Author's Notes:

Some things that I have changed:

-No Kai

-Kol is alive

-Katherine is still a vampire

Prologue: Another Funeral in Mystic Falls

Caroline Forbes could hardly believe that it had been two years since her high school graduation and since she had held that high diploma in her hands. Time seemed to slip away, especially for a vampire.

She played with the necklace around her slim neck and looked outside the window of the dreary church If she had been a normal, living human she would be in her early twenties right now and settling into her college. Instead she was in Mystic Falls in the small church at her mother's funeral which according to Caroline's plans shouldn't have happened for another few more years at least.

Caroline played with her pearl necklace until she clutched the necklace, surprised that she hadn't broken it in half. Had it really been two days since her mom, Liz had died from a brain tumor. A tumor that she hadn't told Caroline that she had and then Caroline had made it worse by killing her.

Caroline remembered the anguish that she had caused her when she had unknowingly forced vampire blood down her throat even though Liz had wanted to die in peace. Stupid Caroline.

Right now she was in the Mystic Falls church sitting next to Damon and Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert. Suddenly she didn't want to be in this suffocated, little church. She didn't want to be around them. She especially didn't want to be around their sympathetic, little faces as they treated Caroline like a porcelain doll who was about to break at a moment's notice. Caroline felt a numbness in her throat and she desperately wished that Bonnie Bennett was here, but sadly she was still trapped in the prison world or perhaps she was dead.

Caroline suddenly seemed to realize all the things that her mother would miss her college graduation, her wedding, her maybe adopting kids. It just wasn't fair; this wasn't supposed to happen. This was not how Caroline had planned her life to be.

The end of the funeral seemed much worse to Caroline that she had anticipated, everyone was just so mushy and for some reason Caroline didn't buy their fake sympathy. It seemed that after her mother's death Caroline had grown colder and darker inside and not in a good way.

"Caroline?" Stefan asked after she had accepted everyone's condolences.

"What?" Caroline demanded a lot sharper than was probably necessary.

Stefan didn't even seem to flinch though he gave her a sympathetic smile. "Are you ok? Do you want to go get something to eat?"

"No," Caroline said dryly trying not to snap at him. "I'm fine, Stefan I just want to go home, leave me alone." Before either of her friends could utter another word, Caroline went towards her now empty house.

The only thing that Caroline wanted to do at the moment was grab a bottle of gin, take off her heels, get drunk, and have a good old fashion ugly cry. But when she came home she noticed that there was someone occupying her favorite chair and drinking her bottle of gin while wearing a pair of expensive looking heels.

"Katherine?" Caroline echoed as she glared at the doppelganger she had been sure than once Elijah had dumped her the evil doppelganger had fallen off the face of the earth and not be sitting in the middle of Caroline's room as if they were besties. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Blondie!" Katherine squealed and it was clear to Caroline that she was very drunk. "I've been waiting for a while now, where have you've been?"

"At my mother's funeral," Caroline replied dourly. "She's dead, and I did not invite you here." She noticed with a pang that since Liz was dead no one needed an invitation to get in. "Just what are you doing here, Katherine? I'm really not in the mood."

Before Katherine could respond, Caroline heard another eerily sounding familiar voice coming from the parlor. "Hey, Kat who would have thought they have great wine- "as luck would have had it the one that came through those double doors was none other than Kol Mikaelson, Klaus' younger brother who had disappeared after Esther had tried to kill them. "Oh, Blondie you're back. Hope that you don't mind."

Caroline scowled. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"What's going on Goldilocks is that we want to invite you on a road trip across Europe," Kol said as he curled his finger against her chin and Caroline slapped his finger way. "Feisty. Katerina said I would like you."

"And why me, exactly?" Caroline scrunched up her nose.

"Ignore her, she's cranky because her mommy died," Katherine told Kol. "Because Care, we need a third, we're going to be like the three musketeers and we don't like Elena or Bonnie nearly that much- "

"And because you have no other friends to ask." Caroline pointed out and Katherine slumped in her seat when Caroline had obviously guessed it correctly. "Why the hell would I want to go to Europe with you, you killed me?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "For God's sakes are you still not over that?"

"No."

"Don't be so cold, Care Bear," Kol said with obvious sarcasm. "What do you have in this stupid little town? Come join us, we have a lot to offer. Fancy European cities, all you can eat blood buffets, threesomes- "

Caroline sighed, they were right. What else did she have here? Everyone was dead, she even dropped out of college.

Turn it off, a voice inside her said, turn it off, just for a little while. Go have fun. Go to Europe with the self-destructive killers. And just like that Caroline stopped feeling sad. It was like she was a completely new person. With no pain and no sadness. She felt free. "Let's go."

-End of Prologue-

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