A/N: and here is chapter seventeen. I'll keep this short today^^ Thank you for leaving your reviews and enjoy the chapter. To my guest reviewer, to whom I can't reply to, I'm not planning on murdering the Originals, because I'll pretty much murder every vampire with that. And although the witches would make for an interesting story, I don't think one human girl would manage that in the first place.

Besides, I quite like the Originals. There are so many plotlines to work and play with when those vamps are around.

Anyway, enjoy!

o.O.o

Chapter Seventeen, Lethal White

Thanksgiving break passed in a blur and December the first started as a sunny, cold winter day. A faint breeze tempered the air, tousling my hair as I marched up towards the school. The weekend had been a bit unreal, without anything supernatural happening.

Grayson had cooked up Elena's favorite meal, chicken parmesan, and invited Jenna and Alaric to stay for what he called 'Family night'. The normality of it all had been a welcome reprieve for a change.

Without the job as a history teacher available at Mystic Fall's High School, Alaric had accepted a position at Whitmore College. It was only an hour away from Mystic Falls and, to Jenna's great delight, it was also the place where Jenna was trying for a major in psychology. It had made my heartache for my parents and their silly family dinners.

Hitching my leather bag up on my shoulder, I pushed inside the school building. The linoleum floors were gleaming from the dampness outside and the soles of our shoes squeaked over the ground. My eyes widening when I noticed Caroline's blonde hair. She looked frazzled and erratic, which, I suppose was understandable.

I remembered that newly transitioned vampires took the heightened emotions and heightened personality traits in strides. The younger the vampire the harder it all was to control. I could only imagine what an iron sort of control that girl had, for her to be around so many potential snacks so quickly after her turning.

I made my way over. "Hi Caroline," I greeted, smiling gently when Caroline turned a tad too quickly.

"Oh, hello Elena," she nodded.

"How've you been doing?" I asked, falling into step with her.

"I'm okay, I guess," she said and her blue eyes narrowed, "Though, I'm a bit peeved you're planning your death, Elena."

"For God sake, Stefan," I grumbled.

"So it's true?" Caroline asked horrified and I rubbed my fingers awkwardly over my face.

"Yes," I agreed and watched Caroline's face change expressions fast.

"It's not okay, Elena. It's not fair," she whispered, face settled on pensive and dejected.

"Life isn't fair, Care." I shrugged. "Just trust me, I have a plan."

The color drained from Caroline's face, paling so rapidly, I was worried, she would faint, and she grabbed my shoulder hard. Hard enough to bruise, hard enough to grind the bones together. I gasped, every muscle and tendon tense, and when the whites of Caroline's eyes turned red, I stopped breathing.

My front teeth clamped over my lower lip and I stood very still, frozen. My muscles were drawn taut, my eyes fixed on Caroline's.

It took a moment for her to gain control again. Breathing in deeply. "Why would you let someone kill you?"

"Because if I fight, that someone will kill everyone I've ever met."

"But Damon said—"

"Really, you've spoken to Damon?" I asked and couldn't keep the scorn and distaste out of my voice. "He's probably lying or changing the story to fit his agenda. I have it under control, I promise. Just keep out of it."

She followed me down the hall, up the stairs and towards the biology classroom. Her judging eyes burned holes in my back, and I kept mine resolutely to my feet. Absentmindedly, I listened to the good-natured complaining about some paper that was due the following week for biology (which I'd forgotten about).

Brushing a lock of hair away from my eyes, I slid into a seat in the back row. Dropping my bag on my desk with calculated calm, I turned to Caroline again. She'd taken the seat next to me, still glaring at me and I intertwined my fingers together. "Well, go ahead. What do you want to say?"

Caroline tilted her head slightly. "Why?"

"Why?" I muttered. "Why I've been planning my death, as you so adequately put it?"

"Yes!" She hissed.

"Because I don't want everyone to get killed just because of me," I muttered and she shook her head.

"You don't get it, do you? Damon and Stefan and I can help you," Caroline whispered. "We just have to think of a plan. Besides, why would you even have to die? Because some asshole thinks he deserves to live forever? What's the point anyway?"

"I don't—" I started, having stiffened where I sat, my blood icing through my body.

"No, I mean what kind of curse? Why does some guy want to break some curse anyway?"

"Oh," I mumbled, my eyes darting around the room checking if no one was listening in, "it's old. Binds a part of him." I tried. I couldn't know so much, but then again. What was the point in lying? Drawing my tongue along my front teeth I tweaked the zipper of my pencil casing. "After a thousand years, this guy wants to be free of the curse placed upon him. And he needs my blood, all of it, to do it. I don't want to— I mean who would, but I rather like the road of the least resistance in this case. There is too much at stake here, Care, please, be reasonable."

Caroline's eyes were dark and round. "The road of the least resistance? What the fuck!" She hissed and the teacher turned with several muscles twitching beneath his eyes. We both clamped our teeth together and I almost imagine hearing the click of our molars.

"You shouldn't!" She whispered. "You should fight. Fight, bite, scratch, anything!"

"I can't win," I whispered, voice reasonably controlled. "Pretty much every plan consists out of me dying," I explained, "even if there are means to come back, and there are, I'd rather not be involved in a plan with a high risk to go wrong and then get the blame for it."

"So, you don't want to be part of a rescue plan?" Caroline said, breathing slowly, exercising control.

"Caroline—"

"No, I get it." She nodded vigorously and I got the vague idea she was seeing me as her new project.

"You shouldn't get involved either," I muttered annoyed.

"You're my friend. I definitely need to get involved."

Was this the right time to tell her I was not Elena? Or that I was not the Elena she'd grown up with? I bit down on my lower lip hard. She would probably think I was lying, and I averted my eyes and forced my eyes to my textbook.

Everyone I didn't want to be involved was getting involved, one way or the other. Caroline didn't say anything again, having brought out her cellphone. I watched her fingers skim over the screen but couldn't tell who she was texting. But my guess would be Stefan. He pretty much became her best friend after she turned, and I swallowed.

"Miss Gilbert," Mr Vernon, grumbled and I felt my face flush, and he turned to Caroline with a distasteful expression, "Miss Forbes, am I interrupting something?"

"No, Sir," I mumbled, "I'm sorry."

"You'd think you girls would value these repetitions a bit more, hm? Perhaps some detention—"

"I'm so sorry, Sir," Caroline simpered, interrupting him in the middle of his sentence, and when Vernon looked at Caroline, her pupils dilated, "we'll be silent now. Don't you think that's enough for this once?"

"I—" he looked befuddled for a second before his eyes regained focus again, "perhaps this once."

"Thank you!" She grinned and I shook my head at her.

"You shouldn't have done that," I whispered so lowly, I was barely understandable even to myself.

She just grinned and I dropped my head on my hands and I groaned. I was already missing the supernatural free weekend. Forcing my face up, staring resolutely at the empty page in my biology notebook, I sat through the rest of the class.

I was only barely aware of the ongoing ramblings of our homeroom teacher. He also taught biology and droned on and on about the classification of plants. Droned on about the characteristic features and examples. He droned on and on and at some point, I couldn't even pretend to take notes anymore and just stared out of the window, lost in thought.

I was so lost in thought that when the bell rung — chairs scraped and school bags were hoisted up onto shoulders — and the students moved towards the exits as one, I remained seated. My eyes still fixed out of the window. When Caroline appeared in my line of vision, I almost screamed.

"Let's go," Caroline ordered and she snatched my wrist, pulling me up to my feet with one tug.

"Go where?" I gasped, my shoulder aching from the sudden sharp jerk.

"Come on!" She rasped, ignoring me and I gasped when she threw my bookbag into my arms.

I pitched my bag over my shoulder, fingers rolling over the sore muscle and frowned. "Go where Caroline? Don't you have Italian?"

"Yes, and I'm skipping it." She told me, dragging me away. "You are skipping calculus."

"Caroline!"

"No buts, Elena." She told me imperiously. "We are going to talk about this."

"Wonderful."

Caroline marched me up to her silver Mercedes and drove us to her home. Once there, she yanked me into the house, up the stairs and into her bedroom. I couldn't remember Caroline's bedroom from the show. I thought there had been a bookcase with a twilight book in it and a double bed.

It was a lot like that, I supposed. A double bed with a large wooden headboard. The walls were a warm light-washed brown, light floor-length curtains drawn back and sunlight streaming in through the large window. An inbuilt closet adjacent to the right side of the bed, a dark rosewood bookcase next to the window, filled to the brim with books, magazines and a silver jewelry box and on top several pictures gleamed in the sunlight. In front of the window an antique, wooden coat rack stood.

All kinds of clothes matted the floor of the closet, which had been left open and I perched on the edge of Caroline's pale spread bed, my sock-clad toes curling into the carpet. Caroline padded across the carpet through the room, dropped her leather shoulder bag inside her closet and slung her jacket over the coat rack.

The composed way she drew her hands over the leather shoulders of the jacket, made me feel, she was postponing what was probably not going to be a pleasant chat.

"So—" I started awkwardly and Caroline flopped onto the bed beside me, rolling onto her stomach.

"So—" Caroline echoed, "—why do you need to be sacrificed? That's something I still don't get."

"Because I'm the Doppelgänger," I answered and slowly, I shifted back on the bed as well, looking up at the white ceiling. "The blood of the Doppelgänger was used to do the spell on him— the Original. And therefore, only the blood of the Doppelgänger can break the curse." I continued. I purposely kept my explanation vague, but Caroline seemed satisfied enough with my story. Satisfied enough to keep firing questions, at least.

"A Doppelgänger?"

"Basically a person who shares the exact physical appearance of someone else."

"Like a twin?"

"I guess that's close—" I agreed, "—but even identical twins have differences, like fingerprints. A doppelgänger is a magical occurrence. They're absolutely identical. Appearance, blood, height, weight, even fingerprints." I inhaled. "There's no real way to tell two of them apart."

"Shit!" Caroline whispered. "So is there another you?"

"Erm—" I rolled over on my side, "—yeah, but I think you've already heard of her?"

"Katherine," Caroline nodded knowingly and then frowned as if she'd eaten something that disagreed with her. "Stefan's ex-girlfriend."

"Damon's too."

"And she looks exactly like you?" Caroline frowned.

I nodded. Since both Elena and Katherine were played by the same actress, I could say with absolute certainty that the two doppelgängers were absolutely identical. "Yes, exactly like me."

"Creepy!"

"You have no idea." I agreed.

"Still doesn't explain why you willingly want to go to your own slaughter," Caroline muttered.

"No," I agreed, "but I have a plan. And with a bit of help, I'll survive."

"And what is this plan of yours, Elena?" Caroline asked, her voice disapproving. "Because it sounds to me that you want to let some monster sacrifice you. And unless you're planning on becoming a vampire too, I don't see how you want to come back."

"I reached out to— well, someone who's like Klaus and his witch friend," I responded vaguely. "The vampire has a potion that can bring me back to life and the witches can help dealing with Klaus."

"Klaus is the big bad Original right?"

"Yes."

"I don't like this, Elena," Caroline retorted, fingering the corner of the quilt on her bed.

"I don't like this much, either, but I can't really do anything about it," I explained. "Listen, Care, I was planning on doing this without anyone knowing. Just— I'll be fine. You should worry about yourself. How have you been doing?"

"Better," she replied dismissively, "Stefan says I'm having a good control."

"You have," I agreed, hoping she would drop the sacrifice subject.

"Isn't there a way to kill Klaus?" Caroline opted, obviously determined to not let the subject drop.

"If there is then you, Stefan and Damon will die too." I tried. "Listen, if Klaus gets killed, every one from his bloodline dies. I've asked the witch— the other Original's witch to look into desiccating Klaus but believe me. I wish we did, but we can't kill them. I don't want to be the reason for mass genocide."

And I didn't. I didn't think I could live with myself after condemning thousands of people (vampires were still people and I was sure not every one of them was a murderous monster) to death. I already felt bad enough for Bonnie's death and Caroline's turning. Being a fucking mass-murderer would definitely not make it high up the list of how to feel better.

"Are you sure about that?" She asked, rolling over on her side. "Sounds dodgy to me."

"I am a hundred percent sure, Caroline."

"Oh." She frowned, her voice low and husky. "We could run away together. I mean, I can compel people. We could be halfway into Europe when this Klaus comes to Mystic Falls and—"

"He'll kill everyone who so much has heard about me," I replied somberly. "I can't, Care."

"But—"

"Can we please do something else?" I almost begged. "Perhaps a movie or—"

"We can watch the Notebook!" Caroline grinned, and her sudden change of emotion had me reeling.

"Erm sure."

We both rolled onto our stomachs and Caroline set up her laptop. It took barely five minutes before she had The Notebook running and I leant my chin back on my intertwined hands. My mind was otherwise occupied, and I absentmindedly watched Noah Calhoun hanging from the Ferris Wheel, while Allie Hamilton screams sounded high and shrill.

I often refused to think about the sacrifice. Just as I refused to think about Bonnie's and Sheila's death. I didn't want to think about Klaus and about his often psychotic ways of dealing with people who didn't agree with him. I didn't want to think about Katherine, somewhere probably watching everyone move across the chessboard only she could so masterfully manipulate. I wondered why I'd even liked this show. Or why I'd liked the first few seasons. True, it had been entertaining, but living through it— It was stressful. And no amount of jogging would destress me anytime soon.

Perhaps I should start following kickboxing classes again. I'd followed several in my previous life and I'd like it. Perhaps I should try and get Alaric to give me some vampire-self-defence training — that was if he would stay around. Jenna certainly went out of her way to be in Mystic Falls and I doubted it had anything to do with Logan Scumfell. When his broken, scrawled out form on the Salvatore living room surfaced from my mind, gasping for bread while blood dribbled down his chin, I forced my mind back to the movie, just in time to see Noah and Allie kiss.

"I'll be seeing you," Noah whispered, fingers curling around Allie's old and withered hand.

The scene changed and I averted my eyes to Caroline as the nurse moved into the hospital room the two main characters have curled up together. I knew she would find them dead. Caroline was in tears by the time the credits for The Notebook began and I watched in absolute amusement as she mopped her sleeve over her flushed face. "That ending always gets to me."

"How often have you seen it now?" I asked and her face went flat with irritation.

"Not that often— this month."

"Right." I sniggered.

Caroline huffed, her blonde curls bouncing on her shoulders. "It's better than the rom-com you like."

"Ouch, that was harsh," I remarked sarcastically.

"You deserved that," Caroline remarked wryly, lips quirking, and I rolled on my side.

"Of course, I did."

Her expression became uncomfortably contemplative, bordering on smug and I knew I was missing something. I was probably missing something. How could I not? Elena and Caroline had been friends since kindergarten. I was sure there was a lot I did not know.

"Did you know there's a different version?" I asked.

"What?"

"Yeah, I think the beginning is different," I admitted. "There is some heavy petting at the beginning."

"What, really?" At my nod, she scoffed, audibly unimpressed. '"I'm so Googling this."

"By all means."

Her fingers hovered above the keyboard of her laptop, obviously contemplating if truth rung from my earlier admission and finally decided not to risk it when I was in the same room. It was almost laughable how worried Caroline was of my contempt. How insecure she was, and I felt bad. I wondered, how often she'd felt like an afterthought to everyone who surrounded her.

"Hey," I tried, "it doesn't matter, right? If I'm right or wrong, okay."

"Of course, not," she smiled. It didn't reach her eyes.

"I should probably go." I patted her shoulder and got to my feet. "My parents are expecting me."

They weren't. Grayson had to do an evening shift and Miranda couldn't cook to save her life, so I doubted she would be surprised if I ate something somewhere else. I recalled the fiasco that was Miranda's homemade lasagna.

"Ah, sure. Do you need me to drive you?" Caroline piped up as she followed me down the wooden pair of stairs and into the entrance hall. The walls here were a light mint green, several picture frames covering one wall, while the other held a coat rack.

Above my head, a chandelier-like lamp sparkled in the sunlight. I padded across the landing, again, trying not to look around with curious eyes, because— Elena Gilbert had been here before.

"It's fine, Care," I smiled, "I know the way."

"If you're sure—"

"I am," I smiled tightly, "I just need to think. I need a bit of fresh air to do that."

"Okay," she allowed and walked me to the front door.

"I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Yep."

"Okay, bye!" I smiled and slipped outside. I'd almost made it out of the front yard when Caroline's voice stopped me. With a tired sigh, I turned towards her. "Yes?"

"Promise me, you'll rethink the running plan! I mean, I can go with you!"

"I promise."

It was the first lie I'd told Caroline today and I quickly stepped onto the pavement. Never looking back, I made my way out of Caroline's street. Chips of pale blue sky showed through the almost completely bare tree branches. I let out a long, shuddering breath as a gust of wind whipped through the trees. My long hair whisked around my face and I pushed my hands deep into the sleeves of my coat.

The sky was getting darker. Dark orange and purple streaks of sunlight pierced the darkening empyrean above me, and I shuddered when another gust of wind raked through my coat. I shivered, almost feeling I would never get warm again.

When a car pulled up next to me, matching my speed, I didn't look up, only quickened my pace. The car came to a halt when it reached me again and I twirled around sharply.

Damon's blue Camaro pulled into an available spot among the trees and Damon lounged in the driver's seat. He had an arm stretched over the wheel and the other wrapped around the headrest of the passenger-seat, fingers waggling at me.

I remembered vividly what I'd said the last time I'd seen him, and a strangled frightened gasp worked its way free from my throat. I felt my face paling, my heart rate picking up and I scrambled backwards until I hit an iron-wrought fence.

"Damon!"

To be continued…

A/N: I'll admit, I've never seen The Notebook before. Forgive me. Anyway, surprise, there is Damon. Well, I don't think it was a surprise to anyone. No one thought he would stay in that basement anyway, right?

Like always, let me know what you all think.^^

This chapter was beta'd by HPuni101