Chapter Eleven:

3 x 21: Before Sunset

Following the night of the decade dance, Calista had tried to sleep before she would try and get away from Mystic Falls, moving somewhere away from the people here. For once doing something that she truly wanted to do, without putting too much thought onto the consequences of her actions, deciding to let her heart choose her next actions instead of her mind and decide that accepting the offer that she had been given was her best choice to be happy, an emotion she hadn't properly felt since the Salvatore's arrived in Mystic Falls. Even as she tried to fall into a peaceful slumber, the visions that had been plaguing her were out at full force that night, every time that she neared a state of dreamless rest her mind and magic would meld to show Calista images of what was to come. The darker the visions became the more Callie wished that she did not feel the physical pain that those in her visions where going through, she awoke with a start and her hand resting above her heart feeling it pounding in her chest, a completely different feeling from the one in her mind where she felt like a knife was being forced into the organ. The fear that she experienced in her sleep was making it impossible for her to even try and go back to sleep, as she showered all she could hope was that somehow she learnt all about the changes that she was going through and would continue to experience or naively pretend that nothing had changed and she was still completely human, albeit a human who was friends with vampires and happened to have strangely cryptic dreams that came true.

The need to get out of Mystic Falls was something that had continued to bubble beneath the surface, having been the only place that she had not felt the need to continually look over her shoulder for her own demons.

During her stay at the Mikaelson's manor with Klaus, Calista had been privy to learning about Mikael and how he had hunted Klaus. A tale that had been told to the human, while he was painting and making conversation in order to get closer to the photographer.
"Being hunted, is truly a terrifying experience. One that haunts people for a long time even when their hunter is no longer able to hurt them." Calista had said, before downing the rest of her wine glass as she watched the paintbrush glide over the canvas, watching the painting come to life under Klaus' masterful skill.
"You sound like you speak from experience, love" the hybrid commented, his strokes slowing down slightly at the implication of her words.
"Cassie has a lot of enemies due to her association with the original vampires."
"I can hear when you are lying, Callista" Klaus put the paintbrush down and made his way over to the couch that the brunette was observing him from. "Who made you so afraid? The fear in your voice when you spoke of being hunted is not the same as when you've spoken about those who'd wish to harm Cassandra."
"A little while ago I was in a relationship. It was fine for a while, but some vampire who wanted Cassie decided to use me for bait. Julian ended up being collateral damage and turned into a vampire, figured having a newborn vampire would put me in just enough danger that Cassie would come running. However, the one thing that he didn't count on, was that emotions are heightened... Julian loved me before he turned and that love escalated into obsession." Calista explained, her only comfort coming from the hand that Klaus had on her knee, which had occasionally tightened at the mention of her ex. "That was what drew Cassie back to me, not the vampire who wanted her. She killed him in a second but it was the fact that Julian was a threat to me. She couldn't kill him, he'd disappeared when he saw what she done to a vampire so much older than him, so she got me out of New York and over here to Mystic Falls, we had a few stops along the way in order to keep him of my trail. This was the first time in a while that he hadn't found me, every time he does, he says that it will just be us. That he will kill Cassie so she can't get in the way of us anymore."
"Should he come near you again Calista, I will rip his heart out and give it to you as a present, so that you shall never feel that way again".

Once she was out of the shower, Calista had moved to packing her belongings into a suitcase. Something that she learnt over the years was that she did not have a lot of possessions, most of what she owned was easily able to fit into the suitcase or her camera bag. Once her belongings were all packed up into the suitcase and she had changed out of the bath towel into something more comfortable, a simple t-shirt and pair of jeans. Going to where her camera was normally kept, Calista noticed that the staple of her livelihood was not there and after searching her home for the device she realised that she had left it at the gym last night. "Damn it" she muttered under her breathe as she ran her hand through her hair, grabbing her car keys and going out to retrieve her camera.

…..

"Calista how wonderful to see you, are you here as part of the clean-up committee?" Rebekah greeted her somewhat of a friend, as she came into the school gym looking slightly worse for wear.

"I'm afraid not, I just … I left my camera here last night" Calista smiled weakly as she made her way over to the bleachers in order to retrieve the camera that she had left the night before, which miraculously was still where she left it and not damaged. "I'm sorry Rebekah"

"About what?"

"That you couldn't go to the dance you put in so much work into planning"

"Hello." Caroline called out as she entered the gym, shocked to see only Calista and Rebekah in the room. "Where's Matt?"

"He bailed. Got called into work at the last minute." Rebekah

"Are you kidding me? So, it's just us?"

"Just you two, I'm just collecting my camera" Callista says as she gives Rebekah a quick hug goodbye, "I have something to discuss with Klaus shortly, I'll see you later?"

"Of course, Callie." The original returned the hug before letting the brunette leave the gym with a little wave too Caroline as she walked past the young vampire.

As Callie started to leave, her pace quickened when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that there was no one behind her and tried to play it off as lack of sleep messing with her head.

"Impossible. How is this possible?" Callie gasped as she took a step back at the sight of the vampire hunter standing in front of her at the end of the hallway.
"Long story." Alaric smirked as he appeared in front of her before the brunette even had a chance to react she was slammed into a row of lockers. He then grabbed the back of her head and bashed her head so hard into the metal lockers that it rendered her unconscious, her camera slipping out of her fingers, falling to the ground and smashing the lens and the screen.

…

"Before we all walk through these doors, let's get on the same page, shall we? I was the one who created your vampire bloodline, therefore I am responsible for your lives and Tyler's life, Caroline's life, and of course, Abby's life, should anything go wrong." Klaus told the Salvatore's, little Gilbert and Bonnie as they waited outside the school. "And the only reason I am here is to get Calista out of here"

…

As Calista felt her head pounding when her eyes fluttered open and she regained consciousness, slowly sitting up she realised that she was in Alaric's history classroom and she was not alone, the not-dead history teacher, Elena and Caroline were all with her.

"Well look who decided to wake up" Alaric said as he knelt down next down to the bartender, grasping her arm and yanking her up, bringing her next to Elena who was holding a stake while Caroline was pinned to the desk with pencils digging through her hands and a gag over her mouth. "You're just in time for the show, and I have to thank you for being the perfect bait to draw Klaus here"

Trying her hardest to wrack her brains to remember anything from the books that Cassandra had given her, Calista tried to focus on the one spell she knew would temporarily incapacitate a vampire, at least give them enough time to get Caroline unstaked. Focusing all she felt, she was able to recreate the spell that she had seen Bonnie do multiple times, the feeling that coursed through her body was something that she had never felt before. Compared to all of the other times she had accidentally used her magic, this felt natural, stronger, more focused and less terrifying. Seeing Alaric clutching his head as he keeled foreward, both Elena and Caroline looked shocked.

"Hurry, get Caroline out of here." Callie ordered, trying to keep as much of her focus on the vampire vampire-hunter, though since she was new to all of this there was no way she could hold him for long.

"Get help" Elena told Caroline once the blonde was free and threw the beaker of vervain at Alaric when Callie lost her grip on the ability to inflict pain onto Alaric. "Go Callie, Run"

Following the advice of the human, the brunette shakily ran out of the classroom and made a break for the exit of the school. Her body tensed when a hand covered her mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist before she was pulled into an empty classroom.

"Shh, shh. It's alright. You're okay" Klaus' voice soothed the frantic woman, slowly removing his hand from over her mouth and turning the brunette around so that she was facing him, his fingers cupping her cheeks as he scanned over her form checking for any sign of injury to the bartender. "You need to get out of here Callie."
Before Klaus could run off to go fight the hunter who had just kept her captive in his classroom, Calista reached out and grabbed his hand. While he could easily shake of the grip of the human, something about the hold that she had on him made the hybrid pause for a moment, long enough for her too take a step closer to him and looking up at him with those big brown eyes that looked so scared, like a doe being hunted. The hand not holding onto the immortal's, was placed on his cheek and she slowly rubbed her thumb over the skin before standing on her toes as she pressed a kiss to his lips.
"I'm going with you" she whispered, pulling back a hairs breath once the kiss was broken. "I'm leaving Mystic Falls with you Klaus. There's nothing for me here, but there is everything with you."
"To do that you need to leave and be safe. Now go" Klaus quickly gave her another kiss before pushing her towards the exit of the school "Rebekah will look after you. Now, go, be safe love."