Story: Control
Chapter: Ten- Alone in the Dark
Pairing: Caroline/Damon, with some Caroline/Other, Damon/other
Summary: "If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough" -Mario Andretti. A study in control; one who considers her life in control and one who does everything he can to control those around him.
The first thing she becomes aware of is the smell. A disgusting, rotting, ghastly stench. Even in the smelliest of situations it's never pained her to breath. It does now. The second thing she becomes aware of is the fact that she cannot see a fucking thing, like absolutely nothing. She opens and closes her eyes and if it weren't for the sensation of her eyes drying out, she wouldn't notice the difference. It strikes her as odd that she didn't notice it first; it also strikes her as odd that she isn't panicking. But maybe all the time spent with Damon has given her some sort of tolerance for danger. Also, when the only thing she can see is black and blacker, she sort of loses her fear and gives in.
With nothing to guide her, no lights, no noises, she loses sense of time. Only her hunger alerts her, the spaces in between the small meals placed in front of her. They taste awful but she only picks at them anyways. She hasn't really been hungry in a long time, at least not for food – Damon awoke other hungers in her of course. She's never wanted to be wanted to badly, she's never been more curious about anyone else in her life. He may consider her shallow, self absorbed but the truth is, since she met him she's thought of herself less and less; he takes up her every thought.
Her captor is the newscaster Logan. She recognizes his voice instantly, having heard it on the local news for last five years. He's muttering something about plans, and rings and sunlight. He definitely mentions her mother but she can't quite focus on his actual words because she is busy remembering that Damon had mentioned killing him. Great. Another self absorbed vampire. She doesn't bother feeling scared.
She just feels alone.
It hurts her heart and she hates it.
Logan leaves with some obscure threat she didn't quite catch.
Alone in the dark she thinks of nothing but death. Ever since Damon entered her life, her thoughts have grown increasingly morbid. She hopes she doesn't die here, as ridiculous as it sounds, if anyone is going to kill her it has to be Damon – preferably during sex- as long as he's close, she doesn't care how. Pathetic. Last year's Caroline would have shoved this pathetic little bitch into a locker; head over heels in love with a conceited asshole? Contemplating her own death? She tries to regret the past months, but she's too far gone to care.
It`s dark and cold and smells like crap.
Every cell in her body is screaming for Damon.
He doesn`t come.
She just feels alone.
It's a day and a half before he notices she's missing. He thinks, had she been more important to him, he would have noticed sooner. He thinks, had she been Katherine, had she been Emily, had she been a vampire; he might have noticed sooner. She wasn't that important. There was blood in the house and booze left in the bottle and it kept him busy for a day. Still, he's kind of kicking himself for not noticing. He's trained himself to be aware at all times. He's getting soft; this town is getting to him. And he should have noticed sooner.
It takes him another day and a half before he bothers to do anything about it. And even then it is only because her mother, the Sheriff shows up at his door in tears, clutching Caroline's purse to her chest. "They found her car on the highway; it's in bad really bad shape".
He notices the tears in her eyes. There's a bloodstain on the fabric of her purse.
"Is Caroline okay?"
He asks the question when he already knows the answer. She shaking and spouting off words about empty cars, and blood and missing without a trace. He's five steps ahead. There are wheels turning and clicking and he smiles impatiently, irritated with her slow pace and panicked words. He knew there was another vampire in town. Mystic falls has always been a mecca for ones such as himself. If he were to really consider it he would blame this on Katherine, she was a magnet, drawing the turned and the wanting to be turned to her. Even those that didn't realise what they wanted.
He is her "Katherine" he supposes, although he isn`t sure if he wants to be. Still, five seconds later he is making promises to the sheriff and running to his car. He needs to find her.
Damon crashes into the room, and she feels him more than sees and hears him. Apparently Logan does too, because he barrels into the room a second later. A snarl fills the air and she forgets to breath.
It's too dark to see the fight but she can hear it. The brutal sound of cartilage crunching, bones snapping, skin breaking – and the fact that she is all but blind makes her imagination run wild.
Oddly enough, it's only when the noises stop, and the faint flicker of fire lights up her vision that she begins to seriously panic.
Orange light highlights a basement that is more messy than menacing. A pile of garbage is the source of the smell. For some reason her vision is blurring, but she can make out the shape of an arm in the steadily growing fire.
Damon sets about untying her. Those last cruel words of his seem eons ago, and meaningless somehow. He is here, she is saved.
It's only when he tells her to stop fucking moving that she realizes she is shaking uncontrollably. It's only when her hands are free and she is swiping madly at her eyes that she realizes she is bawling harder than she ever has her entire life.
He is here and he has saved her. But that feeling of aloneness hasn`t burned with Logan`s corpse. She cries a little harder.
She knows she must look a snotty, dirty mess. Her clothes are ripped, her hair is greasy and matted and she hasn't really eaten in days. All those hours spent prepping for him so he could see her in the right way, from the right angle, in the most beautiful light, with the most beautiful dress and now he's seeing her at her lowest low and she couldn't care less. All she knows is that his arms are around her, guiding her, lifting her, breathing new life into her. She's never felt more at home.
He doesn't offer comforting words. He doesn't stroke her hair or tell her it will all be okay. He mutters a quick, "he's dead. Let's go" before picking her up and setting her down in his car. He doesn't say anything after that, as silent as the days he used to pick her up from school, angry and wanting a snack.
But he lets her sit in his lap the entire ride home. She clings to him as hard as she possibly can.
Halfway home, when the tremors have left her, when her breathing has evened out to the occasional shaky gasp she realizes that this may have been her fantasy all along: This is her "twilight" moment after all, her damsel in distress moment, and now her prince has come to take her home to his castle. Her prince is angrier and colder in real life, and she never envisioned herself this dirty pathetic mess. But real life has never been the way she dreamed it. She takes what she can get.
She looks up at him from her position in his lap; the hard line of his jaw, the soft curve of his mouth, the fierce look in his eyes that she never will be able to understand. When she starts to cry again, it's no longer from shock.
A block away from her house she tells him to pull over.
He looks irritated, lifting her off his lap and into the passenger seat.
"Your mother is waiting for you" He nods in the direction of her house. "she`s worried sick"
She nods, staring straight ahead, not really seeing anything.
There have been so many emotions filtering through her these past few days. She feels clogged up: with relief, with anger, with adoration and with love. Uncertainly, she meets his impassive stare and chokes up for the third time. She didn't realize that someone as small and shallow as her could feel so much for one person. And not even in her darkest dreams could she have imagined that, that someone could feel so little in return.
"I'm never going to be her, whoever you're chasing after" Unable to really look away from him, she closes her eyes. "You probably shouldn't come over anymore."
Something unrecognizable flits across his face and she tries to trace it to no avail. Finally he sighs.
"Katherine. And you're never going to come close to being her"
Every bone in her body is aching to crawl back to him, and play out the damsel in distress fantasy over and over again. Part of her would be happy living the lie for as long her he would have her. She wonders how big of a part that is.
"I think I should walk the rest of the way."
He shrugs, indifferent. "Suit yourself"
She smiles sadly. "It'll help save your bad-boy rep".
He turns away and starts the ignition, ready to move on to more exciting things.
When she gets out of the car her heart breaks.
what's this ? an update? woah...only you know, like , a couple months late.
I appologize for the delay. School got in the way, and I needed to figure out where exactly I wanted to take this and how I was going to tie it into the show is it is now. Next chapter ( hopefully up soon) will tie into the recent episodes.
If you can forgive my lateness enough to review, that would make my day =)
Merci