for Leila

FIVE

Veronica hissed as she stood, her body aching with stiffness. 

A scowl etched its way into her pretty features as she finally realised where she was.

She heaved herself up from the floor and brushed the dust off her skirt before noticing a maroon patch of something soaked in the dirt.

She touched it and rubbed her fingers together.

Her heart thumped unnaturally in her chest, becoming riddled with panic whilst memories of last night replayed in her head.

It was blood, Elijah's blood to be exact.

With a animalistic growl she turned to the door.

"Damon!" She spat furiously. Her cold voice echoed throughout the house, it was empty with no sign of him or Stefan.

Huffing she sat in an arm chair and began her waiting.

-

"Where is he?" She whispered from her seat.

"He's dead, Elena daggered him and I remembered to leave the dagger in this time" Damon said winking in her direction making a knife stabbing gesture with his hand.

She stood glaring at them darkly, the skin on Stefan's arms erupted in goosebumps at the look on her face.

"I do hope you know what this means?"

Damon looked over to Stefan, both clueless.

"Elena is as good as dead, be that by the hands of the Originals, or my own"

-

"Can somebody tell me why she's not in the tomb?" Elena's whiney voice caught her attention.

Rolling off her bed, Veronica padded to the top of the staircase in a sour mood.

She froze momentarily doing a double-take to make sure she was really seeing two Elena's.

To her surprise there stood the first doppelgänger, Katherine.

"Katherine?" Veronica called from the top of the stairs, Katherine spun and brown met blue.

A radiant smile graced Veronica's lips as she smiled back at Kathrine.

Running down the stairs at inhumane speed Veronica enveloped Katherine in a bone-crushing hug.

"Of course they're friends" Elena muttered in disbelief.

Veronica shot her a hard glare over Katherine's shoulder before re-focusing her attention on the brunette in her arms.

"It's been so long" She said smiling wistfully from ear to ear.

"Only a few years" Veronica joked pushing her slightly with her shoulder.

"How'd you get out?" She asked with genuinely curious.

"Elijah compelled me to stay in the tomb, with him dead the compulsion wore off" She explained.

-

"I never knew you could read" Veronica laughed before sitting adjacent to Damon in the armchair.

"oh it looks old, is it one of your hate diaries?" She carried on trying to get a better look at it.

"Dear diary my heart can no longer take this, I must have the Katherine I cannot go on knowing that she chose Stefan again..."

"Shut up, if you simply must know what I'm doing, Elijah was looking for a witch massacre site that happened centuries ago" Damon snapped at his twin whilst speed-reading.