PLEASE READ: This fanfic may contain certain themes that some readers might be uncomfortable with. This chapter contains mentions of DATE RAPE and a pretty detailed description of MURDER. The fanfic as a whole will contain sexual themes, alcohol, drugs and violence (which results, sometimes, in murder). None of this is glorified. This fanfic is not canon compliant and is seriously-AU for the most part, but might contain some plot points from the show.

I'm planning on splitting the fanfic into four or five parts, each of roughly equal length. The first part, which follows the prologue, is set in New York City and features four or five canon characters, and is entirely Kol/OC. I can't guarantee any endgames, though. Hope you like it! Keep in mind that the first part of the prologue is as dark as its probably going to get!

Prologue

Imagine waking up in a strange hotel room with a guy you know to be a douche beside you. Imagine waking up without any clothes one and your best friend, whose on the ground beside you, also has no clothes on. Imagine having no idea what so ever about what you did last night.

Or the night before that.

I leap out of the bed and grab what I presume to be my clothes. I'm in a shitty hotel room. The grey paint is coming off the walls and the ground is really, really cold. I pity Caroline for having to sleep on it. I don't want to imagine what we did last night. Only one thing comes to mind, and that thing is really, really disturbing.

The last thing I remember is it being the last day of school, which was two days ago according to the date on my cell. I reach into my skirt pocket and am thankful to find money, though I am disheartened when I realise its only 10 bucks, and a fake ID.

An abundance of light shines through the poor-quality curtains. We must be in the city. I hope to God its one of the cities close to Mystic Falls, like Nashville or Atlanta. My fingers on my left hand are crossed as I pull over the curtains, and I am sorely disappointed.

I'm in Vegas. Las Vegas. Which is in California, I think. Which is on the other side of America. Mystic Falls is in the east and California is as west as you can go. How the hell are we supposed to get home? There is no way I am calling Mom!

Mom! She's going to kill me! I check my phone and see that I have 97 missed calls from Mom, 62 from Dad and 39 from Elena. Oh, I am so dead.

By the time I decide to wake Caroline up, I'm hyperventilating. This alarms Caroline, who jumps awake and grabs onto my arm, repeatedly asking me where the hell we are. I can't bring myself to answer, and she sees the giant sign that says 'NUMBER ONE CASINO IN VEGAS, FIRST BET IS HALF PRICE!' before I can muster an answer.

"We're in Vegas!" she shrieks. "And why the fuck am I naked? Who the hell is that?"

She's hyperventilating too, and I have to calm her down now as well. She tugs on her clothes very quickly, still panicking and asking questions I don't have the answer to.

"Did I sleep with him?" she asks after a billion other questions. "Did I seriously sleep with Duke, because I don't remember!" She gasps, a hand rising to her heart. "Did he drug me? Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!"

Duke's snore makes us both jump, but he's thankfully still sound asleep. Probably drunk as hell. I remember drinking with Tyler Lockwood and Matt Donovan in Matt's house, and then Duke came and brought some alcohol and a strange drug that I've never seen before. Its all blank after that.

"I think we both slept with him, Caroline," I whisper, as if he can somehow hear us in his sleep. You never know.

Caroline's jaw drops. "You mean we had a threesome!" Cringing and biting my lip, I nod, and Caroline emits a sort of scream. "I'm a virgin! Well, I was a virgin. Oh my God, don't tell me that I gave my virginity to Duke in a threesome with my best friend!"

I give her look of sympathy. I'm glad I gave my V-card to James Dawson a few months back, because it would be horrible to not remember my first time. And to give my virginity to the biggest douche of all time.

Tears form in Caroline's eyes, and soon enough she's bawling her eyes out. "Oh, Care," I say sympathetically, and wrap my arms around her shaking frame.

"I-I'm going to th-the b-b-b-bathroom," she sobs, shrugging out of my embrace.

I nod and step back as she rushes to the bathroom, letting out a screech of "EW" as she opens the door, but goes in nonetheless. I want to cry too, and I am about to when I hear a low drawl coming from the bed.

"Was I really that bad?" he asks me, smirking like the douche he is.

To be honest, I'm terrified of him. I'm scared of him as much as I hate him, which is a fuck load. But if he's willing to bring two under-age girls into a room for a threesome then God only knows what he's capable of.

"I wouldn't know," I reply. I can't help the sadness and fear and especially the bitterness that seeps into my tone. "I don't remember."

Duke barks a laugh as he pushes himself out of bed. He's stark naked, and I can see everything. He's huge. "Shame. You were brilliant last night, giggling and doing all sorts of things to me. Tell me, where did you learn-"

"Stop, stop! Just stop it!" I exclaim, putting my hands over my ears. I can still hear his mocking laughter. I'm going to cry. "What the fuck did you give me, Duke? Why can't I remember the last two days?" He grins at me. "Fuck, Duke! What did you give me?"

"Okay, fine, fine. I have no problem telling you. I gave the four of you a whole lot of things put together that had a stronger effect than I wanted it to. Those shady Mexicans never give an accurate description of what they're selling," he tells me, saying that last bit like its some great joke. "But I have no issue. That was one hell of a lay!"

I cringe involutarily. "Four of us? Who else is here?"

"Yeah, Tyler and Matt too," he adds. "You all were being boring, so I had to bring out the big guns. I think they're in the room beside us. Go through the bathroom if you want." He's in front of me now, and slides his dirty hands around my body, wandering down to my ass and giving it a squeeze. "What do you say to a round two? Just you and me? Come on, Lou. Let's have a little fun."

His dick is erect and its poking into me. I'm going to throw up. I squirm in his arms and rip myself away from him, glaring at the douche with all the hatred I've been try to hide.

"No!" I tell him. "You stay away from me!"

Gingerly, as if expecting him to pounce, I walk away. Its slow at first, but then it sort of becomes a run. Duke laughs at me. Caroline is still crying on the floor. I offer her a sympathetic smile and tell her that Duke is a douche, and she replies that she already knows that. Seeing that she wants to be left alone, I open the door to Matt and Tyler's bedroom. True to Duke's word, they're in here.

Matt is freaking out as he paces the length of his shitty hotel room while Tyler tries half-heartedly to calm him down. Tyler is the fun one of the two, but its clear that even he is freaking out.

They stop talking when I come in. Matt marches over to me and hugs me. He smells terrible, and I'm suddenly self-conscious because I probably smell just as bad. For once, Tyler isn't smirking or making some stupid joke; he looks worried.

"So you're here too," Tyler points out. "Who else? Forbes?"

I nod. "Yeah. She's in the bathroom. And guess who else I bumped into this morning."

"Who?" Matt presses.

Immediately, I regret bringing him up. Hopefully I can avoid the whole threesome incident. Tyler would never let me live that down. "Duke. As in Bob Johnson; Duke."

"That dick?" Matt repeats, groaning. He groans again as I nod. "Brilliant. Just brilliant. Bet he's the reason we're here. Probably gave us some whacko drug that he got off those odd Mexicans he deals with. What's the odds we can completely avoid him?"

"Pretty slim," I mutter. He knows where we are. I'm basically counting down the minutes until he storms into the room, boasting about his night.

"Where are we anyway?" Tyler asks me, glancing outside the window.

"Vegas," I answer.

He rolls his eyes. "I know that. All you have to do is look out the friggin' window and you'll find a sign that has VEGAS on it."

I raise my hands in defence. "God, Tyler. Chill."

"What I mean is what's the name of the hotel," he clarifies.

"No idea," I reply. "I haven't left my hotel room, but by the looks of it we're in the shittiest shit-hole in Vegas. In California, even!"

Matt furrows his brows at me and gives me a 'how stupid are you?' kind of look. "We're in Nevada, Lou. Not California."

Oh. Oops. Well, geography never was my strong point. I shrug my shoulders. "Whatever. The shittiest shit-hole in Nevada, then. Happy?"

He smiles and is about to reply when Tyler interrupts him. Rude. "Wait, wait, wait. Louisa, if you haven't left your hotel room, how did you 'bump into' Duke?"

Oh, so now this dick decides to notice something other than his hair. I'll never be able to be a criminal mastermind, or a politician for that matter. I can't even make up a simple teenager lie that follows every 'where were you last night?' God, I need to go to brain camp.

"Em," I start, searching for a brilliant lie. Fuck me! I need to practice lying. This is terrible. This is my whole life, you know. Trying to make up lies and failing. "Well..." Matt gives me a look, and so does Tyler. "Well, er, you know... he was sort of in the bed, that I was also sort of in."

"You had sex with him?" Matt almost shouts, a little too angrily and brotherly for my liking.

"Well, that's the implication," I answer.

"Did you have clothes on when you woke up?" Tyler asks.

I turn to him, jaw dropped and eyes wide. My voice is indignant. "Tyler Lockwood, that is no way to talk to a lady!"

"I'll note that for when I see one next," Tyler comments, wearing his notorious, cocky smirk. "But, last time I checked, ladies don't put out and have sex with guys they don't even like."

"It was a threesome, actually!" I exclaim, as though that somehow wins me the argument, even though I've just made it worse. I can't help but cringe once I realise what I've said.

"A threesome?" Tyler repeats, giddy like Christmas has come early. "You and Duke? With who?" I shake my head and rub my forehead. I'm an idiot. "Forbes?" Such an idiot. I don't reply. Words don't agree with me and I'll end up making things worse. Tyler takes my refusal to speak as confirmation. "It was Forbes! God, Louisa. I expected this from you, but Forbes has a bit more class..."

"Hey!" I cry, hitting him on the arm. "He drugged me up with some funny ass drug. I wasn't in my right mind! And I wouldn't have if he didn't, so don't you go acting like this is something you'd expect from me, because you shouldn't. Dick." I add that last bit for good measure, and to accentuate my point. And because he is a dick.

"A threesome," Tyler muses, his smirk becoming contemplative. "Lucky guy."

"Why's Caroline taking so long in the bathroom?" Matt asks quickly so that Tyler doesn't have time to make any more suggestive comments.

"She's a bit shaken," I tell him, because its not my place to disclose Caroline's personal business. "Just like we all are, I suppose. One does not simply wake up in Vegas all chill."

"Unless you're on drugs," Tyler suggests. Matt and I shoot him a look and he smiles innocently in response. Super dick. "Too soon?"

"Was he not drugged too?" I ask Matt. Because if he wasn't, it would imply that he had a part in drugging us.

"Of course he was," Matt answers. "He woke up this morning and shook me like crazy and yelled into my ear that he didn't know where the hell we were."

I giggle at this. For all his cool demeanour, I could see that he's lowkey freaking out. Its nice to have some confirmation though. Next, Matt brings up the topic of how on earth we're getting home. We dish out all the cash we have in our pockets and it comes to a total of twenty-five bucks.

"Hey, what's this?" Tyler says to himself as he reaches into his pocket. He groans in pain as his hand touches the depth of his trousers' pocket, and then pulls out a pocket knife. "Fuck. Why do I have a knife?"

Matt and I stare at the sharp object. What did we do? Did we go around slicing people or something? None of us have any visible cuts anyway.

"You've got to be kidding me," Matt says in exasperation as he rakes his fingers through his greasy blonde hair.

"Mom's gonna kill me!" I exclaim suddenly once I realise that we're stuck here for a few more days unless Duke helps us out, which is unlikely, and that we were probably involved in something, and I'm thinking of the worst, that involves a pocket knife. "She left me one hundred and eighty something calls over the last few days! I'm dead!"

"You think have it bad, Lou? Mom's gonna get all stressed out again and leave. Do you know how hard it is for a household to function without a parent?" Matt says angrily.

"At least your parents care," Tyler snaps. He's panicking too now. He rakes his fingers through his hair as his face goes red with worry, or anger, I don't know. "Shit. Dad's gonna kill me if I do anything to embarrass the family. Election day is next week and if he loses he's gonna blame me and Vegas."

I purse my lips together and don't say another word. Matt has gone silent too. Tyler's parents are obsessed with appearances, yes, but I think – well, I hope – that they care about their son more. Matt seems to think the same.

"That's not true, Ty," he tells his best friend. "I'm sure they're worried out of their mind about you. Not just about your dad's re-election campaign."

Tyler scoffs. "Yeah. Sure."

For a second I consider saying something, but I don't think Tyler would appreciate being consoled. He's a very stubborn and 'macho' kind of guy. The kind of guy that hates showing emotion. I'm about to try to formulate a plan again when I hear the bathroom door opening and closing.

Caroline's eyes are puffy and rimmed with red. Her hair is a tangled mess. I suspect that I look much the same, without the puffy eyes, though that might change if we don't figure out a way to get back home.

"You okay, Care?" I ask her as she walks over to me.

She shrugs. "As okay as I can be. We're in Vegas and, I don't know about you, but I haven't the slightest idea of how I got here."

"We don't remember anything either," Matt tells her, his teeth gritted together. Nobody likes being drugged and dragged to Vegas. "Duke gave us some super-strong drug."

As if she had this all deduced, Caroline nods. "Right. So have you guys figured out how we're getting home?" We simultaneously shake our heads. Caroline rolls her eyes. "Figured as much. Okay, so there's a bus stop just down the road from here and have twenty dollars in my pocket. I presume you guys have money too-"

"Wait, how do you know there's a bus stop down the road?" Tyler interrupts, looking almost accusingly at Caroline.

"There's a map in the bathroom," she replies and rolls her eyes again, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world and how on earth could we have missed it. "Anyway-"

The door creaks open all of a sudden. Caroline stops mid-sentence and whips around, her blonde hair managing to hit me in the face. I'm about to 'Caroline!' her, but then I see Mr. Dick Douchebag himself standing at the door like he owns the hotel and her name turns to ash in my mouth.

"Or you four could just get into the car I rented and I'll drive you crazy kids home," Duke says, a smirk playing on his lips. "Free of charge, of course. Thanks to those two girls."

He winks at me and Caroline. My stomach twists in revulsion and I physically gag. This disgusting piece of shit actually thinks that we'll get in a car with him after he drugged us and slept with us in our befuddled state! The nerve. Caroline voices my thoughts before I gather the words too.

"We're not getting in the same car as you after you date-raped us, you no-good dipshit," Caroline replies, a surprising venom to her usually sweet tone.

The boys and I not our agreement with approving 'hmphs.' Dick looks between us, shocked and surprised, before he is engulfed by laughter.

"Alright, suit yourselves!" he says cheerfully, tossing his arms in the air to show that he doesn't give two shits about us. Because he's a dick. "Have fun being stuck in Vegas, bitches!"

"We will!" I call as he disappears behind the door to the bathroom. "Hate your face!"

Ha. Good one, Lou. Good one.

I turn around, all satisfied and smug with myself, but am met with disbelieving and somewhat disgusted expressions.

"'Hate your face'?" Tyler repeats derisively. "What kind of insult is that?"

"What do you mean?" I reply in a defensive tone. "It was better than nothing! If we stayed silent we would have looked like victims!"

"Sometimes silence speaks louder than stupid insults that don't make sense!" Tyler insists.

Am I really being told that staying silent is good by Tyler Lockwood, of all people? He is the biggest loud mouth I've ever met!

Just as I'm about to reply and argue my case further, Matt interjects with his verdict. And Matt's verdict is always gold. I'm waiting smugly for him to say I'm right. "Tyler's right."

The hell?

"No, Matt. You're still on drugs. It's okay. I won't hold this against you," I say, patting him on the arm affectionately.

"I'm not..."

"For goodness' sake, people!" Caroline cries, and stomps her foot on the floor like a child. She tugs on her hair as her eyes well with tears again. "That's it, I'm calling Mom!"

"No!" the three of us exclaim at once as Caroline takes out her cell. I reach for it, but Caroline jumps on the bed and stretches out her arm so its impossible to get.

I will have to reason with her.

"Caroline, dear," I say sweetly, slowly lowering the arm I was using to reach for her cellphone. I smile up at her and clasp my hands together, resisting the urge to tackle her onto the bed. Caroline is much, much stronger than me, after all, so such a confrontation would end badly for me. "You do realise that if you call your mother, you'll have to tell her we're in Vegas. As in, Los Vegas. In California-"

"Nevada," Matt corrects.

"Nevada," I repeat, sending Matt a venomous, annoyed look. He raises his hands in defence and steps back. Plastering another sweet smile on my face, I turn back to my naive best friend. "And then you'll have to explain how we got here, which includes under-age drinking and the use of illegal drugs, which, if I remember correctly, we all took willingly."

Caroline is still stubborn. She narrows her eyes at me. "And if we were in, say, Texas – how would you explain our absence for TWO WHOLE DAYS?"

Oh god. I think I just shit my pants. Caroline is really, really scary when she yells. I hide my fear well enough. Caroline is like a dog – she can smell fear from a mile away.

"Well," I start, slowly but surely thinking of a story. Ah ha! Light bulb moment! "We could say that we got kidnapped by religious fanatics!" Tyler, Matt and Caroline groan. "No, no, hear me out! So, we were walking from the Grill to Matt's house when these group of religious people stop us and start talking about stuff. We just wanted to go home, so we, politely, told them that we weren't interested. They didn't take this very well. So, they put us in their shiny white van and drove us to this pilgrimage place in Utah where we achieved spiritual enlightenment and became good people. And that's where we were for the past two days! Oh, oh, and they also took our cells so we wouldn't get distracted!"

With wide-eyes and worried expressions, Matt and Caroline stare at me like I'm mad while Tyler is looking at me like I have a third head. And yes, there is a difference. Having a third head is an escalation from just being mad.

"That was the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever heard," Tyler comments.

"You're the biggest pile of bull-"

"And why," Caroline interrupts from her high and mighty position on top of the fragile Vegas bed that's going to break at any moment, "can we not be on pilgrimage in Nevada?"

I shrug. I'm a little pissed off at her for interrupting my ace insult. "Well I don't know! Pilgrimage and Vegas just don't go together."

"Right," Caroline says, eyeing me warily. "I'm still calling Mom," she announces as she presses buttons on her cell.

"No!" the three of us exclaim again. This time we all reach for the phone, but Caroline steps back quickly.

"This is the simplest and quickest way," she informs us. "We're on the other side of the country and we don't have enough money for a plane! It'll take too long on a stinky, uncomfortable bus and I can't deal with that right now."

"Well, get over it! Our parents are gonna kill us, Caroline!" Tyler shouts, desperation seeping into his voice. I'm kind of happy he's begging, even if I'm on his side.

"I can't get over it, Tyler!" she says. She stops for a few minutes, looking a little... constipated. "I'm pregnant!"

"What?" the three of us say in unison. We have to stop doing that.

Shit. Caroline's pregnant with Duke's baby. It couldn't have been anyone else; she was a virgin before him. But that's not possible, it takes a few days for the seed thingy to grow, doesn't it?

"That's not..." Matt trails off. He doesn't get time to finish his sentence.

"Gotcha!" Caroline says, and dashes across the room with the speed of lightening. She pulls open the door and locks it before I can get to her. I hear the damning sound of a door being locked and start banging on the door, screaming profanities. Within seconds the boys join me.

Then Sheriff Forbes answers, and all hope is gone.

"Hey, Mom... I know! I know! I'm so sorry, but look... Eh, well, we're sort of in Vegas... Me, Louisa, Tyler and Matt... No, no, she's not a bad influence, Mom! This guy drugged the four of us... Um, no, he didn't try anything with us. He just gave us alcohol and stuff. Look, Mom, Can you come get us?... Perfect. We have enough money to last us until tonight... I know, I know! I'm sorry!... I love you, bye!"

That's it then. Goodbye outside world. Goodbye TV. Goodbye internet. I'm going to be locked in my room without anything fun to do for the next ten months.

"That little shit," Tyler growls, plopping himself down on the creaking bed. "Now Sheriff Forbes knows. Fuck, what if she tells someone and they tell someone and Dad's campaign is damaged? He'll know its me and I'll be the reason he lost!"

"Mom's gonna leave again," Matt says sadly. He sits, glumly, on the bed next to Tyler, cradling his head in his hands, his elbows on his legs.

My eyes dart between them, these two worrisome warts. I suck in a deep breath. I must be the strong one, the stable one. I place a hand on both of their shoulders and tell them, wisely, "Everything is going to be okay," as though I have seen the future.

They look up at me, but not with admiration as I had originally expected, but rather with disbelief and a look that says 'what the hell are you on'? Then Tyler voices this phrase.

"What the hell are you taking?" Tyler asks, rising to his feet and standing over me, almost threateningly. The dick.

"I'm not 'taking'anything, Mr. Anger-Issues!" I exclaim. I place my hand on my hips for emphasis. He is not going to intimidate me.

He laughs derisively. "Oh yeah? Maybe you've gone stupid then, Louisa, because anyone in their right mind can see that we're screwed!"

"Fine then, we're screwed! We're in Vegas, we don't remember the last two days, we were given this wacko drug with unknown side-effects and now our parents will know all about it! Yes, Tyler, I know we're screwed, I was just trying to be a little positive!" I say this all in one, short breath and in a very loud tone.

"Will you two just shut up?" Matt demands, standing. He looks between us accusingly. I bow my head and stare at the ground. Matt should be a teacher; he's very good at making people feel guilty. "Biting each others' heads off won't do us any favours! And repeating that we're screwed ten times a minutes won't either!" Even Tyler doesn't reply with a biting, witty comment. "Just... I don't know. Co-operate."

"Co-operate?" Tyler repeats. Matt shoots him a glare which Tyler responds to by rolling his eyes. "Fine. I'll 'co-operate.'"

Matt looks to me. I want to say no, I prepare myself to say no, but I can't... I can't say no to that face, and Matt knows it. Dick. "Fine. I'll co-operate too. I suppose we have enough problems, don't we?"

He breathes a sigh of relief and smiles. "Brilliant."

The creaking sound of the cheap door opening disturbs the awkward silence. We all snap our heads towards the disturbance. Its Caroline the Tell-tale. She looks carefully between us. None of us know what to say, or to do, until we all speak simultaneously.

"You..."

Without thinking, I lunge towards her, and Tyler and Matt follow suit. Caroline emits a high pitch scream and sprints away, and the three of us sprint after her. Tyler and Matt are very fast. I knew this already, having seen them both play football. But what surprises me is that I am actually quite fast, and so is Caroline. Maybe its a side-effect of the drug. Or maybe its adrenaline.

We're getting odd lucks from scary people staying in the hotel, and scary people working in the hotel. Some even swear at us. The four of us only stop running when Tyler bumps into a tall, muscular man with tattoos. He just had to bump into someone with tattoos.

"Watch where you're going, dick," Tattoo-man sneers.

Tyler looks fearful at first. Quickly, suddenly, all the fear drains from his face and is replaced with anger. Oh God. Please don't say anything stupid or dickish. But of course, he's Tyler, so he most likely will. I shake my head and plaster a warning look on my face, hoping he'll look at me, but he's too focused on tattoo-man to look anywhere else.

"Maybe if you didn't take up so much room I wouldn't have run into you," Tyler replies in that obnoxious, threatening voice of his. I cringe. Then Tyler adds in an even worse obnoxious voice, "dick."

Tattoo-man steps closer to him. Tyler's tall, but Tattoo-man completely dwarfs him. He sizes him up with a scrunched up nose. His eyes reach Tyler's shirt and his lip quirk upwards in a smirk.

"Fancy shirt," Tattoo-man comments as he fidgets with Tyler's collar. "Explains the attitude. Where's your daddy, boy? He gonna pay your way out of any sticky situation?"

I cringe again. Tyler pushes Tattoo-man's hand away from his shirt and steps closer to him. There's barely an inch between them, and both are glaring at the other with such intense hatred that you'd swear they've been rivals for years.

Just as Tyler's fist twitches and he makes to punch Tattoo-man, I grab his arm and pull him back. I almost regret this immediately, because the glares Tyler fixes me with is enough to burn a hole in my head.

"That's enough. Let's go," I say, trying to tug him away. Needless to say, I didn't get very far. Tyler is way stronger than me. "God, Tyler! Come on!"

Surely he knows that he's going to get his ass handed to him if he fights Tattoo-man?

Tattoo-man chuckles darkly and looks behind him, urging his companions – I presume that they're his companions because they have tattoos too – to chuckle as well. Tyler's face turns red, I don't know if its rage or embarrassment, and he rips his arm out of my grasp rather roughly.

"You should listen to your girlfriend, boy," Tattoo-man says, smirking a very infuriating smirk. Not that a liked him before, but now I really, really hate him. Tyler's girlfriend? Ewwww.

Quicker than my mind can register, Tyler throws Tattoo-man a rough blow that makes him lose his footing and fall backwards into the wall. A painting crashes onto the ground. There's blood gushing from Tattoo-man's nose. He raises his hand to his nose, looks at his reddened hand, and then laughs.

"You're good," he comments, pointing to Tyler, who isn't laughing at all.

Tattoo-man pulls off his jacket and throws it to one of his biker companions. Like a flash of lightening, he punches Tyler in the gut, causing him to double over and groan in pain. Its all a blur after that. They're both throwing punches and kicking and pushing each other. Its a stale-mate for a while, which surprises me, because Tattoo-man is huge.

Tyler's face is bloody and bruised. His nose is probably broken. Tattoo-man isn't doing too well himself. He's sporting a broken nose too and his face is red from all of Tyler's punches. Their blows are becoming slower, I notice, but still hard enough to make me cringe each time Tattoo-man's fist collides with Tyler's face.

"This is ridiculous," Matt says, starting off towards the two brawling men – well, one man and one boy because, let's be fair, Tyler isn't much of a man, per se. He's sixteen.

I grab Matt's arm and pull him back towards me. Is he stupid? Why would anyone want to get in the middle of two aggressive brawling dudes?

"Do you want to get your arm ripped off?" I ask him, purposeful exasperation laced in my tone.

"Tyler's gonna lose," Matt whispers urgently into my ear.

"How can you tell?" I say, frowning and turning to watch the brawlers. I can't tell whose going to win. The odds are equal in my opinion.

"Tyler's breathing is heavy and his punches are slower," Matt tells me. "Yeah, the biker guy is tired too, but he's getting angrier. He'll get stupider the angrier he'll get, but his punches will be stronger."

Wow. "I'd hate to be a guy. All this-"

I stop mid-sentence just as Tyler lodges something into Tattoo-man's tattooed neck. I can't see what it is, as Tyler's hand stays gripping whatever it is for a few seconds until his arm drops. A red handle protrudes from Tattoo-man's neck. I think there's an artery in the neck. The venalava? Oh, I don't know.

Even though I haven't paid attention in biology for the past two years, I still know that its better to keep in a sharp object after you've been stabbed to stop the blood from flowing out. Tattoo-man obviously paid less attention in biology than I do.

He rips the pocket knife out of his neck and blood immediately pours down his wound to his white shirt.

"You shit," he grits out, glaring at Tyler with an infinite amount of hatred.

Tattoo-man goes to punch him, but his arm droops back down to his side and he collapses. There's a nasty THUMP as his head hits the floor. One of Tattoo-man's companions, the one he threw his leather jacket to, gets down on his knees beside him. He swears like a sailor and glares at Tyler with the same hatred Tattoo-man had before he fainted.

The receptionist, who hadn't said or done anything throughout all of this, calls the emergency number and requests an ambulance. Tattoo-man doesn't last that long, and bleeds out on the floor of a shitty Vegas hotel's reception. That's how Tyler landed in prison for two days before he miraculously got bailed out. His uncle Mason did something, I think. That's what Caroline said. I didn't think they took bail for manslaughter.

What sticks with me more than Tattoo-man's pale face as he died in a pool of his own bright red blood, is Tyler's yellowish-orange eyes and his fangs just after Tattoo-man bled out. I was the only one who saw it. Matt and Caroline swear they didn't see anything. I can't get it out of my head, though. It was so frightening.

That day was the worst day in my short life. Not only did I wake up in a bed, in Vegas, with no idea of where I was beside a dick who had taken advantage of me and my best friend and had seen a man die at the hands of a guy I knew my entire life, that night was the reason I got sent to live with my dreadful uncle and was thrust into a world too dark for a sixteen year old girl.

A.N: What do you think? Next chapter will take place two months later. This chapter really set a lot of events into place, such as Tyler Lockwood's curse being triggered early. In this universe, Kol was undaggered by Klaus a few years ago because Klaus gets lonely (which I think is a reasonable reason, but do tell me if you disagree) and he thought Kol would be angry with him and lash out for a few days and then be fine. Just wanted to clear that up because he will be appearing next chapter.

Thanks for reading!