❝a prisoner's life❞ 

"THIS IS A BAD IDEA—A VERY, VERY, BAD IDEA." Damon pushes Elijah away from Katherine as the Original drags her into his living room, ignoring her exclamation of irritance. "What part of the plan is this?"

Elijah plucks Damon's hand off his chest, giving him a pointed look. "It isn't. Klaus will be here within the next few days, and he requested Katherine be monitored closely."

"Close as in trapped underground alone to rot until she's useful again? Or in my house where she can escape at any time and run away?"

The Original huffs a laugh at Damon's disdain. "Don't worry, Damon, she can't leave this place. I've compelled her to– well, tell him, Katerina."

The doppelgänger gives them a sarcastic smile from her place on the couch. "If I try to leave the Salvatore Boarding house by any means, without permission from Elijah, I will promptly take my daylight ring off and stand in the sun until I burn to ashes in the driveway or stake myself in the heart."

"Oh, wow, a doppelgänger barbecue– how delightful." Damon matches the glare Katherine sends his way and pulls Elijah a few feet away from the woman. "Does Klaus remember the part where this is one of the people we're trying to kill?"

"This person can hear you still!"

Damon shushes Katherine and she looks at him incredulously. "Did you just shush me?"

Elijah pushes Damon slightly and turns to look at Katherine pointedly. "That's enough, both of you. I'm afraid that for now, Katherine is moving in and we all have to deal with it. And remember, Damon, all of us have been wronged by her."

Katherine smiles smartly as Elijah heads towards the stairs, and Damon rolls his eyes when he turns his back.

He forcibly opens his eyes and looks at Katherine, who's got her head on her arms as she looks at Damon over the back of the couch. Her smirk irritates him, and he twists his daylight ring around his finger a few times before letting out a deep sigh.

Silently, he storms over to the box holding the Gilbert journals and grabs three of them, dropping them haphazardly in Katherine's lap. "If you're here, you have to help."

She scoffs and flips through the diaries. "I don't do homework assignments, Damon."

"If you don't read, you're getting put in the basement with the rest of the prisoners." Damon flicks a page in the journal with a mocking smile. "And trust me, you wouldn't like it down there."

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The sun had long since set since Elijah arrived with Katherine. Though the Original had disappeared to his room since coming back, Katherine and Damon had stayed in the living room going through every Gilbert journal they had.

Damon was content to sit in silence, though his mind had wandered as the time went by. He knew it wasn't the main point of Elijah's words, but when he mentioned Klaus coming in the next few days, his pulse had raced.

Even though he hadn't seen Klaus in a few decades, the arrival of the hybrid meant the return of his wife. He wondered if Rosemary was as anxious as he was, or if she had the same doubts he did about what they would do when they were together again.

For so long he'd dreamt of having her in his arms again, but now that it was going to actually happen he was nervous. People can outgrow each other in two, three years. If it's anything to go by, almost two hundred years apart is practically divorce in itself.

Even though he had his doubts about it, he knew that even if it were two hundred years or two thousand years apart, Rosemary would always love him. She had constantly reassured him of that fact, and when he mourned her, he never forgot it.

A heaving sigh drags Damon from his thoughts, and he rolls his eyes at the reminder of his current company.

"I'm bored."

"Go outside."

Katherine glares at the back of Damon's head and heaves herself onto the arm of the couch he's sitting on. She reads over his shoulder, propping her head up with her hand. Her eyes lazily skim the pages he's on, but she catches the familiar name of her old friend. "Emily Bennett was taken by the council today. They kidnapped her from her home and took her to the same location her ancestors were burned a hundred years ago."

She leans back at the sliver of information. "So, Emily died on the site of the massacre, too."

"Extremely poetic, considering she was just as much of a hag as the rest of the witches,"

She ignores his jab at her once dear companion. "Does it say where?" She grabs for the diary, but Damon yanks it away from her before she can take it.

"Nope." He glances at her out of the corner of his eye. "I don't care what Elijah has compelled you to do, I don't buy the whole friendly, cooperative thing."

She sighs tiredly. "I have no reason to lie to you, Damon. For once, I'm the weak one."

"Lie."

She runs a hand through her hair that she'd finally got to put a brush through for the first time in months. "If I try to backstab you, you will kill me. If I try to backstab Elijah, he will kill me. I have no upper hand."

Damon smirks at the despair in her voice. "Good. Nice to know you're self aware."

"It's horrible. Is this how Stefan feels all the time? If so, I get the whole ripper thing now." She scoffs, examining her fingernails with an urge to paint them.

"Stefan has a debilitating hero complex dedicated solely to saving you and every other wretch that shares your face. I don't know where he got it from, it must've skipped a few generations or something." Damon flicks the page again, still not looking at Katherine as she shifts to sit on the coffee table.

"Hey, I am way prettier than Elena, even you can admit that."

"Say I agreed with you," He looks at the brief, smug smirk she wears at his words. "I still don't find you attractive enough to sleep with you."

Her face falls and her shoulders slump.

"Almost two hundred years later and you're still trying. When are you going to give it up, Katherine?"

She rolls her eyes, irked at his mocking words. "I killed your wife just to get you to look twice at me, Damon. What's a girl gotta do?"

"Not kill people's wives, to start with," He glares at her when she throws her hands up exasperatedly. "Why are you asking me this? You know nothing's ever going to happen between us."

"Not with that attitude it won't,"

Damon ignores her muttering and skims the journal briefly. He turns a page a little too hard when Katherine starts to bounce her leg up and down rapidly, boredom claiming her attention span.

Footsteps echo in the momentary silence and Damon looks over his shoulder as Elijah and Rose walk down the hallway together. He takes a second to examine them and his eyes widen when they land on the intertwined hands keeping them close together. Quickly, he sits up on the couch to face them. "What are you two doing?"

Elijah straightens slightly and a small smile lifts his mouth. "I'm taking Rose to dinner. I figure it's the least I owe her."

Rose smiles wide at Damon over Elijah's shoulder, and Damon sighs, sinking back into the couch. "Don't stay out too late, kids! And no PDA!"

Elijah rolls his eyes as he walks out of the room, pulling Rose along with him as she glares at Damon with a flush rising on her cheeks.

Damon settles back onto the couch to continue going through the journal, but feels Katherine's stare burning into the side of his face. He cranes his neck to look at her, his irritation obvious. "What now?"

"What the hell was that?!" She slams her hands down on the coffee table, her high-pitched words making Damon wince.

"I'm confused as to what you missed,"

She glares at him and his mocking words. "You know what I mean, Damon. Seriously, is everyone in this house getting some but me?"

Katherine stops herself, and looks at Damon with a quirked brow. "How long has it been for you, Damon? I bet we could solve our problems real–"

"Not happening. Go away."

She slumps again and pouts childishly. "I'm hungry."

"You're the unwanted house guest, feed yourself. Oh, and mind the bodies."

With a dramatic sigh, she stands and leaves Damon in the living room, walking down the creaky stairs into the basement.

She opens the freezer holding blood bags and grabs one, letting the lid slam shut. A strangled scream makes her stop, and follow the source of the noise with furrowed brows. Katherine gasps as she peeks into the locked wooden door through the barred slots on it.

John Gilbert's rotting body is on the ground, covered in dirt and blood that's long since dried. In the corner of the room, a blonde girl is bound by her hands and ankles and there's a gag in her mouth that looks cleaner than the rest of the things tied around her. It's probably a new addition to her captivity, she seems like a loudmouth.

The woman looks at her desperately, and Katherine makes out a few words through the woman's muffled mouth. A flash of recognition goes through her mind and she smirks. "You're that werewolf that had a crush on Mason. It's a shame he's dead, he was kind of hot."

The vampire sighs wistfully, holding up the blood bags in sight. "Sorry, sweetheart, you got the wrong doppelgänger."

The hopeful look on the woman's face falls and Katherine chuckles to herself as she goes back up the stairs, a leap in her step at the newfound excitement. Compared to that, her own captivity wasn't looking so bad after all.

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author's note; i've been editing a bunch of these chapters so expect multiple updates today

edited and published; 6.12.22.

- liz