Letters from the past

Elena gawked up at the enormous house in front of her. It couldn't even be called a house. It was a mansion! Her home from now on. "Elena, close your mouth. You're catching flies," her father Grayson joked at her expression.

The Gilbert family was moving here today. Grayson Gilbert managed to get a highly paid job at the Mystic Falls Hospital. And since he didn't want to commute for hours every day, he decided it would be best to move here from Atlanta. Elena missed the city already. It was too quiet here. Though she didn't see too much of this small town yet. Grayson arranged everything for the move from Atlanta. This was why she was seeing her new home for the first time now. The moving company had already arranged for their stuff to be here when they arrived, so all they really had to do now was go in en look around.

Elena trudged up the steps to the front door en peeked inside. From the inside it was just as big, as from the outside. She was greeted by a humongous hallway, with a beautiful stairs, leading up to the first floor. "Think you can get used to your new home?" her mother, Miranda, asked excitedly next to her. Elena put a fake smile on her face. She didn't like this move one bit. It meant leaving her birth city behind. Her home for the past 17 years. She had to leave her friends, her high school, her cheerleading squad.. her LIFE behind. For this town. Mystic Blah!

Warily, she walked around the manor. It really was beautiful, with very large rooms. She could tell this house was old, by the looks of the fireplace in the living room. It had carvings. Nobody did carvings these days! She wondered just how old this house was. She would have to ask her father about it.

Her brother, Jeremy, walked into the house with an indifferent look on his face. Chewing his gum, he raced up the stairs. "I'll be up in my room," he mumbled without looking back. Not even checking out the house. Elena sighed. The move was also hard on Jeremy. He had to leave Anna behind, his girlfriend of 6 months. Elena understood exactly how he felt. Tomorrow they would have to start a new school. Make new friends in a place, where she already felt out of place. She didn't belong here. "If you want, you can go check out your new room as well," her father said to her, smiling. Elena shrugged. "Fine, whatever." Her father's smile fell from his face. Elena sighed. She knew she was being a bitch. But right now she felt way too sorry for herself to care.

Upstairs, she peered inside each of the rooms. There was nothing she could say about this house, really. It was very beautiful. With warm and homey looking rooms. Her brother's door was closed, so she would have to wait until later to check that out. He had already placed his ´keep out! ´ sign on the door. Elena smiled to herself. Her brother was never going to change.

Her bedroom was right next to Jeremy's. Her father had it decorated. Elena stepped inside and was immediately overwhelmed by a strange feeling. She somehow felt as if she had been in here before. It felt.. familiar. This was absurd, of course. The room felt warm. Inviting. A four poster bed stood in the middle of this spacious room. Elena plopped down on it and looked around. The room had cream coloured wallpaper, with green accents. The furniture was made of oak. It felt just right. Her father had done well.

Sighing, Elena stood up and opened a door, which she assumed was a closet. And she was right. It wasn't very big. Just big enough for all of her clothes. Her shoes were on the floor. Everything was set for her. Elena closed the closet door and walked towards the window on the other side of the bedroom. She let out a gasp as she witnessed the view. It was breathtaking. Her bedroom overlooked the very large backyard. It had al sorts of flowers, a very big pond, trees everywhere. They even had their own little creek at the end of the yard. It was.. cute. Of course, she wasn't going to tell her parents any of this yet. She still had some sulking to do over the fact that they had uprooted her life.

She grabbed her diary out of her backpack and immediately started writing. She wanted to explain to someone how she felt about this. She wanted to express her feelings. She wanted to bitch and whine and complain, without hurting her parents.

She must have been writing for hours, because all of a sudden she could hear her mother yelling that it was time for dinner. Putting her diary away, she realised she would have to find a good hiding space for it. Well, it was an old house. It was bound to have a few nooks and crannies. She would search for something later tonight.

Walking into the dining room, again she was overwhelmed by the grandeur of this place. This entire house seemed to be coming straight out of a movie. "So, how did you find your new room?" her father asked her and Jeremy. Jeremy said nothing. He just kept on chewing on his meat, oblivious to the world. Miranda Gilbert smiled sadly at the silence that filled the room. Elena sighed and decided to speak up. "My room is lovely. Thank you, dad." Relief washed over Grayson Gilbert's face. "That's good to hear, baby." He put down his fork and cleared his throat. "Look, I know I uprooted both your lives by moving here. I know you both miss Atlanta and the lives you had back there. But try to think of this as a new beginning. The chance to start fresh. Who knows what's going to happen here in Mystic Falls."

Again, silence filled the room. Elena looked at Jeremy, and realised he was not going to say anything tonight. So she decided to be the good little daughter and humour her father. "I'll try, daddy. Well, this house is a good start. It looks beautiful and classic. How old is this house?" she asked. Her father brightened up and started talking about the history of this house and Mystic Falls.

"Mystic Falls was founded in 1860. This house was built back then, so yeah it's very old. It was called the Salvatore Manor. The Salvatore's were a part of the founding families. They were very important to this town. Giuseppe Salvatore lived here with his two sons, Damon and Stefan. Apparently the mother had passed away earlier." Elena nodded and found herself intrigued by the story. She did love history.

"So, what happened to them?" she wanted to know. Her father shrugged. "A lot of rumours are going around about the Salvatore's. From what I heard, one of the sons killed their father." A shiver went up Elena's spine. Who the hell would kill their own father? And that happened here? In this house? "Not much is known about the two boys after that. They just disappeared." Again, silence filled the room.

"You brought me to a murderer's house? Nice!" Jeremy snapped. He got up from the table and once again disappeared towards his bedroom. Miranda started laughing at Grayson's expression. "Well, it's not very smart to start telling horror stories about their new home!"

Elena excused herself and also went up to her room. The only room in this house, where she felt at peace. That was some story her father told them! It made her curious about what happened to the Salvatore boys. She wondered if this room belonged to one of them. If this had been Giuseppe's bedroom or Damon of Stefan's..

Once again she picked up her diary. She realised she still had to look for a hiding space for it. Ready for her new mission, she started looking around the room. She didn't want to hide it in her desk. When Jeremy was younger, he had found the book once. She was so embarrassed at all the stuff he had read, that she never wanted to go through that again! Her hands felt over the walls, hoping that this old house had a secret space. But came up empty. Okay, so under her bed was out of the question, since her mother vacuumed there. The nightstand was not a good idea. So what then?

Her eye fell on the closet door. Maybe she could hide it in a corner behind all of her shoes. She opened the door en got down on her knees. Pushing the shoes out of the way, she placed her diary against the corner wall. Sitting back on her heels, she looked at her newfound hiding space. It didn't sit well with her. It was still too out in the open. Leaning back into her closet, she took the diary away. Only then did she notice the shoe mould in the left corner of the closet seemed to be loose. She reached for it and started pulling on it. It gave way quite easily. Victory! There was a small hiding space behind it! She put her hand in the small space to see if it could fit a diary. It wasn't empty. Her fingers seemed to be touching something. Paper. Someone had hid something in here before. She grabbed on to the paper and started pulling it out. They were letters. An entire stack of them. And they seemed to be old, judging from the condition of them. Did they belong to one of the Salvatore's?

Excited, Elena took one letter and opened it. Okay, maybe it was private and she shouldn't be reading this. But the person who wrote this, left it behind all those years ago. If it was that important, they would have come for it by now.

Elena immediately saw it was a man's handwriting. There were short powerful strokes on the paper. Her heart started beating excitedly. This was the first time in years someone was going to read this! Her eyes flew over the words. "O!" she started blushing profusely. It was an intimate letter. From one lover to another. There were pretty graphic details in here! It was about someone's sex life! Elena got up from the floor and placed the letter on her desk. She shouldn't read that. She should put it back where she found it. She took the stack of letters and placed it back in the hiding space, along with her diary. But she couldn't seem to put that one letter away. Here eyes kept flying towards it. She had to read it! All of a sudden she couldn't take it anymore, grabbed the letter and plopped down on her bed. Getting comfortable, she started reading:

My love,

It was heaven, being inside of you last night.

The way your tight walls took me in,

the way your legs locked around my waist, as I took you.

Over and over again. The way you moaned my name in my ear,

as you climaxed.

I've never felt more at home then I did with you in those few stolen hours.

I understand why we have to be so secretive about our love.

No one is ever going to find out from me what you are.

Your secret will go to the grave with me.

With much love,

Damon.

Elena put the letter down, and felt very warm all of a sudden. So the letters were from Damon Salvatore. He had had a secret lover. And his secret lover had a secret! This was becoming very interesting, all of a sudden. Was he the one that killed his father? Did his father find out about the illicit affair and threaten to kill his secret love? O, what a romantic story! Elena couldn't wait to read the rest of the letters. She glanced at the clock and realised she would have to wait for the continuation of this story till tomorrow. She still needed to get a few things ready for school tomorrow.

Disappointed, she put the letter back with the rest of the stack, and packed her books for school. She wondered what her first day was going to be like. If people would like her. If she could find a romantic boyfriend, such as Damon. Damon..the name had a nice ring to it. It sounded.. masculine. Dangerous. Sexy. Elena smirked. Was it wrong to fall for the ghost of a man's past? Well, she could fantasize. Although she didn't even know what he looked like. She assumed he was hot. In her mind he had dark hair, a strong masculine body and the face of an angel. Too bad he wasn't real!

She seemed to be floating. Floating in a room. Her bedroom. And there were two people in her bed. A man and a woman. She couldn't really see anything else. It was all very hazy. But all of a sudden the fog cleared and she could see the man and the woman very clearly. They were lost in the throws of passion. They were having sex in her bed! She wanted to yell at them to stop, but for some reason she couldn't find her voice. "Look!" someone seemed to be whispering in her ear. But there was nobody standing next to her. She watched the couple writhing on the bed, transfixed.

The man had black hair and a really nice body. She blushed profusely as she watched his ass pump up and down. For some reason she couldn't look away, although she wanted to. She seemed to be super glued to the site. She could hear the heavy breathing. The sexy sound of flesh against flesh. Elena watched more closely. The man was absolutely breathtaking. But she couldn't see the woman's face yet, for some reason. All of a sudden the man sat back on his heels, taking the woman with him. He pulled her onto his lap. They never lost their connection and kept going. The man thrusting up inside of the woman from this position. The woman was moaning like crazy by now and yelled out: "Fuck me!" as the man sucked hard on her nipple.

Elena really didn't want to be here anymore. This was too private. She felt really uncomfortable. But still, she couldn't move. "Damon!" the woman yelled out loud as she neared her crises. Okay, so this was Damon Salvatore she was seeing now? So she was right. He was hot! And quite busy screwing his secret love. It had to be her. The secret love from the letter. Elena moved all of a sudden. Closer to the couple. She hovered above them. The woman had reached her climax and was slowly calming down. She turned her head and opened her eyes. Staring straight up at Elena. Elena's jaw dropped open and she stumbled back. No! That was impossible! It couldn't be! The woman gave her a chilling grin as Elena finally realised what she was seeing. Damon's secret love was her! She looked like her!

Elena bolted upright in bed. Her heart was pounding, sweat covered her olive skin and there was a persistent ache between her thighs. She looked around her bedroom, making sure that it had all been a dream. What the hell had THAT been all about? Having a sexy dream about a man she had never met, and then imagining she was his secret lover? It was strange. She could picture Damon so vividly in her dream. Even though she didn't even know what he looked like, she had put a face on the man. It made her all the more curious. She wanted to know if she was right. If that had been what he looked like.

And she wanted to know who had been his secret lover. Maybe she could learn more about her from the letters. She wanted to know a name. One thing was for sure. She couldn't have looked like her. That was impossible. That part of the dream couldn't be true. Maybe she could look something up on the internet tomorrow. If the Salvatore's had been this important to this town, there was bound to be a picture somewhere of the Salvatore men. With that thought in her head, she lay her head back down on the pillow and fell asleep…