♤ [1] An Everlasting Death - The Vampire Diaries

ı 32 ı The Pain of Reality

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"You can't make it feel right when you know that it's wrong"

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I DRIVE THROUGH town to where Stefan asked me to meet as apparently the whole world has gone to shit in a matter of a few hours.

The theory that we had come up with was that Katherine had taken the moonstone, and helped kidnap Elena in return for something, which we suspected was a trade for Isobel's help. It was a working theory, but it was the only thing we had.

Town is not busy at all today, and I find myself enjoying driving through the streets. I pass the cemetery, but my attention is drawn to a bright ball of fire.

"That's odd," I mutter to myself. I press on the brakes and stop beside the cemetery to take a closer look.

The closer I get, the more I realize it isn't just a burning ball of fire, but rather a burning person.

My eyes widen in shock, as I can't believe what I am seeing. Next to the burning person is Elena, wearing a horrified expression on her face.

I immediately get out of my car and speed over to her.

"Elena! What the hell is going on!" I yell as I approach her.

Her eyes are wide in fear, just as shocked as I am. Her mouth is opened wide, not knowing what to say or how to react. There are tears in her eyes, although they are yet to stream down her face. I glance over at the burning person, hearing their cries of pain. The flames have fully engulfed them, making it impossible to help them now.

"It's Isobel. It's my mom," Elena says quietly as we watch the burning person, Isobel, fall to the ground. "She tore off her daylight necklace and let herself burn, right in front of me."

"Why?" I ask, staring at the dead body, unfazed.

Elena shakes her head. "I don't know."

Isobel's body lays on the ground, her skin completely burned, and her body covered with black veins. Her face is practically unrecognizable. I look around to see if there are any witnesses of this incident, and realize we got lucky enough that there aren't.

"Listen, Elena - if there is anything you know, anything you can share about what she said, you need to tell me. She didn't just kill herself for no reason," I say, turning to her.

"I um. She said something about someone told me to let me go, that she had done her part. She said she had been compelled to kidnap me, and that she was sorry she wasn't in my life more. But, I don't understand. How was she compelled if she was a vampire?" Elena asks, her voice cracking.

"You said she was compelled?" I ask.

She nods. "But I don't get it."

Fear and realization suddenly hit me. The only way a vampire can be compelled was if it was from an Original. Elijah is daggered and we don't know of any other original- at least I don't - which means there was only one explanation left; Klaus.

"She was compelled the same way my memories were compelled away; by an original vampire. By Klaus," I whisper, talking more to myself than to Elena. My heart starts beating faster as the anxiety builds up inside me. It's one thing to talk about Klaus, but to know there was a possibility he was already in Mystic Falls was another story.

Elena's eyes widen even more in fear, bigger than I though possible. We haven't been expecting Klaus to show up for at least another few days, to a week for the full moon. So, to find out he is already in town and knows where Elena is means we have a serious problem on our hands.