Chapter Text
Blackness. Utter blackness enveloped my senses. I don't exactly remember what caused me to be stuck in this suffocating blackness, but it really scared me. I tried calling out for help when I thought I heard a machine beeping by me. Heartbeat? Was I in a hospital? And if so, why? How can I remember everything about myself but that? And then my eyelids lifted. It was a little dark in the room, but the small amount of light felt blinding for a few seconds. Once I adjusted my eyes to the light, I realized that I was in a bed inside a hospital.
But what caused me to panic was the sign across the hallway that I saw from the window.
Mystic Falls Hospital
Last thing I remember, I was back at my home in New York, not in Virginia. What was I doing here? And was Mystic Falls even a real place in Virginia? While I was wondering this, I saw someone come through the door. I thought my eyes were deceiving me. How could I believe what I see? This person looked exactly like Alaric Saltzman from Vampire Diaries.
The only thing my body seemed to be able to do was blink my eyes in confusion and awe. That was until the person who played Jenna. Aunt Jenna to Elena Gilbert of the show popped in right after. When she saw that I was awake, she immediately ran up to me and blubbered,
"Oh my God Elizabeth! You scared us so much! Alaric and I couldn't believe what had happened and came as fast as we could."
I just looked at them blankly. Did she refer to the man as Alaric? And what HAD happened to me? Why was I here?
Noticing my distress, Alaric warily pulled Jenna back so that I wasn't suffocating. He then asked,
"Elizabeth? Are you alright? You don't look so good."
Jenna looked like she was going to start crying upon hearing my distress and I tried to think of anything to say, but I just merely shook my head. I wasn't sure what was going on.
"Why am I here?" I asked.
Both Alaric and Jenna frowned. With a sigh, Alaric asked Jenna to give us a moment and once she left, he looked at me with hesitance. I looked at him expectantly, not sure if my mind was able to cope with this. Was this all a dream? But the pain all over my body felt so real, that it possibly couldn't be a dream at all.
Alaric risked a glance at me again and then whispered,
"You drove in your car on the way back from Duke. But the car was hit by another car and you were brought here."
I looked at him incredulously before noticing how that would make sense as to why I felt pain everywhere. But that didn't explain why I was here, in Mystic Falls, in a fictional world. But acting ignorance seemed like the best idea. As much as I liked Alaric as a character, the man himself looked pretty intimidating. And the fact that I had gone to Duke with them meant that I knew about vampires, witches, werewolves and etc. And that this was before the Originals came to Mystic Falls.
Bearing enough courage, I said,
"I… I don't remember…"
Alaric immediately sat down in the chair by my bed and asked,
"Nothing? What about who I am? The person earlier? How about the people that we went to Duke together?"
I tried to think about how to respond before saying,
"You're… Alaric Saltzman. She was Jenna. And as for Duke, I'm assuming we went with Damon Salvatore and Elena Gilbert."
Alaric raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Assume?"
My eyebrows furrowed as I carefully said, "I don't remember much of it. It's like wherever I was at, what I was doing, who I am… it's all gone. I can kind of see everything without me in there. My life is a blank slate for me. Alaric, who am I?"
I looked up at him and noticed various emotions pass through his face. Something akin to concern, sadness, anger, and more importantly confusion. I tried to think of anything about my supposed life here, but nothing came up. Absolutely nothing. Frustration and anger started to kick in as I asked,
"Why can't I remember anything about myself?"
Alaric immediately pressed the button to call for the doctor and began to talk with him. The Doctor frowned and then had me prepared for various tests regarding my memory. They said it was something close to amnesia and that most likely, I might not end up recovering them.
Thus, days passed as I was in the hospital recuperating. Alaric mostly stayed with me, filling me in more of my life with what he knew. I was more comfortable around him than anybody else that seemed to be from Mystic Falls. You could almost say that I grew attached to him despite knowing that I might have to be wary of him in the future. My life here in Mystic Falls seems to have been much more exciting than I had in my own world.
I had been an artist of sorts, drawing a story cartoon online for the public to read. For some reason, this had made me rich without too many problems. But during my free time, I apparently had been helping the crew in Mystic Falls with their problems with Kathrine Pierce and Mason Lockwood. Alaric had met her around town and when she had made it known about her knowledge of the supernatural. Other than that, Elizabeth was normally a cheerful person in general. So when I was wary of everything and everyone around me, Alaric had been even more careful about how he acted around me in fear for my mental state.
As I further recovered in the hospital, various people came to visit me. Caroline Forbes, Elena and Jeremy Gilbert, Matt Donovan and the Salvatore brothers. The last visitation was a surprise. I had just gotten back from my physical therapy when I saw Damon lounging in one of the chairs while Stefan was pacing around the room.
I entered the room and Damon immediately looked up to me and said,
"Oh Beth! Nice to see you among the land of the living."
My lips turned into a thin line at that nickname he apparently made for me and was spared of responding when Stefan said,
"Damon, stop. She needs rest."
I shook my head and said,
"It's fine… it's just… well, I don't know how to interact with you two. With anyone really."
I headed back towards the bed and lied down. Damon looked at me with a short second of guilt before he said,
"Well, you can interact with me however you want."
I made a face of disgust at that comment and said, "Ew, no thanks. Did you always say dirty things to me?"
Damon smirked a little and said, "Always darling."
I rolled my eyes and just ignored him. With that, I asked,
"What about Jenna's barbeque? How did that go?"
Stefan glared at Damon, who merely shrugged his shoulders. I knew what must have happened. He did exactly what had occurred in the show. He had pissed Mason Lockwood off by spelling out that he was a werewolf to everyone. The only person who would have been oblivious to Damon's bullying was Jenna.
Sighing out loud, I said,
"You pissed Mason Lockwood off didn't you?"
"Correctamundo." Damon said.
I groaned, not liking the word and said, "What did you do that was exactly informative may I ask?"
Damon gave me a sidelong glance and I groaned again before asking,
"You stabbed him with a silver knife didn't you?"
"Yup" He said, popping the 'p'.
Stefan shook his head in disappointment as he said, "It was a stupid move, Damon."
"What? At least we found out about the whole 'silver kills a werewolf' is fake."
I angrily turned around and said, "And you thought that it would be best to test that theory out by stabbing him?"
Damon looked at me with surprise and said, "No need to get angry. I liked the you before the accident. She was more fun and supportive of my ideas."
I glared at him before saying, "Ok, you know what? Considering I lost all my fucking memories of myself before the accident, I think I am owed to get angry at some point. So shut up and think about what you can do to fix this."
With that, I looked at Stefan, who willingly dragged Damon out of my hospital room. I sighed out loud again. My head hurt. What was I supposed to do? Yes, my body had natural reflexes to fight. My body remembered what to do in times of need. But my mind had holes. I was left with no memories in how to deal with the characters of Vampire Diaries and I had to go back to a supposed life of my alternate universe self.
Looking around, I just merely got comfortable in my bed and hoped to wait until I got released to go home. Alaric would pick me up and take me to my house, that I supposedly lived in.
Therefore, two more days passed and I got discharged from the hospital. It felt nice to wear some real clothes of mine that Jenna brought for me. Since Jenna and Alaric were somewhat dating, he had asked Jenna to gather clothes together for me from my house. It consisted of a military green jacket with a light gray sweater. The pants were a dark blue jean that was paired with white converse shoes.
Once we came in front of my house, I breathed out loud in surprise. It was a pretty modern house. It looked suburban, but once inside, it was totally minimalist. I was surprised that the me from this universe had similar tastes in furniture décor as I had back home. Noticing my visible surprise and unfamiliarity with this house, Alaric guided me to different rooms and told me where to find things.
I realized that my life here was almost a triple life. A part of me was a supernatural hunter, a part of me was an internet comic artist, and another part of me was a famous historian within Mystic Falls. I toured the house and thanked them. Alaric later said that he would pick me up for the Historical Society's Volunteer Day event. I had apparently applied to work, and since I was feeling well, I should go and interact with more people from around town.
Without disagreeing with him, I just washed up and wore the same clothes as earlier since I wasn't going to do much but volunteer. Once I got ready, Alaric, Jenna and I headed towards Alaric's car.
When we arrived at the park, I got off and headed towards Carol, who was there to remind me of what my job was. I was supposed to be handing out lemonade. Apparently, this universe me also hated doing work that required extreme amount of labor when not nearly necessary. As I was handing out lemonade to people in the park, I saw Mason Lockwood come up.
"Hey Liz! I see you're back in the game again. I heard about your memory loss. How are you doing?"
I handed him a cup of lemonade as I responded.
"I could be doing better in all honesty. But I think I can make do with what I have. I just need to get my paperwork figured out since I missed out on work."
"Ah… you're still obsessed with your work. Good to know that some bit of old Elizabeth is still in there."
I gave a fake laugh, "Ha ha. You're so funny Mason."
Mason just smiled brightly and said, "Well, you always saw through me when we dated."
I froze at that comment. I looked up at him with need of some sort of verification on that and he looked bewildered. Then realization flashed across his face as he said,
"Oh god. Sorry… I forgot that you didn't… remember. But yeah, we dated for like 2 years before we broke up because you had to momentarily leave Mystic Falls. You didn't believe in long distance relationships and it ended that way."
"Ah… I see. Sorry about that. I think you would have been a nice boyfriend… Uh… anybody else I dated?"
My curiosity had gotten the better of me. I wanted to know more about my life here so that I wasn't a complete idiot when it came to the old me.
Mason shook his head, but I saw the little huff of pride when he said, "Nope. It was just me. And that required a solid 2 years of me asking you out. I persisted and it worked."
I looked at him with surprise and newfound interest. But I also remembered that he had something going with Katherine Pierce. Before I could ask another question to him though, Damon joined us.
"Hello Mason. Hello Beth. You two working hard?"
Mason tersely replied with, "I'm doing my part."
I just didn't respond. Damon rolled my eyes, seeing the obvious annoyance in me and just said to Mason,
"I heard you talked to Stefan."
Mason looked at me warily before saying, "We should talk somewhere else."
Damon just shook his head and said, "Elizabeth is in on the supernatural, so you're fine."
Mason turned around at me and whispered out "What? You knew?"
I glared at Damon before resignedly said, "I do and did. But it apparently wasn't until this idiot showed up to Mystic Falls. So don't think too much of it."
Mason glared at Damon, clearly understanding what I meant and said,
"Yeah. I talked to Stefan. Nice guy."
Damon just responded nicely with, "Yeah, a lot nicer than me."
I gave a warning glance to Damon, who just ignored it as he didn't leave. Mason just said,
"Nice is overrated."
"Mason." I said tensely. I wasn't sure how to fit myself into this conversation.
Damon just agreed with Mason with, "That's what I think."
Mason then looked at me and said, "You have a good day Elizabeth."
I nodded before Mason left. As Damon turned back around to talk to me, Carol Lockwood showed up and dragged me away from the lemonade stand to ask me about what I had talked about with Mason. Apparently, she had been overjoyed when the two of us had dated and devastated when we broke up. I winced the entire time, knowing that as much as Carol was in the council, she was also innocent. Overly innocent. I managed to get out of her questioning when someone else had shown up. When I had stepped aside, Damon zoomed in on me and zipped me away from the park.
Next thing I knew, my back hit a wall. I grunted in pain when Damon asked angrily,
"Did you know about the vervain in the lemonade?"
"What? What the-" I began before realizing what he was asking me about.
I then vigorously shook my head as I said, "No, I didn't. If you hadn't noticed Damon, I came in the middle of this and the lemonade was just there. I only served it. Not made it."
Stefan found his way and pulled Damon off of me, saying,
"Cool down Damon. It wasn't her."
Damon then immediately glowered even further as he said, "I'm gonna kill him."
Realizing who he was talking about I tried to grab him to prevent him from going, but the two had zipped away with their vampire speed further into the woods. I groaned and realizing that I had gotten myself dragged into this mess, decided to call Alaric.
After the call, I waited for Alaric to pick me up. This allowed me to think on how I have been interacting with the people of Mystic Falls. It seemed like I was somewhat of an extrovert, which was the opposite of who I am or was. That was why people struggled to act around me now. I wasn't that open about what I felt or thought. I became so reserved that I created a façade of myself. Just like before I had arrived in this universe.
It wasn't difficult to accept that I was in another universe. It was more difficult to accept this role I had been given. Whatever friendships I had here, I realized that they may easily break with whatever I chose to do in the future.
Later, Alaric picked me up, having heard from Caroline on his way that they had saved Damon from Liz Forbes. I then asked me to take me to my house and he helped.
The next day, I learned that I had a car of my own. I had asked Alaric over the phone why he hadn't told me yesterday about it. He had replied with,
"I didn't want you driving around town right after you got discharged. It should be fine now."
"Well, thanks for all your help Alaric." I said appreciatively.
Alaric just chuckled and said, "Anything for my best friend."
I smiled at that. It felt nice to have a friend who I could ask for help without being too concerned. With that, I went out to buy some groceries for myself. And once I had that dealt with, I got a call from Carol Lockwood reminding that I had to participate in the Masquerade Ball.
Once the call was over, I groaned and went to the closet to see if I had any dresses to wear. Fortunately, I had apparently purchased one beforehand too, and it was a dress with one shoulder-strap. It was black on top and flowed down to a blue, sheer material on the bottom. I had a silver mask that was formed in a shape of a swan on my right eye with a teardrop shape in the middle. I paired it with silver earrings and high heels.
Realizing that nobody was calling me from the supernatural crew, I decided to and visit them before thinking better of it. I didn't want to involve myself more deeply into this mess. I wanted to avoid it as much as possible. If they didn't require my help, I wouldn't force myself to be part of it.
But soon enough, I got a call from Damon Salvatore.
"What is it Damon?" I asked impatiently.
"Well someone's feisty. You sound like I'm only calling you to ask for your help."
I remained silent and raised an eyebrow. Seeming to guess that I was doubting his response, Damon relented.
"Fine, fine. Yes, I'm asking for your help. I have Mason Lockwood here with me at my house."
I sighed out loud and asked, "What makes you think I will help you?"
"Maybe because of your past relationship with this Lockwood."
I hissed at him through the phone, "You dumbass, you think that will work? He has a relationship with Katherine."
There was a pause before he asked,
"How did you know that?"
I almost swore out loud before I said, "I have my ways."
Damon then responded with, "Oh, right. Your mysterious source of information. I forgot about that. Anyways, I expect you to be here within the next 20 minutes. See you!"
And with that, he hung up on me. Furious, I just stared at my phone for about a minute. Then, I grabbed my bag and keys to head over. I made it to his house within 15 minutes. I just barged in and yelled,
"Damon Salvatore you idiot! What the hell are you thinking!"
I walked into the living room to find Mason tied down on a chair, struggling. Damon, on the other hand, was heating up an iron poker. God, why did I come here?
Damon just smirked and said, "Well someone's feisty."
I punched him full on in the face and said, "You idiot!"
Damon glared at me and said, "That wasn't so nice."
"Are you?" I retaliated. I glanced at Mason, who just looked at me with uncertainty.
With that, I started to walk towards Mason, but Damon just shoved me towards a different chair and brandished the iron poker before sticking it onto Mason's chest. Mason began to scream in agony and I glared at him.
"Damon, what the hell?!" I yelled out, trying to stop him. But since he was a vampire, I couldn't easily overpower him unless I really wanted to kill him. Damon ignored me as he told Mason,
"You can hurt, good to know. I was afraid you were gonna be some beast mass with no affinity for pain. And if that were to be the case, I would have used Elizabeth as leverage."
"The hell Damon?!" I yelled out again in disbelief.
Mason growled at Damon in anger, glancing at me to make sure I was safe. Noticing a protective look from him, I began to dread what was about to happen. I saw Damon pull Mason's collar and comment,
"Oh, but you heal quickly. Not good. Guess I'll just have to keep applying pain."
"No!" I yelled but Damon once again shoved me down.
I heard Mason scream again and it took everything in me to not kill the older Salvatore. Damon then took the poker off of Mason's chest and asked,
"So, Katherine. How do you know her? What is she up to?"
Mason glared at Damon before spitting on the ground. Damon rolled his eyes at that and said,
"I have all day."
With that, he began to torture Mason with the poker again. I could only watch with horror. The Elizabeth they knew before may have been alright with watching this, but not me. Not the one from New York. For me, this was a new experience and I wasn't sure on what to do.
Eventually, Damon went to reheat the poker in the fire, I immediately asked him,
"Why are you doing this?"
Damon looked at me and said, "Because we need to know why Katherine is here and working here with Mr. Wolf, who I am interrogating."
"This can only lead to more problems." I replied, looking at Mason.
Mason looked at me with mixed emotions. Confusion, betrayal, anger, sorrow, and maybe lingering feelings? I wasn't sure if that last one was there, but his gaze on me was a little longer than just a normal angry man's would have been. I wasn't sure why, but my heart beat a little faster at that.
Eventually Damon asked,
"When did you two meet? Did she seduce you, tell you she loved you? You're supernatural so she can't compel you. I'm sure she used her other charms. Katherine's good that way."
I grimaced while Mason glared at Damon. It was quiet for a minute or two when Jeremy Gilbert walked in with a box. He looked surprised to see me there, but quickly hid it as he set the box down on a table. Damon looked annoyed as he said,
"I thought I told you to leave."
Jeremy ignored him and said, "I found something in Ric's box of stuff."
Damon's interest was then perked as he commented, "Oooh… what is it?"
Jeremy then pulled out the plant that I recognized as wolfbane. Jeremy began explaining it to Damon and then I walked over to Mason, concern overtaking my emotions than my better judgment.
"Mason?"
Mason looked up at me and he whispered, "Get out of here. Please…"
I looked at him with surprise at that. Catching my silent question, he said,
"I know we're no longer a thing…but I still care about you. I- if it hadn't for us breaking up, I would never have fallen for Katherine. I know it's wrong… but-"
I silenced him as I whispered, "You don't have to explain that to me. I don't judge you for that. I'm just… I don't know what I feel, but I don't want to see you like this."
In all honesty, I really didn't know why I cared so much for Mason Lockwood. Maybe it was because this body remembered having something special with him. But seeing things play out, I didn't want Mason to suffer so badly. His eyes really caught me off-guard. The honesty they reflected to me was probably the biggest reason. He was honest with me.
But before I could do or say anything else, Damon came over to us and pulled me away from Mason as he asked,
"What's Katherine doing in Mystic Falls?"
Mason refused to answer and Damon brushed the wolfbane across Mason's cheek. Mason screamed in more agony, causing Jeremy to look at me with a guilty look. I could only show him the same type of look as Damon continued his interrogation.
"Why is she here?"
Mason glared at Damon as he said, "She's here with me. Why do you ask, you jealous?"
I grimaced internally, not liking Mason's tone. Why was he so stupid to goad Damon's torturous side?
Damon smirked as he said, "How rude of me. You know, I just realized, I didn't offer you anything to eat."
"Damon, no!" I yelled, but Damon ignored me and shoved the wolfbane into Mason's mouth.
Damon commented sarcastically, "Yummy!"
I glared at the vampire as Mason spit the wolfbane out and coughed. Jeremy grabbed me from bolting towards Damon Salvatore. I was so pissed that I began to see red. Mason shouldn't die for this. That was all I could think about. But Damon continued questioning the man who was in poor shape.
"Why do you want the moonstone?"
Having had enough Mason yelled out, "Screw you!"
Damon rolled his eyes and said, "Ahhh! Wrong answer!"
Jeremy, finally fearful for Mason's life too, voiced his concern,
"If he was gonna say anything, he would have already!"
Damon ignored our pleas as he said, "I'm taking your eyes now."
Mason screamed out, "The well! You can find it there."
Damon held out the wolfbane towards Mason again as he said,
"I know where it is. I want to know what it does and why you want it."
Mason, began answering Damon, realizing how Damon would really kill him.
"I'm getting it for Katherine."
Damon asked, "Why?"
Mason answered it with, "She's gonna use it to lift the curse."
Damon further questioned, "Of the moon? Now, why would a vampire help a werewolf break a curse that keeps them from turning whenever they want?"
Mason replied honestly, "So I wouldn't have to turn anymore."
I felt my heart sink. I knew the reality as to why Katherine wanted that moonstone. I wanted to tell them that Katherine wasn't really aiming for that. But I wasn't sure if that would cause more chaos than necessary. Nervously, I tried to prevent myself from talking about it.
When Jeremy began to continue asking Damon to stop, the vampire grabbed Jeremy's throat and said,
"You wanted to be a part of this? Well, here it is! Kill or be killed! The guy is a werewolf; he'd kill me the first chance he got! So, you suck it up or leave."
Jeremy fell to the ground when Damon let him go. And before I could do anything, Damon shoved his hand into Mason's chest. I looked at the scene with horror as Damon pulled out the heart that belonged to my supposed ex-boyfriend. Jeremy and I stared at Damon with pure horror.
What had he done? Jeremy eventually left and I stayed there, numb. Damon began rolling up Mason's body in a blanket. He noticed my horror-stricken face and said,
"It's not the first dead body you're seeing you know."
I finally glared at him and said, "Do you realize what you've done? You killed a werewolf. A person from this town of the founding family. Also, if you don't know, a werewolf has a pack. Don't you think they will realize that he's gone?"
Damon looked at me with annoyance as he said, "Are you like this because you had a thing with Mason once?"
"Are you fucking kidding me? Damon, that's not why I'm like this. Maybe I care for him still, but I don't exactly remember our relationship. I lost all that from the accident, if you haven't exactly noticed. You just did something without thinking about the repercussions."
Damon remained silent as he cleaned up Mason's corpse as Stefan arrived, showing us the moonstone. I looked at the thing with disgust. Why was I still here? Damon looked at it, then back at the rolled up blanket and asked,
"All this for that?"
Stefan nodded as he said, "Yup."
With that Stefan tossed the moonstone to his brother and commented,
"I see you've exercised your usual restraint."
Damon then looked at me with a hint of regret and said, "Had to be done."
I glared at him and asked if I could leave. I didn't want to be in the same building as the brothers any longer. Why did I have to get dragged into this? Damon nodded at me and I stormed out.
Once I returned home, I looked at the mirror in my bathroom and wondered why I was here. Why me, of all people, got sucked up into this messy realm of Vampire Diaries.