Ella took a few moments to bask in the scenery; flowers of every color bloomed in clusters all around the grass where she sat. The sky was a perfect clear blue, with not a single cloud in sight. This beautiful and secluded field was Ella's most favorite and treasured spot; she couldn't imagine a more perfect and peaceful place. As an empath who could feel and interpret the emotions of others, expelling all the emotions she retained was near impossible. Unless of course she spent time in nature; the build-up of emotions people unconsciously sent her would always fade away once her fingertips touched earth's natural ground. She assumed it had something to do with expelling all of the energies from the emotions back into mother-nature. But that was just a logical guess, she really had no clue why it helped her. Ella often wished she had an on and off switch for her supernatural abilities, the desire to feel normal was something she had always struggled with. She envied people who just lived their life naive as to what others felt around them: anger, sadness, lust, deceitfulness, etc. Being an empath was more often than not just plain exhausting.

Very slowly Ella closed her eyelids and turned her head up to the sun, its warmth comforted her face. Slightly resigned, Ella quietly talked out loud to herself. "I suppose you can't change who you innately are, no matter how much you want to."

"Well love, I wouldn't be so sure. You seem to be underestimating the power of control." The voice popped up from seemingly nowhere, completely frightening Ella. "My philosophy has always been that you alone are in control of your destiny, you just have to go out and seize it."

Startled, Ella gasped and turned around with her eyes wide open; the most gorgeous man she had ever seen was staring curiously back at her. He had curly blondish hair and deep blue eyes that seemed to reach into her very soul, but surprisingly she could not read any emotion off of him. How is this possible? No one has ever been a blank slate to me before. She thought it peculiar that a man she had never met before was dishing out life advice. She didn't even hear the rustling of the grass when he came up next to her.

"I'm sorry my dear; I did not mean to disturb you, you seemed quite content." The strange man had a British accent and his head was tilted slightly to the side. He was still staring at her; he seemed fascinated as though she was this intriguing puzzle—an enigma.

Still slightly startled Ella asked, "Where…where did you come from? You just suddenly appeared; I'm positive I didn't have my eyes closed for too long and it is so secluded up here."

He just continued staring at her, still not looking at anything else. His smile reached far into his face, but even with his dimples something still looked off, perhaps even scary.

Ella wished she could read his emotions, or at least his intentions. "Are you lost? There isn't really anything around here for miles." Ella said in an attempt to coax something out of him.

The strange man gave a small chuckle, "Yes, it is quite remote—you actually surprised me too. Again, I'm so sorry if I startled you, that wasn't my intention."

In watching his charismatic face light up, Ella calmed a little and felt a bit more comfortable, "It's no problem; I guess I'm just used to only the flowers for company up here."

He smirked as though he found that amusing, "You come here often then?"

"Yeah, it helps clear my mind—I tend, um..well, I tend to get stressed quite a bit. This place has always relaxed me." Ella replied cautiously as her mind still reeled with possibilities. She had never encountered anyone up here before; it was always completely remote, not a living soul. But why is he all the way out here? Maybe he's a hunter?...

"Do you hunt?" Ella asked, forming her thoughts into words.

At Ella's inquiry the strange man gave her a half-smile, "Oh yes, I do enjoy a good hunt."

Something within Ella tensed at those words and she took a small step back, but a rock caught on her heel making her trip and fall backwards. The strange man quickly stepped forward to her rescue, perhaps a little too fast, and grabbed her arm to steady her. But as soon as he touched Ella his entire body shook with spasms and his knees gave way to the ground. Once he was on the ground his body still gave way to slight shakes.

Ella managed to stay steady and reached down, touching him slightly on his still shaking shoulder, "Oh my god, are you okay?" Ella had no idea what to do or what had caused this; she had no idea how she was going to get medical attention—her cell phone didn't have service in this area. "I mean, obviously you're not okay, but I...I don't know how to help you." She panicked, trying to remember what her first aid classes taught to do.

The strange man jerked out of her touch and gulped in huge breaths of air, trying to regulate his breathing and calm his body. He hated seeming weak and he had no idea what was happening to him. Obviously it had something to do with this despicable creature touching him. "Don't you dare touch me!" Snarling he scrambled back onto his feet and looked at Ella as though she was poison in the flesh.

Ella was entirely confused by this exchange, "Do you suffer from regular seizures? I have a car not too far from here—I think there might be a small clinic down a ways that we can go to. I also have water, do you need…"

The strange man harshly cut her off, "What is your name?"

"Ella. My name is Ella." She stated still slightly scared that he would start having spasms again, or worse, attack her based on how he was looking at her now.

The strange man stared off into the distance as though he was reminiscing about something in the past; he kept saying Ella's name under his breath. Suddenly he stopped and looked pointedly at Ella, "Were you born in the winter months, abandoned by your parents and left out in the snow to die?"

Ella tensed in fear. How could he possibly know that? Who is this man?

"Answer me!" the strange man screamed at her, seeming to get more and more unstable as the seconds passed by. He cut off the space between them and took her hand into his. This time, her touch had no negative effect on him. He made sure to make eye contact with Ella's eyes and enunciated in a very demanding tone, "Tell me the truth."

Ella could have sworn she saw his eyes expand a little. Maybe he's on drugs? She struggled, trying to get him to release her hand, "Let me go!" Ella screamed, now completely scared of this man.

The strange man's face suddenly looked like he was in pain and he quickly released her hand muttering under his breath what appeared to sound like, "Of course it doesn't work on her."

"I don't…I don't understand." Ella breathily asked, scared of what this strange man wanted from her. She wished more than anything that she could feel his intentions and what it was he wanted. She racked her mind for anything she had learned over the years for the best ways to converse with someone who was possibly mentally ill. But, but...how did he know that information about me? Instead of trying to converse with him, the smarter choice was to probably get the hell out. Her eyes shifted back to the path to her car, trying to decide when would be the best time to make a run for it.

But the man surprised her, suddenly rearranging his facial expressions into compassion and concern. "Ella, I'm…I'm so, so sorry. You look so frightened. Look, you were right before…I do have seizures and they cause me to behave irrationally. I apologize that you were here to witness it." His eyes took on an intensity as he took a step in her direction, "Please, it is not my intention to frighten you my carissimi. I would never, ever intentionally hurt you. I really am at a loss as to what came over me."

Ella looked up at his concerned face; she had always been able to tell what people truly felt—until now. It scared her not being able to tell if he was lying. Her gut told her that a lot of what he just said was designed to placate her, she felt like he was naturally a very manipulative person.

"Look, can we just start again? My name is Niklaus Mikaelson, but I prefer Klaus." He said in a calm and charming tone. He reached up to Ella's face and brushed away a tear that she didn't even know was there. "There we go, all better."

Ella looked into his eyes and still felt unnerved, but she was curious about something strange he said earlier, "What does carissimi mean?"

Klaus looked startled for a second but quickly composed himself, "What?"

Ella narrowed her eyes, he definitely knew what she was talking about; she didn't know why he was pretending,"Before, you called me carissimi—that's a different language, right?"

Klaus didn't answer her question, giving Ella a small half smile instead, "I should probably go; I have important business to attend to. This is a really beautiful field though, I don't blame you for coming up to enjoy its beauty."

Ella wasn't sure if his business excuse was plausible, he just seemed to want to avoid her question, "Oh, your business must be in Mystic Falls—that's the only place close around here that has actual city life. Are you looking for somewhere in particular? I know that place like the back of my hand."

Klaus' half smile slowly dropped, "You live in Mystic Falls?" he asked in a barely there panicked voice. But Ella had more experience than most in hearing the emotions of people's voices so she detected it.

"Yep, all my life—my adopted family raised me there."

Klaus took a deep breath and pulled what appeared to be a very old photo from his pocket and showed it to her, "Do you know this woman?"

Ella's eyes widened a bit. That's Elena Gilbert. What does this man want with Elena? Ella knew this girl had recently suffered the loss of her parents, so she decided to trust her instinct and lie. "No, I'm sorry Klaus I don't know her. What business do you have with her? She looks pretty young."

Klaus narrowed his eyes and mocked her. "I thought you knew Mystic Falls like the back of your hand?"

Ella scoffed at his manipulation tactic,"Places, not people." Ella calmly retorted. "How do you know this girl is even in Mystic Falls?"

"My many sources." Klaus replied still eyeing her suspiciously, Ella was certain he knew she was lying.

Ella rolled her eyes; this man, Klaus, was a very strange person. But nothing was stranger to Ella than experiencing his emotions like a normal person rather than just feeling it through her body. But while that was frightening, in some ways she felt it was quite freeing. Ella realized that even though he seemed dark and manipulative (he was certainly hiding something that went a lot deeper than just searching for Elena Gilbert), a very small part of her wished for more conversations with him. Even though it was scary, being seemingly normal felt good. All her life she had been searching for moments to feel normal.

Ella gestured over to where her car was parked; she decided to leave before she got even more entangled in this man's strangeness,"Perhaps I'll see you around Mystic Falls, I hope your business goes well."

Klaus gave Ella a smile for that comment, "Oh yes, I'm predicting it will go very well indeed."

Ella started to turn around to head out when Klaus called out her name, "Ella, hold on one second."

Ella stopped and watched Klaus walk over to a blue flower and delicately pick it from the base. He twirled it around in his hands and then walked over to her and placed it behind a strand of her blonde hair, "It matches your eyes."

Ella's breathing suddenly became uneven and she could literally feel her heart pumping blood faster through her body. How is it possible for someone this beautiful and charismatic to even exist? Sure, he's a bit strange...but isn't everyone sometimes?

Ella gave him a small thank you and then turned around and started skipping back in the general direction of her car, completely unaware that as he watched her skip off he answered one of her earlier questions, "Carissimi is Latin for 'dearly beloved'."

AN: I adore reviews, please leave me one. Also, if you are coming back to this story, I completely gutted the first chapter and changed my writing style so sorry if things look a little different than they did before. Oh, and what authors always say about leaving reviews is true, it totally helps the creative process along and gives me more incentives to update. So if you can, please review. :)

Edited the chapter on 2/9/14