Elena's POV

I grew bored waiting for Kat to come back, so I got my phone from my bag and listened to some music. Just as I found a new song by Candice Accola's on YouTube, I smiled. Life wasn't as bad as it seemed. Right? I was going to be okay. In this good mood, I lit a fire under the large ivry mantlepiece on the wall opposite the door and the sofa. Then, after a few awkward moments of trying to get it to light, re-crossed the room and fell back on the sofa next to my forgotten phone.

The warmth of the flames radiated my body; seeping into every tense nerve in my body. My eyes glued themselves to the jumping flames of red and golds. I shut my eyes and just lay on the comfortable, purple velvet couch. It was peaceful and I didn't even think about anything. I just let go. Katherine Pierce came home just as I had - well - I had fallen asleep. But that's just a form of being extremely calmed down.

"That's really irresponsible, Elena," Katherine said, jolting me awake. I looked up at her, feeling groggy on my hair and skin. I didn't even want to think about what I looked like. My ancestor was leant against the oversized wooden doorway above my head, looking refreshed and clean. Envious, I didn't bother to move. All those weeks of not sleeping properly had caught up with me. Remaining by the fire seemed like a really great idea.

"Wha-," I yawned embarrassingly wide,"What is?"

"Sleeping alone beside the fire-place." She scowled, sounding very much unlike herself. I knew that under normal circumstances Katherine would laugh at my ratty appearance and taunt me with ideas of burning myself as I slept; or something. Not actually telling her off like a mother hen, like she was now.

"You...okay, Katherine?," I say slowly. My mouth was still half asleep and felt disgusting. "You don't seem... You left really fast." The woman looked vaguely surprised. She moved her head to the side as though she was seeing right through me.

"Did she? How rude of her." She judged herself in the third person.

I looked at her funny, then, as I wondered what was wrong with her. I had talked about family before she left for an appointment.. Oh. She had no family. Katherine had told me once, in return for blood when she needed it badly, that her family had shunned her. An illegitimate daughter had caused her father to send her packing to England. She never saw her daughter again.

"Oh god, Katherine. I am so sorry. I wasn't thinking earlier. It was tactless to bring up my family -" I gushed. Katherine held up her hand. I stuttered myself into silence, feeling stupid as I smiled at her meekly. I sat up straight and fully took her in. Only now did I notice that she had changed her clothes and had a hair cut. When I was about the comment on these alterations, something flashed in the corner of my eye.

My phone. I grabbed it, casually as if to check the time. The screen told me I had one missed call off Katherine... from one minute ago. Something inside me felt revolted and my brain tumbled into a hot mess. This wasn't making any sense. Katherine didn't take her phone out once; we had talked for longer than a minute. And my phone was rarely ever wrong with time...

I looked up at her as my phone started to buzz rapidly. It mirrored my heart rate: Erratic. Scared. Katherine was calling me again yet Katherine was in front of me, her hands free of any phone whatsoever.

"Who are you?" I managed to whisper around my trembling lips when Katherine Pierce came running in with her vampire speed from the other door, the one beside the fire-place. After I took in her appearance, I stared at the imposter. it - she - who smirked amusedly.

"Get. Out." The real Katherine set through her bared fangs as she came to my side. The other woman watched us. Her expression betraying herself. She looked...lonely as she watched us move to protect each other. Her look disappeared as soon as it came. She glared at Kat.

"That is no way to talk to your elder, is it Katerina?" Katherine looked at me with fear in the eyes which we both possessed. The woman scared her.. this other doppelgänger. Since when was Katherine scared of anything? This woman's appearance must have been bad news.

I grasped Kat's hand to reassure myself. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the woman who I once hated to face the other unknown replica of myself. The one who was watching me with a hungry and conflicted look on our face.

"My name is Tatiana, my child." She told me, stepping towards us and gesturing to the sofa, "Please sit down." Katherine and I obeyed simultaneously as though pulled down like puppets on a string. The woman began to circle the sofa, predator to prey style. I swallowed down a whimper. I needed to be strong. For me and Katherine.

"Why are you here, Tatia? I haven't seen you since I first turned." Katherine said with a slight tone of aggression in her voice. I had never heard my voice sound like that before. Being a doppelgänger meant I could see myself as if I had a different personality.

"Yeah. Elijah has never mentioned ano-" I began only to be cut off once again by Tatia. Her face looked heartbroken, shattered at the mention of Elijah Mickaelson's name. There was obviously unfinished business there, I decided.

"Elijah? He is in Mystic Falls?"

"Yeah, the whole family are." I answered her. Tatia whimpered like I had nearly done earlier.

"No. I do not believe you."

"You should," Katherine said, regaining her attention. I sighed with relief as those piercing eyes left my face.

"Be quiet, Katerina." She ordered cooly, to which Katherine was put-out. She obeyed with a defiant pout. I looked back at Tatia. Who the hell was this woman?

"Tatia, why have I never heard of you?" I asked carefully. Being killed by a copy of myself for offending her didn't seem like a good way to die. I needed walk on egg shells around her, I decided as Tatia seemed to contemplate my appearance. Her gaze was penetrating my very soul. No one has ever done that, apart from Damon, when he told me he loved me. A strange connection, but it was true.

"You are new to vampirism, are you not Elena Petrova?" She assumed correctly. I shuddered at the name Petrova. That only reminded me of Klaus, and his hunger for my death last year in that stupid sacrifice. I had tried to block out what he had whispered to me before he had sucked the life out of me, killing my biological father in the process. The name Petrova held a lot of meaning for me.

"Yes." I answered quickly, glad for a distraction from my own thoughts. My past was going to kill me one day, I knew.

"Who has taught you our ways?" She inquired, lowering herself to perch on the only other available seat on the other side of the fire. She looked like a painting with the light of the flames dancing on her olive skin.

"The Salvatore brother, ma'am." I told her instinctively. Tatia smiled at my reply before frowning.

"Salvatore..." She raised her brows at Katherine, she looked back at her sheepishly. I frowned at her as well. Why was she acting so out of character? It was just making this whole thing so much more unnerving.

"Yes Salvatore, Tatia. I'm not surprised you recognise the name. Stefan is well-known as the Ripper. And, if you do not know already, I had both brother's under my spell for nearly two hundred years." Katherine said smugly, finally being herself. The one I hated.

"Actually, Kat, that was only Damon and he hates you now." I told her cooly, hoping to mirror Tatia's tone when she ordered Katherine around. I didn't work. The other two doppelgängers laughed at me, identical giggles sounded like a happy echo.

"I see you also have captivated these Salvatore's, young one." I blushed, it wasn't like that. I was just plain old me, there was no way I could 'captivate' anyone. The brothers just... loved me. A lot. And sometimes too much. Especially Damon. I felt another pang in my heart at the thought of him, which was so wrong because I was with his brother, not him. I had not admitted it yet but I loved them both. My eyes shifted from left to right as I thought of what I could do to save the men I adored from myself.

"...Katherine and I must teach you the Petrova way of vampirism." During my monologue, I did not realise Tatia had spoken until she said that. It shocked me deeply. I looked at her and Katherine in quick succession, like watching a tennis match. Both of the same faces looked excited and amused at my reaction.

"The Petrova way?" I blundered over the question. I was still in shock, apparently. Good to know.

"Yes." Katherine told me, tapping my hand as a reassurance. She smirked her 'I-have-a-diabolical-plan" expression in my direction. Her diabolical plans usually meant people dying, but I shoved that thought aside. For now.

"Apart from the basics of being a vampire, I will also impart my first-hand knowledge of how the Petrova Doppelganger came to be." Tatia told me, sounding more and more like an old grandmother. Which in some messed up way she actually was.

Eurgh, I thought, brain overload.

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