"You can't just force your way under his skin you know. He'll figure out what you're up to." She smirked at her traitorous friend and scoffed before licking up the drop of ice cream running down her cone. They sat in silence for a little while longer before she got irritated with his agitated state.
"For the love of God, Kol! What's the big deal?" The original looked at her before speaking. As if trying to figure out how to phrase his next words carefully. She could see him assembling and reassembling the sentences in his head. "Out with it Kol." He sighed and looked up, staring over the lake, the sun starting to set.
"He's already unravelling at the seams. The others haven't noticed yet, but then again they don't pay as much attention as Katherine and I-"
"Katherine?"
Realization set in at the same time she saw the answer to her question as clear as day on Kol's face. She remained still for what seemed like hours as she tried to swallow down the bile rising from her stomach at the thought of Elijah with another woman.
"After she turned herself into a vampire, Klaus couldn't use her to break the curse our mother had put on him, and-"
"Wait. What part did she have to play?" Kol swallowed hard before answering, not sure how she'd take the next piece of information.
"She's Tatia's doppelganger." Her mouth turned sour at the mention of her old nemesis' name. She did not mourn the death of Tatia, nor the slaughter of the rest of her family. But she comforted Elijah for many years as he mourned his love's death. Until of course, he remembered her betrayal with his brother. Something she might, or might not have mentioned to him after listening for the hundredth time, how miserable he was without her.
She remembered that night all too well. It wasn't a happy memory, but it was the first time she saw Elijah for what he truly was. What he so desperately tried to suffocate under his values.
A monster.
An idea formed in her head, and before she knew it, a smile had formed on her face.
"What are you planning in that twisted little head of your's darling?" She looked over at Kol, he had a playful smirk on his face, and the curious spark in his eyes ignited further when she answered.
"I think it's time I had a little chat with this doppelganger."
"And then what?" She shrugged as she watched the last of the sun settle behind the lake, leaving the sky to the mercy of the moon, and the people to the monsters, much like herself, hiding in the shadows.
"Use her as bait. Or kill her." She shrugged again and looked over at him with a faux bored expression. "It all depends on my mood."