It just didn't seem real, or even remotely possible, like one of those thing, oh so very unlikely to happen that everyone laughs and jokes about it. Like aliens, or the end on the world. This was never supposed to happen.
"No, stop it!" She screamed, straining against Rebekah's grip on her, too tight and restricting. Trapped within the iron prison of her arms, listening to his screams. "Why are you doing this? What happened to family?" She snarled; hate welling in her for the blonde who held her prisoner in her arms to the melody of her brothers screams. The same brother who would do anything for her, for their family, for Caroline.
"All he's ever done is hurt me." Rebekah answered, her voice even and soft, eyes trained on her brothers every antagonised movement.
"All he's ever tried to do is protect you," Caroline screamed, unable to comprehend why Rebekah couldn't see what was right in front of her, "I'm not saying he's been doing it right, but all he wants is for his family to be safe, reunited once the danger that once threatened you was passed, and you're killing him for it."
As Klaus let loose another scream, Caroline's body jerked forwards once more, trying, no matter what the obstacle, to get to her lover.
"Where's Elijah!" Caroline howled, turning her head to meet Rebekah's eyes, "What have you done to him, Rebekah? He swore to me that no harm would become Nik, that he would be kept safe from all your horrendous schemes, and I trust him. So, what have you done with your good brother, Rebekah?"
"He is safe in his box, where he will remain until this is over. He is too good for this, he does not believe that Nik is as bad as he is, he still views him as his baby brother who needs saving. There is no place for that here. Only the rage and bitterness of those he has scorned, and your love. Misplaced as it seems, for some reason you have chosen to bestow it upon my brother." Rebekah sighs, "I was, am, like that. I empathise. I always give my heart away to those who don't deserve it, so carelessly, like I have nothing left in the world to lose. You should hold onto your heart, Caroline."
"It is no longer mine to give away," She replied sadly, "It is his, and I'm afraid that I'll never get it back now. As battered and bruised as it is it belongs to Nik. I would never dream of taking it back. And as he dies here today, he shall take it with him to the other side."
"Why him?" Rebekah questioned, filled with a sudden consuming curiosity.
"He came to me when I thought I was weak, and showed me that I am strong. He challenges me, and pushed me and irritates me in a way that is just so very uniquely him. He proved to me that I am worth something, and that anyone capable of being loved is capable of being saved. He made me promises, and he's the first person who's ever intended to keep them. The only person who has never dreamed of letting me down." Caroline let out a breath, "He promised me the world, the cities and all they have to offer, he tells me that I am beautiful, but also strong, fearless, brave."
"He's dead." Damon announced all at once, smirking at her so viciously, eyes filled with a malicious and terrifying glee.
With those words, Rebekah released her, allowing her to stumble forwards to where his corpse lay, to kneel beside him and brush his damp curls back from her face with her fingertips.
"What have they done to you?" She whispered, forgetting about the others eavesdropping in on her goodbye. "Broken you," she giggled almost frantically, "Now your outsides resemble your insides, and mine. We were supposed to fix each other," she cried, raising a fist to rub angrily at her eyes. "Now I have to fix both of us all on my own and goddamn I hate you for that. I was never supposed to have to be alone again!" She cried, resting her forehead on his chest, sobbing inconsolably against his cool form. Not that anyone tried to comfort her.
Damon reached over and gripped her forearms, yanking her from his body; his grip unreasonably tight as Stefan shot her a pleading look and picked up the body.
"Don't you touch him!" She screamed, tugging uselessly at his grip. He was nowhere near as strong as Rebekah, but he was older than her, enough so to do some damage. Everyone flinched at the sounds of her bones breaking and healing only to break again.
"Stop that," Rebekah snarled, pulling Caroline from him grip and into her arms, letting the smaller blonde cry against her as she confronted the others. "You've killed my brother, I trust his body's in the coffin in the back of my SUV, now this girl is under the protection of the Original family. I loved my brother, and he loved her more than anything I've ever seen, so I'll keep her safe for him, and if any of you come near her, or hurt a single hair on her head, I'll kill you, because she's family now." Sneering at them, she turned, and pulling Caroline with her, exited the woods next to her SUV, which was parked hap hazardously on the curb.
She seated Caroline in the passenger's seat before checking that the casket in the boot contained the vessel that had once been her brother. Whispering a prayer under her breath, she started the car and headed back to the mansion.
"What have you done?" Elijah snarled, taking in the coffin in the middle of the foyer and the catatonic Caroline Forbes sitting on the bottom step of the staircase, as Kol watched on in silent trepidation from the second story landing.
"Our brother is dead." She announced, no sugar coating or half-truths, "And I helped them kill him."
Kol took in a sudden, sharp intake of breath and leaned further over the banister, Elijah hissed in shock and disbelief at his sister's words, praying silently that they weren't true. All hope evaporating as she opened the casket and revealed his cold corpse to their eyes.
"Rebekah," he breathed, looking at their baby sister in shock, "How could you-?"
"I've already had that discussion today with the one person who truly cares about him, so do not presume to question me, Elijah." She hissed, glancing at the stairs to see that Caroline had disappeared into the mansion somewhere. "I gave my word to protect her, for Nik, as the one thing left that he truly loved; will you help me keep my word, brothers?" Both the Original brothers nodded before the trio followed Caroline through the house, and to Klaus' room.
The door was open and she was curled up on the bed with one of his pillows; clothes dis guarded at the foot of the bed, she wore one of his henleys, long enough on her to be a dress on her slim frame. Tears leaked from her eyes onto the mattress, but at the moment, she appeared to be ignoring them.
The originals all backed away quietly, silently agreeing to leave her to her grief that seemed to outweigh her, leaving them to ponder why exactly they felt so little over all of this.
It was early the next morning that they realised the body was missing, although they didn't have far to look. Lying on his bed, with Caroline curled into his still chest, fast asleep with her head over his heart, like she could still hear its silent beats. Her own sharp and erratic, almost serrated with the grief she felt, isolated in a sadness that none of the siblings seemed to either possess nor understand; her pain foreign to them after centuries of cool detachment and burning rage, like a fervent fire that needed only someone to stoke the ever present flames. Quick to ignite, slow it burn itself out, that was them in a nutshell. It was not, however, Caroline; she was slow to spark, taking careful time and effort to coax her into the raging inferno it took seconds to get the rest of them worked up to. But once she got going, she was magnificent; she burned slow and steady, but always blindingly bright; her rage staying, strong as ever. Unwavering in her seemingly relentless anger, and even when the fire appeared to have gone out, the embers still burned beneath the layers on ash, just waiting to be revived.
Of all the Originals, Caroline was the one you had to be afraid of angering. Her warfare was subtle and harsh, and she wasn't one to forget a slight. Even less inclined that Rebekah, who did not forget easily.
So she remained a silent seething ocean, pounding relentlessly against the rocks until she managed to get someone ensnared in her current, dragging them out to deeper waters and refusing to release them until they were either a writhing, pathetic mess, or gone entirely. Her anger was directed in many different directions, Rebekah, Damon, Stefan, Bonnie, Elena, Tyler, Hayley.
All of them had played a part in his death, and all of them needed to pay, needed to suffer for that. Rebekah, for condemning the brother who had wanted nothing more than a family, his family, safe and unharmed; and who yes, had made mistakes, but had just been trying to protect them all the only way his broken mind knew how.
Damon, for that joyous way he had announced Klaus' death, for the way he had orchestrated, with Tyler's help, the whole event. And also, a little bit for her, because of all the horrible things he'd done to her, 'You're going to like it, Caroline', 'you're not going to scream, Caroline', 'do stop struggling, Caroline'.
Stefan, because it had been him who had so callously lured his former best friend to his death. I just want to talk, Klaus, about us, the old days. Reminisce. You'll be perfectly safe; besides what could any of us possibly do to hurt you? Caroline scoffed whenever she replayed that one in her head. Plenty, it had turned out.
Bonnie, the last surviving Bennett witch, so alone in a seemingly endless sea of vampires, claiming she was free and her very own person, and yet how free could a person really be at the beck and call of the very monsters she despised? They way Caroline saw it; with Bonnie she was doing the girl a favour.
Elena, the girl everyone tripped over their own feet trying to save. Always so pretentious and righteous when it came to everyone else, judging her and Klaus like he was such a monster and how human could she really be if she loved him? But what about Damon? She wanted to scream, how much of a saint was he? Sure, he had nowhere near as many bodies racked up as Klaus, but give him a few years, after all, he was only a tenth of Klaus' age, and you have to give sociopaths some time to get their act together, Elena.
Tyler, once upon a time Caroline had thought she'd loved him. Now, she could have laughed. Her, loving him, was never real; it was her gripping tightly onto the tiny sliver of her human life she still possessed. Tyler had been... Safe. But Caroline hadn't wanted safe, she'd wanted reckless, wild abandon. Something more than a small town, and Klaus had known that, seen it in her eyes. And Tyler couldn't put her first, his anger, hatred, bitterness, for Klaus had always come first; and she should hate Klaus for that, but she didn't because he had put her first in a life where no one else ever did. Before his revenge and anger and despite being broken and a 'monster' he was more human than anyone else in her life.
Hayley. Hayley had caused Caroline to falter, because never in her eighteen, almost nineteen, years of life had she instantly hated someone like that girl. So quick, and so strong, hatred had welled for the werewolf from the Appalachians. Just a friend, both Tyler and Hayley had protested, like she was too stupid to see what was directly in front of her nose. Like she couldn't smell the arousal in the air between the pair, like horny teenagers; or dogs, she mused with a snort, how very adequate. Trying to flirt with Klaus, get him to open up to her, reveal all his dirty little secrets. After reassuring Caroline she was nothing compared to her, they had laughed about her lack of finesse. He was a centuries old vampire, not some horny teenager in a bar, jacked up on cheap alcohol and whatever was passing hands that night. Never send a whore to do a ladies job; Caroline would have told them.
"How long are we going to pretend we don't notice all the people strung up in the basement?" Kol had finally asked one morning as the Mikaelson's, minus Caroline, drank coffee and blood around the dining table and ate waffles to the soundtrack of people screaming and pleading.
"Until their either dead or Caroline's finished with them." Rebekah piped up, taking another sip from her mug. "This is the kind of thing a girl needs to get out, Kol."
Elijah hummed in agreement, "Although," he added as an afterthought, "It would be nice if they didn't scream all the time."
"I think the more important question here is when can we move his body?" Rebekah spoke again, "It's been a few weeks, and this can't be healthy."
"Somehow, Rebekah," Kol snapped, setting down his knife and fork heavily next to his plate, "I don't believe that any of this is healthy."
Their silence resumed as they went back to the menial task of eating a breakfast none of them really needed, and now Kol could tell that it was Hayley screaming for mercy this morning; not that he was all too surprised, Hayley was one of Caroline's favourites. Always screaming, 'no, no, stop, stop, please, please' like a broken doll that talked when you pushed her tummy. Voice box destroyed so that the only words that could slip through skipped like broken records and repeated until everyone felt like cutting her throat themselves, if only she'd shut up for just one goddamn minute.
Caroline's eyes burned now with such pure malice, something her ex-friends had never seen on the bubbly blonde before; and all of them were more than willing to admit scared the crap out of them. Some days, Caroline remained silent, content to let the pain she was inflicting do all the talking for her, as well as the screams. Other days, like today, she liked to talk with them, reminisce, that was the word. Anything she felt like, memories, idle thoughts, her nightmares, the ones that woke her screaming for Klaus at night, only he wasn't there to comfort her and reassure her that all it was a nightmare, and that nothing could hurt her here, because his job was to protect her after all wasn't it?
Why? Oh right, because they had killed, murdered, him in front of her.
She wasn't going to tell them that he was an innocent, he has done horrible things, but everyone here was in the same boat, was the same kind of monster. They'd all killed people, both worthy and not, but no one was luring them into the woods with the false hope of security and regrets to inflict unimaginable pain. We'll not yet anyway.
Paris was nice, Caroline conceded to Rebekah as they strolled down a cobblestoned path. The architecture was just magnificent, everything perfectly preserved, the artwork was exquisite, and Caroline knew with a pang that Klaus would have spent hours explaining the artists and the pieces to her. Caroline also knew that she wouldn't have cared all that much, but she would have listened for him, because she knew how much he loved this, and because she loved the sound of his voice, the way it made her feel safe, like she was finally home.
The shops were to die for, the brands ranged from designer to high street, and there were labels from all over the globe. Everything here was that perfect blend of old and new, from the architecture to the shops to the scents that lingered in the streets.
She would have loved it more if Klaus had been the one showing to her, like he'd promised her he would on the night of that damned ball, the one that felt a lifetime ago. And it had been, she supposed, his.
"We're meeting our brothers in a week," Rebekah informed her over dinner that night at some high ranked expensive restaurant, although money meant so very little to the original family, and now her by extension. Money was acquired easily when you lived forever and rarely needed it to get what you wanted anyway.
"Where?" Caroline had asked, not wasting breath on useless words as she eyes the patrons of the restaurant subtly, looking for their desert. Rebekah had told her it was an art, one she was slowly teaching Caroline on their trip around the globe; one, pick someone who won't be missed for a while, even in the high class circles.
Two, don't be obvious about it. Remaining under everyone's radar was the easiest way to get your meal and not be found out, either that or the other extreme. Staying the shadows, Rebekah had told her, or being the only thing they see.
Three, the lesson they were on today, although steps one and two were still being perfected, was the draw; how to extract your target from their circle without drawing any attention other than theirs.
"Back in Rome," Rebekah answered, ignoring Caroline's searching, "At the villa."
Rebekah had this down to her art, and executed it with a sort of finesse that Caroline possessed, but didn't know how to harness. Use your femininity, Rebekah would crow at her rolling her eyes, what's the point of possessing it if you never use it. And boy do you possess it, she'd chuckled pouring them both another shot of expensive foreign vodka one night in a penthouse in Milan.
"Her," Caroline whispered as she swirled spaghetti onto her fork with a focused precision, softly tilting her head to the right, where a party of five sat. Two couples, so entertained with one another the blondes had trouble telling where one began and another stopped. And then there was Caroline's girl; petite, raven hair, pale skin. Pretty, Rebekah supposed, and such a very good choice.
Naturally quiet, the poor girl never really stood a chance with her friends so entangled with their lovers they barely turned their heads to acknowledge her when she spoke, eventually she seemed to just give up and shrink into herself, focusing on her meal; eyes roaming the restaurant every so often for something. Rebekah didn't think the girl knew what she was looking for herself.
Receiving Rebekah's nod of approval, Caroline rose gracefully, catching the girl's attention in the middle of a sweep. Locking eyes with the girl, Caroline smiled at her, and tilted her head towards the corridor that the bathrooms were off, as well as an exit into an alley.
Caroline didn't look back as she weaved towards the hallway, but she knew the girl was following, and she was, eagerly, muttering a half excuse to her friends, who barely grunted in acknowledgement.
Once safely concealed in the darkness of the corridor and away from prying eyes, Caroline pulled the girl to her and compelled her into silence, before commanding that she follow her into the alley. Propping the door slightly open, Caroline presses the girl against the rough brick wall, compelling her to feel no pain, and bit into her neck, taking long pulls of blood from her, until she was sated and sensed the girl becoming dizzy from blood loss.
"What's your name?" Caroline asked, the girl still pressed between her and the wall.
"Kenna," she whispered, voice trembling with terror.
"Shhh," She soothed, running a hand along the girls cheek, "It's okay, there's no need to be afraid," she smiled as she felt the girl relax into her, "You like me, remember?"
The girl nodded in a daze from the newest batch of compulsion, cheeks flushed a gorgeous red, eyes bright. "Here, Kenna," Caroline broke the skin on her wrist and offered it to her, smirking at the girl as she took the offered wrist and lowered her mouth to it, swallowing a few mouthfuls of blood without complaint. "Now I want you to go back to your friends and finish your dinner, you just went to the bathroom."
Kenna nodded and Caroline grinned like the Cheshire Cat, "Now, go inside and don't tell anyone what happened." Caroline sent the girl off and grinned to herself before heading back to her table and Rebekah, not looking for Kenna as she walked.
He would be proud.