American Gothic (3rd revised version)

        It was a dismal night in Pennsylvania, as he watched her walk away. Then he looked down at the cure in his hand that she had given him, wanting him to trust her just like she trusted him. How could he though when, at every turn, she lied and deceived so much that he didn’t know any more if she was telling the truth? He couldn’t trust someone like that. She wasn’t who he had fallen in love with anymore. She had changed a long time ago, but despite wanting to believe that his Katerina was still in there somewhere, he was starting to think that his Katerina he had fallen for was dead.

        He stopped looking at it and put it away in his pocket in his suit jacket.

        Suddenly, just as he turned around and began to cross the street, he heard some shots close by and saw someone leaving a building with a rifle. That someone knew he saw him but wasn’t afraid.

        At vamp speed, he had the guy pinned against a brick wall with the gun on the ground.

        “Who are you?” he growled, fighting not to lose control. He would love to kill him, but he needed to know who he was first. “What do you want?”

        “Jack. Some guy named Silas sent me,” he replied, as Elijah’s hearing picked up on Katherine in an alley, who he hadn’t seen since the shots. He didn’t need to see her to know that she’d been hit.

        He growled at Jack, and, angry at Katerina being targeted, let him go and then severed his head from his body, killing him. He then sped towards the alley.





        Once in the dark alley, he saw her on her back and was instantly knelt at her side.

        “Katerina?” he called to her. “Katerina.” He rested a gentle hand on the side of her face, not getting a reply. That’s when he felt how warm she was. He knew what it meant. The bullets she’d been shot with had werewolf poison in them. She was dying. With his free hand, he began to pull each bullet out. Then, after that was done, he rested his free hand on the right side of her face so both hands rested on either side of her head. “Katerina, can you hear me?” he called to her, trying again. “I need you to open your eyes, Katerina.” Once more, he didn’t get a reply. That made him think that she’d gotten more than the average poison normally accompanied by just one werewolf bite. Realizing that, his heart sunk. If she’d gotten an extra dose, she didn’t have twenty-four hours to wait for the cure. She had less than that.

        He took his hands away and put his right arm around his shoulders. He used his right to slide under her legs and his left to slide under her, supporting her head, and gently pulled her close to him. As he gently pulled her close, he heard her groan, but that was all he got.

        “Stay with me, Katerina,” he pleaded, before speeding towards his car with her, where he gently sat her in the passenger’s seat. Then he closed the door and got in, before starting the car and driving as fast as possible back to Mystic Falls.





        As he drove, he kept an eye on her, making sure she didn’t grow any purple veins, and hoped that she’d open her eyes. He needed her to wake up. He needed to at least know that she could hear him.





        An hour later, half way to Mystic Falls, he used his right hand to hold her hand, as he continued driving.

        When he heard her groan, he looked over at her.

        “Katerina?”

        “Elijah,” she half-whispered and, with difficulty, opened her eyes to see him with a worried face. “What’s happening?”

        “You were shot more than once with bullets that have werewolf poison. You’re dying,” he answered her.

        She turned her head to watch the road. After 500 years of survival, she was going to die, knowing that Klaus would never cure her. As she looked at it, her vision went blurry and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. And as everything began to fade, she vaguely heard Elijah calling to her, but everything was too far away.

        “We’re almost there, Katerina. Just hang on,” he begged, as he drove into town and towards home. If anything happened to her, he didn’t know how he’d live. He needed her alive.





        An hour later, he was seated on her bedside, having gotten Klaus to cure her an hour ago, waiting for her to wake up, her hand in his, glad she was cured.