The distant music from the party barely reached there. Among the trees, the forest had returned to an irregular silence, broken only by the rustling of leaves and muffled sounds of pain that were already beginning to fade into exhaustion.
It was then that a light appeared among the trunks.
The girl stumbled over roots hidden beneath the damp leaves, her phone pressed to her ear as she grumbled that the party had been a total waste of time. On the other end of the line, her boyfriend talked nonstop, saying he would come pick her up, but the signal was terrible there in the middle of the forest; the words came through chopped up, like an old radio out of tune.
She had wandered away from the clearing just to smoke in peace, far from the loud music and curious stares. Now, however, the way back seemed longer than she remembered, the trees closing in around her like living walls under the thin moonlight.
"Babe, are you hearing me? I said I'm coming there now, wait..." his voice crackled on the device.
She didn't respond. She had stopped suddenly, her eyes wide and fixed on the scene ahead. Two mutilated bodies lay on the ground, blood splattered everywhere, grotesque enough even for a cheap horror movie. The scream rose in her throat before she could contain it, sharp and piercing, echoing among the trees like a broken alarm.
"My God... what... AAAAH!"
The phone slipped from her hand and fell to the earth, rolling a few inches as she stepped back, her heart pounding in her chest as if it wanted to escape.
Then a sound.
One of the men, the more destroyed one, with his face deformed by swelling and cuts, let out a low, hoarse grunt, almost gurgling. It sounded less like speech and more like the lament of a wounded animal. Damon, still conscious enough to notice the new presence, raised his head with effort. His swollen eyes focused on her, loaded with a calculated mix of desperation and opportunism.
"Help... please..." he murmured, his voice weak and faltering, a vulnerability he hated to admit but that served perfectly in that moment.
The girl hesitated. Instinct screamed for her to run, but curiosity, or perhaps pity, spoke louder. She took a step forward, completely forgetting the phone blinking on the ground.
"Are you... are you okay? My God, what happened?" she said, her voice trembling. "It looks like... it looks like you were run over or something."
Her gaze slid down to the severed legs, blood trickling in dark streams. Her stomach churned.
"This... this can't be real. Did you guys drink too much? Was it a fight? I'm going to call for help..."
"Come... closer..." Damon interrupted, his voice reduced to a harsh whisper. His blue eyes, or what remained of them under the swelling, stayed locked on her with an intensity she didn't notice as predatory. "Please... help..."
Against all good sense, she approached and crouched beside him. The metallic smell of blood was suffocating. Her heart raced, but empathy still spoke louder.
"Calm down... I'm going to call for rescue. Don't move, stay quiet..."
But before she could say anything else or do something to help, Damon moved like a snake. The movement was quick, almost invisible; he pulled her by the wrist, his fangs emerging in an instant, sinking into her neck before any other sound could escape. Her body stiffened, a gasp trapped in her throat, as her strength slowly abandoned her.
The world spun for her... and then went dark.
Damon sucked greedily, the hot liquid sliding down his throat like a restorative elixir, each gulp healing a bit more of his destroyed face, the cuts closing slowly, the skin regenerating in irregular layers.
A few minutes passed in a blur of desperate sucking, the girl's body growing pale and still, her blood draining to the last drop, her eyes glazed in eternal emptiness. Damon released her, the body falling limp to the earth like an empty sack, and he crawled slowly, his face almost healed now, still swollen but recognizable, his blue eyes sparkling with a fury that burned more than the residual pain. He picked up the severed legs one by one, pressing the stumps against the bloody stubs, his body trembling as regeneration began to work, slow but relentless, the bones grinding in protest.
Damon closed his eyes for a moment, his chest rising and falling with more strength now. Inside him, nothing was in order. Rage burned like acid, mixed with frustration, humiliation, and fear. A suffocating sense of impotence crushed him, something he hadn't felt in decades.
Everything became even more unbearable when remembering that that "monster" had torn away the most important thing for a man. Now, he was a eunuch. Honestly, it seemed like a nightmare from which he desperately needed to wake, but it was the purest truth. The feeling of emptiness was absolute, cruelly concrete. He had ceased to be a man.
That "demon" hadn't just mutilated him; he had stolen his future. The happiness he imagined upon reuniting with Katherine was destroyed before it even existed. He could no longer touch her as before, could no longer give her pleasure, could no longer even have sex....
What remained was only hatred... and an emptiness that no revenge seemed capable of filling.
But not just a simple "hatred," it was a hatred so dense that it almost made him laugh, if he weren't too busy trying not to shatter from within. His hands trembled as they clenched the earth, not just from the residual pain, but from the desperate need to cling to something that was still his.
Opening his eyes, he turned his head, finding his younger brother still unconscious, destroyed on the ground. The tightness in his chest came too strong to ignore. Stefan had gone after him. Had tried to save him. And paid for it in a way Damon would never forget.
His fingers clenched the damp earth.
"I'm going to make you pay..." he murmured, his voice loaded with something dark, ancient.
He took a deep breath once more, already thinking about the next step. Stefan would need to feed too. Would need to recover. They couldn't stay there.
But that...
That wasn't going to end like this.
"This will come back around," he said aloud, his tone low, firm, full of venom.
Damon remained there, lying on the cold, blood-soaked earth, his chest rising and falling in irregular rhythms as his body worked slowly to recompose itself. The minutes dragged like hours, the surrounding forest reduced to a blur of shadows and silence, broken only by the occasional wind rustling the leaves.
He counted the seconds in silence, his mind a boiling cauldron of hatred and planning. Each small pain served as a reminder that he would survive, needed to survive, to turn that humiliation into something that "human" would pay dearly for.
Twenty minutes passed like that. Enough time for the leg stumps to reconnect with the severed parts and regenerate the minimum necessary. The bones creaked like old wood as they reconnected, the flesh stretching in irregular, sensitive layers. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough. Damon managed to stand, limping like a wounded animal, his face still swollen but functional, his blue eyes burning with a cold and familiar determination.
He cast a last glance at Stefan. His younger brother remained unconscious beside him, his mutilated body trembling in weak spasms, dried blood covering what remained of the severed legs. Damon clenched his teeth, the usual rancor mixed with something uncomfortable, perhaps gratitude, perhaps just the stubbornness not to let his brother die there like a dog.
"Hang in there, little bro...." he murmured, his voice hoarse and low, loaded with forced sarcasm that barely disguised the concern. "I'll get a snack for you."
With a muffled grunt, he propelled himself. The vampiric speed exploded in an unstable blur, despite the lancinating pain that pierced him like hot blades. The forest turned into a dark tunnel, the trees merging into shadows as he hunted....
Two girls came into view, away from the main clearing, laughing softly as they shared a cigarette. The smell of smoke and cheap perfume guided him like a beacon. Damon didn't hesitate. In a single movement, his fangs sank into the neck of the nearest one. The hot blood slid down his throat like restorative fire, each gulp accelerating regeneration, closing cuts, strengthening bones. She went limp in his arms without making a sound, her body falling inert when he finished, her eyes glazed in eternal emptiness.
The second girl barely had time to react. Damon grabbed her by the arm, his blue eyes fixed on hers as hypnosis infiltrated easily. His voice came out low and smooth, despite the residual hoarseness.
"Shh... come with me. It won't hurt... much."
She blinked, confused, but obeyed. Her body followed his like a marionette's as Damon led her back through the forest, his speed now controlled so as not to kill her before time.
Back at the spot, he dropped the girl on the ground next to Stefan, who was still unconscious, his chest rising and falling in weak gasps. Damon crouched and, with quick and precise movements, aligned his brother's severed legs, pressing the stumps against the bloody stubs. Stefan's body trembled as regeneration began slowly.
"Hey, wake up, Stefan...." murmured Damon, his sarcastic tone hiding the relief of seeing him alive. He bit lightly into the girl's neck, letting the blood flow hot, and pressed the wound against his brother's mouth, the red liquid dripping over the dry lips. "Drink up. You need blood..."
Stefan blinked slowly. The smell of blood awakened his vampiric instinct within him. His eyes focused on the exposed neck, and the self-control he so prized began to crack under the weight of pain and weakness. He resisted for a second, always resisted, but his body betrayed him. His fangs extended, and he bit, sucking with desperate greed.
The blood rushed down his throat like a burning elixir, scorching and healing at the same time. The girl trembled, then went limp, until her body fell inert when Stefan released her, empty and discarded like a worthless husk. Damon watched in silence, rancor mixed with a dark satisfaction. Stefan needed that to survive, even if he hated every sip.....
Stefan blinked slowly as he dealt with the feeling of guilt for taking another life, his body still trembling from the remnants of regeneration. The bones creaked like rusted gears as the legs reconnected in irregular layers of flesh and muscle.
He propped himself up on his elbows, his remaining eye blinking until it could focus on his brother beside him. Damon's face was still marked by swellings that diminished slowly, but his blue eyes already sparkled with that contained fury Stefan knew all too well.
The silence between them was thick, broken only by the occasional wind rustling the leaves, as if the entire forest held its breath after the chaos.
"Damon..." murmured Stefan, his voice hoarse and low, loaded with that genuine concern that always defined him, even when his brother didn't deserve it. He sat up carefully, ignoring the lancinating pain that still pierced his body, his dark green eyes fixed on him. "When did you come back? And how... how did you end up in all this? What happened?"
Damon snorted, the sound harsh and loaded with sarcasm, as always, despite his body still hurting like hell. He leaned against a nearby tree, crossing his arms over his still-recovering chest, his face twisted in irritation and barely contained rage.
"I came back recently, little bro. Enough time to take a look at the town and get into trouble. The usual." He shrugged, the movement drawing a grimace of pain that he quickly masked with a crooked smile. "I was just feeding. Then this psychopath shows up out of nowhere, beats me like I was a punching bag and... well, you saw the rest. He gave me a beating that not even Katherine could imagine."
Stefan frowned, his chest tightening at the casual mention of the past, but he kept his focus. Guilt and protective instinct spoke louder.
"Why? What did you do to him?"
Damon laughed low, a bitter sound impregnated with venom.
"Did? Nothing. The guy's crazy." His blue eyes narrowed. "But it'll come back around, Stefan. Oh, it will. He thinks he can play with us like we're lab rats? I'm going to make him wish for death....."
The dark promise vibrated in the air, his wounded narcissism turning into pure vengeance, as always happened with him.
Stefan nodded slowly. His body was still weak, but his mind clear enough to know that arguing wouldn't help. When Damon decided to retaliate, nothing made him back down; fortunately, it seemed his "brother" was afraid of that "monster's" strength, which was great news—in that way, he wouldn't act impulsively, and the two could plan the revenge...
He wouldn't let that slide. That bastard had taken Elena from him and, besides, had torn away what made him a man. Not avenging himself would be exactly as he himself had said: the act of a coward. Besides, he doubted Elena knew that psychopathic side of her boyfriend. She could be in danger. That thought hammered his mind relentlessly. He needed to get revenge on Ryan.
"We need to get out of here. Let's go to the boarding house. There we can recover properly... and think about what to do. I'm not letting this go either. Count on me for any revenge plan you have, but we need to plan it right.."
Damon snorted again.
"I don't need your help. But since we went through this together, it's fair that the revenge is together too. I already know exactly what to do." He cast a crooked glance at his brother: "But fine, little brother. Let's go home first and think of a plan. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to get revenge on that crazy psychopath. As long as you don't stop me, I'm satisfied..."
The sarcasm was back, but there was something beneath it. An uncomfortable reluctance. Damon hated to admit it, even to himself, but Stefan had saved his skin that night, and that stirred something he preferred to ignore.
The two leaned on each other as they walked slowly through the forest toward the Salvatore boarding house.
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