Chapter 1: The Cell

All rights reserved by the L.J. Smith and the CW Network.

Damon's P.O.V

A groan filled the dark, dank cell, emanating from the figure leaning against the unforgiving stone wall. The figure's eye's flickered open. The look of confusion could be seen in the eyes of the man, but the confusion soon turned to terror. The eyes searched the room in a frenzied manner until they landed on the wall to the side of his head. There on the wall were the initials he himself had carved into the wall decades ago: D.S '53. His terror only heightened and was soon seized by the memory's he had tried to bury for so long.

Flashback to 1953-

He slowly came to, waking up to find he was yet again strapped down to the medical gurney. Fear encompassing him, he began to fight against the straps, though the effort was futile. The never ending vervain injections had taken all of his strength, as well as the ability to heal his injuries, created by the never ending experimentation done to his body.

The sound of footsteps hitting the stone floor only increased the terror he was feeling. The footsteps came to a stop to the right of his body. He slowly turned his head and saw the psychopathic doctor. "Hello 21051. Ready to begin today's scientific advancements." The man lying on the gurney mustered up the energy to say, "My name is Damon Salvatore and what you're doing isn't scientific advancements, it's torture." The doctor turned away from Damon and laid down the instruments on the nearby, stainless steel table. Turning back around, he said, "Perhaps. Now your new name is subject 21051." Damon could only stare at the man standing over him and think of ways he could possibly escape. Somehow knowing what 21051 was thinking, the doctor said, "You can stop thinking of ways to escape. Once you enter the Augustine Project, you can never leave. So that's enough talking. Let's get started."

Walking back over to the table, he picked up one of the many instruments laying on the steel table. Turning around he showed Damon his instrument of choice. It was a sharp, steel scalpel. "So 21051, today we are going to research what will happen if certain organs are removed from the body of a vampire. Feel free to scream." Damon, upon hearing this, began to panic, moving frantically on the gurney. Upon seeing 21051's jerky movements on the gurney, he laid down the scalpel and produced an intradermal needle filled with vervain. "This dosage won't knock you out, but it will calm you enough that you won't be jumping around on the gurney." The doctor moved to the subjects arm and injected the vervain. Damon's jerky movement slowed and soon stopped. The doctor then picked the scalpel back up.

Watching the doctor walk back to the gurney with the menacing scalpel, Damon's stomach dropped. He couldn't do anything to stop the man and knew that the next minutes, maybe hours, would be extremely painful. The doctor stopped next to Damon's stomach and lowered the scalpel. Damon, not the one to beg or plead, gritted his teeth when the cold, metal scalpel touched his skin and prepared to deal with the pain . "Here we go," said the doctor. Damon felt like a white, hot fire was cutting him when the first incision was made and couldn't help but scream. After the incision was made, the doctor pulled the skin of his stomach apart and thrust his and into the stomach of his subject. Upon feeling this, Damon screamed louder than he had the first time. The hand then proceeded to root around in the depths of his body until it found what it had been searching for: the intestines. The hand then began to pull.

Damon was at a loss to what level of pain he was feeling. He could only comprehend that he couldn't feel anything but pain. Not being able to stand the extreme pain, Damon began to plead with the psychotic doctor. 'STOP. PLEASE STOP!" The doctor, however, just continued with his research. The hand finally pulled itself out his stomach, but instead of feeling relief, the pain only intensified. Damon looked down at his stomach and saw a horrible sight. As the hand was pulled out, as was his intestines. Seeing this and feeling the horrible pain, he finally passed out. The doctor, after seeing that subject 21051 had passed out, put the intestines back inside the stomach and documented the healing process. "Your pain is my happiness," said the doctor.

End Flashback

A noise in the present day happened to snap Damon out of his flashback. Looking around for the noise, he noticed Dr. Wes standing on the other side of the bars to his cell. Damon, still weak from the atomized vervain, slowly made his way to stand in front of Wes. "Happy to be home again," taunted Wes. "I told Augustine that you're back. He was very happy to say the least. He even began thinking of new ideas for research." Damon, upon hearing this yelled, "Let me out of this place or you'll experience a long agonizing death. I refuse to be a lab rat again." Wes just laughed at Damon's petty threat and began to walk away. While walking he shot back at Damon, "You better get used the being back. Augustine will want to see you soon."

Elena's P.O.V

"Caroline I'm sorry alright. If I hadn't done anything Damon would be dead. Is that what you really want," yelled Elena, throwing cups and other trash items into a trash bag. "Elena, that's not what I'm saying. I just know that the old Elena would have done something else to help instead of killing. We promised Jesse that we would help him," Caroline fired back at Elena, while aggressively cleaning the room. "And we were going to, but that was before we knew his diet was vampire blood. He wasn't safe to be around. I know you liked him, but how long would it have been before he tried to suck you dry," screamed Elena. Caroline, feeling the anger seep out of her, sat down in the nearest chair and took a deep breath. Finally she looked at Elena and said, "Your right. Jesse was too far gone and would have been a danger. I just wish that we could have done something to help him." Elena, hearing how sad Caroline was, sat down next to her and put her arms around her, giving her a hug and said, "I know. Let's forget about cleaning all this up tonight and wait until tomorrow to pick everything up." "Okay," agreed Caroline.

Elena and Caroline stoop up and began to make their way up to their room. After making it to their room and changing into their pajamas, Elena grabbed her cell. "Where did Damon go. I never saw him after he left to deal with Dr. Wes," said Caroline. "I don't know I'll text him and find out what happened," said Elena. "Hey, what happened after the incident with Jesse?" Elena sent to Damon.

Wes's P.O.V

Wes, who was cleaning up in his lab, after everything had quieted down, felt a vibration in his pocket. He pulled out the vibrating object, remembering that he had taken Damon's phone to prevent him from calling for help. Looking at the phone, he saw that there was a message. He opened the message and saw that it was from Elena and read it. Thinking fast, he wrote a hasty message saying, "I drained Dr. Psycho of vervain and compelled him to forget everything to do with vampires or anything else supernatural. Sherriff Forbs called and said that she need help with a little thing back in Mystic Falls, so I headed out pretty quick, thinking it might be urgent. I'm sorry I didn't come see you before I left." He then pressed send. A minute later there was reply. Elena's message read, "Okay. Just make it up to me later. Preferably when we're alone." Wes closed the phone and felt smart for his quick thinking, though a little disgusted for reading the last part of the message. "If only you knew," Wes said to himself, in the dark, quiet room.

Stay tuned for the next chapter. Reviews may hurry the process along, though. Thank you!