A/N: Please review if you read! More updates soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries (too bad, right?). The characters and settings are simply borrowed from the brilliant Julie Plec & Co.

We're one breath away from our judgement day. You got to learn to love.

"Learn to Love" - Bon Jovi

August 19, 1864

Dear Diary,

I was right about this town. Suspicions run rampant through the streets; weary gazes, whispered questions, and vervain. But, it is all justified. Yesterday, I ran across a newborn ripper. For a moment, the youngling tried to feed from me in a show of his true age. The house in which he inhabits is a grisly testament to his lack of guidance. Bodies everywhere, some clinging to the last breaths of life, others in varying stages of decay; it was clear that he needs help before he spirals even more out of control and gets himself killed.

I'm the first one of our kind he has seen since he was born on the heels of his sire's death, and that built an instant bond of trust. Katherine Pierce, better known as Katerina Petrova, has a reckless streak, and she's lived up to and died her infamous ways this time. It was not just one newborn she left behind, but two. Stefan, the ripper, and his brother Damon; they were both her jealous lovers. But in a show of true poetic justice, Katerina is nothing more than a pile of ash in the rubble of a church.

My arrival to this town couldn't be at any worse of a time, but I have to stay. Stefan needs to learn that it's okay to feel as a vampire. Guilt is natural, immortal or not. The immortal carry a bigger burden of guilt, because we have no escape from it. Humans are lucky. Death is a promise for them. Eventually, they have a reprieve. Our kind does not, unless we meet the absolute end.

The sour taste of love and loss still haunts Stefan, and I'm afraid that will be our biggest struggle. He traded the absence of pain and suffering for his humanity. It's a foolish choice, nonetheless. Love is waiting for everyone, but only if you're willing to accept it. Whenever you block emotions out, you block the ability to love. What a sad life one would lead without love or the prospect of it.

Hope resides in him, though. That much I can attest to. He allowed me to clean up his mess. A couple of the women, I was able to save. The others were buried with a whispered prayer in unmarked graves throughout the forest. I wish I could have offered them more. I know better than to be overly hopeful, though. Stefan Salvatore has a long journey ahead of him down the road to humanity and co-existence with the human residents of this town.

Speaking of this town, it's one of the more beautiful places I have been fortunate enough to happen upon. Somehow, it has managed to elude the tragedy of the war. There's no sign of torching fires or cannon blast craters. Something is at work here, but it's beyond my comprehension.

The town, Mystic Falls, is run by a council of the founding families. Carefully prosed questions during my trip into a saloon yesterday gave me plenty of answers but even more questions in turn. A Gilbert man, I cannot recall his name, sat at the bar nursing his broken heart over glass after glass of whiskey. Completely inebriated and an easy target, he was my main source of information. He even let it slip about the vampires burning in the church.

It wasn't long after that, that I found Stefan. Am I crazy to believe that love can be enough to redeem a broken soul? I've happened upon his kind before. All but one had the capacity to love again and to be saved. Hope resides for Stefan in that fact. Surely, he loved Katherine. But love will come again. Life and death is a cruel pair, but they're one you must accept. You cannot have the one without the other. His grief over her death can only cast a shadow across his life for so long. Eventually, the sun rises and bathes you in a brand new light.

The task will be convincing Stefan of this. He has a brother as I mentioned, Damon. Where Stefan spiraled out of control, Damon is momentarily perfection personified when it comes to control of his grief. It is buried under a mountain of an illusion of apathy. If I'm honest, I think Damon carries more of the burden over her demise. Not because he was the source, but because Damon knows what love means, the consequences, and he's willing to face them while Stefan is not. But one day, Damon's facade will fall, too. You can never outrun your past and the ghosts of what haunt you. That's a lesson I've learned from experience.

The evening sun is starting to sink away to the west, and nightfall will be soon. Stefan and his brother have the most unusual rings in their possession. They can endure the sun and walk freely during the day all thanks to these rings. Stefan said they were left behind for them by Katherine. They're enchanted by a witch. I've made a promise to myself to visit Bree soon in search of a trinket for myself that has the ability to let me roam the daylight hours. But until I can, I'm stuck inside of this boarding house for a couple more hours.

I have plans to meet with Stefan in the wooded area lining town, and I trust he will be there. If he isn't, I know it will be my duty to find him. One way or the other, Stefan will not live his days as a ripper. I'll make sure of it.

Alexia Branson

Mystic Falls, Virginia