After Nadia's little hunt the pair had returned to the penthouse, as usual Nadia immediately collapsed on their sofa and fell right to sleep "you know you act more like a dog than a daughter sometimes" Katherine joked. Katherine tried to join Nadia in unconsciousness but after an hour of laying in bed in the darkness cause by her blinds she was unable to get even a minute of sleep. She tossed and turned but in the end it was no use she had too much on her mind, giving up on sleep Katherine got dressed and left the penthouse to explore the city she had called home briefly so many times before.
She wandered through the streets, it was surprising the difference sunlight made to the city, its was near unrecognisable from the streets she and Nadia stalked at night. The city was quiet, nobody would be out for at least a couple of hours, Katherine liked it this way, the usually crowded capital was calm peaceful. With all attractions closed and no shops to browse Katherine soon found herself walking towards a place she knew would have friendly company.
Katherine knocked on the wooden door, behind it she could hear the rooms occupant trip as she jumped to her feet to get the door, the smirk it caused was still present when the door was opened. "Katherine? hi" Emily stammered obviously surprised to see the vampire "what are you doing here? wont you burn?" Katherine pushed past the girl into the room "don't be silly i have my sun screen on" she joked.
"I need a distraction" Katherine stated, Emily checked the corridor before closing the door behind her "why what's wrong?" Emily asked sitting on the bed, it looked like she had been there awhile books, papers and empty coffee cups scattered around. "You look like you've been busy" Katherine said picking up one of the many psychology books, "never mind that" Emily said moving a pile of junk from the bed so Katherine could sit down "what's bothering you?". Katherine sat on the bed and tried to make herself comfortable "its just" Katherine tried to continue but was unsure how to start, Elena was the only person she'd ever opened up to trusting someone else wasn't easy "start from the beginning" Emily said. Katherine nodded "okay well there was this girl, her name was Elena, we were complicated" she looked over to Emily, if she was going to talk about this Emily had better be listening "tell me about her" Emily asked listening intently. "She was just interesting at first but i quickly found i couldn't stay away, she had an effect on me, i've lived for hundreds of year and done unspeakable things without a single regret but when i was with her i felt guilty" Katherine lowered her gaze she could feel emotions bubbling inside her "and you didn't like that?" Emily asked. "No i felt as if I'd let her down, like i should be better like i didn't deserve" Katherine explained "she was this light which revealed to myself how much of a monster i had become" She felt the bubbling grow and her eye's began to water "but she never blamed me for what i did said she didn't hate me even when i hurt her".
"She was radiant, an angel in my eye's" Katherine said holding back tears "we used to talk like this" Katherine gestured between them "i would confess my sins and it never seemed to lessen her opinion of me it had the opposite effect" Emily nodded, she seemed to be following so far. "When we first met she hated me, she had every reason to but for some reason i couldn't let that happen, i went back to her the same night and i kept going back hatred turned to friendship" the bubbling in the stomach changed becoming a boil, pain and overwhelming emotion mixing together. "What happened?" Emily asked handing Katherine tissue "we were happy and it was ruined, her torch was forcibly extinguished but mine continued to burn" Katherine said explaining the best she could "however bad i felt in the beginning seemed to only multiply, her absence was painful and i returned to my old ways which soon caught up to me".
"I was dieing no way out of it, literally falling apart" shock spread across Emily's face "i didn't think you could die", Katherine sniffed back tears "we can, and when i was she was there, even though she hated me, even though she could only remember the bad times and i was just this repulsive monster, she was there she sat at my death bed and i saw a sliver of my Elena it brought me hope" Emily smiled and tried to talk but Katherine wasn't finished "that hope was poisonous, i saw what i had lost and in a moment of selfishness i grabbed a lifeboat if there was a chance i could have Elena i would take it but the price was to high". Katherine looked down at her hands, Elena's hands "she died in my place, i lived and in a small way we are together again" her hand clenched into fists, Emily shuffled over to Katherine and wrapped her arms around the tearful vampiress. "What am i going to do?" Katherine asked "she and Nadia were my only reason i had to come back but i can't live like this if it wasn't that id be killing the last shred of her existence I'd kill myself". Emily gasped and hugged her tighter "you can't what about Nadia?" she said "she's been better than fine without me for centuries but you're right i could never do that to her it's just how i feel" Katherine sobbed. Emily let go of the vampire and took hold of her face forcing her to focus on the human "you've got to make peace with this" she said "do you think Elena would want you to waste the life she gave you on her memory, NO". Katherine wiped the tears from her eyes and reached into her pocket, she pulled out the picture of Elena she treasured "she deserved her life more, my angel should live not her monster".
Emily held out her hand "can i see?" she asked, Katherine was hesitant but eventually she placed the picture in Emily hand "be careful" she told her, Emily looked at the picture her confusion obvious "she was my doppelgänger" Katherine explained "identical to me in almost every way". "She's beautiful" Emily said handing back the picture, Katherine nodded "she was perfect" she said, Katherine placed a small kiss on the picture before returning it to her pocket "how can i make peace with this?" she asked. Emily shrugged "I'm way out of my depth but personally i think you need to forgive yourself, let go of the burden you're dragging" Katherine got to her feet and walked towards the door "you're going?" Emily asked Katherine nodded and opened the door exiting into the corridor. "Katherine waited" Emily shouted calling after her, Katherine turned to face her "from what you told me i don't think Elena would judge you for this" Katherine sniffed back another tear and hurried away using her vampire speed to leave the building as fast as she could.
She could return to the penthouse like this, Katherine quickly opened the bathroom door and walked up to the mirror to correct her appearance, before she could get started there was a loud knocking at the bathroom door and a male voice shouted out "hurry up in there Nicky class starts in five". Anger replaced despair she returned to the door but just as she was going to kick it open and kill whoever had called he that name again she hear another voice coming from the end stall "calm down it doesn't start till 1130". The voice was eerily familiar, it sounded like her voice, like Elena's voice, Katherine walked down to the stall the voice had called from and stopped outside. A flush and the click of the lock told her the girl would emerge "time to meet Nicky" Katherine thought.