Redamancy | Elena Gilbert

Chapter 47

Damon sent the all-clear a few hours later.

As soon as the text arrived, Elena joined Rosalind in her car to drive into Mystic Falls.

"I don't know how to feel," said Elena, wringing her hands together. "I don't know what I'll find in that building. I didn't think anyone would ever use it again."

"I'm surprised Augustine got their hands on it without even consulting your family," mused Rosalind. "Or anyone ever realizing someone was sneaking into that building."

"Maybe my dad left it to them in his will," thought Elena. "After this, though... it's getting shut down. Nobody will use it. In the future, I could reopen it... start a practice there. In the meantime, though, no creepy experiments or burning vampires or any of that."

Rosalind wondered what it would look like on the inside. Like a lab, surely, but perhaps with more lethal-looking equipment. Maybe photographs of the tortured vampires. The goriest pictures possible on the walls. Dr. Maxfield might have taken creative freedom since no one was ever going to walk in there. Or so he thought.

The door was already unlocked and waiting for them once they arrived. Elena led the way through the upper floor, checking all the patient rooms. Then, she walked down the staircase into the basement area, which opened into a large room, with scorched walls and ugly plastic curtains hung up to separate a few beds and trays of equipment. For the most part, there were just boxes.

"This is where my uncle died," realized Rosalind, stepping carefully on the cardboard boxes that littered the floor. "Where all those vampires were burned."

Elena didn't respond, having stopped to look in one of the boxes, labeled 'GRAYSON.' She withdrew a thick dust-covered journal, blowing on it then swiping her hand on the cover to get off as much dust as she could. "There's been a lot of tragedy here," she replied after staring at the journal for several seconds. "I won't let it happen again."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Rosalind once Elena's fingers ghosted on the spine of the journal. "Reading that... looking through this stuff... you're going to meet a whole other side of your dad that you never imagined could exist."

"I have to know," said Elena. "No matter what I might find."

Rosalind started to clean while Elena read through every journal in the box. She packed up the medical supplies using the cardboard boxes from the floor, organizing the items so they could either be donated back to Whitmore (a lot were unused and probably had been taken from the hospital) or disposed of properly. She kept the textbooks she found, figuring Elena might need those for her classes. The plastic curtains were thrown directly in the trash, and so were several blood-stained rags.

She swept the floors and cleared space for Elena to sit comfortably elsewhere while Rosalind cleaned the other half of the room. In the corners of the room, she made two piles: one full of items belonging to Elena's father, and one with the items that needed to be returned to Whitmore.

She sensed Elena starting to put away the journals once she'd finished labeling the last box. She turned to face her, giving her a reassuring smile. Elena had a faraway look in her eyes, still processing everything.

"Are you okay?" Rosalind asked, coming to sit with her.

"It's weird," murmured Elena. "Even as a kid, there was something about this basement that creeped me out. If I'd have known what was happening in here... I heard screaming before. He was doing his experiments while I was upstairs, playing. This is where Jeremy took his first steps. Right upstairs while my dad worked. My mom recorded it and I remember watching the video and seeing my dad running up the stairs just in time to see Jeremy walk into my arms. This whole time... I never expected to learn something like this."