't be needing it anymore," Stefan replied.

"How long have I been here?'

"Three days."

"And counting," Evelyn added.

"What are you doing to me?"

"During the dark ages when a vampire's actions threatened to expose or bring harm upon the entire race, they would face judgment," Stefan explained. "They sought to reeducate them rather than to punish them."

"You know what will happen if I don't feed on blood," Damon reminded him.

"You'll grow weaker and weaker," Stefan replied. "Eventually you won't be able to move or speak. In a week your skin will desiccate, and you'll mummify. A living corpse. Unable to hurt anyone. Ever."

"So what, you're just going to leave me in the basement, forever?" he asked.

"I've injected you with enough vervain to keep you weak," he went on. "Once your circulation stops, I'll move you to the family crypt, and then in 50 years, we can reevaluate."

Damon groaned again, "I'm stronger than you think."

"You always have been. But you're not stronger than the vervain," he pointed out. "And we both know it. I'm sorry. Didn't have to be this way."

Evelyn followed Stefan out of the basement and he glanced back at her, "You can go home you know."

"As I've said the last hundred times you suggested that," she turned to face him. "I'm not going home until I know the people I care about are safe."

"I'm returning to school," he informed her. "You should too."

"No can do," she shook her head. "Not until I know for sure he's taken care of."

He let out a sigh of defeat, "Stay out of the basement."

"Here I was thinking I'd go down and give him a little snack," she replied and he shot her a look. "Have a good day at school, mom."

Rolling his eyes, he left the girl to the house alone.

After wandering around all day, boredom set in on Evelyn. She had settled down in Stefan's room however and started to read his journals. Was it wrong? Absolutely. But she had run out of reading materials awhile ago and she was pretty sure he knew she was reading them anyway.

She had made her way downstairs once she grew hungry but of course there was nothing in the house for her to eat unless she wanted to join Stefan on his animal blood diet.

"We're not family, Damon," she heard from the cellar and she grabbed the vervain shot from off the counter just to be safe. "Only in the most dysfunctional sense. In fact, I avoided having a living, breathing, loving family because of you."

"I don't guess I could talk you into bringing me a rabbit or something?" Damon inquired. "I'd settle for Stefan's diet at this point."

Evelyn made her way cautiously toward the cell, "You know I can't do that."

"You succeeded, Zach. I'm shutting down," Damon informed him. "You're like your grandfather. He didn't like it when I came to visit, either."

"But you don't visit, Damon," he countered. "You appear, unannounced, reminding me that this isn't my house, that you're just permitting me to live here. Hell, that you're permitting me to live."

"Someone had to mow the lawn."

"I came to say goodbye, Damon."

"Look out!" Evelyn shouted, pushing Zach out of the way. Damon's hands wrapped around her throat and Zach made an attempt at prying them off.

"Unlock it," he pleaded, his voice weak. "Unlock the door, Evie." She gripped the vervain in her hand before ramming it into his forearm and pushing down on the syringe.

"Keep it up, Damon," Stefan suggested as Evelyn held her throat. "The more energy you expend, the faster you'll go."

Stefan followed Evelyn into the living room, scolding her as soon as she sat down, "That was careless of you, you could have been seriously hurt."

Evelyn rolled her eyes, "But I wasn't."

"Your neck is covered in bruises."

"Am I dead?" she inquired

"No, but-"

"But nothing," she replied, grabbing a magazine off the coffee table. "Think you could get me food? Rabbit isn't really my thing."

"What do you want?" he asked, grabbing his keys off the table.

"Take a guess."

"Burger it is," he nodded, "I'll be back."

He returned a short while later and Evelyn hopped up immediately. "Thank god," she spoke as she entered the kitchen, grabbing the to-go box from him, "One more minute and you would have come home to a corpse."

"Have you always been this dramatic?"

"I'm not being dramatic," she countered, taking a seat and opening up the box.

"Wonderful," he commented as she tore into the sandwich.

"As my best friend, you're going to have to get used to it at some point," she informed him. She stopped eating when she saw the look on his face, "What?"

"I'm your best friend?"

"I mean yeah, why wouldn't you be?" she shrugged. "Because you and Elena are dating, you're around all of the time, you grew on me. I trust you, I talk to you all the time. Plus I can make fun of you and you no longer take me seriously so that is a key identifier that you have fallen into my 'you're now my best friend' trap."

"Speaking of friends," he spoke curiously, "Tyler asked about you when I went to the Grill."

"Hmm," she responded and he raised an eyebrow but didn't press on.

"I'm going to check on Damon."

She hopped up from the chair, dusting her hands off, "I'm coming." Not even bothering to argue anymore, they made their way down the stairs. "How did Elena take you disappearing?"

"Not well at first," he answered honestly, "But then we talked."

They arrived in front of Damon's cellar and he groaned, "I bet you're feeling pretty good about yourself, aren't you?"

"Not particularly," Stefan replied with a frown.

"You won. You got the bad guy. Now nothing could come between you and Elena," he pointed out. "Except the truth. The lies will catch up to you, Stefan. As long as you keep lying to yourself about what you are."

"The beauty of you in there and me out here," Stefan began, "Is that I can walk away."

Stefan made his way up the stairs and Evelyn followed, "Don't you have that 'sexy suds' car wash to go to? Caroline will flip if you're late."

"Thank you."

"For what?" she asked in confusion.

"For giving me an excuse to get away from you."

"Oh, you love me and you know it," she pointed out.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"You know I'm right."

"Goodbye, Evelyn," he replied before the door shut behind him.

Evelyn had settled down with one of Stefan's journals when the door opened, catching her by surprise. "Stefan?" she inquired, "Back already? Zach?" No one replied and she made her way to the front door to see it left open.

Evelyn grew confused as to what could have caused that when it hit her. Damon.

She ran down to the cellar quickly and saw Caroline starting to open the door. Evelyn pushed the lock shut, "Stop!"

She turned to face Damon, "Knock the bull shot off. You're not leaving this cell for another fifty years."

"Oh but I am," he said weakly, using the door as support.

"How do you expect to do-" but then everything went black.

Evelyn had come to the conclusion that being knocked out was an odd sensation. It was sort of like sleeping only without the dreams. It was over in seconds but according to Stefan, she had been out for a few hours.

Caroline had knocked Evelyn out and let Damon out. Zach had tried to stop it but Damon snapped the man's neck and then fed off a bird for energy. God only knows where he is now.

"Look, he's faster and stronger than you, chances are he already fed and he will be 10 times stronger," Evelyn reminded him, trying to convince Stefan not to go after his brother. "He will kill you if you try to kill him. I'm just getting to know you, I don't want you dead."

"I have to do this."

Evelyn shook her head, "You don't have to do anything."

"He's only here for me," Stefan pointed out. "I'm the reason all of those people are dead. This is my fault."

"It isn't your fault."

"I'm going and you can't stop me."

"Fine," she huffed, "Then I'm going with you."

"You aren't coming with me," he refused as he left the room. He swung the front door open, stake in hand to reveal a very pissed Elena.

"What are you?"