***

Today was the day that Jenna was finally able to come home from the hospital. The doctor cleared her to leave, but she still needed people to keep an eye on her and make sure she takes her pain medicine. Matt, Elena, Jeremy, and I were currently helping her inside the Gilbert's home. Matt and Jeremy were on either side of Jenna, making sure she didn't fall or hit anything. Elena and I were standing behind them and were ready to jump in if they needed help.

"Easy..," Matt trailed off. We finally got the front door open and Matt gestured to Jeremy as we walked inside, "Grab the door, Jer."

"Hey, stop fussing, I'm fine." Jenna insisted. Matt was walking her the rest of the way while Jeremy closed the door behind us.

Elena placed a hand on her aunt's back, "The doctors said that you have to take it easy."

"Yeah, you don't want to rip your stitches, hemorrhage and die, alright?" Jeremy joined us again.

"Yeah, the only thing I'm gonna die from is embarrassment." I laughed a little at Jenna's statement. A step was coming up so Matt helped her step down it.

"No," Matt said to her.

"We just want to help you in any way we can to make it easier for you." Jenna smiled at me when I said this. The woman had literally been stabbed, it'd be insane to just let her fend for herself after something like that.

Jenna had a thoughtful look on her face, "I walked into a knife. How does somebody do that?"

Elena shared a look with me and Jeremy, "It was a freak accident."

Jeremy agreed with his sister, "It happens."

I shrugged, "It's not as uncommon as you would think."

Matt shook his head, "Yeah, I mean I've done it like twenty times at the Grill," Jenna laughed and then winced, holding her stomach. Laughing obviously didn't help the pain she was feeling, "Okay, I'm being nice."

"Careful."

"Easy, easy," The boys slowly lowered her onto the couch, trying not to make her wound hurt worse than it already was. Once she was lying down, Matt looked to Elena and showed her the bag of food in his possession, "What should I do with this?"

"I got it." Elena grabbed it.

"I'll help too." Matt stayed with Jenna while I helped Elena carry everything. Jenna had gotten a few gifts from the group so I helped Elena carry those. The two of us went into the kitchen to put everything down. I heard footsteps behind us and turned to see Jeremy following us.

Jeremy glanced over at Jenna before looking back at us, "So what are we gonna do?"

Elena let out a deep breath, "Make lunch."

Jeremy gave her a look, "About Katherine."

"We're not gonna do anything, Jeremy." Elena put down the bag hanging on her shoulder.

Jeremy lowered his voice so Jenna wouldn't hear the conversation going on, "She tried to kill Jenna. We can't let her get away with that."

Elena nodded, "Yes, we can. If it keeps us safe then we can."

"What do you think, Charlotte?"

I don't know why, but I was a little thrown off when he asked for my input. I knew what we were going to do about Katherine, but I couldn't say anything in front of Elena. I thought for a moment before finally saying, "Uh... I think that we just have to wait. We don't know what exactly she's planning and what her next move is. There's nothing more we can do at the moment."

Jeremy crossed his arms, "And what if she tries something else?"

"She won't," Elena denied, "Katherine hurt Jenna because I didn't do what she said. Well, I'm doing it now, me and Stefan are over. She wins. The end." I stared sadly at the girl. It sucked that she had to end her relationship because of all this Katherine drama. I just wanted her and Stefan to be happy, not whatever they were now.

"You are being naïve and you know it." Jeremy started walking out of the kitchen.

Elena stared after him, "Where are you going?"

"Out," He grabbed his jacket and called out to Matt and Jenna, "I'll be back."

I saw Elena staring at Jeremy's back as he left with a sad expression. I put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting smile, "He'll come around eventually. Don't worry too much about it." She nodded and we went back to putting the stuff away.

***

After awhile longer at the Gilbert's, I got a text from Stefan saying that they were meeting up to discuss the plan with Katherine. I left the same time Matt did and had to endure an awkward conversation between him and Elena. It was so tense that I could barely stand it. I could feel the awkwardness between the two of them. I hope that they both can get over this eventually and don't have to deal with it anymore.

Alaric placed down his bag on the coffee table, "Are you sure you guys don't want me there tonight?" Everyone gathered up in the living room. The people who were here are me, Jeremy, Stefan, Damon, Alaric, Caroline, and Bonnie.

"No, I need you to stay with Elena," Stefan ordered, "I don't want her to know about this."

I nodded, "Agreed. We don't know what Katherine might do." Katherine could try anything. It was better if Elena wasn't there because she might get caught in the crossfire if something bad did happen. We didn't need that happening. 

"Okay. Well, I'll make sure she doesn't leave my sight." Alaric said.

Stefan now spoke to everyone else, "Alright, if anybody wants to back out, I'll understand."

"Yeah. Cold feet speak now. I don't want this going wrong if someone chicken's out," Damon gave a pointed look to a certain blonde vampire, "Caroline?"

"I won't. Look, she killed me. Fair's fair."

I grinned at her, "That's a good attitude!"

Caroline smiled back, but then her smile fell as she said, "As long as there's no werewolf running around."

Damon smirked, "Oh, I took care of Mason."

"As long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn," Jeremy added. That was good to know. That was two things we didn't have to worry about now. Let's just hope that all of this goes the way we want it to.

Stefan turned his gaze to Bonnie, "Bonnie? Are you with us?"

Bonnie looked like she was staring off into space. There was a long pause until she nodded, "But no one gets hurt."

I nodded to her, "No one gets hurt." That was what I was hoping at least.

Damon broke into the conversation again, "Except Katherine. Tonight Katherine gets a stake through her heart." Everyone shared a look. I was certainly looking forward to seeing that show. It was time to put an end to the bitch who killed my parents and turned me into a vampire.

***

Masquerade parties were always really fun for me. You wore masks to basically hide your identities. The only thing you had to go on was how the person you were talking to acted, talked, and how they held themselves. I saw it as really getting to know someone and not being able to judge based on facial features. Back to the present, Stefan and I were looking around the crowd of people to find any sign of Katherine.

Nobody has died yet so I see that as a good sign. The bad thing is the number of people here. If Katherine does try something, she won't hesitate to use anyone here to get her way. All she had to do was threaten to kill them or actually kill them and then she would most likely get her way.

"Do you see her?" I heard Damon ask.

"Nope," Stefan replied.

I felt Damon's gaze on me so I responded as well, "I haven't seen her either." I saw someone walking towards us with a tray of drinks. I grabbed one and took a drink of the liquid. I was certainly going to need this for what was about to go down.

"Are you sure you can do this?"

Damon scoffed and looked at Stefan, "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh, I had the chance to kill her and I hesitated," Stefan told him.

"Well, that is the fork in the road between you and me, my friend. I don't hesitate." Damon seemed really sure of himself. But even I was doubting it a little bit. He did love Katherine for a really long time and spent years looking for her. What was to say that he wouldn't hesitate? Then again... He was really mad when he found out that she wasn't in the tomb this whole time.

Stefan had the same thought process as me, "You spent 145 years loving her, it could happen."

"I won't hesitate." Damon's answer was the same.

Stefan nodded slowly, "Okay."

***

The party was going great so far. I had been talking with Damon and nothing has gone wrong so far. I still hadn't seen Katherine yet. The only bad thing was the fact that Damon was really starting to get on my nerves. After I thought things were going really well, Damon had gotten a phone call from Stefan. Apparently, Stefan had run into Katherine and she killed a girl. We were currently meeting up with him.

Stefan walked into the room, "I put the body in the trunk for now."

"We'll dump her when we get back," Damon stated.

I crossed my arms, "Can we not say 'dump' when talking about an innocent girl who was killed?" Damon rolled his eyes at me. It was just really insensitive to say that about an innocent girl who lost her life. But, sadly, that's the type of person Damon was a lot of the times.

Stefan let out a deep breath and bumped shoulders with Damon as he paced, "This is exactly what I didn't want it, Damon."

"Stefan, it's collateral damage." It was my turn to roll my eyes. That girl was not collateral damage. She didn't deserve what happened to her. She was never meant to be involved in the first place.

Stefan pointed to him, "Right, which is why we need to call it off."

Damon looked confused, "What? Who's hesitating now? Hey!"

I sighed, "Guys-"

Damon cut me off, "Don't do this to me!" He walked over to his brother, "This woman ruined our lives, Charlotte's life, she destroyed us! Tonight it ends," He grabbed Stefan's shoulders making Stefan look at him, "We can do it together. I got your back. All right?"

Stefan finally nodded, "All right."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys! It's Snow here. I just wanted to talk about something that has been brought to our attention many times. Thank you for all of the people who caught this! It has been brought to our attention that we had made a plot hole about Katherine turning Charlotte into a vampire and knowing that she was out of the tomb, but never said anything.

We just went back and changed it to where it made more sense. We made it to where Katherine's face was covered so Charlotte had no idea who turned her. Any mention before this book and in the first chapter of this book has been changed as well. We made it to where Katherine tells Charlotte in this book about how she was the one to turn her and kill her parents. We just wanted to clear this up really quickly.

We hope you guys liked this chapter and we'll see you guys next time! ~ Snow