A/N: So I'm back with a new story that I've just been itching to write and can't wait to share with all of y'all. Everything I've written is all original and made up, except from The vampire diaries characters of course.

-August 31st, 2008-

Bonnie Bennett; now old and grey, sits on her front porch, admiring the view of her West Virginia lake house.

The gentle wind etches against her frail skin as she slowly shuts her eyes and opens it back up again, listening to the quietness around her.

Over the long years, the old witch has learned to not only love, but appreciate the beauty of the wind. It comes to her so boldly and touches her skin in the most sensual, gratifying way. In coldness it rouses her to wakefulness, an alertness that lets her savour the moments in dryness and rain just the same. Today is almost still and she finds herself in joyful anticipation, absorbing the bright colors of the scenery around her.

Quietly humming a sweet melody of her favorite song from many years ago; Wild is the wind by Nina Simone, she slowly lifts her finger to mutter a spell to start the music box she was gifted by a special person years ago. She shuts her tired eyes once again and listens to song while reminiscing about the summer of the mid 60's.

Having turned 85 years of age just several months back, she would often sit alone in silence for the most part of the day and reminisce about the past. She had been alive for a very long time and being the powerful witch that she is, she knew that she was nearing her end and she had made peace with that fact. Although her life was far from perfect and easy, she lived a fulfilling life, one that she was proud of and even though she had regrets and deep secrets she had carried with her for years, she knew it was her time to go and she could do nothing except wait for the moment to happen.

A while later, her thoughts were interrupted by a car pulling up besides the lake. Almost startled by the noise, the old witch quickly opens her eyes to see her granddaughter; Simone slowly stepping out the car.

Simone stopped to take a good look at her. She shifts her eyes to glance over at the lake, before going to the boot of her car to bring out her big suitcase as her grandmother watches on. As she made her way over to the porch, dragging the suitcase along with her, Bonnie couldn't help but spot the heavy look on her face and immediately knew that something was wrong.

Simone is the eldest daughter of her only child Vanessa who died after performing a difficult spell five years ago in July of 2003, which sent her into grief that she never fully recovered from even till this day. Her other granddaughter Ava lived across the country and although she rarely saw her or kept in contact with her as she did with Simone, she still loved her nonetheless.

"Nana" Simone spoke as she bent down to place a soft kiss on her grandmother's cheek. "Its good to see you again, but what did we talk about you sitting out here all alone, the sun's almost going down and its getting cold, c'mon lets get you inside nana" Simone sighs as she went to wrap the blanket securely around her, before using her magic to slowly push the front door open.

Bonnie gently places her hand on her palm, slowly calming her from her worry. "I wanna hear all about your birthday sweetheart, it was your 25th after all. Also how is Joshua?" she asked, referring to her long-time boyfriend since High-school. Joshua, also being a witch and from a very powerful coven is one of the main reasons they lasted so long as they both shared that bond in common. "Are you both having a little quarrel again, is that why you're moving in?" she asked, glancing down at her suitcase.

Simone lowers her head and breathed out a deep sigh. She firmly puts her hand on her hip, before going to hold steady eye-contact with the old witch.

"I left him nana... now lets get you inside" she explains, quickly brushing of what she had said.

As Bonnie watches her with worry, Simone uses her magic to quickly wheel her suitcase inside. She then picks up the music box before going to lift her grandmother from her chair and slowly leads her inside the house. Once they arrive inside, she goes to sit her down on the armchair, placing the music box beside her as she knew how much she loved it and always loved to have it next to her.

"You and Joshua have been together since you were both Sixteen... what happened sweetheart?" a curious Bonnie questions.

Simone quickly took of her jacket and tosses it to the side, before going to shut the curtains. "Are you hungry? I can get dinner started for us if-"

"Simone!" Bonnie quickly cuts her off sternly.

Silence quickly lingers around the living room, almost like a calm before the storm. The sound of the clock ticking only made the atmosphere even more tense as each second passes.

Simone drops her arms to the side as she tries to hold in the tears in her eyes. One thing about her grandmother was that she could easily read her like a book, even at moments she tried to hide whatever she was feeling on her face. Growing up she had always been closer to her grandmother more than her mother before she was alive. Seeing as her mother was reckless especially with her magic which had gotten her killed in the end, her grandmother was the one who had raised her and her sister, taught them everything they needed to know about magic and being a Bennett witch and showed them how not to make the same mistakes their mother always did.

Moments later, Simone takes a seat opposite the old witch, breathing out a deep sigh. She then flickers her eyes up to the wedding picture of her grandparents dated '1957'.

She knew that her grandmother had married her father when she was only thirty-four, which was quite old according to that time period as people were used to getting married much younger than that then. Her grandmother would always tell her that they lived a simple and comfortable life till his death in 1981, but she always wondered if she truly loved him.

"Nana I'll always love Joshua, he was my first love and the love of my life for a very long time but... we just grew apart... it was my fault actually" Simone mutters, lowering her head to twiddle her fingers.

"What do you mean by that?" the old witch questions.

Simone took a brief pause to lift her head back up and look around the living room before speaking back up. "I haven't told you but a few months ago I met someone else and I fell in love with him. He's not perfect, he's the opposite actually, and he's dangerous and impulsive, but he makes me feel like I'm alive and I haven't felt alive in a long time nana. I still love Joshua in some way, but this is different".

Bonnie watches as tears begin to appear in her dear granddaughter's eyes as she slowly takes everything in. There was a hint of fear in her eyes yet also relief and she knew what it meant all too well.

"This person... he's a vampire isn't he?" Bonnie asks as Simone rapidly turns her head to face her. She sucks in a shaky breath and slowly nods and Bonnie sighs and shuts her eyes, feeling dizzy and almost lost for words.

"I'm sorry nana, I know you've always taught Ava and I to stay away from them ever since we were young but-" she stops as she immediately spots the look on her face. It looked like an overwhelming mix of emotions all at once. Her face seemed clouded of past memories that she had buried deep and it shook her to the core as she has never seen such a look on her grandmother's face before. In the twenty-five years that she had been alive she had always known the old, powerful witch as a simple quiet woman, who loved and protected the people most closest to her and with absolutely nothing at all to hide.

"Nana?" Simone spoke quietly, as she gazes across at her with a morose feeling. "Nana, what's the matter? what's wrong?".

Ignoring her, Bonnie slowly picks up her walking stick from the side before slowly getting up from the arm chair. "If you excuse me, sweetheart" the old witch mutters quietly before going to make her way up the stairs as her granddaughter watches her every move with heavy eyes and millions of questions flowing through her head.

Once Bonnie had arrived at the top stair, she then heads inside her bedroom with the help of her walking stick. She opens up her bottom bedside drawer to glance down at an emerald necklace she was gifted to by a special person. For many years she had kept that necklace hidden away aswell with all of her secrets that she buried deep down inside her, but right then it felt like something had triggered in her and she could no longer bury her emotions just like she has for so many years.

As her frail fingers begins to tremble, she quickly shuts her drawer and takes a seat on her bed. She then gazes of into the distance, letting the silence overcome her as she reminiscences about what she's been dreading.

A short while later, she hears her bedroom door slowly creak open and she looks up to see Simone walking inside while holding her music box in her hand.

"You know ever since I was young I always used to wonder why you went everywhere with this old music box" Simone sniffs, drying the tears in her eyes with her sleeves. "I remember when Ava almost broke it that one summer when she was running around with it and you scolded her about it, I knew then that it meant a lot to you... who gave this to you nana?" she asks quietly, sitting down on the bed beside her. "Was it grandpa? did he give this to you when he was alive?".

"Your grandfather wasn't much of a gift giver, he never much believed in materialistic things" Bonnie answers swiftly.

"Then who?" Simone questions again, this time with more curiosity in her voice.

Bonnie pauses for a little while to look ahead. She then turns to face her, lifting her hand to place gently on her shoulder before she spoke up. "Its true that vampires are impulsive and dangerous and as witches we are inclined to hate them till our last breaths but I'm not angry that you have gotten yourself with one, I'm not angry that you left Joshua".

"You're not?" Simone arches up as she gazes deeply into her grandmother's eyes.

"Simone you're twenty-five years old. You have your whole life ahead of you, you're gonna meet so many people you never expected to meet, experience things that you never thought were possible and this isn't the first time you're going to fall in love with somebody that's going to make you feel alive" says Bonnie.

Simone's eyes started to water once again as she witnessed the look of pain and dismay evident on her face.

"Your grandfather was a good partner, we lived a comfortable life together and he gave me your mother, but my love for him was conditional..." she spoke briefly. "I've been with several men in my life, but I've only truly been deeply head over heels in love three times. They each happened at very different times in my life and I loved all three differently... they were all vampires".

As Bonnie finishes the last of her sentence, Simone's eyes quickly widens in shock, not believing what she had just heard. Bonnie returns her gaze with heavy eyes. She never ever expected to admit that to anybody especially once she had reached her old age, but with the look in her granddaughter's eyes, she knew that she could no longer take her secrets to the grave as she had hoped she would.

-Flashback-

-10th March, 1941-

The sun sets outside on a windy West Virginia day. With a wide smile etched upon her face Bonnie looks around as everyone begins to serenade her with a 'Happy birthday' as today was her Eighteenth birthday.

Stood in-front of her was her mother, her father, her grandmother, and her best friend; Caroline.

"Bonnie, go ahead and blow out your candles now c'mon" Caroline laughed while clapping loudly.

Due to the strong segregation during the time with Caroline being a white girl and Bonnie being a Black girl, their friendship was frowned upon by mostly Caroline's parents, but that didn't stop them from being friends ever since they were kids. Even after finding out that Bonnie and her family were witches a few years ago, Caroline had kept it a secret as she knew how dangerous it would be for them if word ever got out about them. After all, it was like she was already part of the family and had been so for years.

"That's right, baby blow out your candles" her mother and grandmother spoke up, walking towards her with the cake and Bonnie laughed and rolled her eyes before blowing out her candles as everyone cheered.

"My baby girl all grown up" her father spoke, giving her a kiss on the cheek, before turning around to walk inside the living room, taking a seat on his arm chair and turning on the radio. "Soon enough you ought to think about getting married, keep the bloodline going. I hear the Newton coven has a boy your age that-"

"Now Martin enough of that, Bonnie will get married whenever she wants to get married" her grandmother interrupted walking into te living room as her mother slowly followed from behind.

Bonnie glanced down at her cake that was placed on the table, before turning to face Caroline and she knew that she could immediately tell what was on her mind.

"Mrs. Bennett, Bonnie and I are going out for a walk, we'll be back later" Caroline announced, before grabbing hold of her arm.

"Alright, and remember you girls be careful alright" her mother responded, turning to glance back at the two girls.

With that, the two girls raced each other out the house just like they always did with Bonnie taking the lead each time. They laughed to themselves as they ran further and further out the street, dodging past people who shot them stern and nasty looks, but they had never cared to ever pay attention to that.

After a while, they stopped to catch their breaths, while holding onto each other.

Bonnie looked up at the sky as it started to get dark, before trailing her eyes back down to Caroline. "Care?... I was thinking, why don't we just run away together" Bonnie smiled as the two girls linked their arms together and slowly walked along the sidewalk.

"Where would we go?" Caroline laughed, as she turned to glance down at her.

"I mean we graduate High School in a few months. and my parents, my father especially is always talking about me getting married, but you might end up married soon since your parents are making you marry someone you don't love" she sighed.

The blonde briefly chuckles at her comment. "Matt isn't so bad, we might not have a lot in common but I think he'll make a good husband and take care of me, but before I marry him, why don't we run away after all? I have always wanted to go to Europe... maybe Paris or London?" she asked as the two girls snicker with laughter.

"I think marriage is overrated anyway" Bonnie shrugs as they continued to stroll side by side.

"Says the oh so powerful Bennett witch" Caroline mutters as Bonnie quickly hushes her, before rolling her eyes playfully at how careless she is, sometimes letting that slip out in public.

"I'm gonna go get us some water and some snacks, be right back" Caroline uttered, before turning to walk over to the store across the street.

As Bonnie, a cold chill rapidly rushes through her body leaving an eerie feeling. She felt a strong person behind her, followed by a deep hollow voice, which frightened her and immediately urged her to turn around.

"An all so powerful Bennett witch huh?... very interesting".

Her heart begins to beat quickly as she looks up at a tall man who held a fascinating, curious smirk down at her. He was dressed in brown leather, he had jet black dark hair and the lightest blue eyes she had ever seen in person. She was lost for words.

As fear overtook her entire body, the young with quickly turns around to run away from him, calling Caroline's name before she could head into the store.

"Bonnie, what's wrong?"

"Caroline, we have to go, there's someone that heard-" before she could finish her sentence she turns around to see that he was gone, no sign of him anywhere, almost like he had vanished into thin air but that was almost impossible. "He was just standing right there..." she muttered quietly to herself.

Caroline looked at where she was pointing in confusion. She watched as Bonnie turned her head to look around the street for a sign of the man she just saw before her very eyes, but he was nowhere to be seen.