It took Riley several minutes to realize that someone was splashing water on her face. She opened her eyes slowly, then spluttered and sat up, wiping her face with her hands.
"About time," a female voice muttered.
Riley groaned. "I hate to say this, but I'm really glad that it's you here and not Stefan."
Katherine smirked. "I know. I've been keeping tabs on your little town. With Stefan off the rails, it almost feels like 1920 again."
"What do you want?" Riley asked, looking around. "And where are we?"
"Chicago," Katherine answered, ignoring Riley's shriek of outrage. "Stefan's hanging out with Original brother number two, and sooner or later he's gonna end up dead."
Riley frowned in confusion. "That doesn't explain why I, neither his brother nor his girlfriend, am here. In case you're not aware, he's bitten me twice."
Katherine rolled her eyes, before smirking at the teenager. "You're not here for Stefan. You're the distraction."
Riley raised her eyebrows. "You want me to distract Klaus?"
Katherine stood up. "You ask too many questions. Let's go." She strutted off in her heels as if she were modelling on a catwalk, knowing that Riley would follow her. What else could she do?
Riley walked with her eyes on every passing attraction, taking in the city that she'd never been to before – wondering if she'd ever be able to come back.
Katherine led her into a bar, the name of which she didn't catch. When they entered the bar, they saw Stefan lying on a table while a woman rubbed some red dust onto her hands and then onto his chest. He screamed.
The room was dark, only being lit by a circle of candles surrounding the table that Stefan was being tortured on.
"She's the doppelganger," the older woman said to him. "She's supposed to be dead, and that's why Klaus can't make hybrids, isn't it?"
At that moment, the woman looked up and spotted them, taking in Katherine.
"You're the doppelganger," she said in shock, spotting the same girl that she had just seen inside Stefan's head.
Katherine laughed, before her face took on a slight snarl. "I'm the original. And you're Klaus's creepy witch friend."
"Katherine Pierce," the woman nodded, remembering the name. "What are you doing here?"
"I just thought I'd introduce you to a friend of Stefan's," Katherine said, moving out of the way so that the woman could see Riley properly. "This is Riley, your great-granddaughter."
"What!?" Riley asked, coming forward to see the woman properly. "Gloria?"
Gloria looked at the girl in front of her and, immediately, memories came rushing back. This girl was the spitting image of her mother, Ciara, when she was a teenager. She'd spent years using spells and herbs to slow down the aging process, making out to her family that she had died many years before. Knowing that she couldn't be in their lives was hard, but she'd managed to deal with it. That is, until her actual flesh and blood was stood in front of her.
Gloria walked forward slowly and pulled the confused girl into a hug. "It's so good to meet you."
"I thought you were dead?" Riley asked in disbelief. "Mom told me-"
"It's a long story," Gloria cut her off. "But it doesn't matter now, because you're here."
They hugged again, before Riley remembered that Stefan was still lying on the table. She thought about asking Gloria to let him go, but first she wanted to understand what she was doing in the first place.
"Gloria-" before she could finish the question, Katherine stabbed the old woman through the neck with a stake. "No!" Riley screamed, as her great-grandmother immediately stopped moving and her body fell.
Riley sank to the ground with her, while Katherine untied Stefan from the table. Once untied, he walked over to Riley, sympathy written on his face.
"I'm sorry."
"What for?" Riley whimpered. "For biting me the first time? Biting me the second time? Leaving Mystic Falls with the guy who tried to kill your girlfriend? Or for your crazy ex-girlfriend murdering my great-grandmother?"
Stefan sighed. "All of it."
"Well, you can make it up to me by coming home."
Stefan immediately shook his head. "I can't do that."
Riley frowned. "Because you knew Klaus? Back in the '20s?" Stefan glanced at her in confusion. "The picture, remember? He was in it too."
Katherine looked at Stefan with a sense of admiration. "You have a diabolical plan." When he didn't answer, she smiled. "What is it?"
"You know what's funny? You keep talking to me like I actually trust you enough to tell you anything," Stefan said.
"Oh come on Stefan, we're beyond that," Katherine rolled her eyes. "I just saved you from Hilda the high voodoo priestess."
"You brought me to Chicago so that I could watch you slaughter my great-grandmother in cold blood, I wouldn't be talking right now if I were you," Riley reminded her, taking another look at the old woman's body. It was strange to mourn someone who had never actually been in your life.
"I killed her because she was torturing Stefan. Like I said before, I only brought you here as a distraction. Let it go."
Stefan sighed, talking over them. "When I knew Klaus in the 20s, I also knew his sister. They were running from someone – someone who scared them."
"They're Original vampires," Riley remembered. "Who could scare them?"
There was a moment of silence as Stefan waited for them to figure it out.
"A hunter," Katherine said eventually, realization dawning in her face. "I heard stories about him centuries ago."
"Don't you want to know why an Original vampire who can't be killed is afraid of a vampire hunter?"
Katherine took a breath. "If you're planning a move against Klaus... I want in."
"That's good. It's good to want things Katherine," Stefan rebutted sarcastically, making Riley laugh. Katherine gave her an angry look before turning back to Stefan, about to plead her case. "If you're looking for a diabolical partner in crime, I suggest you look elsewhere," he said dismissively before she could continue. "And please take Riley home before Klaus sees her. It's not like they haven't met before."
"Wait," Riley said, thinking about what Gloria had said when they first entered. "If Klaus can't make hybrids, what if he decides to go back to Mystic Falls anyway? I mean, that is where he did the ritual."
"Right now he's more concerned about the necklace," he informed her. When Stefan had first come to town, he'd given Elena a necklace filled with vervain. "It used to belong to Klaus's sister, who took it from the 'Original witch'."
"So they're looking for Elena's necklace," Riley asked. "Which is in Mystic Falls? Around the neck of the girl that Klaus thinks he killed?" When Stefan looked sheepish, she groaned. "Do you know how badly this is gonna end?"
"Not if we can find the hunter," Katherine smiled. Both pairs of eyes turned to look at her. "Come on Riley, we need to go back to Mystic Falls."
***
"It's because I brought him back to life," Bonnie said, handing over the necklace. She thought she was speaking to Elena, when in actual fact Katherine had done what she did best, taken her doppelganger's place. "The witches said there would be consequences, guess they were right."
Bonnie turned away for a second. When she turned back, Elena was gone. Riley walked up to the table and sat down in her place.
"I thought you might want some company."
Bonnie looked around. "Did you see Elena just now?"
"No," Riley shook her head. "Why?"
"Because either I'm going crazy, or Katherine Pierce is back and I just gave her Elena's necklace."
Riley faked a frown. "I don't know. Either way, at least the necklace isn't your problem anymore."
Bonnie nodded. "Hey, where were you, anyway? You've been AWOL for the last two days."
"I was in Chicago."
Bonnie's eyes widened. "Why? What's in Chicago?"
"Two creepy siblings, a dead great-grandmother and a vampire with a diabolical master plan," she said. Bonnie looked at her in complete shock. "It's been a crazy 48 hours."
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So Riley finally met Gloria, and Katherine has Elena's necklace. But is that enough to keep Klaus out of Mystic Falls?
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