I guess you could call this my prologue. I've had this written for months but just haven't published it. I wrote an excerpt months ago for Klaroweek that seem to go over well so I figured I would rip the band aid off and see what people thought.

Mystic Falls 1663

A smallpox outbreak took over this tiny town in Virginia. Smallpox starts as a rash and can quickly escalate into fluid filled blisters that covered the skin. This was a time of no medical facilities or vaccines to fight the disease so most perished weeks after becoming infected. The blonde passed through the abandoned barn that was turned into a quarantined facilities for those infected. Makeshift beds made of out of old blankets piled on top of leftover straw were all the patients could sleep on since any materials that came in contact with the infected had to be burned once they died. There were rows of people laid across the dirt and straw covered ground with a path that split down the middle. The blonde was one of the few people that could come in contact with the disease and not fall ill due to some miracle. Except it was no miracle because vampires could not die of this disease.

The blonde nurse inspected several bodies, a few were close to passing while others were gasping for breath as blisters covered their throats. She stopped suddenly in front of one young girl that was curled in a ball away from the other patients. She lay on her side with her arm extended out to reach for a dirty aluminum cup of water that was just too far away. The blonde nurse stepped forward to kneel just by the dying girls side and tilted the girls head so she could sip the murky well water. This girl was still in the early stages of the disease and she had not developed the blisters on her skin as most of the other patients in the barn had.

"Are you a healer too? The last women that tried to help people never came back." The girl babbled as she flipped to her back but the other blonde didn't respond. "My distant relatives were healers. She told me our family was born with the gift to heal except for me. Mother said it never made me any less special."

"The rest of your family still lives?" The nurse twisted bits of her hair that was braided to the side between her fingers.

"My father Bill died first and a few of my relatives in the neighboring town as well. My mother Elizabeth still lives or I assume so since she has not been taken here." The dying girl turned her head to the side to continue, "You are blessed to be in such health and you have a good soul for helping us even though it will do no good."

"You say that because you don't truly know me." The blonde fixed her gaze at her pale face.

"You have been here as long as I have and you have rarely left. You feed and bring water for these people who are two steps from death. No one else comes to visit or cares for us. Officials from our town drop large wooden barrels full of stale food outside the doors and who ever had the strength to stand could eat. You are the only hope for comfort that these people have."

The dying girl pushed her knotted curls from her face and let her eyes slid closed as her breathing increased. No other person had spoken such kindness to her in her long lifetime, certainly not her family.

"Do you want to live?" The blonde nurse asked in a much serious tone.

"Who wouldn't." The dying girls spoke without opening her eyes. The nurse dropped her fangs to bite her wrist and pull the girl off the floor to lay across her lap. The vampire blood flooded into the dying girls mouth and the nurse placed her hands on either side of the girls neck but was stopped just before snapping the girls neck.

"Stop playing house Rebekah we're leaving. Father has come for us again and it's not surprising since you were the one that wanted to come visit this dreadful town once more."

"I'm turning her and bringing her with us. We have became friends. "

"We don't have time for one of your new toys." Her brother grabbed her arm to pull the nurse to her feet, the dying girl fell to the floor. A bit dazed, the girl pushed off the dirt ground with both hands to keep her weak body from falling back over. The man looked down at the dying girl with blood stained on her lips and the girls green eyes shifted upwards to meet his.

"Snap the girls neck and leave her here. She will awaken and murder the lot which will give us a head start. Mikeal will follow her body trail and not ours."

"Nik please..." Rebekah begged but he had already turned his back to her and walked outside of the barn. Her face fell upon the dying girl and she leaned forward to place her hands on both sides of her face. "You will awaken as a vampire and you will need to drink human blood to survive. You will feel a craving for blood that will be unlike anything else you have ever felt. Control your urges or the wrong people will find out what you are and kill you. Be safe..."

"Caroline." Her voice was small and the room fell away to darkness.

Mystic Falls 1864

It was the War of 1864. Blood and corpses were scattered around across the open field and those that were not dead would soon be. She cut through a thinned forest in the dead of night to stay hidden with a thick wool coat tied across her shoulders. She walked closer to see tall cloth tents held up by wooden poles that were spread in a wide circle. The tents housed wounded soldiers from the war but as her feet got closer a familiar sucking noise got louder. The girl stopped several feet outside one of the tents to inspect the man that was biting into the throat of the soldier that lay still with no heartbeat on a cot. Biting couldn't even be used to describe what this man was doing as he thrashed his head side to side and nearly ripped his Adams apple apart.

The mans face finally surfaced from feeding off the now dead soldier, blood dripped down his lips and throat. His mouth hung open inhaling the scent of blood and his eyes were coal black with just the barest flicker of emotions left. But there were still emotions, just buried deep past the pain. Her feet went to step forward and the bloodied vampire rose with his gaze fixated on her position. The vampire was so lost to the blood that he didn't even realize that she too was a vampire. In one slow motion, the female vampire turn away from the other male and walked with slow careful steps deeper into the forest. She could hear his labored breathing as this man was surely concentrating on the blood rushing through her veins.

In an instant the male vampire lunged at her back but she easily snatch his wrist before it could make contact with her. She flipped the vampire off his feet and onto the wet ground, the palms of her hands pressed his shoulders firmly in place so he couldn't move. The blonde snarled down at the male vampire with her fangs exposed and black spider veins spreading across her checks. To say the vampire was shocked at her appearance would be an understatement.

"You really have no control do you." The blonde shoved herself off the ground and wiped away stray leaves from her dress. "My name is Caroline Forbes and a true gentleman would stand to greet me."

"Stefan. Stefan Salvatore." The vampire rose from the ground as he spoke.

Present Day

A gunmetal grey coffin wheeled it's way into the living room on steel rollers and her eyes were glued to it. The compelled humans wheeled it in and left the coffin in the center of the room as a man walked in silence. The man lifted an elegant hand to the lid and Caroline saw no emotions cross his face. The tears were starting to sting her eyes and the image of a lifeless grey body would never leave her mind. This wasn't supposed to happen, not to him. Part of her thought it was good for humans and supernatural beings alike to have this vampire put down for a few centuries. That was the awful thing, how would he react once awoken? Images of blood and entrails flooded her mind. Or perhaps there was another plan that was yet to be discovered. The real plan all along would be to have him desiccated and left to rot away for eternity as punishment. Good riddance screamed the first, more logical, part of her brain.

Then there was the second part that sympathized with his circumstances because he was a product of abuse and paranoia. His anger had ruined the lives of people wanted to form bonds with. Bonds that would certainly never form because she couldn't let go of this one man that shouldn't mean anything in her life. The man that shouldn't have worked his way into her life century after century.

"It's comforting to see someone so affected by his loss. To know that all his years of emptiness were not in vain." The man stepped forward and straighten the sleeves of his suit just before placing them into his pants pockets. "Perhaps you will still be here once he returns? You could join our family in taking care of him."

Caroline's head shot up to look the man in his eyes and she couldn't believe the words that were just spoken. Anger surged through her body.

"If you plan to release him." Her watery eyes stared at the man in front of her. "Do you really expect me to follow you around blindly while hoping for the day you see fit to release him? You expect me to do nothing while one simple act releases him?"

The vampire steps forward, his casual stance changes instantly to one that is cold and calculating. The polar opposite of the warmth he had just shown her.

"That would not be in your best interest. You have your own skills but you are not a thousand years old or ignorant."

"And neither are you Elijah. What I would expect of you is to keep that coffin far from me and well hidden." Caroline tugged helplessly at the other set of hands that caged her arms behind her back in a iron grip. "If I am so much as a hundred miles in it's vicinity, I will come for whoever has it."

Let me know what you think. I won't be continuing this right away but wanted to see if any of you guys have a interest for this type of story before I did more brainstorming.

Cassondra :-)