So here is the next chapter. I want to thank Danizinhachan, siberia21 and AuroraSpace for amazing reviews. Thanks a lot guys. I don't own anything related to vampire diaries in this story, just plot and the characters I have created. I have tried to get rid of as many spelling and grammatical mistakes as I can. Any spelling, grammatical mistake is mine, as the story is has no beta reader. So guys anyone interested in proof reading it before I publish it, PM me.

I guess I have covered it all then; happy reading and one more thing don't hate me when you read about death of a major character. I promise it isn't as it seems.:)

Chapter One

Running after the shadow of past,

We had our spat with happiness

And we knew it couldn't last,

You just waited for me to fail,

And when I did,

You couldn't get out from there fast.

Lies are the walls and deceit is the roof

Under which I reside,

Pain is my eternal lover,

And however strong I am

To him I always lose the fight.

I guess not having you is boon,

Or a bane you could say,

Do my sobs reach you?

When you are running from me,

Running far away?

Have I ever told you I cry?

When pain gets enough of me,

When it leaves bruises on my skin,

I want to get out from my sight,

Have I told you my heart was yours to take?

Have I ever told you I failed for your sake?

Have I told you I ache?

Have I told you I ache?

For me,

Old me,

Whom you stole,

And pretended to love,

But the love was fake,

Have I told you I ache?

Have I told you I ache?

"Ache" by Lucifera Santez

Coming here was risky, but then Katherine Pierce had lived her whole life on the fringes of danger. 500 years of running from the original hybrid had exhausted her. She needed the freedom. What use was eternity if you couldn't enjoy it? She was sick of running, after all the scheming, plotting and literally delivering Elena Gilbert on the silver platter, she had thought that Klaus would let bygones be bygones. But no, the psychopath was still clinging to the remnants of their feud.

She had thought she would finally be able to foresee a relationship between her and Elijah, but no Elijah had to go fall for her doppelganger of all people. Katherine Pierce didn't do jealousy but Elena had really tried her nerves. The golden girl Elena, the good, pious and honorable Elena. She had forgiven her for taking Stefan but then Damon had gone and confessed his love for her too. What did they think that she didn't know? When she had heard about Elijah, she had thought he would forgive her and help her. After all he had loved her 500 years ago, why not now. But Elijah had fallen for her doppelgangers charm, honorable eldest original vampire Elijah who didn't do feelings and all the stuff that came with it had fallen in love with Elena Gilbert. He could deny it all he wanted, hiding behind his poker face but she knew.

So she had taken her revenge. She had suggested Klaus to change Jenna, to use her in sacrifice. And now everyone related to Gilberts was dead, even Stefan and Damon. She had never loved Damon or Stefan, so she really didn't care whether they lived or died.

New Orleans, it was truly a magical place but she wasn't here to take in the sights, nope she was here for that golden ticket to the fabled land of freedom.

"Do you want anything Nyx; you have been nursing that single glass from quite some time." Somebody spoke behind her.

She was startled, the voice was liquid sex. It whispered on her skin and it felt as if she would combust from heat.

"Nah Nikki I'm good." Katherine pierce stopped herself from falling from her chair. That voice was hers, exactly like hers even though there was slight accent. It was voice she heard every time she opened her mouth to speak.

She turned and there sitting few chairs away was exact replica of Katherine pierce. Her first thought was, well nothing. She was too stunned to think. Elena Gilbert couldn't be sitting here in New Orleans; she was buried six feet under in mystic falls exactly on this day three years ago. She pinched herself but the image of Elena was still not going away. The guy she was sitting with was one of the most gorgeous guys she had ever seen. Well gorgeous wasn't a word for him, he was godly, divine.

His face was pale and angular, just a shade away from being severe. He had a regal nose, sharp and straight. You could cut yourself on his sharp high cheekbones, and you could kiss that beautiful mouth till infinity. His raven hair curled on the base of his neck, and few locks hung across his pale brow. Beneath black hawk like eyebrows eyes of poisonous gold were staring intently on his companion's face.

Katherine focused on the Elena look alike. Now she noticed some major differences. Her hair was cut short, reaching just below her shoulders; streaks of icy blue cut the somber chocolate tresses. Her eyes were bit tilted at the corners, like mermaid's. Her mouth was a bit too full than Elena's, and her eyes were darkest shades of blue she had ever seen. And yes they weren't contacts. Katherine could hear the beat of her heart, the flow of her blood, which confirmed that the girl was human, which made sure that this girl couldn't be Elena. But if you looked from afar she could pass for Elena.

"If you are thinking about draining Nyx, forget it." She was startled. It was the guy who was serving her the shots.

"Don't look like you don't know what I am taking about. You take on step in her direction five 400 year old vampires descend on you like gods fury, not to mention Nikolas." He was staring at her as if trying to figure her out.

Katherine composed herself and looked around. There were five vampires in the crowd she could identify, keeping a close eye on the girl. There was something different about them that she couldn't quite figure out. She turned towards the bar tender.

"Who is she again and the guy with her?" she asked in a friendly conversational tone she could muster.

"You look a lot like her, are you distant family or something?" the guy asked again.

"Not that I am aware of but could be." She answered flippantly.

"That's Nyx Evyanton and her Cousin Nikolas Barosche." At her blank look he started to explain.

"She and her brother Jason live with their elder sister Verrira, and she is friends with Marcel. Now you know who Marcel is right?" he asked again.

She nodded. So Marcel was harboring a close doppelganger look alike and Klaus had no knowledge. This was good, absolutely amazing. She could practically see herself free from Klaus. Moreover her source had given her couple of more good news.

She couldn't wait to reach mystic falls. She paid and exited hastily not noticing a enigmatic smile on the bartenders face as the mirage dissolved and Verrira Evyanton made her way to her siblings….

He couldn't hear a single thing, not even chirping of crickets. Or was it because he didn't want to listen. The smell of roses was heavy in the air, from dozens of blooms laid on her grave. He came here when guilt got too much to bear; he came here to cry, to escape, to feel the pain that had festered as a wound inside him. It hadn't hurt this much when Tatia had played him. It hadn't felt as if his heart was being conked out when Katerina had betrayed him, then why was it hurting so much now?

Was this love? This liquid pain that made every waking moment a punishment, this insane longing to hear her voice, to see the twinkle in her eyes, to hear her voice as she made crazy deals with him. Was it love?

If this was love then he knew he had never been in love before. His soul hid his most heinous crimes, and he knew he had no right to come here, no right to darken the place where she rested but he could never stop himself, he could never stop the tears from falling, never could stop the pleas of forgiveness when he knew he had no right to ask that from her.

He had killed his own happiness; he had killed the one he loved for his family. Family above all, together and forever, now they felt acidic on his tongue, bitter in his heart.

He had torn the world apart and burned it and with the world he had burned her to ashes too. Was he supposed to continue like this? Like a starved man searching for his salvation, searching for redemption when he knew he had eradicated the small hope that world had offered him.

So it shouldn't matter to him that he had killed Damon Salvatore, Bonnie Bennett and Alaric Saltzman, shouldn't matter that he hadn't given her a single thought when her body had fallen like rag dolls when Klaus had drained her, shouldn't matter that in his rage, in quest for his family he had killed her brother, wiped out her entire family, left Stefan Salvatore to burn in agony of slow death. But it did matter, didn't it? It was there in his soul, his darkest deed cloaked in the precincts of his heart.

He could still hear her voice as she had taken his hands in hers and looked in his eyes, "I trust you Elijah." And he had betrayed that trust in cold blood, he had destroyed her, that innocence, naivety, that compassion, he had taken everything and given her pain and death in return.

It was time to go, to put back the mask of indifference and haughtiness back in place but he didn't want to go. He wanted to take off his lapis lazuli ring and burn here when the sun came up. He had lost his will to live, so he just existed, he just survived. But he had to survive; he had to live for his family. He couldn't die even if he wanted to.

"I am sorry Elena, I know you wouldn't want me here but I have nowhere else to go. I will be back again next week." His lips touched his fingers, which touched the soil beneath her head stone. The moon saw the retreating form of Elijah Mikaelson, as coyotes cried some long forgotten sorrow song…

How could he? How could he betray her like that? He had vowed to show her world, cities, food, art culture, everything and now suddenly she didn't mean anything? She had told him she loved him in front of his whole family, Rebekah eying her as if she was something beneath the female originals feet, Kol's eyes dancing with wicked mischievous light, indifferent Finn and oblivious Elijah and he had tore her heart apart, told her she was just some passing fancy, told her in her face that he couldn't fall in love with someone like her, told her Hayley was expecting his baby, that he had fallen in love with her, told her she was going to be his queen. He had informed her in clear concise terms that now when he had a queen, an heir on the way, he didn't need to fill the dullness of his time by taking fancy to some dumb blonde.

Naive stupid little Caroline Forbes who trusted too easily, who had seen the man beneath the exterior of a beast, and as always had got her heart carved out.

She had forgiven him for killing her best friends, she had forgiven him for killing Damon and Stefan and everyone she had ever loved and this is what it had came to.

He took her heart out in his hand and broke it, divided it in fragments she couldn't collect and mend with just few words, a cruel cold smirk.

But she wasn't that weak to fall apart, to fall on her knees, to beg him that he reconsider. No, she was Caroline Forbes and she had congratulated him on his upcoming parenthood, wished him a great life.

She would heal. It would take time, but then she had whole eternity.

Fate just couldn't let her be happy now, could it? First it took her friends, and then it sent Hayley who screwed her boyfriend and was expecting her love of life's baby. Well ex-love of life's baby.

So this was saga of her life, forever stuck at seventeen, loving but never being loved in return.

She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't notice where she was going and the proof was the jolt to her body as another person crashed in her.

"Look what we have here, poor little Caroline. Got your heart broken recently blondie?" the sneering face of Hayley Marshall came in view.

Caroline wanted to punch that smug face but the thought of an innocent life restrained her. Hayley was still spewing poison, taunting her. Caroline was trying to tune her out but the fresh wounds of scorned love broke her patience. She lunged at the werewolf to push her away, but Hayley kept coming on her, it was as if she wanted Caroline to fight with her.

The werewolf's teeth grazed her skin and that's when Caroline desperately pushed back to save herself from being infected, but the damage was done. Even then Hayley kept trying to take a piece out of her, in last attempt to save herself Caroline feigned left and caught Hayley by her neck. In her feud enraged frenzy she couldn't fathom why Hayley was shouting "Klaus-the baby".

She only felt somebody's hand tear her chest cavity, and in next moment everything went black.

When she opened her eyes she could see her body lying in the alley, grayish pallor of death evident on her skin, her heart bloody and torn lying outside her body. She wanted to vomit but she was nothing more than the air, the shadows shielding the dark night. She could see yet not cry, her heart was aching but she couldn't feel the pain.

She saw him hunched over her body, blankness on his features. So in the end he had literally torn her heart out. Caroline wanted to laugh at the irony of it. It proved what Matt had always told her, Klaus could never love anyone beside himself. And he had proved it today. He had killed her in cold blood. So that's what Hayley had wanted all along hadn't she? Her death. Well news flash Caroline Forbes was dead and Hayley could live her life with the hybrid and their baby without interruption for eternity. He hadn't even thought before ripping her to shreds, no questions, and no explanations. He had just murdered her in cold blood.

She cursed the day Nicklaus Mikaelson had came in her life, cursed the day she had lain eyes on him, cursed the day her treacherous heart had started to love him. Now here he was walking away with that werewolf slut without a backward glance, as if she was some collateral damage he didn't care about. Maybe she was an unknown, a collateral damage nobody cared about.

"You aren't love." She turned around and few feet away from her there were a woman, clad in a plain black top and jeans, her hair fanning behind her weaved with black roses in half bloom. She sort of looked like a beautiful gypsy chick. The most arresting feature of her face was her poisonous green eyes.

"Who are you?" maybe she was some helping kind ghost who wanted to boost her morale.

"I amn't a spirit little one." Caroline was startled, could this woman be reading her mind?

"Yes and no, you still aren't fully dead Caroline" the lady in black murmured.

Caroline wanted to ask so many questions but the pain was blinding her, it was entering in her every pore, fire and ice clashing, burning and freezing her in same instance.

"What's happening to me?" she cried.

"I can't let you die darling one, not when my sister's happiness depends on it. She has lost too many people in her young life, she can't lose you too." She answered.

"I haven't seen you before in my life, how do I know your sister?" Caroline gasped

"All in the time little one, but first you must sleep, and when you wake this all is just gonna be a memory, sleep and it won't hurt anymore, just sleep love and I will never let anyone hurt you again." She crooned.

Caroline looked at her mutilated body, sadness and pain welling in her heart, "it won't hurt?" her voice was timid, small, lost.

"No it won't darling, it won't. Just go to sleep."

Caroline tried to fight the stupor that was descending on her, "who are you?" she managed to ask.

And as last of her consciousness faded she thought she heard a chuckle, "Verrira sweetheart, you must call me Verrira."

Verrira knew exact moment his feet hit the ground behind her, steady and silent like some deadly predators. So he was still fond of his pranks, well let him come then. And at an exact second after somebody shouted loudly in her ear. She didn't even flinch.

"Come on Ira you could have humored me." He pouted.

"And let your ego get too big than it already is?" she retorted.

"So you are up to your tricks again I presume?" he asked trying to see what was she doing in a darkened alleyway in Mystic Falls.

"And won't you know dear brother; after all you taught me the aforesaid trick." There was trace of humor in her voice.

"So did I dear sister, so care to let me practice my advance art of body duplication?" he requested.

"Oh you won't let me finish, will ya Nikki?" she asked in a last ditch attempt to dissuade him from the idea.

"You betcha." He was equally stubborn.

She had known Nikolas Barosche her whole life, they were first cousins. But among all her cousins and distant relatives he was the one she was most comfortable with. They were closer in age and had always been inseparable as children. She had hero worshiped him apart from her brothers when he had shown her first art of illusion. She had met him again a year ago in New Orleans, he had told her he was just passing through. But he had postponed it for her. He had been her pillar of strength when she had broken down, when Nyx had been too hard to console, Jason too lost. Nyx and Jason adored him, and so did she.

She focused on what he was doing and she had to grudgingly agree he did this task better than her. He was putting his final touches and when he stepped away, there lying on the side walk was an exact replica of mutilated body of Caroline Forbes. Nobody who ever handled it could doubt that it wasn't the original body but a very high quality fake.

There on the other side sleeping peacefully was real Caroline Forbes, her body moving with the gentle rhythm of her breathing. Even after being buried the fake body would sustain its delusion till six months after which it would turn to soil and few hairs, reverting back to components from which it was made.

It was a handy trick, and as far as she knew nobody managed to pull it off except for the elementals i.e. her brothers who had no reason to be in this realm. Creating life was difficult, duplicating it took a considerable amount of the creator's energy to sustain it but she had the time and the energy to waste. Moreover Nikolas could do it within few seconds; after all he was known for his element of creation in the realm perpetual.

"All done here, then what are we waiting for?" he lifted Caroline up in his arms, moving to the darkened part of the alley after his sister.

"She is beautiful isn't she? So much pain in her young life, makes me want to take it all away." He mused.

"No messing with her memories and no funny business brother." There was an underlying humor in her severe expression.

"Wouldn't dream of it sister." Only ghost of chuckles was left in the dark alleyway as the siblings vanished from the sight….

His mother had been right, he was a monster. He was a monster who didn't deserve happiness, didn't deserve love. Klaus Mikaelson didn't know how this had happened. One moment he was searching for Hayley, and in next he had heard her call of help. He hadn't thought, hadn't seen just shoved his hand in the chest of vampire holding her, tearing out the heart.

He had killed Caroline Forbes, the only person who had ever loved him. It wasn't enough that he had broken her heart cruelly, scorned her love for the slut who claimed that she was carrying his child, the freaky claim supported by his witches Luna and Enara, he had to kill her.

He could see himself reflected in her lifeless eyes, and he saw what he was. A bane, an atrocity of nature, a creature that had no right to exist. She who had seen his humanity, who had forgiven him for all the crimes he had done, forgiven him for killing her friends, he had butchered her.

What uses was there of these tears that kept falling from his eyes? Would they bring her back? Would they clear the soul that was heavily drenched in the blood of an innocent?

He had no right to cry on her corpse, he had no right to grieve, no right at all. Fate had offered him a chance, a shot at happiness and he had blown it. So he had no privilege to remember how light danced in her eyes, how she never bowed to him, no right to remember the insecurity and love in her eyes when she had confessed her feelings.

He could be powerful original hybrid, but even he wasn't powerful enough to bring her back from dead. Perhaps his past deeds were catching up to him; perhaps fate had finally realized he couldn't be saved. Whatever the reason was, it had started to punish him and he wasn't sure if he was strong enough to bear that punishment.

The grey tinge of her skin was proof enough of his heartlessness, the torn heart was another.

He had lied when he had told her he didn't love her, when in reality he loved her so much that it hurt, hurt so bad. Perhaps Elena Gilbert had cursed him with her dying breath, of knowing happiness but never having it. Perhaps Bonnie Bennett had. He didn't knew but he was sure of one thing in his heart, he would never love another and as far as Hayley went, the moment his baby was out, the werewolf wasn't going to see light of another day.

He was fool enough to act on her cry of help but not fool enough to believe Caroline had attacked her first. He could still smell werewolf venom on Caroline's skin and he cursed himself for being the fool he was to be played by the werewolf whore.

"I loved you sweetheart. Maybe someday when we meet on the other side I could make you believe it. Maybe you could find in your heart to forgive what I have done, but I don't put much trust in that. I am going to go away with my family, and I will never come back here. Katerina says witches in New Orleans are planning against me and Marcel has been keeping surprises." He paused, "I know you won't forgive me sweetheart and I don't expect you to, but I love you and I will only love you, there won't be another for me ever Caroline."

He traced her face for the last time and stood stumbling, the grief, pain and guilt heavy in his heart, penance a sharp slash on his skin. As he flashed away, the tears continued to fall. They were tears for her dead love, and his unrequited one. They were tears of a broken heart and broken promises of forever. They kept falling with the bodies as he drained them, relieved them from their life, stole from them a single thing that made them human...

So another chapter finished. What do you think? Love it, hate it? Whatever you feel please review; just let me know how you feel about it. Whoever reviews gets a teaser of the next chapter and free kisses from Nicklaus and Elijah.:)