Flash Forward - 2016 

Tyler and I were in our apartment. 

The news was playing on the news station that Caroline was a producer of. 

But it wasn't a regular news segment on.

My half-sister Sarah was forced to sit at the desk, crying and reaching out to me. She appeared to be calm, but her voice was shaking, and blood was dripping down from a wound on her hairline. "We apologize for the interruption to your current program. My name is Sarah. Please listen carefully. I have an urgent message for my sister, Nicola Salvatore."

I angrily, hurriedly packing a duffel bag.

Tyler turned off the TV. "Nikki, you can't go."

I threw my bag onto the couch, anxiously peeking out through the closed blinds over the window to make sure the mysterious huntress hadn't followed me. I was sure the coast was clear, turning to Tyler. "She has Sarah, she has Stefan, she has Damon. She has my entire family."

Tyler looked at me in frustrated worry. "Because she wants you."

I returned to packing my bag, throwing in several vervain grenades and one of my swords. "Well, then she's gonna get me. Oh, and, I, uh, burned my car, so I kind of need to borrow your car."

Tyler walked toward me seriously. "I'm coming with you."

I turned to face him. "No, you're not."

Tyler tilted his head. "Nikki."

"She already has three people that I care about," I told him. I sighed, stepping closer, holding a hand to his cheek. "I'm not gonna let her have a fourth, okay?"

Tyler sighed in defeat, visibly unhappy about having to stay behind, giving me a very serious look. "If anything happens to you, I will rain hell down on anyone responsible."

I smiled weakly, chuckling softly. "Don't be so dramatic." I leaned closer to kiss Tyler softly for a long moment, pulling away, sighing unhappily at the thought of leaving him again. "I'll be back before you know it."

I grabbed my bag, walking out, leaving to go walk into a trap without knowing exactly what I was walking into.

     ~~~~~~~     

Now

It was night now.

Stefan, Damon, Nora, Valerie and I were giving Lily a funeral.

Stefan and Damon were silently carrying Lily's coffin to the family plot where they had dug a hole to bury her. They put the coffin down, walking toward Nora, Valerie and me, joining us.

I had bouquet of white flowers in my hands.

Damon looked unimpressed. "Well, this is it? This the whole funeral party?" He looked at Nora. "Where's your girlfriend?"

"Not your concern," Nora told him uncomfortably.

"Trouble in paradise?" Damon asked in amusement.

"What about Julian?" I asked. "Where is he?"

Nora looked even more uncomfortable. "I haven't heard from either of them in days. I sided with Lily, or did you forget?"

"It's just us," Valerie told us. She looked at the coffin holding Lily's body. "Beau couldn't bring himself to say goodbye."

"I'm sure he just couldn't find the right words to say," Damon told us, chuckling at his own joke. We gave him an amused look, knowing that Beau was mute. Damon walked toward Lily's casket to place it in her grave. "All right. Let's get her done."

"Wait," Stefan told him. "We should say something."

Damon rolled his eyes. "No, we shouldn't."

Nora was appalled with Damon's behavior. "Yes, we should." She walked toward Lily's casket. "When I was a girl, I loved my mother deeply. She loved me, too, until she found out about my little siphoning problem. If she only knew that was just one of the things that made me different. When she turned her back on me, I thought I'd never find that kind of love again. You proved me wrong. Thank you, Lily."

Nora hesitated for a moment, walking away.

Damon impatiently gestured for us to get on with it. "Next."

Valerie walked toward the coffin to say her goodbye. "You knew me at my brightest and darkest. No matter what my mood, you always saw the light in me." She reached out, touching the wooden coffin. "I'll miss you, Lily." Valerie walked over to join Nora. She looked from Damon to Stefan and me. "We'll leave you three."

Valerie and Nora walked away, leaving.

Damon looked at Stefan and me expectantly. "Well?"

"How many times do you get a second chance to deliver your mother's eulogy?" Stefan asked.

"Good point, brother," Damon told him. "How's this?" He cleared his throat dramatically, leaning forward toward Lily's coffin. "Lily, you were a terrible mother when you were alive, and you were a terrible mother when you were dead." He smiled, standing straight, walking toward us, smirking. "You're right. It does feel good. Huh."

Damon walked away, leaving.

Stefan walked toward the coffin, sighing. "I'm so sorry. I promise I'll make this right."

Stefan turned to me.

I nodded understandingly.

Stefan walked away, leaving.

I walked toward the coffin, hesitating for a moment. I lifted the lid of the coffin, looking at Lily's dead, desiccated body. I placed the small bouquet of white flowers in her hands just right so that she was holding them. "The last thing you said to me... you asked me to me to watch out for Stefan and Damon. And that's what I'm gonna do... even if it's the last thing I'll do."

I slowly, hesitantly closed the coffin lid over Lily's body.

     ~~~~~~~     

Several weeks had passed since the funeral.

It was almost Christmas now.

Stefan, Damon and I had tracked Julian to a town named Sunbury.

Damon was stopping by every bar we passed to get alcohol.

I got alcohol-spiked eggnog.

We walked out to the street where Stefan was on the phone with Caroline. "I'm good. I'd be a lot better if my traveling companions would actually stick to the task instead of stopping by every single bar we pass by."

"It's called a pub crawl, Stef," Damon told him. "That's the whole point. Don't be such a Grinch, or you'll get coal in your stocking."

"And that's my cue. I'll call you later."

Stefan hung up.

     ~~~~~~~     

Stefan, Damon and I were walking down the streets.

Damon drank his bourbon.

I drank my eggnog, looking at Stefan. "So, what's it gonna be... Uncle Stefan? Are you gonna have a as complicated a relationship with Caroline and Ric's kids as you have with me?"

Stefan smirked sarcastically. "Ooh. See, the thing is, she's not their mom."

Damon scoffed. "Oh, come on. It's Caroline. You think she's gonna turn those kids over to a functioning alcoholic with no supervision?"

Stefan shrugged. "Whatever she wants to do."

"So diplomatic," Damon told him. "You're gonna make an amazing not-father. It's kind of your thing, isn't it, hmm?"

"What's that, Damon?" Stefan asked.

Damon held up his hand, pinching his index finger and thumb together until there was only several centimeters between them. "Just barely not being a father."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, wow. You know, in these last few weeks, your jokes, they've gotten quite sad. You know what? You need me. Sucks for you two, but Julian's almost 500 years old, and you ain't taking him alone." I opened my jacket to show them that it was packed full of anti-vampire weapons in preparation for a possible fight with Julian. "Lucky I got vervain grenades and stakes galore. I hope you two came prepared."

"What I need, Nikki, is action, not words," Stefan told me.

"Sounds like you should have brought Beau, then," Damon told him.

"I'm here to help," I told them. "Trust me. With the amount of vervain syringes and grenades I have strapped to my body, I might as well be a walking time bomb."

"You don't need vervain grenades for that," Damon told me.

I smirked sarcastically, taking a drink of eggnog.

     ~~~~~~~     

Stefan, Damon and I were still walking down the streets of Sunbury, which had been decorated with lights and garlands for the holidays.

Damon looked at Stefan. "Just so we're clear, me helping you kill Julian is your Christmas present, so don't be expecting any socks of a TV or anything."

"Yeah, well, we got to find him to kill him," Stefan told us.

"We will," I told them. "Bonnie did the locator spell, and she said Sunbury. We're in Sunbury so..."

Damon drank the rest of his alcohol, frowning when he noticed his mug was empty. "Oops. I'm dry. Pit stop." Damon, Stefan and I walked into the nearest bar, passing through the threshold, stopping where we were in horror at what we saw. The bar was filled of Santa Claus impersonators, all of whom had been killed, lying scattered across the room. Some were lying on the floor in pools of blood while others were bent face-first over tables. "Merry Christmas, ladies and gentlemen. Think we found him."

I continued to look at the carnage in horror.

     ~~~~~~~     

I closed the door of the bar, flipping the sign around to close so no one could come inside to see what Julian had done.

Stefan and Damon were taking a look around the room.

I looked out of the window at all of the people on the streets.

"Good be a lot of disappointed faces Christmas morning," Damon told us. 

I turned away from the door to give Damon a look.

"Yeah, well, maybe if we hadn't stopped at every single bar for eggnog, we could have done something about it," Stefan told him.

Damon scoffed. "Yeah, and maybe been three more bodies in this pile."

I looked at them for a moment, sighing, stepping closer. "Maybe we should just take a little bit of a beat, you know? I mean, look around. Julian is clearly off the proverbial rails here."

"Are you saying that you don't think that Julian deserves to die?" Damon asked.

"I do," I told them. "100%. But not if it means dying. So, I think we should just stop and think about some backup."

"You are our backup," Damon told me. "You're just terrible at it." I tilted my head at him. "And if Julian's off the rails, then good. It means he's careless."

Stefan looked around at the bodies. "Look at these wounds. They're fresh, which means he's obviously still in town, so either you help me find him, or..."

"Don't be so dramatic, Stefan," I told him. "I got this."

I pulled out my phone, calling Bonnie.

"Hello, Nicola."

"Bonnie, sorry to do this to you, but..."

"What a lovely way to be greeted. 'Hi, Bonnie. I need something'."

"Well, isn't is so great to feel loved and needed? So, Julian..."

"Yeah? I've already done a locator spell."

"Yes. Yes, you did, which led us to this Santa-infested hellhole. But is there, like, a way to do, like, a zoom-in spell, or something maybe a little more accurate? Like an address, or..."

"It doesn't work that way, Nicola."

'Right. Well, here's the deal, Bonnie. Stefan and Damon are here, and they're being kind of crazy people. They're breathing down my neck, and I was just kind of hoping you might have some information for me. You know what I mean?"

"Hmm. Actually, there might be something I can do."

"Brilliant."

"I'll text you in a bit."

I hung up, turning to Stefan and Damon, smirking smugly. "Look at me, pulling my weight."

Stefan and Damon sighed, impatiently waiting for us to try and kill Julian.

     ~~~~~~~     

We were still in the bar, waiting.

I looked at Damon. "So, when do you think this denial phase of yours is gonna come to an end?"

Damon scoffed. "What?" Stefan gave him a look. I tilted my head at him. Damon rolled his eyes. "What are you waiting for? A breakdown? A teary, emotional, 'I'm sorry. It's all my fault'? Well, you two are gonna be waiting for a long time."

"Yeah, I just refuse to believe that you care so little about your own flesh and blood," Stefan told him.

"Why is that?" Damon asked. "Death doesn't erase all the crappy things she did, Stefan. If anything, it lets me care about her even less."

I nodded sarcastically. "Yeah, I would believe that you're right, Damon... But I used to feel the same way about you that you felt about Lily."

Damon sighed. "Yes, I know, Nikki. Is now really a good time to rehash that?"

"I'm just saying, I had time to move on and build a family with both of you," I told them. "Even after everything that you've both done to me, I was able to look past it because of blind devotion and compassion."

"Luckily, I'm not like you," Damon told me. 

"But with time, you could have moved on with Lily," I told him. 

"Maybe I would have if she didn't punish herself with a short stake," Damon told us.

"You know, for weeks, we've been watching you," Stefan told him. "Trying to catch even the slightest bit of regret on your face."

"Regret for what, Stefan?" Damon asked in exasperation.

"She was dying, Damon," I told him. "How difficult would it have been to say something nice?"

"Well, I didn't want to lie to the woman," Damon told us.

"All she wanted was forgiveness, and you practically spat in her face," Stefan told him.

"She didn't deserve my forgiveness," Damon told us. 

"What, because she made some mistakes?" I asked. Or is it because she didn't choose poor you over Valerie?" Damon didn't answer. "Damon, you never once deserved my forgiveness until you started to save me. I started to forgive you because you saved me. Lily was trying to save you."

"You acted like a pointed little brat," Stefan told him. "A coward."

"You had to chance to make things right, and you still do," i told him. "You still have a chance, Damon, to..."

I trailed off, not knowing how to finish. I felt a strange sensation like something familiar was coming close.

Stefan looked at me in confusion. "Nikki?"

I put a finger to my lips to tell them to be quiet.

Julian stumbled into the bar drunkenly. He was surprised to see us. "Oh. Hello. If you'll just pardon me a moment..."

"What are you doing?" Stefan asked coldly.

"I seem to have misplaced my cellular telephone," Julian told us. "These things have a way of, you know, jumping out of your hand and just..." He gestured drunkenly around the bar. "Scurrying off." He reached into the pocket of one of the dead men, managing to find his phone despite how drunk he was. "Oh. Stop looking. Here it is."

Damon looked at Stefan and me sarcastically. "Well, I feel stupid. Don't you feel stupid?"

I looked at Julian, knowing that he had the short sword on him, in a trance from having it so close again. "Hmm."

Damon looked at Julian. "Because, see, Stefan, Nicola and I thought you had some really great maniacal plan, but it turns out you're just a drunk sorority girl who ruins everyone's night by losing her cellphone."

"Well, it has been a rough few weeks for all of us, I suppose, after what we went through," Julian told us.

Stefan looked at him in offense. "'We'?"

Julian nodded. "Mm."

"What do you mean by, 'we'?" Stefan asked.

Julian looked at Stefan and Damon. "Well, you lost your mother." He looked at me. "You lost a distant ancestor, albeit blood and family. And I lost the love of my life."

"She meant nothing to you," Stefan told him angrily.

"She meant everything to me!" Julian told us furiously, upset. 

Julian realized that he had lost his temper, forcing himself to reign it back in. 

I looked at Julian's jacket pocket, where I knew that sword would be. I could practically hear it calling out to me.

It was reaching out to me, so much worse than it had the first time that I had been near it, but in a completely different way.

Damon finally noticed I was in the trance. "Nikki? Nikki!"

Damon grabbed my shoulder to bring me out of it.

I looked at Stefan and Damon, overwhelmed and disoriented.

Stefan and Damon looked confused and concerned.

"What the hell was that?" Stefan asked.

Julian smirked, reaching into his inner jacket pocket. "Sorry. Oh, yes." He pulled out the short sword. "She could sense this. It was calling out to her. Do you remember this sword? When you, you know, stopped me from killing her with this sword. You didn't quite have all the pieces together, though, did you? Literally." He held up the sword so we could see that the Phoenix Stone had been affixed to the end of the handle. I gazed off into the stone. "See, when a vampire is stabbed through the heart with, uh, the completed sword, it acts as a magical conduit, transferring their spirit into this particularly nasty stone. And the purpose of the stone is to punish vampires like the three of you. Every sin you've committed goes into creating your own little personal hell. I spent over one hundred years inside." Julian was nearly hysterical with grief and glee at the thought of torturing us, laughing, blowing a raspberry. "One hundred. Then, Lily saved me. And for the briefest of moments, oh... I had her back in my life. So, she was the only thing that kept the madness of the stone at bay. You know, the only thing that kept me... sane."

I looked at Julian incredulously. "Wait. That was you sane?"

Julian nodded. "Well, it was. But, uh, now... these have been dark days for me."

At least half a dozen vampires started to flood into the various entrances of the bar, surrounding Stefan, Damon and me. Some of them stood at Julian's side.

Julian looked at us smugly.

     ~~~~~~~     

Stefan, Damon and I were trying to remain calm in the presence of Julian and his vampires.

"Then, I remember what my old life looked like," Julian told us. "And, I... I realized... I mean, it was a good life. I was surrounded by the people that I cared about. My friends. Two, two." He chuckled. "Raphael, here, I met in Florence in the 1600's." He wrapped his arm around Raphael's shoulders. "He was a painter. Terrible painter, though. But a painter." He clapped Raphael on the shoulder. Raphael nodded in agreement. Julian walked toward a surly woman on his right, squeezing her shoulders affectionately. "Oh, Dirty Robin, I found in a convent in Massachusetts in, uh, 1802, was it? Hmm. She loved those nuns." He pointed toward the three men standing behind us. Stefan, Damon and I turned to look at the vampires behind us. "Seth, over there, I rescued you from a claim-jumper in California during the Gold Rush, and Xi and Li Nguyen, I met you last week, actually, in Portland." Stefan, Damon and I were bored, worried and anxious for something to happen. Julian turned to us. "Now, I know you three have been following me for quite some time, right? I hope it wasn't for nefarious reasons."

Stefan smirked coldly. "Well, that depends. Is killing you nefarious?"

I stepped in worriedly, concerned that Stefan and Damon were gonna get us killed, trying to talk my way through this. "All right, guys. Listen... I'm sure we all miss Lily." I gave Damon a look. "Well, most of you." Damon rolled his eyes. I looked at Stefan and Julian. "You guys in particular." I looked around the vampires, my gaze ending on Julian. "But, I'm sure, wherever she is, she's looking up and thinking, 'I wish my boys wouldn't fight'..."

Damon rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I'm not going anywhere."

Stefan looked at Damon in alarm.

Julian smiled. "Good."

Stefan sighed, realizing that trying to talk to them was useless. "Hmm."

"Good," Julian told us.

I sighed. "Fine. Plan B. Booze-soaked flammable costumes."

I took out a lighter, lighting it, tossing it onto the nearby body. 

The fire immediately lit thanks to the gasoline we had poured before Julian and his vampires had gotten here.

Stefan, Damon and I rushed out, leaving.

     ~~~~~~~     

Stefan, Damon and I were walking down an alley.

"Okay, so we reload, we figure out a way to separate him from his friends," Stefan told us.

"We do no such thing," I told them. "We get in the car, and we go home."

Stefan looked at me in confusion. "What? What are you talking about? He's building a small army back there. He's obviously up to something."

I scoffed. "He's getting wasted with his friends. You're delusional. Trust me. That? That is a hornets' nest. You do not want to kick it."

"You of all people should not be one to give up," Damon told me. "You've never, ever given up about anything before this. Why stop now?"

"I'm not giving up on anything," I told them. "I'm just waiting to try and kill him until we know he's alone, which is what the two of you should be doing. Road trip's over, boys. Please, if you know what's good for you, you'll let this go until we can figure out a better way."

Stefan and Damon hesitated, nodding, sighing.

I turned around, walking away, leaving.

     ~~~~~~~     

We were back in Mystic Falls.

I was going back to the Salvatore Boarding House if the Heretics and Julian were there or not.

I heard fighting inside, rushing inside to see Julian and Damon.

Julian was pointing the short sword at Damon's heart. "I don't know what your hell will be, but I hope she's there."

Julian went to stab Damon.

I rushed closer, pushing Julian away from Damon before he could kill him.

Julian turned to face me, the short sword that I would call the Phoenix Sword since it had the Phoenix Stone in hand.

I glared at him angrily. "Leave."

Julian laughed. "Flee from my own house? I'm five hundred years older than you. I could take both of you."

I tilted my head. "Well, you could certainly try." I grabbed my sword from the wall, spinning it in front of me threateningly. "But, the last time we had a sword fight, I would've been able to kill you long before you were able to kill me."

"But you can't kill me without unleashing the Huntress within you," Julian told me.

Damon stood from the floor. "Well, she was alone then. She's not now. She might not be able to kill you, but I sure as hell can."

Damon and I exchanged a look, smirking, turning to Julian, getting ready.

Julian readied his sword, slashing toward me. I raised my sword to block the move.

Damon rushed toward Julian. Julian kicked him back against the room, making him fall over a counter and fall to the floor.

I rushed toward Julian, pushing him against the wall, pressing my sword against his throat. 

Julian used his sword to keep me from decapitating him, The Phoenix Stone on the sword caught my eye.

I was distracted by the sword and the stone, drawn to it so much that I almost lost my concentration, which was what Julian wanted, pushing me back, trying to stab me with the sword.

Damon appeared next to him, catching Julian's arm before he could stab me. Julian headbutted Damon three times. Damon punched him in the face. 

Julian kicked him in the stomach, making him fall to his knees. He grabbed the other sword off the wall, circling around with Damon with one sword, aiming the Phoenix Sword at me to stop me from making another move. "I would have killed you on sight if it weren't for your mother. I respected her."

I spun to kick the ordinary sword out of Julian's hands to the floor, rushing toward him, pushing him away from Damon. "Clearly the feeling wasn't mutual."

Julian and I swung our swords toward each other in the same move, blocking each other. I slashed toward him. Julian raised his sword to block the move, slashing toward me. I ducked, slashing my blade against his hard enough to make him back away, slashing toward him. Julian ducked, slashing toward me. I ducked, spinning around him, turning to face him just as he spun to slash toward me, raising my blade to block the move, spinning around, slashing toward his neck to decapitate him. Julian ducked, making me hit a chair stacked up on the table behind him instead. The wooden chair fell into makeshift stakes. We exchanged blows in a blur of motion due to vampire speed and strength. Julian swung his sword toward me. I raised my blade to stop it from decapitating me, using all of my strength, groaning in anger.

Damon kicked Julian's legs out from under him, making him fall to the floor and to save me, picking up a makeshift stake to stake him in the heart.

Julian kicked Damon back across the room.

I swung my sword in front of me, raising it above me to deliver the killing blow by decapitating Julian, yelling in anger.

Julian grabbed one of the makeshift stakes, throwing it into my ribcage, right underneath my heart, nearly staking me, making me stop

Damon was behind me, so he didn't see that the stake had missed my heart, panicking. "Nikki!"

Julian rushed toward me, driving another stake further into my ribcage, tilting it up toward my heart to try to kill me. 

I gasped in pain, dropping my sword to the floor.

Damon rushed toward Julian, pushing him away from me. Julian pushed him into a table, making it shatter.

I fell to the floor, gasping and groaning.

Julian twirled the Phoenix Sword in his hand, raising it stab Damon in the heart.

I held a hand toward him to try to stop him, desperately. "No!"

Julian stabbed Damon in the heart with the Phoenix Sword. 

I couldn't hear anything. I heard a weird noise that was void of sound, that drew my attention to the sword.

The stone was glowing from within as Damon's soul was trapped inside.

I could hear Damon inside, like a whispering voice that was calling out to me, despaired and in denial. 

Julian took the Phoenix Sword out of Damon's heart.

I finally brought myself out of the trance, pulling the stake out of my ribcage, gasping in pain.

Julian looked at me, smirking. "Now I'll run."

Julian rushed out of the house, leaving.

I crawled closer to Damon's body in denial, despaired. "Damon? Damon. No. Damon!"

     ~~~~~~~     

Stefan was here now, waling toward me. 

I was kneeling over Damon's motionless body.

Stefan gaped in horror at the sight. "Oh, my God." I didn't respond, looking down. Stefan knelt next to me. "You told me to let it go. I should have let it go. I couldn't..."

"She was your mom, Stefan," I told him. "And if you think it's easy to let something like that go... I just wanted you to give us some time so we could do this right."

Stefan was incredibly guilty, horrified and devastated at the thought of Damon being gone. "I know. And I'm sorry." I barely nodded. "Let's figure out a way to save Damon."

     ~~~~~~~     

Stefan pulled out his phone, calling Bonnie, but he got her voicemail. He sighed, hanging up. "Oh, she's not answering. We need to call Valerie." I remained silent. Stefan looked at me in concern. "Nikki?"

"He's in there because of me," I told him. "He's in there because he saved me." Stefan sighed, walking closer. "And he's not gonna make it in there."

"Yes, he will," Stefan told me.

"That stone is punishment for every bad thing you've ever done," I told him. "This is Damon. Stefan, when Julian put him in there... I could hear him. Like he was crying out to me in agony. I don't know what my connection to the sword is, but I don't even want to know what he's going through."

Stefan put a hand on my shoulder comfortingly, reassuringly. "Hey. He can survive this."

Nora appeared in front of us, having been cloaked while she had been standing in front of us for an unknown amount of time, holding the Phoenix Stone. 

Stefan and I stood in surprise.

Nora looked at Stefan. "Even if he can, he'll be different. Just like you."

Nora rushed toward Stefan, holding her hand toward me, casting a pain infliction spell on me so I wouldn't be able to stop her from driving the Phoenix Sword into Stefan's heart.

Stefan groaned in pain.

I held my head in pain. "Stefan!"

Stefan grabbed the hilt of the sword, falling back against the nearby armchair.

Nora was still holding me off with the pain infliction spell.

We both watched Stefan, Nora coldly in satisfaction and me in horrified denial.

I grabbed a piece of wood from the chair I had broken earlier, throwing it into Nora's neck to make her release me from her spell. 

Nora gasped in pain.

I rushed toward her. 

Nora disappeared in a cloaking spell before I could. "Invisique."

I looked around, seemingly and completely alone.

I looked at Stefan in shock, disconcerted, looking at the sword still in his heart.

I couldn't hear anything. I heard a weird noise that was void of sound, that drew my attention to the sword.

The stone was glowing from within as Stefan's soul was trapped inside.

I could hear Stefan inside, like a whispering voice that was calling out to me, despaired and in denial. I slowly walked closer, kneeling next to Stefan, hesitantly reaching out to take the hilt of the Phoenix Sword, pulling it out of Stefan's chest. 

It wasn't what I had expected to be. 

I could heard them. 

Every soul that was in the stone. They were in agony, in their own personal little hells. I could practically hear them all and see little visions in my head, little snippets of what was going on in their minds. It's like I could feel their pain, in agony, starting to cry, screaming. I dropped the sword, looking at Stefan and Damon's bodies in front of me in denial, knowing that they were two of the souls in that stone now, and they were going through hell.