Chapter 9

The days passed by and they figured out Elena's and Audrey's birth mother, it was their history teacher's, Alaric Saltzman's supposedly dead wife Isobel, whom Damon had turned. And if that wasn't enough their uncle John Gilbert had come back into town to make their lives even more miserable. And to top all that John knew about vampires - he didn't like them.

Now Isobel wanted to meet Elena. That is correct only Elena, like Audrey never existed. Though they thought she didn't know that Audrey looked like Elena who looked like Katherine. These doppelgänger things were getting more and more confusing.

So there Audrey was standing in front of the Grill with Damon and her history teacher/aunt's boyfriend.

"So this is fun," Audrey stated to break the ice. She had a dark denim jacket on with a black summer dress with dark stockings and boots. Her hair was on curls and she had the same old dark brown leather bag with her. Audrey had a little darker makeup on and Damon noticed that. Ric was just too nervous to pay attention to anything.

"We should be in there," Damon suddenly said. Ric snorted and shook his head.

"No," he said and made Audrey furrow her brows, "Isobel made it clear we're not to step a foot inside."

"I'm not going to kill her in a crowd restaurant," Damon said with a tiny smirk.

"Damon you are not going to kill her," Audrey stared at him. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Period."

"Damon, listen to Audrey," Ric added.

"She ruined your life and you still want to protect her?" Damon said to Ric.

"She's my wife," as Ric said that Damon scowled him. "Was my wife. I looked for the woman I married but she wasn't there. Whoever that is, she's cold and detached."

"Yeah, she's given up her humanity," Damon stated with a silent chuckle. Audrey was just listening to the conversation. She wasn't really interested in the topic so she focused on her own stuff, like her phone.

"Yeah, see, I don't get that. Stefan has his humanity, he's a good guy. And you're a dick and you kill people but I still see something human in you. But with her there was... nothing."

"You can turn it off, like a button you can press. I mean, Stefan's different. He wants the whole human experience. He wants to feel every episode of How I Met Your Mother, so he shuts his feelings out. The problem is, as a vampire, your instinct is not to feel. Isobel chose the easier road - no guilt, no shame, no regret. I mean, come on, if you could turn it off, wouldn't you?"

"You haven't," Ric pointed out. Audrey chuckled and they both glanced at her.

"What?" Audrey got glares from both of them and she shrugged.

"Of course I have Ric. It's why I'm so fun to be around," Damon turned back to Alaric.

"Yeah, sure you are," Audrey whispered and crossed her arms after stuffing her phone back into her pocket.

"You are saying I'm not fun to be around?" Damon glared at Audrey looking offended. She turned to him with a brow raise.

"Well, mister Salvatore," Audrey took a step closer to Damon, "sometimes you are a pain in my ass."

Damon moved closer looking jokingly threatening. Ric placed his hand on Damon's chest to stop him for getting any closer. Damon's piercing stare got ended by a text message he re-sieved. Audrey was a bit frightened but he wasn't as intimidating that he thought he was. Audrey followed Damon's stare onto his phone.

"Isobel doesn't know that you look like Katherine," and as Damon said that sentence the bar door opened and Isobel stepped out. Her face was quite confused and Audrey stared at her with the same kind of confusion.

"What the hell?" Isobel whispered and Audrey took a step back. No she was not about to face her mother on a street and a murderous look on her mother's face. She turned her look to Damon, to seek for help. He stared at Isobel and in her heart Audrey knew he wouldn't let anything happen to her. Isobel faded the shock away from her face.

"Hi, my name is Isobel and I am your mother. I didn't know you looked like Katherine," she said with a tiny smile. Isobel took a step closer.

"You almost look more like her than..." Isobel finished her sentence with a smile. "Oh well, I have to run."

Her mother walked past her and Audrey felt like her whole world fell apart. She felt huge pain in her chest.


The next day Audrey was preparing for Founder's day with her friends at the Mystic Falls high school. She was painting a float with Jace. The one whose from the normal kids like, Matt and Tyler. Audrey had her hair on long waves and she had light jeans with a white top and a black blazer.

"This is ridiculous," Audrey stated and put the brush into the paint bucket. Jace didn't say anything; he just painted the float. Audrey hadn't talked to him in a while, but that was no reason to be rude.

"Hello?" she called. Jace blinked his eyes a couple of times and turned his head sideways to face Audrey. He looked confused.

"What?" Jace furrowed his brows.

"Nothing," Audrey turned around and searched for her little brother. She soon spotted him talking to Elena. It seemed that their talk wasn't going well because Jeremy stormed off and someone much worse started to talk to Elena. Their mother, Isobel. For some time Audrey had thought what she wanted to ask from her but now, when Audrey saw her all she could feel was despise. She didn't want to get to know her, she didn't want to talk to her nor speak to her. All she could feel was hatred. Then Audrey heard screaming and her eyes went straight to the target of the screams. In her horror she saw Matt's hand being under a heavy float. Everyone was screaming and Tyler tried to lift the float. Audrey raised her hands on her mouth and gasped. She took a step forward; she wanted to help him. She glanced quickly at Elena and Isobel; Isobel had a hold on Elena's hand but Audrey knew she could deal with that later. She started to run to Matt, who had his hand under the float. Many of Matt's team mates were trying to lift the float and as Audrey got there, Stefan got there as well and lifted the float off of Matt's arm.

"Matt!" Audrey hurried over to her sister's ex-boyfriend and helped him pull himself from under the float. He looked like he was in pain. Caroline stormed into the picture and almost pushed Audrey away from Matt. Caroline's push made her fell back and as Audrey's eyes went away from Matt, into the crowd. A familiar face stared at her. Brown and curly hair with dark brown eyes but with a smirk Audrey didn't recognize. She could taste the name on her lips. Katherine. Tyler was just taking Matt to the hospital from Caroline's order and Audrey got up from the ground. She wiped the sand out of her jeans and glanced at Stefan whose eyes were wide open.

"Stefan," she whispered almost so silent that she even didn't hear it, but he did. Stefan walked to Audrey and she grabbed him by the arm. Stefan tensed up as Audrey squeezed his hand in fear.

"I think I saw Katherine."


"What do you mean you think, you saw Katherine?" Damon almost yelled to her. Elena sat opposite to Audrey with Stefan in the Salvatore boarding house living room. Audrey was playing with the skirt of her shirt because she didn't want to face any of them. Katherine looked exactly alike her, it was frightning.

"Answer me!" Damon yelled. Stefan scowled at his brother and grunted his name. Audrey hopped of the couch and stared at him.

"I saw Katherine," she hissed, "I stared that bitch into her eyes and wondered why the hell do I look like her."

"How do you know for sure it was Katherine?" his tone had become softer and more silent.

"I got this bad feeling when I saw her. Like a huge pit in my stomach."

"Well that just doesn't mean anything to me," Damon shrugged and crossed his arms on his chest. Audrey walked closer to him with a serious face. She needed to bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn't lash out on Damon. He looked so cocky in his grey t-shirt and dark jeans with his messy raven dark hair almost in front of his eyes. Audrey's cold stare reached Damon's eyes and wiped the smirk from his face.

"Maybe my, my sister's and friends lives don't mean anything to you but they mean something to me," Audrey moved her gaze up and down on Damon's body till it settled in his eyes. "I mean if she is here what do you think she is here to do? Meet us and be our friend? Join this little foursome of ours?"

Audrey stared at him and watched his smile wore down.

"Or maybe she came back here for you. Is that what you want to hear Damon?" Audrey came closer to Damon with tears in her eyes. She didn't know why it made her feel like that.

"That she loves you and is sorry for the last one hundred and something years?"

"No, I want to kill her just as much as you do," he started smiling again. Audrey was annoyed. How could he pretend that everything that she'd just said had no impact on him. It had to have impact on him. She was cruel and mean; she told everything he didn't want to hear.

"But you love her," Audrey reminded him with a brow raise.

"Nope, no emotions," he narrowed his eyes on her. Audrey shook her eyes.

"No, you feel and you know it," she whispered and turned her back on him. She seeked for the door with her eyes and found it quickly. She wasn't going to stay there and listen to that bullshit. She headed out and there was no one in this earth that could stop her. She felt her friends stare on her back but she didn't care. Two could play this game. She could pretend she had no emotions. When she got to the door Bonnie walked inside. She was going to do a spell for some device but Audrey couldn't care less if Damon died.


Audrey knew that Elena was going to give the device to Isobel at the town square so she had made her way there. Elena and Isobel were at the center and Audrey started walking there. She could feel adrenaline pumping through her veins. Shivers down her back she reached her sister and mother.

"Hello Audrey," Isobel smiled and glared at her daughter. Audrey moved her feet apart and leaned on the other one more. Her leather jacket was chilly in the evening but she bit her lip.

"What are you doing here?" Elena frowned and turned her look to Audrey.

"I couldn't miss this. And she has our brother, you can see why I'm here, Elena," Audrey smiled with her eyes on Isobel. She wasn't really sad or shocked that Isobel was a huge disappointment. Her adoptive mother was like her real mother. Sure they started to have ups and downs when she became a teenager and an asshole, but they were close, and so was her father and her.

"I truly am happy that you are here too," Isobel faked a smile and made Audrey snort.

"Where is the device?" Isobel crooked her head lightly and smiled to Elena.

"Where is our brother?" Audrey stepped in with a serious look.

"This isn't a negotiation. Where is the invention?" Isobel repeated.

"Where is our brother?" Elena said this time.

"Do you really think that I came alone?" their mother smiled crookedly. Audrey and Elena turned a round and saw a man and a woman step out behind them.

"Did you really think that I came alone?" Elena said and crossed her hands. Damon and Stefan walked up from behind Isobel.

"For god sake, call home," Isobel sighed.

"What?" the sisters frowned and said at the same time.

"Call home and ask to speak to your brother Jeremy." Elena took her phone and called home. Audrey couldn't hear the phone call but she figured that Jeremy was back home.

"You were never gonna hurt him," Elena said.

"No, I was going to kill him. Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me. I don't have any," Isobel said.

"But you took a risk with Damon. How did you know that he was gonna give it to me?" Elena raised her brows.

"Because he's in love with you," Isobel's eyes looked at Elena. Audrey lowered her eyes and looked at the ground. Elena took the device from her pocket and gave it to Isobel.

"Thank you," Elena said after a long pause.

"For what?" Isobel asked.

"For being such a monumental disappointment. It keeps the memory of my real mother perfectly intact."

"Goodbye Elena and Audrey. As long as you two know the Salvatores, you are doomed. Katherine was smart; she got out. But we all know that you are not Katherine," Isobel looked at her children and turned around. She disappeared and Audrey and Elena turned. Stefan came to embrace Elena and Audrey directed her way out of the town square.