Amurehna

I watch Vampire Diaries but I've never been invested in Elena and Stefan as a couple. So it's a mystery to me why these two pop up so often. The dream stories revolving around them are always bittersweet, about the inability to choose between love and duty. A sad slow spiral away from each other but unable to stop reaching.
So this is how it began:
The world is washed out, tinged yellow with storm light. The world is beginning to fall apart. Elena and Stefan sit facing each other, knees touching, in a scattering of dead leaves. Cupped in Elena's hands is an ugly ring. The metal is thick heavy silver. The fitting is a threaded hole about half an inch wide. The stone is the size of a crystal door knob with an eight-sided cut. It looks like tarnished mirror with flashes of iridescent pink. Where she touches its surface magenta sparks leap into the air then disappear. They have to make a choice between each other and doing what is right.
Elena grimaces and unscrews the stone from the fitting. This is not without risk, they are linked by the stone and whoever discards it will begin to forget the person it links them to. She will even forget where she has hidden it.
She rises from the ground and walks away, Stefan still sits in the leaves staring forlornly at her as she retreats. It seems so terrible. The world is dangerous and they could die, he doesn't want her to die having forgotten him. Still. This is necessary. There is more at stake than their own lives.

There is a lapse. Elena has hidden the stone and taken up with a woman who should be her ally. I'll call her Kara. I don't get a good look at Kara so I can't describe her. Elena is leading her somewhere. It's dark outside and she pauses, unsure if she has lost her way. Kara pulls a long glowing knife from thin air and presses it back against her forearm. Elena senses it and knows she's been betrayed without turning around.
My mind rallies for a moment and thinks incredulously "You're formidable! You can't just stand there and let her knife you in the back!"
Elena narrows her eyes and pretends she doesn't know what's happened.
"Oh please, I've been deceiving people since the beginning of existence, don't insult me by pretending you don't know. Turn around and stand still like a good little girl." Kara says. Elena tries to remember why it's important to fight, why bother? It would be so easy to stop.
As she turns to face her enemy, Kara's knife flashes out. Her reflexes decide for her and Elena only just dodges, then ducks under another swing. The knife cuts through the fabric of reality leaving a glowing slash in the air. Elena turns on her heel and slips between the world into the Nevermind.
It's almost like a physical representation of her memory. The world here looks a little like where she left Stefan, but she can't remember that. There are thick white swathes of fog obscuring sections and black text is typed into them 'nevermind'.
She escapes.

There's a lapse and I see Kara standing in front of Stefan who is still sitting in the dead leaves. She pulls the stone from her pocket and smirks down at him and watches the conflicting emotions play across his face. He looks horrified and delighted. He only just keeps himself from reaching out for it. If he takes it and somehow finds the strength to discard it, he will forget Elena as she has forgotten him.
"Oh, look at you." Kara says like he's the cutest thing she's ever seen, "Resisting so hard. Here. Let me help." Kara has a walking stick with a silver handle, she uses the end of it to turn his hand over and then presses the stone into his palm.
"nnnoooooo." he moans.
"Yes." She smiles and pats him on the head. "I sincerely wish you all the luck in the world with that precious little gem." She sounds too smug to be sincere.

There's another lapse. I see him sitting on the ground. He's doing a voice over narration, telling the story. I've missed part of it, so I focus and the scene pauses then restarts. A text log even pops up so I can read what he's saying.
"So what do I do? I still have an option to cast it away. If I do I won't even remember that I've done it. Where is the loss in that? Can I miss her even if I can't remember?"
As he's thinking this, he stares down at the thick ugly band without its stone. "I couldn't stop myself. What we had was like a drug, I could not choose to cast it aside. Not again." His expression is equal parts resolute and sickened, he begins to screw the stone down into the fitting.

As this is happening random dialogue starts to pollute the text box like it's a chat room. It really annoys me because I can't read what he's saying. I notice there's music playing. Someone says the song is perfect and someone else asks who the band is. Another person says the band name is "Mm...Perhaps the Fish?" It seems to fit them exactly. They kind of sound like their underwater and at one point make a 'glub glub' noise.

My alarm woke me.