“What?” Stefan alisema when words failed to leave both Damon and my mouths. She was still staring at me.
“I can’t believe it. How is this possible?” she alisema to herself. I was at loss. What was she TALKING about? Stefan slowly walked towards her and knelt beside her.
“Katherine, we need wewe to tell us. What are wewe talking about? How is Elena…you?” he asked gently. She seemed to calm down and she walked over to the bar. She shakily poured herself a large neat vodka and downed it. She slammed the glass down and stared at the fire.
“A few years before I came to Mystic Falls in 1864, Emily and I were travelling in North Carolina. We had a run in with some idiotic young Wanyonya damu who were impossibly strong. They were three men and they got…obsessed with me. To tell wewe the truth, I was scared of them. For some reason they were stronger than me - an older vampire. I fought them off but only just managed to survive. One of them was amazing at tracking, and they all followed me. Emily couldn’t kill them, even though her magic was powerful. It seemed as though they had some sort of protection charm keeping them safe. Eventually we thought we’d Lost them, and Emily told me that she could help me get away from them kwa leading them off my scent. I asked her how, and she alisema it was dangerous.” She looked away from the fire. Damon, Stefan and I were listening intently. Where was this strange story going? How did it link to me? She continued.
“I told her I’d do anything to get them off my back. So she set up a ritual. It involved removing part of my soul and locking it away. That part would be used to lure the Wanyonya damu away and leave me free to escape. I lay on a cold stone floor whilst Emily prepared the spell. Then she chanted and I felt as though I was dying. Like part of me was being ripped out. Which it was. The part of my soul which Emily used…was my humanity.” She whispered the last word. I suddenly felt a twang of sympathy for Katherine. She had had to lose her humanity to save herself from being attacked and possibly dying.
“You have no…humanity?” Damon choked. She looked at him sadly and nodded slowly. “Which means that you’re not capable of sympathy au kindness or…love?” He glanced away. “You never loved me. Not even in 1864. wewe couldn’t…” She was suddenly at his side and holding his chin in her hand. She looked him dead in the eyes.
“I tried Damon. I tried so hard to upendo you. I wanted to, terribly. I knew that my humanity would have loved wewe zaidi than wewe can ever know. And my humanity does, I see…” And she looked at me. Damon gasped. Stefan gasped. I gasped. I was Katherine’s humanity.

“How….” I alisema slowly, trying to get my head around what Katherine was telling me. I was her humanity? I was her SOUL? “How…” I alisema pathetically again. She sat down on the sofa and held her empty glass tightly. She looked up at me.
“When Emily removed my humanity, she locked it away. She told me that the only way I could ever get it back was if it was…born again. Then she would chant a spell and my souls would be united.” She stared sadly at the floor. “But Emily has gone. Her spell has gone. There’s no way I can get my humanity back…” Damon’s mouth stopped hanging open and he fumbled out his words.
“So, Elena is…you? She’s what wewe were like when wewe were human? What wewe would have been like if those Wanyonya damu hadn’t attacked you?” He rubbed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair. “So if wewe were to jiunge back with your humanity…what would happen to Elena?” He asked quietly, his face dropping as he guessed, just like I had already.
“Her body would die but the soul would remain. Like a ghost.” I shuddered.
“W-w-would I lose myself?” I asked, frightened. What if Katherine managed to do it? What if she managed to get her humanity back? Would she still remember everything that I had been through in my life? Would I be alive as her? I didn’t want to die.
“I don’t know,” she answered thoughtfully. “Well I don’t think so, seeing as wewe are actually part of me.” Amazingly this maoni didn’t make me feel any better.
“Oh my god, this is way too much…” I alisema faintly and I fell backwards onto the chair behind me. Damon rushed to my side.
“Are wewe ok?” he asked softly, brushing my hair out of my face. His eyes were full of worry.
“I’m ok. Well, I guess I’ve been better. How is Isobel involved in all this though?” I asked Katherine.
“My soul was protected in a Charmed locket. If anyone opened it the soul would enter them. I always thought that the soul would just reside in their body, like the body uigizaji as a host, but it seems to me,” she alisema as she circled me, staring at me intensely, “that the soul took on the form of myself as a baby, and the person who opened the locket carried the baby. The locket could only be opened kwa a human. I kept the locket with me searching for someone to help me get my humanity back, a suitable human who would be happy enough to die, au so I thought, to make room for my soul. It was until one fateful siku that my locket got stolen. A band of travelling vampire’s allowed Emily and I to jiunge them, but one night, one of them aliiba my locket whilst I was sleeping and the inayofuata morning they were all gone. And they had taken my humanity with them. Of course none of them could open the locket, but it was devastating thinking that I may never get it back. I searched for them for years alongside Emily, who did everything in her power to try to find them. Eventually we ended up in Mystic Falls, where I met wewe two,” she said, pointing at both Stefan and Damon and grinning. Damon’s face softened suddenly.
“Katherine, I’m so sorry. Now I understand everything. wewe didn’t upendo me because wewe literally COULDN’T upendo me, and wewe can’t help but be the way wewe are. That must be terrible.” He walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it away instantly.
“I don’t need your pity, Damon,” she retorted. The fact that she couldn’t use most human emotions and experience most human feeling crushed me zaidi than I thought it would. It was like something was aching horribly inside me. I clutched my painful chest and breathed slowly. Damon was back at my side and he held my arm.
“Elena, what’s wrong, are wewe ok?” he asked again.
“I just had a weird pain in my chest,” I breathed as I composed myself. He held me in his arms. Katherine cleared her throat.
“Anyway,” she began. “The locket must have travelled from vampire to vampire au something. I’m not quite sure. But one siku Emily had a vision. She came to me and told me what she had seen. She alisema “…Isobel will save your soul.” She didn’t say anymore on the subject apart from that one little sentence. I never knew what she meant…until now.” She was in front of me in a blink, but stopped abruptly as Damon put his arm out to stop her coming any closer.
“Isobel was your mother, wasn’t she?” Katherine asked. I nodded and she sat down in the chair inayofuata to me. Stefan, who had been quiet for a very long time, also sat down. We all sat in silence for a while, taking in what each of us had learned in the evening of events. I was dumbfounded. All this information was a lot to take in. And thinking about the fact that I was only Katherine’s humanity made me feel…not completely human. It just made me feel like a kind of “storage box” for her soul.

“You do realise that I’m going to want my humanity back,” Katherine alisema finally, looking at the floor. Damon, Stefan and I tensed and we all glared at her. She looked up and put her hands up. “But don’t get all worked up about it! I need a witches spell to get my humanity back and I don’t know any witches anymore so,” I relaxed a little.
“Even if wewe do get a witch to help you, I won’t let wewe touch Elena,” Damon alisema angrily. Stefan nodded. Katherine narrowed her eyebrows.
“I know wewe both upendo her and want her to be safe, but I’m sure that if I’m united with my humanity we’ll be the same person. We ARE the same person. She’s just me out of my own body. I need her. I need my humanity. I want to feel again. I want to upendo again…” she stroked Damon’s face. “I know in my moyo that wewe would have been the man that I loved. I would have loved wewe so strongly that words can’t even describe. My moyo aches to think that I may never get to feel that love.” Damon relaxed and stared into her eyes. I knew he still loved her. She looked at me. “I envy you. I envy wewe so much it hurts. wewe get to feel love. I miss love…” I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She seemed so desperate. But I didn’t know what would happen to my soul if I gave it over to Katherine. I could lose all my memories and thoughts and just become a part of Katherine. But I did know that even if that happened Damon would fall for Katherine again because her humanity would return, making her like me. Damon stood up.
“Katherine. Thank wewe for telling us everything. But I think it’s time for wewe to leave.” She stood up also, and nodded.
“I’ll leave, but don’t think I won’t be back,” she replied, smiling.
“I know wewe will,” Damon said, and suddenly she was gone. We all breathed out heavily at the same time.
“I think I need to go out and, wewe know…” Stefan alisema as he raised himself from his chair. He disappeared too and left Damon and I standing idly in the centre of the room. Damon slowly turned to me and wrapped his arms around me.
“Don’t wewe ever think that if Katherine gets her humanity from you, that I’ll just upendo Katherine again immediately. I will never let her take you, Elena. You’re the girl I upendo and I never ever want to lose you,” he alisema softly as he kissed the juu of my head. I leant my face up to his.
“I never want to lose wewe either,” I replied quietly and pressed my lips firmly against his. When we broke apart he held my face in his hands.
“I know a way that I can protect wewe from Katherine ever getting her humanity. And it will mean that wewe and I will never have to leave one another. I want wewe forever, Elena.” I stepped back as I realised what he was getting at.
“Damon…are wewe saying….” I gasped. He nodded.
“Yes, Elena. I think I should turn you,” he replied.

I backed away slightly.
“Damon…what? wewe want to turn me…?” I was in shock. He grabbed my arms.
“I NEED to turn you, Elena. There’s a difference. Once you’re a vampire you’ll be safer from Katherine. And also, it means that wewe and I can be together…forever,” he alisema as he smiled gently.
“Damon, being a vampire won’t keep me safer from Katherine. She can still take my humanity and then I’ll be exactly like her,” I told him anxiously. “But to be with wewe forever is something I want dearly, but I don’t know if I can leave my family and Marafiki behind. Give me time.” He nodded and pulled me into an embrace. He held me tightly and kissed my hair. I kissed him and he kissed me back. Soon we were ripping each others clothes off and he carried me upstairs. We fell onto his kitanda and he ran his hands softly up my sides, sending excited chills shooting through my body. He ran his hands under my tee-shirt and I shivered with the excitement. He pulled it off and threw it to the floor. He kissed me all over and kept returning to my lips every once in a while. We kept at it for ages and my back kept arching as my pleasure reached it peak. He ran his hand down my back slowly and my body tingled. I Tangled my hands in his hair and then slid them over his face and down his chest. He sighed and I rolled over so I was on juu of him. I ran my hands over his chest again and kissed it passionately. He stared into my eyes and stroked my hair. I moved my lips back to his and we breathed out heavily as we kept going. He rolled back on juu of me to make me the main focus of our activity and decided to go at it faster. This time was actually better than our first time, which had been absolutely incredible. I sighed heavily as my back arched again. He smiled as kissed my neck; my chest; my stomach. I grabbed his shoulders but the sweat made my hands slide over his back. He sighed too. We went on for what seemed like hours. I wondered why Stefan hadn’t come nyumbani but I quickly threw thoughts of Stefan from my mind and turned back to the situation at hand. Finally, after an amazing, amazing few hours, we rolled onto our backs and breathed out slowly. Damon propped himself onto his elbow and gazed at me lovingly. He brushed my bedraggled hair out of my face and his touch was gentle and kind. I moved myself closer to him and tucked my head beneath his chin. He stoked my hair and whispered lines of a upendo poem in my ear.

Feelings that once were hidden
Are now expressed to you.
Days that once were stormy
Are now the brightest blue.

Times that once were lonely
Are now filled with pleasure.
All that once was mine alone
Are now things we both treasure.

Nights that once were cold
Are now comforting and warm.
Fears that once were very real
Are now gone with the storm.

A moyo that once was broken
Can now finally mend.
A person once alone in life
Can now call wewe a friend.

Dreams that once were longed for
Are now all coming true.
The upendo I once thought was gone
I have now and forever in you.

His words made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The words seemed to fit our relationship perfectly. Katherine being the reason for ‘a moyo that once was broken’, and he had accentuated the word ‘forever’ when he had spoken it. I’d heard all his upendo for me in that poem and I grabbed his face and pulled his lips down to mine. He kissed me back and then smiled my favourite smile of his. I touched his face and smiled back. Oh, how I loved him. Suddenly there was an awkward, urgent cough at the door. I snapped my head around to see Stefan, his eyes wary and desperate.
“We have a big problem,” he alisema anxiously.