•Mystic Falls, Present Day•
They had just arrived at the bar that Elena and Katherine described in their dreams about Stefan, however, upon arrival, both Juliana and Katherine were passed out in the back of the car. This resulted in Elena and Damon to quietly exit the car, making sure not to slam their car doors to prevent waking the two sleeping.
Once out of the car, Elena looked back at the two sleeping. Katherine was leaning against the window, while Juliana was still resting against her shoulder. "Are we really just gonna leave them in the car?" Elena asked Damon. "Knowing Juliana, she won't be very happy about it." She continued.
"The only time Katherine shuts up is when she's sleeping, and we won't have to worry about Juliana wanting to rip out our hearts if she's right by Katherine's side. Plus, I wanted continue our peace and quiet." Damon answered.
The two continued to have small conversation about the whole situation, like the fact the bar looked exactly what it looked like in Elena's dream, before entering the bar. There, they saw a blonde woman with bandage on her neck working at the bar, cleaning some glasses.
"Can I get you something?" The bartender asked.
Damon was the first to response as they approached the bar. "Yeah, sure." He leaned into the counter, to be closer to the bartender to compel her. "Why don't you tell me what happened to your neck, Jo?"
"Some sicko attacked me, bit me, told me to run, so I did, and when I looked back, he was on fire." Jo replied.
Elena also leaned in, "The sun must of come up. He doesn't have his daylight ring." She whispered to Damon.
"And then what happened?"
"Some woman shoved him into a truck, drove away."
"Did you know this woman?" Damon continued to question.
Jo slightly shook her head, "No. She was driving Cam Peterson's truck. He lives about 10 miles down that dirt road out back." She obediently answered and grabbed the closest shot glass and liquor, and began filling up the glass. "Here. Looks like you could use one of these."
Meanwhile, Katherine was beginning to wake up due to the fact she was starting to get hot in the backseat of the car, only to realize that Damon and Elena were gone and that it was only her and Juliana. Katherine looked through the windshield and realized it was the bar from her dreams about Stefan. Suddenly, she became extremely pissed off that they didn't think about waking her and Juliana so they could join them. She immediately had the desire to storm into that bar and bitch out Damon and Elena for leaving them in the car and not allowing them to join them in their search for Stefan.
But then she glanced down and saw that Juliana was still fast asleep on her shoulder. As much as she wanted to awake Juliana up, Katherine decided against it. She knew how much Juliana needed this, especially since she could tell that Juliana really hadn't gotten any sleep since they've seen each other. In someways, Katherine wished she had just listened to Juliana and not have tried to kill Elena. Then she wouldn't be in this position of needing to be protected, she wouldn't be human. She would just be Katherine Pierce, the baddest vampire bitch that has ever existed.
But somewhere deep inside her, she was enjoying this attention from Juliana. She liked that Juliana was constantly worried about her and her well-being, and the fact that she was willing give up her life just to protect Katherine. She loved being the center of attention, especially when it came from Juliana. It was almost as if they were going back to the way things used it be, before they arrived in Mystic Falls all those years ago. Before Katherine put Juliana in the tomb and ultimately ruined their friendship. That would forever be Katherine's biggest regret.
Once deciding it was best just to let Juliana continue sleeping in the car, Katherine manage to maneuver her way out of car without waking Juliana in the process. Then went towards the bars entrance, not before taking a glance back at Juliana in the backseat, and then entered the bar.
Only to realized she entered at the wrong time.
In front of her, Damon and Elena's backs were to her and in front of them was the bartender from her dream and behind her, was a woman Katherine had never seen before and she was holding a gun towards Elena and Damon. If Katherine was still human, her first instinct would have been to use her speed and grab the gun from her hands and snapped her neck. But now as a human, she didn't know what else to do besides put her hands up.
The woman with the gun was quick to move the gun towards Katherine, "Which one of you is Katherine Pierce?"
Katherine was quick to response to the question by pointing towards Elena, "She is." Which of course resulted in Elena to mentally roll her eyes.
The woman stared at the two doppelgängers. "Katherine is a compulsive liar," She started then moved the pointed the gun toward Elena. "But I need her alive."
In a flash, Elena darted towards the woman, making sure to hit the gun out of her hand, and proceeded to pin the woman down on the bar counter. Then she turned towards Katherine, "Katherine, run!" Which Katherine responded by running out of the bar.
~
"Juliana!" I heard Katherine scream, waking me from my deep slumber. My eyes quickly shot open and I noticed that I was in the car all by myself. But rather than be angry and outraged about the whole situation, I remember what woke me up in the first place and instantly got out of the car and raced towards the sounds of Katherine's screams which were coming from the forest.
Once I reached her, I found her attempting to kneeling behind a log, which resulted in me rolling my eyes at her performance to protect herself. Lucky for her, I found her first before anyone else did.
Rather than announcing myself, I decided to startle her a little bit, by quietly creeping up behind her. "You should have woken me." I stated in a cold manner.
Katherine jumped at my voice and turned around. She stood up and gave me slight nod. "I know, but you just looked so tired and I didn't think anything would happen."
I sighed, knowing she was telling the truth. Then I saw her pull her arms up her sleeveless shirt, trying to keep warm, and realized that although she dressed to pleased, she forgot the fact she was human now and the elements now effected her. I quickly pulled off my jacket and held it out to her. "Next time, wake me up."
Katherine took a step towards me to grab the jacket from my hands and began to put the jacket on. When she was doing so, I heard someone coming our way and right when they were about to stop, I grabbed them by the neck and pinned them to the tree. Just to realize, it was only Elena.
I groaned in frustration, but in the process tighten my grip on her neck and she covered my hand with hers to stop me."I told you and your boyfriend that if anything happens to Katherine-" I asked.
"Juliana, Elena actually protected me. It is some other woman after me. Let Elena go." Katherine interrupted. I glanced back at Katherine then at Elena again, then let go. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you Elena."
Elena glared at me before turning towards Katherine, "Let's go before she comes back." She said as she began walking back towards the car.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Katherine called out, stopping Elena in her tracks and making me look at her in confusion.
Elena turned back, "If Silas wants you, that means you're leverage." My eyes rose in confusion again, that was clearly not what Katherine was talking about and Elena knew that.
"No. I mean, after you shoved the cure down my throat. I was trying to kill you. Why didn't you finish me off?" Katherine questioned.
Elena looked at me then at her doppelgänger, clearly frustrated. "You think that because we share the same dreams and both care about Stefan that we're alike, but we're not. I value my humanity," Once again, I was confused because I was told by Katherine that Elena turned off her humanity, killed high school cheerleaders and so forth, so that statement is clearly false. "Which is why I let you live, to give you a chance to find whatever shred of humanity's buried underneath 500 years of bad behavior."
Finally, I decided to speak up, "To what extent is bad behavior? Finding ways to protect yourself is considered bad behavior? She wanted to live, and the only way to do so was the wrong people, is that truly wrong to do so?" I questioned.
Elena looked at me, trying to think of something to say to me but Katherine interrupted her thoughts. "Or maybe you thought that being human was punishment worse than death for me."
Clearly all of my questions were forgotten and Elena only replied to Katherine. "Naw. that was just a happy accident." I rolled my eyes.
Katherine gave a smug smile, "Well, thank you." My eyes widen in complete bewilderment. Was Katherine truly going softer as a human? To get Katherine to thank you was something beyond for me. It was only something that came once in while, and for us vampires, a while was a very long time. "I'm glad to know that you care, even if you are a condescending bitch." Now that's more Katherine.
Then a woman, who I have never seen in my life time, showed up behind Elena and snapped her neck in a flash. Katherine took a step back, shocked at what just happened in front of her, while I sped in front of her and the woman as I felt my fangs enlarge and my eyes turned into blood red.
"You really don't want to piss me off." I mumbled to the woman.
She smirked, "No, you really don't want to piss me off, sweetheart." I growled and quickly lunched myself at her. But she was quick to react and grabbed me mid air and threw me into a tree. I groaned at the impact, but quickly got back up and went after her, ready to punch her, but she was able to grab my fist before it could touch her. She then proceeded to twist my arm in a direction my arm wasn't suppose to go in, causing it to break in various places, resulting in me crying out in pain and brought me to my knees.
It was then I realized that this woman was much older than me. She was so much stronger and faster, I really didn't have a chance against this woman. It was almost as if I was fight Katherine all over again, but Katherine was much more skilled at her kills.
While I was withering in pain, I barely had any time to react as the woman bent down and grabbed a branch that was on the floor and shoved it into my chest. I gasped loudly, as the tip of the wooden branch brushed up against my heart. Using my unbroken hand, I tried to keep the branch in it place, trying to prevent it from going any further. My eyes quickly darted to Katherine, mentally telling her I was sorry that I wasn't able to protect her the way she needed to be. But then, I saw a look that was beginning to become common with her recently. She was scared for me. Scared that she was about to watch me die at someone else's hands.
"Stop!" She screamed which caused the woman to stop shoving the branch any deeper and turn towards Katherine. "I'll go with you willing if you let her live."
"Katherine," I groaned. "Go."
The woman in front of me smirked, "Deal." Then she ripped the branch out of my chest and snapped my neck.
•New York City, New York, 1798•
After my sister was a no show on our 21st birthday, I wanted to get the hell out of New York, however, Katherine wished to stay a little longer. She wanted to have some fun, just the two of us, in such a large city. A city, where people went missing all the time and died all the time. The city where she let me run wild. It was no longer the snatch, feed, erase mentality anymore. It was just kill every time I feed, and I enjoyed it.
The feeling of taking a life was like no other. I was finally in more control than I have ever had in my life time and I enjoyed it last second when the heart stopped beating. But deep down, I knew what I was doing was wrong, but the amount of pleasure I got from each kill helped me over look the guilt.
Our routine was very simple. Every other night, Katherine and I would go to tavern that was the busiest that night, find two desperate men (sometimes four depending on Katherine's hunger), take them out back, and kill them. Well, often it was only I who would end up killing them. Katherine would feed just enough to where they were barely alive and hand them over to me to finish the job. Not once in the past two months that we have been here have I seen her actually kill anyone. Just me.
At one point during our stay here, I did ask her about it; why it was always me and not her killing our victims. But her answers were always the same, she wanted me to get the full experience and she could tell that I was enjoying killing them and she didn't want to take that away from me. She said she enjoyed watching me kill them, and for some odd realize, that brought butterflies to my stomach hearing her say that. Maybe that's why I keeping killing them, because that was what she wanted.
And tonight was the night we went out to feed. However, this time, we decided to go to a new tavern, one that was not very crowded. Entering the tavern, especially late at night and with no male escorts, always resulted in us getting strange looks because the only women who were known to enter taverns late in the evening were prostitutes. But we never dress nor looked like them. And every time, Katherine smirked the attention and walk through the alehouse like she owned it while I was still working on my confidence.
As we were walking through the pub, I caught one man staring at me as I walked with Katherine to closest table. While Katherine waved down the tavern keeper to order beers, I glanced in his direction, noticing he was still looking at me with his brown eyes while he sipping his beer. I took a moment to observe him. He looked roughly my age, my actual age of twenty-one, and in some weird way, to me, he looked like a male copy of Katherine. He had his brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, with some fallen strains on the sides of his face. He had just shaved for there was slight cuts along his jawline. His clothes showed that he wasn't poor but he also wasn't rich. He was clearly middle class.
Just then, two beers were placed in front of me while Katherine paid the man. She picked up the mug and took a sip and glanced in the man's direction. "I see you spotted your dinner." I nodded and she smiled in return. "Good choice, he seems easy to enjoy tonight."
Katherine paused, glancing between him and me. "Tonight, you should enjoy yourself alone. You no longer need me." She then picked up her mug and lifted herself from the table. "For he is on his way over here." I quickly shot her a worried look, but she already left the table and went to some man who hadn't taken his eyes off her since she walked in.
Then another mug was placed in front of me and I looked up and saw it was the male Katherine look-alike. He pointed at the seat that Katherine was once in, "May I?" I nodded and brought my mug close to lips to take a sip, trying to gather myself as he sat down. "You must be new, I have never seen you here before."
I shook my head, "No, sir, my friend and I have been here for quite some time. We wanted a new tavern to venture tonight."
He took a gulp of his ale before glancing back towards Katherine who gave us a small wave, and looked back my way. Then he held out his hand, "Lewis."
I took his hand and shook it, "Julia."
While shaking my hand, he was quick to glance at my hand, looking for a wedding ring. Once he saw there was none, a small smile appeared on his face as he pulled his hand away. "I must ask, Julia, what is your reason for being out this late? Beside looking for a new tavern to explore." He asked.
I nodded towards Katherine, "My friend likes to go out. She enjoys rebelling against the social norm that only men are allowed to go to pubs late at night. I am only dragged along the way."
Lewis let out a small chuckle, "Then I must thank her. For else I would not have the opportunity to meet a fine woman."
I blushed at his remark and we continued talking for a while, and I was truly enjoying myself with him. Unlike most of the men I feed off of, they only sought after sex, but Lewis was different. He wanted to actually get to know me, but then my happiness was beginning to be cut short by my natural instincts. My hunger was beginning to rise a dangerous level and I could feel myself itching to sink my fangs into Lewis neck, even though I really didn't want hurt this man. But my hunger came above anything else.
In order to try and get the conversation outside so I could feed off of Lewis, I began fanning myself as if I was hot, even though I was not.
Lewis frowned at my actions. "Are you hot? Do you wish to go outside to cool off?" I nodded quickly and Lewis stood up from the table and held his hand out to me to take, which I happily took and got up from the table as well. "I know where the alley is if you wish to go out there. I grew up in this tavern and know much of the keeper."
I raised an eyebrow, "The alley? Do you wish to get me alone, Lewis?"
His face went white, "No, no, Julia! I did not mean that in any way. I promise to not hurt you."
I giggled, "I am only messing with you Lewis. Please, let's go there. I would feel much better there, than in the public eye."
Lewis quickly nodded as he lead me out of the pub and to the back alley. On the way out, I took a quick glance at Katherine which she smirked in return as she watched us exit the tavern. Lewis was a true gentleman for he held the door open for me as I exited the building. Once he was outside the building, he quickly scouted the area, making sure it was safe for us.
I gave him a confused look as he did so. For a human, he was very cautious of his surroundings as there was nothing around us except trash cans and a broken wooden chair. "Everything alright?" I asked, curious of what his answer would be.
He nodded, "Yes, I am sorry. I have just heard news of many recent killings. I wanted to make sure everything was alright for you and your safety." Lewis replied. "Do you feel better now?"
Suddenly, I felt my guilt rise. Lewis was a perfect man who didn't deserve this pain I was about to inflict on him. In someways he reminded me of my father, a person who was so caring and would risk himself for anything. He was one of the very few nicest person I have meet.
That was until he leaned up against the brick wall of the building and cut himself along his neck, and the guilt disappeared and my urges took over. He quickly let out a small groan and used his hand to cover the cut that was leaking blood upon his hand.
I put on a worry expression, hoping it would cover my true desire for his blood, "Are you alright?" I questioned as I took a step towards him and his blood, as the smell was increasing rapidly.
He gave me a slight nod, "Just cut myself on the bricks, nothing too serious."
I felt my eyes beginning to change color, but I don't think Lewis could the change happening in the darkness. "Let me have a look."
Lewis smiled and pulled his bloody hand away, and that's when my vampire side took over and lunged towards his neck, bitting deep into his cut and let the blood flow into my mouth. Lewis was about to let out a scream, but I quickly covered his mouth with my hand which resulted in him trying to fight me off but I pinned him against the brick wall.
Until I was thrown off of him and my back collided with a brick wall that was across from the tavern, making me growl at who intervened during my feed. I quickly got back up and looked at the person who disturbed my dinner only to see it was a red head woman, who was already giving Lewis her blood and compelling him to forget tonight. I swiftly made my way to the woman, burning with anger as Lewis walked away and probably home.
"What is wrong with you!" I screamed. "He was my dinner!"
The woman turned towards me, "You, are a stupid little girl." She snapped. "You are the reason why New York is on high alert because of your stupidity and ignorance."
I chuckled, "Or someone is just upset they are unable to seduce anybody to feed on. Now, how about you go chase down my dinner for me, little girl."
The redhead vampire scuffed. "Clearly, whoever turned you, did not care for you and you are a careless vampire who has not learn a thing about control." She paused and glanced around the alley, then back at me. "And a vampire who has no control, is a problem, especially in my city" Within seconds, she broke the leg off the wooden chair and came racing towards me.
She caught me off guard, and before I had a chance to react, the makeshift stake was already in my chest. I gasped loudly, grabbed the stake with one hand and tried to shove the woman off of me, but she grabbed my hand and snapped it like a twig. I cried out in pain and tried everything to get the woman to stop. I didn't want to die. I had just survived death not to long ago and I wasn't ready to face it again. I wanted to live. I need to live.
Then I heard a loud gasp, and I snapped towards the woman, only to notice there was now a hole in the woman's chest and her skin was starting to turn into a grey color. Then someone kicked her over and there Katherine was, holding the woman's heart and her arm was bloody.
She dropped the heart, and I watched it bounce on the floor, making an awful sound. Then Katherine took a step towards me and pulled the stake out of my chest. I whimpered as it was yanked out, but sighed in relief once it was out and felt myself beginning to heal. But then Katherine held the stake in my face, pointed at my heart.
"Let it be known, the only person who would be killing you, will be me. Understand?" I quickly nodded, knowing deep down that her words were completely true. She gave me a slight nod and threw the stake towards the woman's body. "Good, and I think the woman was right. We have been here too long. I think it's time to go back home."
___________________________________________
SORRY, this took a little longer than I wanted to get out, but we moved and we all know how stressful that is, and I'm sorry that this is a little shorter than usual, but I wanted to get something out for you guys.
anyways!!
vote and comment!
stay safe everyone!
OHHHH and
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! 🏳️🌈