I wake up to see one of The Five. I realize that I'm tied to a tree with vervain ropes around my neck and hands. I see that one of The Five is crouched by a campfire. I try to get out of my bonds, but I can't. They're vervained, which causes me pain and eats at my skin.545Please respect copyright.PENANAq82iZT24Dn
"Something botherin' you?" he asks me.545Please respect copyright.PENANApttqJlAZJB
"Would you believe me if I told you mosquitoes?" I ask him.545Please respect copyright.PENANAmfZCd4XfYh
"Aye, I would. How does it feel when a relentless eating machine is draining the blood from your veins?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAPP2ZIpFs1q
"Itchy."545Please respect copyright.PENANA0D1LZ47obK
"Your friends from Mystic Falls think you're funny, Damon?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAStUOyrBCAJ
"You obviously know who I am and where I'm from. Have you been spying on me?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAsUL85U0x5g
"Aye, I have," he answers, getting up. "You and Stefan, Elena, your witch, Bonnie. You need her to cast the spell written on your pal, Jeremy's Hunter's mark..." he continues and sits down again. "...the tattoo that looks exactly like this?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAnsHVjOKauh
I look at his tattoo.545Please respect copyright.PENANAJ0BKAtFvIR
"You wanna know something, just ask," I tell him.545Please respect copyright.PENANAO5K9BjYqhn
"I've been killing vampires my entire life. Still, this thing refused to reveal itself to me. That was, until three days ago and it just magically completed for no apparent reason."545Please respect copyright.PENANALYlv2dObcb
"Come on, man. Do I look like I know anything about tattoos? Look at my skin. It's flawless."545Please respect copyright.PENANA44uQtxTMqr
"Ah! You're not taking me seriously."545Please respect copyright.PENANAEL967O8krQ
He walks over to me.545Please respect copyright.PENANApVwA65EMx0
"I don't blame ya. You don't know me."545Please respect copyright.PENANAk8O8b0YkID
He holds up a pointy wooden stick that he's been holding over the fire. "So let me introduce myself."545Please respect copyright.PENANAUluu6dalPd
He stabs the stick in my neck.545Please respect copyright.PENANAo3KhEopkwH
"My name is Galen Vaughn, and you'd better start talkin'."
It's a beautiful day, as Galen and I walk through the woods, a vervain rope still around my neck and hands.
"Mind telling me where we're going?" I ask him.545Please respect copyright.PENANAfzKHiF7hZE
"At the wishing well lies an entrance to a crypt. In the crypt lies Silas. And with Silas lies the cure, which will allow me to kill Silas, bring the mission of the brotherhood of the Five to an end. You're my leverage, Damon. I use you to get your witch friend to open the passage to Silas' crypt for me."545Please respect copyright.PENANA85aGsnq2TM
"Wait a minute, you're using me to get to Bonnie Bennett? Whoa, brother. Ha! You picked the wrong vampire."
"I guess we'll see about that."545Please respect copyright.PENANAWkFm2BvBec
"Here's the deal, Shrek. My witch friend will open the passage for you. No leverage necessary. We don't care about Silas. All we want is the cure, so you cut us in on your share, and we'll get out of your hair."545Please respect copyright.PENANAGB2N0T3HVq
"You really don't understand, do you?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAXjPcDlEkc8
"No, I don't understand, so why don't you explain it?" I say in a slight accent, mocking Galen's.545Please respect copyright.PENANAIap1PMENmK
"Silas is immortal. I have to cram the cure down his throat in order to kill him."545Please respect copyright.PENANAtuFfQ1kzrl
"Yeah, what does that have to do with me and my friends?"545Please respect copyright.PENANA6yzrlqzttU
"I need to use the cure against Silas. Your friends, they can't exactly have it, now, can they?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAT3XSxMpPHD
"So you use it on Silas, and we'll use it for whoever wants to use it. You don't want to share it with us?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAISiST06vcn
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't."545Please respect copyright.PENANA6SHdwSlQFe
"And why can't you share it?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAUNhSABhoXh
"So it is written. There is only one dose. "545Please respect copyright.PENANAuvEfGPmQDw
I'm still walking ahead and he shoves me.545Please respect copyright.PENANAjJ1NHiJh11
"You touch me again--" I start to say.545Please respect copyright.PENANAdSIAbXIU0I
"And you'll what? Threaten me? Sorry if you're upset about the cure, Damon, but we've got road to cover."545Please respect copyright.PENANAoFVlhgMTju
"I don't care about the cure. In fact, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to be a vampire. You know what? If I wasn't a vampire, then I wouldn't be able to do 9 of the things I'm gonna do to you when I'm free."545Please respect copyright.PENANAWQSac3RWpw
Galen shoves me again.545Please respect copyright.PENANA7wOxTOQJRw
"Make that 10," I add.
"Right."545Please respect copyright.PENANATleLBMgKgN
"All right, I admit it, okay? My friends want the cure, and I want them to have it, and I get very upset when I can't provide for my loved ones. But tell me something, Vaughn, if all you're worried about is Bonnie the teenage witch, then why'd you save Jeremy and Elena yesterday?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAPg4Bcb9rcW
"How did I do that?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAQsulYQRaRW
"Big guy. White paint all over him. You stuck a hatchet in his spine."545Please respect copyright.PENANApdv47tdh8i
"I don't remember doing such a thing."545Please respect copyright.PENANA0ZtY0UeWSs
He pulls on the rope, but I resist, refusing to walk.545Please respect copyright.PENANAlPHc0gK4pJ
"We're on a remote island. There's you, me, and a bunch of unpleasant locals. You expect me to believe that someone else took out that monster truck of a human being that went after Jeremy and Elena?" I say.545Please respect copyright.PENANAfWYBsDHmzG
"I'm telling you, it wasn't me."545Please respect copyright.PENANAaeByYcN9Pc
He shoves me forward again, but we stumble across a body. He's dead with his throat slashed.545Please respect copyright.PENANA1omZKu8hT4
"Was that you?" I ask him.545Please respect copyright.PENANAIsOoTdWhYx
"No. You?"545Please respect copyright.PENANA6gfHb2ZKbW
"No."545Please respect copyright.PENANAXSsbmMxHfm
He looks around, as he says, "Well, I reckon there really is someone else on this island."
We continue walking, but stop when his tattoo starts to disappear.545Please respect copyright.PENANAaru1ExHbqp
"Looks like your witch is casting her spell," he says.
I stagger into the cave in the upper chamber with Galen behind me, vervain ropes still around my neck and hands. We then see some ropes hanging down that we can use to go down into the lower chamber.545Please respect copyright.PENANAmcN7JTnPwN
"Well, here we are. Looks like someone beat us to the punch," I announce.
"That's a shame, Damon. I have no use for you anymore. Hate to kill ya."545Please respect copyright.PENANA9KJcQxGNze
"Ditto. You know, that pesky hunter's curse and all."545Please respect copyright.PENANATG7BP1McXN
He nods.545Please respect copyright.PENANA7QpbuCKoNQ
"All right. How do you want to do this?" I ask him.545Please respect copyright.PENANAQZ0DkvjvnA
"I'll make it quick and painless," he replies.545Please respect copyright.PENANAX4x2wgRWZQ
He pulls on the rope tied to my neck.545Please respect copyright.PENANAJRmXoozThE
I resist and grab onto the rope, and the vervain sears my skin.545Please respect copyright.PENANAarW6QqvTwA
"Wish I could make the same promise," I tell him.545Please respect copyright.PENANAiJuzhCDLV6
He cuts the rope at his end and flings it towards me.545Please respect copyright.PENANAS4jh8gxESh
I pull the rope off my neck, groaning in pain, and pull off the ones around my wrists. He then takes out a gun and prepares it.545Please respect copyright.PENANAW5lR4DhY5N
"I'm gonna kill you. And then I'm gonna get to that damn cure, and I'm gonna give it to the girl that I love," I tell him.545Please respect copyright.PENANA4ZN1BLSJM8
"Your attachment to your friends will be the end of you."545Please respect copyright.PENANA6aNgRvt7IL
We hear footsteps from the entrance and I smile.545Please respect copyright.PENANAwqsSZFPnYp
"You don't know my friends," I say. I then add when Rebekah appears, "Or my enemies."545Please respect copyright.PENANAAm9EMD2tMw
Rebekah and I go and stand on one side of the cave side by side, Galen on the other side with his gun trained on us.545Please respect copyright.PENANAf2UyzkV1Wq
"Are we gonna dance or are we gonna play?" I ask him.545Please respect copyright.PENANAVst1pPVjYp
"You know he can't hurt me, Damon, unless he's got the white oak stake."545Please respect copyright.PENANAKonwZ0rBgI
"Oh, he doesn't, but he's got other toys," I tell her.545Please respect copyright.PENANAizXe87iUgv
He shoots Rebekah three times and she runs towards him at vamp speed and grabs his throat, but he stabs a grenade with wooden spikes protruding from it into her chest.545Please respect copyright.PENANAs6fVhrbEHD
Rebekah looks down at it.545Please respect copyright.PENANAWs3bUjfZsG
He holds the fuse that he pulled out and the grenade detonates, sending wooden spikes through her body, all the way through her back. She falls down, neutralized.545Please respect copyright.PENANAW2GkMBaELi
I run towards him and we engage in hand to hand combat.545Please respect copyright.PENANAF6L0CzCTQl
He withdraws his weapon and fires it at me and it throws a lasso-like device covered in vervain, which secures me by the neck to a pole behind me.545Please respect copyright.PENANA8rniP6T4yT
I groan and make choking noises.
"Damon!" Stefan yells in the distance.545Please respect copyright.PENANAzIvB4OQVdq
Galen grabs a rope going down the shaft and slides down it quickly and disappears.545Please respect copyright.PENANAofkIzarGXV
I see Elena and Stefan enter, just as I hear Galen reach the bottom.545Please respect copyright.PENANAsxvoI6fWC6
Stefan goes to my side and tries to get the rope off of my neck while I groan in pain, but it burns Stefan's fingers.545Please respect copyright.PENANA4nZEL9nHfX
"You're wasting time. Just get the cure. Go," I tell my brother.545Please respect copyright.PENANAhxLWwMp0vP
"We're not gonna leave you," Elena says to me.545Please respect copyright.PENANAJHng0JlU7k
"No, we're not," he says to me, and then says to Elena who's at his side, "You need to go ahead. We'll be right behind you." When she hesitates, he adds, "Go."545Please respect copyright.PENANA6qpTbVlm6c
She looks at us both a moment longer, before she jumps down into the shaft.
I fall to the ground when Stefan finally manages to free me from the rope.545Please respect copyright.PENANAtC1bHogewh
"All right, come on. We have to catch up," he says to me.545Please respect copyright.PENANAVFucmaEGti
I breathlessly say to him, "No, it's okay. I just need a minute. I'm only gonna slow you down. Go. She only needs one of us."545Please respect copyright.PENANAsSCL6tCeez
"And what? You don't care to be that one anymore? You finally decided it was easier to just walk away?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAK9QhbUeLuM
"There's only one dose of the cure, Stefan. She wants to take it, you want her to. I don't. Just do what makes her happy, Stefan."545Please respect copyright.PENANA1X3Bck99hA
"Things have changed. It's not that easy anymore."545Please respect copyright.PENANAusc6YVTYoa
"It is right now," I loudly tell him. " Get your ass down the well. Help Elena get the damn thing."545Please respect copyright.PENANA5NoV9GdN3b
Stefan hesitates and I add, "Come on."545Please respect copyright.PENANAOu71i1VrGG
Finally, Stefan jumps into the well, while I sit and watch him go.545Please respect copyright.PENANAGtvpAjTLn9
I drag myself over to Rebekah and start pulling the spikes out of her. And after the last one, she coughs and starts to wake up.545Please respect copyright.PENANAJPOInOoJx7
"You're alive," she says to me.545Please respect copyright.PENANA9Kh75xcxcU
"Yeah."545Please respect copyright.PENANASMA7oyBQWh
"Why didn't you go with them?"545Please respect copyright.PENANAkfSXfhlykc
"Needed a siesta."
"You gave up, didn't you?"545Please respect copyright.PENANATqGHVNQNtP
I groan, as I try to sit up.545Please respect copyright.PENANANzn5F4N7ro
"I didn't give up. I just realized... you can't control everything... no matter how hard you try. Let's just say I made peace with that fact."545Please respect copyright.PENANABeIXT0wS2c
She sits up.545Please respect copyright.PENANATbYdXK9uNc
"Peace? You love Elena. You always will. If she becomes human, she may not feel the same way about you. You'll never know peace."545Please respect copyright.PENANAEkHHGyTVui
"Life sucks. Get a helmet."545Please respect copyright.PENANArfIxls8Xdy
She smiles.545Please respect copyright.PENANApaKGqlzIT8
"You did something selfless, Damon. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were becoming a halfway decent person."