1.26 - Or Else
"Alison," Emily said, standing frozen in her bedroom doorway.
"Hey Em," Alison replied, in her familiar soft yet subtly menacing tone.
"What're you doing here?" Emily whispered, her eyes darted around her room, she wasn't sure if her mother was home yet, but she couldn't risk anyone finding out that Ali was hiding out here.
"Come on, Emily," Ali answered in a similar hushed tone of voice, "You knew that I would come back for you eventually," Ali began to make her way towards Emily. Unafraid of her former best friend, Emily stood her ground.
"What do you want, Alison?" Emily said through gritted teeth; she was done pretending to be the former "sweet" version of herself, no longer afraid of Alison, or maybe -A, who knows?
"Well that's a scary look, Em..." Alison replied with a sneaky smile, as she slowly walked through Emily's room, picking up random childhood objects, "I need you help," she said, turning around to face Emily.
Emily's eyes widened, "You need my help?" she said in disbelief, "We haven't seen you in a year Ali."
Alison walked toward Emily and put both hands on her shoulders, "I know, and I know you've been getting those texts from -A. I have too, and I wanted to help."
Emily recoiled from Alison's delicate hands as she shook her head back and forth in disbelief. This was the same old Ali, manipulating and preying on people's emotions, only reaching out for help when she thought it could benefit herself. But, she remembered Spencer's plan and reluctantly prepared herself to help Alison out.
"Okay, I'm listening," she muttered back to Alison.
Alison sat down on the foot of Emily's bed and looked down at her laced fingers like a kid who just got sent to detention. "I can't tell you much, Em, but what I can tell you is that people are after me. After all of us. And I can't protect myself any longer." Alison whispered, as she rested both of her hands on her soft, round cheeks, remembering how Katherine's threats after her date with Matt, "Plus, I met someone and I just want to make sure he's safe too."
Emily looked at Ali with a puzzled expression but slowly began to put her arm around her best friend in a comforting motion, "We're here for you, Ali."
Alison rested her head lightly on Emily's shoulder. Even though she had missed all of of her friends while she had been away, Emily had always been one of her favorites, "Thanks, Em."
"We just need to know that we can trust you," she whispered as she looked down at Ali with a more serious expression.
Ali diverted her eyes away from Emily's stare, but then turned to match her gaze with her piercing, blue eyes, "You can."
Emily turned her head and stared at the wall. Why was she always the one who fell for Alison's tricks? She knew that deep down, Alison had a soft, sympathetic center, a side to her that she only showed to others when she was at her most vulnerable. Sure, the girls were using her to lure and trap -A once and for all, but she wanted to help Ali and rescue her best friend from whatever monster had kept her trapped and hidden away from her home for so long.
"Hey, Elena, just got back from the bookstore and you'll never believe all the stuff I found!" Ezra said as he walked eagerly through his apartment door with paper bags full of books under each arm, proudly showing off his inner bookworm, nerd self.
"That's great Ezra." Elena smiled as she sat cross-legged on Ezra's couch with her journal resting on one leg.
Ezra walked over towards Elena and gave her a light kiss. After months of dating in secret, they had gotten into an almost normal routine.
Sitting down next to Elena, Ezra put his arm around her as they looked towards the TV to watch one of the classic films that always was on in his apartment.
"Hey Ezra," Elena said as she looked towards Ezra with a sly smile. Her eyes began to widen and Ezra felt an icy cold chill come over his whole entire body. All of a sudden, his mind felt paralyzed as he saw Elena's face turn from its previous sweet demeanor to an evil, demon-like expression. Sitting completely motionless, his eyes staring blankly at this brunette girl, Elena's face soon transformed into none other than Katherine Pierce.
"Hm I forgot how easy human beings can be to manipulate." Katherine muttered mischievously, "You're cute though, I'll give you that."
Suddenly, the apartment door swung open to expose the real Elena who had run upstairs and was now in an utter panic after hearing multiple people say that they had seen Elena at certain, strange spots around Rosewood Falls.
"Back off, Katherine," Elena yelled who was now no longer afraid of her evil doppelgänger, "You're not going to hurt him."
At vampire speed, Katherine rushed towards Elena, clutched her throat and held her against the wall, "Oh relax, Elena. If you help me, I won't hurt you and your little boy-toy," Katherine whispered, as she maintained her malicious grin.
Elena struggled underneath Katherine's intense grip, "Why... Would... I... Help... You...?" she replied, trying to muster every ounce of breath that Katherine was trying to take away from her through her vampire death-hold.
"Let's cut to the chase, okay Elena?" Katherine gave a peevish sigh, "I'm working with Klaus. We need the cure. Your little witch friend Bonnie knows where it is or maybe even has the cure. If you want her to still be alive when she comes back to town then you'll do what I say. If you tell anyone about me, then maybe your boyfriend Ezra might have some sort of accident, or maybe I'll just tell the whole town about you two."
Elena glanced sympathetically to the motionless Ezra who was still sitting with his back turned towards the two girls. She hadn't even gotten up the courage to tell Ezra about her whole entire life story. She never even thought Katherine could sink so low as to go after a normal, average-joe type of guy but she couldn't say that she was really surprised by her impulsive actions.
"Fine. Just let him go," Elena whispered through an equally menacing tone, glaring at Katherine through squinted eyes. "Stop compelling him and tell me what I need to do."
Katherine loosed her grip and Elena fell to the floor, "That's a good döppleganger," she spoke in a sickeningly-sweet, melodic voice. "I'll fill you in later but for now I have to go. You can have Ezra back now." Turning towards Ezra, fixating her eyes on his face, she felt a sudden pang in her heart or rather a sort of magnetic pull, like something she had only felt around Alison. However, shaking her head, Katherine shrugged off this feeling, relieved Ezra from her compulsion and disappeared from the room.
Rushing over to Ezra, Elena spread her arms and hugged Ezra with all of her might. And with a puzzled expression, Ezra gave Elena an uneasy yet happy grin, "Well it's good to see you too," he said with a nervous laugh.
8:00 PM:
As Alison left Emily's house, she looked down at her phone, smiling at the multiple cutesy texts that Matt had written to ask her to meet him at the Grill. With a flirtatious smile on her face, preparing to text him back, Alison bumped into a familiar tall, lanky body in front of her.
"Klaus," Alison said in a monotonous tone, looking up from her phone.
"In a hurry, love?" Klaus replied through his usual sarcastic grin, "Off to go see your little blonde friend again?"
"Matt, you mean?" Alison snapped at him. She had never been afraid to stand up to Klaus. Despite his reputation for being one of the most powerful, murderous, sociopath-vampires on the planet, "Yes, and you're in my way."
Shoving her way past Klaus, Alison felt Klaus arm hit her across her body as he pinned Alison against a nearby brick wall, "Not so fast, love, I've missed you." Klaus said in an even-tempered tone, "I want to give you one last chance to come back to us."
Alison struggled underneath Klaus' grip, even though she knew that she could overtake Klaus, she knew that he could snap her neck in two if she ever tried to resist his power, "No. I'm done with both of you. Katherine especially, I'm with someone new now, and if you ever try to hurt him, I don't care if you try to kill me, you won't come near Matt, understood?" Alison sneered, her face had transformed into its ferocious vampire expression that could serve as an obvious non-physical threat to Klaus. Although unfazed by this young vampires, he loosened his grip a bit around Alison, "Relax, love. I won't go near your small-town boy. However, if you refuse to help us anymore, I would keep your witch friend Emily Fields safe."
At this remark, Alison lunged toward Klaus and let out a ferocious, screaming roar. However, already foreseeing her impulsive actions, Klaus managed to stop Alison's advances and they continued to roll on the dark streets of Rosewood Falls until Alison finally surrendered and they both stood up from their tired, wearied positions.
"Be careful, Alison. Don't say I didn't warn you," Klaus muttered through his evil glare. "You may have underestimated your abilities to defy me." He disappeared into the night.
Alison dusted herself off. Retrieving a compact and lip-gloss from her cross-body purse, she fixed herself up as if a fight had never taken place within this particular location. Looking down at her phone, she saw a new text on her phone. Assuming the message was from Matt, Alison's eyes widened in surprise at its actual contents:
You have until midnight The Dance to hand over Emily or else
your friends, Matt, Klaus and Katherine all die. Get it now?
Kisses, -A
