In trying so hard to get away from him, Elena had inevitably become trapped with Damon Salvatore. To make it all the more interesting and stressful, they were transported and then trapped far from familiar surroundings, into a haunted, creepy hotel. Elena didn't know what was worse. Being trapped in close proximity to the man she was trying so desperately to avoid or the fact that she could officially see ghosts now. She'd always dealt with them and yes, even seen them on occasion, but they were coporeal because the veil to the Other Side, supernatural purgatory, was down. Otherwise, those that had died, Alaric and Rose, could be standing right before her eyes and she wouldn't have any idea they were there, watching over her at all. Seeing the dead was Jeremy's thing, a outcome of Bonnie bringing him back the first time when Sheriff Forbes had missed her intended target, Damon, and shot her little brother fatally instead. Now, Bonnie could see them too-an effect of her being the Anchor to the Other Side-but Elena had never been so lucky or unlucky to experience anyone from the other side without some spell or magic involved. Sometimes it bothered her, upset her, that she couldn't see the people she missed every single day of her life, but most of the time Elena was merely comforted in knowing they were there even if they were invisible to everyone except two people in Mystic Falls. This was different. As far as she could tell, there was no magic involved making this little boy corporeal and visible to her normal vampire eyes. He was just there. Capable of being seen by untrained sight, riding around on his bike, up and down the eerily empty hotel hallways. He'd spotted her too, but when she tried to approach, ask him his name and more importantly, where his parents were, he turned a corner (or at least she thought he did) and disappered. No footsteps. No door closing. Just silence. If Elena had been anyone else, but herself and possibly her two best friends, she would have turned away and instantly forgot about the boy. A ghost, nothing more, right? But she was Elena Gilbert and sadly, she cared about everything and everyone. Even a little ghost boy she couldn't probably even help.
Briefly relieved of one, Elena now only had to focus on the other, her ex-boyfriend. Coincidentally, he'd been the first to answer her call on the network; the one person she was supposed to be avoiding was the first person from her world she found was here. Deep down, Elena would have rather been facing the boy ghost again or a whole legion instead of her former lover. Breaking up with Damon was not like breaking up with Stefan. Stefan understood boundaries. He accepted the status no matter how it hurt or wounded. No matter how hard. Damon, on the other hand, was hell bent on making the entire situation unbearable and difficult. He dropped comments in his offhanded, but so very obvious way and flashed her that flirty little smirk, staring her down with those beautiful, intense blue eyes. Eyes that like a tidal wave washed over her and sucked her down, drowning, drowning, but in the most pleasant way possible. Before she could stop herself, she'd be in his arms, clinging to him, her pale skin on his and she'd have ripped and wrecked another one of his shirts in seconds. All her thoughts of being strong, of keeping distance, were extinguished at the feel of his soft, but addictive lips on hers. A single touch, a brief brush of mouths, and she was his all over again. Wrapped up, lovestruck, and completely helpless, his girlfriend again.