Chapter 4: Diary of Katherine

January 5th 2009

I believe her. I believe that everything Elena has told me is true. She said that this girl's body disappeared; that the cops found nothing when they went to the scene of the crime. I looked into it. There were several disappearances of young women between the ages of 17 and 25 all within a 200 mile radius. There were no bodies found.

She was lucky to get out of there alive. If what Elena says is true…then the killer is still out there.

…

Damon waited for some kind of sign that Elena was done, or that at the least he could enter the kitchen again. She had been in there reading Katherine's journal for over an hour and he was very curious as to what was in it.

"Elena?" he called out to her, but when she didn't respond, he decided to go check up on her. "Hey…you okay?" he asked when he noticed the faraway look in her eyes and the tremble in her hands.

She took in a deep breath, but didn't catch his glance. "She's not missing Damon." Her voice was hoarse with the tears she was holding at bay.

He instantly tensed at her mournful words. "What did it say?"

"I should go…" she hopped off the stool and grabbed her purse off the floor, her head hanging and her hair falling like a curtain around her face.

He stopped her. "Wait, what did it say Elena?" he asked desperately.

"It didn't say anything…there's nothing there that will lead us to them. They're gone, Damon. Thanks for the drink…" she stated quietly before brushing passed him and out the door to his loft apartment.

He stood, shocked at her quick departure before curiosity got the best of him. He fumbled and flipped through the box, looking for the journal, but came up empty. "FUCK!" he yelled, knocking the box to the ground.

He hurriedly grabbed his keys and rushed out the door, hoping to catch her before she got too far. She had taken off with the journal which clearly held more information than she was letting on. By the time he got out of the building, she had already left. He wasn't sure if she was driving, or walking…or which direction she was heading. He had no idea where she was staying, or for how long. All he had was a number.

He felt his pockets for his phone but realized he left it upstairs in his haste to catch up with her. He cursed again rushing back up to the apartment, and scrolling down to her name hitting send.

"Hi, this is Elena. Leave a message and I'll get back to you."

Damon huffed and waited for the beep. "You better give me back that journal, Elena or I swear to God, I will not make life easy for you." He hung up and chucked his phone onto the couch. He knew he was being harsh, but it was something of Katherine's, and she stole it from him.

Walking back into the kitchen he sighed at the mess he made of Katherine's things. He picked up the loose papers, organized them carefully and placed them all back in the box long with her other books and belongings. He briefly considered going through them, to see if there was anything in there that would help him understand Elena's reaction but he was still hesitant in breaking his girlfriend's privacy.

He placed the box back in the bedroom stored with everything else of hers.

…

Elena cried the entire way back to her hotel, the stolen journal sitting on the passenger seat beside her.

April 17th, 2010

It happened again, only this time is was somewhere else. A 19 year old man went missing from a night club in Las Vegas. His friends say they don't remember that night and there were no witnesses who saw him with anyone that night. No body, no evidence. The police assume he was a runaway. But it doesn't make sense; he had loving parents, good friends, a happy life…what was there to run away from?

Elena's been at Riverside for over a year, and I miss her. Mom is still acting like she only has one daughter, and if anyone asks about Elena she just tells them that she went abroad for school. It's getting harder and harder to please her; I understand now why Elena never bothered trying.

…

She read the whole journal; cover to cover. After what she read at Damon's, Elena couldn't leave one detail out. She knew it. She knew she was right, and the proof was in her hands. She had a name…and a contact number.

She held her phone shakily in one hand and the piece of paper with the numbers in the other. She dialed; before it even rang she hung up. What was she doing? What did she expect to hear on the other end? She sure as hell knew it wouldn't be Katherine. Elena tossed her phone to the other side of the hotel bed and fell back to the pillow. She had been dodging Damon's calls now for five days, and felt worse every time she hit ignore. She had given him hope by thinking that they were still alive, by getting him to open up and by giving him a reason to keep looking…and now she couldn't even answer his phone calls; ignoring them like bitter ex-girlfriend after a bad break up.

Elena's phone vibrated again, and at first she let it ring, but when it started vibrating again she reached for it. She frowned in confusion when she didn't see Damon's name scrolled across the front, but it was a number that was familiar to her. Again she briefly considered not answering it but curiosity got the best of her.

"Hello?" the hesitance in Elena's voice, gave way to her tense state.

"Eliana…" Her mother responded formally, using her given name, knowing how much Elena loathed it.

She rolled her eyes, but didn't make a comment. "How did you get this number?"

"Well hello Eliana; it's only been five years. That's the first thing you have to say to me?"

Elena sat back up in the bed and ran a hand over her face in annoyance. "Well other things come to mind, but I don't think they'd be well received. How did you get this number?" She repeated.

Isobel sighed dramatically. "Damon gave it to me. He said you've been dodging his calls. Which brings me to, why have you been in contact with Damon? Eliana, he's Katerina's boyfriend." The judgement in her voice rolled off like a tidal wave.

"He called you?! I don't believe this…" she muttered to herself. "I know who he is Isobel…and it's not like that. I was trying to find Katherine."

There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the call. "She went missing. Katerina and Mia." Elena gritted her teeth. It pissed her off beyond belief, the way her mother chose to call them by the names they didn't like.

Her dad dubbed her Elena, and called Katerina 'Kat', which turned into Katherine as she got older. Isobel was Bulgarian. She wanted names for them that represented her heritage…but what she didn't realize was that, as children, none of their friends and some of the teachers could pronounce their names properly.

"Yeah, I know…Damon filled me in. Why are you calling me?" She wanted to get the conversation over with as quickly as possible.

"Can't I just call my daughter for no reason?" her voice raised an octave, as she tried to sound innocent and loving.

Elena's answer was quick and blunt. "No. Not this daughter. What do you want?"

"The Founder's ball is next week-"

"Ugh! No…of course that's what you want. No, I'm not going." She declined instantaneously.

"I need the locket, Eliana." Isobel finished. "Carol wants all the founding family heirlooms on display and your great grandmother's locket is one of them. I know you have it…Katerina told me she gave it to you." The snippy tone in Isobel's voice was not lost on Elena; it was something she was very familiar with when her mother was addressing her.

But Elena was stunned. Somehow her mother had surprised her. This was her great grandmother's locket; it was passed down to her grandmother and then directly to her. Her grandmother always wanted her to have it, but knowing that Katherine loved it just as much Elena gave it her. On the day she packed up and left for the West Coast, Katherine gave it back. "I don't have it, Isobel…" she lied boldly. "Maybe you could try that joke of an institution you sent me to. It could be with the rest of the stuff they stole from me; my dignity, my sanity and certitude." She answered snidely.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous! Riverside is a great institution. I think the only mistake they made was letting you out early." Elena could almost see Isobel's nose turned up in intolerance.

Elena scoffed. "Because I wasn't in there long enough?! I wasted five years of my life because you're a shitty fucking parent. One daughter committed and the other a runaway." She clapped her hands together, holding the phone between her ear and her shoulder. "Good job, mom." Elena hung up the phone before Isobel could get another word in. She took out her battery and left it on the nightstand. She couldn't take anymore phone calls tonight.

...

Elena had him on edge. It was almost a week and she wasn't answering any of his calls. He was caught between being furious and relieved. Part of Damon was angry that she had the only thing that could bring him closer to Katherine and Mia and thankful his life didn't have to change. It was mundane and dreadful, but it was his mundane and dreadful and it was a comfort to him.

He sat at the bar, nursing his bourbon, not able to convince himself to drink it. He stared at it, as if the amber liquid held all the answers.

"You okay?" Bree came by and leaned her hip into the bar in front of him, wiping her hands on a white towel. Her eyes shifted to the full drink on the bar. "You haven't touched that since I brought it to you...an hour ago."

Damon's eyes lifted curiously to meet hers. "I drink too much, don't I?"

She was surprised to say the least. They never spoke much and when they did it was fairly casual. She was used to seeing him in her bar, even before his sister and girlfriend disappeared. He was happier; always laughing, mesmerized by Katherine, and surrounded by friends…but he was a different man then.

"The bar owner in me says 'not enough', but the friend in me…" Bree left the statement open. She gave him a gentle smile and a wink before tending to another patron in the nearly empty bar.

Damon nodded to himself, taking her response for what it was. He pushed the glass to his right and crossed his hands on the bar in front of him. He was close to just accepting the past week and a half as a dream, and continuing on with his life as usual. The stool next to him scraped against the floor as it was pulled away from the bar to accommodate its occupant.

"Hi…"

So much for the dream. "You have a lot of nerve coming back here." He didn't even turn his head to see her face.

Elena sighed. "I know…look, I'm sorry Damon. I shouldn't have run off like that." She nervously tucked her hair behind her ear.

He finally glanced at her, pinning her with a steely glare. "No you shouldn't have. You took the closest thing to Katherine I had…and disappeared. Fuck you, Elena." his tone held a quiet calmness in contrast to his harsh words.

She nodded. "Okay…I deserved that." She reached into her purse and pulled out the black hard covered book and placed it down in front of him. "You deserve an explanation, and I'm willing to give it to you."

Damon reeled back in surprise. "Seriously?"

She inhaled deeply. "Yes…I'll tell you everything."