This is the newly changed and beta'ed chapter 1 and chapter 2. A great thank you to Jade Celandine for going over this with a swift and thorough mind.
Story Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries and The Originals belong to their respective owners, I have no claim to them.
CHAPTER ONE: "LIFE ONCE LIVED" OR "THE START OF THE FIRST DOPPELGANGER"
I have never thought that reincarnation was possible for me. No matter how much I wished it could happen, I never even gave it any thought. I just knew it was impossible, since I believed with my whole being that I would go to hell for not being who everyone else wanted me to be and for later dying without anyone there to mourn me; at least, those were my thoughts at the time.
Because of everybody's high expectations of me and my inability to please them I became a recluse. I isolated myself and became depressed and self-hating, not even my parents seemed to care and that only made me feel more insecure. My only haven was the TV where everything became less of a nuisance when watching supernatural themed shows and it worked, for a while anyway.
Yes, it came to a point where even those shows did not help anymore. I started to let myself go by lessening my eating habits until I did not eat anymore, and let's not forget my hygiene. I had let myself go.
Soon enough I was not aware of anything except my own pain, not even my parents' shouting or slapping could do anything but make me flinch. I knew they only wanted me to be a better version of myself and did not care much for my opinion but I was tired of caring what everyone thought and wanted out of me. So even though I wanted them to hurt just as much as me by seeing me hurt, it didn't work. After that revelation I opened my eyes to their carelessness and decided to get better on my own for my well-being. I wanted to prove everyone wrong.
I was beginning to want to do better, but this time the reason wasn't superficial or for someone else.
I remember it being a beautiful spring morning when I talked myself into going downstairs to eat a snack as to get my body used to getting sustenance again. With some trouble, I finally got up and oh so slowly walked towards the stairs. Once I was at the head of the stairs I came to a stop and somehow knew it was all in vain. I was too late. My newly found strength was all futile. I was a week overdue and because of this realization I let myself fall. I remember that beautiful spring morning was a morning I'll never forget. It was after all the day I died.
Wherever I resided was peaceful and quiet, there was no shouting and it looked like there wasn't going to be any.
I was surrounded by a warm-like feeling, which I hoped would be love but was not counting on it. Wherever I was located was a dream come true, there was no other way to explain it. I could somehow sense the oh so positive vibes coming from the outside and it was wonderful.
I was filled with a calm joy when somewhere along the way the place began to restrict my movements until I could move no more. Sooner rather than later the place began to contract and
I began thrashing around in a panic.
Through the seemingly tough cocoon I was encased in, someone began to sing a very familiar and beautiful melody. Hearing it immediately calmed me down and even though I was still scared, I held on until an invisible queue was given and the safe cocoon began to expel me.
As I was being pushed out off of my resting place, I knew something was infinitely wrong with the situation. First of all I was being pushed out into some unknown place when I thought I was dead and in some kind of Limbo, a calm and happy Limbo but one nonetheless. Second of all I WAS BEING PUSHED OUT SOMEHOW AND IT HURT!
Finally, after being stuck in a shrinking tunnel, I was brought out. Just when I was about to relax something smacked my behind and I let out a strangled cry. Wait. A cry? Why would I cry instead of shouting out some not so kind words? That's when I deigned to open my eyes and shut them right after. There were giant beings holding me and making me give out cries of pain. Why were they doing this to me? Did they want me to remember my shortcomings so soon? Hopefully they weren't as cruel as my parents were. Being constricted in the tunnel, coming out into the cold, then slapped on my behind and my blissful existence came to an end in a splatter.
("We'll name her Tatia.")
The first few months in my supposedly new life were very much the same as when I was in what I now realized was my new mother's womb. It was a bit embarrassing, how my new mother needed to change me, burp me and bathe me but I made do since she did it with such care that it endeared her to me. It made me feel loved and cared for in a way I don't remember ever feeling.
The times I saw my father were special because he wasn't home much, but when he was he brought both I and Mamma's joy-filled smiles back into full swing. So much so that his moniker became my first word.
"Far!"( Father!)
It was one of the happiest I have ever felt; dad had been so full of excitement to hear it from me that he held me for the rest of the day without stop.
I, of course, conveniently forgot about my new name and what it could mean to me.
After my first year being alive again, I started to notice how we lived in a man-made hut, in a Nordic village and how my dad was the village's Jarl, meaning the leader. As much as it was a surprise for me it did not hinder my joy of my newly acquired life as much as I would have thought, I was immensely happy.
Everything was fine, the years passed on by on a happy daze that is, until the day I was led to socialize with the other children of the village. I was not permitted to go out often and I was always in company of my Mamma or Pappa but I digress.
I was left with the other children-some older than me, going towards adolescence more than childhood—and the children's mothers. Once they thought I could not hear they began to whisper in between themselves or in case of the children; to subtly alienate me from the rest.
"How could Astrid become disloyal towards our leader?"
"Look at that child's eyes! There decisively not our Jarl's earth brown nor her mother's rich green."
"Can you believe that woman's nerve; to parade her bastard around as if she were Petrov's child."
Once I heard all those cruel words towards my Ma and I, I bolted from there and towards our home not willing to wait on my parents to give me excuses to not do what I was about to do.
I was nine years old and I had never looked at my appearance in a surface such as water or a mirror. I thought about it and realized that my parents never let me go near the river and did not have any mirrors close by. Another thing that came to mind was how others always became silent when I passed them by and how the parents would tell their children to stay away, such as today. Only now did I realize that my parent's presence shielded me from the glares and disapproval from others. Oh how naïve had I been!
Once I entered our abode I walked straight towards my parents' room where I knew they had a mirror and what do you know, there laying on the makeshift bed was the much needed object. I barely catched a glimpse of the mirror before me when a gasp was emitted from behind me.
I turned around and found myself gazing at my ma's otherworldly green eyes and ashen face.
"Tatia!" I flinched not because of her tone of voice but because of my name. Couldn't it have been someone else's name? I mean really? It's not like I am living in the world of Vampire Diaries and the Originals.
"Yes ma?"
"What pray tell are you doing in here, about to use the mirror we specifically told you not to touch!" She practically yelled at me, thankfully I was still used to people doing so.
"I'm sorry ma but if you would have been there with all the gossiping woman throwing insults at me, thinking I would not hear them; the children taunting me all because of my looks; looks that I have never even got the chance to see."
Another sigh came out of her mouth whilst she walked towards me and came down to my level. She placed one of her hands on my shoulder and spoke in a calmer manner as if knowing of my past experiences with yelling.
"Child there is a reason why you are not to look at yourself and-"
I immediately interrupted her.
"Is the reason you do not want me to look at myself because I don't appear to look anything like father? Ma, am I not far's child?" She closed her eyes as if in defeat and answered.
"Do not be fooled by others, you are your father's child through and through even if at first glance you look nothing alike."
"But ma that does not make sense!" she gazed through me, as if seeing something that disappointed her.
"My girl, you'll know soon enough, just not now. I am quite sure you are not yet ready to know."
"Does Papa know this as well?" she answered with an affirmative and I calmed down considerably.
"Then can I at least ask why I can't look?"
"You can but you will only get your answers when you are older." She told me after a thoughtful silence.
"...but can I at least know how I look?"
"Very well. Come child." She then reached behind me, took the mirror and held it towards my person.
Once I gazed upon my image I was left speechless. I could no longer live in sweet denial, I looked almost exactly like a child version of all the doppelgangers. It looked like I was THE Tatia Petrovadottir or Tatia Petrova of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals.
I did a double take; I lacked my father's straight blood-red hair and brown eyes and my mother's short, wavy blond hair.
I was almost the exact image as the others: curly-black hair, and natural bronze skin, doe-shaped brown-wait were my eyes blue-grey? I brought the mirror closer to my eyes, they were! Those eyes were unlike Amara's, Katherine and Elena's earthly mixes. I took a closer look at them and for just one tiny second I found my eyes change from every possible color so rapidly I thought it my imagination mere moments later.
Mother then whispered so softly I almost did not hear her.
"Now you have an idea on what your future will entail, my sweet."