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I wake to a fluttery sensation pulling through my wavy hair.
My head nuzzles into the foreign touch, my scalp comes into contact with what I recognize to be a warm hand.
My eyelids flutter open as I roll onto my side.
"You've got great hair." I hear a familiar voice say.
My eyes fly open, taking in the appearance of Katherine, who's sitting on my bed in the Salvatore guest bedroom.
"Katherine?" I croak out in my morning voice.
"Did you know that you mumble in your sleep?" She chuckles.
"What'd I say?" I ask warily.
"Nothing I could make out, it's cute really."
"Why are you here?" I question, suspicious.
"Because I've never spoken to you one-on-one before, and I'm bored."
"Okay...uh what did you want to talk about?" I ask, trying not be rude.
"Why are you friends with literally anyone here?" She asks without missing a beat.
"What do you mean?" I ask, confused.
"Well, Elena treats you like shit, and everyone else just watches it happen. Tell me, has anyone in your friend group ever stood up for you?"
I remain silent.
"Exactly. Not to mention Damon and Alaric killed the one person who did defend you."
"Are you trying to be mean, or actually talk to me?" I rub my temples, saddened at the mention of Elijah.
"I'm just telling the truth." She smirks.
"Okay, well can you pick a new topic of conversation?" I ask tiredly.
"You know, if you wanted, I could turn you. Then your dad wouldn't be able to hurt you anymore." She says in a slightly cocky tone, as if showing me that she knew my secret.
"How do you know about that?" I question in a broken whisper.
"Stefan spilled. I bugged him for information. I don't like not having leverage on people, now I do." She replies with a condescending smile.
I shake my head as tears cloud my vision.
I blink them back and walk briskly out of the room.
She follows behind me on the stairs as we come up to the Salvatore brothers. I reach Damon and grab onto his arm.
Physical touch has always made it easier to keep my emotions together.
"Can you please keep her out of my room?" I ask him quietly.
He looks surprised for a second as he looks at Katherine, who's followed shortly behind me.
"What'd you do?" He questions Katherine sharply.
"I just told her she had nice hair...I may have mentioned I knew a little secret of hers." She replies nonchalantly.
Stefan's eyes seem to widen as he looks at me with guilt. I look at the floor, squeezing Damon's arm a little tighter.
"What's she talking about? What'd you say?" Damon asks Stefan harshly, noticing his expression.
"I'm so sorry Ivy." Stefan apologizes.
"It's fine." I try to reassure him, but my voice betrays me as it wavers.
"Would somebody tell me what's going on?" Damon says, impatiently.
"Oh nothing, Stefan just may have told me about the sad little home situation Ivy's got going on." Katherine's smirks.
"Are you kidding me Stefan!?" Damon yells.
"I didn't mean to! She was bugging me for an hour straight. I was trying to get her to back off and it slipped out." Stefan tries to explain.
Damon tries to take a menacing step forward, but I hold his arm tightly in my grip.
He spins back to face me.
"Baby, I'm sorry." Damon says sincerely.
"It okay. I'm really fine." I convince him.
"What were you guys talking about before I got here?" I attempt to shift the focus off of me.
"Isobel just showed up at the Gilbert's front doorstep." Stefan explains.
"What's she doing here?" I ask.
"I don't know. That's what I'm gonna go find out." Stefan replies.
"I don't think that you should tell her that I'm here." Katherine chimes in.
"What? Why?" Stefan asks.
"It's better if she and John not know that I stayed in town after I got out of the tomb." She says.
"You're the one in cahoots with them. You made a deal with John that almost got me killed." Damon shoots back.
"I did what I had to get out of the tomb. Now I'm reconsidering my alliance." Katherine states.
"What do you know?" Stefan questions.
"I know that I want Klaus dead, which puts me squarely on team you. Besides, if you two ever need me to swap places with Elena again, the less people know that I'm here, the better. Think about it, Stefan. Come on. Be smart." Katherine says.
"Tell you what. Why don't you, uh...Call Alaric and let him know that his wife just showed up on his girlfriend's doorstep." Stefan replies in a snarky tone.
He then leaves, causing the three remaining people in the room to look at each other.
————
Damon had invited me to go with him, Bonnie, and Jeremy, to go check out dr. Martin's apartment.
We walk up to the door and Damon pauses.
He slowly attempts to put his foot over the threshold.
"Yep, everybody's dead." He states, as he steps inside without invitation.
I follow behind him closely.
"We should pack up the grimoires. They spent years collecting them. I wanna make sure they're safe." Bonnie says.
I nod my head in agreement.
Damon stares down at the burnt corpse that is Luka.
"You know, we could just get another match and cremate him." Damon suggests.
"Damon! That's not funny." I say seriously, hitting his arm.
"Don't be disrespectful. Not to him." Bonnie speaks.
"Fine. I'll bury him." Damon replies to both of us.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Jeremy questions.
"According to Luka's dad, one of these contains a spell that'll let me harness the energy that's left behind when a witch dies violently." Bonnie explains.
"I didn't know you and father witch were that close." Damon says.
"We weren't but when he gave me my powers back, he gave me a message. If I can find the spot in town where the old Salem witches were burned, I can harness the energy to use when i need it." Bonnie explains further.
"Great. We'll have to put that on our list of things to do today. Harness ancient dead-witch power." Damon says sarcastically.
"You know where the witches were burned?" Bonnie questions.
"Did I forget to mention that?"
"Mhmm." I hum, and he looks at me with an innocent smile. I giggle at him, which causes his face to light up.
I look at Jeremy, who's flipping through one of the spell books.
"Are we gonna have to read through every one of these books till we find the right spell?"
"Not exactly." Bonnie says.
She looks at the shelf, closes her eyes and raises her hands. All of the books fall and one of them opens right in front of her.
"It's this one." She states, and I smile at her powers.
"Great. Grab the rest. Let's go." Damon says.
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After our little field trip, I decided to just head home.
And by home I meant my actual house, not the Salvatore mansion.
A bit later into the night, I got a call informing me that not only had Isobel, Elena's mother died, but Bonnie had harnessed the power of the massacred witches.
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Uhhh...hehe, so I got a POUNDING headache in a the middle of writing this chapter, so I had to cut it short. But the next update will be a full length chapter :)