Someone, somewhere once said that home was where the heart is but for Persephone Thorne, she was certain that was the biggest crock of shit she had ever heard. Mystic Falls was the last place on this god damn planet that she had ever wanted to return to, so clearly heart didn't belong here. It had been home to Persephone once but that seemed like several life times ago, these days all Mystic Falls did was serve as a reminder of everything that she had lost.

Persephone had never planned on returning home town, this small town in Virginia only held painful memories but fate or destiny, whatever you wanted to call it had other plans. Pretty much forces beyond Persephone's control had made it damn near impossible for her not to return to Mystic Falls and now here she was. Back in the one place Persephone swore that she would never return. It wasn't fair. None of this was this fair in the slightest.

Pigs must be flying somewhere.

That was funny.

Kind of.

Persephone couldn't help but think to herself as after all that could be true. She was well aware that humans weren't alone in this world. There were things in this world that went beyond being mortal, herself included. There were things beyond any reasonable person's imagination that lurked in the darkness of the shadow. The unimaginable existed in a realm that existed beyond those of works of fictions. So pigs could actually be flying somewhere, you never really knew.

But that was the least of Persephone's worries. At least for now. Her biggest concern was trying to reintegrate herself back into the world she once used to belong.

Although that was easier said than done.

It seemed like forever since Persephone had last been here. Yet, as Persephone stood in the empty hallway of Mystic Falls High School, she had to remind herself that it hadn't quite been forever. Just a rather long and drawn out four and a half months. It was a small amount of time and yet it felt like forever to Persephone. Maybe it's because so much had happened in the last few months since she was last here? Persephone wasn't quite certain. The only thing that Persephone was certain of in her rather young life was that it was now time to face the music. After disappearing in a rather loud and dark cloud of smoke, Persephone had returned home to confront everything that she had been running from these last few months.

By the looks of it, nothing had really seemed to have changed which was to be expected of course. In small towns like Mystic Falls, pretty much everything stayed the same unless there was a reason to change it, which of course there was never a reason to do so. Persephone was certain that Mystic Falls High looked this way in her grandparents day, and probably smelt the same. The school still smelt of lemon pine floor cleaner mixed in with a faint odour of sweaty gym socks and whatever aftershave and perfumes were currently doing the rounds with the student body.

It was rather nostalgic in a way.

Yet Persephone was nervous. As in palms sweating, heart feels like it's going to leap out of her chest nervous which was odd for her. Once upon a time, Persephone heard Carol Lockwood describe her as a 'charmingly reckless girl with nerves of steel'. Persephone Larsen didn't do nervous. But as Persephone had to remind herself, she wasn't Persephone Hagen any more. That girl had disappeared a long time ago and in her stead was Persephone Thorne. Not quite the same girl with a different name, more like a different girl under a slightly different name.

Persephone wasn't the person she used to be when she left Mystic Falls, to be honest she didn't really know who she was any more. Persephone Thorne lost all sense of who she was in the few months that had led up to her fleeing from Mystic Falls to parts unknown.

Back before she had pulled a houdidi act Persephone was a mess, a walking car crash in every sense of the word but with the term 'Wild Child' slapped across her forehead for good measure. You name it and Persephone had done it; drinking, drugs, sleeping around and that was barely even the start of it, her repertoire included petty crimes and vandalism along with full on blown tantrums which included screaming, crying and breaking things. Persephone hadn't always been like that, once upon a time she had been one of those typical and wholesome girls, one of those next door types but then she had gone to the dark side and made the whole teenaged rebellion thing look like a picnic.

That was life for Persephone for a few of months, until one day Persephone had packed her bags and fled from town without a word to anyone as at the time she needed to escape from this small town life and her purpose in it. Persephone wanted to be free so she ran away and yet a few months later here she was, back to face everything she had ran away from.

It seemed like forever since Persephone had last been here, and yet forever seemed to have passed by rather quickly. Techinally it hadn't been forever, only four months and yet it still felt like a lifetime ago that Persephone had been a regular school girl. Or at least resembled once. Since deep down, Persephone knew that she had never been normal. From the day she was born she had been marked as a Seeker. A defender of mankind. Her! The sixteen year old teenager with a peculiar name and hair that had seen pretty much every single colour of the rainbow. She was supposed to 'seek out' the darkness that lurked in the shadows. Vampires, witches, werewolves, and ghosts just to name a few. It sounded like a bunch of made up nonsense but Persephone knew the truth, after running from it for so long and coming across many unexplainable things during her time away, she could no longer deny who she was.

A Celestial Fruit.

That's what the shadows called Seekers because of their unique scent, their blood was said to be as alluring as the forbidden fruit itself and one taste of a celestial fruit was like a like a taste of heaven. It sounded stupid and yet it was enough for Persephone to come home.

For a while now, Persephone had been having this strange and reoccurring dream which started not too long after she had found out the painful truth about herself. The most troubling part of this dream was that someone she knew very well was a constant figure in it. Elena Gilbert. In her dreams Persephone kept seeing her friend being attacked by all these creatures that hid in the shadows. All Persephone kept seeing was darkness and destruction. They all seemed to be drawn to Elena and Persephone couldn't understand why. It was why Persephone had come home.

Her dreams kept getting increasingly more violent and in-depth, it was too much for Persephone to bare so she had come home to try and get some answers that would lead to her piece of mind and she was certain that those answers could lie with Elena.

Yet, it wasn't going to be that simple. Persephone knew that she couldn't waltz back into her friends life like nothing had happened. A lot of things had changed since Persephone had left Mystic Falls, herself included. So that meant reintegrating herself back to Elena's life. Hence Persephone coming home and getting re-enrolled at Mystic Falls High School. Even though Persephone was doing all of this for the sake of her sanity, nerves were still eating at her stomach as she slowly made her way to her first class of the day. The meeting with the guidance counsellor had run over by a lot, and so Persephone very much late on her first day back.

Not a good sign!

And yet, Persephone didn't feel the need to hurry to her class. Since she was already late, Persephone might as well take her time. It's not like her 11th grade history class was going anywhere. Dragging her feet rather slowly, Persephone felt a vibration in the back of her jeans pocket and pulling out her cell phone from said pocket, Persephone couldn't help but smile as she read the caller id. Old Man Thorne.

"Hey dad!" Persephone greeted in a warm manner as she answered the call from her father, currently he was the only person that she would give any time of day to.

"Hi Seph, how's Mystic Falls?"

"Still standing unfortunately but it's the same old hell hole ." Persephone replied with a sigh as this was really was the last place she wanted to be. She would have preferred to be any other place on this planet but Persephone didn't really have any choice in the matter. If she wanted any real answers to her strange dreams or why she was some kind of supernatural 'seeker' than Persephone had to stay her.

"Sephy, you don't have to do this… You can come back home and we can figure this out together." Kip began as Persephone rolled her eyes in response as she could see where this conversation was going; to say he father was best pleased when he found out his only child was part of some secret supernatural faction that protected humans from dark creatures, was a bit on an understatement.

He wasn't too pleased either when Persephone announced that she was going home. Kip Thorne, just like his daughter believed that if Persephone stayed away from Mystic Falls, away from this so called family business than she could be normal like everyone else.

But Persephone couldn't be normal, she had tried running and the running just brought her back here. She couldn't be like her father, he was normal as Persephone like to describe him, Kip Thorne was a pretty normal Joe except for the fact that he had married a woman who came from a rather bizarre bloodline, which dealt with supernatural entities or somethings. Persephone unfortunately didn't inherit her father's normalness. She only received his auburn hair and button nose.

"You know I can't do that dad. I had to come back to Mystic Falls… These dreams started here and they have only seemed to get worse, the longer I have been away. Fate. Destiny, whichever one it is that's screwing with my life wants me to be here and if I ever want to have a normal night's sleep again I have to stay here and see this whole thing through. Elena could be the key to all of this, but if not… I can't pretend that I haven't had these dreams. I can't ignore the fact that she could be in danger." Persephone grimly replied as she hadn't just decided to come back to Mystic Falls on the spur of the moment.

For months she had been having these strange dreams about Elena and Mystic Falls, dreams that weren't normal and that involved some mysterious figure. Persephone never saw the figure's face in her dreams as he was always covered in darkness but she knew he was a man. This figure was always going after Elena, chasing after her like some animal. Sometimes he would kill her, sometimes he wouldn't. All Persephone knew was that she had been having dreams for the last few months and she hadn't had a good night's sleep since she first started having these dreams.

"What does your mother have to say about this?" Kip questioned, his dismay over the whole situation coming through over the phone and Persephone couldn't help but snort in response.

"Plenty of course, she's convinced these animal attacks are something else entirely… But what does it matter what Nora thinks? She can't do anything about this even if she wanted to, she was lucky enough to have this burden skip over a couple of generations including herself. This all falls on me. It's the joys of being a Celestial Fruit. I have to find whoever is behind all of this before they find me." Persephone retorted as came to a stop about a couple of feet before her history class.

It was showtime.

The time had finally come for Persephone Thorne to resume her old life.

"Persephone? Are you still there?"

"Yeah dad, I have to go to class now but I'll give you a call later…" Persephone wearily said as she looked to the door, where she could see some of her former classmates sitting down and intently listening to whatever their history teacher was lecturing them on this time.

It was like nothing had changed

"You don't sound good Seph…"

"Dad, I got this. I will call you later. Love you." Persephone briskly replied, ending the call even before her father could say anything and quickly replacing her phone back in her jeans pocket. She would call her father back later and ease his justifiable concerns but right now she needed to get off the phone and focus what was going on in front of her.

Persephone needed to reintegrate herself back to her old friend's lives if she was to find out what was going on, why she was apparent born to be some protector, why she was having these odd dreams and why a lot of this revolved around Elena. There had to be some meaning to all of this and Persephone wanted to find out the answers for herself. Her mother had told her things but Persephone wasn't one for believing much of what her dear old mother Nora Hagen had to say these days. There was something about her being lied to for 15 years that made her rather distrustful of her mother.

Hence why Persephone was doing this on her own. Taking a deep breath and forcing a bright smile Persephone willed herself not to screw this up before she slowly started taking a few steps towards the door and pushed it open.

Straight away heads turned and as Persephone walked into the classroom, which didn't surprise her as Persephone Thorne turning up after being awol for four months was sure to draw some attention. A tiny part of Persephone was rather pleased to see that her classmates clearly hadn't forgotten her, specially Elena who Persephone spotted straight away, alongside another old friend Bonnie Bennett. Persephone would have offered them both a small wave but their history teacher who was towering off them all with a displeased look on his face, was the first obstacle that Persephone had to deal with. Good old Mr. Tanner, he seemed to be as unhappy to see her always.

"Hey Mr. Tanner! So sorry I am late." Persephone began, trying to sound as apologetic as she could but it was kind of hard to as she was trying to stop herself from laughing.

"Oh look who it is… Persephone Hagen, how nice of you to finally join us but I'm afraid class has already started and you know how I feel about tardiness. So it's off to the office for you. " Mr. Tanner began and Persephone couldn't help but smile as she ha d missed his condensing attitude towards everyone he encountered during the time that she had been away.

"Well we could do that Mr. Tanner but then I would have to get my mother involved and we don't really want to do that now, do we? You remember her, right? Nora Hagen, more money than she knows what to do with and owns half the town. Also happens to have Mayor Lockwood on speed dial. And before you say any thing Mr. Tanner, I do know how crass it is to use nepotism to my advantage but I'm sixteen. What the hell do I care?" Persephone retorted, her response rolling easily off the tongue as she was well versed in getting drawn into these verbal tongue lashing by her history teacher, or getting 'Tannered' as most people referred to it as.

Given the amount of trouble Persephone used to get into because of Tanner, she was well verse in holding her own. Judging by the annoyed look on his face, Persephone was certain that the two of them knew that she had won this round. Although Tanner would find a way to make her pay for it later, some way and somehow.

"Take a seat Miss Hagen."

"Thanks, oh by the way Tanner… It's not Hagen any more, I've taken my father's last name. So it's now Miss Thorne to you Mr. Tanner!" Persephone brightly stated as she strolled further into the classroom, making her way over t the vacant chair in the far left back.

It seemed like it was going to be easy for Persephone to fall back into her old life but then she couldn't help but come to a stop in her step as this sensation came over her. It was like Persephone's skin was crawling and she felt very much uneasy and then came the smell. The overbearing smell that told Persephone that something was very much wrong here. It wasn't a kind of smell that most people would pick up on but Persephone could and it smelled like death. A pungent odour of rotting flesh tinted with the smell of copper. It was overwhelming. A cold and heavy smell.

It was death.

"Is there a problem Miss Thorne?"

Persephone ignored Mr. Tanner in favour of trying to locate the smell, it wasn't right in front of her but the smell was coming from within this classroom. It was coming off someone in here. Definitely not Tanner, Persephone would recognise his overpowering aftershave any where. This smell was coming off one of Persephone's fellow students.

Her feet began moving on her own accord, following the scent and much to Persephone's dismay, the smell got stronger as she got closer to the culprit. It wasn't pleasant and Persephone could feel her the contents of her stomach churning as the deathly smell continued to overpower her. Eventually she found the culprit.

It was a boy. Devastatingly handsome of course, with his light brown hair and green eyes that seemed endless. He wore a stern expression but his features were soft and flawless. Yet the more Persephone looked at him, she knew that there was something about him that was off, he wasn't normal. There was something inside Persephone that was screaming at her, screaming that this man was dangerous. Persephone knew of only one thing that could possibly smell like this. He was a vampire… That's why Persephone could smell death when she walked into the classroom. The boy in front of her was a vampire.

"Miss Thorne!"

Persephone was brought back to reality by Tanner yelling out her name. He really didn't sound too happy. Not that she cared too moment. The vampire sitting right in front of her was more important. Persephone knew that her mother suspected that vampires were back in Mystic Falls, given the town's secret history with them, it wasn't too far of a stretch given all the animal attacks. But Persephone never believed that they would be so out in the open.

"Whose the stooge?" Persephone demanded, forgoing all niceties as she had been taken slightly a back. She wasn't expecting a vampire to be sitting in her classroom in the middle of the day, blending in with the other students and not looking a single bit out of place.

This really wasn't good.

"Of course, still more concerned with socialising then your studies Miss Thorne… Allow me to introduce you to our new student Stefan Salvatore."

The new student was a vampire? God have mercy on them all.