In coming face to face with the woman who kidnapped her sister, Abigail was ill tempered. Rose wanted to help them now, which redeemed her in some weird, twisted way. But the thought still nagged at Abigail, this woman once planned on turning her sister over to be killed.
"Okay, you have to understand I only know what I've picked up over the years and I don't know what's true and what's not true. It's the problem with all this vampire crap." Rose looked around the Salvatore living room, allowing her eyes land on each of them for a long second. "But Klaus, I know he's real."
Damon nodded. "He's one of the Originals, he's a legend."
"Like Elijah?" Abigail asked of the vampire Rose kidnapped Elena for.
"No," Rose responded quickly. "Elijah was the Easter bunny compared to Klaus. He's a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal."
Stefan tilted his head to the side, delivering what he knew to them as gently as possible, "Klaus is known to be the oldest."
Elena looked at Abigail before facing the rest of the group. She often did, but this time was different. Like there wouldn't be a next time. "Okay, so the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?"
"Yes," Rose said.
"No," Stefan said.
Damon started, "If what she's been saying is true-"
"Which it is," Rose cut Damon off.
"And you're not saying it so I don't kill you-"
"Which I'm not," Rose continued.
"Then we're looking at a solid maybe," Damon finished.
"Look, Elijah's dead, right? Damon killed him." Abigail moved to the edge of her seat. "So, no one else even knows that Elena exists."
"Not that you know of." Rose scoffed. It could have been for a lot of reasons. But Abigail figured it was because she was the one who asked the question when she added, "The world is bigger than Mystic Falls."
Damon looked over his shoulder at her from the bar cart. "That's not helping."
"Look, I've never even met anyone who's laid eyes on him..." Stefan trailed off. "I mean, we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know if he's real. For all we know he could just be some sort of stupid bedtime story."
"He's real and he doesn't give up. If he wants something, he gets it," Rose persisted. "If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot."
"Alright, we're shaking." Damon downed the liquid in his glass before any of them even realized he'd poured his second drink. "You made your point."
It was just a story; a story like all the others. Vampires were closing in on Mystic Falls. On Elena.
Which is why Elena stood up. It was why Abigail followed her. It was why Stefan blocked their path to the door.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"School," Elena chuckled. "We're late."
He stepped toward the study. "Let me grab my stuff, I'll go with you."
"It's okay, Stefan," Abigail said. "We know where it is."
They could see the school through a break in the woods. Caroline was already waiting for them, skeptically staring deeper into the trees with her arms crossed over her chest. The crease between her brows only deepened as they laid out their plan, but she listened without interpreting.
"Just tell everyone we weren't feeling well and went home from school," Abigail concluded.
"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this." Caroline shook her head frantically. "I'm a terrible liar."
"And keep Stefan busy," Elena added. "I don't want him to know what we're up to."
Caroline laughed. "I'm even worse at duplicity and you know this."
Elena gave her a look. "You managed to keep me occupied when Katherine paid Stefan a visit..."
"Yeah, because she threatened me!" Caroline took a deep breath; in through the nose, out through the mouth. "Not that I'm saying that you should use that as a tactic, it's... Stefan's gonna see right through me."
"Caroline, do you promise or not?" Abigail asked.
"I promise."
They descended into the tomb. There were no fires to light their path, just the rays of sunlight that seeped into the darkness behind them. It was the way she felt, stuck in a place that did not allow her to feel things for what they were.
"Why don't you want Stefan to know?" Caroline asked.
Elena stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "Because he would never be okay with this."
Alaric wouldn't be either, Abigail thought to herself, but this was a part of her future. The future she wanted. The future her sister was a part of.
Caroline took hold of the stone door. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"She's the only one who knows the truth about Klaus," Abigail answered her. "The only one who can tell us how to stop him."
Caroline moved the stone door. "But you're asking for the truth from someone who's probably never giving it."
"We can't just sit back and wait!" Abigail yelled. "This is Elena's life we're talking about. If we don't get answers, she's as good as dead. And I don't know about you, but I can't even face that thought."
Katherine slowly came into the light. She was weak and pale, worse off than Stefan had been after his loss of control. But she was smiling.
"You come to watch me wither away?" Katherine managed to scoff. "I'm sure I can't get rid of the Gilbert, just like her ancestors, but goodbye Caroline."
"As long as we stay on this side of the door, she can't hurt us," Elena said. "Please."
The next question Katherine asked was, "Stefan know you're here?"
Elena sat down near the tomb entrance. "I brought you some things."
"You came to bribe me?" Attempting to keep up her façade, Katherine raised her eyebrows. "What is it that you want?"
There was a pause. "We want you to tell us about Klaus."
Katherine hummed. "You've been busy."
"And I found this." Elena pulled an old book from her bag. "It's your family history. It says in here that the family line ended with you. Obviously, that's not true."
"You think that if you brought me some family keepsake that I'd open up?" Almost proudly, Kathrine added, "You have the Petrova fire."
"Well," Abigail started, narrowing her eyes. "I brought you this."
Abigail held up a water bottle full of blood. She wasn't sure how she'd managed to sneak it out of the Salvatore Boarding House, but she did. And judging by the way Katherine rushed to the entrance of the tomb, it was how they would get her to talk.
"You don't look so good." Abigail sucked in a breath. "How long do you think it'll be before your body shuts down? Ten, twenty years? It must be painful to desiccate and mummify."
Katherine sat down, surrendering to their antics. Abigail poured the blood into a paper cup and pushed it towards her. It was gone in an instant, immediately bringing color back to her skin.
She pushed the cup across the tomb barrier.
"More?" Abigail tipped the bottle toward her but pulled it away at Katherine's silence. "Tell us something first."
"It's a long story, Klaus and I. It goes all the way back to England, 1492, after I left Bulgaria." Katherine took a breath, the kind of breath that showed all of her vulnerability. "Or was thrown out."
Abigail poured the blood. "Thrown out?"
"Come on." Katherine reached out. "Just gi-give it to me."
Abigail pushed the cup forward.
Katherine drank the blood. "My family, your true ancestors, they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time. I had a baby out of wedlock. The shame."
Elena's chin dropped to her chest in disbelief. "It was kept secret?"
"My baby was given away. I was banished to England, and I had to learn to adjust. So, I quickly became English." Katherine's face fell. "It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first, 'til I found out what he was and what he wanted from me. And then I ran like hell."
Abigail leaned forward. "What did he want?"
"The same thing he wants now." Katherine was not her sister, but she had seen that look on her sister's face. That look of fear. That look of determination. "He wants to break the curse."
"By sacrificing the Petrova doppelgänger." Abigail pushed her another cup of blood. "What does the Petrova bloodline have to do with Klaus?"
"It's really tedious, but..." Katherine crushed the cup in her hand. "The curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger was created as a way to be able to undo the spell. Once the doppelgänger reappears, the curse can be broken."
Elena inched forward. "You ran before he killed you..."
"Something like that." Katherine shrugged. "Klaus needed a human doppelgänger. As a vampire, I was no longer any use to him."
"So, you killed yourself?" Abigail asked slowly. "But it didn't work; you didn't really escape. You've been running from Klaus ever since."
"I underestimated his spirit for vengeance, but living in a suitcase is better than dying so you can have your blood spilled over some silly little rock. What's wrong? Afraid I'm right? You don't want to die? There's another way out." Katherine cut her wrist with her nail, offering her blood to Elena, Abigail, or both. They could not tell. Just that the offer was genuine. "Better hurry. Your opportunity is going, going, going, and gone. I made the other choice."
"Rose and Trevor spent the last five hundred years running because you used them," Elena hissed. "Trevor just got killed."
Katherine laughed again. "I never thought he would last that long."
The sisters looked at each other, slowly reading their expressions of dismay. "You don't even care that you ruined their lives."
"I was looking out for myself, Elena. I will always look out for myself." Katherine opened the Petrova family book. "If you're smart, you'll do the same."
Katherine's eyes were glued to the pages of the Petrova book as she flipped through them. She was reading, even in the dark. And she was thinking, that much was clear.
"So," Abigail called out, "how much of your little story is true?"
"I have no reason to lie, Abigail." Katherine looked up at her. "I have no reason to do anything but sit here and read and rot."
"Okay, assuming it's even partially true," Elena mused. "That's the reason you came back, isn't it? Because you wanted to be the one to hand me over to Klaus."
"Five hundred years on the run," Katherine droned. "I figured maybe he'd be willing to strike a deal."
The events of recent weeks fell into the form of a plan. "So, you got Mason Lockwood to find you the moonstone."
Katherine smiled. "Right again."
Elena swallowed hard. "What else do you need to break the curse?"
"Hmm, look who is getting smarter."
"It's not just me or the stone, is it?" Elena was spiraling, it was easy to tell in the way she asked her questions. "Otherwise, there would be no reason to trigger Tyler Lockwood's werewolf curse."
The ghost of a smile lingered on Katherine's lips. "Witches and their spells: so many ingredients, so many people to sacrifice."
"So, you need a werewolf?" She asked.
"Believe it or not, they're hard to come by."
"What else?"
"A witch to do the spell," Katherine said as if it was obvious; as if they should have known. "Mine bailed but Bonnie will do just fine."
"What else?"
"A vampire."
They breathed out, "Caroline."
Katherine nodded. "It could have been anyone I suppose, but I like the poetry of Caroline."
Elena jumped up. "You were gonna just hand us all over to be killed?"
"Better you die than I."
Katherine's plans never left anyone out, but there was someone missing from her plan. Someone who was sitting right in front of her. So, from her place on the ground, Abigail asked, "And what about me?"
"Oh, that's the best part." Katherine smirked, pausing for long enough to make her uncomfortable. "You'll be left all alone, driven mad by losing the people you've known all your life. You'd never be able to handle it. Not even with your secret little boyfriend's help."
The pit in her stomach deepened. "You're sick."
Katherine stood up, gave her a sideways smile, and disappeared into the tomb.
Abigail had to pull herself from the floor. Her feet were heavy, her mind was clouded, and her own emotions had settled in a place where she was convinced that the rest of Katherine's plan would be carried out. Convinced that, one day, Katherine would be right.
Stefan appeared at the base of the stairs.
"What are you doing here?" Abigail asked.
He shook his head at her. "I could ask you the same question."
Elena sighed. "Caroline told you."
"No, she kept your secret," he noted. "But it didn't take long for me to figure out what was so important that you'd have to keep it from me."
"I knew that you'd stop me," she argued.
"Listen to me, whatever she said to you is a lie." His eyes grew wide in a mixture of anger and disbelief. "Do not listen to her. She's a liar."
"What if she isn't?" Abigail snapped. "You didn't hear what she said."
"You don't have to worry," he promised. "I'm not gonna let anything happen."
"That's the problem," Elena jumped back in. "You won't but you'll die trying. How's that any better?"
"There's nothing you can do, Stefan. I haven't even told you the best part of the story," Katherine said from the tomb. "He killed them, my entire family, just to get back at me for running. Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance on your friends, your family, and anyone that you've ever loved."
Stefan looked down at Elena. "No, do not listen to her, okay?"
"Always the protector... But even you must realize that she's doomed. There's nothing you can do to stop it." She held up the moonstone. "Unless of course you have this."
"Oh, no, there it is." He walked toward her. "It's the ultimate lie, isn't it? You spun this whole thing so that we would have to get the stone from you, didn't you?"
"I didn't spin anything, Stefan. It's the truth."
"No, let me guess." He pointed at her, not the stone. "You want to trade that stone for your freedom, you manipulative, psychotic bitch."
"My freedom? That's where you're wrong, Stefan." She scoffed. "I don't want my freedom because when Klaus shows up to kill us all, and he will, I'll be in the tomb, where no vampire will enter because they can't get out. I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town."
With one final look to Elena, she slowly walked backwards into the tomb.
Tears ran down Elena's face in Abigail's bedroom. She was shaking, holding onto her with what little strength she had left. Every breath she took was shallow and forced away by the words she attempted to speak.
"It's because of me, everything is because of me. Caroline, Tyler, Bonnie. They're in danger because of me," Elena sobbed. "You're in danger because of me."
"Elena, breathe. You have to breathe." Abigail pulled her all the way into her arms. She let herself cry although she knew she had to keep it together. She let herself cry. "Breathe."
"I-I-"
"It's okay, it's okay." She stroked her hair, using the gentle action to keep her in her arms. "We're all going to be okay."
She didn't know how she was going to make it okay, that much she could admit to herself. She wouldn't say it aloud; she couldn't. That was what she had learned, the truth was the truth. It would be if she said it or not.
"Katherine knows about us."
Alaric closed the loft door behind Abigail. He didn't say anything, not at first. She didn't expect him to, but she expected him to look at her. He did not.
"I... She's been watching us for who knows how long. We knew she knew-" He faced her. "Who else knows? Besides Damon."
"No one." Her eyes searched his, looking for something that she couldn't find. "I haven't told anyone-"
"That's not what I meant-" He cut himself off as fast as he had cut her off. "I know, Abigail, I didn't mean-"
She crossed over to him, her lips meeting his first. He did not resist the kiss, he melted into it. Every part of him, as if the words he had prepared weren't enough.
She chose words before a breath, the only ones that could be said, "I know."
He pulled her in, his breath hot on her face and their fear shared. "We have to be careful, Abigail."
"I know," she repeated. "We have to be careful. We have to be careful with more than just us, we have to be careful with everything. Because if Katherine is right, we have everything to lose. Everything."
The tightness in her throat returned, rendering her speechless. Her sobs echoed through the loft, sending her body heaving into his. She held him tightly, the way she buried her head in his chest the only way to muffle the sounds of her tears as they subsided.
With his right hand, he tucked the hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear. His fingers lingered in her hair; his thumb caressing her cheek. He used the thumb and index finger of his left hand to lift her chin, bringing her lips to his.
"It's okay. Hey, hey. It's going to be okay. I will keep you safe." Her fears were eased with his words, which once spoken were true. "I love you."
"I love you."
That was all she needed to hear, and all she needed to say. She didn't know that, not until he said it. It was new; the feeling of being loved, the feeling of loving someone in return. But it was the feeling she was missing.