It was all a blurry mess of dark shades and shadows, as she slowly regained consciousness. The floor beneath her was hard and cool, her body was starting to shake of the exhausting side-effects of being vervained. Finally, she could make out bars, behind which she saw bodies dangling from chains or lying on the ground. A little bit further back, there was a circle of flames.
"Care...?" she heard a concerned male voice. Tyler?
As she slowly tried to get up, she felt his hands stabilize her body, until she was finally standing again, though she still felt shaky. "What happened?" she asked groggily.
"Klaus. He took us. All of us." she heard Tyler say, causing her eyes to open wide.
"He what?" she asked, still a bit out of it, as she looked around. Then it all hit her. The bodies dangling from those chains, were Elena, Damon and Stefan. Matt was knocked out on the floor, his shoes were gone. And then there was Bonnie, surrounded by flames. She sat on the ground chanting in Latin, obviously trying to get out of the circle. Damon and Stefan were brooding, their eyes fixed on Elena, who apparently was still reeling a little from being vervained.
"Oh my God, is everybody alright?" Caroline stuttered, looking around, trying to think of everyone that was missing. Trying to listen for Matt´s heartbeat.
"We have to get out of here." Caroline choked, looking around in their cell, but all she saw were chains in the far-end corner of the small cell.
"Those bars are solid, I already tried. I think he spelled them, too."
"Stefan,... Damon...?" they all heard Elena mumble as she, too, slowly recovered from the vervain.
Caroline looked around, an eerie feeling forming in her stomach, as she took in the seeming randomness of it all. Bonnie secluded in her corner, separated from them all by fire. Damon and Stefan hanging both right across from Elena, Elena seemingly hanging in the middle of the room, like she was the show case example of Klaus´ game. Matt´s shoes gone, him only being unconscious, not bound or worse... dead. There were two coffins pushed into a dark corner, barely noticeable. And the chains in their cell were new. They had been placed there strategically, just like everything else. A shudder ran down her neck.
She remembered wearing a jacket over her tight, black long-sleeve blouse, it was gone now. Unlike Bonnie´s or Elenas. They were still wearing their fall jackets. Hers, however, seemed to have vanished along with Matt´s shoes.
"This is not good." she breathed soberly, looking up at Tyler.
"Well, I´d say that depends on the point of view, love. Personally, if you´d ask me, I´d call this gathering very entertaining." an unmistakable British accent suddenly chimed from the shadows near the door.
"Klaus... what is it you plan on doing to us now...? Doesn´t it get boring for you?" Damon responded.
"In a thousand years, mate, a good act of retribution never failed to humor me."
"What do you mean? Retribution?" Caroline asked.
Klaus predatorily stepped into the light. "Well, love... where do I begin... you lot have accumulated quite a list of grievances against me. First the Salvatores, mainly Damon, try everything to mess up my Ritual and then keep Elena´s survival from me. My old friend Stefan watched me getting rather frustrated over pointlessly killing numerous werewolves without never revealing to me what I failed to figure out myself. Then, you lot compiled all of those pretty little white oak stakes and your football player did kill my brother, let´s not neglect that. Oh, and then Elena just had to get herself killed, rendering her blood useless. Did I miss anything? Oh... "and with a lethal look at Tyler, he continued. "... you boyfriend here first managed to break my sire bond, which quite frankly was an epic let-down for me, AND then conspired with Damon and Stefan to stop my heart with the intent of leaving me to rot in a coffin, somewhere in the ocean. It seems I have plenty to be revengeful about. " Suddenly his eyes focused on her, burning right into her soul. "Or did you forget that one evening talk at the grill, love?"
Her heart sank at the reminder of their talk on the bench, as she realized that Klaus was going to unleash his wrath on them all. Klaus smirk grew as he took in the fear radiating off him.
"Since this is just the first session, I thought we´d go easy. I´ll merely kill one of you tonight." Suddenly the door opened, and an enraged but subdued Rebekah was being dragged in by two of Klaus' hybrids.
"Ah... I see we´re finally complete. Dear sister, did you enjoy the wolfsbane cocktail I sent you?" he asked, pushing Rebekah against the bars of Caroline´s and Tyler's cell.
"Nik... what are you doing?" Rebekah muttered, struggling to stay alert.
"Just enjoy the show, Bekah." As he looked up, Caroline could swear he had winked at her.
With that, he slowly walked up to Matt and slapped him awake.
In the final moments of his life, Matt never got to form a coherent sentence. His eyes had been barely opened, when Klaus crushed both of his feet by stepping onto them. From then on he went through it all methodically and thoroughly, crushing and breaking every single bone, every single finger, swaying his head to the sound of his captives' screams and pleads, like he would to classical music. Rebekah and Elena were in tears, pleading and begging. Caroline had sunk to the ground, staring down at her very first love, knowing that nothing in the world would make Klaus stop now.
Klaus didn´t stop from his slow torture on Matt´s body, until all there was left to break was his neck.
"So... we have two options here. Option number one, I´ll let him live, feed him my blood and then do the same again, or have it done to him until he tires of old age. Option two, he gets to die now. Mate?" he gave Matt a cruel look "Shake your head if you wish to die, nod if you wish for me to continue this in an hour or so... the choice is yours, mate."
For a moment, everyone was silent. Then they all watched Matt shake his head weakly.
"Death it is. But, you know, I am not really all that merciful as of late, so I think, if you really want to die, you better hope one of your friends is so kind as to oblige you." He got up and casually leaned at the wall next to Caroline´s cell. "Come one everbody here. The offer expires in about 2 minutes. Do you really want for poor Matt here to go through this again and again and again? " he laughed. It was a cold and evil laugh.
For a second Caroline was sure that Damon would volunteer. He had turned Abby, he had taken a werewolf bite for her, he had always done the dirty work. He´d probably even try to one-up Klaus in the process. But by the way, he hung his head lowly in exhaustion, she suddenly knew that for whatever reason, he would not do it this time. She could not see Klaus´face, but she could hear his grin, as he slowly said "Tick Tock." while shooting an expectant look at Elena. She never saw his face change in suprise when her own weak voice let out an "I´ll do it." For he had not expected that.
"As you wish, sweetheart. " he said, as he took out the keys to the cell door. Once she was out, he quickly closed the door, giving Tyler a victorious look. "No, wait, I´ll do it." Tyler said, but Klaus only shook his head in amusement. "Too late, Tyler." as his hand found its way on Caroline´s back, leading her towards Matt.
She quickly knelt down next to him, and gently pulled him into her arms. "Matt..." she sobbed, failing to utter all the other things she had to tell him. "It´ll be okay. You´ll be just fine. I promise." she lied, earning her a weak smile from him. Suddenly she could feel Klaus right behind her. "I take it you´ve never snapped a neck?" he chuckled, gently guiding her hand to the back of Matt´s neck. "Just put your fingers right here... and... snap" he whispered into her ear, putting both of his hands onto her shaking shoulders. Caroline gave a brief nod at Matt, to which he responded with a pained "Thank you." Then it was all over.
After that, they were all in shock, as Caroline broke out in sobs. Klaus tenderly removed her hands from the dead body she was trying to craddle. She tried to struggle against him, but he was so much stronger than her. He held her firmly until she ceased fighting. Then he slowly carried her back into the cell, knowing that Tyler would be too confused to make a run for it now. As he gently placed her onto the only mattress in the cell, his fingers traced the path of the tears on her cheeks, before he left her alone.
Once the cell was locked again, he crouched down next to Rebekah, who was just silently weeping now. "Don´t you worry little sister, your part in this game is over as well." That was all he said, before plunging a white oak dagger into her stomach.
Caroline watched apathetically as he placed her greying body in one of the two coffins. Tyler didn´t move to wrap her up in his arms until Klaus and his evil mind had left the room.
After that, all there was, was darkness.
Auhor´s Note.
So this will be a short story. This chapter has been titled Matt. The next two will be called Bonnie and Elena. Then there´ll be a chapter where he´ll deal with Tyler and Caroline. And then there´ll be an Epilogue.