CHOICES

Katherine gives Elena an ultimatum: Damon or Stefan. Who will she choose? Who will she sacrifice?


"Tell me, Elena, you naughty girl, you," drawled the voice in the dark. "Who do you really want?"

With a start, Elena dropped the glass of water she was carrying into her bedroom. But a slender hand darted from the darkness and smoothly caught the falling glass without spilling a single drop.

The speaker slowly glided out of the cover of darkness. Elena's dark eyes widened with shock. The scream froze in her throat and the only sound she could make was a small, startled gasp. She blinked rapidly, as if not really believing what she was seeing with her own eyes.

It was like looking into a mirror.

Katherine stood in front of her, dark hair cascading down her back, curled in the exact same way Elena liked to curl her hair, her head tilted in a perfect mime of the way Elena tilted her head in expectation. Even the way her lips formed a little "o" of faux surprise was Elena's.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I startle you?" drawled Katherine, handing Elena the glass of water.

Elena's mouth went dry, her throat constricted. She should scream. She should fight. She should run for her life.

But she was completely entranced. Paralyzed by a mixture of fear and fascination. She couldn't help but reach out for the glass of water and accepting it from Katherine like it was the most normal thing to do in the world.

"Katherine," she murmured, her voice rough and hoarse with shock.

A catty smile spread over Katherine's face. In that exact moment, she looked completely unlike Elena. The twist of her full lips was slightly marred by cruelty; the hooded look in her dark eyes was distinctly meaner—more predatory. "I see introductions are not necessary." She started to slowly saunter around Elena, making her feel like prey.

"How did you get inside?"

Katherine shrugged. "Oh, your aunt asked me in." She smiled generously at Elena. "Don't look so confused. I saw you kissing Damon yesterday. I pretended to be you and pretended to be locked out after so conveniently being forgetful and flustered after that hot little number."

She shook her dark hair so it looked disarrayed, she pouted, and her eyes looked stricken. "Oh, Aunt Jenna, I'm locked out, I forgot my key. Will you please let me inside?" She mimicked Elena's voice and mannerisms down to a T.

Elena stiffened and gritted her teeth. Katherine stood right in front of her, just a breath away. She lifted her fingers and traced Elena's lips gently. "Tell me, Elena," she whispered softly, "What is it like kissing both my boys?"

Elena turned her head away from Katherine. "Don't touch me!" she snapped.

Katherine smiled nastily. "I can see exactly why Damon likes you," she purred. "All that fire in such a pretty little package, if I do say so myself."

Elena eyed Katherine warily. She was scared, yes. But she was also curious about this woman that both the Salvatore brothers had loved. They had all been right. She looked exactly like Katherine. It was uncanny. Was it really just their looks that drew the brothers in? Was there anything else about them?

A secret smile tilted Katherine's lips. "You're wondering what it is about me…and you…that the delicious duo love so much."

Elena threw Katherine a suspicious look which caused the vampire to throw her head back with a throaty laugh. "Oh, Elena, you're so easy to read…so honest. No wonder Stefan is drawn to you." She reached out and cupped Elena's chin with thumb and forefinger. Elena flinched, but didn't dare move. Katherine lifted her other forefinger and started to trace the line of Elena's cheekbone. "Is it the delicate features, you wonder?" Her finger lifted and traced a dark eyebrow. "Or maybe these dark soulful eyes?"

Elena gritted her teeth, not daring to pull away from Katherine's hold. "What do you want, Katherine?"

The older girl chuckled, "Can't you tell, sweet Elena?"

Elena narrowed her eyes and pulled away from Katherine's grip. "To kill me?"

Katherine gave her a look of pure innocence, her lips pouting slightly. In that moment, Elena could understand exactly why it had been so easy for her to fool the entire town. She watched as Katherine innocently fluttered her long lashes, and understood why Damon and Stefan had been drawn to her. Katherine's demeanor just begged to be believed, to be protected.

Then in one swift movement, she dug her fingers into Elena's hair, pulling her head back so that her entire neck was exposed, so that Elena was completely off-balance. Completely vulnerable to Katherine's power.

In that same instant, Katherine's face transformed from sweet innocence into pure predatory darkness. Her eyes became darker, the whites filled with red. Her lips drew back in a silent snarl, exposing her fangs. Her other hand wrapped around Elena's neck in a chokehold.

Elena whimpered and she dropped the glass of water in her hands. It fell to the floor with a loud crash.

"Elena?"

Aunt Jenna's voice called out from outside her room.

"Is everything okay?"

In a swift, effortless movement, Katherine tossed Elena onto the bed. She landed with a small "Oomph!"

"Yes, Aunt Jenna," called Katherine, her face already returning to its more human-like mask. She walked over to the door and cracked it open popping her head out. "Just clumsy and exhausted from everything, y'know…Uncle John," she sighed, her voice tinged with weariness and sadness.

"Oh, sweetie…" Elena heard Aunt Jenna murmur. "Just go to bed."

"Thanks, Aunt Jenna," she sighed. "For everything." With that, Katherine shut the door with a soft click. She turned to face Elena who was still half-sprawled on the bed.

Katherine sauntered over with a sweet smug smile. "Being you is so, so very easy."

"You're sick."

Katherine merely shrugged.

"You killed Uncle John." Elena said the statement out loud, tasting the factual weight of it.

Katherine threw her a smug smile. "He was always in the way," she drawled. "Besides, it's not like there was much love lost between you two."

Elena looked away. "I didn't like him, but he didn't deserve to die. He was my father, after all."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "It really is ridiculous, the sentimentality you humans place on such labels on your relationships."

Elena threw Katherine a mutinous look. "At least death means something to us."

"Ah, yes. Because the moment I gave John the ring, he forgot his own mortality. I had to remind him what death means…to your kind." Then she smiled humorlessly at Elena. "And darling, if you really believed what you just said, what are you doing playing with two undead brothers? I mean, you realize that they are going to stay young and beautiful forever while you grow old and wither away…or simply drop dead."

Elena bit her lip and looked at her hands. She didn't hear or notice Katherine approaching her until Katherine had both her wrists bound tightly with her own strong ones. Katherine's grip was like steel bands. If she wanted to, she could snap Elena's wrists without any effort. It reminded Elena all the more of her mortality, her weakness in the greater scheme of things.

"And mark my words, Elena," whispered Katherine, hovering over her. "You will die."

What could Elena say to that? No? Stefan would turn her? Would she even want to? Or would she stand by as she grew older each year and watch Stefan stay exactly the way he was. Would Stefan still love her then?

A tiny voice inside of her whispered. What about Damon? Somehow, she knew that Damon would have no qualms about turning her. He would do everything in his power to keep her. He wouldn't even consider the moral consequences of changing her. If she so much as hinted that she might want it, Damon would offer her immortality on a silver platter. And he would probably offer himself as part of the bargain as well. A strange yearning started to burn inside of her. She remembered the way Damon kissed her. It was so full of hope, of longing. It was like Damon kissed her with everything that was good inside of him, offering it to her.

"Your pulse is racing," Katherine smiled cattily. "I wonder who you're thinking of?"

Elena clamped her lips together, clenching her teeth until her jaw ached.

"Could it be the stolid, sweet Stefan the Good?" whispered Katherine in a soft sing-song voice. "Or the laughing, wild, Damon the Dark?"

Elena refused to look into Katherine's eyes, afraid that she would know exactly who she was thinking of. She was afraid that her own eyes would reflect the turmoil of confusion inside of her. There was no longer any fear of Katherine. Despite the fact that she knew her wrists would be bruised by the time Katherine let go of her, she realized that tonight was not her night to die.

Not yet.

Not tonight and not by Katherine's hands.

"Trust me, Elena," sighed Katherine. "I know your heart. I just…wonder…which one you will choose. Because you have to understand, you see…whoever you choose…will also have to die with you."

Elena swung wide eyes towards Katherine. "What are you talking about?"

Katherine huffed impatiently, pushing Elena against the headboard of her bed with more force than necessary. Pain exploded through Elena as she banged her head against the wall. Katherine threw her hands up in the air with flair. "Oh please, like you didn't figure it out by now? Do you think it's just sheer coincidence that we look alike?"

"Oh my god."

Katherine laughed throatily, a rich, raspy sound that was almost pleasant to hear, except that it was filled with dark malice. "Choose wisely, Elena. Who do you really want? Would you allow either Salvatore brother to die? But would you really deny your heart as well?"

Elena couldn't breathe.

The thought of Stefan dying at her hands brought tears to her eyes. He was so good. He didn't deserve to die. Not because of her. But was she really going to give him up?

A vision of his green eyes flashed through her mind's eye. She remembered the feel of his soft dark brown hair, the smooth roughness of his chiseled jaw, the somber set of his full lips. Stefan was so beautiful, was it any wonder that she had been unable to resist him since the first day she ran into him?

Suddenly, Stefan's face faded from her thoughts, and a pair of mischievous brilliant blue eyes filled her mind. Silky ebony hair that ruffled easily, an angled, strong jaw line, soft mocking lips…lips that had burned her with a single, simple kiss. Her heart felt like it was going into overdrive and her whole body tingled just at the thought of those lips on hers.

Elena swung her dark eyes towards Katherine. She was looking at her with a Cheshire cat smile, mysterious, mischievous, as if she knew exactly what was flashing before Elena's mind. "Trust me, Elena, I know. I couldn't make my choice. I took them both…" Then her eyes turned cold, "And if I have to, I will take them both again."

"They want nothing to do with you." Elena said mutinously.

Katherine arched one eyebrow delicately. "Don't kid yourself, Elena. Of all the pretty girls in the world, there is a reason that both Salvatore boys noticed you. There's a reason they both decided to stay. I'm that reason. I have always been The One they both wanted," she drawled then in a blink of an eye, she was on the bed kneeling over Elena, her hand enclosed around Elena's slender neck. "I always will be."

She slowly choked Elena until she started to feel the first tendrils of panic. She didn't know Katherine. She didn't know whether or not Katherine was really going to kill her here and now, the way she simply stabbed Uncle John that night.

"Do you know that it only takes 50 seconds before your brain slowly starts to shut down?" said Katherine in an oddly conversational tone. "It will only take the smallest pressure from me to break your pretty little neck."

Elena grabbed Katherine's wrists and tried to push the vampire away. She tried to dig her fingers between Katherine's grip and her neck. But it was useless. Katherine's grip was like a steel vise, her flesh, which could be soft and supple like a human's, could also be as hard and unyielding as granite. Elena's lips quivered as her lungs started to burn from the need to breathe. Katherine only chuckled, as if enjoying her struggle and growing panic. Tears started to sting Elena's eyes. She almost wanted to be, please. But she wouldn't. She wouldn't give Katherine the satisfaction.

With a small, smug smile, Katherine suddenly released Elena. She coughed, her lungs burned, her throat felt bruised, each convulsion only hurt her more.

"Remember, Elena, choose wisely. I still want the boys. One more than the other, I assure you. But trust me…only one of us gets the luxury of forever." Katherine stood up and stalked silently towards the window. "And if you don't play by my rules…I will kill both the Salvatore brothers. And bloodline or not, I might just kill you, too." She tilted her head as if in contemplation. She smiled with mocking sweetness at Elena. "I haven't quite decided your fate yet."

"No."

"Yes." Katherine narrowed her eyes dangerously. "If you choose one brother, he will die. The other will live with the misery of an eternity of being rejected by the both of us. If you choose neither, they will both die. Because, you see…they have to pay for betraying me. They both have to pay for loving you. It's as simple as that."

And with that, Katherine disappeared into the darkness outside of Elena's window, leaving her with the weight of her decision. How could she possibly choose?