July 1, 2009 - She is able to walk in sunlight, though she wears no ring. This morning I waited near her house and followed her to a grocery store and back. She either didn't sense me or didn't let it show.


July 2, 2009 - She walked to the cemetery again today. She sits at the same grave, writing in what seems to be a journal. When she left, I looked at the grave. Grayson and Miranda Gilbert died on May 23. Presumably, they were the other two people in the car, the people I couldn't rescue in time. I also presume that Grayson was Johnathan Gilbert's descendant, and therefore a member of the Town Council. Why Katherine was with them that night, and why she would visit their graves, I don't know.


July 3, 2009 - The house where she stays is on Maple Street. A woman leaves each morning and returns in the afternoon. A teenage boy also seems to live there permanently. In addition to that, I've seen several other people come and go, mostly young, and all human. Is Katherine compelling them? What do they do for her? Do they know what she is, or is she concealing her true nature?


July 4, 2009 - I'd almost forgotten how much Americans like their fireworks.


July 5, 2009 - Zach is wary of me, as if he thinks I might rip out his throat at any moment. He tolerates my presence in his home, but reminds me daily that the basement is full of vervain, and that with one phone call he could inform the Town Council of my presence.


July 6, 2009 - I followed Katherine down to Main Street, where she met two other girls. They went into a few shops and ended their day at the ice cream parlor. Anyone seeing her would think she was a normal teenager, laughing with her friends.


July 7, 2009 - Today I had the brilliant idea to go to Fell's Church. As I walked through the woods, I smelled smoke and heard screaming. The screaming was obviously only a memory, but the scent of burning debris still lingers in the air, as if the trees themselves have been breathing it in and out for over a century.

Nothing remains of the church but the ruins of a crumbling wall. From the ground grow grass and brambles. How Katherine escaped from her underground tomb remains a mystery.


July 8, 2009 - I was peacefully reading a book when Zach cornered me and demanded to know where Damon lives. I haven't seen my brother in fifteen years. I don't know where he is. Zach has convinced himself that my arrival in Mystic Falls means that Damon will soon arrive too, and bad things will begin.


July 9, 2009 - Tonight I followed Katherine and the other two girls to the theater. The Katherine I knew didn't go to the movies. I waited on the corner until they exited. As she walked down the street, she sipped from a plastic straw in a paper cup. At the corner, she pushed the button at the crosswalk, and then complained that the light didn't change. The blonde girl said, "You have to push it harder," and Katherine said, "I can't push it harder."

She must be purposely concealing her strength. But why?


July 10, 2009 - This morning, I followed the woman who lives with Katherine. She drove to a row of brick bungalow-style office buildings, and was inside for eight hours. She appears to be a normal human with a normal job. Why would she live with a vampire?


July 11, 2009 - Katherine didn't leave the house all day. As the sun set, the teenage boy left, and I followed him to Main Street. He met a group of kids his age, and they walked up and down the street and went in and out of restaurants until midnight. For a while, I listened to their conversation. I heard his name - Jeremy - and heard him mention his sister. That must be the older woman.


July 12, 2009 - When Zach woke up I heard a shout from the kitchen. I'd left a carton of cow's blood in the refrigerator, and when I walked into the room I saw him dumping it into the trash. He said he can't bear the sight of it next to his food. Maybe I should get a mini-fridge and keep it in my room.


July 13, 2009 - So many things don't make sense. Why does she go out almost every day, but rarely at night? Why does she eat food? Why have her mannerisms changed? She was always so determined, knowing exactly what she wanted and how to get it. When I knew her, she would never have walked up and down the street, window-shopping. She would have seen something and taken it. She wouldn't have asked anyone, "What do you want to do tomorrow?" She would have said, "Do this."


July 14, 2009 - Today, as I lurked on Maple Street, I saw Katherine leave the house. Then the woman opened the door and called, "Elaina!" Katherine turned and went to her.

Possibilities:

She changed her name.

She doesn't want the woman she lives with to know her real name.

She's not Katherine.


July 15, 2009 - She returned to the cemetery again today, and spent an hour in front of the Gilbert graves.


July 16, 2009 - I asked Zach if I could use his computer, and he asked, "What for?"

Secret vampire stuff, of course. He stood over my shoulder while I typed "Grayson Miranda Gilbert." An article from the local paper popped onto the screen, and I clicked on the link.

"They were Council members," Zach said. "What do you want to know about them?"

"I'm just wondering who they were."

Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, of 2104 Maple Street, died on May 23, when their car drove over Wickery Bridge and into the water beneath. Grayson was the town doctor. Their 16-year-old daughter, Elena, was found alive. The couple also had a son who was not with them at the time.


July 17, 2009 - Could she really not be Katherine? Could she really be a normal human girl named Elena Gilbert? Has she lived her life in Mystic Falls, and does she even know that vampires exist?


July 18, 2009 - In town today, I saw the blonde girl whom I've often seen at the Gilbert house. As she walked down the sidewalk carrying a shopping bag, I touched her shoulder.

"Do you know Elena Gilbert?" I asked, as she turned around.

"Elena?" she said. "Yeah, do you know her?"

"Yes," I said.

"How do you know her?" she asked. "You don't go to Mystic Falls High."

"I know her family."

"Oh," said the girl. "It's awful what happened to her parents, isn't it?"

"Yes," I said. "Have you lived here your whole life?"

She nodded.

"And you've known Elena since -"

"Ever since kindergarten."

"And she was a child then?"

"Yeah," she said, laughing, "it was kindergarten."

I looked deeply into her eyes. "You never saw me."

"I never saw you."

"We never had this conversation."

"We never had this conversation."

I turned around and left.


July 19, 2009 - As soon as Zach left for work, I turned on his computer and searched "Elena Gilbert Mystic Falls High School." The school's website gave me much information. She's a cheerleader and an honor student. There have also been articles about her achievements in the local paper, where I found several photos of her cheerleading team. I clicked on a black-and-white picture to enlarge it. She doesn't just resemble Katherine. She could be her twin.


July 20, 2009 - Today, I returned to Fell's Church. I kneeled onto the ground and pressed my hands into the soil. I feel confident that the grass and brambles haven't been disturbed for over a century.


July 21, 2009 - I sat at the computer from the moment Zach left in the morning until the moment he got home. It's unbelievable to me how much personal information is now put out in public for the world to see. The original founders would be happy to know that their descendants are still running Mystic Falls. The mayor is a Lockwood, and the sheriff is a Forbes.

I also found out that the cheerleaders have practice tomorrow afternoon, in the high school's eastern field.


July 22, 2009 - I drove to the school and parked at the top of the hill. I watched the cheerleaders for a while, but Elena Gilbert was nowhere in sight.


July 23, 2009 - After dark, I walked to Maple Street. As I climbed the steps to the porch, I asked myself what I was doing and why I was doing it. I paused at the front door. Did I expect to knock, and, when someone answered, introduce myself as their friendly neighborhood vampire?

I pressed my body against the door. I heard Elena, and she referred to the woman as Aunt Jenna. They didn't know where Jeremy was, and spoke in worried voices. I left, and they never knew I was there.


July 24, 2009 - She went to the cemetery. Jeremy stood on the sidewalk, and I watched him watch her.


July 25, 2009 - After dark, I walked toward the Gilbert house. When I reached Maple Street, I realized that my intention was to lurk in the shadows, spying in the windows - and that this is becoming a pattern. I have to know her. But as a vampire, how can I?


July 26, 2009 - What if I wasn't a vampire? What if I was a 17-year-old human, living in the year 2009? What would I do to gain the attention and affections of Elena Gilbert?

Today, it's taken for granted that teenagers' social lives are centered around school. When I was human, we weren't even called "teenagers." We didn't "go out," and we didn't have "dates." If you fancied a girl, you asked a mutual acquaintance to introduce you. If she agreed to dance or even to converse, it meant that she might like to marry you. Marriage was the point, but today they have "boyfriends" and "girlfriends," and it's just for fun.


July 27, 2009 - I told Zach about my plan, and this was his response: "You're not really going to try to pass yourself off as a high school student?"

Well, why not? Physically, I'm still 17. I'm strangely pale and I live on blood, but I'm still 17.

"You'd have to change your name," he said. "No one is called Stefan in the 21st Century."

No one was called Stefan in the 19th Century either.


July 28, 2009 - This is my story:

I'm Stefan Salvatore, high school student. Both of my parents have died. I spent my early childhood in Mystic Falls, but then moved away. Now I've returned, and I live with Zach, who I'll say is my uncle. And, yes, I'm a Salvatore. I'm named after my great-great...I don't know how many greats...grandfather. If anyone asks where I've lived, I'll tell the truth: Italy. If anyone asks about brothers and sisters, I'll tell the truth: I have a brother, but he's not part of my life.


July 29, 2009 - Zach has informed me that I can't simply walk in the doors on the first day of school and sit down in a classroom. Paperwork is required: school records, a birth certificate. I looked deep into his eyes. "I'll figure all that out."

He repeated, "You'll figure all that out."

I looked away, and he returned to normal, shouting, "Did you just compel me? Don't ever do that again."


July 30, 2009 - School begins in September.


July 31, 2009 - I watched Elena at the cemetery today. She sat before her parents' graves. She wrote in her diary, and she cried.