Chapter 3
'Have you made a decision?' Elijah said as he held open the door. Katherine hadn't even rung the doorbell when he opened.

'I have, but I don't know If you're going to like it.' She answered, sitting down on the kitchen counter. It had taken her less than a second to get to the other side of his apartment. It looked quite expensive, but then money wasn't really an issue for Elijah.

'Well, I don't know if I want to hear it.' He said with just the slightest hint of a smile on his mouth. Elijah went behind the bar across the counter she was sitting on and poured himself a drink. 'Bourbon?' He offered.

'Sure. So, about your...request...'

'Yes, tell me.' Elijah handed her a glass, leaned against the counter opposite Katherine and took a sip from his own.

Katherine felt the Bourbon burning in her throat. She needed that. He hadn't really explained what he was planning on doing with the Doppelgänger but since Klaus was involved, it couldn't have a great outcome for the poor girl.

'I'm not going to help you kill an innocent girl, Elijah. I hope you knew that already because If you didn't, you really don't know me at all.'
She blurted out.

Elijah clearly hadn't expected that outburst because he just stared at her for a while, still holding his glass in front of his mouth. Then he unfroze and laughed in her face. That's what Katherine hadn't been expecting. She though he would be mad or at least a bit irritated but not...this.

'What are you talking about? I'm not going to kill her.' He said still laughing. 'I asked you to help me keep her hidden from Klaus. I told you that yesterday. Weren't you listening?'

'I was, but...well..to be honest you were very cryptic. I thought that was what you wanted when you said I should "take care of her".'
She said flustered, making quotation marks with her fingers.

'No! Of course not. I actually meant you should take care of her.'

'Oh...okay. I guess I could do that.' Katherine was quite relieved. She had been surprised by Elijah's ruthlessness about the whole situation when she still thought he was planning on killing the girl. That wasn't like him. He could be a vicious monster at times of course. But then again, who isn't?

Katherine had left her brother's place about an hour or so ago and was now sitting in a taxi on its way to the small town called Mystic Falls. A ridiculous name, she had always found. It was like the founders had been asking for trouble. Let's put Mystic in the town's name. That'll keep away vampires and werewolves for sure! Katherine couldn't help but smile at her own thoughts.

'Well, this is it. That'll be 12.85.' The taxi-driver turned around to look at her. He was wearing a dark blue cap with a logo on it. Baseball maybe. She didn't care much for sports. Beside cricket of course. His skin colour was a darker shade. He looked Hispanic but Kathy figured his name was Dave or Jimmy. He looked like a Jimmy.
She stepped out of the car and went up to the passenger's window. 'Thanks.' She said and handed him a random bill she had found in her pocket. 'Keep the change.'
Jimmy lit up as he noticed it was a hundred dollar bill. 'Really? Thanks!' He yelled after her.
She hadn't waited for him to drive off and was already walking towards the town centre.

Katherine had had the taxi drop her off at the edge of town because she had no idea where to go once she was there. She headed towards the only place in the entire village where enough noise was coming from to have more than four people in it. It was dark and there was no one out on the street so she decided to run there. Everything around her got blurry and about 3 seconds later Katherine arrived at the Mystic Grill.

Laughter was coming from inside. A murmur of different voices all talking at once. The scratching of cutlery on ceramic plates, Bob Seger's Night Moves playing quietly in the background, people playing pool in the corner. Katherine was searching for something else though. A voice she might recognize, a sound, maybe even a smell. Searching through the crowd she could hear various conversations. But not the conversation she was looking for.

'So he said: 'whatever' and you know what he did then?'

'What?'

'He just walked away!'

'Oh my god! What the fu...' Clearly not the conversation she was looking for.

'...and my physics-teacher was like 'Well Einstein, do you have a better idea about how gravity works?' and I was like 'Dude, first of all: my name's Pete and B: Newton? More like OLDton!'

Moving on...

After coming across several more meaningless conversations (and in the meantime losing all faith in the future of mankind) Katherine focused on the bar-area. That's normally where the drunk and/or hopeless sit. A good combination if you're looking for some gossip in small town.

'Here you go.' The ice cubes made a clinking noise as the bartender(presumably) put a glass on the bar.

'Thanks.' Said a muffled voice. The man was sitting with his back towards the door so it wasn't clear. There was a slight hint of Scotch as ice cubes clinked against the glass again.

'So, how is she doing?' Another man asked.

'I don't know, Rick. She's pissed at me, that's for sure.'
The scotch-man's voice sounded clearer than before, indicating he had readjusted himself.

'So nothing new then.' Rick said jokingly. His voice sounded weirdly familiar.

Katherine had stood waiting for a while. Long enough to hear what she needed to hear but not too long to attract attention to herself. People usually go inside a restaurant and not just stand in the parking lot. She had been focused on the conversation until the door of the Grill went open and the music and laughter suddenly grew louder as some unencumbered happy-go-lucky teenagers came stumbling out. Two young hormonal men, seemingly to be very uninformed as to what they could achieve with their boyish charm, headed for a silver Ford Sedan. Of course not knowing that she could hear everything they were saying, a conversation started between the two that would have been quite embarrassing if they had known.

'Dude, check it out.' The taller one, failing to whisper, poked his friend in the ribs with his elbow and pointed out Katherine by briefly jutting his chin towards her.

'Come on, man. Just leave it. Janie's already mad at you for what you did with Sara.' The shorter, blonde one, tried moving in the other direction but his friend didn't follow.

'Relax, she'll never find out.' He walked towards Katherine, who had her back turned against him.

The blonde one came after his friend but stayed hesitantly behind. As the first guy approached her, Katherine quickly turned around and held her fingers around his neck. This took less than a second. He would have fallen to his knees if it wasn't for her holding him upright with one hand. It seemed like it was effortless. He couldn't breathe or move. The only thing he could do was look into her cold, blue eyes which had now focused on his friend. The latter hadn't moved an inch until Katherine noticed him. He took a step back but that was as far as he could go. He suddenly felt very strange. As if the world around him had never existed. The music coming from inside the restaurant faded, everyone around him disappeared and the only thing that was left was her. He could hear his own heartbeat quickening and his breathing getting louder as she looked into his eyes.

'Go home and remember nothing of this.' She said in a monotone voice. Katherine could see his pupils dilate while saying this. Blondie had no other choice than to leave. He got into his car and drove away and as he went around the corner, he lost all memory of that evening.
By the Mystic Grill, Katherine was still holding up a young man with dark brown hair and a terrified look on his face. Her grip on his throat had loosened so he wouldn't choke to death, but not that much so he could call out for help.

'So, here we are.' She said quite cheerfully. 'You're probably wondering why I'm doing this.' Katherine continued. 'The thing is...' she pushed him out from under the streetlight. 'I really don't like cheaters and I'm a bit famished.'

The colour of her eyes became almost red and small veins appeared under them. Katherine opened her mouth only to reveal a pair of large fangs which she then sunk into the boy's neck. He let out a small whimper as the blood came gushing out. Warm blood pouring down her throat. She hadn't had it this fresh in months. It's just not the same when It's coming out of a bag. After a few seconds she heard his heartbeat slowdown drastically and let go. Thump...crap...thump...don't you die on me, douchebag...thump...
Holding him up with one arm, blood still oozing out of his neck onto the ground, Katherine made a thin slit in the palm of her hand with one fang and held it over his mouth. A few drops got in before the wound healed again. That should be enough. A moment later, the puncture wounds in his neck healed too and Katherine wiped the blood down with a handkerchief she had pulled from the inside pocket of his black leather jacket. She then turned him so he looked directly into her eyes.

'Forget this ever happened and stop cheating on your girlfriend.'

'Okay.'

She then pushed him back towards the parking lot, wiped the sticky red goo from her face and made her way to the Grill.