August 18th, 2011

"Terrorising school kids? Really, Klaus?" said Ava sceptically, looking between Klaus and Rebekah with a raised eyebrow. "That's your big plan?"

"If you don't have anything constructive to say, keep your mouth shut." he snapped, leaning back against the wall of the truck.

She glanced down at Stefan who was, as he had been for the best part of the day, unconscious. Every time he came around Klaus would greet him with a nice, sharp broken neck.

As it turned out, what Stefan had been hiding from Klaus was that his girlfriend was still alive. She wasn't just any girl though, she was the doppelganger. The key to breaking the curse. And Klaus was pissed.

Ava didn't know who the doppelganger was, nor what she looked like, and she had no desire to find out. She was growing tired of Klaus and his need for violence. She understood that violence was an instinctive part of being a vampire, and since he was a werewolf too, his aggression and whatnot was heightened, but it was all the freaking time. The fact that it was constantly awkward between them now didn't help matters.

Why hadn't he compelled her to forget it had ever happened? It was such a Klaus thing to do that she was bewildered as to why he hadn't. He'd had no qualms compelling her so that she couldn't help but return to him every damn time she tried to get away, so why hadn't he erased her memory of that moment? If he wanted his feelings to remain a secret then why?

"Rebekah, you stay here with Stefan. Ava, you come with me."

"I'd rather not have any part in this. Forgive me but terrorising school kids is a little too…what's the word I'm looking for? Ah, yes. Pathetic for my taste."

"You're coming with me." he said, standing up.

"No I'm not." she replied, rising with him and looking him right in the eye for what seemed like the first time in days. He'd been noticeably more aggressive with her since he'd unintentionally told her that he loved her, it was all she could do to stop herself from slapping him.

He gripped her upper arm tight. "You will do as I say, or I will make you." he threatened.

"God, what is your problem?" she demanded, pulling her arm out his grasp as she reached the end of her tether.

"If you two are going to have a couples fight I'd rather you took it elsewhere." Rebekah interjected looking thoroughly bored. Neither of them paid her the slightest bit of attention.

"Excuse me?"

"What. Is. Your. Problem?" she repeated slowly, glaring up at him. "You've been like this ever sinc-" she broke off, not wanting to bring up what had happened but she didn't feel like she was able to act like it hadn't happened anymore. It needed to be addressed.

"Ever since what?" Klaus asked. He raised an eyebrow. He was daring her to say it out loud. She could see it in his expression. He didn't want to talk about it anymore than she did. If she had the nerve to say it out loud, especially in front of Rebekah, he'd rip her limb from limb. She could almost feel the anger radiating off him.

"You know what." she replied, tearing her gaze away from his.

"Say it," he demanded, knowing perfectly well that she wouldn't.

She glared at him for a few seconds before throwing her hands up in defeat. "I give up." she exclaimed, leaving him with his sister and a still-unconscious Stefan. She left the truck and found herself in the car park parking lot. She needed to get away. She needed to clear her head. She needed to go somewhere, anywhere, she just needed to get away from Klaus. And not just for a few weeks this time, she needed time to herself so that she could figure out where her loyalties lay. If she had been able to, she would have left for good. She would have hightailed it out of Mystic Falls and away from Klaus without a second thought. She'd - foolishly - thought that the old him was in there somewhere and that it just needed the right amount of coaxing to draw it back out again. How wrong she had been. There was none of that part of him left. It had disintegrated over the centuries, leaving nothing but a monster. A true monster. Klaus didn't do anything unless it was in his own best interests. If she stayed with him, she was going to end up dead. Klaus expected everyone to bend to his will, but Ava wasn't nearly submissive enough to go along with that. She had a mind of her own, she made her own decisions, she wasn't going to treat Klaus as her master. She needed to go. And never come back.

If only.

She thought about the last time Klaus had taken away his will. When he'd compelled her to come back. To always come back to him. Why had he done that? What possible purpose did it serve? She could do nothing that he couldn't do himself, why was he so intent of having her around?

Because he loved her? No. She didn't believe that for a second. He may have said it, but she didn't believe that was how he really felt about her. Did he even know what love was anymore? When you love someone, you don't force them to do as you say, you let them make their own decisions. When you love someone you don't ruin their life, you do whatever you can to make it better.

Pulling her car keys out of her pocket, she began to make her way over to her car. She was going to go, to drive as far away as she could for as long as she could before the compulsion dragged her back. When would it drag her back? He hadn't specified a time when he'd compelled her, he'd just said that she would always come back to him. When was always?

She froze. Could it be possible? Could she have found a loophole? If she went away with the intention of returning to him in the end, she would never have to come back, not until the end, and who knew when that was?

"Going somewhere?"

She snapped out of her reverie and tried to look as though she hadn't just had an epiphany of sorts. "Yes." she said shortly, continuing onwards to her car.

"Anywhere nice?" he asked sarcastically.

She shot him a scathing look over her shoulder. "I don't know. I just…I need to, I have to get away from here."

"From here or from me?"

"From you," she admitted as she unlocked her car. "You're driving me crazy."

"Ouch,"

"I'm sorry, it's difficult staying sane in the presence of someone who loathes me."

"I don't loathe you." he replied, leaning against her car.

"Yeah, well, you sure act like it."

He disregarded her comment with a roll of his eyes. "Hurry back. It's not the same arguing with my sister or Stefan."

"Goodbye, Klaus." she replied, getting into her car and shutting the door behind her. Leaving him behind for what could possibly be forever was a concept that Ava could consider quite happily. She'd lived for 700 hundred years without him, and quite happily so. Of course, she didn't know for certain whether her revelation was valid or not, only time would tell, but the prospect of living a Klaus-free life was something she was certainly looking forward to. She'd been with him just over a month and she had been ready to drive a stake through her own heart just to be rid of him.