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"Thanks for coming, Ric. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?" Damon asked as he allowed the history teacher to come inside the Boarding House, making Alaric roll his eyes at him, before looking over at Stefan, Elena and Alice on the couch.

"Elena mentioned you needed my help." Alaric spoke.

"Yeah, we were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family." Stefan said as Alaric sat down opposite them, one leg crossed over the other one.

"Now, why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?" Alaric asked them with confusion. If they were asking him about a family that were vampires, he would probably be able to answer, but not with just some regular small town family.

"Well, you wouldn't. But your dead, not-dead vampire wife might." Damon answered, just like Alaric sitting down on the chair next to the couch his siblings and Elena were on.

"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together." Elena spoke.

"You said that she had spent years researching this town." Alice added.

"Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls rooted in folklores and legends but at the time I thought much of which was fiction." Alaric said with a sigh, thinking back about all the times Isobel was to busy to do anything else than her research.

"Like that amazing vampire story." Damon spoke and Alaric nodded.

"Aside from vampires, what else did she do research on?" Alice asked him.

"The lycanthrope." Alaric simply answered.

"Wait, like werewolves?" Elena asked, leaning forwards as Alice and Damon shared a look.

"No way, impossible, way too Lon Chaney." Damon spoke.

"Is it?" Stefan asked him.

"I've been on this planet one hundred and sixty some odd years, never came across one. If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?" Damon asked his brother, already knowing that Stefan wouldn't be able to answer his question.

"Why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Alaric asked the oldest sibling.

"Because vervain didn't affect the mayor at Founders' Day but the Gilbert device did and it affected his son Tyler."

"And at the school carnival his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought with one of the carnival's workers. It suggests it's some sort of a supernatural entity." Stefan explained.

"We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure it out what it is." Elena said.

"Well, all her things are still at Duke. I mean her office is still there. She's technically still missing."

"So can we get access to it?" Damon asked Alaric. "Ric, we need to know what we are dealing with. If this wolfman thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good." He continued as Alaric didn't answer. "It means Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney junior, which means Bella Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed."

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"Is being impatient your only talent or something?" Alice asked Damon as she slapped his hand away with annoyance from the honk as she sat on the backseat of Alaric's car.

"I have many talents." Damon replied.

"Like what? I thought that breathing was your only talent?" Alice asked him, sarcastically. "I'm sure Stefan and Elena have heard you by now. See there they are." She spoke as she saw her youngest brother and Elena walk out of the Gilbert house.

"Sorry you can't come too, Stef." Damon spoke as Elena dropped her bag in the back next to Alice, while glaring at Damon.

"Call me if you need anything." Stefan spoke to his girlfriend as she turned to him.

"Oh, I'll take really good care of her." Damon said with a smirk.

In response, Elena grabbed Stefan by the neck and kissed him.

"Okay, time to go." Damon spoke with annoyance, stepping into the car himself.

"Don't worry, Stef, I'll keep our dear older brother in check." Alice called from the car as Elena sat down next to her, closing the door behind her. "Take care of Caroline!"

"I will." Stefan nodded at her.

Elena shared a look with Alice, knowing that this was gonna be a long trip with the way Damon was behaving.

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"How are you two doing back there?" Damon asked, turning his head to the back. Alice gave him a nod, but Elena didn't reply. "You know, this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a little silly." He spoke as he saw Elena look away from him.

"I don't think she's pretending, brother." Alice said.

"Yeah, you did kill her brother." Alaric spoke, backing up Alice.

"There is a huge asterisk next to that statement. He came back to life." Damon said, defending himself.

"Yeah, thanks to a ring that you didn't know he was wearing." Elena spoke back.

"Why are you so sure I didn't know?"

"Did you?" Elena questioned, studying Damon's face expression so that she could see if he was lying.

"Yes." Damon lied.

"You're lying."

"Elena, I saw the ring! It's a big tacky thing. Hard to miss."

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"So, Isobel was officially employed by the anthropology department given that most paranormal phenomenon is rooted in folklore." Alaric spoke to the other three as they all entered Duke University, coming to a stop by an office, where a girl was moving around, probably to find something. "Excuse me, hi. I'm Alaric Saltzman, I called earlier" He spoke to her, catching her attention.

"Yes, of course. I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant, comparative folklore." The girl introduced herself to them, shaking Alaric's hand, while looking over to Elena, strangely. "et Let me just grab Isobel's keys."

"I'm sorry. These are my friends Elena, Alice and Damon. I hope this isn't too much of an imposition." Alaric shared as Vanessa turned around to grab his wife's keys.

"Oh please, Isobel's office is right through there. Isobel was one of my first professors. I'm a grad student. She was brilliant, and one of the reasons I went into folklore. Uh, I have to ask - has there been any news?" She asked him, sitting down on the desk for a second.

"No, I'm afraid not." Alaric lied, knowing that he couldn't tell her that Isobel was still walking around. Dead, yes, but still around.

"It's this way." Vanessa spoke with a short nod, walking over to the door and opening it with Isobel's key. "I'll grab the light, feel free to look around." She said to them as they followed behind her into the room.

"Did you see?" Alice asked Damon.

"What?" Damon asked, looking around the room, not understanding what his sister meant.

"That look she gave Elena."

Damon turned back to the place Vanessa had been standing in the room, just to notice that she was gone. "Where'd she go?"

Elena was the first one to see that Vanessa had returned with a crossbow in her hands, holding it up in her direction. Elena's gasp caused the Salvatore siblings to turn her way. As Alice saw what Vanessa was holding up, she rushed over to Elena, putting herself in between the arrow and Elena, leading to receiving the arrow in her back, just missing her heart.

From pain, the Salvatore held on to the closet, but started to fall to the ground but with Elena softening her fall, by holding one hand on her left arm and the other on the girl's waist, lying her down on the ground gently.

Damon pushed Vanessa against the wall, wanting to kill her for hurting his sister, but Alaric stopped him just in time. So, Damon just restrained her against it.

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Alice was leaning against the table so that Elena could take the arrow out of her back. While moving around the arrow to try and take it out, it scratched Alice's heart, making the girl let out a groan.

"Sorry." Elena repeatedly said as she heard the girl's pain. It didn't take her long to remove the stake from Alice's back.

"Thank you." Alice spoke as she shuttered from relief from finally getting the arrow out.

"Are you okay?" Elena questioned, worriedly, holding the vampire's hand.

"I'm fine." Alice spoke with a nod and a thankful smile.

"That bitch is dead." Damon spoke, making his way over to the door.

"You're not gonna kill her." Elena stopped him from walking out of the door so he could go to the other room where Alaric and Vanessa were in.

"Watch me." Damon smirked at her as he walked passed her.

"You touch her and I swear I will never speak to you again."

"What makes you think that has any power over me?  You're severely overestimating yourself." Damon questioned, turning back.

"Right. I forgot that I was speaking to a psychotic mind who snaps and kills people impulsively. Fine, go ahead, do whatever you want."

"You're trying to manipulate me."

"If by 'manipulate' you mean 'tell the truth' okay, guilty." Elena spoke and she was the one leaving this time.

"We need the girl, Damon. She can clearly help us with what we're looking for." Alice spoke, giving her brother a pointed look before going after Elena.

Vanessa was sitting in a chair, clearly scared of them as they stood before her. Her words, thinking that Elena was Katherine and that Alice and Damon had died in 1864, hadn't been difficult to be heard back in the other room. Even Elena without vampire hearing had heard them.

"I'm Elena Gilbert, Isobel's daughter and a descendant of Katherine Pierce. And this is Alice Salvatore who you just shot and her brother, Damon." Elena spoke

"I'd be extra nice to us right now." Damon spoke to her, still being pissed at her for shooting his sister.

"Look, we need your help okay? We need to see all of Isobel's research, anything related to Mystic Falls." Elena spoke, hoping that telling Vanessa the truth would convince her to help them.

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Not much later, Vanessa handed a box to Elena and Alice. "This box checks Katherine's arrival to Mystic Falls in April 1864."

"Is that all there is about her?" Alice asked when Elena opened the box, a bit surprised that Isobel hadn't found more on Katherine. But the Pierce had always been good at hiding. She proved that the last hundred and forty-five years.

"All that I'm aware of." Vanessa replied.

"Here, take this." Elena whispered, holding up some vervain to Vanessa, who glanced at Damon who was in the other room, before looking down at the herb again.

"Does vervain really work?" She asked.

"Nope, not at all!" Damon spoke, having being listening into their conversation after since it started.

"Can he hear us?"

"No, that would be creepy." Damon spoke again while Alice nodded 'yes'.

"Can he read minds too?"

"You know, if you want to see me naked, all you have to do is ask." Damon said, turning to Vanessa.

"Believe me, nobody wants to see that." Alice spoke with disgust.

"And no, that he can't do. He is very capable of being a first rate jackass." Elena said as Vanessa finally took the vervain and put it in the pocket of her jacket.

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"Any luck?" Damon asked his sister and Elena as he moved over to them as soon as Vanessa was gone.

"There is nothing in here about Katherine that we don't already know." Elena spoke as Alice let out a sigh and moved over to another book shelf in hope to find something, but she quickly turned back when Alaric called them over.

"There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls, but here are some records of some of the lesser-known legends. Everything from Scandinavian skin-walkers to the Maréchal de Retz." Vanessa spoke, handing the book that she was holding over to Elena. The page that was open was full of drawings. "Tonartsliitsii Metslii, which roughly translates into the "curse of the sun and the moon."

"It's Native American." Alaric said.

"Aztec. It explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia. The short story: 600 years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon crests in the sky, who's ever unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf."

"Can they control the transformation?" Damon asked.

"It's a curse, you dumbass." Alice spoke, mentally face palming for her brother's stupid question.

"Indeed. If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse. Werewolves will attack humans but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice: vampires." Vanessa spoke, causing Damon and Alice to share a worried look.

"Well, if werewolves were hunting vampires, we would know about it." Damon said to Vanessa.

"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive. Hundreds of years ago, vampires hunted them almost to extinction." Vanessa explained.

"Why would they do that?" Elena asked, confused.

"To protect themselves. Legend has it that a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires." Vanessa said, causing the four to become even more worried.

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"Hey, have you done any research on doppelgängers?" Elena asked, still looking in the first box that Vanessa had handed them, only to find a picture of Katherine.

"Well, the word means a lot of different things to different cultures, but typically a doppelgänger is a living, breathing double of oneself."

"Did Isobel have anything that explained the link between me and Katherine?" Elena asked her, the picture still in her hands.

"That's all she had on Katherine, unfortunately, but I can tell you that doppelgängers usually torment the people they look like, trying to undo their lives. It's not exactly uplifting."

"And more things we already know. Just- I want to know why we look alike.

"Head scratcher, isn't it?" Damon asked, with a smirk.

"Do you know something, or are you just being yourself?" Elena asked, turning to him with annoyance."Well, if I know anything, I'm not gonna tell you, not with that attitude." "That's good, Damon, and this is coming from someone who wants to be my friend, but you know what? Friends don't manipulate friends, they help each other." Elena spoke before walking away, over to Alice who was reading in a book.

"Hey, what's that."

Alice moved the book so that Elena could see what was written on the cover.

"Petrova? I saw this on a shelf?"

"Yes, this one." Alice said, pointing at the shelf in front of them. "Katherine originally came from Europe. Petrova was her real name. Katerina Petrova, to be exact.'

"How did you know that?" Elena asked her with curiosity.

"Back when I saw it engraved on an old heirloom of hers. Let me know what you find, I haven't gotten very far, but I'm very curious myself." Alice spoke, handing it over to her.

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Words: 2501

Published: August 28, 2024

Thank you for reading and be sure to comment and vote. They are a big help for motivation.

mwah Katherine