Prologue ; PSYCHIC

     ITS BEEN months since Charlie Gilbert lost her parents. The sweet nice girl Charlie use to be was gone, locked away without a key to save her. She seemed broken.

     The brunette had to put on a strong face for her siblings when in reality she just wanted it cry and scream at the sky for someone to take the blame for taking her beloved parents away from her. But of course there was no one. So she held it all in.

Charlie could feel it building up inside of her wanting to push out. The longer she held it the stronger it felt. It was different then emotions. It felt more like power. Deep down Charlie wanted to feel that power but there was something keeping her from unlocking it. Like the need to do something else, to become someone else.

"So Grams is telling me I'm psychic. Our ancestors were from Salem, witches and all that, I know, crazy, but she's going on and on about it, and I'm like, put this woman in a home already! But then I started thinking, I predicted Obama and I predicted Heath Ledger, and I still think Florida will break off and turn into little resort islands...," Bonnie stopped talking to look at her two friends who clearly weren't listening, "Charlie! Elena! Back in the car you two."

"We did it again, didn't we? I-I'm sorry, Bonnie. You were telling us that..." Elena said looking over at Bonnie.

"That I'm psychic now and Grams also said something about you too Char," Bonnie said glancing back at Charlie.

"What did she say?" Charlie asked

"She said she can feel that you're psychic to," Bonnie said

"Me? Psychic? Oh yeah I'm totally psychic," Charlie chuckled

     "Right. Okay, predict something Charlie. About me," Elena said turning to look at her twin.

     Before Charlie could say anything a black crow flew into the windshield of the car. All three girls let out a scream as Bonnie steered the car to the right coming to a complete stop. Charlie instantly moved herself between the driver and passenger seats to check on Elena.

     "What was that?! Oh my god! Elena, are you okay?" Bonnie asked

     "I'm okay. I'm fine," Elena said

     "It was like a bird or something. It came out of nowhere," Bonnie apologized

     "Really, I can't be freaked out by cars for the rest of my life," Elena said

Elena happened to be in the car when their parents died. Charlie felt guilty about it ever since. She always wondered what would happen if she had gone home early with Elena instead of staying at the party.

     "I predict this year is going to be kick ass. And I predict all the sad and dark times are over and we are going to be beyond happy," Charlie smiled looking between her sister and best friend.

     This year had be get better. Things had to go alright and be normal. Charlie was gonna try her hardest to make sure it happened.

✰✰✰

     "Major lack of male real estate. Look at the shower curtain on Kelly Beech. She looks like a hot — can I still say "tranny mess"?" Bonnie asked the twins while at their lockers.

     "No, that's over," Charlie said cringing slightly.

     "Ahh, find a man, coin a phrase. It's a busy year," Bonnie said

     Charlie looked over at her shoulder to see her long time friend, Matt Donovan, looking at Elena. When Elena waved Matt just shut his locker and turned the opposite way.

     "He hates me," Elena said

     "That's not hate. That's "you dumped me, but I'm too cool to show it, but secretly I'm listening to Air Supply's greatest hits."," Bonnie said. Charlie couldn't help but laugh slightly which caused Elena to give her a glare.

     "Don't start laughing Char. You broke it off with Tyler," Elena said

     "Yeah and now he's whoring it around with some other chick. I'm done with guys in this town for a while," Charlie said

     "Elena. Charlie. Oh my god."

     Charlie couldn't help but smile when she turned around. The perky blonde known as Caroline Forbes approached them, engulfing both girls in hugs. Charlie felt better with Caroline around. She always has a positive look on things and is completely honest instead of faking sympathy like most people, well most of the time.

     "How are you guys? Oh, it's so good to see you," Caroline turned to look at Bonnie, "How are they? Are they good?"

     "Caroline, we're right here," Elena said

     "Yeah and we're doing fine. Thank you," Charlie said

     "Really?"

     "Yes, much better."

     "Oh, you poor things." Charlie smiled at her friend after being given another hug.

     "Okay, see you guys later?" Caroline asked

     "Bye Care," Charlie said as the blonde walked away.

     Bonnie turned and gave both girls a look. Elena laughed, "No comment."

     "Oh come on guys. She's not that bad," Charlie said as they began to walk down the hallway.

The three walked till Charlie suddenly stopped in front of the office. Bonnie and Elena stopped as well seeing that Charlie wasn't following any more. They all looked in the office to see what looked like the back of a teenage boy.

     "Hold up. Who's this?" Charlie asked

     "All I see is back," Elena said

     "It's a hot back," Bonnie added

     Something didn't sit right with Charlie when she looked at the boy in front of them. It was almost like she could sense that something was up with him. He gave her this aura of danger, and most certainly death.

     "I'm sensing Seattle, and he plays the guitar," Bonnie said

     "No way. I sense mysterious and danger, like uh... bad boy? Travels a lot. And I guess he probably does play the guitar but no not from Seattle, more like he can from another small town," Charlie said quickly dismissing Bonnie's prediction. She kept to herself how she really felt about the unknown boy. If only she knew that he was in fact listening in on their conversation with an amused grin on his face.

     "You both are really going to run this whole psychic thing into the ground, huh?" Elena asked

     "Pretty much," Bonnie said not taking her eyes off of the boy.

     "Jeremy, good batch, man."

     The twins turned around to see their little brother handing off something to another student before he went into the bathroom. Charlie couldn't help but frown. Her brother was going down a dark rabbit hole that she wasn't sure if he would ever make it out of there.

     "Do you want to handle it this time or should I?" Charlie asked looking at Elena.

     "I got it. I'll be right back," Elena said then walked off to follow Jeremy.

     "Please be hot," Bonnie muttered being completely oblivious to what was going on with Jeremy. Charlie couldn't help the slight smile that appeared on her face as she shooked her head.

It was another couple of minutes before the boy turned around and walked out of the office. Bonnie's jaw dropped at the sight of the gorgeous teen. Charlie did have to admit that he was attractive but didn't have the same reaction as Bonnie when seeing him.

When he walked past Charlie managed to make eye contact with him. His face didn't hold any emotions when he looked at her but his eyes held too many emotions. Almost as if he knew her. But instead of stopping he just kept walking to the bathroom.

Just at the same time Elena walked out and ran into the mystery boy. The two had a very obvious awkward moment before going their separate ways. Him going into the bathroom and Elena walking back over to Charlie and Bonnie.

Charlie opened her mouth to comment but was quieted by Elena's hand. So the brunette closed her mouth and followed behind her sister to their first class. But not before looking back to where the unknown boy stood just moments before.

✰✰✰

     "Once our home state of Virginia joined confederacy in 1861, it created a tremendous amount of tension within the state. People in Virginia's northwest region had different ideals than those from the traditional deep south. Then Virginia divided in 1863 with the northwest region joining the union..." Tanner went on and on about Virginia during the Civil War.

In all honesty Charlie could care less. She loved history but hated Tanner with a burning passion. Normally he liked to call kids out and embarrass the hell out of them.

     As much as Charlie would like to try to pay attention she just couldn't, and when she couldn't pay attention she would sketch. The whole 'psychic' thing Bonnie talked about earlier was bothering her. As she thought about it Charlie usually could guess random things and be right most of the time.

     Charlie found herself pulling out her phone right before it vibrated. She had received a text from Bonnie.

From: Bonster
HAWT-E STARING @ E

     Charlie looked to her left where the new guy was sitting. He was indeed staring at Elena. The twins shared a look that consists of Charlie wiggling her eyebrows and Elena rolling her eyes with a smile on her face before she turned around. Charlie could feel the new guy staring at her for a moment before he looked at her open notebook where her sketch sat.

     When Charlie finally took a good look at her sketch a cold chill went down her spine. She hadn't realized what she was drawing before now. On the paper was a face of an unknown man, he had dark veins under his eyes along with fangs. From the way she shaded the eyes anyone could tell they could possibly be black or a dark color like red. The man could be considered as attractive for his black hair and face structure. Even with the weird vampire look to him he was still attractive.

     The longer she stared at it the more Charlie thought of why she drew that specific picture. When she looked to her left she saw the new guy look up from the drawing to her. He had this look in his eyes as if he knew why she had sketched it.

     Charlie felt the dark aura around him again. It cause her to panic as her mind was telling her that the new guy and her sketch where connected. She didn't know why but she had to get out of class. So she quickly collected her things and left the class without a word, ignoring Tanner's calls for her to come back to class.

     Now she couldn't just leave the school because she didn't want to face Elena's or her Aunt Jenna's questions later so she hid in a bathroom. Charlie dropped her bag before running some cold water through the sink. She cupped her hands letting the water collect then splashed some on her face. When Charlie looked at herself in the mirror she was hit with a terrible migraine. Then came what was seen as a vision.

     In front of her stood the man she had sketched. He was staring at her with uncertainty. As if he didn't know if he could trust her.

     "Please, you have to believe me! I am nothing like him!" Charlie found herself saying.

     "How do we know that for sure? For all we know that sacrifice could have turned you into him. Into a monster," the man spoke.

     "A monster? Okay, yeah, says the hundred and something year old vampire in front of me."

     "Charlie, look at yourself. Your one of them now. For the rest of eternity you will be just like them."

     "I don't want to be like them! I don't want to be like Elijah! I most certainly don't want to be like Niklaus! I won't be like him!"

     In that instance it was over. After being aware of her surroundings again Charlie noticed she was now on the floor. Tears where visible in her eyes as it made her sight blurry. She couldn't wrap her head around what she just saw.

     How did she know that man? Who was she talking about? Charlie was afraid to know the answers. She could only imagine what will happen to lead to that conversation. The brunette hoped that it will never come up.

     Now what scared her the most about it was she had a vision. An actual, honest to God vision. She wondered if what Bonnie said earlier was true. Could she really be a psychic?

UNEDITED