Stefan’s Diaries: Origins Chapter 29

When I next opened my eyes, I knew I was dead. But this devastation wasnt the death of my wickednessmares, with black nothingness in all almost. Instead, I could smell the faraway scent of a fire, tactile sensation rough earth beneath my body, could feel my hands resting by my sides. I didnt feel pain. I didnt feel anything. The blackness enveloped me in a way that was almost comforting. Was this what hell was? If so, it was nothing equivalent the horror and mayhem of last night. It was quiet, peaceful.I tentatively moved my arm, strike when my hand affected straw. I pushed myself up to a sitting position, surprise that I still had a body, surprised that nothing hurt. I looked around and realized that I wasnt suspended in nothingness. To my left were the rough-hewn slats of a surround of a dark shack. If I squinted, I could see sky betwixt the cracks. I was somewhere, besides where? My hand fluttered to my chest. I remembered the shot ringing out, the reasoned of my bod y thudding to the ground, the way I was prodded with boots and sticks. The way my heart had halt beating and there had been a cheer that rose up out front alwaysything was quiet. I was dead. So then Hello? I called hoarsely.Stefan, a womans character said. I mat up a hand behind my back. I realized I was wearing a simple, faded, blue cotton dress and burning linen pants, clothes I didnt recognize as my own. And though they were old, they were clean. I struggled to stand, nevertheless the small, yet surprisingly strong, hand held me down by my shoulder. Y ouve had a long night.I blinked, and as my eyes ad excepted to the light, I realized that the voice belonged to Emily.Y oure alive, I said in wonderment.She laughed, a low, lazy chuckle. I should be saying that to you. How are you feeling? she asked, transport a tin cup of water system supply to my lips.I drank, allowing the cool fluid to trickle down my throat. Id never tasted anything so pure, so good. I touched my neck w here Katherine had bit me. It entangle clean and smooth. I hastily yanked the shirt open, popping several buttons in the process. My chest was smooth, no hint of a bullet wound.Keep drinking, Emily clucked in a way a convey might do to her child.Damon? I asked roughly.Hes out there. Emily pointed her chin to the door. I followed her watch outside, where I saw a shadowy figure sitting by the waters edge. Hes rec everywhereing, just as you are.But how Notice your ring. Emily tapped my hand. On my ring fingerbreadth was a gleaming lapis-lazuli s tone, inset in silver. Its a remedy and a protection. inset in silver. Its a remedy and a protection. Katherine had me make it for you the night she marked you.Marked me, I repeated dumbly, once again base my neck, then allowing my fingers to drop to the smooth stone of the ring.Marked you to be the deal her. Y oure almost a vampire, Stefan. Y oure well into the transformation, Emily said, as if she were a doctor diagnosing a patient wit h a terminal illness.I nodded as if I on a lower floorstood what Emily was saying, even though it might as well have been a completely different language. Transformation?Who make me? I asked, starting with the question I cared least about.I did. after(prenominal) the shots were fired on you and your brother, everyone ran. The house burned down. People died. Not just vampires. Emily shook her head, her face deeply troubled. They brought all the vampires to the church and burned them there. Including her, Emily said, her tone impossible to comprehend.Did she make me a vampire, then? I asked, touching my neck.Y But in order to complete the transition,es. you must feed. Its a natural selection you have to make. Katherine had the power of destruction and death, but even she had to allow her victims that choice.She killed Rosalyn. I knew it in the same way Id known Damon loved Katherine. It was as if a cloud had lifted, only to reveal more blackness.She did, Emily said, her face inscr utable. But that has nothing to do with what happens. If you choose, you can feed and complete the transition, or let yourself overtake?Emily nodded.I didnt destiny to feed. I didnt want Katherines blood inside me. each I wanted was to go back several months, before Id ever heard the name Katherine Pierce. My heart twisted in agony for all Id lost. But there was someone whod lost more.As if shed read my mind, Emily helped me to my feet. She was tiny, but strong. I stood up and shakily walked outside.Brother I called. Damon turned, his eyes shining. The water reflected the rising sun, and smoke billowed through the trees in the distance. But the clearing was eerily quiet and peaceful, harkening back to an earlier, simpler snip.Damon didnt answer. And before I even realized what I was doing, I walked to the edge of the water. Without bothering to take off my clothes, I dove in. I came up for air and breathed out, but my mind still felt dark and dirty.Damon stared down at me from the waters edge. The church burned. Katherine was inside, he said tonelessly.Y I didnt feel satisfaction or sadness. I justes. felt deep, deep sorrow. For myself, for Damon, for felt deep, deep sorrow. For myself, for Damon, for Rosalyn, for everyone whod gotten caught in this web of destruction. cause had been right. in that respect were demons who walked the earth, and if you didnt fight them, then you became one.Do you know what we are? Damon asked bitterly.We locked eyes, and instantly I realized that I didnt want to live wish well Katherine. I didnt want to see the sunlight only with the aid of the ring on my finger. I didnt want to always gaze at a humans neck as if contemplating my next feeding. I didnt want to live forever.I ducked down under the surface of the water and opened my eyes. The pond was dark and cool, just like the shack. If this was what death was, it wasnt bad. It was peaceful. Quiet. There was no passion, but also no danger.I surfaced and pushed my hair of f my face, my borrowed clothes hanging off my soaked limbs. change surface though I knew what my fate was, I felt remarkably alive. indeed Ill die.Damon nodded, his eyes dull and listless. Theres no life without Katherine.I climbed out of the water and hugged my brother. His body felt warm, real. Damon briefly returned my embrace, then hugged his knees again, his gaze fixed on a spot far away from the waters edge.I want it done, Damon said, stand up and walking farther away toward the quarry. I watched his retreating back, remembering the time when I was eight or nine that my father and I had bygone buck hunting. It was right after my mother had died, and while Damon had immersed himself in schoolboy antics like gambling and riding horses, Id clung to my father. One day, to cheer me up, Father took me to the woods with our rifles.Wed fagged over an hour tracking a buck. Father and I headed deeper and deeper into the forest, ceremonial the animals every move. Finally, we were i n a spot where we saw the buck bow down down, eating from a berry bush.Shoot, Father murmured, guiding my rifle over my shoulder. I trembled as I kept my eye on the deer and reached for the trigger. But at the moment I released the trigger, a baby deer scampered into the field. The buck sprinted away, and the bullet hit the fawn in the belly. Its wobbly legs bent beneath it, and it fell to the ground.Id run to try to help it, but Father had stopped me, holding on to my shoulder.Animals know when its time to die. Lets at least allow it the peace to do it alone, Father said, forcibly marching me away. Id wailed, but he was relentless. Now, watching Damon, I understood. Damon was the same way.Good-bye, brother, I whispered.