Barely A Memory

Chapter 3

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"Wait," Elena demanded, her eyes firmly set on the back of Damon's head as he reached for a jacket. Her pulse was racing with eager possibilities. "Take me with you."

Damon feverishly shook his head. "No."

"Why?"

He sent an ice blue glare in her direction. "I said no. Look, we don't know what state he's in. We don't even know if the thing in the station is Stefan. Do you really think he just popped back onto earth exactly as he was?"

Shaking her head, Elena looked at her now empty glass, no longer feeling the buzz of the drink at all. "He's back. I can feel it."

Caroline rolled her eyes.

Damon told the girls not to get her hopes up and her stomach lurched when the door slammed. Caroline, who had been unusually silent for the past ten minutes, threw the remnants of her drink into the fire. It grew. "Do you think it's him?" Elena asked, hopeful.

Caroline twirled the empty glass in her hands and moved to rest on her back. She was suddenly very intrigued by the sparkling chandelier. "I have no idea," she replied flatly. "For my sake, I hope so. But for his sake, I hope not."

Elena, who had already begun to pace, turned to the vampire and froze. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Caroline huffed. "You know, even though he died for you, it was his choice." She took a long pause, trying to put her thoughts into words. "The world he was living in, it was pretty bad. I know you probably don't realize this because chances are, you were holed up with Damon in his room while he was telling me about all of this. He felt like he had nothing to live for, Elena. Nothing left."

Elena took a seat on the floor and closed her eyes, bringing her knees tight to her chest. "That's a lie." Her throat tightened. "Stefan's unbreakable."

"Stefan was unbreakable," Caroline corrected with an unintentional eye roll. "I know you were sired to Damon, but did you ever just stop for one second to realize that Stefan was crumbling while you watched?"

Elena thought back on her time as a vampire. First, a memory that almost felt lost hit her and sent a wave of emotions flooding through her body. They had popped a bottle of champagne together what seemed like a lifetime ago, and she couldn't stop laughing, therefore Stefan couldn't stop laughing. And they kissed. His lips tasted so sweet, like happiness and adoration; she could feel them curved up in that wide, charming smile of his. Then, another memory popped into her mind. Stefan and Elena sat together on the staircase of her house, and she told him, for the first time, that her feelings for Damon were stronger than ever. So, he set her free... but she never stopped for a second to truly tell Stefan that he himself could move on. And this wasn't even a love created by a sire. This was true, fragile love that required closure and acceptance. Stefan did not receive either from her. And, on that stairwell, the very first cracks in Stefan's foundation began to show, but Elena thought nothing of it. And there was more, too... she kicked him out of his own home the following night, went to bed with his brother without any remorse.

"How many ways can you rip my heart out?" he had cried once.

He's just being dramatic, Elena had thought to herself. At that time in her life, she truly believed that she was over him, so surely he had gotten over her too, hadn't he? Stefan gets dramatic sometimes. He'll move on.

He never did. She shouldn't have expected him to. When she was trapped under a slippery illusion of love mixed with blood and lust, Stefan was holding onto the only real thing left in her life. The chasm between them, he couldn't break it... because she didn't try hard enough. He was pulling on a snagged rope.