Chapter 14

It was lunch time and Klaus couldn't find Caroline anywhere. "Have you seen Caroline?" He asked a small, brown haired girl with green eyes who was in Caroline's Chemistry class. Klaus knew her name but he often forgot it. She had a name like Sara or Sadie, something common.

"She wasn't even in Chemistry, she was only here for History and then she left." The brunette replied and twirled her hair around her pink, polished fingernail.

Klaus's face went taut, he was thinking the worst. Either she had fallen sleep somewhere or she was already dead. Oh god, please no! Not Caroline, his Caroline! Klaus tried to remain calm by taking deep breaths, he didn't know anything for sure yet, and she was probably fine. Hopefully. "So, you don't know where she went?" He calmly asked.

She clicked her tongue and spoke in a Valley girl voice, "Well, I heard Mr. Saltzman tell Ms. Penny that she had to go home due to a family emergency. Something about someone named Freddy. seemed to know what he was talking about."

Klaus sighed in relief, she was safe but what was this business about Freddy? How did and know about Freddy? Did they all know Freddy when they were younger? What the hell was going on with this town? "Ah, thank you. I gotta go." Klaus said and turned to leave but was stopped by the principal, Mr. Hunter.

"You can't leave school without a note." Mr. Hunter said and tapped his foot on the ground in an impatient matter.

"Listen, it's important. I have to see Caroline!" Klaus raised his voice causing students to stare. He was desperate enough to yell at a teacher, even the principal.

Mr. Hunter gave Klaus a stern look and pointed his finger. "Do not raise your voice at me Klaus, I could easily give you detention."

Klaus rolled his eyes before screaming his friend's names, "JEREMY! ELENA!" He hollered again and again until his lungs began to burn from screaming so loud.

"That's it, you're coming with me." Mr. Hunter grabbed Klaus by the arm and walked him to the office.

Klaus continued to shout, "ELENA! JEREMY!" If he was going to be in the office for the rest of the day, then he needed to know that Elena and Jeremy would take care of Caroline. They would have to stick together and look out for each other, they all needed each other.

Jeremy wandered up to Klaus with a confused expression. Elena came up from the other end of the hall. "What's going on?" Elena asked with books in her hands. Jeremy said, "Klaus, are you okay?"

"Go see Caroline, she's at her house. Please, go!" Klaus shouted just as the principal shoved him into the house and slammed the door.

Elena looked at Jeremy. "Well, I guess we're going to Caroline's house." She muttered.

Jeremy flashed a goofy smile. "Can I drive?" He asked as they walked out.

Elena looped her arm through her brother's. "Sure, why not?"

Jeremy started up the engine and smiled. Elena was sitting in the passenger seat as she took a sip of coffee.

"I'm going to phone Caroline to tell her we're coming over. I wonder why Klaus was acting so weird back there?" Elena said.

Jeremy shrugged and then began to drive. "I have no idea."

Elena dialed Caroline's number but there was no answer. She tried one more time but it went straight to voice mail. "Hmm, that's weird. No answer."

Jeremy frowned. "Care usually always answers her phone."

"Do you think something has happened to her?" Elena asked in a low voice.

Jeremy shook his head. "No, Caroline is fine. I know she is, she's fine." He said as if trying to convince himself.

Elena gulped. "I hope you're right."

Elena and Jeremy both stepped out of the car and made their way to Caroline's house. The blinds were drawn shut and the lights were off.

"What the hell?" Jeremy whispered and walked up to her front door.

"I have a very bad feeling about this." Elena whispered back and went to knock.

That's when they noticed metal bars on the doors and the windows, the whole house was on lockdown. The bars had a small key lock on the door. It could only be opened from the inside or if you had the keys.

"Shit! How're we supposed to get inside then?" Jeremy yelled and groaned before banging his hands on the door. "CAROLINE!"

Elena shushed him with a smack to his shoulder. "Be quiet! What if her mom is home? What will she think if we're banging on her door when we're supposed to be at school and we look like hood rats?"

"We're not hood rats!" He cried. "Fine then, but how are we going to get inside?"

Elena smirked. "Oh, I know a way."

Jeremy cocked his head to the side. "How?"

"We're going to go through the chimney." She grabbed his arm and pulled him through the backyard. "C'mon!"

Jeremy sighed. "Let me guess, I'm going to boost you up there?"

Elena nodded and walked by a rose bush. "I'm going to climb up here, and go up onto the roof." She looked at him. "And you're going to boost me up there and I'll text you once I'm inside."

Jeremy sighed and then nodded in agreement. "Fine, but be careful. Get Caroline and come right out."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." She replied and rolled her eyes.

Jeremy crouched down and cupped his hands together, making something for Elena to jump onto. "Okay, step into my hands and I'll give you a boost."

Elena nodded and went to step onto her brother's hands. From there, she carefully climbed up onto the roof, thank god that the roof wasn't that far from the ground like some houses were. She smiled at her brother from the roof and gave him a thumbs up before going over to the chimney. She took a deep breath and smoothed her hair before whispering, "Here goes nothing…" She then proceeded to go down the chimney.

Elena slid out easily and stood up. She coughed from the dust in the chimney and quickly went up the stairs. She put her hand on the door handle and opened it. She walked carefully around the room, Caroline wasn't in here. Where was she?

She froze when she saw her clothes on the ground. The outfit she had let Caroline borrow. She picked up the green shirt, it was soaked with blood and the front was shredded. Freddy's marks.

"Oh shit." Elena dropped the top and went to the bathroom. Bloody, vomit was in the toilet and blood was all over the floor. There was also a dead, floating maggot in the toilet bowl.

Elena covered her mouth in shock as a sob escaped her mouth. Suddenly, Elena's phone vibrated. Freddy had murdered Caroline! Or worse, he had stolen her and brought her into dreamland, for good. She picked her phone up and discovered that it was a text from Caroline. Elena let out a relieved, "Yes!" She opened the text up and it read,

Caroline: I'm at the hosp, mom brought me here bcuz of Freddy. Anyway, long story but she believes us now. Can u plz come to the hosp? I have some bad news."

Bad news? What was Caroline's bad news? Elena pushed any worrying thoughts out of her head before replying with,

Elena: SO glad you're okay and sure, Jer and I will be there as fast as we can. Klaus is in detention so he won't be there unless, we could sneak him out?"

A minute later, Caroline replied.

Caroline: Okay, go sneak him out and then come here. Hurry plz."

Elena: I will. Elena hit send.

Elena walked out of the room and went down the stairs, out the door. She went around to the backyard to Jeremy.

Jeremy was sitting with his knees pulled to his chest, head down. A muffled sob escaped his throat as he gripped the ground with his hand.

"Jeremy?" Elena called and walked slowly to him.

Jeremy lifted his head up to look at his sister. His cheeks were soaked with tears. "Hi, Elena." He said with a weak smile.

Elena frowned and sat beside her brother on the ground. She pulled him into her arms. "What's wrong? Caroline is at the hospital and she wants us to come with Klaus so we should get going."

Jeremy looked at his sister with his brown, blood-shot eyes. "Katherine is dead." He whispered, his gaze lingering.

Elena narrowed her eyes. "What? No, she can't be. Katherine is fine; she's probably at some coffee shop right now. I mean... We were going to look for her after school, she can't be dead." Elena whispered.

"That's where she died." Jeremy replied. "At a coffee shop." He pulled out his phone to show her the news article, "SEVENTEEN YEAR-OLD KATHERINE GILBERT DIES AT LOCAL COFFEE SHOP." The article showed Katherine's school picture, she was grinning, dressed in a pale blue summer dress and her hair was half up-half down. She was free of sadness and despair, such a long time ago. Now, everything had changed. This once happy girl was now dead.

Jeremy scrolled down farther on the page, past a few paragraphs and stopped on a picture of Katherine's face after her death. Katherine's face was a bloody mess and her mouth had been mutilated into a variation of the Glasgow smile.

Elena leaned on the ground and quickly twisted her hair out of her face before throwing up on the ground. She dry heaved for a few moments after she puked before coming back up from the ground and whispering, "No."

She froze, her stomach twisted with anxiety and disbelief. "No, she can't be dead." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "No, no, no!" Elena's raised her voice. "She can't be dead! No, no, no." She smacked the phone out of Jeremy's hand, smashing it in to pieces on the ground. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean too!" She sobbed and covered her face with her hands.

"Elena, it's going to be okay." Jeremy whispered. He began to rock her back and forth in his arms. "Katherine is in a better place now, free of all this shit." He spat the last word.

Elena went weak in her brother's arms, she felt so empty. "She can't be dead. She can't be dead. She can't be dead." She repeated over and over.

"She is dead." Jeremy replied and rubbed her wrist. He moved her face towards his. "We're going to avenge her death, that bastard isn't going to get away with this. We are going to get Klaus and then we're going to go to the hospital to come up with a plan to kill Freddy. We're going to kill Freddy Krueger."

Elena wiped away her tears and glared at the ground. "You're right, you're so right. No one gets away with hurting a Gilbert, it's the Gilbert way."

Jeremy flashed a weak smile. "That's what dad taught us, to stand up for what we believe, even if it causes death. Now that I think about it, dad taught us so much on how to defend ourselves. "

"This town has seen so much death." Elena whispered.

"I know, I know. After this war between Freddy and our friends, we'll have our own funeral for all of the friends we lost. It's the right thing to do." Jeremy leaned his chin on Elena's shoulder.

"Okay." Elena whispered through tears.

A minute later, he pulled Elena up. "C'mon, let's go save Klaus from that awful office. We have a bastard to kill." Jeremy smirked.

Elena glanced at the ground, at Jeremy's smashed cell phone. "Sorry about your cell phone, I shouldn't have done that."

Jeremy let out a small laugh and shook his head. "Oh Elena, that's the least of my concerns right now. I could give two shits about my phone." He grabbed her hand and pulled her to their car. They sat off to see Klaus, to rescue him from that dreadful office with the jackass principal.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed and please review, favourite and follow!