Beautiful madness, Ch.5: Choices
Beautiful madness
Disclaimer: The characters and other things from The Vampire Diaries don't belong to me. Credit goes to the rightful owners.
Chapter 5: Choices
Flashback
"Please, no, don't hurt me," the young girl cowered in fear at the sight of Katerina's bared fangs, trying to push herself off the ground so she could run, flinching when she heard the hiss of the vampire in front of her, "Please."
"Where is the family?" Katerina asked harshly, her bloodshot eyes piercing her captive, "Are they inside?"
The fire crackled as it devoured the house behind them, flames reflected in her eyes as she asked the question repeatedly, the young girl whimpering, unable to form words. "Answer me!" Katerina demanded pulling up the girl, gripping her shoulders so tight that additional pressure would break her bones.
But she didn't need to wait for an answer. Unbidden her answer came in the form of a gut-wrenching sob full of pain, anger and sorrow blended into one voice. Katerina turned and watched an old man shaking the body of a woman, his wife presumably, repeating his plea for her to wake up over and over even if the truth was plainly written on her face-she was dead.
Katerina closed her eyes, turning once more to the girl that shook in her grip. Her eyes flashed open, bright with rage and a myriad of emotions she kept under lock and key, "I saved your life tonight. I pulled you out before anything could happen to you, at the risk of my own life. You belong to me, witch. Remember that."
Without a second glance, Katerina let the girl fall to the ground as she turned towards the house that blazed against the ink black night. Her footsteps led her towards a man as who gathered his wife into his arms as he knelt before her, completely unaware of everything happening around him. He sobbed, calling her name as if it would breathe life into her. Katerina shook her head, anger filling her head, making her dizzy. Katerina's hands curled into tight fists, her rage boiling inside her as she watched another descendant of her daughter, her own bloodline, vanish before her very eyes. For the first time in decades, she felt the cold touch her, taunt her with lost hope.
She moved towards them, irrational desire to be part of their grief overwhelming her, to finally show the world the despair she felt when her daughter was taken from her, her family slaughtered and her life spent in an endless battle to escape from the Originals.
But a movement from the house forced her back into the shadows. Katerina tore her eyes away from the lifeless body and watched as a young man, a soldier it appeared, carried out another corpse. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the face of the dead girl, the ghost of a smile frozen on her lips. She looked to be Katerina's age when she was turned and it made her blood boil to watch the girl's hand fall limply to the side-pale cold and without a pulse.
The young man walked steadily towards the bare patch of earth in front of the house, his face hidden behind his hair, head down as he kept his eyes on the girl in his arms. The man stopped suddenly as if he was deciding what direction to take only to fall to the ground on his knees, with an unanswered prayer as the girl in his arms remained lifeless. He shifted to a comfortable position, his finger tracing her fine features as he choked back a sob, pulling her close to his chest before letting out every single pain that shattered his soul. It wasn't fair. She was so young and never had a chance to start her life. It wasn't right. He had just told her that he loved her and now there was nothing left. His love couldn't save her. It wasn't enough.
He lifted his head, staring straight ahead with blank expressionless eyes that masked the heartbreak that shook his body. His vision blurred as he laid her gently on the ground, not caring who saw his tears as he fell apart.
Katerina gasped and staggered backwards, deeper into the shadow as her hand clamped over her mouth, forcing back the silent scream when she saw the young man's face. Fear paralyzed her as she watched him, unblinking, 'It can't be,' she thought, 'No. No. No.'
Then all of a sudden, the young man turned his head, facing Katerina, his unseeing eyes trained on her. And then she knew. This was not Klaus. Her mind began to spin, everything in her mind spiraling as it tried to understand the truth behind the resemblance of this young man with the vampire that sought to kill her.
"Damon," the older man, calmer and more serene now, called out to the young man, pulling him away gently, "you are bleeding. Please, come with me. We need to have your wounds dressed."
Damon continued to stare at the distance, where Katerina stood and lifted her hand involuntarily towards her heart. He blinked once, closed his eyes before lifting his face to the heavens, his scream tearing through the night and not a being who heard his grief was left untouched by the hopelessness he felt.
"Help! I need help! Please, she's still alive!" someone cried out, carrying a messy bundle that appeared to be a young child.
"My baby girl!" the older man said leaping up to take the child under Katerina's watchful stare.
Katerina eyed the scene, taking in the features of the girl, finding confirmation that the bloodline of the doppelganger will continue. A smile spread through her lips, her own selfish desires finding its way to the forefront once more as a plan unfolded in her mind. And it all started with Damon. If she played it right, it will also end with him.
Katerina turned around slowly and walked purposefully towards Emily Bennett, the witch she had saved who remained on the ground a few meters away, frozen in shock.
"Come with me," Katerina called out, "There is much to do."
Emily forced herself to stand, though unwilling she knew her debt needed to be honored, "Where do we begin?"
"Find out where that Damon lives," Katerina whispered, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards, "I can't wait to meet him. I have his whole life planned out for him."
"Don't tell me you actually bought her intricately woven web of lies, Elena?" Damon asked as they walked up the steps to her house, "You are staying here, where you're safe, and you are doing anything but out looking for Klaus. If Katherine wants to sacrifice him, she can do it herself."
"But the doppelganger has to be the one to do it for it to work…I have to do it, Damon," Elena insisted, placing a hand on his arm, "If we do this, we keep the wolves off our backs for good because there won't be a curse for them to break either. You don't have to go after them or Tyler…"
"Elena, curse or no curse, they're still a threat to me, Stefan and Caroline," Damon said, " Even if the rest of them leave town, it only takes one mistake with a rusty chain or faulty lock and Tyler ends everything in a downward spiral of unbearable pain and dementia. You saw what happened to Rose. I'm not watching someone else die that way. Never."
"Maybe there's more to the story…get Katherine to tell us more. There could be another way," Elena said grasping at any possibility she could think of.
"Are you even listening to yourself?" Damon said incredulously, "Why are you suddenly Katherine's number one fan? She's a good storyteller, I'll give her that. Ten points on creativity and drama but it's nothing but fiction, Elena."
"Damon, you compelled her out of the tomb, and her story is consistent with her usual selfishness since she will get something out of this. Can't you just accept that maybe she's telling the truth and that we might actually get through this alive?" Elena pointed out impatiently.
"Elena, I'll bet there are a thousand ways of getting out of that tomb. Consider the possibility that she got some witch to undo the compulsion, waited for us to go back so she could tell her tale of woe to manipulate us into trusting her," Damon said reasoning with her, "This is what she does, Elena. Don't think for one second she doesn't want you dead. With you in the picture, she doesn't have a hope in hell of getting Stefan to even look at her. And believe me; she's after him as much she's lusting after a pulse and a sense of humanity."
"Damon, it's not just what she said," Elena said shaking her head, stubbornly refusing to agree that easily, "It can't be a coincidence that you look exactly like Klaus. It has to mean something."
"Yes, good looks are rare but not limited," Damon retorted, "Elena, we've never even seen Klaus. The only thing we have is that picture from a book that could have been easily fabricated, the cryptic words of Elijah and Katherine's lies. All untrustworthy and unverifiable sources so I wouldn't lose sleep over it, Elena. It's nothing."
"Then what am I supposed to believe, Damon? Because we're running right back to the only other feasible option and that's for me to die so that no one else has to," Elena closed her eyes in frustration, feeling the need to scream at Damon but holding back as she continued to attempt to reason with him, "I'm finally fighting, Damon, and you're the one giving up on me."
Damon closed his eyes and lowered his head, his fists clenched at his sides as he took one deep breath after another before he finally looked at her, his blue eyes searing through her, his anger clear on his face, "I'd die before I give up on you. Just because I've given up fighting Stefan for you, doesn't mean I'm not fighting to keep you alive. I still…I lo-…I care, Elena. More than you'll ever understand."
"Then help me find out if Katherine is telling the truth. Help me find Klaus." Elena said softly.
"Not even if you say pretty please." Damon shook his head gently as he turned to leave, "Elena, the only thing she didn't lie about was that I'm here for you. I will protect you and I don't care how, why or what curse is broken as long as you stay alive."
Elena's hand shot out and kept him from leaving, "Promise me that you won't do anything stupid tonight. Promise me you'll go home and you won't go hunting down werewolves. Please. I'll go inside, sleep and stay as safe as I can be but only if you do the same."
Damon nodded silently as he pulled her hand off his arm and placed a light kiss on the top of her head, "Good night, Elena. We'll talk in the morning."
Elena floated in and out of sleep to the sound of continuous pounding on her door, loud and insistent, accompanied by Bonnie and Caroline calling out her name frantically.
"Oh, can we please stop wasting time?" Elena heard someone say from just outside her door before it was thrown forcibly open.
"There," Katherine said waving her hands around, "What are you waiting for? You scream yourselves hoarse and now you're just standing there? Wake her up!"
Bonnie glared at Katherine as Caroline brushed past them towards the bed, proceeding to shake Elena awake, "Get up, get up, get up!"
"What?" Elena said rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, blinking in surprise to find her door across the room and Katherine standing at the foot of her bed next to Bonnie, "What are you doing here? What happened?"
"It's Stefan," Caroline said in a small voice, suddenly becoming quiet, "They took him last night from his house. The werewolves…Elena, they took him."
Elena's head turned sharply towards Katherine, her eyes full of accusation, "But you were there, we left you there after…why didn't you stop them?"
Katherine ran her hands across Elena's things as she walked towards the window and sat on the bench, "I tried," she said with a shrug.
"Not hard enough apparently," Elena said furiously, getting out of bed to stand in front of Katherine, wanting to strangle her.
"Well one can only do so much after being starved for so long in that dingy cave. You try being kept there without any food or water and let's see you fend off a pack of werewolves," Katherine said stretching out her hand to look at her nails.
"For someone who claims to love him, you are awfully unconcerned about this," Elena said shaking in anger.
In the blink of an eye, Katherine had Elena pinned against the wall. "You know nothing." Katherine growled before releasing her, "Nothing."
Elena clutched her throat as Bonnie and Caroline helped her up, "Damon…he should have been there, right? What happened? Why wasn't he able to stop them?"
At this Katherine turned around and looked curiously at Elena, mild surprise on her face as she tilted her head, "He never came home."
"No, no, no, no," Elena said close to hysteria, "He brought me here and he promised he was going home. He promised he wasn't going to do anything…he promised."
Elena clutched her stomach as if she were going to get sick as her world spun around her. Her knees were weak as she sat on the bed unsteadily, her mind rapidly going through the possibilities of what happened the night before and the only image she could see was Damon's corpse in her arms.
"Look, Elena, he's probably fine," Bonnie said quickly shooting a murderous look at Katherine as she placed an arm around her friend's shoulder, "Let's just focus on finding Stefan okay?"
Caroline bit her lip, "I think we should call Tyler, you know maybe he'll tell us?"
Suddenly Elena's phone started ringing, an unknown number on the screen, "Hello?" Elena answered in a shaky voice.
"I assume by now your vampire double has told you we have your boyfriend," Jules said in an eerily calm voice over the other end of the line, "And that the other one never made it back home. We have them. They're both alive, for now."
"Please don't hurt them. What do you want?" Elena asked as she raked her fingers through her hair, pacing around her room as she talked to Jules.
"Oh, it's all about what you want, Elena, because from what I've gathered, you can't seem to choose between them and that's going to play a big part in how all this will go down," Jules taunted, "Are you ready, Elena?"
"What do you want?" Elena repeated through gritted teeth.
"I think you should answer that question, Elena, but in the interest of time I'll do it for you. You want to save them, right? But I want to kill them both for what they did to Mason. So, I'll give you a choice-you get to pick who gets to live. I've ordered them to be killed at the same time, in separate places, which are quite difficult to find so if you go looking for one, you're not likely to get to the other in time even with all the help you can get. One lives, one dies-we both win."
"No, I can't…I can't…"Elena said weakly as Katherine glared at her and snatched the phone out of her hand.
"There has to be another way," Katherine said in a horrified voice, mimicking Elena as she spoke to Jules.
"Glad you asked. I will trade both of them for your life and the moonstone. Come to the shack by the edge of the cemetery in one hour and I'll call it off." Jules said, "Your decision."
Caroline shook her head at Katherine, mouthing to her that Elijah had it. Katherine's lips tightened into a straight line, "I don't have it."
"Then get it. It's not really my problem, now is it?" Jules said evenly before the line went silent.
"What did she say?" Elena asked hoarsely
"She's willing to give them up if she gets you and the moonstone, which is not happening because vampire Barbie just said it's with Elijah. And I don't think he's giving that up anytime soon," Katherine said with a frightening calm in her voice, "So, obviously you should get cracking on a eulogy for Damon while we figure out a way to track down Stefan."
Elena shook her head, "No, find Elijah. I'll get the moonstone."
"Do you think he's going to hand it to you so the werewolves can break the curse?" Katherine said with a mirthless laugh, "Do you think Elijah will just let you ruin his plans?"
"Elena," Bonnie said, "We can't let you do that. If I have to seal you in this house, I'll do it."
"Bonnie, you don't understand, I can't let them die," Elena pleaded with her friend.
"You're not letting them die, Elena. Just Damon, unless the witch can summon enough magic to track down two vampires, that I'm sure they have wards against." Katherine pointed out, "As much as it will derail my own agenda, this is the best option we have at this point-give Damon up."
"I can't," Elena said full of frustration, "I can't do that."
"Why not? You're wasting time, Elena." Katherine asked sharply.
"You love him." Caroline said quietly, staring at Elena to find neither denial in her eyes nor confirmation from her lips.
"I can't walk away from him," Elena said quietly, pleading with all of them with her eyes, begging them to understand.
"Even if it means Stefan will die?" Katherine challenged her, forcing an answer out of her.
Elena closed her eyes, and clutched the necklace that hung around her neck, "I trust you," she said to Katherine, "to find Stefan and get him away from them. Bonnie and Caroline will help you."
Elena took a deep breath before continuing, standing up to face Katherine, looking her straight in the eyes, "But I have to try and find Damon, even if I have to do it alone and even if I have to die trying."
Elena looked at the shocked faces, and smiled sadly before walking away.
"Why?" Bonnie asked her face full of confusion.
"Because I know you'll save Stefan. But faced with a choice, you won't do the same for Damon and I'm telling you that he's worth it, Bonnie. He deserves to be saved as much as Stefan." Elena said quietly, "I can't let him die without letting him know that. I can't let him die."
"Do you love him?" Bonnie asked her, "I want to hear it from you."
Elena frowned before giving her a pained smile, one hand on the door frame as she considered her answer carefully.
"Tell Stefan I'm sorry," Elena said faintly and with that she turned and left.