New Orleans, 1864.

IT'S BEEN A WEEK SINCE BELLA LIVED IN NEW ORLEANS. She tried her best to forget what she saw on the night of her father's death, but it kept coming back to her as a nightmare.

She really didn't want to remember her brother like that, as a monster. She had known him all her life and she wanted to remember him as a sweet person he used to be. But the last image of him killing their father got stuck in her head and she didn't know what to do or how to deal with it.

"Bella, sweetheart, could you help me with the table please?"

It was her aunt's voice that knocked her out of her mind. Bella hurriedly shook her head to shake off any kind thoughts of that night, then went to help her aunt.

Her uncle owned a small restaurant in the city. And in order make herself more useful, she volunteered to help them with that. The place itself was always busier at night so she got more work to do. She was more than okay with it, as that was the only distraction she had.

Around 8 o'clock, when all the customers had finished their dinner, her aunt asked her to be the one to close the restaurant for the day as she needed to go home early to check on her uncle who wasn't feeling well. Without any hesitation, she agreed to help. More work meant more distraction. And that was exactly what she needed.

After making sure that everything was in place, she went out and locked the door. And when she turned to leave, her eyes caught a pair of blue eyes watching her from across the street.

"Damon?" she said her brother's name in disbelief. And in the blink of eyes, he just disappeared. "No, wait!" she shouted, eyes wide in shock. And without a second thought, she ran towards the street where her brother just disappeared.

Bella knew that both Damon and Stefan were no longer human, they were vampires now. To be honest, she couldn't decide how to felt about it. Her father despised vampires, he hated them with an undying passion. She used to pretend to hate them too just to make him happy. Deep down, she always felt a bit unfair to hate something that she had never even met, something that had never done anything to her. But that was before all these horrible things happened.

She kept running towards where she thought Damon was gone. She was so hurt when she thought she had lost her two brothers forever, that she didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. But now she knew they weren't really dead, she certainly wouldn't just let them go.

However, her footsteps had to stop when a grown man confronted her. "Sorry, little miss. Adult only," the man stated. Only then did she realize that she was standing in front of a bar. Her face was filled with confusion as she shifted her gaze from man in front of her to the bar's window. She could have sworn she saw Damon's shadow entering the place.

But she knew she couldn't enter the bar, at least not like this. She needed a plan, a good one for that matter.

AFTER SPENDING ALMOST ALL NIGHT TO PUT HER HEAD TOGETHER, she finally managed to come up with a plan. She didn't know if her plan could be categorized as a good plan, but it was certainly the best one she had.

She needed to look like an adult to enter the bar. And in order to do so she would need men's clothes, beret hat, and a mustache. For the men's clothes and beret hat part, she could steal it from her uncle's wardrobe. As for the mustache, she could use her own hair to make the fake one.

Later on the night, when everyone else was asleep, Bella snuck out of the house through her bedroom window. It was her first time doing this and she could feel her veins pumping with the adrenaline rush. She couldn't believe what she about to admit, but she was kind of like it. No wonder Damon liked to break the rules even though he had repeatedly suffered the consequences.

By the time she got to the bar, the place was bustling. The grown man from yesterday didn't say anything when she walked past him, so she considered her disguise a success.

As she walked into a bar, she was greeted by loud music around the building. She scanned the room and there were already about a hundred drunks present. The place reeked of alcohol, sweat, and horny hormones. Lucky for her the people in there were too busy with themselves to even notice her.

Bella began her search mission from the bar counter, followed by the bar tables. She then turned to scan every corner of the room. It was a bit hard to do that when there were too many people and some of them even tried to start a conversation with her.

She sighed in disappointment when she found no sign of Damon. Her body suddenly went limp. It seemed that she went through all the trouble to just being there for nothing.

Between the lack of sleep, the failure, and the noise around her, Bella could feel her head getting dizzy. She didn't want to give up just yet but she also couldn't stand any longer in the room. In the end, she chose to go to the restroom to clear her head.

She almost went into the women's restroom as she realized she was still undercover. She wasn't sure she wanted to be in the men's restroom, but she didn't really have a choice.

Bella sighed in relief when she found no one there. After removing her fake mustache, she washed her face in the washstand. For a moment, she just stood there and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She then tried to take several deep breaths, and the dizziness in her head slowly disappeared.

She decided to stay there for a while to think clearly. She didn't understand Damon at all. What did her brother really want? Why did he keep appear and disappear like that? Was it because he was afraid that Bella would hate the new him like their father did?

Frustrated, she finally decided to give up for the night. It was always impossible to understand her oldest brother.

As if the night wasn't bad enough, she had to face another bad luck when she accidentally bumped into a guy in front of the restroom. Inevitably, the hat she was wearing fell off. She could feel her long blonde hair flowing back down to her back, blowing up her cover.

Heart pounding, Bella looked up to check the guy's reaction. Strangely, the guy just stood there, no sign of irritation on his face. His lips curled up into a thin smile. He somehow looked like he was amused by her.

She hurriedly picked up her hat from the floor. "My apologies, sir." And without waiting for the response, she dashed out from that place.

Bella could feel another adrenaline rush coursing through her veins as she walked down the vacant streets of New Orleans. Only this time, she didn't really like it.

"I have to say... you're the most pretty thing to ever come out of a men's restroom." She startled as she heard someone's voice right behind her body. And when she turned around, she found the guy she accidently bumped into. He was standing right behind her with a smirk plastered on his face. "Or any other place for that matter," he continued. His accent was more prominent when he spoke.

Deciding that it would be wise to just ignore the stranger, Bella turned and started to walk away. But she could hear another footsteps following her from behind.

"What's your name, love?" he asked softly. But somehow she had a really bad feeling about him.

Without stopping or turning around, she protested, "Why are you following me?"

"Because I haven't got your name."

She groaned in annoyance and lied, "Margaret."

"You're lying," he scoffed. And once again Bella chose to ignore him. But he didn't give up. He quickened his pace and started walking next to her. "I can't help but notice... not only you're not a man, but you're also still underage," he remarked, his eyes were already glued to her. "So tell me, darling, how old are you?"

"I'm nineteen," she lied again without even bothering to look at him.

"Ah, another lies."

As much as she didn't want to admit, but the guy really started to get on her nerves. "If you don't believe what I say, why bother to ask?" she hissed sharply and quickened her pace too, wanting to get as far as possible from him.

Bella could hear the guy's chuckle from behind her back. And in a split second, he magically appeared in front of her and blocked her way.

She stared at the guy in shock, eyes widened and mouth fell open. She hurriedly looked back and found no one there. How did he manage to move that fast?

"Alright, let's try this again," he exclaimed casually as if nothing was wrong. "I'll start," he continued. His charming smile appeared as he held out his hand. "I'm Kol Mikaelson."

Bella swallowed hard as she stared at the guy's hand. Her bad feeling had turned to fear. But she knew better than to showed it in front of him.

Trying hard to maintain her brave face, she looked back at the guy's face warily. "If I tell you my name, will you stop following me?"

He shrugged. "Maybe."

It was clear that the guy wouldn't stop following her even if she told him her name, but what choice did she have?

"It's Bella," she finally answered and slowly reached his hand.

"Now that's more like it." He went back to his ever-present smirk as he brought her hand to his lips. "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Bella."

She suddenly realized that the guy was actually quite handsome. He had short brown hair with dark brown eyes, a chiseled jawline with high cheek bones. If only he weren't so creepy, Bella would have enjoyed his slight attraction towards her.

He shoved his hands into his pockets after Bella pulled her hand back. "Forgive me for asking, but what exactly were you doing in there?" He tried to sound polite but somehow she still found him creepy. "Because not only were you clearly underage, but you didn't seem to like that kind of place either."

Her eyes narrowed at his statement. This was the second time Kol had brought up her age when he didn't seem much older than her either. The guy was probably only two or three years older than her, four at most.

"You talk as if you're much older than me," she retorted sarcastically.

Kol suddenly laughed. Apparently, he found that statement quite amusing. "You'd be surprised to know." He pulled his hands from his pocket and crossed them across his chest. Tilting his head to the side, he repeated his question, "So, what was it?"

Bella sighed and explained, "I was looking for someone." She looked away as her chest suddenly felt tight. "My brother." She didn't know why she bothered to add when he didn't even ask.

"And did you find him there?" he asked again.

She shook her head. "No."

"That's unfortunate." For the first time that night, that guy sounded genuine. The smirk even disappeared from his face. "So I take it you were on your way home?"

Bella took a deep breath and nodded. If only this guy hadn't stopped her, she would have been home by now.

Kol's lips curled up into a smile, but this was a sincere smile, not like the smirk he had been giving her all night. "Let me accompany you then."

She frowned as she replied, "I don't think that's a good idea." She wasn't even supposed to tell him her name, let alone let him know where she lived.

"And you think it's a good idea to walk alone in the middle of night?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "You know, that pretty face of yours tends to make men have wild imaginations. With wild imaginations comes bad intentions. You sure you can handle that alone?"

Even though he sounded like he was just trying to scare her, but she knew he had a point. It wasn't a good idea to walk alone in the middle of the night, especially for a girl like her.

But of course, she wouldn't just admit that he was right. "What about you? How would I know you don't have any bad intentions to me?" She crossed her arms across her chest and looked at him with her chin up.

He chuckled as he stepped closer towards her. Bella could feel her body freeze as he whispered right into her ear, "Trust me, darling. If I had bad intentions to you, I wouldn't bother to do the small talk." His breath was hot against her neck and she swallowed hard as he started to pull away.

He held up his hand to her as he continued, "Now, shall we?"