Damon left the house at that point and headed towards the Mystic Grill, leaving his brother and girlfriend shocked and with a cliffhanger. Upon entering the establishment, saw one of his only friends sitting at the bar nursing a drink. That friend being Alaric Saltzman, high school history teacher by day and part-time vampire hunter that originally came to town in order to kill Damon for information about his missing wife, Isabelle.

Damon/ 3rd

I walked into the Mystic Grill after the slightly emotional and unnerving story-time with Stefan and Elena about part of my past. I was still feeling agitated from them going through my stuff, but also slight relieved that they found our album because I've been meaning to look for it. 'No you weren't…' the thought immediately interjected as I spotted Ric at the bar grading papers with a glass of bourbon.

"Hey buddy." I called out as I neared him, taking the stool on his right and flagging down the bartender for a drink; also causing Ric to look up and see me since entering. He let out a sigh before finishing up the paper he was working on before turning his full attention on me, narrowing his eyes a bit as if sensing that I wasn't in my usual state.

"So, what's up pal?" Ric asked, knowing that something was bothering the century plus old vampire. I sighed before taking a drink, "Just the usual Stefan and Elena questioning me on my past, but today they stepped up their game by digging through my stuff and bringing out a photo album."

Now this peeked the history teacher's interest. "An album of what?" he asked, wanting to know more about the man who has lived through the different periods of time. I downed the glass of dark liquor and motioned for another for confidence before responding "Just an album of my adventures with my wife. All the major ones at least, I'm sure there's another with all our other pictures."

Ric was dumbfounded, he would have never in a million years suspected that this volatile piece of work vampire that he would reluctantly call friend was married. 'Who would be crazy enough to tie the knot with Damon?' he thought while staring at the dark-haired man down another drink and motioned for a third drink. 'Or did he compel or trick the poor soul…' the question passed right after the first one, thinking of a more Damon-style scenario.

"So wait, you're actually married?" Ric asked, making sure that he heard right and wasn't just misunderstanding similar words that could have come out of his mouth.

"Widowed, technically. Married for about 23, 24 years before she died. So looks like we're part of the same club." I glanced at him as I answered, while taking a sip of my preferred drink. I then started thinking about the rings that I kept in a small wooden jewelry box that was Talia's favorite that I've hidden in the top drawer of my dresser; which made my thoughts go dark and caused a forlorn expression to show on my face. While all this is happening deep in my sub-thoughts, Alaric was just trying to process all this new information about Damon and questioning everything about the supernatural creature from his actions to his thought process and ideals that could have been influenced by the death of this mysterious wife and what type of person she was. "Who was she?" he finally asked, wondering if her name was in the public records and could possibly dig up anything later. I let out an exasperated sigh, letting my head drop to the bar-top before taking a deep breathe and turning my head to face the eager hunter. I opened my mouth to reply with…

3rd pov

Elsewhere…

Stefan and Elena were still on the couch when Damon left the Boarding House, leaving them stunned and shocked by the new facts that were Damon's life. 'How could he have not told me about this…' Stefan thought as he continued to stare at the floor while Elena stared at the album that now rested on the coffee table. It took Elena a few tries before finally being able to speak, "Did you know about this? That he had a wife and that they've been married for a while before dying?"

It took him a second to register the question to process and then jumping back to the present to where there was an equally shocked and confused person beside him. "No, I didn't, Damon has always been either very secretive or open about his experiences and even more so quiet about the separation periods. He never told me anything about meeting someone, let alone marrying them. Damon is the type to use girls and leave them for another and has been hung-up on Katherine for over a century, so for him to marry is something that's completely out of character for him."

Elena quietly listened to her boyfriend try to comprehend the possibility of this while going through the album again, carefully looking for clues and details that could tell her more about this mystery woman. As she and Stefan analyzed each picture, they came to the last couple of photos which one of them was of Damon and Talia outside of a familiar brick building with his signature powder blue Camaro in the background. "Hey, isn't that the boarding house?" she asked, pointing to the ivy-covered brickwork that was on the side of the house before someone walked into the backyard.

Stefan took a closer look, "Yeah, that's the house and what date is on the back of this photo?"

They quickly and carefully flipped the image over to see a neat 1994 written on the back. It took Stefan a moment before a memory popped up of seeing her in the parlor, looking around the place as he was talking to Damon at the time. "Now I remember her, he brought her to the house during the spring to visit. He introduced her as his friend and that he wanted to come home for a change and that he also changed. I never thought that that was actually his wife and that she died right here in the house."

Meanwhile….

As the two teens where having revelations in the parlor, upstairs on the second floor in a bedroom dominated by modern-style and the color black was the soft sound of rustling and feet padding across the wood. The curtains were pulled up by an unseen force over the hook to let the light filter in from the French doors along with the windows. As the curtains moved so did the towels in the door-less bathroom to end up folded on the racks in an orderly fashion, dried as if new. With those to tasks finished, the closet door was pulled open to straighten out the clothes and clean up anything that was misplaced. The last thing that needed to be done was the bed, tucking in the corners of the sheets under the mattress to make hospital corners. Also, to straighten out the bedcover and sheets with the duvet, putting hotels to shame with how perfectly pressed and equal the bed looked. As the last of the pillows were being placed in the proper order, the sunlight caught onto a figure in the shape of a woman; showing the silhouette of curves and hair as it was leaning over the bed to give the pillows a last fluffing before straightening up. The shadowed figure had glowing gold flake surrounding it as it turned to the doors and walking towards them only to fade into the light as if nothing had happened.

This is the official 1st chapter of the story line!

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