Kindred Spirits

10 - You either help me or die

Book: Kindred Spirits
Chapter 10 (2x16)
Word Count: 1260

Cassidy was humming a song to herself, staring up at the wall in the small cell as she lay in a starfish position on the dirty ground. It felt like months had passed, when it had only been 24 hours. She'd had two meals in the cell, but she still felt drained. It was only a matter of time before her claustrophobia would kick in and she'd lose her mind.

The sound of footsteps descending the stairs were heard, light and soft, and the door to her cell eventually banged open. Cassidy stumbled to her feet, startled, and turned to see Elena stood there, holding a tray of food. Dinner.

"I bet you love seeing me like this, Gilbert. All gross." Cassidy groaned, pulling strands of her greasy hair. "Can't you just get Damon to allow me a shower escape?"

"You know I can't do that, Cass." Elena frowned, and Cassidy narrowed her eyes. Elena never called her 'Cass'. She hated using a nickname on Cassidy, so she always stuck to 'Cassidy' or just called her 'Forbes'.

"You brought food?" Cassidy asked, brushing off her thought process. Elena nodded and entered the cell.

"Here." She placed the tray on the floor in front of Cassidy, and just stood there awkwardly for a long minute. The siphoner took a bite out of a pizza slice and shot Elena a long look.

"You can go now."

"Actually, I was hoping we could talk..." Elena whispered quietly as if scared of Cassidy, which wasn't like the doppelgänger at all, who loved getting under the blonde's skin. "A-about Elijah."

"What about him?"

But suddenly, Elena slammed the cell door closed and locked it. She glanced back at Cassidy, who noticed the fangs and veins below the eyes. Everything started to click into place. Cassidy stumbled backwards, her eyes widening.

"Katherine?"

"Ding, ding, ding." Katherine smirked, dropping the 'scared and innocent Elena' act. Cassidy got over the shock and let out a long sigh, dropping back down onto the floor to continue eating.

"For somebody who has spent over a year keeping a close eye on Elena, you are really awful at impersonating her."

"I fooled you, didn't I?" Katherine shrugged, leaning against the wall and twirling one of her curls around her finger.

"Not even close. Elena isn't scared of me... but you will be if you don't hurry up and tell me how the hell you got out of the tomb." Cassidy snapped, completely discarding her food now and pushing it away from her.

"You can thank your lover boy for that one. The second he died, I was able to roam the earth once again." Katherine told. Cassidy stormed towards her and grabbed her wrist, siphoning an awful lot of her magic, causing Katherine to double over and groan in pain.

"He's not dead!" Cassidy exclaimed once she got more than enough magic, stepping backwards. "All I have to do is take out the dagger! You either help me or die." She held her hand out threateningly towards Katherine, who didn't even look fazed.

"You just don't have what it takes, Cassidy. And if I help you undagger Elijah, he'll kill me. So, not helping."

"Then what the hell are you doing down here?!" Cassidy started to get worked up, pacing the small cell. "Why are you insistent on driving me insane?!"

"Call it boredom." Katherine responded nonchalantly, continuing to twirl her hair around her finger.

"I'm helping Elijah with or without your help." And with a flick of her wrist, she waited for Katherine's neck to be snapped. But nothing happened, causing Cassidy to frown in confusion. Katherine only smirked, still unfazed.

"Bennett magic. Always a charm. They trapped you in a magic-proof cell of course, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot, you--"

"I'm bored now. See ya." Katherine went to walk out, but as soon as she opened the door, Cassidy rushed forward and slammed the large and heavy door shut right onto Katherine's body as she was exiting through it. Katherine let out a groan, but it was more of annoyance than pain. Cassidy did it over and over again until Katherine got weak enough so the blonde could slip past her and out of the cell.

But as soon as Cassidy rushed to Elijah's cell and went to open the door, spotting his desiccated body through the bars in the door, two arms wrapped around her. Of course, it was Damon. He started pulling her back as she thrashed around, until she got so annoyed that Cassidy held up her arm, muttering a spell that temporarily stopped his daylight ring from working. She elbowed him in the face and rushed forward, and then muttered another incantation, a ball of sunlight appearing in her hands. As soon as Cassidy held it towards Damon's face, he screamed out in pain.

Using that opening, Cassidy slammed the door of Elijah's cell open and rushed inside, wasting no time in yanking the dagger out. But as soon as she thought that both of them could've made it out, alive and safe, Damon and Katherine both entered the cell.

"Do what you have to do to get her back into the cell." Damon advised Katherine, stepping forward and grabbing the dagger and stabbing it back into Elijah's heart.

"No! Leave him alone!" Cassidy yelled, just as Katherine came up behind her and bit into her neck, causing the blonde to cry out in pain.

"Not that!" Damon snapped, but it was too late. Cassidy had passed out.

---

Gasping awake, Cassidy's hand automatically flew to her neck, half-expecting to still feel Katherine's teeth pierced through her skin, but there was nothing. It was all healed.

She looked around, slightly dazed, and noticed that she was back in her cell. She slumped against the wall, defeated and hopeless.

"Can't you just let me be happy?" Cassidy murmured, sensing someone stood in the doorway to her cell. She could feel that all of the magic she'd siphoned from Katherine had evaporated during her unconsciousness. She looked over and saw Damon stood there. He was looking at her with an unreadable expression.

"You have no idea how sorry I am, Cass."

"Oh, spare me, Damon." Cassidy snapped, stumbling clumsily to her feet. "This is what you were planning all along! A magic-proofed cell?! Just waiting for me this whole time!"

"Believe it or not, I do care about you and you are my best friend." Damon said, but Cassidy continued to glare at him. She reached up to touch her neck again.

"You healed me. Why?"

"I would let you die of blood loss? No. Your death has to be epic and way in the future or I won't allow it." Damon smirked, and Cassidy fought off the urge to smile. His next words, however, caused Cassidy's slight smile to immediately drop. "Jenna has been asking where you've been."

"What did you tell her?"

"That you left town for a couple of days." Damon shrugged. "That'll be the lie until I figure out what to do with Elijah. I'm sorry, Cass." And with that, he turned and left the cell, which made a painful feeling of loneliness flood Cassidy's body.

She leant against the wall separating her and Elijah's body and started tracing her mate tattoo full of initials on the inside of her right wrist. Her fingertips ran over Elijah's name.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't get us out of this, 'Lijah. I tried..."