Abrasion (Mikaelson)

Chapter 24: The Death of a Friend

One Month Later

Evangeline POV:

A call from Stefan had managed to lure me back to Mystic Falls after having avoided everyone I knew for the past month. While my brothers had made their attempts, which were many, they'd all failed to bring me back home. Avoidance had always been one of my talents, and my go-to method when faced with a problem. But it only took three words from Stefan's mouth to put me into full panic mode and drag me from the pit of avoidance and self pity to say farewell to my oldest and most loyal friend.

"Katherine is dying."

I didn't believe it at first, I didn't think I'd ever hear those words from anyone. As Stefan explained I could feel my world crumbling. Katherine was the only person in my many years of life with whom I always got along, we never fought and we were together whenever we could be. She protected me with her life and I protected her with mine.

When I hung up with Stefan I spent an hour in my hotel room collapsed on the floor in a heap of tears before I managed to calm down enough to leave the hotel and begin making my way towards Mystic Falls.

So here I stood, on the front steps of the Boarding House, taking deep breaths as I prepared myself for what I was about to see. My best friend. The strongest, most stubborn woman I'd had ever met. She was dying, of old age. Who did I blame? Elena Gilbert, for shoving that vampire cure down Katherine's throat. Had she never done that, Katherine would never have found herself in this state.

Finally mustering the courage, I opened the door and stepped inside. The first thing I heard was voices. "Klaus followed her to Mystic Falls and because of that we lost Jenna." Elena. "And Alaric." Damon.

I could feel the rage begin to boil at the thought that they could actually go about like this naming all the awful things she did whilst she was in a bed dying under this very roof. And so without a thought I followed the sound of those voices directly to the parlor.

"Are you kidding me?" I spoke up which caused everyone to turn and look at me. "You shoved the cure down her throat," I glanced at Elena before turning to Damon, "and you let Silas suck it from her veins, she is dying because of you and you're seriously so selfish that you can sit here and drink to her death? Did you ever think about why Klaus hates her? It's because she wanted to save her life and ran from him before she could kill him. He chased her for 500 years because she wanted to live. Should she have just died in 1492 when, mind you, she was only 19 years old, just so she could've made your lives easier 500 years in the future? Damon, we wouldn't even be here if it weren't for her, we'd be dead. Elena, Klaus would be using you as a blood bag for his hybrid making as we speak if my brothers weren't here. If you want to drink to Katherine's death, the least you could do is not do it under the same roof as her."

The six of them just stared at me, they didn't say a single word as I turned on my heel and walked out of the room. Stefan had told me they were in his room so that's where I went. "Evangeline." Stefan greeted as I passed him on the stairway. I nodded at him before passing by and walking into his bedroom.

Katherine was laying on the bed looking a bit worse for wear, her hair was gray and she was slouched up against the headboard. "Kat." I announced my presence to her and I could see her face lighten up a bit when she looked up at me. "Oh, Kat."

"Eva." She replied as I rushed over and pulled her into my arms, trying to make sure I didn't hug her too tight for fear of breaking her. "I missed you."

I could feel my eyes tearing up. "I missed you too, Kat." Words couldn't even describe my emotions in that moment. All I could think about was how I should have spent more time with her when I could, I should have gone with her and traveled with her. Had I known that I would find myself here, I would have done everything in my power to spend more time with her.

"I did miss you, but what are you doing here?" She asked me as I let her go so she could lay back against the pillows. "You were in New Orleans, with Elijah."

"More Klaus than Elijah." I replied with a tilt of my head. "Klaus cane into town right after I did, you probably knew that, but he daggered Elijah just a day later. I spent the summer after that with Klaus before I came here. I haven't heard from anyone since then so Elijah is probably still in a box somewhere."

Katherine looked at me in disbelief. "With Klaus? While Elijah was in a coffin? Come on Eva, we've been through this!"

"He got better Kat, we didn't fight at all." I argued with her, it had been the most peaceful time I'd ever spent with Klaus. He didn't argue with me, he didn't do anything terrible, he was considerate of me. "I can't hold the things he's done against him no more than those people downstairs should hold what you've done against you."

Katherine simply gave me a look that said 'you should know better' before speaking up again. "No matter how much I hate Klaus, I will put that aside, let's not spend our last day together arguing about Klaus. Just promise me you will go back, get Elijah out of that box, will you?"

"I promise, I'll get him out." I replied, it wouldn't be a hard promise to keep since that had been my plan originally. Elijah didn't deserve to be stored in a box, nobody did. "Putting Mikaelsons aside, I didn't come here to talk about them. I wrote you a letter."

Katherine chuckled at that. "A letter?"

"I knew I would forget something so I wrote everything in a letter." I took the folded piece of paper from my pocket and placed it in Katherine's hand. "Read it, and I'll be back soon, I'm just going to go get you some food."

Katherine nodded as her eyes slowly began to droop, I knew she wouldn't read the letter while I was gone but I would certainly read it when I got back wth food.

Just as Katherine had fallen asleep, Damon opened the door to Stefan's bedroom. "They need your help." He stated and I raised an eyebrow. "Matt got himself abdicated and buried in a safe."

"And I should help why? You go help."

Damon walked right in and took a seat in the chair beside the bed. "Liz is on her way here, I'm gonna talk to her. You can go help find Matt."

-

It was dark by the time I had gotten any form of contact from the group that Matt had been found, apparently he had been found hours earlier. All the more reason to loathe the existence of every one of them, they had waisted time I could have spent with Katherine. However as I made my way back I got a text from Stefan, just two words.

She's gone.

Like she was some kind of vermin as opposed to a person with feelings. After that I had simply turned around and begun to walk away. I couldn't go and look at her corpse. Stefan did tell me that he had read my letter to her, that my final message to Katherine had been delivered.

I was walked down the driveway away from the Boarding House when I spotted Caroline coming from out of the woods. "Caroline." I called to her and she visibly jumped, frightened by my sudden presence. She had a leaf in her hair but I didn't bother mentioning it as she zipped up her sweatshirt which had been exposing her enough for me to see she wasn't wearing a shirt. I pushed that aside and spoke up again. "Tell my brothers I won't be returning, I'm heading back to New Orleans. I made a promise to Katherine."

"I will pass on the message." She replied hurriedly before she scurried off.

I shook my head, pushing aside how weird that encounter had been before I continued walking to my car which I had parked a bit of a ways away to avoid people finding out I was here.

When I got to my car I almost died at the shock of who was leaning up against it. His disheveled appearance drew my suspicion immediately and thoughts of Caroline popped up, unwelcome, in my head. "Klaus."