It's the only way I'll make it through. I made it through the day.
 For over a century, more or less, I have lived in secret; hiding in the shadows, alone in a world. Until now. I am a vampire, a half breed? Sort of, something.... and this is my story. I know I shouldn't have come home. I know the risk, but I had no choice. Today will be different. It has to be. I will smile and it will be believable. My smile will say, "I'm fine, thank you", "Yes, I feel much better". I will no longer be the sad little girl. I will start fresh, be someone new. It's the only way I'll make it through. I made it through the day. I must have said "I'm fine, thanks" at least 37 times. And I didn't mean it once. But no one noticed. When someone asks "How are you?" they really don't want an answer. I couldn't have been more wrong. I thought that I could smile and nod my way through it. Pretend that it would all be okay. I had a plan. I wanted to change who I was. Create a life with someone new, someone without the past. Without the pain. Someone alive. But it's not that easy. The bad things stay with you. They follow you. You can't escape them. As much as you want to. All you can do is be ready for the good. So when it comes, you invite it in, because you need it. I need it.
 She hated Travellers because all they do is lie. And for some unknown reason, they want to kill Tatia Petrova, the forgotten shadow, on the other dark side of Hell.
 Who knew what time it was, four am? Five am? There was a soft murmur from the girl lying on the floor, she rolled over, holding her side in pain whilst wincing. Her chocolate locks fell over her face as she let out a louder cry of pain. Things hadnât turned out exactly as planned for Tatia Petrova. Seemingly. She leant up, dragging her dainty frame with her. âOuchâŠâ She muttered, running her hand across her torso. Everything hurt. Everything hurt a little too much. She had no memory of the previous evening, things were a blur to her, just one big blur that was slowly starting to come back into focus. Tatia Petrova managed to scramble onto her heeled feet. She looked down at herself, âI will always look out for myself.â Her fierce voice echoed down the hallway, but didnât have the same presence it once did. The realisation had finally hit her, she was human, sort of.
 A whole whirl-wind of emotions hit her at once, even though she had had them on in her other life, first she felt anger and then sadness followed by even more anger. She turned round at the pace of any normal mortal and hit her fist against the door she had used to steady herself. All it did was cause her more pain and more realisation of what had happened to her. Had a humans hearing always been this bad? Pushing open a pair of double doors, she stopped in her tracks, she sighed in relief, though still doubled over trying to get some air back into her lungs, another thing she had never had to do as an vampire. BAM! The doors closed behind her. Tatia Petrova is not a martyr. She has no desire to die. âYou are Tatia Petrova. Suck it up.â
 'I will not die', she thought. 'not today'. And Tatia, oh, Tatia is a girl who desires only to live.
 Her eyes stared up at the sky, her breathing heavy. She didnât want to move. Human. She was a human. The same anger and sadness whirled over her again but she still didnât move. Overcenturies sheâd spent hiding and running, living. Now what was she? A typical 16-year-old girl with nothing. She was feeling things she hadnât before, she felt different. She wasnât exaggerating when she thought of having nothing. She really did have nothing. No family, no friends, no money, no home, no future and no lover. She gulped at that word 'lover'. There was only one name that sprung into her head at that moment, Elijah. The last time she had seen him was when he said he was leaving for the New Orleans with Klaus. She gulped again. Klaus. Without speed, strength or compulsion how was she supposed to keep herself from being murdered by him? She was a useless, alone, mortal, immortel, sort of, who wanted nothing more than live. But no, she had to suffer and she knew that she would. She was positive that she was alone now, even she could sense it as a human. Her head span and she almost fell right back over. Humans really were delicate.
 People do some pretty fucked up shit when they know theyâre about to die, and Tatia knew this all too well. âshit,â she grumbled. Tatiaâs memories played tricks on her. NiklausâŠ. None of them will ever be the same. She tore it all down and sheâs never been able to put them back together.
 âWhy would I want to live?ââŠ.
 âGuess youâll have to do a bit of walkingâŠâ She mumbled again to herself as she started walking away from âHell.â It hadnât really hit her that she looked a complete mess, no wonder she was getting strange looks from passing byers. There were a few people who gave her waves from across the streetâŠ. She ignored them all, her emotions were in full rage mode and although she couldnât actually hurt anyone with ease, but oh boy she was going to try if someone would try to hurt her. Tatia abandoned the past with a false smile and another piece of her soul. She fixed her eyes on the road ahead, didnât looked back.
   It was around in the middle of the night, in the morning, she had no idea by now and she felt the strange sensation of being hungry, for food not blood. Not to mention she was thirsty and tired, exhausted actually. So, Tatia Petrova was alone, hungry and human, sort of. Three things that she hadnât really been before â well not for long anyway. Maybe she was used to being alone but she always seemed to have someone to drag along with her. New Orleans really wasnât a good place to be at the moment. Firstly, she still felt like sheâd been run over by a car and then hit by a lorry. Secondly, she couldnât hear anything out of a reasonable radius. And thirdly, she couldnât order people around whenever she pleased. No wonder Damon didnât took the cure.
 She whispered. âPlan C. And if that fails a plan D and a plan F.â Tatia took a deep breath, limping forward even more daringly close. Maybe she was being stupid, stupidly brave, as she stepped closer towards a bar âEvery downfall of humanity.â She croaked, her voice weak from not only from the damage, but the nerves she felt.
   Tatia Petrova took a deep breath, limping forward even more daringly close. âTo the cemetery.â So there was Tatia Petrova, without any plan. âOf course,â She slumped back in frustration, putting a hand to her head. There was no one in this town that didnât want to see her suffer but she had nowhere else to go. The french quarter was a big bust, Some would kill her as soon as she stepped foot there and she didnât have anywhere else she could go. âHumanity making you weakâ A small tear ran down the girls face, something that hadnât happened for a long time. She hastily wiped it away. Since experiencing tears for the first time in centuries Tatia Petrova had bolted. She had nowhere to go but nowhere sounded a whole lot better than Mystic Falls. Not to forget she was starving and dehydrated. Her lip had swollen up by now from what she could tell, but somehow through all she had taken throughout the days, or she needed clothes, but Tatia still looked beautiful. Maybe her hair needed, but she still looked good. She raised an eyebrow slightly. The place was quiet, too quiet for her taste.
 Tatia groaned slightly. She tilted her head back with a groan of frustration, not even a single thing could go her way could it? âNew Orleans.â Was it a sensible decision? No. Was it the right decision? Probably not. Was it her only option? Yes.
   Tatia was unaware of the time but she knew that she was late for her meeting with Elijah. Guess she had a good excuse being in her new form. The nerves hit her again. How would he react to her this way? Would he even help her? Tatia knew how diplomatic and deep Elijah could be and he would probably end up telling her that this was the chance to find Tatia. She wasnât so sure he wanted to find HIS Tatia anymore. Hadnât she caused her enough problems already? She looked down her wristsâŠ. Her mind playing tricks on her.
 The bundle of curled brown hair had been out for hours. Her body felt limp and even weaker than it had been before; it even seemed like an effort to open her eyes. One eye fluttered open slightly, inspecting the room that she now found herself in. Once she had secured the fact that she was alone, the other eye slowly fluttered open from under her thick black lashes. She was a little behind on the last thing she remembered and her eyes widened as she looked down at herself. Her wrists were bound down to the chair as well as her legs and there was a sharp pain in her arm. A needle. Her eyes followed the needle down to a long tube that went up to a blood bag, which was currently slowly filling with blood that was coming from her body. Her eyes flickered closed again just as the doors opened and someone had been waiting for his queue, walked straight in and towards her. Someone crouched down, eye level with Tatia, âTatia, youâll be fine again.â he ripped the needle out of her arm forcefully, causing her to scream out in pain. He left straight after, leaving her alone again. Even though she didnât want to be like this, she couldnât stop and the tears kept falling, running down her face. Over five centuries worth of hurt, sadness and anything else worth crying about had hit her all at once. She bowed her head down, her long locks falling over her face as though her hiding was going to make any difference what so ever, but she didnât stop or move. She hated Travellers because all they do is lie. Her chocolate locks fell over her face as she let out a louder cry of painâŠ.
   The tears she had been holding in escaped her eyes and fell down her face just like the others had. This time, Nikâs hand brushed across her cheek gently wiping away the tears. There werenât any words that she had to say in that moment and she couldnât move at all but words or actions didnât really seem important in that moment. Because in that moment she felt something strongly in her slowly beating human heart â Love. Cheesy possibly but it was a good feeling, one she couldnât remember feeling so strongly before.
   His hand brushed over her wrists, untying the thick knots before bending down to untie the ones around her legs. Everything felt stiff even after she was free and she winced as she moved her arms away from the armrests of the chair. Being the usual stubborn and independent Tatia she attempted to stand up on her own, only to stumble and be caught by his arms⊠Her mind playing tricks on her.
 Now that Tatia was up to speed on everything, she realised a witch helped her. Secondly, she had bigger problems, she had to deal with herself. âIâm untouchable. And Iâm back.â
 Tatia wasnât locked away forever, and she had great plans. Over the course of my long life, 'I have come to believe that we are bound forever to those with whom we share blood. And while we may not choose our family, that bond can be our greatest strength⊠or our deepest regret. This unfortunate truth has haunted me for as long as I can recall.I lived in fear. Any time I settled anywhere, his father would hunt me down and⊠chase me off. He made me feel powerless and I hated it. This town was my home once, and in my absence, Marcel has gotten everything that he ever wanted. Power, loyalty, family. I want what he has. For him.' she thought.
   Somewhere in New Orleans 1713.
 She was trying to scream but she could not. His eyes still burned deep into her mind numbing all of her senses. All she could feel was fire spreading to her whole body. He was a monster! His eyes gleamed into darkness and he hadâŠfangs! Fangs that were buried deep into her skin sucking her blood. Her life. She wanted to scream. God she wanted to scream. But she couldnât. Her body was pinned into the dirty brick wall of the alley behind the club. People danced and laughed inside and she was outside into the night dying. The cold air hit her naked skin as the monster dug his fingers deeper into her skin and his sharp teeth sank deeper into her neck. She could hear him gulping her own life down as she felt faint. Her whole body was throbbing with pain. And then all stopped. The pain was there but not as blinding as before and he was on his knees in front of her. He was spitting her blood from his mouth. He was screaming in pain holding his dark haired head and she was just watching unable to speak or move. They had been flirting in the club and then he took her out. He fucked her against the wall. He was a savage as he tore her clothes and shoved her against the wall. He was brutal as he plunged into her and after a point it all became too much. She couldnât stand the pain as his cock ripped into her with inhuman strength and speed. She was horrified as she saw his eyes changing. Black veins forming against pale skin that circled blood shot irises. He then turned her around and took her from behind with even more force than before. No human could inflict such pain she had thought as his hands cracked her hip bones. She had tried to pull away, to scream, to make him stop but she couldnât. His hand covered her mouth and she couldnât yell. She was biting him but he was laughing and then in less than seconds his movements became supernaturally frantic and he came hard inside of her making her wish to be dead. Watch what you wish for they say. After all was done she couldnât help but think that whoever said that was right. When he got out of her a pool of blood covered her bruised thighs. She wanted to scream but then his eyes bore into hers. âYou wonât speak, you wonât move!â She didnât want to do what he said but she had no choice. Her whole mind screamed for her to resist but she found herself repeating his words.
 "I wonât speak, I wonât move." And then he tore into her neck with shiny gleaming teeth. So sharp and deadly. They seemed likeâŠfangs! It was impossible but he was feeding on her blood. And she couldnât speak or move. All she could feel was fear and her death approaching fast. She shivered and then she finally could move. She was losing blood from her ripped off neck and her destroyed genitals; her bones were broken and she could hardly breathe but she could move. She could finally move. And if she could move then she could also speak. Then she could also scream and so she did.
 Her screams ended but she was not the only one screaming. In the whole world, in each and every corner of each continent thousands vampires dropped dead and people screamed at their sight.The night and day of the revelation.The moment that changed everything.The moment when legends and bedtime stories became a dark reality. The world was not the same place any more. No one was safe anymore. Vampires were real. No one knew how or why but they were real. And they were dropping dead all over the world. Or? What had happened?
 And now? ~2014. New Orleans. French Quarter.
 For ages the upper world continued its course into absolute unawareness while in the underworld the creatures of the night roamed. An unwritten law that was placed upon vampires for centuries. Humans consisted the upper world and vampires the underworld. Vampires would have to remain hidden and never to reveal their existence. Many objected to that rule but no one could break it. For millenniums this was the way of the undead. As time progressed they created their own society. Their laws written in blood. Scripta manent Elijah always said and he was right. So a millennium ago as the world became, or at least attempted to become, a more civilized place their councils were created and their commandments were written in scrolls with blood ink. Laws decided by the eldest ones. By the patriarchs and the matriarchs of the Vampire species. By the Originals. Their laws were written in detail and were extensive. An order was set. An order that reflected the ruthlessness of their kind and their sadistic nature that was nurtured in ages of blood and carnage. Many of their laws concerned their relationships with each other but the most austere ones concerned their relationships with the humans. One was certain. The general human population had to remain unaware of their existence. Vampires belonged to the night. Humans belonged to the sun. And the night and the sun never met each other. No matter what. The rules were clear and unbreakable. Exposure would have to be avoided at any cost. For the oldest have lived in a time were humans knew of their existence and they still remembered that a war between humans and vampires caused many losses and blood for each kind. In time they had covered their tracks and they made humans forget. They became fairytales and creatures that lingered only in illusions. They severed themselves from the human knowledge and kept their distance from the public eye. It was known though that vampires could not survive without blood and therefore they depended on humans. Some vampires nowadays fed on blood bags but most of them remained loyal to the old ways. Many vampires would feed on humans and then compel them to forget or would get reed of the dead bodies while making sure to hide any signs that would expose vampires to the world. But there was also another way to go.
 A way that didnât match with the civilized age and yet it still thrived amongst them. Most of them didnât belong in this time and in this way of social thinking anyway. Most of them were born in an age where masters and slaves existed. And thus this law still took place and effect quite often. Each vampire had the right to claim human servants. The higher the vampireâs position into the hierarchy the more servants he could have. In the old days they used to call them slaves. Now they were called blood servants. According to the law the vampire would have to present the servant to his jurisdictionâs council and ask for their permission to own that person as his property. Once the council gave its permission the human would entirely belong to his new master. After branding his new possession the vampire could use the servant that belonged to him at will. No other could lay a hand upon the human or make any decisions that concerned him.
   According to the law the vampire would have to train the servant and make sure that the human would be completely detached from his past live and would now behave under their law. As the humanâs master the vampire would have to attend to the servantâs needs for as long the human would remain alive. Of course the length of the servantâs life would now be decided by his master but there was a time limit where the servant would have to remain alive. One month. For one month the human would have to remain alive and then be presented to the council again in order to verify his vitality. After that the vampire master could dispose the servant if he wished it so. The vampire who decided to keep a servant had some responsibilities though. He had to make sure that the human would get accustomed to the new reality of his existence. The notions of the human ways would have to be deleted from the servantâs mind. When a human entered the vampire world then all ties with the upper world would have to be severed. Many vampires most of the times would erase their humansâ past memories through mind control and would compel them to forget the lived they had before they became servants or would just compel them to never contact anyone again. Some others were talking more drastic measures. They killed the humanâs families and connections thus severing all ties once and for all.The servants now existed solely for one reason. To serve and obey their masters and nothing else. Their blood, bodies and services belonged to their vampire lords. Their freedom gone and their reality forever changed. Most of the times forever wouldnât last more than a month anyway and their misery was coming to an end. But in their time of servitude they had to completely obey their masters, if not they would get punished. And it was common knowledge that vampires were enjoying inflicting pain to others. Especially to humans. Many humanitarian vampires were appalled by this law but in reality it kept many bloodthirsty vampires in check. It sated their need to seek and destroy (and to be a potential risk of exposure during those ventures) as the existence of a servant meant that the vampire master had a plaything to keep him busy.
 One way or another it all came down to one thing. Vampires needed humans but they also needed to keep their identities and true natures hidden.The human world would have to remain unaware of the existence of the vampire species. Once a vampire would take a human either as a victim or as a servant then he would have to erase all traces that would lead back to them. No one should ever link the human deaths and disappearances with the supernatural element. Whoever did then would simply have to die. If a vampire was to ever break the rules then torturous death was coming to claim him. There was also the matter of turning. Things were not as simple nowadays as they used to be. It was a risk to turn people that would not be able to adjust to vampirism and obey the law. In these days a human could be turned only if the one of the councils or if the Originals allowed it. And for the last decades only the most trusted and those that could survive certain trials were made into one of them. This way their kind has learned to adapt and survive into the modern world. Their laws were strict and unbreakable but insured a certain balance. Until all was ruined.
 Now their laws hanged in the balance. It wasnât easy collecting humans anymore and it wasnât easy going out to the world without being recognized as an abomination or hunted down by the human patrol and the mercenary hunters.The night of the revelation as the humans called it changed everything. Now the upper world was at chaos. For two years now.
 War was coming and no one was going to stop it. Most definitely not him. If anything now it was their time to rise and claim what was rightfully theirs and belonged to them. To take control and most importantly revenge. A new dawn was rising. The time for the vampires to take what was theirs by right and blood. They would no longer hide in the shadows and linger in the dark. Humans would finally learn their place. To serve them with their lives and blood. And he knew exactly how to set all of this into motion. With one strategically unexpected move that would take his enemy by surprise and would force him to act prematurely. He sat on his throne inside the expansive room. Behind him tapestries and banners covered the black marble wall. His sovereignty in this region was undisputed. Behind him was his sigil. The wolf, and a snake in blood. This was his domain. In his borders all obeyed and feared him. No matter what his brethren said he would take his vengeance. He wasnât known as the most hated and fearsome of the Originals for nothing after all. The temperature in the throne room was below of what a human could handle and the girl Tatia that was kneeling beside his intricate throne was shivering under the thin see through lace garment she was forced to wear. Puncture wounds covered her skin all over the place. He could hear her labored breath.
   'I have lived in secret; hiding in the shadows, alone in a world. Until now.'  Maybe it was she who made them act the way they do around her. Maybe she's the devil who deserves to be punished and talked down to. Maybe she did something in the previous life, or will do something in the next, so she's paying for her deeds in this one. Half a century more or less. But she was back, back in New Orleans after away for so long.
 Shadows moved in her mind, dark and evil. She looked around and instead of seeing a welcoming home, she saw the same shadows moving-reaching-trying to grasp her with greedy claws. Things moved, banshees wailed, unfamiliar creatures gathered in the bushes and along the ground.
 It made no sense, not for one of his kind. The night should have welcomed her-soothed her. Enfolded her in its rich blanket of peace. The night had always belonged to her... information should have flooded her with each breath she took into her body, but instead her mind played tricks, saw things that couldn't be there. She could hear a dark symphony of voices calling to her, the sounds swelling in volume until her head pounded with moans and pitiful cries. Bony fingers brushed at her skin, spider legs crawled over her so that she twisted left and right, flailing her arms, slapping at her chest and back, brushing vigorously in an effort to dislodge the invisible webs that seemed to stick to her skin. She shuddered again and forced air through her lungs. She had to be hallucinating, caught in the trap.. She gripped her head hard and forced her mind to calm. She would remember. Tatia felt one of the pieces snap together as a bit of her memory fell into place. Could she be dreaming? She had never dreamed before, not like that, not that she remembered. How could she dream? "Someone is coming to town." She whispered under her breath.
