A/N: With a couple of exceptions, I generally don't write about scenes that do not contain Riley. But with this chapter, I have reached a huge exception. To me, it just makes more sense to write these as they happen, not through someone telling Riley what happened after the fact.
I woke up before my eyes opened. I felt… odd. Sluggish, somehow. As if even the simplest task, such as opening my eyes, would be strenuous. And it was. But I did get them opened. And I was shocked to see that I wasn't in my bedroom. I was in a dark room, sitting in the corner on the floor. The blinds on the windows were turned up, partially illuminating the ceiling.
My neck hurt and I had a dull throbbing in my head. I tried to bring my hand up to rub the side of my neck, but I could barely move it. I looked down and saw four manacles, one on each wrist and ankle. I saw a chain tying my ankles together, a chain trying my wrists together, and both of those chains were connected with a third chain hardly longer than a school child's ruler. Even if I could stand, my hands would barely be off the floor.
What is going on?!
I felt myself start to panic. I tried to pull my arms further apart to break the chain. Nothing happened, other than hurting my arms and rubbing my wrists raw from the manacles. Though I figured it would bring about the same outcome, I tried to pull apart my ankles. Same result. The clang of the steel echoed off the stone walls.
"Vervain," I muttered. No wonder I was so groggy. And weak.
How did I get here? And where is here?
I tried to calm myself down. I used my left hand to rub my right wrist, where it was irritated from the manacle. That's when I noticed it. Or rather, I didn't notice it.
My bracelet! Where's my bracelet?!
It wasn't on my wrist.
Oh no. Please, no.
I searched frantically around me for it. It wasn't on the floor beside me or anywhere near me. It obviously hadn't fallen off. Someone had removed it from my wrist. Someone who knew what it was. What it meant. What it did.
Just when you think things can't get worse…
Caroline had a headache. She was going to kill Riley! When she found her, that is.
She had spent the past hour listening to her mom repeating the same thing. Complaining about Riley. Or rather, worrying about Riley.
Liz's series of complaints/worries quickly fell into a pattern: "She didn't come home last night." "Her bed hasn't been slept in." "Where could she be?"
"Relax mom," Caroline kept saying. "She's probably just at Klaus's." At this point, Caroline didn't have the patience to think of a more polite way to say this to her mom. (In hindsight, she probably should have said Riley was probably at Rebekah's, not at Klaus's.)
"And she couldn't call?!"
"Teenagers. You know."
That seemed to placate her mom, for the time being. But Caroline knew her mother, the sheriff, only believed it because she didn't want to increase her worry over her niece. Not yet. Not enough time had passed to declare her as missing.
Caroline knew her cousin. She doubted Riley would actually spend the night at Klaus's, but she definitely knew Riley would never spend the night away from home without calling to let someone know first.
Caroline texted Riley for maybe the fifteenth time that morning. And she had called her cellphone. Six times. Caroline tried once more while she was sitting in her car outside her home.
"Riley, answer your stupid phone!" Caroline yelled into Riley's voicemail when she got no answer. Again.
She decided to go to the Grill to look for Riley. As she pulled into the parking lot, she saw Rebekah walking by some nearby shops.
"Rebekah!" Caroline called as she ran over to her. Caroline couldn't believe she was calling out Rebekah's name and running to her.
"Oh, it's you. I don't have time for idle girl chat, Caroline. I'm busy shopping."
"Shut up, Rebekah! I'm looking for Riley. Is she at your house?"
Rebekah gave Caroline a look, but answered anyway. "I doubt it. I haven't been home for roughly an hour. When I left, Nik never said Riley was coming over. If she was, he would have advised me not to come back anytime soon."
"She wasn't there when you left this morning?"
"No."
"Are you sure?" Caroline was getting desperate. Where the hell was Riley?
"I would know if my friend was visiting. Trust me."
Caroline was now officially worried. She didn't know what to do, what to think.
Rebekah noticed this. "Caroline? What's wrong?"
"I have to go to your house. I have to be sure!" Caroline was frantic now. Rebekah could see that.
"Okay. Let's go." And they both ran to Caroline' car.
I was still feeling groggy when I heard a door open. It sounded large and heavy, possibly made of metal.
Where am I being held, in a fifteenth century dungeon?
When I saw a shadowy figure make its way towards me, I leaned forward as far as I could, trying to see who it was. He had dark skin and even darker eyes, but I didn't recognize him.
"Hello, miss Davis. Don't worry if you're uncomfortable; I'm sure your rescue party will be along shortly." He laughed at 'rescue party,' as if it were a joke. "You really were the perfect one to take: you're friends with Elena Gilbert and you're in love with Klaus. Two birds with one metaphorical stone."
It was my turn to laugh. "You need to do better research before you abduct someone. Klaus and I are friends and I've barely said more than two words to Elena."
He walked towards me as I spoke and he stood beside me now, leaning against the wall. "You're wrong, but the specifics are not important. The only thing that matters is that they're coming. And they won't be alone; they'll bring other vampires for me to kill." He smiled.
I gulped. I could now officially confirm that the rumours of a vampire hunter in the area were not an exaggeration.
Caroline and Rebekah rushed through the front door of the Mikaelson mansion.
"Klaus!"
"Nik!"
Caroline had briefly and quickly explained that Riley seemed to be missing to Rebekah on the dangerously speedy drive.
"This is quite the unexpected partnership," Klaus commented on the pair, jokingly, as he entered the front foyer. But the look on Caroline's and his sister's faces quickly took the smirk off his face.
"Is Riley here?" Caroline asked.
"No."
"Was she here last night?"
"No. What is going on?"
"She's missing, Nik. Riley's missing."
"Missing?" Klaus looked back and forth between his sister and Caroline, looking for an explanation.
Caroline answered. "When she didn't come home last night, I just assumed she was here."
"She wasn't. I saw her yesterday at the Grill. We were there for a few hours and when we left, she said she was going home." He sighed, disappointed. "I knew I should have walked her," he muttered.
Caroline was too shocked to properly process what he said. "Home? Then where is she?"
Klaus stepped closer to Caroline and grabbed her upper arms, forcing her to look at him. "I will find her."
The next time I woke up, it was not slowly. I was shocked awake. My arms and legs were on fire. I woke up to see the hunter standing over me, pouring liquid on me.
I tried to squirm away, but I was unable to move. Through the burning pain, I noticed another chain, number four, connecting my bindings with a small circle sticking up out of the stone floor. I continued squirming anyway, trying to stop the burning.
"Just making sure these manacles stay stronger than you," the vampire hunter said.
"Vervain," I muttered. Again.
"Clever girl."
Finally, he stopped with the liquid. But it still burned. I bit my cheek, holding in the screams I wanted to let out because of the pain from the vervain. But I wouldn't give the hunter the satisfaction of hearing my pain.
"I begrudgingly admit that I'm impressed by your restraint. They all screamed. Even the strongest vampires I've had the pleasure of torturing before killing would eventually scream from the pain. From my viewing experience, vervain is quite painful to vampires."
I said nothing; I glared at him.
"Although annoyed, I was also impressed that you were able to defend yourself so well against that vampire I sent to collect you."
"Why are you working with vampires?"
"Shocking, I know. Downright disgusting for me. But it's all in the name of the greater good. We have a common goal. But enough about me. While we await your 'saviours,' why don't you go to sleep again," the hunter said. "You're less annoying when you can't talk back."
I felt a piercing in my neck. I only had a few seconds to process this before I passed out.
"Was that really necessary?" a second male voice asked from the darkness in the opposite corner.
"Would you have preferred if I had snapped her neck instead?" the hunter asked, rhetorically. The second, mysterious man stepped out of the dark corner as the hunter turned to leave the room. The hunter paused in the doorway. "Did you know what she had become?"
"No." The man lied easily; the hunter had no reason not to believe him. The hunter nodded and left.
The man stared at Riley where she lay for a few moments before gently moving the curtain of brown hair from her face. "I'm so sorry, Riley. This was not supposed to be your fate." He tucked the hair behind her ear. She looked as if she were merely sleeping. "You were meant for so much more than this, sweetheart."
A/N: Any thoughts or suspicions?