Forever Is Not Enough

The Betrayal

1876 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Damon was brought out of his euphoric daze by a sharp smack across his face. Elena still stood before him, but anger had seeped into every feature of her face. She had hit him, he realized. The taste of his own blood was in his mouth. She stood wordlessly before him, a piece of her hair had come loose and hung in front of her eyes.

It had been many years since Elena had allowed herself to think of him. Not since she was a newly-born vampire, wandering the streets of foreign towns in the light of the moon, feeding indiscriminately and overwhelmingly.

With each passing step she took, each setting sun, and each dead body, she became more disillusioned, bitter, and removed. Within three days, she could remember everything Damon had taken from her. He had fed on her as she fed on random passerby's in the street. He had enslaved her emotionally. What had she felt in the final months of her life that was genuine?

It was on the third day of gaining her mind back that she received the most crushing reminder of all. She relived every moment of her pregnancy that she had no previous recollection. She felt the kicks in her belly. She could remember wrapping her hands protectively around her belly. Then she remembered the red. All of the gowns Damon had gifted her over the many months of running were ruined. She leveled an entire town that night. Maddened by her grief, she fed until she was covered in blood. Fire surround her and she murdered half of the town before anyone was even awake.

The very thought of Damon threw her into a similar rage every time, so she stopped thinking of him eventually.

Damon grabbed her arm before she could strike him again. "You fed on me," she huffed, ripping herself from his grasp.

He blinked, surprised. "What?"

Her eyes darkened, and her teeth were bared. "You fed on me." A rush of memories hit her all over again.

He could not think of what to say, and his silence fueled the fire inside of her. She turned on her heal and began walking away, but he was not going to let her get away that easy. He had spent the last decade thinking that the love of his life had perished in a river.

It was the driver that carried her and Emily away that night that had told him the news. When Damon discovered that the two were missing, he went into a frenzy. Katherine tried to do what Emily had instructed, drag Damon in the opposite direction, but Damon would hear of no such thing. Emily was too smart to drag Elena south, as Katherine suggested. She would never take Elena or herself into those war-torn territories. He stole away in the middle of the night and happened upon a carriage on the side of the rode. Emily's body, emptied of her soul, was splayed out in the dirt, her dead eyes gazing at the stars. Elena was no where to be found, but there was one witness. The driver had been compelled to follow Emily's instructions. After Elena had flung herself from the cab, Emily directed him to circle back around and wait for them, but she was dead by the time he returned. Elena stood on the stone wall of the bridge, facing the water. He said nothing when she jumped because Emily did not tell him to.

Damon snapped his neck right then and there.

"Wait!" he called, grabbing her hand and looping it through his arm so she could not run. "You cannot possibly think I would just let you walk away."

"What do you want?"

"I looked for you for months. I thought you died."

"I did."

He inhaled as if to say something, but tucked that conversation away for another time. "Where are you going?"

"I don't much like the crowds," she sighed. "I only came for supper."