The Gilbert twins (A Klaus Mikaelson love story)

Chapter 1

I stepped off the plane, feeling the weight of Mystic Falls settle over me like a challenge I was prepared to face. It had been two years since I left this place, escaping the grief and guilt that had become my constant companions. But I was back now, and I wasn't here for pleasantries or to relive old memories.

The dreams had never stopped, and they'd only grown more intense. Dreams of a man with intense blue eyes, a man who called himself Nik in my visions. Not Klaus, just Nik. The name felt like it was meant to be part of me, even though I'd never met him in reality. It was one more thing I needed to figure out, and I wasn't about to let anyone—least of all Elena—stand in my way.

I shook off the unease as I walked out of the airport. The sun was setting, casting an unsettling golden haze over the town. Mystic Falls had never been kind, and I wasn't expecting that to change just because I'd been away.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. A message from Elena: *Can't wait to see you! We have a lot to talk about.*

I rolled my eyes. Elena's constant optimism and need to fix everything had been a major factor in why I left and that she was a total bitch after our parents died I can still remember the night like it was yesterday.

**Two Years Ago – The Night of the Accident**

The cold water had swallowed us whole—black, suffocating. I remember fragments of the crash: shattered moments of panic, fear, and the car spinning out of control. Elena and I had been in the back seat, our laughter dissolving into screams as our parents' car veered off the road and plunged into the river.

Water rushed in—freezing, relentless. I fought for breath, fighting against the encroaching darkness. I wanted to get out, to survive, but in the end, I didn't manage it. Not entirely. **I was clinically dead for ten minutes** before they pulled me out. I came back, but my parents didn't.

Elena, as it turned out, didn't even remember the worst parts. But I did. I remembered everything.

**The Day of the Funeral**

Rain poured down relentlessly over the cemetery, mirroring the storm inside my chest. I stood alone by their graves, the whispers of their final moments replaying endlessly in my mind.

The party. The one Elena begged to go to. The one that was supposed to be harmless fun.

*"Come on, Lottie! I'm grounded, and you're my only chance to go. Just a quick drink or two. I'll be careful, I swear."*

Elena hadn't been careful. She'd gotten wasted, drunker than I could handle. I tried to get her home myself but quickly realized it was impossible. I called our parents, hoping they wouldn't be too angry, that they'd come and get us.

And they did. They came.

Now they were dead because of it.

I was the one who called them. I was in the back seat with Elena, holding her drunken form while our father drove and our mother sat quietly beside him. I survived. But I came back different. The girl who used to be lighthearted and easygoing was gone.

**Ten minutes dead**. And in those ten minutes, something inside me changed. I started having visions—**visions of a man named Klaus** who haunted my mind, pulling me toward some unknown future. But no one knew about it. No one except me.

**A couple weeks later after the funeral– At Home**

As soon as I walked through the door, Elena's voice lashed out from the living room.

"Where the hell have you been?" she snapped, her tone venomous, catching me off guard. Her eyes were swollen from crying, but there was no softness left in her expression—only fury.