Katherine's POV

I finish telling Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah my story. They just watch me now. I can tell they're at a loss for words. Elijah grabs my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. I squeeze his hand gently. Rebekah sighs. "So where are the others now?" She asks, and I tense up. "Rebekah, let's not get in to that..." Elijah says, trying to help me out. I shake my head slightly. "It's okay, Elijah. I can talk about it." I tell him, and he gives me a small smile. I turn back to Rebekah and begin. "Over the years, our family grew. By 1864, we were a family of 27. But Alexander's family had grown as well, his numbers nearly matching ours. That year was the closest Alexander ever got to catching us. We thought we had thrown him off our trail before we traveled to Mystic Falls, but we were wrong. He had stolen a piece of jewelry from Anna and had a witch do a locater's spell. What started out as just a normal day turned into a night of living hell for my family and I..." ~ I'm walking down the stairs at the Salvatore home. This family has been kind enough to take me in, believing that I'm an orphan who lost her family in a fire. I have grown very close to the Salvatore boys, Stefan and Damon. I know that Damon has feelings for me, but in all honesty, I can't see things going far with him. Stefan on the other hand, I would love to have a future with.I reach the bottom of the stairs and Emily is waiting for me. She tells me that Pearl has come to see me with urgent news. Pearl walks in and smiles at me. I tell Emily to inform the Salvatores that I have stepped out for a moment. I follow Pearl outside and we walk toward the garden. "So why did you want to see me so badly?" I ask, and she sighs. "We may have a problem... Honoria Fell came into the apothecary earlier today with several viles of this mixture, asking me to give it out free to all of my customers." She says, handing me a vile of s light brown mixture. "What is it?" I ask, and she smiles. "Try it." She says, and I pour a little on my wrist. Suddenly it feels like my skin is on fire. "What in hell?" I yell, dropping the vile on the ground and grabbing my wrist. "Vervain." Pearl says, frowning. "Vervain? But why would she-" I start, but then it hits me. I take a deep breath. "They know." I say and she nods. She takes a step closer to me. "Katherine, I know you like it here. We all do. But it isn't safe anymore. Maybe it's time to move on." She tells me, holding my arm gently. I shake my head. "Like you said, I like it here. Our family is happy here. This is our home and I don't want to leave." I tell her, walking past her and back to the Salvatore house.

Later that day I am at the house that Frederick and his girlfriend Beth Anne have been staying at. I am sitting on the couch discussing our little problem with Frederick. "Pearl says we should leave, but I don't want to. What do you think we need to do?" I ask him, and he sighs. "Honestly, I'm sick of running. We've been doing it for too long. Besides, this place is all Beth Anne knows. This is her home, where she grew up. She's only been a vampire for about two weeks and I don't think she's ready to leave it behind, and I don't want to ask her to." He says, and I agree with him. We've been in Mystic Falls nearly a year. He met Beth Anne when we first arrived and it was love at first sight for both of them. He recently turned her so they could be together forever. This is the first woman he's cared about since Penelope. I stand up, ready to leave. Suddenly Pearl bursts through the door. She looks worried and Anna is following close behind her, wearing the same expression. Frederick jumps to his feet. "What's going on?" He asks, and Pearl takes a deep breath. "I was with Johnathan Gilbert today. You know how he has a little crush on me. Well, he also trusts me. He told me that he needed me to know something. Then he told me about vampires. I pretended not to believe him, tried to convince him that vampires are purely myth, but he wouldn't listen." Pearl says. "So he believes in vampires. That doesn't mean he knows about us." I say, trying to calm her down. She shakes her head quickly. "That isn't all he told me. Katherine, they have a weapon. Some kind of vampire detecting device. He and the rest of the founding families plan to do a round up tomorrow night. We no longer have a choice, Kat. We need to leave." She says, and I sigh. After a moment of silence, I look at Frederick. "She's right, Fred. It isn't safe for us here. Maybe we should leave." I say but he just scoffs. "Oh, come on! We're vampires, they don't stand a chance against us. We'll just keep our distance tomorrow night and everything will go back to normal." He says, and Beth Anne walks into the room. Frederick walks to her, grabbing her hand. "If the three of you want to run again, go ahead. I'm staying right here." With that, he goes upstairs with Beth Anne. Pearl and I decide to leave to warn the others, to give them a choice. They can choose to come with us or they can stay and risk their lives.~

Elijah looks at me in understanding. "So, you were planning to leave. But according to the Salvatores something went wrong. What was it?" He asks, and I can feel the tears coming, but I manage to hold them back. "Pearl was wrong about when the round up would be. She believed we had a day to get out, but the founding families decided to do it sooner. We didn't even have time to start packing our things. We had found all the others and told them to prepare to leave. They weren't stubborn like Frederick. They listened to us. We all made plans to meet at Pearl's apothecary the next morning to leave. Some of them were hungry, so they left to find something to eat. Pearl and I went to her apothecary to collect some of Pearl's personal items. It was then that we heard the first screams..." ~ "What was that?!" I yell, running to the door. I gasp and call Pearl over. She runs to my side and her eyes widen. There are several townsfolk holding torches and guns. The screams are coming from Jeremiah and several of our other family members. Johnathan Gilbert is holding what appears to be a compass and he's pointing to many different directions. The men spread out, surely looking for more vampires. Not far is Dr. Fell. He's holding another device. I'm guessing this is what is making the vampires drop to their knees in pain. I can't believe this is happening. Pearl starts to run out the door, wanting to help our family, but I grab her arm. "You can't. It will only hurt you, too." I say and she's crying now. "I have to find Anna and Harper." She says, and I nod my head. She runs out the back exit, toward the house they have been staying at. As for me, there is something I need to do. I know it isn't smart, but I can't bear to leave without telling Stefan goodbye. I reach the Salvatore house and rush to Stefan's room. He's lying in bed and I approach him slowly, trying not to appear nervous. He rushes over to me. I tell him I have to leave and he asks why. I explain as quickly as I can and he nods in understanding. I tell him that I love him and that will never change. I also tell him that this is only a temporary goodbye. He will see me again one day. Things between us get heated and in the moment of passion, I lose control. I bite him and then roll off the bed. My throat is burning and I realize his blood is laced with vervain. The last thing I see before it all goes dark is his father standing over me.

I wake up in a cell of some sorts, surrounded by many of my family members. Right next to me is Zachary. He is watching me with tears in his eyes. My heart breaks when I realize how bad this is. Suddenly the door opens and Damon drags me out. He and Stefan remove the muzzle that is covering my mouth and untie my hands, but I am still too weak to get up. For just a moment, I have hope. But that hope is crushed when Damon and Stefan both drop to the ground dead. They have been shot. I am placed back into the cell by men I don't recognize. My heart breaks even more when I look out the window of the cell. I never wanted to see Damon and Stefan hurt. I move over to where Zachery is and untie his hands and remove the muzzle from his mouth. We then proceed to do this for the others. If we're going to die, it won't be without a fight. When we reach the church we are drug out of the cell by dozens of men. We manage to take out a few of them, but we're all too weak to do much damage. We're thrown into the church and it is locked from the outside. We all huddle together. Some of us are crying and some are trying to be strong, but we are all scared. Then the vervain bombs are thrown in. We're getting weaker and weaker.

The doors open up and more tears fall from my eyes as Pearl and Harper are thrown in with us. Pearl manages to crawl to me. "Pearl, I'm so sorry!" I say, and she shakes her head. "Katherine, listen to me, and listen closely. There is a guard outside at the back exit waiting for you. Go to him. Get out of here." She says weakly and I just stare at her in confusion. "Kat, I don't have much time to explain. Just trust me. Emily and I came up with a last minute plan. We knew we couldn't save everyone, but we were going to save as many as we could. We were about to split up to look for anyone who made it when I saw you being dragged in. Before I could do anything to help you, John discovered me and had them throw me in here. But Emily and I also had a last minute back up plan. She cast a spell on the tomb beneath this church. It will keep us safe. But I need you to get out. I'm the strongest one in here right now so I need to stay and get everyone to the tomb, and you need to run." She says, and I shake my head. "I won't leave you." I whisper and she grabs my face roughly. "Katherine, please! You have to get out! This place is about to go up in flames. Once I get myself and the others into the tomb, we wont be able to get out until the next comet passes, which will be in 145 years. Someone has to be there to get us out. Now will you please, just this once, listen to me. Get the hell out of here, Katherine. Anna is waiting for you in the woods. The two of you need to leave town, but first..." She pulls out the moonstone that I gave her centuries ago. "I made a deal with George Lockwood. He helped me arrange your escape. In return, he gets the moonstone." She says. She then tells me something that I never thought I would hear her say. "I need you to take Anna and run. I need you to survive, not just for yours and Anna's sake, but for everyone's. I don't care what you have to do, but you just survive. Be mean, be cruel, be selfish, whatever it takes." With that, she grabs my arm, dragging me to the back exit. She hugs me tightly before shoving me outside. Ten minutes later I am standing at the edge of the woods, tears pouring from my eyes as I watch the church burn to the ground. I gasp as a face near the church catches my eye. I back away into the dark forest, my whole body shaking. It all makes perfect sense now. Alexander did this. ~

It hurts to relive those memories, but I know that I need to. "In 2010, my family was released from the tomb by Anna. She and I had had a falling out several years earlier. I left her because I thought it was best for her. Alexander believed her to be dead, so she was safe. But I still had Klaus to worry about, and I didn't want her with me when he caught up to me. I didn't want anyone I cared about with me when he caught up to me. So I decided not to be there when they were released. I wanted them to be free, to have a fresh start. Anyway, to make a long story short, Frederick decided he wanted revenge on the Salvatores. He blamed the whole thing on Stefan, since his blood poisoned me before I could save anyone. Damon and Stefan killed Beth Anne first, then Alaric and Elena helped them kill twelve of the others, and then Stefan killed Frederick. Elena's father, John, killed Pearl, Harper, Anna, and eight others... But I got my revenge by chopping John's fingers off then stabbing him in the stomach with a kitchen knife, I then proceeded to ruin Elena's and the Salvatore's lives by wreaking havoc on Mystic Falls. I would have done more, but my damn humanity wouldn't let me hurt the Salvatore's too badly. Besides, I knew they were only protecting themselves. John on the other hand, I wanted him dead. Unfortunately he survived and fled town." I say. Kol stands up, moving to look out the window. "So, what do we do about Alexander?" He asks, and Rebekah answers quickly. "We rip him to shreds." She says and we all agree with her. "I'm not the only person in my family who survived. Jeremiah is in London right now and Zachery is in Tokyo. I know my brothers, and they'd be willing to help us." I say, and Rebekah smiles. "Well, then. I'd say it's time to gear up for war." She says, and Kol smiles, always ready for a fight. Elijah looks at me and I look back at him. "I won't let him hurt you, Katerina. If he wants a fight, then he will get one. Rebekah, Kol, and I know many other vampires who we can call for help. We can easily take Alexander out, but we'll need others to be on the lookout for his minions. But trust me, my love, he isn't getting out of this alive."

So, I'm not really liking this chapter. But I honestly don't know how to make it better, so here it is. I'm sorry I haven't been updating like normal these past few days. I have three stories I'm working on right now. Anck-Su-Namun: My Happy Ending (Mummy fanfic), Behind Enemy Lines (Twilight,Vampire Diaries crossover fanfic), and this one. So I will probably be updating this story every three days. Things are about to get crazy in the next chapters, so be ready for that. Also, I will make sure to fill the next chapter with lots of Kalijah. Don't forget to review. (: