[KATERINA]

believe you can and you're halfway there.

WHEN JULIETTE FELL ASLEEP THAT NIGHT, she didn't wake up in the usual field she always does. Instead, she found herself in a bustling club filled with the lively sound of jazz music. Her eyes scanned the room, noticing people dressed in flapper dresses and suits, dancing and socialising.

Looking down, Juliette realised that she was wearing a purple sequin flapper dress too, her hair styled in a bob with a headpiece adorning it. Confusion washed over her.

"The twenties were always my favourite." A familiar voice broke through her thoughts. She realised that she was in her dream, but somehow they had changed eras. Juliette sighed and turned around, making eye contact with Elijah, now dressed in a suit.

"You look magnificent, my love," Elijah announced, extending his hand towards her. Juliette scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to take his hand. Elijah raised a brow and took a step closer to her.

"Has something upset you?"

Juliette took a minute to calm herself down, realising that this Elijah might not even be the same as the one they killed last night. However, she thought it was weird to be dreaming of the man who tried to kidnap her and her sister.

It didn't matter that she had dreamt of him before; now that she had met a guy who looked exactly like the one in her dream, she knew something was wrong; this shouldn't be happening to someone.

"You don't remember anything that happened earlier?" Juliette asked, needing to be sure. Sure, she was just being messed with, and somehow, this guy isn't the same man they killed.

Elijah furrowed his brows as he gently grabbed Juliette's arms, running his thumb over her soft skin. "Did you get knocked out again?" He joked, causing Juliette to calm down a tiny bit.

"I have no clue what you are talking about, darling."

Relief filled the blonde, but she didn't know why. She needed to figure out why she was having these dreams well before she even met Elijah in real life and why they looked the same.

"You won't believe the day I've had. I'm just a bit confused and freaked out," Juliette mumbled, glancing over to the bar. She grabbed Elijah's hand and led him over, then sneaked a bottle from the bottle and immediately took a swig from it.

Elijah raised his brows at the blonde, chuckling slightly as she took another drink from the bottle. "That bad, huh?" He said, grabbing the bottle from her and pouring the alcoholic liquid into two glasses before handing it to her.

"Thanks," she mumbled as she looked around the club, a million and one questions running wild in her brain. She needed to ask as many questions as she could before she woke up; this might be her only chance before another hectic day. "Why have the dreams changed? Why are we in the twenties?"

Elijah grinned as he began to explain, "I don't know; I'm just as confused as you are. It's much better than that field, don't you think?" he said, reaching out to brush a curl behind her ear.

"Much better." Juliette giggled, quickly looking away to hide the blush invading her cheeks. She couldn't understand why someone from her dream could make her feel like this—like she felt so loved and cared for. She really was going crazy.

"Okay, so you know how I'm a real person and I can wake up and live my life, is that just me or does it apply to you too?"

She needed to know. Or else she might have to check herself into a psych ward.

"I thought I'd already told you this before, and you also love to remind me, I'm just a figment of your imagination. I'm not real, love." Elijah replied.

No, you have to be real.

I refuse to believe I'm going crazy.

Anger filled her, and she didn't know why. She didn't understand anything that was happening in her own mind, how could she dream of a man and then meet someone who looked exactly like him in real life?

How can he not be a real person?

"Are you sure you're not lying to me? Because today a murderous psycho, who is also an original vampire—which means he's the first of the kind—tried to kidnap me and my sister! And guess what? You looked exactly like him!"

Elijah looked shocked at Juliette's rant, her anger getting the better of her, but she couldn't help it; she was so confused and didn't understand anything that was going on.

If only she knew.

Juliette waited for him to answer, but he never did. Instead, he looked over to the people who were dancing to the music before looking back at Juliette.

"Let's dance, my love; maybe that might calm you down."

✧✧✧✧

    THE BLONDE WOKE UP even more confused than she did when she fell asleep. She had desperately tried to get Elijah to answer any more questions, but he either deflected or ignored her, pretending she hadn't spoken at all.

So she wasn't in the best of moods when Elena busted into her room at 8:30 AM, telling her to get ready because they had to go to the Salvatore house. Stefan wanted to talk about something important.

"God, when will these stupid, idiotic vampires ever leave us alone?" Juliette mumbled as she walked down the stairs, nearly tripping over her own feet as she did so. Jenna was already at university, and Jeremy was at school, so it was just the Gilbert sisters.

Elena was off to school, and Juliette was going to work at the Mystic Grill. She had gotten a job as soon as she came back from her travels, and she didn't want to leave Jenna with all the money and bills.

"Come on, Stefan said it was important, let's at least hear him out." Elena reasoned, handing Juliette a cup of coffee as they walked out the door. "It better be good, or else I might have to slap him."

The sisters arrive at the Salvatore boarding house, not particularly excited to be there. Despite her issues with the Salvatore brothers, Elena could never keep her distance from them.

It irritated Juliette that she was so hung up on them; she didn't think that either of them was that special.

Elena knocked on the oak door, and after a few seconds. Damon opened it, "Hello, Elena, Juju," he said. Elena sighed, and Juliette gave him a small smile. No matter how much she pretended to hate Damon, she couldn't—unfortunately, he was her best friend.

"Is Stefan here?" She got straight to the point. "He called. He said it was important."

"Right this way," Damon said as he moved out of the way, letting the sisters through while Stefan emerged from the living room. "Hey."

"What is this about?" Elena asked, awkwardly looking anywhere but her ex-boyfriend.

"Yeah, and is it important enough for me to be here?" Juliette added, sighing as she looked at her watch, realising she only had thirty minutes before her shift started.

Elena sent her a look, causing the blonde to raise her hands innocently. Juliette rolled her eyes at her sister, she could never take a joke and always hated when the blonde was being sarcastic.

The brunette looked away from her sister as Stefan pulled her into a hug when he emerged from the living room. "What was so important?" Elena asked, impatient, as she took a step away from Stefan. Before the vampire could answer, a familiar woman came into view, putting an annoyed look on Elena's face.

"You." Elena glared at the vampire, venom dripping from her tongue.

Juliette smiled slightly at Rose, who returned it. She quite liked Rose, even though she did kidnap her and Elena, but Juliette wasn't one to hold grudges.

All four of them gathered in the living room. Elena and Juliette sat on the big couch, the former having a scowl on her as she did so, and the latter stared into space as she waited for Rose to begin talking.

"Okay, you have to understand, I only know what I've picked up over the years, and I don't know what's true and what's not true," Rose explained as she stood opposite the two girls, her hand on her hip. "That's the problem with all this vampire crap, but Klaus, I know is real."

Klaus.

Juliette's eyes widened ever so slightly as she realised something. No, God, no, I am going insane! She stared down at her arm, where the red infinity mark still resided; it hadn't bothered her since seeing Elijah with a stake in his chest.

Klaus was Elijah's brother. Well, in her dreams anyway. The man had told her everything about his family, confiding in her about their deepest secrets. However, she always believed her mind had created this very complex character with an intricate background and placed him in her dreams, just to help her get through her parent's death.

She was now even more confused.

"Who is he?" Elena asked.

"He's one of the originals, he's a legend," Damon answered.

Stefan added, "From the first generation of vampires."

"Like Elijah," Juliette spoke up, her mind reeling, but she couldn't let on to them that she knew something. Well, she thought she did anyway.

"No. Elijah was the easter bunny compared to Klaus. He's a foot soldier." Rose shook her head. "Klaus is the real deal." Her voice was firm, and Juliette could almost hear a hint of fear.

"Considering Elijah just bitchslapped your friend's head clean off, I'd say he's more than just an 'easter bunny'" Juliette mumbled, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Her eyes flicker between the three vampires standing opposite her.

Rose rolled her eyes as she ignored Juliette's statement. "Klaus is known to be the oldest," Stefan said, filling up the silence. Wrong, Finn is actually the oldest; if you want to get technical, Klaus is after Elijah.

"Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after us?"

"Yes," Rose said, looking relieved that Elena understood so quickly.

"No," Stefan said at the same time, glaring at Rose.

"What they are saying is, I mean, if what she's saying is true." Damon butted in.

"Which it is."

"And you're not saying it, so I don't kill you."

Oh, please. Rose would mop the floor with your dead body.

"Which I'm not."

"Then we're looking at a solid maybe," Damon told the sisters. What a way to sugarcoat it, Demon.

Stefan sighed and ignored the two vampires as he sat down next to Elena, grabbing her shoulder as he spoke. "Look, Elijah's dead, right? So no one even knows that you exist." He tried to comfort the brunette, but it didn't look like it worked.

"Not that you know of." Rose pointed out.

"That's not helping." Damon bickered, sending her an annoyed look.

"Look, I've never even met anyone who's laid eyes on him. I mean, we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know if he's real. For all we know, he could just be some sort of stupid bedtime story." Stefan continued to comfort his ex-girlfriend, ignoring Rose's warning.

Rose sighed, almost looking frustrated with the youngest Salvatore brother. Juliette understood her frustration, if Rose was acting like this, then clearly Klaus was real. Stefan liked to sugarcoat anything that put Elena in danger. She deserves to know the truth and learn how to protect herself.

"He's real, and he doesn't give up." Rose persisted. "If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot."

"Alright, we're shaking." You've made your point." The raven-haired vampire chided in, his voice laced with sarcasm as he turned to Rose, who just shook her head at his dismissal.

Juliette pursed her lips, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. As much as she loved Damon, he could really be a pain in the ass. Sometimes, actually all the time, he refuses to listen to anyone else because he believes that he's always right when, half the time, he's wrong.

His ego is too big for him to accept that, though.

Just as the blonde girl was about to get up, Elena had the same idea, grabbing her bag and swinging it over her shoulder. Both of them walked away from the vampires, and Juliette knew that they were both equally as annoyed as each other.

"Where are you going?"

That was targeted at Elena, none of them cared enough to want to know where Juliette was going.

"School. I'm late." The doppelgänger answered, annoyance laced in her voice as she turned around to look at Stefan. Juliette leaned up against the back of the couch, watching as Stefan grabbed his bag and pulled it over his shoulder.

"Let me grab my stuff, I'll go with you."

"It's okay, I know where it is." Elena brushed off, grabbing Juliette's arms and dragging her out of the house, leaving Stefan no chance to argue.

✧✧✧✧

   JULIETTE HATED WORKING at the grill with a deep passion. It was usually filled with teenagers trying to buy alcohol or drunk old men who hit on the young female servers. But it was what paid the bills, so Juliette couldn't complain.

The blonde thought that she was a good and hard-working server who never got distracted, but today she couldn't keep herself concentrated. Elijah filled her mind, his dead body would appear every time she closed her eyes, and she didn't know why.

Everything was going crazy at the moment.

Everything she dreamed about was coming true. Elijah, and now Klaus. And she couldn't understand what was happening to her. Was she going crazy, or was she predicting the future?

Probably the former.

She had already been screamed at by some old couple for bringing over the wrong drink, so she needed to get her act together.

She had also noticed that Stefan and Caroline had sat down at one of the tables. Caroline had that look on her face—the look where she was trying to lie about something. She was a terrible liar, and nobody ever believed her.

Growing up with her, Juliette was always closer to her than others, despite their three-year age gap. Caroline was one of her best friends, so she knew her inside and out.

And Care couldn't lie for her life.

When the blonde went on her break, she immediately made her way over to the two, sitting down with them. "What's up?" She asked, eyeing Care up, who just looked away from her beady eyes.

"Caroline told Tyler she's a vampire," Stefan explained, a frustrated look on his face as he punched the bridge of his nose.

Juliette sighed and glared at Caroline. "Well, Care was never the one to keep secrets to herself. If Damon finds out, you're dead." Juliette said, her eyes still set on Caroline as she gasped and turned to Stefan.

"But you're not going to tell him, are you?" Blondie asked, she had always been afraid of Damon, well mostly everyone was because of the raging anger issues that he has. Juliette once tried to get him to go to counselling because he was one very angry vampire.

He punched through a wall when she asked. So that was her answer: never ask again.

Stefan gave her a comforting smile, shaking his head as he said, "No, no, of course not. As Juliette said, he would kill you." settling into his seat—arms crossed, one leg over the other.

Caroline grinned excitedly, but even Juliette could see something was wrong, she was hiding something. Her left eyebrow twitched whenever she lied, something Juliette had picked up on when they were 10 and 13 years old. Caroline had taken one of her teddy bears and hid it.

"Always looking out for me." She beamed, never once meeting Juliette's beady eyes, because she knew that Juliette knew. She always knew when something was up.

"Yeah. Well, you don't exactly make it very easy on me." Stefan replied, a small smile dancing on his brooding features as she watched Juliette take a handful of his fries and stuff them into her mouth, completely ignoring her as she did that a lot.

"Then why do you do it?" Caroline asked, raising a brow, "Why are you such a good friend to me? Both of you." She finally looked at Juliette but very quickly looked away, keeping her eyes on Stefan.

"Well, you're the only one I can tolerate out of this whole Scooby gang."

Stefan sent Juliette a look, but she just shrugged. She was a very honest person and was never one to change what she had just said to make others feel better. Stefan could be an absolute idiot sometimes, and so could Damon and Elena.

It's equal.

"I don't know. I guess you... you remind me of someone. My best friend, Lexi." The vampire told her, staring at his ring as he twisted it around his finger. Juliette smiled sadly at him. She recalled Lexi and vividly remembered that she liked her, she was a nice girl.

But of course, Damon had to ruin everything.

Caroline looked quite shocked, she had never met Lexi before, "I... you have a friend?" She asked, genuinely looking interested. Yeah, she definitely was hiding something, Juliette thought. She's stalling Stefan, so it clearly has something to do with Elena.

Goddammit, why can't that child just behave for once?

"You say that with such a discouraging amount of surprise, Caroline." Stefan joked with a raised brow.

"No, I just...sorry. I just...tell me about her."

"I will, some other time. I got to go." Stefan announced as he stood up from his seat, causing Caroline to have a panicked look on her face.

"Wait! No! What do we do about Tyler?" She asked, desperately trying to get Stefan to listen, "I don't want Damon to kill him 'cause there's a full moon coming up and Tyler is totally freaking out about it."

Stefan sighed as he once again pinched the bridge of his nose, "Let me go get a drink." He mumbled as he walked off towards the bar, most likely getting a class of Bourbon.

The two girls watch as he walks away before Juliette snaps her head towards Caroline, "What is Elena up to?" She asked, lowering her voice so only the vampire could hear.

The blonde sighed and finally looked at Juliette.