With my hands deep in my pocket and my thoughts everywhere else but in the island, Damon and I walked back to the camp-ground at human pace. Our feet touched the ground gently, crunching the few dead leaves and the fallen branches. It was fun stepping on them, at least it allowed me to think of something else other than Stefan, and what would happen when I returned to Mystic Falls. 

   I peeked into one of the tents, sighing when I found nothing. When I pulled myself up, I noticed Damon took a defensive stand in front of me. His eyes turned red, veins bulging as something among the trees caused them to rustle. "Unless you're a blond, a Bennett witch, or a doppelgänger, I suggest you steer clear." He motioned me to follow with his head, straight to the creepy wooden shack. The door creaked open.

   "Where it is?" Rebekah asked out of nowhere, causing the two of us to jump from her sudden appearance. I let out a scream, and pushed myself closer to Damon.  "The cure? I know someone has it."

   "Yeah, someone — Katherine," Damon nodded. 

   She stopped and stared at us with her eyes furrowed,confusion in her eyes. "Katherine? The doppelgänger?"

   "Yeah," I nodded. "Sneaky little bitch must have been spying on them for weeks. She killed Jeremy."

   "Or somebody did," Damon added with a shrug of his shoulder. He glanced at Rebekah, who sported a somber look. He rolled is eyes. "He killed your brother. Let's not with the fake sad face."

   "I didn't say I was going to miss him," she said, "but I'm not heartless. He was Elena's only family."

   "Good," Damon sighed. "Well, you can send flowers after you help us find Bonnie." He began to walk away, leaving me with Rebekah.

   "We need to find Katherine," she stated.

   I crossed my arms and began to follow Damon. "If there's one thing that I can guarantee in this miserable little world, it's that Katherine Pierce is gone."

   "We need to find Bonnie," Damon finished a few feet in front of us. "Oh, and beware of the immortal Silas. If he was asleep in that cave, he's awake now."

   After a moment of hesitation, Rebekah began to follow us. The woods seemed colder now, like in those movements. All that was left was the fog to appear, the harsh caw of a crow, the dead tree with its weird branches reaching out to you, and the strange whispers between the trees. Even though it wasn't as creepy as I would have thought, I still kept close to Damon. It came to the point where I almost had my arm wrapped around his. The eerie feeling wasn't because it was getting dark, but because an immortal being was walking around. 

   "Do you think Bonnie's dead?" Rebekah asked as we walked through the endless woods.

   "Never thought I'd say this, but I hope not," said Damon.

   "I don't like being out in the open like this," she muttered, glancing around with worried eyes. 

   "What, afraid of the big, bad Silas?" he mused. 

   "No."

   "Scaredy cat!" he said in a sing-song voice.

   "Oh my god," I groaned, rolling my eyes. 

   "I'm not a scaredy cat!" she defended. "My brother, Kol, drove himself mad worrying about Silas rising. It would benefit us all to be a bit concerned, and you're one to talk about being afraid. You're so scared, you're 1,200 miles away from where you're supposed to be."

   "Hey, somebody needed to find Bonnie."

   "Stefan could've done that. Aren't you Elena's current love? It's so hard to keep track these days."

   Their words made the fright I had calm into annoyance. I slowed down and allowed the fighting pair to continue a few feet in front of me. With each word that passed their mouths, I kept rolling my eyes. It continued for at least a mile, until Damon suddenly grabbed Rebekah and used her as a shield, and arrow hitting her back. 

   "Ow!" Rebekah groaned.

   "Sorry," Damon shrugged. "Better you than me." He tossed her to the side and cracked the bones in his neck, his eyes darting to the front. There was a man aiming a crossbow at him. The man fired another arrow, which hit Damon on the shoulder. The man immediately loaded another arrow and pointed it at me. The arrow fired, but I caught it before it touched my chest and threw it down, glaring at the man. He put down his bow and began to run from the clearing. I easily caught up to him, and threw him on the ground. The man had a dagger in one hand, ready to plunge it into my heart, but I twisted his wrist. He tried to fight back, but I was stronger them him.

   "Mysterious guy trying to kill us — fun," I groaned, trying to pin his hands down. "Not really." I lifted the man up then slammed him down, knocking him out. I noticed that he was the guy that had the vervain soaked rope around Damon's neck when we were at the cave. 

   "Who is he?" I asked when I felt a presence by me. I turned my head to see Damon, glaring down at the man with a face with disgust. 

   "He's one of The Five," he answered, pulling up the man and propping him up against a rock face. He picked up the bag and began to look through the bag. "Remember when you found me with the vervain rope around my neck? Yeah, he's the one that put it there." He pulled out a rope and wrapped it around the man, tying him against the rock. His hands were also bound in rope, which made me notice that Damon wasn't playing around.

   "Makes sense," I nodded, crossing my arms. "So, he's here why?"

   "The members of The Five are on a suicide mission to kill Silas," he muttered, nodding. He turned his head and noticed that the man was waking. With anger, he grabbed the dagger from the ground and jabbed the point into the man's throat. "Here's the thing. I was completely willing to accept the fact that you were one man a lonely mission to kill 'ol Silas, and then I got boned by my vixen nemesis Miss Katherine Pierce, and then I start thinking there's no way this is a coincidence. So, what do you know, huh?"

   "Wait," I spoke up, taking a step closer to him. "You think he has something to do with Katherine?"

   "Everything has something to do with Katherine," Damon shrugged. He tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowing to the corner of his sockets before he turned back to the man. "Took you long enough."

   "Sorry," Rebekah spoke up. "I had to dig the arrow out of my spine. Thank you for that."

   "Well, if you want a lead on Katherine Pierce, here's your guy." Damon twisted the point of the dagger on the man's neck, drawing more blood. I looked do the side and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the smell.

   "Torture me all you want," the man laughed. "You can't kill me. The hunter's curse will torment you forever."

   "It'll be worth it," Damon hissed, pushing the dagger a bit deeper.

   "He's right," Rebekah agreed. "You can't kill him, but that doesn't mean we can't tear him apart piece by piece, nerve by nerve until the pain is so severe, that your brain shuts it all off to give you one tiny moment of blessed relief, and then we'll heal you and do it again and again and again."

   We all stared at her, surprised. I opened and closed my mouth. "You are creepy," I finally told her, shaking my head.

   "Thank you," she smiled. "I learned from the best." She eyed me, the smile still on her lips. I gulped a turned to the man, seeing him try to keep quiet from the pain of the dagger against his neck. Rebekah and I had a few moments where I wanted to torture the bad, those who were horrible people and did harm. She would laugh and say to do it, and I, as harsh as it sounds, would.

   After a few moments of squirming uncomfortable against the dagger, the man finally spoke. "I was tracking dens of vampires across Colorado," the man began. "Katherine found me, said she could help me find Silas. She already knew about the hunter's mark, the cure."

   "How?" I asked, confused. I never imagined for Katherine to know about a cure, about Silas, but of course, I was speaking about Katherine. She was unpredictable.

   "Oh, she had someone on the inside," the man said. "Some werewolf girl, friends with your professor."

   "Hayley, Tyler Lockwood's old friend," Damon said, glancing back at us. He turned back to the man and twisted the dagger a bit. "Ah, I knew she was shady. Where'd Katherine find her?"

   "New Orleans," the man said. "That's all I know."

   Damon pulled the dagger back. "Ah, good. Let's throw him in the well. If he starves to death, it's not our fault. We're gonna go find Bonnie."

   "W-wait!" I took stand in front of him, blocking his way. "You can't be serious, Damon? We can't just leave him here to die. What has he done so badly that he deserves death?"

   "He tried to kill me, Clara." He said in a matter-of-fact tone, rolling his eyes. "He tried to kill us."

   "Everyone tries to kill you," I tried to reason, crossing my arms. "You're not as nice as you like to think you are."

   "You liked me," he smirked, wiggling his brows. "You thought I was very nice, in various ways."

   "Okay, ew," Rebekah broke in, making a disgusted face. She shook her head and turned to look at Damon. "We've got a lead on the cure. I'm gonna find it, but I suppose you don't mind. You never wanted Elena to be human again, anyway."

   I glanced at him with furrowed brows. "You didn't?"

   "I wanted that cure for her because that's what she wanted," he explained, to both Rebekah and I. "You might think I'm afraid to go back, but I'm not because I know what she needs. She needs me to bring her best friend back." He walked away, his shoulder brushing against me. 

   I took a deep breath, then let out a long sigh. The tied man gave me a smile, and I smiled in return then turned to look at Rebekah. "Give him a bit of mercy, please."

   "When do I not?" she asked, giving the man a smiled. She reached down and grabbed him, pulling him along with her. 

   I turned and decided to follow Damon, who was long gone. I let out a long groan and sped up, finding him nowhere in my path. At that moment, I got angry and annoyed at him. I wanted to do nothing more but to punch him as hard as I could, but I couldn't because I couldn't find him. With a low mumble of anger escaping my lips, I pushed my hands in the pocket of my sweater and kicked dirt as I continued to walk.

   "Screw you, Damon," I uttered into the wind. "Wanting to be the hero and having to drag me with you. What if I don't want to be the hero? What if, for once, I want to be the bad guy? Okay, no, I would probably break or something." I paused and shook my head. "It's official; I am going crazy thanks to this god-damn island."

   "Clara..." 

   I stopped moving when I heard my name. The breeze picked up, caressing my face gently. My hair danced along with it, blond strands covering my eyes for a few moments. A few seconds after, I heard my name again. I glanced around, eyes wide, hoping to see a figure anywhere. All I saw were trees, trees as far as my sight would go. What scared me wasn't only the voice, but the fact that I was completely alone and I was hearing a voice call out my name. The voice, although eerie and a whisper, sounded familiar, which made me even more uncomfortable.

   "Clara..."

   "Who's there?" I called out, turning. When I did one full circle, I collided with a body and screamed. "Damon! Ugh, Jesus Christ!" I began to hit him. "Don't. Do. That! What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you do that, you asshole!"

   He laughed and tried to stop my hits with his hands. "Hey, hey, hey!" He grabbed my wrists and stopped me from hitting him, a hint of a smile around his lips. "Stop. Come on, Clara, we need to go."

   "Did you find Bonnie?" I asked, calming down as I followed behind him. He shook his head. I stopped and tilted my head to the side, staring at the back of his head. "It's Elena, isn't it? She's losing it, and that's why we're leaving."

   He stopped. "Stefan called," he said, not turning to look at me. "He said the only thing that can keep her together is the sire bond."

   "But, without Bonnie..."

   "You think I don't know?" he snapped, turning to look at me. "I want to bring her best friend back, give her a reason to have hope, because her brother is dead, Clara. Jeremy is dead, and Elena's going to broken because of that."

   I stared at him for a couple of seconds. It was noticeable, how he was blaming himself. It was something Damon tended to do a lot more as a vampire, blame himself for something he didn't do. I laid my hand on his arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Damon, it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself for something Katherine did."

   "I'm not–"

   "You are," I cut him off. "Do I need to remind you that I know you? I've known you all my life, well, most of it." I gave him a smile. "So, don't blame yourself."

   "You should follow your own advise," he chuckled, shaking his head. 

   "I'm more of a giver than a follower," I chuckled, shrugging my shoulders. I suddenly heard footsteps, and turned around to see Bonnie emerge from behind a tree. "Oh my god, Bonnie!" I ran to her and gave her a quick hug, which she surprisingly returned. 

   "I could actually hug you right now," Damon said, and gave her a quick embrace. "Where have you been? How'd you find us?"

   "Shane led the way," she said as she pulled away from him. "He told me what to do, Damon. I know how to bring Jeremy back."

   I glanced at Damon, who stared down at her with a confused look. He glanced at me, furrowed brows and the same look of confusion etched in his features. We followed Bonnie to the waiting boat at the beach, then to the plane. She appeared different as she moved, as if it wasn't really her moving and talking, as if she was being controlled. During the plane ride, she spoke of a veil between the worlds, a place she called the Other Side in which every supernatural creature that has died was in. She spoke of dropping said veil, about bringing the supernatural creatures that were dead back to our world. When she went to the restroom, I turned to Damon.

   "Is it me or does she seem different?" I asked.

   He nodded. "There's something wrong," he said. "She's talking nonsense."

   "Something must have happened while she was missing," I uttered, taking the empty seat next to him.

   "Look at you, you care," he chuckled, almost sarcastically.

   I looked at him and made a face. "You say that as if I've never cared for anyone other than myself," I said in disbelief. "I'll have you know that I care for plenty of people, you included. Remember Jules, Mason Lockwood's friend? Remember how I stupidly took your blame for killing him?"

   "Congratulations, you did one thing."

   "Oh, so you want to go there? Fine." I sat up, crossed my arms, and glared at him. "Then tell me this, Damon, why did you continue to sleep with Katherine while I was dead."

  He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I thought we were over this, Clara."

   "Come on now, Damon, answer the god-damn question since we're talking about caring," I huffed, anger and sadness boiling in my veins. "Why did you continue to sleep with her while I was dead? Did you actually care that I was dead or what you told me about mourning was actually a lie?" I didn't know where it came from, the sudden question that erupted from my mouth. I thought that I was long over that, but maybe, somewhere in the depths of my mind, I wasn't.

   "Because you were dead," he simply said, looking out the window, ignoring my eyes.

   "Oh, that's a nice explanation–"

   "Clara, I slept with Katherine because you were dead," he repeated, softer this time. He turned to look at me, his eyes as soft as his voice. "You were dead, and I was angry because you were dead. It felt like... It felt like how when my mother died, how she just left without a goodbye or any word. It was sudden. You left just like that, without a goodbye or anything and sudden. All I did was drink, and drink, and drink, and drink, until I got furious. And then Katherine was there, and I asked her to compel away the memory of you because it was painful to even see Abraham or Charlotte walking down the street." He licked his bottom lip and shook his head. "She was just a distraction, Clara, not really important. She was just there to block the memory of you."

   I stared at him, surprised. Damon Salvatore was not a man who shared his feelings. He had always kept them bottled up, even when we were human. It was I who said "I love you," first, and he was surprised, and slowly said it back with a bit of realization. At that moment, I stared at him, wide eyes, surprised, and I felt like a complete and utter prick. All that time I was gone, I blamed him and only him for me dying, for Katherine murdering me. I blamed him instead of blaming the true perpetrator.

   I turned to look straight at the seat in front of me, unsure of what to say to him. What could I say to him? That I was sorry? What good would that do? He'd probably say that it was in the past and it was useless to apologise for something that happened a century ago. So, I swallowed back everything, hoped that he'd forget this conversation, and stayed quiet for the rest of the ride.

   We arrived at the airport in a few hours, and Bonnie was still acting strange. No, she was acting strange all the way to Mystic Falls. I watched as she got out of the car, immediately walking over to Caroline who had been pacing back and forth in front of the Gilbert residence. I got out, but stopped. There was a strange scent in the air, one that I had come to know during the days where I fed on blood-soaked fields. It was the scent of a body decomposing, Jeremy's body decomposing. I glanced at Damon, who had a grim expression. He swallowed hard, and moved towards Caroline, who was looking at me with anger.

   "Oh my god, Clara, I have a lot to say to you—"

   I lifted my hands to quiet her and nodded. "I will listen to everything you have to say, but now, could you get Stefan out here?"

   She stared at me with confusion, the hint of anger still clear in her eyes. "They said that she knows what to do," she said, referring to Bonnie.

   "Caroline, we need to talk to my brother," Damon said. He was serious, not a hint of hope in his tone of voice. 

   "What's wrong?" she asked, her eyes widening only a bit. She glanced from Damon to me, and then it clicked when she saw me gesture to Bonnie with my eyes. "Um, yeah, okay. I'll... I'll tell him to come."

   I took a few steps back, standing in the front lawn with my arms crossed and eyes staring at the ground. It was at the sound of footsteps when I turned my head. Stefan walked out of the house, arms crossed, brows furrowed. There was a part of me, even in that grim moment, that couldn't help but smile at his very presence. And I hated that, because I wasn't supposed to be happy in that grim moment, at all, but there was a part of me that was. I covered the smile that was about to appear on my lips by biting the corner of my lip and taking a stand next to Damon.

   "What's wrong?" Stefan asked, crossing his arms and glancing from his brother to me.

   "Bonnie," I began. "She's–"

   "She's out of her mind, Stefan," Damon broke in. "The nutty professor's got her totally brainwashed!" He sighed and shrugged his shoulders hard, his hands slapping against his thighs.

   "The whole flight home, all that she talked about was how she's the one that can drop the veil between this side and the Other Side," I finished, shrugging my shoulders. 

   "Drop the veil?" Stefan asked, glancing at his brother then at me. "What does that even mean?"

   "What it means is, the myth about Silas being able to raise the dead is not just one, or some," Damon answered, eyes hardening. "It's every supernatural being out there."

   "Damon filled me in with what happened while I was gone," I said, crossing my arms. "On the ride here, I began to think about it. Three massacres, three hotspots, and the spell of the century; every supernatural being over there is back with a vengeance."

   "You're telling me that she's planning on dropping this veil?" Stefan asked, disbelief in his tone.

   "She would never do this on her own," I added, shrugging my shoulders. "Something must have happened in the island to make her think like this. The Bonnie that I came to know would never sacrifice twelve people." I trailed off as I heard the voices from inside getting higher, fighting. It was Caroline's that was the highest, the one that fought back. I glanced at the brothers and sighed. "We should go inside, calm them down before it gets out of hand."

   We walked in the moment the phone began to ring. Elena stood up to answer it. On the other side of the line was a girl named April Young, which Damon told me was Pastor Young's daughter. She asked about Jeremy, since his cellphone kept going straight to voicemail. 

   "Jeremy can't come to the phone right now. He's not–" She paused and stared at the window for several seconds. "I'm sorry. He's dead."

   At that specific moment, I physically saw Elena Gilbert's world fall apart more than it already was. The hand that had a hold of the phone shook, her body shook, her shoulders slumped, and her knees wobbled as if she would fall at any moment. She ended the call and brushed past us, heading straight upstairs. I heard her footsteps slow down as she headed to a room, which I figured out was Jeremy's. I heard her let out a soft cry, so soft that it was almost a whisper. Damon went upstairs to help her. At that moment, I heard Elena Gilbert be broken.

   "He's dead," she said, her voice cracking with the wind. "He's dead. Damon, he's dead, and he's been dead this entire time, and I–"

   "Matt, you should take Bonnie home," I broke in, no longer wanting to hear Elena's pain. It wasn't because it annoyed me, because it didn't. It was because it was painful. Hearing her voice crack, her words seeped with nothing but pain and confusion, was painful. "It's been a very long day, and, um, I think she needs some rest."

   Matt looked at me strangely, then at Bonnie, and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Come on, Bon." He stood up and helped her, walking out of house with a solemn look in his eyes. He, too, was broken. His friend, maybe best friend, was dead, and he had yet to mourn.

   I sighed. "She's going to lose it," I softly said, glancing up at Caroline and Stefan. "Elena. She's going to lose it."

   "We need to cover his death," Caroline said.

   "What can we say?" asked Stefan. "Animal attack? We've been covering that for almost a year."

   "Maybe he fell down the stairs and broke his neck?" continued Caroline.

   "Guys, no," I stopped them. "Let's, uh, give Elena some space first. She should take this in and then we can help her."

   "Where's Bonnie?" Elena's voice rang around the room as she came down the stairs.

   "We told Matt to take her home," I told her, furrowing my brows as I watched her eyes glance around the room. "We thought it'd be best..."

   "Okay," she sighed, nodding. "I guess we're gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way."

   "Do what?" Caroline asked, cautiously, as if she wasn't sure what she actually went. 

   Damon arrived downstairs, Jeremy's corpse in his arms. The body was covered with a blanket, but it still didn't cover the smell. Elena turned to him. "Put his body on the couch," she told him. She then went to the kitchen and began to hysterically open and close cabinets.

   "Elena?" Caroline questioned, watching her best friend with confusion. "Elena, you need help finding something?"

   Elena found what she was looking in one of the cabinets. "Got it," she softly breathed. I stared at the bottle with furrowed brows, noticing how it read lighter fluid. Out of nowhere, Elena opened it and began to squirt it over the counter. Caroline stood in astonishment.

   "What are you doing?" I asked Elena, surprised and worried.

   She continued to squirt the lighter fluid. "We need a cover story, right? You think I didn't hear you guys talking earlier? Well, what are we gonna say––animal attack, tumbled down the stairs? No. We burn the house down with him inside of it." All while she spoke, she squirted everywhere she could. She made it to the living room and began to squirt the couch. 

   "Elena, stop it," Stefan said, his voice rising. 

   She stopped and turned to him. "Why? Because you want me not to be in denial? You want me to face the truth? This is the truth, Stefan. I don't want to live here anymore. I don't want the sketches." She sprayed a book of sketches with the lighter fluid, then kicked something. "I don't want this stupid Xbox." She threw the empty bottle and reached into the cabinet, pulling out a bottle. "Not gonna need this bourbon anymore. Alaric's not here to drink it, I mean, unless any of you guys are willing to bring back every supernatural creature on the Other Side to get him back." She turned to Damon. "Would you? I know you want your drinking buddy back." She got closer to him. "Would you, Damon? Because I wouldn't." She walked over to Jeremy's body and sprinkled the bourbon over his body. "I don't know, I mean, does that make me a bad person? I–I have no idea." She pulled the Gilbert ring from his finger and tossed it to Damon. "He's not gonna need that anymore."

   "Elena, stop it!" Caroline shouted. "You're scaring me!"

   She didn't listen. Elena grabbed a picture frame from the fireplace mantle and poured a bit of the bourbon over it. "What else are we supposed to do with the body, Caroline?" she shouted back. I mean, there's no–there's no room in the Gilbert family plot." She threw the frame to the ground, glass splattering everywhere as if it were water. "Jenna and John took the last spots." She threw the half empty bottle of bourbon against the wall, more glass splattering with the alcohol.  She then grabbed a match from the mantle and lit it.

   "No, no, Elena!" I chided, taking a step closer to her with my hands up. "Stop it, please."

   "There's nothing here for me anymore, Clara!" she shouted. "Every inch of this house is filled with memories of people that I love that have died––my mom, my dad, Jeremy, and Jenna and Alaric, John. Even John. I mean, they're all dead. Everyone is dead. So, what am I supposed to–I mean, how am I gonna–I can't even– There's nothing left for me––aah!"

   The flame had burned down on the match, reaching her hand. She dropped the match, but Damon sped over and grabbed it before it reached the ground, before it could ignite on the lighter fluid she had squirted everywhere. It was then when Elena began to sob, when the ruins of her foundation crumbled completely. 

   "Elena," Damon quietly breathed, "I need you to calm down."

   "No, no, no, I can't!" she sobbed, shaking her head and hands. "I can't. I can't. I––" She fell on her knees, the immeasurable pain and grief decorating her face as if they were little jewels. I turned away from her then, unable to see her. There was so much pain in that little vampire, so much grief, and I wondered how did she manage. When I was like her, I destroyed towns, fed to acclimate the pain that ate me from the inside. Taking notice, Elena had been through worse than me: she lost her parents, both her adoptive and biological parents, but she continued to move on with a smile. When I died, when I, in away, lost my parents, I soothed the pain with blood-binges. For Elena, losing Jeremy must have been the final straw, the final string that held her upright. 

   She grabbed at her head. "No. It hurts. It hurts. Just make it stop," she begged. "Please make it stop. It hurts." She sobbed loudly.

   "Damon," I quietly spoke up, my fingers to my mouth so I wouldn't cry. He turned to me, eyes furrowed, pain in his eyes. "Help her."

   He crouched down next to her and pulled her to him as she continued to sob. "I can help you," he softly said. "I want you to let me help you." He reached for her face, making her shudder. She sat up as he gently caressed her cheeks and smoothed her hair back. "I can help you."

   "How?" she breathed.

   "Turn it off," he said.

   "What?" I gasped, shaking my head. "Damon, no!"

   "What? No, no!" Stefan spoke, shaking his head. 

   Damon held up a hand to stop us from intervening. "Just turn it off, and everything will go away," he told Elena. "That's what you have to do. It's what I want you to do. Just turn it off."

   Elena's tear-strained face turned utterly expressionless and still. The light left her eyes, as if something inside her died. No, she was already dead inside, she just let go of that pain and allowed the soothing nothingness to take over. With no emotion, with nothing in her face, she reached down for the broken picture frame and stared at it with no expression.

   Caroline left, me walking her out of the house. She said something about calling me later on the night, that I would hear an earful from her for leaving out of nowhere. I told her that I would expect anything, then closed her car door and watched her speed away. With a sigh, I walked back to the front porch, where Stefan was lecturing Damon.

   "It was a mistake," he hissed.

   "It wasn't and you know it," Damon said in return. "This is the only way she's gonna survive. We'll help her, keep an eye on her. When she's ready, I'll use the sire bond to bring her back."

   "Her humanity, Damon," I spoke up, looking up at him as I shook my head. "It was all she had left."

   "Humanity means nothing when you don't have anyone to care about, Clara," he spat. At that moment, he wasn't referring to just Elena. I knew that he was referring to other things, one of them being what we spoke about on the plane.

   "She had you," Stefan quietly said, nodding.

   "She lost her brother," Damon told him. "I'm not enough, not this time."

   "Listen, Damon, um," Stefan began. "I know that you and I have been through some bad spots lately, especially when it comes to her."

   "Yeah, well, guess none of that matters anymore."

   "Well, I just, um... I want you to know that, um..." He met his brother's eyes.

   "I know, Stefan," Damon quietly responded, laying a hand on his shoulder. 

   "Well, I don't," I joined, glancing from each brother. "So, if you'd like to be vocal about it..."

   Stefan chuckled, the first smile I had seen since I returned forming on his lips. "Uh, how about you let this one be between Damon and I?"

   "Ugh, fine," I let out a sigh, then smiled at both of them. "My boys. My very stupid boys."

   Damon rolled his eyes, but smiled, and so did Stefan. I let out another smile and reached for the door, walking in. Elena was by the fireplace, another lit match in her hand. She was expressionless, just like before. I felt sorry for her, but, in a way, I agreed with Damon. It was best for her to have her emotions off for a while, but it was also horrible. When they returned, she could be worse.

   "Elena, don't do this," Damon softly said. "We can find another cover story."

   She shook her head. "This is the best one," she said, her voice filled with no emotion. "No one will ask questions."

   I walked closer to her. "If you burn down the house, it'll be gone," I told her. Thoughts of my old home, the one that was by the woods and in ruins, came to mind. "What if one day, when this is all over, you want to come home again?"

   She stared at the burning match in her hand for several seconds, then looked at me. "I won't." She tipped the match over her fingers, the floor immediately igniting in bright shades of orange. The flames spread fast, but that didn't bother the girl. She turned and walked out the door, head held high. We followed after her, confused. 

   I closed the front door behind me, following the other three out. Halfway out, I stopped and turned to look back at the house. The flames were still in the living room, spreading slowly and brightly around the house. I could smell Jeremy's body burning, wood, paper, alcohol. I smelt everything, I heard everything, and it sounded like destruction. The crackling and popping of the fire wasn't comforting like it was supposed to be, but frightening. It wasn't a warm and comforting warmth, but destruction.

   I felt a hand on mine, causing me to abruptly turn to the person who it belonged to. Stefan stood besides me, also staring back at the house.

   "She's going to regret this," I said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "When she turns on her humanity, this is going to absolutely break her."

   "I know," he softly said, returning the squeeze with a tighter one.

   "It's not my house, not my brother, not my memories, but..." I took a deep breath and turned to him.

   "You're crying," he finished for me. "Clara, you're crying." He laid his hands on my cheeks and wiped away the tears with his thumbs. There was a small smile on his lips, so small that it was almost invisible. The only reason I saw it was because of the fire, the stupid, destructive fire. "You don't need to cry."

   "No, I know," I nodded. "It's just that–I just..."

   "You care," he finished for me, nodding. The smile on his lips was wider this time, as he pulled me to him with his arms around my neck. His hug was warm, maybe warmer than the fire. I didn't mind it, in fact, I wanted it to last for as long as it could. He laid a kiss on top of my head. "Wasn't that the reason why you left, because you cared? There's nothing wrong with that, Clara. There's nothing wrong with caring."

   "Yeah, but I care too much," I muttered against his shoulder. "Stefan, I don't want to care that much."

   "It's you," he said. "You've always cared too much; it's part of who you are."

  He pulled away from me and smiled. It was soft, gentle, warm, opposite of the fire right across the door. He grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him, away from the burning Gilbert residence.