The New Original

Entering the Small town of Damnation

Have you ever woken up somewhere new with no idea how you got there? Well, that's where I'm at right now. The last thing I remember? I would honestly have to say my death, so maybe this is hell. I mean, how else would you explain the sign welcoming me to Mystic Falls, Virginia? The only thing missing is the Spin Doctors.

~~~~~~

I wandered into town in search of answers. Of course, the first building I recognize is the Salvatore Boarding House. I took the gamble that, based on the outdated cars and absence of any 21st century models, the Boarding House was still operational, and approached in hopes of receiving directions to the town's resident witches. If anyone could help me figure out what had happened to me and what should be done about it, my bet was on Sheila 'Grams' Bennett.

After posing as a lost Occult Studies student and getting directions and vervain from a young Zach Salvatore, I made my way to the Bennett House. I spent the walk considering how exactly I would explain my situation to the old witch. With my bones fully steeped in anxiety and panic exuding from my being, I walked up and knocked on her door. Only, to my surprise, it wasn't Sheila who greeted me but Abbey Bennett who at some point this year, 1994 according to the calendar at the Boarding House, would take down Mikael and abandon her daughter.

" Can I help you?" She asked, crossing her arms.

" I was told this was where I could find Sheila Bennett."

" She's my mother. What do you need from her?"

I rolled my eyes at her attitude. "This town is on the precipice of a fanged disaster revolving around a very specific group of teenagers, including but not limited to, your daughter Bonnie and the young Elena Gilbert. I have foreknowledge of it that could be used to keep them safe." My snark was followed by my hand, outstretched in an attempt to gain some trust from the witch by showing my lack of supernatural aura.

" Right." The woman scoffed at me. " I'll get my mother and you can try that again. Believably."

"Have you met Mikael yet?" I asked innocently as she walked away. She grew rigid with fear and walked faster.

~~~~~

" What is your name child?" Sheila asked as she entered the front of the house.

" Harper. Though I think after today, I might be someone new."

" Well Ms. Harper, my daughter says you're not a vampire but also that you have suspicious news regarding vampires. So, my first question is, why are you still lingering in the doorway?"

" Your daughter doesn't trust me and it is not her home, so to enter without your knowledge seemed far from polite and a way to increase suspicion." I answered as politely and fully as I found myself capable.

" Enter child. I feel we have much to discuss."

~~~~~~

" I feel the best place to start," Sheila began once the three of us were seated, " is with how you came across this supposed foreknowledge."

I dragged my hand through my hair as reality set in. " Okay, I know this is going to sound crazy but I don't know how it happened. One minute I was dying, the next I'm waking up here, well not here here but just outside the town line by the sign. But that's impossible because here doesn't exist."

" What do you mean here doesn't exist?"

"Mystic Falls. It's not real, it's just the imaginary setting for a cheesy teen drama filmed in Covington. So how could I wake up here? How could I have been to a building torn down four years ago or be speaking to characters? Why did the calendar say 1994?" I panicked.

" Are you saying you're from another world? That the foreknowledge you have is from a television series?"

" I don't know, maybe. And while technically yes, Abbey already confirmed that she's met the Original Vampire and Vampire Hunter Mikael the Destroyer."

Sheila hummed in thought. " How's about you tell us some of this foreknowledge while you calm down?"

" Okay." I took a shuddering breath. " Mikael's presence is only the beginning. He's here in search of the Petrova Doppelganger, a supernatural double of another person in the Petrova line. This time around Elena Gilbert will be the doppelganger, a living double of Katherine Pierce formerly known as Katerina Petrova, her ancestor Tatia who Mikael knew, and her ancestor Amara one of the true first immortals. There were others but those are the ones who have had an impact on supernatural history. Mikael seeks to destroy the doppelganger, so that the son born of his wife's affair over a thousand years ago cannot break his own curse and potentially find even the smallest scrap of freedom and happiness." I paused, taking another breath and letting what I'd already said sink in.

" But how does a doppelganger exist and what would they have to do with some old vampire's curse?" Abbey asked.

" The doppelganger was created as nature's way of balancing out Amara's immortality. Silas also has a doppelganger. Tatia was the doppelganger when Mikael's family was still human. It was her blood that made them immortal and her blood that sealed Niklaus's personal curse." My blood boiled at the thought, there was a special place in Arcadius's realm for people like the Mikaelson and Salvatore parents and Joshua Parker. " A horrid curse, that I'm not sure I would wish on my worst enemy, let alone place on my own child." I spat.

" What is this curse," Sheila cuts in," that would bring such heartbreak and pity to your eyes?"

" It was only after they turned that Mikael's family learned that Niklaus wasn't his son. The blood lust was an unexpected consequence of what Esther originally meant as a sort of protection spell for her children. As a vampire Niklaus made his first human kill and triggered his wolf. His true father Ansel had been a werewolf. Niklaus's curse seals away his wolf, preventing him from turning. If he were to break it, he would not only be a hybrid but also capable of making more hybrids, therefore not being half of himself or the only one of his kind."

"I see."

" Mikael's here now, but you said a group of teenagers."

" There is a way to get rid of Mikael for now, but it is dangerous." I wouldn't give her the permanent solution, just in case I was stuck here and eventually needed to buy favor from the Originals. What better way than to hand over their hunter and his stake? Besides, Nik's too paranoid to believe his father dead unless he deals the blow himself, and who would deny him that right? However, the Salvatore brothers will return in fifteen years, just in time for the comet. Damon will want to open Emily's tomb curse to free Katerina. This will only be the resurgence, there are a lot of vampires, even witches, out there that will recognize Elena as Katerina and be willing to hand her over to Klaus and his family in order to win their favor." Not that I'm much better but hey, a dead girl's gotta survive somehow, and at least I have the information to keep her alive.

" How can I get rid of Mikael?" Abbey demanded all too eagerly.

" If you use magic to still his heart, hell desiccate and you can lock him away."

" And then there's the other matter." Sheila addressed gravely.

" The other matter?"

" I've been thinking over your own predicament while we talked and given that you died to get here, I don't believe you can be sent back. Not even Expression could come up with the amount of power it would take to send someone to a truly other world and even if it could, you'd be returning dead."

" So, I'm stuck here?"

" I'm afraid so."

" Then I guess I might as well stick around to help. Not much else I can do in a world where I don't exist."

We returned to the topic of this tragic town's future and after discussing the facts, it was begrudgingly decided that the only way to prepare for the situation was for me to become an original myself.

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Oct. 10 2021 Edit: Fixed switched tenses, added a few missing lines and descriptors. Cleared up some in chapter character and continuity errors.