Since when did the afterlife as she knew it contain pain? She hadn't felt anything like this since before she'd walked up the steps to her childhood home to find the family she'd lost over the course of her tragic encounters with the supernatural waiting for her. So what was happening?

"Elena?"

Jenna. Why did Jenna sound so worried? Didn't she just go inside the house for a glass of wine? Why was her voice so rough and tired? Like she'd been crying?

For a long moment, she struggled to figure out which muscle group did what, flexing one after the other, hoping that one of them might do what she needed, let her see and speak. But her brain couldn't process where the body parts she needed were. With each shift, she became more aware of herself, including an IV in her hand, along with several other wires connected to her.

"Doctor! What's wrong with her?"

"She's coming out from a coma, Miss Sommers. It could take some time for her to fully come to."

Coma? She'd been in a coma?

"Come on, Elena. Open your eyes."

Eyes. Eyelids. That's the body part she needed. Where were they? She twitched a few muscles in her face before she remembered which ones she needed. There. She finally found them and blinked against the hospital lights.

"Aunt Jenna," she croaked. Gah, but her mouth and throat were dry! "What happened?"

How did she end up here? Why was she in a hospital? Where was Damon? Why did everything seem so off? Since when was there a need for a hospital now? She didn't get hurt or bleed anymore, did she?

"You were in a car accident," Jenna said as she placed a small chunk of ice between her lips.

Elena sucked on it gratefully, the liquid soothing the dryness, before asking, "Car accident?"

"Yes, the car went over the side of Wickery Bridge."

Was she seriously back in her almost seventeen year old body? If so, how? Why? What happened to bring her to this point?

"Elena. Your mom and dad, they didn't make it," Jenna whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"What?" She truly was being forced to live through this all over again.

"You were unconscious for almost a month." Jenna looked away, then met her eyes again. "I'm so sorry, Elena, but you missed their funeral. We tried to hold off, but when it became apparent you weren't going to wake up any time soon, we had to go through with it. We actually thought you were going to die too because you were nearly brain dead for most of it."

Elena stared at the ceiling, tears trickling from the corners of her eyes. What was happening? Why was she here? Was that whole life nothing more than a dream?

But if it wasn't real, how did she know her parents were dead? Unless her subconscious created those events, knowing that if she survived, her parents most likely wouldn't.

"How did I get out of the car?"

"We don't know. You were found on the edge of the river and no sign of who saved you or how you got there."

Stefan. That's how she got there. Unless her entire life was nothing more than a dream?

Was that it? Her entire life, all the pain and love she'd experienced, was nothing more than her brain spinning out of control? If vampires weren't real, that meant Damon wasn't alive anymore and she loved the idea of a man who'd died over a hundred years ago.

That couldn't be it. Could it?

"Elena? Are you okay?"

She found herself choking back a sob.

Her parents were dead and she was crying over a life that was nothing more than a dream. How horrible of a person was she?

"Oh, Elena."

Jenna crawled into bed beside her and held her close as Elena cried into her neck, guilt eating at her for grieving for the wrong thing, until eventually, she cried herself to sleep.