Crumbling Hearts and Shattered Minds

Chapter 21: No Place I'd Rather Be

Damon POV

I felt as though I was floating but still on the ground. Like I was absent but connected to everything. I remained blocked off from everything around me but completely aware of every detail.

I opened my eyes and saw a crisp blue sky with stupidly fake looking clouds the sun hung low in the sky and trees framed the sky from we're I laid on the ground.

It was beautiful and peaceful.

I let out a sigh.

The grass was amazingly soft under me. I ran my hands through it and remembered running my hands through Stefan's soft hair and comforting my little brother.

A wave of regret passed through me.

I had left Stefan. I broke my promise to him.

Before I woke up to where ever the hell I was (though I hoped it wasn't hell) I had heard everything Stefan had said after I died.

Dead.

I was dead.

I bolted up strait and looked around.

This was pretty nice place for hell. It looked like... Mystic Falls.

Not present day Mystic Falls. But still before 1864.

I stood up and nearly fell back to the ground in my haste. I did a 360 and realize that it looked exactly like it did when I was a kid.

Before mom died.

I seemed to be alone.

That's when I heard the humming. Not random humming but of the tune I would sing to Stefan when he had nightmares when we were little. It was an old tune that my mother used to song me when I was little.

Tears pricked at my eyes when I knew it had to be Stefan.

He still hasn't let me go. Tears brimmed over and streaked there way down my cheeks.

I heard Stefan continue to sob and I felt my chest constrict and guilt well up.

But he's safe, kept playing over and over in my head. But I no longer had him, I was no longer there when he needed me. I failed miserably and only Stefan lived to deal with the pain.

A sob escaped me and I leaned onto a nearby tree. I put my back to the tree and slid my way down the bark until I was sitting with my knees to my chest. I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my forehead on my knees. I sat there in self loathing and self pity until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I jumped and stumbled away. I looked up to see a beautiful women in an elegant black and white gown standing in front of me. She had raven black soft hair and blazing knowing blue eyes.

I froze, the breath in my lungs stuck there and I couldn't believe who I was seeing.

"Mom?" I asked in a small voice.

"Yes Damon. My little boy, why are you here?" He asked with a sad confused look.

"I'm dead. I can't go back." I said while training my gaze back to the ground.

My mom took my hand and pulled me up but I still wouldn't meet her gaze.

"Damon look at me." She said softly. I immediately looked to her and held her gaze.

"Do you want to go back?" She asked while cupping my cheek and looking at me. I leaned into her touch and finally let in how much i missed her after 165 plus years. She was a head smaller than me but she stood confidently with certainty and grace.