Prologue

"Careful Amelia, the water is hot." Adrianna watched her youngest carefully as the five-year-old insisted to help make some soup.

"I know, mama," The little girl looked over with a big grin as she stirred the large pot. There was a shuffling by the front door to the little wood house they lived in. "Papas home with Kieran!" She said excitedly.

Adrianna laughed. "Let's show him how well you're helping with dinner." Adrianna had her back towards he door while she watched the girl intently, not wanting to see her get burned.

"Come on in," Her husband Hank said entering the small home with their oldest son. Somthing felt wrong and when Adrianna looked over her shoulder she saw a man she had never seen before enter behind her husband, and she knew right away what type of man he was. Vampire. She scooped up her daughter from the stool she was using and pushed her into the back room.

"Don't I show papa my soup?" Amelia questioned.

"Go out the back door baby. I love you very much." Adrianna tried not to scare her daughter.

"Mama?"

Adrianna heard a crash from the main room when she kissed the little girls head. "Go Lia, run to town. Run!" She pushed her out the back door. Amelia took a few steps outside but stopped confused. They were supposed to have dinner, not play outside. There was some yelling from inside, and another loud thud. She couldn't help herself, instead of leaving she went around the house to the front door which was still open. She was just in time to see the stranger backhand Kieran into a wall, her brother hit the ground in a slump.

Amelia froze and watched the scene in front of her. Her mother was coughing and trying to steady herself, and her father was being held fast by the strange man. The strangers gaze shifted to the open door and locked on Amelia standing just outside the entrance, she still couldn't move from the scene in front of her.

"There's the girl, we can't have her running around either, can we Adrianna?"

"No, leave her alone. They're children!" Adrianna lunged at the man only to fall back, a knife lodged in her chest.

"Now," The man turned her father around and held him by the shoulders, Hank struggled for a second reaching for his wife while she hit the ground. "Stand still." Amelia watched her fathers arm fall limp at his command. She knew what that was. Compulsion. Her mother had taught her quite a bit despite being so young. But not near enough to fight a vampire, even still she couldn't leave her family there. "You are going to do exactly as I say."

"I will do exactly as you say." Her father replied lifelessly.

The stranger smiled maliciously. "I want you to take this knife," He had walked over and pulled the knife out of her mother's still body. "And plunge it into your daughters chest."

"No!" Her father cried out, but took the offered knife none-the-less.

"I said you are going to do exactly as I say!" He shouted.

Amelia didn't stand to watch any more, finally she took her mothers order and turned and ran. She ran like her life depended on it, which she knew it did. Into the darkened woods, as fast as her little legs would take her. She didn't look back once, because she would see her father trying to kill her. She knew what compulsion meant, even at this young age.

Chapter One

Amelia woke up in a cold sweat. She had dreams about that night every year, the weekend before school began, on the date that it happened. She didn't know why, she had been too young to know dates when it happened but for some reason it was engrained in her head. The window was letting in the early morning sun, very early morning. Too early for her but she didn't exactly have a normal sleep schedule. She worked nights at the hotel in town, part time since summer began. They were hesitant in hiring her because she was only starting sophmore year this Septmeber. But finding someone reliable for nights was hard and Amelia really wanted to work. She hated sleeping, night time in particular, so why not work? A few words from Carol Lockwood, after Amelia had begged her to help, and she had got the job. Living with the mayor had a few perks.

She got ready for the day, not bothering to straighten her hair. It would be a disaster by noon with the humidity outside. It was barely nine in the morning by the time she was ready, and she knew her brother would still be asleep. She opened the door to Keirans room and pulled the curtains wide open bringing in the light. She laughed at his muffled moan from under the blankets and hopped on the bed.

"Good morning!" She said as happily as she could. It was strained but she still said it with a smile.

"Go away," He said still not looking at her.

"But you said we would go back to school shopping."

"No, I said you could go. Alone. Without me. I'm sleeping in it's my last week before school, and early morning football practice!"

Amelia didn't reply just laid silently beside him. It didn't take long, another few minutes and he rolled over and sighed. 'Why do I have to go with you?"

"Because I don't want to go alone."

"Uh, Julie, Caroline, Meghan, Elena-"

"They all aready went."

"So? That's not going to stop any of them from going again."

"You're my brother."

Keiran laughed lightly. "You can't always use that excuse on me."

"I can, actually, and I will. But because I really want to since I'll never see you once football starts, and you love me so you'll do it. Also, you have a truck and we might need the space for all the bags." Amelia winked at her older-by-fourteen-minutes brother as he groaned.

"Fine but you're paying for gas and food."

"Deal!"

It only took Kieran 10 minutes to put on some clean clothes and they were headed out, hurtling down the road at speeds only a young teenager would think was safe. There weren't many store in town so they drove to the next largest city which had a better mall, stopping for some breakfast before heading in. Amelia watched in dismay as her brother shovelled in a large amount of pancakes.

"We aren't really in a rush.." She slowly took a bit of her hashbrowns.

"These are good! We need better restuarants in town." They finished off the rest of breakfast easily, with Kieran getting a breakfast wrap to go as well.

Amelia laughed. "We can also stop and get more food you don't need to stock up."

"I'm not, Tyler and I have been running strategies all summer. I'm just hungry. Plus, you know it takes more to sustain our bodies with magic."

"It does," Amelia agreed. "But you never even use it. You could come visit Sheila with me sometime."

"Boring."

"It's literally the least boring thing. It's fascinating, interesting... magical."

"Your puns are terrible, you should stop."

"No. Let's get shoes first. We'll have to bring them back to the truck before we can get other things."

Despite his many protests Amelia found some new runners and casual shoes for her brother and 4 pairs of boots and shoes for herself. Carol had given her some money to help cover the costs she couldn't handle from her own job, and had been too busy to take them.

"Lia... you really don't need more shoes."

"I have worn threw three pairs this summer! That last pair had hot coffee spilt all over them at work!"

"If you say so." After putting the sheos in the truck they went back for clothes. I took nearly 4 hours but Amelia was satisfied with the amount of clothes chosen to get her threw the year. She was less then pleased with the amount Keiran got but figured it wouldn't be her problem anyways. After a quick lunch, at another fantasic restaurant that Keiran wanted in Mystic Falls, they headed back. It was mid afternoon by the time they reached the Lockwood residence. Keiran pulled the truck in and parked before jumping out and starting to unload their bags. Amelia took her time and let him do all the heavy lifting upstairs.

"Good day?" Carol asked from the doorway to her room.

"Yes! Look at this dress, it has pockets!"

"It's a lovely dress," Carol smiled at the girl she had convinced her husband to adopt with her. She had always wanted a daughter and when oppurtunity knocked she jumped on it. Since they couldn't have any more children her he had given in since he never wanted his son to be an only child. She was thrilled to have a girl in the house. They spent an hour going through all the new clothes before Carol checked on Keiran and finding that he hadn't even unpacked. After that Tyler came home from spending the day with Matt so she checked to make sure he had everything he needed to for school as well. Once she was sure her three children were set it was already time for dinner.

It was a normal meal, Tyler and his two parents with Amelia and Kieran just like it had been for the last eleven years. It was only a few more years until high school was over and Carol wanted to take advantage of having her kids home until then. She would be sending them off to college too soon. Enjoying these times together as a family was important to her while they could.

A/N: OK it's a start to a story that I see going long past TVD seasons. What do you think? For those of you who are rading my other story I havent given up but this is filling my brain and I can't get another word out in that one right now. I'm hoping if I lay out the foundation for this one I'll be able to finish the other, you get me? Anyways please let me know if you think this story has a future!