Disclaimer: I don't own tvd it belongs to L.J Smith and Julie Plec, but this story is mine.

Enjoy :-)

The heaviness of his dilemma presses heavily on Stefan's mind, a guilt trip waiting to happen.

He should have been quicker, should have said something, other than the useless extremities that came pouring out of his mouth, so wrong. So stupid.

He was too late, a hair line away from telling the truth, but he just missed her.

He was on his way to tell her he loved her, and instead all he found was the unconscious body of the girl he used to know.

He's such an idiot.

-X-

Rage pounds hard against his ribcage. Jealousy knots its way around his stomach as he sees her laughing and dancing. A laugh no longer aimed at him, and a smile that looks absolutely delighted, emotion painted all over it.

Of course it isn't true.

And it's his fault.

The music throbs and screams uncontrollably through his ears, and he really hates raves, and he really hates himself, but God, he loves her.

She flits in and out of his vision like an illusion painting the sky, or rain running down a window. He can't keep his eyes off of her.

The guilt presses heavily on his mind, silence refuses to take him.

Hope pushes him forward towards her.

"I like you, Caroline." He pushes, hesitant to reveal the shocking extent of his feelings for her. "I don't know when it became more than friendship, but it did."

Annoyance flares in her face, gone in the blink of an eye, but not before he catches it, but then she's laughing at him.

It's then that he realises that he no longer knows who she is, this person, but it's not the Caroline he loves.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it?" There is steel in her tone, the verge of breaking the icecap, a void to suck emotion into. "Only took a couple years, cancer to devour my mum, and my to shut off my humanity but you finally spit it out."

Yes, she is on the verge of falling.

He pushes too hard, pushes her right off.

For one tiny moment, he reaches the tiny part of her heart still intact, and just as he coaxes the light back to life, she douses it once again.

"Come back to me."

She falls, and he loses her again.

"You shouldn't have done that." She snaps, before leaving him again.

He's so tired of losing her.

-X-

She's mad.

A new brand of beautiful insanity. The truth is cutting and she wields it like a knife.

Stefan was at a complete loss, nowhere to turn, as he watches her sink to the lowest she could go, reeling his secret niece and an innocent boy into her terrifying scheme.

"I'll do anything you want, I'll leave town, I'll stay away from you, Caroline. Please, just let her go." He pleads with her ghost.

"It doesn't matter how far away you are, you'll still be you. Kind, caring, who with one look can convince me that I'm not crazy. And that's the Stefan that I fell for, and that's the Stefan who can bring me back."

He's her one shot at humanity.

Hope sparks, before her words set in.

"Let go of that part of you, Stefan." Caroline's eyes burn holes in his skin.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Elena stares at her friend as though she's never seen her before.

"If Stefan wants to save Sarah's life," Caroline smirks. "All he has to do is shut off his humanity."

He realises then that she's a complete stranger to him.

That realisation hurts worst of all.

-X-

Stefan gives up.

He's been building towards it for a while, but he finally can't take it anymore.

Wood pierces his skin, freezes him in place, immobile and still, with the chilling knowledge that Caroline had won.

She slides her hand over his, and he feels the tingling warmth her touch always ignites. He loves her so much.

The crippling pain of knowing she doesn't care, though, that may have been the final straw.

Seven minutes later, he doesn't care either.

"Bring me back." He says to Elena, seconds before his words became meaningless lies. Seconds before he realises he doesn't mean it.

Elena begs him to stop, but he can't hear her anymore, all he can see is Caroline, and let's face it, he was no longer the hero of this story. What hero inflicts battle scars?

He closes his eyes as the humanity seeps out of him.

The ripper is awoken.

Caroline smiles a dark sweet smile. He smiles back.

Oh, how they will paint this town red with blood.

What a pair they will make.

Thanks for reading, I'm considering a chapter two for this story, please let me know if I should continue. :-)