Klaus was sitting at the bar, drinking his fourth bourbon so far. His mood was good, he just broke his moon curse and now he enjoyed embracing his werewolf side again. Since he broke the curse, the sun seemed to shine brighter, the air seemed to be fresher, and the meals seemed to taste better. He felt reborn and ready to take on something new. Maybe he would try creating other hybrids like himself next. He decided to keep that thought in mind and emptied his glass. Signaling the bartender to pour him another drink, he raised his hand, before he turned around on his stool, having a look at the rest of the guests.
Many young people frequented this place he recognized. There were some guys playing pool, a few couples making out, and also a very loud group of high school girls gossiping. Only looking at them gave one already the impression that they were superficial, pretentious, arrogant skanks, if one were to actually listen to them, they would think even worse. They were talking about a "friend" from school it seemed and how she was apparently flirting her way out of P.E.
"I'm telling you, the way she always seeks Mr. Teagen out at the beginning of class, no way they are just talking! I mean, come on, she's practically missing every week and we're to believe he is just putting up with this without some kind of incentive?" The brunette told the rest of the girls with a condescending look on her face.
"Teresa, you're so bad," another brunette with blonde highlights replied and they all started laughing.
"You know I'm right." The first one took a smug sip from her cocktail.
"I just don't understand why she has to cheat on Ryan. I mean he's perfect, he's hot, athletic, cute, he is captain of the basketball team, he has his own car, he's perfect! She doesn't even deserve him and dares to sleep around behind his back, she's such a slut!" The Asian girl amongst the girls said and earned a simultaneous eager nodding in agreement.
"I know, right? I don't understand what he sees in her."
"Obviously an easy girl," the girl named Teresa replied or as Klaus nicknamed her in his head, the mother hen. Everyone laughed again until the Asian girl pointed at the entrance suddenly, flailing with her other hand repeatedly to get her friend's attention.
"Oh my God, speaking of the devil! Here she is, look!"
"You're right, she's here with Ryan and his friends."
"Is she trying to show off or something? We get it, you're together with the hottest guy in school. God, she's so annoying!"
"She needs the attention. It's not like she has any friends."
"Who would want to be friends with her? I rather wear my mum's clothes to school for an entire week!"
"You wouldn't! Shut up!"
"Believe me, I wouldn't want to be seen together with her for even a minute. Look at what she's wearing. Can you believe it?"
"Is she honestly wearing a Donna Karan scarf? That's so yesterday."
"Right? And look at her cardigan. BORING!" The girls broke out into laughter, a little bit too loud though, as the blonde girl with the "boring" cardigan turned around noticing them. They all immediately put on their fake smiles and waved toward her, mouthing greetings from the distance. She returned the smile, before she was pulled close to her boyfriend, as Klaus guessed, who arrogantly made his way to a booth in the corner with his other buddies.
She was beautiful to say the least. Klaus' eyes followed her immediately. Her golden locks bounced elegantly with every step she took, her lips had a lovely red color, her fair skin was radiant and without needing to touch her, Klaus knew it would feel so smooth under his touch. He imagined her lying beneath him.
However, there was one thing that bothered him about her. He could not put his finger on it, but there was something about her that did not feel right. He kept looking at her and his boyfriend from the bar where he was sitting. The young bloke put his arm possessively around her. He would sometimes pull her closer or lean in for a kiss. His friends were loud and unrefined, just like he himself was. They were drinking beer, except her who ordered only a coke. He seemed annoyed about that, complaining about how she was always such a buzzkill for not enjoying herself like they did. Offering her his beer, he became more insistent that she should drink with them. She was trying to refuse him and asked him to stop, but he became only more relentless. He literally shoved the drink in front of her face and held a tight grip around her for her to stop struggling. Without much choice she had to comply finally and drank some of it. Her boyfriend seemed to be satisfied with that and turned his attention back to his friends. They kept laughing about stupid things and bragged about their triumph in one of their basketball matches against another school. The blonde girl was looking out the window for most of the time, not listening to her companions.
Suddenly, Klaus knew what it was that has been bothering him, since he first saw her. She looked sad and lifeless. She was sitting there like a doll, like an accessory of her boyfriend's. Neither of them really paid attention to her, nor did she look like she wanted to be there. She looked like a bird in a cage, watching the outside like she was yearning to be there instead.
She excused herself to go to the restroom and spent an awful long time there. When she came back, she told her boyfriend she was not feeling well and asked him whether she could head back earlier. She asked him. Her behavior was a little odd. Klaus noticed she had been hesitant to tell him and she was only talking to him, rather than telling everyone she was not feeling well. It was like she was subtly asking him for permission to leave.
He regarded her up and down and after contemplating her request in his head he finally nodded once, "allowing" her to leave. She grabbed her purse, gave him a chaste goodbye kiss on the cheek, and hurried out of the bar. Klaus left a hundred dollar bill on the counter and followed her outside. He did not know why he went after her, he told himself it was boredom and simply curiosity of some human affairs.
The blonde girl, whose name he still did not know, went down the street. It was dark and quiet outside, he guessed it was already half past eleven and no time for a beautiful girl like her to walk alone the streets. Her boyfriend was a disgrace to all gentlemen in the world for letting her go home by herself. Without noticing Klaus a few feet behind her, she made her way home slowly. She would often stare up to the moon and Klaus wondered what she might be thinking about in these moments. He found joy in observing her, maybe it was because he had been in such a good mood or maybe it was because she was so beautiful or maybe it was because he had had already a couple of drinks and nothing better to do this night. Not dwelling about his motivation he just kept following her.
She was crossing an intersection when a car sped down the street. The music was extremely loud and from inside you could hear squeals and laughter of excitement. A group of young boys and girls were having a party on their way to one it seemed. They were drinking and smoking while driving way too fast. The car slurred around, the young lad not being able to drive properly due to the drunken state he was in. Instead he just honked the horn for the blonde girl on the street to get out of his way.
Her legs twitched automatically in an attempt to evade the car which was driving what had to be over more than 40 miles per hour. But, suddenly, she just stopped in her action. She did not move, she stood there still. The driver panicked all of a sudden, seeing how she did not move away. He hit the brakes with all he got, but it was already too late, there was no chance he could make it in time.
The girl exhaled one crooked breath and, to Klaus' surprise, just closed her eyes. Tears rolling down her face. The car spun out of control and hit a street light with full force, crashing everything that was in its way.
The blonde found herself in a side alley on the opposite pedestrian way from where she had been before. A man was standing in front of her, one of his hands holding her by her upper arm. Her brain had difficulties processing everything that happened the last fifteen seconds since she had seen the car driving toward her for the first time and which was now wrapped around a street light. A split second ago she was still standing in the middle of the street about to be hit by the car, but now she was in front of a stranger who regarded her perplexed. So many questions flooded her mind, but the turmoil stopped when a realization hit her, suddenly. She was alive. The car did not hit her.
An uneven breath escaped her and all the tension lifted from her body at once, making her legs feel like jelly. Klaus supported her in time, before she could slump down to the ground and held her against his chest. She had fainted and Klaus was now standing in a side alley with an unconscious human blonde girl in his arms.
After approximately an hour later the girl woke up in an unfamiliar surrounding. She was lying on something soft and an enticing smell surrounded her. When she opened her eyes she was confused on where she was. It was dark and only the moon light spend some sort of illumination to the room she was in. She sat up and looked around, trying to make something out in the dark, when a man's voice startled her all of a sudden.
"You're finally awake." She shrieked in response and darted her head to the voice's direction to see who was talking.
"Who are you?" She stammered.
"My name is Klaus and what is your lovely name?"
"Caroline," she answered hesitantly.
"Caroline," Klaus let the name roll down his tongue. It was very pleasant.
"Where am I?" She asked, her hand clutching the duvet nervously.
"At my place, in my room, on my bed," Klaus replied, enjoying the reaction he triggered in her. She immediately shrieked back a little, holding the duvet even tighter in front of her.
"Why? What happened?" She barely crooked out.
"You fainted in my arms and I couldn't just leave you on the streets, now could I? What man would I be? Since I did not know where you lived I just brought you here," Klaus explained as a matter of fact, as if it was the most natural conclusion to bring a defenseless, unconscious young girl into his home in the middle of the night.
Caroline thought about what he had said a while, before she nodded once understanding. "Thank you."
Now that was something Klaus did not expect to hear. He had prepared to see her scared or angry, but not seeing her find relief in what he had said just now.
"Do you know what happened before you fainted?" Klaus asked, regarding her curiously.
"There was a car accident," she said collected, remembering what took place only an hour ago. "But the car didn't hit me."
The last part surprised her the moment she muttered them to herself. Why did the car not hit her? She was sure she had been only inches away from it.
Klaus mustered her how she was absent-mindedly going through the events of this night in her head. He was trying to figure her out.
"You saved me," she concluded surprised. "How did you do that? I didn't even see you coming."
"But you saw the car coming," Klaus evaded her question. "You had plenty of time to avoid the car, but you just stood there, not moving at all. Why?"
All humor and wittiness were gone and Klaus regarded her serious, waiting for her to answer.
"I-" she stammered a couple of times.
"Did you want to kill yourself?" He suddenly leaned in from above her. Only a second ago he had been sitting in a chair across the room and now he was standing in front of her. How did he do that?
"No," she immediately answered. She was honest, she truly had not wished to kill herself.
"Tell me the truth," he said, while his eyes dilated, compelling her.
"I really did not want to kill myself. When I saw the car coming toward me I just..." She was looking for the right words.
"You just what?" This question gnawed on him since he had seen her on the street. The images of her closing her eyes and crying only a few seconds before the car was about to hit her had constantly repeated themselves in his head since then. He had to know what she had been thinking.
"I just thought it was okay for the car to hit me, it was okay for me to die," she answered.
That was an unusual way to react he thought. Normally he had witnessed people quivering under his hands, begging him to let them live, however pathetic their lives actually were. And yet she ignored her instincts to survive and awaited the car to kill her.
"Why would you think it's okay to die?"
"I never thought about the possibility to just die, but when I saw the car I realized it is probably easier to die than to live," she replied bluntly, still under the influence of the compulsion.
"Is it because you're being abused by your boyfriend?" Klaus asked and he could see in her eyes the horror of someone having found out her secret.
"How- how did you know?" Her breathing became uneven and her heart was hammering so hard he would have been able to hear it even without his vampire hearing.
Klaus leaned even closer going for the scarf around her neck. He slowly pulled on it, removing the scarf. "You're wearing a scarf, a cardigan, and long jeans in summer? You are quiet and try to please your boyfriend. You always make sure to tuck on your sleeves even unconsciously so that they wouldn't roll up by accident, revealing the bruises underneath. It wasn't hard to figure out."
He let the scarf fall next to her on the bed and even though it was dark the bruises on her neck, that must have been a result from someone choking her, could not be missed. With a finger he caressed the bruised spot softly, making her shiver in response. He pushed her hair behind her shoulder and pulled the side of her beige cardigan slightly down unveiling other marks on her upper arm. Tears streamed down her face, being ashamed of someone seeing her like this.
"Why do you put up with this? Are you afraid to leave him?" He sat next to her, his face only inches away from hers.
She did not reply right away and the silence was answer enough. Her eyes avoided his and she shifted her attention to the duvet in her hands.
"Have you told someone else so far?" Klaus lifted her head up so that she would face him again.
"No," she answered with a broken voice.
"Why don't you defend yourself at all?" He sounded almost angry about her apathy, about why she did not fight back, about the fact that she had practically already given up.
"Ryan, he loves me very much. It would break his heart," she said with teary eyes.
"And so you'll let him break yours?" It was more of a statement than an actual question. Klaus was frustrated about this young girl. For some unknown reason he could not ignore her, he wanted to talk to her, he wanted to understand her unusual way of thinking. But the more questions he asked her the more bothered he became with her answers.
"He's not completely bad. He does love me. It's just sometimes he loves me too much," the blonde tried to find some kind of justification for her boyfriend's behavior.
"What love, sweetheart? What kind of man lies a hand on the one he loves?" Klaus pointed out harshly.
"Love can take on different forms. There can be love where you wouldn't expect it. Like the way he can't live without me," Caroline started, looking him deep into his eyes, entrancing him with her words. "Or the way a stranger saves a weak girl's life and shows her kindness, caring for her even though he doesn't have any reason to do so."
Speechless he stared into her eyes, seeing only honesty and sincerity in them. He did not know how to handle her, he was at a loss, so all he could do was to tear himself away from her wide blue eyes to find his composure again, before he would be sucked in to the sudden strange emotions he felt for her.
"Don't think too noble of me I am just intrigued. In all my years I have not seen quite a girl like you," he said, having stood up by now, in an effort to avoid letting her have such an effect on him.
His choice of words was a little odd she noticed somewhere in the back of her head, but she was too preoccupied by his obvious pretenses of not caring, depicting himself as something bad, even though she could see he was kindhearted deep down. At least to her he had been attentive and willing to see beyond the facade she put up daily, seeing what was really going on. He was actually the first person who showed concern for her in a long time. She did not blame her family and friends for not noticing what was happening to her. After all she was doing her best trying to hide it from them. Yet it only took an evening for this stranger to see beyond that.
"No matter what your reasons are," she spoke to his back. "You have saved me nonetheless. In more than one way."
He turned around, perplexed by her words and at this moment the urge to call her his was originating so rapidly and intensely, he knew he would not be able to forget her existence anymore.
For several more moments he just watched her like he saw an angel full of light sitting broken on his bed. And he decided to let his life cross a human's for a change.
"Do you wish to free yourself from him?" His voice changed slightly, as if the devil himself was talking.
Caroline forgot to breathe for a moment, all she could do was stare at him with wide eyes, trying to comprehend what he was saying.
"Live a life rid of his existence, live as the beauty you are untainted by his hands," he said, walking toward her.
He reached her his hand and waited for her response. Her face was blank. In this moment there should have actually been thousands of voices in her head, processing the situation and telling her what to do, but there was nothing. Absolute silence. She just stared at the hand he offered her and the greater meaning behind it.
And without a reasonable explanation she just went with her primary instinct. She took his hand and stood up in front of him and even though she should have felt scared in this situation, she did not. She was drawn to him on an inexplicable level.
"Next time he hurts you you will not take it silently, you will call me, you understand?" He compelled her.
She nodded in response and his eyes returned to their original form.
"Will you really come if I call you?" She asked, trying to believe his words, trying to believe that someone was actually willing to save her.
"I will," he replied without a hint of doubt in his words.