Hey guys! New story alert!
Hope you enjoy this story. I have been working on it for months, so I hope that you give it a go and leave some feedback. I couldn't fit the whole summery into the box, which is a pain, but none the less, I hope you give it a go :)
As always, I own nothing related to TVD. All rights go to their respective owners. I only own the scenes and Characters which I input into my take on the story.
Enjoy
I didn't think that I'd be back here so soon. My plan was to just stop over and pass on through like I usually do. This time was different. This time I had something keeping me here, or better yet, someone.
Mystic Falls wasn't my home. Not even close. I'm from New York, or I was at least. That was many, many years ago. I've spent the last few decades travelling all over the world. Seeing everything that I hoped I would see. Ever since I was a child it was always my dream, and one fateful night it became my reality. If I were to go back and rethink the offer that was presented before me...I don't think I'd change my mind. No. I was certain that I wouldn't change my mind. She saved my life that night. The stranger in the dark. My guardian angel. When I had nothing else to lose or live for, she took me in and helped me escape my torment. That was 156 years ago.
It was also the day I was reborn. I would be indebted to her forevermore. If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't be who I am, never mind alive. My father was an abusive man when he had a drink in him. He would become physically and emotionally violent when he'd had too much, and I was always the one that he'd project that anger onto. My brother, Edward, always tried to protect me from the wrath of my father, but more often than not he was unsuccessful. When I was thirteen and Edward was nineteen, my father slowly began to stop his rage-induced outbursts. He knew he was now no longer a match for my brother. Ever since my mother abandoned our family, Edward and I were left to fend for ourselves most of the time. This drove us to become stuck together, protecting one another. This however didn't last long as my brother caught an infection. His health declined rapidly within weeks, and he quickly succumbed to his injury.
Thus leaving me once again in the hands of my father as I no longer had him there to protect me. I was only sixteen when Edward passed, leaving me completely, and utterly alone. Months had passed by since he died, and my father began to drink more and more, and eventually he lost his job as a blacksmith for the local town. On the day he lost his job, he came home earlier than expected and caught me sneaking out the back door. I always snuck out to sneak into the local theatre to watch the shows, but without Edward there to cover for me I was caught red-handed. In the frenzy of his fists flying through the air, I finally mustered up the courage that I needed so desperately and attempted to defend myself. Just as the palm of my right hand collided with his bloodshot cheek, my eyes widened in fear as the 'slap' sound rang throughout the hollow house. He began to laugh menacingly and straightened his posture so that he was towering over my cowering body on the cold floor.
With his large hand, he swooped down and grasped a fist-full of my hair and yanked me to my feet. I was dragged through the house by my hair, screaming in fear and pain the whole way until he opened the front door, and threw me to the ground. As my body collided with the wet slab on the sidewalk, I shuffled away from my fathers feet as he stalked towards me. The anger was oozing from every pore in his body as he frothed at the mouth like a wild animal. My head snapped from left to right, looking at the neighbours that poured out on to the street to witness the whole ordeal, begging them for their help. No one moved a muscle. Not one person helped me in my time of need. They were cowards. The lot of them.
The last words my father ever said to me chilled me to the bone. "You are the reason your mother left, and you are the reason your brother is dead" He hissed in fury, "You are dead to me."
A father shouldn't resent his children as much as mine resented me. He didn't even hold this much anger and hatred towards my brother when he was alive. I guess I was just the weak one in his eyes. The easy target to vent all his emotions onto. The one who wouldn't fight back. I'd be lying if I said I didn't resent this man too, but it didn't have to be this way. None of it did.
After my father shunned me in front of what felt like the whole town that night, I was left to rot outside in the elements. The winter months were upon us, and I had no one else to turn to. No neighbour would help me, and no one would even look at me once my father walked back into the house and slammed the door closed. I was now truly alone.
I wandered around the streets that night, looking for somewhere or someone to take me in, but I failed. That was until a young, blonde woman approached me as I sat by the kerb. She sat beside me and told me that she had witnessed what my father had done to me hours earlier. I confided in this stranger, to which she took pity upon me and invited me to come back to her home. Having no other option, I followed this stranger home that night.
We continued to forge a strong connection with one another over the coming weeks. She wasn't much older than me, to which I was surprised about as she held herself like a grown woman in society. She was the definition of beauty and grace. She taught me many things over the time we spent together. She helped me finesse my skills in reading and writing. How to carry myself with grace, and how to stand up for myself against people like my father.
Things quickly changed one dark night when she shared a dark secret with me. She confided in me that she was a vampire. I didn't believe her to begin with and laughed it off as a joke, quickly dismissing her claims. Vampires were only legends that people were told to scare their children with into behaving well. Campfire tales and theatre shows. I was quickly humbled and in a state of shock when she proved to me that what she was telling me was true. Fangs protruded from her gums, veins dropped down from her eyes, which were also blood red, as her face shifted.
Surprisingly enough for both of us, I wasn't scared. Nor did I run. I instead ran my fingertips down her face, feeling the veins under her eyes as she smiled. It was on this night that she changed my life forever. It was the offer of a lifetime, and I took it without a second thought. After she fed me her blood and snapped my neck, I woke within a few hours in the same position on a bed in a candle-lit room. As much as she prepared me for what was to come, nothing could have prepared me for the intense hunger I would be fighting against during and after my transition.
Presented with human blood in a glass, I quickly drank it to complete my transition into a vampire. It tasted divine. Like nothing I had ever tasted before. I wasn't expecting to be as settled with the fact that I was a vampire now, but I was fully committed. There was no going back once that blood touched my tongue. Not that I wanted to anyway. The stranger who saved my life quickly became my mentor over the following weeks, and began teaching me the ways of a vampire. How to hide myself from others during the day, and how to hunt in the night under the shadow of darkness, along with how to compel people into submission.
Being a vampire was a lot harder than I had originally thought it to be. I only looked at the positives when presented with the offer. Immortality, speed, compulsion, strength, agility, healing, and enhanced senses. Who in their right mind would turn down such an incredible offer, and continue to live their mundane lives.
I was however dreading the negatives that would arise after my transition. Enhanced emotions took me some time to come to grips with, but I eventually managed to get a handle on them. Not walking in the daylight was one of the hardest ones to come to terms with. That and the intense hunger I fought against everyday. I would continue to struggle with feeding for some time, but with her help and dedication to getting me through it, I eventually managed to quench that as well. Though I would continue to struggle in the years that followed when I went off on my own.
We stayed together for a few years, the stranger and I. We forged a bond deeper than I thought two people ever could. Having her confidence and blessing to go on my own journey, and make a new life for myself anywhere I pleased was all I could hope for. She and I continued to keep in contact as we parted ways. Always checking in on one another. It was always just the two of us...that was until she introduced me to him.
I spent the better half of a century travelling within the shadows across the world. That was until I met a witch in New Orleans one evening. I befriended said witch and gained her trust enough for her to grant me the object of my desire, which I had been seeking for, for over 50 years. The ability to walk in the sun with humans. To live a seemingly normal, mundane life once more. I underestimated the toll being alive truly took on one's body and mental state. You continue to live, while people all around you die.
I never forged any relationships. I couldn't put myself through that pain again. I had one person in my life that I trusted unlike any other. His name was Eric. During my time travelling and settling in New Orleans in the 1900's, I met him at a bar the night after I had my daylight ring forged by Reya, the witch. It was the first time I could be myself in public, as I didn't have to make excuses as to why I couldn't meet up with people. We got into a relationship shortly after meeting, we just clicked together like magnets. My three month long bliss was ripped away from me one night when Eric was killed during a raid in the very bar we had met.
I was devastated, and quickly flew off the rails and indulged my true nature. I went on a month-long feeding frenzy, killing anyone in sight. People speculated, but they never really had anything to go on. Their bodies were too ripped up to pin-point who or what had caused their death. One day it was a psycho, sadistic killer. The next was a wild animal roaming the streets.
The only person who knew exactly what was going on was Reya. She threatened me, tried to attack me, but she was a young witch just coming into herself. She was no match for me. I snapped her neck like a twig before she could even blink. I fed from her, and left her corpse on the floor of her shop. I spent the next few months in New Orleans, and I slowly began to regain my clear mind and came down from my blood high. I had to relearn my techniques that I was taught. I had to do her proud, and not ruin all she had taught me. I owed her that at the very least.
There has been a gap in my mind ever since 1923. I had lost days, weeks, months, there really was no telling. One day I was in the square, and then the next I was making my way back to the North East, back to my home town. Again, I continued to look for what I felt like I was missing. A purpose. A reason why I took that deal back in 1852 from my saviour. I knew that there had to be a reason she happened to be there that night, and why she chose to save me. I just had to find it.
The 1970s were a wild time. The fashion, the music, the men. Everything had changed. I had changed. I was back in New York this time around, and I was fully aware of who I now was as a person. As a vampire. I had met very few of my kind over the decades that I had travelled. Then in a surprise encounter, I met one that I'd never forget. He was arrogant, selfish, self-centred and downright cocky. His name was Damon.
His cockiness almost cost him his life that night. I was older, stronger, and more in-tune with my abilities than he was. So when he continued to pursue me after many rejections, I snapped his arm in half effortlessly. The bar tendered, Will, who I knew from returning back home previously, introduced Damon and I after I had injured him and threatened to rip his heart out. After airing out the hostility between us, he and I would then become close in the early 70's for a brief time, but not in the way I wanted. His personality was overwhelming, and he could wear you down-to-the-bone when it came down to it. One night, we partied a little too hard, and all my hard work of staying on the wagon was threw out the window when he convinced me into feeding from humans, and I fell into a rut of partying and endless feeding off of customers that came into the bar. It was a momentary bliss. One that I wouldn't forget, but for all the wrong reasons. One night I went too far. A woman with fiery red hair, and a weak body was my last victim. I sucked her dry until her body was blue. She only came into the bar for a bottle of water. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I should have.
Once Damon and I had finished indulging in our shared meal, he had helped me take her body out the back into the alley. I was shocked to be met by a little girl sitting by the dumpster...waiting for her mother to bring her some water. My heart sank into the pit of my stomach as she watched Damon drop her mothers body onto the pile of garbage. Her doe-eyes welled up with tears, and she began to sob uncontrollably. Damon tried to talk me into coming back inside the bar to continue on our endless binging. To leave this child here on her own in the back of the alley, parent-less and alone. I refused. As much as I wasn't myself at that moment, I knew that I couldn't do what he wanted. He reached for my arm, but I quickly stepped back and created distance between us. I compelled the little girl to forget everything that she had witnessed. She didn't need to remember seeing her mother like that. Once she walked out of the alley, Damon and I argued for a few moments before he retreated back inside of the bar. That was the last time I had seen the raven-haired vampire.
I once again left New York in my wake and continued to move around for a few more years. I had to regain my perspective on the whole situation. I had to get myself under control once again.
However, all my previous struggles, and hardships lead me up to one of the best times in my life. The year I met him. My travelling brought me to this quaint, little town called Mystic Falls. It was a lovely town, filled with nice, respectful people. Who never asked many questions, I may add. I could walk around freely, and no one would know the difference. The last person I ever expected to bump into in Mystic Falls was none other than my saviour. Lexi Branson.
Our paths crossed one day in 1977. She was here with another man, a very handsome man at that. I was instantly pulled in by his forest-green eyes and strong bone structure. He had a captivating smile. Warm, friendly, and welcoming. Although, he also had an air of mystery about him. He was closed off a lot. Unwilling to open up. Lexi introduced us to one another, and from that moment on, he and I had an instant connection. It was like we had known each other since day dot. No awkwardness, no falseness. We were just in-tune with one another. His name was Stefan Salvatore. The next few months were completely astonishing. Stefan, Lexi and I stayed together in Mystic falls, forging a friendship that would never be broken. I felt like I had finally found what I had been looking for all these years.
The reunion was cut short for Lexi and I, as Stefan asked her to go and help his brother. I remained with Stefan in Mystic Falls, and it wasn't until we shared more about ourselves that I had a revelation. His brother was Damon, the vampire I had been partying with in New York a few years prior to meeting Stefan. We were both just as shocked as one another as I filled him in on my time in New York with his brother. I made it a point to let him know that nothing had happened between the raven-haired vampire and I. I had to make that fact known for my sanity more than his.
Stefan told me all about his past as we shared a drink one night. He told me how he'd turned, how his brother had turned, and how it was their father that had killed them that night, triggering their transition. However, that wasn't the part I held onto the most. It was when he told me about another vampire, Katherine. She came between his brother and him, causing a rift that drove them apart from one another for decades. She's the one who turned them both. In her own selfish ways, she knew what she was doing. To me, it sounded like she couldn't let Stefan go, or she didn't want to.
Stefan and I bonded over our mutual struggle with blood. I however wasn't nearly as bad as he was. He was a 'ripper', or so that's what Lexi called it. I could control myself when I needed to, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it entirely when I let my walls down and embraced who I was. There was nothing like it. The hunt, the kill, the reward. It was spectacular.
We went our separate ways a while later, but the three of us would once again cross paths in Chicago, 1987, at a Bon Jovi concert. If there was one thing we all shared in common, it was our taste in music. That night would be one to remember for sure. The music, the people, the three of us being together once more. There was nothing else like it. After the concert and a few more days together in Chicago, Stefan, Lexi and I parted once more. The three of us would remain in contact with each other whilst off doing our own things in different cities. I'd send Stefan gifts for his birthday each year, mostly books I had acquired from my travels, along with new journals. He in return would send me updates on himself, what he was doing, how he was coping, how he was managing his hunger. Then he went quiet. He fell off the map. There were no longer letters, postcards...nothing.
Months had passed, and I still hadn't heard anything.
This brings me to today.
I stood outside of the Mystic Grill. Illuminated by a lamp that hung outside of the door as I looked through the wooden blinds that hung on the windows. I had been here for a few weeks. Not out of choice, but necessity. I had to watch her and learn about her. I had to make sure I was right about the brunette girl.
It had been a few months since I arrived back in Mystic Falls. Ever since Stefan went MIA, I knew this would be my best shot at finding him. It was his hometown after all, and I had run out of other ideas. I was here all but three days when I finally found him walking in the streets, under the shadows of the night. He was doing the same as me. He knew of the girl, and he was almost stalking her from afar. My guess was that he thought the same as me when I first laid eyes on her. The resemblance was uncanny. Every feature was the same. It was impossible for her to be anyone else, but we were wrong. She wasn't who I...we thought she was. She was human, nothing more.
As the night had begun to settle over the little town, I had finally worked up the courage I had been building up over the past few weeks to go to his house. He had no idea that I was here, watching him from afar as he watched her. He was almost oblivious to the rest of the world since he saw her. Reckless, I would say, but it wasn't my place.
I chapped on the large, wooden door and waited patiently for someone to answer. A few minutes had passed by and I was still standing on the outside of the door, growing more and more impatient by the minute. I turned the handle and pushed the door open and peered inside. There seemed to be no one home at the moment, nor could I hear any noise coming from inside. I pressed my hand against the boundary and smiled when it slipped right on through. Having been here a few years prior, I was already invited inside the grand Salvatore Boarding House. Stefan's uncle...nephew, had invited me in before. So I blew a sigh of relief when I managed to cross the boundary without any complications. It meant that he was still alive, and this was still their house.
I closed the door over behind me and walked further down the hallway. I slipped my hands into the back pocket of my jeans and looked around. Everything seemed to be the same as the last time I was here. Almost to the point where nothing had moved at all. It was when I stopped at the bottom of the staircase that I finally heard voices coming from upstairs. I walked up the staircase until the voices became crystal clear to me who they were. Zach and Stefan were inside of his room in the middle of a heated discussion. I nudged the door open slowly and made my presence known.
I was met by silence and slight shock as I walked into the room and smiled.
"Cordelia?" Stefan gasped slightly. He looked taken aback by my sudden appearance. It just confirmed what I already knew. He was too wrapped up in this girl to notice that I was ever here at all.
"What?" I smiled gleefully, "Have you forgotten what I looked like already?"
His lips parted into a wide grin as he rushed over to me and enveloped me into a tight hug. Once his arms were wrapped around my back, I sunk into his embrace and buried my head into his neck. I felt safe being back in his arms. Like I had never left them.
"Of course not!" Stefan laughed as he placed me back down to the floor and backed away. "I-I just wasn't expecting to see you here."
"I could say the same thing about you."
His lips pressed into a fine-line as he looked back at Zach.
"Please, Uncle Stefan," Zach sighed heavily, "Mystic Falls is a different place now. It's been quiet for years, but there are people who still remember. And you being here," He looked briefly in my direction before focusing back on Stefan, "It's just going to stir things up."
"It's not my intention." Stefan informed him.
"Then what is? Why did you come back? After all this time, why now?"
I gave Stefan a knowing look before he shook his head, "I don't have to explain myself."
"I know that you can't change what you are. But you don't belong here anymore. Neither of you do."
"Where do I belong?" Stefan asked with sadness to his tone.
Zach shrugged, "I can't tell you what to do. But coming back here was a mistake." As Zach made his way to the door, he gave me a small dip of his head in acknowledgement before he left Stefan and I alone.
The silence was deafening.
"Why are you here?" Stefan asked, breaking the tension.
I smiled, "The same reason you are, Stefan."
His brow furrowed as he approached an open bookshelf and pulled out a book. Inside contained an old photograph of a girl he once knew, Katherine.
"It's not her, you know." I said as I approached him and looked at the photograph. "I thought the same thing, but I've been watching her. It's not her."
"I know that." Stefan replied and closed the book over. "How long have you been in Mystic Falls?"
I shrugged, "A few weeks, maybe a little longer." I walked over to his bed and took a seat on the edge, "I came here looking for you."
He frowned, "Why?"
"Why?" I scoffed, "You went MIA, Stefan. I didn't know if something had happened to you or if you..."
"If I lost control?"
I smiled, "Yeah," He walked over and took a seat beside me on the bed, "I just wanted to make sure you were alright. But you can imagine my surprise when I came back here and found that girl."
He sniggered, "Yeah, yeah, I was just as surprised."
"Then, why have you stayed?"
"I-I don't know, Cordelia. I just had to get to know her."
My face fell slightly at his words.
"I don't think it's a good idea, Stefan."
"I have something to ask you." He said, ignoring my previous words.
"What is it?"
He took a sharp inhale, "Do...Do you know anything about these 'animal attacks'?"
"You mean, 'did I do them'?" I smiled as he turned to face me. "No, I didn't. I haven't fed from a human since the last time I saw you."
"You haven't?"
"No," I shook my head, "That was the pact we made, wasn't it?"
Stefan laughed and placed his hand on mine. "It's really good to see you, Delia."
I gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "It's good to see you too, Stefan."
A while later, Stefan and I were sat in the library having a bourbon together as we chatted and filled each other in on what had happened over the past few years.
"Where have you been staying?" Stefan asked as I lowered the glass from my lips.
"A hotel a few miles down the road." I informed him.
"You should come and stay here."
"Ohh..." I smiled awkwardly, "I-I don't know if that would be a good idea."
"Well, why not?" He asked with a frown.
"Zach...He's not exactly on board with our kind. Me being here would only make things worse."
Stefan smiled, "Don't worry about him. I'll handle it."
I smiled and nodded my head as I took another sip of the amber liquid.
"Is that a yes?" Stefan pressed.
"If you insist." I laughed as he took a seat beside me on the sofa. "I don't know how long I'll stay. I only came here to make sure you were okay."
"You should stay here for a while," He grinned, "Or better yet, you should come to school with me."
I groaned, "Ugh, why would I want to do that?"
"Have you actually been to school before?"
I shrugged, "A few times."
"Have you graduated?"
I smiled, "Nope. Something always happened, and I had to leave, or something else popped up."
"That's exactly my point." Stefan exhaled, "This could be your chance, our chance, at a normal life again." Stefan brought his leg up onto the sofa and turned his body to face me. "This could be the new start you've been looking for. That we've both been looking for."
I scrunched my nose up, "But school, Stefan. I'm too old for school."
"Technically, you're not."
"Not really time for semantics, Stefan. You know what I mean."
"Just...Just think about it, Cordy. You might actually like it here in Mystic Falls."
I nodded my head, "Travelling has become a little tedious now."
His face lit up, "So you'll enrol?"
I bit my bottom lip as I gazed into his eyes. There was hope and genuine happiness within them, and I wasn't about to be the one who extinguished that flame. "Yeah, alright." I laughed, "I'll do it, for you."
I retrieved my things from the hotel and brought them back to the Salvatore house later that night. Maybe Stefan was right, maybe this was just what I needed. To participate in normal human tasks. Who knows, school might actually be good for me. I can't deny that fact that once I laid eyes on him, I didn't want to be anywhere else.
Once I settled into my room down the hall from Stefan's, I unpacked everything I brought with me, which wasn't much, and put them all away. I was looking forward to the fact that I was going to school tomorrow. All I had to do was compel the administrators into letting me enrol, which is easy. I've done it before, but I never stuck it through. I got bored of being alone in a city where I knew no one, but this time will be different. This time I'll have him.
This is just the beginning.
