"Klaus is dead." The phone falls from her grip. Her bouncy curls jostled by the sudden action. She stares off into the distance. She can almost smell his cologne. Klaus. Is. Dead.
She picks up the phone again, "Are you sure?" She asks, somewhat panicked.
"Positive. Stake to the heart. Him and Elijah."
"I have to go." She hangs up quickly. Shoving her phone into her back pocket. Then she runs out her front door, the door barely slamming before she's a mile away.
It's not a crime to love something you can't explain. The tears are coming now, she has to stop running, she sinks down a tree trunk, she has absolutely no idea where she is. Where he is. "Klaus." Her lips barely part.
"Hello love." She looks up and he's there, and god damn it. He looks so real. She can smell him and oh baby, it hurts. She can feel the pain rising into her chest. She gets up fast. She walks over.
She's going to shove him, she's going to kill him. Then he's gone.
The image. The smell. It's all gone. "Klaus. No no no, I'm sorry, come back." Tears are streaming down her face, they're so hot, she can barely see. "Come back." She whispers. Caroline Forbes feels so horribly alone.
"Do you regret the time we've spent together?"
"Seriously?" ... "No I don't regret our time together. When we met, I was so young..."
Different people. Caroline and Klaus. Different people.
"The man I met back then - terrified me."
"Klaus. Damn it! Come back out here!" She punches a tree and she won't stop. She falls to her knees again, "Klaus." She chokes out. She slowly gathers herself into a small ball on the ground, "Klaus."
Her throat is closing and she wishes she was dead. He was, simply put, the love of her life. They just had the worst timing - ever. Nothing would ever work out between them. There was always something. Babies. Spells. Lovers. Curses. There was always something keeping them apart. Why didn't she try harder? Why didn't she try to make things work with Klaus? She loved him. She loved him more than she loved any of the others. Stefan. Tyler. Any of them.
Caroline had opened her heart to a dangerous, terrible man. He had crept in and he had built a little fire next to her heart, which he would occasionally show up to tend to. Whether it be through donations or phone calls. She could never resist showing up at his door. For help, for guidance.
Saying goodbye in that bar, that final kiss, it would never be enough for them. They would always need more. One passionate night in the forest was not enough. Eternity was not enough. Now, there was nothing.
Caroline's phone won't stop buzzing in her pocket. She knows word is spreading and her friends are beginning to worry about her. They should worry. She is not ok. She will not be ok for another century or two. She has twins.
"Love."
She hears it again, she doesn't open her eyes this time, she can't let him leave again. "Klaus, please, tell me it's not true."
"I'm sorry." He says it simply, it hangs in the air. His apology, just floating above her head, waiting for her to accept the ugly truth.
She doesn't want him to disappear she can't handle it but if she opens her eyes he's gone and god damn it all she wants to do is see him again. "I'll go anywhere with you, just tell me it's not true. That it's not real." Her words come out in broken sobs. "We never had a chance."
Caroline Forbes. Strong. Passionate. Full of light. She was not a young woman anymore, she has aged beyond her years. But the news of Klaus's death has her reduced to a pile of tears in the middle of a forest floor. While her phone won't. Stop. Buzzing. And now she's offering to run away with this ghost, this ghost of a man she never got the opportunity to love. Run from everything she's ever known. From her children.
"You know we can't do that." His whisper is so close, it warms up her ear. She swears she can feel the brush of his lips. But if she opens her eyes he's going to be gone.
"We can. I raised strong girls, I can do this. Please." She says it more confidently, the tears are flowing more silently, "I can't lose you." Her voice lowers to a whisper, "I just can't."
It's cold again. He's gone. She can feel it in her bones. Her eyes open and he's not there anymore. In her back pocket she finds the drawing, the drawing of her with the horse. He had left it for her.
She pulls herself up, hugging her knees to her chest. "I love you." She says it so quietly, but she knows he's the only one who needs to hear it. "We can do this." She says. "We can."