"Bill Forbes."

The name created a bad taste in my mouth that wouldn't go away. My stomach twisted and clenched until I was sure I was going to throw up. Klaus didn't react like I had been expecting him to. I had expected confusion or perhaps a bit of anger, but he didn't so much as flinch.

"This man was related to you?" His voice was even and steady. We might as well have been discussing the damn weather.

"He was my father." I hissed out through gritted teeth, my fingers moving to grip the edge of my seat. My hold was hard enough to cause the wood to creek under my grip as circulation disappeared from my fingers.

"Oh? Where is he now?" Klaus asked and I met his gaze.

"I don't know." I answered, honestly. The only type of emotion Klaus portrayed was the clench of his jaw and the whitening of his fingertips which tightened on the glass in his hand.

"Is he alive?" Klaus asked and I nodded, slowly.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know and I don't care." I state.

"Liar." Klaus retorts and my eyes narrow into furious slits on him. The glass in his hand explodes, curtesy of my wrath. He didn't do it, but he didn't seem shocked by it either. Liquid droplets scattered along his chest, but he just dropped the broken shards, not breaking eye contact with me.

"You do care. It's why you hunt the damned. You think that all of their paths cross at one point or another, and you can't wait for the day when you cross paths with the one man who absolutely destroyed you. You want to find him, because you want to kill him."

I bit my bottom lip, shaking my head feverishly while my wet eyes searched the ground. "No." I croak out, the first tear falling.

"I never want to see him again!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, not having time to take notice in the explosions to my right or left. Images of cold, dark brown eyes danced across my mind. There had been so much pain. So much fear and betrayal that I thought for sure I would suffocate. If not from his body weight on top of me, then the emotions his violation caused.

Gentle hands brought me back from that black abyss. I focused my attention through the hazy fog coating my mind. Our gazes locked and I realized he was wiping the tears from my face. His arms wrapped around me tightly and I fought against him, desperately wanting to deny my need for comfort. I didn't do that, but I was so tired. Tired of fighting and tired of denying. My body fell into his and I dropped my forehead onto his shoulder, surrendering.

"You have feelings, Caroline. You just don't want to acknowledge them because you know if you do, then there's a chance the pain could kill you. I'm telling you right now, sweetheart, that's impossible. You're too strong." He murmured against my ear and I blinked at his neck. He was wrong. It wasn't that I didn't know how to acknowledge my feelings, they just didn't exist. And if they did, they were buried far too deep.

"I'm dead inside, Klaus. It's like there's something in me, rotting its way from the inside. I can't kill it with my knives or destroy it with my magic, it's just there and it's killing me. I'm defenseless."

He didn't respond. I didn't want him to. Klaus pulled away and I pulled my knees to my chest, watching as he glided back, sitting on the ground at a fair distance from me.

"You trusted this Donavan kid enough to sleep with him. Why?" Klaus asked and my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Because he was sweet and I knew he wouldn't hurt me when taking my virginity. I was wrong about that, though." I muttered, more to myself than him. When I looked back at him, he looked perplexed. Like he had a question but wasn't sure if he should ask it or not. I waited and he cleared his throat.

"But, uh, I thought you said your father . . ." He trailed off and I understood what he was asking.

"He didn't rape me like that." I whispered and Klaus blinked, then I got my reaction.

"He sodomized you." Klaus wasn't talking to me, anymore. He had that look in his eyes. You know, the one where humanity just seeped away and all that was left was a black shadow of ferocious anger.

"How old were you?" He asked, gritting his teeth.

"Six and eight." I answer.

Klaus stood up and started to pace. I glanced to the side, before slowly standing. I watched him rake his fingers through his hair as his mouth moved and sounds emerged, but I couldn't make them out. I wasn't even sure if he was speaking a language known to man.

There was a knock on the door and it opened, "Sir, I have-." Katherine wasn't able to finish because Klaus moved, faster than I could have ever imagined. He grabbed her throat and without having a moment's hesitation, snapped her neck. When her body fell his leg extended, colliding with her torso and sending her soaring down the hall. Where she landed awkwardly. I stared at her before looking back at Klaus. His chest heaved and his eyes were no longer blue, but a startling gold that seemed to emanate liquid fire.

He squatted and lifted the clothes Katherine had brought. "Get dressed." He snapped and then left the room, the door rattling shut behind him. I cringed and then whistled low under my breath. Well, I guess I wasn't the only one with anger issues.

OOO

"You told him?" Elena asked as we walked through the mall. After Klaus had disappeared from the room, Damon had arrived a little later. Only to inform me that I was free to go. When I asked him why Klaus was giving up his hours, he smirked, and told me the deal I had made gives Klaus twenty four hours a month and that there was nothing in the agreement that stated those twenty four hours had to happen all at once. So . . . yeah. Looks like I didn't really get out of that hour bet with the upper hand.

I wasn't too upset about it though. I'm sure once my depression at telling Klaus wears off, I'll be pissed, but until then I really don't care. "Yeah." I sigh, answering Elena's question.

"Wow, you didn't even tell Matt. Why'd you tell him?" She asked and I shrugged, flipping through the clothes.

"I don't know. He just asked and I told him. We were playing a questions game or something." I huffed and spun away in a storm of my own self-anger. Elena followed, unaffected by my mini-tantrum.

"So he has twenty four hours a month to bend you to his will, and he can cash them in whenever he pleases. Either all at once or all some here and there?" She asked bewildered and I huffed.

"He said hours. Not days. You can't duplicate a day, so I guess I should have realized, but I didn't. Although, I'm nearly positive that he won't hurt me, so . . ." I trailed off, not having anything else to say. She didn't respond. I cast her a glance.

"What about you? Where's Romeo?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Did you know that Romeo was like eighteen or nineteen and Juliet was thirteen? I don't understand why people call it a love story when in reality it was probably akin to an illegal relationship, which also resulted in the death of six people." Elena finally took in breath after getting all of that out. I looked at her.

Now that you are done informing me of useless facts, where is knight Stefan?" I deadpan and she shrugs.

"We broke up." She grumbles and my eyebrows launch up.

"As in, you're not having sex anymore?" I asked and her gaze turned dry.

"No, we're not." She grumbles and I hum.

"Interesting." I say, softly. Her eyes narrow on me in suspicion.

"That's it? No squealing or dancing to the heavens? No party planning? Just a muffled 'interesting'?" She exclaims loudly. I glanced at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize one celebrated an obsession of the devil henchman." I hissed and gasped, storming after me as I stormed away her.

"I'm not sleeping with him." Elena growls and I turned on her, eyes wide and accusing.

"I never said you did. I said you were obsessed with him, but it seems you thought I meant sex. So, how was it?" I asked, smirking. She glared.

"Oh, bite me." She returned, stomping off. I laughed.

OOO

I leaned against the metal railing looking out to the ocean after dropping Elena off. I didn't know what to make of Klaus and his moods which always seemed to be constantly changing, then again, I don't really think I'm one to talk.

"You'll be his damnation."

I didn't need to turn around to recognize the voice or think about my response.

"He's already damned." I continued to watch the ocean roar and rage. I glanced back at her, she molded from the shadows as if she were a shadow herself.

"There are fates worse than hell." She answered and I scoffed.

"You are Mother Earth. How come you aren't all down to earth and kind?" I deadpan and she smirks.

"I am the creator of all things on this planet. There are others like me, responsible for the environment of other planets. I control this one and in turn, I control everything about it. I am God of Earth." She spoke with clear diction and I rolled my eyes.

"Arrogant, too." I commented, turning away.

"I didn't say I was the God, Caroline. All planets have their own God and then there is the God of all of us. I'm ruler of Earth and Klaus is ruler of Hell. My husband is ruler of your heaven." She shrugged.

"I don't have a heaven, my soul - what's left of it – belongs to your son. My devil. What could be worse than hell?" I demanded and she leaned close, to whisper in my ear.

"Love. It's our downfall. Because it's the only thing that can't die or change over time." She moved behind me and my jaw tightened.

"You'll damn the devil and you'll destroy hell itself. You will be responsible for burning the world to ash. Because the devil can't be the devil if he loves." She purred and I spun on on her, getting into her face.

"Is that a threat? Because if it's a threat, Esther, Mother Nature, God, whatever the fuck you want to call yourself, then you need to know something very important about me. I may be a bit naïve about emotions and my anger is akin to a tornado electric storm, but fear is something I'm an expert on. And guess what? I'm not afraid of you." I say, staring her dead in the eye to let her know just how deadly serious I was.

"You should be. Or at the very least, you should be afraid of Niklaus. He's the devil, darling. Don't make the mistake so many others have." She purred, stroking my cheek. It took every ounce of energy I had to not rip her hand off. She turned away and moved back toward the alley.

"What mistake would that be?" I called before she could disappear again and she hesitated before turning her head to look back at me.

"Believing you actually matter." Then she drifted away, like she was nothing more than air.

My lips parted and the waves of insecurities Klaus told me to always ignore, came like a tsunami, ripping apart any and all walls of trust I had built. They were gone, in the blink of an eye.