A/N: In previous authors notes I've mentioned this, but I finished rewriting this whole fanfiction back in July and August of 2018, and had slowly been editing and posting the chapters when I had the motivation to do so. Near the beginning of this year I thought I had given up on writing. It wasn't until yesterday that I reopened this story and thought to myself that this is a story that I loved, with characters that I loved, and I wanted to finish what I had started. With the previous chapters I've upload I've just done a basic reread and edited some bits that needed fixing, but with this one it was only 1400ish words long and it just felt wrong. So instead of just editing that, I completely rewrote it. I'm so happy with how this chapter turned out and I'm so happy to be back in love with writing. I hope you guys enjoy!
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:
CAROLINE P.O.V.
Every muscle in my body ached. That was the first thing I noticed when I woke up. A part of me hoped that when I opened my eyes I would be back in Katherine's car on my way to New Orleans. When I did open my eyes it wasn't to bright sunlight and passing trees, it was to the dim light a lantern sitting on an upturned log in the corner of the room and handcuffs around my wrists.
Blinking against the slight blur in my eyes, I took in more details of the room around me. The walls blended into the floor, both made of what looked like half-decayed wood. There was only one door, with a window placed on either side of it, meaning that if I was going to escape I'd only have that one point of exit to escape from.
I then moved my eyes down to my wrists, which were bound tightly in a pair of handcuffs which were attached to an old rusted chain. Following the chain with my eyes, I turned my head to see that it was attached to the floor with a metal hoop. As my head turned I caught site of what was laying between me and the wall. Hayley.
She was either unconscious or asleep. Curled up in the foetal position, her cuffed hands caressing her bared stomach. Her dark matted hair covered her face, but I didn't need to see it to know that it was bloody and bruised, I had seen enough in the pictures. Anger rose up within me at the site of the dark blue and purple bruises that covered her stomach and her legs. What had they done to her?
Taking another look around the room, I reached out my cuffed hands and gently touched Hayley's shoulder. She immediately flinched away from my touch and her head spun around in my direction. Her eyes went from panic to relief as she realised that it was me sitting in front of her and not Andre.
"Caroline, you're awake." She said, her rough voice breaking the silence.
"Oh god, Hayley. What happened? How did Andre get to you?"
She took a gasping breath as she tried to sit herself up. I reached my hands out and tried to help pull her up with my cuffed hands. Once she was sitting up she winced in pain, her eyes flicking from the direction of the door and then back to me. "I got a phone call from Tyler. He said he wanted to meet up. I didn't think it would be dangerous. I mean, how was I supposed to know Tyler was on Andre's side? We met up near the cemetery and he took one look at me and-and told me I deserved whatever I got. That's the last thing I remembered before waking up here. Andre says there's no way that they'll find us."
She looked to me as if asking for reassurance that he was wrong. Her eyes pleading with me to tell her that Klaus was close to finding our location. When I didn't respond tears started to run down her cheeks and painful sobs wracked her body.
"Please tell me that they're close to finding us. I can't take much more of this…And tonight is the full moon."
"But you won't turn. I mean, when Tyler first found out we did lots of digging. Pregnant wolves don't turn because of the affect it can have on the baby."
"I know. But Andre, he's done something to me. I can feel the full moon rising. I can feel it nearing closer to its peak. And when it does, I know I'll change. I can't…I can't lose the baby."
"You won't." I reassured her. "Nothing is going to happen. You'll both make it out of here."
"And what about you," She started, "Klaus will be broken without you there. He'll tear the city apart. And I can sme-"
"Now isn't the time to worry about that. We need to focus on finding a way out of here." I replied, cutting her off and turning to look towards the door to try and gage how close it was to midnight. "Andre's witch has some sort of block on tracking, but we were trying to find some sort of loophole when I left the house. I have no doubt that they'll find us. But that doesn't me we have to stop fighting and sit around waiting. Have you tried to break the chains?"
"Yes. They've spelled the metal so that every time I pull at it burns like it's covered in wolfsbane."
Looking down at the handcuffs and the chain, I pulled tightly against them, using as much strength as I could muster to try and elicit the reaction Hayley had described. Nothing happened.
"Maybe it's been spelled specifically for wolves. They probably don't think there's anything I can do because I'm human."
"Do you think you could break it?"
"I don't know. Maybe, but I don't have as much strength as I used to-" I stopped mid-sentence. The sound of a stick breaking outside causing me to freeze. Hayley froze too, having heard it as well. She seemed to shrink even further into herself and I moved myself so that I could shield her from whoever was outside.
A second later the sound of heavy footfalls sounded on wood. Would it be Andre? Tyler? The witch? All three? I tensed my body, trying to mentally prepare myself with the knowledge that whoever it was was probably going to cause me a great deal of pain. I had been through pain before. I mean, I had been tortured by my own father and survived. I could make it through this. If not for myself then for Hayley.
The door was pushed open to reveal Andre, scissors in one hand and a Polaroid camera hanging around his neck, a cocky smirk plastered across his face. His footsteps echoed as he walked towards where Hayley and I were chained at the back of the shack. Tyler entered several steps behind him, his eyes trained on the floor, never looking up to meet either mine of Hayley's eyes.
"Ahhh," Andre started, coming to stand in front of us, "it's nice to see you both awake."
"Do you know what would be even nicer, if you let us go you sick sonofabitch."
Before I could even blink his hand came down to strike me across the face, sending my head flying to the side, and a ripple of pain down my neck and spine.
"I wonder what Klaus will do without his precious playthings? The Klaus I know could care less, but according to my new friend here there's something different about the two of you. Klaus seems to actually be fond of you." He let out a sharp laugh, and bent down so he was at my level. He then reached out and grabbed my loose hair in his hands and lifted me up off the ground in one fowl swoop. I winced. "So, I'm gonna do a little experiment. Let's see what the big bad wolf will do when he sees what I'm going to do to you."
He ran the tip of the scissors down my cheek, applying just enough pressure for it to scratch the skin. Closing my eyes, I waited for the pain to come. But not came. The smell of whiskey came off of his breath as he leaned to run his mouth across my neck. Then came the sound of the scissors hacking…at hair.
When the scissors had made their way through my hair he let me fall in a heap on the ground. He waved the long handful of hair around, showing me how much he'd cut. He then dropped the scissors to the floor and pulled a zip lock bag out of his pocket, shoving the hair inside. After sealing the bag he threw it back to Tyler and then held the Polaroid camera up and pointed it in my direction.
The flash was almost blinding, and I hated the thought that Andre was going to use the photo along with my hair to taunt Klaus more than he already had. Klaus' self-control was already teetering with the disappearance of Hayley, I didn't want to think about what he'd do to those around him now that both of us were gone.
Andre waved the photo around until it developed and then held it out to show me his work. "Not bad. Let's see what the big bad hybrid does with this."
#
KLAUS' P.O.V.
By now I knew the layout of New Orleans like the back of my hand, but no matter how much geographical knowledge I filled my head with, it didn't give us any hint as to where Andre was holding Hayley and Caroline. We had already checked with the werewolf packs in the Bayou and it was evidently clear than none of them had even heard of Andre, let alone helped aid him in his mission to punish me.
Nadia was working with Kida in trying to find a work around for a tracking spell, but every avenue they went down they'd hit a dead end. And on top of that every ounce of me wanting to rip out the throats of anyone I could get my hands on. I had spent a millennia tring to get the wold back, and now I was fighting constantly to keep it at bay. Losing control would not save Hayley and Caroline.
"We need to start checking these places out." Marcel growled, stabbing a place on the map that laid in between him and Katherine. "We should split up into groups and just start looking."
"That's probably what he wants. He wants us separated and running around with no clue as to where he is. What we need to do is to find a way to break the spell he has that's blocking us from tracking him." Katherine replied, placing her hands on her hips as she glared over the map at Marcel.
Marcel bit something back, but my ears starting to ring and the wolf started to pulse through my veins, bringing the veins beneath my eyes to the surface briefly before I pushed it back down.
"I think you need to go and have a drink." Elijah placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. "Take ten minutes to calm down a bit, away from the arguing. Clear your head. Hopefully by then Nadia and Kida will have a solution. We'll call for you if we think of anything new."
I nodded. He was right. I couldn't think clearing, not when the wolf was on the verge of breaking through and risking the lives of everyone who was trying to help. Elijah lowered his hand and turned to the map that had been sitting in front of me, stars marking the places where we knew Andre wasn't hiding.
Backing out of the room, I headed for the bar and poured myself a glass of whiskey before heading up the stairs in the direction of my studio, the yelling behind me drowning out as I moved further away.
Opening up the door I instantly froze, taking a deep breath in through my nose. My eyes went straight to the easel that sat directly in front of me and my heart hammered harder in my chest. The one window was open and a light breeze was making its way into the room, sending some of the papers from one of the benches onto the floor. But my eyes remained trained on the easel.
There, sitting against the angry painting I had painted the last time I had been in here, was a small plastic bag filled with a mass of blonde hair. Next to the back sat a small photo.
The glass of whiskey in my hand buckled and smashed, pieces of glass falling to the floor and slicing open my palm. Not paying any focus to the shrill burn of the pain, I wiped my bloody hand on my jeans as I made my way closer. Stopping in front of the easel, I reached down to pick up the small photograph, holding it close to my face so I could take in all the details it held.
The main feature of the photograph showed Caroline, sitting in a crumpled mess on the floor, her hands cuffed and resting in her lap. Her now-short hair sticking up in all directions. A red mark had formed across her cheek. But other than that she looked unharmed. Behind her I could just see Hayley, looking over her shoulder with fear in her eyes. Her face was swollen and covered in bruises and I could only imagine what the rest of her looked like.
Bile rose up my throat and I fought to keep it down. Falling to my knees, I dropped the photo on the ground in front of me, an agonised howl fighting its way out my throat. Reaching for the closest thing I could grasp, the easel, I threw it across the room, watching as it hit the half-open window and cause it to shatter.
I reached out again, this time for the table that held all my papers and sketch books, but was stopped by Elijah who gripped my wrist. "Niklaus. Stop."
The wolf growled at the order. It knew it was the alpha, and in this moment it knew it had the control. But the look in Elijah's eyes made it second guess itself and I managed to push it back.
"I need to get them back Elijah. I need to get them back." Tears spilled down my cheeks and sobs rippled through my body.
"We'll get them back. Don't worry Niklaus. We'll get them back."
And for the first time since Henrik had been killed, Elijah pulled me to him and comforted me as I cried.