Revised since original posting twice to change tense, because I mixed tenses in this first chapter badly. I'm quite sure I missed some, so let me know. This is my first fanfic and I feel like that's pretty clear, but there are a lot of things I'm still proud of here and I hope you'll find something to enjoy in it. This is very much an AU fic. Thanks for reading!
PRESENT ** Delhi, India
Caroline reflexively made herself smaller, curling inward and dipping her head as she approached the mouth of the street.
She had taken way too much time, and the chances of discovery were higher than she liked. Her gaze skittered across the pedestrian bustle, faltering for a moment before continuing on. She looked down, fake fumbling in her handbag to hide her shock as her heartbeat thundered. What was HE doing here? She pushed forward and turned a hard corner, eyes scanning for escape routes. She was pretty sure she didn't need to fear that gaze, even with all she'd seen, but it was NOT the time or place for him to pop up. Seriously.
She picked up speed, cursing under her breath as voices raised in irritation behind her. Someone was following, and not being subtle about it. She dropped all pretense and shouldered her way through the crowds, ducking down for a moment to pull a hat over her blond curls. It wouldn't fool anyone determined enough for long, but she didn't need long.
Alley to the left, doorway 30 yards to the right, bazaar stalls 20 yards ahead to the left, ok. She slunk in front of a beefy merchant hawking fresh coconuts from a cooler strapped to his barrel chest. Using his bulk for cover, she turned into the alleyway and melted into the shadows.
If his murderous gaze was anything to tell by, things were not going well for Klaus Mikaelson. Josh tried to hide his grimace as Klaus caught him in his line of sight and changed his stalking trajectory.
"Where is the witch?" Klaus hissed.
Even after a year with the hybrid, Josh couldn't seem to get over the sheer intimidating force of Klaus, and coughed out a few nervous 'uhhhms' before composing himself.
"Bonnie's not here," he managed as Klaus narrowed his gaze in impatience. "I mean obviously you know that because hello! vampire! and really you were asking where she is and I totally get that and - oh god please don't kill me - what the hell happened?"
Klaus' jaw clenched before spitting out "I saw her. In the flesh. And I…" The moment for niceties was clearly gone as Klaus slammed the young vampire into the wall. "WHERE IS THE WITCH?"
"I'm right here, Klaus. And you need to calm the hell down" Bonnie punctuated her words with a hand slicing downwards, and Klaus' focus changed to the brief stabbing pain in his head.
"I found a spell to hide my presence, if you were wondering. I was getting tired of being unable to do anything without an audience - vampires make terrible roomies," Bonnie drawled. "So what's got you all murdery today?"
Klaus turned his attention to the witch, letting Josh drop to the floor to massage his throat. "I saw her, in the market. No transparency, no vision, it was her. There were men shadowing her - by the time I took care of them she was gone."
Klaus had pulled out a set of cell phones and was calmly wiping off what could only be viscera from the casings.
"Here," he lifted the phones up to show Bonnie before tossing them on a side table. "Two of the men had phones on them. Trace these back to where they came from. I plan on having a visit with those insistent on trailing our mysterious friend."
Bonnie distastefully poked at the cell phones, hiding her surprise at Klaus' behavior. She wondered what it meant that he had chosen losing the girl in order to protect her first. It certainly wasn't wolfish behavior, and that hunting instinct tended to be what drove Klaus first and foremost. He was far less predictable when he wasn't driven by base needs, and Bonnie relied on Klaus being predictable. Still, it was almost oddly...caring of him.
"You," Klaus nodded his head at Josh," are heading out in the city to find another trace of her. I lost her at Sadar Bazaar."
Heels clicked on the tile of the foyer as Rebekah entered the room. "I'm coming with - staying here to provide witty commentary for your failures is getting old."
Klaus' jaw twitched. "Ahhh, your loving familial support is most welcome, Rebekah."
"Perhaps you'd see more of it if you refrained from daggering me in a box for centuries," Rebekah responded in a bored tone, pulling her sunglasses on and dragging Josh, whose shoulders were suspiciously twitching, in her wake.
Klaus respected power, well... as much as he respected anything. If you held the reins, you registered as a blip on his radar, which was more notice than most people received. There was no shiny, happy valuing life for life's sake in the hybrid; humans were food and witches a meal thwarted.
Megalomania aside, Klaus wasn't stupid, he had eventually recognized that keeping the big three supernatural factions in balance was the best way to keep threats at a minimum and still keep the loyalty he seemed to crave.
Granted, it had been a rough 100 years prior to the pact with the Bennett witches. Bonnie shuddered, remembering some of the stories Gram had told about the gleeful violence the city of New Orleans had seen up into the 19th century. No, she thought, there was no way to fully trust that wolf in vampire's clothing, but what was the phrase? Keep your friends close and your murderous hybrids closer? Bonnie knew that working with Klaus kept more people safe than it threatened, and she would continue to work with him until that was no longer the case.
Her thoughts drifted back to the mystery at hand. Their blonde ghost was becoming corporeal, and she needed to figure out what that meant. Actually, she really needed to stop using that word to describe her. Ghosts, as a general rule, did not act like this blonde mystery - they weren't transparent and scattered like a late night tv broadcast across the vision of only an Original hybrid. They didn't travel either, tending to stick to their place of death as tethered on The Other Side. So what exactly was this -
(Caroline!)
(a burst of laughter, Bonnie's scandalized face, the blonde girl - Caroline - answering with waggling eyebrows)
Bonnie's hand shot out, bracing her weight against the wall as she stumbled. That...whatever it was...Caroline...that felt so real. But it wasn't a memory. That moment...it had never happened, wasn't a part of Bonnie's life. Ever.
The real-not-real memory made her feel nostalgic for a childhood that never was hers. Don't get her wrong, Grams was her life, but growing up in supernatural New Orleans with its constant power plays did not leave much room for giddy laughter with friends your own age. She had friends, sure, but after a few years she grew tired of the whispers and pettiness (she's a Bennett, they're different) and learned to seek solace in grimoires instead of cheer practice.
But just those few moments with... Caroline she mouthed, trying the name on for size - just those few seconds felt so comforting and right.
With renewed purpose, Bonnie grabbed the cellphones of Caroline's attackers and began prepping for the location spell.
PAST ** Mystic Falls, VA
Cancer.
In the way things repeated often do, the word was starting to sound weird and disconnected from all meaning. "Cancer. Cancer. Cancer. Cancer," each syllable punctuating her rocking motion, arms crossed at the shins, head curled into her body, a diseased mantra repeating. So many thoughts a backdrop - guilt for being caught up in her own life, for not spending more time with her mom. You just...it was too early, yeah? She was 17 years old. This wasn't supposed to happen now, they had plenty of time left. They had another 30 years, easy. Horrible first dates and playing hooky from work to have a picnic at the falls and post-breakup crying jags over Ben and Jerry's and all the stuff they hadn't actually gotten to yet. the stuff that was still going to happen, because she loved her mom and her mom loved her and someday the sheriff's office would have less of a hold and god she just wasn't ready.
Caroline felt so unprepared and confused. She was an immortal vampire and she couldn't save her mom's life? Something was wrong with this picture. There had to be some mystical thing she just hadn't discovered yet, brownies or kelpies or magic spells or something. Werewolves and vampires exist but there's not one way to save her mom's life? She called bullshit. The thought sparked something in her and she rose, uncurling and scrabbling at her face with a damp sleeve.
She kissed her mom's sleeping forehead and headed to the Salvatore's boarding house. She had talked to Stefan earlier, watched his eyes turn apologetic, turned away as he told her there was nothing that could be done. She refused to believe it, and if noone was going to help her, well then she'd just figure it out herself. There had to be something in those old musty tomes the brothers kept, some kind of clue, some direction to follow. She drove on, zoning out at the familiar landmarks, mind focused on the possibilities.
Caroline always paced when she yelled.
"Why didn't you tell me about witches? Didn't you think 'oh...hey...Caroline's mom is dying and Caroline's freaking the hell out, maybe I should tell her THAT MAGIC EXISTS. Oh and hey I ALSO HAPPEN TO KNOW witches, like, actively am FRIENDS with them." she pauses in her floor stalking to punctuate her last words with three sharp pokes to Stefan's chest.
With a wave of her hand where the glint of a ring flashes, Caroline continued. "I mean I knew this came from some old witch family, but you said they were long gone?"
"Caroline, look, it doesn't work that way." Stefan's pleading tone only served to irritate Caroline more.
"It's my MOM, Stefan. If you knew anything, anything about any person I could talk to, to even try to do anything, no matter what the price...I just" her words broke off, face pulled in a disbelieving grimace. "I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm just asking for something that I can do." Caroline held up the book in her hand. "And according to this, which, no let's not even talk about why this lady's journal is dedicated to you. According to this there's something I can do, and that's talk to a witch."
They locked eyes for a moment, Stefan's searching, Caroline's determined. He looked away first, paused and stared at the ground, then nodded his head sharply.
"I wish there was a living Bennett witch...most powerful ones I've ever known, they may know something beyond what I do. See...life and death is not something witches mess with -" Stefan paused at Caroline's expression, raising a conciliatory hand - "but I do know a witch who lives nearby. Maybe she can explain things better."
PRESENT ** Delhi, India
Josh had to admit, searching the city streets with Rebekah was way more entertaining than he expected.
She was currently busy trying to use a stick to dislodge some trash from the spear of her stiletto. "Nik and his obsession with local culture," she sniffed, "I'm compelling a room in civilization tonight."
Josh stomped on the debris to let Rebekah pull free. "I kind of like it. It's so alive here. South Delhi feels weird, like I'm walking around a really fancy bank lobby. With cows."
"Well you and my brother can slum with the commoners and I'll just take one to go," Rebekah called over her shoulder. "Come on already, the sooner we find Nik's blonde obsession the sooner I can eat in comfort."
PAST ** Richmond VA
Caroline totally sucked at parallel parking, and the kids not-so-subtly laughing at her second failure to back into the space weren't helping.
"You know I could eat you right?" she sniped as she shifted into reverse for a final attempt which left the front end of her car creeping out in the street and a back tire up on the sidewalk.
"Good enough."
She slung her purse to her shoulder and walked out onto Floyd Avenue, eyes searching the house addresses. She hadn't been to Richmond since her and Elena had snuck into that college frat party and gotten gloriously trashed, passing out in Elena's car and shuffling back to her house the next day to meet the menacing glare of her Mom. Ugghhh, she had been grounded for WEEKS for that. It had totally been worth it.
Spotting the house number, she tugged open a gate and approached the house.
She saw a curtain twitch, the door opening before she finished raising a hand to knock. A fierce eyed older woman stared her down from the threshold.
Caroline barely got the start of 'Hello' out before the woman muttered a "Come in. Damn fool I am messing with vampires."
The woman turned her back towards Caroline, still muttering. "You're lucky I'm equally bored and confident I can kill you if you try anything."
Caroline raised a brow at the stake suspended in mid-air and edged past it carefully, watching as the point tracked her heart.
"I...believe you." Caroline shrugged off the threat - it wasn't personal. After all, she knew exactly what vampires were capable of.
"So Stefan tells me you've lived in Richmond a long time?"
Caroline couldn't tell if the woman grunted in response or in effort as she bent over to pull at the wooden floorboards, a trapdoor emerging as the boards raised. Caroline rushed over and held the door open earning a surprised glance from the witch.
"150 years. Before you ask, it's pretty easy to stay anonymous in a city, even one as southern as Richmond." The woman's voice called up from the floor below as Caroline backed down the ladder. "Even easier when City Hall suddenly loses track of a small parcel of land in the city and you glamour the property." The woman smiled with a hint of pride, raised her chin towards a tatted chair. "Have a seat. I'm Myrna."
Caroline flashed her best Miss Mystic Falls smile, made better by it actually being sincere.
"Caroline. Thank you for seeing me. I -" Her smile wavered, dropped. "it's my mom. She has cancer. I will do whatever it takes, whatever it takes," Caroline repeated fiercely in response to Myrna's expression. "Look, there are werewolves and witches and vampires and freaking faeries for all i know and I REFUSE to believe there's nothing I can do to help her. She's 42 years old. We have things we need to DO together." Caroline pulled out a small notepad from her purse, flicking it open and starting to recite. "We haven't had a romantic movie marathon starting with the ultimate - The Notebook. Oh! And she needs to be at my college graduation so we can celebrate with a dinner at Juleps where we'll eat like five plates of those fried green tomatoes, for that matter we haven't tried to make fried green tomatoes, we haven't gone tubing with boxed wine down the James -"
Caroline trailed off, still staring at her list.
"Oh sugar. I feel for you, I do. But the Other Side is not something easily held back, not for humans at least; present company excluded - witches aren't exactly human - don't let us fool ya." Myrna lowered her head conspiratorially. "Some of the younger witches get real uppity about witches being closer to humanity than the monsters are. No offense. Anyways, I ramble."
Myrna pulled a thick book off the shelf next to her chair. "There IS something I learned from a witch i met a ways back. Now, your mom's still alive right?"
Caroline nodded, mouth turning downward in a grimace, the pinprick of tears.
"Oh honey, I'm a tactless old woman, forgive me. It's just that it makes all the difference. Let's see here. " Myrna licked a finger to turn a few pages, then ran it along the cramped handwriting as she read. "Hmm this is it, but it's not quite what i remembered. It's a modified..." Myrna squinted at the paper, fumbled at her breast for a pair of glasses hanging on a lanyard and put them on, "...a modified locator spell. For finding and...sending you to a cure. Hmmph."
Caroline sat silently as Myrna's eyes continued to track down the page. Impatient, she began rummaging through her purse. "I brought some of my mom's stuff with me, is there anything else you need?"
Myrna glanced up. "Well. You acknowledging the risk for one thing. Not that I expect you'll care. But the cure is individual for each illness." She tapped her finger on the page, squinted. "And sometimes, the cure just doesn't exist. But the spell doesn't care and will send you there anyways."
"Where?"
"Nowhere. To nothing. I don't know...the void? You wouldn't exist."
"Let's do it." No hesitation, for how could there be?
Myrna responded with a wry smile. "We'll have some dinner first. I don't work spells on an empty stomach."
PAST ** New Orleans, LA
Klaus idly spun his glass on the bar, eyes scanning the crowd. It was a slow night at Rousseau's, but there was still Marcel's blonde bartender and a few couples to amuse him with their inebriated mating dances. It was interesting to watch the subtle shifts over time in the landscape of human idiocy, he thought, watching a young man caress another's stubbled cheek lovingly. It certainly was becoming much easier to seduce young men to his bed and their demise as sexuality became more fluid and accepted. It was all about variety, after all. Sometimes that gamey bouquet of testosterone was what he craved.
Bored with his own thoughts, Klaus downed the rest of his scotch and left, hoping to ease some of his restlessness with a walk. Something had felt off this whole evening, and he reran conversations, plans, scenes from the day through his head, cross-checking and wondering what it was that had his hackles raised. He was smiling at his own thoughts' wordplay when he caught something in his peripheral vision.
His flash took him to the alley, hands wrapping around a throat of no substance. He stumbled a moment, quickly regaining his balance and turning to face the threat. A girl stood there, an irritated expression on her face, arms splayed akimbo. She didn't even flinch as Klaus grabbed at her again, his hands once more passing through her. He paused to reassess - he realized that this is what had stirred his growing unease - he had seen glimpses of this blonde all day in the corner of his eye, never catching it and never enough to register as something beyond a subconscious threat.
An admittedly beautiful threat, he thought as his eyes traced her form, noticing that he could see traces of the cobblestones through her. She wasn't...solid. He cursed internally. This reeked of magic and the last thing he needed was to avert some upstart witch's plot to take him down. She was oblivious to his presence, her eyes focused on a point somewhere near his left shoulder. She was talking now, throwing her hands around to punctuate what clearly was a point she passionately believed in, blond hair bouncing on her shoulders.. Klaus' dimples made an appearance.
The blonde finished her impassioned speech, raising both palms in frustrated entreaty before her image stuttered, caught, disappeared. Klaus cursed, he had managed to snap a photo with his mobile but it was like taking a photo of a reflection, the image distorted and faint. Nonetheless, it was something, and he clenched his jaw a moment before heading off towards Lafayette. It was time for the witches to answer some questions.
PAST ** Richmond, VA
Myrna bustled about the small kitchen, gathering ingredients and muttering to herself. Caroline had tried to listen, but it was clear the older woman was carrying on a conversation with herself and only part of it was out loud. Caroline tuned her out and focused on scraping resin into a small bowl, inhaling the sharp wintry smell of pine.
Earlier, they had eaten a small meal on the patio, squinting in the early afternoon sunlight as it warmed their bones. Myrna had told a story about taking down "one of them fool werewolves grown too big for his britches" that had Caroline choking with laughter. The conversation had flowed as if they had known each other for years, and she was more relaxed than she had been in...forever, it felt like.
"If you're done with the benzoin, I'm ready to cast the spell." Myrna's voice was heavy.
"Hey." Caroline placed a hand on Myrna's shoulder. "Thank you. This means so, so much to me. And I'll be fine. I know the cure is out there, and frankly if it's not, I'm ok with that."Caroline caught Myrna's eyes. "Seriously." The two women stood staring, young and old gazes meeting and holding.
With a resigned sigh Myrna began lighting candles, chanting in a clear, ringing voice. She motioned to Caroline, who brought the small bowl filled with pine resin forward and scraped it into a larger mortar and pestle .
"cum eaque i vocant spiritus"
Myrna pricked both of Caroline's palms, immediately covering the wounds with herb paste.
If you asked Caroline, Myrna's "This is going to sting a bit" before setting Caroline's palms on fire was a top contender for the understatement of the year. Stifling a scream with clenched teeth, tears fell freely down her face as the stench of burnt herbs and flesh filled the room.
"invenire quod quaerimus feramus sacrificium"
The pain was thankfully dying down as the chanting continued, was she just getting used to it?
"sanitates nutrire, ut totum"
Wind whipped through the room, candles guttering in the gusts. Caroline looked down at her hands, noticed the woodgrain of the table below. Wait, what?
"hac tum praetoria naue mittam sanare infirmitatem!" Myrna's voice had raised in the face of the howling wind, the last word a harsh scream. Caroline was staring at her hands, or what she still saw of them. They were completely transparent, and as she watched, the background underneath them stuttered, flickered, turned from table to cobblestones and back. The spell must be working!
She looked up at Myrna who was watching her with confusion, which wasn't...the most comforting of reactions.
"What's going on? I thought this was what was supposed to happen? It's working, right?" The flickering of scenes was disorienting. She thought she caught a glimpse of a dumpster, a brick wall, a man's face, but it kept flickering back to Myrna's kitchen before she could focus. She felt strangely light.
"I don't know. From what I read, the spell is supposed to transport you to the cure immediately, so I don't really understand." Myrna was flipping through the grimoire.
"Oh. By the way. Do you think you maybe could have warned me about the whole SETTING ME ON FIRE thing?"
"Pain is always easier when you're not anticipating it." Myrna said absently, focused on the grimoire. Nodding to herself, she looked up, reached out and grabbed Caroline's wrist. "Huh. You're solid...but you're not." Myrna looked almost impressed as she peered closer at Caroline. "I'm just...hold on."
"Oh sure...take your time. I'll be here." Another flicker, god if she could just make out that street sign, "or perhaps not since I'm somehow turning see through and teleporting in and out of SOME SUPER GROSS SMELLING ALLEY!" Caroline did not do panic well. Counting to ten in her head, she tried to calm herself down. "I'm sorry, I'm just panicking but I mean seriously this is a panicky moment I am totally justified in my panickiness so please?" Caroline lurched forward and dropped face-first to the ground, set off balance by the full weight of her body returning to her. She mumbled "I'm ok!" into the floor, rolling over to stare up at Myrna's worried face.
"I'm back to normal now. That was super weird. Wait, does that mean it didn't work? Or did it just kind of work? I went somewhere. With bricks. And sewage. And a super hot angry guy. I think?" Caroline stopped, startled by the cellphone in Myrna's hand. Somehow the technology seemed incongruous - it's not like Caroline expected the witch to use a spell to talk to her friends except - yeah that's exactly what Caroline had expected, to be honest. She heard the snap of connection, a sleepy, questioning greeting.
"Hi Rastha, I'm sorry if I woke you. I need your help."
The conversation drifted into an explanation of the spell and the materials used. Caroline looked at her hands, the solidity of them, thought of her mom. The doctor had said she had some time, but no one could really be sure how long. Any delay in finding a way to cure her mom was just playing chicken with the clock.
The trips were getting longer; she felt a little more of herself coming along each time even as her body remained in Mystic Falls. It made sense, as much as the concept of alternate realities could ever make sense. From what Myrna had said, the spell was trying to transport her to the cure, but the cure only touched on this reality in certain spots, at certain times. The good news was that the spell's power relied on intention, and Caroline trying to save her mom was quite the power source. So - if she understood things right - the realities would start crossing more often, for longer, and Caroline would be more and more solid and able to interact with the other world. It was crazy frustrating that she couldn't just go and FIX her mom and why did it have to take so long but it was progress and she was grateful to the witch for all her help.
There were some weird things about her trips that she hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Myrna about yet. Caroline idly drummed her fingers on the counter as she considered. For one thing, if she was supposed to be getting closer to the cure, then why was she being sent to two different places? The first was New Orleans - she had definitely seen a sign for Bourbon Street, and where she went seemed directly tied to that one guy. Speaking of - what was up with that? Why him? Why was he the only person that could see her? Did he have the cure on him? If he did, then back to question one - why was she going to two different places? She wasn't super clear on where the second location was, but a few days ago she had gotten a clear view of a building that had looked like kind of like a less fancy Taj Mahal. So, somewhere in India...which was definitely not New Orleans.
Her thoughts trailed back to the man, again, for the fiftieth time that day. He was gorgeous, for sure, but there was something else that drew her eye. Something about the way he carried himself that spoke to her, the set of his shoulders a twin to her own. He did a good job of hiding the strain but it took one to know one, and she saw the tension he hid under the facade of nonchalance. She had watched him speak to a few people, and geez why had she never gone to New Orleans again? Seriously, everyone there was super hot? Anyways, she had watched him, seen him try to speak to her, read the suspicion and anger in his face. More and more she had been sent to him when he was alone in what looked like a studio. She watched those shoulders relax from their bowstring tension as he painted. Watched his face calm as his brush brought forth shadow and light from the blank canvas.
Drawing out of her reverie, Caroline decided to start image searching for the India location when she felt the pulling sensation in her chest that signified another trip to the transparent side. A small part of her (ok big part, who was she kidding) was hoping the destination would be New Orleans so she could see more of the full-lipped stranger.
Her smile died as the hosts of chaos and horror greeted her, and she instinctively ducked a snarling vampire that launched himself past her. She's facing a wall of menace - at least twenty sets of fangs out - all focused on a target somewhere over her right shoulder. At a guttural roar that chilled her to the bone, she turned. It was him, although she is surprised she can tell through the fangs and predatorial, inhuman glare. He was surrounded by bodies and drenched in blood, arms trailing heavy chains that he now launched forward, the links catching and crushing a vampire's cheekbone. The vampire screamed, staggering back, his companions losing a little of their bravado before regrouping.
Klaus walked forward slowly, laughing in a low, mocking tone, completely unhinged. Caroline cowered against the wall, freezing as his eyes flickered past her. She wouldn't have noticed his gaze pause if she wasn't a vampire, the gesture so minute, but it wasn't a comfort to be noticed, not by this...monster, she thought, unable to reconcile this creature with the man she had seen over the past week.
She watched him, his form blurring with speed, grace coloring his movements and forcing an unwelcome admiration. He spun in a low circle to avoid a desperate punch, exploded upwards in a vicious uppercut that snapped an attacker's neck. A raised arm blocked a downward stab right at the wrist, the attacking hand opening reflexively, knife clattering uselessly to the ground . Each movement flowed into the next with a hunter's efficiency, every action designed to thwart or subdue the closest threat. Recoiling from a backhand that had gotten through his defenses, Klaus roared and stabbed into the soft belly of the woman who had dared to get a lucky shot in, his hand still gripping her intestines as he twisted to meet another snarling face with a jab, viscera squeezing out of the gaps in his fist.
Caroline will never, ever, forget the scream of pain and terror that arose from the disemboweled vampire's throat. She shook now, arms clasping each other for what little comfort touch could give - she just wanted to go home.
To her great shock, for once, wishing worked. The scene disappeared, but Caroline was not back in Mystic Falls, rather another courtyard, one with plants trailing up columns and spilling over a tiled floor. A short, wiry Indian man stared at her in shock from the small table where he sat, spoon halfway to mouth.
"Y-you can see me?!" Caroline quickly glanced at her hands. They're still transparent.
The man began chanting in a shaky voice, backing away from Caroline with a hurried screech of chair on tile.
"Oh, oh no. No, no I'm really - I'm not a scary person." Caroline waved her arms in front of her in what she hoped was the universal gesture for 'for real stop, I'm totally harmless.' "I know this is strange, but hear me out. D-do you speak English?"
The man drew his head back, eyes widening, and raised his voice in response. "Om mohare te kaalbhairav pathishi - "
"Ok. So." Caroline's heels clacked across the tile as she approached the small table and sat. "I'm sorry, but you're the first person to see me besides that -" She paused, shuddering as she remembered that bloody, gleeful grin. "You're the second person that can see me. And I'd really like to know why, so I know this is freaky but please hear me out." Slumping her shoulders - she was just so tired - she looked up at the man in entreaty.
"I am a good man. I have a family." He's paused in an arched doorway that presumably led out of the courtyard. His gaze kept shifting from Caroline to the beam of late afternoon sunlight streaking in and illuminating the table where she sat.
Energized by the English response, however negative, Caroline gave the man a double thumbs-up, then faltered. Wait, was that like a middle finger in India? Or was that the peace sign? Or was that England? Ugh.
"OK! I am TOTALLY not here to hurt you! I- have a family too! And my mom is super, super sick. So I talked to someone to help me, a - a priestess?" The man started to edge forward as she spoke and Caroline didn't want to upset the tentative peace with mentions of witches. "And the priestess prayed and the prayer worked and sent me here and you can see me and do you know anything about healing?" The words tumbled out like a old locomotive gaining steam.
With a quizzical look, he edged forward a few more steps, just within reach of the table. He reached out a hand slowly, poised to jump back at the slightest provocation. Caroline sat still, holding her breath as he jabbed at her arm, both of them watching silently as his fingers sank into her translucent skin. Caroline gave a nod, raising her brows in a "what can you do?" expression in response to the man's confused look. He muttered something in a foreign language with a wondering tone, withdrawing his fingers and sinking them into her forearm again. It felt oddly like someone poking the fleshy part of her thigh, that sort of springy give.
"Weird, huh?" Caroline grinned conspiratorially. "What's it feel like to you?"
"Like touching…" He opened and closed his mouth a few times, searching for the word. "Paneer. Cheese," he clarified. Caroline burst out laughing and the man smiled an awkward smile that grew as her laughter continued.
"What is your name?" Caroline asked after her laughter calmed.
"Abhishek... Abhi"
In a misunderstanding that would mortify her later, Caroline stuck her hand out to shake his and said, "Well Abhishek Abhi, my name is Caroline and I come from a galaxy far, far away."