Summary: Caroline goes into a wardrobe and finds herself in 10th century Mystic Falls.
Rating: Teen/SFW
Caroline did it on a dare.
She, along with all of her friends, had been a little tipsy and playing Truth or Dare. Since she was playing with Damon, there was no safe option. Truth was always sexual, and dare was always something that ripped you from your comfort zone.
But she'd much rather have to, like, eat a worm than tell anyone about the time Damon found her vibrator. She'd done it before, and though she didn't want to, she'd do it again.
But when she said "dare," he had something else in mind.
Something else was, "I dare you to go to the old Mikaelson mansion and find something cool, then bring it back."
The mansion was giant, creepy, and shut up tight. When she read To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time, she'd imagined Boo Radley's house to look like the Mikaelson mansion. At the time, Hope Mikaelson (more commonly known as Old Woman Hope) had still been holding onto life with both hands. The house had been nice but distant from the rest of the town.
Caroline knew it wasn't because of the old rumor – that Hope's mother had died there – but she did know that the house was creepy as hell and no one went in it.
But Damon dared her to, and no one said no to a dare from Damon Salvatore. Not unless they wanted to reveal their deepest, darkest secret to all their friends. She'd heard enough about Stefan's weird blood fetish and Tyler's dealings with Slutty Sophie (in the cellar of the Lockwood mansion, gross) the last times it had happened to last a lifetime.
So, she nutted up, and accepted the dare.
Elena, Bonnie, and even Matt looked concerned for her. Stefan looked between her and Damon like he wasn't sure she'd do it.
But she would do anything – she was Caroline Forbes, and Forbes women didn't back down.
So they trudged to the mansion, Elena making worried noises the whole way. Bonnie swung between worried about her wellbeing and worried about being arrested.
Worry for her won out when Caroline opened the doors and rat scampered out, scaring the bejesus out of them all.
"Don't feel like you have to," she nearly pleaded. "It's just Damon. Who cares about impressing him?"
"Damn Bonnie," Damon crowed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. "I'm hurt. It's not like I'm sending her to her death, anyway. Just inside the old, creepy ass building in the woods to steal something and make an Indy-Jones-esque exit. I'm not asking that much."
They all rolled their eyes at him. For being the oldest, he was the least responsible.
"Well, when you say it like that," Caroline drawled, trying to not let it show that Bonnie and Damon were tripping her up. She didn't think would be dangerous, just creepy, but they were making it sound like the house could be sentient. A real life Monster House – which just so happened to scare her to the bone when it came out.
Elena and Matt both calmed at her words, but Bonnie looked unconvinced.
"If you aren't out in fifteen minutes, I'm coming in to get you," she said seriously.
Caroline nodded that she understood, and went in.
At first, there wasn't much to look at. A staircase, a fireplace, a big table with nothing on it. A chandelier, and lots and lots of doorways. It looked like any old house that hadn't had anyone living in it for over a decade.
There was almost nothing to bring back, unless Damon wanted an old Chinese place menu off the fridge or a cup that looked just like ones he had at home.
So, she started opening up the doors.
One was a bathroom, one was a closet, one was home to a raccoon that scared the shit out of her. She didn't scream – Bonnie would've burst in and ended the dare, landing her in secret-revealing time – but she did back up to the door on the other side of the hallway.
She opened it cautiously, expecting like with the other doors that the girl from the Ring would pop out and kill her. But there was nothing in the room but a tall piece of furniture with a tarp of some kind over it.
When she pulled the tarp off, it was revealed to be a wardrobe.
Hmm. Maybe she could steal a coat or something, make a joke about Damon's cold blood.
She opened the wardrobe and looked around. There wasn't a coat or anything, but the back of it was oddly black. The room was dark, but moonlight shone and she could see the corners connecting the sides to the back wall. But the back wall wasn't there, it was just black.
She pressed her fingers to the blackness, but there was nothing there. Her fingers went past where the wall was supposed to be, and she fell slightly forward.
Two feelings washed over her: wrongness and curiosity.
Curiosity won out, and she climbed in.
The wardrobe was much bigger than it looked. She took several steps into the dark, unsure of what she would find. She was tipsy enough that she wasn't scared, but in that same vein, she was convinced she was just drunkenly imagining it.
The floor of the wardrobe was wooden. She stumbled when her feet were suddenly on grass, surrounded by dimly lit trees.
"What the hell…." She mumbled to herself, looking around. The trees weren't familiar, but the sound of water nearby was. It the sound of a waterfall, a sound she'd heard many times. She turned slightly, and came face to face with a very familiar waterfall.
She moved towards it, not caring about where she was or how she got there. She just had to see if the waterfall was the same one she'd grown up visiting.
She tripped over a branch, and landed hard. "Ow!"
"Is there someone there?" A voice shouted. A male voice, one that she didn't recognize as Matt, Stefan, or Damon. "Hello?"
She wasn't tipsy enough to shout 'over here!' like some kind of idiot. She was alone in a place she didn't know, and there was some guy out there, calling out to her? Hell no.
She tried to stand, tried to move away (to the waterfall or to the wardrobe, either one was fine), but she couldn't move over the branch. Leaves under her hands crunched. The guy moved closer; she didn't hear him, but she felt him. His presence moved closer, and she eventually felt eyes on her.
She cursed under her breath. When she looked up, she saw him.
He looked weird, not like the guys who wore fedoras, but like how the Old Hollywood stars looked. They were considered handsome, for the time. She saw the guy in front of her, and got the same feeling – he was cute in an old-time way, not in a modern way.
But she didn't have much time to dwell on that, because he wasn't alone, nor was he comfortable with leaving her sprawled on the ground.
"Oh!" He gasped, and ran to her, kneeling by her side. "Are you alright? Do you need help?"
His companion, a dark haired guy, doubled over to see her better.
"I'm fine," she said, looking between them. "Can you help me up?"
The second she had the opportunity, she'd be gone. She didn't trust them.
"Of course," the dark haired one said, and the both offered her a hand. She stood quickly, having to fight off a dizzy spell as soon as she was upright.
The blonde's hand went to the small of her back. A tidal wave of unease rolled over her. She fell forward into the arms of the blonde, all vision gone to black.
She fainted.
Caroline woke some time later, in front of a fire.
All tipsiness was gone. In it's place was a feeling of warmth and security. The walls around her were wooden, the ceiling high above and rounded. It was nothing like what she'd seen, but it didn't feel wrong. It felt safe.
She leaned up on her elbows, hoping to get a better look around. What she found instead was four people standing near a doorway, where light was streaming in. She recognized two as her saviors, while the other two were another dark haired guy and a blonde girl.
As soon as she was up, they all turned to her. The blondes moved quicker than the brunettes, and she suddenly had two people in her space.
They bombarded her with questions. When she just stared at them like they were crazy, they introduced themselves.
Her saviors were Niklaus (blonde) and Kol (brunette). The other two were Rebekah (other blonde) and Elijah (other brunette). They were siblings, Elijah being the oldest, Rebekah the youngest.
She finally choked her name out.
"Caro…line. Care-oline. Caroline," Niklaus said, trying it out.
She almost wanted to say that stupid line, 'that's my name, don't wear it out'. Instead, she said, "yeah, that's my name. And yours is Niklaus."
He smiled at her. "Yes. Now, are you hungry?"
"I've prepared some fish meat," Rebekah added, obviously hoping she would say yes. But fish for breakfast sounded disgusting to her.
"Oh, no thanks…. Do you have any vegetables?" She tried.
All four of the siblings scrunched up their noses. "Vegetables?" Kol's voice was delicate, like he didn't want her to know he thought she was crazy.
"Yeah. I'm not much for meat." She raised a defiant eyebrow at him. Rebekah giggled, while the older boys smiled.
Rebekah grabbed her hands. "There are some carrots, if you would like some of those."
"Sure, thank you." She nodded, hoping they would leave. She wanted a minute alone.
Kol mouthed the word 'sure' to Elijah, who shrugged.
Rebekah and Kol left for the gardens (she wasn't sure where it was, but they said they would be quick), while Elijah left to do some chores. He was quiet but the least enthusiastic about meeting her.
Niklaus, however, didn't leave.
He walked with her to the doorway, making sure she didn't fall again.
"I'm fine," she said, fighting off the urge to bat his hands away.
"If you're positive," he said.
"I am," she snipped back.
He laughed through his nose at her. It was cute, in a way. She leaned up against the doorway, watching him watch her.
She was probably still dreaming. Cute boys only ever showed up in her dreams. And there was no way this was all real. He seemed fake in every way, from his hair to his clothes.
"I assure you, this is real," Niklaus said, standing a little taller. "You aren't the first one to come here, dressed like this and talking so oddly. They all thought we were fake, but no. We are just as real as you and every other person on the planet."
She gaped at him. "I didn't mean to say that out loud."
"It is alright. But listen to me. When you leave, you have to come back. Our other brothers will be sorry to have missed you awake." Niklaus looked her in the eyes, and she was sure he could see everything. "I know your kind, Care-oline. You'll come back."
She felt off balance, like the world had shifted. Before she said her fake comment, he'd intrigued her in the best way. He was handsome, old school, and he had funny siblings. Even though she was in weirdo world, he seemed normal.
Not anymore.
She had to leave. She had to get away from his all-knowing eyes.
Any other moment, she would've quipped, 'is that so?'. But not today. Instead, she asked, "will you take me back?"
He licked his lips and looked to the ground. "I don't know the exact spot. I'm not allowed. But I will take you to the waterfall after we eat. Is that agreeable?"
She nodded, rolling her lips. "Yep."
He laughed at her again. "What an odd word."
"Whatever," she said with an eye roll. The tense moment was gone.
And thank god for it.
"I–I was gone for hours," she said, panting. Everyone was crowded around her, and it was a little shocking to go from just Niklaus to all of her friends.
She was only panting because she'd run through the mansion to get the hell away from the wardrobe.
"What are you talking about, Barbie?" Damon asked, clearly freaking out a little. She never acted like this.
"Damon, shut up. Are you okay, Caroline?" Elena asked, moving closer comfortingly.
Bonnie, standing, cajoled, "yeah, come sit down." Matt even beckoned her towards a fallen log.
She did, but not before looking back at the mansion. She wasn't sure what had just happened, but it had been real. Niklaus had said so. He'd been so sure that she would want to come back.
And she did. She wanted to see him again. Tomorrow night sounded good to her.
