17. I Went to the Woods

Complete story — includes the ending

Destroying the Phoenix stone led to the escape of all the trapped souls followed by rampant possession of dead bodies. Stefan's body gets possessed by a remorseless vampire who goes to Memphis sorority parties to quench his bloodthirst. Stefan's soul gets into Marty, an alcoholic mariner who was in the middle of a road mishap. He/Stefan struggles to stay alive as an ongoing blizzard starts taking a toll on him. Damon, Alaric and Valerie team up to catch hold of both Stefan's body and soul before the latter's host body succumbs to cold and detox. Valerie, with the help of Rayna, gets to know about Marty's whereabouts and informs Damon who goes on the search of him and manages to contact him via cellphone. He keeps Marty/Stefan engaged and moving while Stefan reminisces about their childhood and opens up about how he felt about Damon selfishly bailing on him time and again over the years. Eventually Damon catches up on Marty just in time who falls down unconscious. He makes him sit inside the warmer car and gives him doughnuts to keep his younger brother fed and going. However hypothermia starts pacing up on Marty and now, they are rushing against time to go catch Stefan's body, which is busy feeding off University sororities in Memphis.