Prologue
What had she been thinking? Was she crazy for coming back here?
It had been years since she'd come back. Years since her last summer visit to her grandparent's house. It had been years since Summer Hathaway had last seen the town of Mystic Falls. Now she was back. Her parents had never been around, neither one was really the parent type. Most of the time they were traveling on business but she'd gotten used to it and didn't hold it against them. If anything it made her independent. Now Summer found herself back in the one place she'd felt that she was with people that loved her, that understood her.
Ever since she was young, Summer had been close with her grandmother. As a child she'd looked forward to her summer visits so that her grandmother could teach her all she knew about being a witch, a little trait that her grandmother's had passed on to her. When she'd first began to develop her powers it had been her grandmother who showed her how to control them. It had been her grandmother who taught her of their ancestors living peacefully in Mystic Falls. Her bloodline had been around since the founding of Mystic Falls. It was one of the reasons Summer was well versed in the history of Mystic Falls, even its darker less attractive history.
To any person passing through Mystic Falls seems like the everyday town. It was the sort of town where everyone knew each other. Mystic Falls was quiet, for the most part- on occasion. Mystic Falls was a town surrounded in mystery and danger. Very few know of the truth concerning the truth of its dark past. It is a knowledge that is passed down through the generation a secret that the people involved preferred to keep a secret.
Summer knew everything of the town's dark past. Even now she was certain that some of those dark secrets had yet to die out among the town. The knowledge was still retained in some of the older bloodlines from the town's founders; the knowledge that vampires were indeed real. For years the town had been surrounded by mysterious deaths which were covered up as animal attacks. Yet, those whose lineage goes back to the founders of Mystic Falls know the truth. They know that vampires lurk in their mists. For years they have hunted them, intent on keeping their town protected from the monsters that their ancestors had fought nearly a century ago.
Most of their issues revolved around little more than fear, putting it in Summer's mind as something rather reminiscent of the Salem witch trials- a rather touchy subject for herself considering her own ancestry. Perhaps that was why she could understand the plight more than the unthinking fear filled actions that have been passed down through the generations of the founding bloodlines. Actions that resulted in so much death of both human and vampire. All those who knew the secret from the founding families have always been too intent on killing vampires rather than thinking that they may be in the wrong. In reality, vampires were a lot like humans. Yes, they could kill needlessly and drank blood but it didn't mean that all did so. Many who drank from humans didn't kill their victims while others opt for blood banks.
Like the founding families and their rather extensive knowledge on ways to kill vampires Summer was rather well versed in their history as well as vampires. It was easy for her to accept the first time her grandmother had told her- she was a witch, after you found that out you were naturally prepared for other strange things. She'd held the proper amount of fear for them but there was always aside of herself that was understanding of vampires. Summer couldn't help but to wonder what would've happened in the past if the Mystic Falls founding families had discovered her family's' secret of being witches. Would they have been hunted down just as the vampires had and burned along with them in the church?
She shook the thought away. The memory of the burning church eliciting a feeling of anger inside her. But that anger wasn't for the vampires that the town had burned inside, it was for the women that had been locked inside at the time. The same women that had ruined everything. She wouldn't have ever known of the church or the vampires locked inside- or that they were still there alive and starving of blood, locked in a tomb beneath with magic if not for him. She never would've known it if not for 'him'.
As much as she hated to admit it but most of her understanding of vampires came from 'him'. He'd told her a lot of his past in Mystic Falls as well as his family, in particular his brother. From him she'd learned that not all vampires were the same, that there were different living and feeding options. He knew more than her grandmother could ever tell her. He was the first vampire Summer had ever met, strangely it had been in the middle of the day.
Summer felt a new wave of fury unfurl within her gut at the thought of him. The bastard. He'd used her from the very beginning, trying to charm his way into getting her help. Had she been wrong to think that at moments it was real? Could you really fake something like that completely?
Shaking away the thought she turned her attention away from the unsettling topic. There was no reason to think of him anymore. He'd long since left her life. Yet- she'd repeated that fact to herself many times over the years but it never stopped her from thinking of him. The bastard. It was the only thing she could allow himself to think about him.
She'd been back in Mystic Falls for a month but most of that time had been spent in her grandparent's old house rearranging things. It was her house now, left to her by her grandparents after their death a few years back. It was hers now and she'd spent the last month making it her own. The only time she'd left the house was to go to work.
If you'd told her a year ago that she'd be back in Mystic Falls Summer would've laughed. There was too much risk coming back. Too much risk that he might return one day. But she refused to let him be the reason she didn't come back. Now she with her new home arranged and her situated she was ready to go on with her life. However, it would be so much better if she could stop thinking of him all together.
Summer Hathaway was back in Mystic Falls and she was there with plans to stay. With some luck things would stay- normal.
However, unknown to Summer she wasn't the only one who had returned to Mystic Falls.