Rebekah ended up going home to her own apartment for the night, leaving Caroline and Klaus alone.
The next morning when Caroline woke up, she instantly noticed that Klaus was still asleep beside her and smiled a little.
Caroline got dressed and headed downstairs in search of a blood bag.
"How did I know that I'd find you here?" Came a voice from behind Caroline as she entered the kitchen.
Caroline's head whipped around to spot that one of the three hunters was standing back across the kitchen from her.
"Surprised to see me?" The hunter asked in an amused tone. "You're little act might have scared the other two out of town, but I'm not letting you get away with it."
It took a second for the words to register in her head. By the time that they did, the hunter was three quarters of the way across the room with a stake in hand.
Self-defence took over and in an automatic reaction she reached forward, pressing her hand into his chest. Before she even realized what she was doing, she was holding his bloody heart in her hand while his body had collapsed to the ground.
Klaus woke up and frowned when he saw that the other side of the bed was empty.
He threw some clothes on and then headed downstairs.
When Klaus turned into the kitchen, he was more than a little shocked by the image in front of him.
Caroline was standing there frozen with a dead heart in her hand and blood all up her one arm with some more blood on the other. She was staring down wide-eyed at a dead body that lay on the floor next to a discarded stake.
"Caroline?" Klaus asked in a concerned voice as he began to head towards her.
"Oh god," Caroline said as she seemed to snap out of the shock a little. "Oh god!"
She dropped the heart on the ground, but couldn't tear her gaze away from the dead hunter at her feet.
Caroline's legs no longer were able to support her and Klaus had to dash over to catch her. He wrapped his arms tight around her while her arms were tucked in and pressed against his chest.
"The blood's getting all over you," Caroline pointed out.
"I don't care," Klaus told her.
"I don't want to get the curse," Caroline told him. "I don't want to die."
"I know," Klaus told her as he ran a hand through his heart. "And I'm not going to let you die, Sweetheart."
Caroline felt tears forming in her eyes as she let her head rest on his shoulder.
"I'm scared," Caroline admitted.
"I know," Klaus told her. "But it's going to be okay. You're strong."
"No, I'm not," Caroline argued as tears streamed down her face.
"Yes, you are," Klaus told her sternly. "Come on; let's wash this blood off of you."
He gently led her over to the kitchen sink and helped her was the hunter's blood off of her arms and hands.
Once her hands were clean, Caroline began to stare back down at the body on the floor again.
"Hey, don't worry about that," Klaus told her. "I'll deal with the body."
"Don't leave me," Caroline begged.
"I'm not going to," Klaus said honestly as he stared into her eyes. "I'm not leaving you for a second until this curse is over. The body can wait."
"I killed him," Caroline said.
"He was trying to kill you first," Klaus pointed out. "It was self-defence… Did he say anything about the other two?"
"He said that they left town, but that he didn't want to let me win," Caroline answered.
Klaus began to lead her out of the room so that she wouldn't be able to stare at the body anymore.
"What happened to not being afraid of getting the hunter's curse?" A voice behind her asked mockingly.
Caroline whipped her head around to see the hunter that she had just killed standing there.
"It was a nice story, but I think that the whole tough girl act is rendered a little pointless when you start crying and whining and talking about how scared you are after killing just one of us," The hunter continued.
"Caroline, there's nothing there," Klaus told her although he knew very well that with the hunter's curse that didn't really matter.
"Yeah, Caroline," The hunter said in a mocking tone. "What are you looking at, there's nothing here. Are you losing your mind already? I bet that you kill yourself before nightfall."
Caroline forced herself to look away and ignore the hunter as she turned towards Klaus. She chanced a quick glance back to see that for the time being at least, the hunter was gone.
"I should have just killed them yesterday," Klaus told her, already feeling guilty about Caroline getting the hunter's curse.
"No," Caroline argued. "You shouldn't have."
"If I had then you wouldn't have to deal with the curse," Klaus pointed out.
"But you would have for all three of them," Caroline reminded him.
"So?" Klaus asked. "It's not like it could kill me. And even if it could, I would take a triple hunter's curse over this."
"You've got him wrapped around your finger don't you?" The hunter asked as he reappeared. "Just like you have most of this town. But what do you think would happen if all of those girls who want to be you and all of those guys who want to be with you at your school knew what you really were? If they knew that you were a hideous monster? I bet you that they'd turn and run away screaming."
Caroline's body tensed as she turned to look at him again.
"I wonder what they would think if they saw what you did to me," The hunter continued.
"You were trying to kill me," Caroline defended herself.
Klaus wrapped his arms around Caroline again and whispered in her ear, "Whatever he's saying, don't listen to him."
"I was trying to stop a monstrous killer," The hunter corrected.
"No!" Caroline said firmly.
"What, you don't think that's what you are?" The hunter asked as his lip twitched up into a smirk. "How many people have you killed Caroline? Three? …Well I guess four now that you ripped my heart out of my chest and left me to rot on the kitchen floor. Do you know how many people you have to murder to be a serial killer, Caroline? Three. You've exceeded that."
Caroline ripped her gaze away, hoping that it would make him disappear again. She closed her eyes and buried her face in Klaus's chest.
"You were going to kill again, it was only a matter of time," The hunter told her. "So unless you want to become even more of a monster, then you may as well just put an end to this right now."
When a few seconds passed by without the hunter adding anything else, Caroline peeked over at where he had last been standing.
A brief wave of relief came over her as she saw that the space was empty. The relief didn't last long though as she thought about what he had said and the fact that the hunter's curse was only going to get worse from there.
A/N: Please read and review! I hope that you guys liked the chapter and thanks for reading the story! :D
Another great big extra special thanks goes out to the amazing reviewers of the last chapter: LiaLovinLife, jessnicole, cupcakesweetheart5, justine, Athena, DrawingMyHeartOut, WeasleysGroupie, and The Hunger Games - My Life :D
