Hey guys! I'm aware that's it's been a long while since the posting of the last chapter and I'm afraid to say that this will be the last one. I'm not into the story as much as I once was and it wouldn't be fair to you guys to continue the story knowing that, with no enthusiasm, the writing will be lacking (at best). So, yes this is the final chapter to The Start To Forever and no, I won't be continuing this universe in a prequel or anything like that, however if any of you have one-shot prompts you would like me to write based in the universe I would be happy to create another work but as a collection of one-shots. Don't be afraid to prompt or review an idea because if I can, I'll happily write some short one-shots to make up for this stories sudden completion.
Anyway, on the the final chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any associated characters or plots.
Elena had never run faster in her life, living or undead. After hearing Alaric call after her, Elena contemplated stopping and gathering information - it would, after all be the smartest thing to do - but couldn't bring herself to do it. She tore through the forests in Mystic Falls, uncertain as to exactly where they may be, before turning abruptly on her heels after realizing the Salvatore tomb was in the opposite direction.
When she got there, skidding to a halt and panting, she felt her stomach drop. There was no one there, but Liv passed out on the ground, blood slipping down her face.
[...]
"Jeremy, you okay?" Damon called, attempting to be heard over the searing white noise in his ears and the wind surrounding them.
Jeremy rolled off of his back and scrambled to his feet as he winced. Reaching up to touch his head, he groaned at the sight of blood on his fingers. Gritting his teeth, he called across to Damon that he was fine.
"Yeah, I'm fine as well, thanks for asking", Jo piped up sarcastically from behind Damon, who quickly helped her to her feet.
Jeremy looked around him confused. "Wait, how am I here?"
Damon didn't even look at him as he spoke. "I dunno Jer. Maybe you wished upon a star!"
Jeremy looked both annoyed and confused. Damon glared at him. "You wanna see Bonnie, don't ya?" Jeremy rolled his eyes.
The spell had worked and they were standing in a brightly lit forest that Damon was all too familiar with. It sent a shiver down his spine when he heard the faint rumble that he had grown used to ignoring in his time here.
Damon attempted to ignore the noise and turned to Jo. "Where's Bonnie?"
Jo looked up from brushing her trouser leg and frowned. "I have no idea. Do you have something of hers? We can track her".
Damon sent a hopeful look to Jeremy who rolled his eyes and pulled a small locket from wallet. He dangled the small chain in front of Jo who gingerly took it in her hands. "It was Bonnie's grams but she wore it a lot so I think it'll work, right?"
Jo nodded, and flopped into a sitting position of the ground. She carefully drew shapes in the ground, ignoring how the wet mud clung to her finger and keeping the locket safely in her palm at all times.
"How long do we have? Still 3 minutes?" Jeremy piped up from beside Damon.
Jo shook her head. "I'm not sure. The tear looks stable and big enough to last longer than we predicted but we still need to hurry."
Damon just sure as hell hoped that this would work.
[...]
Stefan attempted to ignore the feeling his stomach. If anyone asked, he would deny it, but he was worried about Damon. Really worried. And the unsettling feeling in his stomach was only making his worry more distracting. He looked across the room at Elena who was frantically pacing and gave himself a subconscious pat on the back for at least keeping it together better than her.
Alaric was currently trying to calm everyone down while simultaneously helping Liv and was repeating the story for the 100th time; Elena still seemed in denial about the fact that her boyfriend had gone against her knowledge to save Bonnie and that her little brother, who she had seen moments before chasing after Damon, had somehow disappeared too.
Stefan was sure she appreciated it, but her irrational fear of one of them not making it back was making her panic far too much to see the upside. What if they actually got Bonnie back?
[...]
"Are we sure its up here?" Jeremy called up to Damon.
Damon nodded frantically. "Again, I dunno. But this is where Jo said anyway."
Damon was currently perched about 3 meters above Jeremy, crouched on a large and unstable rock pile, looking over the hill Jo predicted Bonnie was on. With no map, Jo had had to take a chance at Bonnie's location. She had even warned them that she could have been wrong by a maximum of 5 square miles. Damon had resisted the urge to either roll his eyes or laugh.
"Do you see her?"
Damon growled at Jeremy's insistence, attempting to concentrate. "Jeremy, maybe if you shut up I might be able to concentrate enough to fi-"
Damon froze.
Jeremy looked confused. "What's going on? Damon?"
"I found her", Damon smirked down at the teen. "But we gotta hurry!"
And without a word Damon sprung from the rock and was a blur in seconds.
"DAMON!" Jeremy cried. "DAMON!"
[...]
"Okay, so I think I've found the right location but my memories a bit hazy and I'm not entirely sure if this rock formation is the same as before but this is the best I can do. I'm so... so tired. I just need to do this and get home because I'm afraid if I don't then I'm gonna go crazy here. Actually, maybe I already have."
Sighing heavily and ignoring the ache in her tired limbs, she stood and stumbled, camera in hand, towards the small circle of rocks and the freshly dug hole in the ground. She lowered herself carefully to the ground, and began to chant.
Mid chant, she was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Bonnie?"
[...]
It had been 2 weeks. 2 whole weeks since Elena had last seen her little brother, her stupidly selfless boyfriend and Jo. The whole group had been anxiously waiting for their return, but no one more so than her. She had gotten sad, angry, worried, panicked and every other negative emotion under the sun before finally settling on hope. She hoped that Damon and Jeremy (and Jo) would return in one piece, all healthy and okay. She hoped that Bonnie would be with them. She hoped it would be soon.
But after a while, people get tired of waiting. And Elena was starting to lose hope.
Caroline had made been furious about what had happened, a point she made very clear a night or two after they had left. She had sworn up and down that Damon was an idiot and that Jeremy was stupid for trusting him and that Jo should have known better and Alaric should have stopped them, but eventually even she gave up and settled with heading home to her mom in the hopes she might help her relax.
Stefan had taken an entirely different approach. By that, Elena meant that he sat in complete and utter silence for the entirety of the first week before Alaric got annoyed and threatened him with vervain if he didn't speak. Even then, hearing Stefan's voice was rare and he mostly kept to himself. He didn't seem overtly worried, just upset and tired of waiting.
But then again, weren't they all?
It was day 15 that Elena finally heard some good news. Jo had returned.
If Alaric's cries of joy had been any louder, Elena might have lost her hearing. He had screamed the house down, calling everyone down to greet Jo again as she graciously accepted their hugs and welcomes. She had sat through hours of interrogation from Stefan, Caroline and Elena without complaint. She told them that they found Bonnie. Jeremy and Damon had both been fine. She'd performed the spell with Bonnie and everything had seemed fine, but they just weren't there when she woke up in the woods, but she assured them everything would be fine. Elena had to stop herself from screaming; life could never just be easy.
By day 22, even Jo was growing increasingly worried.
At day 25, Stefan decided to leave town for the weekend and attempt to unwind. He promised to be back by Monday.
By day 30, Stefan was still absent, Caroline had returned to college and Damon, Jeremy and Bonnie were still not back.
When day 33 came around, Alaric begged Elena to get out of the house and the two of them went training for a few hours. In that time, Elena almost forgot that, chances were, her boyfriend and brother and best friend were probably dead.
It was day 38 that Elena also returned to college.
By day 50 Elena had given up all hope of seeing them again.
Jeremy, Bonnie and Damon's "funerals" took place on day 63. Stefan remained absent.
On day 64 Elena took a trip to the Salvatore tombs, where Damon's small engraved tomb stone now sat, too new when surrounded by all of his relatives. She laid on the dirt and grass for hours. She didn't cry. She'd run out of tears.
Exactly 3 months after they had disappeared, Elena woke up to a phone call at 3:43am from Alaric. Assuming it was of grave importance, she answered without hesitation. His words shook her to her core.
"Bonnie's back."
On day 92 Bonnie Bennett returned, a dirt covered, panting and tear stained mess at the Salvatore boarding house, where Jo and Alaric had taken up residence. She had screamed and cried tears of relief and unadulterated joy when Elena, Caroline, and even Stefan launched themselves at her. After months of being alone, their presence was a God sent. She told them all the same things that Jo had; Damon and Jeremy had been fine when they performed the spell, but they just weren't there when she woke up 2 weeks ago in Kentucky.
"Kentucky? But why Kentucky?" Stefan had asked. Bonnie and Jo had both merely shrugged and suggested that perhaps Damon and Jeremy were back, but they had just ended up somewhere far away too.
So Elena's hope was restored.
When Jeremy's birthday came and went without his return, it marked 114 days since she had seen her little brother.
Surprisingly, Jeremy returned 2 days after his birthday. And trailing behind? Damon Salvatore.
On day 122, after 5 days wrapped up in sheets, Elena and Damon finally left their bed.
On day 123, Damon and Jeremy explained how they both woke up in Ontario, Canada and had had to hitch hike their way home.
On day 150, everything went relatively back to normal.
On day 203, Damon did the unthinkable. He handed Elena the cure and suggested she take it.
By day 204 Elena had convinced Damon she didn't want it.
On day 245, Stefan took the cure and became human.
On day 250, he moved to North Dakota and started a fresh life as a college student studying English literature and Film.
By day 273, Elena and Caroline were college graduates.
Day 274, Elena, Caroline and Bonnie woke up with hangovers that Damon proceeded to tease them over.
By day 295, Elena got a job in New York.
On day 300, Damon had packed his stuff and by day 301, was in New York with Elena.
On day 303, Jo announced her pregnancy and little Jenna Amelia Saltzman was born on day 582.
On day 614, Damon proposed to Elena.
They were married by day 630.
On day 1,230 Jeremy and Bonnie tied the knot.
On day 1,825, exactly 5 years after they had disappeared, Stefan fell ill.
On day 1,850, Stefan passed away in a small hospital bed in North Dakota, with his girlfriend Shannon, and his big brother at his side.
Damon stopped crying on day 1,864.
On day 3,321 Caroline sobbed at her mother's funeral.
On day 4,532 Enzo was stabbed through the chest in Nottingham, England.
On day 10,962, Alaric Saltzman died of stomach cancer.
Shortly after, on day 11,032 Jo passed away from a heart attack.
On day 16,200 Bonnie and Skyler, Jeremy and her's 28 year-old daughter, as the last Bennett witches in existence, were murdered by a a group of travelers.
Jeremy died of heart failure 2 months later.
On day 25,030 Damon and Elena adopted a little girl called Riley.
By day 25,410 they had moved to Italy.
On day 30,000, Riley told her parents that she had no intention of turning.
She died aged 88 on day 62,230.
On day 73,000, Elena and Damon returned to Mystic falls, all of their family and friends long gone and at peace, and sat at the town border of Mystic Falls, resisting the urge to go in. It had been exactly 200 years since Damon and Jeremy had courageously left to save Bonnie. 200 years of heartbreak and happiness and love.
And they wouldn't change a single day of it.
Damon returned 250 years, to the day, alone. Elena had been cruelly ripped from him on day 75,000 and he had remained alone ever since. Life had changed, every aspect of it had, and Damon had finally begun to accept Elena's absence. He never took another lover, never even another kiss.
No one knows how long Damon Salvatore lived. No doubt, many more days after that.
The End
It's a cruel way to end it, but at least this leaves thousands of opportunities for you guys to imagine over 200 years of happiness for Delena.
I really hope you enjoyed the story, however short as is may have been. I hope that, while this last chapter wasn't insanely lone, it gave you a vague idea of how life continued for them (I like to imagine that they all live their own lives and escape the supernatural stuff) and you were at least mostly satisfied. Again, there are a number of one-shots that could be created, both by myself or by you (although please do contact me if this is something you would like to write a one-shot for). As my profile says, I'm happy to accept prompts :)
Anyway, thank you for reading! You've all been amazing.
Love,
i-am-castiel x