The air in the Salvatore Boarding House was thick with a tension that had been building for 146 years. Isabella 'Bella' Salvatore stepped across the threshold, a ghost from the past made flesh, her eyes scanning the familiar yet altered foyer.

She heard them then, the voices that had haunted her dreams for over a century – Damon and Stefan, locked in an argument as old as their vampirism. Their words, sharp and cutting, drifted from the living room, a bitter echo of the night her world shattered.

Bella’s hand, steady despite the tremor in her heart, reached for the ornate knocker. The sound resonated through the house, a definitive declaration of her return. The bickering ceased abruptly. A beat of silence stretched, pregnant with anticipation.

Then, the door swung open, revealing Stefan, his eyes widening in disbelief, a mirror of the shock that must have been written on her own face.

“Long time, brother,” Bella drawled, a smirk playing on her lips, masking the storm of emotions swirling within her.