CHAPTER FIFTEEN | GONE GIRL 

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EVELYN LET OUT A SMALL GROAN AS SHE FINALLY BEGAN TO WAKE UP IN HER BED. She finally had the courage to sleep in the bed that she shared with Damon for the first time since they broke up, and it felt good. She felt happier. But, sleeping in the large bed without him felt lonely as hell. As she sat upright in the bed, her eyes fell on Stefan who was stood in the doorway with a bewildered look on his face. "What's up? That's your I've-got-news-face." The female vampire raised an eyebrow toward her friend.

"There's something you should know, it's about Elena." He took a pause when he saw her face harden at the mention of the girl's name.

"Wonderful." Evelyn rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth. "What the hell has she done now?"

"It's not what she's done. It's more what Katherine's done." Stefan explained. "It's not Elena, it's not been Elena for weeks. Katherine's passengered herself inside Elena's body without any of us realizing."

"You're joking. Please, please tell me you're joking." The Austin vampire's eyes immediately widened. Everything that had been going on was all because of Katherine.

"I wish I wasn't. This means that everything Elena has done." He paused and made air quotes with his fingers when he mentioned the Gilbert, "It's all been Katherine."

"Right," Evelyn lifted herself from her blankets and threw on a top before she at Stefan. "That bitch is dead, I don't care who's body she's in."

"No, no, no." The Salvatore vampire immediately sped in front of Evelyn and placed his hands at her forearms. "Evelyn, you need to calm down. We can't hurt Katherine, at least not while she's in Elena's body. We need to draw her out. Just—just don't do anything, yet."

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After being warned by Stefan not to go anywhere near Katherine yet, Evelyn took the opportunity to go downstairs, into the cellar to see Damon, who had obviously been told about the news before her.

The moment that Damon saw Evelyn step into view behind the bars, his eyes lit up and a smile of comfort wandered across his face. "Evelyn."

"Hey, you." She smiled lightly before she opened the cell door and headed inside. Evelyn sat herself down on the floor a few feet away from where he was— chained to the wall.

"I'm guessing you heard?" Damon raised an eyebrow toward Evelyn.

"About Katherine?" She looked up, then scoffed shortly after. "Yeah, I did. And, as I said to Stefan, that bitch is dead." Evelyn paused again and looked him dead in the eyes. "This is all her fault, Damon. All of this; Us breaking up. The damn Ripper Virus. Everything that's happened is down to her."

"I know." Damon nodded slowly. He just stared at her. He watched the way she bit her lip after she looked down at the floor. The way she pushed the brunette hair from her eyes that occasionally connected with his, there was nothing but love there. "I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, but—" She stopped herself and then started to shake her head."I was stupid, so stupid. I should've known, I should've seen what she was doing and stopped it— why did I let you leave me?"

"Evelyn." Damon crawled over to her, the furthest he could until the chains began to restrict him. "It's not your fault. It's mine. I broke up with you and, I swear to you I have regretted that decision every second since I made it."

"I love you." Evelyn blurted out, as she saw the smile slowly appear on his face. "I love you, okay? And once Katherine is gone, we can sort things out."

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After the group made several attempts to get Katherine to the Salvatore house the Pierce woman caught onto what they were doing. They had the traveler's knife and they were ready to evict Katherine from Elena's body and sentence her to death for good. But, for that to work, they needed Katherine to turn up.

Katherine spent all morning looking after Nadia after she was bitten by Tyler in a bid to protect Caroline. The group had Liv do a locator spell to find the dying vampire from the church she had taken up refuge in and Stefan and Evelyn decided to take Nadia back to the Salvatore house, which meant Katherine would either turn up or let her daughter die alone.

Stefan took Nadia's phone and hit dial on Katherine's caller ID, with just a few moments, Katherine answered. "Nadia, I'm coming back to the church now."

"Hello, Katherine," Evelyn smirked down the phone, then she turned her eyes to Stefan who looked just as amused as she did.

"She's not at the church anymore." His voice with emotionless as he looked down toward the dying vampire. "She's at home. with us."

"Stefan, Evelyn? Why do you two have Nadia's phone?" Katherine tried her best to impersonate Elena one more time, but it was all over.

"Oh, give it up, Katherine." Evelyn breathed out then she rolled her eyes. "Look, your daughter doesn't have much time left, Katherine."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Katherine continued to play dumb.

The Salvatore began to lose his patience and sighed heavily. "We know that it's you, and we know that you care about Nadia. That's why we brought her here."

"Prove it. Put her on the phone."

Stefan slowly walked over to Nadia, who extended her arm in a weak attempt to take the phone. "Katherine. Run!" She spoke weakly before Evelyn yanked the phone from her grip.

Evelyn lifted the phone back up to her ear and gritted her teeth. "Katherine, you do that and I promise you that I will find you and kill you myself."

"You can always run, Katherine. That's what you do best. Or you can come home and see your daughter one last time before she dies. It's your choice."

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After Evelyn and Stefan called Katherine, the group of the supernatural creatures all sat and awaited her arrival. Evelyn couldn't help but sympathetically glance over at Nadia, who looked like she was holding onto the smallest flicker of life, but she clearly didn't have much time left. Bonnie sat beside Nadia and took her hand comfortingly.

"What's gonna happen when I die?" The Petrova vampire asked fearfully as she glanced up to the Anchor to the Other Side.

"I'll take your hand, and you'll go to the Other Side. Just like that." Bonnie shrugged at the vampire, then gave her a confident smile. She knew that Nadia was afraid and she wanted to ease that as best she could.

"Will it hurt?" The woman asked again.

"You won't feel any pain."

Before Nadia ask Bonnie any more questions about the process of her death, the door opened to reveal Katherine, who looked ready to say goodbye. Everyone turned to look at her but she just pushed past and headed for the one person she wanted to see—her daughter. "I'm here to see my daughter," She bent down beside the woman, "Nadia."

Nadia managed to weakly smile thankfully up toward her mother. "You came back for me."

"I won't leave you again," Katherine promised her daughter while she brushed her dark hair away from her face.

"Did you find a way to save me?" Nadia asked hopefully.

"Klaus' blood would've saved you. If I'd asked for it." Katherine paused shamefully as she looked down at the floor with a guilty look in her eyes.

"You would've outed yourself."

"But you would've been alive," Katherine argued back. "And now it's too late."

Nadia began to whimper as Katherine delicately stroked her face. "My mother's name is Katherine. I'm looking for her."

The Pierce vampire shook her head, confusion spread across her face. "You found me. Nadia, I'm right here."

"She is a liar. And a murderer. She manipulates, she betrays. She'll do anything to survive."

"Nadia. No, I'm right here." Katherine began to blink harder as the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Nadia, look at me. I'm here, I'm right here."

"I'm looking for my mother." She whimpered again, her breaths became weaker and weaker.

"This is not what your life should have been. Five-hundred years searching for a mother who ended up being me." Katherine continued to hold back her tears, "Let me show you what your life should've been, what your perfect day should've been like. You and I had a little cottage, it was an ordinary summer day. You'd been playing outside so you were tired and it was time for bed. You told me about the fort that you built out in the woods by the river and so I asked if I could visit. You said when the sun came up in the morning and I said, Good night, Nadia. Sleep well. Your mother loves you."

As Katherine stopped speaking and took one last look at her daughter, the vampire's body began to desiccate with a light smile on her face. Katherine blinked away the tears as she watched Bonnie grab her daughter's hand which sent her off to the Other Side where she now belonged. The vampire covered Nadia's body with a blanket before letting out a sigh as she finally got to her feet and looked at the group.

"So, this is it." She spoke with a broken look in her eyes, though she attempted to make one final attempt to escape. She sped right up to the front door, but her getaway was ruined by Damon, who was stood on the other side of the door.

"Hello, Katherine. You didn't think I'd miss this, did you?" Damon had a smirk plastered over his lips as he walked inside and shut the door behind him.

"Okay. So, who's got the knife? Which one of you is gonna get to kill the elusive Katherine Pierce once and for all?" Katherine retreated back toward the rest of the supernatural, who all remained quiet. "What? Suddenly everyone's speechless? When I was on my deathbed you all had plenty to say," She scoffed, then narrowed her eyes to Tyler, "Is it you? Tyler? Because I triggered your werewolf curse? Gave you an identity and made you matter?"

Tyler shook his head and gave the Pierce woman a cold, venomous look. "You've done nothing for me."

"Oh, please, Tyler. If I hadn't walked into your life, you'd just be a wasted nobody with a boozy mom and a temper problem." Katherine clearly hit a nerve when he stepped forward but Caroline stopped him from doing anything. "And you. I'm not worried about you offing me because we both know I made you better by making you a vampire."

Caroline rolled her eyes, though she didn't deny it. In fact, she agreed, Katherine did make her better. "Goodbye, Katherine."

"Bye, bye, Caroline." Katherine grinned back, then moved down line toward Matt. "The one girl here who actually appreciates how beautiful you are. You wouldn't stab me in the heart, would you, Matty-Blue? No, I don't think so. You will definitely go down as the best night I never had. Oh, well."

"Oh, well." Matt echoed in return.

"Well, little Gilbert. It was nice to have a brother for a second there. When you weren't being so damn annoying." Katherine rolled her eyes, then glanced at Bonnie. "Bon Bon, no need for goodbyes. I'll see you on the flip side." All that remained were the three vampires she had known for hundreds of years; Stefan, Damon, and Evelyn. She narrowed her eyes to the first of the three she decided to start with. "Damon, oh how you'd love nothing more than to drive that blade right through me."

He shrugged at her with a bored look on his face, "We're already done this, Kitty-Kat. I've said all I needed to say."

"I know, but I never got to say what I needed to say to you. I'm sorry. You blame me for who you are, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I turned you. I'm sorry that you didn't get to die as a forgotten nobody on a bloody battlefield, and that your father didn't get to live another day to be disgraced by you. Damon, I'm sorry that I gave your life purpose. Passion. Drive. Desire. I'm sorry that you are who you are because I'm the one that taught you how to love."

"I'll see you in hell, Katherine." Was all he responded before she gave him a wink.

The Pierce vampire turned on her heels to see the brunette vampire. "Evelyn Austin. I've gotta say you were one tough act to follow. I mean, these brothers practically worshiped the ground you walked on, and it felt good when I took them away— when I stole Damon's affection. I did hope you'd stay dead when I murdered you that night, but I guess I made a mistake trusting a Bennett witch, huh? Guess it's true what they say, a bitch never stays dead for long."

Evelyn scoffed for a moment before shaking her head in utter disbelief, "Have fun dancin' with the Devil."

"Stefan." She breathed out as if she had completely run out of words, "You know, I always wondered what it would be like to be loved by you. You've gotta admit for that one fleeting moment, your feelings were real. This truly has been the role of a lifetime. Stefan, I love you. I have always loved you." She moved closer, letting their lips meet for one last time before Stefan finally stabbed her. "Then I guess this is how our love story ends."

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