Inaction's and Consequences

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not ownanything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However Idecided to have a little play around with the characters (I woulddefinitely like to play with Damon).

After returning home to change into the peach dress she'd selectedfor the memorial, Elena was now in the church with Matt laying outorder of service pamphlets onto the rows of benches. Elena's mindhowever, was elsewhere. She had two problems, she was feeling weakfrom not feeding and she was still reeling from her conversation withDamon. She didn't like that she was keeping something this importantfrom Stefan, she just hoped he'd understand if he ever found out.Elena was in a little world of her own until she saw Matt walk up toher.

"How are you feeling? A little strung out?" he asked ashe handed her more pamphlets.

"I'm fine." Elena replied. "It's just my emotionsare all over the place. Everything's heightened. I mean..."Elena hesitated a moment as she opened up one of the pamphlets. "Justthe sight of all the names of the dead makes me want to cry for aweek."

"You didn't have to volunteer." Matt offeredsympathetically.

"People died." she insisted. "People we've knownour whole lives, so yeah, I did." Elena glanced over at thefront of the church and noticed a young girl with long black hairsitting on one of the pews, her head down. "Is that?..."

"April Young. Yeah." Matt finished her question.

"Oh, wow." was all Elena could say before she left Mattand walked over to April, sitting down next to her. "Hey there."she said.

"Hey. Long time, no see. Not since..." April raised herblue eyes to meet Elena's but was unable to finish her sentence.

"My parent's funeral." Elena took the awkwardness awayfrom the younger girl.

"Yeah." April said as Elena hugged her.

"Are you gonna survive this?" Elena asked, her voicefull of concern.

"They want me to speak." April said sadly. "I guessall the kids who lost somebody can. What am I supposed to say?"She was practically on the verge of tears with what appeared to beguilt more than grief. "I'm sorry my dad didn't fix the gasline? But, if I don't say anything then...I mean, what if nobodydoes? My dad and I didn't always get along or anything but, everybodystill deserves to have nice things said about them at their ownfuneral, you know? I mean, for my mom's funeral, everybody said thesereally nice things."

"You say what you want to say or you don't say anything atall." Elena tried to calm April down. "And don't worryabout your dad, everyone in this town loved him."

"Yeah." April began to choke up. "Until two daysago."

"Even still..." Elena went to take her hand to comforther, but she noticed the vein in April's wrist, her delicious bloodpulsating, the temptation was strong. Elena felt the hunger rise upinside of her as she wanted to rip into April's wrist and take theblood from her body, knowing it would get rid of all of the pain shewas suffering right now. However somewhere in the back of her mindshe managed to remind herself that this was April Young and drainingher in the middle of a church wouldn't be considered acceptablebehavior. So instead of feeding, she realized that she needed to getaway from April immediately so she began to get up.

"I'm sorry, I...I have to go." Elena made her excusesand rushed off into the bathroom to get away from everyone.

Although she didn't need to breathe, Elena started tohyperventilate in panic. She had no idea how to get through theservice without hurting anyone. In that moment, Elena did the onlything she knew she could do, call Damon. After three rings he pickedup his phone.