Hello, my lovely readers. Sorry about the long wait. I'm still trying to catch up on a ton of fics. This is Rebekah's nightmare. On with the show…

Chapter 9: Doppleganger Syndrome

Waking up in an unfamiliar room, Rebekah feared that she had been thrown into someone else's body, again. "Rebekah, it's time for school, honey," a voice called and Rebekah shook her head. Who in the bloody hell could that be? She wondered, gripping her head and finding locks of straight, brown hair tumbling down, into her line of sight. When did she dye her hair? Wait! Her mother must have placed her into another body, again. Or not, given that her mother was dead.

Rebekah slid out of the bed and looked around before her eyes landed on the reflection staring back at her. "AHHHHH!" she screamed, realizing that Elena bloody Gilbert was staring back at her.

"Honey, what's the matter?" a voice called and Rebekah's new head spun to take in an unfamiliar looking woman. "You're going to be late for school and Bonnie's waiting for you downstairs."

"Bonnie?" Rebekah grimaced. She did not hate Bonnie quite as much as the doppleganger, and every doppleganger ever, but she was not on the top-ten list of people that Rebekah would want to be forced to spend time with.

"Yes, Bonnie. And Klaus called," the woman called, patting the doorframe with a smile. "If you don't get downstairs, Jeremy's going to eat all of the cereal."

When the woman left, Rebekah got up to look in the mirror. If she had to be a doppleganger, couldn't she at least be Katherine? Groaning, she walked to the closet and wondered how anyone could own so much purple. "No. No. No. Definitely not!" Tossing almost everything aside, Rebekah settled on a red tank with a little lace around the top and a pair of jeans that were alright but not her style. The shoes were the worst. Finding a pair of sling-backs in the back, she pulled them on and walked out of the room.

"Elena, you aren't going out like that, are you?" the woman from before asked. "Grayson, check her forehead. I think she's coming down with something."

The man at the kitchen table folded his newspaper and came over to check Rebekah's forehead while she rolled her eyes at him. "She's fine. Just grab a jacket," he ordered Rebekah who frowned at the man and glared at Jeremy Gilbert who let out a laugh.

Stomping back up the stairs, Rebekah grabbed a jacket and then ran down the stairs and out the front door. She exited the house without a word to the man or woman who may or may not have been Elena's parents. This was obviously some kind of crazy spell and she needed a witch to fix it for her. "Hey, Sexy Bex!" Damon called from the back of the car. Rebekah raised an eyebrow at him.

"Damon," Rebekah replied.

"How's AP English going for you?" he asked.

Rolling her eyes, Rebekah forced herself to play along. "It's lovely. How are your studies, Damon? Getting an A in Blood Sucking 101? Or being a Dick 102?"

"Hey, watch how you talk to my brother!" Bonnie shouted at Rebekah. "Seriously, Rebekah, I don't know what the hell is wrong with you sometimes. It must be Klaus' influence."

"Must be," Rebekah mused with a smirk.

"Hey, Rebekah," Damon called, leaning forward and trying to make eye contact. "Did you want to drop by the Grill later and study?"

"Damon, I've already had what you have to offer and found you quite lacking. Now, bugger off, will you?" Rebekah snapped. "Bonnie, I need a little help with something. Perhaps we might speak later."

"After the way that you talk to my brother!" Bonnie pulled the car over. "Get out of my car."

"What brother?" Rebekah demanded, glaring at Bonnie.

"Damon!" Bonnie looked at Rebekah like she had lost her mind. "Maybe you should check into rehab, because whatever you're on, it's making you into a world-class bitch."

Rebekah huffed before getting out of the car and slamming the door shut behind her. Even in a dream there would have to be another witch around here. Somewhere. "Drat!" Rebekah growled when she broke one of the heels off the back of her shoe.

"Need some help?" a familiar voice called, pulling up in a pick-up truck, his hair pulled back in a ponytail and he smelled vaguely like a brewery.

"Nik?" Rebekah called, barely recognizing her brother. "What are you wearing? What are you driving and what the hell is wrong with your hair?" She could not understand what impression he intended to make with his new look and an utter lack of deodorant.

Klaus shrugged. "War makes me look back to when other people cared about things like not just watching us lay waste to each other. It's a bloody horror show, sweetheart. Now, come, give us a kiss," he opened his arms, puckering his lips.

Rebekah let out a blood-curdling scream and ran for her non vampire existence. Her feet pounded the pavement when someone nearly ran her over on her way through an intersection. Hayley Marshall leaned out the window and glared at Rebekah, flicking her sunglasses downward. "Get the hell out of the way, kid! I have places to go. It's my wedding day!"

"Hayley, thank God it's you!" Rebekah shouted, moving around the side of the Porsche and getting inside.

"Hey! Get out of my car! You're not Ryan Gosling! Only he can get into my car uninvited!" Hayley began to rummage through her purse. "I swear, no matter how much anti-anxiety medication I take, there is never enough to deal with the filthy kids in this town." Finding a can of Mace, she aimed it at Rebekah.

"Can't you at least give me a lift home?" Rebekah asked Hayley who let out a laugh.

"Do I look like I'm running a charity here?" Hayley continued to laugh. "Get out of my car. You're going to make me late to marry the next president, Governor Mikaelson."

"Elijah?" Rebekah felt excited. Elijah would help her, surely.

Hayley let out a disgusted snort. "Who is Elijah? No, Mikael. He's rich. He's infamous. He's like Donald Trump but with hair and looks. Now, get out of my car!" Lifting the can of Mace, Hayley sprayed but Rebekah ducked down, shoving the car door open and leaping out. "Eat my tracks, Bitch!" Hayley screamed, flipping Rebekah off.

Dusting herself off, Rebekah sighed, she really hated this spell. She looked around and spotted Stefan who whistled on his way down the opposite sidewalk. "Stefan!" Rebekah shouted, waving to him but he didn't look at her. "Stefan!" Rebekah continued to shout after Stefan who did not even seem to notice her presence. "Stefan, wait!" she shouted.

Rebekah ran after Stefan, when she caught up with him, she placed her hand on his shoulder. "Stefan?" she cried. "Why didn't you stop?"

"Who is Stefan?" Stefan scratched his head. "My name is Tom Avery."

"Tom?" Rebekah felt confused. Backing away, she spun on her heel and then fell to the ground, groaning in pain. That bloody well hurt.

"Hey, miss, are you alright?" someone else called. A voice that sounded all too familiar.

"Marcel?" Rebekah shouted, feeling relieved as he pulled her to her feet. "Oh, thank God. I need your help," she cried, grabbing fistfuls of his jacket and leaning into him.

"It's okay. I've got you," Marcel swept Rebekah off her feet and she felt so happy as he settled her into the passenger side of his car.

"Oh, Marcel, I've been having a terrible day," Rebekah moaned, placing her head on his shoulder.

"I guess," Marcel said, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, holding her to him.

Falling asleep, Rebekah did not wake until the evening. She woke up to find herself in a clearing, out in the woods. "What's going on?" she cried, looking around her. Something felt vastly wrong here. Looking around, she saw Caroline come out of the woods with a smile.

"Hello, Rebekah," Caroline greeted her, crouching down and sniffing her. "Hmm… you smell delicious," she moaned, licking the side of Rebekah's neck, making Rebekah cringe.

"What the hell is going on?" Rebekah cried, looking around her in fear and disgust.

"This is a sacrifice," Caroline intoned. "I'm going to kill you and a few of your friends just because I'm bored and there's nothing good on TV tonight. Okay?"

Rebekah let out a scream of fear, trying to break out of the circle she was stuck inside. Caroline must have switched places with Klaus because of this spell which meant that Rebekah would die in place of Elena. But the whole narrative was wrong because Elena's parents were dead and she had started dating Stefan and all kinds of other drama and Rebekah didn't even get to have sex with Stefan and go on a million, ridiculous dates and get to flirt with Damon a billion times. How was this fair?

Caroline looked bored. "So, I guess this is the part where you ask me why I'm doing this and I give you an elaborately detailed explanation of the plot, even though we only have like forty minutes, due to commercial breaks for cars, cell phones and yogurt, right?"

"You want to kill me so that you reverse the spell that your mother placed on you so that you can become a werewolf," Rebekah spat at Caroline.

"No. I'm doing this because for a thousand years I have not been able to cut my hair. No matter what, it stays the same length. Even when I try to pin it up, it just falls back down, thanks to mom's stupid spell. Seriously! So, after I drain you of all your blood, I can wear my hair in any style I want. I can even shave my head if I wanted to which I won't but it's nice to have options. Okay, back to killing you. Oh, yeah, sorry, I have to wait. The script says I have to kill your best friend and your boyfriend first."

"Get off of me!" Hayley yelled as she was tossed inside a circle. "Do you know who I am! I own this network! It was a gift from my husband. I own the CW and I will fire whoever the hell wrote this script! Do you hear me?" She tried to run out of the circle but kept getting zapped. "Ugh. That stings."

"Tell me about it. After awhile it feels kind of good," Klaus called to Hayley, a joint hanging from between his lips.

"Klaus, you said you gave that up!" Rebekah shouted at her brother. "And where is my boyfriend? Where is Marcel?" she shouted.

"Marcel, have you been cheating on me with this doppleganger hussy?" Caroline demanded, placing her hands on her hips. "After I hung that Cami person, back in the seventeenth century, I thought you would have learned."

"Care, baby, sweetie, sugar –" Marcel began when Caroline waved him off. "Put him in and take the hippie freak out. He smells bad but after a bath and delousing, he might be worth something on the open market," she called.

Klaus was removed from the circle to Rebekah's left and then Marcel was shoved inside. "That's not cool!" Klaus cried, frowning when Caroline grabbed Hayley by the hair and dragged her by the hair over to an altar and shoved her hand inside Hayley's chest. She kept digging around while Hayley looked bored.

"You know, I think it's tradition for the groom to feel the bride up on her wedding night, not some random stranger who has hair from the fourteenth century." Hayley yawned as Caroline let out a hiss of annoyance.

"Marcel, you can't do anything right. This one doesn't even have a heart! I swear! Do I have to do everything myself?" she demanded.

"Apparently," Rebekah muttered, kicking a dirt clod.

Caroline glowered at Rebekah. "Fine, Rebekah Gilbert. I will be back when it is time to try to do the spell again. You had better hope that I don't find another reason to kill you. And stay away from the Salvatore sisters. One of them is a Girl Scout and she refused to give me Mint Thin cookies one day, so I turned her into a ten-year-old vampire. Take that Stefanie Salvatore. You will rue the day you did not give me my Thin Mints. Ha, ha, ha!"

Hayley got up. "I have to get back to my reception. None of you are invited. BTW, Klaus, your father says no smoking pot in the house anymore."

"Slut," Klaus retorted.

"Ouch. That hurt," Hayley placed a hand over her chest and then frowned at the blood. "My people will be in contact with your people over dry-cleaning costs," Hayley yelled at Caroline.

"Does this mean that I'm stuck being a doppleganger forever?" Rebekah shouted.

Caroline didn't even bother to acknowledge her. She was too busy sniffing Klaus and then shoving him against a tree. So they were mating while Rebekah rolled her eyes. "Fine. That's bloody terrific!" Rebekah threw up her arms in the air.

"You know, in the book series, you were blonde and blue eyed," Marcel pointed out and Rebekah groaned as he followed her out of the woods. "Maybe if you got a bottle of dye and some contacts, you'd feel more comfortable. Personally, I prefer that look," Marcel told her.

"Bugger off," Rebekah snarled.

Marcel shrugged. "Sorry. I'm going down to New Orleans, where people are polite to each other."

"You do that," Rebekah muttered when Damon appeared, walking down yet another sidewalk. Who knew Mystic Falls cared so much about pedestrians? "Damon!" Rebekah shouted.

"Rebekah?" Damon replied and smiled as she caught up with him after tearing the infernal shoes off. "Hey, so I was about to go get a bite to eat, you want to come?"

"Yes. It looks like I have nowhere else to be," Rebekah smiled. Well, if she had to be stuck in this world, at least she could enjoy Damon's company when he wasn't being the worst person she'd ever met, aside from Nik.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Damon said, his fangs popping out and then he grabbed her, sinking his fangs in. As her life slipped away, she saw her old body come to stand beside Damon.

"Hey, don't drink it all. I want a sip," her voice said.

"Sure, Lena, here," Damon offered her true body her wrist and Rebekah looked into her eyes to see the essence of Elena bloody Gilbert smirking back at her.

I thought about having Rebekah switch bodies with Klaus or worse yet, Kol but settled on a doppleganger because Rebekah never seemed to like them. Ha, ha! Oh, well.

Answers to guest reviews:

Guest: I will update Through His Eyes on July 16, 2016.

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Peace,

Jessica