Prologue
My return to Mystic Falls was inevitable. After my parents passed away, the title of oldest living Gilbert was passed to me, leaving me with it's many responsibilities, yet the terror I felt at returning was still fresh in my mind. The secrets that lurk behind closed doors and sneak around in the shadows are enough to turn you insane... or kill you.
Isabella's POV
The car journey was smooth all the way to Mystic Falls and for some people that may be the perfect journey, but I wished that traffic would hold me up, or that the car would break down. I needed time to process everything. To process my parents death. To process the fact that me, Elena and Jeremy were now orphans. To process the fact that Elena almost died too. They call it a miracle, yet they don't know the half of it. They don't understand that it was no "miracle" that saved my little sister, but a sin the world should be rid of.
I was brought up to believe in the supernatural, and as a first child in a Founding family it was my responsibility to keep the family safe, but I ran. I ran as far as I could as fast as I could as soon as I had the means to leave. When I first met her I was sixteen and she warned me about the problems that would soon enter my life. Katherine had shown me the true existance of vampires, and she had warned me to expect the return of the Salvatore brothers. She told me about her and Elena. She told me about her relationships with the brothers. She gave me all the reasons I needed to escape, but I have no choice. I am going back into the heart of the problem. Facing my fears once and for all, and I am terrified.
The car swerved the next corner as I turned onto the street where I would soon live, slowly coming to a stop at the house I would call home. And there they stood, my siblings, side by side. I opened the car door, putting one leg out before freezing back in place. They have grown so much, from the awkward children they once were into magnificent human beings. Elena slowly began to walk the path towards me, her gait speeding up with every step. I threw myself out of the car before running up the rest of the way to meet her, throwing my arms around her as she broke down into soundless sobs.
While whispering sweet nothings into her ear, three more shadows enterered the doorway. A female I recognised as Aunt Jenna stepped out first, loosely wrapping an arm around Jeremy, and two males whose faces were obscured by the shadows of the doorway. Slowly as I made my way up the path towards Jeremy, the faces gained light, revealing prominent jawlines, flawless skin and eyes that held the past. The faces of what could only be vampires. The faces of what I would soon find out to be the Salvatore brothers.