Chapter Fourteen – Little Hell

There's a degree of difficulty in dealing with me
From my haunted past comes a daunting task of living through memories
If we could just hang a mirror on the bedroom wall, stare into the past and forget it all
Will we get out of this little hell?

"Hi," Caroline said softly as Klaus walked into her bedroom. He had been in it several times not but this was the first time he had actually been invited in by Caroline herself. She looked so small engulfed in the covers and pillows of her bed. Caroline was always made up and perfect, but twice now he had seen her like this. No make-up, no hairspray. Caroline donned these items like armor, but here she was defenseless. The first time she was not given a choice, she needed to be saved, but this time she invited him in. For some reason, this thought put him on edge. He paused at the door as he closed it behind him, part of him afraid he would break her or do more damage to her if he got too close.

"Caroline, how are you feeling?" he asked, his hand resting on the dresser as he watched her carefully, looking her over and checking for any injuries that had not yet healed. Aside from the sunken in eyes, she looked to be healed.

"Fine," she said, beginning to push herself up against the pillows so she was no longer reclined.

He walked over to help her, one arm resting on her back as the other wrapped gently around her arm, slowly easing her up against the headboard. Relinquishing his hold on her once she was situated, he stood next to the bed, his hands hanging at his sides. His mind was torn between the image of her battered and bloodied in Connor's make shift torture chamber and that of her eyes fluttering closed as she leaned in to press her lips to his and for once in his life, he wasn't sure where to start.

"Are you-"

"Did he-"

They both began at the same time, pausing when they heard the other speak, both giving a small smile, "You can sit down, you know?" Her eyes glanced down at the empty spot on the edge of her bed before looking back at him.

He raised an eyebrow, almost as if to ask if she was sure before he took his seat next to her. His eyes fixed on her hand as she played with the edge of her comforter, a nervous habit of hers he had noticed over the last year. His own hands set idly in his lap, resisting the urge to reach out and take hers. "Are you sure you're alright, love?"

"So now we're back to love?" she asked, looking at him with a hint of a smirk on her lips. "I'm alright. It's nothing I haven't been through before," she said, her eyes avoiding his.

He could tell she was struggling to keep the fading smile on her face. He had to give her credit for that. Most wouldn't be able to pretend everything was fine when they had just been through an ordeal like Caroline's. "You said you didn't tell him anything," he said, pausing when he saw her throat tighten, "what did he want to know?"

She looked down at her hands, fiddling with them in her lap as she tried to keep her voice even while she thought about it. "He wanted to know about his tattoo and why you were so interested in him. He kept saying he didn't believe me, that I must have overheard something." She looked up at him and he could see the tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. "I knew if I told him anything, he would just kill me and leave town, try to figure it out on his own. I didn't want to ruin everything we were working for because I couldn't take a li..little torture."

He knew that it was more than a little torture and as happy as he was she had held out and not gotten herself killed, he hated that she had done it to protect his plans. He let out a breath before letting go of his hesitation and taking her hand, "It wasn't just a little torture, Caroline."

Her eyes met his as the tears began to spill over her bottom lid, running down her cheeks. Her throat, tight and dry, would not allow her to speak, so instead she shook her head. It hadn't been a little torture. It had been the single worst thing she had ever experienced and she couldn't imagine anything worse.

He found himself moving closer to her, settling back against the headboard next to her. His arm wrapped around her body, bringing her close against his chest. She could have pushed him away, but something told him she wouldn't. He felt her settle there, her face burying against the crook of his neck without saying a word. He nearly broke the silence, but then he felt her hand grasp at the fabric of his shirt. His lips dropped to her temple as he rubbed circles over her back. Being comforting was not his forte. He excelled at giving pain rather than taking it away, but making her feel safe felt like second nature.

"It wasn't just the stakes and bullets," she whimpered into his chest, her hand gripping his shirt tighter, "There was a bath tub…with vervain and he just kept pushing he down underneath it. And I tried to fight him, I tried so hard, but no blood and I couldn't breathe." Her whole body shook as she told him what had happened. It was all she could think about; the feeling of the vervain forcing its way in her mouth and down her throat over every part of her skin. "Don't tell anyone. Please."

Klaus's body tightened underneath hers when she began to tell him what happened. Connor would pay for that, he would make sure of that. Each and every thing he did to hurt Caroline, Klaus would make sure he felt ten times worse. Caroline didn't speak again. His fingers traced her shoulder blades, as the quakes of her body began to subside until he was sure she was no longer crying, but neither of them made an effort to move.

He realized she was drifting off to sleep and shifted lower on the bed, keeping her close. He probably should have left, but he was selfish and if this was his only opportunity to feel her in his arms, sleeping on his chest, he was going to take it. It was better than the empty bed waiting for him back at the mansion. She settled against his chest once again, her eyes already closed.

"Maybe this could work…" she mumbled against the fabric of his shirt as he wrapped his arm around her once again. He thought about her words, but said nothing. He just let a small smile take over his lips as he closed his eyes.

Klaus was unsure what time it was, but he was awoken to Caroline sitting on the edge of the bed looking down at him. He gave her a quizzical look, before looking at the clock, it was just after three and he couldn't think of a possible reason for her to be awake.

"I think you should go," she said, raising an eyebrow as she pulled her robe around herself tighter. "This was a mistake. I really don't know what I was thinking letting you get into bed with me. I don't want you here."

Klaus cocked his head to the side, "Sweetheart, it's the middle of the night, I think you should go back to sleep. You've been through a lot today."

She stood from the bed, shaking her head. "Stop with the 'sweetheart' and the 'love'. I'm not any of those things for you and we both know that. You just keep getting your hopes up for something that's never going to happen. It's getting pretty pathetic, you know. I almost feel bad for you." She set her hand on her hip and looked down at him.

"You're not real," he whispered as the realization fell on him. He remembered back to a time over a thousand years ago when he experienced a similar phenomenon. The repercussions for killing a hunter.

"How can you be so sure about that, Klaus? I hated you a month ago. Do you really think things can change that much in a month? You haven't changed in a thousand years. You are just a cold and heartless murderer."

"I endured over fifty-two years of this torture before, you're going to have to do a lot better than that if you think you are going to break me," he challenged.

"Who says I'm trying to break you?" she asked, straddling his lap. Her hand tugged on the robe tie and letting it hang open, revealing her black lace bra and knickers. "Maybe I'm just trying to show you what you're never going to have. You know Tyler did, all the time. Even Damon," she challenged him. "I may not be real, but you know that I feel this way. I'm never actually going to care about you." He closed his eyes, willing it away, careful not to touch her. "You want to know a secret?" Caroline leaned in close to his ear, "I know where the white oak stake is, all you have to do is ask."

Klaus's eyes snapped open finding nothing but Caroline's ceiling. She was still sound asleep, her head resting comfortably on him as her curls fanned out over his chest. It seemed as though she had curled even closer to him in her sleep and that was the only thing that gave him comfort over the nightmare. He couldn't move without disturbing her, so he stayed still, his mind wandering back to those years in the 1100s.

When the hallucinations began, they had frightened him. He had no idea what he was up against. They came in all different forms. Sometimes the hunters he had killed. Sometimes his siblings or parents, people he had killed. He never knew what to expect, but they always sent him reaching for stakes or daggers or whatever he could get his hands on. Elijah and Rebekah did what they could, but they often found him in the aftermath of various failed attempts at suicide. Of course, he couldn't kill himself. There was only one thing that could kill him and according to the nightmare, Caroline knew where to find it. He couldn't think about that. After so many years, he had learned to deal with them. The hallucinations subsided eventually, but the urge was there for more than half a century. The overwhelming desire to end his life was completely consuming. He had thought perhaps turning the hunter first would break the bond and spare him from the hallucinations, but the witches would have covered that loophole.

He closed his eyes, trying to sleep for the rest of the evening, but found it impossible. The dream turned to a hallucination, each one worse than the last until he finally found himself hovering above Caroline with his hands above her neck. She had been Esther a few moments before and now he found her looking up at him with fear in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her breath quickening. She didn't remember falling asleep, but she remembered him being there before. It was all strange to her still. Them in bed together, but the strangeness gave way to concern when he began to speak.

"You were Esther, now you're Caroline," he said, sinking back into the other side of the bed. His head fell into his hands. It had only been hours and he wasn't sure what was real anymore. Was Caroline really there or would he wake to find her asleep once again?

Caroline looked at him with concern. A few moments ago he looked as though he was going to kill her and now he looked terrified crouched onto the edge of the bed. "Klaus, I'm not Esther. I'm Caroline," she said slowly, moving closer to him. "What is going on?"

He ran his hand over his face before looking over at her. "When a hunter is killed by that which it hunts, there is a bit of a consequence. Hallucinations, vivid and sometimes violent. They can be anything and everything. They don't stop until the hunter has claimed his last victim, the being who killed him. It happened once before. Nine hundred years ago when I killed the original hunters."

"And you killed Connor…" she whispered, pulling the covers up over her lap. Her mind began to wrap around the idea. "So how do we stop them? How did you stop them the last time?" she asked.

"I didn't," he told her weakly, his eyes looking up to meet hers. "Fifty-two years, four months, and nine days of never knowing what was real and what was my mind. It was the only part of my life I've ever actually felt time. They couldn't affect me much, even if I listened to them, there was no way I could end my life, but that didn't stop me from trying. Eventually, they stopped one day without warning, but with this recent row with the hunter, they seem to have come back."

He didn't look up at her while he spoke, his eyes fixed on his hands and Caroline couldn't help but think this was the only time she had ever seen him appear weak. She couldn't imagine fifty-two years of not wanting to live, of not knowing what was real and what was his own mind playing tricks on him. Her hand reached out to touch his shoulder. "We'll figure it out," she said softly, trying to calm him. Unlike Klaus, comfort was her forte, but what would comfort Klaus was lost on her. "I'm real okay? Just remember that."

Her touch seemed to calm him if only slightly. He wanted to scoff at her words, she had not been real a few hours before, but he knew she was trying and the weight of her hand on his shoulder told him she was right. He reached for it, feeling it in his hand as he calmed the trembling in his body that seeing Esther had caused.

"We're going to figure this out and we'll stop them," she tried to reassure him. "I can't have you hallucinating on our date."

His head shot in her direction. "Date?" he asked suspiciously, wondering if once again he had been tricked into believing she was real when she wasn't.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about when I called you in earlier. Didn't get a chance," she said, sheepishly. Her eyes rose to meet his. She had never been the queen of all things appropriate. Now was probably not the best time to ask him on a date, but she was hoping it would give him something tether to. She had seen Inception enough times to know that you needed a tether when you didn't know what was real and what wasn't and maybe she could be his. "I want you to take me on a date. A proper one. I don't want to just have stolen kisses or almost kisses and I'm tired of fighting this. If there's something between us, I just want to know."

A smile crept across his lips. He opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly cut off by Connor's looming presence on the other side of Caroline. "Too bad you aren't going to make it to that date," The man said, crossing his arms as he stared at him. "I will make sure of that."

"You are dead, Hunter," Klaus said, scrambling from the bed.

"Actually, I'm not. You made sure of that, but you still interrupted my mission, didn't you? You still killed me," Connor said.

Caroline watched helplessly as Klaus spoke to the air, growling and snarling as he yelled. She wanted to help, but he seemed to be lost in his own world. She tried to talk to him, but he didn't respond. It was like he couldn't even hear her. He was too busy arguing with his own imagination. He finally stormed out of the house and Caroline followed after him, meeting her mother in the hallway.

"What the hell happened?" Liz asked, standing in the hallway in her pajamas with her gun in hand.

"I don't know, but he's hallucinating and I need to call Stefan."

Author's Note: Hi, sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. I thought I just had a cold, but it's quickly become bronchitis so I'm dealing with that, but I got the chapter done so that's what counts. I hope you guys enjoy!