"someday we will reunite." 

"What are you doing out here?" Damon speaks in questions, everything in his life is a question. The sun is out and this veranda barely gets used, vampires are sulky creatures.

"Enjoying life." He takes a big gulp from a heavy glass filled with what is presumably scotch. I dig in my purse and take out a pack of cigarettes that hasn't been touched in months. I flick what my mom used to call "a danger stick" on with a sparkly pink lighter and inhale.

I cough a little. I haven't smoked since before I went to trial and my lungs are still weak, coughing up blood can't be good for you. When I puff out the smoke the cigarette disappears from my hand.

"What was that for?"

"Your lungs are giving in and you're smoking. I won't be supporting your death wish."

"I am dying Damon. Sometime this week to be exact. Did you consider that while Elijah was pondering over Elena with potions and magical rings?" He takes another swig from his glass.

"We'll save you." I get up from the wholly uncomfortable chair I am sitting on and get in his face.

"Don't you get it? I don't want you to fucking save me! I have lived for so long and I have seen so many things. If I don't show up tomorrow and Klaus gets suspicious then Elena will certainly die." He kisses me. It isn't a passionate kiss, it's gentle and loving, just a peck. It's friendship he's trying to show, comradery, but he just doesn't fully understand how yet.

"It's okay Damon. You've been good to me. This lifetime and the other one and if I see you again someday I hope you will be good to me again." He nods and takes another sip of his drink.

"Lola." Stefan is standing in the front door, he looks worried but I can never tell if it is about me or about the world in general.

"Stef." He just smiles that sad little smile of his, that smile that tells me that he is sorry and afraid and that he loves me through everything. I smile back.

"I'll be fine, lovely Salvatore's. And if you need me in another life, all you have to do is search for the ginger girl they call Lola. I'll be ready for you this time."

"Get out!" Is that Jenna screaming? She repeats herself again, screaming the same words. We all run towards the sound immediately and spot Alaric and or Klaus standing in the driveway of the house.

Jenna has a crossbow in her hands and to be honest she looks pretty intimidating like this.

"Jenna, put the crossbow down, okay? It's me."

"Stay away from me." Elena comes running out of the house too, "What's going on?"

"It's me, Elena, I swear, okay? He let me go. Klaus let me go."

"Prove it." He looks in Jenna's direction, "Okay, uh, first night you and I spent together, Jeremy walked in right when I was about to..." Jenna's cheeks grow pink as she lowers the crossbow.

"Okay, it's him."

"Wait, why did Klaus let you go? Is he back in his own body?"

He nods, "He wanted me to deliver a message. The sacrifice happens tonight."

"So you don't remember anything that happened?" Stefan asks a still dazed Alaric.

"No. It's like I blacked out and woke up three days later. Katherine was there."

"Katherine was there?" I let out a scrutinized sigh of relief. The people currently around me hate her and want her dead, but I can't pretend not to care. Not in my last hours on this earth knowing her.

"She's under compulsion. Damon snuck her some vervain, but she can't leave until Klaus tells her she can." Stefan explains.

"Where is Damon?" Elena and I say at the exact same time. We laughs at each other.

Jenna scrunches her forehead and points to the stairs "I saw him go upstairs."

Elena nods and follows her way up the stairs, I can hear her feet bouncing up and down the steps in the background of my own story.

"So Jenna, how are you doing under all this." She puffs up her cheeks and twirls her finger around her temple. "I'm just trying to take it all in."

I point at Alaric, "you totally kissed me as Klaus. Very scruffy." He laughs.

"Sorry to disappoint Lola, but I don't think Klaus and I share much of our feelings." I shrug when I hear the commotion. Somehow I know exactly what Damon has done and I feel so stupid for allowing Elena to go upstairs and to him. Yelling, so much yelling and then as if it's nothing there is an arm in front of my mouth, the disgusting taste of vampire blood flows over my tongue and into my throat. I try to force Damon's arm off me but he's too strong. His arm gets ripped out of my mouth and I feel a tooth break, the chip finds its way down my throat.

"What did you do?! Huh? What did you do?!" It's Stefan yelling at him. I am still trying to come to terms with this new reality. Living another eternity really wasn't my goal this time around. I can feel liquid starting to stream over my cheeks, are those tears?

"I saved their lives." When I look up at the stairs I see Elena standing there too, blood is covering her mouth like it must be covering mine. When I swipe the back of my hand over my lips this is confirmed. There are tears on her face, like there are on mine.

He looks at me and then he looks at Elena and I am not even mad, just disappointed. It's what my mom used to say, it's why I'm sitting here heartbroken instead of getting up and screaming and spitting in his face.

"You're so bent on dying, at least this way I know you'll come back." And he's talking to Elena again. I am just a prize to be gained, the only friend he has left in this world, the only person that he can fuck up with again and again and who is foolish enough to let him back in. After all he has done.

"As vampires! They'll come back as vampires!"

"It's better than nothing else."

"Did you even think, for one second about this? Do you honestly think that this is what Lola and Elena want? This was just your selfishness taking over Damon. How could you take that choice away from either of them?"

He looks at Elena, "Go ahead: wish me an eternity of misery. Believe me, you'll get over it."

Then he looks at me, "you have lived an eternity of misery. Don't worry, it won't be any different."

Stefan pushes him, I can hear Elena running down the stairs and it all just happens so fast. Damon has picked up a stick and has driven it through Stefan's stomach, straight into a wall. Alaric gets up from the couch, he stayed away earlier because he didn't want to worsen matters. But things can't get any worse than this.

"Admit it. You just wish you had the balls to do it yourself." Stefan punches him in the face, no mystical wooden sticks that can kill vampires, just a good old punch to the face. Damon falls to the floor and get his nose punched, there is blood covering his face. He gets up and drives the stake through Stefan's abdomen again, this time Stefan can't recover as quickly.

Elena pushes Damon away from his brother, "Get out!"

"Alaric get him out of here!" I yell. Alaric goes towards him but he pushes him back and leaves on his own accord.

"Okay," I say, "Jenna there are blood bags in the basement. You should go get them." She nods and starts to run downstairs.

Elena and I grab the stick embedded in Stefan's abdomen together and pull it out with a sickening pop. "You okay Stef?" he lets himself fall down onto Elena's legs.

"I'm so sorry." She pets his hair with her free hand.

"It's okay."

There's a knock at the door of the Salvatore boarding house. Everyone is gone, I asked them to leave alone and let me drown in my sorrows. Let me drown in my death.

I open the door so slowly and when I look at the man standing there my heart hurts. He is handsome as ever, with his own face and his own eyes and his own clothes. Somehow he always looks like he did the first day I met him to me. All innocent and dressed in greys and whites. He isn't anymore though. He isn't the person that I used to know anymore.

"My love." He holds out his hand and I take it without any hesitation, his hand feels smooth around mine. "Niklaus." We both hear the car in the driveway and turn our head towards the noise. He smiles at me but I can't smile back. Suddenly we are standing in the gravelly driveway, the stones crunching under our feet and my hand still firmly held in his.

Stefan has defensively put himself in front of Elena.

"You got me all nervous. I thought maybe you'd done something stupid. You ready, my dear?" his accent is back, it's what confused me so much when he was within Alaric. She nods.

"I'm ready." She starts to walk towards us but Stefan stops her, of course he does. He whispers something that I can't hear from this distance.

"I wouldn't. No reason for you to die too." He pinches the thin skin on the top of my hand.

Elena turns around to look at Stefan and sees what I see, he is staring at Klaus and he is do intensely sad. "No. Stefan, hey, hey, it's fine, it's fine. I'll go. No one needs to get hurt. There's no reason for you to get hurt." She kisses him swiftly and I hear them say those familiar words to each other.

"Stefan." I say, just loud enough so Elena can hear too.

"Close your eyes." It's a game we used to play. So he would never have to see me walk away from him. "Stefan, I love you." He shakes his head and Elena looks at me, she is ready to let go of him.

"Close your eyes, Stefan." He does, I see Elena let go of his hand and I feel Klaus pick me up. We are gone within seconds.