PART 16

Two girls sat obediently in the living room. Elena was still asleep on the couch. The only thing they saw was a flash of movement before another one followed it and they heard a crash against the wall. Elena woke up with a jerk. She turned with her friends as they all looked over the head of the couch.

Elijah had Katherine pined against the wall. His hand was around her throat, but it didn't look like there was any pressure behind his grip. Her arms were flailing and she dug her finger tips into the hand that held her throat. She was yelling at him to let her go, over and over again. Her voice sounded desperate. Elijah stood, un-phased, and it didn't appear that the fight she was putting up was effecting him at all. His other hand hung lazily at his side, and all the while his grip did not tighten as he just looked at her.

When he spoke his voice was calm, "Where are you going, Katerina?" She didn't answer him as she continued to fight his hold. "I repeat, where...are you going, Katerina?" She glared at him as she yelled into his face, "As far away from here as possible!" Elijah tilted his head to the side before he responded, "Still you run?" he questioned. She didn't answer him. Katherine gripped his hand tighter, clenching her teeth together as she tried with all her might to move his hand. She was breathing loudly from the effort when she let go. "Are you finished?" Elijah asked. She stopped struggling for a moment and waited for him to speak.

"Klaus will find you...no matter where you are.""I'll take my chances," she answered. Her hand shot out towards him and he stopped it mid-air, effortlessly. A jerk of his arm pinned her wrist above her head. Katherine's other hand shot out against him and he moved his hand from her throat and did the same with her other arm. "Really Katerina, this is pointless," he said into her face. He'd moved his own face in front of hers and she saw the bit of amusement there that touched his voice.

"любов Lies тук" she muttered. Elijah attention shifted when he heard her repeat the message from the girl's stomach. "Yes?" he asked. She was quiet, not answering him. Her muscles still clenched and she pushed against him as if she was waiting for a window of escape. "любов Lies тук" she said again, Elijah waited for her to continue. "It was on the crate I found your coffin in." "He knows...he knows I double crossed him, again," "And he WILL torture me for an eternity because of it," she finished, her volume had lost some of it's rage.

Elijah let go of her arms suddenly. He was surprised that when he did she still didn't move. He put both of his hands on the sides of her head, turning her eyes to his. His fingers tangled in her long hair as he moved his hands against her neck. She moved finally, placing both of her hands on the outside of his, her gaze fixed on Elijah's.

He looked deep into her eyes and Katherine heard her survival instinct scream inside of her as she felt him begin to compel her...again. She jerked away from him, turning her upper body. Elijah grabbed her shoulder and pinned it right back on the wall as she had been. He had a bored look on his face. "I will not be a prisoner again!" she yelled and the walls shook around them.

"If he's going to find me then it's going to be many years from now, and it won't be here!" she continued. "I faked my own death in this wretched town once, and I will not see it become true. "You will not keep me here Elijah!" "I will NOT be a prisoner again," she repeated.

Her anger escalated as she continued to yell at him. If she had been thinking the sane part of her would have asked her why she said what she said next. Any rational thought would have warned her of the danger her words would bring her. Because logic would tell her that it would surely bring her what she was trying to run from, her death. "You're just like your brother!" she yelled, malice dripping from every word.

The whole room stilled as a dead silence settled over everyone. No one in the room dared to breath. Elijah turned his head away from Katherine and he stopped breathing. The only movement he made was the twitching of his muscles. The silence in the room ended when his hold on Katherine tighten as he jerked her away from the wall, before slamming her body back into it.

She heard the wood crack and splinter behind her. Katherine's eyes fixed on his turned head. She was frozen in fear. She had gone to far and she knew it. Her fear had clouded her sense of sanity, and she'd put her foot into her mouth worse than she ever had before. Making a mistake that might surely have signed her own death warrant.

Elijah's hold on Katherine's neck tightened and everyone watched as she coughed and sputtered. His face finally turned towards them and they could see the pure hatred that was written in his eyes. Whether that hate was directed at Katherine or his brother they did not know.

His grip on her slowly tightened until her eyes began to droop closed. And then, just as suddenly he let go of her, and stepped back from the wall. Katherine had enough time to cough before he'd grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her up. Her eyes met his and she saw that his teeth were ground into his bottom lip. He looked at her for a moment and then roughly pulled her by her upper arm towards the hallway. He didn't bother to use his vampire speed as he dragged her from the room.

The group watched in horror as Elijah whipped Katherine around in the hallway, never letting go of her arm, and they disappeared behind a door. They all looked at each other and it was obvious that there was only one question that they all were asking. Would they ever see Katherine...again? No one knew the answer.

Elijah loosened his grip on Katherine's arm when she cried out as the door slammed shut behind him. But he did not let go. When he heard the door click he threw her away from him into the bed. Katherine felt herself fall onto the mattress and she put her hand out to brace herself. Her hand landed in a pool of cold blood. The girl's body loomed in front of her and the stench was just beginning to take hold of the skin. Katherine's stomach turned and she wretched. This girl had gone through hell.

"Take a good look Katerina, "Elijah voiced boomed loudly behind her. It's sound filled the entire room and Katherine heard the anger that dripped from every syllable. "Look," he commanded. Katherine flinched from his voice, stilled her stomach, and looked at the poor girl. From this close she could notice more than she had before. The girl's fingernails were all torn away, every one. And she couldn't begin to count the number of cuts that were really there. The small ones that she hadn't noticed before, and those that overlapped each other.

She squeezed her eyes shut, turning her head away from the horrific sight. "Never, in my whole life have I EVER been capable of this." Elijah's voice said behind her. Elijah looked down on her as he saw her eyes close against everything she must be feeling. He was not angry at her, he was angry at her fear, at his inability to take it from her and he was angry at his brother. He was forever angry at his brother.

Katherine squeezed her eyes shut and a few small tears leaked out from under her eye lids. She'd definitely made a mistake, and she wished she could take it back. She wished that she could take back the last 500 years and start again, but more than anything she wished that she could be in any other world where there was no Niklaus. Such a world, she knew, did not exist. At least not for her.