When Stefan reached back home, he was surprised to find it in an utter and horrific mess. Nearly everything was thrown, broken and out of place. All of Damon's collection of bourbon bottles was shattered and at that instant, he realized hat whatever had happened here would have been nothing less than totally disastrous.

"Damon," he called for him checking the whole living room, "Damon, where the hell are you now?"

When he got no response, he dashed off to the cells in the basement, the very cells where long ago his ancestors used to keep people accused of being vampires and then burn them at the stake. The same cells where he too had been locked along with Damon on that fateful night in 1864.

Stepping into the cells sent an inexplicable chill down his spine, even though he had been through a lot in his past years, still nothing could encompass the pain of being held hostage by one's own father with an ultimate death sentence hanging on one's neck.

"Damon..." His voice echoed through the stone walls. bouncing back to him in a tremulous echo. Soon enough, he found him kneeling in the very cell where they had been locked up more than a century ago.

"What the hell are you doing..." he bent down to straighten him but he shook his hand off him.

"Leave me alone, brother," Damon's voice came out in a hiss, "just go. Please."

Stefan was quite perturbed at his reaction and more anxious as to why he was down in the basement, the one place he had vowed never to step foot in again. He observed the stains of dried blood on Damon's shirt and the fading bruises on his forearms. He knew whatever had happened was immensely bloody as judged by the giant red stains on him. "What happened?"

"Klaus happened," he replied through gritted teeth.

A wave of fury coursed through Stef, "and what did he do this once? I asked him to leave you alone, I told him that whatever happened was between me and him and yet... What did he do to you?"

"He did the worst, Stefan... The worst. He ruined everything. He destroyed me and whatever little chance I had in this pathetic life of mine." A stray tear rolled down his cheek and he slammed his fist into the stone wall, cracking his bones by the sheer force of it.

"Damon, stop it," he spoke immediately in a worry, "stop it, I beg you. Don't give anymore pain to yourself."

"I deserve this pain, brother, I deserve much worse than that. And it's all because of that stupid moonstone!" His voice raised to an alarming pitch turning more into a growl of anger and disappointment, "if it wasn't for you and your pathetic girlfriend's safety, I would not have been here at all. If it wasn't for the word I gave you of protecting your precious little Elena, none of this would have happened and Mel... And Melanie..."

He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence and hearing Melanie's name mentioned in all of that made Stefan greatly anxious, "what happened to Mel? Where is she?"

Damon gave no response. It seemed as if he had just gone silent as a statue. Stefan shook him quite troubled by what answer he was to be met with, "Damon, for the love of our mother, answer me!"

He slowly looked up and when his eyes met his brother's they were filled to the brim with tears that he was trying his best to hold inside, "she's in her room."

"What happened to her?" Stefan was almost shouting by then.

"Go see for yourself," came the muted reply.

Not being able to process the current situation, Stefan heaved him up and dragged out of the dreadful cells and up the stairs to the living room. The utter silence in the house made him more afraid than he had ever felt in his life.

What if Melanie was hurt beyond repair? What if she wasn't with them anymore? 

The questions were weighing him down and just like Damon, he could not bring himself to step on to the staircase on the way to her bedroom.

The silence was shattered by the sound of something thrown against the wall. The sound came from Mel's bedroom and both the brothers dashed upstairs in a haste.

The door was locked when they reached there and no matter how they pounded, there came no response came from Mel only a series of earsplitting crashes as of she was taking apart her room just like Damon did whenever he was angry.

"Melanie, open the door," Stefan pleaded, "if you don't I will have to smash it down."

Damon was standing beside him, features twisted in anguish and anxiety dripping from his blue eyes.

"Mel, if you don't open it right now, I will come in by force," Stefan waited for a few seconds but when the crashes didn't subside, he rammed down the door with full force, crashing head first into the book shelf that was hurled on the floor.

All of a sudden the crashing noises stopped and Melanie came rushing towards him dropping down on her knees in order to make him sit up, "Stef... Stefan..."

Stefan cupped her face gently in his hands, making her look straight in his eyes, "Melanie, what's wrong?"

At that question, she roughly pulled away, turning her back towards both of them. The clenched fists showed that she was trying to retain her anger, "why don't you ask... Damon... about it?"

He had never heard of such anger laced in her voice before and he was shaken a lot, "you know what, both of you, I'm done with all this ask the other person thing. If you are not going to tell me, I'll go and confront Klaus himself."

At the mention of Klaus, she tensed up and a slight tremble went through her frail body but she kept silent nevertheless. He noticed the bloody stain of a knife gash deep on her back, the tattered condition of her clothes, her messed up hair as if they had been pulled back rather mercilessly and the continuous clenching and unclenching of her wrists.

"Melanie," he tried to coax her but she held her hand up for him to stay quiet.

"Ask your brother to leave and then I'll tell you everything," at last she spoke up but her voice was choked. Her words were giving her pain but there was nothing else that she could do about it.

Your brother. Those simple two words dug deep into Damon like a shovel digs in the Earth when hollowing out a grave. Never before had she referred to him as Stefan's brother, it had always been either Damon for her or sometimes even Dad. And yet now? She wasn't willing to address him by his name even. It was as if she never even knew him.

"I'll leave," he replied though it took all the effort in him to tear his eyes away from her almost crying self, it took all the effort in him to try and step out leaving her there.

"Just get out," the bitterness in her voice was cutting him up from the inside akin to knives harrowing up his soul.

When he had stepped out and Melanie was certain he was no longer present in the room, she turned to face Stefan who reached out to her as she collapsed down on the floor. Tears streamed down her cheeks ceaselessly and her voice got stuck in her throat. Outside the room, Damon was standing close by and could clearly hear her sobs, which seemed to be quite like the pain and guilt he had felt back in the Mikaelson Manor when Klaus had dug the knife and slashed through her arms, her collarbone and her neck.

"It will all be okay, I've got you now," Stefan mumbled trying to soothe her trembling figure, "please stop crying and tell me what happened. I promise I'll sort everything out for you."

"No one can sort anything out... Not you, not him, no one."

He gently rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down before she spoke. 

"Klaus... Klaus knew about us. He knew I had been living with you both and that I was important to you. What he didn't know was that I might have been of some importance to you but none when it came to... to Damon."

The anguish in her voice perturbed him a lot, "what are you saying? Damon cares for you, he loves you and would lay his life down for you in a heartbeat."

The confidence from his words was quite evident. But she shook her head in a no and let out a low bitter laugh, "that's exactly what I thought, Stef, but it turned out I was wrong. So so wrong..."

He still couldn't grasp why they were so against each other all of a sudden, what had Klaus done that had ripped both of them apart?

"Look here, Mel, you're probably mistaken. Damon would never even think of that. He truly cares for you."

"Oh really? So is it normal to watch the person he so dearly cares for get tortured right in front of his eyes while he does absolutely nothing to stop it? That's totally fine, you say? If that's the case, damn you too, Stefan."

There was an awkward silence in the room, only Mel's choked sobs could be heard. Stefan didn't know what to do or say to her. 

"Don't you dare defend him," she mumbled, "and if you do, I'll leave you both forever."

"No, Melanie, I am not going to defend him. But all this doesn't make any sense to me. Damon would never..."

She interrupted, "he did, Stefan, he did and you will have to accept it. I'm not angry on getting tortured due to that moonstone, I'm angry on the fact that he let me get tortured and didn't even protest. I'm angry that even after all I have been through, even after all these years I spent with him, I still am nothing to him as compared to the infamous Petrova doppelgangers. To hell with them and to hell with Damon's infatuation for them!"

Stefan silently kept rubbing her back in a gesture to offer support. While Damon was still leaning against the door, watching her and getting burdened with more and more guilt by every passing second.

"Stefan I can't bear to look at him anymore," her voice broke again, "he used to call me his princess, he promised he would keep me safe from who anyone who dares to lay a hand on me, he treated me like a daughter and yet... Do you know how indifferent his face was when K-Klaus dug knives on to me? Do you know how he silently watched it all and didn't do anything about it? He cares much much more for Elena and that's what hurts me worse than these wounds, worse than any wound ever inflicted on me. He would not give away the location of the moonstone because that's a key element in keeping darling Elena safe. But he would chose to watch someone who's up with him for so many years get tortured and torn apart right in front of him? It's... It's so so painful... Hurts so bad. Right here," her hand rested on her heart and tears went down her cheeks like water from a flowing fountain.

Damon couldn't bear it anymore, he couldn't bear the bitterness in her voice and the broken trust that was stabbing through both of them like shards of glass. He stepped in and went towards both of them, kneeling down on the ground to be face to face with her. His face was just as tear-stained as hers.

Seeing him, she turned her eyes away burying herself in Stefan's shoulder.

"Mel..."

"Don't you dare call me Mel."

"Please, try to understand," he protested trying to make her face him but she pushed his hand off.

"I have understood everything. I know whatever I do, whatever I suffer, I will still be nothing when compared to your unhealthy obsession that goes by the name of Elena Gilbert. She's always going to be the one who truly matters to you, while I'm just a little girl who you let in your home out of sympathy. Isn't that so, Damon? Aren't I just a boarder who you lent shelter out of sympathy but has no other affection for, who you occasionally talk and laugh with when you feel like it and at other times give hell to bear?"

"Melanie, it's not like that. I... I... I was doing that for your safety. I thought if I pretended to not know you, he would leave you alone. I... I was..."

She roughly interrupted him and completed the sentence, "you were so so wrong, Damon. What do you take me for? A three year old who would get satisfied at the prospect of cookies and icecream then easily forget everything? And in that again you're wrong. I don't forget and I don't forgive. I thought you would never dare run away from protecting those of your flesh and blood, but I should have known. That's exactly what you did to Stefan years ago and exactly what you're doing to me now."

She stood up to get away from them, but Damon grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back, "Melanie, please..."

"Katherine was right, history is repeating. It's 1864 all over again and it truly sucks to be me."

"No, no Mel, I had no intention to hurt you. I just... I don't..."

"You love Elena more than anyone else in the world. right? More than me too?" her head was slightly tilted as if waiting to know what would be his answer.

His face had never been so distorted with fear, anguish, guilt and pain all rolled into one, "you are my little princess, Mel. You are the only family I have. I would damn Elena to hell and back if that's what it takes to keep you safe."

The distress in his voice was ever so evident and seeing him so broken and torn ripped her apart as well, "false words? Promises thin as a pie crust; made to be broken?"

"No, never."

She couldn't hold herself back anymore and broke down to tears in his arms as he gently pulled her close in that reassuring embrace they had often shared. She was too weak for that confrontation, he realized as he held her delicate frame close to him which shook by the intensity of her sobs.

When she finally let go of him, her body was still trembling and he still had a supportive arm round her waist. "If you really want to do something to make me better, Damon, just somehow make all this pain go away. I want it to stop and it hurts worse than I can tolerate. Please, make it stop."

He shook his head in a low nod. The terrible confrontation had left her weaker than ever and thus it was far easier to get her subjected to compulsion than it usually was.

Being a half vampire, she had a certain resistance towards being compelled but at the moment she was too worn down to even protest about it.

Knowing that was the only option he had if he really wanted to keep her safe and away from the horrors of the supernatural world, he cupped her face in his hands and stared directly into her blue eyes, deepening his gaze for the compulsion to start working.

"Forget everything, Melanie," he whispered but his voice was breaking by the intensity of the words he was saying, "everything. Forever."

Her eyes widened as if in a trance and no word came out of her mouth.

"What are you doing? Stop!" Stefan protested but Damon shot him a glare which clearly meant that he knew what he was doing was for the best of everyone.

"Forget me, forget Stefan, Elena and everyone else you met here at Mystic Falls. It will be like we were nowhere in your life, that all this was just a terrifying nightmare and nothing more. Damon Salvatore was never in your life."

Her eyes were hazy and it seemed as if she was completely bound under a spell so strong that it was impossible for her to be woken out of it.

"And never ever come to Mystic Falls," he finished the sentence and soon as the spell waned, she fell in his arms in a lifeless heap. He gently took her to the bed, laid her down and covered her carefully in blankets.

Stefan was still in shock from what had just commenced and he looked over at Damon with suspicious yet questioning eyes. He couldn't understand why he had to take such a big step and erase all her memory of the Salvatore brothers and of Mystic Falls.

"It's your last night here, princess," Damon spoke in a choked whisper, "and from tomorrow you will step into a new life. A safe, happy and protected life. Without any monsters like me, Klaus and Stefan."