Roses Are Red...And So Is Your Blood.

She could hear them.

She heard them talking about her as she walked into the manor. The spirits, calling out to her. She wandered around the dusty old manor, looking at all the paintings. They were covered in cobwebs and dust and dirt, but she could still tell what they were.

I need to clean this place up, she thought. Mama will be mad if I don't.

She began to dust away the cobwebs, pull back the dark curtains, and sweep the mahogany floors. She found a little black widow spider, and decided to keep her, and name her Wrath. She always had a fascination with spiders, and wondered how a black widow made its way to Virginia.

Once the main floor was cleaned, she worked her way upstairs. The guest bedrooms hadn't been touched in years, so she had to clean the beds and put on new sheets. The two guest rooms were joined by the guest bathroom, and two rooms with their own bathrooms at each end of the hall. The room at the left end remained locked and untouched. The one at the right end, she went into.

The room was filled with paintings and drawings, love letters, pictures, short stories, half melted candles, a large dresser, a vanity, and a four poster queen bed. She just stood in the doorway for a moment, taking in the scent of roses and cherries. She stripped the bed to wash the sheets, and heard a small 'clank' against the mahogany floorboards. On the bedroom floor lay a small, silver locket, still holding its original shine from being kept in the midst of the blankets.

She bent down and picked it up, letting it glisten in the sunlight coming in from the rose vine covered balcony. "Well, I haven't seen you in a rather long time," she commented with a thick accent.

[~*~*~*~]

"Are you sure that's where she went?" Stefan asked his girlfriend skeptically.

"I'm positive," Elena replied. "She walked right past me, up the hill, and to that old manor."

Damon stared up at the old Black family manor with a blank expression. Nobody had dared go up there in years, fearing the old curse. It had to be her. It just had to.

"Damon, where are you going?" Stefan called when Damon began to walk up towards the manor.

"I'm going to find her and prove to you that I'm right!" He called back.

"What if it isn't her?" Elena asked quietly.

"I'm sure Damon will convince himself that it is until he realizes she isn't, and then lose it." Stefan sighed.

[~*~*~*~]

"Somebody is coming, Lady Aki."

She looked up from her vanity to the apparition in her doorway; a young woman with curly brown locks and light hazel eyes in a servant's gown. She just nodded and began to walk downstairs. Just as she reached the bottom, a knock came from the door.

I know that aura from somewhere, she thought with a shiver, grasping the doorknob.

Slowly, she pulled the door back and looked up at him with her bright, emotionless, cobalt eyes. He just stared down at her with his icy grey eyes in shock. It was like she hadn't aged a day; like he just saw her yesterday!

"I-it is you..." he breathed.

Stefan and Elena soon came up behind him, and Stefan too stared at the girl in shock. If this wasn't her, she sure was a good look alike. Could she be a doppleganger? Stefan wondered.

She refused to speak as the trio just stared at her. How did she know them? She recognized the boys' auras and kind of knew their faces, but she knew the girl's face. She had no clue how, but she knew. She always knew.

"Do you not recognize them, Lady Aki?" said the girl spirit from before. The snowy haired girl gave a small enough shake of the head to show the spirit, but not the trio. "Than you must not have your memories all together yet."

"May I help you?" She finally asked.

"A-Akina?" Damon stammered, still in shock.

The girl narrowed her eyes slightly. "How do you know my name?" She then glanced up at the sky, which was slowly growing darker, and her face showed fear. "Uhm, forgive me please, but I must go. We will have to speak another time!" She slammed the big door shut and locked it before running upstairs and locking herself in her room.

"That was weird," commented Elena.

"Not really," Damon replied, "look at the sky." Stefan and Elena looked up to see the sun setting, and the dark rising. "Angel by day, demon by night, sweet child in sunlight, deadly beast by nightfall. She always used to do this; lock herself in her room and throw a fit to keep herself away from people."

"So she never wanted to hurt anyone?" Elena asked.

Damon shook his head. "And she didn't want to leave. She was happy in Mystic Falls. She wasn't alone."

At Elena's confused look, Stefan said, "Akina Black and Damon had a thing."

"It wasn't a thing," Damon spat angrily. "She was my fiancée!"

Locked in her room, Akina clawed at her walls, her nails now literally claws. She dropped to her knees, crying out in pain, just below the painting of a dark haired young man in a soldier's uniform, and a white haired girl in a black and white dress.