Anytime
Caroline opened her eyes slowly and saw a room that looked eerily similar to another room that didn't exactly bring back good memories. When she saw her ring missing and her hands chained cuffed tightly to the chair she was sitting in she realized it was the same room.
Her breathing grew erratic with every flashback of her father pulling the rusty chain that opened the large shutters above her. "Hello?" She called nervously and her eyes widened when she saw Rebekah step out of a dark corner. "Rebekah?" Caroline knew Rebekah hated her, but she didn't figure she would result to this.
"Hello Caroline." She smiled sweetly. "You are mistaken though, it's Esther not Rebekah."
Caroline's eyes widened. "What? Why am I here?" She said the last part in a demanding tone, pulling relentlessly at her restraints.
"You are wasting your time with those." Esther said, touching the manacles lightly. "To answer your question, my son Niklaus seems to have taken an interest in you. I figure this is a simple enough way to get his attention."
Caroline was having trouble holding back her tears at this point. Once again she was being used, tortured just to get to someone else. She imagined it wouldn't be quite as bad if she were being tortured for something she had done.
She had tried so hard to always do the right thing even as a vampire she has only killed once, on accident. Somehow she is always the one who ends up getting tortured, not the ones who have killed hundreds and continue to kill more today.
Her mind couldn't help but wonder, if her own father could do what he did to her how much more could Esther do? Esther who cared so much less and probably hated vampires so much more.
"Well let's begin than shall we?" She didn't look up when she heard Esther's voice instead concentrating on handling the pain when it came.
The sound of the old rusty shutters opening resonated throughout the room, and it took all the will power she had to keep herself from screaming. Though a small whimper escaped her lips as she felt the sunlight burn into her skin.
With a mom like this and his dad being the way he was it was no wonder Klaus turned out the way he did. She couldn't say she didn't feel a tiny bit of sympathy toward him.
She let out a sigh of relief when the shutters closed again, she was a little afraid that Esther was just going to kill her. A little part of her kinda wished she would, too many times has she been tortured and escaped in one way or another, the odds of her being rescued again were not in her favor.
—
It had been hours and Caroline now really wished she had just killed her at the beginning. It was worse than the time with her father because she didn't only use the sun.
Once in a while she felt a stabbing pain, and it took her hours to make it through the groggy feeling of agony to see that the searing pain was a vervain soaked stake.
Right as Esther was about to pull the shades again there was a loud noise and then the door flew open. "Caroline!" She could barely hear the voice, and his being was just a blur.
He seemed so far away, but she knew who it was and for some odd reason she felt the need to warn him. She was finally able to find her voice, even if it did come out as just a whisper. "Klaus, it's a trap." That was the last thing she said before losing consciousness completely.
—
She shot up with quickened breaths and touched all her appendages to be sure they were still there before looking to see where she was. No longer was she in a small dark cellar shackled to a chair, but in a dark blue room on a bed.
Even though at that exact moment she wanted nothing more than to curl up on the bed and go to sleep, she could not relax quite yet. For all she knew this was a trap, or a dream.
Tip toeing off the bed she made her way to the door flinching with each step or even movement. She had never been more sore in her life.
"Don't I even get a thank you?" She whipped around and jumped backwards throwing her self into the wall at the sound of the voice. Klaus' face seemed concerned at her reaction.
Then she was trying to remember if she should trust him or not. Something was telling her she should. His face softened a considerable amount as he took a cautious step towards her, outstretching his hand as if he was approaching an easily frightened animal. "I'm not going to hurt you." He told her in what seemed like a sincere voice.
Surprising him, and herself, she threw her arms around his neck and began to sob into his shoulder, ignoring how her body ached in protest at the sudden movement. "Thank you." She whispered into his ear.
He stood there frozen in shock for just a second before wrapping his arms around her. "Anytime." He whispered back before placing a kiss on her forehead.