A/N: I had written something similar to this way back when I was just starting out on here, and I had an idea for a completely different idea for it. This is not a rewrite (for once), but a different idea.
Anyway, I don't own stuff, yada, yada. Enjoy!
Summary: A spell on haywire, Bonnie accidentally resurrects a long since dead woman, who has no idea who she is other than she woke up in a grave and Caroline has her necklace. But, as it turns out, she has a connection with Damon and Stefan.
Not The Person You Used To Be.
Chapter I
There was something completely wrong about the situation. She hadn't even opened her eyes yet, but she could smell dirt. Earth. And something...rotting. A building pressure in her chest made her inhale a breath of air and cough. They were gut wrenching, as if her body was trying to expel something from her lungs.
Speaking of, her lungs were on fire. Burning, begging for air. She kept trying to inhale, and it was becoming hard to do so. She tried to pull her arms up to grab at her throat, but they hit something solid. She finally cracked open her eyes, pitch blackness meeting her gaze.
Where was she? She tried to think back to figure out where she was and how she got there. But, it was like trying to grab something in a thick mass of fog. She kept getting nothing, and all she could focus on was that her lungs were burning and she needed to breathe.
She lifted her hand up and pressed it against the solid object there. Her fist pounded against the surface there, her knuckles brushing against the rough wood there. She started to panic when she realized that she was in a box, trapped somewhere.
She opened her mouth to try and scream, call for help, but it just sounded like a hiss of air coming out of her mouth, her throat burning. She coughed harshly again, tears collecting in her eyes. She pounded her fists against the wood, a few snaps filling the silence of the inside. It must not have been old to break so easily.
Placing her hands flat against the box, she arched her back up and pushed as hard as she could. The wood let out a snap, her arms straining to break free. When she fell back down onto the bottom of the shallow box, the wood she had previously been pushing broke and dirt started to fall down into the box.
Working quickly, she tried to rip off the remaining wood, dirt falling on her face and in her eyes. She coughed again and attempted to suck air into her lungs, but it felt like she was breathing through a straw. Her chest tight and lungs burning.
Sticking her hands up through the hole she had made, she grabbed and the dirt and attempted to push it down below herself and into the box. After a few seconds of struggling, she managed to pull herself up into a sitting position and clawed away at the dirt.
She had no idea what she was doing in a box under a mound of dirt, or how long she had been down there for, but she knew that she needed to get out before she started to suffocate.
She managed to pull herself into a standing position, grabbing handfuls of dirt and scooped them around her, trying to clear a way out. As her arms were starting to burn and sleepiness was taking hold, she pushed her hand up through the dirt and shoved it through the surface.
The air was cool, refreshing on her skin. She quickly pulled her hand back down, dirt filling the spot again. She dug and pulled more dirt around herself, a hole appearing on the surface. Fresh air filtered in and she inhaled deeply, gasping and coughing.
She didn't move, her head resting against the side of the hole. She wanted to close her eyes, to sleep, but she needed to get out. She stuck her hands up through the hole and pushed with her legs, hooking her arm against the ground above the hole and pulled the upper half of herself out into the air above the hole.
She groaned in pain, her muscles burning and her heart beating harshly against her rib cage. She pulled her legs out of the hole finally, collapsing on the ground and curled onto her side in the grass, coughing and gasping as her lungs took in the air.
She closed her eyes, not sure how much time passed. Her body felt light, numb. But, there was something pulling her, tugging gently at her subconscious. Telling her that she needed to get up and go somewhere.
Her green eyes opened again, her dirt coated brown hair a mess atop her head. She pushed herself up onto her feet again, her legs shaking as she felt that tug again. Something was pulling her towards them, and she needed to figure out why.
She started to walk, stumbling as her legs were starting to become used to having blood flow to them again. Her limbs felt heavy and stiff, like she hadn't moved in a long time. She probably hadn't.
She started to pick up her pace as she walked towards the more recent part of the grave yard.
On the other side of town, Elena Gilbert was shaking her friend, Bonnie. She was practising a spell on a necklace that Caroline had brought over, to see if they could find out who it belonged to. Bonnie wanted to hone in on her skills so she could be stronger, but when things seemed to be going okay, Bonnie started to feel odd. Then pain started to make her cry out, blood gushing from her nose and onto her teeth.
Now, she was unresponsive to Elena's and Caroline's cries.
"What's going on?" Caroline asked, laying Bonnie on her side. Elena just shook her head, looking concerned.
"I don't know, I tried to get her to pull herself out of the spell, but she passed out." she explained, shaking her friend again as she called her name.
"Please don't tell me that spell killed her, that it backfired." Caroline said, pressing her hand against her mouth. She could smell Bonnie's blood, and could hear Elena's frantic heart beat.
"Give her some time to recover," Elena said, "she's still breathing."
Caroline nodded, the two girls trying to get Bonnie to wake up for a full five minutes before they got a response. Bonnie coughed, grabbing at her chest as Elena sat her up. She ran a hand across her nose, looking down at the blood.
"The spell didn't work." she stated, picking up the rusted necklace from in the centre of the candles, handing it back to Caroline.
"You're okay?" Elena asked, Bonnie nodded her head.
"There's something off, though," she stated, pulling her spell book towards her, "I think I did something."
Elena shared a look with Caroline, "like what?" she asked, turning her head back towards Bonnie.
"I'm not sure," Bonnie said, still reading through the spell. "It doesn't say anything about when it backfires."
"I'm sure nothing too bad happened," Caroline said, looking down at the necklace. "I mean, you didn't start the apocalypse or something."
Elena shook her head, taking a glance at the necklace in Caroline's hand. "Where did you get that, anyway?" she asked.
Caroline shrugged, "I got dragged into helping Damon look through some of Stefan's book shelves. I found this necklace sticking out of one of the books. Damon said that I could keep it, he sounded a little bitter about it, too."
Elena nodded her head, turning back to Bonnie. She was going to say something, but there was a thump outside Bonnie's front door. Bonnie stood quickly, Caroline following. The two of them approached the door as someone knocked.
Bonnie was expecting Damon or someone, but she didn't expect a girl to be standing there. She was covered in dirt, a ratty looking dress hanging off her body. Elena pushed up beside Bonnie, the girl's eyes moving towards her. Her breathing was laboured, her green eyes clouded.
"Can we help you?" she asked, staring into the girl's green eyes that looked so familiar. The girl looked to be no older than Elena or Stefan, but there was something off about her.
She pointed a shaking finger towards Caroline, her voice rough and low.
"My necklace..." she breathed, before falling forward and passed out on the front porch.