Getaway Car

Lake House

          " He's the reason they're dead," Elena said her voice trembling, tears falling down her face. This probably wasn't the best way to start a phone call with her ex-boyfriend, but all logic and reason seemed to be past what Elena could handle that night.
         "Who's dead? And who killed them?" Stefan asked his voice a mixture of concern and confusion. "Elena, what's going on? Where are you?" Stefan asked his voice a bit more authoritative.
         "My parents..." Elena said running fingers through her hair pacing the floor of the lake house. She didn't know why this had been the place she drove, she guessed she just needed somewhere that wasn't Damon's and was far enough from him Elena could start to process. " Damon killed my parents, he damn well near killed me," Elena said trying to keep the tears at bay.
There was a moment of silence on the other end as Stefan processed what Elena hoped was brand new information. She didn't know what she'd do if Stefan had been in on this secret as well, it was the type of thing he would have told her, wasn't it?
            "Are you sure Elena? What makes you think that?" Stefan asked his voice collected.
"Damon just told me, we were talking about the Augustine vampires and how he killed Aaron's parents. My dad was one of the doctors there I guess so I asked if he had been involved in my parent's death too," Elena knew she was rambling, her story coming out in a panicked rush. "And he admitted to it, he said he did it," she finished feeling like she had just run a mile in the sand.
            "Where are you, Elena? Are you somewhere safe?" Stefan asked, "can I come to you? We can figure this out," Stefan said clearly wanting to be there for the brunette.
        "I'm at the lakehouse," Elena confessed. It was the one place that still had pictures and memories from her childhood, it was the closest thing to a childhood home Elena had anymore. And right now all she wanted was to go back to childhood, or at least go back far enough she could fix this.
        " I'll go there now," Stefan promised, "it's going to be okay," he said.
Elena nodded, almost forgetting to answer. She didn't think there was another person alive who could comfort her right now. But somehow Stefan telling her it was going to be okay, Elena almost believed it. " Okay," Elena whispered before hanging up her phone and setting it on the counter.

Elena wasn't quite sure what to do with herself now, she didn't want to sleep even though her body was aching for it. She knew if she fell asleep she'd have nightmares of the night of the accident, only this time she was pretty sure Damon would have a staring role. It had been a long time since she dreamt of the night her parents died, ever since Stefan had answered what had seemed to be, at the time, all the unanswered questions of that night. Now with this new information surfacing, she was sure the nightmares would return. 

Elena set up a fire in the fireplace and put on a DVD she found in a box next to the tv. She instantly recalled the day that was captured in the film, it was warm and sunny, the weekend before school started Elena's Sophmore year. The camera panned to a smiling Elena Gilbert waving at the camera which was held by her dad. The fifteen-year-old ran towards the dock to jump in the water showing off the newly acquired backflipping skill she had learned in cheer camp that summer. Her dad called out a warning about not running on the already slippery dock, but Elena ignored him running anyways and doing a flip into the water. The camera then turned to a cheering Miranda Gilbert as she sat in the sand playing some card game with Jeremy, who even in the ninety-degree heat was still in jeans and a black tee-shirt. Elena got out of the water and smiled asking her dad if he had gotten the flip on camera, to which her dad said yes. Elena then wrapped her soaking wet body around her mom, knowing it would just annoy the older woman, who yelled pushing her daughter towards her younger brother. 

Elena remembered that day, and wished she could have more days like that again. Instead her parents were gone, and so was her other family besides Jeremy. Elena didn't know what she was going to tell her brother about Damon's confession. She knew the moment she did Jeremy wouldn't stop until the man was dead, and Elena wasn't sure if she wanted that weight on his shoulders.  Jeremy knew everything Stefan had told Elena about that night, knew Stefan had gotten Elena out of the car and tried to go back for Greyson. Wasn't that enough for him to have peace with their parent's death? Yes, Elena decided this information would stay between herself and Stefan. She didn't know what Caroline or Bonnie would do if they found out, Elena didn't think either reaction would be pretty though. She also knew if she told them Jeremy would find out sometime, and she couldn't tell him, couldn't hurt him the way she was being hurt that evening. 

Elena laid on the couch, listening to the sound of her family's laughter in the background. She laid on her back, flipping through one of her dad's journals unsure of how the man in that video was the same man who had done all these experiments to vampires. It didn't make sense, but she didn't think it would ever make sense to her. She had known that Greyson was a vampire hunter, that Miranda and himself had stopped Micheal from hurting her when she was just a little kid. Was it too far of a stretch for her to think he'd be willing to hurt others to keep his family safe and keep humanity safe? Especially if Greyson believed they were all evil and needed to die anyway? 

Elena sighed running her fingers through her brown locks and biting the inside of her cheek closing her eyes.