13

—13. The Descent

ALWAYS AND FOREVER

Jules joins Sheriff Forbes at the bar. "Sheriff Forbes, hi. I'm Mason Lockwood's friend from Florida."

"Jules, right?"

"Is there any news?"

"No one's heard from him. I've opened an investigation. As soon as I hear anything I'll let you know." Alaric is looking at them and he calls Damon.

"Hey, Damon. The wolf is at the grill." Stefan and Aurora joined him.

Stefan looked over at the wolf girl, "Is that the-?"

"Yeah, yeah. I just left Damon a message."

"Have you always been his little servant?" Aurora asked the man.

"She could have a cure for Rose. I couldn't find anything in Isobel's research except that it's fatal." Alaric retorted.

"Do you still know of a way to get in touch with Isobel?" Stefan questioned, oblivious to the way Aurora stiffened.

"Even if I did, she isn't gonna help."

Stefan shook his head, "Aurora told us that Katherine said that Isobel knew of Klaus."

"So this isn't about Rose, it's about Elena. I have an old number, probably out of service."

"No harm in giving it to me then?"

"You know you can't trust Isobel, even when it comes to Elena." Alaric warned.

Stefan nodded, "I know that."

"Alright. I'm gonna see if I can find the number. If I do, I'll text it to you." He leaves.

Jules is eating and Stefan and Aurora are watching her. Stefan looks at his phone: Alaric's texted him the number. He calls but no one answers. He leaves a message.

"Isobel, it's Stefan Salvatore. I need to speak with you, it's about Elena. Please know that it's important." He hangs up and sees Damon who has just entered.  Damon sees Jules and goes toward her but Stefan and Aurora stops him.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"We were waiting for you. Listen, there's a lot of people here." Stefan informed.

Damon rolled his eyes, "Oh, damn. There goes my plan to rip her spleen through her back." He said sarcastically.

"Dames, listen, I know you're upset about Rose-" Aurora started but was cut off my Damon.

"Why does everyone think that I'm upset about Rose? I'm fine. I don't know if you know this but sometimes, vampires die. I'm gonna have a friendly chat with lady wolf, brother. Ease up."

He joins Jules. The number Stefan's called is calling. He answers and Stefan leaves after nodding towards Damon to tell Aurora to stay with him.

"Well, if it isn't the one I meant to kill and another blood sucker...I'll have to get that right next time."

"You won't live to see another full moon unless...unless you tell me how to cure a wolf bite...and then I won't kill you."

"Promise?" Jules tutted.

"Yes." She leaves some money on the desk and then looks at Damon.

"Bite me." She gets up but Aurora grabs her arm.

"I'm not afraid of you." Jules said, but some fear was shining in her eyes.

"Then you would be lying, everyone is afraid of me." Aurora whispered threateningly.

Jules decided to ignore the brunette vampire and look to Damon, "How's your friend? Rose, is that her name? Have the chills started? The unbearable pain?"

"If there's a cure, tell me or start watching your back."

"Did I mention the dementia? It'll eat away at her brain. Soon she'll be rabid. You want a cure? I'll tell you the only cure that exists: take a stake and drive it through her heart." She leaves.

It's night. Elena doesn't hear anything so she leaves the room and goes downstairs. The main door is opened. She turns around and sees Damon and Aurora. She still has the stake in her hand.

"Are you okay? Where's Rose?" Damon asked the frightened girl.

"I don't know."

Rose is there, in the parking lot near some garbage cans. She reels over and coughs. A man is throwing out some garbage and sees her.

"Excuse me, are you okay?" He comes closer. She violently bites him and drinks his blood. He falls on the ground dead.

Later, Damon joins the sheriff. The police have found the body.

"Hey."

"Thanks for coming so quickly."

Damon shook his head, "No, I was close by Liz, what happened?"

"A vampire. Luckily one of my deputies discovered the body before anyone else saw him."

"We have to secure the area then."

Sheriff Forbes turned to her deputies. "Don't cause a panic, but let's take this party into the cafeteria." She turned back to Damon, "I take the east side of the school, you go west?"

Damon nodded, "Sure, okay."

Elena and Aurora are there too. Elena leaves a message to Stefan. "Hey, Stefan, it's me. I don't know where you are but please call me. It's important." Damon joins them.

"Hey. Have either of you heard from him? Do you know what he's up to?"

"On a mission to save you, most likely." Aurora informed the girl.

"My baby brother is not exactly my priority right now. Take this." He gives her a stake. "Come on, let's go."They leave.

Two students are walking to their car. "Hey, what was going on back there with the police?"

"Some maintenance man had a heart attack. He just dropped dead." She goes into the car and waits for her boyfriend but he doesn't get in. "Eddie?"

His body falls on the car. The girl screams. She runs out of the car but Rose is already there and bites her. Damon arrives.

"Rose, stop!" She rushes toward him but he grabs her and pins her on the ground.

"Rose, Rose! It's me, it's Damon. It's Damon." Her face is normal again. She looks at the girl's body. She starts crying.

"Did I do this? I never meant to hurt anyone. I never wanted to hurt anyone."

"I know."

She looks at Elena. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Come on, let's get you home."

"No, I don't have a home, I haven't had a home in so long." She cried. "Oh make it stop, please make it stop! I hate it, make it stop!"

He carries her in his arms and starts walking away. Elena picks up the stake from the ground.

Aurora looked down at the bodies. There was so much blood. Her vamp face came out for a split second before Elena looked back, watching as Aurora took small steps towards the dead bodies.

"Aurora?" She called, causing Aurora to snap out of her trance.

"I'm coming." Aurora vamp sped over to Elena and walked to the car with her.

Rose and Damon are in his bedroom. She's in the bed, covered in sweat.

"Hi there." Damon said.

"I'm sorry."

"You went on a murderous rampage. It happens." Elena  and Aurora enter the room.

"I'm sorry, Elena. I don't like taking human life, I never have." Rose informed the doppelgänger.

Damon Looked at Elena, annoyed. "You shouldn't be here."

"It's the worst part about it: the hunt, the need to kill, the thirst, the pleasure it brings you afterwards. I wasn't meant to be evil. It hurts."

"Stop talking about it." Damon said with a hard tone.

"Damon's a lot like me. He wants to care but when he does he runs away from it. I'm sorry for what I've done today."

Elena nodded, "I know."

"And you need to fight. I know that you're scared but you have to do it anyway." She coughs. Elena comes closer and puts her arm under her neck.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

"Us humans."

"You can never forget it, what it's like to be human. It haunts me. It's the only thing that's kept me going. It doesn't hurt as much anymore." Suddenly she starts to hurt and screams.

"What do we do?"

"Go."

"Damon..."

"Just go. I got this."

Aurora grabbed the girls arm lightly, "Come on." She knew Damon would want to say goodbye. They both leave. Damon sits on the bed with Rose and takes her in his arms.

Damon enters the door. Elena and Aurora are sitting there.

"You were supposed to leave." Damon mentioned, looking at Elena.

"I did but then I came back to make sure that you're okay." She gives him a glass of bourbon.

"I appreciate the gesture. I'm just glad it's over." He drinks.

"You know we don't believe that." Aurora spoke up.

"Go home, Elena. Get some rest. It's a whole new day tomorrow."

"Damon, I'm your friend."

"I'm well aware of that."

"And a friend usually knows when their friend is hurting."

"What do you want to hear? That I cared about Rose? That I'm upset? Well I didn't and I'm not."

"There you go, pretending to turn it off, pretending not to feel. Damon, you're so close, don't give up."

"I feel Elena, okay? And it sucks! What sucks even more is that it was supposed to be me. Jules was coming after me."

"You feel guilty." Aurora muttered, looking sadly at her brother.

Damon looked over at his sister, "That would be human of me, wouldn't it? And I'm not human." He looked over at Elena again, "You want to talk about giving up? That's all you've done is give up! Go home. It's been enough doom, gloom and personal growth for one night."

"Okay." She gets up moves towards the door, but before she walked out she turned back to the raven haired man, "Good night Damon." She leaves.

Aurora watches as Damon starts pacing the floor in the parlour, trying to hold back the pain he felt, "Damon?"

He paused his steps, staring into the fire and let one tear fall, "She's dead." He whispered sadly.

Aurora got up from the couch and wrapped her arms around her older brother, to try and ease the pain with her comfort.

Damon's head landed on her shoulder and he clung to her -beginning to cry.

He couldn't lose anyone else.

WORD COUNT : 1667