AN(1): I can't even tell you how sorry I am for this stupid delay. I've had stress, exams, parents, high school... tons of things and sometimes i didn't feel like passing the chapter from my 'inspiration notebook' to my laptop. I have to confess that the chapter was writen and translated two weeks ago.

Well, I can't say anything else. Sorry. Hope you enjoy it. :)

Chapter 2: Lies

I'm struggling all along

To feed this hunger,

Burning deep inside of me.

Evanescence: Lies.

The streets were empty, it had to be really late. Shops were closed. The only sound I could hear was the rain falling softly around me. I stopped before a shop's window and watched my reflection with macabre fascination. The fangs I had felt were still there, the that wasn't the only change in my face. My eyes, that used to be chocolate brown, were now blood-shot red that made me feel sick and irrepressibly hungry at the same time. Beneath them, a tiny framework of dark veins stretched until the beginning of my cheeks; my skin was slightly paler, but it still had its olive shade. Overall, the sight was terrifying, even for me, and it was my own reflection.

I didn't recognize myself anymore, but, instead of the horror I should have felt; what I did felt was an irrepressibly curiosity and an unexplainable soothing feeling. I breathed normally, although the oxygen supply didn't have the same effect on my lungs anymore; but the air came in and out with no effect over my body, but that wasn't what surprised me the most; but that with every breath, the prominent veins beneath my eyes were disappearing little by little, the fangs were retracting and my eyes were going back to their usual chocolate brown color. And there I was again. Elena Marie Gilbert. The one I had been seeing at my dressing table's mirror for the last seventeen years.

Sighing, relieved when I saw I was 'me' again, I looked through the glass to see I was before a clothing shop's window. It was then when I noticed my hospital gown that was tied to my neck. It was one of those that showed your whole backside. I realized I needed clothes. The shop before me was closed, just like the rest, and that filled me with a so huge frustration that I punched the glass barely injuring myself. There were only a few pieces of glass that had driven in my skin which I removed easily and watched astonished all the cuts healing in mere seconds. when I came back to reality from I daydreaming, I sneaked carefully in the shop.

I was lucky. That shop wasn't one of the few ones equipped with alarms in Mystic Falls. It was a small town, where everybody knew each other and trusted their neighbors, only a few foreigners had alarms, above all, at the technology and designer stuff shops.

Once I was inside the shop, I started looking for decent clothes. I found a pair of skinny black pants, a purple T-shirt, a leather jacket and a pair of not too high heels (there were no flat shoes). I had a last look of me at one of the various mirrors of the shop and it was enough to see I was more or less decent and ready to walk through the streets. I used my fingers to comb my hair a little without getting very good results.

I dot out through the hole I had got in through and looked around me. Where could I go? Home, of course. I had to make my family know I wasn't dead, that someone had made a mistake and that I was alright. I still had the mental image (or more likely, the memory of the sound) of Jeremy and Mom's crying and Dad begging Sheriff Forbes to find the 'responsible'.

With my decision made, I made my way home to give my family the best news ever.

Or so I thought.

I got home in about half an hour. It was a pleasant walk. Despite the cold around me, I wasn't cold, just like it had happened at the autopsy room before. It had stopped raining about five minutes ago and I was soaked from head to toes. In spite of my relative comfort, a huge mug of hot chocolate while I sat on my bed to write on my diary sounded like music to me.

I distinguished a figure at the porch. I was a woman and, despite of the darkness, I could see it was Jenna. Surely, my parents had called her because of my supposed death. Little by little, I got closer to her and when I was near enough for her to hear me, I called her:

"Jenna?"

My aunt turned around. Her green eyes irradiated surprise. "Elena! What are you doing here at this time of the night?" Okay. Obviously, Jenna knew nothing about my 'death', she was just visiting my family.

"Nothing. I…" I began to make up an excuse, but Jenna did for me:

"No need to tell me. You've just got from a party, right?"

"What? Oh, I… well, aunt Jenna…" But before I could explain myself, my house's door opened revealing my Mom.

If my mom was going to say something to her visitor, this got stuck at the back of her throat. The only thing she did was to stare at me with happiness and fear fighting in her eyes. At that moment, my dad arrived asking:

"Who is it, Miranda?" He didn't finish his question, because his voice broke as well.

We stayed like that for a while: my parents staring at me open-mouthed and I looking at them alternately until Jenna talked:

"What the hell's going on with you?" She asked while she glanced at my parents and me. None of us noticed her. I was the first one who talked:

"Mom…" I said in a drowned whisper.

She said nothing and tried to go to me, but my father grabbed and prevented her to do it. I took my eyes from my mom to look at my dad, hurt.

"Grayson, what are you doing?" Mom protested.

"She isn't Elena, Miranda." Dad answered with a controlled voice his cold eyes on me. He was nothing that I had seen before. He didn't look like the man that raised me anymore.

"What?" I said. "Daddy, it's me. It's Elena." I said while I approached the doorway. "It was a mistake. I'm not dead. I woke up at the Autopsy Room and came right here."

"No." My father whispered with clenched teeth.

"Okay." Jenna interrupted. "Can anyone tell me what's going on? You know, it's cold and I have this wound. I'd want you to examine, Grayson."

When Jenna mentioned her wound, my eyes left the door to look at Jenna's lifted hand's wound. There was only a little of blood on it, but it was enough to make the burning thirst back. I took my eyes of it and locked them at Jenna's face, but there everything was worse. My eyes wandered to her neck, were all the veins beneath her pale skin. There, I could see her skin rising with every heartbeat. I could even her blood rushing through her veins, calling me. This time, I did feel my fangs elongating and the veins appearing beneath my eyelids. Now I could even see the blood circulating and it was even more tempting.

A voice at the back of my mind warned me that she was my aunt and that I would regret that and, I don't know how, I listened to it at first. I did nothing. I breathed deeply, just like I had done before, and I felt a little of relief; but as my dad and my aunt started arguing more heatedly, completely oblivious to the changes that were going on my face; Jenna was getting angrier, her face was getting redder and my self-control declined even more.

That situation went on for one more minute until I couldn't restrain myself anymore and threw myself upon Jenna on full speed. With a strength I wouldn't have thought I'd possessed, I pinned Jenna against the wall and bit her neck merciless.

Her warm, sweet blood flooded in my mouth and I practically moaned with pleasure. I was barely conscious of what was going on around me until I felt a sharp pain at my ribs. Reluctantly, I took my mouth off from Jenna's neck, who fell unconscious on the floor, to look at who had stabbed me. I met my father's almond eyes, who was stepping away from me little by little. At that moment, I didn't think rationally, I didn't recognize my father anymore, but an attacker I had to protect myself from. I looked down at my ribs. The knife had been driven deeply inside me. Very carefully, I grabbed the knife's handle and took it out in one go wincing. The pain was awful, but I could already feel the wounds healing. I looked back up at my father and gave him a macabre smile. I loved that, although he was trying to hide it, he was terrified. It made me feel powerful, like I was in control. Using my super-speed again, I got closer to him until I was barely a few inches away from him, I grabbed his neck, pinned him against the nearest wall and tightened my grip. Next to me, I could hear my mom yelling:

"Elena! Please, don't do this!" I didn't back down and tightened my grip on his neck a little more. "Please, Elena, do it for me." I could hear the crying within her voice. My suspicions were confirmed when I took my eyes off my father to look at her.

What I saw made me remember who I was and what I was doing. I was choking my own father. Slowly, I let go of him and looked at mu mom again.

Then I started running.

I ran like I'd never done before. In barely a minute, I was out of the town and getting into the woods. I ran for a while, avoiding narrowly the numerous trees until I felt I was far enough from what I had done.

When I finally stopped running, I couldn't recognize where I was. There were some old ruins around me. The only ruins in the area were the old Mystic Falls' church. I had to be around them. At least I was far enough.

I breathed deeply and tried to chill out. I felt my fangs going back to their normal size and the veins disappearing. I kept breathing deeply and I could have stayed like that indefinitely if I hadn't felt someone grabbing my neck. Without previous warning, my back hit a tree with so much force that it trembled violently. The impact made me open my eyes. When I finally was able to focus, I met the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen. Those eyes irradiated rage, but it was obvious that their owner wanted to keep calm. The inner fight was evident in those icy blue eyes.

A male voice that made me shiver, said the most strange words I had heard in that day, even weirder than the ones my father had said:

"Missed me, Katherine?"

AN (2): Well, Damon finally appeared Yaaayyy! Now's when the fun begins ;) Love it? Hate it? Suggestions? Love!