Chapter 25

"Miss Katherine, what are you doing here?" asked a modestly dressed African-American woman, who was sitting by a lamp sewing. This bedroom was behind the fourth door I had tried. In the faint glow of the lamp, I could see the room had more frilly decorations than the previous three bedrooms I had looked into. Assuming this was Katherine's room and this was Emily Bennett, I stepped fully into the room and then ease the door closed behind me.

The girl, who didn't look a day over seventeen, put her needlework aside and rose to her feet. She took a single step towards me before stopping and then staring at my face.

"You're not Miss Katherine," she stated with conviction. "Who are you?"

So much for keeping who I was a secret from this girl. Bonnie had always been able to sense when a vampire was in her presence. Sometimes not until she physically touched them, but with less iron in this time period than up in the twenty-first century, this witch might still have access to more power than Bonnie had back home.

"You are Emily Bennett, right?" I asked. "I'm Elena Gilbert."

"Of the Gilberts of Mystic Falls? How is it that you look exactly like Miss Katherine?"

With a shrug I said, "It is difficult to explain. Let's just say a distant descendant of your family, her name is Bonnie Bennett, used her powers to help me travel through time to reach here. I have come to rescue Stefan before Katherine turns him. In my time, Stefan has been a vampire for hundreds of years, but he and I both wish he were human. I love him more than you can imagine.

"Tonight's Ball is the last chance I have to reach him before it will be too late. I need one of Katherine's gowns, if I am going to be able to mingle with the people there without anyone noticing. Can you help? You are my only hope." For a second the scene where R2D2 displayed the hologram of Princess Leia popped into my head, but I forced the image down and concentrated on Emily's face.

Bonnie hated vampires and I suspected Emily did, too. She might at the moment work for Katherine because of a debt she owed the vampire, but I knew that hadn't fully suppressed her natural inclinations. When Stefan had been going through a particularly dark period, he had told me a little about his and Damon's earliest days as vampires. In return for saving the vampires trapped in Fell's Church from the fire by sheltering them in its subterranean tomb, Emily had elicited a promise from Damon to protect her and all her descendants in Mystic Falls. However she hadn't elicited the promise until after the brothers had completed their transition. And Stefan told me she had hoped they wouldn't feed on human blood, but merely allow themselves to fade away. So if she hadn't wanted them to become vampires at even that point, she might be willing to help me now.

Slowly, the witch stepped closer. When she was right in front of me, she raised her hand to my cheek while staring intently into my eyes.

"Yes, Miss Elena, I will help you," she said as she lowered her hand.

"Please, just call me Elena. Where I am from, everyone is equal."

"A time like that truly exists?" she asked, while already moving towards a heavy wardrobe against the room's left wall.

"The Union will ultimately win the war," I stated. "Slavery in America will end. But it will still be a very long time before the old ways will be forgotten and everyone will be truly equal. But the day will eventually arrive."

"I'm glad to hear things will someday be better, even if it doesn't happen in my time," replied Emily while laying a beautiful green silk gown on the bed.

As I stared at the bed, suddenly realizing Katherine had made love to Stefan in this very room, on this very bed, I felt an almost insane rage briefly fill me. Stefan was mine. She should never have touched him. In that instant I wanted to destroy Katherine more than I had ever wanted anything in my entire life even more than I wanted to destroy Klaus.

"Elena, are you alright?" asked Emily, as she approached with what was obviously an old fashioned corset in one hand and a hoop contraption in the other.

"Fine," I replied even though I could feel my eyes burning and my nostrils flaring. "I just so hate Katherine and what she did to Stefan."

"Well, with you here now, I think we can fix things," replied Emily. "But first we need to get you into the gown. So, off with that dress."

I nodded and then undid the buttons down the front. Quickly, I slithered out of the coarse wool material until I was standing there in just the black sports bra and panties I had been wearing under the commando gear.

Emily was staring at my skimpy attire in wonder. But then they didn't have modern elastic materials back here or the additional hundred and fifty years of underwear development.

Finally, she said, "The top piece will have to go, too. It won't fit under the top of the gown."

I nodded, but could feel a blush blooming across my cheeks as I removed the bra. I had been naked around Bonnie and Caroline before, but this felt completely different. It was apparent from what I had seen in movies set in this time period that I would need the help of the corset to get into the tight gown. And it was equally obvious I couldn't put on the corset by myself. I hadn't ever needed help getting dressed before, or at least not since I was a little kid, so it all felt embarrassing.

Emily stepped closer, but then abruptly wrinkled her nose. "I'm sorry to say this, but Elena, you reek. We need to do something about it before getting you dressed."

I remembered wanting to say the same thing the first time I had met Abby back in the Cretaceous. My day already felt like it had been infinitely long. My body had been drenched in the stink of sweat from battling giant insects. Caroline had carried me in her arms while covered in the guts of the countless Pray Mantis she had battled. I had waded through a shin-deep swamp. And then I had come almost straight here, nowhere along the way had there been a time or a place to manage a refreshing, cleansing shower.

"You're right. You wouldn't believe the day I have had or the things I had to go through to get here. Do you have anything I can use to wipe off the worst of it?"

The young witch nodded and quickly retrieved a wash basin and a cloth. She poured water into the basin and then added something from a small bottle that smelled like lilacs. I was thankful when she just handed me the cloth, as I thought for a moment she was going to wash me in the same way she was going to have to dress me.

I worked in silence for a couple minutes while Emily managed to busy herself with other things to give me an illusion of privacy. Finally, Emily stepped closer at just the moment I decided I had done the best I could do under the circumstances.

As she took away the damp cloth, Emily handed me a piece of white silk about twelve inches wide by three feet long. When I just dumbly stared at it, she asked, "You've never worn a corset before?"

I shook my head. "From my perspective, they went out of fashion about one hundred years ago. After that, they were replaced by things like girdles that had a somewhat similar body shaping purpose, but which used stretchy, elastic material rather than the bone stays and lacing. In my time, if you want a shapely body, you are expected to put in the necessary time at the gym rather than resort to artificial support. Or at least for women who care, a lot of women just let themselves go and couldn't be bothered to look shapely."

"It sounds like a very different time," stated Emily, as she took the piece of silk from me and wrapped it around my body just below my breasts. Then getting back to the topic at hand she added, "The silk will help keep your skin from being pinched as I tighten the corset's laces."

I used one hand to hold the silk in place until Emily had the corset wrapped around my body and had tightened the laces until the corset began to hold the silk mini-chemise in place.

"I'm afraid this is going to hurt a little," she stated. "Miss Katherine likes to have a nineteen inch waist when she is wearing a ball gown. Sometimes I am not certain whether it is the resulting appearance she likes, or the pain it causes to remind herself she is alive or at least undead."

Nineteen inches? I had always considered myself pretty skinny, but my waist is twenty-four inches. How could it be squeezed down to nineteen to fit in the gown? Through a lot, and I mean a lot, of pain I discovered. It was so bad before Emily was done, it not only felt like an incredible squeezing, it even seemed like I could feel my internal organs begin shifting around. At several points I almost called it quits and considered just reverting to my black commando gear, storming the party, and dragging Stefan away by his hair like in some old cavemen cartoon.

However, just when I didn't think I could take it anymore, I remembered the scene from Gone with the Wind where Mammy got Scarlett's waist down to seventeen inches. Nineteen inches suddenly didn't sound so bad.

"There. That should do it," said Emily unexpectedly, as I felt the pain at my waist start to stabilize rather than steadily increase. "Now, let's see about the gown."

However, before moving over to the bed where the gown lay, she first picked up the hoop contraption which would support the lower half of the gown. As she strapped it about my waist so that I was suddenly wearing just the corset and the exposed hoops, I felt like I belonged in some old French Revolution Era romantic comedy farce where all the ladies of the Court were running around half dressed while being chased by the palace guards.

This partial attire felt almost kinky and I wondered how Stefan would react if he could see me like this. But then I was suddenly uncertain. I thought I knew how the hundred sixty-year-old Stefan of my past would react, but how about the current seventeen-year-old human version? Would he be the same? Would he even be attracted to me after being with Katherine for the last couple of months? Of course, I did look exactly like her. But our personalities couldn't be more different. Could I fake being her long enough to get him away from the party to convince him that going with me was the right thing to do? The closer I got to coming face-to-face with this era's Stefan, the more my stomach filled with butterflies.

But then my thoughts and worries were interrupted by Emily as she helped me into the green gown.

"Miss Elena, sorry, Elena, you need to help Damon escape from Miss Katherine's clutches, too. He no more deserves ending up a vampire than Stefan does."

I had never considered saving Damon. For too long he had seemed dangerous and more than a little scary and intimidating. He seemed to have little regard for human life or anyone's life, human or vampire, besides his own and maybe, just possibly, Stefan's. I had been forced to watch as he calmly killed Lexi and so many others over the last eighteen months.

But lately he had changed, at least a little. He had shown true compassion to Rose during her final hours, something I had never seen him do before. And I knew he had slowly developed feelings for me, even though I had never given a hint that I would ever reciprocate.

And, now, back here, he wasn't yet a vampire or had done any of those things. No, the only thing he had done was innocently fall under the almost supernatural power of Katherine's charms.

I looked the witch in the eye as I slowly nodded. "I'll try. However if it comes down to being able to save only one of them, I will chose Stefan."

Emily shrugged. "That is all I ask. If you can save Damon, you should."

The conversation had distracted me while Emily had finished fastening the buttons that held the gown in place over the corset and the hoops. Now she pulled me over to the mirror mounted on the inner surface of the wardrobe's door. The mirror was relatively hazy, unlike its modern counterparts. Plus the lighting was poor. But I could still make out my image and that of the ball gown in the reflective surface. And what I saw was utterly amazing. My waist looked so tiny and all out of proportion compared to my normal appearance. The wide billowing skirt was unlike anything I had ever before worn. Next to what I was seeing, the old fashioned gown I had worn on the Founders' Day float had looked so plain and ordinary.

But what was by far the most startling change was my sudden new cleavage. The tight, tight corset, in addition to shrinking my waist, also seemed to force my breasts up and out. The tight bodice of the strapless gown seemed barely tall enough to keep my nipples from being on public display. And the tight bodice also forced the upper half of my meager breasts to almost spill over the top in a way I had never seen before. The gown definitely displayed my breasts in a way even my favorite Victoria's Secret pushup bra had never managed. Could I really go to a big party while dressed like this? I almost wasn't sure. But then I realized the one important advantage this outfit bestowed. Most men, hell, all men would be so focused on my nearly completely exposed chest as to not have sufficient brain cells available to worry about little questions like whether I was really Katherine.

While I had been staring at my reflection, Emily had knelt down and retrieved a pair of black leather shoes to replace the combat boots I had still been wearing under the slave dress. Before they disappeared under the broad skirt, I just had time to notice the modest one inch heels. If at some point this evening I was forced to run, not that running sounded like a viable option when I could barely breathe; these shoes would definitely be a better option than the four inch heels a dress like this would require back home.

Emily climbed back to her feet and scanned my body from head to toe. "You definitely can pass for Miss Katherine now. Well, except for the color of the dress and the hair, Katherine always wears hers in curls."

I could feel time slipping away, as I shook my head. "I need to get going. I'm afraid I don't have time to mess with curling my hair." Pausing for just a second, I raised my hands to my chest and gave my breasts an experimental shake, as much as anything to verify things were going to stay in place if I actually moved. Then with a grin I added, "Besides, I don't think anyone there is going to be focusing on my face or hair or the color of my dress."

"Perhaps you are right, but let me at least pin your hair up. Miss Katherine sometimes wears it that way and it won't take but a moment."

With a nod, I stepped back from the mirror to make room for Emily to reach once again into the wardrobe. I watched while the witch pulled a handful of small wooden sticks about the size and shape of chopsticks from a small drawer. Well, they looked like chopsticks except these tapered to a sharp point at each end. Then she pulled a small bottle from a different drawer and after removing its stopper, she quickly dipped both ends of the sticks into the vial.

When she glanced in my direction, I quirked an eyebrow.

"This is a vervain extract," she said in reply. "If you have to use these sticks against Katherine, aim for the heart. Even if you miss her heart, the vervain should keep her down long enough to let you get away. Ah, you do know about vervain? And have you ever tried to stake a vampire before?"

My fingers rose to the necklace Stefan had given me what seemed like a lifetime ago. "My necklace contains vervain. Stefan gave it to me a short time after we met so no vampire, including him, could ever compel me to do something I really didn't want to do. And, yeah, I have staked a vampire before."

"Good," replied Emily from behind me. After inserting the last wooden stick into my hair and then giving a final sweep of her hand to remove the last wrinkle from my gown, she stepped back. "There, I think you will pass muster."

"Thank you," I said and meant it. "I don't know how I would ever have managed without your help." I tried to pull her into a hug, but she waved me away after a pointed glance at the broad, currently wrinkle-free skirt.

I began moving towards the door, when Emily momentarily called me back. "Elena, please remember both Stefan and Damon have Miss Katherine's blood in their systems. If either of them dies in the next thirty-six hours, they will begin the transition into vampires."

This thought had been continuously in the back of my mind from the moment I had discovered it was the night of the Founders' Day Ball. What if I had come this far only to have Stefan die in some accident and end up a vampire anyway?

End of Chapter 25

Author's Note:

If you would like to learn more about my other stories, be sure to check out my blog at: duaneaakre dot wordpress dot com

Have a great day!

Duane