15 years later...




*Serena's p.o.v*




"When are they going to stop fighting?" my baby sister Lucy asks me while i sit on the floor next to her bed.
"Soon, i promise. Do you want me to go tell them to stop?" i ask her.
She nods her head full of golden blonde silk.
"okay.Here," i say handing her my I-pod,"listen to this while i go and talk to them. then i'll see if i can spend the night here with you." She puts the ear buds in her ears and watches as i close the door carefully behind me.

I walk down the stairs and into the kitchen where my parents, Jonathan and Nicole, are standing screaming like banshees at each other.
"Shut the hell up you two!" i scream jumping between them,"Lucy is in her bedroom trying to sleep, if you have any common sense you'll both shut up and go to sleep. For her if nothing else."
My mom scowls at my dad," See i told you to keep it down."
"Oh yes Nicole, like you aren't the one that was just screaming at me to wash the dishes and then threw a plate at me because i bought the wrong soap," my dad says, rolling his eyes.
"If you would buy the right soap and do the dishes every once in a while i wouldn't get upset," she says.
"Yeah right, you'd just find something else to scream at me about. that's how you are, Nicole, that's how you have always been.But it was never this bad before."
"Oh okay, so you can be out all hours of the night drinking, but i can't get mad about the dishes?" she asks.
"See? you just did it. Just then, you found something else to yell at me about," he points out.

I just shake my head and walk away from them, and instead i pull out my cell phone and call my boyfriend Blaze Bennington.
"hello?" he says
"Blaze," i say over my mom and dad's voices.
"Babe, where are you?" he asks.
"At my parents house. Lucy is going to spend the night with us okay?" i say.
"okay, i'll run to the store and get supplies."
I laugh,"okay. i love you."
"love you too".


I run back up the stairs and into Lucy's room.She's already asleep, but i don't want to leave her here with them while they are fighting and not paying attention to her.I pull out her pink backpack from underneath her bed and start to throw clothes inside it, along with her favorite book and movie.Then I grab my purse and the backpack and run outside to my car,a 1967 Chevy impala, and put her backpack in the trunk and my purse in the front seat. Then i head back into the house to get her, which was easy considering she's four years old and asleep, and the fact that mom and dad were fighting. When i get back outside i put her in the backseat and buckle her into the car seat i keep for her.

It doesn't take long to get home, and when i do get home blaze is still gone. I carry her into the house, with her backpack on my back and my purse in my left hand and my keys in my right. Our house is a two story house with three bedrooms,two bathrooms,a garage, a basement and an attic, with a guest house in the backyard.

We use the attic for storage,one room for our bedroom, one for Lucy's bedroom, and one is just empty.
The living room is large, but homey, decorated in soft colors, with a brick fireplace and four windows.
I set her down on the couch, knowing that the second she hears blaze's voice she'll be wide awake.Sometimes i think that little girl loves him more than i do.


My mind starts to wander to places it really shouldn't. I am nineteen and Blaze is twenty. He has a stable job and income.She does love Blaze...I shake my head, it is dangerous to think like that. She has our parents to take care of her.But were they taking care of her?...


Blaze walks in with bags in his hands.
"Hey princess," he says to Lucy, and just as i predicted she jumps up and wraps her arms tightly around his neck.
"Blaze!" she laughs.


I take the bags from him and walk to the kitchen to put everything away.I listen from the kitchen as Blaze and Lucy talk. As i am listening i get a flash of an image. just a flash of an image. As i see the image i drop whatever it was i had in hands. it crashes to the floor and scatters a million different directions.Blaze is by my side in an instant.
"What happened? are you okay?" he asks frantic.
"Yeah, i just dropped the jar of cherries."



They go back into the living room as i clean up the glass, but it happens again and again. I just see flashes of a man and a woman. arguing.
I feel so far away. like i'm not in my body but i am, like the world has just melted away around me. And all of a sudden i am in a hotel room, elegantly designed in cremes and white, with a beautiful young woman sitting on the bed, talking on the phone with someone.
"I do not care what you have to do Simon," She says harshly," Find my daughter."
the man on the other end of the phone talks but the woman cuts him off.
"No. I do not care if it was a closed adoption. Find a way around the system you idiot. Find a way to get the information we need or you'll be the first of many others to die," the woman snaps.
'DIE!?'i want badly to scream, but i can't find my voice.
"Good boy. Do as you are told and as soon as you find out where she is, go and get her." The woman hangs up the phone, but it rings again.
"Aurora black," the woman says sweetly.
"Yes, of course." she says," i will be there as soon as possible."
As soon as she gets off of the phone she calls someone's name, but i don't catch the name.
"Chester thinks he's got Serena's location. He says she is right here in town," Aurora says to a big buff guy in a black suit and shades.
"Now that Alaric is out of the way, i have nothing to stop me from getting my baby back."
" but Aurora, she has a life...what if she's happy? she'd be what?...nineteen? twenty? what if she has a family of her own? you did at that age," the man says.
"yes, i did and i ended up having to kill my husband.now he is as dead as night. I am a part of her and whether she knows me or not. she feels her energy, feels her power.She will make a most powerful assassin."
'Assassin?'
"they are at her house" the man says to aurora. Aurora smiles, and that is the last thing i see before everything goes black. Now i know for a fact i am as far away as i fell.

I open my eyes to find Blaze and Lucy hovering over me.
"Thank god. What happened to you?" Blaze asks.
"Nothing, i'm fine."
"No.you are not."
"Really i am. I think i just need some sleep," i say. but heaven knows i won't be able to sleep.

That woman had looked very familiar for some odd reason.
But when i thought about it, i couldn't remember anything that had happened in the flash. all i could remember was that woman's face.
"Alright," Blaze says slowly,"Go ahead, i'll put Lucy to bed."
I stand up slowly, now realizing that blaze had carried me to the couch, and walk upstairs to our room.

i stand in the doorway for a few minutes, knowing that if i lay down in that bed i will not be able to sleep for hours. I'll be wondering what happened to me and why. I will toss and turn for hours trying to get comfortable and trying to get that woman's face out of my head.Finally i think 'screw it' and lay down in bed.No matter what i had thought before, as soon as my head reaches the fluffy white pillow, i am out like a light. Drowning in blissful darkness and happy dreamless sleep.



I wake up many hours later, feeling completely happy and well rested.The smell of bacon catches my attention and i walk down the stairs in a daze, tranced by the smell of food.
I stop at the bottom of the stairs at the sound of Lucy's voice.
"Blaze, please?" lucy asks
"Lucy, you know it's not possible. If it was, you know it'd already have happened," blaze says sadly.
"But if you got married, i could, couldn't i?" she asks.
"No, lucy it doesn't work that way."
"Why not?"
"Because, i want you here as much as you want to be here.But as much as i like to think of you as our daughter, you're not."
"But i could be!" Lucy cries.
"It isn't possible lucy."
"They would be happy if you guys took me away from them,then the could do what they want to do. the only reason they are still together is because of me. they don't want to be together but they think they have to because of me."
"that isn't true."

I decide it's time to make my presence known and i walk out into the kitchen.
"morning."
"Serena! look what we made," Lucy laughs, pointing at the table full of pancakes, bacon, eggs,and cookies.
"Cookies for breakfast?" i ask, playfully scowling Blaze.
"Yeah!" Lucy laughs, completely oblivious to her previous argument with blaze.
"You know," i say,"i have to go shopping today. who wants to come with me?"
"Me!Me!I do!I do!" lucy cries jumping up and down.
"Alright we'll go as soon as you are finished eating".

* Aurora's P.O.V *


"Where is she?" I ask angrily,gripping a handful of his spiky blonde hair in my right hand.
"I already told you, Aurora. I don't know, it was a closed adoption." I yank the hair i have in my hand, pulling his head back and making him hit his head on the back of the metal chair he's tied to.
"About that!" I remember,"Who do you think you are putting my daughter up for adoption and erasing her memories Alaric?"

He stays silent, as I knew that he would. So, I yank his hair again. This time harder. He clenches his jaw tightly and I can hear him grit his teeth together. The sound, even as low as it is, makes me close my eyes in pain.

"Answer the question Alaric. Where. Is. Serena." I try again, if he's smart, which he always has been, he'll answer the question.

"I didn't want this for her. Did you? Did you REALLY want to raise Serena to be the monster that you have turned into Aurora? I sure as hell didn't," He says. Earning another yank of his hair."And all I know about where she is... is that it is somewhere in Sacramento."

"Why Sacramento?" I ask, honestly curious as to his choice.

"Because it is easy to trace people there. If you set the right people in the right places, you can easily find her," he says. I just nod slowly in response,letting go of his hair.

"I love you Alaric, I always have," I say slowly. He only nods because he knows what is coming.

"I love you too."

Those were the last words to ever leave Alaric West's mouth. Finally, what I had been waiting fifteen years for had come to pass. A smile slowly grazed my lips as I pulled my blade out of my husbands chest.

"Simon!" I call as I leave the room. Simon opens the door for me and nods."Deal with that," I nod toward Alaric's body.

"Yes, of course Aurora."

'I'll come for you Serena,' I will her to hear my thoughts ,'Please forgive everything I have done and please understand why I have done everything I have.'

* Serena's P.O.V *


As soon as Lucy is done with breakfast,we go to the mall, Blaze tagging along since he doesn't have to work until later on tonight. I watch as Lucy climbs onto Blaze's back for a piggy back ride. I follow Blaze as he walks into a children's toy store, Lucy climbs off once inside and runs to the toys. I grab Blaze's arm to stop him from moving closer to Lucy as i whisper to him.
"Maybe we should," Right away he knows what i'm talking about.
"Serena, we can't. You said so yourself, just a few days ago," He says.
"I know ,Blaze, I know.But I overheard you guys talking the is morning. And I was even thinking about it last night."
"Her parents getting into a fight is not a reasonable reason to try and adopt her."
"Why? They adopted me because my parents got in a fight," I say.Blaze stares at me, and frowns.
"You never told me that." I think for a moment about why that came out of my mouth, I couldn't remember anything before I was adopted.
"That's because I just remembered."
"You're starting to remember things?" he asks.
"I think so."

After spending the entire day shopping we head home.

When we get back to the house blaise sighs.
"What?" i ask.
"I think it's time to take her home. "
"What?" i repeat.
"We are all starting to get ideas in our heads that can never actually be reality. And if she stays any longer she will not take no for an answer," Blaise explains.
I take a few moments to think about it.
"Okay," i saw slowly,"Your right. I'll take her home."
I can tell blaise doesn't want lucy to go home, but like he just pointed out and likes to point out every time lucy comes over, She is not our daughter and she has parents. whether or not they are fighting does not matter. She needs to go home.
"Lucy!" I call.
Lucy comes down the stairs dragging her bag. Blaise frowns when he sees her, he turns and gives her a big bear hug before going upstairs. Leaving me to take her home.

The drive to my parents house is quiet.Lucy is upset she has to go home, i know that. But she does live with our parents, not with me and blaise, as much as we want her to.
When we get there I take her bag and she walks silently behind me. I open the front door-it's never locked- and walk inside. My parents are in the living room watching a movie. When my dad sees me he pauses the movie.
"I thought you guys were going to be gone longer then a day," he says.
"Lucy, go upstairs. I'll be up there in a few minutes," I say. She does what i tell her to and once i hear her bedroom door shut i look at our parents.
"I want lucy to come and live with me and blaise," i say.
"what?" my mom asks.
"She blames herself for your fighting. she thinks that if she comes and lives with me then you guys can split up. she told blaise that the only reason you are still together is because of her a.k.a because of her you guys are not happy," i say.
They sit there quiet and then look at each other and then my dad sighs.
"Maybe...do you and blaise want her to live there?" he asks.
"WHAT!?" i ask,"Are you saying that she can come and live with us?"
"Yeah. If she wants to live with you and you want her to live with you, maybe we should let her."