Julie spent days alone in Elijah's empty house, trying to make it a place where she could live. She filled up the fridge and the kitchen's shelf, she dusted and cleaned the huge property. She called Katherine several time but the vampire never answered which worried her. She avoided everyone, including Rebekah.

"No, Rebekah, I'm not going to the bonfire with you," she sighed over the phone.

"Why not?" the Original whined.

"Because I didn't go when I was a student, I'm not going now."

"You're no fun."

"I know, I've been told."

"Where are you, by the way? I thought you had sold your house."

"I found a place."

"Where? I looked everywhere for you."

"Why? What do you need?"

"A friend, Julie. I need a friend. Niklaus left me here and Stefan is not being friendly at all."

Julie sighed. "I'm sorry, Rebekah. I'm not going to the bonfire with you. But...we can do something else if you want..."

"Like what?" Rebekah asked. She sounded excited.

"I don't know," Julie shrugged. "What do you wanna do?"

"Let's go shopping! I need a dress for the homecoming dance."

"That's in a couple of days."

"Yes. Will you help me choose?"

"Sure..." Julie sighed.

"Am I boring you?"

"No, Rebekah, I'm just...tired," she lied.

"You sound sad. Are you sad? What are you sad about?"

"I'm fine, Rebekah, have fun at the bonfire," she said before she hang up.

Julie didn't speak to anyone after that. She went through Elijah's stuff, she found out he owned nothing but suits which made her smile. He obviously liked to read and he owned a few piece of art his brother had made. She recognized Klaus' style on many paintings that were hanging on the walls.

She thought about practicing magic, she kept the bracelet in her pocket but she was too afraid to actually wear it.

Two days later, she was shopping with Rebekah who was going on and on about how the town had been haunted by ghosts the day before. She kept complaining about "Niklaus" and how he "abandoned" her there without telling her where he was going.

"Elena's been asking about my father," she sighed. "I really don't want to spend the afternoon with her telling her about my past. I'd rather shop with you," she said the end of her sentence with a high voice. "So, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much," Julie shrugged. "Sleeping, eating, reading..."

"You're boring," Rebekah sighed which made Julie laugh. "What's so funny?"

"Have you ever had any friends?"

"Yes," Rebekah answered, offended. "No..." Julie laughed again.

"Are you buying all these dresses?" Julie changed the subject. "You know you only need one, right?"

"I know," the blonde sighed. "I just can't choose."

"Take the red one," Julie said.

"The red one it is," Rebekah nodded. She paid for the dress and once they were out of the shop Rebekah sighed and said. "I'm starving!" Julie looked up at her with big eyes which made the vampire laugh.

"Relax. Real food. Your kind of food," she said.

Julie chuckled. "We can go to the Grill," she shrugged.

"Sure," Rebekah nodded.

After lunch Rebekah insisted for Julie to come with her to the Salvatores' because she didn't want to spend the afternoon alone with Elena. She was afraid she might be too annoying and end the day killing her.

"I'm not going to Damon's house," Julie told her.

"Don't worry about it, Damon's not gonna be there."

"How do you know? It's his house."

"He's too busy trying to get Stefan's humanity back," she sighed. "Plus, it's not like I'm going to let him kill my only friend."

It's not the first time an Original had promised Julie they would keep her safe from Damon but it didn't stop him from almost killing her. But unlike Elijah, who wouldn't force her to go inside the house, Rebekah didn't give her any choice.

Music was playing loud in the Salvatores' living room while Rebekah was finishing a bottle of champagne. Elena entered the house like she owned the place, even though she did once, and stood in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest, waiting for an explanation. She frowned when she saw Julie who didn't say anything.

"Hey, what's up?" Rebekah asked.

"You invited me over...to talk," Elena reminded her.

"Right," the blonde said, "to talk..." she sighed. "Sit down," she told her. Elena sat on the couch across the one where Rebekah and Julie were.

The elemental was curious to know more about the vampire's past because it also was Elijah's past.

"So, what do you want to know?" Rebekah asked.

"Well, Elijah said that your father was a landowner in Europe. How did you guys end up here?"

"My parents had just started a family when a plague struck their homeland. They lost a child to it. They wanted to escape and protect their future family from the same fate."

"So how did you end up here? This part of the world hadn't even been discovered yet," Elena said.

"Not by anyone in your history books. But my mother knew the witch Ayana, who heard from the spirits of a mystical land where everyone was healthy...Blessed by the gifts of speed and strength. That led my family here, where we lived amongst those people."

"The werewolves," Elena guessed.

"To us, they were just our neighbors. My family lived in peace with them for over 20 years, during which time my family had more children, including me."

"You make it sound so normal," Elena said.

"It was," Rebekah nodded and she got lost in her thoughts for a moment. "Once a month, our family retreated to the caves beneath our village. The wolves would howl through the night, and by morning we'd return home. One full moon, Klaus and my youngest brother Henrik snuck out to watch the men turn into beasts. That was forbidden. Henrik paid the price."

"He died?" Elena asked.

Rebekah nodded. "And that was the beginning of the end of peace with our neighbors. And one of the last moments my family had together as humans."

There was a sad silence which didn't last long as it was broken by Elena's buzzing phone.

"You better get that," Rebekah cleared her throat. "That'll be Damon checking up on you," she mocked.

Elena got up and answered the phone. When she came back she didn't look happy.

"Honestly I don't get you two as a couple," Rebekah suddenly said, out of nowhere.

"Damon and I aren't a couple," Elena chuckled.

"I didn't mean Damon. Stefan," Rebekah said.

"Well, why would you? You don't know anything about who he really is."

Rebekah smiled and chuckled. "I know exactly who he is. He's a vampire. We're a predatory species. We don't have time to care about humans and their silly little lives." Julie listened to each words the blonde said with pain.

"Really?" Elena smiled. "So you don't care about the homecoming dance, then?"

Rebekah frowned then shrugged. "The necklace wasn't Stefan's to give. It belonged to the Original witch."

Now Elena was frowning. "The one who put the hybrid curse on Klaus?"

"Not just the hybrid curse. She's the one who turned us into vampires," Rebekah said. "After Henrik died, my father asked Ayana to use magic to protect us. Make us stronger."

"So vampirism was a form of protection?" Elena asked.

"What else would it be?" Rebekah asked.

"A curse," Elena said.

"My parents only saw a way of keeping their children alive."

"Yeah, but...why stay? If they were so afraid of the werewolves, why not leave?" Elena asked.

"Pride," Rebekah answered. "My father didn't want to run anymore. He wanted to fight and be superior to the wolves. Where they could bite, we had to bite harder. Where they had speed, we had to be faster. Agility, strength, senses. Ayana wouldn't do it, so it fell in my mother's hands."

"In her hands?" Elena asked, confused. "How could she do anything about it?"

"Because my mother was also a witch."

"What?"

"The witch of the Original family. The Original witch."

"But, if your mother was a witch then..."

"Am I? No. A witch is a servant of nature. A vampire is an abomination of nature. You can either be one or the other. Never both. My mother did this for us. She didn't turn."

"How did you turn?" Elena asked.

"She called upon the sun for life and the ancient white oak tree, one of nature's eternal objects, for immortality. That night, my father offered us wine laced with blood. And then he drove his sword through our hearts," she told them.

"He killed you," Elena whispered like it was something so awful it couldn't be said out loud.

"He killed all of you..."

Rebekah looked up at Julie and nodded. "And he wasn't delicate about it either," she said, finishing a glass. "We had to drink more blood to complete the ritual. It was euphoric. The feeling of power was indescribable. But the witch Ayana was right about the consequences. The spirits turned on us and nature fought back. For every strength, there would be a weakness. The sun became our enemy. It kept us indoors for weeks. And then my mother found a solution. But there were other problems. Neighbors who had opened their homes to us could now keep us out. The flowers at the base of the white oak burned and prevented compulsion. And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away...So we burned it to the ground. But the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated...The hunger. Blood made us reborn, and it was blood that we craved for above all else. We could not control it. And with that...The predatory species was born."

"Why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?" Elena asked.

"When Nik made his first kill, it triggered his werewolf gene. With that, he became my father's greatest shame."

"Yeah, Elijah told us this part of the story," she said. "Your mother had had an affair with one of the werewolf villagers. Klaus wasn't his son."

"She tried to make it right. She put the hybrid curse on Nik to suppress his werewolf side. And then she turned her back on him. But Mikael's greatest weakness as a human was his pride. As a vampire that was magnified. He went on a rampage and killed half the village. Then he came home and killed her," Rebekah explained with a trembling voice.

Both Elena and Julie couldn't believe what they were hearing. Could it be that Mikael was worse than Klaus?

"Mikael killed your mother?" Elena breathed out.

"He said she broke his heart so he would break hers. He tore it from her chest as Nik watched. Afterwards, my father took off in rage and the rest of my family scattered. Nik stayed so he could help me bury her. He knew I had to say good-bye to my mother. That was then, we made a promise, Elijah, Nik and I..." she said, looking up at Julie. "We would stay together, always and forever."

"Even though he locked you in a coffin for 90 years?" Elena asked.

"We're vampires. Our emotions are heightened. I'm stubborn, Elijah moral and Nik...Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him. Over a thousand years as a family, we've all made that mistake at least once. I've made it several time."

"But you still love him?" Elena asked, she didn't understand how she could still stand by her brother.

"He's my brother and I am immortal," she said. "Should I spend an eternity alone instead?" Elena didn't answer. She was trying to turn her against Klaus but obviously she was failing. "You've heard the story. It's time to go. I don't know what you're up to but I am no longer playing along," Rebekah said.

"I'm just looking for one good reason why we shouldn't wake Mikael."

"And I've given you a thousand!" Rebekah shouted, getting up, which made both Julie and Elena jump, startled. "But you will anyway, I know you want him to help you kill my brother, I'm not stupid.

"It's no secret that I want Klaus dead. He has a hold over Stefan's life and over mine."

"Do what you need," Rebekah told her. "Wake Mikael at your own peril. But make no mistake. If you come after my brother, I will rip you apart. And I get my temper after my father," she threatened the doppelganger. "Now leave."

Julie brought her knees to her chest and tried to make sense of what she had just heard. She knew more now about Elijah but she understood that Mikael wasn't only after Klaus, he was after all of his children.

"Are you okay?" Julie asked with a small voice.

"Wasn't the funniest afternoon," she sighed. "But I've lived through worse."

"So where did you go? After your mother died..."

"We went back to the Old World. We lived in France for a few years with my other brothers."

"So...you buried your mother here, in Mystic Falls."

"She's somewhere here," she nodded.

Julie's phone started to buzz and she wondered who it might be but when she saw it was Katherine calling her, she was both relieved and worried at the same time. She couldn't let Rebekah know she had been in touch with her so she had to excuse herself and leave.

"Who is it?" the blonde asked.

"Uh...Just a friend," Julie shrugged. "I gotta go," she said, getting up. She took her jacket and her purse and was relieved Rebekah didn't stop her.

"Ok...Are you sure you don't want to come to the homecoming dance tomorrow?" she asked.

"Pretty sure, yeah..."

"Okay," she sighed.

As soon as Julie was out of the house and in her car she finally picked up the phone.

"Katherine! I've been trying to reach you for days!"

"Sorry, I've been a little busy."

"Where are you?"

"In Mystic Falls, where are you?"

"I'm at the Salvatores', just...tell me where you are, I'll come get you."

Katherine was at the park and to be sure no one would see them together, she quickly got in the car and Julie drove back to Elijah's house.

"You live in your dead boyfriend's house? Creepy..."

"Shut up, I had nowhere else to go...Plus...he's not dead, dead."

"Anyway..." Katherine sighed. "I found a way to kill Klaus."

Julie sighed. "Yeah? Well, I don't wanna know about it," she shrugged.

"Why not?" Katherine grimaced.

"Because if I don't know anything about it, he's not coming to kill me after you fail."

"We're not gonna fail. We found Mikael."

"You woke up Mikael??" Julie shouted. Katherine raised her eyebrows, surprised it made her angry. "You know he's not coming just for Klaus, right? He wants to kill all his children. Which means Elijah and Rebekah."

"Ok, first, why do you care about Barbie Klaus? And second, when Klaus is dead, there is nothing that can keep you from bringing Elijah back!"

"Nothing except his thousand years old vampire hunter dad!"

"Mikael said he only wanted to kill Klaus."

"Since when do you trust what people say?"

Katherine sighed and didn't answer right away. "You're right. But Klaus needs to go."

"You just keep saying that but it doesn't make it right..."

"It's not about doing the right thing, Julie. It's about survival. Once Klaus is dead, I'm free. Forever."

Julie sighed. She was right. Klaus was a murderer and the world would be better if he was gone. But he was still a person, she knew deep down he had feelings and regrets. And he would forever be Elijah's brother.

"Just keep me out of it, okay?"

Katherine sighed. "Okay. I wasn't going to ask your help anyway. It's too dangerous."

"I hope you're not hungry, Kat', 'cause Elijah doesn't have any blood bags."

"I'm good, thanks," she sighed and moved deeper in her seat. "How old is this car?" she asked, uncomfortable.

"I don't know," Julie chuckled. She didn't know anything about cars. "Old."

"Are we there soon?" Katherine complained.

"Yes," Julie rolled her eyes, annoyed.

She stopped the car in front of the house and Katherine couldn't get out of the vehicle faster.

"Nice castle," she laughed. "It's Elijah's alright."

"You're staying the night?" Julie asked her as she closed the car door and walked her way to the front door.

"Yope. Damon thinks he's gonna need my help tomorrow."

"You're killing Klaus tomorrow? You know he's not even in town, right?"

"He's going to be," she said. "I told you, we have a plan."

"No, you said you had a plan."

"Anyway. Mikael agreed to help and according to this text Damon just sent me, Rebekah is in too."

"What?" Julie frowned, surprised. There was no way Rebekah would agree to kill her brother. "That's not possible."

"Apparently, Klaus lied about their mother. Now that she knows he killed her, she wants him dead as bad as we do."

"Klaus killed his mother?" she breathed out, horrified.

"That does sound like him," Katherine sighed. "Do you have food?"

Katherine kept looking around looking for something interesting but all she could find bored her. Finally, she sat on the couch with a plate of food she took from the kitchen.

"So, what's the plan?" Julie asked.

"I thought you didn't want to know."

"Did Klaus really kill his mother?" Julie asked in a whisper, scared it could be true.

"He did," she nodded.

Julie sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe it...What kind of person kills his own mother?"

"The psycho kind," Katherine answered. "You want in?"

"In? I'm not helping you kill Klaus," she said.

"Okay," Katherine nodded.

"So...What's the plan?"

Katherine sighed. "There isn't a definitive one...yet."

"What do you mean?" Julie frowned.

"I mean..." she sighed. "Half of the people who need to be involved can't be trusted."

"Like you?" Julie mocked.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Katherine said, throwing a piece of food at her.

"Hey, I just cleaned!" she said which made the vampire laugh.

"I meant Stefan. And Rebekah."

"You're counting on Stefan to help you? Klaus compelled him to do everything he said," Julie said like it was a stupid idea.

"That's why he can't be trusted," she said, bringing a piece of fruit to her mouth.

"So...how are you gonna bring Klaus back to town?"

"We're gonna make him believe Mikael is dead. He'll want to see it with his own eyes."

"I bet..." Julie sighed. Klaus was going to die tomorrow. Or Katherine would.

"So we lure him back to Mystic Falls and then...Mikael just do the rest," she shrugged.

"You make it sound so easy..."

"It won't be," Katherine said. "Just so you know, if we fail, either I die or I move to North Korea."

"Good to know," Julie rolled her eyes.

"Wanna come with me?"

"To North Korea?" Julie chuckled. "No, thank you..."

"Yeah...I thought so..." she sighed. "Anyway," she said, getting up, putting the empty plate on the coffee table. "Gotta get my beauty sleep," she winked. "Good night Julie."

"Good night, Kat'..."

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