CHAPTER NINETEEN | SHE'S COME UNDONE

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AFTER EVELYN BROKE ELENA'S NECK AT THE PROM, THEY TOOK HER BACK TO THE SALVATORE HOUSE. They wasted absolutely no time pumping her body full of vervain and then they dumped her body in a safe— instead of the usual basement cell. Evelyn walked down the stairs with Stefan where Damon was still attempting to get into Elena's head to trigger any sort of emotion.

"You've still got her locked in the safe?" The youngest Salvatore raised an eyebrow to his older brother. Damon was stood against the safe with one hand pressed against it, while he had his eyes clamped shut.

"Haven't you been in her head for like an hour?" Evelyn glanced at Damon just as he raised his finger in the air. "Still nothing?"

"How you doing in there?" Damon raised his voice as he opened the door to the safe and revealed a worse-for-wear looking Elena Gilbert.

"Upside-daisy." Evelyn stepped forward and yanked Elena's weak body from the safe and out onto the ground. She kneeled down in front of Elena, who just looked back at her emotionlessly. "You ready to turn your humanity back on, yet?"

"Go to hell." Elena spat back, viciously. Despite being painfully weak due to the vervain, Elena still managed to threaten them.

"Okay, back you go." Damon smiled, then he pulled the Gilbert vampire back into the safe and locked the door. "We can do this the nice way or we can do it the other way. But either way, we're not stopping until you turn your humanity switch back on. So, I'm gonna let you think about that and I'm gonna for you in a couple of hours or in a couple of years because all we have is time."

Stefan and Evelyn headed back upstairs, while Damon took himself off for an obligatory drink— he was frustrated by the lack of improvement where Elena was concerned. As the two vampires headed back into the parlor, Caroline folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow toward them.

"Where is she? I wanna see her." The blonde immediately asked as she glanced around the parlor.

Stefan rolled his eyes as he and Evelyn followed Caroline around, who was clearly desperate to find her friend. "We're not letting anyone see her, that's the whole point: isolation leads to misery, leads to emotion."

"She's been here for days. She hasn't improved at all?"

"No, Care, she hasn't. Look, Elena doesn't want to improve. She has absolutely nothing to come back to." Evelyn tilted her head sympathetically. "I mean, every family that she's got is dead. She's attacked her friends. Killed people."

A short sigh left Caroline's lips. She knew Evelyn had made a valid point. "But, you said that you knew how to help her."

"I did say that. We are." Stefan furrowed his brows.

"How? By torturing her?"

"This isn't torture, believe me. The only chance that anyone has of flipping Elena's humanity on, is to get her to feel something: fear, anger, hate, self-pity— anything. Once we've triggered something, the rest should soon follow." Evelyn explained with a pointed look on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Let me talk to her. Before anymore intervention-ing. If she's weak, she can't hurt me." She glanced between Evelyn and Stefan with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Please. Just— let me try."

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Caroline's attempt at triggering any sort of emotion in Elena Gilbert went bust and the blonde gave the vampires one strict instruction— do whatever you have to do. So, they planned to do just that. Damon grabbed hold of Elena, whilst she was unconscious and restrained her to a seat in the middle of a dark room.

Evelyn dropped a fire extinguisher at her feet and immediately caused the doppelganger to gasp awake. "Oh, nice nap?" Evelyn tilted her head as she watched Elena glance around at her new surroundings.

"We thought you could use a little sunshine," Damon smirked as Stefan took his position by the curtains. He pulled them open just a fraction, which then caused Elena to notice that her daylight ring was missing from her finger.

Evelyn held up the blue ring with a devilish look on her face. "Don't worry, I'll take real good care of this. I mean, you don't need it right now, anyway."

"Evelyn took my ring, I'm devastated." The humanity-free vampire groaned out. "—And bored. Can I go back to solitary now?"

"No, I kinda like you in the hot seat." Damon folded his arms over his chest and moved beside Evelyn. He then glanced at his brother with a nod. "Whenever you're ready, brother."

Elena turned her eyes to Stefan and watched his hand grip against the material of the drapes. "Am I supposed to be scared?" She scoffed in disbelief.

"You will be. And when you are, focus on that fear. It's the key to getting your humanity back."

"You're not gonna burn me." The doppelganger shook her head at Stefan with a confident look in her eyes.

"You don't think he will?" Evelyn asked as she watched Elena shake her head with a smile across her lips. "Okay." The Austin vampire shrugged, sped toward the curtains, and yanked them wide open until Elena's arm burst into flames.

Damon gave her a nod to close to curtains while he used the fire extinguisher to put Elena out. "That feels better, huh? How about a little gratitude? Or any human emotion whatsoever and we can stop this." Damon shrugged as the vampire began to regain her breath after screaming.

"I'm gonna kill you." Elena turned her head to Evelyn and gritted her teeth viciously, but the girl just laughed.

"Bingo. See? There's a little rage. Should've figured that Evelyn would be the one to pull that out of you." Damon nodded while Evelyn took a sarcastic bow.

"Elena, look at me. We don't want to do this, okay?" Stefan stated toward Elena as he kneeled down in front of her. "You can stop this right now, it's your choice."

"It's kinda funny, actually. Evelyn being the one to pull back the curtain. I know she's enjoying every minute of it. You know, since I'm the only thing standing between her and Damon"

"Wow, that was downright vindictive." Damon piped up after there was a short moment of silence. "See? I think now we're breaking through that tough, candy shell and getting into the ooey-gooey, rich center of your humanity." He then glanced at his brother. "This is good, I think we should shine some light on the subject."

Stefan was the one to open the curtain this time. He held it open for quite a while, which surprised both Damon and Evelyn as Elena's face and burned to shreds. After a few more seconds, he finally shut the curtains again.

"You're gonna thank us for this, Elena," Evelyn called out toward the Gilbert girl, who panted for a few seconds while her skin healed.

"After you turn it back on you'll realize life with no emotions blew."

"You know what else blew?" Elena immediately snapped toward the eldest Salvatore. "Being sired to you. Going every day believing that I was in love with you. I remember every horrible moment of it." Elena turned her head over to Evelyn. "And you, so scared that it was real. Well, guess what? It wasn't! So, go ahead, keep trying to get the old me back. Who knows, maybe Stefan and I will give it another go."

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Elena felt confident in the fact that the Salvatore's and Evelyn would not be able to torture her. She knew that none of them would ever risk her life, no matter how badly they wanted her back. They invited Katherine, considering the woman had wanted Elena dead the moment she learned of her existence.

Katherine had finished torturing Elena and wandered into the parlor where she saw Damon and Evelyn. "After all that pain and torture, I've worked up quite a thirst." The doppelganger sauntered over to the liquor and helped herself.

"It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Elena called you out on your recent boy trouble, could it?" Damon smirked toward the doppelganger as he heard Evelyn chuckle.

"Sorry, not sorry. It was just so fun to hear her getting under your skin." Evelyn tilted her head toward Katherine Pierce and gave her a sadistic smile.

"Getting under my skin?" Katherine raised an eyebrow as she took a sip of her bourbon. "Oh, honey, you've been competing with Elena for Damon's affections since you blew back into town." The doppelganger turned her eyes to Damon. "Do you ever think Evelyn would be better off if she'd never met you? I mean, at least then she wouldn't have wasted nearly all of her life loving you."

"Oh. Are you trying to get a rise out of us? Because our emotions are fine." Damon chuckled softly as he swung his arm over Evelyn's shoulder. "And, be both despise you."

"You know, you two are such a good love story. But, you're so doomed to fail." The Pierce woman rolled her eyes as she perched on the end of the couch.

"She's gone." Stefan's anxious voice boomed as he stormed into the parlor and then noticed the devious look on Katherine's face. "Elena's not in her cell. I'm gonna check the grounds. Find out what she did."

Once Stefan stormed out of the house, Katherine pouted. "Oops. Did I forget to lock her in?" She then glanced at Evelyn and Damon. "Let's just say I've lost interest in Elena's recovery. I'd rather watch her tear through an orphanage. Imagine trying to come back from a spiral like that."

"Elena's gone?!" Matt and Rebekah hurried into the parlor after they heard all the frantic yelling from Stefan. "What happened?"

"Katherine happened." Evelyn gritted her teeth as she noticed the doppelganger sarcastically wave.

"Donovan, you're coming with me because Elena's hungry and missing. For once his life might actually have purpose." Damon rolled his eyes and beckoned for Matt to follow him, which he did.

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"There you go," Damon walked back over to Elena, who had turned her emotions back on, and handed her a blanket. He sat back down next to Evelyn while Stefan was poured himself out a drink. "How you feeling?"

"The pains still there. The grief and the shame." Elena explained with a defeatist sigh. She rubbed her forehead with her hand while Evelyn nodded.

"Unfortunately, that's something you have to come to terms with after turning your humanity back on," Evelyn responded. She knew this stage all too well.

"I get it now. Shutting it off— it's a cheat. I mean, you put up this wall and shut out everything that makes you who you are. Nothing affects you. Nothing matters. But things do matter!" Elena gritted her teeth with sadness in her eyes. "Things have happened that can't be undone and, now I know that there's something I need to do about that."

"Elena, what you need to do is rest. Take it easy for a couple of days." Stefan headed over to the couch and handed the doppelganger a tumbler of bourbon. "Maybe even a couple of years. Here"

"I'm done resting. I have to get ready. There's so much that I have to do." The doppelganger pulled off the blanket that was draped over her shoulders and denied the liquor that Stefan attempted to give her.

"Woah, hey, what are you talking about?" Damon screwed up his face and looked at her with confusion.

"Think about it. It's so obvious." Elena shook her head in disbelief. "Go back far enough, there's one person who brought us to this. Who ruined our lives. I mean, look at you three— everything that's happened to you? She did that. She brought Klaus to Mystic Falls. She turned Caroline into a vampire. She killed my brother. It all comes down to her."

"Katherine." Evelyn breathed out as Elena nodded.

"Stefan said to focus on one thing, so I did. I focused on hate. And I hate her so much."

The eldest Salvatore's eyes widened fearfully. "I don't think that's what he meant."

"Elena, Katherine's not worth your time. Even if you spend ten minutes of your life hating her, she wins." Stefan nodded in agreement with his brother.

"Not if I kill her."

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