Chapter 11

He was unable to move, he merely stood there staring at her, still holding the drunken man against the barn wall. He was waiting for her to come to her senses. To cry out and begin to run frantically away from the monster that stood before her. Yet she simply stood there, her eyes boring into him, waiting for the answer to her question. After a few more moments of silence, Caroline inquired again.

"What are you?" her voice wasn't harsh, or accusatory, but rather thick with curiosity.

Any second now, he thought. Any second and she would start running; it was the only logical thing to do wasn't it? Klaus was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that he was holding a nearly unconscious man up against the barn wall.

" Remember nothing of what happened here tonight." He whispered to the man

" You wondered into the woods on your way home from the bar, and got attacked by an animal"

" an animal" the man whispered back, their eyes linked together, and Klaus lessened his grip on the poor fellows shirt.

" Run along" he ordered, pushing the man in the direction of the road.

And Caroline just…stood there. Patiently waiting for an answer to her long awaited question. Then a new look spread across her face. Realization and what might have been fear quickly replaced with a look of shock creased her face. Her eyes wide, she stumbled over in his direction before sliding down the barn wall, and placing her head in her hands.

"I always thought they were just stories. Something to scare me so I wouldn't run off in the woods, but its true isn't it. It's all true." Klaus slide down the wall beside her, care to keep enough distance between them that she wouldn't get spooked and run off.

"Caroline I-"

"You don't need to say anymore; I actually can't believe I didn't figure it out before. I should have guessed."

"Caroline-"

"That night… in the water-"Klaus froze, every muscle in his body tensed. They hadn't spoken about that night since that day in the hospital. He had been hoping that she hadn't been conscious enough to remember much of that night. He had counted on it in fact.

"That's how you knew I was alive, and in the boat.. Oh god" she placed her fingers lightly on her lips.

"You fed me your blood, didn't you?"

"You don't need to worry." Klaus reassured her.

"The blood will have long since passed out of your system." Caroline swallowed the lump in her throat trying to clear her head enough to string together another sentence, that she just couldn't seem to form.

"If it's any consolation, we'll be in Virginia by tomorrow, and you can be rid of me. I'll see to it that no others of my kind cross your path again."

"What?" Her head snapped, and for the first time since her realization she looked him in the eye.

"I know you must be frightened but I promise that-"

"I'm not scared of you." Klaus dropped his eyes, his heart dropping into his stomach.

"If you were going to kill me you would have done it already. Or better yet, you would have left me in the water. I don't think you would have gone through the trouble of saving me, just to make me your next meal. I trust you."

"That probably isn't the wisest decision. "

" What other choice do I have? Maybe… maybe you can help?"

" I'm not sure what you mean."

" You have certain…abilities correct? And I feel awful for stretching your hand any further, especially after all you've done for me already, but the power to free me from my fate, lays within your teeth, and runs through your veins. I could be escape."

"This isn't a life you want, Caroline."

"Well I don't want my own! So where does that leave us?" She was angry now, her fear making cracks in her rough exterior. She let out a breath, and softened. She stood up, brushing the dirt from her night gown and turning to face him.

"Just…think about it." And she walked calmly back to the farm house. Her hair blowing lightly in the warm breeze, and dust popping up in little clouds with every step she took, her bare feet stepping carefully on the rocky ground.

They traveled through the rest of Indiana and through Kentucky in only a few hours, and made it into Virginia before the sun had risen fully in the sky. They exchanged a few words over the breakfast that they had scraped together from whatever they could find in the small kitchen, but didn't speak at all as they traveled through multiple states. When they reached the border, Klaus stole a carriage from a small town about 20 miles from their destination. Knowing pulling up in front of the Lockwood home on foot, after such a long journey would be a red flag.

The silence in the carriage was a million times worth then when they had merrily been running, for now there were no high winds that would have destroyed their words anyway. Now there was only the constant clop of the horse's hoofs, each step bringing them closer and closer to what Caroline had been dreading for months. Klaus broke the silence,

"I'm Sorry, I just…can't." Caroline nodded, looking down at her hands, and then ip at him a sad smile spread across her face, nodding lightly.

"I know." And then she looked away from him, out the window, at the large Plantation houses, and as the Carriage turned down one of the long drives, she looked back down at her hands.

It was a few minutes later that they came to a halt in front of a massive white house, and as Caroline gazed out the window her eyes caught on the large porch swing in which her mother and Mrs. Lockwood would sit for hours on end, just chatting their fool heads off. Caroline, took a deep breath and stepped out of the Carriage, accepting the drivers hand on the way down.

There they were, lined up on the front step, large smiles plastered on their faces, and then one of them stepped forward

" Caroline." She looked up to meet the eyes of the one and only Carol Lockwood,

" Welcome home"