[Episode 17 - Let the Right One In - 2]

I hang from the ceiling by vervain ropes that dig into me. Stefan's hung the same way, but our backs are to each other. My hands burn from the sting of fresh vervain and I sigh.

"We have a guest you might want to see Katherine" the vampire, whom I know to be Frederick, states smugly to me. Holding a syringe of very familiar light greenish liquid, he plunges it into my chest, taking sadistic interest in watching me grunt and groan.

Everything begins to go blurry when two strong arms drag me out from the basement into a room. I take in a breath and realise there's someone standing at the door. Stefan grunts with every step taken and I do the same. I don't feel very hot.

"Never let this bad man in" I hear Frederick command. A lady steps in front of us and repeats in a happy monotone "I'll never let him in"

 "Damon?" I ask with half-drooped lids and he bangs on the wooden threshold, helpless and for the first time I've seen him, fierce protection running through his eyes

"145 years left starving in a tomb" Frederick picks a stray lock of hair and pins it behind my ear, sending a shiver through me 

"-all thanks to this bitch's infatuation with you and your brother. First few weeks, every single nerve in your body screams with fire. The kind of pain that can drive a person mad. Well...I thought your brother might want to get a taste of that before I killed him. Billy." he snaps his fingers and someone twists a hot fire poker into my stomach.

I screech in pain, writhing in their arms with curses. Damon shouts louder, swearing to end them all if they touch a single hair on either of us.

Billy stabs Stefan with a stake and I struggle harder "No!"

"You have a nice day" Frederick chuckles and pushes me to the ground with a thud. I shake with anger and pain as I'm thrown over a shoulder and taken into darkness.

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Another slush of cut flesh rings through the room behind me as I cringe under Stefan's screams. Every time I shake the ropes, they become tighter and tighter, burning off my skin. I can't even see him.

Fred goes out and comes in triumphantly with an eye-dropper.

He looks to me with angry devilish eyes "So, Katherine? How fast would it kill you if Stefan here, dies because he loved you?"

"I. am. NOT Katherine Pierce! Leave us alone! At least set him free" I beg. 

He chuckles and turns to a gasping Stefan "Now you'll know" 

Stefan groans in agony and I hear sizzles.

Vervain.

Stefan screams and I offer our captor something he was waiting for "Me! Torture me! You know you want to. Frederick!" I shout.

The vampire stalks towards me when a man comes rushing by "This isn't right!"

"She killed Beth-Anne. One of us, Harper!" Frederick angrily points to me "And don't you think for a second she wouldn't kill you if she had the chance. Pearl says we're not here for revenge, right? I say that's exactly what we're here for. Starting with this..." he tears off my tattered shirt, leaving me in a bra as he pushes a piece of ragged wood through my right shoulder. 

I scream in pain as the wound doesn't heal. Harper intervenes again, casting a look of pity towards me "This isn't right!" he protests and comes forward to untie me. Fred pushes him down "Tie him up! And then stake him down!"

After the order is carried out, he looks to me with a satisfied smile "Let's have some fun"

His eyes swivel to the burning poker down by the chemicals and shout.

▹▹▹

Everything flashes around me as I blink again and again. Until I see a silhouette.

"Mom?" I run to her with a relieved breath.

"How wonderful" I hear behind me, to find Stefan. "What?" I shake my head, clueless. 

"Your mother, is dead Katherine" he smiles sweetly, honey dripping from it to contrast his cruel meaning. I look behind to see no one in the place where my mother once stood.

"You killed her" Stefan's voice rings out all around me, in my ear, in my bones and realise what's happening. "Get out of my head!" I scream.

"Well" the voice says "The fun just started"

In the next eternity, I see myself doing things I wold never forgive myself for.

▹▹▹

"Thank you. For trying to help me..." Stefan grunts out to the vampire that helped us. Frederick went up with another one of his vampire. He left one in charge of us three though. 

The good vampire sits towards the far wall with stakes in his legs. We're in the same state albeit we are dangling from rusted rods with vervain ropes.

"They just needed somebody to blame. Someone to punish-"

Somebody enters the basement and I flinch in anticipation of the vampire with more innovations of vervain torture. But imagine my surprise when I see my sister and Damon. "Hey Kat..." Damon whispers, hand hovering inches over my red bruises with wide eyes.

"Stop it Frederick!" I shout out, fighting against the ropes. He hushes me down "What are you doing? Let's go!"

"Fuck off" I spit out at the ceiling in rage "You win Frederick!"

I hear a grunt behind me, no longer feeling Stefan's cold back behind me. His face appears in front of me "Vivi, listen to me, this is real, okay? Please, this is real..."

"This is real?" I whimper and he nods, holding my face in his bloody hands "This is real"

Damon knots out the ropes holding me in place and I fall into Stefan's and Elena's arms. "Elena? Get out of here" I murmur.

Damon looks at us both annoyed anger "She was supposed to stay in the car. And you two were supposed to stay safe"

"Now is not the time to say things like that Damon... Get out before they come" I beg.

"Not without you".

"All right, let's go-"

"Wait!" I stop and turn around. I pull out the stakes in Harper's legs with weakness and smile in goodbye. 

"Can you get them in the car?" Damon questions hurriedly. 

Elena nods but I protest "Take Stefan. Go!" I push her as quickly as I can. She bears the weight of the younger vampire and staggers up.

"What about you?" I question "You escape, I'll distract. Go!" I make myself nod and put one foot in front of another "Damon?" I ask meekly, he looks up from his hands 

"Not one bastard lives"

I stagger outside and limp towards the blurry image of Damon's car. I huddle towards it but I see Elena bending over a fallen figure. Stefan.

"Stefan. My wrist. Here. Take my wrist. You need more bloo-" Stefan protests but she doesn't give up. I look behind me to see the very person I yearned to kill. 

Frederick is getting up slowly and a syringe falls from his neck. He looks at me and then at the huddled form of the ones I love. Anger blinds me and I become a rabid animal. 

The vampire breaks off a branch from a tree and rushes to me with wide red eyes and black veins. I speed upto him with all the strength I have left and pin him to the nearest tree. I snatch the branch form his fumbling hands and without ado, push it violently into his heart.

I pull it back and ram it back again. And again.

And again.

And again.

I feel someone yank me back and hold me while I struggle towards the stabbed and already greying vampire. I growl and kick with all I have in my bones but I hear Stefan shout into my ear "Viv! Vivi! He's dead! He's dead. Enough!"

I struggle pointlessly once more but I freeze when all I have done floods me like lead. I slump down and Stefan lets me go. My sister, who looked at me with love and happiness all our lives, now looks at me with fear in her eyes. She's seen what I've been supressing since my early years.

The anger. The pain. The urge to burst.

I run in the other direction, ignoring their calls. I run and stagger and fall and get up and run again. I see Damon and Alaric walking out of the house and take in a breath of relief.

"You're ok!" I mutter and stumble nearer to them. I throw my arms around both the men and close my eyes "You're okay..." The last thing I feel is Alaric's fading voice shouting to Damon as I fall.

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"How are you doing?" Elena asks me and Stefan.

Stefan's sitting on the couch while I sit down on the carpet against the opposite couch, pulling out the remaining wood pieces from my legs."I'm okay. The wounds have mostly healed..." Stefan assures and he looks to me.

"Good" I state numbly. I'm wearing Stefan's shirt and Damon's pants. Talk about a weird day. 

"Elena..." I whisper.

"Yeah?"

"What you did today, coming to help...You could have been killed..." I scold.

"I know..."

"And what I did, I'm sorry that...I'm sorry that you had to see it..." I try to keep the lump out of my throat. I get up and throw the wood shards in the bin and throw on my leather jacket that Damon got along with him earlier. I feel the letter in my pocket and I sigh.

"I've just never...You were like this other person. And it's my fault. All this supernatural stuff -"

"-would have been a part of our life anyway. I'm a Guardian Elena. Everything comes along with it" I state heartlessly.

My phone rings and I see it'smy brother.

"Hey, Jeremy..."

"Oh no"

Vicki's body surfaced a few hours ago.

▹▹▹

I barge into Matt's house with a nod to the Sheriff and the Mayor. Kelly sits in the kitchen, frozen but a bottle stands in front of her.

I don't wait for anyone to stop me. I stand at the threshold of Matt's room as he asks Caroline to leave him alone.

"Matt..." I murmur, tears of guilt threatening to fall. He looks broken, as if the whole world just gave up on him and he's falling. I rush to him and hug him hard as he cries into my shoulder.

I bring myself to not flinch when the burns of the poker sting under his weight.

My kindest friend is crying into my shoulder because he misses his sister. She's gone. 

And for once, I feel like I deserve the stings. I'm the one who killed his sister after all.

I'm a monster. A killer and I deserve pain.