I was in the Gilbert house kitchen.
Stefan and Damon were upstairs with waking-up-in-transition-vampire-Elena.
Stefan was being supportive, sympathetic and optimistic about Bonnie finding a way to bring Elena back to a human life.
Damon was being rude, angry and pessimisstic.
Damon walked into the kitchen.
I opened a cupboard door, grabbing a bottle of alcohol, turning toward the glasses I had sitting on the island in front of me, pouring two glasses, handing Damon one without looking at him, knowing he needed one.
Stefan walked in as I poured another glass for me.
"Way to get her hopes up for something that's never happened in the history of vampirism," I told him.
"You know what, you weren't there the day Elena looked me in the eye and told me she absolutely never wanted this," Stefan told us.
Damon drank the whole drink in a single gulp. "Then you shouldn't have let her die."
"I never meant for her to die," Stefan told us. "She asked me to help Matt first and I did."
"And now the world has one more quarterback," Damon told him. "Bravo, brother."
I took a sip of my drink.
"I made a choice that I will regret for the rest of my life," Stefan told us. "Now let me try to fix it."
"Let me know when you two stop being dicks," I told them. "I'll be at home."
I finished my drink, walking toward the door.
Stefan turned after me. "Wait, Kaylin." I turned to look at him. "I'm sorry about . . ."
"You guy wanted him dead and out of our lives for good," I told him. "Don't pretend you're not gloating inside."
I turned around, walking down the hall, opening the front door and leaving.
****
At home, I walked into the library, pouring myself a drink, looking forward in numb motionless.
Despite hating him, I couldn't help but feel bad.
And I hated myself for it.
Sure, he had done some good things that didn't make him look like a psychotic sociopath. Like giving me my memories back from the '20s, when I had been in love with him. He'd given me my freedom after he had taken it for saving his life. Given me an invitation for a ball as an amazing apology. Offered me an escape from Mystic Falls. Saved my life.
There was absolutely no reason for me to feel sad about him dying. He took my freedom away when he bit me to convince me to leave town with him, and wouldn't heal me until I had. We'd spent the summer hunting werewolves to turn them into hybrids. The amount of blood and torment and bloodshed . . . I barely recognized myself. Since then, he had been a complete dick to me, like breaking my neck repeatedly, compelling me to do absolutely everything he said, tried to use me as leverage against my brothers by threatening to burn me alive, tortured my brothers, tried to kill Elena . . .
The bad things he had done to me won over the good things by a land slide.
So why did I have to remind myself of all the bad things that he had done for me to hate him?
I place my drink down on the table without taking a sip, probably not a moment later.
I heard something in the distance, turning my head in the direction it had come from. "Whoever's there, get the hell out of here. I'm not in the mood. If you piss me off, you're dead." I heard an arrow soaring toward my back. I rushed to turn around, catching the arrow before it shot into my heart, looking at Deputy who had shot it. "You're dead."
I tossed the arrow aside, rushing toward him, snapping his neck, letting the dead body fall.
An arrow soared toward my head. I caught it, turning around, using vampire speed and strength to throw it through the shooter's skull, the dead body falling.
An arrow shot into my leg. I groaned a scream, lowering to my knees, pulling the arrow out of my leg.
A vervain syringe was injected in my neck.
I barely clung to conscious, falling. The deputies caught me, pulling me toward the door.
Damn them.
Once I got . . .
****
I woke up in a van, tied to the walls.
"Hey, there," Caroline told me. I looked at her and Rebekah on the other side of her, looking at the ropes, trying to break free. "Vervain ropes. Looks like Alaric outed us all to the Council."
"The Council?" Rebekah repeated. "What exactly do they think they can do to me?"
Suddenly, the wheels of the van started to screech. The van flipped over repeatedly. Caroline, Rebekah and I were jostled violently, but still tied and chained to the wall, couldn't move anywhere. The van landed on its side.
"What the hell happened?" I asked.
The door was broke open, Tyler stepping inside.
Caroline was in shock. "Tyler?"
"I thought you were dead," I told him in skeptism.
"I'm harder to kill than you think," Tyler told us, ripping off the vervain ropes tying me down.
I immediately sat up, turning to Caroline, ripping off the vervain ropes tying her down.
Caroline looked at Tyler, crying. "You're alive? How are you alive?"
I helped Caroline stand, both of us walking toward the door. "No time. Come on, we've got to go."
Caroline and I stepped out of the van, looking over the damage Tyler had done to the escorting police cars just to get us free.
"Oh . . .my . . . God," Caroline said.
Tyler stepped outside the van.
Caroline grabbed him, rushing away into the woods.
A cop escort car drove toward me, sirens blaring.
The deputy driving was the one who shot an arrow into my leg and who vervained me.
I rushed into hiding.
He pulled over to a stop, looking around in confusion, pulling out his gun.
I appeared next to the door, breaking it open, pulling him out, ravaging his neck, feeding while he screamed, shooting aimlessly. He stopped fighting, stopped screaming, dead.
I let his dead body fall to the ground, wiping the blood away. "You don't want to pick a fight with me."
I rushed away.
****
Caroline had called me. "Did you know your psycho ex-boyfriend was inhabiting my boyfriend's body?"
"What?"
"Yeah. Klaus is alive, and he was living inside Tyler's body. He kissed me! Well, I kissed him, but that was before I knew who he was."
"Is there a point to you calling me, Caroline?"
"Well, I just thought you should know, after . . .everything."
"I'm fine. I was even better when I thought he was dead."
"That's a lie, Kaylin, and you know it."
"Do not psychoanalyze me, Caroline."
"Sorry. Oh, did you get Stefan and Elena out?"
"Didn't have to. Damon and Matt took care of it before they even called me."
"Did you at least get over your serial killer spree? I want my friend back!"
I couldn't help a smile. "Yeah, I'm back."
I hung up, looking forward, the smile fading.
Klaus was alive.
And I was seriously back.
