Prologue:

My last real memory of Tyler Lockwood is of blood.

We're both ten and at the old Lockwood property, playing by that old well our parents always warned us to be careful around lest we fall.

I'm throwing dried leaves in the air and watching them fall down upon us like snowflakes. I'm laughing and twirling around like a ballerina while Tyler stares at me with that softness in his eyes I could never place. He smiles at me and I grin like a star.

I keep throwing handful after handful of leaves and I keep twirling and twirling until I'm dizzy and I fall. Tyler catches me instantly like he always does.

The world is a blur of lights and sounds as my head tries to make sense of it through the haze of dizziness.

Tyler stares down at me and grins like I was something very lovely. I feel giddy and laugh. His hand is on my hand, caressing the soft flesh before there is pain. I stare into the longer nails piercing the skin of my hand. They look like a monster's claw.

There's blood, small tiny droplets from the five puncture marks on my hand. Tyler looks apologetic, even stricken at the sight before he raises my hand to his lips and licks the blood off.

I shiver at the wet contact and stare at him in wonder, in question. He just shakes his head and says, "Now I can always find you."

The dream haunts me every night and I always wonder what is true and what is a fabrication of my own mind but when I look at the scars on my hand, I know it's real.

There is another night, another dream and another morning after to wait for him to come back and find me.

New story, old tale, different writing style. This story will be very, very loosely based on Beauty and the Beast.