Rebekah once told me the story of how her family was turned into vampires and how even as Originals they had weaknesses. One of their weaknesses was the white oak tree, the tree they burned so long ago and suddenly reappeared. That tree, the new one that had sprung from the old ones ashes, had been cut down when the Salvatore's ran the logging mill. That sign was turned into the Wickery Bride sign, the one that we had driven by so many times and took little notice to.

   Stefan, Damon, and I had taken the sign down and brought it over to Alaric's apartment early in the morning. He chopped the sign into little pieces with a saw, and Damon whittled each piece into stake, sometimes spending more time in one since Stefan wanted it to be sharper. It was then that I knew that we'd be able to kill the Originals. They were linked together by Elena's blood due to some spell Esther created, which meant if one was killed the rest would follow.

   As I watched Damon and Stefan demonstrate how they would kill any of the Originals, I bit my bottom lip and thought; could I go on with murdering the family that took care of me when I was a rabid vampire? Could I go through with killing Elijah, Rebekah, or even Klaus? Deep inside, I knew that I couldn't. There was no way that I could plunge a stake through their hearts, no way that I could kill them. The three of them had been such dear friends, especially Rebekah and Elijah. 

   Rebekah had been like my sister, with care and laughter and merry enjoyment since the day I met her. Although she didn't like me at first, we became good friends with passing time. She told me her story, about the many times she fell in and out of love. She told me that it would happen to me, that I would soon fall out of love with Damon. And maybe, she was right. My feelings for him weren't as strong as they were before, but they were still there. Feelings could not be erased so simply, there had to be patience and time, but I was impatient and stuck in time.

   Elijah. My dear Elijah was the sweetest thing I'd ever met. Ever since he first found me, he had treated me like a friend. He spoke dearly, acted dearly, took me all over the world and allowed me to explore who I was. He taught me how to live, how to accept the fact that I was a vampire and could no longer return as a human no matter how much I desired. In a way, I could even say that he was my teacher, my mentor. Like Professor Remus Lupin being Harry Potter's mentor, or even Hagrid or Dumbledore. There was no doubt in my mind that I would not be able to kill Elijah. Especially, not Elijah.

  And then there was Klaus, the most infamous vampire in the history of vampires that one could even call him Lucifer. He had done so many horrible things, yet I couldn't find it in myself to kill him. Of course, he had compelled away so many memories that were filled with good and bad moments, and I would still not remember them if it weren't for Rebekah, but... Each moment that I thought of driving a stake through his chest, there would be a but, a pause. I had kissed that man, treated him like a lover and a friend, and I couldn't find it in myself to kill him. So, how could I be included in the Save Elena Squad?

   "Clara?" The soft voice made me shake my head and return to reality. Stefan stood in front of me, his hands on my shoulders and eyes filled with curiosity. "Are you okay?"

   I swallowed and nodded. "Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was–I was just thinking."

   "About?"

   "So many things," I answered, crossing my arms and turning away. "I'm thinking about so many things..."

   Stefan kept his eyes on me for several seconds, but then nodded and turned. He moved back to the circle where Damon, Caroline, Elena, and Matt stood. "We have thirteen stakes, thirteen shots at killing one Original. We can do this." He looked at each person, grabbed a crossbow from besides a tree, and handed it to Elena. "Elena, grab a crossbow. Matt, you play Klaus."

   Elena sighed, but aimed the unloaded crossbow at Matt. They continued to invent scenarios on how they would kill any of the Originals while I just stayed back and watched. There were times where Stefan or Damon would pull me back into the group, making me join as if I were a toddler throwing a tantrum. I would act as one of the Originals or as if I were killing one. Each moment I imitated stabbing any of them, each moment I imagined one of them being Elijah, Rebekah, or Klaus, I hesitated. Damon could see, Stefan could see, Caroline could see, Elena could see, but Matt was purely ignorant of everything except learning how to kill vampires.

   After the long demonstration, Elena, Caroline, and Matt went to the Mystic Grill. I stayed with Stefan and Damon, walking back to the boarding house in human pace. There was no explanation why we walked so slow, so human-y, but it didn't bother me. In fact, I enjoyed taking my time. It felt calming, as if I could breath–it felt human. And even though I had come to terms that I wasn't human, that I would never be human once again, it was a nice feeling.

   "You hesitated," Damon broke the silence. "You hesitated numerous times."

   "Whatever," I sighed, looking down on the ground. I stepped on a fallen tree and jumped down, letting out another sigh. "It's like you're expecting me to not to hesitate."

   "That's exactly what we're expecting from you, Clara," Stefan said. "We expect you to act as fast as possible."

   I looked up and rolled my eyes, letting out a sarcastic laugh. I stood in front of them and crossed my arms, glancing from one Salvatore to the other. "Let me ask you this: would you go along with this if it were someone that was very important to you?" I turned to Damon. "Would you have staked Katherine if she weren't such a destructive bitch?" When he didn't answer, I turned to Stefan. "Would you stake Elena?" When none of them answered, I nodded. "That's what I thought."

   "Klaus is different," Stefan said. "He's–"

   "He's killed people?" I finished for him. "So? All of us have killed someone, Stefan!"

   "He tried to kill Elena," Damon broke in.

   I turned to him and scoffed, rolling my eyes. "I forgot that all you care about is Elena."

   "That's not what he meant..." Stefan tried to say, but he was cut off by his brother.

   "That's exactly what I mean," Damon said. "I care about Elena, a lot. And she's in danger every moment the Immortal Hybrid is alive. So, are you with us or not, Clara? Because I don't want you ruining this when we have a few shots."

   I stared at him in surprise, filled with hurt. There was a part of me, one that knew that Damon cared deeply for Elena, but I wanted that part to be faded. I wanted Damon to care for me, just like he cared for Elena. Maybe, maybe he did so once, but that was more than one hundred years ago. All of that, it made me hate the fact that there was a part of me that would always love him. No matter what, I would always love Damon, but it as painful. Loving him was like walking on shards of glass, like walking in a dream where everything is perfect but you know it will soon collide. Loving Damon was a dream, amazing in a moment and horrible the next.

   I tightened my grip on my crossed arms and nodded. "You know what?" I looked from Damon to Stefan, then threw the stake to their feet. "I'm out."

   "Clara–" Stefan began.

   "No!" I cut him off. "I'm out, Stefan. I'm out. I'm not gonna murder the people that took care of me when I lost everything. You had Lexi to help you when you lost everything; my Lexi was Elijah and Rebekah, and sometimes, Klaus. They helped me, they were there for me when all I wanted was just to walk into the sun and burn."

   "Boo-hoo," Damon responded, rolling his eyes. "Great sob-story. Now, take the damn stake." He held out the stake in my direction. "You take it, you hide it, and you make sure you kill any of the Originals when you see them, just like we practised."

    I took the stake and glared at it. Suddenly, anger took over my body. I hurried to Damon and pushed the stake through his stomach, hissing quietly. He doubled over in pain, his groan echoing through the whole forest. His ear was was right by my lips, and I couldn't help but hiss a low, "Bite me, Damon." I pushed the stake deeper and broke off the end, making him groan louder. "Twelve. Now you have twelve shots at killing an Original." I pulled away and glared down at him as he doubled over and tried to pull out the stake.

   Stefan chuckled. "I can't believe you didn't see that coming."

   "No," Damon groaned. "I saw that coming, just not when." He stood and pulled the stake out, groaning loudly. He glared at me as he threw what was left of the stake to my feet. "You will pay for that," he hissed.

   "I'll send you a check for the shirt," I responded, forcing a sarcastic smile. As he glared in a form of response, I stared in return.

   There was a curious kind of agony inside of me. I felt it fading, slowly, instantly, all at once. It was a tug and pull motion inside of me, a realization. It happened in the absence, in the nights we spent speaking about the past. It happened in indifference, in that quiet little fear that manifests itself as slowly, I began to care just a little bit less every day. It was sudden, it was strange, and it felt like a burn in the back of my throat. The caring was still there, but it was less.

   I swallowed and turned, walking away from a groaning Damon.

   "Clara, wait." Stefan walked next to me, his hands deep in his pocket as we left his brother alone. He didn't say anything as we continued to aimlessly walk. The silence, although it was strange, was comforting. "So, you'll hesitate?"

   I turned my head to him and sighed. "I'll hesitate," I admitted, crossing my arms. "I won't be able to kill any of them."

   "What about the other two?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "Finn and Kol?"

   "I've never met Finn or Kol," I said, nodding. "They were daggered when I was with them. All I know is that Finn has been daggered since the Twelfth century, and I only met Kol a few times. He was undaggered in 1901, and I spoke to him rarely, maybe a handful of times, since he and Klaus were in some kind of war with the witches that were on their sides. The last time I saw him was in 1914, when he was daggered again at a Christmas party." I stopped walking and turned to Stefan. "And, I know I wouldn't be able to dagger either of them, either. Yes, I don't know them, but they mean a lot to Elijah and Rebekah, not sure about Klaus."

    "Loyalty," Stefan said, almost as low as a whisper.

   "You'd be loyal to someone who saved you from death, wouldn't you?" I asked him, tilting my head to side. "You'd be loyal to Lexi if she were still alive."

   "How do you know about Lexi?" he asked, suddenly breaking the conversation.

   "I may or may not have read your journals," I confessed, smiling innocently at him. "At least three of them."

   Stefan looked at me in disbelief, but he also had a smile on his lips. He looked surprised, but also amused. "I can't believe you would read my journals," he said, letting out a short laugh. 

   "Yeah, well, there was nothing to do and I was bored, and slightly drunk, and your bedroom door was open, and yeah..." I scratched the back of my head and sent him yet another innocent smile. "Don't worry, though. I only read what you did in the seventies and the eighties. By the way, loved how you went to Harvard. Did you compel your way in or did you take the tests?"

   He let out a soft laugh and shook his head, quickly glancing down. "I took the tests," he said, as he brushed his hand down his chin. "What, uh, what were you doing in the seventies?"

   "New York," I responded as I began to walk. "Klaus wanted to experience the New York rock 'n' roll life, so he dragged Elijah and I with him. It wasn't so bad. In fact, I indulged in the life of drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll." I walked backwards and looked at him, smirking with my mouth open as I stuck my tongue on my top teeth. "It wasn't so bad, now that I think about it. I had fun, a lot of it."

   I didn't know why, but I let myself smirk as I spoke to Stefan. After the smirk, I bit my bottom lip and continued to stare at him. Even though it was silent between us, it felt like the best conversation I've ever had. Silence is the most powerful thing, as is communicating without actually saying anything. Everything from before became vague and blurry fixtures of my past. 

   In the silence, Stefan and I made our way back to the boarding house. When we walked in, his phone rang. He looked at me for a couple of seconds before answering it. "Hey."

   "Hey," Elena answered. "Where are you?"

   "I just got home," he said. "Why?"

   "Klaus' brother, Finn, is in the town square and he's with some ex-girlfriend or something."

   "Ex-girlfriend?" he asked out loud, glancing at me. "Guy's been in a coffin for the last nine hundred years." He stopped talking and then nodded. "Sage. It's got to be Sage."

   From the little that I knew about this Sage, I knew that she met Damon in 1912, when she was a boxer. She showed him how to properly feed and have fun as a vampire. In a way, she influenced him to become who he is, much like Lexi had done for Stefan. I learned all that from Damon telling Stefan a few nights ago.

   "We have an opportunity," Elena said, sounding determined. "So, how do we do this?"

   "Listen to me, Elena, do not do anything, okay? Sage is very old and strong. You don't stand a chance against her."

   "Then get Damon and Clara, and get down here."

   I stopped walking when I noticed someone in the staircase. It was Alaric, who held onto his head as if he had a headache. He leaned forward and groaned as he tried to move down the stairs, but immediately stopped to groan again. I crossed my arms and looked at him, tilting my head to the side. "What the hell happened to you?"

   He looked up at me and blinked several times, still holding on to his head. "Rebekah happened."

   "I'll go talk to her," I told Stefan as I turned to him. "She may have Damon. I expect him to be in the worse situation possible since he decided to be a dick to her."

   "Clara..." Stefan stared at me and gave me a small, almost invisible smile. "Come with me. We'll take care of Damon after we kill Finn."

   I shook my head and took a deep breath. "Like I said, I'm not gonna get involved in this, okay? You do your thing, I'll do mine."

   Stefan stared at me for a couple of seconds, then nodded. "You do know that this means we're in opposite teams, right?"

   "Yeah," I nodded. "I was well aware of that the moment I realized that I could not go on with this plan of yours."

   He nodded once again and tapped the phone on the palm of his hand as he looked around, anywhere but me. "Okay," he said, still not looking at me. "So, what? We're enemies now?"

   "No," I responded, biting my lower lip. "We're not enemies, Stefan, and we'll never be enemies. Right now, we only have have different thoughts on this matter. You want to kill someone that means a lot to me, and I want to protect them, but that doesn't make us enemies. We'll never be enemies."

   "Never?"

   "Yes, never." I responded, nodding. "I could never have the force that it takes to hate you."

   "Are you going to tell Klaus about what we're trying to do?" he asked. There was a glimmer of anger in his eyes, although it wasn't very bright. 

   "No," I responded, looking down and swallowing hard.

   "Why?"

   "Because I don't think you'll be able to actually kill him," I confessed. "He's an Original, the first of our kind; he's stronger than anything, especially since he's a hybrid now."

   I left the boarding house and went straight to the Mikaelson mansion. Since it was owned by vampires, I walked right in. When I stepped my foot right through the door, the scent of vampire blood overwhelmed me. It was strong, as if I were right under my nose. I swallowed hard and stepped forward, deciding to follow the scent of vampire blood. With each step, the scent became overwhelmingly stronger. The scent led me to a darkened room where I found Damon hanging from the ceiling with bear traps on his wrists and blood all over him. There were gashes down his chest, all of them in the major arteries which would make more blood come out. It was then that I noticed that Rebekah was not only torturing him, she was bleeding him of vervain.

    "Rebekah!" I called out to the empty house, stumping to each room where I thought she could be. "Rebekah!"

   "Rebekah's not here at the moment," someone else answered. "I could leave her a message, if you'd like."

   "Klaus," I breathed, turning around to see him standing just inches from me with a smirk around his lips. "Where is she?" I crossed my arms and tried my hardest to glare at him.

   "Like I said, she's not here at the moment," he responded with a soft chuckle. "Actually, no, she's in her room. She heard you, and she knows you have this deep sentimental thing with Damon, so she decided to hide."

   "I don't have a deep sentimental thing with Damon," I said, rolling my eyes. "I could care less how she decides to torture him, I just want to know why."

   Klaus chuckled and turned, walking away with his hands behind his back. "I can see right through you, Clara. You still love him, not as much as before, but it's still there. Your eyes say everything, especially how you feel."

   I followed after him, annoyed that he wouldn't exactly answer what I wanted. I followed him until we went into another room, one where Bonnie was. She stood over a table, softly chanting. There was blood in front of her, but I knew it didn't belong to her or to any other human. The blood in front of her was vampire, which confused me even more.

   "What is she doing here?" I asked Klaus.

   He kept the smirk around his lips as he circled the witch. "What do you think she's doing here, Clara?" he teased, laying his hands on her shoulders. She pushed him off, which caused him to chuckle and continued to circle the table. "She's breaking the spell my mother put on us."

   I swallowed hard, and nodded. If Bonnie was breaking the spell, and she did so before Stefan killed Finn, that meant that no one else would die except him. I immediately wanted her to break the spell, to have Elijah and Rebekah live. I could care less about Finn, since I didn't know him at all, but I wanted Elijah and Rebekah to stay alive.

   Bonnie continued to chant, the large circle of blood in front of her dispersing into five different circles. The flames flared up as she continued, the blood moving away from each other slowly. In a few minutes, the circles were completely separated and the fire had died. She looked at Klaus, looked at me with sad eyes, and nodded. "I'm done," she responded, her voice spitting hate. She took the grimoire, snapped it close, and began to walk away.

   Rebekah walked in then, wiping blood off her hands. "Aw, leaving so soon?"

   "Sister," Klaus warned, almost in a jokingly manner. "Be nice."

   "Thank you, Bonnie," Rebekah smiled at the girl. "See you in physics class." When she walked away, she revealed Damon in the snares. 

   Bonnie gasped. "Oh my god!"

   "Yeah, you'll have to excuse the mess," Klaus began, softly sighing without an ounce of sympathy in him. "Apparently, Damon hurt her feelings. Go on, help him. Save the man that turned your mother into a vampire."

   Bonnie glanced at Damon again. "Just get me out of here."

   "Very well," Klaus responded, escorting her out of the house. 

   When they left, I slowly walked up to Damon. He was awake, but he looked weak. I sighed and shook my head, looking at the snares. "Why are you always getting yourself into trouble?" I wondered out loud, shaking my head once again. "You should learn to keep your mouth shut."

   "You... You should learn to keep quiet," he answered, his voice hoarse and weak.

   I rolled my eyes. "You're the one in the bear snares, not me. I think it's you who should learn to keep quiet." I stepped forward and looked at the snares, biting my lower lip hard as I thought on how to get him out. "Tell me what to do."

   "What are you doing here?" he weakly asked, ignoring my question. "Rebekah will kill you."

   "I'm a favourite of the Originals," I replied, circling him. "Now, tell me, Damon: what do I need to do?"

   He was about to say something when his eyes moved from mine to behind me. "This was much different in my head," he said. 

   I turned my head to see Stefan entering the room, a duffel bag in hands. From me, he looked at his hanging brother, then looked around the room. "Klaus, I'm here!" he called. "Let'd do this."

   Klaus appeared with his usual smirk, Rebekah by his side. "Oh, good, a hero. What do you want?"

   Stefan threw the duffel bag to his feet. "I'm here to make a deal."

   "Stefan, what are you doing?" Damon hoarsely spoke.

   "Eight stakes made of white oak," Stefan continued, pushing his hands into his pocket. "The part of Wickery Bridge that you forgot to burn."

   "That's impossible." Rebekah shook her head, sounding worried and surprised.

   "Actually, it's not," Stefan shrugged. "Finn is dead."

   "You killed my brother?" Rebekah asked, hurt clear in her voice.

   Stefan turned to Klaus. "Damon in exchange for the last eight weapons that can kill you."

   "And how do I know there aren't any more left?" asked Klaus.

   "Because there aren't."

   "Let's be certain, shall we?" Klaus walked over to Damon and leaned close to his ear. "Leave."

   "No."

   "Go on, leave."

   "Nik, he's my plaything, not yours," Rebekah said as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

   Klaus grabbed Damon by the throat and compelled him, "I said, go home."

   Damon began to pull a wrist out from the snares, peeling the flesh off his arm in the process. He screamed out in pain. Each scream became louder with each pull, each scratch becoming deeper. I turned my head away and stepped away from Damon, shutting my eyes in the process. If I continued to look, if I continued to hear, I would step in and probably cause something else to happen to Damon

    "Alright. Stop, stop, stop, before you hurt yourself," Klaus chuckled in amusement. "Well, seeing that he can finally be compelled. Now." He grabbed Damon by the throat and compelled him once more. "Minus the stake that's in my brother, how many more stakes are out there than can kill me?"

   "Eleven."

   "Eleven!" Klaus almost laughed. "Really? So, not eight, then."

   "You really shouldn't have lied," Rebekah said.

   "I'll get you the other three," Stefan said.

   "Yeah, that'll be nice," Klaus sighed. "Or, since you lied, maybe I'll just compel your brother to chew out his own tongue."

   "What is wrong with you?" I asked out loud, making a face of disgust at him. 

   "What is wrong with you?!" he snapped. It seemed that he had been pushing his anger back, and it had finally snapped the moment I spoke up. He walked over to me, his eyes glimmering with anger and hate. "Do you really have no appreciation for me? I have given you someone to hate, to loathe, a target for all of your anger; so you don't have to turn it on yourself or anything else. I have given your life purpose, as your friend." He laughed. "I really think you should be thanking me, Clara."

   "The one I should be thanking is Elijah," I spat.

   The anger in Klaus' eyes were bright, almost flaring like the fire from Bonnie's spell. He was about to reach for my throat but Stefan intercepted by pushing him against the wall, a white oak stake in his hand. They fought for mere seconds, until Klaus grabbed his wrist. "Step down," he lowly said, "or the three of you die." Stefan loosened his grip, allowing Klaus to take the stake. "There. Now you only have to get me the other two."

   Rebekah rolled her eyes. "This is ridiculous," she said. She marched over to Damon and released him from the traps.

   "What are you doing?" Klaus asked, walking back to his sister.

   "I brought him here, I get to release him," Rebekah answered her brother, an annoyed look in her eyes. "My rules now." She turned to Stefan. "Bring us the stakes and the three of you live. Take Damon as a sign of good faith." She grabbed the duffel bag from the floor and strutted out, her boots echoing behind her. 

   Klaus spread his arms as he looked at Stefan, a small smirk on his lips. "Bring us the stakes. All of them." He glanced over at me, quickly, his smirk widening. "Or I will wage war on against everyone you love. I hope I'm being clear."

   As soon as he walked out of the room, Stefan and I hurried to Damon. We pulled his arm over our shoulders and hurried out of the mansion as fast as we could without bothering Damon's wounds. As soon as we arrived at the boarding house, and took him Damon to his room, I grabbed him two bags of blood. He drank the first one like a man who hadn't drank anything for days; he took his time with the second bag, taking big gulps of breath after a long sip.

   "You're good now, right?" I asked him, crossing my arms. "Good."

   "Clara," he called as I left. I stopped by the door and turned to him, raising a brow. "Thanks."

   I let out a scoff, one that sounded like a laugh. "This is the first time I hear that coming from you," I smiled. "I should remember this."

   "I didn't mean what I said earlier," he stopped me once again. "The whole sob-story thing. I was caught in the moment, and I'm sorry."

   "Maybe I should thank Rebekah for torturing you, because this is the first time I have ever heard you apologise." I passed a hand through my hair and took a deep breath. "You're forgiven, Damon. Just, make sure you don't say any crap like that in front of me again, or I might snap your neck."

   He chuckled. "Duly noted."

   I walked out of his bedroom and went straight to the one I had called mine since I arrived. When I walked into my room, I saw Stefan sitting on the bed with a piece of paper in his hands. He looked up when I closed the door behind me, shook his head, and stood. "When were you planning on telling me that you were going to leave?"

   "What?"

   "Clara..." He shook his head and glanced down at the paper in his hands. "A one-way ticket to Puerto Rico a few days from now. When were you planning on telling me that you're leaving, Clara?"

   "Stefan..."

   "Were you going to call when you got to the airport, when you got there? Were you never going to tell me and you'd just leave?" He continued to talk, anger evident in his eyes. "When were you planning on telling me that you were going to leave Mystic Falls, Clara? You're being selfish!"

   "Stefan!" I yelled, interrupting his long rant. "Yeah, I am being selfish, which is something I should have done a long time ago. This town makes me care too much, it makes me risk my life over and over again for people that would never do the same. It makes want to be a hero when all I am is a villain, Stefan."

   "Mystic Falls is your home, just like it's mine." He walked up to me and grabbed my hands. "Clara, you belong here as much as we do."

   "It's my home," I nodded, "but it doesn't feel like it. I don't belong here any more."

   His hands touched my cheek, making me look into his eyes. "Clara, listen to me: you belong here. You belong in this house, in Mystic Falls, with m-us. You belong here with us."

   "No," I shook my head. "I don't–"

   It was sudden, but it happened. Stefan leaned in and brought his lips to mine. He kissed me. His lips moulded with mine, suddenly, slowly, passionately. I grabbed on to his shirt, kissing back with tears falling down my cheeks. His lips felt warm against mine, perfectly moving in a synchronized dance that felt so strange yet endearing.

   I didn't know whether I should have pushed him away and slapped him, or whether I should have enjoyed the passing moment and let it go whichever way it went from the kiss. I went with the latter.