Chapter 5: Go Ask Alice

September 1, 2010

I can't believe it. Elena was right! I never thought that I would ever believe in the supernatural, but it's hard to ignore what's right in from of me. Vampires. They exist…and they're living right under our noses. Walking around during the day, blending in with society….going to high school! It's unbelievable, but it's the truth. With all the information that I've found, after my conversations with Vanessa at Duke…it all led me back to one place: Mystic Falls. The town is crawling with them! It's where it all started, over a thousand years ago. I need to know more. I need to see it for myself. Vanessa said she knew of a vampire, a very old one apparently, named Rose. The only person she'd ever known to be in contact with is a girl she went to high school with. Her name is Alice; she's in Richmond, Virginia…a bit of a journey from New York. Going to be hard to hide from Damon, but maybe I can play it off like a "girl's weekend".

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Damon read each journal entry in complete silence. It didn't seem like Katherine at all; she was deceitful and calculating. She openly wrote about her plans to lie to him, and didn't seem to be bothered with doing it.

Elena watched him read the entries that she herself, had read at least, five times over. The deep furrowed brow that hung over his pained blue eyes, brought doubt to her mind for letting him read her sister's journal. She could have just told him, and explain her findings, leaving out Katherine's lies, but she knew he needed to see if for himself.

"You okay?" She finally asked once he flipped though the last few empty pages and closed the cover.

He pushed the book back across the counter of the island in his kitchen. "Did you call that number?" he completely avoided her question, but by the gruff f his voice she could tell he wasn't okay.

She nodded. "I tried. It rang once and I hung up. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know what was on the other side of that line." She pulled the journal towards her, and traced the indents on the cover.

Damon locked his hard eyes on hers. "Call it."

Elena's heart immediately jumped in her chest. "I-I don't know if I want to, Damon. You read what it said. If this is Alice's number, then this could lead us directly to a vampire."

Damon looked at her like she just asked him what sound a cow makes. "That's my point, Elena. That much closer to Mia and Kat. We could find them." He almost seemed excited.

"Did it ever occur to you what you would do when you find this vampire? Are you going to walk right up to it and say; 'Hi, I'm looking for my sister and girlfriend. They might be vampires now, you know them?' I've seen a vampire before, Damon, I know what they're like and if any of them are as brutal as the one I saw that night then they won't even give you the chance to say a word." Elena tried to explain; through the terror she felt just remembering her encounter that night five years ago. She still dreamed about it, although instead of the girl she saw being attacked, it was she.

"What are the other options then? Just assume that they turned and go back to the way things were? I need to know. I need to see them and I need to know why they did it!" he explicated firmly. "I can't just walk away now, Elena. If this ends up being the death of me then…so be it. Life's not all that great without them anyway." The sorrowful tone of his voice made Elena want to hug him.

He was literally at the end of his rope with all this pain. He needed answers, and she was the one that encouraged him to find them. In the beginning, it was Elena telling him not to give up hope and to keep searching, so how could she be the one pulling back now? The fear of what they would find crippled her. With a shaky breath, she pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket and swiped her finger across the screen to unlock it. "Okay…here we go." She flipped open the journal to the entry with what she assumed was Alice's number. Slowly and reluctantly, Elena typed it into the dial pad, and put the phone on speakerphone.

It seemed that both Damon and Elena were holding their breath as the phone rang; once, twice, three times, four times…on the fifth ring the phone picked up. "Hello?" a female voice answered in a bored tone. Elena immediately thought of the receptionist at her high school, painting her nails at the desk with the telephone between her ear and shoulder. Elena looked up to Damon in panic, and he didn't seem to know what to say either. "Hello…" the voice dragged out in a condescending drawl.

Taking a deep breath Elena found her voice. "Alice?"

"Oh. My. God…no way! Kat?!" the thrill of excitement that came over the phone was a shock.

Elena's eyes widened as they locked back on Damon and she mouthed to him. "She thinks I'm Katherine."

He nodded and mouthed back. "Go with it."

"Yeah, Its me."

There was a small chuckle from the other line. "Like I could forget your voice. How are you? It's been a while!" she seemed genuinely interested now knowing who she was speaking to in comparison to when she answered the phone.

"I'm fine. Kind of in a situation though…I need your help. Can we meet up?" she mentally crossed her fingers.

"Hell yeah! Come to Richmond…if you got time we can hit up a couple of the clubs in town. Slater won't take me anyway. He thinks because I'm human I can't handle myself." You could almost hear the pout in her voice.

"I need to see you about Rose." She said the name almost uncomfortably. It's important." Elena brushed off any other conversation and focused on the task at hand: get as much information as possible.

"Business over pleasure, got it. We can do the club thing another time. To be honest, I'm not sure where Rose is. She could be on the other side of the planet by now, but I'll look into for you. When are you getting here?"

"I'll be leaving tomorrow." Damon nodded his consent.

"Sweet! Oh, by the way…we moved. Slater bought this beautiful place-"

Elena breathed a small sigh of relief. "I can't wait to see it. Text me the address. To this number though, I got a new phone." She was wondering how she would ask for the address without raising any suspicions.

"Okay. Hey, is Mia coming?"

Elena could see Damon visibly tense at his sister's name. "No…solo trip."

"Okay." There was a slight pout in her voice. "I'll see if I can get a lead on Rose before you get here. I know she's been on the run since Trevor was killed; he's still looking for her." Both Elena and Damon could hear the fear in her voice, and it was both unnerving and ominous.

"Okay...thanks." Elena pressed end and carefully placed the phone down on the counter in front of her, letting the situation sink in. "Are we really doing this?"

Damon shrugged. "I guess we are now."

She nodded, in agreement. "Okay...no." she shook her head. "I can't do this, Damon. How am I supposed to pretend to be her? How do I pretend to be a vampire?! No, this is too risky." She shook her head vehemently.

"It's already done, Elena."

"She said someone was killed, we have no idea what kind of danger could be waiting for us." A sudden fear crept over her and she was panicked.

"Pretending to be her will be easy. She's your sister, and the way you tell it, she's pretending to you. This Alice chick clearly isn't a vampire so there's no way she'll be able to tell that you aren't." Damon insisted, walking over to the wet bar he had set up in the corner of his kitchen and poured himself a hefty drink.

"What if there are other vampires there? What if they want me to kill someone or drink blood, need me to do something...vampirey?"

Damon gave her a weird look. "Vampirey? Really?" he rolled his eyes skyward, tossed back his drink and closed the distance between them, placing his hands on her shoulders. "If they know Katherine...they aren't expecting her to be anyone else. They won't be suspicious unless you give them a reason to be." He gave her a half smile that seemed to ease some of the fear welling inside her. "Now go to your hotel, pack a bag, and meet me back at the pub in an hour. We've got a ways to go...better we leave tonight."