[there is a pause at the question. it does demonstrate how perceptive elena is, but james knew that about her already. james breathes in deeply and then out again as he thinks back to that moment that he chose, and he knows... he had no idea what he was getting into then.]

At the time I chose it, I felt so much grief and anger. I might have thought... I wanted it to, but I didn't know what it would mean.

I was eighteen. My parents had been killed... less than a year before. I wanted to destroy what had taken them. I thought the cost would be worth it, but I had no idea.

[the cost. had no idea what all it would take, how it would feel, how terrifying it would be to fill those pieces gone one after the other until there was just the hollowness

or so he'd thought.]