AS STEFAN SALVATORE WALKED THROUGH the empty, deserted streets of Mystic Falls, he noticed no sort of sound; his enhanced hearing failed to pick up sounds that any human would make with their movements. It simply told him that the town was dead at this time of the night.

Mystic Falls was a small town, it had been one since it was founded centuries ago, just a few years before his birth. He remembered how it was a mixture of fields, simple houses, and mansions that the founding families would reside in. He had the luxury of playing with his brother in his large mansion, and he was once grateful for that. He once cherished those distant memories.

He didn't think anything of those anymore. It was just a memory; no feelings were felt when he thought about them- if he thought about them.

His train of thought was interrupted when he heard the soft growling of a slowing motor, several feet behind him. What confirmed another presence was the sudden light shining on the tree just in front of him, dark edges made prominent by his silhouette's shadow.

With a small and cunning smile, he spun around and let his façade take over, staring at the approaching car with its headlights illuminated and piercing his eyes. As the car completely halted, he furrowed his eyebrows to feign concern. He tilted his head and took cool and slow-paced steps towards the small, green car. The driver was hard to make out in the dark, but his vision could trace feminine features and long, red hair that was slightly frizzed up; the girl obviously had no time to fix her hair, meaning she was probably in the middle of the road trip.

Once he was right at the driver's window, he stopped and leaned over slightly, raising his hand to give two soft and gentle knocks on the rolled up glass separating them. "Oh, r-right!" The woman's exclamation of realization was muffled as she scrambled around the controls on her door to lower the window.

She instantly looked up when the sound of the window receding was audible, ready to ask the man roaming the streets for a few directions. "Hey, I was coming from—" She cut herself off as she found herself speaking to thin air like a maniac. She then pursed her lips and stuck her head out the window, moving it from side to side at a pace slow enough to look through her dark surroundings thoroughly.

A small and disappointed sigh left her lips as she failed to find the man she could've sworn she just saw outside her car. She finally let her back hit her leather seat and kept her hands on her steering wheel, ready to start up the car. She pressed a button on the door and patiently waited for the window to go up, sneaking one last glance to her surroundings.

Her eyes instantly caught movement just a few feet away from the car, causing her to open the door and step out. "Excuse me?!" She called out, walking away from the car to look around.

She instantly felt the atmosphere turn unsafe and dark, a small shiver going up her spine. With an almost inaudible hum, she spun around to get back to the car, only to gasp at the man standing right there, staring down at her. Her chest was touching his; it was remarkable how she didn't hear him approach her. "Hello, again." Stefan chaffed, looking down at her as she trembled.

"I...I—" His pupils dilated as he leaned forward even more and raised her chin so that they could make eye-contact.

"Make sure not to attract any attention, will you?" Without giving her entranced and dazed form any time to reply, he spoke again. "If you're confused, I just did a little trick to make sure you're not loud enough to get me caught and staked by the vampire-obsessed freaks in this town." He gestured to the town with his eyes, before diverting them to her again.

"V-Vampire?" Her voice was soft and nervous, her skin had almost immediately turned pale, and her eyes were wider than ever as she began to shake even more. "Did you j-ju-just s-say vampire?" She was evidently in complete and utter shock, causing him to smile and click his tongue, feigning a sense of realization.

"Oh, right, I forgot to mention that little detail." He said, drawing his tongue over his lips. "They exist! I'm an example, as you can see. I was born in 1846, turned just before I turned 18." He then narrowed his eyes slightly. "I'm a vampire, and as you know," His hand began to trail up her shoulder to her neck, making her shut her eyes tightly as she felt his tug on the cloth covering her neck. "Vampires need to feed." Her eyes shot open as she felt the flesh on her neck rip apart harshly, and her lip gloss covered lips parted open to let out a scream of utter agony that would beg for her to be rescued.

However, her scream was significantly softer than what she had intended, almost as if it was magically quietened to a hoarse and voiceless gasp.

"Sweetheart," Stefan suddenly breathed out against her stained skin. "What did I say?" His arm wrapped around her waist tightly to pull her neck closer to his red lips and coated fangs. "You're not getting anyone's attention anytime soon."

"P-Please," A sob left the helpless woman. "Please don't kill me..." Her bottom lip quivered as he watched tears wet her pale cheeks. "I have a sister waiting for me and she's-she's sick..." Stefan only let out a heartless chuckle and smiled sadistically at her, enjoyed the fear that he could sense radiating off her.

"You should know something." He spoke after moments of silence and torture for the victim. "Nothing you say will help you. I don't care at all, and there is no possible way for me to feel sympathy." Without another word, his free hand clutched her collar and jerked her back towards his hold; she was spun around and pinned to the car before she could blink, and the familiar searing pain erupted throughout her neck again.

"Please, STOP!" She tried to thrash around in his grasp and shake him off, despite his extraordinary strength. "Please, I have someone waiting for me at home, it's going to break her!" She pleaded and pleaded for him to stop causing so much pain, and her energy progressively reduced. Her pleas began to fade into silence, and her head began to hang backwards as her balled fists loosened up into weak grips. "Please—"

A loud whistle broke through the otherwise quiet atmosphere, causing Stefan to jerk back from the victim and look towards his left, the direction where he heard the man-made noise originate from. "What the hell?" The words came out mumbled and irritated due to the interruption of a feast he was gladly enjoying.

Another whistle made him let go of the girl, who slid down the side of her car to the ground, leaving a trail of dark red over the green metallic surface. Stefan turned away from the body and towards the clock tower in the distance, his eyes trailing around the bottom to see if there was anyone roaming around.

"Who's there?" He called out, bringing his hand up to his lips to wipe away the blood. "Come on, I don't bite..." He smiled at the pun, before another voice broke through his thoughts.

"On the contrary, Mr. Salvatore," The voice was loud and feminine, holding a powerful and yet mocking tone; it was like the woman was looking down at him like an inferior and teasing him for no apparent reason that he was aware of. "Bite is an understatement." Stefan raised his eyebrows and then his head to look at the top of the clock tower.

There stood a silhouette of a woman, posture straight and confident with her hair gently flowing behind her in small waves. "Who the hell are you?" Stefan knew she was a vampire; the wind at her elevation would be too strong for the average human to catch any other sound.

"If you think about it, that doesn't really matter now, does it?" She fired back with a question herself, causing him to throw his head back and laugh loudly. "I can see that you think of me as a joke."

"Well, what do you expect me to do?" He asked. "Without your identity, you're this vampire trying to talk me down, without even knowing that your insults don't do shit." A musical laugh followed his statement, causing him to blink twice at the fact that he wasn't being taken seriously.

"Oh, Stefan..." A chuckle could be heard as she took his name. "I know who you are, what your situation is, and why it's happening. You see, nothing's ever a coincidence in the supernatural world...especially if it involves Klaus Mikaelson." Stefan frowned at the mention of the man he had just seen a few hours ago.

"TURN IT OFF!"

The yells were still echoing through his ears, for him to flip the switch.

"How do you know Klaus Mikaelson?" The woman let out a hum that was also picked up by his ears, making him notice that she was pondering about her answer; the question was if she was being sarcastic or not. "I'm waiting."

"Doesn't matter." She visibly waved it off as she spoke. "Nothing about me matters. What I came to Mystic Falls for is you, and I've found you." Stefan wondered how she even knew him and Klaus; she held that sense of familiarity, but didn't seem like anyone he knew. "Well, I came here for Klaus, too, but I just had to see the emotionless Stefan Salvatore in person for once, instead of hearing about it from a dear friend for over a century."

"And that would be?" When he got no answer, he simply sighed and looked back at her again. "Why don't you get down here? I don't think the whole town will approve of me talking loudly, and seemingly to myself since you're way up there." He watched her as she tilted her head and let out another chuckle.

"Terrible reasoning, but since you're so desperate to get a good look at me," She paused, hesitating for a split second. "I don't see why not." Without further ado, she held her arms out and spun around swiftly, before taking a step off the ledge and onto thin air.

He didn't flinch when he saw her fall off the clock tower deliberately; he knew she was a vampire, and therefore heights would never hurt her. Once he heard the prominent sound of feet hitting the stone pavement next to the clock tower, he wasted no time to use his supernatural speed to get to the Mystic Falls landmark.

However, as soon as he saw the blonde-haired woman just seven feet away from where he had come to a stop, all the muscles in his body locked up as he froze. His eyes widened in astonishment at the sight of a familiar pair of eyes that stuck out with a shade of grey-blue, a shade that held a metallic and an oceanic feel. Her pale skin was made paler by a layer of dark red lipstick, a color that entirely contrasted the natural shade he last saw on her lips, back when he was still human.

And that was close to one and a half centuries ago.

"See? My appearance doesn't solve any questions; it just creates more." As those words left her lips, Stefan knew that she was deliberately in town, knew of their history, and had answers to every single question that sprung up in his mind. As he opened his slightly blood covered mouth to speak, he found himself only saying a statement he had believed for too long.

"Aurelia...you're dead. You've been a corpse since 1864."

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So, this is my first story... ever. Just so you know, this chapter takes place in The Reckoning, or Season 3 Episode 5. 01/20/2019

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10/16/2020

Well Hello!

Surprise, I'm back to edit what looks like a terrible piece of work- but yes, I'm back to edit The Original Heretic. The edited chapters aren't going to be up very frequently, but I really do hope that you'll wait with me to see the editing process. I feel like my updated writing style is MUCH better than the writing style I first started with, so I hope I don't disappoint this time!

Nevertheless, I'll try to have all original chapters up TODAY and then unpublish the one I've edited so that when I republish, you're notified.

For the rereaders [highly unlikely but an author can hope] welcome back, I hope you enjoy the new and improved journey! As for the first time readers, I hope you find interest in Aurelia's story. HAPPY READING!

-Aria :)