CHAPTER SEVEN | MASQUERADE

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RILEY WAS A FOOL TO BELIEVE THAT HER GRANDMOTHER WOULD BE SAFE IN A TOWN FULL OF SUPERNATURAL. It turned out that after Damon had killed Mason, Katherine had retaliated by compelling both Gwen and Jenna to stab themselves. Once Stefan had compelled her grandmother to forget about what Katherine had told her to do, Riley made the decision that if she wanted her grandmother to remain alive, she had to leave Mystic Falls. So, she asked Stefan to compel her to leave town before anything else happened to her. The decision didn't come lightly to Riley, but she needed to keep the people that she loved safe.

Riley stepped back into her house, after waving her grandmother off the morning after Katherine's attack. The house felt strange without the loving presence of Gwen Riley, but she knew it was for the best.

"Hey. Stefan told me what happened. I'm so sorry, Riley." Damon's voice called out just as he appeared in the doorway behind the strawberry-blonde. She slowly turned around to face him and he observed the look on her face— she was about to break. "Oh, come here."

The witch rushed into Damon's hold without a second thought. She wasn't sure why she felt so comforted around him, but he was the closest thing she had to comfort right now. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let her tears of regret and pain fall onto his leather jacket until she just felt numb.

She pulled her arms from Damon's neck, though his hands still delicately remained wrapped around her waist. "I need— Katherine needs to pay."

"Coincidentally, little witch, we've come up with a brilliant plan to take down Katherine tonight." A smirk drifted across Damon's lips as he wriggled his eyebrows.

"What? Where?"

"Tonight. At the Masquerade Ball." He nodded slowly. "She came after Caroline, demanding she wants the moonstone and she'll be at the ball tonight. So, we're gonna go and kill her."

Riley's eyes lit up at the thought of making the Pierce vampire pay for all the pain she had caused. "Well, I'm in."

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After Damon had explained the plan to Riley, they headed back to the Salvatore house where the rest of the group were gathered to go over the plan for the Masquerade Ball. Katherine was smart, she would see an attack coming a mile away so they just had to be smarter than her.

"Are you sure you guys don't want me there tonight?" Alaric glanced toward Stefan, who seemed to be the person calling the shots.

"No. I need you to stay with Elena. I don't want her to know about this." Stefan nodded slowly. He wanted Elena as far away from the event as possible.

"Okay. Well, I'll make sure she doesn't leave my sight."

"Alright. If anybody wants to back out, I'll understand." The youngest Salvatore folded his arms and glanced around the room with a pointed look on his face.

"Yeah. Cold feet, speak now. I don't want this going wrong because someone chickens out." Damon turned his head to the blonde and gave her a short stare. "Caroline?"

"I won't. Look, she killed me. Fair's fair." The blonde quickly retorted in defense of herself. "As long as there are no werewolves running around."

"No, there won't be. Damon took care of Mason, so the only wolf left is Tyler." Riley spoke up before Damon even had a chance to reference Mason's death with a sly joke and a smirk.

"As long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn." The youngest Gilbert explained to the rest of the group.

"Bonnie?" Stefan turned his head to the girl who looked slightly reluctant. "You with us?"

She remained silent for a moment, almost as if she were worried about answering. Then, she swallowed thickly and nodded. "But no one gets hurt."

"Except Katherine." Riley corrected the Bennett with an evil look in her eyes. "After everything that Katherine has done, there's no way that bitch is coming out on top."

"Tonight, Katherine gets a stake through her heart."

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There was something strange about dressing up in a gorgeous dress with a masquerade mask in preparation to kill the devil herself. As Riley stepped out into the Lockwood Estate, dozens of party-goers danced around with their masks covering their faces so it was even harder to assume their identities.

Damon stood at the threshold of the Lockwood party staring at the dozens of guests who'd chosen to dress up for the ball. His eyes darted back and forth as if he were trying to find the one person that he knew he would be able to find, no matter the intensity of the crowd. Eventually, he spotted her situated by the bar.

"Miss Evans." Damon extended his hand to the strawberry-blonde who wore a gorgeous low-cut black dress with matching heels and a lace mask over her eyes. "Care for a dance?"

Riley took a short breath and admired Damon for a moment before she softly chuckled and placed her hand within his. "Are you sure that dancing is the sort of thing you and I should be doing right now?"

"What would we be doing?" Damon raised an eyebrow as they slowly began to sway to the music, their fingers intertwined effortlessly.

The strawberry-blonde scoffed quietly. "What about Katherine?"

"What about her?" Damon shrugged whilst he let his hand trail down to Riley's waist. "Dancing with you is one of the more similar things we'll be doing this evening. I'd rather Katherine didn't rob me of that, too." A silence befell the couple for a moment as their eyes locked. "I really am sorry, about your Grandma, Riley. If I'd have known—"

"No, it's okay." Riley immediately cut him off before he could say too much. "It was stupid of me to think that she would be safe in a town chock full of vampires, werewolves, and everything in between. It's for the best."

"No. What would've been best is you living with your last remaining piece of your family, Riles. Katherine's a nasty little bitch for taking that away from you, and I promise I'll make her suffer for it."

"You just wish my grandma liked you, that's why you're so hell-bent on getting revenge on Katherine." Riley teased quietly with a smirk on her lips.

"Contrary to popular belief, Riley, it's not actually your grandma I've been focused on making like me." As the words fell from Damon's lips, another comfortable silence befell the two, but it was cut short.

"I need you two to come with me, right now." Stefan's voice was stern as he appeared beside Damon and Riley. The couple peeled themselves out of each other's hold and followed Stefan into the Lockwood mansion, then into a back room. "Katherine killed a girl. I put the body in the trunk for now."

"We'll dump her when we get back." Damon agreed with a careless shrug which caused Riley to raise an eyebrow.

"No." The little witch immediately shook her head with a worried look on her face. "We need to do something now. If she carries on, there's gonna be nobody left at this damn party."

The younger of the two Salvatores started to pace up and down the room. "Right. Which is why we need to call it off."

"What? No. No, we need to do this, guys. Katherine cannot walk free, not after everything she's done." Riley looked between the two Salvatores; one who was bent on making Katherine pay, and the other was more concerned about the innocents that would pay the price. "Look, I'm gonna go find Bonnie and see if she needs any help setting up the room. You two need to get it together."

A heavy sigh left the strawberry-blonde lips as she stepped out of the back room and into the backyard once more, but she was swiftly grabbed by her arm and pulled by none other than Elena Gilbert. It was obvious as Bonnie and Jeremy stood in front of the Gilbert girl, she was unhappy about the plan. "Riley, are you in on this, too?"

"Yeah. She is." Jeremy joined in with his arms folded across his chest. "We saw an opportunity, and we knew we had to take it."

"Okay, stop with the we." The doppelganger scoffed with an irritated look on her face, then she turned her attention to the two witches. "Are you guys crazy? You're gonna get yourselves killed."

"We know what we're doing, Elena," Bonnie told the girl with a determined look on her face.

"And, how am I supposed to feel if one of you guys gets hurt because of me?"

Another heavy sigh escaped Riley's lips as she stressfully ran her hand through her hair. "It's a risk that we need to take, Elena. Katherine has screwed with every single one of us. She needs to be stopped."

"Look, I get that you're upset about Katherine going after Gwen, but this isn't right, Riles, and you—" Just before Elena could even finish speaking, she suddenly yelled out in anguish and dropped to her knees as a pool of blood appeared on her back.

"Elena! What is it?" Bonnie frantically asked the female whilst Riley and Jeremy sat her down on one of the benches.

Then, as Elena's breathing slowly began to calm down, another wound appeared on her upper-right shoulder. "Katherine," Riley muttered underneath her breath as her eyes widened. "Oh, my God. Elena's linked to Katherine."

"Jeremy, get them to stop. Now!" The Bennett witch yelled in Jeremy's direction as he hurried off inside the house in an attempt to stop the Salvatore's from harming Katherine.

A cut suddenly appeared on Elena's palm, almost as if Katherine had done it herself. "Guys. It hurts."

"What the hell kinda witch did this!" Riley yelled out exasperatedly after she and the Bennett witch had made several failed attempts to lift the linking spell placed on Elena. "We can't break the spell, Elena."

"No. But, we can try to take some of the pain away, okay? Okay." Bonnie grabbed hold of Riley's hand, they both closed their eyes whispered an incantation.

Whilst the witches were attempting to relieve Elena's pain, Jeremy ran back over to the group. "Are you okay?"

"Are they?" Elena's eyes widened with panic at the sight of her brother.

"They're stuck in there with her." Jeremy turned his attention to Bonnie. "You guys were right. Katherine had a witch link Elena to her."

"Must have been one hell of a witch to do this," Riley told the Gilbert boy just as she saw Bonnie's eyes widen. "Bon, what is it?"

"That girl I saw. The one inside." Bonine lifted herself up to her feet and began to run toward the house. "Stay with her! Keep pressure on her shoulder."

"Where are you going?"

"There's another witch here. I'm gonna find her." Bonnie yelled out finally just as she disappeared into the party.

"Here." Jeremy positioned himself in front of his sister and slid the Gilbert ring from his finger, and attempted to hand it to her. "Take this. Elena, listen. Listen to me. You need this more than I do."

"No, Jeremy, what I need is for you to be safe." Elena cried out with her hand within Riley's, who was still trying desperately to take Elena's pain away.

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After the witch at the party had sided with them and left Katherine unconscious. Damon had every intention of taking Katherine to the tomb and locking her in himself, but Riley wanted to assist. She wanted her face to be the last face that Katherine Pierce would see before she desiccated.

Damon and Riley stood staring at Katherine's lifeless body that laid inside the tomb. She began to stir awake and the minute realized just where she was, she sped toward the exit. However, due to the spell cast on the tomb, once a vampire was inside, they were unable to leave.

"You messed with us one too many times, Katherine." Riley tilted her head toward the fearfully looking vampire. "You had to be stopped."

"Where am I?" She asked with a weak voice.

"Where you should've been all along. I thought you'd have learned your lesson by now, messing with a Bennett witch." Damon shook his head.

Katherine shook her head, a disgusted look on her face. "You should've killed me."

"Death would've been too kind. Going after Riley's grandmother? Bad move. It's a shame it's ended up this way." The Salvatore vampire edged forward to close the tomb, but Katherine continued to beg for her freedom.

"No. Damon, don't." Katherine pleaded loudly with tears in her eyes. "You need me, you both do. Elena's in danger."

"Really?" Riley folded her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow just as Damon paused. "From who, Katherine?" But, the doppelganger remained silent. "You're lying."

"Why do you think I haven't killed her?" Katherine finally yelled out again in one final last-ditch attempt to save herself. "Because she's the doppelganger. She needs to be protected."

"Then we'll protect her. While you rot in hell."

As Damon began to shut the tomb, Katherine roared from behind the concrete wall. "No. Damon, no. I'll do anything. Please, Damon. You need me! Damon, you need me! You need me!"

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