To Be Loved | TVD

• Have you ever walked this earth before? •

".."

Eternity.

It felt like an eternity had passed since Hayley first opened her eyes. Her gaze was glued to the off-white ceiling, her mind refusing to compute her current situation.

She was supposed to be dead. At least Hayley Smith was supposed to be.

The same Hayley who lay upon a very comfortable bed, with memories she refused to acknowledge deeply woven inside her brain.

"... Haa ..." The nth sigh escaped her lips, a frown pulling at her eyebrow.

It was high time she stopped being a coward and assessed the situation.

Her name was Hayley Smith. She was born in New Orleans to two extremely religious parents who molded her to be the perfect church girl. Except, it didn't work out quite as they expected.

Hayley Smith was a wild soul. When she was in school, she didn't spend much time studying. She partied hard, played harder and lived her life to the fullest. To say her straight-laced folks were bewildered by the wild child they had conceived was an understatement. Most of the time, they were pained by her ways.

It wasn't until her very last year of college that she "found solace" as her mom used to say in hushed whispers whenever she walked by her. Hayley straightened her act, got her degree in law and got her very first job the winter her parents died. Mama Smith was a kind soul that was taken way too soon by cancer. It killed her body slowly but, not being able to be there for her daughter and husband broke her soul. Papa Smith died shortly after his wife, quietly gone in his sleep, as if his heart was too tired to keep living.

Hayley remembered them with continuous sadness and unbreakable fondness. They taught her how to live, to be brave, they taught her how to love herself and her wild ways. They even taught her how to love unconditionally.

Unfortunately, two years after her parents died, Hayley got the damning news from the family doctor — she was affected by the same vicious cancer as her mother and she was dying, fast.

The illness broke something deep inside Hayley. Her body shut down on her, she felt bound by the chains of death and at the end of her life, she couldn't even close her eyes on her own.

She was only thirty.

Which was why her current situation was unbelievable. She couldn't dare to believe what was happening. She'd only read of this phenomenon and never really believed in anything of the kind.

Reincarnation — It made one wonder if their life was the first one, and if the life they got to live was because of their tainted souls.

Hayley Smith didn't believe. And yet here she was. Not a Smith anymore. But a Marshall.

Her eyes flicked back to the ceiling as she took in a deep breath. This was happening. It felt as real as ever. She was sure if she looked down, she would see a bruise on her arm, the result of a dozen attempts to decipher if she was dreaming or not.

"I'm not dreaming," Hayley muttered, surprised at the slightly childish voice that came out of her.

She knew where she was or rather ... she knew of the universe she now found herself in. The vampire diaries.

It should've been impossible but it was the truth and nothing but the truth.

She was reborn. The memories inside her mind were branding, scalding hot and hope-filled when all she really felt before death was misery. She was indeed in the show she used to watch with her mama. Unbelievable.

Hayley Marshall ... thus was her name. Thus was the name that was gifted to her and the new life she would kill to protect.

".."

Hayley Marshall had a complicated past.

Born Andrea Labonair to a pair of alpha werewolves, her path was pretty much written in stone. She was werewolf royalty and had duties the second she was born. Betrothed to a Kenner, the pair would rule the pack, the Crescent Wolf Clan, in the future.

Unfortunately, her destiny was broken when jealousy and a vendetta against vampires got her parents killed by one of their own. As merely a wee babe, she was an orphan, and sent out of New Orleans to be adopted.

Hayley Marshall would grow up to be a fierce werewolf, a proud hybrid and a magnificent mother.

However, her spirit wasn't strong enough. When she was only thirteen years old, she fell into the abuse of alcohol to control a rage no pre-teen should have ever been filled with. And one dark night, as she was drunk on a boat, she accidentally killed someone, triggering her werewolf gene. Hayley turned for the first time in her adoptive parents' living room, wrecking chaos to the place. Her adoptive parents were furious, understandably, and scolded her nearly to death. And if Hayley had woken up the same as any other day, she would be devastated to learn her adoptive parents were kicking her out of the house.

She was only thirteen.

".."

Hayley shifted her eyes around the simple room, with not much decorative pieces, nor personality, even though it belonged to a teenage girl.

Her mind, still reeling from the rebirth, had now calmed down a bit. She was more herself; rational and determined.

It wouldn't do her any good to panic anyway , even if she had the right to. After all, she was now in a tv show with witches, vampires and werewolves. All deadly beings.

And death didn't scare her. No, no, it pissed her off. So yeah, she would be mad if she died a second time. Which was why she didn't dwell on the memory of taking a human life. Her own was in danger. It was selfish but rational.

According to her memories, she was only thirteen years old and any time now, her adoptive parents would come to announce she was to found herself on the streets, alone.

She had no money to her name, and even if she had, she wouldn't have been old enough to use it.

Quickly, Hayley jerked upwards and left the warm bed, her feet making nil sound on the wooden floor. Before long, she arrived in front of a standing mirror, taller than her current size.

She looked herself up and down, confirming her assumptions. She was indeed thirteen years old, the same age canon!Hayley got kicked out from her house and became a wanderer.

Hayley's eyes swept past her long, dark mane of hair swept with lighter brown strands and examined her entire body with her hazel green eyes.

"Shit, I'm so pretty," Hayley groaned softly.

Any other day, she would've been over the moon to have looks such as these but out on the streets, alone and a girl, even if she had triggered her werewolf gene, she was bound to encounter too much trouble.

Sighing, Hayley swept a hand in her hair, making her forehead more visible. Her eyes lost focus as she looked through the memories that were quickly becoming her own. She had to find a solution. And quick.

All of a sudden, her head jerked to the side as she heard loud footsteps in the hallway of the Marshall's house.

"Come on, come on, come on," Hayley chanted, shifting through memory one by one from Hayley's childhood.

She needed to find something ... anything!

"Marmee!" Hayley exclaimed right as her adoptive father knocked on the door.

"Hayley?" His deep voice was firm. "Come out, young lady. We need to tell you something."

Here goes nothing.