A week later, Klaus, Selina, Helene and Adrian were in the attic so they could get all the junk to throw out.

Adrian held a box labeled "pottery" and came to show it to Selina. "You wanna look in here?" He asked. "Or do you just want to toss the whole thing?"

"You should never 'just toss' anything," Selina said. "You might invertantly toss something important if you do that. Now give me the box and we'll go through it together."

"But I don't even think we own any pottery, at least nothing I haven't broken already," Adrian said. He looked at his father. "Do you think we do?"

Klaus shook his head. "Nah, just throw it out."

Adrian looked triumphantly at his mother. "There you go. See?"

Selina scoffed. "Don't listen to him. If it were up to him, we'd throw everything out."

Adrian frowned. "Fine." He began walking toward Selina with the box when he tripped over a lose floorboard and the box tipped over for a few seconds. A couple of things fell on the floor. One of them was a black and white photograph of a young couple and their infant daughter, who was sitting in the woman's lap. The man wore a soldier's uniform. The woman wore a black dress that contrasted with her blond hair. None of them were smiling. "What's this?" Adrian asked, picking it up. "The woman looks like you, Mom."

"Let me see," Selina took it from him. "Oh, my god. Where did you get this? Was it in that box?"

Adrian nodded. "Yeah."

Selina frowned and punched him on the shoulder as Helene came in with another box of stuff. "I have this all sorted out," she said. "Everything was either broken or cracked. There wasn't anything really worth keeping." She paused as Adrian winced. "What did he do now?"

"See!" Selina cried. "This is why you have to sort things instead of just throwing it all away!" She waved the picture at him.

"Who are those people?" Asked Adrian squatting down next to her. "Relatives of ours or something?"

"Um, yeah." Selina nodded. "Those are my parents. And the baby is me. This was taken when my father got time off for leave when he was fighting in the Mexican-American War."

"Oh, my god," Adrian said. "You have parents? I had no idea!"

Selina sighed and ran her hands over the picture. "I know you're being sarcastic, Adrian. But there's a reason why you never met them."

"Why?" Adrian asked.

"It's a long story," Selina stood up and clutched the photograph to her chest. "Come downstairs to the dining room and I'll tell it to you."

At that moment, the doorbell rang. "And anyone else who comes along." She headed down the stairs and everyone else followed with Helene and Adrian bringing up the rear.

They paused at the top of the stairs and Adrian cleared his throat. "So...how are you?"

Helene nodded. "Better. Much. Thanks for asking." She opened the basement door. Then, she sighed and looked at him. "I know you didn't mean to do what you did, and technically it was my fault for going to the protest rally with Anthony and forgetting all about you. But you know how I am. When I see environmental injustice, I just have to do something about it. But that's no excuse for forgetting about you after I promised I wouldn't. I'm sorry." She looked up at him. "And thanks for the flowers. They were beautiful."

Adrian nodded. "You're welcome. And about that thing that I said..."

She eyed him expectantly. "Yes, that. Would you like me to pretend to have been too drowsy to hear it, or is it okay to acknowledge that it happened?"

"No," Adrian shook his head. "You can acknowledge that it happened."

"Did you mean it?" She asked. "Or was it just one of those impulsive things you said that you're taking back now?"

Adrian shrugged. "Do you want me to take it back?"

Helene thought a moment. "I don't know. It's just kind of strange, you know, hearing it from you. You're like my brother. And besides that, it was the first time anyone's ever, you know, said that to me and I just...I had no idea it would feel so weird."

"Weird in a good way?" Adrian asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Helene nodded. "In a good way."

Adrian was about to reply when they heard a noise on the stairwell. "Are you two coming?" Elijah asked, looking up at them.

"Oh, right," Adrian nodded and he and Helene hurried down the stairs. "Big touching family story ahead."

"I found them," Elijah said. "They were dawdling on the attic steps."

"Oh," Selina nodded. "You didn't have to hurry them. It's no rush, really."

"No, Mom. I want to know," Adrian said, sitting down.

"Yeah," Helene added. "We don't know much about you, do we?"

Selina sighed. "Well really, there's not that much to know. Not anything interesting, anyway. Where should I start?"

"I would like to know how exactly you know all the werewolf things that you know," Klaus said.

She looked at him in surprise. "Yeah, but Nicky, you know that."

"Yes," Klaus rolled his eyes. "But they don't." He motioned at everybody else.

"All right," Selina looked at the picture and took a deep breath. "But I can't start there. I'll get there eventually, but everything starts with a house:

The house was large and white, with green shutters and columns flanking either side of the front door. Above the front doors was the attic window. Instead of shutters, that window was hung with white lace curtains which swayed back and forth, even when there was no breeze. Despite the fact that it had been empty for 145 years, it was in near pristine condition. It was the kind of house that people avoided walking past at night; the kind of house that children dared each other to visit on Halloween. And of course it had a ghost.

They called her the Lady in Red and she was seen in the attic window. She supposedly was the fiancée of one of the soldiers who had served Mystic Falls during the Civil War. Not much else was known about her except that her initials were S.W.S. She was connected in some way to the doctor who had owned the house. Some people said she was his wife by choice. Others said that she had unwillingly become his lover. The most common version of the story was that she'd gotten engaged to the soldier before he shipped out, and then once he was gone had caught a fever. The doctor told her mother that he might be able to save her, but only if he could take her to his house. He did so and she was cured. She was so grateful to him that when he proposed, heedless of the fact that she was already engaged to the soldier, she and the doctor eloped, and were never seen or heard from again.

But there was another group who didn't see the Lady in Red as a villain. Instead of running off with the doctor, they believe that after she was cured of her fever, she rejected his proposal. Stung, he raped her, murdered her, and buried her heart somewhere on his property. That's why, they say, she stares out the attic window, and why there are holes in the front yard. She's looking for her heart, so she can be with her soldier as they couldn't be in life.

The doctor's dealings with the Lady in Red weren't his only shifty activities. When he first arrived in town, he had a large amount of money. People whispered that he was a doctor by day and a bank robber by night. And that he'd hidden his ill-gotten loot. And to this day, people still come to the house, thinking that they will be the one to find the supposedly lost treasure of Dr. Roger Stensrund, alias Bloody Roger."

"Wow," Helene said. "Bloody Roger? He didn't really rip out your heart, did he?"

Selina shook her head. "No. It actually refers to the necklace that my first fiance gave me as an engagement present. And when they talked about how I was 'raped,' it's actually code for 'he turned her into a vampire because he was one himself, but we're freaked out by vampires and want to kill them all, so we'll just say she was raped instead'."

"Wait," Helene said. "So this Doctor Stensrund guy was the one who turned you into a vampire?"

Selina nodded. "Yep. And for years I hated him for it. I was never in love with him. The man was old enough to be my grandfather."

"Oh!" Adrian's eyes suddenly up. "I remember you telling me about that guy! He was the privateer, wasn't he? So he really did have a ton of money hidden in his house?"

"Yep," Selina nodded. "Just not from bank robbing. And after I killed him during a full moon, I took all of it."

Elijah's brow was furrowed. "So you were a werewolf at that point already?"

"Nah," Selina shook her head. "But my mother, the person I got my gene from, she had me on Halloween, 1846. That was a full moon, so she was acting all strange and hormonal when I came out, and according to my uncle's notes, that meant I would be a little more...temperamental then usual, even if I never turned." She paused. "My uncle, Mama's older brother, he was the werewolf scholar of the family. When he found out what we could be, he decided that's what he wanted and researched every possible thing that he could research before he changed over. And he kept books and books of notes, all of which I have now." She sighed. "Such a pity. All that research and he was still caught and killed anyway."

"And what happened after that?" asked Adrian.

"Well," Selina put her hands on her knees. "Uncle Jacob's death set a precedence for the family. He died because of his werewolf nature, so my grandfather decreed that neither of his other children, my mother and my Uncle Charlie, would die for the same reason. He put the fear of God into them so they just spent the rest of their lives pretending like they were normal people, lest everyone else figure out the truth and they end up dead like Jacob."

Helene sucked in a breath and grabbed Adrian's hand. "Oh, my God. How horrible!"

Adrian squeezed back. He looked at the picture on the table. "So I assume that your mother made a nice, normal marriage to a nice, normal guy, right?"

Selina smiled mysteriously. "Yep. Daddy was as normal as could be...for awhile, anyway." Everyone was watching her with bated breath and she was rather enjoying herself. "When I was two months old, he decided that he needed to go fight Mexico. He figured that if he didn't make the decision on his own, then his father would make it for him. He packed his things just after Christmas the year I was born, and then he went on his way. Eventually, typhoid swept through his regiment and he fell victim to it. Most of the medical care was terrible in those days, so if you were sent to a hospital, you were there to die, not to get well. But Daddy got lucky. The doctor and his daughter, who was a nurse, took a liking to my father. The doctor saw him as the son he never had, and the daughter, well, she saw him as a potential love interest."

"How could she do that?" Helene exclaimed. "Your father was dying!"

"Yes...but she told me that he was attractive even then," Selina smirked. "Good thing my mother wasn't there to hear her."

"When did she tell you this?" Helene asked.

"Oh," Selina shrugged. "I don't know...twenty years ago or thereabouts."

"Wait..." Helene said, "Was Lucy a...vampire?"

"Yep," Selina nodded. "She turned my father to save him. But she didn't tell Doctor Stensrund what she did until after they'd put my father in the ground. Then the two of them, plus another man had to go and dig him up. That must have been awkward. And the cemetery caretaker sounded crazy when my mother showed up with me to honor my father's memory on my first birthday and he told her that Daddy's body wasn't in his grave." Selina paused. "Mama became convinced that he'd been taken by body snatchers. But she found out the truth, eventually. It was right after I turned. Mama had just completely given up on everything. She was alone. My stepfather had been killed four years before...four years too late in my opinion. So my father was dead, I was dead, Mama felt that she was all alone. And then one day, my father came back for her. When she saw him, she thought she was hallucinating of course. She thought he was an angel coming from heaven to help end her torment. She had no idea that he was a vampire. The only ones who knew that were Lucy, Doctor Stensrund, and in a sense, me. Although Daddy would wipe my memory of his visits so I wouldn't tell Mama. Anyway, when Daddy came back, Mama was drinking of course...not dressed. She'd become a hermit in her house. But Daddy saw past all that. He changed her and they ran off together. But she didn't tell anyone. She told my father that she wanted it to seem like she'd just died, so he shot her with his dueling pistol and then they kidnapped a homeless woman and Mama fed off her to complete her transformation. Then, they buried the body up in the hills along with Daddy's pistol and Mama's engagement ring and necklace so that if the body was ever found, it would seem to be hers, and nobody need ever know that she ran off with a vampire. and became one herself. At that time, it was considered shameful and the vampires in our town were being hunted down in droves and then later killed or starved out."

"Why didn't your parents look for you and take you with them?" Adrian asked.

"Because they had no idea what had happened to me. All Mama knew was that I was dead. I'm sure that if they'd known what was really going on, they would have come back for me, instead of letting me rot in Doctor Stensrund's house all that time." She sighed. "But I guess I don't blame them. They were happy. Still are."

"And of course," Klaus broke in, "the werewolf issue is still a sore spot with your mother."

"Yep," Selina nodded and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "But with good reason. Roxie's made me see that. I could have ended up like her, you know."

Adrian laughed incredulously.

"No, really!" Selina exclaimed. "When I was five, I was visiting my mother's parents' house and playing with their dog. We were running around in the yard at night and the overseer was drunk. He thought I was one of the little slave girl so he picked me up, handled me a little too roughly, and I hurt him for it. If he hadn't gotten to the main house when he did, he probably would have been killed and then guess what would have happened to me." She laughed humorlessly. "After Mama found out about it from my cousin Michael, she kept an extra close watch on me, and so did he as the years went by. Michael took it upon himself to make sure I didn't hurt myself or anybody else, and even suggested that we marry at one point so I didn't taint any outsiders." She shuddered. "I am so glad that didn't happen. Anyway, that's the story of my parents and me, and...well, not all of it. There's still the bit about how I had a baby before I turned and just after I killed Doctor Stensrund I married your Uncle Aleksandr, but you don't wanna hear all that, so we'll just end it here. And anyway," she looked at the clock. "I have to screw my courage to the sticking place and go pick up your sister." She looked at Klaus. "It's about time now, right?"

"Yes," he nodded and stood up. "Now, are yo sure you don't want me to do this?"

"Yes," Selina nodded. "I have to keep trying."

"All right," Klaus eyed her skeptically. "Whatever you say."


When Selina went to Elissavetta's to pick Roxie up, Roxie was disappointed to see her as usual. "Why couldn't Daddy have picked me up?" She whined. "I don't like you!"

Selina pushed her against the car and got down so they were looking into each other's eyes. "I don't really like you either, but I am your mother so you're just going to have to deal with it, got me? Now you just get in the front seat and don't say another damn word!"

She was about to get in the car herself when Elissavetta called her back in to ask her about something. She went, leaving Roxie behind. When she returned, the car looked like it had been through hell: there were scratches and dents on it, the side mirror was hanging off, and the windshield was cracked. "What the hell happened to my car?" Selina asked. She glared through the window at Roxie and motioned for her to put it down. "Did you do this?" She snapped.

"No," Roxie shook her head. "I've been sitting in here the whole time, just like you asked, Mother."

Selina knew she was lying but was too tired to fight her for the moment. She just got in the car and drove toward the house. Roxie was silent in the beginning, but then she said, "Can we get ice cream?"

Selina gripped the wheel and shook her head. "No. Little girls who misbehave and destroy Mommy's car don't get ice cream."

Roxie turned toward her. "But I want ice cream!"

Selina shook her head again. "No," she said firmly. "If you say one more thing about ice cream, I'm going to tie you to the roof of the car. Learn to live with disappointment. It's a fact of life."

Roxie shook her head vigorously. "No it isn't. Daddy says I can have whatever I want and I...WANT...ICE CREAM!"

Her voice rose to a feverish pitch. Selina put on the brakes hard and that made Roxie's head hit against the dashboard. She was dazed when Selina grabbed her by the collar of her dress. "Remember what Mommy said she'd do to you if you talked about ice cream again?" Selina's eyes were wide and she looked unstable.

Roxie burst into tears, a large goose egg forming on her forehead. Selina paid her no mind, but got out and into the trunk, pulling out the rope. She hauled out a still-sobbinh Roxie and tied her to the top of the car, ignoring her daughter's pleas as she started the car again and giggling when it started to rain. That would show her. When they reached the house, Selina took Roxie off the car, untied her, and after giving her a hard spanking, let her go into the house.

Feeling very weary, Selina hunched over and slogged into the house, hiding out in the library while waiting for the inevitable axe to fall. A few minutes later, Klaus pushed the library door open and strode in, dragging a damp and puffy-eyed Roxie behind him. "What did you do to her?" He demanded. "She's soaked...and look at her face!"

Selina shut her book, put it down beside her, and looked at him calmly. "Look at my car," she said. "And nothing happened that couldn't have been avoided, right Roxie?"

Roxie ignored her and looked at her father appealingly. "She tied me to the roof of the car, Daddy...then it started raining and that's why I'm all wet. And she hit the brakes really hard and I hit my head and it hu-u-urts!" She burst into tears again and threw herself into Klaus' arms. Selina rolled her eyes. "She was nagging about ice cream. I told her to stop. Being put on the car was the consequence for not listening to me. And if you look at my car, you will see that it's far from being in the same condition that it was in when I left here today, and she's the only one who could have caused the damage."

Klaus frowned and picked Roxie up. She lay her head against his shoulder. "This could have all been avoided if you would have just let me pick her up," he hissed. "I hope you're proud of yourself." Then he turned on his heel and strode out of the library. As soon as the door slammd shut, Selina sighed and rolled her eyes, ran her fingers through her hair, then lay back on the couch to savor the silence and read her book.


Meanwhile, Helene and Adrian were also sitting in silence in the backseat of his car. But they weren't enjoying it. "We have to talk about this," he said.

"Okay," Helene said. "I'm sorry I forgot to meet you at the last full moon. I at least owe you that much. As for what you said...well, I don't know. What do you want me to say?"

"Ideally, it would be nice if you said it back," Adrian told her. "Unless...you don't feel that way. In which case you can forget I ever said anything..."

"No!" Helene shook her head. "It's not that. It's just that no one has ever told me that they loved me before. It's a little...I mean, you read novels and you think you know what it's going to be like when somebody tells you they love you, and that it'll be obvious what to say in response when it happens, but I...I don't know if I can say what you want me to say." Adrian opened his mouth and she hastened to say "Not because I don't feel the same way. I do, it's just that-"

She was cut off as Adrian took her in his arms and kissed her. She put her arms around him and kissed him back. When they pulled apart again, he said, "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

She burst into tears. "What did you have to go and do that for?" She said. "That was the worst thing you could have done!" She sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"I'm sorry!" He said. He was in shock. "What's wrong?"

"I can't be in a relationship with you, even though I really want to. I can't be your girlfriend and cheer you on at football, and go to the prom with you." He handed her a tissue and she blew her nose.

"Why not?" Adrian asked. "Just tell me. Whatever is wrong we can fix it."

Helene looked at him with wet eyes. "Mom had a vision last night. She told me that if I go to the prom with you, then I'm going to die."