CHAPTER TEN | FIFTY SHADES OF GRAYSON

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THE FEELING OF BEING RESTRICTED WAS SOMETHING EVELYN WAS SLOWLY COMING ACCUSTOMED TO. She was laid down, strapped tightly on a gurney beside Elena as the pair faded in and out of consciousness every so often. Evelyn remembered when Wes moved herself and Elena into the lab, they saw another vampire who introduced himself as Enzo. But, when her eyes fluttered open and she glanced to her left, he was gone. Evelyn wasn't sure whether or not she hallucinated the meeting of Enzo, Damon's friend. But, she was terrified whatever the circumstance.

"Elena?" Evelyn breathed out weakly as she glanced over to the doppelganger who began to stir awake again. "Elena, wake up. We need— we need to get out of here."

The doppelganger tilted her head in Evelyn's direction the minute the Austin girl started trashing at the restraints that kept her bound to the gurney. "Where are we?"

"The pair of you aren't going anywhere," Wes announced as he wandered in the room and headed straight for Evelyn with a small torch. He pulled her eyes wide and started to shine the light inside before he spoke into a dictaphone. "Subject 83182 appears conscious. 83183 commence for Vervain transfusion."

"What? No." As she heard the phrase vervain transfusion, Evelyn started thrashing at the restraints more furiously than before. She was desperate to break free and find Damon. "No. Wes— Wes, let me go."

The Professor simply ignored Evelyn's protests and began to prepare to administer the vervain into the vampire's bloodstream. The brunette's eyes widened fearfully as Wes headed over to Elena, who laid a short distance from Evelyn. "Subject 83182 appears conscious." He spoke while he moved the light in Elena's eyes.

"Where are we?" Elena weakly spoke out while she squinted as the light being moved across her eyes.

"Why? Look familiar?"

The doppelganger's eyes darted around the room as if wherever Wes had taken them began to bring back memories for her. "Wes, let us go. Let us go, now."

Wes turned around and forced an oxygen mask over Elena's mouth. "Count from ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five—" As he counted down, Evelyn noticed the girl's eyes had clamped shut. Then, he turned to Evelyn. "And, now for 83183."

"No, just stop this." Evelyn pleaded again as Wes placed a catheter into her forearm. "What the hell is that?"

"I told you. Vervain transfusion." Wes chuckled softly as the vervain slowly started to pump through Evelyn's system. She glared at him, desperate to maintain a sense of self and not fall victim to Wes' tests. But, much like Elena, Evelyn fell unconscious.

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"4.1 pints drained. 83182 still shows signs of consciousness." Wes spoke into his dictaphone again while he flickered the flashlight into Elena's eyes. "Note that fifteen years ago, subject 12144 faded into unconsciousness after losing 2.9 pints. Evolution or luck? A mystery for another day." He headed over to Evelyn, who began to stir awake again. "Subject 83183 still remains conscious after ingesting 3.4 liters of Vervain. Impressive."

"What are you doing to us?" Elena winced at the flashlight and then glanced over to Evelyn. "What are these tubes? Let us go!"

"Relax. I plan to once I'm through with you both,"

"You realize that our friends are going to find us, right?" Evelyn continued on from Elena's desperate pleads. "If they find you, you're dead."

"Your heroic vampire friends?" He scoffed, then turned to Evelyn. "Did you know Aaron Whitmore spent his entire life thinking his entire family was haunted by some death curse? Turns out that curse was your boyfriend. Systematically killing every member of his family tree. I'm curious, how does one justify that in her mind?"

"I justify it just fine, given the story he told us. I would've gladly added to the body count if I found out about Augustine earlier." Evelyn gritted her teeth and fixed her eyes to the ceiling while she continued to breathe heavily.

"And this?" Elena immediately joined in. "Holding people against their will? Torturing them? How do you justify that?"

"Science." He simply shrugged Elena's comment off. He headed over to a journal and started to read from it. "June 25, 1999. Incredible findings today after enduring three-thousand volts of electricity, the subject continues to have a heartbeat. June, 26. More success. The subject was exposed to four-thousand volts today. Seizing continues after electrocution. Flesh remains hot to the touch."

Elena scoffed in disbelief as she listened to the horrific things Wes said. "You're a monster."

"This isn't my journal, Elena." Wes held the small journal up within his hand as his eyes were fixed on the Gilbert girl. "These are the handwritten medical findings of Dr. Grayson Gilbert. Your father."

Evelyn raised an eyebrow as a look of horror washed over Elena's face. "What're you talking about?"

"This is my dad's clinic." The doppelganger concluded as she looked around at all of the equipment around them. "This is the basement, isn't it?"

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

Before Wes could leave the room, Elena took a shaky breath once more. "When did you meet my dad?"

"He was working with Augustine to turn Vampire blood into a magical cure-all to fight disease, cure cancer, save the world," Wes vaguely explained to the two girls as he continued to watch their vitals.

"Do you know if he ever brought a vampire down here?" Elena asked as she noticed Evelyn furrow her brows. "I remember coming down here as a kid. There was something about this place that always creeped me out."

Wes didn't respond, which caused Evelyn to grow impatient. The two girls wanted answers—they needed them. "I know Enzo's alive, Wes. We both saw him when you brought us down here." Evelyn stated as she noticed Wes halt at the mention of the vampire. "Where is he?"

"He's on a day-trip." The male's eyes quickly shifted to Evelyn. "Apparently he had some unresolved business with your boyfriend."

"What? Wait, What?!" Evelyn began to thrash around in an attempt to break free at the worry of Damon's safety. "I swear to God, if anything happens to Damon I will kill you."

"Enzo is the Augustine vampire. He killed my roommate, Megan, didn't he?" Elena was quick to change the subject, though she too was worried about Damon.

"Conserve your energy. I've drained enough blood to start phase two."

"And what exactly would that be?" The Austin vampire spoke up.

"If it works, you'll be the first to know."

"Why did Megan have a picture of my dad on her phone?" The doppelganger asked again, not dropping the topic of conversation.

"Maybe because her parents helped fund your father's projects." The Professor shrugged. "All they knew was that your dad had an unregulated compound that could cure most injuries. But, as Megan grew up she got suspicious, enrolled into Whitmore, roomed with Dr. Gilbert's daughter and she went to a party at Whitmore and put her nose where it didn't belong."

"Oh, my God. She found Enzo, didn't she?" Evelyn concluded weakly as she rested her head against the gurney.

"And, being clueless to what a starving vampire will do around fresh human blood, I'm guessing she got too close." Wes nodded once more just as his phone started to ring in his pocket. "Aaron?"

"Where's Evelyn and Elena?" Stefan's voice boomed from the other end of the line and immediately the two girls felt a sense of relief. "We have Aaron, and we're trying to decide how to kill him."

"Funny, I have Evelyn and Elena and I'm wondering which of them would function best without their cerebral cortex. Touch him, and you'll never see these girls again." Wes viciously spoke.

"That threat works both ways." The Salvatore concluded before he ended the call."

Wes slipped his phone into his pocket and hurried over to his desk with a smirk on his face. "Good news, the sample cells mutated. My compound worked. You both have heard of Pavlov? Conditioned his dog to salivate at the sound of a bell. This compound is like that bell expect instead your bodies will salivate at the smell of vampire blood."

"No way." Evelyn breathed out as she watched Wes fill a needle with the compound. "This is what you did to Jesse, isn't it? You turned him into a screw-up vamp that only wanted to feed on other vampires."

"Jesse was a fantastic case study, but he took too long to condition and considering the size of the vampire population, a single dose injection is much more effective."

"Effective?" Evelyn scoffed out. "He nearly killed Damon."

"Exactly, vampires are now one shot away from craving their own kind and you two are about to be patients zero and one."

"What? No, you can't." Elena yelped out fearfully as Wes approached them with the needle filled with the compound. "No! that will turn us into Rippers."

"I know," Wes smirked and then he lifted up his dictaphone. "Patients 83182 and 83183 prepped for compound injection."

Just Wes got closer to inject Evelyn, they heard a voice yelling their names throughout the basement. When Wes was distracted by the yelling, Evelyn used what little strength she had left to headbutt Wes. As she did so, he fell backward. Stefan sped into the room and once they saw him, the two girls sighed in relief.

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After spending what felt like forever in a dark cell, a thankful sigh of relief escaped Evelyn's lips as she pushed the door to the Salvatore house open. She smiled the minute that she saw Damon's face turn around from the fire, and she sped straight into his arms. She felt at home the minute that Damon's arms wrapped around her body. "I'm so glad you're safe." Damon breathed in relief as he kissed the top of her head.

"Alway." Evelyn hummed with a smile as she peeled herself away to look up at Damon. She knew that he must've been going through it, considering Enzo was back. "Are you okay? Did you and Enzo—

"Yeah. I saw him." Damon nodded slowly. He took Evelyn's hand in his own and led her over to the couch, where the two dropped down onto the sofa cushions. "I tried to make things right between us. But, I doubt we're going to be best friends any time soon."

"Well, he's got a lot of crap he needs to work through. But, at least he's not dead. That's a plus, right?"

"It's amazing how you can see a positive in almost every single situation." Damon chuckled softly as he let his hand dance against the skin on Evelyn's cheek. "Nevermind Enzo. How are you feeling? You know, after everything."

"Honestly? Like I could sleep for a century." Evelyn softly. She dropped her head into Damon's lap as he began to stroke her head comfortingly. "That was horrible. It was the worst experience of my life. I thought I was going to die in there, Damon. I've been through some crap in my time, but that—that was something else. Something so inhuman."

"Believe me, I know," Damon spoke quietly. He felt guilty that he had put Evelyn in a situation where she had to experience something so brutal and horrific. "I promise, I will never let anything like that happen to you again."

Without a second thought, Evelyn lifted her head up and cupped his cheeks with her hands. She pressed her lips gently against Damon's with a smile on her face. She felt Damon melt into the kiss as if it was impossible to tear himself away from her at this moment.

The Salvatore lowered his hands to her waist and looked her dead in the eyes as they carefully pulled away. "God, I love you so much."

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