The house was eerily empty, with nothing and no one. I was anxious, worried, a bit scared of the person that had called me. My phone had rang several times while I was in bed, and I had refused to answer for the all of them. When it rang once again, the final time, I finally answered. When I heard his voice, I couldn't help but be surprised. It had been months since I last heard of him, days since I thought he had left. He asked me to come, and I did, so I called out for him.

   "Elijah," I called out for the fifth time. "Elijah, I'm here!" I heard a noise behind me and turned to see him standing there. He looked at regal as always, with a clean suit and clean hair and a hand in his pocket. I breathed his name out, almost surprised.

   "Clara," he softly said, "I'm glad you came."

   "You said it was an emergency." I shrugged my shoulders and pulled my arms together as if I were cold. The truth was that I didn't know what to do in front of him.

   "Yes, I lied," he admitted, avoiding my eyes. "I apologise for that, but it was the only way I could get you out of bed. I've been told that you have been quite depressed ever since the massacre of the twelve witches."

   I sucked in a breath and nodded. "You do know that I would have still come, Elijah. Emergency or not, you are my friend."

   "Yes, of course," he nodded. After a few moments of silence, he spoke once again. "We're returning to New Orleans. The witches there are planning against Niklaus, and you know how I can't leave him alone."

   I glanced around the empty house. "From what I'm seeing he already left, and without a goodbye. I'm not surprised."

   "Actually, Clara, he did hand me this." He pulled out an envelope from his jacket and pushed it towards me. My name was written in gentle cursive in the front, the C big and bold. I immediately knew the handwriting belonged to Klaus. "He gave it to me before he left, a goodbye I presume."

   "Does he plan to never see me again?" I asked, hurt. 

   "Think of this as a see you later," Elijah said, almost shrugging his shoulders. "From me as well, Clara."

   I looked up at him, furrowing my brows. "You're leaving, too?" I asked, surprised. "I-I mean, I heard you the first time but I just... I didn't want to believe it. Elijah, the last time I actually saw you was the night I left."

   He stepped towards me and laid a gentle hand on my cheek. "Oh, sweet Clara. This is not a goodbye, dear friend. We will see each other again." He gave me a small smile as he pulled his hand away. When he turned to leave, I grabbed his hand.

   "Elijah, wait!" I held on to his hand, gently squeezing it. "I need to ask you: when you first saw me after fifteen years, when we were in Richmond, I wanted to leave. You were driving back to Mystic Falls and I asked you if I could leave. You told me that I didn't need your permission, and I was going to leave, but, you..." I let go of his hand and glanced around, shaking my head. I looked back at him, a pained expression on my face. "You compelled me to feed until I arrived at the boarding house. Elijah, I killed two young boys. One was ten, the other was eight, and they screamed the loudest. I killed them because you compelled me to. Why did you make me feed until I arrived to the boarding house?"

   Elijah stepped closer to me and stared down at me. For once, I could clearly see that he took pity on me. "I was angry," he said. "We had been together for more than a century, Clara, and you left. Back then, I didn't know you were compelled by Niklaus to leave. I thought that the only way I could make you hurt was to make you do what you hated the most, to kill." He let out a sigh and nodded. "I deeply apologise for the pain I caused you, Clara."

   I stared at him, and realised how much he meant to me. Elijah was a dear friend, someone I would always love no matter what and that made me feel weak. I should have been angry at him, I should have hated him, but I couldn't. I could not find it within myself to hate him, to even have a single cell of hate for him in my body. The only thing I could do was forgive him.

   "You're my friend," I told him, grabbing his hand with both of mine. I stared at it for several seconds, recalling the many times we had spent together. "I forgive you, Elijah." I pulled him into a hug, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck. He was awkward at first, but he hugged me back, gently.

   "You are always welcome to New Orleans," he said when he pulled back, a faint smile around his lips. "If you ever need to get away from Mystic Falls, you know that your other home is with us."

   I returned to the boarding house with Klaus' letter between my hands. There was a part of me that was tempted to open the letter right after I walked out of the mansion, but there was another part of me that told me to wait. So, I did. I pushed it between a book and walked down to the cellar where I could hear the brothers speaking quietly. Damon and Stefan stood at the end, the former concentrating on a safe. The brothers had been keeping Elena inside of it as some form of punishment.

   "You still have her locked there?" I asked, crossing my arms. "Still nothing?"

   "Damon's been in her head for over an hour," Stefan explained as he shook his head.

   "How you doing in there?" Damon asked, opening the safe. Elena was laying against the wall, weak and barely concious. She tried to stand, but she ended up falling. Damon crouched down in front of her. "Is the old you ready to come out and play?"

   "Go to hell," she breathed.

   Damon made a face and smiled tightly. "Okay. Back you go." He put her back in the safe and locked it. "We can do this the nice way or we can do it the other way, but either way, we're not stopping until you turn your humanity switch back on. So, I'm gonna let you think about that, and I'm gonna come back for you in a couple of hours, or a couple of years, because all we have is time." He tapped the safe twice, then brushed my shoulder as he went upstairs.

   I stared at the safe for several seconds, then decided to follow the brothers out of the cellar. They were both filled with anguish, and both had not slept for days. Elena had been locked in the cell since prom, she had been weakened with blood filled with vervain, and her daylight ring had been taken away.

   "Where were you?" Stefan asked as I plopped down on the sofa in the parlour. "You left early in the morning."

   "Elijah called," I said, pulling my legs up. "He wanted to say goodbye."

   He nodded. "Katherine said Klaus left to New Orleans. Elijah left, too?"

   "When one Mikaelson leaves, the rest soon follow," I softly said, nodding to myself. "Family matters most to them. Rebekah stayed, but I wouldn't be surprised if she chose to follow soon."

   The front door slammed open. Caroline marched in, anger in her eyes. "Where is she?" she demanded. "I wanna see her."

   "We're not letting anyone see her, that's the whole point," Stefan said, looking over at her. "Isolation leads to misery leads to emotion."

   "She's been here for days," Caroline sighed, glancing back at us. "She hasn't improved at all?"

   Stefan sighed. "Look, she doesn't want to, Caroline, not yet. She's devastated; she lost her brother, she-she attacked her friends, she killed an innocent woman."

   "You said that you knew how to help her."

   "I did say that," he nodded. "We are."

   Caroline scoffed. "What, how? By torturing her?"

   "It's not torture, it's an intervention," Stefan explained. "The only chance we have with her is to provoke her, to trigger something. Fear, anger, self-pity, anything."

   "Let me talk to her," she pleaded. "Before any more interventioning. If she's weak, she can't hurt me. Please, just let me try."

   Stefan reluctantly lead her down to the cellar and came back a few moments later. He took a seat in the sofa in front of me, leaning back and crossing his arms. I listened in to the conversation between Elena and Caroline, only finding myself to be annoyed with the girl with no humanity. She spoke about how Tyler left town, then making fun of Caroline for looking forward to graduation. I actually felt pity for Caroline, then. She wanted nothing more but to have the human experience, something that was taken from her.

   It was when Elena called Caroline a blood-sucking control freak monster that I sped down to the cellar. Elena bared her teeth at Caroline, getting ready to attack. I went over to the girl, grabbed her head and twisted it. She fell limp to the ground, leaving a panting Caroline standing there with wide eyes. Stefan appeared then, slightly confused and worried.

   "Do whatever you have to do," Caroline said without looking up from Elena. She looked at me, then at Stefan. "I'm gonna be upstairs." She walked past me and straight to the entrance of the cellar. 

   I looked down at Elena's body, and almost kicked her but held myself back. With a sigh, I picked her body up then put her in the safe and locked it. I turned and brushed past Stefan, going straight upstairs. Caroline was serving herself a glass of alcohol, mumbling about how she couldn't believe the monster Elena was with no humanity.

   "There are worse things to do when you have no humanity," I said, crossing my arms. I leaned against the sofa next to her. "She's lucky she has the Salvatore's to keep her in check."

   "Clara," she said, softly, the glass to her lips. "What did you do when you turned it off?"

   I took a deep breath and grabbed the glass from her, downing it. "I had no one to keep me in check," I said. "I killed a lot of people, Caroline. Sometimes, I think I have killed more than Klaus, and that says a lot about who I am. But, it was too much. If you search for Chester, Louisiana, you won't find in a current map. The information will say that there was this big fire that killed every person living there. Truth is, I killed them all and set that fire to get rid of the bodies. That was just one town that I destroyed, but it's an example of what being without humanity and having no one."

   "I-I didn't know..." she said, shaking her head. She sighed and nodded. "I'm just gonna call Bonnie, for like the billionth time. Call me if Elena makes any progress, okay?" I watched her leave, sitting in the head of the sofa with the empty glass of alcohol in hand. 

   "Clara, I've told you so many times that I'm here for you," Stefan said from the doorway, his arms crossed and leaning against it. "We are here for you. Any moment you feel like you're slipping away, come talk to me."

   I let out a soft chuckle and laid the glass down on the table. "Stefan, I think you're the last person on my list to ask if I ever feel like I'm going to break."

   "Yeah," he nodded, giving me a tight-lipped smile. "You're right."

   "No, Stefan—shit," I shook my head and walked over to him. "I'm sorry. Those words shouldn't have come out. Sorry."

   "You're on edge. I get it, Clara," he said, taking my hand. "Ever since you killed those witches, ever since prom, you haven't been yourself. Clara, what Silas said to you are lies. He wants to get to all of us. Like I've told you so many times, you're not easy to manipulate."

   "That's where you're wrong," I breathed, pulling my hand away from his. I walked to the sofa and took a seat, pulling my legs up to my chest. "I have been manipulated so many times and I went through with it because I thought it was the right thing to do. And now Silas is slowly manipulating me into going insane. Like, how do I know it's you standing in front of me? He took your face during prom, and I thought it was you, and I just couldn't breath because of the words he said. So, how do I know it's you?"

   Stefan stared at me for a couple of seconds. He then crossed the distance between us, laid his hands on my cheeks, and kissed me. His lips, just like the many times he had kissed me before, were soft against mine. They moved carefully, softly, as if I would break if he kissed me any rougher. I liked his kisses, to be honest. They reminded me of sweets, of tender love and memories past. He pulled away too soon for my liking, but he did keep a hold of my face in his hands. 

   "The first time I kissed you was in 1863," he said against my lips, "during the one of the nights in the county fair. I stared into your eyes, and you stared into mine, and then I just kissed you. You kissed me back, but then you pushed me away and wiped your mouth." He let out a soft chuckle and shook his head. "You then ran away from me. But, that night was the first time I kissed you, Clara."

  "Okay, Lovers," Damon said as he entered the room. Stefan and I separated from each other. My cheeks were red, an invisible embarrassment running through me. I crossed my arms and looked at Damon, seeing him carrying a dead Elena. He smiled. "Help me out here, would ya'?"

   He walked to one of the rooms on the ground floor and set Elena down on a chair. As he tied her to the chair, I looked around. There was a big window in front of her, the sunlight covered by a curtain. I stood in front of the curtains and crossed my arms as I turned to look at what Damon was doing. He took off Elena's daylight ring, grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall, and noisily set it down. Elena startled awake, a simple look of fright in her eyes for just a few seconds. 

   "Good, you're awake," Damon said. "Thought you could use a little sunshine."

   Besides me, Stefan began to pull back the curtain slowly. A small trail of sunshine began to move closer to Elena, slowly, as if he were scared to actually burn her. Damon stepped closer to her and leaned down next to her hand, showing her the daylight ring. "Looking for this?" She tried to reach for it, but the constraints didn't let her go far. Damon pulled his hand back. "Oh, you know the rules: bad girls don't get nice jewellery." It was then when Stefan closed the curtain.

   "You took my ring," Elena said impassively. "I'm devastated. And bored. Can I go back to solitary now?"

   "No," Damon said. "I kinda like you in the hot seat. Whenever you're ready, brother."

   Elena looked back at Stefan, who reached for the curtain. "Am I supposed to be scared?" she asked. 

   "You will be," Stefan said. "And when you are, focus on the fear. It's the key to getting your humanity back."

   "You're not gonna burn me," she said an invisible smile on her lips. 

   I saw Stefan hesitate for several seconds, so I grabbed the curtain from his hand and looked at Elena. "Maybe they can't," I said, a smirk forming around my lips, "but I've been dying to hurt you." I pulled the curtain wide and the sunlight began to burn Elena's arm. She began to yell in pain, struggling in her chair. Her arm caught on a fire and Damon put it out with the fire extinguisher. I let go of the curtain, making the room dark again.

   "Bet that feels better, huh?" Damon said. "How about a little gratitude, or any human emotion whatsoever, and we can stop this." She mumbled something under her breath as she gasped and strained on her chair. Damon leaned closer to her. "I didn't quite catch that."

   "I said," she panted, "I'm gonna kill you."

   "Bingo!" he nodded. "See? There's a little rage. I should've figured out that'd be the first emotion that came out of you. I tend to pull that out of people."

   Stefan then crouched down in front of her. "Elena, look at me. We don't wanna do this, okay? You can stop this right now. It's your choice."

   She laughed. "It's kinda funny, actually—you letting your girlfriend be the one to pull the curtain. I bet part of you enjoys it, since, you know, I dumped you and all."

   "Wow," I chuckled, shaking my head. "That was downright vindictive."

   Damon crouched down beside Stefan in front of Elena. "See? I think now we're breaking through that tough candy shell and getting to the ooey-gooey rich centre of your humanity. This is good. I think we should shine the light on the subject."

   Stefan stood and walked over to the curtain. Before he could open it, Elena let out a long sigh, and said, "Let me guess, this is gonna hurt you a lot more than it's gonna hurt me?"

   "Look, I know what you're going through," he told her. "After all you've done, you're afraid to face the guilt you'll feel if you turn your emotions back on. Only way we can help you is to make the alternative hurt even more." Elena laughed at him softly and closed her eyes. Stefan wrenched back the curtain, and her face began to burn.

   It went like that for a very long time, at least two hours. They would let Elena heal, and then the curtain would be opened again. It came to the point where Elena got angry, which was good for her but horrible for Damon. She spoke about how horrible it was to be sired to him, how horrible it was to believe that she loved him. And she made fun of how scared he was that her love for him wasn't real. She then joked about her and Stefan getting back together. 

   I looked at the brothers, seeing how they both had hurt expressions in their eyes. Elena suddenly broke free from her restraints, pushed me to the side, and pulled down the curtains. She immediately burst into flames and began to scream. Damon grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire while Stefan patted her down frantically. She lied on the floor, coughing and laughing while her skin healed. 

   "I am the girl that you love," she said between breaths. "You wouldn't do anything to actually hurt me—you just proved that. So what do I really have to be afraid of?"

   "Me," I said, stepping in front of the brothers. I crouched down besides her and gave her a small, innocent smile. "I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this, Elena."

   She laughed. "Ooh, I'm afraid of the big, bad Clara." She looked at me, a mocking smile on her lips. "You won't hurt me, Clara."

   I made a face and shrugged my shoulders. "See, that's where you're wrong," I said. "Unlike Damon and Stefan, I'm not afraid of getting a bit of blood on me." I grabbed her by the back of her shirt and looked up at the brothers, who looked worried. "Don't worry, I won't kill her. I'm just going to maim."

   "No maiming," Damon warned, sticking up a finger at me.

   "Fine," I sighed, rolling my eyes. "How about seriously injure? As in, I might break a few bones." I didn't wait for their answers. Instead, I pulled Elena down to the cellar. There was a chair there, and I threw her on it. She was breathing hard, still weak from almost burning to death. I crossed my arms and circled her, wondering what to do.

   She threw her head back and laughed, watching as I circled her. "I'm not scared of you, Clara. "You won't hurt me. They won't let you."

   "What happened to the girl that was afraid of me?" I asked, crossing my arms. "You know, the girl that hated me because I killed people, because I slept with Damon, because Stefan had feelings for me. Now, I know that girl is still in there, somewhere, so I just have to get you to hate me so much that you'll turn your humanity back on."

   She laughed. "You think I was jealous because of your past with Damon and Stefan?"

   "Past?" I chuckled. "Oh, honey, no. See, the past is just a few months ago. You know, back when you were human, so in love with both brothers. The thing is, I had both brothers wrapped around my fingers since I was human. And now, a hundred and sixty-something years later, both brothers still have something for me. You're, well, you're just a distraction while I wasn't here." I gave her an innocent smile and patted her hand. 

   I felt horrible saying things like that, but I wanted to make her jealous, to make her want to tear my throat out. The only reason why I was saying such things was because, like everyone else, I wanted her to turn her humanity on. Jealousy could lead into anger, false words could make her hate me. I needed to rile her up, and I didn't know how else but to make her jealous. And then, I thought of another way. I could bring up the person she hated the most, the person that destroyed her life.

   I raised a finger to the air and stared at her as I tilted my head to the side. "Now that I think about it, you weren't even a distraction," I said, walking closer to her. "No, you were just a straight copy of Katherine."

   Elena's eyes changed when I mentioned her name. It was then where I figured out what made the girl with no humanity feel a little something.

   "I mean, that is why you're alive," I continued. "If it weren't for Katherine sleeping with Stefan and Damon back in 1864, you would be dead, just like your parents." I passed a hand through her hair, which she immediately pushed away by looking the other way. "Oh, and we can't forget about Jeremy. He would still be alive if it weren't for her, if it weren't for you, now that I recall. If it weren't for you wanting to be human, having everyone fawn over you, Jeremy would still be an ordinary kid. He would still be alive."

   Elena turned to me, her lips set into a straight line. Anger. There was anger in her eyes, and that made me smile. The straight line slowly quirked upwards, turning into a smirk. The anger disappeared as soon as it came. She laughed. "You think something would happen with you saying those things?" she asked. "If you're done, please leave me in solitary."

   I shrugged my shoulders and threw her back in the safe before I went upstairs. Damon and Stefan were waiting for me in the parlour, both sporting a surprise expression. I raised a hand to stop them from saying anything, and kept it raised as I served myself a glass of alcohol. It wasn't until I downed it that I lowered my hand and turned to them. 

   "Wow," Damon said, making a face. "I didn't know you could be so mean, Clara."

   "That wasn't mean," I said, serving myself another glass. "That was me being indelicate. I said things that I would never truly say to someone. I mean, yes, maybe when I'm angry, but... I shouldn't have said those things to Elena. When she turns her humanity on, she will absolutely loathe me." I downed the glass of bourbon and stared at the brothers for several seconds. "But, I did figure out a way to get her humanity back."

   "If it's Katherine, then we're thinking the same thing," Damon said, crossing his arms. "We already called."

   I took a seat on the head of the sofa and crossed my arms. "When I mentioned her, her face changed. For a single second, she was angry. She looked like she would rip my throat out."

   "Scared. Angry. We're halfway to getting her to turn on her emotions," Damon said, clapping his hands together. "We just have to wait for Katherine and Elena will be back to her normal self."

   A few hours later, I was sitting in the parlour with a book in my hands while Matt studied and Rebekah teased. I didn't recall how I ended up with the pair, but I was sure that it was them that ended up with me. They were waiting for Caroline to return and help them study, but they thought she was a bit tardy because something that had to do with her mother. I stole glances at the pair, mostly at Rebekah. She stared at Matt with love, with carefulness, and I knew right then that she fell for the human.

   What surprised me about Rebekah looking at him with such care was the fact that she had yet to compel him. No, she didn't compel. When she loved, when she cared, she didn't compel unless it was crucial. From what I've seen, and heard from an annoyed Caroline, Rebekah cared a lot for the human boy to the point where she was willing to act more human. Out of all the Mikaelson's, she was the one who enjoyed her humanity the most.

   It was then when Katherine entered. "What a beautiful sentiment," she said, glancing around.

   "Seriously?" I scoffed, closing the book and standing from the sofa. "You can't knock?"

   "Sorry," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "I didn't realise we were standing in formalities."

   "What the hell are you doing here?" Rebekah spat.

   Katherine smirked. "You didn't get the memo? I'm here to talk some sense into poor, emotionless Elena."

   "Are you out of your mind?" Matt spat, both at me and Damon, who had appeared out of nowhere.

   "You have a better idea?" I asked Matt, sighing.

   "Unless you want me to lock you up in there with her, I suggest you shut up," Damon spat at him. "Let the adults handle this, Prom King." He walked away with Katherine, who strutted as she looked around. 

   I followed them, keeping the book close to me. It was the book where I put Klaus' letter, the one I was so afraid to open ever since I received it. The letter was a few pages before the ending of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Each time I accidentally brushed my finger against it, I stopped moving and just stared at it for several seconds. Then, I told myself to let it pass and not read it until I was ready.

   "Why did you say those things to Elena?" Damon asked, taking a seat besides me on the sofa. "I honestly couldn't believe what you said."

   "I thought that making her jealous would bring out something inside of her," I told him, closing the book. "It didn't work, obviously, and now I feel like complete crap for saying them." I turned to him and bit my bottom lip. "I'm sorry for saying them."

   He let out a mixture of a laugh and a scoff. "You don't need to be sorry for saying them," he said. "You tried to get Elena to turn on her humanity by saying those things. We have all tried to do things, and to be honest, you've been the one to get something out of her." He turned to me and arched a brow. "Clara, you should stop saying sorry so much."

   Before I could let anything out, Katherine came. She immediately went to the bourbon, where she tossed back a glass and served herself another. "All that pain and torture, I've worked up quite a thirst."

   "It didn't have anything to do with the fact that Elena called you out on your recent boy trouble, could it?" Damon teasingly asked. "I couldn't help but overhear."

   "Did you ever think Elena would've been better off if she'd never met you?" she asked, walking over to the sofa.

   I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Here we go."

   "You're trying to get a rise out of me?" Damon asked. "'Cause my emotions are fine. I love Elena. I despise you."

   "Mm, so romantic, so doomed to fail," she hummed, taking a seat on his lap. She propped her feet on my lap, but I pushed them off. She ignored me. "You know as soon as she goes back to her old self, she'll go straight to Stefan. That's the tragedy of you--you never get the girl."

   I let out a soft chuckle and looked over at her. "And you never get the boy," I retorted. Her eyes moved towards me, just for a single second I could see the hatred behind them.

   "She's gone," Stefan announced as he entered the room. 

   "What?"

   "Elena's not in her cell," he said. "I'm gonna check the grounds. Find out what she did."

   "Oops," Katherine said. "Did I forget to to lock her in? Let's just say I've lost interest in Elena's recovery. I'd rather watch her tear through an orphanage. Imagine trying to come back from a spiral like that."

   "Elena's gone?" Matt asked as he came in. "What happened?"

   I stared at the boy for a couple of seconds, and got an idea. "Matt," I softly said, "you're coming with us."

   "Why should he?" asked Rebekah, glancing at me with worry.

   "Elena's hungry," I said, glancing around the room, my eyes landing on the human boy. "And Matt can be the answer to bringing her back."

   "Donovan, come on." Damon summoned him with his finger. I marched out of the room and went outside, where Damon and Matt followed me. 

   I stopped by Matt's truck and turned around to face them. First, I looked at Damon. "Do you have Jeremy's ring? The Gilbert ring?" He nodded. I turned to Matt. "You want to save Elena as much as everyone here, right? Are you willing to die for her?"

   "I'd do anything for her," he said. "She saved me from drowning in that river. This can be the only way I can repay her."

   "Good," I nodded. "Because you're gonna let her feed off you."

   "Wait, what?"

   "Clara, you can't be serious," Damon groaned, rolling his eyes. "You're gonna let her get stronger?"

   "Let me finish," I stopped him, rolling my eyes. "Katherine isn't the one that will get Elena's humanity back. It's Matt."

   "Please, elaborate," Damon said.

   "She's known him all her life," I began. "He's the only human here, the only fragile one—sorry. Bonnie's human, yes, but she's a witch. Matt's just a human, there's nothing supernatural about him, so she cares about him the most." I looked at the human. "Something happens to you, something drastic, and she might just turn it on."

   Matt looked determined as he nodded. "What do you want me to do?"

   As soon as we finished planning, Matt got in his truck and began to look for the girl. Damon and I went to the woods to look for Stefan. When we found him, we told him about the plan. He thought it was a horrible idea and condemned me for even thinking about it. But, when I told him that it could be the only way to bring Elena's humanity back, he hesitantly agreed. 

   I inhaled the fresh scent of blood, realising that half of the plan was in motion—Elena fed on Matt. I hurried to the scene, where Elena was standing over the weak boy. She was about to lift him up, but Stefan sped and pushed her against a tree. 

   "Hey, cut it off!" he snapped at her.

   "Let go of me!" she hissed, trying to struggle free from his grasp.

   "Stop it!" he repeated.

   That was when I came in. I went over to Matt and pulled him off the ground, glaring at the struggling vampire. "Enough!" I snapped at her. "You're being a spoiled little brat, Elena, you know that? You think that we can't punish you? Maybe not." I glanced down at Matt, smirked, and looked over at him. "But I can punish him."

   "Elena..." he weakly croaked. 

   "Seriously?" she scoffed. "You think this—"

   "Oh, shut up," I groaned, rolling my eyes. "I'm done playing nice. Turn your emotions on right now or so help me god, I will give you something to be sad about." Once again, I glanced down at Matt. "I will kill him right in front of you."

   "Clara," Stefan warned. 

   I rolled my eyes and pushed Matt down to his knees. "Don't "Clara" me, Stefan. She doesn't love anyone, remember?" I looked at the struggling vampire, who happened to struggle a little less. "Isn't that right, Elena? No humanity, right? Let's prove that. If I'm wrong, what difference does it make? One less busboy to worry about."

   "Elena..." Matt weakly croaked. 

   She scoffed. "You're bluffing."

   I smirked at her and twisted Matt's neck as violently as I could. Elena gasped loudly, her mouth hanging open in shock. She stepped away from Stefan and stared down at Matt's body. I stared at her, seeing her eyes glistening. Then, I smiled, softly, sadly, feeling completely horrible that I just killed Matt Donovan. 

   "You feel anything now?" I quietly asked her. "Are you angry that I killed Matt? Or are you sad that the guy everyone loves is just a bag of bones now?" I glanced at Stefan, then at Damon who stood besides him. They nodded, indicating to continue. I looked down at Elena. "Remember when he was a little kid; warm heart, big goofy smile, his whole life ahead of him. I guess it was a good idea he was wearing this." I leaned down and picked up his hand, showing her the Gilbert ring that was on his finger. 

   Elena fell to her knees and grabbed his hand, brushing her fingers against the ring. "Oh my god, Matt," she softly cried. She brushed her fingers down his cheek as she let out soft sobs.

   "Do you feel that weight lifting off your chest?" I asked her, letting out a small smile. "That's joy, Elena. That's joy because your friend isn't dead. That's emotion. That is humanity."

   Damon crouched down besides her and laid a hand gently on her cheek. "You're going to be okay," he told her.

   "No..." she breathed. 

   "Look at me."

   "No, no, no!" she breathed, pushing his hand away and standing. "It's not okay!"

   "Elena," he softly called, following her.

   Her hands were on her head as she shook, as she let out sobs. "What have I done?" she asked as she paced. "No, no. What did I do? I-I almost killed Matt, I almost... And Bonnie, and Clara, and Caroline, I just—" She pushed Damon away when he tried to put an arm around her. "No, no! I mean, that woman, the waitress. I actually killed that waitress—no, I killed that waitress!" She punched Matt's truck, then the window. Damon grabbed her from behind as she struggled to get out.

   I stepped in front of her and laid a hand on her shoulders. "Look at me," I told her as she continued to struggle. "Hey, look at me. I know this stage, okay? The emotions are overwhelming you. You just have to focus on one thing, okay?"

   "No, no!" she cried. "I can't, I can't!"

   "Just find that thing inside you that makes you strong," I quietly said. "It's in there, Elena, just latch on to it. Channel everything you're feeling into that emotion. Find the thing inside you want to live. Let it in." 

   Elena Gilbert stared at me with so much pain that I felt sorry for her. Her brown eyes were sullen with the catastrophes she had seen in the eighteen years of her life. I saw the death of her parents, the death of her Aunt Jenna, I saw the death of her biological parents, and I saw Jeremy's as well. She was in so much pain, and I felt sorry for bringing it back.

   I nodded at her. "Just breath it in," I softly said, "blow everything out."

   It was for only a moment that she calmed down. She yelled out in pain and clutched her head, but only for a few seconds. She took a deep breath, inhaling then exhaling as much air as she could. Damon laid a hand on her shoulder. 

   "You okay?" he softly asked.

   "No," she answered, shaking her head. "I'm not okay." She glanced at all of us, then turned to walk away. "But I'll get better." She continued to walk away, leaving the three of us behind.

   I glanced down at Matt's dead body and took a deep breath. "I guess I'll take Matt back to the boarding house," I said, but it sounded more like a question. 

   "I'll help you," Stefan breathed, lifting Matt's body. "Damon, you, uh, take Elena home."

   Damon nodded and followed after Elena, leaving Stefan and I alone. I glanced at him, just taking him in for a couple of seconds, then nodded to myself. A few minutes after Elena and Damon walked away, we began to move. We walked slowly, as if we were taking out time being alone. Well, as alone with a dead body.

   "It was nice," Stefan said, breaking the silence, "helping Elena turn on her humanity."

   I nodded. "Well, I couldn't exactly leave her be an emotionless monster, now could I?"

   "You didn't have to help," he said. "You could have just let her be. But, you helped, and that worked. So, from Damon and I, thank you."

   "You don't have to thank me, Stefan," I said, quickly glancing at him. "I didn't exactly did it for her. I did it because I thought that maybe helping her would make me feel better about the witch massacre, about myself."

   "And do you feel better?"

   "Nope," I sighed and shook my head. "I still feel like crap for doing it. But, like Elena said, I'll get better."

   "You will," he nodded, giving me a smile. "It just takes a bit of time."

   "Years, maybe," I joked, letting out a soft laugh. "But, yeah, I just need time."