CHAPTER FOURTEEN | THE LAST DAY 

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KLARA, ELENA, STEFAN AND ELIJAH WERE ALL SITUATED IN THE PARLOR. They were going over the plan of action against Klaus, while Damon remained obstinate. The eldest Salvatore refused to believe that Elijah was really on their side, and Klara didn't blame him. It was a huge leap to believe that Elijah— who they now knew to be Klaus' brother— was going to assist them without hesitation.

"Tonight is the full moon," Elijah stated. "We should assume that Klaus is prepared to break the curse."

Stefan shifted a little in his seat before he took a breath. "Elena said that the sun and the moon curse is fake? That it's actually just a curse placed on Klaus."

"Klaus is a vampire born of a werewolf bloodline. The curse has kept his werewolf aspect from manifesting. But if he breaks it... he'll be a true Hybrid." 

All eyes moved to Damon who walked in with a slightly less irritated look on his face. "Then why are we letting him break the curse? We can kill him today." The eldest Salvatore's eyes flickered between Klara and Elena. "With Bonnie."

"Damon, no." Klara lifted her hand in the air to stop him from saying another word. Elena shook her head. "Bonnie will kill herself in the process. Absolutely not. Unless you want me to slap you, again."

"It's tempting." Damon wriggled his eyebrows with a smirk. "I'll write her a great eulogy."

Elena's face remained stern. "It's not an option, Damon."

"Alright, how do we break this curse?"

Elijah straightened himself up once the conversation turned back to the curse. "Well, the ritual itself is relatively straightforward. The ingredients, so to speak, you already know."

Stefan nodded. "The moonstone."

"A witch will channel the power of the full moon to release the spell that's bound within the stone. After that, Klaus, being both werewolf and vampire, will sacrifice one of each." Once Elijah explained the extent of the ritual, he heard Klara's breath hitch in her throat.

Elena furrowed her brows. She didn't quite understand what her part was within the sacrifice. "And where do I fit into it?" She asked.

"The final part of the ritual." The Original vampire moved toward the shelf and grabbed a wooden box. "Klaus must drink the blood of the doppelganger... to the point of your death." He noticed the shocked looks on everyone's faces until he pulled a jar from the box. "This is an elixir that I acquired some five-hundred-years ago for Katerina. It possesses mystical properties of resuscitation."

"Wait." Klara raised a skeptical eyebrow toward Elijah. "This plan solely depends on Elena's death? She'll be dead."

"And then she won't be." Elijah simply responded. 

A sudden scoff escaped Damon's lips as he looked at Elijah. He was seemingly unimpressed. "That's your plan? A magical witch potion with no expiration date?" He then turned his eyes toward Elena. "You want to come back to life? What about John's ring?"

"Those rings only work on humans. The doppelganger's a supernatural occurrence." Elijah wasted no time shooting Damon's suggestion out of the sky. "Odds are, the ring won't work."

"I'll take those odds over your elixir." Damon's eyes flickered from Elijah, back to Elena. "What if it doesn't work, Elena?"

"Then, I guess I'll just be dead." Elena plainly responded with a shrug. Klara noticed the look in Damon's eyes. He turned his eyes to Stefan as if he were silently begging his brother to intervene, but Stefan remained silent. Eventually, he walked out of the room.

Klara cleared her throat after Damon had left the room. She lifted herself up to her feet and looked around to Stefan, Elena, and then Elijah. "I'll go talk to him." 

Damon sensed Klara's presence as soon as she walked out the front of the Salvatore house. He rolled his eyes and took another sip of his bourbon once she sat next to him. "I'm not in the mood, Klara."

"You think you're the only one worried about her?" Klara asked him. He turned his head to her and raised an eyebrow. "She's my best friend, Damon. She's Stefan's girlfriend— we all care about her as much as you do."

"Really?" Damon scoffed. "Then why are we trusting Klaus' brother, huh? I don't know why you suddenly trust him, Klara, the whole time he's been here, you've hated him."

"I don't trust him as far as I could throw him, but this is Elena's choice." The blonde breathed out and immediately heard another irritated grunt from Damon. "She trusts Elijah. And, it's not like we have any other options right now. So, unless you know another way to keep Elena safe, just drop it, alright?"

And with that, Klara left Damon outside alone with his thoughts.

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Alaric had returned to the house after pleading with the group that it was really him and not Klaus. He swore that the Original vampire had let him go, and returned to his own body. Which meant that he was definitely ready to go ahead with the sacrifice. 

Once Klara jumped out of the shower and began to get dressed, she heard what appeared to be an intense argument between Damon and Elena in the bedroom beside hers. She always hated having the room beside Damon, considering it was very rare that he was ever quiet.

"Damon, no!" Klara heard Elena's scream echo through the halls. "Damon, no!" She repeated again but her voice became slightly more muffled than before. Klara ran out of her room and into Damon's wrist up against Elena's mouth.

"Damon, what the hell are you doing?!" Klara screamed and the shock of hearing her caused Damon to pull his wrist from Elena, who dropped onto the floor in horror. Stefan eventually sped up the staircase and threw his brother across the room.

"What did you do?!" Stefan roared out while Klara dropped Damon beside Elena. She was crying, hysterical after Damon had forced his blood into her system. He had taken Elena's choice from her. "Huh? What did you do!?"

"I saved her life." Damon looked down at Elena who was crying in Klara's arms. Stefan wiped Damon's blood from Elena's mouth. "You're so bent on dying, at least this way I know you'll come back."

"Are you stupid?!" Klara roared out. She got up to her feet pushed Damon backward with all her strength. "She'll come back to life as a vampire! Why the hell would you do this?!"

Damon tilted his head. "You told me to find a way to keep her from dying, Klara. This is the only other way and it's better than nothing else." 

"How could you, of all people, take that choice away from her?" Stefan stood beside Klara while they both stared disgustingly at Damon, who didn't seem to care about what he had done.

The eldest brother's eyes averted to Elena. She looked broken as she tried to come to terms with her, now sealed, fate. "Go ahead, wish me an eternity of misery. Believe me, you'll get over it."

Stefan lunged at Damon and threw him across the room, which caused several ornaments to break as Damon's body collided with them. Once he was thrown across the room, Damon grabbed a broken lamp from the ground and sped toward his brother with the wooden end. 

However, instead of impaling Stefan with the wood, Klara jumped in front of him and Damon rammed the make-shift stake straight through her abdomen. As the blood poured from her mouth upon impact, the raven-haired Salvatore's eyes widened once he realized what he had done.

"Klara!" Elena screamed as her best friend fell into Stefan's hold. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Damon immediately made himself scarce as soon as Stefan yanked out the wood that had impaled his best friend. He bit his wrist and Klara grabbed hold of it. Within a few seconds, the life-threatening wound on her abdomen had simply faded away and she breathlessly looked between Stefan and Elena.

"I'm going to kill him," Stefan mumbled to himself once he knew that Klara was okay. 

"No. You're not." Klara's eyes locked with Stefan's. "You're not, okay? He— he's hurting."

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Stefan and Elena had left. They decided to spend the day with each other doing normal, human things— since today was her last day as a human. Damon presumably had taken himself off to the Grill to get day drunk and forget the fact that he had been bumped up to number two on the Most-Hated list after he forced his blood into Elena's system and impaled Klara with a lampstand.

As Klara walked down the street of Mystic Falls with her to-go coffee cup in hand, an unrecognizable male stepped in front of her with a smirk. "Klara Adams, I presume."

"Depends who wants to know." Klara shifted nervously. She heard the man's thick British accent and immediately drew her own conclusion about who the man was. "Klaus."

She gasped suddenly which only lead Klaus to chuckle. "In the flesh. Your friend's body wasn't very me. Neither is that bar that I had just left." Klaus gestured in the direction of the Mystic Grill. "You see, I just had to have a few words with Damon Salvatore."

"Words?" Klara raised an eyebrow. 

"Well, I warned him not to do anything he might regret, you know, where the sacrifice is concerned." The Original vampire purred. "I trust that I don't need to extend the same warning to you, Klara."

The blonde clenched her jaw as she glared straight toward the thousand-year-old man before her. "You're threatening my friends, what do you expect?"

"I expect to be able to break my curse in peace." The snapped immediately. His nicer demeanor had disappeared. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be cursed? To have another part of you literally taken away? No. I am sure you don't."

Klara rolled her eyes and tried to step past Klaus, but he grabbed her by the arm once more and forced her back. "Just let me go, Klaus."

Klaus smiled and released his grip upon her arm and gave her a friendly nod. "At least you're smart enough not to make an enemy of me. Please ensure your friend Damon does the same."

Before she knew it, Klaus had disappeared. Klara pulled her phone from her pocket, pressed Damon's contact, and moved her phone up to her ear. "Damon? What the hell are you?"

"What do you care? You hate me, remember?" Damon spat back. Klara rolled her eyes.

"We don't have time for this. Look, whatever you're doing, stop." Klara breathed immediately. She heard shuffling down the end of the line that indicated Damon was doing something. "I just met Klaus. He told me if you interfered there would be consequences, okay? Just stop."

Silence befell the line and then Damon spoke once more. "It's a little late for that. Sacrifice can't happen because Klaus hasn't got a werewolf or a vampire. See you at home."

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"Klara?!" Stefan's panicked voice echoed through the house. She ran down the staircase to see her best friend with tear-filled eyes. "Klara, he took her—"

"—What're you talking about?" Klara couldn't understand Stefan's hysterical rambling until she noticed Stefan was alone. "No. No, Klaus took Elena?"

"Yeah. Where's Damon?" Stefan lifted his phone up to his ear and blinked away his tears. He tried to steady his breathing once Damon answered. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Saving the day. I figured you'd understand." Damon chuckled lightly. "Just tell Elena to stay put."

"She's already gone, Damon," Stefan revealed as Alaric stepped into view. He knew the situation had gone from back to worse by the looks on their faces. "Klaus came. He took her."

"I'll take care of it." 

Stefan lowered his phone from his ear and turned around to face Klara and Alaric. Klara stepped forward with a raised eyebrow. "Where's Damon? What's he doing?"

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