Chapter 21 – Truth Doesn't Make a Noise

My doppelganger.

I literally couldn't believe my eyes. A girl looking exactly like me was standing right there, in front of me looking at me with a devilish smile. She had the same blonde curly hair, the same shade of green in her eyes, the same height, figure and features as me. She was an exact replica of me. She could as well be my twin sister. The only thing different was her clothes. Her clothes were a little sluttier than mine.

The girl I was arguing a moment ago said "Holy crap!" Yeah, like that could cover what was going on right now.

My doppelganger examined me, head to toe, like I did with her. Only I did it with my mouth still open and still in total shock. She, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy it.

"Who..who… are you?" I managed to say.

She smiled. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Katherine." she said and she offered me her hand. "And you must be Peyton."

I didn't take her hand, but I did grab Damon's instinctively. Katherine followed with her eyes that gesture and she started laughing. "No fucking way! That explains a lot." she said between laughter.

My shock was starting to fade, as anger started to rise. These past five minutes have been so weird and I needed to know what the fuck was going on. So I said the last part out loud. "Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?"

Katherine opened her mouth, ready to start talking, but she was interrupted by a very angry Damon. "Shut up! You've done enough already!" he yelled at her with his vampire face on. Now I was more confused. Why he just did that in public? Yeah, all the other people weren't paying attention at us, but these two girls were standing right there! Did they know?

"Careful, Damon. Don't do anything you'll regret." she said with a threatening tone in her voice and a devious smile.

Damon turned normal again and started walking away. I followed him, still grabbing on his hand.

We walked for a little while and we made it to the far end of the harbor, where there was no lights but we still could see our surroundings, no people and no distractions whatsoever. We sat at the edge, where the sea met the land, our feet inches from the cool, calm ocean.

We listened at the distant music for a while, along with the water that splushed under our feet. I was waiting for him to say something. And he began talking after a few minutes.

"Remember when you asked me a while ago why Stefan called you Katherine when he first met you and I told you that you looked like his ex-girlfriend?"

"Yes." I said quietly.

"Well, that was her. What I didn't tell you is that she was also my girlfriend, if you can call her that." He paused. "But now, you deserve to know the truth. The whole truth."

I listened to him as calmly as I could, but at this point I really needed to smoke. I took my pack of cigarettes out and I lit one. I also offered him one, which he took gladly. I lit his and he continued.

"It was 1545 when me and my brother were living in Florence, Italy. He was still in school, and I had just returned from college. Katherine was a visitor on our house, sent by her father who was in business with ours. When I saw her, I was taken away by her beauty, her spirit and her playful character. I was doomed from the very beginning."

It hurt me to hear him talk about her in that way, but I said nothing. "However, I was not the only one who was under her spell. My little brother was also courting her, trying to win her affection. We played this game, 'who would win Katherine's heart' for about a month. Then one night she came to my bedroom and I knew I had won. Before we made love, she confessed to me what she really was. A creature of the night, a vampire. She explained to me how she could go out in daylight, wearing a necklace with the stone lapis lazuli on it. It protected her. At first I didn't believe her, but she showed me her fangs and her bloodshot eyes, and then I knew she was telling the truth. That didn't make me love her less."

"For about two weeks she was coming to me, every other night. She was feeding off of me and she gave me her blood in return. When she told me she loved me, I knew I would do anything in the world for her. I wanted to be with her forever, literally."

He paused again and took a deep breath. "One night, I craved for her so bad that I went looking for her in her bedroom. But she wasn't there. I got worried so I started looking for her in the house. I went into Stefan's bedroom, to ask if he saw her. But what I saw was Stefan and Katherine in bed, naked, and she was ready to feed from him, like he did from me all those nights. I was furious. How could she do this to me? We supposed to have this epic love, and she was cheating on me with my own brother."

"Stefan however, was as shocked as I was. It turned out that Katherine was sleeping with both of us, and she was feeding from us and feeding us at the same time. We gave her an ultimatum; me or Stefan. She couldn't have us both. She, of course, couldn't choose so she killed herself. Only centuries later we found out she only faked her own death and hadn't actually killed herself."

I was speechless. How could a person do something like that? It was so awful. Damon continued, as I lit another cigarette. "The morning after we gave her the ultimatum, we found her 'ashes' along with her dress, her necklace and a note under a tree. The note said that she couldn't live with herself, knowing what a wedge she drove between me and Stefan and she was hoping her sacrifice would bring peace in our hearts and lives. Now that I think about it, it was a bunch of bullshit." He shook his head. "We both were blinded by rage, blaming each other for her death. Without knowing it, we started fighting with the family swords and with a hit, I stabbed Stefan right though the chest." I gasped at that point but he continued. "My gloating only lasted a moment, because, before I knew it, he had done the some thing to me. I felt my heart stopped beating and we both fell to the ground, lifeless."

I felt tears streaming down my face and I whipped them awkwardly. "The next thing I remember was waking up on the family tomb, with a ring on my hand." he said and he raised his hand so I could see his ring. "My brother was lying next to me, appearing to be dead, but I saw a ring similar to mine on his hand. I didn't know what to do, so I run away as fast as I could. I was so hungry and my throat burned. After half an hour I reached a road and a carriage was passing by. The driver stopped to see if I was okay, but all I could see was his neck, and all the veins popping, calling me to them. My teeth hurt like hell and I picked them with my tongue. At a single moment, I realized what had grown on my teeth and when I saw the driver's horrified expression as he looked at my face, I confirmed my suspicions. Before I can restrain myself, I grabbed the driver and sucked him dry. The woman who was in the carriage got out to see what was going on and, hungry as I was, I sucked her dry too.

That's how I became a vampire."

He stopped talking and waited to see any reaction at all from me. I just stared at the ocean, trying to understand everything he just told me. After a few minutes I finally said something. "So how did you find out that she was still alive?"

"In 1864 I was passing by Fell's Church. I knew my brother was there and I wanted to make his life miserable. We crossed paths every once in a while, but that time I was furious at something that happened to me at Prague, so I wanted to take it out on him. When I found him, he was involved with a human girl, I think her name was Elena. She was very beautiful, brunette, with big expressive brown eyes, and very in love with my little brother. I was the perfect opportunity to ruin my brother's life. "

He sighed and continued. "I tried messing with her mind by using compulsion, but my

brother had already taken measures. He had given her a necklace with vervaine on it, so my plan backfired. At first. After that I tried messing with her the old-fashion way. I flirted with her, tried to expose Stefan a couple of times, but nothing worked. Their love was too strong. The one night I heard on the street that some blonde girl was causing a scene at the town's tavern. Of course I couldn't resist and I went there. When I entered, I couldn't believe my eyes. Katherine was there, alive and most importantly, drunk. She yelled at everyone, but you couldn't make out what she was saying, as she was speaking in German. She is from Germany, you see. When I saw her, I hugged her and got her out of here. I couldn't be happier to find her, alive."

"But when we got out she started yelling at me too. In English this time. She told me that this was all mine and my brother's fault, that we couldn't put aside our differences and all live happily together and stuff like that. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The girl was totally sick. I told her that and tried leaving. That's when Stefan came. She was taking a walk with Elena. I swear, that kid has the worst timing in the world. He couldn't believe in his eyes either. He overcame his shock, though, when Katherine started yelling at him. How could he love someone else and so on. The highlight was when she asked Elena if she knew what Stefan really was. She, of course, didn't know. Back then these things weren't taken that lightly. They burned vampires, witches, warlocks and anyone in suspicion of being supernatural. So Katherine attacked her and severed her neck. Stefan screamed 'no!' and took her away from there."

"And I was standing there with Katherine, not knowing what to do. But she did. She grabbed me, she took me to an abandoned barn a little further from where we were, and she seduced me. It wasn't that hard. But after a few hours, I woke up to the sound of a mob, which was holding torches and wanted to burn me and Katherine alive. Only Katherine had already fled the scene and left me there all by myself. I managed to get away, using compulsion, vampire strength and speed."

He stopped and I realized that the story had ended. "Wow." was all I could say. We stayed silent again for a little while and now I had more important questions to ask.

"Why do I look like her Damon?" I asked and my voice broke down a little.

"I honestly have no idea. I tried to search a little in your family tree, but it wasn't that easy, mostly because Katherine's 500 years old, and because -" he stopped midsentence.

'Because what?"

"I- I shouldn't be the one telling you this. You may need to ask your father."

"No, I want you to tell me. Now!"

He looked really hesitant. "Peyton…"

"You said the whole truth Damon!" I yelled at him.

He sighed. "Because you're adopted."

It was like in the movies. Suddenly everything had stopped moving. My brain, my world, everything. "I'm… what?"

"Adopted." he said patiently. "It was a closed adoption, actually, which means your birth mother cannot have any contact with you until you're eighteen."

I felt tears trying to escape from my eyes. "No, that can't be true. It just can't. My father would have told me."

He put his hand in my shoulder in effort to comfort me. "I'm sorry you're hearing this from me, but you asked from the whole truth. And I promised to tell you everything."

I stood up. "Then tell me Damon. The only reason you're with me is because I look like her?" I yelled at him.

He stood up too. "I admit that when I saw the resemblance between you two, I was drawn to you by that." I looked away and he grabbed my shoulders. "But when I got to know you, I was drawn by you. Your witty personality, your fire, your passion, your loyal character, the fact that you bring the human in me, even the darkness in you. I'm drawn to you, I care about you even more than I can understand and I can't seem to let you go. Peyton, I am in love with you, with who you are, not with what you look like. I couldn't care less about your resemblance to her. "

I was crying pretty obviously right now. "I can't Damon. I can't. It's just too much information to process right now."

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Just… since we can't go to our house, bring whatever booze, drugs, cigarettes you have to my place. I need to get fucked up. And I can't be alone right now."

"Ok, ok. Let's go to Stefan and tell him to get you home. I'll be there when you'll arrive."

I nodded. He took my hand and we started walking to the place where the festival was held. But after a minute of walking I stopped. He turned around, still holding my hand. "What's wrong?"

I took a deep breath. "Just so you know, I'm in love with you too."

He didn't say anything. He wrapped his hand around my waist, I did the same and we continued walking.

Wow, that was fast. I finished this chapter in two nights! Yay me! haha :P

Now we got the whole story, what really happened back in the Renaissance Italy, how both brothers hated Katherine and what Damon sees when he sees Peyton.

I have to say, I didn't plan on bringing Peyton's adoption up, but when Damon said he looked it up, i knew it was unavoidable. In search of Peyton's heritage, it would be of the first things he would find so...

Oh, and prepare yourselves, because in the next chapter there's going to be plenty of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Add the booze and there you go!