Elena:
Another Friday evening in some craphole of a town in Georgia. I'm sitting in a bar with a little bit of a buzz kicking in from the drinks I've downed. It's been exactly one year, today since I left Mystic Falls. I close my eyes as I wait for another drink to be filled. My memory brings images from the night of Alaric's wedding.
Everything was going smoothly. Damon had just told me he had decided to take the Vampirism cure with me, and watching Alaric and Jo say their vows to each other, made me realize Damon and I would be standing in their spot one day too. I looked over at Damon, who was already looking over at me. He lifted his eyebrows at me and I gave him a knowing smile in return. Alaric finishes his beautiful vows to Jo, she wipes her tears and cracks a small joke about following up Alaric's vow.
As she takes a deep breath to begin her vows, the barn doors suddenly open wide. Lily, Damon and Stefan's mother charges into the ceremony, fury radiating off of her body. Stefan immediately runs to her to make an attempt to stop her, but she's quick. She pulls out a syringe, which I can only assume has vervain in it because she jams it into Stefan's neck, and he soon passes out. Caroline goes next, but Lily simply snaps her neck. She then fixes her gaze on Damon.
"All I wanted was my family back together, Damon. You took that from me." She says as she makes her way closer to the aisle. Damon quickly comes to stand in front of me.
"Elena, get out of here." He hisses over his shoulder.
"No, Damon.." I protest.
"Dammit, Elena please. Go." He begs. I reluctantly nod, and begin to make my way out of the barn. Of course being a human now, Lily is quick to stop me in my tracks.
"Now, why would I let you leave dear?" She asks me, before she pulls me into her arms and spins me around to face Damon. His face is darkened with anger and concern. He takes a few steps towards us, but Lily tightens her grip around me and simply puts up her hand and says "Ah, ah, ah. Careful, my son."
"Let her go, mother" He says the final word with venom.
"Why should I, Damon? You stopped me from getting my family back. You and your brother decided to lock me up in a cell, and leave me to rot when I attempted to grieve my loss. Why should I let her go, Damon? Why should I show you any mercy, when you two have showed me none in return."
"We'll figure something out. I promise I'll help you. I will. Just let her go." Lily doesn't respond for a minute, I can only assume she's thinking the offer. I look into Damon's eyes. The terror in his eyes so clear.
"That's a nice offer dear," She says, slowly loosening her hold on me. A wave of relief washes over Damon's face. "But then again," She quickly grabs me again. "In the short time I've been back, I've learned not to trust my sons." She pulls my head to the side and sinks her teeth into my neck. I can hear Damon shout something, and suddenly I'm released from the hold.
I open my eyes and find myself back in the Georgia bar. My shot glass is filled up again, and I quickly down it. I remember being able to down at least 10 drinks as a vampire and not feel a tickle of the alcohol running through my system. Now as a human, the effects are beginning to set, but not enough to keep my satisfied. I raise my hand once again, to call over the bartender. She seems sweet. Her blonde hair bounces as she walks over to me. I raise her my glass and she gives me a half hearted smile.
"Rough week?" She asks sympathetically.
I shoot it down quickly, and slam the glass back on the counter. "Rough year." I reply.
She gives me a sad look, as she's drying a glass with a cloth. "Sorry to hear that, doll. Hope it gets better, but in the meantime.. I think you should slow it down." She says.
I give her a small smile and nod. "You're right, I'll just take a beer." I say. She hands it to me, no hesitations and gives me a wink before walking to attend a man who just walked into the bar.
For some reason, the man catches my attention. Something about him seemed off. I try to pry my eyes away, so I take a drink of my beer and face forward, but from the corner of my eye I see him begin to lean in towards her. My attention quickly turns back to them. His face is only a few inches away from hers, as he's looking deep into her eyes. I quickly recognize the action he's doing. He's compelling her.
I can't hear what's being said, but the expression on her face is blank as she nods and walks around the counter. He gets up, grabs her hand and leads her outside. Buzzed or not, I decide to follow them. Once I'm outside, I look around the parking lot. I can't spot them. I spin around and see blonde hair, making its way behind the bar in an alley. Of course, it had to be a dark alley.
I quickly run towards the alley, trying to keep my breaths even and quiet. I peek over the building and quickly spot the girl, standing in the alley. She's alone, and crying quietly. I can only assume the vampire must have compelled her to stay there silently This is the first time since Damon's death that I've been around a vampire. The nerves begin to kick in. I take a deep breath in attempt to calm them down. Once I feel I've got myself under control, I decide to run towards her.
Her eyes widen when she sees me there. Her breaths begin to come out frantically. "Help me, please." She whimpers.
"Shh, don't worry. I'll help you." I say in a rushed whisper. I grab her arm. "Come on, let's go." I say as I begin to tug at her arm. I'm taken back when she doesn't move. Alarmed, I look into her eyes. She begins to cry again.
"He told me not to move." She sobs.
"Dammit!" I hiss. Noticing, her face turn into pure horror, I try to calm her down again. "Okay, okay shh." I place my hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you." I say. She bites her lip and nods. I look around the alley for some type of weapon. My eyes spot a dumpster, and I practically jump in excitement once I notice a wooden table that's been thrown out. "That will do." I say to myself, as I make my way to the table. I bite my lip, as I try to figure out how to break the leg off. I decide to prop it on its side and simply rely on force to break it off. I push on it and surprisingly enough, it breaks off without much work. I feel the edge of it and am satisfied with how sharp it is. I turn back to the girl, and find myself face to face with the vampire. He has a smirk spread across his face.
"Elena Gilbert. Just who I wanted to see." He says. I narrow my eyes at him and get a firm grip on my stake. He looks down at my hand and his smile grows. "Come on now, Elena. You're human now. You really think you can get close enough to use that?"
"Who are you?" I ask, ignoring his question.
"Who I am is not important," He starts. "You on the other hand... well you see, Elena I've been looking for you for quite sometime now. I was told you were the reason, my beautiful, Katherine has passed on. Unallowed to live, since you had your little friends use the travelers knife. Of course when I heard Katherine had passed on, I grieved a while. Turning off my humanity, went on a major killing spree," He takes a few steps towards me. "Then one day, while I was sucking the life out of this teenage girl, it occurred to me.. Why am I taking out my pain on humans, when I should just find whoever killed my Katherine. So of course, I looked for information, as to what had happened. And in my search is when I heard about you," He lazily points to me, and takes a couple more steps towards me, causing me to grip my stake as my heart begins to race. "Katherine's Doppelganger. Not only are you her Doppelganger, but turns out you also hold the Cure to Vampirism in your system, making you a human. I made my way to Mystic Falls with my intention to snap your neck, but then I realized, you have the cure running through your veins." He looks down to the ground and continues to speak. "Truth be told, Elena. I never wanted this life, and now with you running around with that cure. I can get a second chance to a life that I wanted. A life with purpose. Katherine is dead, so I have no reason to live an eternity anymore. Just another 60 years of a normal, aging life sounds like a good deal to me."
He then looks back up at me, his eyes darkened. "So you Elena, will let me take the cure from you, and in return I'll kill you quickly." He finishes and grips me by my arms. I quickly try to wiggle my arm to use the stake I had, but he just tightens his hold and smirks at me. "Sorry. Told you, you wouldn't be able to get close enough to use that on me." He says, as he twists my wrist, until I cry out and let go of the stake. Once I've released the stake, he pulls my head to the side by my yanking my hair to expose my neck, and sinks his teeth in.
"Let her go you blood-sucking, dick!" Shouts a voice before a few gunshots are fired. The vampire quickly lets me go, and turns to face the culprit. I find myself falling to the ground once he lets me go, my hand immediately goes to the wound on my neck. I look up and spot the source of the voice fighting with the vampire.
A tall man with short, dark, blonde hair was now being pinned against the wall by the vampire. The man had a machete in his hand, I can only assume he brought to use on the vampire. I spot the stake I had earlier, on the ground a few feet away from me. I make a dash for it, and make my way to the vampire and the man. Once I'm close enough, I shove the stake through the vampires back. It causes him to fall to his knees. The man's eyes widen but reacts quickly and chops the vampires head off with the machete. I let out a sigh of relief and place my hand back onto my neck. I look up at the guy, who was already staring down at me. He begins to walk towards me, with concern clearly stamped all over his face.
"What the hell just happened?!" The bartender cries out frantically. We both pry our eyes from each other and meet the bartenders petrified eyes. I had completely forgotten she was there. I make my way to her, with the man not far behind.
It took almost an hour to calm her down, after we explained to her what she had just witnessed. Once she calmed down, she offered us a round in the bar, because she "Could use one". We laughed it off and declined politely. Once she left us, the man who introduced himself as, Dean turned to me.
"She took it better than most people." He says.
I shrug and let out a chuckle. "Yeah, I guess so." I say as I remove the flannel, Dean had given me to place on my bleeding wound. I try handing it back to him, but he lifts his hands and protests.
"No, no. You keep it." He says, while shaking his head with a small smile.
I lift my eyebrows at him, then shrug. "Well, thanks I guess."
He smiles once again, and looks down to the ground. "So you know about this world huh?" He asks his eyes, now meeting my gaze once again. I simply let out a sigh and nod my head. "So you a hunter?" He asks.
I look at him confused. "A what? Hunter? No." I chuckle.
His expression now matches mine, confused. "Well you handled yourself pretty well, even after that little love bite and sprained wrist you got there," He points at my neck. "Just assumed you hunted these things down, or something." He shrugs. "What's your story then?" He asks.
Images of Damon, on that damned night begin to fill my mind again. I can feel a tear begin to form, but I quickly wipe it away and meet Dean's eyes again. "Long story." I say simply, and force a smile.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset, uncomfortable or anything like that.." He begins. I give him a small smile and place my good hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it." I say.
He releases a breath and extends out his hand, "Well, as you know. I'm Dean." He says.
I grip his hand and smile up at him. "I'm Elena." I respond.