At home, still alone in the house, I was walking through the hall toward the library, down the steps, toward the couch, sitting in front of the fire that I had started earlier, staring into the flames, lost in thought. 

My phone ringing snapped me out of it, blinking, pulling it out, looking at the Caller I.D.

Stefan.

I answered. "About time one of you finally contacted me."

"Where are you?" 

"Home. Why?" 

"Look, do you feel any different than you have before? Stronger, having dreams about killing vampires?" 

"What's up with the Q&A?" 

"Just answer the questions, Nicola." 

"Are you asking if I think that I'm turning into a Hunter? 'Cause the only way for that to happen is . . ." I leaned forward in realization. "Please tell me that nothing happened to Jeremy." I got no response. "Please tell me that I'm not gonna lose my mind, Stefan!" 

"Look, I don't know. The mark on Jeremy's body was gone. When Connor died, the mark appeared on him. Did the mark appear on you?" 

I looked at my bare hand, no marks at all. "No. None. Stefan, what happened?" 

"Katherine killed Jeremy. I need you to come to Elena's. Okay?" 

"Okay, I'm on my way." 

I stood, getting my jacket, hanging up and walking out of the house to go to Elena's. 

~~~~

At Elena's, I stood downstairs with Stefan. 

"So you just found him?" I asked. "Dead, broken neck, blood drained?"

"Yeah," Stefan answered. "Nicola, he's supernatural. The ring's not gonna bring him back. And I really need to know if you're okay." 

"Look, the Hunters were only created to find the Silas, feed him the Cure and kill him, right?" I asked. Stefan nodded. "Right, and even if I did somehow get the gene now that Jeremy's dead, I still have to kill a vampire to activate it, and I haven't done that. I don't feel any different, and nothing's been happening to me. I don't think that it happened like it was supposed to, the way that it's been happening for who knows how long." 

"And why is that?" Stefan asked. 

"Because the mark's gone," I answered. "If I was going to become a Hunter, wouldn't I have the mark?" 

Stefan nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess so." 

"Right, and since that it's gone, I don't think that I have to worry about it," I told her. "So, I can kill vampires without worrying about what will happen to me. Right?" 

"That's just a theory, Nikki," Stefan told me. "I wouldn't be so keen on testing it out. And we could always do what we did to Jeremy by creating the side-step, but the only guy who knew how to do that just died out on the island." 

"Oh, don't pretend that you care about Shane," I told him. "He was a psychopath that wanted to raise a billion year old witch, and with the empty chambers, probably did raise him." I sat down on the stairs, shaking my head. "I can't believe he's dead." 

"Yeah, I know," Stefan told me, sitting down next to me. "I've been alive for almost two centuries now. You'd think with the amount of people that I've seen die, it would hurt less each time. Never does." 

I shook my head. "No. No, it never does. I've lost nearly everyone that I've ever cared about, and I've seen other people lose theirs. Sometimes I think that denial is the worst part for people like us, because we know the truth. We can see they're on a collision course with it, and all we can do is brace ourselves for impact." 

Stefan nodded. His phone rang. He answer, putting it on speaker. "Did you find her?" 

"I'm still looking," Damon told us. 'How is she?" 

"She's losing it, Damon," Stefan answered.  "We can do what we can to delay things here, but we've got to get Jeremy to the morgue before it gets ugly."

"Damn it. I can't--I can't just leave her behind. I can't--I can't show up without Bonnie." 

"I think you have to," I told him. "At this point, the sire bond is probably the only thing that's gonna keep Elena together. I can go back to find Bonnie."

"I'm on my way." 

Damon hung up.

~~~~

He called back to tell us that he had found Bonnie.

Stefan called Elena to let her know, on speaker. 

"Stefan?" 

"Hey," I told her. "Damon found Bonnie. The plane is there waiting for them when they get off the island. They'll be home in a few hours." 

 "Thank God. Is she okay?" 

"Yeah, he said she's find," I told her. "Listen, Elena. You might have been right. There might be something." 

"She knows what to do, doesn't she?" 

 Stefan seemed reluctant to hope. "Let's just see what she says when she gets home, okay?" 

"Okay. We'll be home soon." 

~~~~

Damon and Bonnie had gotten home.

Damon was talking to Stefan and me outside about Bonnie. "She's out of her mind. The nutty professor's got her totally brainwashed." 

~~~~

"I mean, the whole flight back home, all she could talk about was how she's the one that can drop the Veil between this side and the Other Side," Damon told us. 

"Drop the Veil?" I repeated. "What does that even mean?" 

"What it means is, the myth about Silas being able to raise the dead is not just one, or some," Damon told us. "It's every supernatural being over there." 

~~~~

"Three massacres, three hot spots, and the witch spell of the century, and every supernatural being over there is back with a vengeance." 

~~~~

We walked inside to see Bonnie, Matt and Caroline at the table in the kitchen.

Elena answered the phone. "Hello? Jeremy can't come to the phone right now. He's not . . . . I'm sorry. He's dead."

Elena hung up, walking out of the room, upstairs.

Everyone was looking at each other.

~~~~

Damon had followed Elena upstairs.

Matt and Bonnie had left.

Elena led the way back downstairs. "Where's Bonnie?"

"We told Matt to take her home," Stefan told her. "We thought it'd be best."

"Okay," Elena said. "I guess we're gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way." 

"Do what?" I asked.

Damon walked downstairs with Jeremy's body.

"Put his body on the couch," Elena told him, going into the kitchen and starting to open and close cabinets.

"Elena?" Caroline asked. "Elena, you need help finding something?" 

Elena took a bottle of lighter fluid out of a cabinet, squirting it over the counter. "Got it." 

Caroline stood in shock.

"What are you doing?" Stefan asked. 

Elena continued to squirt the fluid everywhere. "We need a cover story, right? You think I didn't hear you guys talking earlier? Well, what are we gonna say? Animal attack? 'Tumbled down the stairs'? No. We burn the house down with him inside of it." 

Elena made it to the living room, squirting the couch. 

"Elena, stop it," I told her, raising my voice.

"Why?" Elena asked. "Because you want me to not be in denial? You want me to face the truth? This is the truth, Nicola. I don't want to live here anymore. I don't want these sketches." She sprayed them with lighter fluid, kicking the Xbox. "I don't want this Xbox." She threw down the empty bottle, reaching into a cabinet, pulling out a bottle of bourbon. "Not gonna need this bourbon anymore. Alaric's not here to drink it. I mean, unless, you guys are willing to bring back every supernatural creature on the Other Side to get him back." She turned to Damon. "Would you? I know you want your drinking buddy back." She walked toward him. "Would you, Damon? Because I wouldn't." She walked over to Jeremy's body, splashing bourbon over him. "I don't know. I mean, does that make me a bad person? I--I have no idea." She pulled the Gilbert ring off of Jeremy's finger and tossed it to Damon. "He's not gonna need that anymore." 

 "Elena, stop it!" Caroline told her. "You're scaring me." 

Elena took down a picture fram from the fireplace mantle. "What else are we supposed to do with the body, Caroline? I mean, there's no--there's no room in the Gilbert family plot." She threw the frame down on the floor, making the glass shatter. "Jenna and--and John took the last spots." 

Elena threw the empty bottle of bourbon against the wall, making it shatter. She grabbed a match from the mantle, striking it against the mantle, making it light. 

 "No, no, Elena," Stefan told him. "Stop."

"There's nothing here for me anymore, Stefan!" Elena told him. "Every inch of this house is filled with memories o the people that I love that have died. My mom, my dad, Jeremy, and Jenna, and Alaric, John, even John. I mean, they're all dead. Everyone is dead. So what am I supposed to--I mean, how am I gonna--I can't even--There's nothing left for me." 

 The flame burned down on the match, starting to burn Elena's hand, making her drop the match.

Damon rushed to catch it before it could ignite on the floor.

Elena sobbed, starting to crumble.

"Elena, I need you to calm down," Damon told her.

"No, no, no, I can't," Elena told us. "I can't. I can't. I--" She fell to her knees, in absolute pain, grabbing her head. "No. It hurts. It hurts. Just make it stop. Please make it stop. It hurts."

"Damon . . ." Stefan trailed off. "Help her." 

Damon knelt in front of Elena, pulling her closer.

"I--I--" Elena cut herself off, crying. 

 "I can help you," Damon told her. "I want you to let me help you." Elena shuddered. Damon laid a hand on her cheek, smoothing her hair back. "I can help you."

"How?" Elena asked.

"Turn it off," Damon told her. 

"What?" Stefan asked. "No, no."

Damon held up a hand to stop him from intervening. "Just turn it off, and everything will go away. That's what you have to do. It's what I want you to do. Just turn it off." 

Elena's tear-stained face turned utterly expressionless, still, the light leaving her eyes, glossy and void. 

~~~~

Later, on the porch, Stefan, Damon and I were talking.

"It was a mistake," I told him.

"It wasn't, and you know it," Damon told me. "This is the only way she's gonna survive. We'll help her, keep an eye on her. When she's ready, I'll use the sire bond to bring her back." 

"Her humanity," Stefan told him. "Damon, that was all she had left."

"Humanity means nothing when you don't have anyone to care about, Stefan," Damon told him.

I nodded. "She had you." 

"She lost her brother," Damon told me. "I'm not enough. Not this time."

"Listen, Damon," Stefan told him. "I know that you and I, we've been through some . . . bad spots lately, especially when it comes to her." 

"Yeah," Damon agreed. "Well, guess none of that matters anymore."

"Well, I just, um . . ." Stefan trailed off. "I want you to know that, um . . ." 

Stefan looked from me to Damon. 

"I know, Stefan," I told him, putting a hand on Stefan's shoulder, nodding. 

We walked inside to see Elena with another lit match. 

"Elena, don't do this," Damon told her. "We can find another cover story."

Elena shook her head. "This is the best one. No one'll ask questions."

"Look, i you burn down the house, it'll be gone," I told her. "What if one day, when this is all over, you want to come home again?" 

Elena watched the flame, looking at me. "I won't." 

Elena tipped the match out of her fingers, letting it fall to the floor, immediately igniting. 

Elena led the way out of the house. Damon and Stefan followed her, all three turning to their left, continuing down the street.

I paused, looking back at the house, turning and following them.

Was it ironic the only one who looked back at the burning house was the human who lost too much, making it seem like nothing mattered at all?