Out of all the family members that could have decided to take pity on me, I was stuck with the crazy aunt my mother had spent the last seventeen years ignoring letters from and moving whenever she could to try an avoid. I didn't have a choice of course, being only seventeen meant I was sent wherever the government decided was best for me, they thought being with a blood relative was best for me.
Her house looked normal, the way my mum described her I thought she maybe lived in a shack in the woods surrounded by a graveyard or something, but no. Even in the dark of the coming night time her house seemed normal, it even had a porch swing. It sat in pretty little row of other pretty houses on a pretty little street, in the pretty little town of Mystic Falls. Everything was pretty and I hated it.
The front door opened, pooling light from the house out onto the garden path, Standing in the arch of the door was a tall woman with long blonde hair and golden eyes, she looked so much like my mother I stood startled for more than a moment.
"Well it's no good standing out there." She spoke and her voice was firm yet gentle. "Come inside child, I've waited forever to meet you." The illusion that my mother was somehow alive was shattered and I made my way up the garden path and into the house.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting to see you sat in this house, Jem." My aunt said as she brought in two cups of tea and set them down on the coffee table. I sat on the edge of the sofa, my one duffle bag on the hard wood floor at my boot clad feet.
"Happy to be here," I replied not trying to hide my sarcasm in the least. My aunt was unfazed by my lack of manners, she simply sipped her tea.
"I hope you like your room," my aunt continued, "It was your mother's when she lived here."
"My mum lived here?" I asked, I never knew my mum had ever been near Mystic Falls, let alone lived here.
"Oh yeah, she grew up here." My aunt replied, "This was your grandparent's house before it was mine. It was supposed to be yours too, before your mother ran away."
"Why did she run away?" I asked, I'd asked my mum the same question plenty of times but she never gave me a real answer, it was always some half truth about needing to get away from it all, she never explained what 'it all' was.
"That's a story for another time, I think." She said, to my disappointment. "Now, it's getting late and you must be tired." The woman stood up slowly, with an elegance my mother had always lacked. "Let me show you upstairs."
I picked up my bag and followed her, even if I didn't plan on being here long enough to need a tour of the house, I was tired and the thought of a comfy bed was quite enticing.
"Well, this is it." My aunt said pushing open a white wood door and flicking on the light switch to illuminate a bedroom that looked nothing like how would have pictured my mother's teenage bedroom. My mother was a frantic woman, borderline paranoid and this room looked so, normal. I wandered in, dropping my bag on the floor by the end of the bed as I looked around, taking in the thought that perhaps I didn't know my mother at all.
"I left it how it was," My aunt said leaning in the door frame, "I guess some part of me always thought she might come back." She laughed to herself a little, "Well get some rest, we've got a lot to do tomorrow." She closed the door behind her as she left, leaving me alone in a room that felt more foreign to me than some of the actual foreign countries my mother had taken me too.
I didn't remember falling asleep, the last thing I could remember was sitting down on my mum's old bed and trying to plan what my next move was. I must have been tire though, I didn't even change out of my clothes.
A knock on the door startled me into action and I grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on and stood ready to attack. I calmed down instantly and sighed to myself when my Aunt's voice came from the other side of the wood, "Jem are you up?" She asked. I lowered the silver picture frame I'd grabbed from the nightstand to my side.
"Uh, yeah, Aunt Viviane." I called back to her, "I'll be down in a minute." I took a few deep breaths, I was getting as paranoid as my mother. I replaced the picture frame back to where it belonged and the photo it held caught my eye. My mum looked so young, probably the same age as me, in the photo and across from her, my aunt, they were identical. My mother had never mentioned if they were twins but I was starting to suspect they were. Between them though was a boy, handsome, with green eyes so familiar my heart fell into my stomach.
I quickly changed into fresh clothes, an oversized, dark green sweater and some dark jeans. Then I picked up the framed again and carried it down the stairs to my aunt in the kitchen. She was cooking and whatever it was smelled amazing.
"You can just call me Viv you know," aunt Vivian said, without turning away from the oven to face me. "Everyone does," Then she turned round and her eyes went immediately to the frame in my hand. "Oh, I forgot that was in there." She said and wiped her hands on her pretty little apron.
"Is this my dad?" I asked and my aunt looked completely unprepared for this question, though she must have been expecting it.
"Jem, why don't you sit down?" She asked pulling out two of the stools of the breakfast counter.
"I don't want to sit down, I want some answers and then I want to get out of this awful pretty little town." I stressed to her as simply as I could.
"You can't leave, Jem." My aunt replied and I raised my eyebrows at her.
"Can't I?" I replied, "Just watch me." And I turned on my heel and headed straight for the front door, I'd only managed to open it a little when suddenly I froze, not by choice but by some power I couldn't seem to force any part of me to move except my eyes.
"No, Jem." My aunt said, coming up behind me and closing the door I had managed to open a little. "You really can't."
That's how I found out my Aunt Viviane was not crazy, but she was a witch.
A/N: Well there you go, first chapter. Hope it wasn't too awful ~RainbowVeins