“What do you mean? What’s happened?” Damon urged. Katherine hung her head solemnly.
“The new vampires in town are the same ones that were obsessed with me back in the 1850’s. The exact same ones.” My jaw dropped and I gasped.
“Why are they here? Why now?” said Damon as he tensed up and clenched his fists.
“My guess is that it’s because I’m close to my…humanity, which is, FOR NOW, Elena,” she said, accentuating the words ‘for now’ and staring maliciously at me. I took a step back. Damon placed himself as if he was ready to protect me from anything. His eyes were wide.
“Katherine, you need to leave. That way both you and Elena will be safe,” he said anxiously.
“Damon, they now know where we both are. They won’t just go away if I leave. They’ll track both Elena and I down. And they are strong. Like, impossibly strong. If I had my humanity, I’d be completely and utterly frightened right now. Just like her,” she smirked, pointing at me. Damon spun around and saw me, a pale, wide-eyed girl reclining from the vampires slowly. He put out his hand to me but I ignored him. I was indeed frightened. These were vampires that Damon and Stefan couldn’t beat. If they fought, they would die. I couldn’t lose them.
“No, Damon. I-I can’t…this is all far too much this time…” And with that, I pathetically fainted on the floor.

I heard someone distantly calling my name.
“Elena, Elena! Are you ok? Please, wake up!” And I felt a hand shaking my arm, and another hand holding the back of my head. Slowly, the voice got louder and my eyes flickered open. I saw Damon’s distraught and worried face hovering over mine.
“Damon, I-I’m sorry…” I mumbled, but he shushed at me and stroked my hair.
“You’ve done nothing wrong. How are you feeling?” he asked softly. I nodded feebly and tried to sit up, but my back ached from the sudden fall when I had fainted on the hard wooden floor. He lifted me in his strong arms and placed me down on the soft, comfortable sofa. He knelt beside me and searched my face with his grey eyes. His beautiful grey eyes. I suddenly remembered the news about the other vampires and groaned. Damon shook me gently again but I batted him away with my hand mumbling – lying – ‘I’m fine…” He looked unsure but glanced back at Katherine.
“How can we get rid of them? I mean you can’t take away another piece of your soul,” he said worriedly to her. She put her hands over her face and looked like if she could cry, she would. Suddenly I felt overwhelmed. I felt that terrible aching feeling in my chest again and suddenly I felt very strange. Words that weren’t mine poured from my mouth.
“I’m so sorry that I have caused this. I should have never come back here. Now I’ve disrupted your lives and I never meant for that to happen. I’m so scared, not just for me, but for us all,” and my mouth snapped shut. The three vampires in the room were staring at me, their eyes so wide they looked like they were going to fall from the sockets.
“Wha-what did you just say?” Katherine choked. Damon’s mouth was hanging open, as was Stefan’s. “You just…talked my words. The words that I’m incapable of saying. How…-” They looked as bewildered as I probably did. What had just happened to me?
“I don’t know…” I replied. Damon stared at me, dumbfounded.
“It must be the connection between both of you,” he looked at both Katherine and I. “The souls are interacting. It must be the fact that you’re so close to one another…” he mused, still staring at me.