Chapter 2. The First World
No. No, it couldn't be me. I was me. That…that must be Katherine.
I backed away from them, horrified. The fact that Katherine was in my room scared me more than anything else that happened today. To my surprise, Katherine yelped and jumped off the bed, looking as terrified as I was.
"Katherine!" She screamed at me, her eyes bulging comically.
Confusion swept over me as I took another step back. This was more than I could handle. This was too much. If this was some sort of game Katherine wanted to play, I didn't want to be a part of it.
"She's not Katherine." Damon stated, looking straight at me, "She has a heartbeat."
"…Then who is she?" The girl that looked exactly like me asked in a shaky voice. She walked over to Damon and grasped his hand tightly while looking at me.
"Who are you?" I asked back impolitely, suddenly feeling very brave.
The girl narrowed her eyes, which looked exactly like mine, at me, "…I'm Elena."
Okay. What just happened? No. I was Elena. Me. Not this…this girl. This was unreal. Unreal. I pinched myself on the forearm, wanting very much to wake up from this weird dream, yet I didn't wake up. This wasn't a dream. This was reality. Reality was that I was standing in front of this couple, and the girl was me.
I must be crazy. It must have been all the research Alaric made us do in History class. I must have gone crazy from that. Mentally insane. I was imagining things. It was the only explanation.
"Who are you, then?" The girl demanded in a tone I often used myself.
I took a deep breath, "I'm Elena."
Both of them simply stared at me.
It was Damon who first broke out of the trance. "Ask her something only you know," He said gently to the Elena beside him, squeezing her hand. She looked braver with him next to her, and she stood to face me.
"Where do I keep my Diary?"
"Behind the portrait on top of my bed." I answered, wishing with all my heart that it was indeed still the place for my Diary in this strange world. Her widened eyes indicated that I had been right, and I let out a small sigh of relief.
"Who is my father?" She asked again.
"John Gilbert." I said without missing a beat. I was starting to feel like a contestant on a bad game show. As I expected, I was right again. I had to be. This was my life she was asking me about. There couldn't possibly be a question I couldn't answer.
"When was the first time I slept with Damon?"
Um. Okay. I take that back. I blushed scarlet. I had never slept with Damon. Never. I hadn't even kissed him. She just asked me something that never happened and never will. This made me doubtful about her identity. Was she in fact, as she stated herself, Elena?
"I never did," I said truthfully, "I was faithful to Stefan."
She made a choking sound, "Stefan? You're involved with Stefan?" She asked in a disbelieving voice that offended me. I think I was the one that had the right to say that to her. I wanted very much to reply, "Damon? You're involved with Damon?", but before I could say anything, Damon beat me to it.
"We should take her to Slater." He said to the girl. I kept calling her "the girl". It was weird to acknowledge her as Elena, because I was Elena.
It took a few seconds for what Damon had said to sink in, "Wait…Slater?" I asked, "Rose's friend? I thought…I thought he was…dead."
"No, he's not," The girl said, "We just saw him a few days ago."
"Well, I saw his corpse." I said stubbornly. I looked at her closely for the first time. She had my eyes, my nose, and my mouth. She was identical to me. Except for the hair. Her brown hair was cut just above her shoulders, and curled in slightly towards her face. She also had a fringe that I didn't approve. I had never seen myself with short hair. But I must admit, it did look pretty cute.
She was startled by what I said. Her face twisted into a look of disbelief as she grasped Damon's hand again. There it was. The hand-holding. It was beyond weird to see myself so close to Damon.
Damon put his arm around her, "Come on," He said to us, "I'll drive. You two behave."
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They made me eat my words when they drove me to Slater's place. I've been here before, only to discover him with a stake through his heart. But this time, he was alive. Well, as alive as you can be when you were a vampire.
He looked a little surprised to see us, especially when he caught sight of me and…and the girl.
"You brought Katherine?" He asked Damon, eyeing me cautiously.
"She's not Katherine." Damon said back.
Slater raised his eyebrows but made no more comments as he led us to his spacious living room and gestured for us to sit on the couch.
"If I didn't know better, Elena," He said to me in particular, "I would have said you time-traveled." He continued as he poured us drinks, "But a person only has one body, thus, it is impossible for that person to split into two."
I had the impression that he was enjoying himself immensely. "So what is…this?" I asked, mentioning to Damon and the girl.
Slater smiled, but that smile only made me tenser, "Parallel universe." He said mysteriously.
"Excuse me?" The other Elena asked.
"I have about eighteen degrees, you know," Slater said, bragging a little, "And physics is one of them. Parallel universe, or, multiverse, is an untested theory in physics about multi possible universes. There are no ways to prove it exists, of course. Well, other than the fact that you're here." He raised his glass to me, "It's about alternative universes. For example, you, Elena, would still be Elena in every universe. But you might make different choices in different worlds due to the different circumstances, which, in conclusion, would affect who you are. In this case, the different choices you made in different universes resulted in different haircuts." He said wisely.
I touched my hair automatically, eyeing the Elena with short hair.
"So…she's me?" The girl practically sitting in Damon's lap asked Slater.
Slater nodded at once, "The one and only. Metaphorically speaking, in this case."
"How did she get here?"
"How did I get here?"
Damon and I said together, our words collapsing into one another's. I looked at him curiously. Was he still the Damon back in my world? Would he be different here?
Slater looked like we had just asked a wonderful question, "Ah, well, for decades, scientists have been researching that. How to get into another world co-existing with this one? There must be some kind of door to lead to a whole other world. A door which –"
"Yeah, yeah," Damon cut him off, "Get to the point."
Slater rolled his eyes, "I have a degree in Drama. I was just trying to put it to use." He sat down across from us, "The simple answer would be that Elena discovered a portal."
"But I didn't." I insisted, "I wasn't even looking for a…a portal. I woke up here."
Slater got up again. We watched him as he paced around his room, looking for something. When he came back, he was holding five CDs in his hands and a thick, short wooden stick. He put the stick through the CDs by making the stick go into the holes in the middle of them.
"Let's pretend the five CDs are five different worlds co-existing." He explained, "This one," He pointed to the one on the top, "is where you came from." He nodded at me. "And this," He pointed to the CD right next to the top one, "is where we all are right now."
Slater took a pair of scissors and cut identical gaps on each CD, "These gaps are portals." He said, "Now this is a stationary set of multiple universes. In order to consider time as another factor, we'll need to…" He spun the CDs so that we were now facing five spinning CDs on a stick. Quite stupid, really, but I ignored that fact.
"There will come a time," Slater continued, "where two gaps correspond. In this case, it means that two gaps from two CDs will be parallel to each other. If you happen to be at the right place at the right time, you would be transported to another world. And that," He smiled again, "is the portal."
I repeated what he said in my head again. It made sense in a strange way.
"I woke up in the lake…" I muttered quietly, talking more to myself than others.
"Then that'd be the portal." Slater nodded.
"So I can go back? I can just go back to the lake and…and…" My voice trailed off as realization settled in. I needed to be at the right place, at the right time in order to get send back to my world. But how would I know where is the right place and when is the right time?
Slater was no longer smiling, "The lake where you woke up from might not be the portal anymore. You'll need to look for the real portal if you want to go back."
"But how do I find a portal?" I asked desperately.
To my disappointment, Slater shook his head. "That," he said, "is beyond my knowledge. Like I said, scientists have been working on that for years without getting any results. I am no scientist. I am no where near at finding a portal. I can't help you with that."
My heart sank. I had been seriously counting on Slater to point me a way, but all I got was why I was here.
"So," Slater settled back onto the couch, "Tell me, Elena, what was I like back in your world?"
"I never really met you." I admitted, not wanting to elaborate about how I discovered his body.
"Oh," He looked crestfallen, "Alright, then. Well, if there's anything else I can help you with, just holler."
I smiled politely as the three of us stood up to leave. Damon didn't say anything to me, and neither did the other Elena. We walked in silence to Damon's car, and I got into the backseat voluntarily.
As the engine started, I looked out the window to take in this strange, new world. Some things were different. There were bridges I don't remember, roads I have never been on, and a few houses in the neighborhood that I don't recognize.
To my relief, Damon took us to the Boarding House, which still looked the same like it did back home. My heart leapt when I thought of how at least I could see Stefan.
"Why are we here?" Asked the Elena in the front seat, "She can just stay with me."
"And freak out Jeremy?" I asked.
She whirled around to look at me, "You don't think he has a right to know things?"
"I think it's better if we protect him from certain things." I replied.
Damon was looking at us with an incredulous expression on his handsome face, "Wow," He said, "You guys should see what it looks like when you're arguing."
"Shut up, Damon." We said in unison and looked at each other in shock. It seemed like we were more alike than I gave us credit for.
Damon looked deeply amused now with a smirk playing on his lips. He opened the car doors for us and explained that I would have to stay at the Boarding House with him and Stefan until they figure out a way to send me back to my world.
It was the best plan so far, so I agreed. The other Elena was nice enough to bring me some of her clothes. Well, my clothes, mostly, but there were some pieces of clothing that I've never seen but quite liked. It was nice to know that we still liked the same things. We've got to. I mean, we were the same person, really.
"Where did you get this?" I asked, holding up a beautiful blouse that she had brought me.
She smiled and blushed, "Damon bought it for me, actually."
I felt weird all of a sudden. It was very strange to hear my own voice get all…gooey when speaking about Damon. I have never used that tone before.
"How long have you guys been together?" I asked curiously.
She smiled again, and I could see the love for him in her eyes, "A little more than a year."
"Really?" I asked. That was how long I was with Stefan, "How'd you…um…start dating?" I asked again. I hoped I didn't sound nosy or anything. I was truly curious. I wondered why the Elena in this world was with Damon instead of Stefan.
"Actually, I fell for him first." She admitted, looking a little abashed, "He was dating my friend Bonnie at that time – Do you know Bonnie?"
"Yeah, I know her." I said, almost choking on my words. Bonnie and Damon? Surreal.
"Well, they weren't really happy with each other," She continued.
No surprises there. I thought silently.
"But I couldn't say anything because she was my best friend and he was…well, someone I had an enormous crush on." She said.
"Wow," I replied, trying my best to imagine myself in that situation.
"Things got pretty ugly between me and Bonnie when they broke up and Damon started dating me, but we managed to patch things up." She shrugged, "But Bonnie never really approved of us being together. She really dislikes Damon now."
"I can imagine." I said as a smile touched my lips. She was practically describing the Bonnie back home.
"So what about you?" She was just as curious about my life as I was about hers, "Are you seriously with Stefan? No offence."
But the way she said it was offensive, "Yeah, we've been together for a long time," I said, defending my boyfriend, "He's really nice and considerate and…" My voice died down. And what? I couldn't really think of anything.
She seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because she sat down on the spare bed Damon had set up for me and shook her head, "Stefan's nice. He is. We went on a few dates before. But…that's just it about him. Do you know what I mean? I never have anything to talk about with him. He's…not boyfriend material."
"Oh, and Damon is?" I asked before I could stop myself. I wasn't happy with the way she was talking about Stefan.
She looked offended now, "With Damon, it's never boring. We have a lot of fun. He's passionate, smart, incredibly sexy…What don't you like about that?"
"Well, so is Stefan." I said, though I didn't sound very convincing. Stefan wasn't really those things the other Elena had described. He was smart; of course he was, but passionate and sexy? That would be a little exaggerating.
"I guess we're different that way." She said. She said that nicely too, not in the hostile voice I thought she'd use.
I gave her a small, polite smile. It was actually pretty easy to talk to her, given that she was, well, me. I wasn't as scared as I was when I first left Slater's. We'll figure this out. Somehow. I was no physics genius, but Stefan must be. He went to Harvard, didn't he? I thought proudly. He'll help me find the portal. And then I can go home.
"Elenas?" Damon asked playfully, poking his head into the spare bedroom, "Not fighting again, are we?"
She laughed softly, "No, babe, we're not."
God, it was weird to hear that. Babe? I've never even called Stefan that. I could actually feel goosebumps on my arms. I was having a hard time getting used to the idea of Damon and Elena.
Damon walked over and kissed her. Did they have to do that in front of me? I busied myself with folding the clothes she gave me.
Damon grinned mischievously at the two of us, "You know what I was thinking?" His eyes twinkled.
"What?" She asked him.
"Threesome." He said simply.
Both of us smacked him on the chest at the same time.
His smirk didn't even waver. He was too strong to feel those smacks. "Is that a definite no?"
The other Elena rolled her eyes, "He's impossible," She said to me.
"Tell me about it." I agreed, thinking of the Damon in my world.
Suddenly the front door slammed shut. My heart rose with glee. Stefan. Stefan was home. I hurried down the stairs with the other two at my heels. It's only been a day since I last saw him, but I wanted nothing more but to hug him right now. I missed him so much that it seemed like we've been apart for years.
I practically twisted my ankle making my way down the stairs. I was so eager to see him.
Stefan raised his head to look at the three of us. His eyes traced over to my face, then Damon's, then the short-haired Elena's.
A snarl crept up Stefan's face as his eyes came back to me. I froze when I realized that nobody told him I was here, and he probably thought I was –
"Katherine," He growled. He tackled me, bringing me down the stairs. I screamed and I could hear the other Elena scream behind me. I could hear Damon shouting something in the back, but I couldn't make out what it is. Stefan and I rolled down the stairs. His hands were around my throat and I couldn't breathe. I could feel the wooden stairs cutting into my back.
I reached the bottom and felt blinding pain on the side of my head. Darkness closed in and I knew no more.
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I wanted to thank all the readers and all the reviewers! :P
Since I'm not really busy anymore, I'll try to update as fast as possible. This isn't going to be a very long story, and I can't wait to get started on my next one.
Thank you for reading!
