"When she was just a girl,
she expected the world
But it flew away from her reach."
-Paradise, Coldplay.
/
It was Sunday, and the sun was shining so bright the clouds didn't even have the guts to stand on its way. Caroline was five, and she was strolling around the park with her parents on each of her side. They were holding hands.
That day they also sat down on the green grass, opening up their picnic basket and having their turkey sandwiches. Bill and Liz Forbes were sitting side by side; the latter was leaning on her husband's shoulder.
Caroline ate her meal with a smile plastered on her face, looking at her parents and sighed dreamily. Is this what they call happily ever after?
One day, she's going to be just like her parents.
/
Caroline was nine when her father woke her up from her sleep.
It was unintentional; Bill was only going to give her daughter a kiss good bye, but Caroline seemed to sense something was wrong. It made her so angry that he planned to leave her discreetly.
She cried and begged and pleaded; she even held onto her father's waist very tightly to prevent him from leaving. But she eventually got exhausted, and let her mom tore her away from her dad. Her eyelids were already closed, and her mom was carrying her to her bedroom when they heard Bill's car engine started.
Caroline began to question if 'happily ever after' exists.
/
She was sixteen when Damon Salvatore came into her life.
He was this older, mysterious guy who's also very good looking. His clear blue eyes gave her chills; good ones. And the way he looked at her made her feel butterflies in her stomach.
She started to imagine two pretty children with golden hair and blue eyes.
/
She adored Damon, she really did. She was sure she loved him.
But why did she always felt unsafe when he was around?
And why was she crying herself to sleep almost every night (when he wasn't around)?
/
When she woke up in the hospital and Katherine was shoving the pillow to her face, she thought she was going to die. She wanted to cry, because she hadn't even done anything meaningful to her life.
But then she woke up again, feeling different. Images of things she didn't recall kept crossing her mind.
And then when she drained the poor nurse dry, she felt like she was in a place worse than hell.
/
She stopped dreaming about a small family of four and a house with white picket fence.
She truly believed now, that happily ever after was not created for her.
/
Tyler came along, then.
She almost could see the light at the end of the tunnel again.
But then Klaus just had to intrude their lives, and she was taken back to the dark end again.
/
Klaus.
She'd known him as the big bad hybrid, and extreme danger—not to Elena the doppelganger, but also to all human beings. She'd heard a lot of him, but never once did they cross paths.
She hoped they wouldn't.
But it seemed like Whoever-it-is-up-there-ruling-the-universe had another plan. As if her life wasn't messed up enough.
He came to her in her dying state, giving her his blood. He healed her. That night, she couldn't find the heartless monster she and everyone knew him for.
/
The way he was pursuing her made her inside twisted in a knot.
She was conflicted.
To her, he was just like the prince charming she'd always dreamed of when she was little; gentle, caring, and sweet. But in the contrary she knew who he was and what he had done, and the fact that he was a threat to the ones she loved.
/
She felt like she was punched right in the gut when she saw the hurt in his eyes.
She knew she shouldn't have done that to him. If anything, she should know how it feels to be used by the one you love.
/
She thought she'd rid of him forever.
But turned out when he said he fancies her, he truly meant it.
/
She held him when he breathed his last breath.
They killed him. But this time Caroline played no part in the attempt. They knew she was falling for the original hybrid. Bonnie put a spell on her so she would die temporarily. They were about to burn him when she came back and took his body away.
She buried him. She compelled the grave digger for a place in the graveyard. Rebekah showed up when they coffin was lowered to the ground. The two girls placed the flowers they had in their hands next to the tombstone in silence.
Both sat down and stayed there until dawn broke.
/
The next morning she packed up her things. Her mother knew there was nothing she could do to keep her daughter to stay. So she just hugged her tight and whispered to her ear how much she loved her and that she was proud of her.
Caroline couldn't remember the last time she was that close to her mother.
She bid good bye to her friends, too. Elena and Bonnie were tearing up, pleading her to stay. Matt's reaction was pretty much like her mother's. He enveloped her in a tight embrace, told her he loved her and he's proud of her, and wished her luck. She even said good bye to Damon, who gave her a bottle of his finest alcohol, saying it was some kind of a farewell gift; and surprisingly, Stefan, who was (finally) back to his old self.
What got her taken aback, however, was when she was just about to climb into her car; they saw another car they didn't recognize pulling up. It was Rebekah. She handed her a box containing some rolls of papers.
"He would want you to have these," she had said, looking straight into Caroline's eyes.
Caroline swore she heard the girl said 'good luck' when she was finally seated in her car.
/
She went to Rome first, and felt like she was Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love. Except she wouldn't be meeting love in the end of her journey.
/
She was in Paris, at the top of the Eiffel tower.
She closed her eyes and imagined that he was there with her, telling her things she didn't know about the building and also the city; since he'd lived a lot longer than her, and his knowledge was a lot wider than hers. She closed her eyes and pictured him sneaking his arms around her waist—and as cliché as it sounds—resting his chin on her shoulder and planting kisses on her neck and cheeks.
She realized it was the closest she'd get to a happily ever after.
/
"And so lying underneath those stormy skies
She'd say, "oh, ohohohoh I know the sun must set to rise"
This could be Para-para-paradise."
/
Fin.