HIRAETH || CAROLINE FORBES

TWO

"-This isn't Elena." Stefan cut her off quickly. "This is Katherine."

Katherine dropped her hand from Stefan's neck and spun around, her expression crumbling when her eyes landed on Violet. Instinctively, she took a step back,  bumping straight into Stefan. "No... Violetta... No! You can't be- Stefan, what are you doing! Get out of my brain!"

Violet took a step forward, closing the gap between them for the first time in centuries. "I'm so, so, sorry, Katerina." She said earnestly. "I'll explain everything so soon, I promise." She reached out, instantly snapping Katherine's neck before the latter got the chance to run.

"Wait, what was all that about?" Stefan questioned, his eyes darting between Violet and Katherine. He paused, taken aback. "You said you didn't know Katherine? But you called her Katerina... which means you've known her for quite some time. And, Violetta? I didn't even know that was really your name." 

"I'm sorry, Stefan." Violet replied, her gaze entirely focused on Katherine on the floor. "Katherine and I have had a past longer and far more complex than I've told you." She admitted sheepishly. "It's really not a story for today, but I can tell you it's been quite some centuries since I've seen her, and she had no idea I was even alive all this time."

"I had no idea." Stefan shook his head, a faraway look in his eye. "Are you..." He trailed off, changing his mind. "Do you think she'll try to hurt you? Or try to run?"

"Well, I believe Katerina's first instinct is to run," Violet responded, reaching down to life the dead vampire into her arms. "But, it's been so long. I think she would want to hear me out. I'm going to take her downstairs, tie her up where she can't run." She said. "I've worked very hard to keep hidden from her, but my, uh, commitments, so to speak, that I previously had no longer exist."

Stefan nodded. "What commitments?" 

"I really can't say, Stefan." She said. "But I just need you to trust me." She bid him goodbye, taking Katherine down to the basement. She tied her up in a chair and then took a seat against the wall, sipping on a blood bag she found from the emergency stash in the fridge downstairs.

Katherine woke up not long later. Unable to move her hands, she instead hung her head low, groaning as she came to. She looked around properly, and her eyes widened when they fall on Violet. Her expression crumbled again as it did before, and she shook her head frantically. She began to thrash around in her seat, kicking her legs and wiggling around to free herself. "It's not real! Get out of my head! It's not real! Get out of my head! Those are my memories! You can't do this!" She screamed. "Please! You can torture me in other ways but leave Violetta out of it! Leave her out!"

"Hey, hey, Katerina," Violet said softly, taking a step forward, but mindful not to get too close. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm real, I swear. No one's in your head. It's me, Violetta, it is. It truly is. I can explain."

"No!" Katherine shook her head again, her panicked thrashing becoming more intense as she nearly knocked her chair over. "Damon?! Stefan?! Get out of my head! Please! This is private, this is private! You can't do this to me!"

"Katerina, please." Violet reached out, taking Katherine's hand into her own. "There's no one in your head, I promise. I've got answers for you, many of them. I can explain it all, but I need you to calm down first."

"You're not real! You're not real! You can't be- I saw you. You were dead!" Katherine tried to reason, confused tears rolling down her cheeks. She'd kept Violetta tucked away in her mind, keeping her memory safe for years. Violetta was the best thing she had in the before part of her life, before her death. "There's no way you could be..."

"I can prove it to you." Violet nodded. She reaches up softly, tucking a strand of Katherine's hair behind her ear. "Close your eyes." She instructed. Katherine hesitantly followed her lead. Violet showed her a memory, one Katherine herself doesn't remember, therefore unable to have been implanted by Damon or Stefan.

Katherine opened her eyes not long later, blinking back the tears that still continued to stream down her cheeks. "Violetta?" She said in a small, shaky voice, sounding entirely vulnerable and human.

"It's really me." Violet nodded. "And I have answers. As many as you want."

"Where have you been?" Katherine questioned, her eyes darting around the room, still unbelieving of what she saw. "I haven't seen you... I haven't heard from you, not since..." She trailed off. "I needed you, Violetta. And you let me believe you were dead."

"I've been with Klaus," Violet admitted, ignoring the flare of anger from Katherine. "I'm sure you know all too well, dearest Katerina, just how persuasive he can be. If he didn't want you to know I was still alive, then by God you were not going to know anything."

Katherine's fist curled up into a tight ball in fury. "You were with him?" She shouted. "After everything that he did? After what he did to them? After what he did to us? No, this really must be a lie! Stefan, Damon? Please, just let this be over!"

"I'm well aware of what he did, Katerina, I do not need the reminder. You need not forget that I was there too." Violet replied. "Besides, I had very little choice in the manner. It was either that or die. I'm sure you can sympathise with that."

Katherine watched on, silently telling her to continue.

"Much like you, I killed myself to turn." Violet started. "But, I made a deal with Klaus. Five hundred years of loyalty, and he'd officially spare you once he sacrificed the new doppelgänger. And because of, well, you know what," She still didn't want to say it out loud. "I was of good use to Klaus. It only magnified after I'd turned."

"You were... protecting me?" Katherine said tearfully, her voice choking up. "All of this time? How did I never see you? I kept close watch on Klaus... saw him in person more times than I could count. How did I manage to miss you everytime? And I never once caught wind of you with them."

"You don't see what you're not looking for, I suppose." Violet shrugged sadly. "And Klaus kept me hidden. I wanted to see you, I really did. I needed you as much as you needed me, but I was stuck with Klaus. If I found you, so would he. So, I spent the better part of five centuries lying about where I thought you were, just to send his little minions in the opposite direction. And it worked. But now the new doppelgänger is alive, and Klaus can use her. Then you can be free."

"I can be... free?" Katherine said. The word was foreign on her tongue, and it was hard to imagine the threat she'd run from for so many years was about to dissipate. She watched Violet in disbelief. "Can you untie me, please?"

Violet nodded, loosening the chains and ropes holding Katherine down. "Yep." She confirmed. "No more running."

Katherine wiggled herself free of the restraints, standing up on shaky legs. She didn't say a single world, her own emotions flooding her. Instead, she reached out, pulling Violet into a hug, before vamp-speeding away.