1864 Flashback

"I think I'm going to do it tonight with Stefan," Katherine whispered in my ear during dinner time.

"What?!" I shrieked, and my caretaker gave me a warning look.

My mother was back in her headquarters, having gone through a rather bad episode that afternoon. She had hired someone to look after me in the years she had gotten ill.

Needless to say, my caretaker wasn't very nice.

"Ssshhh, Lyn!" Katherine scolded, looking around to see if anyone had heard her.

"But Kat, you promise you're only going to be with Stefan right?" I asked desperately, getting tired of her charade of loving both brothers.

"Yes yes Kaitlyn, I will tell Stefan tonight that I love him, and I will inform Damon that we must part," Katherine reassured me, and I sighed in relief.

Even though Damon was several years older than me, I had the biggest attraction towards him, and I turned into a jealous fiend whenever he spent time with Katherine.

Honestly, I didn't understand how both brothers hadn't fought to the death for her yet. It was almost as if they didn't know what was happening, even though it was right in front of them.

"I haven't lost my virginity yet," I giggled to Katherine quietly.

"No, and you shouldn't for many more years," she warned, and I gave her an odd look.

"You're only one year older than me, and you're going to lose it tonight," I reminded her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Lynie, trust me when I say this, at heart, I am much older than you," she told me, and it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Whatever you say, Kat," I muttered, shoving a piece of chicken into my mouth.

End of Flashback.

I had woken up the next morning in a bad state. Last night, I had stayed up late crying over the whole Katherine ordeal.

I wanted to know about her life, but I just couldn't forget that she had lied to me. Why didn't she trust me enough to tell me what she was?

And I wondered if she had ever compelled me? Over the past few days, Damon had been telling me about all of the supernaturals in Mystic Falls and their abilities.

I had learned that in the carnival, the Salvatores had found out that the Lockwood family were werewolves. Apparently, Tyler's uncle who had just come into town was secretly turning every full moon.

It was so crazy for me to take in. Vampires? Werewolves? Witches? What's next, mermaids? The actual Devil?

Everything that I had ceased to believe in, I was now reconsidering. Did Hell exist? Were unicorns once real? I had no clue.

Elena had called me this morning to my utter shock, saying that the group was going to Duke University, and she wanted to know if I wanted to come.

I guess that was her way of apologizing for being unwelcoming these past few days. I had accepted of course, because I wanted to find out more about Katherine's life.

On my wait out of the apartment, I banged into a solid figure and looked up to see an unfamiliar face.

A young man with short curly brown hair looked down at me in surprise.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm Mason."

"Mason Lockwood?" I asked with an eyebrow raised, and he nodded.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Damon Salvatore told me about you," I explained, and he grimaced.

"Yeah, I've been looking forward to meeting that guy," he remarked, and I smiled awkwardly.

"Anyway, I have to go," I brought up. "Nice meeting you though."

I walked up to the front of Elena's house to see her grabbing Stefan by the collar and kissing him, purposely in front of Damon.

A small wave of jealousy rolled over me at his love-stricken face, but I ignored it and continued walking towards them.

"Hey," I greeted just as Elena and Stefan pulled apart.

"Hey Kate, glad you could make it," Elena nicknamed me.

I smiled at her, happy that she was being nice to me now. I then stepped into the car and waited for the others to join, noticing that Stefan was walking away. An older man was waiting impatiently in the driver's seat.

"Stefan isn't coming?" I asked in relief, still not understanding why he didn't like me.

"No, Katherine kind of gave him a threat not to see me," Elena sighed in annoyance.

"Typical," I muttered, thinking about the time where she scared away all the other girls from Stefan in 1864.

"Hi, I'm Kaitlyn. We haven't met yet," I introduced myself to the man in front.

"I'm Alaric. I believe I'll be teaching you on Monday. Well, this is awkward," the man chuckled, extending a hand to shake.

I laughed a little. "Alaric Saltzman? The history teacher?" I checked, and he nodded.

The others piled into the car, and Alaric turned around, eager to drive.

I rested my head back as the car started, and closed my eyes.

1864 Flashback

I had stayed up late that night, eager for Katherine to come back from Stefan's room, and tell me everything.

I looked up to her greatly and was amazed at anything she could accomplish. Not only was she just human, but she was also a female who was headstrong and who had power in this man's world.

I wanted to be just like her.

I heard rustling outside and sat up immediately in bed.

"Katherine?" I whispered roughly, stepping out of the bed and walking towards my door, which was slightly ajar.

"Katherine!" I repeated, opening the door and peering outside.

My heartbeat ricocheted at the sight before me. I saw my limp, beloved friend being harshly carried down the stairs, a dog's muzzle around her mouth.

She was pale, paler than her usual icy skin, and she wasn't moving.

"Katherine!" I screamed. "Let her go!"

I ran out of my room, and towards the men taking her.

"Go back to your room little girl!" Giuseppe Salvatore hissed at me, walking out of a different room.

I saw Stefan run out, grief-stricken as he watched the girl he loved get carried away.

"Father please," he begged, but the man paid him no attention, following the crowd down the stairs.

I dashed after them and could hear Stefan's footsteps behind me, and then Damon's.

Running out into the cold night, I stayed behind a bush and watched alarmed as Stefan and Damon ran past me, desperate to save the girl they loved.

They opened the caravan she was put in and brought her out gently, placing her onto the floor as they took off the muzzle.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, I begged anxiously in my head.

Suddenly, a loud gunshot echoed in the darkness, and I saw one of the Salvatores fall.

Muffling my scream with my hand, I squinted to see who had been hit. Quickly the other figure picked up his own rifle but didn't get far, as he got shot as well.

I sobbed quietly into my hand, knowing that both the Salvatore brothers had been killed, and turning around to see it had been by their own father.

"No," I gasped, seeing that Katherine was being dragged back into the caravan.

How could this have happened?

One night, and I had watched 3 people I cared about die.

End of Flashback

"Hey wake up," a voice nudged me out of my sleep, and I opened my eyes to see Damon leaning through the car door, motioning that we had arrived.

I sleepily stretched and then stepped out, taking in my surroundings.

It was a large building, mostly surrounded by trees. I followed Damon, Alaric, and Elena inside, where we reached the front desk. It was vacant, but I saw a young brown-haired girl organizing some papers in the back and she looked up in surprise as we arrived.

"Excuse me. Hi, I'm Alaric Saltzman. I called earlier?" Alaric stepped forward, and she nodded.

"I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant," she introduced smiling.

She gave Elena a weird look and then shook her head as if snapping herself out of a daze.

"Isabelle's office is right through there," she pointed, and I walked ahead of her.

On the way, I could feel her burning gaze on my back and wondered what she was staring at. Then I realized I had worn a tank top that morning, and my scars were probably visible.

Great, she probably thought I suffered through some kind of trauma or something.

Well, actually, that is how I got those scars, but she didn't need to know that.

We walked into a room with various bookshelves and artifacts on tables. Then we spent some time picking some up, while I flipped through some ancient books.

"Where'd she go?" Damon suddenly inquired, and we looked around to see Vanessa had disappeared.

As soon as I turned around towards the doorway, I saw her marching forward, with a crossbow in her hand. She looked frantic as she pointed her arrows at Elena and then released it.

Before we could do anything, a blur whizzed in front of the brunette, and Damon groaned as he took the arrow for Elena in his back.

The girl then tried to fire one at me, but before she could, Alaric threw her against the wall, knocking the weapon out of her hand.

I walked past a pained Damon to see the girl looking venomous. Alaric dragged her into the next room, as Elena attempted to pull the arrow out of Damon's back.

"I freaked! You would have done the same thing in my position!" I heard Vanessa's voice yell from the next room.

I left Damon and Elena alone and walked over to Alaric.

"It is not possible. Katherine Pierce can't be alive," she gasped for breath, putting a hand up in surrender. "And Damon Salvatore died in 1864. I read Isobel's research."

"Well, then you should know just how possible this is," I interrupted, rubbing my shoulder. "And why did you try to shoot me as well? You don't even know me."

She bit her lip nervously and wouldn't look me in the eye. "I saw your scars."

I raised my eyebrows. "And?"

"And I've seen them in my books before, okay? I don't remember what they meant, just that they're not of this world."

What? My scars could mean something?

Suddenly Elena walked in and gave a grudging look to the girl. "I'm Elena Gilbert. Isobel's daughter, and a descendant of Katherine Pierce."

"And this is Damon Salvatore, who you just shot," I reminded Vanessa, who looked nervous.

"I'd be extra nice to me right now," he threatened, and I gave him a look.

We continued to explain to her that we needed her help to look at all the research. She finally gave in, but unfortunately, we found very little information about Katherine.

"Here," Elena suddenly said, handing the girl some vervain. "Take this."

"Does vervain really work?" Vanessa inquired curiously.

"Nope. Not at all," Damon answered curtly from another room.

"Can he hear us?" she then asked dubiously.

"NO, that would be creepy," came a whisper, and we rolled our eyes.

"Can he read minds too?" Vanessa questioned quietly.

Damon turned around then and smirked. "You know, if you wanted to see me naked, all you had to do was ask."

"No, that he can't do," I answered for Elena.

We spent the next 20 minutes trying to look for any morsel of information but got nothing.

"Any luck?" Damon asked pettily to Elena, and she sighed, facing him. "You know, it's a bummer we're not friends anymore. I could tell you what I know."

"Now who's manipulating who?" Elena said smartly, and I looked between the two in confusion.

What had gone down in the 2 minutes I had left them alone? They seemed to have a sexual tension so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

"Hey guys, check this out," Alaric interrupted their little feud, and we walked over to him curiously.

The girl then went on to explain an old tale called the sun and moon curse. It made vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl around at night, and werewolves could only turn on a full moon.

"Can they control the transformation?" Damon questioned.

"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse," the girl reminded him.

She then warned us that there was rivalry between werewolves and vampires, and then gave us a daunting bit of information. A werewolf bite is fatal to vampires.

"Oh," Damon grunted worriedly.

∆ ∆ ∆

We left soon afterward, and Elena called Stefan to fill him in on the information we had learned today.

He apparently hung up quickly, saying that he had to take care of something, and then we got into the car.

It was dark now, and the full moon illuminated the sky with a haunting light.

"Here," I heard Damon say to Elena and turned around to see him giving her a book. "You didn't dig deep enough."

"Petrova?" Elena read doubtfully. "I saw this on the shelf."

"Katherine originally came from Europe," Damon clarified. "Petrova was her real name. Katerina Petrova to be exact."

I turned back around and was surprised to feel a lump in my throat. Why didn't Katherine tell me anything about her life? I remembered that I was always asking about her, but she would somehow find a way to change the subject. The only thing I got from her past was that she was running from someone, but she wouldn't even reveal who.

On the way home, my phone rang, and I was surprised to see it was Caroline. I picked up immediately and pressed the phone to my ear.

"Hey. I just wanted to talk to someone, and you're the first person that came to mind," came her sad voice from the machine.

My mouth quirked up in a small smile, as I realized that I may have actually made a true friend.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I almost killed Matt today," she said quietly, her breath shaky. "And then a werewolf almost killed me!"

"What? You saw a werewolf?!" I practically yelled, earning the curious attention from the passengers in the car, who were obviously listening to our conversation.

"Yeah, but Tyler had some kind of connection to it," she explained.

"That was Mason Lockwood Caroline," I told her, and I heard her gasp.

"That makes sense," she muttered. "But I wanted to ask you. Do you think I should break up with Matt? I know he's your friend."

I closed my eyes and pondered for a few seconds.

"Listen Care, Matt's a good person, and I don't think he deserves to be involved with all this supernatural drama. And if you think you can't be happy and keep it from him at the same time, then yeah, I think you should break up with him. It's the best thing for both of you," I said softly, and I could hear her agreeing.

"Thanks. And sorry if this is weird, you're just really easy to talk to," she apologized, and I chuckled.

"Don't worry about it. Bye," I hung up and saw everyone looking at me.

"Is Caroline okay?" Elena asked, and I could see hurt in her eyes, most likely coming from the fact that Caroline hadn't called her.

"Yeah, she's okay. Just a little shaken up," I answered.

We made a stop at Elena's house, and Damon and her talked for a while before he came back looking dejected.

"Dude, you shouldn't have killed her brother," Alaric commented a bit harshly as Damon slid into the passenger seat.

"What?!" I exploded in disbelief.

"It's a long story," Damon sighed in exasperation but didn't offer any explanation.

Then we stopped at my rusty apartment building, and to my surprise, Damon offered to walk with me to my door.

"So how did you feel on your first mission with us today?" he mused as we walked up the flight of stairs.

"It was intense," I admitted. "Though I'm sure that was a 3 on your scale of missions."

He smiled a little. "You know, I'm happy that you came to Mystic Falls Lyn."

This time, I didn't bother to correct him. I liked the way the nickname slid off his lips.

"I like having you in our group," he continued, and I couldn't help from blushing.

"Well, I don't think Stefan's very happy," I mumbled, reaching my door.

"I'll talk to my brother. He's a little uptight," Damon reassured, watching me open the door and walk-in.

"Well, goodnight Damon."

"Goodnight," he answered, and I shut the door.

∆ ∆ ∆