Selina's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

Mayor Lockwood nodded. "Yes, I am. I'm sorry."

Selina turned to Mrs. Lockwood. "I think I'll have a piece of that pie now, if you don't mind," she said. Although her voice didn't break, the Lockwoods could tell that Selina was trying not to cry.

"Of course, I'll be back in a minute." Mrs. Lockwood got up and headed back into the kitchen.

As soon as she was gone, Selina looked at Mayor Lockwood again. "So you really do have absolutely no idea where my mother is?"

Mayor Lockwood shook his head. "No. I've looked at documents from back then that indicate your mother was seen leaving her house prior to the riots, carrying a valise and hatbox with her, but nothing else. Michael records in a journal of his that his father tried to stop her from leaving that night, but it was no use."

Selina frowned. "That doesn't sound like my mother at all. Just leave town and not tell anyone why especially not her own family? In fact, I don't even see why she'd leave town in the first place."

"Well, what reason did she have to stay?" the mayor asked. "Your father, the love of her life, was dead, Robert Pierce, her second husband, was dead, you were dead. Who else did she have left?"

"But I wasn't dead!" Selina said. "At least not really!"

"Yes, but she didn't know that." Mayor Lockwood said.

"Actually," Selina took a deep breath. "She did."

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked.

"I always tell people that after I left Dr. Stensrund's house, I headed straight into the woods for six months so that I wouldn't hurt anyone, but that's not the truth." She paused. "After he made me kill all those people, I was terrified. I felt like my humanity was slipping away. It was like a bad dream. The night I snuck out of Dr. Stensrund's house, it took me awhile to get my bearings, but eventually, I managed to find my way back to the main road and I just walked along, under the stars, until I found my house…

"I couldn't go in, of course, because I hadn't been invited, but I stared in every window, trying to figure out where my mother had gone to. I finally found her in the kitchen. That was strange because it was late at night and she should have been in bed, but she wasn't. Instead, she was standing in the kitchen, ingredients around her, making pie of some sort, I couldn't tell you what kind. Suddenly, she turned toward the window and I threw myself against the side of the house just in time to keep her from spotting me. From that point on, I kept myself against the wall, and positioned my body so that I could see her, but she couldn't see me.

"From the looks of things, she hadn't slept in a very long time: she was pale, her eyes had dark circles and were rimmed in red. Her hair was straggly and dirty, as if she no longer bothered to take care of it, and she wore a white nightgown with spots of dirt on the skirt and especially around the hem.

"As I watched her, I could feel my heart just turn over. Against my better judgment, I opened the sash on the window. "Can I come in?" I asked.

At the sight of me, she started. "Selina?" she asked. "Dr. Stensrund said you were dead. He buried you himself, with his own two hands!"

"Did you see him do it?" I asked.

My mother thought a moment. 'No,' she admitted, 'I didn't.'

"Well," I said, "If you want to hear what really happened, you'll have to invite me in."

'I'm sorry, come in. She blinked and then came over to the window. 'I'll unlock the front door. I don't think you'll fit through the window.'

"As soon as I was seated at the kitchen table, with her sitting across from me, I spoke again. 'How can you take this so calmly?' I asked her.

"She shrugged. 'I don't know. I guess I've been so lonely that seeing somebody I know, alive or dead, is a great comfort to me.' She paused. 'Could you tell me,' she said after a moment, 'what's heaven like, dear?'

"I honestly didn't know what to say to that. I was expecting her to come chasing after me with a stake to be perfectly honest. Not to sit at the kitchen table and discuss the afterlife. Finally, I took her hand. 'It's wonderful,' I said. "I've seen Papa, and we talk all the time. He's a great man.'

"That made Mama smile. 'Well," she said, holding out her hand to me, 'I'm ready to go.'

"I frowned. 'Ready to go where, Mama?' I asked. She stared at me. 'Ready to go to heaven, of course. Aren't you the angel they sent to bring me to the next world?'

"At that point, I was flustered. I had no idea what to say. At least it explained why she wasn't afraid of me or going after me with a stake; she thought I was an angel, not a vampire. Finally, I just settled for saying, 'I'm not here to bring you to heaven, but God has seen how much you're suffering and sent me to comfort you.'

"Tears welled up in her eyes. 'He truly works in magnificent ways. I never thought I'd see you again, and here you are.' I admit I teared up too."

"Finally, Mama looked up at me with wide blue eyes. She reached out as if she wanted to take my hand, but something was holding her back. 'If I touch you', she whispered, 'will I die?'

"Despite the fact that I'd fed off some poor guy Dr. Stendsrund had caught for me before running away, I was still a little unstable and not completely in control of my bloodlust. As I sat there talking to my mother, I could feel it creeping up on me. The last thing I wanted to do, of course, was feed on my mother, so I said 'Yes, if you touch me, you will die.'

"And that's when she reached out and grabbed my hand. I hissed and snapped at her, nearly giving in. I could see her eyes widen. Then, as I realized what I had almost done, I pulled my hand away, stood up, turned on my heel, and ran. Into the woods, for six months. Living on animals so I wouldn't hurt anyone as I had almost hurt my mother."

As Selina finished her story, she looked up at Tyler and the mayor, who were wearing shocked expressions. They sat in stunned silence until Mrs. Lockwood came back with Selina's pie.

"Mom, did you know that Selina saw her mother after she was turned?" Tyler asked.

Mrs. Lockwood turned to Selina in surprise. "You did?"

"Yeah," Selina replied wistfully. "I wanted comforting after what happened with Dr. Stensrund, but maybe my visit hurt more than it helped."

"How could it hurt?" Tyler asked. "Your mother thought you were an angel coming to comfort her."

"I know that," Selina replied. "But I don't know what happened after I left. Michael didn't say anything about Mama when he found me."

"Just a minute," Mayor Lockwood said, standing up. "Do you remember the date you went to visit your mother?"

"Well," Selina replied, "let me think: my 'death' was in June of 1864, and I stayed at Dr. Stensrund's for about three weeks before I got away, so I think I went back to see Mama around the fourth of July, 1864."

Mayor Lockwood nodded. "All right." He left the kitchen and came back after a moment holding four large boxes in his arms.

"Here, Dad," Tyler said, taking two, "let me help you with those."

"Thanks, son," Mayor Lockwood grunted as he shifted two boxes from his grip to Tyler's and they moved the boxes to the coffee table.

"What are all these?" Selina asked.

"Documents," Mayor Lockwood said simply. "A written history of Mystic Falls."

"And one of these documents might tell us what happened to my mother?" Selina asked.

Mayor Lockwood shook his head. "No, but there might be something in here that will tell us if anything significant happened to your mother after your sudden appearance."

"I don't know if I want to see any of this," Selina said. "If something bad did happen to Mama after I left, then it will be my fault."

"I doubt we'll find anything," Tyler told her. "Dad pulls out these old boxes every few years to see if he can find anything, and nothing new ever comes up."

The four of them looked through the boxes together, and Selina was relieved initially when they found nothing about her mother. Then, Mayor Lockwood found a letter sent from her mother to a friend on July 5:

July 5, 1864

Dear Marie,

I had a strange dream last night, even, though I haven't slept since Selina's death: I dreamed that she came and stood by the window and asked me to invite her in. I did and we talked. She told me that God had seen my suffering and had sent her to comfort me. The strange thing is, even though my daughter was an angel, she looked troubled. And when I tried to touch her, she growled and spat like an angry kitten, and her eyes became strange. Then, she ran away. It's a troubling omen, and I worry about her soul.

After I woke up and dressed this morning, I went and saw a woman in Richmond who claimed to be able to see the future and communicate with spirits. I asked her if my daughter was at peaceful rest and she said that Selina was not; that because she hadn't had a Christian burial, she'd be doomed to walk the earth for eternity. She also claimed that my Matthew wasn't resting in peace either, but that doesn't surprise me, seeing as his body was taken for who knows what purpose. I wonder why God saw fit to punish both my husband and daughter: they did nothing wrong in their lives. If anything, they were virtuous and brave and should be rewarded. Maybe I did something wrong, and I'm being punished for it. I believe that's what's going on. Well, I won't allow anyone else to suffer because of me.

Goodbye Marie,

Amelia

Selina took the note from the mayor and looked it over. "I don't believe it," she said. "My mother committed suicide!"

"You don't know that," Tyler told her, taking the note from her gently and looking it over himself. "It doesn't say 'I'm going to kill myself.'"

"But it implies it!" Selina said. "She probably wrote this note and then killed herself soon afterward."

"Well, I guess we'll never know," Mayor Lockwood told them, putting the note back in the box where he'd found it. "There's no point in dwelling on things we can't change."

Selina looked up at the mayor. "Thanks for dinner. I think I should be heading home now."

"All right Selina," he said. "And I'm awfully sorry."

"It's all right," Selina replied emptily as she left the Lockwood mansion and headed back to the boardinghouse.

When she got back, she headed straight upstairs. She just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up again.

"So how was dinner?" asked a voice as she entered her and Damon's bedroom. She jumped and Damon grinned. "Did you have fun?"

"Well," Selina replied, collapsing onto the bed. "If you call finding out that my mother disappeared after the vampire cleansing and no one's found her body since 'fun', then yes, I had a wonderful time."

"How did your mother come into the conversation?" Damon asked.

Selina sighed and climbed next to him on the bed. "Well, Mayor Lockwood asked if there was anything he could do to repay me for bringing Tyler back, and I said that I wanted to have a look at my mother's grave if it wasn't too much trouble. And then he said that was quite impossible because Mama apparently disappeared in 1864, and no one's seen her since. Then, he brought out boxes of all these official documents from over the years to see if there were any clues to her whereabouts that he might have missed, and we found this letter that Mama wrote to her friend Marie that talked an awful lot about how badly she wanted to die."

"So you think your mother killed herself?" Damon asked.

"From the letter, it sure sounds like it," Selina replied.

"What did the letter say?" Damon asked. "Whatever it was, it's clearly bothering you."

Selina took a deep breath, eased herself off the bed, and went to the open bedroom door. "Stefan," she called. "Would you come in here a minute? I need to tell you and Damon something."

Stefan appeared a moment later and sat down next to his brother. "What is it, Selina?" he asked, looking concerned.

"I have a confession to make," Selina announced. "You know how I told the two of you that after I escaped from Dr. Stensrund's, I went straight to the woods and lived on animals for six months?"

"Yes," said Damon and Stefan together.

"Well, it's not entirely true. The first thing I did was visit Mama. She looked horrible. She wasn't taking care of herself, and I could tell she'd actually started drinking. When she saw me, she thought I was an angel coming to relieve her of her misery and take her up to heaven. That's probably why she let me in without question and didn't try and chase me with a stake. She was drunk. Either that or so broken down that she saw what she wanted to and went with it. When she touched me, I almost bit her. That's when I ran. And I never saw her again."

Stefan and Damon were looking at her with concerned expressions on their faces. She walked to the bed and sat down on it, letting Damon put his arms around her.

Just then, the phone rang. Stefan got up to get it and came back upstairs holding it in his hand. "Damon," he said, "it's the sheriff for you. They found a body buried up in the hills."

"Vampire victim?" Damon asked.

"I don't think so," Stefan said.

"What did the sheriff say about the body?" Selina asked.

"Not much," Stefan replied. "They haven't had much time to look it over, but they think it was a female who was quite well to do. She was buried with a pink pearl necklace and a ruby ring shaped like a heart."

Selina gasped. "Oh, my God! That's Mama's body!"