Potential (Book Four, The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 21__She's Come Undone

Damon and Stefan were taking today as a 'Torture Elena Until She Turns It Back On Day'.

Matt and Caroline were on the porch.

Outside, I sat on the lawn, looking toward the garden, remembering when Mom would use to read me fairytales as we sat on the stone bench.

Stefan and Damon walked outside.

Damon had a decanter, taking a sip of bourbon angrily.

"So, that went well," I told them sarcastically.

"Every other vampire turns it on, no problem," Damon told us. "You kill, you feed, you do all the awful things that a vampire does, and then when you're done you turn it back on. Why is she being so stubborn?"

Damon punctuated the end of his sentence by throwing the glass decanter at the front of the house angrily, making it shatter.

I stood, turning to face them. "Because she has nothing to come back to. Her home's gone, her family's gone, she alienated her friends, she destroyed her relationships--"

"No, she wants to come back," Damon told us. "Scaring the hell out of her should've worked. She's smart. She knows we're not gonna hurt her."

"All right, so we get somebody else," Stefan told us. "Somebody who really will hurt her."

 "Who?" Damon asked.

Stefan gave us a significant look and tilted his head, hinting tacitly at who he was thinking of.

"Katherine?" I asked.

"Think about it," Stefan told us. "She's the reason Jeremy's dead, right? So if anybody's gonna provoke an emotion, it's her."

"So we call her and then what, beg her to help us out of the kindness of her own heart?" I asked. "Are you kidding me? She'd be more likely to torture me after Willoughby, and especially after she was just abandoned by Elijah. She has nothing, she has no one."

"Exactly," Stefan told me. "We invite her into our house to come torture Elena? There's no way she's gonna turn that down."

 ~~~~

I heard the front door open, walking into the foyer.

Katherine was looking at Rebekah and Matt. "What a beautiful sentiment."

 I walked into the room, looking at Katherine. "Seriously? Can't you knock?"

"Sorry," Katherine told me. "I didn't realize we were standing on formalities."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Rebekah asked.

"You didn't get the memo?" Katherine asked. "I'm here to talk some sense into poor, emotionless Elena."

Matt looked at Damon. "Are you out of your mind?"

"You got a better idea, prom king?" Damon asked. "Unless you want me to lock you up in there with her, I suggest you shut up. Let the adults handle this."

"I'll only do this if I can have a few minutes to talk to little Nikki," Katherine told us.

I scoffed, smiling dryly. "I knew this would come around to that." 

Damon looked at Katherine. "After you deal with Elena."

Katherine looked toward me. "Deal."

Damon led her to the basement.

I walked out of the room into the library.

~~~~

Katherine walked in. "Satisfy my curiosity. What did you tell Elijah back in Willoughby?"

I poured myself a drink. "I didn't have to say anything. Look at you: self-obsessed egomaniac on the run for five centuries." I turned to face her. "What good would you be to anyone? You're the definition of damaged goods. No wonder Elijah left you."

Katherine didn't answer, looking at the drink in my hand. "All that pain and torture, I've worked up quite a thirst. Did you ever think you would've been better off if she'd never met him?"

 "Are you trying to get a rise out of me because Elijah left you?" I asked.

Katherine sat next to me on the couch. "But he didn't just leave me, did he? Despite the fact that you say that you hate him, you can't help but care, can you? Mm, so romantic, so doomed to fail. That's the tragedy of you. You never get the guy."

Stefan and Damon walked into the room. 

"She's gone," Damon told me.

"What?" I asked.

"Elena's not in her cell," Stefan told me. "I'm gonna check the grounds. Find out what she did."

"Oops," Katherine said. "Did I forget to lock her in? Let's just say I've lost interest in Elena's recovery. I'd rather watch her tear through an orphanage. Imagine trying to come back from a spiral like that."

Matt walked into the room with Rebekah. "Elena's gone? What happened?"

"Donovan, you're coming with me," Damon told me.

"Why should he?" Rebekah asked.

"Because Elena's hungry and missing," Damon answered. "For once, his life might actually have purpose."

Damon summoned Matt with a crook of his finger.

Matt followed him out of the room.

~~~~ 

While they had been gone, Matt had found Elena and let her feed on him. Stefan and Damon had showed up and broke Matt's neck to make Elena turn it back on. Little did she know that Matt had been wearing the Gilbert ring, so he would be back.

Elena had her humanity on.

They brought her back into the library.

Elena sat near the fire.

Damon approached and wrapped a blanket around her. "Hey. Here you go. How you feeling?"

Stefan was sitting across from her.

I handed her a glass of bourbon. "Hey, welcome back." 

Elena took the glass. "The pain's still there... the grief and the shame. But I get it now. Shutting it off. It's a cheat. I mean, you put up this wall and shut out everything that makes you who you are. Nothing affects you, nothing matters. But things do matter, things that happen that can't be undone. And now I know that there's something I need to do about that."

Elena took a sip of bourbon.

"Elena, what you need to do is rest," Stefan told her. "Take it easy for a couple of days. Maybe even a couple of years."

Elena started folding up the blanket. "I--I'm done resting. I have to get ready. There's so much that I have to do."

Elena started to stand.

Damon put a hand out to stop her. "Whoa, hey. What are you talking about?"

"Think about it," Elena told us. "It's so obvious. Go back far enough, there's one person who brought us to this, who ruined our lives." She looked at Stefan and Damon. "Look at you two. Everything that's happened to you, she did that!" She looked at me. "Nicola, why do you think that you were dying? She led the werewolves to town. She brought Klaus to Mystic Falls, she turned Caroline into a vampire. She killed my brother. It all comes down to her. Katherine. Okay? Stefan said to focus on one thing, so I did. I focused on hate. And I hate her so much."

"I don't think that's what he meant..." I trailed off.

"Elena, Katherine's not worth your time," Stefan told her. "Even if you spend ten minutes of your life hating her, she wins."

Elena looked so hateful. "Not if I kill her."