Being blown apart in a diner full of Travellers officially sucks.

But what really sucks is the part which comes next: being transported to a supernatural purgatory which is falling apart. If you asked anyone else about the Other Side, they'd tell you it's like being in the human world but nobody hears you, sees you or touches you. That it's emotional pain more than anything.

Even so, an emptiness had taken hold of my body with an iron fist. Like that hollow feeling you feel before doing something daring or scary. It constantly felt as if I was straining against a current of water. It was like the air felt too dense to move fluidly in. But the hindrances of being in a dead ghost couldn't matter to me today.

I needed to find my body and fast. Or else who knew what would happen.

I made a beeline through the trees, scampering across broken twigs and sticks. My hair was coming out of its braid, silvery blonde tufts falling across my face. My heart beat so fast I could hear it vibrating through my body. Sweat clung to every pore on my body.

I needed to get to Mystic Grill. Or what was left of it, at least. I needed to get to my body. Fast. The trees gave way to a road and I ran across it, ignoring the oncoming vehicle. They couldn't kill me, anyway. I was dead already.

My breath was amplified in my ears. I scanned my surroundings. I exhaled a deep sigh of relief. I knew where I was. I could make it. I followed the streets until I found myself on the street leading me to Mystic Grill. Leading me to my chance back into the real world.

I paused in front of the debris of the diner. I took a deep breath. I shouldn't be taking this much time, but I needed to recollect myself. Gingerly pushing a plank of discarded wood out of the way, I  pushed my way into Mystic Grill.

The first thing I noticed was the smell: an acrid, foul stench laced with the smell of smoke and gas. And underneath that, the smell of burnt flesh. Choking on the thick smell, I pulled the neckline of my shirt up over my mouth and went deeper into the destroyed building.

You'd think it'd be easy to find yourself in a sea of people after looking at your reflection everyday for eighteen years. No such luck. After tripping over a substantial amount of corpses, I realised that it might be more difficult than I first thought. I stepped over a discarded door, disturbing a mound of broken infrastructure in my wake. Something moved in the shadows and emerged from the darkness.

"Legolas?" Damon's voice sung out. I groaned. Even dead, Damon was a pain in the ass. According to my sarcastic vampire half-friend half-enemy, I resembled the elf off of The Lord Of The Rings so much so that I could've been his doppelgänger.

"Ha. Ha. Real funny," I said. "Or at least it would be if I wasn't in search of my dead body to take me back from the Other Side."

He stepped over a lump of debris and said, "Follow me, Athena. I know where it is."

He brushed past me and wound through the hazardous surroundings purposefully. I heard a noise behind me and stopped in my tracks. I turned around and furrowed my eyebrows at the man behind me. "Alaric?"

"Athena," Alaric said, frowning. "We need to get back soon."

"I know, I know," I said. "I can't find my body."

As if on cue, Damon's penetrating voice rang out. "Found it," he cooed in a singsong tone.

I hurried over, my feet snagging on the discarded pieces of the building. I looked down at my body in disgust, marvelling at the sight of the near indistinguishable body in front of me. My telltale pale blonde hair was reduced to nothing but ashes and my skin was raw and had a crimson film covering it. Black soot clung to what was left of my clothes. I would've felt embarrassed at so much of my body being revealed in front of Damon and Alaric, but something told me that they were more bothered by the sight of my scalded dead body.

A strange feeling embedded itself inside of me, a pang of grief hitting me. Are you even allowed to be grieving for your own death? I thought grimly. I shivered and bit my lip. "We should go," I said.

I started for the exit, stepping over bodies and ruins. I hurried my pace with Alaric and Damon beside me. "We should move faster," I said frowning. "I hope we make it."

"We will make it, okay, Athena? Stop worrying," Damon said cuttingly. I knitted my eyebrows together in even more distress. When Damon said not to worry, there was only one suitable response: to worry. A lot.

I winded my way through the trees, darkness cloaking most of the way so that I had to rely on my instinct for directions. Finally, the foliage gave way to the clearing in which Bonnie stood tall and defiant.

She beckoned us forward with benevolent eyes. I waited for Alaric and Damon to go first. Even though I was friends with the others in the human world, I didn't think any of my relationships with any of them ran as deep and meaningful as Alaric's and Damon's were with Elena.

"You go," Damon said to Alaric. "I'll be right behind you."

Bonnie shut her eyes in anticipation as Alaric reached an arm forward and gingerly placed his hand on her shoulder. Alaric dissolved before my eyes. Bonnie hunched over in pain, groaning through clenched teeth. I pressed my lips into a firm line as I watched her double over. It's not easy watching one of your friends in so much pain.

She finally recomposed herself, exhaling a deep breath which whistled through her gritted teeth. I hesitated, waiting for Damon to go first. He gestured for me to go. "Ladies first," he said.

I tilted my head questioningly. Are you sure? He nodded his head yes. I gnawed on the inside of my bottom lip nervously. This is it. This is my chance to come back from the dead. I reached out my hand, timidly laying it on Bonnie's shoulder.

And nothing happened.

I shot my eyes open, looking alarmingly at Damon and then back at Bonnie. "Nothing's happening," I said quietly.

"What the hell?" Damon asked. He shouldered me out of the way and clamped a hand down on Bonnie's shoulder. "No, no, no."

Bonnie smiled sadly. "The spell has ended," she said.

"No, no, no, no, no," I muttered, putting my hands on my head and pacing around. "I can't believe that witch bitch stopped before I could get through."

Damon placed a hand on my back. "Calm down," he said, smiling lopsidedly. "After all, what's death but a new adventure?"

I spoke through clenched teeth. "It's hell, Damon. It's not some fun carnival ride."

"I guess this is it," Bonnie announced sombrely.

I slowed my breathing and ran a hand through my hair. "I guess it is," I sighed, visibly defeated.

The wind picked up, howling through our empty purgatory. I shut my eyes, willing myself to stop trembling. You're Athena Jacobson, I tell myself. You've lived through evil doppelgängers, a family of Original vampires and a group of Travellers attacking you and your friends. And as much as I begged my heartbeat to stop racing as I felt someone's hand grip mine, I couldn't. Because I was about to be sent to who knew what with no way out. I'd be trapped forever.

The gust of wind greeted my skin with a cold kiss and the world dissolved into a harsh white light.

I'm dead. Completely and wholly dead. But I didn't feel like I had been sucked into a void of nothingness. And when I opened my eyes again it was to an empty Mystic Falls. I sucked in a breath, still clutching at Bonnie's hand.

I finally opened my mouth to speak. "What sort of hell is this?"

Little did I know that that was just the beginning of the end.