Remembrance

Two weeks later:

For six hours and fifty-two minutes I sat on a train. And for six hours and fifty-two minutes all I kept thinking about was about this man and these two women. I pictured them in so many different ways.

The way we meet, the way they look, who they were... everything.

Katherine only gave me a brief description on how Johannes looked. Saying he had my hair color and blue eyes, he was tall and looked like a true Swede man. But, for a spilt second my mind would work its way over to my brothers.

The Salvatore Brothers.

People either fawned over them or despised them, even to this date. For years I kept an eye on them watching Stefan at his darkest phase in Monterey, I watched his true animal be unleashed. I watched Damon hurt for his brother and then soon despise him. I've heard only whispers of Mystic Falls and what it was now. Vampires roaming it once again along with witches and werewolves.

I was the baby of the family. The one who always had two protective older brothers protect her from anything and anyone. Stefan Salvatore the one who my father favored of his two sons, the one was full of heart and strength. Zelena, a spitting image of my mother was tall and elegant but, very driven and had a dark side to those she hated. Damon Salvatore, the black sheep of the family, he was seen as a coward for not going to war but he was anything but that. He was a man's man, he was witty, handsome and resourceful. Then, there was me, Cordelia Carlisle Salvatore. I was the quiet one, skillful, and scholarly; I also was very different looking from my entire family.

My ash blonde hair stood out, though it wasn't super blonde people still took noticed. I was often teased about my vibrant green eyes and light freckled face. I was also envied for my soft wavy golden lighted hair and my intellectual mindset. Often my father would guilt me into silencing my voice since woman of that time were home bounded and leave the thinking to the men. I resented it but, obeyed my father's wishes.

I was closer to my father than my mother. I believe my mother looked at me as a constant reminder of her lost love and her love child, though she loved me and cared for me, it wasn't the same attention she gave Stefan. He was the Golden Boy of the family. I remember nights where she would have her personal handmaiden care for me. Cleo, was a house slave but she was very beautiful. Her beautiful curled locks and light mocha skin with light freckles just like mine made her glorious. She cared for me in a way my mother could not. I didn't blame my mother for the way she acted, after all I was the spitting image of my father, now I can fully understand the pain she must have felt.

She was more open towards my sister but only because she had barely any resemblance to anyone but her. It was obvious the girls were favored by our father and the boys by our mother.

I loved my mother very much even at her funeral I was saddened but I didn't cry. I stood there alone at the service with Cleo holding my hand, refusing to show emotion. Damon got drunk and didn't show causing my sister to go after him and keep an eye on him. My younger brother, the nobel Stefan wished it was me rather than my mother after he learned she caught the illness from me. I got better partly because of what I was but back then it was a miracle, my mother wasn't so lucky.

The story that Katherine told me was like a missing piece of the puzzle, everything made sense. A year after my mother's death in 1858, my father entrusted me in the care of Cleo. Only to learn go my mother's betrayal after Zelena's death in 1864. Johannes insisted to my father that I needed to be with my real family, my biological one. Apart of me wondered what it would've been like to leave with him if my father allowed it but, another part was grateful because I loved my father so.

Damon and I became rather close while Stefan quietly resented me. As we grew older Stefan let go of the resent and him and Damon grew close once again, while I latched onto Cleo just as before. Then according to Katherine they found out of my true origin not to long before Katherine's arrival. It was kept a secret and how they found out I wasn't sure. No one was to know of my mother's acts, no one wanted to speak of my mother in vain; Therefore, it was rarely brought up.

I discovered I was different when I was awoken on the eve of my sixteenth birthday to find my room extremely cold. My room was covered with icicles and windows thick with frost, I refused to leave my room that morning. Cleo, begged at the door to let her in and for an hour we sat on the floor crying. She revealed to me that I was a witch, that I had come from a long line of witches. She never said from where or who passed it to me but she protected me. She told my father I was ill and should stay in bed for the day, she spent the day attempting to calm me and control my powers.

I confided in my sister about everything and she to me but, she never disclosed the issue of her resentment towards my father. She carried the secretive hate same way that my mother had for him. A few years after the death of my mother, Zelena married a man by the name of William Everhart. I knew she didn't love him but she wanted to get away from the controlling hands of my father. William Everhart was a wealthy plantation owner by day but a brothel goer by night. Sleeping with whores more than his own wife and drinking more and more as years progressed, within a year and half their marriage was mess. He was violent and abusive and soon it led to her downfall. My brothers didn't attend the funeral of their beloved sister instead they spent their time with Katherine, the new orphan girl my father took in.

When Katherine came to stay with us. Stefan and Damon pushed me out more and more as Katherine drew closer and Emily helped me with my powers as Cleo watched like a proud mother. Katherine vowed to keep my secret saying I reminded her of her former self, when I discovered she was a vampire I accepted her because in the eyes of man we were both monsters. After my sister's death my father became more angry and vile. The vampire hunt began and my brother's were murdered by the hands of our own father, I cried. Then, when I discovered they were vampires turned at the hands of Katherine, I was rejoiced thinking we could be together, at least in secret.

That was the night I watched my older brother murder my father in front of my very eyes and smirked. I reached out to them constantly to attend the funeral, at least from a distance. It was a private service. The town in the morning and family at night, the whole town mourned him but, when nightfall came I was the only family who attended. I held Cleo's hand once again and cried softly, my brother's no where in sight.

I never forgave myself the day Cleo died. I cried at her funeral, I sobbed at the casket while a yard slave, Cleo's lover, tried to tear me away. The only reason I was allowed to mourn for her was because she raised me, she wasn't my handmaiden, she was a mother to me. Back then it was rare for a slave to get a funeral but she was a rare being. She drowned in the lake where she accidentally slipped and hit her head. I stayed at her tombstone but yet again my brother's never showed.

Cleo once spoke of journals my mother wrote, she told me before she passed she had her place them in a box and bury them. I knew that, that was my only hope to find who my true family was. Every ten years I would visit Cleo's grave but I never once thought of the journals, that is until I found Katherine.

"All those to Charlottesville."

I stood up and grabbed my bag, I began walking towards an exit as the train slowly stopped. I stood on the platform and looked around, seeing businessmen and children and friends get off the trains around me. I walked at the same fast pace as they were and made my way towards the exit of the terminal. I walked a few blocks at a calmer place and spotted a car dealership, walking inside I was met with a sales person. I didn't know the first thing about cars, I never needed one in New York within two hours I had a brand new car. Placing my luggage in the trunk I sat in the driver's seat and began driving. An hour and twelve minutes it took to get to Mystic falls. I knew I ran the risk of seeing my brothers and I didn't mind. My main priority was the journals not to find them and hope we would be a family again. After years of isolation and struggling alone I was done trying, I wasn't bitter nor hurt I just had bigger priorities and no one was getting in my way.

"Welcome to Mystic Falls, Virginia"

The town sign had changed since the last time I was here but the town seemed to be stuck in time, never changing. My nerves finally kicked in as drove through the town, as long as I didn't get caught up in this supernatural windstorm I was good.