[Episode 11 - Unpleasantville - 2]

I sit on the kitchen platform and face the group while Elena and Stefan sit on the couch over which a vengeful vampire was thrown, not a few minutes ago. Damon is pacing around, to and fro from the couch to the kitchen " How did he get in?"

"Well, Elena and I are in a mood to die, so we called him over"

Damon rolls his eyes at my sarcasm. Stefan provides "He posed as a pizza delivery guy last night..."

"Well, he gets points for that. Did he say what he wanted?"

This time, Elene is the one snapping "No. He was too busy trying to kill me."

"And you have no idea who this is?" I ask and Stefan pulls off a questioning gaze on his elder brother. Damon shrugs at his brother's unconvinced look "No. Don't look at me like that. I told you we had company." He goes over and sits on the arm of the couch, a bit close to his brother's girlfriend. "You think there's more than one?" Stefan asks and I shrug, even though the question wasn't directed at me "We don't know Stefan. That's the problem..."

Stefan sighs "Damon, he was invited in"

"Then we go get him tonight. You up for it?" he looks at Elena. She hesitates but nods "What do I have to do?".

My best friend and I share a look, we need to keep Elena safe. No matter what, even if she's in between a hub of supernatural activity.

Damon smirks, glad that my sister is being easy today " Let your boyfriend take you to the dance. We'll see who shows up. Till we get him, this house isn't safe. For anyone who lives in it. It's worth a shot..." Stefan sighs anxiously and purposely ignores his brother as he takes Elena's hand in his own "Are you sure?"

"I'll do it. I'll be with you. I'll be safe..."

Damon turns to me and shrugs a shoulder "Fine then, chop-chop. Get ready. We have a vampire to kill" Elena and Stefan go upstairs as I jump off the counter "You didn't ask if I wanted to do this..." 

He smirks "That's because I know you'll be capable of doing this" he bumps his shoulder into mine and I roll my eyes. As I stalk to the stairs, I see the old vampire make himself comfortable on the couch.

"Katherine?" I turn to him "Put the belt on. It completes the outfit" he gestures to the big belt I left on the table when I talked to Jenna earlier. Rolling my eyes, I take the belt upstairs.

▹▹▹

We enter the school, Elena and Stefan hand-in-hand. Damon and I stand on each side of the couple - me beside Stefan and Damon beside Elena. 

Damon tells us to split up but warns Elena and me to stay together. When we reach the punch bowl and I run into the arms of Caroline. Bonnie's standing beside her and she's hugging Elena.

"Having fun?" I smirk, even though I know the answer to the question. 

"No, but this-" she gesturers to her yellow poodle skirt and top, "-took about two hours, so I'm at least staying half of that..." 

We all laugh but Bonnie looks off into distance, her eyes narrowing into a clueless glare "What's Damon doing here?"

Elena and I look at each other nervously before we both stammer at the same time

"Kat's date" 

"Chaperone" 

I glare at Elena and she purses her lips and turns to our suspicious friends "He uh, wanted to come. H-he'll behave..." 

Caroline's demeanour changes as she bites out "So what is this, like, a foursome now, the Gilbert sisters and the Salvatore brothers?" I gag to prove my disgust and a look of satisfaction passes over my witch friend.

Elena sighs, not really wanting to talk about the old vampire, who's suddenly helping us for some reason "No, but if I'm gonna be with Stefan, then I have to learn to tolerate Damon. It's not like we can kill him..." 

Bonnie smirks and takes a sip of the punch "There's a thought-" 

Caroline takes another glass of punch "Hm, I'll help".

Later, I walk to the middle of the dance floor with Elena to see Caroline and Bonnie shove their way past Damon "What did you say to them?" Elena asks, clearly judgy. 

Stefan comes up behind me as Damon smirks " I was perfectly polite. Elena...Would you like to dance?" 

He's clearly trying to piss his baby brother off. Elena smiles very happily as she answers "Why...! I'd love to!" 

Then she does something that was kind of like Katherine Pierce repeat - she turns to the younger brother "May I have this dance?" Stefan smiles triumphantly and escorts her off 

I chuckle "Damn that's gotta hurt..."

He watches as the couple glide further into the crowd, happily dancing. I see Damon doing the creepy thing and bump my shoulder into his "It's rude to stare. There're plenty of girls here" I point across the giant hall, abound with dancing teenagers and chaperones.

He chuckles and walks away "The belt looks good. Told ya" I roll my eyes.

A while later, I ask Stefan to dance since Damon's busy talking with Alaric Saltzman. I didn't really tell him about the teacher's role in the Council.

Elena excuses herself to the punch table and I sway to the beat along with my best friend.

"So, any pictures of the 50s that you could show me later?" I ask, hopeful.

"No. Burned. Buried." he says, looking around soberly.

I roll my eyes and glare at him playfully "How am I supposed to make you fun when you're foreign to the concept of acceptance?" 

He chuckles and goes with the beat, twirling me to and fro. I look around for a minute "Maybe he's not gonna show..." Stefan lets out something that would almost sound like a groan "You mean I did all this dancing for nothing?"

My eyes widen in mock-surprise "The horror!"

His face doesn't morph into a smile but stay firm in his resident sober pose "We... Didn't ask you if you're okay with this..." 

I shrug, trying to appear indifferent that I'm trying to protect my sister as well as myself from a vampire. "Ehm, I'm always up for kicking vamp ass - so! Show me how it's done in the fifties" I change the topic. Stefan's face scrunches up "Uh, no."

I beg a lot and he gives in "Tell me if-"

"I see Elena or Damon with a camera, I know"

Stefan pulls me into a twirl without preamble. He does it towards both the sides very very quickly and holds me by my waist as he lifts me up. I danced when I was small and I don't know why I stopped because, I feel exhilarated now. Stefan dips me to one side and puts me on my feet like a doll. Then he dips me to the other side. When the final beat of the song sounds, I'm left breathless while Stefan looks to me smugly, as if he's thinking I'll ask him to never to do that again because it's too much.

I live to disappoint such notions. Breathing with a wide smile, I pat my best friend's shoulder "We need to do that again soon, just let me find Elena..." His face of fear and disbelief is worth taking a picture.

After a while, Elena and I are standing by the punch bowl when Stefan appears. He kisses Elena and follows our gaze. Damon is finally dancing with some drunk girl and not-so-subtly gropes her ass. He looks to us and winks. 

I roll my eyes as Elena asks "You really can't take him anywhere, can you?" Stefan sighs and shakes his head.

My gaze roams and to the back corner, I spot the person we're looking for "Stef," I nudge him and jerk my eyes towards the direction of the hooded figure. 

"Get Damon" he commands and rushes off. I hold my sister's hand to be safe and get through the crowd, just then Elena's phone rings. It's that guy again, looking around, I pick up the call.

"Hello Kat. Here's what you and Elena are going to do.There's an exit door behind you. You have five seconds-"

"No." I answer firmly.

"-Or your brother dies." I groan as I look to the punch bowl, where, sure to his word, Jeremy stands, giving out punch. But that's not what catches my attention - just behind my oblivious brother, stands a hooded man, phone in his hand "I can snap his neck so fast I bet there's not even a witness. Now, start walking-"

Elena snatches the phone from me and grits out "Don't you dare touch him..."

We start to back out towards the door and I watch him with hawk eyes. 

I won't let him hurt my brother. "Keep walking. Through the door..." I shake my head at Elena "Run" I mouth but my sister just shakes her head. I sigh and hold her hand as we walk into the halls.

I look behind to see the man just enter the hallway, locking the doors shut. Elena and I rush towards a set of doors but they remain locked. I run towards the cafeteria doors and sigh out in relief as they open. I push Elena in before me and go in before I try to close the doors. I'm not fast enough. 

The vampire comes barging in. He ignores me as he vamps towards my horror-stricken sister.

I pull him off her, the second time in a span of hours, while Elena looks around for a possible weapon. 

Just as he is recovering, I grab a few pencils and throw some of them near my sister. The man speeds to me, pinning me to the wall with a hard shove. I ignore the pain in my back and stab him in the stomach,giving a hard push into his torso.

He staggers to the side and I see another pencil jammed in his neck. I look with a look of pride at my sister. 

Perhaps, it is in that emotion, that I don't see the hooded man punch me in the torso, making me crumble to my knees. Just as I'm getting up, I see my sister break off a broom and shove it into him, clearly under the influence of adrenaline.

I rush past the benches and pull him off my sister. The door opens and I see the Salvatore brothers rush in. Stefan holds the vampire up and against the wall, and I catch a breath.

"Hey dickhead" Damon waves with his right hand, armed with a wooden stake "Nobody wants to kill you. We just wanna talk..." 

I roll my eyes. Not happening, he's having his heart ripped out or staked for what he was about to do to Elena. 

The guy spits out a breath and rushes towards me. Damon throws me his stake. In a moment, the very useful piece of wood is in his stomach. I push him to the nearby wall and all of the rest gather around the place. Stefan comes up and pushes the stake further inside "Now you feel like talkin'?"

"Screw you-" I dig the stake deeper and my best friend punctuates "Wrong answer. Why are you doing this?"

Stefan takes over my place, gently nudging me aside towards my sister. I hug her from the side as I hear the reply "Because it's fun..."

"What do you want with them?"

"They look like Katherine. This one even more so" he smirks to me "I mean, damn, the curly hair, the badass attitu-"

"You knew Katherine?" Damon asks, I want to move towards the vampire but the grip my sister has on me holds me back to keep her safe and unafraid.

"Oh. You thought you were the only ones...." He laughs "You don't even remember me!" 

Damon leans towards the vampire, voice low and threatening "Tell me how to get in the tomb..."

"No" Wrong answer buddy. I shrug with pitiful brows as Stefan digs the stake deeper, perplexing me. He was strictly against letting the vampires out. Why is he helping his brother with the very task he wanted to obstruct?

The torture elicits a groan out of the man "The Grimoire"

"Where is it?"

Stefan digs the stake deeper, the vampire groans, not able to keep up "Check the journal. The journal. Johnathan's journal. Johnathan Gilbert's..."

"Who else is working with you?" Stefan asks but he gets no answer that matters 

"No. You're gonna have to kill me..." Stefan, I and Damon exchange a look of understanding and I turn to a shaking Elena, and she nestles herself into me. 

My grip on her head, which is buried in the crook of my neck, tightens as we hear the awful sound of flesh piercing. My sister gasps at the sound and looks to all 3 of us "What do we...how are you gonna find the others now?"

I release her from my hold and murmur "He had to die Elena..."

"But..."

"Elena, he was invited in-" Stefan tries to assure. Just then, our attention is garnered towards a shadow at the door. Stefan looks to his brother in urgency "Go... I got this..."

I just hope everything becomes clear soon. Because I don't know how long I'm gonna survive being torn between the supernatural and the human part of me.