A/N: I feel like only a few people are reading these chapters, but hopefully more people will read and review during the weekend. Anyway, hows the story? Too fast? Chapters too long? Review! Thank you :)
Katie used as much of her spare time as possible to pour over her mom's thick journal. She found out how much her mom loved her, and how afraid she was of the vampire Klaus. None of the entries were dated, but Katie was able to date most of them from events that she mentioned. There were also whole years where her mother didn't write, that's probably why she only ever needed one thick journal for twelve years of her life.
Tuesday after school, Katie locked her bedroom door and pulled out the journal.
I found a news article the other day from Mystic Falls, there was another "animal attack" where the body was drained of blood. I don't think its Klaus, in all my time researching him; he never came back to Mystic Falls after he left. Sometimes I wonder about the vampire that killed Adam. I wonder if they had a family at some point. I wonder if someone else has staked them.
My days are lived in fear; fear of my loveless marriage to an alcoholic, fear for Katie and Nate's futures, fear of inviting strangers in, fear of Klaus. If he ever finds out about the second White Oak, we're the first to go. I wish I could remember exactly where it is, all the enchantments around it made it pulse with power, but they also made us forget. That whole town is cursed because it lives in that forest.
I wish I could find it, and I wish I could burn it. I want nothing more then to wash my hands of this vampire madness. I wish I believed that my husband was killed in an animal attack. I wish the White Oak didn't exist and I wish I didn't have to someday pass that knowledge onto my children as new guardians. However, I knew what I was signing up for when I became a Fell.
Fearfully yours,
Piper Fell
Katie's heart pounded, the White Oak was here, she knew it. The only town she mentioned in the entry was Mystic Falls, plus it made complete sense that it wouldn't be too far away from where the original had been planted. But enchantments that made the tree 'pulse with power'? And enchantments to induce forgetting? It's not like she expected that finding a powerful weapon against a nearly invincible vampire would be easy…but how could they ever find it if no one could ever remember it after being around the enchantments?
She closed the book and grabbed her car keys; she had to tell one of the others. She hastily made the decision to go to the Salvatore's first, Elena was most likely there and it would be easier to explain what she found to three people at once, then they could explain it to the others. Not having a cell phone was really inconvenient at times like these.
The drive was time consuming; the thin layer of snow on the ground required her to go slowly in her old car. She banged on the Salvatore's door, already in danger of being late for work. There was no answer, but Katie could hear music blaring from inside so she just let herself in. She didn't feel as rude as she probably should have upon walking into someone's house unannounced. No one was in the common area so she followed the sound of the music up the stairs, beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.
The door at the top of the stairs was open, music pouring out into the hallway. Damon stood shirtless staring out the window, his back to her. For a moment she was caught off guard by the sculpt of his back muscles, the way his dark jeans fell on his hips, his ridged stance…Damon turned and threw his glass against a wall, startling Katie. Her sudden movement and sharp intake of breath alerted Damon to her presence. He rounded on her.
"What?" he barked his neck and chest muscles tense with aggravation.
Katie took a step back, "I found something I thought you guys might want to see…" she said, shaking the diary in her hand.
Damon rubbed a hand down his face. He picked up a remote from the table next to him and clicked off the music. "What is it?"
"Where's Stefan?" she asked, leaning her shoulder against the entrance to the stairway.
"He's out romancing Elena. Do you have something to tell me or are you going to stand around and ask me some more useless questions?" he growled, his blue eyes flashing before settling into a cold, hard stare.
Katie glared at him, she got yelled at enough at home. "Fuck you," she sauntered past him into his room without an invitation and sat herself on his bed.
"Watch your feet." He warned.
She deliberately kicked them up onto the bed, opening the journal to the page she had read earlier. "Here," she offered it to him.
His eyes darted over the page, taking in the information faster then she could've. He snapped it shut. "So do we just search the entire outskirts of Mystic Falls until we come across a tree we don't remember? That'll work." He said sarcastically, beginning to pace with a serious look on his face.
"I don't know, that's your job. Apparently Klaus didn't even kill my dad so…" She said, resting her chin on his footboard as she watched him pace. His pecs bounced slightly with every step. His body was pretty mesmerizing Katie admitted her herself, suddenly feeling overly self conscious of her tight top and jeans. Your body is better, she reassured herself, regaining her confidence with a little exhale.
"No its everyone's job. Your in the whether you want to be or not." He smirked at her, evidently amused with the fact that she was locked into something she didn't want to be a part of.
"Whatever, I have work. Can you show that to Stefan and Elena when they get back? And maybe drop it back off at my house tonight…?" she asked hopefully, standing up and straightening her shirt. She wanted to ask if Stefan and Elena were back together but she had a feeling the broken glass in the corner meant 'yes' anyway.
"Yeah, sure." He said absently, his eyes darting across the pages again.
Katie began to leave the room when Damon called, "Wait one more thing, Katie." He said, a strange emotion on his face, something related to smugness and curiosity.
She shot him a strange look as he crossed the room towards her. He grabbed her left wrist and yanked it towards himself, pushing up the sleeve of her shirt. Katie tried to yank away, having a feeling that she knew what he was looking for. He turned her arm both ways, noticing she hand shaped bruise but not finding any cuts. He looked her in the face, and she stared back coldly, silently cheering he only thought to check her wrists. Then he forced the sleeve up and over her elbow, the tight material dislodging some of the scabs. He roughly pulled her arm to the side so he could look at the few cuts that showed beneath where he pushed her sleeve. Her heart squeezed and pounded, she hated when people found her scars.
"That's stupid." He stated simply.
This enraged Katie, he had no idea. "You don't know anything about me." She snapped, pulling her arm away and this time he let her.
"I could find out whatever I wanted." He said, a crooked smile on his face.
"Go for it! Or here's a wild suggestion maybe try asking if you actually want to know! Christ you don't have any fucking people skills." She snapped, angrily descending the stairs.
"Maybe its because I'm a vampire!" he yelled down after her. "We don't need to get all warm and cozy with our prey!"
Katie let out and aggravated yell and slammed the front door as hard as she could.
