Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries and all characters are the property of their owners. I make no profit from writing this.

A/N: Sorry it's been a while since the last update! School work has been just crazy! Enjoy!

The first thing Caroline noticed about the woman standing in front of her was the blood on her face, around her mouth. Perhaps even worse, when she grinned, her teeth were stained red, as well. Caroline barely had enough time to notice this before she screamed.

She bolted, running as fast as she could away from the woman, but before Caroline had gotten very far, she appeared in front of her again, inhumanly fast. Caroline gasped as the woman made to lunge for her, but suddenly Klaus was there, which would have been a relief, only he had moved just as impossibly fast.

And he was stabbing the woman in the chest with what looked to Caroline like some sort of antique letter-opener.

Caroline screamed again, but Klaus stared the woman down as she gasped. "I warned you, little sister," he said, and Caroline was even more disturbed at the revelation of their relationship. He released the blade but let it remain in his sister's chest as she slouched to the ground.

Then he turned his focus to Caroline.

It was like she had forgotten how to breathe. Just minutes ago, she had been having the most open conversation she had ever had with a man. She had been allowing herself to trust him, even though she hardly knew him. He had seen something in her that she normally could not see in herself.

But it was all a lie. He was a monster. He killed his own sister.

He reached toward her and grabbed her shoulders in his hands. She turned her head away from him, whimpering. "No, no, no."

Klaus took her chin in his hand and forced him to look at her, although his touch was still gentle. He stared into her eyes and said, in an extremely calm voice, "Go back to your suite, Caroline, and forget all of this. You were out for some fresh air, but you saw no one."

Caroline blinked at him. "Forget?" she asked, her panic making way for astonishment, if only for a moment. "She was covered in blood. And then you killed her. And you expect me to just go back to my rooms and forget?" She struggled in his grasp, but his grip did not weaken any. "Let me go!"

He was staring at her with even more intensity now, his eyes narrowing in confusion. "How?" he asked quietly, tilting his head to the side. She could tell that the question was directed more at himself than at her.

Still, she asked, "How what?"

He ignored her. His eyes drifted from her face to her neck, and then to her chest before they locked on. He reached a hand toward his target, and before Caroline could protest his extremely inappropriate behaviour, his hand touched her necklace.

His face changed ever so slightly when his skin made contact with the diamond. "Where did you get this?" he asked.

Despite her fear, Caroline reached out and snatched back the pendant. "My fiancé gave it to me."

Klaus frowned. "Clever man, your fiancé," he mused, although he did not look all that impressed. "Thanks to him, you cannot be compelled. Do you know what I typically do to those I am unable to compel?"

Caroline assumed the question was rhetorical, but she needed clarification. "What do you mean by compel?"

He ignored her. "Typically, I kill them." He reached out toward her, and Caroline became even more frightened for her life. He surprised her by stroking her cheek lightly with the back of his index and middle fingers. "But I cannot bring myself to kill you, Caroline," he said, removing his hand. The breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding escaped her in a sigh of relief.

He turned away from her and bent down to pick up his lifeless sister from the deck. It seemed to take him no effort to hoist her body over his shoulder. Looking back at Caroline, he said, "Go to bed, now, love. And do try not to tell anyone what you saw. After all, you have no proof, and I find that men are typically rather disinclined to believe the ramblings of a young lady. Good evening."

He disappeared, then, in a blur of motion. Caroline blinked. It was as if he had never been there in the first place. But she knew what she had seen.

His sister's face and the inside of her mouth had been covered in blood, as though she had been drinking it. And then he had stabbed her in the chest, right in front of Caroline. She had watched someone die. Caroline brought her hand to her forehead, trying to control the spinning. Though it was chilly out on deck, she suddenly felt very warm.

As she started back toward her rooms, Caroline thought more on what she found was the strangest thing to have happened all evening: the way that Klaus had told her to forget everything. He had said it with such conviction, as though he had truly expected her to just forget the horrific events she had witnessed and go back to her rooms without the faintest memory of them.

And then he had touched her necklace. She reached for it now herself. In ways she did not yet understand, the necklace had saved her tonight. From what, she wasn't sure. Perhaps she would thank Tyler in the morning.

But of course, she wouldn't. Klaus's warning had contained more truth than she would have liked. She knew that Tyler would not believe her. He would try to brush it off as her being tired, or her gown being too tight.

Caroline could barely walk straight, she was so shaken by what had happened. Still, she managed to find her rooms, and was relieved to notice that her mother had already gone to bed. She didn't want to speak with her about her dinner with Tyler, because she just didn't feel she had the energy to do so.

In her own bedroom, she stripped out of her gown and removed her necklace, placing it carefully on the surface of her vanity. Her gaze lingered on it as she changed into a nightgown. She didn't know what it was about that necklace that had helped her tonight, but there was someone—besides her fiancé—who would.

And tomorrow, if she could muster up enough courage, she was going to ask him.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed Chapter 4! Thanks so much for taking the time to read/review/favourite/follow! The responses I've received to this story mean so much, really! It is a pleasure to write for such an awesome group of Klaroline fans! Hopefully I'll be able to update sooner than later.