Bonnie's POV

"Bonnie."

My eyes flew open, but for some reason, my lids felt heavy.

So heavy.

The ground beneath me was cold. I could feel it through my jeans. I ran my fingers over the unfamiliar soil.

Where was I?

As soon as the thought hit my mind, the world around me became clear. I was in a cemetery that was long forgotten. The tombstones and statues had eroded, and were chipped with age…vines were growing on almost all visible surfaces.

I quickly stood as I realized what had triggered me to open my eyes in the first place. Someone had spoken my name.

"Who's there?" I could hear the slight tremble in my own voice.

"Look how beautiful you have become."

I couldn't find the courage in me to turn toward the ominous voice. I wanted to run as far away as I could, but it seemed like my fight or flight response was completely failing me. I couldn't find the energy to run, but I also didn't want to face the threat.

"Bonnie Bennett. I'll ignore that threat comment, seeing as how this probably is a fearful situation, but I promise you…I mean you know harm, child."

"You can read my mind?" I didn't hesitate as I whipped toward the voice. A beautiful, caramel colored lady with dark brown 1920s type curls smiled at me with her full, dark red lips. Her light green cat eyes were eerily familiar.

They were my own.

"I wouldn't say I'm reading your mind. I'll just say we have a…familial connection."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Helena. That's all you need to know for now." I felt a warm jolt as Helena took my hands into her own. "Bonnie, there is a powerful being that has arrived in Mystic Falls. An evil being."

"Evil?"

"Yes. He is evil down to his core. He's there to find something he lost many years ago. He is going to come to you for help." Helena's eyes became distant. "You cannot help him, Bonnie! You cannot let him ruin her—"

"Her life is already ruined, Helena. I thought I told you to bite your tongue?"

A woman that looked similar to Helena, except with long, wavy hair seemed to appear beside of Helena without any warning.

"Qetsiyah, I can't let her do this—"

"You can, and you will."

A silent moment passed between the air, and I could tell Helena and Qetsiyah were communicating through their thoughts. After a few moments, Helena looked back at me, and I noticed tears as they began to run down the older woman's cheeks.

"Bonnie, tell your Grams hello for me. Let her know I'm proud of the woman that she has become…and that I am so sorry for everything I did."

Before I could question her, Helena leaned in, kissed me on the cheek, and left nothing but the unsuspecting rustle of leaves behind her, as well as an empty space as to where she had been standing.

"Now that she's gone…"

My attention had been drawn back to Qetsiyah. She stepped in front of me.

"I promise, this won't hurt one bit." She quickly placed her hand over my left temple.

"What are you—"

I looked around. I was sitting straight up in my bed. The clock on my nightstand read 3:25am. I let myself sink back down into bed, and stared straight up at the ceiling.

"…Doing?" I finished my question for no one in particular.
..

Klaus's POV

I looked in the mirror as I adjusted my bowtie. I hadn't worn a bowtie in what seemed like ninety years. I had been playing it safe for years, and I was sick of it. Rebekah was right. I knew she wouldn't be the same, so why should I be?

"Looking very dapper, Nik. Haven't seen you in a nice bowtie in a long time."

"Well, dear sister, I thought a change would be very welcome. I do admit, my attire has been slacking lately."

"Yes it has been, Nik. Now! Enough about you, how do I look?"

I smirked as I glanced up from my hands resting at my bowtie and saw my sister dressed in a dark red, elegantly layered dress.

"You look beautiful, Rebekah. I'm sure everyone will be jealous of you tonight."

I watched as Rebekah's vain-filled eyes lit up at just the thought.

"You really think so?"

"Yes. Now, let's go join the town folk, shall we?" I held my arm out as I faced my sister. She lightly placed her hand on my forearm.

"Let's. I'm sure this pageant will be one for the history books."

…

As Rebekah and I walked up the brick steps to the wide-open entrance, we took in the sea of people surrounding the property. They were all dressed surprisingly well.

"I think this may be the one place we actually fit in, Nik."

I unconsciously paused in front of the door frame; I could feel that awful, invisible barrier radiating outward from the inside of the home.

"Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions, Rebekah. We will always be different."

I noticed Rebekah's eyes slightly sadden as she let her vision float toward the open entrance. I hated seeing her like that. Everything she wanted seemed to be right within her reach, but at the same time, slightly out of it.

It was a terrible pattern for my dear sister. From the moment she was born, it seemed that life had taken it upon itself to tease her endlessly with the things that she could do, but would never have the chance of doing.

As a small child with nomad parents, making friends came few and far in between for Rebekah. As soon as she would build a friendship, we would be moving on to the next village. When Rebekah was fifteen, our parents finally settled into a village and started the life that they had always wanted. Father found a job as a huntsmen, while mother stayed at home to care for the house and her five children. She soon started to send us to school with the other village children, but it was not long, though, until Rebekah was homeschooled; our parents convinced she was too intelligent to attend the village school.

For three years, we all lived a normal life in that village. We played, and laughed, and lived, and…aged. As we aged, we all found friends and hobbies; except for Rebekah. She had one or two friends she had met while running errands at the market, and had one suitor whom our mother and father had high hopes for. We all thought we would make it to our baby sister's eighteenth birthday, and then her wedding. We also thought we'd all one day hold our niece or nephew in our arms as Rebekah and her husband looked on at their bundle of joy with pure happiness in their eyes. We all thought so much…

Until they killed us.

They killed us along with any hopes Rebekah had at living the life she wanted, and now, centuries later, my dead heart still broke as I watched her eyes linger on the older woman with grey hair that sat across from us at a restaurant; knowing that grey-haired woman would never be her. It hurt to look away as her eyes seemed to zero in on a giggling baby that's being coddled by its mother…To see her look at the entrance of this house, knowing that there's no way we are allowed in unless it is asked of us, that it is a heartbreak all its own.

"Wonder where the owner of this place is?" Rebekah casually asked the loaded question as she looked around. Without that one person, we would never get in.

"Oh! You two must be Klaus and Rebekah Mikaelson. Hello!"

My eyes shifted toward the voice of an olive-skinned woman whom looked to be in her early forties. She was dressed in a very conservative teal colored suit jacket with a white form fitting dress underneath. Given her business-like appearance and disposition, I knew I had met our mayor.

"You must be Mayor Lockwood." I held out my hand to make her acquaintance as Rebekah smiled at her kindly.

"Yes, but call me Carol. Mayor Lockwood was my husband, and although I've taken over as Mayor of this town, I'm far less formal than he was." Carol took my hand with ease and smiled. "Now, won't you and Rebekah please come in?"

I smiled slightly at her offer as I held my elbow out for Rebekah to take.

We followed Carol through the house where they were decorating the stairwell for the pageant that would take place in about an hour so. As we were walking, Carol instructed to me that I would have to be standing at the stairwell as Rebekah's name was called, take her hand as she made it to the bottom step, then follow her outside where the pageant took place.

Rebekah nodded in understanding as I did the same.

"Carol! How are you doing?" A voice in the crowd pulled the mayor away from us, and for a moment, we just took in our surroundings. It felt odd to be surrounded by humans in such a mundane place. A tiny town in a forgotten state, filled to the brim with townsfolk whose ancestors seemed to have cursed them into never leaving these twenty-five miles per hour roads.

She would not be one of those townsfolk.

"What the hell?" Rebekah's voice seethed in anger as she let her eyes wander to the far side of the yard.

"What?" I peered over to where Rebekah's eyes had landed and fought the urge to chuckle. She had coincidentally found the one girl whose dress comically matched her own.

Rebekah seethed as the pretty brunette tucked a long ringlet behind her ear and laughed at a joke the blonde male beside of her had told.

"Oh, it's not even the same dress. Lighten up, Rebekah. I'm sure a few more girls will have the same wardrobe issue. Let's take a little walk, then get ready for the pageant."

Rebekah sighed.

"Alright, but steer me clear away from the Golden Goddess and her Boy Next Door."

..

Caroline's POV

"Okay, ladies. I believe we are all in the correct order. Now, you're just going to listen for your name to be called, and your suitor will be waiting at the bottom of the steps for you to lead him out onto the dance floor." I listened to Mrs. Lockwood as she explained the gist of what was to happen. "Now, make sure you all remember that descending down the steps is a part of the pageant that you are judged on. So, please, take your time, and try to be as beautiful and as poised as possible."

I nodded much like the other girls in the room, and I soon heard a soft melody playing as Mrs. Lockwood introduced herself to the audience.

Before long, Susan Faulkner was being called to make her way down the staircase. I knew I was next.

I walked to the edge of the steps and stood there. Something felt…odd. The air felt like it was charged with electricity. I was afraid that if I touched the railing of the stairs, I'd end up shocking myself to death if such a thing was possible for me.

"Caroline Elizabeth Forbes."

I let my hand rest on the railing as I began my descent down the marble steps. The electricity seemed to still be in the air, but I ignored it.

Until I met his eyes.

The music seemed to have gone mute, and the steps seemed to stretch on as I tried to continue my balanced glide down them.

I could not take my eyes off him. His dirty blond hair that was neatly swept to the side complimented his blue-green eyes perfectly. His nose was perfectly symmetrical, and his lips were deliciously full.

As Matt Donovan took my outstretched hand, I didn't let my eyes leave the stranger at the bottom of the stairs. There was something about that man. . .

"Care, lead me out!" Matt lowly whispered to me in a panicked state as I still let my eyes linger on the stranger. I finally let my eyes snap to Matt's face. I smiled embarrassingly as I finally started to lead Matt into the back yard.

I already couldn't wait to lay eyes on the stranger at the bottom of the stairs again.