The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and the Struggle

This omnibus collects the first two volumes of The Vampire Diaries series: The Awakening and The Struggle.

On the first day of her senior year in Fell's Church, Virginia, Elena Gilbert wakes with an inexplicable sense of dread. A popular, confident girl, Elena lives with her guardian, Aunt Judith, and her four-year-old sister, Margaret, their parents having died in a car crash three years earlier. At school, she reunites with her close friends: Bonnie McCullough, a small red-haired girl who claims psychic abilities, and Meredith, a calm and perceptive girl. A new student arrives: Stefan Salvatore, a strikingly handsome young man from Italy. He passes Elena in the hallway without a glance, an unprecedented slight that shocks and infuriates her.

Stefan is secretly a vampire who has survived for over five hundred years by feeding on animal blood. He has come to Fell's Church hoping to pass as a normal student and escape his dark past. Elena's resemblance to Katherine, a girl he loved in fifteenth-century Florence, disturbs him, and he deliberately avoids her. Undeterred, Elena breaks up with her boyfriend, Matt Honeycutt, and enlists Bonnie and Meredith in a blood oath to help her win Stefan. When the three girls walk through the old graveyard at dusk, Bonnie falls into a trance and warns Elena that "someone is waiting" for her. Something unseen moves among the headstones, and they flee across Wickery Bridge.

Stefan's memories reveal the source of his torment. In Florence, he and his older brother, Damon, both loved Katherine von Swartzschild, a young German noblewoman who was secretly a vampire. Rather than choose between them, Katherine gave both brothers lapis lazuli rings, talismans that allow vampires to walk in sunlight, and announced she wanted all three to become immortal companions. Both brothers rejected her plan. In despair, Katherine removed her ring and walked into the sun, leaving only ashes. The brothers fought with swords, each killing the other. Because Katherine's blood ran in their veins, they did not truly die but rose as vampires.

At the Homecoming Dance, Elena is crowned queen but discovers that Caroline Forbes, a former friend now driven by jealousy, has attached herself to Stefan. Devastated, Elena joins a classmate named Tyler Smallwood and his drinking crowd at the cemetery. Tyler lures her to the old graveyard and tries to assault her. Stefan appears, beats Tyler with terrifying strength, and rescues Elena. At his boarding house, they share their first kiss. That same night, Vickie Bennett, one of Tyler's companions who had remained in the ruined church, is found wandering the road, hysterical and raving about "eyes in the dark." She was attacked in the ruined church at roughly the same time Stefan experienced a mysterious blackout, and he fears he may be responsible.

As Elena and Stefan grow closer, he refuses to be fully alone with her. One evening, a stranger emerges from the shadows of the school gym: a young man dressed in black with almost black eyes. He nearly hypnotizes Elena into kissing him before she breaks free. That night, Elena's diary is stolen from Bonnie's living room.

On Halloween, the history teacher Mr. Tanner is murdered at the school Haunted House, his throat slashed. Tyler whips the crowd into a mob, pointing out that Stefan argued with Tanner and was linked to previous attacks. Matt warns Stefan to flee. Elena goes to the boarding house and finds his room destroyed. On the rooftop widow's walk, a narrow platform atop the house, a lightning flash reveals Stefan crouched with blood on his lips, holding a dead dove. Elena stumbles backward through a rusted railing, and Stefan catches her in midair.

Stefan confesses everything: his centuries-old existence, his vampirism, and the full story of Katherine. Elena realizes that the mysterious stranger is Damon, Stefan's brother, and that Damon committed all the attacks. Damon has used his superior powers to cause Stefan's blackouts, making Stefan believe he was the killer. Elena offers Stefan her blood, and they share an exchange that creates a profound emotional bond. Stefan confronts Damon in the woods, but Damon demonstrates his dominance, draining Stefan's blood and leaving him unconscious. The town assumes Stefan has fled out of guilt.

The Struggle opens with Elena confronting Damon in the graveyard. He offers her power and immortality; she refuses. He claims he has killed Stefan, and snow begins falling on November 1, an unnatural event demonstrating his control over the weather. Elena searches for Stefan and nearly freezes before Bonnie and Meredith find her. That night, Bonnie channels Stefan's thoughts through a trance: He is trapped in darkness, submerged in ice water, surrounded by rock. Matt suggests the description matches a well. They locate the abandoned Francher farmhouse and pull Stefan out, barely alive. Alone with him, Elena presses her cut finger to his lips, and he revives enough to feed from her throat.

Stefan and Matt drive south together to collect vervain, an herb that shields the mind from vampire influence. Meanwhile, Damon invades Elena's dreams, feeding on her in her sleep. Notes on violet paper begin appearing at school, each quoting passages from Elena's stolen diary. Elena overhears Caroline and Tyler plotting: Caroline plans to read the diary aloud at the Founders' Day ceremony, exposing Stefan's connection to the attacks.

Damon appears at Thanksgiving dinner at Elena's house, invited in by Robert, Aunt Judith's fiancé. During the meal, Bonnie falls into a trance and intones, "Your death is waiting, Elena." That night, Damon threatens to harm Margaret unless Elena steps out of her protected bedroom. Elena's room is part of the original pre-Civil War house, a separate dwelling into which Damon was never invited, so he cannot enter. Elena surrenders, and Damon feeds on her.

Elena confesses the diary plot to Stefan. He is relieved rather than angry, tells her he loves her for the first time, and proposes with Katherine's ring. Elena accepts. On Founders' Day, Caroline takes the stage to read from the diary but discovers it has been switched for her own. She flees in humiliation. Elena spots Damon in the crowd and realizes he performed the switch, though he will not explain why.

After Aunt Judith praises Damon and suggests Elena consider him over Stefan, Elena erupts, revealing her engagement ring and declaring she will marry Stefan. She borrows Matt's car and drives toward the boarding house, but a monstrous supernatural force descends on her, a shape like a great bird of mist radiating hatred. She flees, but a fallen tree blocks the road. Remembering that running water repels vampires, she turns toward Wickery Bridge. The car skids on the icy planks, crashes through the guardrail, and plunges into the river. Elena drowns.

Bonnie's psychic sense leads her, Meredith, and Stefan to the bridge. Stefan retrieves Elena's body, but she has been underwater too long. Consumed by grief, he attacks Tyler and his friends, draining their blood. The human blood temporarily restores abilities such as shapeshifting, and Stefan transforms into a falcon to confront Damon. The brothers fight savagely. Then Elena's eyes open. Cold, changed, and ravenously hungry, she walks into the clearing, does not recognize Stefan, and attacks him, biting his throat. Stefan realizes with horror that Elena has become a vampire. Damon pulls her off him. Elena looks up at Damon and tells him she loves him. Stefan, bleeding on the ground, stares at the sky in silence.