Minutes had slowly trickled by and the empty seat next to Klaus had started to deafeningly shout at him. No longer was he entranced by the story depicted in the movie, but he was rather staring at the entrance, waiting for Caroline to come back. Waiting for the woman who'd managed to sway his entire world to return, flashing that blinding smile as if the sword of Damocles did not constantly hang over their heads. As if he hadn't unconsciously lured her into a dangerous dance with death itself.
However, she was nowhere to be seen. In fact, as he'd gotten more and more restless, he'd started counting the seconds gone by in which Caroline had not returned. So far he'd gotten at 267.
Still no trace of Caroline.
He'd even tried to listen for any sign of an argument between the feisty blonde and either a person at the queue or the cashier that might explain her lateness, but the loud movie permitted no outer sound to penetrate the projection room.
Once 400 seconds had gone by, the gaping hole next to him had become impossible to ignore. Nor could he drown out the petty voice in his head screaming that something horrible was bound to have happened. Hastily standing up, Klaus all but ran out of the movie theatre throwing a murderous glare at a mother who'd dared complain about him blocking her child's view. Suffice it to say, the poor woman had been immediately silenced and he effectively exited the loud theatre, slamming the door with all of his might.
She had to be outside. She had to. The alternative was too sickening to consider.
With a sinking heart he noted that the cashier was squinting at his phone, taking advantage of the lack of customers. However that only meant that Caroline was not there.
Where could she be?
Maybe she'd felt unwell and gone to the bathroom.
Not wasting another second, he darted towards the bored young man, ripping the device from his hands. "Have you seen a blonde woman, about 25 years old, wavy hair and green eyes?" he all but shouted ignoring the angry protests as they slowly died down upon grasping the magnitude of the man's despair.
"Yeah, she was here a couple of minutes ago. Ordered a medium popcorn."
"Do you know where she went after that?"
The bathroom, it had to be the bathroom. Caroline would not be foolish enough to step foot outside, this late and alone. Not after all he'd told her. There was no way even she would be that foolhardy.
"Outside," the cashier tore whatever hope he'd dared harbor to tiny little shards. "I think she saw somebody she knew by the entrance and went to greet them."
Immediately mercury eyes drifted towards the glass door, only to find it shrouded in darkness and completely void of any sign of human life. The cinema employee apparently did the same, helplessly shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, man, but I did not see her afterwards. However…" he hesitated for a split second. "I think the guy she saw was a doctor or at least was wearing a white robe and he appeared quite upset, to be honest."
"Did you see his face?"
At the apologetic shake of the head, Klaus felt like the Earth had just opened and swallowed him whole. There was no pertinent reason why a medic would be lingering outside the door to the cinema this late into the night. Furthermore, there was no reason why Caroline would go with him and forget to let Klaus know. She was reckless, he knew that, but she was also not suicidal and highly intelligent. So Mikael had to have tricked her into accompanying him.
But how? And more importantly, how had he even gotten this close to her when Klaus was supposed to have been protecting her? Could it be that Mikael was destined to win every single confrontation between them? No, he couldn't afford his mindset to slip into defeat. Not while the war with his stepfather was still raging on. Not with Caroline's life on the line.
Pulling himself together, he sprinted out of the theater, the cold air harshly biting his skin, but he barely noticed. All he could think about was Caroline.
A quick sweep of the parking lot revealed that it was utterly void of any human being and, at first he couldn't make out anything remotely out of place.
But then he saw it.
In the beginning, what drew his attention was the opened trunk of his car. He always locked up after himself- years of constantly looking over your shoulder did that to someone's habits. Tonight had been no different. He was sure. The second thing that he spotted was scattered popcorn and only once he'd approached the scene did he note the final, sickening detail.
Specks of fresh blood marred the pavement, removing any lingering doubts from his mind. Briefly hesitating, Klaus got down on his haunches, dipping the tips of his fingers into the liquid. Still warm, still fresh.
If only he'd listened to his gut sooner. He might have been able to prevent this.
A chill ran through his body at the thought of what Mikael could be doing to Caroline in that very instant. The man never ran short of torture methods and to imagine him exacting them on the purest of souls was a cruelty that tore at the very seams of his heart. And it was all because of him. If only he'd stayed away none of this would be happening.
If he hadn't selfishly allowed himself to love, none of this would be occurring.
Risking one glance at his hand, a wave of nausea hit him head on. Caroline's blood was coating his skin. He'd failed at protecting her just like he'd failed at protecting everybody important in his life.
He knew he had no chance of finding Mikael if the man did not wish to be found. His hands were tied, he was at the mercy of the man he'd once called father and, the worst part of it all was that Caroline was the one who would be paying for all of his mistakes.
Why was it that he always ended up with blood on his hands?
The man had no idea how long he'd stayed on the ground, paralyzed with fear and helplessness. All he knew was that a full moon was shining bright above his head, engulfing him with its cold halo and that the few remaining cars in the parking lot had cleared up.
So lost had he been in the labyrinth of his mind that he hadn't even noticed the movement.
With a start, he realized that he'd also lost precious time. Time in which Caroline could have been viciously hurt.
Snapping back into action, slipping back into old Klaus's calculating mindset when he received a task, he violently closed the trunk and ran into the driver's seat. He had to do something. Moping around was unacceptable. Not while life still coursed through the blonde's veins. And he had to assume that to be the case.
Barely had he exited the parking lot that his phone beeped, announcing a text message. He knew before opening it just who had sent it.
Mikael was back at playing his sadistic games.
As expected, the sender's ID was a blocked number. What was surprising was that no text accompanied it. It looked like an empty message. Perhaps it had been sent to taunt him. Show just who had the upper hand and dictated the rules.
But then he saw the file attached at the bottom. An image that took forever to download and slowly, pixel by pixel, fill the screen.
When it did, Klaus had to violently slam on the brakes just to avoid driving straight into a parked Volvo.
A picture of him and Caroline in front of the hospital, passionately kissing, oblivious to the world around them glared back at him, their outfits taunting him. There was no mistaking it: this picture was taken today, barely a few hours ago and he had been completely unaware of the surveillance detail placed on them.
Caroline had made him lower his guard so much he'd wanted nothing more than to have a normal life with her and he'd allowed himself to get lost in that dream.
It may as well have cost him the woman's life.
Only once he'd managed to somewhat gather himself did he spot the pitch black caption on the bottom of the screen.
Did you really think you would be allowed to have this, you foolish boy?
Unwillingly, the man recoiled at the last two words, his father's heavily accented voice screaming them in his mind. He'd heard them enough times for them to always haunt him. He could never truly escape them, just like he could never truly try to live a somewhat normal life with Mikael still living. If he wanted to ever be with Caroline, he had to put an end to this. He had to end Mikael.
At least he now knew the game the older man was playing. He would taunt Klaus with what he used to have and then rip it all away. Phase one had only just begun so that gave him a few hours to try and find him. A few hours to try and prevent another tragedy from gracing the Mikaelson family, painting its history an even darker shade of red.
How he would accomplish that was a mystery though. The criminal organization Mikael had built was so extensive, had its tentacles weaved into every possible law enforcement agency, even private contractors balked at the name and refused to be of any help.
No, Klaus was on his own, just as he'd been all of his life.
"No, you are not, brother. Forever and always."
The familiar voice echoed in his head for a good thirty minutes before he dared acknowledge it. Deep down he knew that he was not alone. He knew that there were people in this world who would come running to help him in spite of all of the risks.
The question was whether Klaus was willing to put them all in jeopardy.
In the end, desperation won and he found himself dialing a number he still knew by heart after all of these years. A number that he hoped hadn't changed. For the first time in a long while, Klaus could finally admit that he needed somebody's help.
After nearly a minute of senseless ringing, just as he was on the verge of hanging up, a groggy voice answered.
"Hello?"
That one question was enough to take Klaus' world by storm. Never had he imagined he would hear that calm, soothing voice again. He wasn't sure he deserved to. After all, he was poison to everybody that came remotely near him.
"Hello, who is this?"
A choked sob escaped his lips as the man on the other end of the line was threatening to end the call. Immediately he bit his lip, to keep another sound from rasping through, revealing his identity, but it was too late. He could tell by the sharp inhale.
"Niklaus?" the voice incredulously asked, a flicker of hope laced within it.
And just like that, Klaus could no longer bring himself to press the red button and shut himself off from family again. Being alone all the time was tiring and he frankly was exhausted of fighting on his own all of the damned time.
"Brother, is it truly you? Please, say something, anything."
Never one to let down his kin, Klaus tried to compose himself, gather his wits and not sound on the point of losing it. Only once he was sure he would not shamefully break down did he venture to respond.
"Yes, Elijah."
Two words, but they had taken everything out of him. Two words and they had depleted his last reserves of fuel and crushed his last walls.
"Brother!" Elijah all but screamed into the phone and Klaus could hear happy tears through the receiver. "I never thought I would get to hear your voice again."
"Sincerely, I wasn't planning on it either."
The sharpness of the words did not deter the older brother in the slightest. "Rebekah had told me that you were well and that was enough for me. I did not want to come barging into your life if you did not wish it, brother."
"You know why we couldn't stay together, Elijah. You saw what Mikael was capable of doing to the people I cared about. I could not put you in danger."
"But that should have been my choice, Niklaus. You should not have taken it away from me."
"Elijah," Klaus interrupted his older brother's tirade. "You had to stay with Rebekah and Kol. They needed you more than I did and I do not regret my choice of walking away. What I do regret is taking Henrik with me."
"Brother, you cannot seriously think what happed to Henrik was your fault."
"It was. He was so young," the man swallowed the lump in his throat. "He should have been in medical school instead of following me into a war he had no business fighting."
"It was his choice, brother and I am sure he did not regret it. Niklaus, you are not to blame for what happened to Henrik or for any of my father's victims."
"Aren't I, Elijah? Did I not kill some of them with my own two hands? Tell me, do I not bring death to all of the people close to me? Do I not lead them to their own ruin?"
Before he'd even realized, Klaus had started shouting, helpless tears running down his face. He was no longer referring only to the past, but also to the present and the bleak future.
Sensing his brother's anguish, Elijah softened his tone. "Brother, what's truly going on? Why are you calling?"
"I need your help, Elijah," Klaus admitted, voice crackling miserably. "He's taken her. Mikael has Caroline and he's going to kill her."
"Who is Caroline? Why would father kill her? Brother you are not making any sense."
"Because I love her," he finally said the words aloud, perhaps too late for the one person who mattered to hear them. "And because he loves hurting me."
That explanation was apparently enough for Elijah who immediately asked, "Brother, where are you? I am on my way to help you."
"Mystic Falls. I am in Mystic Falls, just hurry Elijah. I don't know how much time she's got left."
Hanging up, Klaus slammed his head on the steering wheel, welcoming the dull throb of pain. He deserved this and more. Not only had he failed to protect Caroline, but he'd also dragged Elijah back into this mess even when Rebekah had told him his older brother had managed to crawl out of the dark world to which both Klaus and Mikael were condemned.
Right then his phone announced the arrival of another message from Mikael. It was another photograph that he reluctantly opened, knowing this it would not be such a nice photograph as before. However, he had not been prepared for the gruesome sight greeting him.
He had not been prepared for Mikael to move this fast. He had not been prepared for such cruelty.
With the pace in which the other man was advancing, this could all be over before Elijah even got to Mystic Falls.
Klaus was running out of moves and Caroline was running out of time while Mikael kept slowly but steadily stripping him of all that he cared of. He was keeping his promise to destroy Klaus. The fact was that the younger man had never expected it to hurt this much. Every hit and blow that Caroline suffered, he felt ten times worse. Every blemish on her porcelain skin was a jagged slash on his heart.
And he would have given everything to be able to switch places with her, offer God or the Devil or whomever was listening his life in exchange for hers. But he couldn't. His hands were impotently tied behind his back and all he could do was stare at the photo glaring back at him, until it had gotten to be too much to handle. Furiously, Klaus threw the phone away and let out a gut-wrenching scream of powerlessness.
Meanwhile, in a damp, cold basement somebody was maniacally laughing as they carved another cut into ivory skin, fingers running down the pale, naked body of a whimpering Caroline Forbes.
The deadliest game of them all had begun and nobody was prepared for it. Nobody but Mikael and his acolytes.
Thank you so much for the response I got from my previous chapter. This was a bit short, but that was the way it had to be in order to set things in motion for the rollercoaster that is to come next. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have the time, please let me know what you thought of it.