A/N: I do not own any of these characters (clearly, cause things would be a hell of a lot different if I did). You should know that English is not my first language and this story has not been beta'ed, so please be kind. I apologize for anything you might find.

I have written several other pieces since I first uploaded WAHNOLA, but this remains my very first TVD/TO story. I took it down for personal reasons and because I didn't think I would be completing it and didn't want to leave an unfinished work up. But I have since managed to keep going and I'm very close to writing the finale now, so I decided it was time to celebrate a little and put it back up. If you've read this before, it only went through minor editing (this chapter anyway, I have gone through the others yet, but I'll let you guys know if there are any significant changes).

I hope there are still people out there interested in reading this story. As always, your feedback, comments and messages are my greatest motivation for writing. So if you do enjoy this, please let me know. I very much appreciate it!

This story is set right after episode 4x18 of The Vampire Diaries, 'American Gothic'. It takes a detour from canon, but then it falls right back into the show. It'll go all the way to season 4's finale. There will be no mention of magical babies, though. They don't exist in my version of canon.

Ever since she became a vampire, Caroline Forbes has come to appreciate the glory of the few precious moments right after waking up in a way she never had before.

The thing with vampires is that they don't actually have to sleep. They don't feel tired, not in the same way a normal person does. Exhaustion for them is much more of a mental state than it is a physical need. Vampires can go on for days, months even, without a single night of sleep and never get so much as a dark circle under their eyes. They're perpetually well rested, a trait which Caroline personally holds in very high esteem.

It's just that sleeping is a very welcome distraction for them. They just shut off. It's the only time vampires get to disconnect from the permanent state of over-awareness caused by their heightened senses. It can be very psychologically draining to be so alert all the goddamn time. Everything is overwhelming; noises, lights, smells, feelings. Not that she's complaining, mind you. Caroline is probably the only one out of all her friends - well, if you disregard Damon, which she does - who thinks she's much better off as an immortal blood-sucking beast than she ever was as a human being.

Still, she'd be lying if the said there aren't any downsides to being a vampire. It's madness sometimes. Everything is too much. Caroline is very good at reining herself in and staying in control even when all hell is breaking lose, but even someone like her needs a break every once in a while.

In the middle of that all-consuming insanity, those seconds when she's still stuck in that semi-comatose state, before her brain is completely back on, when her awareness goes no further than the comfort of her bed, the warmth of her duvet, the light scent of softener and something else that is so very distinctively home on her pillows - those are the best moments.

For just that brief period of time, Caroline can forget that the world around her is always invariably falling apart. Everything is fine and nothing hurts. It's just her, her bed and her tiny little small town life again. It fills her heart with a simple and unaltered kind of happiness that she can't quite seem to find anywhere else in her life these days, doesn't think she'll ever find again. It's something of the past, of when she was still only a teenager, before werewolves and vampires and doppelgangers came barging in, leaving no stone unturned in Mystic Falls.

Except for this short, glorious instant, that is. This they can't touch. But it lasts for no more than a few seconds, and then it's over, her vampire brain back to working at full-speed, reminding her that she has places to be and cannot afford to sleep in.

Caroline jumps out of bed and checks the time on her cell phone. How is it possible that she's late already? She's never late.

Being in charge of three different prom committees was perhaps a bit of a stretch, even for her, what with the supernatural catastrophes that tends consume the rest of her life. But this is her senior year, likely the only senior year she'll ever have (God forbid her from ending up like Stefan), and it's supposed to be epic.

As far as she's concerned, no one in the whole of Mystic Falls has the required abilities to put together the prom for the ages she expects hers to be. Caroline plans on living for at least another few dozen centuries and she'd like to be able to remember her prom with gusto, thank you very much. So no, she cannot leave anything in the hands of anyone else. The whole supernatural shebang is just going to have to learn to share her precious time with the human part of her life.

Call her a control freak, see if she cares.

Elena may not have her emotions at the moment, and Bonnie might be all caught up with an ancient evil dude blackmailing her into performing a spell that may or may not be the doom of pretty much everything and everyone, and maybe Matt is all busy wallowing in self-pity, still blaming himself for Elena becoming a vampire and then flipping off her humanity and becoming a pain in everyone's asses. So what if right now no one's really going to acknowledge the effort she's been putting into giving them the senior year of their dreams? They'll come around in due time (and thank her, hopefully, because Caroline definitely expects to receive some appreciation here for a change).

Prom is merely a week away and there are still details to be decided on and Caroline is frankly going crazy. Between color palettes and dress fittings and Silas, she's barely had any time to breathe. Her blood bag supply has never been lower. She's so hungry all the time she's afraid she'll end up feeding on the other committee members one of these days, particularly if one of them decides to test her patience. There's only so much she can take and, not to sound like a bitch, but some of them really do deserve to get bitten.

Not in a million years a human Caroline would've been able to pull this one off. She was good as a human, probably way above average, but being ahead of prom preparations, graduating and dodging death at the same time requires a certain level of multi-tasking greatness that is simply not available in the realm of ordinary people. Thank God for fangs (and blood donors, especially blood donors).

She's supposed to be at school twenty minutes ago, preparing some material to show the rest of the committee for some last minute decisions, but she's late, and Caroline simply doesn't have the time to be twenty minutes late, goddamn it. Every minute counts.

Right before she storms into the bathroom, however, Caroline stops. Something clicks, like a tiny little voice whispering in the back of her mind, telling her to pay attention, to look closer. All of a sudden, she's very aware that something is not quite right. A strange kind of perception that wasn't there until it was. She just knows. It's on the tip of her tongue.

Caroline turns around, taking in the sight of her unmade bed, and is struck by an odd sense of recollection. She can remember waking up today before. For this particular committee gathering. And with so much time to spare that she curled her hair before heading out. It probably wouldn't be weird for her to feel like she's done this before because her mornings have all been more or less the same rushed chaos for a while now. But this is... Strangely specific. Not just some faint sense of familiarity, but an actual memory. It's a hell of a déjà vu.

Being it Mystic Falls, it's entirely possible that this isn't down to mere coincidence, although Caroline really hopes that it is. She cannot afford to be stuck in Groundhog Day right now. So she writes a mental note to call Bonnie and ask for her professional witch opinion on the matter as soon as she's done with her committee obligations. Priorities and stuff.

It doesn't escape Caroline just how insane she must seem to everyone else right now. And it's hard to disagree. Silas is perhaps the greatest threat they've ever faced, even greater than the Klaus, and yet here she is, taking time to discuss flower arrangements and choose photographs like it's just another day in high school and they're not at any immediate risk of extinction, especially with a bunch of very dead and very angry supernatural beings about to descend upon them like a plague. A couple of bitter Mikaelsons, for instance. Or 12 witches on a revenge mission.

Some people might say Caroline isn't handling the guilt very well, instead choosing to deny it altogether when in reality it is eating away at her. But some people are also so bad at dealing with pain and grief that they choose to turn off their humanity switches, so screw them, really. Caroline prefers to think that she's compartmentalizing. The part of her that feels for what she's done and is terrified of the act she played in aiding Silas' plan is just not currently available. It's that simple.

She's under the hot spray of her shower when she finally notices that déjà vus are going to be the least of her concerns for today.

Her daylight ring is gone.

Now that is a problem.

The ring has practically become an extension of her, she doesn't even feel it anymore, doesn't really notice it's there. Or not there, apparently. And she can't, for the love of everything that is sacred, remember when was the last time that she knew for certain that she had her ring. She was out during the day yesterday, so she definitely had it then. But what about after that?

Ok. Calm down, Caroline. There has to be a perfectly good explanation for this.

She rushes out of the shower, puts on the first thing she finds and starts looking. It could've fallen off her finger while she was asleep, although it is highly unlikely. It never happened before, not even during more agitated nights, so to speak. But whatever. It could be. Except the ring is nowhere on, under or near her bed, so no.

She moves on to her nightstand, her drawers, her closet, her jewelry box. She checks her purse, her backpack, the coat she was wearing the day before, the inside of her shoes. Nothing. The living room, then. Her mother's room. Bathroom. The drain, maybe. The kitchen. Caroline turns the house upside down with the same level of diligence she used to find her prom dress. The ring is nowhere to be found. How the hell did she lose something that she never takes off?

Caroline starts to mentally retrace her steps the previous night. She spent some time at Klaus' place when he thought he'd been staked by Silas, and she wouldn't put it past him to screw with her like that, but it was still early when she left, so it couldn't have been him. Then she went back to school, where she oversaw some prom stuff. But it couldn't have been there either because the sun wasn't completely set yet when she finished. Then she spent some time at the Grill, drinking with Matt, but she wasn't drunk, which suggests she would remember if she'd taken off her ring or notice if someone tried to take it from her. And then she went home. Didn't run into any skeevy figures, wasn't stopped by any of Mystic Falls' current resident villains, or anyone else for that matter.

Could someone have snuck into her room while she slept and stolen the ring? Wouldn't she have felt tit?

"This can't be happening," she mutters under her breath as she rubs her temples with the ball of her fingers. "Think, Caroline. Think."

The ring might be in the car. Chances are slim to none, but it's the only place she hasn't checked. And also the only place she can't check.

Shit.

Caroline goes back to her room, makes sure not even a little bit of light is coming in through the window and calls the one person who'll be able to help her.

She made a personal vow not to bother Bonnie with anything unless it was a matter of life or death. Her friend needs a break. If there's anyone in town whose life is an even bigger mess than Caroline's right now, it's Bonnie - and unlike Elena, not by her own choice. She feels incredibly dumb calling her because she somehow managed to lose her most important possession, but it is a matter of life or death.

She's already rehearsing her most heartfelt apology for getting herself into such a ridiculous situation when a very unexpectedly cheerful Bonnie picks up and completely disarms her.

"Hey, Care! Where are you? I thought we were supposed to meet before classes?"

Caroline eyebrows knit together. Is she forgetting more than she thinks? She didn't agree to meet Bonnie... Did she? Bonnie hasn't been to school in a while, understandably so. And, incidentally, it's been a while as well since Caroline last heard that tone of voice on her.

"Uhm... I didn't realize you were going to school."

"You practically threatened to kill us with your bare hands if we didn't show. Why wouldn't I come?"

"Ok, first, I've threatening a lot of people, but I don't remember you being one of them. And second - I don't know, maybe because you have more important things on your mind right now?"

"Such as?"

"Jeremy? Silas? Twelve dead witches?"

Bonnie laughs on the other end. She actually laughs. "Long night, Caroline?"

"What?"

"Are you still drunk?"

"No. Are you?"

"I wish."

"Bonnie, what are you talking about?"

"Me? You're the one who's not making any sense. Where are you?"

Caroline feels tension start to thread in her stomach. She has a bad, bad feeling about this.

"Home," she replies, with less certainty than she had a moment ago, looking around as though to make sure she really is in her room.

"Well, come to school! You're late."

"But I can't leave."

"Why not?"

"I don't have my daylight ring. I don't know how I lost it. Or if anyone took it from me. And now I'm trapped. Do you think this is Silas?"

"This Silas person again. Is he the one you were out with last night?"

"Bonnie," she admonishes, that tone that demands her friend to stop joking around right now because she's starting to get freaked out.

"I hope it's not someone you're seeing. The doc might forgive you for cheating on him, but I won't. He doesn't deserve that."

"The... what?" Caroline stops, takes a deep breath. Whatever's happened to her ring is probably connected to Bonnie suddenly not knowing anything about Silas and being concerned about her school attendance all over again. And who the hell is Doc? "Look, whatever. Can you help me? A need a new ring until I figure out what happened to mine."

"Uhm... Can't you just wear a different one?"

"I don't have another one, Bonnie!"

"You have tons of rings, Caroline."

"Not daylight rings! Did you miss that part? I can't leave the house, Bonnie. I need help."

"What's a daylight ring? Is that like one of those mood rings?"

Well, that just does it. The tension shifts into an awful twist of real worry. Something's very wrong. Silas must've gotten to Bonnie and has her under some kind of spell. And since Caroline's the only currently available supernatural friend, he took her ring to keep her locked inside and unable to rush to Bonnie's aid.

She curses under her breath, already going through all her options. There aren't many that don't involve her going into spontaneous combustion.

"Caroline, are you ok?"

"Yes. Fine. But I need you to come here, ok?" If she can't go to Bonnie, then Bonnie's gonna have to come to where Caroline can keep a close eye on her without catching fire.

"To your house?"

"Of course."

"Classes are about to start."

"Screw classes! I need you to come to me. It's urgent!"

"Look... Is your mom home?" Bonnie asks with the tone of voice of someone who's talking to a mentally challenged child. Caroline is dead worried but she's also starting to get a little bit annoyed.

"No. I don't know. Why?"

"Should I call her? Maybe someone should come and stay with you."

"You do it!"

"I can stop by after school if you want. And I can tell the rest of the committee that you're not feeling well."

"The rest? You're not in the committee."

"Jeez, Caroline. I know I'm not one of the most acting members, but you don't have to be rude."

Shit. What in the goddamn hell is going on here?

"You know what?" Caroline says, channeling all the inner Miss Mystic Falls in her in order to remain calm and collected in the face of... whatever this is. Caroline doesn't even have a category for it, and she's got a category for everything. "I have to go. Bye, Bonnie."

She doesn't wait for a reply before she hangs up. Was that even really Bonnie? Does she prefer it to be Bonnie or some kind of evil impersonator from hell? Which is worse, that Silas has taken over her friend and turned her into a clueless puppet, or that he's replaced her with a half-wit doppelganger while he exploits the real Bonnie somewhere else? And is anyone else even aware that this is going on?

Oh, Caroline's so going to kill Elena when she gets her humanity back for leaving her alone with this while she goes skipping around giving zero fucks to everyone.

Ok, focus. Phone book. Who can she call? Elena is a no go, which means Stefan and Damon are likely out of reach as well. Matt wouldn't be of much help and would probably end up in actual mortal danger, if he isn't already. Tyler... Well. No.

Klaus' name crosses her mind for a whole of two seconds. He phone-stalked her into helping him when he thought he was dying, so he kind of owes her. But it's Klaus. Chances are, if there's a way for things to get worse, he'll find it. So no.

Stefan is probably her best shot.

"Hello?"

Caroline lets out a sigh of relief at his regular calm and slightly bored voice. "Stefan, thank God. Where are you?"

"School."

"What is going on that everyone's decided to go to school all of a sudden? I thought you were all past that."

"Well. We're close, I suppose. But not quite there yet."

"Whatever, I don't have time to chit-chat. Listen. Something's wrong with Bonnie. I think she might be under Silas' control. And my daylight ring is gone, which may or may not be related, but I can't leave the house either way."

"Wait. What? Who's Silas?"

"Oh no..." No, no, no. Not Stefan, too! This can't be happening

"I didn't understand a single thing you just said, Caroline. Maybe talk to Elena? Here."

There's a moment of silence and then, "Hi, Care." It's Elena. So clearly Elena that, for a split-second, Caroline almost forgets that everyone seems to have gone completely mad and nothing is making sense and just feels her chest filling with hope that her friend's finally back.

"Elena?"

"You sound surprised. Who did you think it would be?"

It's Elena's voice, Elena's bright, joyful voice, which Caroline loves so much and hasn't heard in a while. But it can't be her. If she had flipped her emotions back on someone would've sent her a message, right? She would know by now. And if it looks like Elena, talks like Elena and acts like Elena but isn't Elena...

"Katherine?" she asks, suspiciously.

"Katherine? Who's Katherine?"

"Oh, dear God..."

"Is everything all right, Care?"

"I... Don't know."

"Are you coming to school today?"

"I don't think so." I couldn't even if I wanted to.

"Do you want me to call someone?"

"Who?"

"Your boyfriend?"

"No! Why would you call him? He's left town, he can't come back. Don't get him involved."

A tiny part of Caroline wishes that she could rely on Tyler right now. God knows how desperately in need of some moral support she is. But Tyler hasn't replied to any of the 200 voice messages she's left him since he went away, and it's probably for the best, but if she says she hasn't harbored a little bit of resentment over it, she'd be lying. It's not like Klaus can monitor her phone calls. He probably wouldn't even pick up if she tried to ring him now.

"Oh. I didn't know that. Care, I'm so sorry. Did something happen between you two? You didn't break up... Did you?"

Well, fuck it. No one being able to remember Tyler's exile is too much for her. Caroline's used to being in a supporting role all the time and having all her issues relegated to a lesser category because they're usually not as big as Elena's or Bonnie's, but this is just insulting.

That is not Elena. Just like it wasn't Bonnie on the phone before, and it was not Stefan either. Something really screwed up is going on.

"I have to go," she says curtly and hangs up again.

Caroline rubs her eyes and sags against the headboard of her bed. All sorts of bells are ringing inside her head. This is worse than she had thought at first.

What if everyone else has been somehow dominated by Silas and she's the only one left? What then? Caroline Forbes excels at a great many things, but being the savior of the supernatural world has never been amongst her strongest qualities. She's not the toughest vampire, or the most savvy and knowledgeable of them all. She can execute a plan to perfection any day, but the ideas usually come from someone else. Normally someone who's either lived at least 150 years more than her or who's in direct contact with spirits and ancient beings on the other side.

A thought suddenly occurs to her. It's completely crazy. But nothing seems to be making much sense today anyway, so maybe...

She looks at her curtains, all perfectly closed to keep the light from seeping in. Caroline approaches the window gingerly, like a hunter closing in on a prey.

She pulls the curtain a little open, allowing just a tiny sliver of sunlight into the room. Slowly, she reaches for the light with the tip of her finger, bracing herself for the pain and the blisters. But when sunlight finally touches her skin... Nothing happens.

Caroline puts a whole finger, and then her hand, her forearm under the sun, and then she pulls the whole curtain open and stands right in front of the window, momentarily blinded by the ominous white light. There's no pain. No burn. No nothing.

Holy shit.

She runs straight to the kitchen, takes the first knife she can find and slashes the palm of her hand open, groaning loudly at the pain. Blood immediately starts gushing out in heaps. She stares intently at the ugly cut, willing the wound to close and the blood to stop flowing. A minute goes by, and then two, and the only change is that the throbbing on her hand seems to intensify with each passing second. She looks down at the pool of red forming next to her feet on the white kitchen floor and feels her head start to spin.

It's not the blood loss, though. It's the understanding that finally dawns on her. Caroline feels herself sink into the depth of despair, her breath faltering.

Somehow, she's not a vampire anymore.

The front door opens and moments later her mother's there, talking to her. Caroline presses her lips tightly together, trying to hold back the tears. Not her mom, too...

"I saw your car outside. Shouldn't you be at school? Caroline?" Liz freezes when she realizes what's happening, her eyes widening in real fear as she takes in the scene - her daughter, a knife and a pool of blood. "Caroline! What happened?!" In a blink, Sheriff Forbes is next to her, holding her wounded arm, taking the knife away from her hand and assessing the injury. "What did you do?"

"I cut myself," she says, and then, after a beat, "Accidentally."

Caroline looks pleadingly at her mother, silently begging her to not be like the others and notice the absurdity of that wound. She looks exactly like Liz Forbes, the same kind eyes, the same worry lines on her forehead. Even her perfume is the same. It's hard to believe it's not her because it so clearly is. Except that, like Bonnie, Stefan and Elena, she doesn't seem to get it either.

Caroline wants nothing more than to hug her mother and cry her eyes out because the world is all wrong and she hasn't got the faintest clue how to go about fixing it. But that's not her mother. It can't be.

She does not protest when her fake mother guides her into the bathroom and starts to clean her cut and bandage her hand. It burns like hell. Caroline's had broken bones that didn't hurt a fraction of this. Why couldn't she be a normal person and pierce a tiny little hole on the tip of her finger instead of slicing her hand open? Cuts and bruises hadn't mattered to her in such a long time she forgot how much of a bitch they could be.

"What's wrong with you?" her mother asks as she finishes wrapping the gauze tightly around her hand. "You seem off today. Different."

"I do feel a little different," she chokes out.

"Are you sick?"

"No. It's not sickness."

"Then what is it?" Caroline looks away from her, biting on the inside of her lip not to blurt it all out. "Don't tell me that you're... Caroline, you're not... pregnant, are you?"

She would've laughed at the absurdity of the suggestion that a vampire might be pregnant if only she wasn't so goddamn miserable. And then she remembers that, technically, she's not a vampire anymore. "No, mom. I'm not pregnant."

"Are you sure?"

"100% sure."

"Good. I don't care how charming he is, you're too young to get married and have a baby right now. You have to go to college first. And don't give me that look, Caroline Forbes. You know exactly what I think about you dating older men."

"Older...?" What is her mom talking about? She's the same age as Tyler. Unless...

Elena is ok, Stefan is going to school again, Bonnie isn't a witch, she's not a vampire and not dating Tyler either, apparently.

Well, if this isn't hell, she doesn't know what else it can be.

x-x-x-x-x-x

In spite of her mother's insistence that she should stay at home, Caroline decides that she has to go to school. It's the only place she can think of where she might find a clue to begin deciphering what the hell is going on. It's a point in a game where she's fifty points behind, but it's a point nonetheless.

Doesn't matter how much she wants to curl up in bed and cry herself back to sleep in hopes that this is all just a freakishly realistic nightmare and she'll wake up in the right world next time, Caroline needs to do something. Not doing anything is not an option when she's the only one left with a shred of sanity still intact. And it won't stay like that for much longer if things don't start making sense very soon.

She hesitates a moment before stepping out of the house, afraid that it will all turn out to be a trap and she'll start burning as soon as she's far enough away from shelter. But nothing happens again. Ignoring the pang that shoots through her, she jumps into her car and drives away.

"You're late, Miss Forbes," the teacher says when she shows up at the door an hour after the class started.

"I'm so sorry. I had a small accident at home right before I left," she explains, lifting her arm to show her bandaged hand.

The teacher gives her a sympathetic look and nods. "Take your seat."

Bonnie doesn't even wait until she's settled to lean over and whisper "What happened to your hand?", concern etched onto every line of her face.

Caroline swallows down hard. As with her mother, Bonnie seems perfectly... Bonnie. Not a single hair out of place, not a hint of pretense on the way she looks all worried at Caroline's hand.

Keep it together, Caroline. Keep it together...

"It's just a cut."

"It looks bad."

"It's nothing. Just an accident."

Elena is sitting a few rows to her side and waves at Caroline as soon as their eyes meet. Nothing about the girl screams Katherine, but that wouldn't be the first time she successfully deceives everyone. Although Caroline can't for the life of her figure out why Katherine would impersonate Elena and then go to school and sit through an entire History lesson.

Stefan is also there, so absorbed in what the teacher is saying he doesn't even look her way.

Suddenly Caroline is not so sure that it was a good idea to come to school after all. She feels strangely vulnerable, doesn't know what to expect, but knows that she can't trust any of them. Silas opening the gates of hell don't seem like such a bad thing all of a sudden. It's better to know exactly who your enemies are than to be surrounded by all these familiar faces acting like complete strangers. It takes some very deep breaths for her not to run away screaming.

Bonnie and Elena are all over her as soon as the class is dismissed.

"What happened to your hand?" Elena asks.

"I just cut myself, it's nothing."

"We were worried about you, Care," Bonnie says. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. Peachy." Her lips twist up into as much of a smile as she can muster.

Stefan approaches them and snakes his arms around Elena's waist, pulling her flush against him and placing a tender kiss on her neck. Like it's nothing. Like he does it every day. Like he hasn't been fighting his own brother tooth and nail for the past God knows how many months for the chance to do this, and losing.

"Are you ok, Caroline?" Elena asks, and she realizes she's been gaping at the two of them.

"Yeah. Of course. Perfect. I just need some... Air."

She grabs her bag and doesn't wait for the objections before walking out into the hall, but a second later Bonnie is there again, right behind her. God, she misses super speed...

"You're not fooling anyone, you know," Bonnie says.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I know there's something wrong. You're acting all strange today."

"Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize, but we're kind of worried. Whatever it is, you can tell us. We're your friends."

"I know, Bon." Well, since she decided to come to school, she might as well try to understand what's happening. Like why the hell Elena and Stefan are cozying up to each other again. "What happened to Damon?"

Bonnie frowns inquisitively. "Who?"

"Damon? Irritating, terrible sense of humor, thinks he's smarter than everyone, does that creepy thing with the eyes all the time... You know. The Salvatore we don't root for?"

"Salvatore?" Bonnie stares at her with a completely blank expression, and then, "Wait. Are you talking about Stefan's brother?"

"Of course. Do we know any other Salvatores?"

"I didn't realize you knew this one."

"Don't we all?"

"Considering he died ten years ago? No."

Caroline feels the floor disappear from under her feet. "Damon... Is dead?"

The thought sets on her like a bomb. She wasn't exactly a fan of the guy, was vehemently on Team Stefan and frequently found herself wanting to punch him in the middle of that handsome face of his. Damon was a self-righteous a-hole more often than not, but that doesn't mean she wanted him dead.

"What is going on with you today, Caroline? It's like you woke up a different person."

Yes, she wants to say. That's exactly what happened! She woke up in someone else's life, someone else's skin, and she's having an impossible time trying to navigate it.

And now Damon is dead.

"Are you possessed?" Bonnie asks in a manner that makes it obvious that she's joking, but Caroline seriously considers it for a moment.

Maybe she's been looking at this all wrong. Maybe she's the one who's upside down, not everyone else. She could've knocked her head or had a stroke or something. Possession it not out of the realm of possibilities either, but considering vampires and witches don't seem to be a thing around here, it's less likely.

It's the only possible explanation. Clearly she's in the minority here. Maybe she did go to the Mystic Grill last night and had a lot more to drink than she remembers, fell down somewhere, knocked her head and this whole supernatural shenanigan is nothing more than a creation of her bruised brain.

She's starting to lose her mind, isn't she?

x-x-x-x-x-x

The rest of the day goes by just as abnormally ordinary as it began. There's not even a hint or mention of anything even remotely supernatural. Caroline barely utters another word, doesn't trust herself not to open her mouth and start screaming. They talk about things that hadn't been a part of their repertoire in months - football matches, prom dresses, college applications. No Silas, no cure, no mass murder of magical beings. It's ironic that she hasn't wanted anything more than a little pause on all the creepy weird stuff to just enjoy her senior year like a normal person, and now that she has it, she feels like puking.

By the time they leave school, she's almost convinced that she's the rotten piece here. Which doesn't make anything better, quite the opposite.

What the hell is she supposed to do with all those memories that she has? She can still remember how it feels to close her teeth around someone else's neck, the taste of warm blood in her mouth. Her heart still aches for Tyler, who apparently isn't her boyfriend anymore and may have never been in this... Place, whatever it is. Does Tyler even exist here? How can this much love not be real? And what about Damon? Where the hell did she get him from if he's been dead for 10 years? Caroline suddenly finds herself missing his general unpleasantness. What wouldn't she give to have him widening those eyes of his like they can't all see how ridiculously blue they are and calling her Blondie in that special derogatory way of his?

She's stopped paying attention to the conversation ages ago, lost in her own thoughts, when Bonnie elbows her.

"Care."

"What?" she asks, blinking back to attention.

"Look who's here," Bonnie says, nodding her head towards the parking lot with a funny smile on her lips.

Caroline doesn't have to search a lot to find out what she's pointing at. He stands out like a sore thumb in the middle of all the loud and jolly teenagers.

"Klaus," she murmurs.

Her stomach curls in on itself. He's staring straight at them, his stance all but making it clear that he's in one of his moods. His eyes, dark and unreadable, are boring into her. Even from a certain distance Caroline can see the brutal furrows scribbled across his forehead. This is Klaus at his absolute worst. And it suddenly hits her just how familiar this is to her. She's seen this look countless times before, usually right before someone dies.

It's not the look of a normal person. It's the look of a hybrid.

"Klaus?" Bonnie says. "What did he do?"

"What... What do you mean?" she asks, distracted as she calculates how much of a threat Klaus actually is right now. Under normal circumstances, on a regular day, it would be hard to tell.

"It's not Nik today?"

"Why the hell would I call him that?"

Bonnie exchanges a weird look with Elena. "Because... Everyone does?"

Caroline gapes.

"Oh, Care." Elena cuts in before Caroline has a chance to recover from her shock to offer an appropriate response to that nonsense. "I'm sorry. I forgot you mentioned you two had a fight and he left town. Is that why you were so uncomfortable around me and Stefan today?"

"He looks uncomfortable too," Bonnie says.

"He looks like he's had the worst day in the history of ever," Elena adds.

"He looks like he wants to murder someone."

"Stefan!" Elena slaps his arm. "Don't say that. It's horrible. Nik would never do that. He's a doctor."

"He's a what?!" Caroline practically screams. Now that is just... No.

She was sort of resigned to just accepting the facts of this mysterious life being thrown at her like a bunch bricks all day. Fine, she's crazy, it's no one else's fault. But this? Klaus is evil. He's a tormentor of people, a destroyer of peace, a merciless killer. Not a doctor whom she calls Nik and is, what? In a relationship with? Is that what they're saying? Holy fucking Jesus.

Can't' they freaking see him right there, looking like an envoy of Satan coming straight from hell to unleash pain upon the human race? Even if he isn't a rabid hybrid in this world, he still clearly looks like a goddamn psycho. Who the fuck would call that Nik?

"I can't take today anymore. I'm going home," she announces, making her way to her car before anybody has a chance to stop her.

She walks right past Klaus, who's very clearly watching her like a hawk. She doesn't want to go anywhere near him, whatever he is.

But then... She feels a bit of a tug somewhere, some greater sense telling her that she shouldn't walk away from him. Those aren't the eyes of a savior of lives. Those are the eyes of the lunatic she met in her Mystic Falls. It's not even the Klaus who she danced with at his mother's crazy ball, who showed her his paintings and fed her his blood to save her life. It's the Klaus who burned with dementia as he sacrificed Jenna or forced Stefan to turn his humanity off. The Klaus who terrifies her to the bones.

And that Klaus can only belong to a world where terrible things like vampires and werewolves and hybrids exist.

Hesitantly, she walks back to where he is. She's half-expecting him to say 'Hello, love', but his lips are pressed tightly together. Like he's doing an Olympics level effort not to blow up in rage right there and then. His eyes rover her face, searching for something, and suddenly Caroline recognizes the same despair she's been harboring in her chest all day in the dark blue of his irises. Only where hers has turned into fear, his has clearly taken the shape of pure anger.

She notices his hand, then, which he's balling into a fist next to his body. Bloodied, with a rag haphazardly wrapped around it. Cut. Exactly the same as hers.

The air is knocked out of her lungs. "Oh my God..."

"I take it you're not a vampire anymore."

TBC