Prologue

"Mommy!" 4 year old Kylie yells to me as we sit down to go to sleep. Her twin, Kaylie, comes over to the bed to sit with us. "Story time!" Kaylie agrees with Kylie by nodding her head violently and jumps on the bed.

My husband appears at the door to see my smiling at the girls and laughing with them. "What is this?" His British accent only rubbed off on Kaylie.

"Story time, daddy," Kaylie answered with a toothy grin. He pushes off from his leaning position on the door to come over and sit next to me, leaning at the girls' feet.

"I guess we'll be having to make up a story," he guesses looking at me with a hopeful expression.

"Or, we could tell them the story of us?" I suggest.

"Yes, I've never heard that one."

Kylie agrees, "Neither have I."

"Well, Mr. Mikaelson, what do you think?"

"I think we need to start from the beginning," he tells me.

"Then the beginning we shall start," I reply. "Before I start, you need to know not to repeat the words that might slip out." The both nodded, but I know they'll catch on eventually. "So, it started with a dream I had the day after we found out that Katerina Petrova wasn't in the tomb. Damon Salvatore, vampire, was devastated, so was Bonnie Bennett, witch, because her Grams had just died. I think Stefan Salvatore, another vampire, was kind of sad too. He thought he was going to see his love once more, even though he was dating my sister, Elena Gilbert."

I was running through a forest with a dress falling down to my feet. It was almost like I was running away from something, or maybe someone. I could tell I was terrified from whatever it was. The dress was beautiful. It had a silky white top and a satin black skirt that ran down to my ankles in the back, yet was cut out at my knees in the front. I had lost my shoes a long time ago and one of my earrings was missing from my ear. The necklace that my friend Stefan gave me was MIA from my neck and that was a reminder that I was a bad friend. I didn't remember how I got to running in the forest or why, but there was no stopping my legs. It was like my body had taken over without any of my consent.

"Courtney! Babe, come here so I can suck your blood," A patronizing voice yelled from behind me. I was scared shitless and I had no idea where the hell I was going. I just knew I had to get away from him. Especially when he's yelling about sucking my blood.

Sadly, I tripped on nothing (clumsy me) and fell to my doom. I was going to get caught and after I got caught, I had no idea what was going to happen. I tried to get up to run again, but apparently, my ankle decided it would land the wrong way and I was on the forest floor with tears streaming down my face and a fucked up ankle. I tried not to make much sound, but that was a miserable fail. I didn't cry loudly, but my moving to hide behind a tree was setting off all the signs that I was there.

"Darling, I thought I told you to run?" I whimpered at the voice with his teasing voice. "I guess you'll just have to pay the consequences."

Before I could yell out to the voice to stop, there was a figure above me. I let out a squeal, but no scream to indicate I was here with the mysterious man. His hands fled down to pull me up by my elbows. It was dark, but the moonlight was bright enough for me to see his basic features. He had a very attractive face, thin lips, perfectly sculpted cheeks and the most beautiful feature about him; his piercing blue eyes.

"Damon…" The name slipped from my lips before I could even register who the man was in my head. "Please don't do this."

"Oh, honey, but I have to. I have to teach you a lesson." His smirk grew. "A lesson of when I tell you to run," he paused to lean closer to my face and whispered, "you run."

His head when from my face, strait down to my neck and he inhales my scent.

"Damon, you really need to think this through. Elena will hate you and she'll be all like 'Damon, you ass, that's my sister.'"

"Mmm, maybe, probably, but I don't care. You smell delicious," he mumbled against my skin. He continued to kiss my neck like he wasn't about to pierce it with his little vampire fangs. "This might hurt."

Suddenly, I felt it. It was like getting a shot, but with two needles that never come out. I didn't make a sound because I was too scared he'd press down harder to make me shut up. Damon didn't even make an attempt to keep in his moan as he sucked from my neck. The longer he was drinking the tighter the grip was on my waist and the more lightheaded I felt. Finally, before I passed out from loss of blood, Damon pulled back and looked at me, not even caring my blood was on his lips, dripping down his chin. To be honest, it was like looking at a little vampire piggy.

"Had fun there?" I asked sarcastically. Damon didn't get the sarcasm and just nodded. He bent down to go back for more, but I kneed him where the sun don't shine and pushed him away. This time he moaned from pain.

"That wasn't a good idea," he groaned. "Stay." Damon looked up from the ground and I saw his scary face. I tried to move from my spot, but I couldn't. It was like my feet were literally glued to the ground. Shit. "Now, I'm going to finish dinner and you're not going to make a sound. That means no sarcastic comments or any of your bitchy attitude.

I opened my mouth to say something, nothing came out but a breath.

He lunged.

I woke up in my bed, sweating my like a donkey.

"Courtney, you have to get up." Elena walked into my room putting on a jacket but stopped when she saw me panting and sweating. "Are you okay? What happened?" Elena interrogated as she rushed over to my bed and sat on it.

"I'm fine," I replied, waving her off. "It was just another nightmare. It's nothing. Same 'ole, same 'ole."

Elena continued to give me a worried look so I smiled a big toothy smile with my eyes closed and my head tilted up. I knew when she laughed that I was in the clear. I kept having dreams of me dying and being drained of blood. It was pretty normal I guess, but the thing that always got me was the person who drained me. Or I should say people. It always had to be either Stefan or Damon Salvatore. Stefan was Elena's boyfriend and his brother was Damon. They weren't vampires; I knew that for a fact. I would have found out if they were anyway because Damon and I were pretty close and Stefan was Elena's boyfriend; that's more than enough. Even if he was, Elena would have found out and told me. She would have broken up with him too. She hated Twilight, therefore she would have hated vampire human relationships.

"Okay, and Jenna has done some digging on our mom," She informed me. "If you want to hear it, you better get up." Elena smirked and raced out of my room as I was getting up. Elena and I found out that we weren't actually in the Gilbert family. Our aunt finally revealed it when Elena confronted her out of nowhere. I had no idea where she had got the idea from, but she was apparently right. My little brother, Jeremy wasn't my little bro, that was what I was most concerned about. It didn't matter that my parents weren't my parents, they were still my parents. They were there when she wasn't. All I know of who she was was her name. Isobel.

I found Elena and Jenna both downstairs in the kitchen looking at a laptop screen. I hurried behind Elena to look at the screen. All I saw on the screen was the desktop background. I didn't say anything but I was hoping this would hurry up. Sure, I slept in but the nightmare didn't help me sleep at all. It was like I was still awake and I was just seeing something. I still felt tired like the night before.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty finally woke up to reality," Jenna commented when she saw me. I gave her a sarcastic smile, but still said nothing, just waiting for the news of my mom. Sure, she gave us away to a family she had no idea about, but still, she was my mother and I wanted to know about her. I wanted to meet her even if she totally shunned me my whole life. "Your dad kept everything from his medical practice, records, logs, old appointment books." Jenna pulls out a dusty, old-looking spiral book. "I found an entry from the night you were both born. Patient and a birthday." Both Elena and I closed in closer to look at the book. On the page, there was scribbles of words and the only one I could make out is the slight name of Isobel Peterson. Dad always did have the worst handwriting that only he could make out.

"Do you think that's her real name?" Elena questioned, a little hesitant.

Jenna answers, "For a teenage runaway? Probably not. First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So, I Binged it." Jenna pulled up the Bing page and typed in 'Peterson' 'Grove Hill, Virginia' "I searched for all the Petersons in this area born the same year as Isobel, found three- two men and a woman, Trudie." Jenna gave me a knowing look and returned her eyes to the screen. "Who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia."

"That's not far from here," I said, thinking of all the towns close to Mystic Falls.

"Well, watch this." Jenna cleared the previous search to look up 'Trudie Peterson' 'Grove Hill High School' and picture of two cheerleaders came up. I didn't know what Isobel looked like, so I was confused. Which one is our mother?

"Isobel," Elena stated. "She was a cheerleader." Of course, a cheerleader like Elena.

"Which one is she?" I asked confused as Aunt Jenna and Elena shared a look. Elena sent me a silly face and pointed to the one who wasn't smiling. She was actually very pretty.

"Trudie still lives there." Jenna picked up an address written on a stick note and handed it to Elena. "This is her address."

I rushed over to Elena side to see the address, but she let her arm fall to her side before I got to see it. Silently, I crossed my arms and huffed. I'm always out of the picture. Elena always thinks she can do something and is the boss because she came out seven minutes earlier than I did. It almost seemed as though people treated us different because of that.

"What about Isobel?" I questioned.

Jenna answered, "I couldn't find anything about her." I looked up out of disappointment and sat down next to Jenna and Elena next to me. "Listen." Both our heads snapped in Jenna direction at the same time. "There's something else. Mr. Saltzman, Ric, his wife was from around here and her name was also Isobel."

"Wait, 'was,' as in…"

"She died."

"Okay." I jumped up from my chair and started to walk up the stairs. "I've had enough digging for today. I'll be in my room calling Matty and Bonnie. You guys and have a confession session and talk about how sad it is that our mother is dead. I'm going to focus on the living people in my life."

"We don't know if it's even her, Court. And how can you say that? She's our mom?"

"She left us," I snapped. It was like when I heard that she might have been dead, something snapped. Like I was angry at someone or something.

"Yeah, but…" Elena stuttered.

"But nothing," I cut her off. "She left us with the Gilbert family and she let us have other parents. I love my mother and father. If she really cared, she would have stayed with us and took care of us. But no, she decided to dump two babies on someone else's doorstep and ditch so she could go back to her perfect twin-free life. Well, Elena, if you want to find our mother, be my guest, but keep me out of it."

Elena looked devastated I would say that. She looked confused and sad. But she agreed anyway.

"Cheers! Now, excuse me." I continued my way up the stairs to my room. When I was a few feet from it, I suddenly sprinted to the door and closed it behind me. I was sliding down the door and crying at the same time. She had us, left us and then decided to get herself killed before we even met her. It was like she never even wanted to meet us. Meet me.

I cleaned myself up and walked over to my bed to my phone. I dialed a number that I haven't in a while. Sadly, all I got was voicemail.

"Hey, Matty. Listen, I know you're probably with Caroline or your mom, but I really need to talk right now and you're the only one that came up on my mind." Tears started to cascade down my cheeks. "So if you could call me back, that'd be amazing and you'd be my hero. So, bye." I hung up slowly and decided to call Bonnie.

"Hey Bon-Bon, I know you're with your aunt right now and bonding with family, but I really needed someone to talk to. I'm sorry about your Grams and I want you to come home girl. You need me and I need you. Love you, bye," I said into the phone. It seemed like no one was there for me.

After sitting in silence and listening to voices in Elena's room, I decided to actually eavesdrop on them. I had nothing else to do really, so why not?

"Stefan, I don't know. But anyway, onto another topic," I heard Elena say. "Courtney. She's been in the dark for forever now and I'm thinking we should tell her. You've compelled her so many times and I don't know if it's good for her. I think she deserves to know, but at the same time I want to protect her."

The fuck is she talking 'bout?

"Elena, whatever makes you happy. Personally, I think she shouldn't know just yet. No one has fed on her and no one will. When the time comes, we can tell her about…that," Stefan replied back. I could practically hear Elena smile before I heard kissing noises.

Time to stop. Nasty.

"What the hell is she talking about?" I whispered to myself. Then a funny thought came to my head. "What if she's keeping the secret that vampires are real? How coincidental would that be?"

I shook my head at the thought and continued over to my notebook. Elena liked to write about her life in her diary, but I liked to write songs. It was cheesy and I knew it. I loved to write them and sing them even though I couldn't sing for shit. I never shared them with anyone but Caroline and Vicki. Caroline was kind of a judge-y person, but I loved her all the same. She would always listen to what I had to say and was always honest with me. I could tell when she was lying when she said some of my songs were good and we'd sing together. Vicki would be strait forward with me. She'd be my very own critic and she'd tell me the good parts and the horrible parts.
She even told me my songs were either a hit or something she found in her shower drain. But, now, she was gone. She just left town without telling anyone. Even me. I missed that girl like I would miss an eye. She and Caroline and Bonnie were my absolute best friends, even though they all didn't really get along.

Elena knocked on my door after her conversation with Stefan. "I'm going out, wanna come?" I shook my head and just pointed to my book. "Okay, happy writing!" She closed the door and left me only to my book and my thoughts.

I heard the door close twice in thirty minutes, indicating that Elena, Stefan and Jenna were all gone. I smiled at the thought and pulled out my guitar and amp. Turning it up to the loudest, I started rocking.

"You know that I'm a crazy bitch! I do what I want when I feel like it. All I wanna do is loose control." The lyrics poured out of my mouth without any thought. That was how well I knew the song. I always would sing it when I was alone. "But you don't really give a shit, you go with, go with, go with it. 'Cause you're fucking crazy, rock 'n' roll. You said 'Hey, what's your name?' It took one look, now I'm not the same. You said 'Hey.' And since that day, you stole my heart and you're the one to blame. And that's why I smile. It's been a while since everyday and everything has felt this right. And now, you turn it all around. And suddenly you're all I need.

"The reason why I smile."