Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or any of the characters.
It was cold.
And no, not just a little chilly, like it'd sometimes be in the city of New Orleans, and everywhere else for that matter, but freezing cold. It was the kind of cold that you would sometimes feel on cold winter nights, the kind of cold that you could feel into the very bone, and that made your toes and fingers start to hurt.
And not only was it cold, but it was also starting to get dark.
Caroline hated the dark. She always had and always would. Back when she was a little girl, she'd always imagine all sorts of scary creatures lurking in the dark, all of them out to get her. Every night, her father would have to check for monsters under her bed twice, and if he didn't, she refused to go to sleep.
She found herself smiling at the happy memories. Thinking back to her childhood always made her feel warm on the inside, even now when she was cold and felt lost.
She really missed the old times, when her parents were still together and always had time for their little princess. When everything seemed so big and so exciting, just because she was little and didn't know much about the world around her.
Back then, everything was perfect, but that was only because she hadn't yet seen the real world and all the things in it. She hadn't known how tough life could really be.
She quickly replaced the small smile with a slight frown and shook her head to rid herself of the memories.
Thinking of that stuff now was plain stupid. She wasn't back home with her parents, she was out in the streets all by herself.
The blonde tucked her thin jacket more tightly around her and hugged herself to try to keep warm, however, it didn't do much good. She wasn't exactly dressed according to the weather.
She knew she would have to hurry and find a place to stay the night soon, or else she'd definitely catch a cold. Not to mention all the creeps that would be wandering around at night. Caroline would have to admit that she didn't really want to encounter anyone like that.
Finding an apartment around here surely wasn't as easy as it seemed.
There were a lot of people in need of a place to stay, and not very much room, so most of the apartments were already full. The only ones left were the extremely expensive ones that only a small number of people could afford renting. Caroline - who was, at the moment, unemployed and didn't have much savings left from over the years - could never even dream of affording one of those fancy residences.
Despite having walked around town for the entire evening, she was still trying to keep her hopes up. There would have to be someplace she could afford to live, right?
"There must be," she told herself and plastered a grin on her face before she turned away from the already occupied apartment building and kept walking, in search of a place to stay.
Caroline huffed as she slumped down on the wooden bench.
She'd found another apartment, but as expected, that one was already inhabited, as well. By now, she'd lost count of how many places she'd passed by tonight.
She had really done all in her power. At first, she checked online and in the newspapers for ads about people renting out a place or needing a roommate, but she had no luck there. After that, she'd tried to ask the locals if they knew of a place in the area. She asked bypassing strangers on the street, employees at different grocery stores around the city, and even a tour guide. Some of them had known of a couple of places, but when she got there, she realized they'd all either been rented by somebody else or the prices were so ridiculously high that she'd be broke after staying there for a month.
In the end, she didn't have any other option and had been forced to roam around the huge city by foot and look for signs that said someone were renting out a place. And really, she wasn't having much more luck with this strategy than with the formerly mentioned ones.
With fingers that were stiff from the cold, she managed to take her phone out from her pocket and check the time. It was almost eleven.
She sighed heavily and placed the device back where she found it before standing up again. She knew sitting still for a long time would only make things worse, if they could somehow get worse, that is.
As she walked, her mind drifted back to six days ago, when things started going downhill for her.
It had been a pretty normal day, really. Her mood hadn't been on top, though, because she'd still been pissed at this girl she had been in a fight with a couple of days before, and she'd been dreading the set meeting with the principal that day. Caroline didn't much like to be scolded - after all most people didn't - and she wasn't used to it either, seeing as she rarely did anything wrong.
When the meeting finally begun, she could immediately sense the tense atmosphere in the room. She held her breath most of the time during the middle aged man's seemingly never ending speech, and when he finally ended his rant, Caroline had nearly passed out from the shock.
They had decided to kick her out of school…
Caroline Forbes had barely believed her own ears.
Her kicked out of boarding school, no way! It couldn't be possible, could it? She had always been a sweet, polite and hard-working girl.
Her grades were average, nothing to brag about, but certainly not something to complain over either. She never was the best in math, but she managed to pass without much problems.
Caroline had also been very interested in many of the clubs that the school had. She had been head of the cheerleading squad, a part of the welcoming committee and had organized, or at the very least helped out with, all the school arrangements that had taken place since school started.
Sure, there had been times when she skipped school to go hang out with her friends, or didn't bother to do her homework, but that was completely normal. Everyone did it now and then.
The only times she ever did something to cause trouble was when she got into an argument with her longtime tormentor. They usually didn't do anything more than yell at each other, but that one time Caroline had just been driven over the edge and it had ended in a huge fight.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that she would get into serious trouble for it, but she could've never imagined that they'd go so far as to kick her out of school.
The blonde still hadn't quite come to terms with the fact, and she still didn't really get the logic of it all, but she knew she couldn't exactly argue her way back into school.
It must have been dumb luck that she managed to settle a deal with a public school not too far away that had decided to let her enroll, even if it was in the middle of the semester.
Now, her only problem was finding a place to stay.
Caroline - cold, lonely and worried - had completely lost track of time. All she knew was that it was the middle of the night. She could tell from the darkness of the sky high above her, the loud music and multicolored, blinking lights from the night clubs, bars and other buildings surrounding her, and from the sinking temperature.
Checking the time seemed useless at this point. If the clock was twelve, or two or even five, it was all the same. She was still homeless.
Something vibrated in her pocket and she jumped with surprise.
Then, her all too familiar ringtone - Changing by The Airborne Toxic Event - started playing and she picked up her phone to see who would call her at this hour.
The caller ID said Elena Gilbert.
Elena was a girl whom the blonde had known since they were kids. Their parents were good friends, so they would often be stuck together. They also went to the same kindergarten and later the same school. They were in the same grade and had several classes together up until they finished high school.
One could say they were inseparable.
Well, until high school ended. After that, they'd gone their separate ways and pretty much lost contact.
It wasn't until Caroline got kicked out of boarding school that she and Elena had begun talking again, but it wasn't like it had once used to be between them, at least she didn't feel like it was.
"Hey, Lena," she answered into the phone, hoping the other girl wouldn't be able to hear how tired she actually was.
"Care, oh my God, are you still outside?" Elena sounded beyond worried.
Well, of course she did. She was Elena, after all. The beautiful brunette had always been selfless and compassionate, much more so than Caroline.
Caroline almost let out a laugh at her friend. In a way it felt good that someone cared for her well-being, but she knew what would come next, and she wasn't about to accept charity from anyone, not even Elena. Especially not Elena.
"Hey, why don't you take a cab over to my place? I'll prepare the guest room for you," Elena offered.
"You can stay for as long as you like."
Caroline sighed heavily and pulled her free hand through her blonde curls.
They'd been having the same conversation only a couple of days before, when Elena first found out that she had nowhere to live.
"Elena, I told you already that I don't wanna-"
"It's not like you're some charity case, Caroline. You're my best friend, of course there's always room for you here," Elena interrupted her mid-sentence.
She kept wandering aimlessly around while talking.
"It's not that, I just…" She trailed off, unsure of what she was going to say. Elena's guess was pretty much spot on. She refused to be a burden to anyone. Even if it meant sleeping in a crappy motel and spending the days roaming around looking for an apartment she may or may not ever find, she wouldn't start having to rely on her best friend for everything.
"It's just what, Care?" she urged on.
"It's just that I can do things by myself now, and I want to prove that, okay?" she stated, trying to convince her friend that she'd be fine on her own.
"I'm old enough to make decisions for myself, and I don't need you to help me with everything!"
In the other end nothing but breathing could be heard for a good while, but then Elena spoke up again.
"Just promise me you'll call if you need anything. And if you don't find a place to stay, you're bunking in with me tomorrow," she concluded with a sigh of defeat and Caroline smiled at the brunette despite her not being able to see it.
"Elena, relax, you sound like my mom," she said with a laugh, before turning more serious again.
"I just want to do this on my own," she said.
Suddenly, her phone made a beeping sound signaling that it was almost out of power, and she realized she had to hang up.
"But my phone is almost out of power, so we'll speak tomorrow, okay?"
"Yeah, but go find somewhere to stay the night now. Bye."
With that, Caroline hung up, feeling a little better than before her conversation with Elena.
The girl was right, she should get to a motel now. A hot shower and a soft bed hadn't sounded so tempting in forever. Just thinking about it made her shiver with anticipation.
There wasn't much point in looking for an apartment now anyway, as the owners would be sleeping. She'd have better luck finding somewhere tomorrow when there were people around and there was daylight. The smartest thing to do would've been to find a motel hours earlier, but better late than never. She just needed to get inside now.
The only problem was… Well, she had no clue as to where she was at the moment. She'd been so enveloped in thoughts that she had been completely oblivious to her surroundings, and she didn't recognize the place she was now in.
To make it worse, the place was kind of spooky.
She was in an old, scabby looking neighborhood. There was no music or laughing to be heard, so she would've had to have walked pretty far without realizing it. Seeing anything there was difficult because of the dim lighting. Only a few gate lights were scattered around the area and while there were buildings there, all of the windows were dark. The entire place looked abandoned.
The atmosphere sent shivers down Caroline's spine.
Once again, she crossed her arms across her chest, hugging herself to get rid of the uneasy feeling.
"There's nothing to be afraid of, Care, just chill out already," she whispered to herself, laughing nervously.
Suddenly, she heard a scrambling sound just beside her and abruptly turned around to face whatever was there. She bumped into something and nearly fell flat on her face, but managed to balance herself after staggering a few steps. A sharp sound filled her ears and she jerked back.
Her body wanted to run away, but she stayed put long enough to see a creature rounding a corner. It wasn't anything dangerous, after all.
"Just a cat," she stated in relief, "Geez, Care, no more horror movies for you!"
She began laughing, somewhat relieved, but with the adrenaline still pumping in her veins. She didn't even realize just how loud she was laughing before she heard a voice and noticed that she'd attracted someone's attention.
"What's so funny?" said a voice behind her. She twirled around to face the man. In the dim light, she couldn't make out his face, but his voice was cold and sharp.
"W-what do you want?" she managed to stutter nervously.
The girl started backing away slowly as the man approached, like a predator closing in on its prey.
She froze as she felt her back collide with something. Another person.
"Come on, sweetheart, we just wanna have some fun, as well," chuckled the one behind her in a raspy voice.
She wanted to step away from him, but that meant getting closer to the man in front of her, and she didn't want that either, so she stayed put.
"Let's have some fun, or what do ya say, blondie?" whispered the man in her ear. His breath - no, all of him - reeked of alcohol and tobacco and the stench almost made her gag.
Caroline was scared for her life. What the hell was she supposed to do? It wasn't like a schoolgirl like her could beat up two adult men, and she had no clue as to where she could possibly run to. Even if she had known, her attackers were blocking both her escape routes.
She was trapped.
The man in front of her chuckled beneath his breath.
He sauntered the last few steps over to her and got uncomfortably close as he studied her. He began playing with one of her blonde locks, making her turn her head away from him, not daring to look him in the eyes.
He roughly grabbed a hold of her face and she whimpered in pain. He forced her to turn in his direction and held her in place as he took a good look at her face. After he was done, his gaze lowered, letting his hungry eyes take in her body.
"Ya know, this might actually be entertaining," he smirked after a while.
"Yeah, seems we got ourselves quite the catch this time," agreed the bigger man behind her.
Now Caroline had to squeeze her eyes shut in an attempt to keep the tears from rolling down her cheeks. However, in the end she failed and a drop of salty water escaped from the corner of her eye.
One of the men noticed and wiped it away with his thumb in a way that would normally seem kind. He smiled at her soothingly.
"Don't worry, blondie, I'll take very good care of ya." His statement sent shivers down the girl's spine.
"You? No way," growled the other one angrily, "This one's mine!"
"I found the bitch and I'm the boss."
The man behind her let out a displeased groan and moved away from Caroline. He then proceeded to start discussing the matter with his boss.
She shut their conversation out completely. She needed to get away from here, and that quickly. They were still too close that she could manage to run away, but they were preoccupied with their argument, so she had the upper hand.
Without hesitating for another second, she kicked the smaller one, hitting him in the knee. She attempted to push him over, but he managed to steady himself after staggering a few steps back.
The bigger one lunged at her, trying to grab a hold of her, but she dodged him and kicked him between the legs. He let out a pained noise, but held his ground, now more pissed than ever.
She realized this might be her only chance, so she turned on her heel and began sprinting. She ran as fast as her feet could carry her as the voices behind her grew more and more faint.
A soft sigh escaped her lips when she understood that she'd be able to get away. That had been way too close…
She spotted something in front of her just in time to come to an abrupt halt, just barely avoiding crashing into the brick wall blocking her way. It was a dead end.
Her heartbeat sped up even more, something she thought was impossible at this point.
Glancing back, she saw her pursuers making their way towards her.
Everything started turning blurry and the next thing she knew she was on her knees, clutching her hurting stomach as she coughed up a small amount of blood.
Something hard made an impact with her side and she tumbled over, rolling around twice before her back crashed into the brick wall.
She opened her blue eyes just in time to see the man she'd just kicked in the knee sitting down beside her. Her vision was all fuzzy, either from the tears in them or from being kicked in the stomach and tossed around like a rag doll. She wasn't really sure.
"You little bitch," she heard the deep, raspy voice of the larger man mutter somewhere above her.
The other one smiled at her creepily.
"Now, the fun can really begin."
She felt consciousness leaving her as she slowly drifted off into a deep sleep. The last thing she could make out was the dark silhouette of a man standing in the alley entrance and an accented voice speaking confidently.
"I'm sorry to ruin all the fun for the two of you, but I don't believe that's the correct way to treat such a divine young lady."
A/N: Hi there, everyone! First of, thank you for reading and I hope you liked my story! This is my very first story on this site, so I hope I did well.
This chapter is just a prologue, so I haven't really started throughoutly exploring the plot yet. If there's something you feel like you got to know very little about, it'll will be explained further in future chapters. There will also be many more characters introduced soon.
The story is a modern AU that will take place in New Orleans. The main pairing will be Klaroline, but there will be other pairings as well, however the focus will most likely be on Klaroline.
I hope that all those who read will also take time to leave a review, telling me what you liked and/or disliked, what I should get better at, what you hope will happen next, etc. If you like the story so far, please follow/favourite, because knowing that you guys enjoy reading inspires me to write.
- Wish on the Star