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Chapter 2: Dream 1
Caroline awoke to bright sunlight streaming through the windows and shielded her eyes. It was strange. Typically she slept with her curtains drawn. She'd slowly wake up each morning to her phone alarm and a daylight lamp. After a few minutes, her room would be just light enough to cajole her out of bed to open the curtains and start her day. This morning, however, there was no alarm and no lamp. Just rays of sunshine making it impossible to see.
As she rolled over, she noticed that her mattress felt stiff. And not only that, but she had a crick in her neck from sleeping on what appeared to be a very unsupportive pillow. Finally, a very stiff Caroline Forbes trudged toward the window to close the curtains, a hand shielding her face to the point where she could barely see.
"Ahhh, fuck!" she exclaimed as she grabbed her shin. She looked in front of her to see the corner of a trunk at the end of the bed. That's strange, she thought. She looked around the room as the welt on her shin quickly healed. The walls were painted a light shade of yellow. Next to the right side of the bed was a desk, above which there was a pink and red decorated pegboard covered in photos, notes, and a black and maroon hair bow.
It was her room. Her old room, rather. The one she grew up in.
Suddenly very awake, Caroline took note of her surroundings. The room was clean - she was never one for a lot of mess. Hanging from the closet door was a sash reading Miss Mystic Falls, which she was certain she'd packed away after her mother died. The room was tidy, but looked as though someone, presumably her, was actively living in it.
The rest of the house looked the same way. The bed in her mother's room was made. Glancing at the clock on Liz Forbes' bedside table, Caroline noted that it was after 10AM. She'd be at work, she thought. In the kitchen, the fridge was stocked, with a few bags of blood tucked into the crisper drawer. The Miss Mystic sash and the blood bags gave her a sense of timing. She'd won the pageant, became a vampire, and her mother knew about it. Her next stop was the bathroom. Next to the sink was a curling iron and hair spray, which Caroline noted that she needed because her bed head was terrible. In a cabinet she found her makeup bag, which she was happy about but also added to her confusion, because she always did her makeup in her room.
After doing her hair and makeup, she headed back to her room.
"Why am I here?" she asked to no one.
So she started digging, trying to figure out why she was there, and at what point in time. Opening her closet doors, she found some formal dresses, her cheer uniform, and a LOT of tops with peplums. Also making an appearance was a pair of boots borrowed from Bonnie, which helped her further narrow down the time frame she seemed to be in. After making a few more circles around the room she looked at her nightstand, next to the doorway. On it was a lamp and a few odds and ends, and then she stopped. A rolled up piece of paper.
He'd been here.
She could tell she'd already unrolled it at least once.
"If this is a drawing of me and a horse, I'm going to lose my mind," she said, again to no one. She unrolled the paper.
There it was, the head of a majestic horse next to her, tendrils framing her face. She hadn't had occasion to do her hair like that in a long time. It had also been a while since she'd seen this drawing. When she packed up the house after Liz died, she got rid of some things, but distinctly remembered packing this away. Aside from the bracelet she threw aside at the ball, she'd kept everything Klaus had ever given her.
That dress.
She zipped back over to her closet and started flipping through hanger after hanger of peplums and jackets and eventually dresses. And then there it was, on the last hanger in a plastic garment bag - that beautiful blue and purple dress. Caroline would have felt like a princess that night, had she not been so frustrated. Now, she couldn't keep from grinning. She stripped down and took the dress out of the bag and off the hanger. It fit just as well as it had the night she wore it. That's how it worked when you were a vampire, which was fantastic as far as she was concerned. She practically floated back to the nightstand. Under the drawing was a mailer envelope with a red seal printed on the top right corner. It looked familiar, and like she'd already opened it, but she couldn't quite place it. Just as she reached into the envelope to see what was inside, the phone rang. But each time it rang, it sounded less like a regular ring and more like the iPhone marimba ringtone. The one she used for her phone alarm that woke her up every morning. And suddenly, the room started to darken, as though the sun was going down.
Caroline woke up in her current bed in her room at the Salvatore School. The curtains were drawn, just like every morning. The daylight lamp was slowly getting brighter. She stretched and noticed that she didn't feel sore like she had in the dream, likely because she had much better bedding now. Just like every morning, she peeled back the blankets and opened the curtains, cracking the window open for a little fresh autumn air.
What a strange dream, she thought, turning back toward the bed. Klaus' drawing was still laying on the blanket next to where she'd burrowed in the night before. She picked it up to give it another look when there was a knock on the door. Five knocks, actually followed by the sound of the door swinging open.
"Mommy! Uncle Damon won't let me have Lucky Charms for breakfast and eggs are gross!" Lizzie came stumbling into Caroline's bedroom, halfway to hysterics.
"That's because Lucky Charms are full of sugar, Lizzie," Caroline replied, smiling.
"That's why they're so good," Josie responded matter-of-factly. She wasn't wrong.
"I'll make you a deal," Caroline said. She and Alaric had never quite figured out where the line between compromising and bribing was when it came to parenting, and now that there were so many kids in the house, sometimes it didn't matter.
Both girls were suddenly quiet, all ears.
"IF you eat whatever Uncle Damon makes for breakfast for the rest of the week, then this weekend you can have Lucky Charms."
"And coffee?" Josie asked hopefully.
"No coffee," Caroline responded sternly. "Aunt Elena let you have it that one time and I might never forgive her for it. Lucky Charms and hot chocolate, and that's my final offer."
"YAY!" The girls high fived each other.
"Now go eat breakfast," she said, shooing them out the door. Lizzie turned her head as she shuffled out.
"Mommy what's that piece of paper?"
Caroline looked down. She was still holding onto the note.
"Just some ideas for class today, sweetie. Go eat!"
Caroline sighed after the door closed. She needed to hurry up and get breakfast herself. Post-vampire Damon was a pretty stand-up guy, quite the departure than the Damon Caroline had first met. Stefan was right when he told Elena something like that before...that. She'd somewhat come to terms with what happened, she didn't really have a choice. But that didn't mean she thought about it by choice. Between the money all vampire families seemed to have stashed away and Elena's career as a doctor, he didn't really need to find a conventional job, which was good because he'd never had experience with one. Instead he'd picked up hobbies that had actually lent quite well to the school. He loved cooking and became what they all joked about as the "lunch lady." He and Jeremy worked on projects and repairs, and taught the students all about food.
Suddenly she remembered. The envelope. In her flashback sort of dream, she'd seen what she now recognized as THE envelope.
Caroline opened the safe and went to grab the envelope when there was another knock on the door.
"Mommy hurry up, Damon said he's not going to make you breakfast if you don't hurry up!"
She quickly shoved the envelope and the note back into the safe.
"Be right there sweetie!"
Tonight, the envelope, she vowed.
Thanks for reading, y'all! Not all chapters will be so description-heavy. There will be more interaction and we'll see what everyone else has been up to soon. My goal with this story is to make it as "real" as possible and while it's a Klaroline-focused story, I do want to spend time on everyone else's stories as well. It's safe to say this will be a sortof slow burner. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you think!
