The Imaginary Friend
Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or its characters. I only own my OCs and my plot.
Sorry for errors. Hope you enjoy! I love all of my lovely reviewers and followers! I'm so thankful you're still interested in this story!
My cries came from deep within my chest, rabid animal sounds left my blistered lips. It was as if I sat in an inferno. I was in too much pain to think properly. The only thing I was able to focus on at the moment was the sunlight scorching my writhing body.
The smell of burning flesh choked me. It was bitter and putrid to my nostrils. I sobbed hoarsely when the agony retreated. Darkness chased the light away, wrapping me in a comforting shadowy embrace. The coolness of it washed over my body, acting like a balm to the burns I endured. Slowly my skin started growing back and knitting itself together. Again.
I knew what was going to happen now, like every time before. So I held my breath and told myself a silent pep talk. Fight it, Caroline. You can do it. If you can fight it, he'll stop. Then you can stay in the shadows and not have to deal with the sun. The horrible, terrifying sun.
"Blood brings nothing but pain, Caroline." Dad told me with conviction. "You have to learn to hate it. Fight the allure. You don't really need it, you only think you do."
My eyes were squeezed tightly so I couldn't see the thick liquid. I refused to inhale.
"Breathe." He said softly. I shook my head. Absolutely not. "Please. I can only do so much. You have to meet me half way."
Unfortunately, I could only hold my breath for so long. Being undead doesn't keep me from needing oxygen. Just like it doesn't keep me from having to use the bathroom. I can only hold my breath for a little over two minutes before getting too lightheaded and inhaling involuntarily.
An amazing vanilla-raspberry type scent made my head grow fuzzy. Throbbing fangs slid out of my gums. Before I could stop myself, I lean toward the smell, mesmerized by the ambrosia. I was so hungry.
"Caroline." My father admonished disappointedly.
That snapped me out of it. My eyes flew open.
"No, please." I begged in a horrified panic. "I think it's working. It didn't smell nearly as good that time. That's progress, right? I'm doing better."
The gnawing hunger in my belly said otherwise. My longing for blood was just as strong as ever. Actually, if anything, due to time I've spent here it's gotten worse. Getting injected with so much vervain before and all the burning now made my body need blood. I was still very young.
Dad sighed. "You're lying."
"I'm not." I croaked out.
"You're just telling me what I want to hear. Like any addict."
Desperation oozed from every pore in my body. "The allure is fading. I'm fighting it. I swear."
Dad tilted the blood bag and smeared some on his hand. My eyes followed the movement. I couldn't stop myself, no matter how hard I tried. It looked delectable.
Where did he get it? I wonder absentmindedly. Are those things really so easily accessible? Surely not, right? Then why does everyone seem to pop them out of their butts? Vampires getting them I can understand. They compel hospital staff. How did an everyday human manage to get one? Did he find my stash and steal it when he left earlier?
He smeared thick, red ambrosia on my lips. My tongue betrays me, licking every drop. Oh god. The flavor. The high. It was so amazing I couldn't help but moan.
"More." I pleaded, swept up in the sensations it evoked. I was having something similar to an out-of-body experience. My mouth spoke without permission. "Just a little more."
When what I said caught up to me, I blanched.
"I didn't mean it." I quickly tried to backtrack.
Way to go, Caroline. I raged internally. Why do we have to keep going through this?! No matter how many times it happens, you don't get any more believable. Fake it better!
"When a person has an addiction it makes them crazy." Dad informs. "Their need for it overrules everything. When the cravings kick in, it's so overwhelming that everything else, including love, honesty, and even honor take the backburner."
"Blood isn't a drug though." I attempted to reason, seeing how telling him what he wants to hear hasn't been working for me. I decided to explain blood to him like Elijah did to me during one of my many vampire lessons, quoting the Original word for word. "Blood is responsible for both delivering nutrients and oxygen to the cells as well as transporting metabolic waste products away from those cells. Vampires need to drink blood to function."
I sounded like a textbook, which would have amused me in any other situation.
"All addicts think they need their drug of choice to function." He replied matter-of-factly.
A frustrated growl slipped past my lips involuntarily. "I can't survive off of food and water anymore, Dad!" A sob caught in my throat. "I can drink animal blood though. That's not nearly as nutritious for me, but we can make it work! If you let me go I won't ever drink another drop of human blood again. Just please, please don't open the shutters. The sun hurts, Daddy. It hurts."
I wished with all my might I told Kol I'd be there in 30 minutes instead of a few hours. They would have gotten suspicious and starting looking ages ago.
"I know it does." Dad said sympathetically. "I hate this as much as you do, but we don't have a choice. Blood is blood. People with any decency in their hearts at all don't drink the blood of living things to survive. It's cruel and morbid, Caroline. That's not you."
"You eat animals. Why can't I drink their blood?" I whimpered. Nervous energy buzzed in my veins, causing my fingers to flex in response. Nails scratched the armrest of the chair I was bound to. "It's the same thing."
That was a reasonable compromise to me. The only drawback: I highly doubted Elijah would let me drink animal blood. He's already made his stance on the subject known, informing me it'd weaken my abilities and not give my body all the nutrients it needs.
Pity shone in dark blue eyes that used to look at me affectionately. Now all they see is a broken, twisted thing that needs to be fixed. A crazed addict that has to be cured.
"Let's go again, Caroline." He murmured. "Maybe we should do it longer this time?"
AGAIN?! Haven't we done this enough?
"NO!" I screamed, thrashing in my binds. Henrik gripped his hair with one hand in helpless frustration. Dark brows were pinched and his eyes seemed just as panicked as mine. "Please! Please! No! Anything but that! Anything but the sun!"
I watched wide-eyed as my dad made his way behind me. My stomach dropped to my feet. An arm reached up to pull on the rusty chain, opening metal shutters. That terrifying creak made me tremble in fright from head to toe. More sobs caught in my throat.
Dad opened the shutters quickly. Sunlight eagerly exploded into the room. It destroyed all the shadows I've come to depend on more than air. The sight was petrifying. It came all at once - not a trickle of rays. It was similar to the switching on of search lights from a helicopter, violent and harsh.
I closed my eyes and duck my head, a pitiful attempt to hide from the unwelcome intruder. My skin peeled off. The muscles and blood underneath started to sizzle. Sunlight attacked every inch of me viciously.
"Stop!" I screeched, yanking at the binds and jerking in my seat of torture. "Please! I'll do anything! I won't drink blood! I promise! Just stop!"
"A little bit longer." Dad said, in what was supposed to be a soothing tone.
"I can't take it! PLEASE!" I bellowed. "Please! Please! I'll do anything! Anything, I swear!"
"Will you honestly work with me?" He questioned. "This won't be successful if I'm the only one trying."
"YES! I promise! Just stop!"
Dad didn't close the shutters. "In a minute."
"She promised, Forbes." Henrik snapped. His voice was pained and it broke during his next sentence. "Stop it already! She's had more than enough!"
Incoherent noises erupt from my burnt lips. I could no longer speak. It seemed to go on forever until finally darkness rescued me. It lured the heat from my tired muscles and caressed my skin.
"Let's try and find a way to resist your cravings?" Dad suggested. "Alright?"
"Okay." I whimpered weakly. Henrik tried to sooth me as best he could.
"How about some meditation techniques? Pick something to focus on, other than the blood. It can be anything, the walls, your breathing, a body part, or any kind of object."
My eyes shifted to the daylight ring on the dirty floor. The deep blue of the lapis lazuli gemstone was carved to look like a rose. It sat prettily on an intricately woven silver band.
"Okay, I got it."
"Keep your focus on that. Don't let anything distract you. Make every other thought leave your head. Nothing else matters." Dad instructed.
My brows drew together in concentration. I took a breath and attempted to do as he said. I looked at my ring in great detail, ignoring the filthy floor and cobblestone walls. I ignored the pained dark eyes looking at me hopelessly to my right. If he wasn't a ghost, I would've felt his leg brushing my knee.
An appealing scent made my nose twitch. The ring faded out of focus.
"Ignore it, Caroline."
I locked my jaw in determination. My eyes narrowed as I forced myself to focus on the daylight ring again.
"Very good!" He praised.
My mouth watered and my stomach ached in hunger. Sharp incisors desired to escape their gummy prison. However, I didn't let them.
"Don't lick the blood off." He told me now.
Thick red heaven smeared across my lips. I stiffened in fright. This is the part where I always mess up. At first I resisted, but Dad didn't wipe the blood away when I was victorious. My body was starved after all the 'tests,' which made this harder than ever.
I needed it. Just a taste.
He's probably going to use the sun on me regardless. A little voice whispered. Some blood would help.
Guilt settled sourly in my gut when I admitted defeat after a few tense minutes. I licked the blood eagerly. A guttural moan of delight rumbled deep in my chest. God, that was orgasmic. The taste only gets better the longer I'm here. Even the tiniest drop of blood gave me a major endorphin rush.
Dad let out a sigh of disappointment.
"I'm sorry." I breathed out guiltily, unable to look him in the eye.
Why am Isorry? I thought to myself, baffled. HE should be the one apologizing not me.
"That's alright." He reassured. "You made progress. Baby steps. This isn't going to work over a single day. It'll take time."
A fist flies through my dad's body.
"Bloody bastard." Henrik's look of tortured helplessness was gone. His face was ablaze with fury. "Don't let him brainwash you, Blossom. You're not the cruel, morbid one. HE is. Leave her alone, you damned glos pautonnier."
Damned what?
"Can we take a break?" I begged my father, dragging my attention away from my older brother and his bazar insult.
Dad reached into his pocket and glanced at his phone. "Yes, your mother wants to talk to me."
"Why?" I couldn't help but ask.
Why would she talk to him? She avoids it if possible. Mom was still beyond hurt from the divorce.
"I don't know, she left a few voicemails. I better go see what's so important." Dad reached into a different pocket and pulled out a syringe.
No. Hell no.
I struggled in my binds. "Don't, please."
"I'm sorry, Caroline." Dad frowned, while Henrik looked like fire was going to come out of his nostrils. "I can't risk you escaping somehow. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Henrik snorted in derision. "Take your time."
When he injected me, it was like acid ate away at my insides. Then my body felt a million times heavier. I couldn't hold my lids open and slumped forward. Footsteps retreated. A door opened and closed.
"What's… a… glos… paut-a-something?" I panted heavily to distract myself.
I could already feel myself fading.
"Gluttonous scoundrel." Henrik replied, all the sharpness in his tone was gone. He sounded hollow. "It's a medieval insult. I didn't even really mean to say it. It just slipped."
That was the last thing I heard before the sweet oblivion of blackness enveloped me.
"Elijah's talking to your father, Caroline." A voice with a British-sounding lilt exclaimed an unknown amount of time later. "Damon, Rafael, and Kol are out looking for you. Angelo is asleep. He's tired from all the spell casting. Finn's doppelganger is locked in the basement. You're going to be alright. They'll find you soon."
The boy's voice repeated the same message until I woke up fully.
"Elijah." I groaned, cutting Henrik off mid-sentence when I could speak.
"Yes!" He enthused. "Elijah is on it. Somebody will find you soon. Don't worry. Just hold on, okay?"
"Okay." I whispered. "Will you sing to me?"
"Of course." He breathed. "Just relax, alright? I'm here."
The sky is dark and the hills are white
As the storm-king speeds from the north to-night;
And this is the song the storm-king sings,
As over the world his cloak he flings:
"Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;"
He rustles his wings and gruffly sings:
"Sleep, little one, sleep."
I remember him singing this same lullaby to me when I had nightmares. It's been a while since I've heard it. If I hadn't exploded like a crazy person after the one about Bonnie, he probably would've done it then.
His voice was very high pitched when he sang. Honestly, he sounded like a little girl, but I didn't care. To me it was beautiful. I let the light, breathy crooning wash over me.
On yonder mountain-side a vine
Clings at the foot of a mother pine;
The tree bends over the trembling thing,
And only the vine can hear her sing:
"Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;
What shall you fear when I am here?
Sleep, little one, sleep."
The more he sang the more I relaxed. Between his comforting voice and the cool shadows, my anxiousness evaporated and I felt safer.
The king may sing in his bitter flight,
The pine may croon to the vine to-night,
But the little snowflake at my breast
Liketh the song I sing the best, -
"Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;
Weary thou art, anext my heart;
Sleep, little one, sleep."
"Again?" I pleaded when the song faded out.
"As many times as you like." Henrik vowed. "Someone will find you soon, you won't be here much longer. I swear."
The promise settled in my bones and gave me strength. He began the lullaby from the top. A smile quirked on the edges of my lips. I listened one more time before I sang along. Usually I have a very good singing voice - if I do say so myself - but now it was cracked and way too hoarse.
The door came off its hinges and hit the opposite wall with a BANG. It cut off our duet. I started, my eyes grew wide. A raven-haired vampire stood there, looking more furious than I've ever seen him. Slithering veins bulged around his eyes.
Relief hit me so hard my eyes watered. "Damon."