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Chapter Two: Up is a Long Way from Here
What is it about morning light
That makes everything alright?
All right
Well, it feels like I have just woke up in a world
Where down is up and up is a long way
From here
- Alice in Wonderland, Lisa Mitchell
Recap:
"No!" Caroline snarled, a huge, racking sob ripping through her frail frame. "It's not possible, it's not possible…"
Damon sighed, strolling over to Caroline and ripping off her necklace. The vervain burned his skin but he ignored the pain, forcing Caroline's chin up so that her eyes met his. Her eyes immediately glazed over.
"You will stop yelling and calm down –"
"Damon, don't," Stefan warned, stepping closer. Damon waved him away, continuing as if nothing had happened, "We need you to sit and listen. You will not speak until we tell you to. Got it?"
"I will calm down and listen. I will not speak."
He led her to a chair and sat her down in it before turning to the others. Stefan had 'disapproval' written all over his face while Bonnie looked conflicted, a look half-furious and half-relieved on her face.
"Which of you wants to do the explaining?" Damon asked, making his way over to his alcohol.
"Anyone wants Bourbon?"
She went about things in a very mechanical way.
First, she draped her scarf delicately around her coat rack, taking a few seconds to run her fingers over the silky material. Then, she placed her bag softly on her vanity table. All she could hear was noise, and it screamed at her, flushing everything out, and it screamed it loud loud loud. She shifted it around until she found a satisfactory position for it. The noise exacerbated and she jerked. She shifted it some more till she found an excellent place for it.
Why Elena? She thought, over and over and over again.
Looking into Damon's eyes had been like falling into a warm azure sea. She could feel something softer than a blanket wrap around her, drawing her into him. His soft, charming words floated towards her, arresting her attention. As soon as they reached her ears, she could feel their iron grip on her arms. For a moment, she could hear someone else's words as if she was hearing under water but, all too soon, the voice her body was seemingly irrevocably tuned into clamped down on her every thought, blocking out everything else. It chilled her more than anything.
Sighing so softly no one un-supernatural should have been able to hear it, she padded over to her closet, slowly removing her jacket and folding it neatly on a hanger.
The noise picked up, circling around her like a swarm of bees.
She took a long time tugging off her heels, luxuriously pulling them off her feet before letting them lean against the closet wall. Walking back to her vanity table, she took her hairbrush and ran it lightly through her hair once, twice, thrice… She stopped counting after eleven.
"Looks like you're taking it well," came a snarky voice from the window.
"I will calm down and listen. I will not speak." She felt the words force their way out from her lips.
As soon as he looked away, ice cold water drenched her and she let out a gasp.
Except… there was no gasp.
It took her a few seconds to respond. After setting her hairbrush down, she turned slowly to face Damon. She stared at him for a few moments, while he settled himself comfortably on her window seat. She opened her mouth to speak but before the words could fall out, she realized dully that nothing she could say would matter to him anyway.
Cold-hearted bastard.
So, instead of replying, she turned away and grabbed her PJs. Once in the bathroom, she slid down to the floor, pulling her clothes and arms around her legs and curling up against the door. She would draw warmth in any form.
It was a very curious thing. As Damon led her to the sofa, she could feel herself trying to scream, trying to move, but no matter how strong her will, it was like there was a wall between her and her body. It was kind of like how she imagined a paralysed man would feel, except that she could move, just that her movements were controlled by another's will. Much like a puppet.
Inside was a nightmare and she imagined that, from the outside looking in, she was as still as a statue. It scared her.
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to blacken everything, erase everything. It just came rushing back.
Outside, Damon looked at the door silently.
"There's a lot to take in," Bonnie finally started, after a hurried hushed conversation with Stefan. She watched Bonnie take a tentative step towards her.
"I'm sorry Damon did that to you" – she watched helplessly as Bonnie threw Damon a furious look, to which he replied with a careless shrug – "but you were freaking out" – well, DUH, Caroline thought, the words sounding like echoes in some gigantic cave, still am FYI – "and we just need you to listen."
Bonnie took a deep breath, glancing over at Stefan. He gave her a comforting look.
"Elena didn't die… naturally. Someone killed her."
Even though she was still struggling to figure out what was happening to her, she couldn't help but feel herself latch onto the words. Elena had been murdered? A cold shudder ran through her.
"Look, it's hard to explain but just listen with an open mind, okay?" Bonnie pleaded.
Like I can do anything else, Caroline was begging to differ.
"Basically, there are vampires in this world." Bonnie seemed to sense that if Caroline could she would have scoffed at that. She quickly went on. "Stefan and Damon are two such things."
At that, Caroline's eyes went wide. Somehow, knowing there were such 'vampires' close to her and that she had actually known them before knowing them made it a little easier to accept. She tried looking back at the way Damon had treated her – he'd seduced her quite a while back (EW, she'd had sex with a vampire?); she'd woken up to aches in her neck… She remembered feeling like she would do anything for him… And then, right then, the thing he did with his eyes to make her like this, totally unresponsive… It was starting to become less impossible.
"Elena was a doppelganger. She looked exactly like this other vampire, Katherine, and Katherine killed her the same night you got into your car crash."
Coincidence much? She thought. Wait. Was my car crash related to the murder at all? This is so confusing.
"So, the reason I'm telling you this is because you're my friend –"
"Right…" Damon cut in. She turned her head just in time to see Damon wince and drop his glass of alcohol, his hands flying up to clutch his head. Caroline raised her eyebrows, shocked (though no one else noticed). Bonnie was staring intently at him, a fire in her eyes she'd only seen one other time, when they were doing the séance. When Bonnie turned back to Caroline, she sent her an apologetic smile.
"I forgot to tell you… I'm a witch."
I thought we already established you were just clairvoyant, Caroline thought.
"Anyway, I'm telling you this also so that you can save Elena." If Caroline could move then, she would have straightened up. As it was, she was all ears, not only just because she had no other choice.
"I found a spell in the grimoire – a witch's spell book – that will send a chosen candidate back in time. We were thinking that you could, uh, go back in time and kill Katherine so that she would never have been around to kill Elena." She paused, as if to wait for any comment from Caroline.
She clutched her clothes as if they were a lifeline to the past, a past where Elena was there, where she didn't feel like this. She recoiled in horror as the first tear after listening finally came. Even as she sobbed, she forced her fist against her mouth, shuddering as she tried to wrench away from the hole.
"Katherine was in Mystic Falls in 1864. That was the year she turned Damon and Stefan. Besides killing Katherine, maybe you could also stop Damon from turning into a vampire." Bonnie smirked as Damon shot her a glare. But Caroline saw something else. In the second it took to conjure up the expected reaction, Damon's face had radiated something else she couldn't quite place. She let it go as Bonnie started talking again.
"Anyway… Please, Care. We need your help. Damon, Stefan and I have to try and kill Katherine in the present time, just in case, and that's why none of us can go back." Bonnie threw a pleading look in her direction just as she felt the heavy cloud surrounding her lift. She felt, rather than knew, that she could move again.
She stared at the people in front of her. Damon, in his eternally smirking, irksome form, Bonnie, with her worried, sad look, and Stefan, who looked the same as he always did. Extra broody. She was an utter mess.
"I don't know the first thing about killing a vampire."
Damon smirked triumphantly. "Told ya Blondie wouldn't do it."
"I didn't say I wouldn't," Caroline snapped, "I just said I don't know how to kill a vampire."
"We're short on time. A week's already passed; who knows where Katherine is by now. Maybe you could do some kind of spell to protect and strengthen Caroline?" Stefan suggested.
Bonnie nodded slowly. "I'll do that. Don't worry Care. You'll be fine."
Slowly, she stood, pushing herself up by leaning on the armrest.
"When?" Even to her, her voice sounded shaky. "When am I going back?" Silently, she wondered if she also meant when she would ever be fine again.
"Oh boy," Damon muttered, rolling his eyes and swallowing his Bourbon.
"As soon as possible," Bonnie replied, hope flooding the undercurrents of her voice. "Once I figure out the spell completely and get the ingredients. Tomorrow afternoon, hopefully."
Caroline nodded absently, her mind a hundred miles away.
"I'll see you tomorrow then," she murmured quietly before taking a step towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked, taking an awkward step towards Caroline. Caroline looked even more pallid than before. She could feel the sudden distance between them, like they were winter islands separated by a cold sea. She could reach out but she didn't know how to. It was like their seventeen years of friendship had suddenly faded into nothing and all the happy sleepovers, funny moments and birthday parties couldn't account for the rock their friendship had abruptly been hurled into.
"Home," Caroline muttered, finally finding the energy within her to make it to the door.
"Care…"
"I'll see you tomorrow, Bon."
And then she was out of the door, the cold night wind blowing her hair back. The moon was shining down on her and, while this usually comforted her, it held no warmth for her that night. Hitching her bag higher on her shoulder, she pulled off her high heels and started running.
The noise bombarded her as she passed through the town square, as her reflection dashed past the grocery store's window.
As she turned the corner into her block, she finally slowed down, yanking on her high heels before walking daintily back to her house.
She felt alone.
She felt needed.
Fiddling with the hem of her PJs, she banged her head against the door a couple of times as she tried to decide what to do. Her hands were permanently attached to her cheeks to dry the wetness.
She'd been thinking of Elena and Bonnie the entire run home. Their childhood, when they loved going to the old well, trying to find fish in its inky depths. The days they gathered at Elena's house to finger-paint. The school productions where she was the star and Bonnie and Elena were supporting characters. Always supporting. The time they tried smoking for the first time – it nearly choked her and Bonnie but Elena was the worst, coughing up a black ball the size of Mars.
Then, the day Elena woke up in the hospital to find out her parents were dead. In that moment, while running, she'd realized how Elena had felt and it sent her spiraling into a whole new empathy level. There'd always been something wedged between them since that day, with Elena more concerned with documenting her memories with her parents and spending more time with her brother and Caroline more concerned with being a social butterfly. Bonnie stood between them, in the middle ground.
She'd cried enough. Forcing herself to her feet, her breaths coming out short, she stumbled over to the sink, washing away the dried tears on her cheeks. Quickly changing, she resolved that, no matter how much she didn't understand the whole concept of vampires, she was going to do her very best to save Elena. If there was even a tiny chance Elena could come back, she'd take it.
Because a life without one of her best friends was too hard to bear. She smiled into the mirror, but quickly dropped it. It was too fake.
She flung the bathroom door open.
Damon was lying on her bed.
The sight looked so ridiculously normal that it was easy to forget he was a vampire. Maybe it was also because she hadn't adjusted to the idea of it yet. They stared at each other for a moment before Caroline was able to find her voice. It was shaky.
"Tell me about Katherine."
"Katherine is manipulative. Evil. Selfish. You cannot trust her. Pretty much everything she says is a lie."
He watched as she listened. Recounting Katherine to Caroline was almost as torturous as seeing Katherine snap Elena's neck and knowing if he'd been one second, just one second, faster, that could have been the difference for her. He shook his head, pushing it back.
"When you meet her, keep your guard up. Do not take anything she says at face value. Do not underestimate her. She's a cold, heartless bitch and she will not hesitate to kill you, if she wants to. The chances of you managing to kill her are miniscule – I'm talking bacteria, if chance was a microscope – so never, never assume you have the upper hand, even when you seem to. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best."
Caroline nodded, seemingly in deep concentration. He decided to cut to the chase.
"Quite honestly, you are one of the worst people we could send back to 1864," he drawled, allowing his disapproval to colour his voice. He ignored the glare she shot him. "The only way you'll be able to kill Katherine as a mere human is by taking her by total surprise. That's the only way any human could ever kill a vampire, unless the vampire was stupidly willing to die. No matter how normal us vampires look, we are deadly. Predators by nature. We can move ten times faster than the average human," – at that, Caroline flashed back to the moment in the hospital when Damon was suddenly at her bedside – "and that's just a newborn. Katherine, being five hundred, would probably be twenty times faster.
"We're also much stronger and ruthless. We can hear anything within a mile's radius. We're, unfortunately, slaves to the sun, but Katherine had a powerful witch on her side, Emily Bennett, Bonnie's ancestor, who helped her acquire daylight rings. Nifty little things. We heal incredibly quickly, so if you ever actually manage to wound Katherine, she won't stay like that for longer than a minute. In fact, a minute's stretching it."
Damon sighed, closing his eyes. "Being a vampire yourself would have greatly increased the probability of winning." Truthfully, he'd considered turning Caroline into a vampire himself, whether she wanted it or not (it would just be too easy, a mere flick of his fingers), but decided that there'd be too many newborn problems to deal with.
"How do you kill a vampire?" Caroline asked, refusing to be deterred by a pessimistic Damon (or realistic, as he would put it). She hadn't really thought about how dangerous her mission was, considering how consumed she was with the death of her best friend. She didn't want to frighten herself out of possibly saving her friend.
"Decapitation, wooden stake to the heart, burning to death," Damon said, ticking them off his fingers. "Those will all kill a vampire. You can weaken a vampire by throwing vervain at them. In fact, if you get it into their system, they'll be down for quite a while. Depending on the potency, of course. Keep vervain with you; vampires can't compel you while it's on or in you."
A startled realization entered Caroline's mind, and Damon could see her face change because of it. "You tried compelling me in the car."
Damon sighed, pouting. "Elena gave you some vervain in the necklace."
Caroline smiled slightly. Elena had always had her back.
"Anyway," Damon continued, impassive face sliding back on, "there are a million and one ways Katherine can kill you –"
"How encouraging," Caroline interrupted, rolling her eyes.
" – and if she does, you're going to be dead forever. However, if you have vampire blood in your system when you die, you'll turn into a vampire."
"What?" Caroline squeaked.
Wordlessly, Damon slid out something from his pocket, passing it to Caroline's shaking fingers. She stared at it for a long moment, disbelievingly. Even as she suspected what it was, her brain wouldn't compute it.
"Is this your… blood?" she whispered, horrified.
"I want you to drink it if you ever suspect Katherine's on to you. Or if you're hurt. It'll heal your wounds quickly as well. I already gave you blood last night, to wake you up from your coma, and it'll probably last you for a few days. Maybe three, at best. That vial will last you four days."
"I'm not drinking vampire blood," Caroline insisted, staring at it with disgust. She shoved it, none too ceremoniously, onto her vanity.
"You'll be amazed at what you'll do to survive," Damon answered darkly. She swallowed. He sat up suddenly, and she recognized the look on his face. It was the same one she saw when Bonnie had joked (or so she thought) about stopping Damon from turning.
"I need you to do me a favour."
Caroline scoffed. "In your dreams."
"It's as much as a favour to me as a favour to yourself. Trust me," Damon assured, looking right at her. She raised her eyebrows at that. Somehow, she strongly doubted it.
He studied her face, watching as he said, "I want you to prevent me from turning."
Caroline's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Am I hearing you right?"
Abruptly, Damon was standing inches from her. Gasping, she tried taking a step back but was held in place by his sinfully strong grip. She saw his eyes dilate and widened her eyes, knowing she was about to be compelled and was totally powerless to it.
"You will do everything in your power to kill Katherine as soon as possible. You will also make sure that I do not turn into a vampire. I don't care how you do that – make sure I don't drink vampire blood, make sure I don't get killed if I have it in my system. If I've already died, kill me while I'm transitioning. Do anything and everything to stop me from turning."
"I will kill Katherine and stop you from turning," she repeated monotonously. Satisfied, Damon released her, retreating to his spot on the bed. Caroline stood still for a few more moments, trying to register what had just happened. Trying to find her voice, she asked, shaken, "Why?"
"Hmm?" Damon looked over to her indifferently.
"You just compelled me to kill you –"
"Stop me from turning."
"Same difference. I would have done it willingly. You didn't have to compel me. Now that you have, I have to kill you no matter what."
"That was contradictory," Damon commented, blinkingly. After pausing for effect, he continued, "Having second thoughts? I thought I was doing you and society a good deed."
"But why?" Caroline persisted, eyebrows drawn together. "Why would you want to be killed?"
"That's for me to know and for you to dot dot dot." He smiled serenely.
"But… you'll never meet Elena." Caroline frowned, truly bewildered by his choice. Not that she would ever want to change his mind but that didn't mean she understood why.
"Here," Damon said, eyes trained above her head. "Keep it with you at all times. Don't put it anywhere obvious. She could rip it off and you'd be putty in her hands." He shoved a packet of vervain into her hands. She remembered him pulling it off her neck like it needed no effort, and gripped it tightly. "I suggest you ingest it. Either that or put it in a secret compartment in your underwear."
"Why are you trying so hard to protect me?" Caroline wondered.
"You mean, why am I trying so hard to kill Katherine," Damon correctly, smiling coldly, "There's a big difference." He fixed her with a cryptic look, tilting his head. "I'll pick you up tomorrow at noon."
The curtains fluttered behind him peacefully.
"Only one bag?"
She crossed her arms over her chest, staring at him indignantly. "And what exactly were you expecting? A carriage?"
"More like five porters and more than a few suitcases," Damon replied, lifting her bag. "Gawd, that's light. What did you bring?" He moved to unzip it but Caroline snatched it away before he could see its contents.
"Ever heard of privacy?" she asked rhetorically. Of course he answered.
"No. It's right next to 'good morals' and 'drinking animal blood'."
"You're impossible," she huffed, hitching the bag onto her shoulders. "Let's go."
"No sobbing farewell with your mom?" Damon asked, tilting his head in curiosity.
"Already did. We said goodbye at breakfast, before she went off to work. You're going to have to come up with an excuse for my absence." She blinked, feeling disoriented. In between the tragedy that was Elena and the fear that was of going back in time, she hadn't thought she'd have space in her chest to feel sad for parting with her mother and possibly never seeing her again. So, it'd surprised her when her heartstrings had tugged when her mother smiled, slightly misty-eyed, telling her how happy she was that she was alright. Clearing her throat, she made for the doorway. "I'll meet you at the car. You can exit through the window, I guess."
"Actually," Damon intercepted her, blocking the doorway, "I thought we'd take a different mode of transport."
Caroline raised an eyebrow. "Really? And what would that be?"
Without warning, Damon scooped her up, bridal style. Startled, Caroline yelped, instinctively wrapping her arms around his neck. Her next thought was to shove him away like a hot potato but before she could berate him, she felt herself falling.
Except that she was falling forward and straight. And it didn't even feel like falling. Stunned into silence, she watched as her surroundings blurred, the familiar scene of her bedroom melting into the smudge of her neighbours' houses, then drowning in a whirlwind of brown and green, which she supposed was the forest. The initial shock had morphed into fear but quickly dissolved into exhilaration. It was amazing moving at such a speed. Feeling dizzy, she buried her face in Damon's neck, but not without shrieking with insane excitement. She didn't even care that it was Damon; she clung to him tightly, grinning madly.
She wasn't sure, but she thought Damon might have smiled into her hair.
All too soon, Damon was slowing down, starting to merely walk, and she could see the beginnings of the Boarding House through the trees. She checked her watch over his shoulder. He'd gotten them across the town in under a minute. She peered up at him, amazed.
"That was so much better than the Aerosmith Rock N Roller Coaster," she breathed, unable to keep the thrill out of her voice.
"Thought you'd need some fun, given the circumstances."
She looked up at him, studying him carefully. He was pretty much a walking contradiction, possibly even bipolar. So visibly annoyed at her the day before and so tolerant (possibly tolerable too) the next. Even so, she reluctantly smiled, forgetting to release her arms from around his neck now that they weren't flying over the ground. "Thanks."
He glanced down at her as they emerged from the forest. They slipped into silence until Damon lowered her to the porch floor. He made his way through the front door, not waiting for her, but as she followed him, he turned around. His intense blue eyes met hers.
"Thanks Blondie."
She watched him as he turned the corner, leaving her alone. She knew exactly what he was thanking her for. Smiling just a tiny bit, she whispered back, knowing he would hear her, "Don't mention it."
February 1864
Emily was sewing when she felt it.
It was merely a pin drop in a nuclear explosion, a mere drift in a tornado. But she still felt it, and her skin still crawled.
She peeked out of the carriage to see her Mistress, Miss Katherine, press a poor man to the trunk of a tree and bite his neck savagely. The familiar tinge of sadness flirted through her every time an innocent man was harmed at her Mistress' hands. Even so, she smiled a little, knowing that things would turn around. She could feel a new presence, one that was so unique and different and radiant from the others in the town they were making their way towards – Mystic Falls.
Her smile widened as her powers extended. Their savior would come in the form of a blonde, blue-eyed girl.
Caroline.
