Summary: While Katherine is on a killing spree, Damon's childhood friend, Rose, whom he thought died as a human returns to Mystic Falls also and clashes with Katherine's plan to torture the Salvatore brothers. Set right after the season finale.
Prologue: Her Choice
Early 1864
The young woman blinked away the sleep from her eyes. She stretched, lifting her arms above, and then rested them on the man next to her beneath the sheets of his bed. She kissed his forehead, as he was still asleep. Then she jumped off the bed quickly, to finish this as soon as possible. The goodbye would be too unbearable, so she left only a note. Damon would understand – he had to. The note read as follows:
Damon,
I couldn't bear to see your face as I said my goodbyes. The peaceful look on your face is what I wanted to see as I left. I'm sorry, but I believe this is for the best – so much less heartbreak than it could be. I love you. Goodbye.
Rosemarie
She dressed swiftly to guard herself from the cold March breeze, picked up her belongings, and ran down the stairs before he woke. The carriage was waiting for her outside the Salvatore's home. She looked back on the place she considered her home one last time, and then leaped into the carriage as it drove away.
The town square faded as the carriage traveled down the bumpy dirt road. The wind lifted the bright scarlet curls from her face as she looked back to her home. So many of her memories occurred in the town of Mystic Falls, making it unbearable to leave it. If she stayed, though, it would be entirely selfish on her part. Damon deserved more than her, the messed up vampire – if that was what she really was.
She heard her father scolding her for pouting about her decision, but it was only background noise – the echo of a ringing bell. Because of her father she made this choice. It was time for him to understand she hated it – the only way she knew how to hurt her father, silence.
Rosemarie would live forever while Damon grew old and died. She was unable to turn him into a vampire, though she didn't even know if he would allow it – who would want to be a monster?
They were always friends, so maybe he'd understand her choice.
The only problem with leaving him and his brother, Stefan, is that her half-sister was coming to town soon. Katherine might use her cruel ways to seduce them, just to get her revenge for the things Rose did to her. Their father favors Katherine because she has no humanity in her – like him, so he would do nothing if Katherine went as far as to rip Damon's throat out.
Hopefully after this short visit of Katherine's, she will never come back to Rose's town.