Author's Note: Well, here it is; the sequel to Risks Worth Taking! This is just the prologue, I'm trying to let everyone get a feel for what's happened since RWT. I'm not sure how frequently this will be updated, but I'm still working on God's Gonna Cut You Down! Which if you haven't read... GO READ IT.

I also made a tumblr dedicated to my writing. The link is in my author's bio. Follow me, I will be taking requests for fics, updating everyone on my writing, and various other awesome stuff.

But anyway, I hope you enjoy!

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Recap:

When the dust cleared, everything was absolutely silent. The small, god-forsaken shack Claudia had chosen for her spell had been blown to bits. Klaus wasn't surprised. Based on the enormity of the spell, he was surprised the surrounding forest was still intact.

Surveying the remaining property, Klaus could not pick out a heartbeat. Slowly walking over to where Claudia had been chanting moments previous, he knew without a shade of doubt that she was dead. Looking down at her slumped figure, he felt a slight pang of pity. Once rich, chestnut hair had been streaked with grey, her vibrant electric green eyes turning into a dull, lifeless stare.

Moments after he realized all of this, Klaus registered movement from near where the hearth would have been. Caroline.

Flashing over to the blonde, he immediately bent down and surveyed the damage afflicted on her. Gently circling his fingers around her wrist, he pulled her up into a sitting position. Caroline was not hurt badly enough to warrant a taste of his blood, but he was tempted to not take the risk.

Slowly blinking open her blue eyes, Klaus was almost able to fully relax for the first time since this whole fiasco started. If all had gone according to plan, Caroline would have the ability to be compelled and emotional once more. Just the thought of having his Caroline back again was enough to take the pressing weight off of the Hybrid's neck. A feeling he would almost describe as hope began to pound in his chest, waiting to be set free.

However, this newfound emotion came crashing down upon him the second the two made eye contact.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, snatching her wrist back from his grasp. Caroline glanced around the smoldering house in a panic, fear slowly invading the corners of her eyes. Klaus didn't have to hear her next words to know that something had gone terribly, awfully wrong.

"What's going on? Where am I? Who-" she seemed to pause for a moment, nostrils flaring as if searching the very crevices of her brain for any hint of information. "Who am I?"

Three Months Later:

Klaus flipped on the lightswitch in his spacious kitchen, yawning and rubbing his eyes. He began gathering various items, a primal, routine feeling to his actions. Arranging everything meticulously on a cut glass tray, he began to climb the stairs to the third floor.

Shouldering open a door on the landing, he blinked trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness. Klaus could barely made out a slight figure sitting on an arm chair in the corner, her arms wrapped around herself. She didn't look up as he placed the tray next to her chair, gazing instead out the window.

Klaus took a moment to let his eyes dance over the sitting girl. Once fresh and lively, her face had a pale, haunted look to it. Her curls hung lifelessly over her left shoulder, her collarbone protruding unhealthily from her skin. She was dressed in sweatpants and a tank top, the smallest Klaus could find. They still hung off of her slight frame.

The worst were her eyes. Once so full of light and fire, they were now subdued. A frost had erupted over the planes of her corneas, causing even the slightest hint of emotion or remembrance to be immediately extinguished.

She slid her sad eyes up to his, meeting them with a bemused expression that Klaus had learned too accept as normal.

"When can I go home?" The lost girl whispered, looking at Klaus imploringly. He averted his eyes, instead gazing at the tray he had so perfectly organized. Blood, a sandwich, a new book from Damon, a picture from her past, and a vase containing a single rose.

These items, so seemingly meanless once before held so much importance for Caroline now that Klaus almost felt himself scream.

Meeting her eyes once again, Klaus put on the most sincere smile he could manage, and delivered the same answer he had been giving her for the past three months. "Soon, Caroline. I promise."

As always, this answer seemed to appease her. Flashing him the biggest smile he thought he had ever seen, she immediately turned away from Klaus and took a gulp of the blood. Klaus turned to leave, looking back at her when he got to the door frame. She was idly humming to herself, staring at a picture of her, Bonnie and Elena with a confused, heartbreaking look on her face.

And as usual, Klaus felt his heart shatter all over again.

"How is she today?" Klaus heard a voice ask. He sighed.

"You know, every day you ask me the same question when all you have to do to find the answer is drag your sorry ass up to the third floor to see her."

Klaus turned around to face the man that had made himself comfortable on his couch. They were each nursing a tumbler of brandy, trying to drown out the troubles that had been accumulating over the past three months. Damon didn't meet his eyes, instead staring at the bottom of the glass that never seemed to be empty.

"Those stairs are a killer."

There was a pause before Damon continued.

"I think maybe we should go home."

"We are home. This is our house." Klaus replied easily. New Orleans was not technically home to anyone but him, but after the accident, it hadn't seemed like the greatest idea to move Caroline. So they had stayed holed up in his ancient mansion on the outskirts of the city, secluded from civilization.

"We're not home, and you know it. She's not home. I thought you wanted what was best for her?"

Klaus whipped around with a growl, picking Damon up by the throat and shoving him against the wall of the den. There was a fire in his heart that he hadn't felt since he and Damon had started that stupid quest to find and fix Caroline.

"I'm not the one who refuses to see her. You claim you love her, yet you haven't once in these past three months gone to visit her. If anyone is getting in the way of her recovery, it's you." Klaus let Damon go, then stalked back to the bar.

"You wanna know why I never go see her?" There was a tone in Damon's voice that Klaus had never heard before. Desperate, pleading.

"Because I hear her." He continued, waiting until the older vampire had turned. "Every night. I hear her thrashing away upstairs, fighting off the nightmares that we... That I brought her. How am I supposed to face that?"

"Then leave!" Klaus yelled, advancing on Damon. "You'll do her just as much good gone than if you stay."

Damon paused, his expression tortured. "You hear her everyday. She wants to go home. Back to Mystic Falls. Why can't you just give her what she wants?"

"Because it's not what is best for her!"

Damon threw his hands in the air, pacing in front of the couch. "How do you know that? Being back in Mystic Falls, back around people she knows, that's what is going to get the old Caroline back. Not keeping her caged up. She's not a Disney princess Klaus, her prince charming isn't going to come climbing up her window to save her one day. You need to do that for her."

With one last piercing glare to the Original, Damon strode from the room. Klaus groaned, falling into an armchair, wondering once again if his actions were right.

Caroline was crying again. Even from the first floor, Klaus could hear her. Her sobbing resounded off of the walls, a heartbreaking sound. He could practically feel Damon's waves of hatred coming at him an entire floor away.

Throwing his covers off of his legs, Klaus got up and stretched. He couldn't let this go on for any longer.

Climbing the stairs, Klaus opened the door of Caroline's room. He could see the blonde on her bed, tossing and turning fitfully in her sleep.

Without a second thought, he had practically ran the thirty feet to her bed and jumped under the covers with her. Wrapping his arms around the shaking blonde, Klaus waited patiently for her to calm down.

Shrieking, Caroline woke herself up. Dissolving in a fit of sobs, she buried her face into Klaus' t-shirt. Shushing her, Klaus knew it was hopeless. If he didn't do something soon... Then she would never come back to him.

"Shh. Quiet, love. Everything will be better in the morning."

Caroline just shook her head forcefully, her face still pressed against Klaus. "It never gets any better. I can't remember... I don't know. Why don't I remember anything?!"

Klaus didn't answer, instead pulling her closer and rubbing circles into her back. Eventually after she calmed down, he pulled away and whispered a promise into the night.

"I'm going to take you home, Caroline. I'll do anything to help you get better again."

Klaus didn't know whether or not she was awake to hear him or not, but he did hear a palpable sigh of relief a floor beneath him.

AN: Well, that's it! Next update, the third chapter of God's Gonna Cut You Down. Let me know what you think in a review.

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