"Hey," Stefan greeted, as Riley let herself and Caroline into the Salvatore house. "Are you sure you wanna be here?"
Riley shrugged, looking around. Unlike the dorm rooms, being there didn't remind her of Aaron. And while she was here, she didn't have parents breathing down her neck. "This place is a second home. I'm not letting Damon take that away from me."
"Plus," Caroline added, handing Stefan the collection of papers that were in her hand. "We have news. Our parents have been tracking Damon and we found missing person cases and animal attacks. But that's not all – the victims were found inside their homes without their heads... and their skin was desiccated."
Stefan looked at Caroline in disbelief, speechless.
"He's feeding on vampires," Riley clarified, her tone detached. She couldn't allow herself to see Damon as her best friend, not anymore. "In case that wasn't clear."
Stefan sighed, looking through the information that Caroline had given him. "I shouldn't have let him go."
"No! You are not turning Damon's roosting chickens into a Stefan Salvatore guilt trip," Caroline insisted.
Riley nodded. "What were you gonna do? Tackle him to the ground and force him to come back here? All with Enzo looking over your shoulder? There was nothing you could have done. Plus, the 'vampires feeding on vampires' thing screams 'Augustine experiments'."
"Yeah," Stefan agreed. "I have to find him."
Sharp footsteps announced someone's entrance into the room before they showed their face. "Well, I can come with you."
"Elena, hey," Caroline said, giving her friend a confused look. "I didn't know you were here."
Before Elena could respond, Caroline's phone rang.
"That would be great," Stefan addressed Elena, who beamed with happiness for some reason. "Riley, will you come? Damon should know that you haven't given up on him."
The smile on Elena's face immediately dropped. Although she tried to recover, Riley couldn't help but notice her disappointed expression.
"I have given up on him," she admitted. "After what he did to Aaron, he's a completely different person to me now," she said, frowning as she fought off the memories of her deceased boyfriend. "If you bring him home, you're doing it for you, not me."
At that point, Caroline ended her call. "Apparently Nadia's been compelling Matt to forget things. I'm gonna meet up with Tyler and find out what's going on."
"Even though he almost killed you when he found out about you and Klaus?" Stefan reminded her.
"He what?!" Riley shouted.
"Stefan's exaggerating," Caroline said quickly, trying not to remember how angry Tyler had been. "Tyler and I need to move into the next phase of our post-break-up, pre-friendship relationship timeline."
"I'm gonna stay out of that one," Elena said, looking like she was about to roll her eyes. Again, she beamed at Stefan. "I'm going to get some clothes and you'll pick me up at my dorm?"
"Sure," Stefan said, watching her as she left.
When the door shut behind her, both Caroline and Riley made a face at Stefan.
"What?"
The girls looked at each other.
"Are you and Elena getting back together?" Riley asked, point blank. The confusion in Stefan's face gave her the answer without him having to say anything.
"It looks suspicious," Caroline agreed. "She just broke up with Damon, and here she is, hanging out with her ex, 'studying'..."
"What are you implying?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"We're just looking out for you," Riley reminded him. "Being with Elena has its consequences, and I don't think anyone wants you to go back there... plus Damon will kill you. But like, literally kill you. Like 'rip your heart out' kill you."
"I'm not going back anywhere," Stefan confirmed. "I'm about to spend 12 hours alone in a car with her, so whatever she's feeling, I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out."
He ignored their unconvinced looks. Surely Elena wasn't trying to repeat the past, right?
***
With Stefan and Elena gone, and Caroline helping Tyler with Matt, Riley found herself without distraction. And when you were trying not to mourn the recently deceased, boredom is the biggest trap to fall into. When she had nothing else to do, she couldn't stop thinking about him, wondering where they would be right now if Damon and Enzo hadn't found them. She imagined that they'd be in a luxurious location, with sun, sea and sand before them.
She didn't think Damon's nickname flashing on her screen would be the thing to pull her out of the daydream.
"Are you seriously calling me right now?" she asked angrily, pressing the phone tightly against her ear.
"Sorry to bother you, darling," a British accented voice said. "We seem to be in a spot of trouble."
"Enzo," she acknowledged. "You seem to think that I care. Weird."
"There's no time for beating around the bush," Enzo pushed on. "Damon's been infected by Wes, which means that it's only a matter of time before he rips my head off. And since Wes and his band of witches have us trapped, I was hoping that you could use your Augustine connections to get us out of here."
Riley accidentally bit her tongue while trying to come up with an angry enough response to remind him exactly why she wouldn't help them.
"You and Damon got yourselves into this mess, you can get yourselves out," she said, fighting to keep her voice even. "What makes you think I'd want to help you?"
Enzo chuckled. "You can keep pretending if you want to, love, but we both know that you still care about what happens to Damon."
Riley rolled her eyes. "There was a point when I cared about Damon more than anyone else. Then he killed my boyfriend. And everything changed."
"You seriously thought you were gonna grow old with Aaron Whitmore?" Enzo questioned. She could practically hear the smirk in his voice. "I'm pretty sure Damon did you a favor in the long run."
Riley closed her eyes, trying not to let anger get the best of her. After all, Enzo was definitely terrified out of his mind. Damon was probably hours away from killing him. Just like he'd killed Aaron...
Suddenly, everything fell into place.
"Text me the address," she said suddenly, hanging up. Of course she wouldn't help them. But if Damon was going to kill Enzo, she wanted a front row seat.
***
It didn't take long for her to get to the address that Enzo had sent her. And it took even less time to find the correct house – the one with tens of people chanting outside of it. She parked and walked over, instantly catching Wes's attention.
"Riley," he said in surprise. "You're trying to save Damon?"
Riley shook her head. "Damon killed Aaron while I watched, so now I want to watch him kill his best friend."
Wes looked up at the house, and then reluctantly shook his head. "I can't let you go in there, your mom would kill me."
It surprised her every time she remembered that her mother was so familiar with Augustine.
"He's feeding on vampires," she reminded Wes. "That means he's not a threat. And as much as I hate him right now, I know for a fact that Damon won't physically hurt me. He had the chance when he killed Aaron and he didn't take it."
Wes thought about it, trying to make sense of her mindset. Eventually he let her through, convinced that if anyone was going to agree with his plan, it was her. After all, Augustine was in her blood.
She walked through the door, to see Damon chained to a chair, while Enzo stood precariously by the window.
"You came," Enzo greeted her.
"I came," she agreed. "If Damon's gonna kill you, like you deserve, then I want to be here."
Without warning, there was a gunshot sound, and blood appeared on Enzo's shoulder. Riley jumped.
"If you were aiming for my heart, you missed," he shouted to Wes, who looked satisfied.
"Don't worry, I wasn't," the doctor clarified. "The chains were a good idea. Now I can see exactly how strong he becomes when enraged."
As if on cue, Damon easily ripped himself out of the chains holding him and made a beeline for Enzo. Instinctively, Enzo threw him against the wall, but he got up just as quickly as he'd gone down, going for Enzo again. This time, he managed to sink his teeth into his friend's neck.
"Damon, stop!" Enzo screamed. His words took Riley back to that night, when she had made exactly the same request. When she'd begged him to stop killing Aaron. And he'd ignored her. "Please, Damon, stop!"
She thought it would be more satisfying, watching Enzo's final moments. But for some reason, she couldn't see a monster. All she could see was a guy being killed by someone who still meant something to her. And if she stood by in silence, was she any better than them?
"Damon, stop!" she said firmly. For some reason, her voice got to him. He looked up at her, his mouth still filled with Enzo's blood. Then he started to choke, as a burning sound filled the room.
"What did you do to him?" Enzo accused Wes.
"My friends here raised the acidity in your blood," Wes confirmed. "I suggest you leave before the spell wears off."
Enzo looked back at Damon, who had fallen to the ground when the burning sensation got too much. "No."
"He just tried to kill you," Riley reminded him. "Not that it's my business, but shouldn't you want to get as far away as possible?"
"I don't leave my friends behind," Enzo said, still looking at Damon.
"Go Enzo," Damon said. "I tried to kill you, I'll do it again."
Riley sighed, raking her hands through her hair. "Look... I'll stay with him. If you want?"
"Still trying to pretend you don't care?" Enzo questioned, smug as ever.
"Just go," she rolled her eyes. After an initial hesitation, Enzo took her advice and left the house, shutting the door behind himself.
"You should leave," Damon said. His voice was still rough with the taste of Enzo's acidic blood.
Riley raised an eyebrow. "Now you care about me?"
Damon coughed weakly. "Just trying to help."
She glared at him for a moment, her head tilted to the side. "OK, I know that you still have your humanity. So what's going on? Because the normal you wouldn't have hurt me the way you did. How could you do that to me?!"
"It wasn't about you. Aaron was a Whitmore," he said by way of explanation.
She felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. "I don't care! I don't care if he was administering those experiments on you himself, you should have thought about me. You should have considered me before you did something like that. You shouldn't have done it at all, but you definitely shouldn't have done it in front of me!"
Damon looked up at her. "You weren't supposed to be there."
"That doesn't change anything."
"So you hate me now? Is that it? You just came here to watch me kill Enzo?" he asked.
Riley looked him in the eye. "I came here to watch you kill Enzo. But I stayed because, even though I hate you more than I've ever hated anyone, this is what a real friend does. And I was your freaking friend, Damon."
"So that's it?" he asked, noticing her use of the past tense. "I've lost you?"
Before she could answer, the door opened and Elena stood on the other side, not stepping over the barrier. They noticed her at the same time.
"You called her?" Damon asked Riley.
"I called Stefan," she clarified. "Because as hard as it is for me to believe, your brother thinks that you can be saved from yourself. He still sees something in you, and it would have been selfish of me to not tell him where you were."
At that moment, Stefan was also at the door.
Damon looked at them both. "If you come in here, you ain't coming out. I feed on vampires now, and you're both vampires. Do yourselves a favor and leave."
"That's not gonna happen," Stefan said, looking at the veins that were taking over Damon's face, signaling how thirsty he was. "I'm not scared of you, Damon."
Elena took a step into the house. "Neither am I."
Immediately Damon tried to push her out, but the invisible barrier, courtesy of the witches' spell, was still up, trapping her inside.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he asked angrily, still trying to get her out.
"I'm proving to you that you're not a lost cause, Damon," Elena said. Looking around, she picked a piece of glass off the floor and cut her hand with it. "You can resist this, because you love me. And that love is stronger than any craving."
Riley looked at Stefan with an eyebrow raised, and he sent a near-identical look back. What was Elena doing?
"Get away from me, Elena," Damon warned.
"You can do this," Elena pushed, forcing him to turn around and face her, holding up her bleeding hand. "There you go."
It all became too much for him. Damon attacked her, biting into her neck.
"Damon, stop!" Stefan urged, trying to pull his brother away from Elena. But Damon's need was too strong.
Riley watched in horror as Elena kicked a wooden stake towards Stefan.
"He's going to kill me," she said weakly.
Instead, Stefan picked up a piece of glass and used Elena's method. He cut himself, drawing Damon's attention away from Elena's neck.
"Feed on me," Stefan urged his brother. "Feed on me, not her."
When Damon tried to feed on him, he snapped his brother's neck, watching him as he fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Thanks for calling us," Stefan said, slightly breathless. However, Riley was barely listening to him. Instead, she was playing Elena's movements in her mind over and over again, trying to make sense of them, but she couldn't. It made no sense. Whether they were broken up or not, why was Elena acting like she didn't care if Damon lived or died?
***
"How did it go?" Caroline asked when they eventually got back home. "Seeing Damon again? Was it hard?"
Riley nodded. "Yeah. But the hardest thing was that, when I look at him, I don't see the guy that killed Aaron. I just see my friend. And... I miss him."
"That's understandable," Caroline said. "You and Damon have a long history. Which makes what he did even more awful."
"I know," Riley sighed. "I just... wish it was easier to cut him out of my life."
Their conversation dwindled as Stefan entered. He had been in the cellar, making sure that Damon was chained and couldn't break himself free.
"How was the road trip?" Caroline asked Stefan.
Stefan shrugged. "Elena's acting strange. She kissed me."
"Excuse me?" Caroline asked, her voice coming out squeaky, emphasizing her shock.
"I knew it!" Riley exclaimed, then she frowned. "Wait a minute. She kissed you, which means that she wants to get back together. Guys, I might be completely crazy, but I think she was trying to get Damon killed tonight."
"What?!" Caroline asked. "Why would she do that?"
"I don't know," Riley shrugged. "But I'm around vampires all the time and I never intentionally cut myself to get them to feed on me, especially when they might rip my head off my shoulders. She practically taunted Damon, forced him to drink from her, and then kicked a stake towards Stefan when things got rough."
"That's crazy," Caroline insisted. "Maybe she likes Stefan again, but she's still Elena. She'd never want Damon dead."
"Actually..." Stefan jumped in. "Damon said the same thing; he thinks she wanted me to kill him. It's like she's completely given up on him." He lost his train of thought for a second, before remembering the other reason that Caroline had joined them. "Did you find Matt?"
"Yep," the blonde vampire nodded. "Tyler was right, Nadia's been compelling him to forget things. He tried to message me, but she stopped him."
Caroline showed them her phone, where there was a message from Matt.
Matt: Help. K
"K..." Riley thought aloud. "'Help. Kill?' 'Help. Klaus?' 'Help. Katherine?' What else begins with a K?"
"Hold on," Stefan stopped her. "What if it is 'K' as in 'Katherine'? When she was dying, Nadia figured out a way to put Katherine's spirit inside someone else's body."
"But that didn't happen because Katherine had a change of heart," Caroline remembered.
Riley pieced it together. "Elena's acting completely different. Trying to kill Damon, kissing Stefan. It's almost like she's not herself..."
"You don't think that..." Caroline stopped herself. "It's impossible that she'd be... We would have noticed! We know her..."
Riley groaned. All this time, how could they not have noticed?
"She's Katherine."
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Do you think the gang will be able to get rid of Katherine for good?
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