Tear out a heart, and I promise you nothing will put it back in its place.
He made his way smoothly and gravely down to the cellar. He hated going there more than anything, wishing that he could alter that particular aspect of the arrangement and move it up to one of the more comfortable rooms upstairs. But upstairs was not safe enough.
Take a drop of blood from an innocent, and more innocent blood will flow.
He clutched the blood bag in his hand and his gaze grew stern as he made his way towards the door. Sometimes he wondered why he came back every night, when he had the choice of leaving everything, including the mansion and her, behind. The answer was not the problem, but accepting it had in all this time not come easy to him.
Enslave a free spirit, and pray that you can bear the responsibility.
Upon unlocking the door, he wondered whom he´d be dealing with right now. He had developed a few preferences over the past months, but deep down, there was really only one person he always hoped to find. Some nights, she was even there. Those nights were the worst.
Hunt down every one you fear, and wait for the retaliation.
She was sitting on the comfortable single bed, arms wrapped around her legs, staring into the nothingness the room offered. He had tried to make it comfortable, turning a storage room in a cellar into an inhabitable abode had not been an easy task, but he was at ease knowing that he had done a decent job. Supplying her with a closet with various clothes, matching all her oh so many personalities. He´d been hesitant about the mirror, but so far, she had not smashed it into pieces. There even was a bathroom . The only thing he had felt forced to leave out was a window. That he had to replace with a lock on the door instead. Keeping her safe was the cruelest thing he had ever done to her.
Can you reassemble a thousand pieces created by your wreckage?
Her posture gave him no clue, it ruled out a few possibilities, but not enough to put him on anything more but thin ice that he had to tread upon in order to make conversation. The eyes were brooding in a familiar way, but all the other features told a different story. Her shoulders were defiantly stiff, like she had the power to vanquish him, even if it may cost her life in the process. Her blond curls and her blue eyes, were the only thing about her, he was certain of. Had been for quite some time.
Yet, he had to try again tonight.
"I got brought you some blood, love." he said gently, putting the blood on the night stand next to the bed she was sitting on, then he sat down next to her. He knew she´d react, he just did not know to whose bidding. He had counted all the names in his head, ruling out a few. The quiet ones always kept him guessing. For no matter how annoying they all had been to him before, in real life, he now realized just how calm they had all stayed throughout all the pain he had caused them. He guessed, that Damon, Katherine, Stefan and Kol had just been distracting him too much, to make him notice, how many of them had really been there. Surrounding her, loving or hating , influencing her. For now, he knew all of their names.
She stayed quiet for a few moments, gazing at the blood. Finally she said quietly: "Take it away please." That narrowed it down to two possibilities.
"Love, I am afraid, I can´t." he said, stroking her hair.
He knew who it was, the second she looked up at him, panic filling her eyes, while she tried to speak calmly. "Please, just leave."
Deep down, he knew that leaving her would have been the more merciful approach, but staying was the only way of getting closer to helping her. Suddenly she tried to jump off the bed and in the direction of the door. He may not be worried about catching her, should she ever get out, but he needed her to face the blood. She needed to face him. In a flash, he had his arms wrapped around her, holding her in place and forcing her to look at the blood bag. "Fight him" he whispered. "I can´." she cried.
"Of course you can. You need t live." He held her even tighter, for what seemed like hours. Not releasing her until he felt her breath calming and her struggle ceasing.
"Please," she cried. "He won´t like it"
No, he won´t Klaus thought sadly but she needed to eat. Sensing her defeat, he let go, watching alertly as she reached for the bag. She gulped it all down hungrily, quietly crying an " I am sorry" to an invisible judge. Then she looked up at Klaus in shame, which quickly turned into terror. The consequences followed faster than Klaus had anticipated. Suddenly she yelled out in pain, and Klaus watched in worry as she fell to the ground, trying frantically to shield herself from imaginary sunlight and the nightmare sensation of her skin burning. Once again he wrapped her in his arms, sitting on the cold floor with her, and whispered whatever soothing words he would be able to come up with. None of which would or will ever be enough, he knew. The pain came and went and came back, with her growing weaker and more desperate at every cry. Eventually it stopped. "Help me." she whispered. "Fix me."
They stayed that way until she had drifted into what Klaus could only hope would be a dreamless sleep. He hated it, when her father came back. Technically he hated them all, when they invaded her mind, taunting her into madness and taking away her free will, but Bill had one advantage over them all. Klaus had never officially met him, only heard of him, and sometimes, when Caroline cried out more than usual, he had truly no idea what that memory inside her was capable of.
As he watched Caroline recover from the constant against the voices of everyone she had ever been affected by in her head, he felt a wave of guilt and self-loathing come over him. Remembering how he had broken the only person he had ever meant to protect, he picked her off the floor and tugged her into her bed.
"One day you´ll be free again. I promise." But he could whisper every sweet promise he could think off, until he found a way, nothing would ever make her feel happy or safe again. He hasn´t stopped feeling guilty about that ever since the day he had put her into her misery, he surmised, while gently caressing her cheek.
She could have been happy, if only back then he would have let her.