Chimney falls and lovers blaze, Thought that I was young, Now I've freezing hands and bloodless veins, As numb as I've become…

Song: I Wish I Was The Moon - Neko Case

As Numb As I've Become

It had been exactly one month without him. One month and Caroline had no idea what she could possibly do to see him again. She knew she told him one time to say goodbye and she'd be fine until they figured something out, but after the time in the woods, when they kissed…things changed, she couldn't just last with that one moment for who knows how long, from the looks of it with Damon not coming up with any plans to stop Klaus and only updating everyone on Stefan and Klaus's latest massacre and kidnapping, it could have been years before Caroline would see him again. She knew she had years to wait for him, she would have waited all those years too if she had to, but she wasn't going to sit back and let everything unfold when she could be fighting to get Stefan back sooner that twenty years from now.

Over the past weeks as well, Caroline had managed to drive herself nuts thinking about Stefan, she found that after his visit, her worrying for him was magnified by a thousand, there wasn't a moment in the day that she was able to stop thinking about him, but she did find one way that she only used in emergencies…which were becoming more of a frequent thing. Drinking blood, not bunny blood, not blood from the blood bags that she managed to pop the lock off of the cooler and sneak them out but always replace them so Damon never noticed, but real blood, from an actual human being. She'd never kill anyone, she made sure of that, she didn't want Damon or Elena, or anyone for that matter to find out what she did, and she always compelled them too to forget what happened, she also always made sure she used the same person for a while so that there weren't fifty people walking around Mystic Falls with scarves or anything covering up their neck, that would get a bit suspicious. She never used them like how she knew Damon used her when she was human, she really had no desire to sleep with any of them despite her raging vampire emotions, she found that almost any and every emotion could be stuffed down her throat with fresh blood.

No matter how much she ever took from someone though, it never seemed to be just enough for her, sure, she would feel better, more carefree and her mind for those few blissful hours after words would be free of all worries of Stefan or anything really, but part of her always felt…hollow after drinking blood, almost like she wasn't quiet exactly full, even though she fed practically every other day and drank enough alcohol when she was on edge that by human standards, she would have been considered an alcoholic, but with the human blood she still felt like she needed to drink more to be really full. She would always hear nagging voices in the back of her head that pierced through the need to drain the person dry, it would usually be Stefan, but it varied, sometimes it was Elena, or Bonnie, even Damon sometimes, always making her stop drinking before she was full, always making her stop before their heart stopped beating. No matter how good a mood she was in however after having a good emergency snack, she would make sure to not contact Damon, Elena, Bonnie, or anyone while like that, all happy and carefree, not even Jeremy, because they would all notice the huge change in her attitude and know something was up, that she was doing something wrong.

Sadly, tonight was one of those emergency nights. She had been dealing the whole entire day with Damon letting everyone know through newspapers and news reports that Stefan was getting worse, that there was still no chance of them being able to stop Klaus and bring Stefan back from the dark side, and that there was basically still no slightest chance of anything changing. The only thing positive that came out of that meeting was Caroline drowning out Damon going on and on with his scotch. Everyone knew she was the most miserable yet most persistent one of the group, but they still had no idea that she was miserable because she basically ripped her heart out and has it waiting on a silver platter for Stefan when he returns, not even Elena, who magically seemed to be over Stefan and with Damon ever since her birthday. Caroline didn't blame Elena, Elena knew that Damon loved her and probably somewhere in those three Stefan-less months, she started to love him back, especially when she found out that he was looking for Stefan just as much as she was, and in some twisted way, Stefan brought them together, and she was sure that because of that it was the only reason why Damon and Elena were still trying that hard to find Stefan since otherwise, they were fine without him around. Bonnie could have easily lived the rest of her life without worrying about anymore vampire nonsense, she had already had enough, even though she liked Stefan, she didn't like him as a mass murderer. Alaric seemed pretty neutral to the whole thing, as well as Jeremy, Matt, and Tyler; they were all friends with Stefan in some way, but it wasn't like their lives revolved around him, and since there was no life threatening danger in Mystic Falls for once, they were okay with Stefan not being there. Out of the entire group, Caroline felt like the only one that cared about Stefan anymore, and after coming to that sad realization today, she needed blood despite drinking what felt like her weight in scotch.

She managed to track her latest "blood donor" down, she was out in the woods at a party by the lake. Caroline knew Matt and Tyler were there at the same party that night, but no one else she was really close friends with, but that was where her little blood donor decided to wander off to tonight, so she knew she would have to lure her pretty far away from the party to keep her out of Matt and Tyler's sight.

Phoebe Mitchell. That was her name. The one girl in Mystic Falls that had a dream to get out of that small town and make something of herself, desperately wanting to be a star, and Caroline had to admit that the girl had some serious talent. She had long black hair that always smelled like lilies and eyes so blue that they almost looked silver at times. Caroline loved Phoebe's blood though, her blood was truly the sweetest she'd tasted yet, Phoebe's blood always tasted like the sweetest strawberry picked in the summer, she was like summer in a jar.

Caroline circled the party silently a few times, trying to wait for Phoebe to wander off close to the edge of the party and take her from there, but she never strayed from the center of the attention. She finally broke down and texted Phoebe's phone, she had Phoebe compelled to the point of where she didn't mind wandering off when Caroline needed blood, Caroline would never have to beat around the bush either, she would just say right to Phoebe's face that she was hungry and thanks to her compulsion, Phoebe always smiled, said "Anything to help a friend.", and let Caroline drink away while humming a tune that was stuck in her head, sometimes Caroline even had her sing a little while she was getting some blood, she found it calming listening to Phoebe's voice. After making up an excuse to her friends about getting something from her car, Phoebe happily skipped away from them all and out into the woods, right to Caroline with a smile on her face.

"Hungry?" asked Phoebe with that smile still plastered on her face as she took her scarf off and Caroline saw her other bite marks that were slowly healing on Phoebe's neck.

"Starved." said Caroline as she slowly walked towards Phoebe, listening to her steady heartbeat.

"I should be fine, it's been a few days, and I've been taking those vitamins and everything, like you said." said Phoebe. "So, drink away."

"Thanks Phoebe." said Caroline as she walked over to her now and walked up behind Phoebe and bit right into her neck, Phoebe never even flinched or made a sound.

"Can I sing a little? If that's okay?" asked Phoebe, who didn't seem to mind the fact that Caroline's fangs were lodged into her neck.

"I don't mind at all." said Caroline as she pulled her fangs out of Phoebe's neck at went for her exposed shoulder now instead, she would give Phoebe her jacket after words to hide the nasty bite wounds.

She started out humming the song before she quietly began to sang one of Caroline's newest favorite songs, I Wish I Was The Moon. She found herself listening to slower songs mostly now, and somehow, Phoebe always knew what song was Caroline's favorite, she often wondered if it was just lucky guesses, of a side effect from Caroline giving Phoebe her blood occasionally to heal up. Eventually, Phoebe's voice had been drowned out by her sweet tasting blood that filled Caroline up, and for some reason her blood tasted sweeter than it ever had before. After a few minutes, Caroline heard those nagging voices start as Phoebe's heart rate slowed and her singing became slower, but her blood was so good, too good in fact, she never wanted to pull away, to let the blood end. Despite her better judgment, she turned the voices off and kept on drinking Phoebe's sweet strawberry blood. She was completely lost in her own world until she realized something…Phoebe stopped singing and her full weight was leaning against Caroline. Caroline quickly pulled away and held Phoebe as she slowly put her jacket around her and put her on the ground.

"Phoebe." said Caroline with panic hitting her now, she couldn't have just killed Phoebe Mitchell…did she? "Phoebe, come on now." said Caroline as she bit into her own wrist and held it to Phoebe's mouth for her to drink, but she didn't respond. "Phoebe!" said Caroline as she tried to force Phoebe to take it, but she never did.

Caroline leaned in to Phoebe's chest and heard what she feared most: nothing. Phoebe's heart had stopped beating, she bled her dry and Phoebe never flinched, never said a word, because that was what she was compelled to do. Caroline wanted to find help, to admit all her wrongs and just find help somewhere, but the half of her that was high off of all of Phoebe's sweet blood was telling her to take Phoebe and dig her a shallow grave, leaving her somewhere in the woods to never be found and just be deemed a missing person who will eventually be presumed dead. Caroline was about to do just that until she heard footsteps against the grass of the forest floor.

"Phoebe?" came the voice of Phoebe's friend, Syrena. "Phoebe? Where are you?"

With one last look at Phoebe as Caroline gently tucked a stand of her hair behind her ear to move it out of her face, Caroline turned and took off, only to hear piercing screams behind her as a horrified Syrena found her dead best friend Phoebe.

Tyler and Matt fought their way through the crowd of people to see what everyone had been screaming about, Phoebe Mitchell was dead and covered in vampire bites, new and old. But not normal ones at least, it looked like whatever vampire got a hold of her liked Phoebe enough to tear her flesh a little bit too. Though Tyler and Matt had never seen one of Stefan's kills in person, thanks to Damon's stolen police evidence photos, they had seen enough to know that this was either a ripper that got interrupted, or someone beginning to turn into one. But who? They knew every vampire in town, at least they thought. They knew Damon wouldn't do this, he was on blood bags, and they knew Caroline would never do this either, she was on the same diet as Damon. And for a brief moment, they feared that some new vampire had come into town, until they caught glimpse of Phoebe's phone in the grass just a few feet away that no one noticed. Tyler nodded towards Matt to get it, and as he silently did while everyone else called 911, he looked through it to see if Phoebe left them any clues as to who turned her into a late dinner. Tyler walked over to Matt's side and studied the phone with him.

"Wait, wait. Right there, the last message she got." said Tyler.

"It says 'strawberries please?'. What could that have to do with this? It sounds like a drunk text message." said Matt quietly as they stood away from the crowd.

"Or it's a code. Phoebe's blood reeks of strawberries right now." said Tyler.

"Okay, so some vampire used code to lure Phoebe out and her blood smells like strawberries, that's helpful." said Matt sarcastically as Tyler quietly growled at him.

"Hey…does that number look familiar to you?" asked Tyler as he looked the number over and over again.

"Yeah…that looks like Caroline's number." said Matt and after saying that, his eyes went wide as he handed the phone to Tyler now. "No way, Caroline? Seriously? That's like saying a Chihuahua has gone rabid!"

"She's still the same Caroline mostly Matt, but she's a vampire now. It could happen. I mean, honestly, could you picture Stefan doing what he did to those people before you saw those nasty pictures?" asked Tyler.

"…Probably not." said Matt.

"Exactly." said Tyler.

"So what do we do? Tell Damon or ask Caroline upfront?" asked Matt. "I really don't know what to do here."

"I think before we get ahead of ourselves, we check out Phoebe's place and see if there's any sign that it could obviously be Caroline before we get Damon to handle this. We don't need another bloodthirsty vampire on the loose here, Caroline or not." sighed Tyler. "Come on, we better go now, once Phoebe's parents hear about this it'll be the perfect time to sneak in there and check it out."

"Her first kill? That's interesting." said Klaus with his cell phone pressed to his ear as he stood outside a busy bar with Stefan inside drinking.

"I didn't even have to wound anyone to get her to go over the edge, she's been on this road for a while, it was only a matter of time." said the female voice over the phone.

"Well how about that Aeryn, they both have driven each other into the arms of bloodlust. It's honestly the best news I've had in centuries." said Klaus. "Keep an eye on the girl and clean up her mess."

"Will do." said Aeryn as Klaus hung up and stuffed his phone into his pocket as Stefan appeared by his side, no matter how many drinks Stefan had, whenever Klaus mentioned Aeryn, who Stefan learned was the one out of Klaus's army that was watching Caroline and Mystic Falls, he always listened closely to those calls.

"Who's mess is Aeryn cleaning up?" asked Stefan sternly.

"The dogs." said Klaus with a smirk.

"It's not a full moon." said Stefan.

"It appears that your little vampire has more potential than I expected and was far easier to break than you. She didn't even need blood flaunted in front of her face, she just…went for it." smiled Klaus.

"…That's a lie. Caroline…she wouldn't do that." said Stefan as his blood ran cold, the thought of Caroline killing someone, of turning into something like him, that was his worst nightmare, he didn't want her to turn into a monster like him. He wanted her to stay pure and be the radiant sunlight she was, not fall into the darkness.

"You better believe it. She has excellent timing too. We'll be passing by there tomorrow. Staying not too far away actually. I'm doing some Hybrid testing." said Klaus with a smile. "Guess where?"

"We had a deal, no one in Mystic Falls gets hurt." said Stefan.

"And they won't. It's only one, the oldest one. What was her name? The little red head from New Orleans…" said Klaus trying to think of her name.

"Tess." said Stefan.

"That's it. I figure she might as well be tested out first, see how she blends in with the real world. What better place to test than Mystic Falls? The melting pot of the supernatural world filled with vampires, werewolves, and witches, oh my!" said Klaus with a smirk.

"And what if your Hybrid gets out of hand and hurts someone I care about?" asked Stefan.

"Like Blondie? It's not an issue. I have three vampires there keeping a watch over things for me there tomorrow night. Keeping your friends and little girlfriend or whatever she may be distracted for the evening, far away from the big bad Hybrid." said Klaus. "Personally, I don't think it's the Hybrid your friends need to worry about, I think it's sweet Caroline they need to be worrying about right now."

"She's not going to be a ripper. I won't let her be one. I won't let her be a monster." said Stefan.

"We'll see who wins." smiled Klaus as he pat Stefan on the back. "Now, how about that drink?"

Caroline sat in the woods, far away from where she left Phoebe and all the people, including Matt and Tyler, to find her. If it weren't for the blood keeping her calm, she knew she'd be having a panic attack right about now, trying to think of a million different things, but instead she just sat there, almost like a statue, listening to the wind blowing through the trees, using the blood while she could to tune out the last few moments of Phoebe's life with her heart beat slowing and her voice growing more and more distant. In fact, it wasn't until Caroline saw a blur in front of her, just a few feet away, that she snapped out of her thoughts, or more like trying to keep those thoughts away.

"W-Who's there?" asked Caroline shakily as the blur passed by in front of her again now as she stood up. "Damon, if this is you punishing me for what I did…it's not funny! Just yell at me, lock me up, get it over with!" pleaded Caroline.

The blur just passed by her again before doing a quick circle around her and running off into the woods, almost like it wanted her to follow it. Caroline hesitated for a moment before deciding to suck it up and see who it was and what they wanted. Caroline followed where the blur went but stopped when she heard someone crying out.

"HELP!" called out someone clearly panicked.

Caroline ran towards the call for help at normal speed, not wanting to risk showing herself as a vampire if this was a human in trouble. But then, she caught a scent, one that was familiar but always different. The scent of blood. Caroline cautiously walked up to where the voice was coming from, and it was from the voice of someone that she remember from school, Amy Blake. She was on the cheerleading team in school, and there she was in front of Caroline, covered in her own blood, clinging to her neck as her blood leaked down onto her white dress she was wearing.

"Caroline! Please help me." she pleaded.

Caroline ended up listening to her heartbeat instead of her words, her heart was slowing down at a fast pace, the more she panicked and moved, the more blood she lost, and the more blood she lost, the closer to death she was with each time she squirmed, and from the way Amy was moving, it wouldn't be long until she was dead anyway.

"L-Let me see what happened." said Caroline, curious to see as to what could have hurt Amy so badly.

Amy shakily moved her hand and Caroline saw that someone decided to take a huge bite out of her, right where it would hurt. Under all the blood, Caroline saw two fang marks, so she knew a vampire had something to do with this, whoever it was though knew where to bite to make her bleed the most.

"It's be okay, Amy." said Caroline though her eyes were glued on Amy's bleeding neck. "I'll make it okay." she said and moved to bite her wrist but in a split second, giving in to her bloodlust, she bit right into Amy's neck.

"Thank…you." said Amy quietly as Caroline bit into her neck so hard that she heard a distinct snap, but she didn't stop. In fact, Caroline kept on drinking until she was sure she must have drained Amy dry.

Once Caroline pulled away, she realized something that she should have been worried about if her mind wasn't clouded up by blood, she didn't feel guilty for killing Amy Blake. And she was starting to not feel guilty for killing Phoebe Mitchell earlier either, in fact, she felt fantastic. Her mind was telling her she did Amy a favor in fact, after all, her last words were thank you.

"Nice job there little one, not as gory as I thought you were going to be but, hey, you snapped her neck and drained her dry, that's a start." came a voice from behind Caroline as she stood up and turned around now to be face to face with a woman dressed in head to toe black with her long blonde hair perfectly in place even though she had been running all over the woods and her green eyes locked on Caroline with a smirk on her bright red lips.

"Who are you?" asked Caroline confused as she took a step back.

"Aeryn, nice to meet you. I work for Klaus." she said. "I have to say though, he'll be pleased to hear this one, you're slowly on your way to being like your little boyfriend, you know, Klaus's pet…god, what's that kids name again?"

"Stefan?" asked Caroline hopefully.

"Really? I thought it was Steven…oh well, I was close." said Aeryn.

"Is Stefan okay?" asked Caroline as she zoomed up to Aeryn and was just a few feet away with hope clear all over her face.

"Personal space." said Aeryn as she gently pushed Caroline away to arm's length. "He's fine…and he'll be fine as long as you keep doing this one little thing for me." said Aeryn, seeing how much Caroline cared for Stefan, she knew she would do anything, especially if it were for him.

"What is it?" asked Caroline.

"…You have to keep killing. Keep doing what you're doing with all these pathetic little humans. But get more creative you know, rip the occasional heart out, maybe even a few decapitations if your up for it. I'm not asking you to go full blown ripper yet, you're a baby, but, I think if Klaus hears that you're doing such a good job ripping people apart, he might let you see Stefan again." said Aeryn.

If Caroline hadn't been so hyped up on blood, if she were in her right mind, she would have said no. She should have turned her back on this mysterious woman and went to find Damon, confessing everything she had done and begging for his help. But she wasn't in her right mind, all she heard pass through those woman's bright red lips was "He might let you see Stefan again.". Sure, she wanted to save him, to get him away from Klaus forever, but being able to be with him sooner than possibly getting herself killed for him seemed a lot more appealing at the moment.

"You wouldn't have to do much either." said Aeryn as she gently rested her hand on Caroline's shoulder. "I'd mark them for you, just like your little snack here, leave them out in the woods, and you'd put them out of their misery. You'd be doing them a favor by killing them Caroline. And truthfully, ripping them apart is much more humane then draining them dry."

"…It is?" asked Caroline.

"Of course it is." laughed Aeryn. "On quick heart torn out, or a head knocked clean off their shoulders, their dead in a second. Draining them, well, imagine someone sticking a bendy straw in a juice box and drinking it until it was all shriveled up, you can imagine that must be awfully slow and painful for a human being drained like that, right?"

"…I…I guess so." said Caroline.

"And if I already hurt them, you don't want them to slowly bleed out now, do you?" asked Aeryn as Caroline shook her head. "Think of it this way sweetie, they're already going to die, why not just end their suffering the most humane way possible. Make believe your putting a dog down to sleep after it's been hit by a car. It's the right thing to do since you can't save them, and you don't want them to suffer."

"No, I don't want people to be…in pain." said Caroline.

"Exactly, and drinking their blood after you put them down is the gift that keeps giving! The blood helps you with a lot of things, doesn't it? Like making you stronger, faster…" said Aeryn.

"…Making me not think about missing Stefan." added Caroline.

"It does that too. Helps you flip that pesky little switch. You might as well enjoy it now, right? I hear once you hit 500, it's harder to flip it off. You've got a window to enjoy decades without having to feel those little annoying human emotions." smiled Aeryn. "So what do you say Blondie? I'll even take care of that werewolf and human hot on your trail. See? I'll even be your clean up crew. I'll have to teach you how to clean up after yourself though before Klaus will let you see your boyfriend. He prefers it when his pets can clean up after themselves."

"…You won't hurt Tyler and Matt…will you?" asked Caroline, she may have been not thinking clearly with the blood, but she still cared enough to not let her friends get hurt.

"Cross my heart and hope to…be staked." said Aeryn with a cunning smile. "So? Is that a deal Blondie? I mark the prey, you give them the gift of death, I clean up until you learn how and on top of it all, if you do good, you get your boyfriend?"

"…Yeah. Deal." said Caroline as she nodded.

If only Caroline had known as Aeryn sauntered off to go stop Matt and Tyler that she had just made a deal with the devil.

Stefan must have tried to call Caroline seven different times already ever since he heard what Klaus had planned, but she never answered, and now it was just going straight to voicemail letting Stefan know that her phone was off.

"You can call her all you want Stefan, but something tells me that she's a little busy at the moment." smiled Klaus as he sat down next to Stefan at the bar the house they were currently at where Klaus kept all his Hybrids.

"You mean someone." said Stefan as he recalled Klaus being on the phone moments ago and being all too pleased with what he heard. "What are you doing to her? You said nothing would happen to her."

"And I'm a man of my word, honestly Stefan, your lack of faith in me is quite hurtful." said Klaus faking a hurt look on his face. "I'm protecting her in fact. Offering her protection from your brother who has suddenly decided to become the justice of Mystic Falls. Why, if he hears what your pretty little blonde has done then there's no telling what he'd do to her, he might put her down, and you wouldn't want that, would you?" asked Klaus.

"She wouldn't need any of your protection if you weren't the cause of the problem." said Stefan through gritted teeth.

"I actually had nothing to do with her first kill. That was all by herself. She walked herself off the plank Stefan, no one pushed her. And that brother of yours certainly won't be jumping in the ocean to pull her back aboard, so why not give her some gills and let her live in the ocean?" asked Klaus. "Unless you want her to drown." said Klaus as he stared at Stefan and won their little staring contest. "Besides, I've changed my mind. Due to recent events and your…questionable loyalty to me, I'll be going to Mystic Falls. Alone. And you'll be here while I let little Tess go for a test run. I plan on getting acquainted with my newest little ripper in the making anyway."

"You can't do that!" said Stefan as he stood up and two sets of arms wrapped around him instantly, holding him back.

"Actually, I can Stefan. See, I'm the one in charge here, and I'm also in charge of all these wonderful little smart, strong, fast, and deathly hybrids. They could always keep you here in the worst way possible you know, one little bite and…well, you'll be a vegetable until I come back." said Klaus with a smirk while one of the Hybrids close to Stefan's neck growled as they held Stefan back. "I better be off then, I don't want to miss the show. Maybe once it's all said and done I'll bring sweet Caroline here to see you, if you behave with the kids that is." smiled Klaus as he grabbed the keys off the table and head for the front door. "I'll be seeing you later Stefan, I've got a Hybrid to test.

A/N: Okay, so, here is your second part! (See what harassing me does, it makes me move). But yeah, I know there wasn't any Caroline/Stefan interaction, but I kinda had to nudge Caroline off the edge (or shove her, either way you look at it, I still pushed her) so that it would cause all these events that will lead to Stefan (hopefully) showing up by the end of the third part. I have no idea, I rewrote this part so many times and I've already rewritten the beginning of the third part two times already, so I trying to make it so that Stefan can come in because, obviously, this is a Steroline story. But, yeah, anyway, that's enough of my babbling. New TVD tomorrow night and Secret Circle (no idea if any of you watch it, but I think it's cool so far, my favorite is Faye. What can I say, I like people who have the potential to be crazy). But for tonight, I will be sitting and enjoying Modern Family, so I hope you liked this chapter and I'm gonna need some nagging to get me to finish the third part.

xoxo, Avril