authors note: Thank you all for the reviews, please continue to do so! This chapter has a lot of Elijah dialogue. I own nothing. Enjoy!

Chapter 14: Heartbreaking Truce

October 7th 2012

Dear diary,

I managed to get some sleep last night which was surprising considering I spent half the night staring at our front door and keeping an ear out for Carly just in case she needed me after the ordeal she had gone through.

I knew that I had to go see Elijah sometime today but I was hesitant. Every time I go Elijah's something happens that makes me question everything all over again and it's usually for the worst, but who else would know about Natasha and what her possible motives are? I meant what I said about killing her, I'm not a violent person, I never have been. But the amount of rage I feel toward her is vast.

I don't care what she claims to have been through, it doesn't justify making my life a living hell. She robbed me of my parents and attempted to kill my sister. In my eyes she is pure evil and whatever fate she'll meet will be too good for her but I will make sure that I am alive to see it...

Just the thought that there is a possibility that Elijah might have been involved with her sometime in the past, literally makes me feel physically sick, I hope that he will put some of my fears to rest...

I insisted that Carly take the day off from school, but she went against my wishes. She felt that it would be better for her to continue her everyday life regardless of what happened. If that is what will truly take her mind off everything and make her happy, then she should do it.

I got dressed and once again made my way to Elijah's home. I braced myself on the way for whatever it was I was going to hear but after everything I've seen and heard I doubt there could be anything worse, I hope...

I let myself in as I walked inside and found Elijah sitting in front of the fireplace in a large chair with his legs crossed and with a glass in his hand which to my eyes looked like it was filled with blood.

"Is your sister alright?" Elijah questioned.

"Yeah she's fine, she went to school today as if nothing happened" I said as I took small steps toward him.

"That's good, her life should remain as normal as possible" he said as he sipped from his glass.

"Normal, I don't think normal exists..." I said as I believed that to be true.

Elijah then rose from his seat and turned his back to me as he gazed into the burning fire.

"I promised you that I would tell you everything and anything you wanted to know, and I haven't been keeping my promise completely. But now I am going to" he said.

"I'm not quite sure where to start but before you leave here today, you will know everything that I do" Elijah said.

I made myself comfortable as I sat and waited for Elijah to begin.

"Before my mother decided to take it upon herself to curse us and make us into monsters, I actually had a taste of a normal life, well as normal as ones life could be during the Viking era. We were wealthy landowners and our family couldn't have been closer. Even though my father grew to hate my younger brother, Niklaus, because he was not his true son, but Niklaus found other ways to keep his mind off of what our father thought of him. There was a woman who lived in a neighboring village, she had done some minor business with our family and Niklaus and I had the pleasure of making her acquaintance. Her name was Nora Lawsford and she made her way into our lives and would ultimately serve as the catalyst of our family's downfall. Niklaus and I competed for her affections, although she had bore two children from another man, we did not care. She in a way, played with both of us, entertaining us but she never truly made a decision about which one of us she wanted to be with...

This drove my brother and I to come to physical blows and our relationship was in jeopardy. My mother did not like seeing the two of us turn against each other over some woman we barely knew but loved hopelessly. Once my youngest brother had been killed by a werewolf, my mother decided it was time to find a way to keep us protected so that we could stay a family forever. I am not sure of what the ritual contained in its entirety but a sacrifice had to be made to bind us all together...

Nora was abducted in the night and brought to a dungeon while my mother prepared the ritual with the aid of another local witch. They then killed her by plunging a blade into her stomach and allowing her to bleed to death but they made use of her blood. My father had given us wine the night of our deaths which had been laced with Nora's blood and once we awakened after having swords drawn through our hearts, we fed on the remainder of her blood to complete the change, thus creating us as Originals and starting the doppelganger curse...

I hadn't yet realized that Nora was dead, by that time I was too preoccupied adjusting to my new lifestyle. Centuries later after our family had dispersed, I had come into contact with Niklaus again and he told me that he believed he had found a way to break the curse placed on him by our mother which kept his werewolf side dormant. I didn't believe him since it required the blood of the doppelganger that was used to make us Originals, that is until I met a young woman named Natasha Lamberti. When I looked at her face, I was stunned, she looked exactly like Nora, I realized then that the children she had bore must have made it out of our village alive and continued their lives that spawned future generations. I found myself wishing and wanting to recapture the love I had lost through her but my efforts proved to be fruitless. Natasha is purely manipulative, selfish, deceptive and a liar, I tried my best to save her from Niklaus' clutches for the sake of Nora's memory but she decided to make her own decisions and to flee.

Natasha then became a vampire and her blood was no longer of use to Niklaus and this infuriated him to his core. He vowed that he would find her, no matter how long it took and to make her suffer for ruining his plans for eternity...I had kept tabs of Natasha over the years to try to make sure she didn't create chaos on innocent people. My search had gone cold until one night, fairly recently, I had followed her and witnessed a fire she had started on a home filled with innocent humans back in Virginia..." Elijah then turned to face me as my eyes widened.

"I made my way into the house that had become engulfed in the flames so quickly but I went to the top floor. I attempted to save the couple inside but I could hear a man's voice from the opposite side of the door. He begged and pleaded with me to save his daughters and I did. I grabbed the first daughter that was closest and brought her out to the sidewalk but when I took a look at her face, I was once again stunned, it was you..." Elijah said.

I felt the weight in my chest grow immensely as I continued to listen.

"I couldn't believe what I had seen, I had to stop and wonder for a moment if this was Natasha attempting to play a trick on me but I didn't have time to think. I made my way back inside for your sister but by the time I returned to try to save your parents, it was too late...

You had awoken briefly and saw me carrying your sister to safety, you questioned me as to what happened and I could tell simply by the way you spoke and how you cared for others that you couldn't be Natasha. I am ashamed of what I did next but I compelled you to forget seeing me..." Elijah said.

I sat in my place and felt tears start to roll my my face as I tried to contain myself.

"After that I had to know how this was possible, that yet another doppelganger was in existence. I then followed you, watched you for that entire year you were in mourning. It pained me so deeply to see you suffering the way you were and I wanted so desperately to comfort you. And when you decided to move to New York, I couldn't simply let you go, I had to continue to follow you, to protect you but ultimately I had to know you...I came into your life a few weeks ago to start a life with you..." Elijah said as he came closer to me.

"You compelled me...Your the one who saved me...your my guardian angel? So it's not Natasha you see in me, it's Nora..." I said as I choked on my words.

"I will admit what drew me to you when I first looked at your face was your resemblance to her but as I watched you I learned that you are nothing like either of them. Your sweet, gentle, kind, loving, selfless, broken yet so strong, in pain yet still driven. You have something in you that separates you from them, you don't lie, cheat, or use people, you love and feel for everyone you know so much..." Elijah continued.

"The dream I had about that mystery woman finally made sense, I had seen Nora's death. I was able to because we are linked, I am descended from both Nora and Natasha..." I thought.

As moved and touched as I was by Elijah's words, I couldn't help but feel as if my heart was being torn in two.

"Elijah...I will be eternally grateful to you for saving my life as well as Carly's but I can't do this..." I said as I started to sob.

"What do you mean?" Elijah asked.

"I truly thought I could accept the fact that your an original vampire and all that would entail for us but now all this with Natasha and knowing about Nora, how can I be with you knowing that you were involved with both of them and when you look at me whether you mean it or not, you will have one of them in your mind..." I said.

"No that is not true, I did love Nora but she never loved me, that's all in the past and as for Natasha, I pitied her. I tried to help her redeem herself but she can't be saved..." Elijah said as I heard emotion enter into his voice.

"You can never truly love me for who I am and it would be stupid of me to think that you would" I said as I continued to cry.

I gazed up at Elijah and saw that he was fighting back tears as well.

"Your words are breaking my heart..." he whispered.

"I'm so sorry..." I said as I got up and started to make my way toward his door.

"Please, Natalie don't go" I heard Elijah beg from behind.

I stopped as I struggled to turn and face him but I did.

"I am going to do whatever it takes to destroy Natasha, and find out what her motives are, so that I, my sister and the rest of humanity won't have to suffer because of her..." I said.

Elijah took a deep breath and looked at me still with his eyes filled with tears. "I would like to help you accomplish that goal, if you'll let me..." he said.

I nodded and managed to have a small smile form on lips before the pain I felt in my heart and stomach began to take over yet again. I left his home before we said another word and started to make my way back. I had to force myself to keep walking until I reached my building. I walked straight into my room and slid against my door and cried as I held my abdomen.

"My God Elijah, why did I have to fall in love with you?"

authors note: reviews will be much appreciated. Nora is loosely based on Tatia Petrova (the original doppelganger). Elijah is the one who saved Natalie and Carly. Will Elijah and Natalie ever be able to be together or will their relationship be only heartbreak? and the next chapter will focus on everyone coming together to figure out what Natasha wants and how to get rid of her, any ideas of what Natasha's plans are? and one of the characters will be going through a transition. Keep reading to find out!

thanks so much for reading xo