Chapter 1

She was running down the long corridors of the school, frantically looking over her shoulder and trying to avoid crashing into a wall at the same time. She had no idea where Vampiric (as she had secretly named Alaric after his transformation) was, but she knew she had to escape. Her powers barely affected him and her best option for survival right now was to get to safety as fast as possible.

She crashed through the front doors of the school, spotting her car in the parking lot and increased her speed as much as her screaming lungs would allow. She was so close. If she could only get to her car, she would be able to get home and lock all her doors. Her car was almost within reach when she was pushed roughly forward and hit the pavement hard. She could feel it ripping through the skin on her hands and knees, but tried to ignore the pain and instead get up quickly. Before she could move, however, someone grabbed her by the hair, pulling her up and slamming her against the car.

"And you" his dark voice said. "You, I think I might you hate the most!"

"Alaric, please" she begged pathetically, trying not to look at him. It hurt to see the creature he had become.

"You're supposed to fight them, kill them. But what do you do? You help them" he snarled at her angrily, like it was a personal offense to him. "You're a disgrace to your own kind!"

"Please don't do this" she sobbed, wiping the blood on her hands on her jeans. They were ruined anyway.

"It didn't have to be this way, Bonnie" he told her darkly. "But it's your own fault!"

She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable pain.

Bonnie Bennett sat upright in her bed, panting and sweating like she had just run fifteen miles. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to slow down her heart. She had been having this nightmare on and off for four years now, but it never got any less scary. It always felt as real as it had been four years ago, when it actually happened. Sometimes she just saw herself running down the corridor of her old high school; sometimes she made it all the way to the end of the dream, where Vampiric ripped out her heart, laughing like a maniac as she crumpled to the ground. The last part didn't actually happen, of course. That was her scared mind playing tricks on her. She was in fact very much still alive, with a beating heart in its rightful place. It was almost like having her heart ripped out by her witch-made vampire history teacher was more believable than what had actually happened.

She took another deep breath, pushing her covers away and getting out of bed. It was pointless trying to go back to sleep now anyway. She looked at the other side of the cramped room and noticed that Alicia's bed was empty. Another busy night for her roommate, then.

Bonnie Bennett was not a quitter! In fact, Bonnie Bennett was a fighter. It just so happened she was also very much a realist, which was why she had come to the conclusion that Mystic Falls would forever be just that: mystic. She would never be able to rid the town of its supernatural element and she would never be able to live a happy life in a town filled to the brink with all the things that go bump in the night and their scary cousins. So upon graduation she had left. It wasn't the cowardly drive off in the middle of the night kind of way; she had stayed and celebrated with her friends (the ones that were still alive, mind you), said her goodbyes, cried as she took one last tour of the city and locked up her gramps' house for good. But Bonnie Bennett had left and she had never looked back!

Her father would come and visit her sometimes; he had business associates in the area and claimed to like the weather. It was a complete lie, of course, but Bonnie appreciated the effort all the more because he had never made one when she was younger and Abby had been such a monumental let down it still ached to even think about.

Caroline had left after graduation as well. She too had given up on their small hometown. Tyler had been one of the many casualties of their endless fight against all things Original, although he hadn't been killed by either side. In the last weeks of fighting werewolves had thrown themselves head-first into the fight by killing off a bunch of Klaus' precious hybrids, starting with Tyler. They had only found some off the remains and even Stefan and Damon had looked appalled at the sight of the leftovers. Klaus, in retaliation, had cleaned Virginia of werewolves.

Caroline had been understandably upset about the events and had left Mystic Falls in a depressed state without any real idea of where she was going. She had ended up in Paris, stayed there for a year of so and then started her tour of Europe; Rome, Madrid, London, Moscow (Bonnie had no idea why Caroline had decided to visit Moscow, but she appreciated the postcard all the same), Copenhagen, Athens and then the final frontier; Klaus' bed. In the end, a world-weary Caroline had found the comfort and companionship she had so desired in Klaus and although pretty much every horrible thing that had ever happened to Bonnie could be traced back to Klaus (she was sure even her broken leg in fifth grade was somehow his fault), Bonnie simply couldn't find it in herself to blame Caroline for her decision. Say what you want about Klaus, and Bonnie certainly had, but he truly seemed to love Caroline with all his heart.

Elena had stayed longer in Mystic Falls than Bonnie and Caroline. She had tried to keep in touch with her, but Bonnie had been reluctant to keep the friendship alive. Much like she blamed Klaus for a lot, she blamed Elena as well. It wasn't Elena's fault per say, but somehow, it always came back to that and Bonnie had sacrificed a lot on that account. Cutting the ties had just been easier than pretending to keep the friendship alive. The final straw was Elena's death and subsequent transition. Bonnie had obligingly made her former friend a day ring, but she had decided to not stay around and witness the transition. What little news she had about Elena's un-life came courtesy of Caroline, who had been almost offensively happy about her friend's transition into undead territory.

Elena had spent the first year of her immortal life going back and forth between Stefan and Damon in the most twisted love triangle imaginable. Bonnie found it quite amazing that any of them could stand each other long enough for them to make it a full year before Elena had given up on both of them. She had left, first for Denver to spend time with Jeremy who was trying to live the life Elena had wanted for him, and then to Italy, where she had met up with Elijah. Caroline was convinced the two of them were completely in love, but Elena wouldn't confirm this (Bonnie, secretly, thought Caroline was completely right).

She sometimes wondered why it was so much easier to forgive Caroline her transactions when it was so difficult to the same with Elena. Maybe it was because Bonnie was only a guest star in Elena's life, like so many others. Matt, Tyler, her gramps, Caroline, Alaric, John, Mason, Abby, countless faceless, nameless people that had passed through their lives….

Bonnie shook her head to clear her mind from the unpleasant walk down memory lane. She was grossly early for class but it was better than sitting around in her dark dorm room waiting for Alicia to come stumbling home wearing yesterday's clothes and this morning's shame. She sat down in the middle of the big room and started her daily routine of checking the news and her email. Sometimes there would be a new mail from Caroline, sometimes one from her father and once every now and then Jeremy sent her a short email asking her how she was and telling her what was going on in his life. She liked that about Jeremy, that he didn't just let people go. He was like Elena in that way, except Jeremy came without the crazy vampire drama. She was happy that he was able to live a normal life in Denver now (and she loved it when he sent her emails with pictures of his dog Max).

This morning it was from Caroline and Bonnie smiled a little as she clicked open. It wasn't long, mostly about the wonderful fashions of Rome, but she ended the mail by telling Bonnie that she would soon be returning home. Bonnie made a face. Caroline coming home would be great, she missed her old friend, but it seemed like wherever Caroline went, Klaus was soon to follow, and where Klaus was, there was bound to be more Originals lurking in the shadows. And Bonnie had absolutely no desire to see any of the Originals.

"Hey, you're here early" someone interrupted her thoughts.

Bonnie smiled up at the friendly face, only happy to have someone interrupt yet another walk down the dark memory lane. "Couldn't sleep" she said.

"Ah, another nightmare?"

Bonnie had met Lissie the first day of college and the two had bonded over everything from absent family members to moving very far away from home. And while Bonnie had certainly not divulged everything from her past, she had told Lissie about her recurring nightmare about being attacked by a crazy man in her high school parking lot.

"Just can't seem to shake them" Bonnie said, closing her computer. "Why are you here early?"

"Crazy roommate crashed through the door at six, so I figured I might just as well get an early start" Lissie told her.

The two girls chatted for a while, until the room started to fill with other students and then finally professor Sparr arrived and the class began. Bonnie wasn't sure exactly what about history had appealed to her, but she somehow felt drawn to the subject and now she was majoring in it. She had no idea what she would do once she was done with college but she figured she could cross that bridge when she got to it.

Lissie gave her a nudge. "We're getting out papers back."

Bonnie looked up and saw the T.A. handing out their papers and with a smile she noticed she had received an A.

"Ah, the Sparr giveth" Lissie commented with smile as she saw Bonnie's grade.

"The few of you who received an A will be required to prepare a short presentation of the most important points of your papers, and present them to your fellow students in order for them to fully grasp the assignment" professor Sparr told the class, making about five students, including Bonnie, sigh heavily.

"And the Sparr taketh away" Lissie grinned. "Wanna get drunk tonight?"

"Please" Bonnie replied, stuffing the paper in her back. The last thing she needed was more homework.

Bonnie kinda liked college life. She liked the freedom that came with it and she liked being so far away from home and that no one here knew about her past. Here, her biggest concern was preparing that stupid presentation and telling Alicia that her curling iron was simply off limits! No vampire emergencies, no crazy boyfriend drama and no witch stuff. The last thing had been a bittersweet choice. Bonnie loved being a witch, but there was so many bad memories attached to it that she had decided that in order for her to get a fresh start, being a witch was something she needed to leave behind in Mystic Falls.

She met up with Lissie and two of their other friends, Tina and Sara, at the college hangout where they spent most Friday nights. Neither of the girls had very active social lives, except for each other.

They were in the middle of discussing whether Tina should agree to a date with a thirty-year-old car salesman when Sara gently nudged Bonnie's foot. "That guy over there is staring at you." Bonnie tried to turn her head, but Sara squeezed her hand. "Don't look!"

"What" Lissie asked, leaning in over their small table.

"That guy over there" Sarah indicated in the direction of the bar, "has been staring at Bonnie for almost half an hour now!"

In a somewhat discreetly manner, Lissie turned her body around in the direction Sara had indicated. "Oh Bonnie, he's kinda cute. Way better than that econ-major you seem determined to waste so much time on."

"Ethan isn't a waste of time" Bonnie defended, even though it was completely true. Ethan was a guy she had met some time ago and they sometimes went on a date, even though Bonnie was always horribly bored and Ethan seemed more interested in the menu than her.

"Compared to this guy he definitely is" Sara said, leaning back in her chair to get a better look.

Curiosity overtook Bonnie and she twisted around to look as well and almost fell of her chair. A charmingly dimpled grin met her from the bar and he raised his glass slightly in a silent greeting. Bonnie coughed and immediately turned around.

"You know him" Tina asked.

"Kinda, yeah" Bonnie admitted. "I have to go!" She got up from the table before any of her friends could object and almost fled the bar with her mind racing. What the hell was Kol doing in Seattle?