A/N - Hello everyone. I Have finally got the first chapter of Book 2 for you!

I hope you like it and thank you all for sticking with me so far. I love all of you.

BEGINNING OF BOOK 2

The Pierce Reality

Caroline opened her eyes and took a huge gasp of air. It felt like it was the first air she had had in her lungs in hours. The first thing she noticed was that she was still in the hospital. From the amount of light in her room, it looked like it was the middle of the night.

The second thing she noticed was the smell. She had never smelt anything like it before. It didn't necessarily smell good, but she craved it. She felt like she was starving.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. For some reason, the hospital was starting to feel more and more like a prison every second. She needed to get out.

Caroline grabbed the bag of her clothes which was sitting next to her bed and, as quietly as she could, slipped into them. She hated wearing dirty clothing, but it was better than her hospital robe. When she was dressed she headed toward the door of her room and cracked it open as quietly as she could.

After hesitating for a second to see if anyone would notice, she opened the door all the way. There was someone sitting at a desk across from her room, but they seemed to be distracted, playing a game on the computer and probably half delirious, being assigned the midnight shift.

Caroline stepped out of her room and made her way down the hall, checking every few feet to make sure the nurse was still staring at her computer. Finally, she made it to the end of the hall and turned left, quickly coming up to the front desk, which wasn't so empty.

Caroline thought on her feet, and before they noticed her, she ran up to one of the receptionists. "They need your help back there." She said frantically. "Didn't you get an alert?" One of the lady's shook her head. "Well, Susan is having trouble with one of the patients. She needs help." Caroline prayed that she had remembered the nurse's name correctly from the one time she had been in her room.

She must have gotten the name right, because the receptionist closest to Caroline stood up and jogged back down the hallway Caroline had come from. The other lady watched her go, and Caroline took her chance. She ran for the front door, and was outside much faster than she thought she would be.

The fresh air felt good. Driven by pure instinct, Caroline headed for the woods. She weaved between the trees and around the brush much faster than she thought possible. A new smell hit her nose. Burning wood. Someone had a fire going. She headed toward the smell and pretty soon she heard the sound of someone talking and a few other people laughing a little ways ahead of her.

She made it to the site of the fire and suddenly her previous hunger came back with a vengeance. She needed to eat. She needed blood. She didn't know how or why, but she found herself heading toward the first person she saw. She felt her face change and a set of fangs grew in her mouth.

"Caroline? What are you doing?" The girl was saying. "It's me, Vicki. What's wrong?" Caroline could hear what was being said, but it barely registered. She lunged and sank her teeth into Vicki's neck, draining every last drop of blood from her body

There was another knock on the door. Bonnie groaned and rolled over, pushing herself out of her bed. With her dad away for the weekend, she was all alone, which meant that she was the one who had to tell whoever was at the door this early in the morning to go away.

She opened the door, and was no longer tired. "You."

The girl standing on the Bennet's front porch rolled her eyes. "My name, is Katherine Pierce, but I guess 'you' works too."

Bonnie was tired of playing games. "What do you want now? I told you I won't help you."

"Well, you see," Katherine began, "I thought you just might want to know that your bff, Caroline, had a slight accident. Her neck may have snapped under my hands."

Bonnie took in a quick breath. "You killed her?" Katherine shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "opps". Bonnie's heart fell through her chest into her stomach. How could her best friend be dead?

"And if you don't want anyone else to die," Katherine continued, "then I suggest you give me what I want. I want a daylight ring."

Bonnie stared up at Katherine through her tears with hatred. "Fine."

Katherine smiled. "See. That wasn't too hard."

Bonnie searched through her house and found a bracelet that would work and grabbed her grimoire. The first rays of sun peaked over the tips of the trees and Bonnie placed it in the light as Katherine hid in the shadow of the house. Bonnie studied the spell in the grimoire and murmured over the bracelet.

After a few moments, she picked it up and shoved it at Katherine. "Here is your precious Daylight bracelet. That will have to do because I don't have any rings laying around that would fit you." Katherine took the bracelet and tentatively stuck her hand into the sunlight. It didn't burn. Bonnie continued. "But if you hurt any of my friends again,"

"You'll what?" Katherine asked, knowing she now had the upper hand. Not only was she a vampire, but now she could walk in the sunlight. "What are you, a new witch, going to do against me, a hundred and fifty year old vampire who just killed your friend as easily as changing clothes?"

Bonnie glared at Katherine. "Go rot in hell."

Elena opened her locker and glanced over at Stefan, debating whether or not she should approach him. Ever since he had found out about her being a vampire, things had been more than a little strained between the two. Of course, that was to be expected, but that didn't make it any easier on Elena.

She had been hoping that their situation would get better after she saved his life the night before at the bar, but it didn't seem she was that lucky. He kept his distance. He had thanked him for saving his life and been polite to Lexi, but excused and left as soon as he could. Lexi had told her to give him time, it was a big shock for him.

Elena sighed as she closed her locker, deciding she didn't need anything in it anyway. Finally, she decided just to risk it. She was a hundred and fifty year old vampire, she had been through much worse than some high school boy's rejection anyway.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Elena asked, not really sure how to start a conversation.

"I'm fine." He closed his locker and turned to her. "Look, I'm cool with the whole thing, okay? I won't tell anyone what you are. But I need some time."

Elena nodded. "Okay. Sorry." She glanced down at her schedule to check what class she had next. History, great she thought to herself. Having lived for a century and a half, she already knew a lot more about history then she wished she did.

She found the classroom and made her way to an empty seat toward the middle of the room. After a minute of the rest of the students settling in, the bell rang and the new teacher walked in. For the past few weeks they had had a substitute teacher while the board searched for a permanent teacher, after the last teacher quite the week before school. He started writing something on the board.

"Alaric Saltzman." He said. "Some people call me Ric, but you can all call me Mr. Saltzman." He smiled and spread out his arms. "I'm your new history teacher."

Elena couldn't help but smile slightly. He didn't seem like a normal history teacher. She had a feeling she was going to get along well with him.

The class went by in blur. First they went around the room and said their names and their favorite decade. "I know every other teacher asks for a random fact about you or what you did this summer, so I wanted to do something different." He had said.

"Elena Pierce." Elena said when it was her turn. "And my favorite decade is the 20's." Most of the other students had said the 70's or 80's but Elena had loved the 20's. The 20's were when she became friends with Lexi. The two of them had loved the smooth jazz and flapper dresses.

Mr. Saltzman nodded, impressed. "Nice choice."

They finished going around the room and Mr. Saltzman passed out a syllabus before going over what topics they were going to cover in the year.

By the time the bell rang, Elena was ready for lunch, but he called out her name. "Miss Pierce, would you please stay behind a moment?" Wondering what she could have possibly done already to get in trouble, she nodded.

She walked up to his desk and watched as all the other students filed out. When the last one was out the door, Mr. Saltzman closed it and locked it behind him.

Elena stood up straight, quickly at attention. "What did you do that for?"

Mr. Saltzman turned back toward her, murder in his eyes. "You killed my wife, and now I am going to kill you."

Elena backed up slowly, watching as he pulled out a wooden stake from the inside of his shirt. "Look, I don't know who you or your wife are, but I haven't killed anybody in a long time."

He shook his head. "No. I saw you. A few years ago at Duke College, you killed my wife."

Elena racked her brains, trying to remember anything like he described, but she couldn't think of doing what he was accusing her of. Suddenly the pieces fell into place in her head.

She shook her head, holding her hands out. "No, you didn't see me." Elena tried to explain. "You saw my sister, Katherine. She is the violent one. I have it under control. I don't hurt anyone unless I have to."

Elena saw him hesitate, and that was all she need. She zipped over to behind him and ripped the stake out of his hand, throwing it across the room. He spun around to face her.

"I'm not here to hurt anyone." Elena said again. "If anything, I'm on your side."

She turned around and unlocked the door, heading out into the hall, leaving behind a very confused history teacher.