CHAPTER SIX | WE ALL GO A LITTLE MAD SOMETIMES

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CONNOR WAS DEAD AND ELENA WAS THE ONE THAT HAD KILLED HIM. Elena had killed her one and only chance of becoming human again—Klara's chance of becoming human again. Even though the blonde expressed no real desire to become mortal, she wanted it. Of course, she enjoyed being able to protect herself better than she ever could before, but she missed the possibility of having a family of her own and growing old with the person that she loved. 

Klara had gone for a run to clear her head, so she headed out into the forest but it wasn't long into her run before she had a phone call from Damon. It turned out that Elena had stabbed Jeremy in the neck during the night, but luckily he was wearing the Gilbert ring when the attack happened.

Klara walked into Elena's home wearing her gym attire. She didn't have a chance to go home and get changed, she just ran straight over. "What the hell happened?" She asked Stefan and Damon who stood over Jeremy's body. "Where's Elena?"

"Showering her brother's blood from her hands." Damon deadpanned with a serious tone just as a loud gasp escaped Jeremy's lips. Just like that, he was alive as if nothing happened.

"Welcome back. How are you feeling?" Stefan asked the boy who seemed dazed and confused.

"What happened?"

"Long story. Buy the E-Book." Damon rolled his eyes toward the Gilbert. He headed into the kitchen with a bucket and Klara followed after him. "What's the problem, Goldie-Locks?"

"You were here before Stefan and me." Klara jumped up onto the kitchen counter as he turned around to give her a pointed look. "She called you first, right?"

"Right." Damon rolled his eyes irritatedly. "Look, Klara, if this is you trying to give me the third degree, you're gonna have to try a little harder to get any sort of information out of me." He gave her a fake smile just as Stefan walked into the kitchen to join them. "Where'd Jeremy go?"

"School." Stefan moved beside Klara and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Bonnie has him volunteering for some occult exhibit."

"Maybe it was a ploy to get himself out of the house where his sister just tried to murder him?" Klara shrugged lightly. "But, I might be wrong..."

Stefan's phone began to ring and the moment he pulled it out from his pocket, he grunted. "It's Klaus."

"Ooh. Time to face the music, pay the piper, dance with the devil." Damon mocked his brother. Stefan had told Damon everything—including the cure. 

Stefan narrowed his eyes toward his older brother. "You know, I'm glad you find this amusing. If he finds out I told you about the cure, he'll kill both of us." 

"Uh, all three of us." He wriggled his eyebrows and looked toward Klara. "Don't forget innocent little Goldie-Locks over there. Lookin' like butter wouldn't melt. She knew from the start."

"I knew from the start because you have a big mouth." Klara gave Damon another snide grin which caused him to throw a hand towel at her. 

Stefan accepted the phone call from Klaus and lifted his cellphone up to his ear with a sigh. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, I can't imagine why what with you ruining all my plans for a Hybrid-filled future." 

"Well, it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't sworn me to secrecy." Stefan retorted in a stern voice and earned a nod of approval from both vampires.

"Well, life's full of if's, Stefan. Let's extenuate the positives, shall we? The hunter was one of five. We'll find another. It may take centuries, but we've got nothing but time, right?" Klaus spoke in an alarmingly calm voice despite the fact that their map to the cure was gone.

Stefan furrowed his brows. "You're using your calm voice today. Who's getting killed?"

"Not you, if that's what you're worried about," Klaus said as Damon and Klara exchanged looked while they listened. "But I am concerned about Elena. Have the hallucinations started yet?"

Stefan's head whipped in Damon's direction. Elena said she hallucinated Connor when she stabbed Jeremy. "What do you know about that?"

"I'll tell you. Where are you?"

"I'm at her house."

"How convenient. So am I." Klaus ended the call and immediately started knocking on Elena's door once Stefan removed his cellphone from his ear. He headed straight outside of the house without a second thought. 

"I'll, uh, I'll go and check on Elena." Klara flapped her arms about in a flustered manner before she walked up the staircase to check on her friend. She wandered into Elena's room and noticed the doppelganger fearfully backed against her dresser. "Elena? What's wrong?"

"No!" The Gilbert vampire yelled out viciously with her hands out in front of her protectively. "Stay—stay away."

"What? What're you talking about?" Klara furrowed her brows and edged forwards slowly. "Elena, it's me. Elena, it's Klara."

"I said stay back!" Elena's vampire face became visible as she screamed in Klara's direction. She hissed toward the blonde while she looked between Klara and an empty space. "I wasn't myself when I killed you, okay?!" 

"Connor..." Klara trailed off once she realized exactly what was happening. "Elena, what your seeing isn't real, okay? You're hallucinating. Just—just focus."

"No! I can't, Klara's my friend." The doppelganger shouted toward the empty space, where Klara assumed Elena was seeing the hunter. Eventually, her eyes slowly trailed back to Klara. "I—I..." 

Klara attempted to speed forwards to snap Elena's neck, but it was almost like Elena's sensed what Klara was about to do and beat her to it. In one fell swoop, Elena snapped Klara's neck and let her body drop to her feet.

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Apparently Klaus had managed to snatch Elena shortly after she snapped Klara's neck. The vampires had called Bonnie over and explained the situation, Klaus wanted to lock Elena up and keep her safe until the hallucinations stopped plaguing her. 

"You lost her?!" Bonnie asked with wide eyes and a dubious look on her face as she stared at Stefan, Damon, and Klara.

"Well, I'm not technically involved in the misplacement of Elena Gilbert considering she snapped my neck and I was out cold." Klara gave a bitter smile toward the group as she gently rubbed the back of her neck. 

"Well, lost is a very strong word. We just technically don't know where she is." Damon corrected the Bennett witch with a stern look on his face while he sat beside Klara on the kitchen counter.

Stefan looked between the three other people in the room. "I'm more worried about what Klaus said about this Hunter's curse."

"How does Klaus even know about this?"

"I mean, given the fact that he's like thousands of years old, I'd say it was pretty safe to assume the guy knows what he's talking about." Klara let a small sigh of defeat escape her lips.

"He said it was a witch's curse." Stefan slowly moved toward Bonnie with furrowed brows. 

Bonnie knew what the Salvatore was getting at. He wanted to know if she knew anything about it, or if she could do magic to help. "You know if I could do anything to help, I would, but I—"

"—But nothing." The eldest of the two Salvatore brothers deadpanned. "Wave your magic wand, hocus-pocus, be gone, hunter-ghostess, whatever."

"The spirits won't let me do the magic I need to break the curse. But I can ask Shane for help. He knows everything about everything." Bonnie looked between the three vampires while Stefan nodded.

"Great. You two do your things. Klara, you can come with me. We're gonna get her back."

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It turned out that Tyler Lockwood had managed to break his sire bond to Klaus, with the help of Hayley. Hayley also helped most of the Hybrids that were under Klaus' control which meant freeing Elena would've been easier than they anticipated. Chris, one of Klaus' most trusted Hybrid's was no longer sired by him, so the vampire's arranged a meeting with him at Klaus' mansion.

As Klara, Stefan and Tyler wandered into the lounge, Tyler turned to Chris. "Thanks for meeting us." 

"Yeah, well, make it fast. Klaus will be back soon." Chris uncomfortably ordered the three vampires. Even though he had gained his free will, he still seemed afraid of what Klaus might do to him.

"Actually Chris, he won't be back for a while." Klara wriggled her eyebrows suggestively toward Chris and then crossed her arms over her chest. They had asked Caroline to go to the Grill and distract Klaus since he was obsessed with her. "Trust me, we've got it covered."

"All you need to do is give Klara and I access to Elena and we'll take it from there," Stefan explained to the Hybrid who still looked rather unnerved by the position he had been placed in.

Tyler tilted his head. "Please, man. Help us, and then you can disappear. You'll be free."

"Yeah, until Klaus sends one of his other Hybrids after me." Chris narrowed his eyes skeptically toward Tyler. The Hybrid feared that even if he did run, he would never be free of Klaus. 

"Hayley and I got your back. We'll make sure nothing happens."

Chris uncomfortably looked around but, reluctantly nodded toward Stefan. "Okay. I'll help you. Come with me, but stay outta sight." He breathed as the vampires exhaled in relief and followed after him. Klara and Stefan waited around the corner as Chris approached the two Hybrids that were keeping guard of Elena. "Klaus said you to have to go to Tyler."

"Why?" Klara heard a woman ask in an almost irritated tone.

"Something about his girl Caroline. I'll take over here" Chris vaguely responded. The two Hybrids looked at each other and then walked off in the opposite direction and when the coast was clear enough, Klara and Stefan hurried toward Chris who handed Stefan the keys and disappeared.

"You ready?" Klara whispered toward Stefan as he nodded. He placed the key in the lock and turned it before he pushed the door open to reveal Elena, who was sat on the floor with her knees pushed up to her chest. "Elena?"

Elena fearfully backed away from the two vampires who made their way slowly into the room. "No, no, no." The doppelganger carried on scrambling against the floor with fear in her eyes as they approached. "No, stay—stay away from me."

"Stefan, this is how she was this morning. She's hallucinating, again." Klara whispered toward Stefan who edged closer to the delusional doppelganger.

"Elena, let us help you." Stefan gave Elena a reassuring smile, but she ran toward the bed and pulled out a metal rod that she tried to attack Stefan with, but Klara grabbed her hand.

"Elena! This isn't you!" Klara shouted at the female in an attempt to get through to her, just like before, but Elena didn't listen. She shoved Klara against the wall, and then set her eyes on Stefan. The doppelganger jammed the pole straight through his chest before she sped out of the door.

"Stefan!" Klara cried out from the ground as she managed to lift herself up to her feet. Her eyes darted from Elena, then to her boyfriend. The blonde hurried over to Stefan and pulled the metal rod from his chest with a sigh. "So, I'm guessing that wasn't how you planned on this rescue going?"

"Hilarious." Stefan rolled his eyes with a grunt just as he straightened himself up. He furrowed his brows at Klara, who's phone was pressed up against her ear. "Who're you calling?"

"Damon. If anyone can get through to her now, it's him. He's the only person that hasn't tried." Klara suggested. 

"Goldie-Locks, you and my brother can rest easy. We figured out how to solve our little Elena problem." Damon spoke in a rather nonchalant tone but little did he know, the problem was far from over.

"Yeah, we've got a bigger one. Stefan and I found her... and then, we lost her." Klara spoke through gritted teeth as she ran a hand through her hair.

"What? Again?"

"She's in bad shape. Klara and I tried to help her, but she attacked us." Stefan explained for the benefit of his brother. "Listen, you go find her, alright? Talk her down. She'll listen to you. Just tell us what we need to do to end this."

"Jeremy needs to kill a vampire to become the hunter." 

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Klara felt guilty. The vampire that Jeremy had killed to activate his hunter side was Chris—the Hybrid that risked himself to help Klara and Stefan retrieve Elena. She sat in front of the fire at the Salvatore house with her knees up against her chest as she stared into the flames.

"Damon saved Elena," Stefan confirmed with a small nod as he wandered into the room, though Klara's eyes didn't move from the flames that danced in front of her. "Klara, what we had to do—"

"—We had to do." Finally, Klara's blue eyes locked with Stefan's green ones. "I know. But, it doesn't mean that I have to be okay with it. I've never been okay with the innocent deaths and the bloodshed that seems to follow us around. I feel like that since I turned, I was just expected to be okay with it."

"I never expected you to be okay with it. I'm not okay with it." Stefan found himself seated beside his girlfriend, who rested her head against his shoulder. "What your feeling right now is humanity. It's okay to feel, Klara."

"I want it, you know." She lifted her head back up from Stefan's shoulder and looked him dead in the eyes. "The cure."

A small smile crept across Stefan's lips as he nodded slowly. "I know you do." 

"How?"

"Because I know you." He breathed out as his thumb danced against the skin on her cheek. "Because you're far too maternal to not want it. You wanted to have two kids; one boy, one girl. You wanted to get married in Italy to a guy that you'd hoped you would meet and fall madly in love with—who you'd eventually grow old and be buried with."

Klara's mouth gaped open slightly as she looked him dead in the eyes, she couldn't shake the feeling of confusion and amazement when she stared at him. "I never—I never told you that."

 "I listen to what you say and I listen to what you don't say, too." He shrugged as he pressed his lips gently against her forehead. "And, if you want this cure, I'm gonna make damn sure you get it."

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