I do not own Vampire diaries, nor do I own the tv show.

This is a very long chapter due to more Katherine POVs.

Enjoy x

Chapter twentyfive.

Elena POV

"If anyone asks, tell them I wasn't feeling well, and went home from school."

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this."

I was trekking through the woods with a large duffel bag slung over my shoulder. Caroline had been bitter about it since I asked her, but I pulled on the friendship code and made her swear not to tell anyone. No one would allow me to do this.

"I'm a terrible liar."

"And keep Damon busy, I don't want him knowing what I'm up to." I heaved myself over a large fallen tree trunk, and watched with envy as Caroline practically danced over it with such grace.

"I'm even worse at duplicity. And you know this."

"I'm sure you've picked up skills from Bonnie and Jeremy about keeping me in the dark."

"Yeah, because Damon threatened them. I'm not indicating that you should threaten me but... Damon would literally kill me when he finds out.

"If he finds out. It's your job to make sure he doesn't."

"Damon's going to see right through me." She was grasping at straws, clearly uncomfortable in the situation I was forcing her into.

I halted at the opening, "Caroline, as my friend... do you promise?"

She stamped her foot and sighed, "You had to break out the 'girlfriend code'. Okay, I promise. Are you sure you want to be doing this?"

I stepped down the dirt slope, making my way to the bottom. "She's the only one who knows about Klaus. The only one who can tell me how to stop him."

"Yeah but you're asking for the truth, from someone whose probably never given it. Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. I can't just sit back and wait." And blow into town a thousand times worse than Katherine did. Caroline looked over at the stone door, then back at me. "Please."

She sighed and walked over to the door, and with superhuman strength, eased open the door with barely any effort, and rested it on the dirt wall.

"Katherine?"

My voice echoed down the hollow tomb, to no response. I turned to Caroline and gave her a reassuring look, "I'll be okay from here."

Movement in the tomb caused my attention to snap back to the opening that Caroline had just made. The sound of scraping dirt and shuffling feet gradually became louder until a faint outline of Katherine's figure was visible.

"Hello Elena."

Her voice was a dry rasp and was barely audible. Her clothes looked worn out and filthy, and her hair was slightly matted. But it was her skin texture that caught my attention in full. She looked close to a skeleton; her eyes were hollow, her skin hugging each bone outline in detail and her skin tone was so pale it was almost grey, supporting herself by leaning against the sandstone wall. I was staring at what I would look like if I were a rotting corpse.

"Come to watch me wither away?" Her eyes saw Caroline and her eyes narrowed slightly. "Goodbye Caroline."

I turned back to Caroline, who even though was clear from Katherine, had turned a pale white in fear; for both me and her.

If I stay on this side of the door, she can't hurt me." She remained immobile, "Please."

She eyed Katherine one last time before darting up and out of the tomb.

I let my duffel bag drop to the ground at my feet, and faced Katherine.

"Damon know you're here?" Even though she was literally withering away before me, it was predictable of Katherine to taunt.

I kept my voice with a hard edge. "I brought you some things."

"You came to bribe me? What is it that you want?"

I threw a set of blankets and a pillow at her feet, "I want you to tell me about Klaus."

"Mmm... you've been busy."

I pulled out a few other keep sake items before I lugged out the book Damon had given me. "I also brought you this," Her eyes narrowed slightly, "It's your family history. It says in here that the family line ended with you... obviously that's not true."

She let out a humourless laugh, "You think that if you brought me some shreds of material and a book, I'd open up?"

I looked down at the last item in my bag, "I also brought you this." I pulled out the one thing she'd want in this world other than freedom and showed it to her.

She slammed into the spell wall as soon as her eye caught it. Her eyes were wide and ravenous as she pressed herself entirely at the force field. She began breathing heavily and restrained herself slightly.

"You don't look so good. How long before your body shuts down? Ten, twenty years? It must be painful to desiccate and mummify... I can't even imagine." Being in Katherine's presence bought up all my pent up rage, and evenly dispersed it by being petty and spiteful in my words.

Katherine eyed me menacingly but retreated from the spell wall and slumped down on the ground, resting herself against the bricks. I sat down opposite her, a few paces away from the tomb opening and poured a little bit of the blood into a shot glass I'd taken from Damon's stash. I only poured a slight amount of blood into the shot glass, not being too generous with it. She didn't deserve it. I grabbed a nearby stick and pushed the shot glass between us until it passed over the spell's barrier.

Katherine weakly grabbed the glass and tilted it back into her mouth, "You have the Petrova fire." She held a thick European accent as she spoke the words. She placed the glass back down and pushed it towards me. I raised an eye brow but edge it back towards me with the stick.

"It's a long story, Klaus and I. Goes all the way back to England 1492. After I left Bulgaria... Well, was thrown out." She lifted the freshly poured blood to her lips and threw it back, like a shot. I wasn't putting nearly enough in the glass for her to sip at it.

"Thrown out?"

"By my family, your true ancestors, they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time." She looked at my slightly confused features, "I had a baby out of wedlock. Shame." Her tone suggested that she was mocking her heritages traditions. But if I was to be honest with her, and be a girl of the 21st century... I agreed with her.

"It was kept secret?"

"Mmhm... my baby was given away."

Katherine POV

Bulgaria, 1490

It was agonizing pain. My screams did no justice for what I was experiencing. My mother stood bent over at the foot of the bed.

"A little more dearest... a little more. Push! A little more!"

No matter what she encouraged it was lost the second she spoke. Nothing was going to help get this child out any faster.

"A little more. Just a little more. Push!"

And then I heard one of the most magical sounds, my ears had ever heard. My child's cries burst out and suddenly the pain was forgotten. Mother wrapped my child in soft linen and dropped soft tears down into the bundle. "A girl."

"A girl?"

She nodded, and more tears of joy rolled down her soft cheeks.

"Please mother..." I had to work to steady my breath, "Let me see her." I reached my arm weakly out to my daughter.

"Woman, don't!" I turned my head to see my father standing in the door way, staring down upon me with anger and disappointment. "What are you doing?" He beckoned mother to him... to hand my child over to him.

"Let me at least hold her once... just once..." I felt the tears roll down my cheeks as I begged my father. He couldn't take her away from me so soon. She was my child. I had to hold her, had to see her, just once.

"Forget it, you have disgraced this family."

"Father, please!" I felt my heart crush beneath his words and watched as he walked out of the room with my daughter. "No! Father... No!" I struggled to lift myself from the bed, pushing aside the sheets and clothes. My mother came over to hold me back.

"No Katherina. It's better for her! It's better for her!"

I let my tears wreak havoc in my chest as I clung to my mother begging. "No, mother, please..."

"Let her go, Katherina... Let her go."

My being had been torn in to.

"Please mother..."

...

My limbs began to numb the more blood she gave me. But each time she pushed it towards me, it wasn't nearly enough. However, having the position been switched, I would have done the same. I continued on with the story, careful not to fall too deep into my memories. "I was Banished to England and I had to learn to adjust. So I quickly became English."

I thought back to my first month of arriving in England. Men approached me, grabbed at me, and tried to force themselves upon me as soon as words escaped my tongue. Beauty who did not speak the native tongue was an easy target, but I was quick on my feet, and stayed alive by keeping to the right streets and learning English by conversation. It wasn't until I learnt it fluently was I to find myself constantly on the arms of respectable and wealthy men. It was how I learned to survive. Beauty was a treasure just as much as a curse... and I used it to keep myself alive.

"It was there that I caught the eye of the nobleman, Klaus."

His eyes were the first to capture my sights. Deep blue crystals shining brightly as he smiled. His golden hair kept brushed back and neat. His toned physique and his confidence were enough to have any woman fall in love with him. But his gentlemanly courtesy and gentle touch was something I'd only experienced once before...

"I was taken with him at first, but then I found out what he was and what he wanted from me."

I remember staring out at the night air from my chambers and heard something behind me. I came face to face with a demon... who had taken the form of Klaus. There was no trace of a gentleman, no trace of honour... no gentleness. He lunged at my throat and bit down hard, drawing my blood out in large sessions.

I was frozen stiff. I could not scream. I could not struggle. I could not call for help.

He took advantage of my state and looked deep into my eyes.

"Do not struggle against me."

...It was the next morning when I realised what he'd done to me. It hurt to stand, hurt to walk, and all I felt was pain... and fear.

It was a day later when I was forced into the ceremony, bound in the back of the carriage. Trevor had found me, a vampire I had teased and flaunted myself to, and helped me to escape with the amber crystal Klaus had placed on my neck.

"I broke free... and then I ran like hell."

France, 1492

The trees were becoming thicker the further I drove myself into the wilderness. The twigs ripped at the layers of my dress, cutting through my bodice and tearing at my skin. My legs were aching, but I could not stop running, there was nothing for me, but to continue running. I could feel them close behind me, my paranoia skirting up to dangerous levels. I saw an over turned tree and dropped behind it. I needed to steady my breathing. I needed to stop all sound. My fear was only slightly overpowered by my will to live.

I would not let my fear leave me frozen.

"Katherina!"

Elijah's voice had me press myself lower to the ground; I was almost flattened entirely to the forest floor.

"I know you're near... I can smell your blood."

My breathing turned erratic once more as the sound of his boots crunched leaves and twigs close to where I lay.

"It's pointless to run. Klaus will find you wherever you are."

"This way. There's more blood over there."

I waited until the footsteps faded into the distance, before I shot up off the ground and continued running. Something clamped over my mouth and pressed me into a tree. I tried to scream and struggle, but my eyes lay upon Trevor. He gave me a wicked smile before his tone turned serious.

"Head east. I can't lead them astray much longer."

"I can't run anymore."

"Nevermind." He pointed in a direction to my side, "There's a cottage... you'll be safe there."

He pressed his lips to mine, and I followed along. I wouldn't dare burn my bridge of escape. And he had been nothing less of a gentleman to me. But his help was all I needed.

"Go now. Go!"

I rushed off in the direction he pointed to, hoping upon hope that the cottage was nearby. My legs were close to giving way to my weaknesses.

...

"So... what did Klaus want?"

Elena pulled me back into the present. I lolled my head towards her "The same thing he'll want from you. He wants to break the curse."

"But he must already know the secret of the Lapis ring."

"Yes, but breaking this curse serves a much larger scheme of things... Of which I've been scratching my head over ever since."

"So to break the curse, he needs to sacrifice the Petrova Doppelganger."

I bored my eyes into Elena's, "He wanted to drain every single drop of blood from my body."

Klaus was going to find her... soon.

################ ################################

Damon POV

"Alright Rosebud. I need some answers." I had let her off the hook when I found out she hadn't been behind Elena's captivity, but she held useful information, and asking nicely was only one of my options. She was sitting in the corner of the leather couch, silently crying. "Oh please don't tell me you're crying because of Trevor's... absence."

"Were you always this sensitive?"

"A little vampire switch; takes the emotion out of it. I thought that was what you liked about me?"

"Ha ha. Caring what happens to people other than Elena must be difficult."

"I don't care about anyone." I knew who she was referring to.

Her face turned mockingly sympathetic, "Should we try that again?"

I flashed in front of her. "Do not get on my bad side."

"Then show me your good side."

I rolled my eyes and went back to address the questions I'd planned to ask her in the first place. "How do I find Klaus?"

"You don't find Klaus, he finds you."

God, it was like talking to a brick wall. I slouched and walked away towards the other couch. "Come on. Somebody's got to know somebody who knows where to find him."

"Add another 200 somebody's to that list, and you're still not even close." Rose sat back down on the couch.

"Humour me. You got in touch with Elijah. Tell me how you did that?"

"From somebody very low on the totem pole. A guy named Slater in Richmond."

"Great, let's go. I'll drive."

"We can't."

I was close to throwing her across the room in frustration. I took a deep breath and spoke in a sarcastically patient manner, "And why not?"

"He's missing."

I sighed and lightly banged my head against the wall. Every option I chose I was coming up blank. "Is there anyone else who knows how we might have been able to find Elijah?"

"Not that I know of. I'm sorry."

How predictable.

################################ ###########################################

Katherine POV

Elena pushed another small amount of blood towards me. I cracked the side of the glass whilst trying to get more blood from the bottom. There was only a quarter left in the bottle that she'd brought, and my panic was starting to rise. I did not want to return to the sensation of my veins rubbing together like sandpaper.

"What does the Petrova bloodline have to do with Klaus?"

"It's really tedious but the curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelganger was created as a way to undo the spell. Once the doppelganger appeared... the curse can be broken."
"So you ran, before he killed you?"

"Something along those lines."

I had run at least another ten miles before I was fuel purely by the need to survive. There was no life left in my legs. If I was to stop, I would collapse... and never get up. I continuously looked over my shoulder, trying to see if my pursers had caught up. Trevor must have led them in the complete opposite direction. It did not even faze me of what would happen to him when he was caught.

I tripped on a branch and caught my fall on a tree. I steadied my breathing and when I looked up the cottage was a small speck through the trees. Not too much further. I had to make it there.

I banged fiercely on the door when I stumbled up to it, "Help! Please help me. Please."

An old woman opened the door a crack and eyed me closely. I retreated back into myself, ready to run at the slightest suspicion.

"Please, you have to help me."

"I don't invite strangers into my home." She went to close the door.

"No, wait! Trevor... Trevor said you would help me."

A frustrated woman's voice came from behind the old woman, "Oh damn him! Always making promises I don't want to keep." She had long light brown waves flowing down to the layers of her dress, with deep green eyes. "Let the girl in."

I only felt slight relief as the old woman stepped aside to let me by. Trevor might have been kind to me, but who knew where this other woman's loyalties lay. And from Trevor's description this had to be his friend.

"You must be Rose. Thank you. Trevor told me to show you this," I pulled out the crystal, dangling around my neck, into view. Rose stepped back a step. "to prove I am who I say. That you would help me to freedom."

Her eyes never left the crystal. "You stole this from Klaus?"

"It was to be brought to the sacrifice ritual. I had it when I escaped." She seemed almost more feared of Klaus than I. And she was a vampire as well.

"People do not escape from Klaus. Everyone who tries ends up back in his grasp, and anyone who helps them dies."

"I know the risk you bring on yourself giving me aid-

"I am risking nothing," She reached forward and took me roughly by the arm, pulling me over to a small room. "By nightfall I will take you back to Klaus and beg him to show us both mercy."

She threw me on the bed and slammed the door. I heard a small lock click before I even had the chance to get off the bed.

There was no windows or any cellar trap doors for me to escape to. I looked around the room searching for something to aid my escape. A blunt blade lay next to an empty plate next to me.

I picked it up from the table and ran my fingers harshly along the edge of the blade. It did not even slice the skin. There was nothing else in the room that would help and so I held it out in front of me.

No matter how painful this was, I would rather die and slow painful death by this almost bread knife sharp blade, than suffer something far worse at the hands of Klaus.

I went to stab it into my chest but flinched at the last moment. I muffled my scream on a pillow, and only let go until I had stopped the noise. I let the tears soak the linen and looked down at the damage.

The blade hilt stuck out of the left side of my waist. Even though I was in immense pain, I had to finish the job. I braced a pillow against my mouth, then with a hard blow, twisted the blade and pulled it out. I passed out from the pain.

I awoke to the sound of the bedroom door opening. Rose marched in and threw a pile of rope on the bed. "Get up, it's nightfall. Time to go."

She yanked at my arm and I let out a painful groan. It felt like she'd just torn another hole in the one I'd already made.

She looked down at where I had been covering my wound. My hand covered in my own blood. "When did this happen?"

"In the woods, I tripped." I didn't dare meet her eyes.

"That's a lie, I would've smelled it." She pulled away the crumpled blankets and found the blunt knife drenched in blood. She looked up at me with panicked eyes.

"I'd rather die than go back to Klaus. Please just let me die." Let her have mercy on me.

"If you die, then Trevor dies with you."

She bit into her wrist and smothered me with it, forcing my lips to open for her overflowing blood. I tried to spit it back out; I did not want to become one.

She pulled her arm away and walked out of the room. I felt the hole in my side begin to numb. I looked down to see the skin re-stitch itself. This was impossible! But I was still human... I wasn't a vampire.

Rose seemed to be arguing with someone, and I realised she had healed me back to good health. There was no way my wound was going to bleed out.

I saw the rope on the end of the bed. It was my final hope.

I let a single tear drop from my lashes before I threw the end over the roof beam. I pulled the chair over and stood upon it. After tying the final knot, I closed my eyes and said a prayer for my daughter.

Then I kicked the chair out.

...

"You killed yourself?" Elena's response surprised me. I never expected her to feel horrified at my end.

"Klaus needed a human doppelganger. As a vampire I was no longer any use to him." However I remember believing I had met my death... I didn't expect to walk with it for eternity. I thought I'd beaten him.

"But it didn't work. You didn't really escape, you've been running from Klaus ever since."

I already knew that when I woke with the thirst for blood. "I underestimated his spirit for vengeance. But living out of a suitcase is better than dying, so that you can have you blood spilled over some silly little crystal." How could she not grasp that?

Elena brought her legs up close to her chest, and closed her eyes softly. I'd spent my entire existence avoiding that feeling she was letting control her right at that moment.

"What's wrong? Afraid I'm right? You don't want to die? There's another way out..."

Elena was taken off guard as she watched my nail slice across my wrist and let the blood well over.

"Better hurry. Your opportunity is going... going... and gone." If Elena did turn into a vampire it would end my running days. There would be two Petrova vampires and he would never be able to find out which one I was. Although... knowing Klaus he'd just murder the both of us. However, I'd only used it as a taunting gesture towards Elena. I knew before she turned her head away that she'd reject my offer.

I let out a small chuckle. "I made the other choice."

I woke to find myself with a dull ache at the back of my throat. The rope was gone and I was slumped over the bed in the small room once again. Was this my hell? Was this purgatory? Await in this room for Klaus's arrival to gut me like a fish?

"What have you done Katherina?"

Trevor's voice startled me out of my thought train. I wasn't dead. I had been granted another chance. That meant that the dull ache, that had now turned into a fiery blaze, consuming my throat and immediate attention was the thirst of a vampire. The thirst for blood.

I had survived.

"I would've helped you live."

"You would've helped me run... And that was never going to be enough." It was no longer possible for the ritual to commence. There was no sacrifice.

"It was enough for me."

I looked at Trevor's eyes and saw anguish and sadness at my decision. I averted my gaze.

"Oh do you not see Trevor? She used you to help her escape... and possibly me to turn her. Klaus will see our role in this."

"And for that I'm sorry." There was no use pretending to share mutual feelings between Trevor and I any longer.

"So am I." Rose lunged forward, a stake held high in her hand. Relying on instinct My arm shot out and grabbed the old woman as a shield. The stake went straight, high up on her chest, causing rose to stagger back in shock.

I wrenched the stake out from the woman's chest and latched my mouth over the wound. The dull ache in my throat was sated, although only temporarily. As fast as I latched on, I pulled away, and felt the rest of my body complete transformation; my teeth ached and my eyes were sharpened, my senses heightened to the extreme.

I looked at the both of them; Trevor holding Rose, protecting her from anything threatening to her. "Please understand."

Rose stepped forward, anger wafting off her in large waves, "You have just signed our death sentence."

"Better you die than I."

I flung the woman's body at the both of them, then darted out of the house and into the night.

...

"Rose and Trevor spent the last 500 years running because you used them. Trevor just got killed."

"Never thought he would've lasted that long." I wasn't sorry. I had done what I had to do to survive.

"You don't even care that you ruined their lives." Elena's anger was evident as she spoke.

I sent it back just as defensive. "I was looking out for myself, Elena. I will always look out for myself... If you're smart, you'll do the same."

I curled myself further into the tomb opening. She too easily attached herself emotionally. She wasn't going to survive for long, and with Klaus on her trail, it looked liked it was going to be within the next few weeks.

She was weak and let her emotions control her. I pitied her, she didn't know half the things in this world, and yet she was such an easy target.

Elena stood up, "So how much of your story is true?"

"I have no reason to lie, Elena. I have no reason but to sit here and wait... and rot."

"Okay, assuming it's partially true, that's the reason you came back didn't you? So you could hand me over to Klaus yourself."

I creaked my limbs as I stood up from my sitting position, "500 years on the run, I figured, maybe he'd be willing to strike a deal."

"So besides the crystal, what else is needed to break the curse?"

"Ooh... you're getting smarter."

"It's not just me, or the crystal is it?"

Right again. "Witches and their spells, so many ingredients, so many people to sacrifice."

Elena began to slowly pace, "So you need me, the crystal... What else?"

"A witch to do the spell. Mine bailed, but... little Bonnie will do just fine."

"What else?"

"A vampire."

"Vicky."

"Mmm very good. But she managed to become expendable on her own. Anyone could've taken her place, but... I just love the poetry of Caroline." In which she had managed to escape, all thanks to the human heroes.

"So you were just going to hand us over to be killed?" Elena had no emotion in her voice but I could tell she had merely flipped a switch, emphasising how easily I traded lives.

She should have learned by now.

"Better you die, that I."

...

Caroline POV

No matter if ones a vampire or not, school can always be such a drag. Sitting in class listening to Mr Tanner's nonsense about something from the science text book used to feel like hours. Now, thanks to vampire attention heightens, time literally has slowed to make it feel like days of sitting in the hard plastic seat, listening to the same droning voice go on, and on.

When my final period ended my job started. I had to distract Damon. Elena's class didn't get out until three, only giving me a short time to think of something to distract Damon with until Elena was finished. Hopefully it was soon.

I walked into the boarding house to find Damon lolling his head back and forth onto the wall. It wasn't hard but it did make a 'thud' sound, easily triggering my cringing motion.

"What are you doing?"

He paused for a moment. "It seems to be more helpful than Rose's information on how to find Klaus."

"And how long have you been doing this for?"

He paused with his head on the wall and twisted himself until wall was at his back and he was facing me. "What's the time?"

I looked at my phone. "About 2.30 in the afternoon."

"... about the same amount of time it takes you to do your hair in the morning." He murmured it and pushed himself off the wall.

"What?"

"Hmm?"

I knew he'd wanted me to hear that. He gave me a charming smile, portraying the facade of innocent, when he was everything but.

"You're an ass. Any progress besides the head banging?" I slumped down on the leather couch.

"Nothing so far... When does Elena finish?"

I involuntarily gulped out of nerves, "Uh... I don't know. Can't help you there. Sorry."

I breathed a sigh of relief as he dropped himself onto the couch, not aware of my poor covering skills.

"Listen, what Rose told Elena about the curse..."

"I know, we'll keep her safe." He sounded relaxed, utterly confident with himself.

"Damon, from what we've gathered, Elena is the key in breaking this curse, and there are a lot of people out there who would hand her over in the drop of a hat, in order to break it."

"I know. That's why we've got to find a way to get to him first."

Jeremy waltzed right in the front door a moment later, his backpack slung over his shoulder. "Is Elena here?"

My panic rose up a notch, "Nope."

He shrugged and kept on. "So Katherine's the only one we know, who knows how to find Klaus."

Damon poured himself a glass of blood and stared over at Jeremy with a raised eyebrow.

"We've already discussed this Jeremy. There's no point asking the truth from a meticulous liar." We were not going down that road again.

"She's bound to tell the truth is you negotiate the crystal, or her freedom."

"Gee thanks, you 16 year old... child. Why didn't we think about that?" Jeremy flushed red with embarrassment and anger at Damon's patronising tone. "What are you even doing here?"

"I was coming to see if Elena was here."

I jumped in before Damon got suspicious, "Her final class doesn't end for a while."

Jeremy looked at me in confusion. "School ended half an hour ago."

I looked at my watch and saw that time, rather surprisingly had flown, and I had run out of things to distract Damon with.

Damon must have sensed my panic and had me by my throat and slammed into the wall in less than a second. "Where is she?"

There was so much menace in his voice I believed he would really snap my neck this time. As much as I feared for my own life, Elena had told me, at all costs, not to let Damon know where she was. "Don't kill me!"

"Give me a reason not to."

"She's safe. I wouldn't let her do it unless she was safe." His eyes were pure fire as he stared deadly into mine.

"Damon... Katherine." Jeremy filled in the blanks.

Damon tossed me to the side. "This isn't finished Caroline."

I shot up and flashed to the other side of the room, and watched Damon leave out the front door at lightening speeds. I hoped Elena forgave me for this.

...

I had moved away from the opening of the door, retreated back into the shadows. There was nothing more I wanted to share with Elena. I had pulled the blankets, lamp and book into a small side room and set up an area to sleep. It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't rough stone either.

"Elena!"

At the sound of Damon's voice I pulled myself off the ground and made my way back to the entrance of the tomb.

"Damon, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

Elena sighed. "Caroline told you." Was I hearing relationship issues?

"No, she didn't. I almost ripped her head off though. Your charming little vampire hunter of a brother was to work out where you'd gone. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I knew that you'd stop me."

"Listen to me, whatever she's said to you, is a lie," I couldn't help but let a grin spread out across my lips; it had been the exact opposite actually. "Do not listen to her, she is a liar, Elena."

"What if she isn't? You didn't hear what she said."

I slumped against the opening of the entrance, the furthest I could go without being restrained by the spell. "I haven't even told you the best part of the story."

Bulgaria, 1492

I pulled a halt to the horse as I arrived at my childhood home. But something was wrong.

I swung my leg over and hopped of the horse and began heading towards the house. A few paces from the front door, a trail of blood lead around to the stables. Panicked and terrified, I followed the trail round and found the most horrifying scene my eyes had ever lain upon.

On stakes and spikes were the heads of my aunties and uncles, with cousins and farm hands. I stumbled backwards. There was no words to describe the scene. Only the colour of blood.

I ran back around to the front of the house and saw the front door had been kicked in. I pushed through the debris and found my father pinned to the wall with his own sword.

"No. No, no, no, no." I stumbled backwards and tripped over.

I looked down and saw my mother lying there with her throat gaping open, and blood pooled around her. "No! No! No!" I dropped down to my knees and pulled my mother towards me, gently rocking backwards and forward in my arms. My entire family lay slain around me.

"He killed them. My entire family... Just to get back at me for running." I still felt the slight ache in my chest as I spoke out loud of their deaths. "Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance... and your friends, your family, and anyone you've ever loved..."

Damon pulled Elena's eyes back to his. "Hey, hey, hey... do not listen to her okay?"

But Elena understood. She knew I was telling the truth. Damon couldn't see that.

"Always the protector. But even you must realise that she's doomed. There's nothing you can do to stop it."

"You know what, Katherine. This is your ultimate lie. You've spun this entire thing, just to plant fear into Elena's head, so she'll want your help in exchange for your freedom. You manipulative psychotic Bitch."

I let out a small laugh, "My freedom? See that's where you're wrong, Damon. I don't want my freedom. Because when Klaus shows up to kill us all, and he will... I'll be in the tomb, where no vampire will enter because they can't get out... I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town."

I slowly turned my back on them both and headed back to where I was before. If they didn't chose to believe me that was their problem, however I did enjoy toying with them. Tell so many lies, no one knows when to believe the truth.

I curled up on the floor and pulled the book on my family's history towards me. I flipped through and watched as a page fell loose. I flipped over the yellowed, warn page and inhaled softly in surprise.

There, drawn in detail, was my family Portrait.

My Papa with his beard and scraggly hair with my Mama's secret smile. No matter of what happened between us, I let a tear splash onto the page. I hadn't felt or remembered anything of them both for at least a century, but now, trap in this tomb, there was no place to run... no place to hide... and so I let myself feel. And all I felt was pain.

I let my fingers brush over their faces and trailed it down to mine and Giovanna's portraits. Her gentle smile and kind eyes brought a fresh wave of emotion to the surface. I hadn't found her in the destruction, and I'd kept faith deep down, hoping she had lived on.

She had to have lived a better life than I had.

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Elena POV

I stomped up my porch steps and jammed the key in the lock of my front door. "I can't talk about it, Damon." I tried jiggling the key but got so frustrated at it I threw them to the ground, and spun away from the door. I felt tears brim to the surface as I ran over everything in my head.

"Elena-

I turned to Damon, "I wanted to know the truth,... and I got it." My voice was thick with tears. "It's not just me who's in danger. It's Caroline and Bonnie... they're part of breaking the curse." I felt my tears begin to control me, "I can't blame anyone else anymore... It's not because you came into town, or because you and I fell in love. That's not why everyone that I love is in danger... It's because of me. Everything is because of me."

Damon pulled me into his arms and held me as I felt the sobs rack at my chest. Katherine was right; everyone I loved was in danger because of me, and because I cared about them. If you don't care... you don't get hurt.

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Definately my longest chapter so far. Hopefully that will keep you going for a little bit, until I get the next chapter going.

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