a kindred spirit

Chapter 1

I was riding my bicycle down the beautiful streets of Paris. Everything here was so magically, unrealistic, almost as if I were in some sort of dream. Paris was so different from Virginia, not just the the culture, but the way it made you feel. You could be standing in Mystic Falls, Virginia at any point in time and it would just make you feel so depressed, everything in that town was so uptight, so put together, it made you feel horrible about yourself, like if you weren't perfect like the town you wouldn't fit in. And it was just the worst feeling in the world, not being able to fit in, in the one place your suppose to feel safest in, your home.

Paris was different, you could be standing anywhere in Paris at any time, and it would just make you smile, everything about it is so beautiful. Maybe it's the fact that it's bigger, or maybe it's because everything in Paris feels so accepting, but you feel like you belong. You could be standing on top of the Eiffel tower, or just simply lying in your bedroom, but being in Paris, France made everything seem so much better.

It might of been because I was no longer the person that wanted to fit in, or be liked by everyone any longer, but once Katherine had turned me into a vampire, I no longer wanted to stay in that horrible, spacious, small town. I felt trapped, and I no longer wanted to be trapped, I was able to do practically anything now that I had been turned into this mythical creature, so why feel trapped in a place I didn't have to stay in. Mystic Falls was always gonna be a huge part of my life, but my time there, the way I acted towards others, how I felt about myself, it was a part of my life I wanted to put behind me, so I left. I never had any official goodbyes, I just left. I left a note, so my move wouldn't be so surprising, but I knew I had to leave, and so did they.

My thoughts were interrupted but an unexpected phone call, very unexpected actually.

"Stefan!" I screech a little too excitedly into my cell phone. After I left mystic falls, no one but my mother really called, which wasn't surprising, but she too lost interest eventually as everyone did, so the phone call was one of the most surprising things I had received in the last year.

"Caroline, you need to come home right now," he said quite urgently, which was very surprising seeing as Stefan never really was urgent with anything.

"Why? Stefan is something wrong?"

"Something happened to Elena please come home now," that was the last thing he said before he hung up.

I was quite scared to be honest, he sounded frightened himself which made me feeling even more afraid to come back home because Stefan never let it on that he was afraid. But I was even more scared to return back to Mystic Falls. I was a coward I know, I ran away, I literally ran away. But it was all too much to handle, I would have to see everyone again, everyone I left because I was too afraid to face. My mother, who I left all by herself.

Maybe my return would mean something, maybe it it wouldn't mean anything, either way, I was going back to Mystic Falls, the place that was no longer my home.
-
Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Seeing as Mystic Falls was too small of a town have an airport, the closest was Richmond. It was almost too close, it was tens of miles away yet I still felt that I was getting sucked back into the Mystic Falls way.

I didn't want to get captivated with the drama once again, that was the reason I left in the first place, and if I did get stuck in the whole "how the save Elena Gilbert" dilemma again I would never be able to leave.

As I entered my rental car I wondered how much the small town in Virginia had truly changed. I would expect there to be some "big bad wolfs" or something of the sort that would have tried to take down my old friends, but I didn't really expect it to me anything they couldn't handle, I mean come on, they were the Salvatore's for crying out loud, they would do anything to make sure Elena was safe and happy.

Welcome to Mystic Falls Virginia, I never thought that, that sign that I had seen for over 17 years, that had made me feel at home, happy, and safe, would make me frightened to no end. I was afraid to even get out of my car. The anxiety of being away from home so for long and then suddenly being forced to come back was a lot to handle, maybe even too much to handle.

I drove, through town square, past my childhood home, the mystic grill, every historic and memorable Mystic Falls that I could remember went passed my eyes before I could even acknowledge them. They were all gone, just like when I left.

There was no point in reminiscing on the dreadful passed, it was dead to me when I left for Paris, so it's dead me now. I traveled half way across the world for Elena's life changing emergency, and that was the only reason. I intended to leave as soon as my duty was over.

As I pulled up to the Salvatore boarding house, a sudden wave of anxiety hit me, this wasn't my home, and it never was.

Before the supernatural, it was the mundane human life, full of childhood divorces, and single parenting. And then the supernatural hit, but it wasn't ever not boring,  it was just less dreadful. 

In Paris I was all alone technically, but I was never truly alone, I had the stunning buildings, the gorgeous landscapes, and the art, that's what truly filled the void.

While traveling through my thoughts,, and unfamiliar british accent spoke, "Are you going to sit in your car all day, or am I going to have to move your car myself."