ALMOST IS NEVER ENOUGH | TVD [4]

X • HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE

ten. hell is other people

Phoenix Stone, Salvatore Boarding House

Damon has just awakened with a shocked gasp, his icy blue eyes open wide, on the pool table in the living room area with the ruby Phoenix stone laying on his naked chest. He finds himself surrounded by a few lit candles, and Bonnie and Minerva, side by side, look truly shocked to see him alive.

Minerva sighs in relief to see him awake, "Damon? Hey."

"Please tell me you know who you are." Bonnie requested hopefully.

Damon looks around the room wildly and picks up the ruby Phoenix stone so he can look at it, but doesn't get up, which concerns the two ladies.

"Damon, say something." The younger twenty-year-old mentioned.

The icy blue-eyed vampire finally uttered weakly, "I know who I am."

"Thank God." Minerva lets out another relieved sigh.

"Good. Means I actually got the spell right for once." Her best friend said.

Damon slowly sits up, looking weak and troubled by his imprisonment, with a truly puzzled expression on his face as he contemplates his own hell.

"How do you feel?" The Devon girl asked, genuinely curious.

"Like I just spent a day in the life of young Damon Salvatore."

Minerva and Bonnie share a look before they look at him with concern and the former implied, "A day? Damon, you've been dead for three months."

Damon looks horrified by this revelation. Bonnie sighs and goes to the mini bar table to pour him a crystal glass of bourbon while Minerva remains by his side. Bonnie then walks over to him and looks at him with more concern.

"You sure you're okay? No desire to lash out or break anything?"

"Nope." The vampire frowns when he notices that blood is starting to pour from Bonnie's nostril, "But, you don't look so good..." He points to his own nose and looks at her with obvious concern, along with the worried Minerva.

When Minerva realizes her best friend has a witchy nosebleed, she rushes to grab her a fresh tissue and Bonnie dabs it away as Damon downs his entire drink in one gulp as Bonnie replied, "I'm fine. Just, weak. It took three Heretics to successfully find Julian's spirit in that stone, and I did it solo."

Damon realizes that they're all alone in the house and becomes concerned, "Wow. It's not that I was expecting a parade, but where's my parade?"

"Isaac and Caroline are at Whitmore, Alaric's at a lecture, and Matt's on patrol. I'm sorry. It's been three months. I...it's not like..." Minerva trailed off.

Damon looks genuinely sad by this news, but tries not to show it, "Time stood still. I get it. No offense taken. Where's Stefan?"

Minerva makes a truly sad face and Bonnie notices this that she hesitates for a moment before she spoke to him, "You're going to need another."

Damon immediately becomes panicked, "Where is he, Minerva?"

Bonnie grimaces, "When Julian stabbed you, Nora stabbed Stefan, in front of Rosie, and she couldn't handle the grief of losing the both of you, so..."

The young man finished it in disappointment, "So she flipped her switch."

"Yeah, and I...I haven't been able to bring Stefan back yet." Bonnie said.

Damon looks at the witch in surprise and horror, "You're telling me my brother's still stuck in here and you brought me out first?"

Bonnie makes a truly offended face for him, "That didn't sound even like a glimmer of a thank you."