When their children were young, parents warned them about spooky monsters. The parents laughed to themselves, using these imaginary monsters to get their children to behave and do their bidding. What these supposedly wise adults did not know was that the monsters were indeed real. As the children grew up, they discovered that the monsters were not the Boogeyman in the closet, ready to prey on their innermost fears, or some tentacled beast under the bed that eats them if they do not finish their vegetables. They ceased checking such places once they realized that true monsters looked just like them. These beings blended seamlessly into society, doing everyday things like driving cars, eating burgers, and talking on cellphones. Despite what movies, books, and television portrayed, the vampires never sparkled in the sunlight or brooded about their angst-ridden lives, the werewolves were not the size of overgrown bears, and the witches were not green-skinned with hideous warts on their noses. In reality, they did not fall helplessly in love with a human girl at first sight, leading to an epic tale where the monster constantly risked his life for her and promised her eternal love.

Most adults remained children on the inside, oblivious to the dangers around them. They were unable to recognize the monster until it was right in front of them and its true form was the last thing they ever saw before their imminent death. Only a few souls proved capable of perceiving the truth under the smoke and mirrors when they were still children. They were the ones who never believed in the imitation monsters from urban myths, the ones who could look at someone and see that beneath their innocent façade, there was a deadly monster waiting to be unleashed. Riley Gilbert happened to be one of those people.

As a young girl, Riley grew up in the town of Mystic Falls. She was a normal girl who went to school, had her group of close friends, and played a few sports. While her friends swung on the monkey bars and tried to dare each other to eat the fat worm found under the new swirly slide, Riley sat under the shade of a large tree, reading about the monsters lurking in the shadows. Mystic Falls was more than just a picturesque town in southwestern Virginia. When she was only five years old, she spotted a man in the park, getting bad feelings around him. She panicked at the sight of him growing fangs and feeding on a woman and rushed to find her parents. It was then that her parents revealed the town's secrets to her. She learned about the vampires and werewolves that had plagued this town in the past and how they concealed themselves to appear normal. One of her ancestors, Johnathan Gilbert, was a great inventor who created the Gilbert device, which could knock out vampires and werewolves, and a pocket watch that acted as a compass to detect vampires.

Her parents, both members of the Founder's Council that protected the town, made her swear not to tell these secrets to anyone, not even her cousins Elena and Jeremy. Keeping such a secret made Riley very protective of her cousins and her friends. What they saw as silly ghost stories told during sleepovers, she knew it all to be fact. On many nights, when she was supposed to be asleep, she heard arguments between her father and her uncle Grayson over the fact that Riley was told the truth at such a young age. Her father allowed her to read the old Gilbert journals and trained her to defend herself if she ever encountered a vampire. He was not as worried about werewolves since they had gone mostly extinct over the centuries.

A few days after her ninth birthday, she walked home from school to find a moving van outside their house and her family's belongings packed into cardboard boxes. Her mother claimed that they were moving to New Mexico for her archaeology work. At first, Riley saw nothing wrong with the scenery change. She believed that after a short time, they would return to Mystic Falls. Her suspicions were raised when every few months, they changed their location. Over the past eight years, she had lived in over twenty countries. Their move from place to place was so constant that she did not bother making many friends, knowing that soon enough, she would be back on a plane to a new destination. Her parents used her mother's work as an excuse but as Riley got older, she saw through their lies. She knew that they were hiding some kind of secret from her. They never stayed in one place for too long to avoid something or someone.

Riley was sitting in a café in Avignon, a town in southwestern France. She had recently moved here about a month ago after a long flight from Brazil. Her mother and her archaeological team were studying nearby caves. The caves were considered one of the most significant prehistoric art sites. Her father, who worked as a doctor, usually tagged along on the expeditions as a medic for the team. Riley got her adventurous spirit from her parents, who loved to travel and see the world. They were the type of people willing to be the first inside of a dark, mysterious cave or to go diving in the deepest waters. While Riley loved all of those experiences, she could not deny that she missed Mystic Falls. She regularly kept in contact with her friends but it was not the same as seeing them in person. Their messages would talk about school and having terrible teachers like Mr. Tanner, a pompous jerk who liked to embarrass his students. She could always count on Caroline to give her the latest gossip on new couples and the hottest guys at Mystic Falls High.

As she waited for her parents to return from their trip, she drew some pictures in her notebook. She was finishing her sketch of a forest when she heard a beeping sound from her laptop. A small box popped up, requesting her for a video chat. She clicked the box and smiled, seeing her younger cousin Jeremy. It had been eight months since she had gotten any messages from him. Their last conversation happened a few days after the death of his parents on the Wickery Bridge. Riley attempted to contact him but he ignored all of her calls and emails. Elena was the one keeping her up to date on Jeremy, telling her about his depression and a coping mechanism that involved drugs and alcohol. He had been spending a lot of time in the Stoner Pit with a bad crowd that included Vicki Donovan. Though Riley was aware of his crush on Matt's older sister, she was worried that it would only lead to trouble. His hair was a bit longer, giving him a disheveled appearance.

"Do I know you, stranger?"

"Very funny, Ri"

"Sorry. It's hard to recognize someone when you haven't seen them for eight months"

"I—I know that I've been…it's just…things have been really hard lately. I uh didn't want to bring you down with all my p—problems"

He sounded very anxious. His hand kept running through his hair. She looked at him, concerned.

"Is everything okay? Elena messaged me about what happened"

"She did?" he asked, surprised.

"About Vicki's overdose. I know you had a crush on her for the longest time"

A couple weeks ago, Riley had received a message from Elena. She learned that Vicki's body was found buried in the woods and it was assumed that she died from a drug overdose. Before her body had been discovered, everyone assumed she had run away from home. Riley was not shocked by that rumor, remembering Vicki from her childhood. Even as a young girl, Vicki always liked to be the rebellious one and even ran away from home at just eight years old after a fight with her mother. She had been hiding out in Tyler's old tree house but it still put the town into a panic.

"Yea, Vicki…it sucks"

Riley felt like something else was bothering him. She had a sixth sense about knowing when someone lied to her. Jeremy was not messaging her after all these months because of one girl's death.

"Jer, is something else going on?"

"No"

"So you decided to chat with me for no reason?"

"You're just…someone different to talk to, Ri. You're not as dumb as most of the people in this town. Even when we were little, you were the one that everyone went to with their problems"

"Are you having any so-called problems?"

"Well, I—it's just—this is hard to explain. I shouldn't be bothering you. I'm sorry"

"Jer, wait"

The chat box vanished from her laptop screen. As she tried to text him, getting no responses, her parents entered the café. Both were wiping dirt from their faces. Riley told them about her short conversation with Jeremy. Her father assured her that Jeremy was struggling to cope with Vicki's death, which occurred less than year after his parents' death. He went over to the counter to order drinks. Reaching into her bag, her mother showed her a wolf skull found in the caves.

"Sure it's not a werewolf?"

"Oh, I wish. It's sad there aren't many bloodlines left. The vampires took most of them out as a precaution. One bite from a werewolf and a vampire dies"

Riley glanced over at her father. He was talking on his phone, looking very annoyed.

"Do you really think Vicki died from an overdose?"

"Why would the police lie, Riley?"

"So people don't freak out that vampires exist. You always told me that it's easy to cover up"

"It isn't our concern, sweetheart. The council is there to handle any problems"

Her father returned with two coffees. He had been on the phone with his younger brother John. Despite being a Gilbert, no one liked him. Riley could barely tolerate him and whenever he used to visit their home in Mystic Falls, she avoided him as much as possible. John had returned to town after he learned that blood banks in a neighboring county had been broken into multiple times and people were missing within the surrounding area. According to John, the tomb underneath the church, where vampires had been trapped in 1864, was somehow open with no one inside.

"You know how John is, Alice. He'll stir up all kinds of trouble in the council"

"Your brother does like drama"

"Because he's usually at the center of it. Let's enjoy our time here"

"Yea, while it lasts" muttered Riley.

"What does that mean, Riley?"

She shrugged, taking a sip of her cinnamon latte. "I just know that in another week or two, I'll come home to find all of our stuff packed in boxes and a plane ticket waiting for me. Where is it going to be this time? Maybe you should just spin a globe and go where your finger lands"

Her mother used the same old work excuse. Riley wanted to confront them about the obvious lie. It seemed strange that they moved so frequently without any sort of warning. After the first ten times, she was no longer surprised, just accepting that they needed to go somewhere new.

"I'm just so worried" she heard her mother say.

"Worried about what?"

She looked at Riley, confused. "Who's worried, sweetheart?"

"You just—nothing"

Riley stared at the window while her parents discussed her uncle John. It was raining heavily outside, practically flooding the streets and sidewalks. Around nine, her mother decided to head back to their house to compile data from their recent cave excavation. Riley sat with her father, continuing to sketch in her notebook.

"You always draw when something's bothering you. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just felt like drawing today"

He glanced at her current drawing. It depicted a girl staring at herself in the mirror but her reflection had a sinister appearance. When he asked her about it, she told him it was an image she saw in one of her dreams. The girl in the drawing reminded her of Elena with her long dark brown hair and warm brown eyes. Her father suggested that they return home because it was getting late. He groaned, hearing his phone ring.

"I just know that's your uncle. He's not going to stop pestering me. You go on ahead. I'll meet you at home"

Riley gave him a quick hug and left the café. She regretted not bringing a jacket with her. The rain caused her wavy chestnut brown locks to stick to her face. She jumped over cracks in the sidewalk, checking texts from her friends. Caroline was asking her if she had any flings with a cute French guy. As she turned the corner, she heard her mother's voice. Her mother was in a dimly lit alley, fighting with a man with light brown hair. Riley could not get a good look at him since his back was turned to her. Dozens of people were lying face-down in the alley, bleeding profusely from their necks. Seeing the stake in her mother's hand, she realized that he was a vampire. The man backhanded her mother, knocking her into the wall. He threw the stake behind him. It landed in the middle of the street. Her mother was barely conscious. Riley hurried across the street, picking up the stake. As he advanced on her mother, she jammed the stake into his back and watched him fall to the ground.

She bent down to her mother, checking for any injuries. There was a small cut on her forehead from hitting the wall.

"Mom, you'll be okay. The house isn't too far. Just hold onto me and"

Before she could help her mother, Riley was tugged back forcefully. She struggled against the man's grip. He sniffed her neck and she could feel him shudder. Her eyes widened when his fangs pierced her neck. She kept struggling, kicking her legs. Her petite stature gave her a major disadvantage, making any attempts to hurt him pointless. His arm snaked around her waist, pinning her to his body. She cried out in pain, falling to her knees. Her doe-like dark green eyes were reflected in a puddle of water that turned slightly red as droplets of blood fell from her neck. With each passing minute, he fed on her hungrily as though he had not eaten in years.

Riley could feel herself inching closer to death. In this instance, there was no stereotypical bright light at the end of a tunnel and her life never flashed before her eyes. No longer able to fight back, she welcomed death, thinking it would be far less painful. Death was not the end for her, just another adventure. Her vision was blurry and her eyelids began to feel very heavy.

"Riley!"

A second later, the man was torn away from her. Weakened from the loss of blood, she fell forward, her head hitting the ground. The last thing she witnessed before blacking out was her father staking the man in the heart…

A/N: The story will be set during season 2. I wanted to use this chapter as a little prologue that introduced Riley's character and her connections to Mystic Falls.

Thanks for reading :)