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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
there was another
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( bloodlines )

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Friday, November 4, 2009

Harper's POV.

*Outside Mystic Falls High School*

Elena didn't come to school today. Under normal circumstances, I would just suppose she was sick and think nothing of it. However, now that I know she's been involved in supernatural drama for quite some time now, I can't stop thinking that something might be wrong. She did warn me about another vampire being in town after all.

So I ended up sending her several texts, asking about her whereabouts. Which is very uncharacteristic of me because I usually never send more than one text on the same topic. I don't like it when people spam my phone to get my attention, so I don't want to do the same to other people.

Regardless, she still hasn't answered any of my texts, and it's already the end of the school day. I just hope she's okay.

I'm walking with Bonnie on our way to the parking lot when Stefan comes up behind us. "Hey," he says to get our attentions.

I stop to greet him, but Bonnie keeps on going. I don't know why she seems in such a rush. I re-catchup with her.

Stefan comes up from behind and matches our pace, walking beside me.

"Hi," I say to him.

"Stefan," Bonnie stammers. "Oh, hi."

He settles his hands in his jacket pockets. "How are you guys doing with — everything?" he asks.

Bonnie answers first. "I — I'm fine." She nods assuredly. "All's fine."

"I'm doing pretty good," I say. "Considering everything." I pause then ramble out, "Hey, have you seen Elena? She isn't answering any of my texts. I think she might be sick or something, but I dunno."

"That's actually why I'm here," Stefan begins slowly, looking away for a moment then back at us. "I was hoping you could help me with something, Bonnie. A spell?"

That makes Bonnie stop in her tracks. "Stefan, look. I know Elena's okay with all of this." She shakes her head. "And I appreciate what you did to help me. But I'm not really ready to dive into it with you just yet."

"I understand that. But I need your help," Stefan says seriously.

Bonnie sighs.

He takes a step closer to her. "It's Elena, and she's with Damon," he explains.

Damon, the mention of him is all it takes to get Bonnie on board, and before we know it, we're seated at a picnic table trying to use magic to locate Elena. I'm on one side of the table while Stefan and Bonnie are on the other side. Unless you count the séance, I have never seen Bonnie truly use magic before. I'm kind of excited to see what it looks like even if the situation is kind of serious right now.

Stefan takes a necklace out of his pocket that I recognize as Elena's. He fiddles with it in his hands. "I have Elena's necklace," he says, looking at Bonnie. "I was just hoping you could use this to make some sort of a connection. I just need to know that she's okay."

"How do you know I can do this?" Bonnie asks.

"Because I've known a few witches over the years. I've seen what they can do," he explains.

"I'm still new at it," Bonnie says doubtfully.

"It's okay," he reassures, then hands Bonnie the necklace. "Give it a shot."

"You got this," I encourage.

Stefan sends me a thankful smile, to which I return.

"Okay," Bonnie says, clasping the necklace between her palms. With her eyes closed, she takes a deep breath. "Alright," she breathes out.

I eagerly wait for something to happen, but nothing does. An unfaithful part of me wonders if we have been making up all this witch stuff in our heads this whole time.

Bonnie sighs and opens her eyes. "There's nothing. Nothing's happening." She shakes her head to herself. "Usually there's an image or . . ." She pauses, looking from me to Stefan. "Tell me if anyone's looking," she tells us.

We do as Bonnie says as she leans down and picks up a leaf off the ground. She sets it down in front of her on the picnic table.

"What are you gonna do?" I ask.

"I need to see if this works." Bonnie sighs, running her hands through her hair in preparation. She lifts a hand above the leaf and holds it there. When nothing happens, she adds the other hand.

Still nothing happens. She puts her hands down in defeat.

Stefan furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "What is it?"

"Something's wrong."

"With Elena?"

"With me," she says. "There's something wrong with me." Bonnie quickly grabs her things and gets up. "I have to go. I'm sorry. I can't help, you guys." With that, Bonnie jogs away.

Feeling lost and unsure, I watch her go to her car and get in. Seeing her get in her car reminds me that my mother is waiting in the parking lot to pick me up.

"I have to go," I tell Stefan, standing to my feet. "I'll try calling Elena later, okay?"

Stefan, appearing deep in thought, looks up at me and nods. "Okay."

*Time Skip*

Reclining back on my bed, I try calling Elena.

"Hey, I'm here," her tentative voice comes through.

"Where are you?" I ask.

"I'm in Georgia at some bar outside of Atlanta. I'm with Damon — but I assume you already knew that."

"Yeah, Stefan told me. He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No," she says as-a-matter-a-factly. "He actually saved me from another vampire. I was mad at Stefan, and there was this vampire in the road, and I hit it." She pauses. "I don't know what I would have done if Damon wasn't there."

I let out a sigh. "Well, it's good that you're okay. When are you coming home?"

"As soon as Damon is done here. He's meeting up with an old friend. I think he might be up to something, but I don't know what."

"Just be careful," I advise.

"Also," Elena pipes up. "There's something else that I need to tell you, but I wanna wait until I can tell you in person, okay?"

"Alright."

"I gotta go," she says. "Bye."

"Bye."

My head starts spinning with conflicting thoughts. Damon is a terrible person and a murderer. He hurt Caroline. He killed Mr. Tanner and countless others. He turned Vicki into a vampire which led to her death. He killed Stefan's best friend Lexi, and he tried to kill Bonnie.

But why did he save Elena? Is it because he feels that he owes it to his brother to keep her safe? Or is it because he's saving her for later when he gets hungry because he just doesn't care? Or maybe it's just because he wants to mess with Stefan by keeping her away from him.

I don't trust Damon. That's all I know. He's dangerous, and it makes me uncomfortable knowing that Elena is with him all by herself and defenseless.

It looks like I'm gonna have a long night of worrying ahead of me. Can't wait.

Saturday, November 5, 2009

*Harper's Bedroom*

A quiet knock snaps me out of my YouTube-watching trance. "Come in," I sputter out without even thinking.

The door slowly opens, and Elena walks in. "Hey," she says, closing the door softly behind her.

Out of reflex, I quickly close the tab that had YouTube running on my computer. With that taken care of, I bring my focus back to the matter at hand. "Hey," I say, rubbing my hands awkwardly on the tops of my thighs. "I didn't know you were coming."

"I just got back two hours ago. Stefan and I had to . . . talk about some stuff," she explains.

"Oh, um," I hesitate. "You said you had something to tell me on the phone yesterday?" My words come out in a rush. I like to just cut to the chase sometimes.

"I do." Elena nods. She gestures with her head towards my bed. "Can we . . . ?"

"Yeah," I interrupt, already knowing what she means. I get up from my desk and move over to sit on my bed. Elena joins me.

I immediately notice her fiddling with her fingers. She only does that when she's really nervous. I have no idea what she's about to tell me that could be so important though. I already know about the existence of vampires, witches, and ghosts. What could possibly be more crazy than all that?

No, seriously, what could possibly be more crazy than all that?

"There are some things I need to tell you," she begins. "And after I talked to Stefan, things just got a lot more complicated."

"Okay," I press gently.

"I'm adopted."

I'm adopted?

The words sink in.

Wait . . .

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I can't find the words to speak. "What? But — how is that possible?" I spit out.

"My mom was never pregnant. She never got admitted to the hospital," Elena explains in a rush.

"How do you know that?" I ask, slightly distrusting. It's not that I don't believe her. Elena doesn't lie. It's just that a part of me, a guilty part of me, kind of hopes that it's not true. Cause, if it is true, it'll just become another thing everyone will put my cousin Elena Gilbert on a pedestal for. It's not that I'm jealous of her being adopted, obviously. It's just that I know everyone will give her even more attention after they find out.

I'm such a terrible person for thinking this way.

"Stefan did some research," Elena continues. "It was after my parents' accident. He — He was the one who saved me. They never knew how I got out of the car. They said it was a miracle, but it's been him this whole time." Elena pauses. "He thought I was Katherine."

Katherine. From what I remember from Elena's brief history lesson on Stefan and Damon back in 1864, Katherine was the girl that they were both in love with while they were still human. However, it turned out she was a vampire and was just using her mind control powers on them. Which means, their feelings for her may or may not have been real at all.

"Why would he think you were Katherine?" I question.

"Because she and I look exactly alike."

"Wait, is that why . . ."

"No," Elena cuts me off quickly. "He — He watched me for several months after the accident, trying to figure out if I was her . . . but, I wasn't."

I nod in understanding. But still, a part of me knows that there's no way Elena's resemblance to Katherine didn't have a large part in Stefan falling in love with her. It's kind of messed up if you ask me.

Elena meets my gaze again. "But there's something else I need to tell you," she says, her voice somehow more serious than before.

She just dropped on me that she's adopted, looks like Katherine, and Stefan was the one who saved her from the accident all those months ago. I don't even know what to expect anymore.

"What?" I ask her.

She takes a moment to breathe deeply in and out. "Before — back in 1857, before . . . Katherine came, when Stefan was just a boy." Elena pauses before continuing. "There was another girl. Her name was Mary Gilbert. She and Damon courted for a few years, and then she died. She looked exactly like you."

My mind takes a moment to soak all this information in and sort it out. "What? But — how is that possible?"

Elena reaches into her sweater pocket and takes out her phone. After scrolling for a bit, she hands me the phone. "Here."

On the screen is a picture of a portrait. The girl in the portrait looks like me, smiling back at me.

Fight or flight. That's the response most people have to uncomfortable or threatening situations. The flight reaction triggers first due to hyperactive nerves, sending them on the highest alert they've ever been. I find the urge to sprint almost unbearable, the desire to flee from this room, this house, this town nearly too much to handle. But my body betrays me. My joints stay locked, caging me in this suddenly claustrophobic environment. I'm frozen.

"I don't understand." I shake my head.

Elena takes the phone back from me. "Well, she was a Gilbert. That could explain why you two look so much alike."

"Yeah, but that's impossible," I shut down her argument quickly. "It's genetically impossible for us to look so much alike. Sure, since we're related we could have similar features, but we look like twins. It's genetically impossible for us to look exactly the same."

"Look," Elena says, placing a comforting hand over mine. My eyes meet hers. "I just wanted you to know so you could be careful. I don't trust Damon being around you, and I wanted you to be aware. Wait," she pauses. She takes her phone out again and types a few things in. Looking up at me, she explains, "I just sent you Stefan's phone number. He wanted you to have it just in case, okay?"

"Okay." I nod.

As if that will make anything better.

I look exactly like a girl Damon used to love. So when he looks at me, does he see me? Or does he fantasize that I'm her? Am I even safe around him? He's never really made much of a move in the past, except for that one time he asked me to dance at the Founders' Party. My resemblance to Mary was probably why he asked me to dance in the first place. There was also that time two days ago where I thought I saw him watching me outside my window. I'm pretty sure now that that was real.

But if Damon was so in love with Mary, and she liked someone like him back just as much, she must have been quite the girl. I just hope Damon realizes soon that I'm probably nothing like her at all.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

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a/n:

Hey, y'all, so, yes, the picture Elena showed Harper on her phone was of the same portrait on the cover of this book. That portrait of Mary is hung up in Damon's room, and the only reason Elena has a picture of it is because Stefan sent it to her.

Also, yes, Elena did go on the road trip with Damon to Georgia. And, yes, everything that happened between them in the episode did happen. Which means, Damon is developing a soft spot and conflicting feelings for Elena. But, regardless, he is still obsessed with Katherine just like in the show. So basically, Damon is really just a mess of emotions and feelings right now for three different girls, one more than the other two, of course, that being Katherine.

I really can't wait to start writing the next chapter, guys. It's going to be at the 50s Decade Dance, and we all know how fun that's going to be. Hee hee.               

-- roxy

( word count: 2.5k )