Please give this story a chance! I do not own The Vampire Diaries and the characters therein except for the original characters. Enjoy!

Into the Beast Cage
Chapter 1: Welcome Back

Mystic Falls. Renata smiled when she realized she was now back in her hometown where she could finally see her mother and sister again. It has been a while, perhaps it was already a few years, since she saw them. She recalled back to the day when she left the town—where her sister said that she should come back asap—she smiled bitterly at the memory.

I'm here now, Care. Wait until you see me!

Dragging her suitcase, she looked around the area and tried to recall the last memories she had of the place. Again she had a bitter smile plastered her face when the memories went inside her head. Caroline has been a good sister for her, and leaving her for years made her heart empty, she missed her like crazy. She missed doing things together with her. After so much thought, she finally decided to stop by Mystic Grill and relax herself after a few hours trip back to the town where she was just arrived this early morning.

While entering the place, she was accidentally bumped into someone with a tall and good-shaped body figure. "Ty?" She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes when another guy came from behind him. He looked a little bit older than the other one, but she thought she knew him.

"Wait, who..." Tyler paused to scan her from head to toe only to recall the memories of someone that he used to be close with a few years ago. He was smiling, "Don't tell me that you're..." Renata smiled widely and nodded.

Yes, it is me, you silly.

"Renata," he hugged her tightly as a warm welcome before he introduced her to his uncle behind him. "Hey, this is my old friend. Renata. And Renata, this is my uncle... Uh, Mason."

"It's nice to meet you. Tyler mentioned about you," Renata reached out her hand and smiled at the older guy as he shook hands with her. "My name is Renata Forbes."

"Mason," he mirrored her smile. "What did he told you? Is it good or bad? You're Sheriff Forbes' daughter. I heard you live far away from here and I assume you're going to stay, so then welcome back to Mystic Falls."

"I could say both, but mostly the good ones. Well, Tyler is a good guy, last time I checked. That's what I know." Renata said tersely followed with a chuckle. She was very happy that in her first day, she had finally found her old friend again. She couldn't tell how much she missed him. "And yeah, thanks for the welcome. Are you leaving? I'm taking a seat. Would you like to have some chat?" Tyler looked at her awkwardly, waiting for his uncle to finally respond at the offer, because he didn't actually want to reject the offer. His head slightly turned to his uncle, hoping that he thought the same of accepting the offer she gave.

"Well, we don't wanna miss having chats with you. Besides you just came here. So, yeah, sure. We have a lot of free times today anyway. And Tyler seems interested talking with you."

"Great." Renata practically smiled as she quickly searched for the good seats for them while the two men only followed her behind. Matt noticed her and those two who previously decided to go home just a while ago—he never expected that the blonde hair she has reminded him of his girlfriend—yet he was curious of who she was. That was when he decided to approach them. "Is this seat good to you two?" Tyler and Mason both nodded with a small smile appeared on their lips. Before she could talk, Matt were already there near the table only to recognize the girl as someone he knew back to the past. "Woah... Renata, you've grown up," Matt said, he was amused. "You finally decided to come back home, huh?"

"Hey, Matt! Yup. I'm here!" Renata couldn't even smile even wider, she gave her widest smile to everyone today due to being quite happy of seeing her friends again. She saw happiness in his eyes too. "You've grown up too. I can't believe this is really you," she said playfully while patting his arm.

"What's up? Want to order something?" He responded with a small smile before turning to his friend and the uncle for a flash moment. Only Mason smiled back to him, Tyler was busy waiting for Renata to talk. "I'm doing great so far, I hope you too." She chuckled again and without thinking a lot about what to order, she simply ordered her favorite food since young. Hers and her sister's actually. "Can I order salad? I miss Mystic Grill's salad."

"Sure, I'll be right back." As soon as Matt left, her gaze turned back to her childhood friend who was impatiently waiting for her to talk. He finally became the one to start a conversation. "So, how's your father?"

"He's doing good. Just.. You know."

Tyler knew what she was talking about, but he didn't expect a misunderstanding. So he thought it was better not to extend problems like he usually did. "You'll be okay?" He made sure.

"I'll be," she nodded. "I mean, it's not that I'm disappointed with his decision. But I'm just worried about something. My family. And I want to live as normal as I can."

"I don't know if I have rights to involve myself in this, but I'm hoping the best for you. You can always come to us and talk because we want the same thing. Living a normal life. Am I right?" Mason spoke with a confident smile. He didn't really know if he had to be involved. But as long as his nephew was involved, he'd be as well. Not long after that, they noticed Matt walked with a tray of the orders he took from the customers including Renata, he just didn't come up to her table yet that moment. But then Mason's attention was turned to someone else who sat right across their seats and he was scanning them. He could smell the scent of a vampire. "Mason!" He was distracted when his nephew shook his shoulder.

"Uh, what?"

"Why are you looking at him?"

"Who?" Mason titled his head as if he didn't know anything.

"Him─" Tyler turned his head to where the guy was, but he stopped right when he saw no one was there. He wondered where did that guy went. He was pretty sure that the guy was there just a while ago when his uncle was looking straight that direction.

"Who?" Renata stood up a little bit and saw no one.

"I saw the guy I usually see hanging out with Elena's newest boyfriend. He was there, I'm sure." Tyler insisted that he was right about what he saw earlier. His eyes wandered around in case the guy was still there, so he could point out. Too bad he was really, really gone. "Wait, so Elena isn't dating Matt any longer?" Renata almost choked as if she can't believe her ears.

"Yeah. He is dating your sister now." Tyler said shrugging his shoulders and looked into the pair of her eyes, which were all opened as soon as he said so. Did I say something bad?

"Here goes your salad," Matt came bringing the plate of salad with a big smile as he quickly put it down on her table, as if he was in rush. Renata clapped her hands once but was still shocked that he was now her brother-in-law. "Thanks, Matt."

Knowing that he was in rush because of something, she didn't bother question about her sister just yet. She didn't want him to delay all his works. With that, she only sighed, and back to talk with her chatting buds right in front of her. "Anyway, are you two okay if I leave? I have some business to do." Mason said.

"Oh, yeah, okay," Renata smiled forcefully because she was kinda feeling guilty that she involved Mason into the boring chitchat that she and Tyler usually had. "Take care, Mason, I will see you later."

Tyler shrugged; laughing softly watching his uncle exit the Mystic Grill. "Sorry, my uncle is a really busy person although he isn't one of the important people like my father or mother. Haha, but he is really cool, trust me."

"And why are you telling me he's cool? So I'm supposed to like him or something?"

"Nope. Just saying, you know. He's not a pedo. So you're not supposed to like him either."

Both friends laughed together as they put in some lame jokes they used to have a few years ago. Tyler even smiled a lot at her. They were glad to spend times together in the morning as there was no school today. After accompanying her having breakfast, he eventually walked her home.

Back in Forbes residence, she waved at her childhood friend when he started to left after walking her home. It was good for her to have him in company. Especially when he understood her more than she thought he would. Tyler was a good guy. It was confusing how their friends called him a dick since a few years ago. Only Renata understood why he was acting a little bit too over-the-line. Yes, he did have a reason behind it all.

Turning around facing her house's door, she eventually took a deep breathe before taking a step closer and knocked on the door. She closed her eyes as she waited for a response from anybody at home, more preferably both her mother and sister to give her a warm welcome. As soon as she heard the locks of the door, she prepared herself with a big smile she always wore whenever she was around her family. Within a few seconds, she saw her mother showing as she opened the door. "Renata?" Her mother was surprised and instantly hugged her before she could respond. "You're here."

"Mom," she smiled while hugging her back before she pulled away and went inside. "Yeah I'm here now, mom."

"Why don't you give me a call so I can pick you up?" She was worried but still happy to see Renata finally returned home after being gone for years.

"I wanna give you and Caroline a surprise!" Renata said with her confident and bubbly attitude, "Speaking of Caroline, do you know where is she?"

Her mother was suddenly quiet, she seemed to be worried of something as soon as she mentioned the name of her sister and she wondered why. Is she sick? Is she somewhat in danger? She scanned her mother in a studious concern look while still waiting for a reply about her sister right now. "Why, mom, did something happen to her?" She was now the panic one.

"S-she is in the hospital right now."

In Mystic Falls Hospital, Renata rushed to the room where her sister was. She had a little panic attack when she heard about her sister was hospitalyzed, luckily she could calm herself down faster than she thought she would. Now she was still looking for the exact room her mother told her, it seemed so far that she didn't reach it yet, but when she was finally arrived, she saw Matt was there visiting her sister. "Renata?"

She was still standing near the opened door when Caroline noticed her presence, it was because she couldn't say a word to see her sister was even more beautiful than a few years ago. Her blonde hair has grew longer, it was pretty. But back to her intention, she begun to nag at her like she used to do. "Caroline, what the hell happened to you?! Don't tell me you're becoming one of the rebellious gang in Mystic Falls! I'm so worried. You know I just came here with my suitcases only to hear the news that you are hospitalyzed. You're kidding right?"

Caroline chuckled at how her sister nag at her like the old times, she missed it so much that she even dreamt being nagged a couple of times like this. She almost cried in happy tears as she opened her arms when she saw Renata came closer to hug her in her arms.

"I miss your nags, silly." She said before she started to feel something inside of her when hugging her—an urge of something—she couldn't tell but she really wanted it. Renata was suddenly pushed away by her sister.

"Ow! Seriously, you are pushing me away? Thank you for your very, very warm welcome." Renata rolled her eyes sarcastically and sat on the chair next to her sister bed, beside her there was Matt who was smiling at the sisters' cuteness.

"I'm aware you were in rush earlier and is this the reason behind it?" Renata smirked playfully at her friend-turning-into-brother-in-law. "It's okay, Matt. I know you're dating my sister and you could have just tell me earlier because I'm almost choked when Tyler told me about you two dating. I kinda worried he was lying."

"Uh, yeah," Matt scracthed his back and showed her an awkward smile. "I was about to tell you, but I think you have some people to chat with, so I skipped and back to work."

"Rena, you should stop being so talkative. You talked like you will never stop," Caroline commented.

"Like you aren't?" Her sister blinked a couple of times before she stood up and walked near the window, and opened it widely. "Why didn't you open the curtains? You wanna live in shadows, huh?"

"NO!"

Renata was shocked when her sister suddenly wasn't on the bed but laying her back on the wall near the bed, she was like being afraid of sun, she could tell. But this was like something else, she thought her sister was now different, she said some things with more emotions. "Why? Are you-"

"Just close it! Close the curtain, Rena! NOW!"

Within seconds, the curtain was already closed. Caroline was painting. Renata wondered what made her so emotional and afraid of the sun when she used to love beach parties in the summer and all that stuff.

"You've changed," she sighed. "I thought you don't really hate the sun?"

"People changed. I'm pretty sure you too." Caroline rolled her eyes while slowly walking back onto the bed to lay down for rest. "Go home and take a rest. I'll be fine here. I'll go home asap and you don't need to worry because I feel better."

"Did you just 'hush' me, Care?" Renata quoted the word with her fingers as she spoke carefully, waiting for a response.

"You're welcome. Now go home." Caroline pulled her for a few seconds to give her a hug despite the urge came back to her that moment. She faked a smile though she really wanted to give her sister the best smile she could give. "I love you."

"Fine. Matt, take care of the barbie. I'm going home. Don't forget about your promise that you're going home asap, okay, Care?" Renata pointed at her as she wrapped her bag on her shoulder before leaving the room. "Love you!"

Something has changed. What's with you, Care?

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