Madness • The Vampire Diaries [1]

FORTY-THREE

|43.| INTO IT

IT HAS BEEN A FEW DAYS SINCE ELENA'S BREAKDOWN AND HER FAMILY HOME BURNING. No humanity Elena has been off the rails, wanting to eat, kill, and do it again. The Salvatores all took it differently in their own way: Stefan is worried that they may never get the old Elena back now that the switch is off, Damon is trying to build up the intensity just to tear it down in hopes of it switching her humanity back on, and Cora feels guilty for not doing her best to help the Gilberts so the two of them didn't have to suffer.

Cora lays in bed staring at the ceiling, not getting any sleep like the other nights before. Her hunger for blood grew stronger after killing four innocents by draining them of their blood. Now that she had her large fix, the ripper side of her wants to come out and play.

She removes the covers from her body and sits up on her bed, staring at her dresser where she hid the cure the witch gave to her. The vampire stands up, ignoring the coldness under her feet from the wooden floor and she opens up the top drawer. Sitting under her clothing that covers the small box is the cure and she rummages through it, pulling out the black box. She opens it up, slowly picking up the cure and examining it as it has a slight glow to it. Her phone vibrates and she goes to her nightstand, seeing an unknown number calling her. She picks it up and answers.

"Who is this?" Cora softly asks.

"It's Hayley. I need your help," Hayley says quickly but Cora doesn't reply. "Please, Cora. You're the one person I need. It's urgent."

"I'm on my way."

Downstairs of the boarding house is Stefan and Damon inside the parlor, not knowing about their sister getting ready to leave. Cora contemplated whether she should take the cure with her or not since the urges are getting the best of her. She shoves the box into her jacket pocket and walks out.

"We're gonna lose her, Damon," Stefan exclaims while following his brother.

"She needs time. It's only been a couple days," Damon slightly shrugs.

"Her humanity's off. She's basically numb to everything that makes her who she is," Stefan gets slightly frustrated that he's not a tad bit worried.

"She's a vampire. Off switch is one of the biggest perks. If being undead gets you down," Damon pours himself a drink and snaps his fingers. "Voilà, vampire Prozac."

"She burned down her family home with her brother's dead body still inside," Stefan points out what they witnessed the other night.

"Saves us the trouble of having to do it ourselves. I call that a win," Damon takes a swig of his bourbon. "Worst case scenario: I'll invoke the sire bond and tell her to turn it back on."

"No, her brother just died. If you force all that grief on her at once, it's going to overwhelm her. We need to give her a reason to want to turn it on," Stefan looks at Damon.