Humanity 4 "The Rivalry"

Chapter 21

ASHLEY'S POV

"Stamp, please." I say happily to Elena. She rips off a stamp and hands it across the table to me, and I smile. "Thank you."

Elena and I are sitting at a table outside of the Grill, putting addresses on our graduation announcements.

"You don't have to pretend to be nice to me, Ashley. I know this is just a ploy to keep me distracted." Elena says with a sigh.

She puts a stamp on a letter and then sets it aside, leaning back, indicating that she's finished.

"You're done?" I ask. "I'm only on my second batch."

"We have family in Denver. Other than that, no one cares that I'm graduating, and to be honest, neither do I." She says sadly.

"I know that's how you feel now, but once you get through this hating Katherine phase-"

"Wait, do you know where she is?" Elena asks, interrupting me.

"No. Why would I know where she is?" I frown.

"Yeah, but, Ashley. If you did, you would tell me, right?" She presses.

"Elena, you're obsessing." I sigh.

She reaches across the table and grabs my hands to get my attention. "Ashley, listen to me, if you know where she is then you have to tell me."

I shake my head and pull my hands from hers. "I don't, Elena. Chill." I tell her firmly.

Stefan has been trying to work with Elena to get her anger towards Katherine out of her system, and I've been in charge of keeping her occupied. Apparently, none of that is working. She still has her mind set on killing Katherine.

I don't want her to do that because I don't want her to get hurt...but I also want to get rid of Katherine myself. If there's a possibility that anyone could hate Katherine more than Elena, it would be me.

DAMON'S POV

I'm in the hospital because Liz asked me to meet her here to talk about something. Stefan approaches me and I turn towards him with a smirk.

"You just missed the donuts." I tease.

"Yeah, I was with Elena, burning off a few thousand hate filled calories. What happened to you helping me?" He asks.

"Help, yes. Prolong the inevitable? Waste of time." I respond.

"You're avoiding. How unexpected." He says, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not avoiding." I say with a sigh. "Elena's only goal is to end Katherine's life, and that's not gonna just magically disappear with Pilates and a juice cleanse."

He's unable to argue when Sheriff Forbes walks over to us. "Hey guys, thanks for coming."

"Hey." Stefan says back with a smile.

"Why were we invited?" I ask.

"Well, the hospital has kept the blood banks empty ever since they were raided last month. We thought at the very least it would help keep the vampire population away." She explains and I nod.

"And it didn't?" Stefan asks.

"See for yourself." She says, opening a door for us. She leads us into a room where a patient is lying on the bed with bloodied wrists.

"Wow." I say quietly, raising an eyebrow.

"There are four other victims in this wing, each one almost completely drained of blood. You think it's Silas?" Liz asks.