You had to get him away from that fire. It was bad enough that you had been too late from stopping him to burn the coffin at all, you couldn't let him burn with it. You had gotten a call from Tyler to beg you to intervene, but no matter how fast you had driven to North Caroline, you were too late to stop him. You had heard him talking, and you had understood that the whole fact that he had said that he was ok had been a lie.
"Damon!", you called out, when you saw him struggle to get to the fire, struggle with someone you couldn't see.
He didn't seem to hear you, too shaken with the sight of what he had done.
"No... I have to get to her! I..." He started to break down when you reached him, sitting on his knees, looking completely broken.
You didn't dare to look at the coffin, to see what had happened there, you only had eyes for Damon, who had stopped struggling now you had reached him, now he saw that the coffin couldn't be saved anymore.
"Come on, Damon...". You pulled him away, out of sight from the coffin. "We have to get you back home."
He still barely moved, eyes fixed on the disaster he had caused.
"It was Henry... I had to kill Henry..." He shook his head, as if to make sure he lost anything that distracted him from the reality.
"Henry?", you asked. That was a name you hadn't heard before.
"He was in that stone. And he should be gone now, because he's not real. But he was there... he was real..." He nodded in the direction of the coffin. "And I had to burn him to get rid of him. But he didn't burn..." He turned around, looking confused. "Get away!", he called into the void.
You looked past him.
"There's no one there, Damon. It's just me.." This might be worse than the entire thing with the stone. Back then, you were working to get him out, without seeing what happened to him. Now you saw him going crazy, and it hurt... it hurt so much to see him like this.
"He wanted me to get rid of her. She's the only thing that stand in the way of what I really am. A monster." All the fight had left him, all that was left was a broken man, sitting on his knees, looking at someone you couldn't see.
"And that's what I did..."
You kneeled in front of him, seeing that you weren't going to make him move.
"Listen to me, Damon. You're not a monster. You have your dark sides. Just like I have. Just like Stefan has. Just like each and every one of us has. But you can fight them. That's what she would want you to do." Even though you didn't know if there was still something of Elena left...
"So we're going to go home, and you're going to fight, not give in. Because that's what she would want to." You couldn't stand seeing him like this... it broke you.
"That's what I need you to do."