In the wake of her grandmother's death, Ava returns to Mystic Falls, a town her family had fled when she was young to escape demons hiding in the dark.
With her return, more strange disappearances and deaths spring up. Slowly her nightmares turn to...
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"I'm going!"
"Be home by 6 and have fun in school or whatever." He sounded stressed and a little impatient, side effect of John Gilbert being in town again.
I pulled the door open. I flinched back as I came face to face with an unexpected visitor. In front of me stood none other than the mayor's wife, Mrs Lockwood. Her shoulder length hair was styled the same as always with not a strand out of place. Her makeup was minimal but well done despite it being fairly early in the morning.
She was busy smoothing out her navy blue dress and pulling at the sleeves of her cream blazer to notice my shocked face. Noticing my presence, her mouth turned into an even brighter smile.
"Ava, nice to see you." She greeted me.
"Good morning Mrs Lockwood. What brings you here so early?" I asked, raising my voice a little to get my uncle's attention.
"Ah well. You see...are you alone?" She questioned, her ever present smile was still on her face.
As if on cue, my uncle walked into the foyer and stood behind me. "Morning Carol. What brings you here?" He greeted and leaned against the door frame.
"Nathaniel." She beamed. "Is Diana or Evelyn back?"
"I'm sorry Carol but Evelyn had to fly to London for an exhibit while Diana is in Washington."
"That's a shame but you wouldn't mind letting me borrow Ava." There was that familiar patronizing tone in her voice that we all knew and hated so much. It was as if nothing had happened at the Founders' Kick-off party. Nothing like your son almost sleeping with the mother of his best friend.
I glanced at my uncle with a confused look. He simply shrugged off. His thoughts didn't give me any clue as to why Mrs Lockwood wanted to do with me. The last thing I wanted was to read Mrs Lockwood's mind either.
"What do you need Ava for?"
"Don't tell me you both forgot?" She asked. It seemed that she was malfunctioning, I thought. I swear I saw a vein pop. "Oh dear!" She exclaimed, seeing our faces. "The pageant." She said. "Miss Mystic Falls Pageant?"
"Oh!" My uncle and I remembered at the same time. "Oh. The pageant. Of course we remember. I was just testing you." He lied.
"I mean your family is sponsoring this event. How could you both forget?" She joked. "The Fitzroy family is sponsoring the event, right?" She asked again, this time a little more serious.
"Yes." My uncle said without hesitation. "Definitely, we are. Gabe should've already...y'know." He added. Mrs Lockwood nodded and sighed in relief. "So is that all you need?"
"I actually, it was about your mother. You remember last year the pageant got canceled." Uncle Nate and I nodded. "So there wasn't a winner and usually the previous year's Miss Mystic Falls helps to organize or host so Janine promised to help me." She paused to take a deep breath. "...Sadly Janine's not here anymore so I was thinking someone from your family could take over for her—and—Ava and you are the only ones from your family in town."
