chapter one

  ❧ ❧ ❧  

 Nothing really made sense. It was the only thought Faye could really form that her bones ached and she was starving. Some things made sense like her name was Faye, she could talk full sentences after about an hour, and she knows about the things of the world. She knew what a car was when she saw it, even if she couldn't remember how she knew it. She couldn't tell you, though, anything about her life at all.

  The blonde one, Caroline, had asked about it when they were at her house. She had questioned her about her parents and how she became a wolf, but there was nothing. No answer came up in her head.

  "What do you know?" Stefan asked her, attempting to get the answer Caroline couldn't, when they were in the car on the way to his home.

  "I don't know what I know," Faye said, tugging at the sleeve of the sweatshirt she wore. Caroline had lent some clothes at the request of Stefan, saying Faye needed something to cover up with until he could get her something.

  "Do you know what you are?" He questioned.

  Faye knew parts of the answers to that one. "You said I'm a wolf."

"But you also had the characteristics of a vampire."

  Vampire; werewolf; both. There was something familiar about it. There was a word, one she knew, but couldn't remember what it was. She clenched her eyes shut, trying to think of it. "Hy-something."

  "Hy-something?"

  "There's a word for it."

  Stefan let out a sigh as he turned down street leading to his home. "Don't hurt yourself trying remember it," he told her. "You just turned human an hour ago after who knows how long. It may not come right back to you."

  "Are you saying everything else is going to come back too?" Faye asked, hoping the answer was yes. She didn't like being confused.

  He glanced over at her with a sympathetic look. "I hope."

  Stefan didn't say another word before the pulled up what Faye presumed was his home. It was a large place, not comparing to the small den she liked to burrow herself in to at night. She stared up at it as she got of the car.

  "Are you going to make me stay here?" She asked him with the thought of her den on her mind. Faye wondered if she would go back to it that night and do as she usually would.

  "Until we figure out what's going on with you, yes. It'd be safer for you that way."

  Faye didn't like the idea, but she wasn't going to fight against it. She trusted Stefan. The second she saw him she had felt a pull to him, telling her he would help; him and Caroline. They were pack.

  Stefan led her up to the home and they both entered. It was empty, the only sounds Faye picking up was the creaks the floors made as they settled. There was a clock going off in the other room, too, causing her to wrinkle her nose at the loud tone it made. Stefan chuckled at her as he shut the door behind him.

  "So, um, do you want some food?" He asked awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Stefan gestured over towards the kitchen and she nodded vigorously.

  "I'm starving." Faye follow him in to the kitchen. He pointed her towards one of the stools where she took a seat while he went towards the fridge. Stefan opened it, looking around inside.

  "Do you know what you like to eat?"

  "Deer."

  The vampire gave her an odd look, but she didn't mind. He went back to searching for food for her. "I don't have any of that, but what about-"

  Faye cut him off. "That."

  She pointed towards one of the pouches full of blood at the bottom of the fridge. Faye caught it out of the corner of her eye, the smell filling her and making her want to taste it. Stefan didn't seem shocked by her choice. He nodded, tossing her one.

  Faye sunk her teeth in to the bag, ignoring the straw that was provided. She drained the bag dry, eating messily. Blood covered her chin when she pulled the empty bag away.

  "That's so much better than deer," she muttered, letting out a sigh. Faye dropped the bag on the table, opening her eyes finally after enjoying her meal. She set them on Stefan who cowered in the corner of the room, attempting no to look at her. "What?"

  "I just, can't really handle human blood," Stefan told her honestly. "

  "That was human?" She asked him. "Why can't you handle it?

  "Story for another time," a voice drawled out, alerting both Stefan and Faye. Faye swiveled around on her seat to look at the person. A tall man with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes stood in the doorway, glaring at her. When he saw her face, covered in blood with veins shown and glowing eyes, he nearly jumped. "Okay, that's not normal."

  There was a rush before the man's hand was around her throat, cutting off her air supply. She choked, her back pressing against the counter in a harsh movement.

  "And we don't like things that aren't normal," he told her. Faye's eyes were wide, staring up at him, desperate for air. "You got any family or friends I should call to give my condolences?"

  He barely had his hand on her throat for a second before Stefan rushed to help. She was just about to unleash her claws when the man was yanked off. "Damon, stop!" Stefan shouted.

  Air filled her lungs once again. Faye gaped out, clutching at the counter. She glared over at Damon who stood with Stefan now.

  "She's not a bad person," Stefan spoke to the man, Damon. She listened closely.

  "She looks like one," Damon replied. "What kind of creature does that?" He pointed towards her. "What the hell is she?"

  "Hy- Hybrid," she finally found the word, answering angrily. Faye got up from her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. "It means both. That's what I am. I'm a vampire and a werewolf."

  Damon and Stefan's eyes both widened in shock, both looking back and forth between each other and her.

  "Brother," Damon began to ask, "what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

❧ ❧ ❧

   He had gotten himself in to more than he had expected; Faye knew that. With the week mark coming up, she could tell Stefan hadn't really know what he was walking in to. With having to teach her the normal human etiquette (which she knew, she just didn't want abide by it) and then trying to get her to remember thing, his hands were full.

  Stefan had tried to incorporate Damon in as much as he could have, which wasn't fun for Faye at all. She felt that same pull towards him she had felt with Stefan, but with the memory of him nearly choking her out being fresh on her mind, she fought against it. Caroline tried to help as much as she could too, even if it was just giving Faye company and telling her about the life of a teenager. Stefan even brought in his girlfriend, Elena, who had a backstory behind her Faye thought was too much to even handle. They all tried to question Faye as much as they could, trying to get answers.

  Nothing worked. Nothing jogged any sort of memory or idea of what could be. It was a blank canvas that Faye wasn't sure what to fill with.

  Stefan needed answers, though. He resulted in trying to find them from someone else. It was the reason Faye had sat in piles upon piles of reports including everyone in the state named Faye. Most of them were missing reports, Stefan having suggested with her amnesia and the state in which they found her, she may have showed up in the system being searched for. 

  "I'm not finding anything," Faye muttered, turning over another missing persons report. Faye Fredrick did not match up, being another dead end. She was wondering if she was even considered missing, if anyone was looking for her.

  Stefan sighed, sitting down the paper he was reading. It was a dud too, Faye could tell from where she was. "I feel like we're close to something."

  "Yeah and I feel like I'm close to starving." She rolled over from her position of laying on her belly and clutched at her stomach. Stefan grinned as she stood up and made her way towards the kitchen. "I'm going to get a drink."

  She wasn't gone long and returned with the straw of her blood bag (something Caroline showed her) in between her teeth. Faye found Stefan staring intensely at one of the papers, clutching it as if it had all the answers.

  "I think I found you," he said, flashing her the image. It was of a young girl, must have been seven or eight, smiling brightly for her photo. She had red hair that was tied in to a braid at the side and she flashed her pearly white teeth, a few missing. Her eyes were a green and her face was littered with soft, barely noticeable freckles.

  Faye narrowed her eyes at the report, reading it slowly. Faye Daniels, age eight, born August third, nineteen ninety two. The date she went missing read similar, only eight years later.

  "The kid in this photo looks almost exactly like you, but younger," Stefan told her, holding the photo up next to her face. "Red hair, green eyes. If this is you, you went missing ten years ago."

  It almost made sense to her, but it couldn't at the same time. She shook her head, adverting her gave.

  "Just because she has red hair and green eyes, doesn't mean I'm her," Faye said with a shrug of her shoulders. "It could be coincidence."

  "It's something, though," he said. "This is the first one I've found that had any type of chance."

  "And what does that mean if it is me? I turned into a wolf and never came home, for ten years?" Faye asked him. She felt herself getting upset by something that possibly wasn't even true. "That just doesn't seem right."

  Stefan stood up from his seat on the couch and held out the paper to her. "Let's just give it a shot," he told her. Faye glanced up at him, wanting to tell him no, but she couldn't. He looked hopeful for her. "Something may come out of it and if nothing does, we keep looking. It's better to cancel this out as an option than leave it open."

  "Where would we even start to look in to with this?" Faye asked him.

  "Your old address is on the contact information." He pointed to the bottom of the sheet. "We start there."

  ❧ ❧ ❧

  1400 Pinewood Road was on the other side of town in a little neighborhood where the houses were spread far apart, allowing several square feet of land for each person. The house was an obvious southern home. With blue side paneling and white shutters on the windows, it was the American dream picket fence home.

  Faye looked at it the same way she had the Salvatore boarding house. She wondered if it was really her home at one point, or if the family that was searching for a little Faye Daniels still resided there.

  Stefan exited the car first, having much more courage than Faye could muster herself. She was nervous. Nervous that this little Faye was her and that she had missed ten years of her life, eighteen if she counted the fact she couldn't remember the first eight. She was nervous about what waiting for her when they knocked on the door. A family? One who loved and missed her? Or nothing?

  She wished she was still a wolf. She wouldn't be worrying about this if she was a wolf, just running around trying to find food to survive one.

  Faye couldn't let Stefan wait any longer and eventually got out of the car. They both walked up to the front porch. There were flower on the window sill, blooming brightly under the sun. Someone had been taking care of them, meaning there had to have been someone living there. Hopefully, it was the people they were looking for.

  Stefan was the one to knock on the door. His knuckles rapped against the hardwood three times, pausing to give the person inside a chance to answer. Faye heard shuffling inside and the sounds of footsteps jogging up to the door seconds after he knocked.

  The door swung open within seconds, revealing a tall blonde women. It wasn't what Faye had been expecting, but she didn't really know what she was expecting in the first place. The woman was young, no sign of wrinkles or age on her face. The scent she gave off, though, allowed reasoning. The same stench of death and blood that Stefan wore came from her. Her outside appearance may not match the age she held as a vampire.

  "Can I help you?" She asked as she looked back and forth between Stefan and Faye.

  "Hi, um..." Stefan went to reach in his back pocket to pull of the missing poster he had carried with him. "We were wondering if anyone related to this girl still lived here."

  The woman too the flyer from his hand a glanced over it. Her brows furrowed as her eyes became stricken with sadness. Faye could smell the grief coming from her.

  She passed the flyer back to Stefan and sighed. "I'm her aunt, Lacey," she introduced herself. Stefan went to speak, going to ask another question, but Lacey stopped him. "Look, she's been gone ten years. Whatever you want from her, you're not getting it."

  Faye frowned at the oddness of the statement. "What would we want from her?" She asked. "She's eight."

  Lacey scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Like you don't know." She took a threatening step forward. "I don't think there's a vampire left that hasn't heard what happened. Faye's gone. She shifted, killed her parents, and there's no sight of her anywhere."

  It was a rush of words that cut deep into Faye. She froze, mimicking the same heartbroken expression the woman wore when she revealed it all. She had hoped it was a coincidence. She had hoped that she hadn't been missing for that long, but knowing this? It was much worse.

  "Sorry you came all this way looking for a hybrid, not to find one," Lacey said, confirming it all for Faye. She was Faye Daniels. She was the eight year old girl who went missing ten years ago. She was the girl who shifted and everyone lost sight of her. She was the one who killed her parents.

  "I- I killed them?" Faye stuttered out. She felt a rush of emotions; anger; sadness; everything under the category of angst.

  "Wha-?" Lacey cut her confusion short. She gave Faye a once over, analyzing every feature. The red hair, the green eyes. "Faye?" She asked softly.

  It was the last thing Faye heard before she felt herself shrinking back down the form she had held a week ago and running towards the woods.

  ❧ ❧ ❧

  Faye was gone within in an instant, disappearing into the forest. Stefan and Lacey were startled by the action, both watching her run with surprise on their face. There was tears in Lacey's eyes as she watched, now knowing who that was.

  "Oh my god. I- I didn't even think." She shook her head. "How did I not realize that was-?"

  "You haven't seen her in ten years."

  "She smells exactly the same, though," Lacey exclaimed "How did I not realize? She looks so much like Amy. I should have known. It wasn't until I saw her eyes..." She continued rambling, so much on her mind with the revelation. She turned to look at Stefan, her eyes wide. "She's back?"

  Stefan only nodded.

  "You came here looking for her and she was right next to you the whole time."

  "She can't remember anything about her or the past. I was trying to help her figure it out," he clarified. "I found a lead and we came here, hoping we could get some answers."

  Lacey didn't respond right. She looked off in the distant, taking everything in. Stefan assumed it was a lot for someone to handle.

  She finally moved her gaze back to him after making a decision. Lacey waved her hand at him as she stepped inside. "Come in."

  Stefan listened, following right after her. She led him to the kitchen where she gestured toward a small dining table. He took a seat and she moved toward the cabinet. Lacey pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, something she very much needed. She poured them both a glass before moving to sit down with him.

  "Faye should be here for this, but maybe I can tell her later," Lacey muttered, picking up her own glass. She took a long sip from her whiskey. "Where do you want to start?"

  "How is Faye what she is?"

  "Of course. I should've known," Lacey started off saying. "In the nineteen twenties, Charles and I were in New Orleans with people we considered family. He had gotten himself into a mess with some wolves and sought the help of a witch. The witch fell for him and helped him with most of the stuff, but there was still unresolved ends. We ended up having to decide to run so we could live."

  She swallowed harshly, her eyes not meeting his as she recalled the story. Her hand went to twist her daylight ring around her hand, a nervous tick. Stefan could tell speaking of the incident bothered her, but she continued on anyways.

  "Charles made plans with the witch for her to come with us and we would all run far from New Orleans to escape the imminent death. He told her to meet him in the quarter one night and we would all go, but he never came," Lacey let out a deep sigh. She pursed her lips before speaking again. "We left without her."

  "Where does Faye come in to all this, though?"

  Lacey shifted in her seat, becoming more uncomfortable the more she spoke. She continued on with the story, "The witch felt betrayed by Charles so she cursed him. It was the most twisted thing I had ever heard in years. She said he was going to love the thing that caused this all and they would have something together that would make their lives pure heaven. A baby who was a vampire much like her father..." She trailed off. "And a werewolf, like her mother."

  Stefan furrowed his brows, narrowing his eyes at what he was hearing. "I don't understand how this was a curse. They gave birth to a new breed of supernatural and had a child they would love."

  A bitter chuckle left Lacey. "That's what we said. We didn't know the other half of the curse. The much more twisted part." She took another drink, finishing off the glass before moving on. "On Faye's eighth birthday, she shifted for the first time and tore out the hearts of both her parents."

  "I don't understand. Why did she?"

  "The witch warped Faye's mind and controlled her," Lacey revealed. "She had the thing Charles loved the most tear his heart out, along with his wife's. It was pretty poetic." Another glass was poured for herself, Lacey knocking it back almost immediately. "Then, when it was over, Faye never shifted back and ran off. I searched the ends of the Earth for her and never found a trace," she said. She glanced over at Stefan questioning. "But you did."

  "She saved my friend from a werewolf and she shifted back right after," he told her.

  The blonde nodded as if what he said made more sense than anything he's said. "Faye's curse could only be broken if she found her pack. It's something some dead witches did to clean up the mess another had made. When did you find her?"

  "Last week."

  "Gone for ten years, back for a week." Lacey clicked her tongue. She let out a long sigh, moving to rest her face in her hands. "God, she's missed so much."

  "Can you tell me? What I missed?" A new voice entered the conversation, starling them. The two at the table turned to see Faye standing the doorway. She was covered in dirt, trying to cover herself with her hands as much as she could. Stefan avoided looking at her.

  "You came back," Stefan said in surprise. He hadn't even heard her enter, having been so entranced by the story.

  Faye glanced down at her bare toes and nodded. "I didn't want to, but something was telling me to come back and listen. I think it's my new human reasoning."

  "It's not new, Faye. You've had it, just elected to ignore it." Stefan only received an eye roll.

  Faye averted her attention from him and to Lacey. She looked at the woman, the one who was her aunt, the one she couldn't remember.

  "I don't want things to not make sense anymore," she told her, speaking to her for third time she remembers. Lacey sat up straighter, listening intently. "I want to know everything. Can you tell me?"

  "Of course," she answered, nodding. There was a bittersweet smile on her face. "I can tell you everything."

  The corners of the hybrid's lips quirked up in to a small smile. Lacey got up from her seat, walking over to her niece. She didn't get to close, not having set any boundaries just yet.

  "Let's get you some clothes first and I'll tell you all about you."

  ❧ ❧ ❧

  Faye had heard the full spiel about who she was and what happened to her. It was a long tragic story that still didn't feel like hers, but it was. She was Faye Daniels. She was missing, but she was found. 

  The hybrid pondered as she sat in the car, staring out the window as Mystic Falls passed by. They had left Lacey's with the promise to return, Faye needing to spend more time with her aunt. She had just returned to the world and it was important she had people to connect with.

  The idea of being found was fresh on her mind and opened her up to a lot more questions that needed answers. When she was found, she was human again, something she hadn't been in a long time. What do human's do? She turned to Stefan to voice the question that was on her mind.

  "What now?" She asked.

  Stefan was hesitant to answer, glancing quickly from the road, to her, and back. "You start your life again," he told her. "You'll stay at the boarding house with Damon and I. I'm going to get you enrolled in school and you can find things you like to do. There's a lot happening in Mystic Falls all the time and it wouldn't be a problem if you wanted to help."

  "That's it?" She expected a lot more required from her.

  "Yep," he simply put it. A smile graced his face. "Look alive, Faye. Your new life starts very soon."

❧ ❧ ❧  

A/N: I just rewrote this whole chapter to make it up to 2017 Karina standards rather than 2014 Karina's. I hope you all enjoy!

Edited: 12/31/17

-Karina