I will always choose you || Damon Salvatore

Chapter 11 - The Cell

The Cell:

****

Katherine wiped away the blood from the corners of her mouth and looked with wonder as (Y/n) was passed out on the ground in the corner, with blood dripping from the two holes in her neck. Katherine hadn't taken enough blood to kill her, but just enough to make her pass out for a few hours and to keep Katherine's hunger at bay. "Oh yes," She smiled taking out her phone and taking a picture of (Y/n) as she lay motionless and cold. The flash on the phone reflected off of the stone wall that stood behind (Y/n)'s body. "This should definitely hurry things up." She smiled, as it alerted her that she'd sent the picture to her required contact. "Oh, (Y/n)," Katherine said, bending down to (Y/n)'s eye level and moving a strand of her hair out of (Y/n)'s face. "You are screwed."

****

Damon, Stefan, and Alaric had turned the Boarding House upside down, each one of them searching high and low for the cure. "Do we even know what we're looking for?" Alaric asked, throwing books off of the bookshelf in an attempt at finding the cure. "Zach said that it was red liquid potion in a small vial."

"You never saw it." 

"No," Stefan added, searching in jewellery boxes. "He didn't want to retrieve it from where he hid it; he said that he was always being watched. He was as paranoid as ever, especially when Damon came back."

"Asshole," Damon muttered as his phone went off. "We knew him so well, it can't be that hard to think like him," Damon stated, pulling his phone out of his pocket as Stefan paced trying to remember every conversation he'd had with Zach, everything he'd done in the hope that it would lead them to the hiding place. "Think!" Stefan said, hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand. 

"Everything okay?" Alaric asked as he noticed Damon staring worryingly at his phone. 

"Son of a bitch!" Damon said, placing his hand to his mouth. 

"What is it?" Alaric asked, standing next to him, looking at the screen. 

"Katherine has started feeding on (Y/n)." He said, getting angry. "We need to hurry this up and find this vial of potion before it's too late." 

"I'm thinking!" Stefan said, pacing back and forth once more. Damon looked at the photo once more, paying particular attention to the surroundings around (Y/n). He couldn't focus on the bite marks on her neck without wanting to be sick. He hated that she had become a part of this. One thing he did notice was that her necklace wasn't around her neck anymore; it must have come off when Katherine took her. He looked at the wall behind her; he recognised it but wasn't sure where he'd seen it before. "Where is she? Where have I seen that before?" He asked, but before he could get a reply from anyone, his phone started ringing. "Unknown Caller." He said, pressing the accept button and holding it to his ear. "Tick Tock, Damon. Tick Tock." It was Katherine and she was laughing at the other end. 

"I swear to god, you fucking bitch, if you touch one single hair on her head, I will-"

"You'll what, kill me?" She laughed. "Hate to burst your bubble, but it's a bit late for that, Damon." Damon's fists were clenching in anger. He hated Katherine, now more than ever. Across the room, Stefan's face lit up and he ran out of the room. Alaric and Damon looked at one another hopefully, Damon signalling Alaric to follow Stefan. "You'll get the cure," Damon said, certainly. "I'd better," Katherine said. "Tick Tock." She reminded him before hanging up the phone. "Fuck!" He shouted, running after Stefan and Alaric who had returned to the basement where they had been just hours before. 

"What is it?" Damon asked, looking into the cell where Stefan had been held when he was a ripper with no humanity. Stefan was walking around it in circles, examining every stone in there. "Vervain." He stated, looking at Damon, expecting him to understand what he meant. 

"What are you talking about?" Damon asked, impatiently. He just needed to know if they were going to find the vial or not. He wanted (Y/n) back; he wanted to hold her in his arms again. He wanted to kiss her and tell her that he loved; he wanted to apologise for putting her in this danger. "Remember when you first moved to town and I and Zach were growing our own supply of Vervain?"

"To use against me?" Damon asked, remembering it clearly. "Yeah. What's that got to do with the cure?" 

"Well, I remember Zach telling me that here in the basement, in this cell, was the best place to grow Vervain because no-one ever came down here, so no-one would question it," Stefan explained. "What could've stopped him from hiding the cure down here?" Damon's eyes lit up and he joined Stefan in the cell. Alaric stood outside. 

"So, you and Zach were down here growing Vervain like drug dealers?" Stefan shot Alaric a look. "Zach had the biggest supply in town." He explained, ignoring the part about drug dealers. Stefan and Damon were hitting and pulling at the stone bricks that decorated the wall in the hope that one of them would move away and expose and sure enough it did. "Stefan," Damon said, holding one in his hand and placing his hand into the hole that it had left. He pulled out a box and stared at it. "Well, open it then!" Stefan said. hope was coursing through his voice. Damon through the brick onto the floor and held the box with both hands. Slowly, he removed the lid to expose a small red vial sitting on some silk. 

"That's it." He said, in disbelief. "That's the cure for Vampirism."

"What are we waiting for?" Alaric asked, pointing towards the stairs that led up to the house. "Let's go get (Y/n) back!" 

"I don't know where she is," Damon admitted. "I can't work it out from the photo." Stefan held his hand out and Damon handed him the phone. "I recognise it but I don't know where it is." He watched Stefan's eyebrows knit together as he studied the photo. "We've been here before," Stefan told him. 

"We have?" Damon asked, looking back at the photo. 

"Where's the one place we thought we'd never have to go back?" Damon thought about this for a minute and felt his heart drop in his chest. "Katherine's tomb." He said. "(Y/n)'s at the tomb." Simultaneously, the three of them ran back up to the house and made their way towards the tomb. They were going to get (Y/n) out of there and Damon was determined to make sure that Katherine wouldn't be a problem anymore. "I'm coming baby." He said, as though (Y/n) could hear him.