A/N: Thanks to everyone who's shown an interest in this story! I'm glad people are at least interested :) So, in honor of Christmas eve, I am uploading chapter two!

I hope you enjoy, and I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Disclaimer; I own nooothing.

Apologies for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes. Those of you who read Closer will know how paranoid I am about my inability to write very well. But hey, it's good enough.

She awoke once again to find the sun in her eyes. She flinched as though it were instinctual, but the blinding light left no marks on her skin and caused her no pain. She sat up slowly.

The room was void of people now, and she could look around. It was small and square, with one window on the wall across from the bed, and a door on the far side. There were no pictures on the walls, but it was painted with soft, homely colours that offered a sense of safety and comfort.

Her stomach growled, and Elena dropped her hands to it. The thought of food made her feel sick. But she wanted something to eat, so, so badly...she just couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

After a moment of thought, she got to her feet and moved to the window. The ground felt solid beneath her feet in a way that it never had before. And the air on her skin felt more...there, than she remembered. The tiniest breeze registered and raised goose bumps on her flesh.

Outside the window the world was glaringly bright. She could see a garden, complete with a withered vegetable patch and rusty swing set, and beyond that there was a field. And another, and another. And in the distance she could see a clump of buildings. A town, maybe? She squinted against the light but it was too much and she shrank back.

A loud buzzing reached her ears. She glanced around the room in search of a source, but found none. The noise grew in intensity and she clapped her hands over her ears.A series of angry thuds, echoing in a mismatched rhythm, filled the air on top of the humming. Her mind was spinning, there was too much going on at once and she couldn't work out where anything was coming from.

She opened her eyes and her gaze zoomed in on the window. A bluebottle fly bounced back and forth across the glass, each strike resonating in a thud that reached Elena's ears with startling clarity.

And then a memory swam into focus.

Darkness. Pressure. Water everywhere. And a boy, with sandy blonde hair and closed eyes, floating beside her in the driver's seat of a car.

"No." She whispered, clutching her head. But the memory kept coming.

Burning lungs. Her own blood pounding in her ears. Her vision pulsing at the edges. A shadow moving towards them at a frightening speed through the murky water.

She crashed across the room with her fingers clutching her hair, and her eyes squeezed shut. She hit the bed hard and knocked a glass from the bedside table. It hit smashed to floor and shattered, spraying ice cold water onto her feet.

So cold. The water was so cold, and another boy was beside her. He was fumbling with her seatbelt. No. Save him, save Matt.

Matt. The name throbbed against her temples and she shrieked. Was Matt okay? Did he make it out of the water? There was so much water.

The bedroom door flew open, and in an instant Pippin was screaming, too.

"What on earth is going on?" A second voice called. Rosa.

"Something's wrong with her! Something's wrong!" Pippin sounded close to tears, and Elena heard Rosa usher the young girl from the room.

"Calm down dear, calm down." Rosa soothed gently. Elena felt soft hands on her face, then on her shoulders, rubbing down her arms. Her feet felt wet, and she pulled them up onto the bed away from the horrible liquid that pressed down on her chest and spread over the floor. She was finding it hard to distinguish between her memories and the now; it was blurring into one, and she wasn't sure if it was safe to drag in a breath.

"It's alright." Rosa whispered. "It's alright, love."

And slowly, Elena began to calm down. She tried to compartmentalise, throwing her thoughts here and there and getting them away from the forefront of her mind. She needed that space clear in order to think again, to feel again. To breathe again.

Slowly, the pressure eased. She sorted it into her new 'memory' file. The dampness on her feet remained; present. She sucked in a breath, and nothing but pleasant air filtered down her throat and into her lungs.

"There, now." Rosa said, after a time. Elena opened her eyes and was met with startling blue ones, with brows creased from worry.

"I'm fine." Elena said instinctively. Rosa scoffed and began clearing something from the floor. Elena felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment, and looked over the bed. Shards of glass, covered in beads of water, glistened in the light, and Elena noticed, with no small amount of panic, that there was blood soaking the carpet.

"Don't worry about that." Rosa said, following Elena's line of sight. "You'll heal soon enough."

Elena gave her body a once over, and gasped when her gaze hit her feet. They were cut, the skin ripped and torn and bleeding all over the bed sheets.

"So," Said Rosa suddenly, eyeing Elena kindly. "I'm guessing you've remembered."

Elena nodded feebly.

"I think so." She whispered. And then, alarmed: "Matt, Is he okay?"

"Dmitri didn't mention anybody else." Rosa replied. Dmitri?

"Who's-."

"All in good time." Rosa cut her off gently. "Are you alright now?"

Elena nodded, but she felt sick and uneasy. There was something she needed to ask, but she wasn't sure she could bring herself to speak the words out loud. She was far too afraid of the answer.

"I'll send Dmitri up, he'll tell you what he knows."

Elena nodded, and Rosa patted her thigh and stood, leaving the room. Elena was alone for a few minutes before the boy who'd spoken to Pippin the night prior came in, eyes apprehensive. He was tall and slim, and very, very blonde. Elena smiled softly to him when he stepped inside, and he returned it. He seemed shy, and looked just as uneasy as she felt.

"Hi." He said awkwardly, shuffling his feet against the carpet.

"Hi." Elena returned. She wasn't entirely sure what he was here to tell her.

"I'm Dmitri." He said suddenly, holding out a hand. Elena took it and shook, replying;

"Elena. Pleased to meet you."

Dmitri nodded his reply. He had a gentle southern accent, but the same bright blue eyes as Pippin, Rosa and Lucas. Elena allowed herself a moment of pride at remembering her host's names.

"Rosa said you had some things to tell me." Elena began. It wasn't entirely true, but it was a conversation starter nonetheless. Dmitri nodded and moved a chair nearer the bed. He eyed the dirty floor and Elena's bloody feet, and frowned, but asked no questions.

"Okay." He said, swallowing. His hands fumbled with one another in his lap and he licked his lips. Elena assumed it was a nervous tick. "I suppose you want to know how you got here."

"I'd like to know where 'here' is." Elena blurted out, and Dmitri's mouth gaped for a moment as he stumbled over his words.

"Right." He said, and averted his gaze, as though he'd said something monumentally stupid. Elena felt guilt seep into her down to the bone.

"I'm sorry." Elena said immediately. "Just keep going." She offered him a gentle smile to reassure him, and he nodded furiously. He licked his lips again, then rubbed his palms across his trousers. Elena's jaw began to ache, as though she were a teething child, and she gritted her teeth to relieve it.

"Sorry." He said quietly, shakily, "I'm not...not all that good with new people."

"It's okay." Elena replied. Again, Dmitri nodded.

"I brought you here." He said after a moment. Elena raised her brows and encouraged him to go on. "I...I saw your truck go over the bridge. I thought...I thought you were Katherine. That's why I went in to get you. We have some...issues, with Katherine, that were never quite resolved."

Elena hid a smile. That didn't surprise her at all.

"By the time I got to the truck you were alone, and your eyes were closed and you weren't breathing. I took you out anyways, and into the woods nearby."

He swallowed hard and licked his lips.

"You were dead." He said simply, then gaped again as though he'd said something very wrong. "Sorry, that was...insensitive."

Elena chuckled softly at him, and told him to continue.

"I was going to leave you there, let your friends find you, but then you...you woke up. And I knew what had happened."

"What had happened?" Elena asked uncertainly.

"You...you must have died with vampire blood in your system." He replied, confused, as though it were the simplest answer in the world. Elena's eyes widened.

"But I didn't ingest any." She said. "Unless...oh, Meredith." Elena dropped her head to her hands and took a couple of breaths. "But why?" She mumbled to herself. Dmitri watched her with a frown, no doubt wondering who Meredith was. Elena herself was surprised at how easily the name came to her.

"So I'm in transition?" She said, suddenly. Dmitri paled, and his look shifted to sheepish.

"Not exactly." He mumbled. Elena frowned.

"What do you mean?" She asked. Dmitri kept his gaze low, and muttered;

"I fed you human blood."

Elena felt the world shrink around her. No, no, no no no.

"I'm sorry." Dmitri said immediately, panicked, "You asked me to!"

"Why am I here?" She asked, her voice calm and angry. Dmitri winced, but answered her question.

"I had to bring you here. You're a Shifter, aren't many of those around now. Except us."

Elena frowned, but she was too angry to discuss anything more with him. She was a vampire. She'd turned into the one thing she swore she'd never be, and she wasn't sure how lightly she could take the news.

"Can I speak to Rosa, please?" She asked. She'd had enough of Dmitri for one day. He nodded again, licked his lips, and hurried from the room.


"What exactly is a...what do you call it? A Shifter?" Elena had calmed down, by now, anger melting into bitter acceptance. And curiosity. She wanted to know what the hell was going on.

"A Shifter is a special type of vampire that can, as the name suggests, shape-shift. Into animals, exclusively."

"Any animal?" Elena asked, eyes wide. Had she not spent her later teenage years immersed in a world of vampires, werewolves, hybrids and witches, she would have laughed in Rosa's face at the mere suggestion. But, as it stands, Elena couldn't even bring herself to be surprised.

Rosa nodded, smiling.

"I've never heard of them." Elena muttered under her breath, thinking aloud.

"We're very rare." Rosa supplied. "We used to be around in our hundreds. Now we're...we're pretty much all that's left."

Elena found herself asking what had happened to the rest before she could sensor the question.

"Most of us were wiped out a long time ago. I'm not surprised, really. We're powerful. More so than your average vampire. We're stronger, and faster, and," Rosa grinned a somewhat cheeky smile, "We can change shape. We can camouflage."

Elena nodded, not really sure what to say to that.

"How were you wiped out, if you're so powerful?" She asked finally.

"We were hunted." She said simply. "We were hunted down and killed. Everything wanted us dead, not just humans. Other vampires, too. And Werewolves. Witches. Everyone. Its perhaps one of the only periods in history where they've all worked together."

Elena swallowed hard.

"Do they still hunt you now?"

Rosa shook her head. She turned her gaze to look outside, smiling at the sunlight on her face.

"No." She breathed. "No, we're safe here."

Elena took a moment to let the information sink in. Not only was she a vampire, she was a Shifter. One of the most powerful vampires in existence. Except, perhaps, the Originals. She wasn't sure if this was a lucky stroke or not. Two thoughts came to mind at once, and she muddled over her words as her mind mixed the questions together. Finally, she articulated them into two simple questions.

"Why haven't I burned in the sun?"

"Daylight rings." Rosa said, wiggling her left hand for Elena to see. Elena dropped her gaze to her own fingers and spotted a silver ring with a blue jewel set in, almost identical to the one Rosa wore.

"Fair enough." She mumbled. Then, leaning forwards with her elbows on her knees, she asked, "How do you know I'm a Shifter?"

"The eyes." Rosa said simply. Elena frowned, and Rosa continued. "Dmitri said that when you woke up, your eyes were brown. And when he fed you, your eyes turned...well, the colour they are now."

"Blue." Elena said, suddenly. She hadn't seen her reflection, but it made sense. Everybody in this household, she realised, had the same bright, mesmerizingly blue eyes.

And then another memory hit her.

A man. A young man; full of sarcastic remarks; with a shock of soft, dark hair; a dazzling, sinners smile; and a pair of startling, crystal blue eyes.

Damon.

A/N: There you have it! Chapter 2. I hope you enjoyed it, again I know not much happened, but it was longer than the last one at least :P

Drop me a review and let me know what you thought!

Thanks in advance, and once again, Merry Christmas!

Much love,

Someone x