Haunted: Chapter 1

Hi, guys! This is a story I've been working on pretty much on-and-off since I finished Stranger (if you haven't read it, check it out). I've really enjoyed writing a darker story and I hope you enjoy it, too!

Two figures run through the forest faster than humanly possible, their shadows brushing the branches and the leaves rustling as they pass. They talk quietly so that those without their immortality can't hear them. The man is saying, "Whatever you do, love, don't get into a situation where you have to kill him. The visions won't stop until another Hunter is created or you've died."

"I know, don't worry. It'll be fine," reassures the woman. "Damon says he has a human ready to kill him once he's captured."

"I mean it, Caroline," he retorts, stopping her momentarily with a gentle brush of his hand. "I can't handle seeing you go through that."

"I can take care of myself, Klaus! You don't have to protect me all the time. I'm fifty years old-"

"I know, but you aren't invincible." Klaus says, lowering his voice as they approach an eerie-looking warehouse in the middle of a wide clearing. The only light coming from the inside is red and tempestuous, probably that of a fire used to burn to corpses of staked vampires. He whispers, "I'll come out on the other side of the clearing and use the western entrance."

In an instant, he's gone and Caroline waits awkwardly between the trees for his signal. She knows he's waiting for the fire to burn out and for the warehouse to grow dark. Then they would be in less danger and they'd have the advantage of sharper sight than the human Hunter. She thinks she hears the trees rustle a couple of times but she isn't sure it's him so she stays. She jumps when she hears the sharp beating of branches hitting branches as Klaus races into the open and out of sight behind the building. She's running too. She grabs the door's handle and pulls it open, staring into the darkness. There's already the noise of two men wrestling on the other side of the room. Though she can't see it, she knows Klaus has the upper hand and she's already a few feet away from them when he shouts "The chains!"

Then suddenly the room is silent. Klaus curses under his breath as he realises that the Hunter has disappeared. He grips Caroline's hand, his fingers tracing the chains. Suddenly, the Hunter is in front of her, a stake in his hands. He's about to thrust it into her gut when Klaus darts in front of Caroline as the sharp point hits him. "Missed," he says, teeth gritted.

"Oh?" says the Hunter in his thick Texan accent. He raises his eyebrows as he reveals the white oak stake from behind his back. Caroline gasps but she can't move because Klaus' left arm is holding her back. With his free arm, he reaches out and grabs the stake so that it is a battle of strength between the two men. It isn't a fair match. Klaus easily wins but he only has a few moments to react. He turns the stake and thrusts it into the Hunter's throat.

Caroline screams as blood begins to pour forth from the Hunter, who falls to ground. She can't help but continue to stare as he begins to grow ashen through loss of blood. When his pulse stops, she utters a little gasp and turns to Klaus. He is gazing into the forest, lost in the only rational thoughts he will have for years.

"You're sure Niklaus was the direct cause of this man's death?" says Elijah to Caroline in the next room.

"I'm positive," she assures him. "What can we do to help him?" She's answered with silence.

Klaus is back in the basement of the Original Mansion in Mystic Falls, Virginia- specifically in the room where he'd locked Elena almost half a century ago to protect her from the Hunter's Curse. He loathes being back in this one-horse town again. Yet again, he is the victim of this curse. Only this time he's so much weaker than before.

Caroline had reacted very quickly to his predicament. As soon as she'd confirmed that the Hunter was indeed dead, she had grabbed him by the hand and had begun to run at vampire speed to the hotel they'd been staying in. There, she'd assembled her bag and had instructed him to do the same. When they were both ready, she'd driven them at twice the legal speed to her home town. She hadn't said a word, though it was probably killing her inside. When they arrived, she'd brought him and his bag to the basement and locked and bolted the door behind her, instructing the compelled humans not to open the door unless she told them to. Then she'd called Elijah. He knows she'd been terrified that he would start getting visions but she stayed nonetheless until his brother arrived.

Presently, he looks up to see her walking wearily into the room. As if remembering herself, she pasts on an optimistic smile as she says, "Hi!"

"Hello," he says back glumly.

"You remember the last time this happened in Mystic Falls?" Caroline asks him as she enters the cellar.

"Clearly. It's ironic, isn't it?" he laughs mirthlessly. "I was so concerned about Elena's safety when it took her less than a day to be cured while I will probably rot here for the next two decades at least. And that's only if I don't succeed in offing myself."

She makes a sympathetic little noise and comes to sit beside him, holding his hand tightly. "Do you remember that that day when you told me that you wouldn't have let Tyler hurt me?" He nods. His eyes are looking straight ahead and Caroline can only wonder if he's really listening to her. She continues anyway, "I won't let this curse hurt you, I promise."

"I appreciate the sentiment, love, but I'm afraid there's very little you can do here." Finally, he turns to her and says in a monotone, "I don't expect or want you to wait for me while I go through this. Move on with your life."

"No!" she shouts, startling herself with her ferocity. "Klaus, I am going to be right outside that door however long it takes. We're immortal, right? What are a few decades when you have eternity?" He's about to reply but she barrels on, "Anyway, I want you to know that if I haunt you at some point that it's all a figment of your imagination. I love you and I don't want you to die, okay?"

She's breathless from her speech but she waits ardently for his reply. Instead of speaking, he leans in and kisses her. She kisses back hard, both understanding that this might be the last time in a while. "I have to go and talk to the others but I'll be right back." As she stands, she traces her hand down his arm until she's grasping his hand firmly. Then she disappears from the room.

He's left alone... except not quite. He can feel a presence behind him. He calls out, "Are we going to go back to our old schedule, then? Mikael and Esther in the mornings, Henrik in the afternoons with a special guest star at twilight?"

"I think eight hundred years deserve a little change-up. I'll start." He turns around to see Caroline.

As Caroline leaves, she hears the vague noise of opening and closing doors but coupled with quiet talk. Rebekah must have arrived, she thinks as she arrives on the ground floor of the Mikaelson home. Instinctively, Caroline pulls a little on her shirt and checks her makeup in a mirror she passes. It's silly, she knows, to be doing such a thing on this occasion but she always feels incredibly self-conscious in front of Klaus' sister. Rebekah has become very protective of her brother through the centuries, despite the fact that they are very rarely on good terms. It doesn't help that Caroline used to date Matt Donovan, who broke up with her after almost five years, and is her current boyfriend, Stefan's friend.

She finds Elijah with his sister in the parlour talking in soft voices. Rebekah is leaning forward, her shoulders hunched in worry while Elijah sits in the armchair as if he were about to pass out from the exhaustion of the day. Caroline raises a corner of her mouth in a smile, one which says 'all's well for now', and speaks, "He seemed fine, maybe a bit apprehensive."

"Apprehensive? You mean he's scared as shit because there's a one-thousand-year-old curse on him!" Rebekah bursts out.

"You know Klaus," Caroline replies, Rebekah's comments not helping her stay calm at all. "He always seems more serene than he is."

"Elijah was just explaining to me how this could happen again- you really would think it would be like the chicken pox and you can only catch it once- but he couldn't quite explain what led Klaus to purposefully kill a Hunter."

Caroline glances at Elijah out of the corner of her eye. He has one perfectly trimmed eyebrow raised in disapproval but gives no indication on how exactly she should respond. She turns back to Rebekah and crosses her arms over her chest. "Yeah, it was my fault. I was stupid and he killed the Hunter because he had no other choice. But, that's not the point. The point is your brother is going to be forced into nightmarish circumstances for a very long time. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be right here with him."

That wipes the smirk off of Rebekah's face. Meekly, she says, "I am too."

"Then we might as well get along," Caroline finishes. She spins on the heel and marches back downstairs. She stops as she hears Klaus' shouts below her.

The first thing he notices is that fake Caroline is dressed in the gown from his mother's ball. She looks like an angel with her fair hair and the locks framing her face; as if she's dressed in a blue cloud. But her eyes are dark and the veins protrude from under her eyes- she's hungry. "You see me now, monstrous like you," she spits. "It was because of you that I became this way. Katherine killed me so you could be a hybrid. I was your sacrifice!"

"And yet here you are, alive and well," says Klaus trying hard to deflect the self-defamatory thoughts from entering his mind. "You're a vampire: you're powerful, fearless, you can live for eternity."

Fake Caroline ignores him. "But that wasn't enough! You had to stay in my town and hurt my friends. Bonnie, Jenna, and Alaric are all dead because of you!"

"They're humans; they'd be dead anyway, love."

Her face goes red and crumples as if in horror. "My life is destroyed because of you!" she roars. "Don't you see that I'm not happy?! That my life isn't worth living anymore?!" Klaus doesn't say a word because it would be useless. He can't control this apparition. He winces as his vision of Caroline pierces her own chest with a stake. Her body lights up in flames. He doesn't move.

Caroline stands on her tiptoes to see into Klaus' cell. He hasn't realised she's there while he's staring so intently at a spot on the floor. She doesn't know whether to be relieved or anxious. She heard shouting before but now Klaus seems calm. Wondering if she should get his siblings from upstairs, she slowly twists the doorknob and is pleased when he looks up and a grin spreads out across his face. "Hi!" she says, smiling back.

Suddenly his face contorts and he shouts a warning. "Caroline!" he yells. Wildly, she looks around for Klaus' source of fear and when her eyes whip forward, she sees Klaus as he jumps to tackle her. They both land on the floor with a thud. He's stopping her from moving at all and he grips her wrists as she thrashes.

"Klaus, it's me!" she tries to say. He doesn't hear. His eyes stare at her with more loathing than they ever have before.

"Don't touch her!" he tells Caroline, though in his mind's eye, Caroline knows he sees someone else. His hand climbs her stomach, not in a loving caress like she's used to, but with a goal. His fingers, sharp as claws, dive into her chest and grip her heart. For a second, they lie there listening to it pump blood through her body.

Then they hear footsteps: the click of a pair of stilettos coupled with the thump of designer loafers. When Klaus looks back at her, she sees him realise that it's his girlfriend's heart he's holding. In a flash, he's off of her. Her shoulders are gripped by Rebekah, who has to pull her out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Caroline heaves her first breath since Klaus pinned her down. She feels the wound in her chest heal but her pretty pink t-shirt in blood-soaked. "It's begun?" she asks.

Rebekah nods. She looks down at Caroline pityingly before grabbing her hand and pulling her back up the corridor.

Klaus had imagined Damon with Caroline while she was still human. He'd watched as Damon kissed her all over her body even though she'd asked him to stop. But when Damon broke her white flesh with his sharp vampire teeth, he couldn't hold back. He'd attacked.

As a result, Caroline has a bite on her shoulder which would kill her if Klaus wasn't pouring her a bag of his blood at that very moment. He hands the blood bag to his brother, expecting him to leave. Instead, Elijah sits opposite him. He says, "It would be better if you refrained from attacking any more of your 'ghosts.'"

Klaus glares at him. He doesn't like it when his older brother patronises him. "I cannot be blamed for not having control over my temper."

"I do blame you!" Elijah retorts. "How can you be this stupid when you know what you see is not real and that you are a danger to Rebekah and Caroline?"

"Elijah, I am not exactly enjoying myself here, alright! This isn't easy!"

"I know," he says, a little more kindly, "and I am sorry. But you are going to be in this situation for a long time. It is better that we adapt now." He's said his piece and he knows that saying any more wouldn't be good for either him or Klaus. He gets up to leave.

As he reaches the door, Klaus lifts his head and says, "Tell Caroline to never come in here. Tell her it won't help me if I have to worry about her safety as well as my own."

Elijah nods and exits the cellar. He dawdles on his way up the stairs. His mind is occupied. It's this matter of Caroline that's bothering him. This girl is tough, even though she's only been a vampire for half a century and it will be very hard to get her to accept to leave Klaus. But the curse will no doubt target her as Klaus' weakness. The sooner Klaus knows she's in no danger, the better. That won't be easy.

Weeks pass. Klaus' visions grow worse until finally he is incapable of seeing or hearing his family or Caroline. Despite everything, she stays. It hurts her everyday to hear him in pain as he tries once again to put an end to his misery. But she stays. All day, she remains right outside the cellar in case he needs blood or chains to tie himself up as he turns into a wolf. Everyone from the Originals to Stefan to her own mother has tried to convince her to leave. She doesn't.

Then, one night she's sleeping outside in a makeshift cot when she hears banging inside of the room. She sees Klaus trying to throw himself against the wall, large wounds appearing on his back and then quickly healing before being opened again. He's howling in pain, quite literally howling. She feels as if every cut appears on her own skin at the same time. "Stop!" she cries. He doesn't.

She repeats "Stop" with every thrust of his body. "Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!" again and again until finally her throat dries and her tears begin to shake through her entire body.

The next morning, Caroline tells Elijah that both she and Klaus cannot go on like this. "I'm going to go find a hunter who hasn't yet made his first kill. However long it takes, I'll keep trying," she promises him.

"Thank you for helping my brother," says Elijah. "If you have need of anything, do not be afraid to call. I will do everything in my power for you and Niklaus."

Caroline's only request is that she be granted rights to Klaus' private jet. It's been two months, three weeks and five days when Caroline packs her suitcase and leaves the Original Mansion. She hasn't stepped outside of the grounds since Klaus was cursed.

Klaus feels Caroline leaving him as if it was his heart leaving his chest. He stops trying to knock down the steel walls trapping him and keeping him away from the white oak stake. As he turns around, he sees a grown man. He's well-built with shaggy brown hair and sparkling ice-blue eyes. "Who are you?" barks Klaus.

"Don't you recognise your own brother? My name is Henrik. This is who I would have become if I had been allowed to grow up. What? No hug after all this time?"

"You are not him. You are nothing, a figment of my imagination."

"And whose fault is that?" says Henrik. His voice is low, cool, almost eerie. "I died and you stayed on earth to inflict more pain on our family."

"No one forced you to watch the wolves turn!" Klaus spits. "You cannot blame me for your death. I've blamed myself enough."

"And had I lived, you would not be the Original Hybrid. You would be dead. Tell me, how does it feel to profit from a child's death?"

"Absolutely fantastic," he sighs ironically. He's in no mood to accept visits from shadows of dead relatives today.

A month later, Caroline arrives in Paris. She's been searching Ireland for weeks and, hopeless, decides that a change of scenery might bring her luck. She doesn't realise what memories the city holds in its heart. Paris is her and Klaus' favourite destination. They even have a penthouse apartment on the Champs Elysées. She at least has the common sense to book a suite in Montmartre instead. But the minute her eyes are fixed on Charles De Gaulle Airport, her heart sinks. She compels every security guard she meets so she can leave within ten minutes of landing and has the taxi drive her by a route that takes about two hours but that allows her to avoid any landmarks of her history with Klaus.

When she finally arrives at the small hotel in the cramped streets of Montmartre, she cries herself to sleep.

Thank you so much for reading! This is going to be a five-shot so if you want to read more, be sure to click those follow and favourite buttons and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the review box below. Flame me, even- I can take it!

Hearts,

Brianne