Elena's POV
Before I could even react to what happened to Katherine, Caroline and Damon had grabbed her.

She fought, but even she couldn't resist the strength of two vampires.

Once they had a solid grip on her, they were off, taking her to the cells in the basement.

I just stood there.

I couldn't do anything. It felt like my legs had been permanently rooted to the ground, and I could hardly breathe.

It seemed like time had stopped, like everything was moving in slow motion around me, and I could hardly understand anything that was going on.

I felt my legs trembling beneath me, and I knew I was going to fall, but not making any attempt to stop it from happening.

However, I never hit the ground because there were a pair of strong arms on my back and I was lifted to my feet and swung around to see Stefan holding me.

"This is taking a toll on everyone." he said grimly.

"You can take a break, Elena."

I nodded, speechless.

Damon and Caroline had already come back to the town square, but I hadn't even noticed in my state of shock.

It probably was right for me to take a break.

Stefan accompanied me back to the Salvatore mansion.

Almost immediately, I headed towards the cells, where I knew Katherine was now being held, but Stefan pulled me back.

"You can't. It's too dangerous for only one person to be down there now, and I have to go back."

"But..." I said numbly.

"No protesting, Elena. This has been too much for you. We never should have let you do this. You're too new. Just... Get some rest. We still have more to do tomorrow."

I nodded, and Stefan pulled me into a hug.

He held me tightly, and as I wrapped my arms around him, there was a lump in my throat and I felt like the tears would start falling any minute.

But Stefan let go, smiled at me, and left.

And I was alone.

I probably could have gone down to see Katherine and no one would have ever found out, but I didn't.

I didn't even look at the door as I did what Stefan said and walked up to my room to try and get some decent rest before I had to do everything over again.

But I couldn't rest at all.

I lay on the bed, clutching the sheets tightly, for what seemed like hours, not getting any sleep, not even closing my eyes.

I tried to make myself cry at one point, to make myself do something, anything so I wasn't just laying on a bed.

But nothing happened. Tears didn't come, sleep didn't come, and I didn't move until I heard the front door open an hour or so later.

I rose from the bed, still in a shocked state, and walked downstairs to see the entire gang getting rid of weapons and other things, and collapsing on the couches.

"What's going on?" I asked as I entered the living room.

"Aren't there still killers out there?"

"We hoarded up as many afflicted people as possible, and we put all the remaining,  regular citizens in buildings and put a protection spell around them. That should hold for a pretty long time, and keep the demon and the murderers from reaching them." Bonnie said.

"And now, with a protection spell on our house, I think it's time for all of us to get some rest." Damon continued.

"Except for me. I'm working on the antidote tonight." Bonnie said.

"You found an antidote?" I asked.

Just those words made me light up a bit inside. If there was a chance for Katherine, I could get back on my feet again.

"Not exactly." Bonnie responded.

"I'm still looking..."

My face fell, and it must have shown because Bonnie quickly corrected herself.

"I mean, I'm still looking, but I'm pretty sure I'm close. Yeah. Pretty sure."

I smiled at her. Thank god, this nightmare was almost over.

"And then again, if you can't find the antidote, Bonnie, we'll just have to use the other option." Damon said, his voice somber.

"What's the other option?" I asked, but I was afraid I already knew what it was.

"If we can't find an antidote for them, we'll just have to kill them. It's the only other way."

With Damon's words, my entire body went into panic mode.

"Kill them? No, went can't do that!"

"How else are we going to survive this, Elena? We can't have a bunch of murderers in the basement, and we can't have them running loose either." Caroline responded.

"But Katherine's down there!"

"She's just another casualty, then."

"But she's Katherine! She helped us with this, and she's one of us... We can't kill her!"

I was reaching now, completely desperate, and I was near the end of my line.

"Elena, I don't see what the big deal is. I know she helped us, but it's Katherine Pierce. You know, the girl who tormented you for years?" Damon said.

"You don't understand!"

I was crying now, tears running down my face and my words coming out as sobs.

"No, I don't understand why you want to save Katherine so badly." Damon persisted.

"Because I love her!" I shouted.

With my words, the entire room went silent, and they were all staring at me.

"You can't kill her because I love her, and I've loved her since that time in the tomb, and I'm always going to love her. And she means the whole world to me, and if I lose her... I... I don't know what I'll do, because she's my everything, okay?"

There was no response for a while, and the only sound was me trying to hold back the sobs that came and went.

And then Bonnie spoke.

"In that case, I will find that antidote, Elena. I will try so hard."

"Thank you."

It came out as almost a whisper.

Bonnie left the room and as soon as she did, I did too, running up to my room and collapsing on the bed.