disclaimer : Unfortunately, I don't own the Vampire Diaries, mais c'est la vie. Also, title is courtesy of the amazing M83.
skin of the night
In that moment, she can hear the blood rushing through his body, the flood held back for a thousand years that now fills up his veins. The beating of his heart sounds like a wild animal rattling against a cage.
But the thing is, he is no longer an animal, no longer a monster.
He is human.
Elena, with her humanity and her ironbound determination to save Elijah, is the one who thinks of it, but Caroline is there when Elena pleads with Ester. Hidden down in the tunnels, Ester stands safely in the vampire no-go zone. Even from outside, Caroline's sharp eyes can pick out the names of the Mikaelson family standing out starkly on the wall, and she wonders, how many hours has Ester spent staring at the carved letters, thinking of the simpler past and the darker future?
"A second chance," Elena says, "You can undo the Original spell, I know you can. You don't have to kill them. Please. They're still your children."
"A second chance." repeats Ester slowly, and the lines of pain at the corner of her eyes relax minutely.
The plan is simple enough.
The next full moon, Ester will do her witchy pentagon thing, and all you have to do is make sure Klaus doesn't get suspicious. Do you think you can handle that? says Damon.
"Do you really think it's a good idea, putting me on Klaus-watch, after last time?" Caroline is uncertain, and the uneasiness weighs heavily.
"All you have to do is watch him," says Damon, "You don't actually have to do anything. Unless you want to…?"
He raises an eyebrow at her challengingly.
Glaring at him, she says, "No. I'll watch him, okay. Happy?" and she grits her teeth against the tiny pang of guilt.
That's how she ends up here, the chill of the night settling against her spine. Rather, vampires don't feel the cold, but she thinks she feels it now, like icy fingertips creeping up her back as the moon rises higher in the sky.
Three minutes.
Klaus-watch has been more uneventful than she thought it would be. Caroline has spent the better part of the night perched on a tree outside Klaus' room, fiddling with the dials on her binoculars and wondering how her life had gotten to this point. She was stalking a pyscho. And he was a pyscho, even if all he had done in the past five hours was to read an old book, hands wrapped around the worn pages, appearing harmless and normal and alone in the warmly lit comforts of his room.
Two minutes.
Rebekah was across town, at the Grill, trying hard to look like she wasn't looking at Matt. Stefan was keeping his distance, but watching her, her and the way she glanced at Matt through her eyelashes with that look of almost shyness in her eyes.
One minute.
Sometimes it was so easy to forget who they were, what they were.
Zero.
Nothing happens for a second, and Caroline thinks they failed, it didn't work, and she's breathing a sigh of fear, of disappointment, of relief, she doesn't know.
Then, Klaus' body slackens in his chair before he convulses, writhing soundlessly against the squelching leather of his seat, his book fallen to his feet and Caroline knows this because she can't tear her eyes away, her every sense extended, reaching towards him and so intense that she can hear the moment his heart first starts beating again.
author's note : more to come soon, especially with some interaction between our two favorite characters. anyways, let me know what you think!