CHAPTER TWENTY
FOUNDER'S DAY

I stood in front of the full length mirror staring at myself, brushing my tightly spiral curled hair over my shoulders as I awaited the impact.

Pull.

I gasped for air as it got harder and harder to breathe.

Tug.

I felt like a fish out of water.

Tie.

Sighing, I looked into the mirror examining myself. I could honestly say that the person I was looking at wasn't me. I did look like them. Exactly like them. I had on a sky blue Victorian style dress on, there was a white ribbon right where the corset meets the skirt that was tied in a bow in the back. The skirt was a hoop skirt, so it rounded out.

"Ow, this dress hurts." I complained as I sucked in a small breath of air.

Elena chuckled as Jenna rolled her eyes and said: "Suck it in, baby."

​"Look at you, all retro," Damon complemented as he approached his younger brother, who was stand amongst the crowd of parade participants.

​"What are you doing here?"
​
Damon's mouth twisted. "Why wouldn't I be here? Bonnie deactivated the Gilbert invention, Isobel's gone and it's Founder's Day. I'm here to eat cotton candy and steal your girl."
​
Stefan scoffed, "Don't start with me."

​"Oh, you started it, Stefan with that whole "I'm insecure, leave Elektra alone" speech. I'm still enjoying that."

​"As long as you heard it," Stefan stated simply.

​"You have no sense of humor, Stefan."
​
Stefan quirked up an eyebrow, "Actually, I just have no sense of Damon humor."

​"Damon humor?" Damon repeated. "Hey, look, I get it. I get it. I'm the better, hotter, superior choice and you're scared now that Katherine and Beatrice are out of the picture, that I'm gonna turn all of my attention to Elektra. But don't worry, Elektra is not Katherine or Beatrice."

Stefan shook his head, "You're right, she's not."

Then something caught Damon and Stefan's eye. They looked toward the elegant flashing of blue to see Elektra; she looked as if she had just stepped out of a time loop from the 1800's. Stefan and Damon both stared at Elektra's stunning beauty.

Stefan and Damon both continued to stare as Elektra's eyes wandered around the scene. Her long, dark brown hair was curled in tight spirals. Stefan blinked a few times, almost getting confused on who she was, Elektra Gilbert or Beatrice Pierce, maybe even Katherine Pierce.

"John? Is that even possible?"

Stefan and I had just gotten done explaining how, the same uncle that Elena and I had both hated our entire lives, was most likely Isobel's baby-daddy – aka our biological father. "Well, there's no proof," I said, flashing my twin a guilty smile as I adjusted the sleeves of my dress. "But, he did date Isobel when she was a teenager and he was the one who brought her to Dad's office for the delivery."

Elena shook her head, not being able to wrap her head around the concept of John Gilbert actually being our father. "Our whole lives we've never liked this man. I–" She swiped her hand over her forehead, in a complete state of shock.

I locked eyes with Stefan, instantly feeling a course of guilt surge through me knowing that we had kissed and he was still officially dating my sister. And on top of that, another wave of guilt came over me in seeing how much distress the new information had caused Elena.

I pursed my lips, fumbling with my fingers as Stefan spoke: "We're sorry – We're sorry. We just wanted to tell you before Damon dropped it on you in some typically inappropriate way."

"No, no. I'm happy that you guys told me. I just – I really hope that it's not true." Elena replied in a quieted voice. "What are we supposed to do? Do we just confront him and say; "Are you our biological father?""

"No," I denied.

Stefan shrugged, "Well, I guess when you guys are ready."

"We're never going to be ready." Elena sighed out, always seeming to take the reins on speaking for me instead of letting me speak for myself. Typical Elena, I thought, "I already have enough problems with the family I actually care about."

"Yeah, I mean, Jeremy hates me, and why wouldn't he? My journal gave him every single reason to." I said, shaking my head at the thought of Jeremy possibly hating me for the rest of his life without giving me the opportunity to actually explain why Elena and I did the things we did.

"He's just hurt." Stefan comforted me, "He's confused."

"He's never going to forgive us for Vicki, for me taking away his memories, for lying to him."

"He's your brother." Stefan said to both of us, "He'll forgive you. Just give him some time."

​When I separated from Elena and Stefan, not being able to be around them any longer, I went on the hunt for Jeremy. I knew that I needed to amends things with him before he's hatred toward me became permanent the longer he had to dwell on the terrible things we did to him; all of the things he read about in my journal.

​"Jeremy," I called out, finally catching up with him in the Mystic Falls' High School courtyard. I instantly surveyed his attire, taking in the civil war garb he was wearing for Alaric's Battle of Willow Creek reenactment. "I was wondering where you were. Wow, you look great. You guys did a really great job on the float."
​
Jeremy tightened the grip he had on his gray hat, the skin on his knuckles turning white out of anger. "Go away, Elektra."
​
My bright expression fell at the resentment in his tone. "Jeremy, please, I don't want it to be like this between us."
​
His lips pressed into a tight line as he spun around, stopping me in my tracks while his dark eyes looked down upon me. "Well, then, why don't you have Damon erase my memory again? Then I could go back to being your in-the-dark little brother."
​
When he went to walk away, I reached out and grabbed his arm, "Jer, please."

​"Just don't," Jeremy sneered, yanking his arm out of my grasp. "You can't fix this that easily. Something like this doesn't just get fixed."
​
And with that, he turned away from me and walked away.

​
After the Founders' Day Parade, where Stefan and I, along with the rest of the Miss Mystic Falls line-up, had to stand upon a float while waving and smiling at people we don't even know for God knows how long, we parted ways.

Later, I walked into the grill, in normal clothes. A tight white tank top, underneath my black leather jacket, dark ripped skinny jeans, and black vans. Walking in, I instantly noticed that Damon was there as well; he stood up when he saw me, meeting me halfway in the middle of the grill.

​"I like you better like this," Damon announced, smirking as he surveyed my modern outfit. "Period look, it didn't suit you."
​
I was taken aback by his statement, "Is that an insult?"
​
Damon blinked several times. "Actually, Elektra, it is a compliment of the highest order."
​
I huffed out a single humored filled breath before my expression quickly turned into a serious one. "Look," I began, stepping forward. "I know that Stefan is worried about our "friendship.""

​"Did he mention something to you, too?"

​"No," I denied, suddenly feeling very nervous, worrying that maybe Stefan had told Damon that we kissed in order to keep him away from me. "Did he mention something to you?"

​"No – nothing worth repeating," Damon replied simply, smoothly swerving off the subject.
​
I nodded, completely unsure if I believed him or not. "So, I think you should stop with the flirty comments and that eye thing that you do."

​"What eye thing?" Damon innocently asked.
​
Cue infamous eye thing.
​
I gave him a look, placing my pointer finger on his chest. "Don't make me regret being your friend." Silence. Damon stared down at me, icy eyes calculating all of my features. "Okay?"
​
But before Damon could respond, I spotted Jeremy behind him – sitting all alone at a table. The muscles in his jaw contracted and extended as he chewed his food, silver fork pushing the food back and forth as he stared at it in deep thought. I ran my hands over my face, feeling my hot skin as I gave myself a mental confidence boost enough to walk away from Damon and toward my brother.
​
Sighing, I removed my hands from my face, placing them at my sides. "I don't believe that we can't fix this, Jer. I lied. I was wrong. I know Elena and I were in the wrong to keep this from you, but you need to understand that we had to. We needed to protect you. But, you're my brother, Jer. And I love you and I have to fix this. So just tell me, what can I do to make this right?"
​
Jeremy stared up at me for a few silent moments, before he slowly rose from his seat and said five words I hadn't expected to fall from his mouth. "You can go to hell."
​
I opened my mouth to tell him that no matter what he said, I was still going to try an amend our broken relationship, but before I could, he shouldered past me toward the Mystic Grill's exit. I bit my lip, feeling a thick lump form in the back of my throat as I watched Jeremy's body disappear into the daylight pouring through the door.
​
If I had just told him in the beginning, none of this would have happened.

​

Later that night, I had met up with Elena and Stefan. We were walking around town square; immersing ourselves in townie chit-chat and fundraisers – that was, until we got bored and decided to just aimlessly stroll around.

​"I know," I chuckled, looking over at Stefan. "Can you imagine?" My arm was hooked with Elena's as we walked, suddenly feeling another arm hook with mine. I flinched back slightly and glanced over to see that Damon was now walking beside me. "Uh, Damon, what are you doing?"
​
He gripped my arm a little tighter, his entire body tense. "Saving your life. Fifteen words or less: tomb vampires are here. Founding families are the target. Get them out of here – now."​

​"Wait – wait, where are you going?" Stefan called out to Damon as he began to walk away from us.

​"That's more than fifteen words, Stefan," And with that, Damon pushed through the crowds of townspeople and away from us.

"Wait," I mumbled, reaching across Elena to grab Stefan's hand, my eyes desperately trying to meet his as panic dug a deep hole in my chest. "Jeremy's out here somewhere, Stefan."

Stefan nodded, "Let's go find him, come on."

And suddenly, as Stefan was leading Elena and I toward the outskirts of townsquare and away from the stage where Mayor Lockwood was giving his speech, an intense pain erupted in my skull. A cried out, hands frantically gripping the sides of my head as it felt as though all of the blood vessels in my brain were popping. Like stove-top baked popcorn; erratically popping until the wrapping explodes.

Beside me, I could faintly see Stefan doing the same thing; grabbing at his head, groans escaping his mouth as the two of us collapsed to the ground completely. My vision was impaired, it was fading in and fading out, turning into haunting smears of color as Elena asked us what was wrong.

My back arched in agony, shrill screams escaping my mouth, the searing pressure in my skull causing a thin trail of blood to seep out of my nose. I automatically knew that it was the Gilbert device. I didn't know why I was being effected, but I knew that Bonnie had betrayed us.

"Elektra? Stefan? What's going on?" Elena asked in a panicked tone.

"Pl – Please make it stop," I sobbed, throat growing raw from all of the screaming I had been doing. But, I ravished in the pain in my throat, beckoning it to stay awhile in order to distract me from the real agony.

And before I knew, I felt a pair of arms lift me completely off the ground, carrying me for a couple of moments until they laid me back upon the ground.

"I don't know what happened, they just dropped," Elena explained to Alaric as they went back to help bring Stefan over to where I was lying.

"Yeah, they're not the only ones. "Alaric announced, guiding Stefan down the steps before setting down on the cement next to me. "Cops are grabbing everyone who's down, injecting them with vervain."

"What?" Elena gasped. "They're rounding up the vampires."

"Elektra's not a vampire, so, why was she affected?"

But before she could answer him, I let out a relieved sigh. The pressure in my head finally ceasing after I had thought it was going to last forever. I pushed myself up onto my elbows, "What the hell is going on?"

Elena immediately rushed over, grasping my face in her hands as she gently wiped away the blood under my nose. "Oh, my God, Elektra, are you okay?"

I blinked. "It – It was like millions of needles were piercing my skull and then it just stopped. How's Stefan?"

I glanced over, meeting Stefan's as I realized that he had been sitting right in front of me the entire time. "I'm fine, Elektra, are you all right? It was painful for me, but I couldn't even imagine what it was like for you without the heightened healing and all. I still don't understand why you were affected."

"Yeah, me neither," I admitted, harshly massaging my temples to try and force the headache away.

"I saw at least five vampires go down. They're taking them to your family's old building," Alaric explained, looking between Elena and I.

"It's the Gilbert device," I announced, feeling a wave of anger course through my veins knowing that Bonnie had been the one who caused all of this. "It has to be." Elena gave me a look that displayed her uncertainty. "Think about it, Elena. We asked Bonnie to deactivate a device that could protect people against vampires so that we could protect Stefan."

"And Damon," Stefan added, his head bobbing in agreement. "Vampires. Where is Damon?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since this started."

Elena sighed, looking over at Alaric. "Can you get our brother? Take him home?"

Alaric nodded, "Of course."

"Let's go."

✥ ✥ ✥

​"Wait, wait, wait. I can hear them. The building's on fire."
​
Elena and I gave each other looks filled with panic, quickly following behind Stefan as he began to run ahead toward our family's building. The same building that was harboring vervained vampires; awaiting the gruesome and painful death of being set on fire.
​
When we approached the building, we immediately noticed that John Gilbert was standing right outside of it, a sick smug look on his face. "Where's Damon?" I spat out, disgust and resentment dripping from my voice.
​
John slowly turned around, his eyes falling upon each of us, lingering a little too long on Stefan as he stood protective beside me. "With the rest of them, where he should be. It's over for Damon."
​
I scoffed, "You crazy son of a bitch."
​
John furrowed his brows at me, somehow not being able to understand why I would think his plan to kill of the vampires would be absurd. "Why? Because I'm doing what should've been done one hundred and forty five years ago? This is the right thing, Elektra." He then looked at Stefan. "Go ahead, you won't make it out. You'll save me the trouble of killing you myself."
​
Stefan glanced down at me, "You know the building well. Is there another entrance in?"

​"Yeah, uh, utility door. There's one around the side." I quickly explained before Stefan took off, on a mission to save his brother before it was too late.

​Elena and I were quick to follow after him, but before we could, John reached out grabbed us. "If either of you take one more step, I'll alert those deputies that they missed a vampire."

​"We're asking you not to," Elena pleaded.

​"That doesn't mean anything to me."

​"As our father, it should."

​John's face fell, his jaw falling slack. "You know."

​"I wasn't sure," Elena began, chest heaving up and down. "But now I am."

​I rolled my eyes, high-tailing it out of there before I had to listen to that conversation any longer. Stefan and Damon could be dying, and here she was, sitting idle talking to a man that we both hate. I swear, sometimes my sister has her priorities mixed up.
​
I rounded the corner of the building, seeing Bonnie standing just outside the open utility door, "Stefan!" I called out, pushing myself to run faster. But just as I reached the smoke filled doorway, Bonnie quickly grabbed my arm, yanking me away.

​"Elektra, you can't go in there."

​"Bonnie, what are you doing?" I asked in disbelief, trying to pull my wrist out of her hand.

​"I'm sorry I lied to you." Bonnie mumbled, closing her eyes before she started whispering under her breath in a mystical language that I couldn't understand.
​
I pulled against her hold again, but to no avail as she continued to chant. "Bonnie, Stefan and Damon are in there, I have to go." And when her chanting ceased, I instantly began to panic. "Bonnie, what is it? Are they going to be okay?"
​
And before she could answer, Stefan and Damon were clamoring out of the building. Damon's arm was slung across Stefan's shoulder, smoke encased around them as the eldest Salvatore struggled through the doorway while releasing a hoarse coughing fit. "Oh, God," I gasped, running over and helping Stefan ease Damon down into a sitting position on the sidewalk. "Oh, my God."
​
They were safe, and in that moment, that was all that mattered.

✥ ✥ ✥

​"I looked everywhere, and someone definitely took my stuff," I explained, propping my phone between my ear and shoulder as I got out of my car, beginning to make my way to the front door of my house, but I stood in the driveway so I could continue my phone call in privacy.

​"That's certainly weird, I'm sure it'll pop up somewhere," Stefan joked lightheartedly on the other line.
​
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, "We have to tell them, you know that right?"
​
Stefan sighed, "Yes, I do. I just – I don't know how we're going to explain it in the appropriate way with everything else that's going on."

​"There isn't a right way, Stefan." I clarified, fumbling with my keys while I leaned my hip against the car. "I kissed you; you kissed me back; you're dating my twin sister – there's never going to be a right time or a right way to tell them. We just need to do it soon, before Damon finds out first and drops it like a bomb on Elena. She doesn't need that."

​"I know, I know," Stefan replied, I could hear the struggling tone in his voice. "Well, we'll figure it out tomorrow, okay?"

​"Yeah, that's fine," I agreed, slowly walking away from my car and toward the house. "I just gotta check on Jeremy before Elena and I go to the hospital. Are you going to meet us there?"

​"Of course, I'll see you there."
​
And with that, our phone call ended, I stuffed my cell phone in my pocket as I crossed the grass of the front yard and headed to the porch. A gasp suddenly escaped my mouth at what I saw: Elena was kissing Damon; Damon was kissing Elena; on my front porch. My mouth gaped open as I tried to process the entire situation.
​
Elena pulled away breathlessly, running her fingers through her hair as she smiled nervously at me. "Hey, Elena."
​
My shocked expression fell when realization hit. "Hi, Elektra, did you happen to see my purse before you left? After I got done talking to Stefan at the Grill, I couldn't find it. I was just wondering if you had picked it up."

​"No, uh, I didn't see it."

​"Okay, thanks," I replied coolly.

Suddenly, before the awkwardness could completely settle, the front door opened and Jenna was standing there with a bewildered look on her face. Her eyes kept glancing from Elena to Damon, seeing them locked in each other's embrace. I rolled my eyes, she definitely didn't like Damon.

"Hi," Elena greeted.

"It's late," Jenna proclaimed. "You two should probably come inside."

I nodded, quickly I might add, before I stormed inside in desperate need to get away from Elena and Damon's hormones. A stinging sensation flared up in my chest; anger. I couldn't believe Elena would pose as me just so she could kiss Damon – that bitch. Her betrayal of pretending to be me overruled my betrayal of kissing her boyfriend.

"What are you doing, Elektra?" Jenna asked as soon as the front door was closed.

Elena slowly turned around to face our aunt, "I don't want to talk about it."

Jenna then went on to explain that she needed to go to our father's building and talk to the fire department, seeing as though Grayson had left everything to her. Elena set her bag down on the couch, stuffing her hands in her jacket pockets as she turned toward me.

"Elektra, I'm sorry–"

I held up my hand to stop her from continuing, "If you're really going to delve into the detailed explanation as to why you were pretending to be me, then I'm gonna need an aspirin."

"Yeah, okay," Elena replied quietly. "I need to change out of these clothes anyway."

"Okay," I mumbled awkwardly, backing away from her and walked up the stairs with her following right behind me, but when we reached the main hallway on the second floor, I turned right and she turned left. I rolled my eyes, still feeling the rage coursing through my veins as I went over to my bedside table. I opened it, grabbed the bottle of Tylenol before removing the lid and taking two white pills out of it.

I grabbed the empty glass on the table, moved into the bathroom and filled it up before I threw the pills in my mouth and drank them down. I faintly heard Elena's feet pitter-pattering down the stairs when I looked up in the bathroom mirror and I instantly regretted it. My tight curls were now tangled and matted due to the amount of rolling on the ground in pain I had done earlier, there was dried blood crusted around my right nostril, and my mascara was smudged underneath my eyes.

My hands met the water, quickly drenching my face with it, trying to get off the traces of eyeliner and mascara. I wasn't in the privacy of my own bathroom for forty five seconds before I heard Elena crying out.

"Elektra!"

"What?" I shouted back, turning off the tap and trudged out of my room, plopping down the stairs. She stood there at the end of the stairs with a frightened look on her face. The anger in my blood quickly diminished into fear. "What's wrong?"

"I think there's someone in the house."

✥ ✥ ✥

not edited.