They would be bound together, bleeding together. These girls would be the fire that burned Mystic Falls and the people who lived there. Mystic Falls' most mysterious doppelgangers (girl).

Katherine Pierce was the It girl of Mystic Falls, beloved and hated equally.

Elena Gilbert was the forgotten. The ugly truth is hidden under the Petrova facade. She was a pimple that they couldn't get rid of no matter how hard people tried to hide her.

Sometimes Katherine never wanted her friends or Mystic Falls. All Katherine really wanted was to yell or ignore them. She was the same K.P., oh there's no doubt about it. Katherine was still manipulative, sporting lies and all with the charm she oozed back in the day.

But coming back from the 'dead' still felt like that—dead. Her friends moved on with their lives and from her, along with the population of Mystic Falls. Everything around her kingdom changed and Katherine remained the same immortal girl.

She always was immortal.

The media was raving about the girl who came back from the dead. This infamy for Katherine that made the residents of Mystic Falls look sideways at her as if she was a peasant begging for money. Life went on in Mystic Falls, Katherine kept to herself in the security of her house. After the media left and everything seemingly calmed down, Katherine made her way to the old cemetery where a body in her name was buried.

It was when the excavation on fake 'Katherine' caused a big secret to erupt. It was a media circus that when Katherine disappeared, was found buried in her backyard and it was still a circus when the news spread about the doppelgangers. The Petrova doppelgangers. Because of course Katherine Pierce had a doppelgänger. Of course she did.

Her name was Elena. The same brown hair, chocolate brown eyes and her pink bow-shaped lips in a sly smirk that could have charmed Mystic Falls like Katherine did long ago.

Mystic Falls erupted in whispers when Katherine walked down the sidewalk, all whispers about her family. Her parents were arrested on charges of conspiracy to murder and negligence. In Katherine's mind, they deserved it. But the whispers still followed her all talk about her dead doppelgänger and her murderous parents.

And it was all, "Do you think she knew why her parents did it?"

No, she never did.

Her parents ignored Elena from the moment she was sentenced to the Parkinson for her mental health. Bipolar disorder, that's what her parents whispered when they thought nobody was around to hear; Katherine did. They casted Elena out of the family, out of utter existence and expected Jeremy and Katherine to do the same. And Katherine did because she was a teen, ignoring the guilt, rebelling against her parents and never once feeling this awful guilt that came up when she passed her doppelganger's room in the hallway. But when the house was quiet Katherine swore her doppelgänger was here, as if she was waiting to come home.

The name on the headstone in the cemetery was wrong. It wasn't her—it was never her, to begin with. It was always Elena. It would always be Elena Gilbert, who died alone in a whole beside her house that end of summer in 2009.

None of them knew what she was going through, how could they? Their family wasn't as entirely as messed up as hers was.

All everyone could say was how horrible the Gilbert parents were ever since news and evidence came back that Grayson and Miranda murdered and covered the death of their child. That's all the residents of Mystic Falls could say while holding themselves up on their high horse, as if any had of the adults has secrets as horrible as Katherine's did.

The worse thing to come out of Elena's medical records. Somehow someone at the Parkinson facility leaked the sensitive documents surrounding Elena's health. Katherine knew what was on those files, read them the first few weeks after the investigations started out of curiosity and guilt. Bipolar disorder and anxiety along with bouts of depression. Basically, she was crazy in the eyes of Mystic Falls but for Katherine, she was just suffering from these illnesses without the support that her parents never gave.

"Schizo."

"Psycho."

"Crazy girl, her doppelgänger probably had it too."

"She was already crazy! I'd rather die for good reasons if I was like her," Violet blurted out to the group, not knowing that Katherine had walked into the apartment barn that Bonnie was living in.

It was like the air in Katherine's lungs just gave out. It didn't surprise her that her friends would be talking about Elena, it never surprised her that they were talking bad about her dead doppelganger. But the anger that erupted inside Katherine was aching to be let out and lash out at her friends. (They were never friends after she returned, they never were.) Her face was a blank mask, something the girls had never seen since high school. They all froze looking at Katherine as if this was the first time they were all meeting her.

They never knew Elena, none of them did. Sure, call her a brat behind her back (who wouldn't call Katherine that?), her armor was always on but Elena never had that armor that Katherine perfected for years to defend herself. Elena never had a chance alive but Katherine would never forgive herself if her doppelgänger was going to be attacked when she was dead.

"Katherine," Bonnie spoke, standing up her mouth stupidly agap. Katherine scoffed and as if her sixteen-year-old self came through, turned on her heel and slammed the barn door just like she did all those years ago on a summer night.

When she got home, Katherine made her way to her room. The moment she stepped inside, the waves of anger and grief engulfed her like a thunderstorm. She slid down on the floor curling up, sobbing for a doppelgänger that she never got to know, who died knowing she was unloved. She cried and screamed, echoing back in the empty house. This was Katherine's storm alright and lightening was yet to come down on this town.

She came back from the dead, Elena never came back.

In the quiet house, meters away from the hole where her doppelgänger died, Katherine swore Elena was here. But when has Katherine ever believed in ghosts? So she willed herself to stop thinking that her dead doppelgänger was roaming the halls of her home, but sometimes when the house was quiet again Katherine could hear a giggle.

She valiantly stepped into Elena's old room. It was painted soft purple with a single bed, desk, and toys scattered around. Books put haphazardly on the shelves, the room looked like it was frozen in time as if Elena was going to step into the room once more. Katherine knew it wasn't true, that it could never happen again.

She found the journals, five of them, all hidden in a box labeled memories under Elena's bed. The journals were in different colors, scribbled in years with the first one from 2005-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009. Elena was ten when she was sent to the facility and died when she was fifteen. Six years in the Parkinson and all Katherine did was ignore her doppelgänger at the order of her parents.

Katherine sat on the bed and opened the first journal that was labeled 2004-2005. She started reading her doppelganger's life.

Nobody knew Elena Gilbert, not Mystic Falls, her parents, not even Katherine Pierce herself knew anything about her doppelganger. But know she knew enough to feel connected with her besides sharing genes and a face.

Elena Gilbert had her hair cut into a bop in 2006, hating how it got tangled when she grew it out. She never liked the cookie-cutter life that everyone in Mystic Falls, thrived to have, especially her parents which was something that made Katherine laugh. She loved mystery novels, her favorite ice cream was chocolate chip, and she wanted to adopt a German shepherd when she was older. Her favorite color was purple, she thought old Hollywood was fascinating, she wanted to visit the beach and would just like to be better.

Maybe one day I could reconnect with Katherine. We could be a family again, roam the East Coast and the West Coast. All I want is my doppelgänger, that's all I'd want in the world.

All Elena Gilbert wanted was to have her doppelgänger by her side, to have an ally.

I hope one day that my family can love me. Maybe if I wasn't born a problem, I'd be loved, that's what mom said once to dad when they thought I was asleep on the drive to Mystic Falls.

All Elena Gilbert wanted was to be better and to be accepted by her family—her parents more so.

Elena described the worst of the Parkinson. How her parents left her with a small suitcase on the steps never once coming to visit her when she called for visitations from them. It was once a month and even those were scarce. Elena resented her parents every year, she wanted to come to be welcomed not forgotten by her parents, hurt by how they treated her. It broke Katherine's heart seeing Elena describe her years ultimately alone until her last day on earth.

The last day on earth, Elena was surrounded by no one. Katherine could never picture that, her doppelgänger trying to cry out to anyone—her parents, Jeremy, even Katherine and no one would come.

Sometimes Katherine wished she defied her parents and went to visit her doppelgänger during her stay in that cold place. Maybe things could have been different, Elena wouldn't have felt alone, she could have had family to love. But now in an old room, with a dead person's memories, all Katherine could think was that she did love her doppelganger, even if it was too late.

I was never good enough for them. I was imperfect in their eyes of perfection, never wanted. A monster. That's what my dad called me, maybe that is what I am, a monster living in a girl's soft skin. Maybe I'll always be like this, forgotten, a ghost alive.

I am a monster.

No, you are not Elena. You never were a monster.

The apologies were futile to Katherine.

A year passed after Elena's body was found, her family secrets coming to light and her parents sent to jail. It was a year ago when Katherine found out about her doppelganger.

She decided to have Elena, after the police got enough evidence, taking her doppelganger's body to another cemetery. Katherine wanted Elena to have a peaceful resting place, away from the nosy eyes of the residents of Mystic Falls and the media. She did not want her doppelganger's resting place to be a tourist spot that Mystic Falls would have loved to profit from. Katherine wasn't going to risk it.

Katherine buried her doppelgänger with her brother and with strangers.

Bonnie, Hayley, Davina, and Caroline along with their respective partners came (Katherine internally sneered at Bonnie and Damon because she could never understand how they got together), even Jeremy and Jenna Gilbert came to the private funeral.

"Why is Jenna here?" Katherine heard Davina mutter to her friends in a not so quiet voice. Jenna knew Elena. In Elena's journal, she mentioned that Jenna came to visit her sometimes during the summer before Katherine disappeared. Jenna knew Elena and when news broke out about what happened to her, Jenna was there to tell insight about the estranged doppelgänger that Katherine had.

Sometimes Katherine could never figure out why Davina hated her doppelgänger, why she took her doppelgänger just like Katherine did all those years ago.

Jenna merely smiled at the witch and hugged Katherine.

"What is Klaus doing here?" Davina looked incredulously as Klaus Mikealson walked up the hill with a bouquet full of daisies.

Just like Jenna Gilbert, Klaus knew about Elena. Klaus' brother, Finn Mikealson was sent to the same facility that Elena went to. Finn helped Elena transition into the facility becoming a buddy to the girl. That lead to Klaus finding out about the Petrova doppelgangers.

He never spoke about it to her, how could he since she would just deny it. So years passed, Katherine disappeared and died three days later. He never knew she was alive and Mystic Falls, just like him mourned the wrong doppelganger.

It wasn't until a year that Katherine surfaced to meet Klaus. Finn Mikealson passed away in 2013, a battle that ended with him hanging himself in his bedroom during a temporary visit. He was about to leave the Parkinson in a couple months.

It was a private funeral but whispers always were a thing in a small town and that news reached Katherine.

Klaus did not believe it when she showed up, boldly, a black veil coving her face wearing a black dress with a bouquet of daisies in her arms. After the funeral, when everyone went their separate ways from the freshly buried tomb, Klaus broke down hugging a girl that was a ghost. But she wasn't a ghost, she was real.

It could be said that both of them held a candle, a soft spot for each other. Everyone could see it then and now, a murmur in this town under all the whispers of Elena, Elena, Elena. But in the quiet of the cemetery, Klaus' hand curled around hers and she knew, Katherine knew.

Now here they were once reunited by another corpse, another ghost.

Elena Gilbert.

June 22, 1992-August 28, 2009

Elena would be remembered if Katherine had anything to say about it to everyone and she did, she really did. Elena's memory would always be shrouded by her murder and how she lived but Katherine knew the things behind this girl that Mystic Falls called 'crazy dysfunctional' when their eyes landed on Katherine on the streets. It was the same look the girls gave her when the news broke out about her doppelganger.

A giggle erupted the quiet of the hills in the old cemetery.

She was alone, everyone else leaving. Klaus whispered about meeting her later, the girls tried to make an apology but Katherine knew it was over. This, this friend (was it really a friendship anymore?) It was over from the beginning when Katherine rose from the dead. So they left with words unsaid and falling deaf of Katherine.

Katherine heard the giggle again. She saw a brunette girl, the hair cut in a bop, a coy smile spread across her bow-shaped lips and the same identical blue eyes looking straight at Katherine. She stared at her and waved at Elena.

Elena Gilbert waved back, walking down the hill and disappeared into the unknown.