Chapter 13: Chapter 11
Caroline walks through the white, shaking in her own numbness as she stares straight ahead at the nothingness. "Caroline," a voice calls to her left. "Caroline," another calls to her right. She blinks and finds two people stood before her. A woman and a boy, both in medieval dress of simple cotton and leather. The boy has long dark hair and big eyes, dark brown and glimmering with hope. He looks like a little Kol, she thinks. The woman has pale blonde-red hair, her dull green eyes filled with cold hatred. "Come, Caroline," she says in a strict tone. "No, you mustn't go with her!" The boy shouts quickly, stepping forwards. "Please, come with me. You have to choose the right path. Please, not her!" Caroline looks between them and swallows, taking a step to the right - towards Henrik.
Klaus feels Caroline's hand twitch in his own and tenses, staring at her face in the hopes that this time - that this movement - was the one that had her wake... It isn't. "Nik," Stefan chokes out across the bed, sat on Caroline's other side. "She'll wake up. She has to. Just be patient." Klaus growls out, "That's fine for you to say. Your mate isn't the one lost in her own mind!" Bonnie walks in and sighs. "She's not lost in her mind. She's on the line between our side and the other side. The spirits need her. I don't know what for."
"Of course they do," Klaus mutters, resting his head on her arm and letting the tears fall without the others seeing. Stefan sighs and rises from the chair, letting Bonnie sit in with Caroline as he leaves to see Rebekah and Elijah.
"How were there sightings? Shouldn't he have died?" Rebekah shouts frustratedly. "Who?" Stefan asks, walking in and earning worried looks from his family. "What?" He asks worriedly. "Mikael," Elijah finally answers. "He was seen in Paris trying to recruit more witches. They're all refusing him, though. It seems Caroline has their support, rather than Mikael."
"And the Seekers," Rebekah adds, spitting out the word like plague. "We'll be fine, Bekah," Stefan reassures, wrapping her in his arms and pressing a kiss in her hair. "I promise."
Henrik takes her hand and Esther disappears with a shrill scream that has her cringing. "Come, Caroline," Henrik smiles softly, leading her through the white. A flash overcomes her and she looks around at the field. A younger Henrik and Klaus are out looking at the wild horses. Caroline knows this is from when Nik was human. His hair is long and wavy, his face bright with youth despite the plum bruise on his cheek. "Oh, Nik," she breathes sadly as he winces, smiling slightly less so he doesn't stretch out his sore cheek.
"Mikael had been especially hard on him the night before. But this was not the worst beating he has received," Henrik explains. "I want you to see him as he is. As Niklaus and not just Nik. Are you ready to see every part of his mind? Not just his memories, but his thoughts and internal workings." She nods without hesitation and Henrik smiles sadly. "It will hurt."
Barely does he manage the warning before she's hit by every thought and feeling of the last thousand years. She's seen his life, but never from his actual perspective with his mind. Falling to her knees, her hand tightens on Henrik's but she doesn't care. He's a ghost, he won't feel the pain. Screaming out, tears flood her face and her body is wrecked with every physical abuse, all the mental and emotion abuse breaking her heart.
Then it stops and there's no hand in hers. She's back in the white, tears streaming down her cheeks and exhaustion smothering her.
She forces herself to her feet but stumbles forwards, landing in a pair of arms. "Woah, there, babydoll," a voice chuckles. Looking up, she finds a familiar dark man with a brilliant smile. "Marcel," she whispers, his face falling slightly. "His humanity," he corrects sadly. She now notes his aristocrat style, ridiculous in a modern century with his modern tongue. "I know. I look like a clown," he chuckles, shaking his head. "But it's easier for me to be like this to show you my humanity than to look like the vampire version of me that's being whipped by Mikael."
She frowns as he wraps an arm around her waist and walks her through another blinding light in to a room. They stand off to the side, where a puffy-haired Klaus and regal looking Rebekah are at each others' throats. Marcel, a boy that barely reaches Klaus' shoulders, runs over and tugs on his arm, pleading for them to stop. They do. Klaus' eyes soften and he smiles at Marcel warmly, asking for forgiveness.
"I never should've joined Mikael, but he told me Niklaus killed my brother," Marcel tells her, sitting her in a corner seat to recover for a while. "I took New Orléans when he ran away. I should've known Mikael would want me to betray him, for Klaus to feel he could trust no one. It took years to find him, and when I did I turned off my emotions. I saw he was a teacher, at that school for extraordinary kids. A supernatural school. I knew he was a man who could care, he had cared for me at one time, but I never saw him actually opening up a safe-haven for other children, teaching them to control themselves and their powers... I didn't even stick around long enough to learn there was more to the world than vampires, witches and werewolves. I'd only just scratched the surface of the world and I left the man who knew what the core looked like."
"Why are you telling me this?" She asks him softly, watching tears come to his eyes. "I need to know you'll kill me. You'll let him kill me when the time comes and you will never leave his side. Once you do, you lose him forever and it's torture because maybe he'll replace you with something or someone else. It's the worst thing in the world. Just... Promise me you will kill me. I do not want to live in this world any longer than I have. I've lost everything, Caroline. I am a broken man and I do not deserve life. Swear on Niklaus' life that you'll kill me."
"I swear on Niklaus' life that you will die," she answers shortly, watching as Klaus brings young Marcel on to his shoulders and walks away with the laughing boy down the stairs, Rebekah's softened eyes following them longingly. She always has wanted a child, Caroline knows that.
AN: So... It's short but it's something. I'm still at war with myself, but at least now it's the Christmas holidays. Just in case I don't update in the next 5 days, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays... Whichever you prefer. Just enjoy your time off from responsibilities like I am. Oh, and Happy New Year if I don't update by then, too. Having an even worse time, to be honest, because my psycho-whatever doesn't know what to diagnose me as and I found out an old friend was weeks off from dying when diagnosed with leukemia. However, life goes on, I suppose. Maybe in the new year I'll have something going for me. I'll try and update more regularly, too.
