PLAYING PRETEND
Summary: When 'Katherine Gilbert' wakes up about two weeks before school starts, in a hospital, with some bruises and first degree burns on her arms and legs, she has no idea what happened to her. Actually, she doesn't remember a thing, period. Everything is tabula rasa.
Her parents tell her that she has been found unconscious outside the Lake House that had went up in flames.
After two weeks her life seems almost back to normal. She starts school and even if she still hasn't regained her memories of the life she had before the 'accident', her family and her two best friends are there for her and everything seems great.
But when she slowly starts to remember things of a life that has nothing in common with the one she's actually living, her first barely there suspicions become certainties. The life she's living belongs to someone else, someone who was obviously identical to her, the real Katherine Gilbert. When she also starts to receive strange messages and she finds out that a lot of people have several reasons to hate her, Elena - what she found out is her real name - realizes that what was labeled as an accident is in reality anything but and that the person whose life she has unintentionally taken possession of - her twin sister's - is probably dead and that she may be next.
Genres: Mystery/Romance. Alternate Universe/All Human.
Characters: Elena Gilbert, Damon Salvatore, Caroline Forbes, Bonnie Bennet, Rebecca (Rebekah Mikaelson) Michaelson, Hayley (Marshall) Gilbert, Jeremy Gilbert, Stefan Salvatore, Matt Donovan, Tyler Lockwood, Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, Elijah (Mikaelson) Michaelson, Alaric Saltzman, pretty much everyone.
Main Pairing: Damon/Elena
Past Pairings: Katherine/Matt, Katherine/Stefan, Katherine/Elijah, Caroline/Matt, Rebecca(Rebekah)/Stefan, Andie/Damon, Jeremy/Vicky, Tyler/Vicky
Other Pairings: Caroline/Tyler, Rebekah/Matt, Hayley/Elijah(eventually), Bonnie/Jeremy(eventually).
Disclaimer: I'll say this only once. I don't own 'The Vampire Diaries' (or 'The Lying Game' or 'Pretty Little Liars' for that matter) nor do I make money by writing this story.
This story is inspired by 'The Lying Game series' but the plot for this story won't really follow the books even if various things will be taken from it.
It won't follow the 'Vampire Diaries' seasons either, it will be AU.
There will also be some elements taken from 'Pretty Little Liars'(the TV Show, not the books), the anonymous messages first of all, but it won't follow its plot either.
Damon will be a teacher in this story. Teacher/Student relationship guys, you've been warned!
Elena, Bonnie, Caroline and Rebecca(Rebekah) will be 18 in this story. Hayley will be 17 and Katherine's sister. Jeremy is the third Gilbert sibling and he's 16.
I made a trailer of sort for this story, though there are some spoilers in it. If you want to check it out, the link is this: h-t-t-p-s:-/-/-w-w-w-.-youtube-.-c-o-m-/-watch-?-v=hY-QLbKG8k-(without the dashes). It's called 'Playing Pretend - Vampire Diaries Fanfiction Trailer'.
Prologue
"Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up
All the best of what we've done is yet to come
Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up
Just remember who I am in the morning"
(Losing your Memory - Ryan Star)
She groggily forced herself awake. The strong light of the ceiling was hurting her eyes and she took a few minutes to focus on her surroundings. She was lying on something soft, a bed perhaps? Everything around her was blindingly white. She heard voices around her but she couldn't understand their words, everything was muffled, almost as if she was keeping her head underwater. She moved her hand slightly on top of the blankets but her arm ached so she stopped. The voices were starting to become clearer. Someone was calling her.
"Sweety?" A woman's voice was saying with a concerned, motherly tone. "Katherine, are you awake?" She tried to answer but her throat was parched and she suddenly noticed that her head ached too. What had happened to her? Was she in a hospital? Why was she there?
"It's okay Kat, don't try to talk. Take it easy." This time it was a man, his voice was deep and warm. She still couldn't see their faces.
"Katherine will be fine, right?" Another voice, this time younger, of a boy.
"Of course she'll be fine, Jeremy." Another girl's voice answered this time.
She tried to stand up a little on her pillow but her muscles wouldn't cooperate, she was feeling so weak.
"Katherine? No, no, don't try to move. The doctor said not to strain yourself." The man said. She finally saw their faces, eagerly watching her, obviously worried for her. They were all around her bed, waiting something from her. The woman was probably in her early forties, with long brown hair, chocolate eyes and a kind smile. The man was tall, in his late forties, with dark hair and dark eyes. The girl, probably sixteen or seventeen, shared the same traits of her mother while, the boy - who was probably fifteen or sixteen - had the same dark hair and eyes of his father. They were obviously a family. Their faces were completely foreign to her, nothing about them seemed familiar. And yet, they knew her. They kept calling her 'Katherine', but that wasn't her name, or was it? She had so many questions chasing themselves in her head. The woman came close to her. "How are you feeling Katherine? Do you need anything? Do you want me to call the doctor?" She whispered "Water" in a terrible, scratchy voice she didn't recognize. The man, closest to the bedside table, handed her a glass of water. The woman helped her settle in a sitting position. She sipped slowly, her hands trembling, her throat burning. "What happened? Why am I in a hospital?" She asked them once she finished drinking the water.
"You don't remember?" The man asked her. The girl, she noticed, looked worried, her eyes shifting from the man, to the woman, to her. Katherine shook her head in response but then stopped, feeling suddenly dizzy. She tried to bring a hand to her head but her arm was bound to the IV, preventing her movements.
"We were hoping you could tell us." The woman said to her in a kind voice. "They found you passed out just outside our Lake House in the woods three days ago, you've been in the hospital since then. The cabin went up in flames and you had obviously been inside because you have various first degree burns on your body. You don't remember anything at all?"
"No, I'm sorry." She answered in the end.
The man shook his head and said "Don't worry. We'll figure it out." He looked worried though and looked at the woman - his wife probably - for a moment before lowering his gaze on the sheets in front of him.
"What, what is it?" She couldn't help but ask. Husband and wife looked at each other once again. "Hayley, why don't you and your brother go to the vending machine and buy yourselves something to eat? You must be hungry." She noticed the boy opening his mouth, obviously about to disagree, but a look from his mother and a glare for his sister stopped him in his tracks. Hayley nodded at once and left the room with her brother.
"What were you doing at the Lake House so late? Especially all alone" The woman asked her.
"I don't know" She answered, confused. "I don't remember." She said in a whisper. What the hell had happened? And why couldn't she remember? "The fire, how did it start? What the police said?"
"It was an accident. The fire started because of a candle that you probably left burning. You must have fallen asleep and forgot to blow it out. The flames reached the window curtains and from there it just spread. Of course you know the cabin is made of wood from the most part, in a few minutes everything went up in flames." 'Wife' said. Her voice had started out strong but at the end of her speech, she was shaking and big tears were descending down her cheeks. "It's a miracle that you were able to get out at all, least of all almost unscathed as you did. You have a few bruises and some light burns besides a mild concussion probably caused by some tile piece that went down from the collapsed roof." She looked at her, upset that she was crying for her and not understanding why. Who were those people? Why they were so worried for her?
"Why are you crying?" She asked in a small voice. "I'm fine."
The woman suddenly burst into sobs and reached her side, hugging her tightly to herself. "Oh Katherine, we were so worried." The man patted her head but kept silent.
She didn't know what she was supposed to do. They obviously knew her so why couldn't she remember them? She tried to think about something she could actually remember but realized with a start that she didn't even know her own name. How old was she? Where was she from? Who were her parents? Anything? She started to panic. Obviously there was something seriously wrong with her.
"Maybe you should call the doctor." She said then, once the woman had detached herself from her. "Of course sweety." The man left the room in search for a doctor and she looked at the woman, trying to find the courage to tell her that she didn't recognize her. "So my name is Katherine hum?" Not the best way to start the topic but it was something.
The woman startled and asked shocked. "You don't remember your name?" She grimaced apologetically. "No."
"What else don't you remember?" She kept silent. "Do you know who I am? And your father? Your sister? Your brother?" She shook her head in response and lowered her eyes, suddenly feeling guilty. "I'm sorry." She heard the woman sob and she couldn't find the courage to look at her. She waited in silence for the man to return with the doctor, thing that he did a few minutes later.
"So Miss Gilbert, how are you feeling today?" She raised her head and observed the young, brunette woman in front of her, wearing a white coat and the metal tag that said 'Dr Fell'.
"She doesn't remember anything." The woman said with a strangled voice.
"What?" The man asked dismayed.
Dr Fell walked up to her and checked her eyes with a tiny flashlight and checked her values. "Everything seems normal."
"Then why she doesn't remember? She doesn't even know that her name is Katherine or that we're her parents. She didn't recognize her siblings.." The woman claiming to be her mother said.
"It's probably an after-effect of the concussion and there's also the traumatic experience she went through to consider. It's not unusual for something like this to happen. Sometimes the patients have partial memory loss, sometimes they remember everything perfectly well and sometimes, like in your daughter's case, they remember nothing at all. It's usually temporary though."
"Usually? It means that there's a possibility that she could never regain her memory?" Her 'father' asked this time.
"It's a very remote possibility. But yes, it could happen." The doctor said with an apologetic tone. Then turned her head to look at her. "So, how are you feeling, besides the memory loss? Do you need something for the pain?"
"My head." She simply said with a grimace. Everything was still foggy, she was feeling confused and her migraine wasn't helping.
"I think a tablet of Tylenol is enough for now. If the pain gets worse and you need something stronger, just call a nurse with the emergency bottom." She nodded her head as a yes. She asked the doctor when they were going to release her but Dr Fell told her that she needed to stay in the hospital for a few days, just as a precaution. After a few recommendations the doctor left the room.
The remaining occupants stayed silent. She sighed and decided that she needed to say something. "Maybe you should start by telling me your names. Maybe it would help me remember." Her mother's eyes shined in hope at her words.
"Of course, you're right. I'm Miranda Gilbert, your mother and this is Grayson Gilbert, your father. We live in Mystic Falls, Virginia. You also have a brother and a sister, the ones you saw before. Your sister's name is Hayley and she just turned seventeen years old. She will start 11th grade this year. Your brother, on the other hand, is called Jeremy and he's fifteen. You are Katherine Gilbert, you'll be 18 in three weeks and you'll start your last year of high school. You are an average student but your real passion is swimming. You're the captain of the swimming team at school but you're also a cheerleader. You have two best friends of your same age, Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennet. Bonnie is the best tennis player at school and a cheerleader while Caroline is the captain of the cheerleading squad. You've been friends since third grade." Hayley and Jeremy had returned in the room at that point and once the situation was explained to them, they put their cent in too. The four Gilberts spent at least two hours telling her things about her life until the visiting hour was over.
'Katherine' stayed awake for a long time after her parents and siblings left. She had so much to think about that her brain refused to shut down. Nothing about her surroundings seemed familiar, not even the view out the window. The four people that were supposed to be the closest to her were complete strangers. She didn't even remember the faces of her two best friends, let alone anything else about them. What had really happened to her in that cabin? Why she couldn't remember a single thing about her life? So many questions and no answers. She stayed awake for hours, thinking about everything her family had told her and trying to find something familiar in it but without success. At last, when the sun had by then risen on the sky, she fell asleep, exhausted. Her sleep was restless and filled with confused nightmares. When she woke up a few hours later, she had no remembrance of them, but she felt anxious and scared.