Chapter 4
When Katie woke up alone that morning, she wasn't surprised. Stefan and Damon couldn't spend longer than 3 hours in the same room without exploding. She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Surprised when she saw someone sitting at the kitchen island, in fact he looked quite surprised to see her too.
"Umm, hi?" she said. There was no embarrassment in her tone, only mild confusion. She stood tall, with confidence and elegance. One would think, that after waking up in dishevelled clothing Damon Salvatore's bed she would be embarrassed to be seen by an adult. Most people would; but Katie? Not so much.
"Hi Katie," Zach said awkwardly. She smiled and shrugged.
"So, have you got anything to eat around here?" she sounded bored. Zach only stared at her, his mouth slightly open. Mayor Lockwood had told him about her bluntness and inability to feel embarrassed, but it was quite a sight to see for himself. Katie quirked an eyebrow at his silence, a smirk was slowly inching its way onto her face. Zach blinked a couple times and cleared his throat before answering.
"There's some coffee over there on the counter but that's about it," he muttered, trying not to be creepy and looking away from her.
"Thanks Zach, I'm going to go grab my clothes and head on over to school so Caroline doesn't murder me," she joked, not noticing Zach's flinch at the word.
After her coffee, Katie walked to her car and grabbed her emergency one night stand clothes, which weren't so different from the clothes she was wearing at the moment. She carried the clothes I a bundle back to the boarding house. She had just barely put her foot through the door when her phone rang.
"Hey Aunt Carol," she said without checking caller I.D. An exhale of relief filtered through from the other line.
"Katie, thank God you're alright! Your mother and I were worried out of our minds!"
"Tyler knew I was okay, didn't he?" she replied sarcastically.
"Tyler always knows when you're okay, I just wanted to find out for myself. I mean, after what happened to Vicki-"
Katie quickly cut her off.
"Wait, what happened o Vicki?" she demanded, all sarcasm and playfulness gone from her tone.
"She got attacked last night… by some kind of animal," Carol said gently.
"I'll be home late, don't wait up," she said before hanging up the phone. Katie spun on her heel and went back to Damon's room to get changed. She put on a white tank-top, navy blue skinny jeans and light-blue TOM's. She practically ran down the stairs and flew through the door, forgetting about her red leather jacket that was hanging on the coat-rack next to the door. All that mattered was Vicki. Katie got into her truck and drove to the hospital, Vicki needed her.
When Vicki and Katie net on the first day of 9th grade, they weren't instant friends. In fact, Carol Lockwood had spent the previous night warning her niece to stay away from Vicki Donovan, this was back when Katie did everything she was told. When Vicki found out that Katie was related to the Lockwood's, she immediately thought 'snob', not realizing how wrong she was. This only changed when Vicki's reputation started to catch up with her. Ben, a senior at the time, had called out 'slut', when Vicki had walked into school that day. Katie was not having that, no matter how much she disliked Vicki Donovan. Back then Katie was still a bit shy, so it was quite a surprise when she stood up to Ben. She waltzed up to Ben, stomped on his feet, when he doubled over she kneed him in the face, and then swept his feet out from underneath him. Ben lay sprawled on the ground and Katie and Vicki walked into school side by side. Vicki was one of her first friends in Mystic Falls and even though they weren't as close any more, they still always had each other's backs.
Vicki woke up to see the two people that were always there for her. Matt and Katie wore identical expressions of concern, relief and exasperation.
"Hey Mattie, Kit Kat," she croaked, smiling when she saw Katie's expression at the use of her nick name. Matt snorted.
"Vick, as I told your brother yesterday, you're lucky I love you so much," she muttered, sticking her tongue out at the laughing siblings. Kati was examining her friend's body and was surprised to find that there was only one wound on her body. On her neck. What kind of animal only attacked peopled on the neck? Katie opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by her phone ringing.
"KATIE LOUIS CHARLESTONE, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" Caroline yelled when Katie answered her phone. She winced and the volume and pitch of the statement. Sometime having supernaturally enhanced hearing was a bitch.
"Good morning Caroline," she replied sarcastically. She could practically hear Caroline rolling her eyes.
"Don't 'good morning Caroline' me, get your ass over to school and help me set up!" was all that was said before the dial tone filled her ears.
"The hurricane that is Caroline Forbes, everybody!" Katie said with an eye roll.
"I'll see you guys' later, okay?" she said before waltzing out of the hospital room.
By the time Katie got to school, everyone was finished. She had impeccable timing. She got a text from Caroline telling her that they were at the Grill. When she got there she saw them at their usual booth having a very animated conversation.
"Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, sex. It's simple," Caroline had just finished saying when Katie arrived.
"I don't even want to know," she said, sliding in next to Caroline. Bonnie giggled and Elena commented.
"Profound, Caroline."
Their conversation started up again, Katie wasn't really paying any attention. It was all about relationship-y stuff and Stefan, she wasn't really interested.
"Katie, do you want to come with?" Elena said, bringing her back to reality.
"Where exactly would I be going?' she said, earning a look from both Caroline and Bonnie. She held up her hands in surrender.
"Alright, I'll go," Katie said, trying to figure out where exactly they were going.
When they arrived at the boarding house, Katie was caught up on the situation. She and Elena walked to the door ad rang the doorbell. After nobody answered the door, Elena was starting to lose her resolve and Katie was getting irritated. Despite Elena's protests she tried the front door and barged through it when she found it to be open. She heard noises behind her and ducked just in time to miss being hit in the head by a crow. When she looked up, she saw a smirking Damon, which in reality is just a normal Damon.
"Hello, you must be Elena," he said walking forward. Katie cleared her throat and looked at him pointedly. Her sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Hi Katie," he said begrudgingly and Katie smiled at him before flopping on to one of sofa and once again slipping out of the conversation. She re-joined it, however when he heard Damon talking about Stefan's ex, Katherine. Why was it that every person she knew had a psychotic ex called Katherine? First Elijah, now Stefan, next thing she knew, Damon's ex was going to be called Katherine too.
"Damon enough," Katie ordered when she heard Elena's upset breathing. But Damon just kept on talking about Katherine and it was starting to piss her off. Before she could do anything rash, Stefan walked through the door looking beyond pissed. He glared at Damon, watching his every move like a hawk. He completely ignored Elena until she was standing right in front of him. Even then he still watched Damon with so much contempt it was palpable. Elena was in such a hurry, she'd forgotten about Katie and just drove away without her. Katie stood up and glared at the two of them until they realized she was still there.
"You still here Kitty Kat?" Damon said rudely. She only kept staring at them until they began to feel uncomfortable. They had no idea the amount of trouble they were in but they were beginning to figure it out. Katie was protective if the people she cared about, even if those people included Elena Gilbert. It was a shifter thing, the animals she shifted into were loyal and protective so she was as well.
"Please, Damon, Stefan, take a seat," she said standing up and gesturing to the couch opposite them. They were about to argue when they saw the look in her eye, it was irritation and something a little bit feral. So they sat in unison on the couch, something that, in usual circumstances, would have cracked Katie up, but her expression remained the same.
"Damon, what the hell is wrong with you?" she asked seriously.
"I didn't do anything! I was a perfectly hospitable host," he said, his hands held up in surrender and his face the picture of innocence. if Katie didn't know any better, she would've believed it, but Katie knew Damon better that he knew himself, or at least she thought she did.
"Cut the crap Damon, you may as have been that creepy doctor from the human centipede," she said, tolling her eyes.
"I resent that," he said, sounding offended.
"You also kept on saying thing about Katherine, Stefan's ex, and you were making her really uncomfortable!" she yelled.
"Thank you Damon, now I have no hope of getting Elena," Stefan said, pinning all the blame on his brother.
"No, no, no, Stefan, you managed to do that on your own," she said pointedly. Stefan looked up surprised.
"The way you acted when you saw her talking to Damon, you may as well had spray painted douche on your forehead," she explained angrily. Stefan said nothing because he knew she was right. Katie sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
"But your both in luck," She announced, flopping onto the couch and on top of the two brothers. They looked down at her in surprise.
"Because I'm going to do damage control," she continued stretching out across them and yawning like a cat.
"How?" Stefan asked.
"I'm going talk to Elena about you two and I'm going to show her that Damon isn't a raging psychopath. Sound good?" Katie asked. The brothers nodded.
"Great," she exclaimed. Just then Zach walked in and balked. Katie sighed and stood up.
"Close your mouth Zach, it's not attractive on a man of your age," she said as she walked out. She grabbed her jacket and got ready leave.
"Kat, your friend left you here, how are you going to get home?" Damon said, sounding worried. Katie smiled warmly, looking more like the Katie the brothers knew in South Africa
"Its fine, I'll walk, I need time to clear my head," she said calmly, itching to get some alone time and shift. Damon nodded skeptically. Katie smiled and walked out the door.
"You two owe me big time, I expect chocolate or money, or maybe both," she called out as she closed the door behind her. She stood still for a while before making sure there was no one around her and shifting into a duck. Maybe not her best idea, it was the middle of hunting season.
Katie flew up into the air above the boarding house, not noticing the hunter that was aiming his shot gun at her. She heard the shot but ignored it, thinking that it had nothing to with her. She only realized it did when she felt raw agony erupt in her stomach. She catapulted down, shifting into a human when she was about five feet from the ground. She landed with a thump, right on the Salvatore's front porch.
Damon was minding his own business when he heard a thump from outside, followed by a sharp breath of pain. He zoomed outside and saw something he never wanted to see again. Katie laying, bleeding on his doorstep. Her eyes were glassy and only half-open. Damon was terrified. He picked her up gently and zoomed her to his room. He whipped out his phone to call Stefan.
"Stefan, get over here, now," he growled.
"Why? What happened?" Stefan replied.
"It Katie, she's hurt, like seriously hurt," as soon as those words were out of his mouth, Stefan was half way home.
Damon looked back at his best friend with worry. He inspected the body and saw the shotgun wound in her stomach. He reached into the hole and began pulling bullet shards out of her stomach with a pair of tweezers. God, he hoped she would be alright, Damon thought. As if God was playing a mean trick on him, he heard Katie's heart stop beating.
A/N: Hey guys! I know it's been forever since I updated and I'm really sorry. My computer completely wiped itself and I had to start everything from scratch. Anyway, here's chapter 5 and I hope you enjoyed it and I promise to update soon.
Until next time,
Becca
P.S. If anyone wants me to put up a bonus chapter of the letter Arianna wrote her son Richard, just tell me in a review and I will. :)