Harvelle (TVD/SPN)

Prologue

"Turn left when you've lost all hope and you'll reach Mystic Falls."

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Day two was always the worst. After driving ten full hours the day before and then calling it a night at a creepy hotel in Indiana, the eleven hour drive on day two would be the death of Jo.

An old crazy haired band from the eighties pounded from the car's radio and the blonde driver's fingers tapped across the steering wheel of the old station wagon she had taken from Bobby's repair yard. Unlike a certain green eyed hunter, Jo wasn't picky with her cars. Then again, she had never owned a 1967 Impala.

Jo's surprise at her Aunt Liz's call three days ago had only been outshone by her mother, Ellen, who hadn't heard from her older sister in years. The last time the Forbes sister had talked had been before Ellen had eloped with William Harvelle, Jo's now deceased father. The reasoning behind the unexpected call was as shocking as the call itself; vampires had returned to Mystic Falls.

It took only minutes for Jo to make a decision; she was going to Mystic Falls. Getting Ellen to agree was a whole other story, but as Jo pointed out she was a twenty-three year old woman who knew how to kill someone with a whole artillery of different weapons. She could take care of herself.

But as the coffee colored rust bucket on wheels passed the town sign, Jo began to question herself. While the young and talented hunter had been on several cases on her own, her mother's constant worry and caution had rubbed off on Jo.

The knots in her stomach only got worse as she drove closer to the Forbes home. That was when she realized her nerves were a result of meeting her estranged Aunt and cousin.

Jo's family had always consisted of just three people; her mother, herself, and the father who died when she was ten. Occasionally she would grow close with a hunter who frequented the Harvelle bar, but besides that she had always been sort of a loner.

The freak with the knife collection.

The Forbes home was the exact opposite of the sort of place Jo was accustomed to.

While she has grown up in the backroom of a bar, using the pool tables as desks to do homework and the peanuts at the bar as snacks, the Forbes house was completely different. It looked like it belonged in the pages of a home magazine.

Clean cut green grass on either side of a brick walkway to a porch that showcased the white two-story house. Jo was shocked that it didn't have a freshly painted white picket fence lining the property and an apple pie cooling in the window.

Jo uneasily parked the car outside the house and opened her car door into the empty road. The Forbes lived in the type of neighborhood with requirements for yards, annual paint jobs to the well kept houses, and weekly car washes. Maple trees grew in rows along the low trafficked street and shaded the street from the setting sun.

Taking steps one combat clad foot at a time Jo made it up the four porch steps and to the door. Lightly pressing the polished doorbell, Jo waited on shifting feet for either Liz or her cousin to answer the door. Looking up from her feet she was greeted by two neatly printed words followed by a string of numbers on a shiny plaque. 'Forbes Residence 1878'.

"They live in the historical family home?" Jo ponders silently, chocolate colored eyes trained in on the sign. Thanks to the past year as a hunter, Jo's senses were acutely tuned into everything around her and the soft footsteps from inside the house shook her out of her stupor.