text;

_{[The last day or so has been devoted to cleaning out his rooms--both of them, his private room and his work space in the basement. There are things he doesn't care to keep, half-finished research and fragments of an old life he's outgrown, that go into boxes to be taken out with the trash or burned.

He's in the process of dismantling a piece of equipment when he gets the text, and he swaps a wrench for his phone.

The first line is composed of three simple words, but he has to reread it over again, anyway. Klaus. Klaus, the immortal product of witches, wolves, and vampires that had hounded Elena to her death with the same tenacity as Dracula. It must have cost her a good deal to compose a message like this.]}

You spoke to him?

_{[That's more concerning than what Klaus does or doesn't remember about him.]}