Prologue:
A roll of thunder was heard as wind whistled through the trees. Caroline swore it sounded like a wolf, but refused to think of such thoughts. She saw a flash of lightning as she trudged through this cursed forest as rain began to trickle down from the grey clouds, which looked like an endless black in the night. As tired as she was, Caroline knew she needed to keep going. For her father, for her.
No one Mystic Falls took her seriously; they just regarded Caroline as an over enthusiastic girl with unrealistic hopes and dreams.
Delusional they called her. Caroline's fists clenched at the memory. She would miss her best friends, Elena and Bonnie dearly but Caroline knew that she needed to prove to her village that she was no maiden in distress.
And when her friends left the Mystic Falls to go their separate ways and leave the small prejudiced village, it seemed that there was nothing there left for Caroline. And she didn't mind getting away from that arrogant bastard Tyler as well. It was funny how all the other girls in town wanted him except for her. And that was the strange reason why Tyler said he was interested in Caroline.
"A challenge" he said. A mere conquest Caroline thought bitterly.
The rain seemed to beat down on Caroline, bringing her back to reality. The rain was pushing her! As if telling her to go back! Go back to Mystic Falls, go back to being the delusional girl.
"NO!" Caroline told herself angrily. Her father had gone missing two months ago, and after the village men had failed to find him themselves, she set out to find him herself.
She would not fail, or she would die trying. Caroline's body shook in the cold, and burned with fatigue, but her stubbornness won over her body, and had kept her going for a while now.
But she was loosing strength. In her exhaustion Caroline failed to notice a tree root and landed flat on her face, mud and grime everywhere. Past her blurry and lightheaded vision though, she saw…where those gates? Caroline didn't care if she was hallucinating.
She ran past them and ran straight into a wooden door before collapsing, her entire body shaking with effort to stand. I'm going to die thought helplessly. If there was even a mansion here, it was probably abandoned, but it was a hallucination.
She knew it. She knew it from how on the edge of her consciousness she saw a figure approach her. Hanging on to her last thread of hope though, Caroline tried to speak. Her voice came out barely a whisper… "Help" Caroline managed to say before she blacked out entirely.