It was the smell that willed her eyes to open just enough to see the dark red splattered wall. Her lungs ached as they expanded taking in the coppery scent of blood she thirsted for. Her head begged for her desiccated fingers to touch the wet soil, the blood ever so slowly dripping from the wall on to the cold ground. Her mummified body blazed with fire every time her hand moved closer to the small puddle of blood.

After years of being held in the tomb under Fell's Church, she'd lost track of time but she would never forget the first weeks, when every inch of her skin burned with insufferable pain at the need for blood. How her body began to dry up until she was nothing but a breathing corpse. It had been so long ago that they rounded up the vampires in Mystic Falls and captured them in this forsaken church to burn, but it felt like yesterday to her.

A groan escaped her dried, gray lips as she felt the muscles in her arm being stretched out for the first time in a long while. Still, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly to form the sort of smile one could only do after being dried up for decades when her bony fingers made contact with the liquid. Bringing the two fingers dipped in blood up to her lips, she moaned. A moan so full of pleasure as the blood woke and stirred up the strength in her bones from a long time's sleep.

She stood to lick the wall clean of blood, not caring how dirty it was or what kind of insects had crawled up and down during the years, and gathered up the torn skirts of her once beautiful turquoise dress to walk out of the wretched place at last.

Florencia went to take a swim at the falls, cleansing her body from the putrid stench of decay and mice droppings. The moon shone brightly above her and she closed her eyes and stood still in the dark waters, listening to the sound of the rushing falls, before she stepped out of the lake.

Dressing herself in her old dress, she wandered the forest with a thirst for blood and hunted down a deer. She breathed heavily, staring down at the half-mutilated animal, and backed away with wide eyes. Her back was pressed against the tree bark in a second, a small gasp of terror leaving her chest as tears formed in her bloodshot eyes.

Hastily wiping the blood off her mouth, repulsed by what she had done to the poor animal, the young girl thought with fright: What would I do to a person?

"God," she breathed out, hands trembling and tears shedding as she remembered the night she died and became this monster.

Mystic Falls, VA 1864

"Let. Me. Go!" the seventeen year old girl cried, her mouth trying to spit out the vampire blood that she had consumed.

Blood that Katherine Pierce forced down her throat.

"Not yet. I'm having too much fun." Katherine smirked into her ear as she yanked Florencia by the hair to make her stop struggling against her vampire hold.

She obliged and spat at the brunette, tears of rage spilling from her eyes, "You might have killed my father, but they won't stop hunting you until you are nothing but a pile of ash, you bitch!"

"Oh no no, you are mistaken Miss Brannon." The vampire tsked with a malicious grin and met Florencia's green eyes, "You see, when they find Ricard's body laying on his study's floor with his throat ripped open, and his darling little daughter covered in his blood, who will be at blame?"

"Blaming me for the murder of my father won't work." Despite the bone-crushing grip Katherine had on her arm, she smiled at her father's killer, "I will tell them everything, just like I did to my father, and they will believe me. Because I'm not a vampire, like you."

Katherine chuckled, moving her hands to her neck. "Wrong again, Miss Brannon."

Florencia first heard the snap of bones before she felt the pain vibrating throughout her entire body, the world around her turning pitch black.

Florencia rubbed the back of her neck at the memory as she walked her way out of the forest and tried to find shelter from the sun that was going to rise soon.

She didn't know much about vampires- her father had always avoided the subject when she asked about the journals in his study- but she did know they burst into flames in the sunlight from all her snooping around when she was a little girl.

Her first thought was to go to the Salvatore Mansion, the closest residence, but it was nothing but crumbled stone now. So, she kept walking, walking, and walking until she found a house.

It was a small home, odd-looking as it was surrounded by the wooded area, but that didn't keep her from knocking.

She knocked the glass door twice before someone opened it.

"Harper," she said, still wrapping her head around the fact that one of her servants was a vampire, posing as the stable boy in her home for years, until he was captured with her.

The young black man smiled, turning to someone and saying, "Miss Pearl, Miss Brannon is at the door."

"Thank you, Harper." The dark-haired woman stepped in front of the door and he slid out of view while she turned to Florencia.

She wasn't surprised to see Pearl, either. Not when they spent who-knows-how-many years in the tomb with 24 more vampires, but the sight of Annabelle was unexpected as the petite teenage girl stood beside her mother.

"I'm glad you found us. Ms. Gibbons, this young lady is a friend of mine. May she come in?" Pearl's eyes never left Florencia's as she directed at the aged woman behind the two.

The woman only smiled and Florencia couldn't miss the vampire bites on her wrists and neck as she said, "Any friend of Pearl's is a friend of mine. Please, do come in."

A/N: I've had this story written down for a while now but was waiting for the right time to publish it. Whether it's going to be a Damon/OC or Stefan/OC, I'm not sure yet, that's why it's written down as a D/OC/S, but I assure your it's not a love triangle. You'll see how the relationship of Florencia is with the Salvatore brothers as the story continues, so please don't stop here.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this first chapter, although short, and I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my Polyvore sets for this fic! :)

Please, don't forget to leave a review, favorite or follow! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you lovelies have a good day/night! ^.^