❪ 𝓢𝑰𝑿 𝓕𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝓤𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 ❫ ⚰️ ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝚃𝚅𝙳  ⸻  ✸ 🔮⭑.ᐟ
❝ 𝖨'𝖫𝖫 𝖪𝖤𝖤𝖯 𝖢𝖧𝖮𝖮𝖲𝖨𝖭𝖦 𝖸𝖮𝖴 ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟓𝟖. ❝ 𝖦𝖱𝖮𝖶𝖨𝖭𝖦 𝖯𝖠𝖨𝖭𝖲 ❞ ── .✦

𝗔 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧, the sounds of church bells, sirens and yard work going on can be heard from the silent bedroom belonging to Elena as said girl lays on her bed, curtains drawn as Stefan, Damon and Anastasia sits around for the now vampire to walk up.

With her eyes directed to the world outside of the Gilbert home, Anastasia turns as Elena gasps for air and wakes up. Stefan sits on the end of her bed, watching her as she seems confused about what was going on around her.

"Stefan?"

"Hey, I'm right here." He says, placing a hand on her knee, "You've been in and out for a few hours."

"Wh-what happened?"

"You were in an accident." Stefan tells her.

"Oh, my God. Matt is he....?"

"Alive?" Damon interrupts from his place on the window seat next to Elena's bed. Stefan, Anastasia and Elena turn to look at him, "Ask Stefan and Anastasia. The heroes."

Elena looks back at the other two.

"He's fine." Stefan says.

"Thank you. I thought that I - how did you....?"

"Save you?" Damon butts back in, "They didn't."

"When Jeremy brought you to the hospital before all this happened, your injuries were worse than anyone knew." Anastasia speaks up, "Meredith made a choice, she used Dad's blood to heal you."

"And when Rebekah ran Matt's truck off the road, you had vampire blood in your system, Elena."

Elena begins to panic, "Oh my, God. Does -- does that mean that I -- am dead?"

The family of three doesn't say anything.

"No, no, no, no! That wasn't supposed to happen!" Elena exclaimed.

"Maybe it doesn't have to. I talked to Bonnie. She says that she's stronger than ever, there might be something that she can do to help you." Stefan says.

"No, the only thing that's going to help is for you to feed and complete the transition." Damon tells her.

"We have all day before she had to feed." Stefan looks at his brother, "That's a day to exhaust every possible way out of this."

"There is no way out of it. We all know the drill." Damon stated, "You feed or you die. There is no door number three."

Elena begins to cry, causing Anastasia to roll her eyes, "I was ready to die. I was supposed to die. I don't - I don't want to be - I can't be a vampire! If there's something that Bonnie can do we have to try."

"We will. We'll try everything." Stefan resurres her.

Damon scoffed as he rolled his eyes, "Your choice, Elena. As always." He gets up and leaves.

"There is no cure for vampirism." Anastasia says in a blunt voice as she keeps her eyes focused out of the window, "Dylan and I have looked." She lies before turning on her heel and walking out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Stefan looks over at Elena who still had tears in her eyes before he gets up and follows his niece and brother downstairs and into the kitchen where Damon was grabbing a bottle of alcohol from the cupboard and pours himself a drink.

Anastasia stands in front of the window, looking out with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Way to get her hopes up for something that's never happened in the history of vampirism."

"You know what, you weren't there the day Elena looked me in the eye and told me she absolutely never wanted this." Stefan said.

Damon quickly drinks the glass of bourbon in one gulp, "Then you and Anastasia shouldn't have let her die."

"First of all," Anastasia turns to her father, a glare on her face, "I figured that one of you would've jumped off that bridge for her, I jumped because I was saving Matt. I wasn't going to just let one of you save Elena and let him die! Because obviously that's what would've happened. Second of all, her stupid ass should have run for the hills the second she found out we were vampires!"

"You still shouldn't have let her die!" Damon exclaimed, turning to look at his daughter, "Now the world has one more quarterback. Bravo, Anastasia."

Anastasia scoffed, "Screw you."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧 the kitchen counter with her arms crossed over her chest as she watches Elena bite into the sandwich that she had made, wishing to be just about anywhere but where she was.

Maybe she should have taken Dylan up on his offer to go to California for a little while.

"It's disgusting." Stefan says from his position leaning against the counter in front of Elena.

"No it's um...," Elena trails off with her mouth full.

"It's disgusting."

"Yeah, I'm gonna puke." She tells him before spitting the sandwich into a napkin. "I never thought I'd be saying this, but I can't stop thinking about blood."

"We should've saved you first." Stefan moved to pour him a glass of bourbon, sending his niece a soft smile that she ignored. "You shouldn't be going through this right now."

"No, if either of you had saved me, then Matt would be dead. What do you think I'd be going through then?" Elena gets up and walks over to him, "Stefan, listen to me. You did the right thing. Both of you. You did what you always do, you respected my choice."

"And what am I supposed to do if Bonnie can't figure out a way to help you, huh? Because then you have another choice to make. Either let yourself die or be a vampire."

"Well then, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Elena says before she paused and then started to laugh.

"You're laughing. I'm pretty sure you don't actually think that's funny."

Elena continues to laugh, "I - I can't stop though."

"Your emotions are a bit heightened today." Anastasia says.

Elena continues laughing more before she then starts to cry.

Stefan embraces her in a hug, "Hey. Shh. It's okay. It's okay."

"I'm sorry. I....,"

Stefan pulls away and caresses her face, "Listen to me. No matter what happens, I'm here for you. I can help you."

Elena looks out the window and squints her eyes due to the brightness of the sunlight.

"Why don't you go back upstairs where it's dark? We'll clean up." Stefan tells her.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗔 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗦 𝗨𝗣 a photo of her with her parents and looks at it for a bit. Suddenly, she hears a commotion downstairs. She walks down the stairs, calling out for the two vampires that she had left in her kitchen, "Stacie? Stefan?"

"Elena, don't move."

Elena stops on the staircase, looking down to see Anastasia and Stefan surrounded by officers and the Pastor. They all have their guns pointed at the vampires as Elena looks at the Pastor and then back to Stefan.

Anastasia scoffs, turning the attention to her, "And this is why I'm a fucking atheist."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬'𝗥𝗘 𝗚𝗢𝗡𝗘. 𝗪𝗛𝗢𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 nailed Rebekah, took them too." Damon says as Liz comes into the Gilbert house where Damon was picking up all of the stuff that was knocked over. "Please tell me you have something. Anything."

Meredith walks out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"I can't. The Council locked Carol and me out of our offices." Liz tells them, "Files, computers, everything."

"So, the Mayor and the Sheriff never contemplated a backup plan, Liz?" Damon asked her.

"Damon, relax." Meredith says, "When Caroline called to say she got away; did she know where they were planning on taking her?"

"No. Just that she was in some van in the middle of nowhere and she managed to escape." Liz said.

"Perfect." Damon rolls his eyes, "We've narrowed it down to nowhere."

Someone knocks on the front door and Matt walks in, "Hey, is Elena here?"

Damon turns around and rushes towards Matt, grabbing him by the throat and pinning him up against a wall, choking him. "In what world are you the one that gets to live?!"

"Damon, stop! It wasn't his fault!" Meredith tries to pull him off of the human boy.

"Let him go, Damon! Now!" Liz yelled.

Matt tries to pry Damon's arms off of his throat before Damon lets go of him and he begins breathing heavily.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗔𝗜𝗡 and Alaric's weapon; they could be anywhere." Liz said as they all stood in the Gilbert house still.

"Come on, guys, think." Damon says, "It takes a lot to hold a vampire. Reinforced steel, iron doors."

"The Pastor has a cattle ranch." Matt spoke up, causing everyone to look at him, "Those pens could easily be modified."

"It's remote, it's secluded." Meredith says.

Damon turns to Matt, "Well, guess what? Looks like you get a chance to prove how sorry you really are. Let's go."

The two leave.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗜𝗡 𝗔 𝗕𝗔𝗥𝗡, Elena wakes up on the floor, looking around her. Vampires are coughing due to the vervain being ventilated through their cages. She sits up while holding her head.

"I thought I killed you." Rebekah is in a cage across from her, looking over at the dead doppelganger.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"They thought you were a vampire, so they stuck you in here with us." The blonde tells her.

"Where's Stefan?"

"Elena, I'm right here." Stefan speaks up from the cage adjacent to Elena. They can hear each other, but they can't see one another. "Are you okay?"

"Stefan." Elena tries to pull herself up but is too weak to do so, "I didn't feed."

"Ahh, I see what's going on here. You died with vampire blood in your system and you didn't feed and now you're locked up in here without a drop of human blood in sight." Rebekah says, "That is a problem."

"Just ignore her."

"Has anyone done the math or shall I? I'd say you've got less than three hours to feed before I get to watch you die all over again."

Elena tries to break through the bars.

"My dad just got a whole lot better."

Stefan looks around, "Eloise? Eloise! Anastasia!"

"I'm right here, dammit." The hybrid groans as she sits up from her place on the ground, in the same cage as Rebekah, "The fucking Bahamas are looking fabulous right about now."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗔𝗥𝗞 outside of the barn.

"Stefan."

"What happened?" Stefan asked.

"I'm out of time. I need blood." Elena tells him, "I'm dying."

"Hey! Anyone!" Stefan pulls himself up from the ground, shouting, "Hey!"

"Will you shut up?!" Rebekah called out.

"You think we're afraid of you?!"

"I'm afraid of dying due to your stupid ass." Anastasia mumbles out to her uncle.

An officer opens up the barn door and walks up to Stefan's cage, "You want more vervain? Keep it down."

"Listen to me. Elena's gonna die if you don't let her out of here." Stefan tells the man.

The officer glances at Elena who is in bad shape before looking back at Stefan, "Sorry, not my problem."

"Let her out!" Stefan shouts.

The office shoots Stefan in the stomach and he falls to the ground.

"Stop!" Elena called out.

"I said, let her out!"

The officer shoots him again, this time in the leg. He leaves the barn as Stefan falls to the ground again, Rebekah watching him.

"You have any better ideas, dumbass?" Anastasia coughs.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗚𝗦 𝗛𝗜𝗠𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙 over to the wall dividing him from Elena, pulling the wooden bullet out of his leg, "Elena? You still with me?"

Elena sits on the other side of the wall, her skin extremely pale and breathing heavily. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. I'm okay."

"No, you're not. I can hear you breathing." Stefan said, "Damon was right, you should have fed this morning. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You had hope. That's all I ever wanted you to have and you had it."

"I love you so much." Stefan tells her.

"Do you know why I was even on that bridge?" Elena asked him, "I was coming back for you, Stefan. I had to choose and I picked you."

Stefan and Anastasia start to cry, both for different reasons. Stefan because of what Elena was telling him and Anastasia because she knew that if they didn't get out of there, she wouldn't be able to tell Kol that she loved him one last time.

He wouldn't know that she had died thinking about him.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 come back into the barn, carrying more vervain with them. Rebekah, Stefan and Anastasia look at each other and the blonde nods her head.

"I got this. Bring the other one in."

"Excuse me? Hello, sir?" Rebekah pretends to cough roughly.

The only officer left loads his gun and walked over to her cage, "I thought I told you to shut up."

"Here's the thing, my family, we - we have money, castles, apartments, jewelry; just name your price and let me out." Rebekah tells him.

"I'd much rather watch you die."

Rebekah gets up and rushes towards the bars. The officer is startled and pulls out his gun but he falls back towards the bars of Stefan's cage. Stefan grabs him and slams the officers head repeatedly against the bars until he starts to bleed.

He drops the now dead officer on the floor towards Elena's cage where she is still sitting on the ground and sees the dead officer on the ground.

"Elena. Elena!"

Elena sees the blood slowly spreading across the floor. She reaches her hand out and reaches for the blood that is pouring from the wound but she can't stretch far enough.

The blood is still running towards her and she can finally place her fingertips in the blood before she puts her hand up to her mouth and licks the thick red substance off her fingers, the color in her face coming back.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗦 𝗟𝗬𝗜𝗡𝗚 in the grass outside of the house, next to Matt who is also lying on the ground. Two officers come around the corner with their guns out. They approach Damon's body. One of the offices gently nudges Damon with his foot and he doesn't move.

Suddenly, Damon gets up and grabs the guns out of the officers hands. He kills one by snapping his neck and kills the other one by stabbing him with his own gun.

The blue eyed man walks over to Matt who is slowly crawling and coughing before he kicks him.

"Go ahead and kill me." Matt tells him, "You can't possibly hate me more than I hate myself."

"Oh, yes I can." Damon places his foot on Matt's chest and begins to bush down. "It should have been you."

Out of nowhere, someone rushes towards Damon and knocks him off of Matt. I

"Leave him alone!" Elena stands there, vamped out.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦 𝗜𝗡 the middle of her bedroom, freshly showered with her phone pressed against her ear as it rings.

"Hello, Darling." Kol's voice flows through her ears as tears welled up in her eyes, "Two calls in two days, I must be pretty special."

"Kol...,"

"Ah, don't tell me another sibling of mine has died." Kol groaned.

"Alaric tipped off the Council about vampires and they captured all of us. I thought - I thought I was going to die without saying goodbye to you."

"Darling...,"

"I just - I needed you to know something just in case something were to happen to me." She brings her hand up to her mouth, using the sleeve of the hoodie she was wearing to cover her mouth so her sobs weren't as loud.

"Anastasia, stop talking like you're going to die in the next couple of days." Kol's voice is stern as he begins to pace his hotel room.

"I want you to know that I choose you, okay? I'll choose you, over and over and over again because I am so madly in love with you. Without a pause, without a doubt, and in a heartbeat. I'll keep choosing you." Anastasia finally lets her tears fall, "I love you, okay? I love you so goddamn much."

"I love you too, Darling." Kol tells her, "You, Anastasia Eloise Salvatore, are my entire world, and I would be so lost without you in my life. You bring out the absolute best out of me, and I wouldn't give your love up for anything in this entire goddamn world. Okay?"

"Okay."

"And when all of this is over, I promise to take you somewhere as far away as possible. Away from Klaus, away from your father and your uncle, as far away from the tasteless doppelganger and that wretched town that I can get you away from."