A/n: Edited on 10/5/2019.
Disclaimer: I do not own TVD, or the lyrics shown. The lyrics are only shown to help put the right mood for the chapter. The only thing I do own is the plots I write for this story and the Original Characters I create.
Chapter 3: Missing
In the car ride to the Gilberts, Rebekah couldn't shake the uneasy feeling she had in the pit of her stomach, though she would never let her unease show to others. To her surprise, Stefan inched his hand over to hers, grasping it gently as if he knew she needed comfort.
The subtle gesture from the younger Salvatore didn't go unnoticed by Bonnie, and she didn't dare say a word about it. Instead, she focused on the task they had in front of them. She was going to need all the concentration she could muster to deal with Klaus and the amount of damage he could cause in the blink of an eye.
The young witch regretted what she had done to Caroline last night. She never intended to hurt her best friend, but expression was a completely new level of power and she was still learning the ropes on how to harness it. Bonnie was sure that she could handle it though. She was determined to. No one was ever going to control her again.
As they pulled onto the Gilbert's street, Rebekah and Stefan's enhanced hearing picked up unusual sounds coming from inside the large two-story house. It sounded like a fight was in progress.
"Something's not right." Stefan pointed out.
"I can hear Nik, but there are two other voices also. They sound familiar." Rebekah surmised.
Stefan shushed them and listened more carefully as the sounds became clearer; shattering glass, cracking of plaster and drywall, and furniture breaking. It could only be explained as pure chaos. Finally he was close enough to pick up scents, another hybrid and a vampire.
He knew the vampire's scent well, and his insides ran cold thinking of her being in the house, involved in the fight.
"Stop it!"
He heard a female voice yell, and that voice belonged to only one person. Caroline. Though fear for his friend made him park the car a little faster in the driveway, it wasn't the sound that made him completely terrified to his core.
It was the sickening crunch of a stake cutting through the skin, bone, and heart of a vampire.
Rebekah, Stefan, and Bonnie raced out of the car, up the front steps and into the house as fast as they could. Rebekah - never being invited in - was stuck outside on the porch.
"Shit!" The blonde Original cursed.
Now inside the house, Stefan and Bonnie came to an abrupt stop at the stomach-turning sight. Everyone was silent. No one dared to move. Caroline staggered backwards, her eyes shifting from Tyler and then back to the stake that sat in her chest. With no more energy left, she sunk to her knees waiting for the ground to break her fall, but she was enveloped in the warm arms of Klaus.
"No!" Bonnie screamed. "This can't be happening. Caroline, no!"
Tyler seethed with rage.
"Get away from her!" he yelled at the elder hybrid who cradled Caroline in his arms.
Bonnie and Stefan ran through the barrier without any effort. There was no time for delay as Stefan tried to restrain Tyler, which was easier said than done due to Tyler's strength as a hybrid. Stefan had to resort to twisting the younger hybrid's neck to make him stop thrashing.
Bonnie's emotions were on overdrive as she came upon her best friend. She pulled the stake out and placed her hands over the hole in Caroline's chest.
Klaus held Caroline to his chest as she tried to look up, but her blue eyes were glazed over. She was unable to focus her eyes as the blindness of death shadowed over them. Her smooth creamy skin was decaying and succumbing to a dull, deathly gray as her life force drained out of her. The hope of her being saved died away bit by bit as Klaus heard life drifting away from her more and more with every passing second.
"Heal her, witch! Now!" Klaus yelled at Bonnie.
"I'm trying!" Bonnie desperately concentrated, calling on the power deep within her. When her adrenaline kicked in she could feel the rush of magic streaming through her veins.
"Phasmatos Raverus On Animun! Phasmatos Raverus On Animun!" She chanted the spell to heal Caroline, but she could tell that something was wrong. It wasn't working. Something else beyond her power was happening, preventing her healing spell from working.
"Why isn't it working?" Bonnie questioned frantically. "Caroline, just hold on a little longer." Hope for her friend was fading fast, but Bonnie had to try everything she could to save her friend. She couldn't let their last time together be the awful fight from yesterday. "Phasmatos Raverus On Animun!"
"What is going on?" Rebekah called from the door in a panic. "Will someone please tell me what is happening?" Trying to see into the living room where all the commotion was coming from, she scanned the rest of the interior of the home, her eyes coming to rest on the blackened body of her brother just lying there on the kitchen floor. The sheer sight of Kol's dead body paralyzed her on the spot.
As Bonnie's gaze lifted from where Klaus was tightly holding onto Caroline, she saw someone she never thought she would see again. Sheila Bennett stood there with a deep look of disappointment and urgency.
"What have you done, Bonnie Bennett?"
"Grams…" Bonnie was able to breathe out the name before tears for her friend and for her grandmother over took her.
All of her concentration broke and she was teetering off the edge of losing control. The powerful magic was slipping from her fingers, letting loose everywhere. The room kept shaking, light bulbs popped, and the floor trembled underneath their feet.
"Do you know what you have done, child? You have gone too far into the dark magic for this. What were you thinking?" Her Gram's words just kept running together. Bonnie's mind was confused beyond outwardly comprehension.
"There are consequences for your actions, Bonnie. I wish you would have heeded our warnings about expression. Oh, my poor baby, I'm so sorry." That was the last thing the ghost of the elder witch said before a surge of immense power swept through the room. Everyone felt it, even Klaus, and he was supposed to be the most powerful creature in the world.
Caroline's eyes tried desperately to stay open and find something to focus on, but they darkened more and more as the seconds ticked on. Klaus's mind filled with dread as he held her close. Everyone felt the inevitable. Soon, the last inch of Caroline's life was taken away from her.
"No! Caroline!" Bonnie sobbed. "Grams, do something! Care, come back!" Bonnie pleaded with her ancestors on the other side for mercy. She tried to muster every piece of her power to bring Caroline back, but it was futile.
Caroline, so full of light, life, and love was gone.
As her sobs started to subside, thanks to a comforting gesture from Stefan, Bonnie realized that something else inside of her felt amiss. She felt hollow. She felt as if her very soul had been taken away from her.
Then it hit her; it was gone. Her magic was gone. Bonnie was cracking. She didn't know who she was if she didn't have her powers. Being a witch meant everything to her. Moreover, she had let down everyone: her Grams, her friends, and mostly herself.
A gut-wrenching scream broke from the powerless witch's throat; all of this was becoming too much for her. Stefan knelt down next to Bonnie, shuddering at the sight of Caroline's gray body. He gathered Bonnie to him, holding her silently, trying to calm her down. Rebekah could only watch from the porch in vain, hearing the sounds of agony.
Nobody knew that the worst was about to come.
Whatever humanity Klaus had left inside of him vanished the instant Caroline lost her life. Her graying body was just a cold reminder of all the things that he had cared about and consequently lost. The sunlight from the morning winter sky silently mocked him; there was no more light in Klaus' world, for Caroline had taken it all with her.
Caroline's light, which could shine through anything, including his dark and dreadful heart, had dimmed into nothing, gone from this world forever.
Darkness was all that was coming for Mystic Falls and there was no stopping it.
Numbness. That was the first feeling Caroline had when she awake. Well, that's if she could call numbness a feeling. Nevertheless, numb was the only word to describe her current state. She couldn't feel anything. Her eyes felt too heavy to open, and she felt too weak to even try and move.
She would fade in and out, half of the time dreaming of familiar places and people, but the other half was spent thinking of memories she couldn't place. Everything was too vague to tell if it was real or not, and everything moved too fast to be recognized. All she could see were shapes and colors.
Then there was the darkness. It was a comfortable darkness, the kind that only accompanies dreamless sleep, where you don't necessarily want to wake up.
Gradually, her strength came back to her. Her senses started to pick up again, slowly bringing her back up to par. Her blue-green eyes finally opened after what felt like a century, and she tried pulling herself up to regain momentum in her legs, but they were shaking and wobbly like a newborn foal. Determined, she pushed herself up until she was firmly standing on her own two feet.
Caroline's eyes widen at the breathtaking sight in front of her. She recognized it as Lake Monticello. She couldn't help but smiled to herself, relishing the few good memories she had left with her dad in this place. He used to take her to the lake when she was younger. The water was always just right and she would swim all day long. If she remembered correctly, the last time she had been here was when she was ten years old. It was right before her dad made the decision to divorce her mom and leave them behind. Shaking those negative thoughts out of her head, she focused on the beautiful scenery.
The lake's calm waters shimmered as the sunlight bounced its afternoon rays across the surface. They reflected like diamonds. Her feet moved across the old wood of the dock, causing it to creak as she walked out over the water. The smell of fresh pine filled her scenes as a southern wind blew gently, kissing her face with warmth. The air wrapped around her like a warm blanket. The sky was a crisp cyan blue with not a cloud in sight. The glittering water sloshed gently against the dock in a repetitive rhythm that put Caroline's mind at ease.
The sunlight on her face felt inviting. She closed her eyes and allowed her body to be bathed in the summer warmth.
In panic, Caroline's eyes shot open, looking down to her hands. Her daylight ring was nowhere to be found yet she was soaking in the sun.
She should have burned to a crisp by now. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but instead of dwelling on that feeling her eyes wandered off to the tempting waters of the lake. She shrugged her shoulders.
"Might as well take advantage of it while I can," Caroline said to herself.
She took off her shoes and jacket, laying them in a pile on the dock. Now only in her white camisole and skinny jeans, she stretched her arms above her head, before reaching for the hem of her shirt. Caroline was startled when she heard a smooth voice break the tranquil silence.
"Oh, please don't stop on my account, darling. I love a good strip tease."
Caroline whipped around, her eyes almost popped out of their sockets in surprise. 'It can't be,' Caroline thought in shock, 'he's dead.'
It was impossible. She recognized him right away, having just seen his burned body in the Gilbert house. An older memory of him flickered up, at the Mystic Grill, when she had worked with the 'Scooby Gang' as Operation: Blonde Distraction. She remembered seeing another young man with Klaus as she played hard to get; that was Kol. She vaguely remembered him while he was alive and tried to suppress the visions of him dead.
"Kol, I presume?"
The dark-haired man bowed at the waist as if she were royalty. "At your service, my lady."
Caroline wondered if all the Mikaelson men had that alluring yet deadly charm that seemed to ooze off them like sweat. She didn't know which one of them was the most deadly since each one had their own specific twisted signature. Elijah had his stoic sense of morality, Klaus with his manipulative yet almost humane ways, and then there was Kol with his mischief.
Caroline had to get out of her own head. There was no time for this. She had to figure out what was going on, and why she was here with Kol of all people.
"What on Earth is going on?" she asked.
Kol cocked his head to the side, giving her a mischievous grin. "Funny you should ask it that way seeing how we are no longer on Earth." His tone was full of amusement, but he continued once he saw that she did not share his sense of humor. "Honestly, you don't remember?" He asked in disbelief. "You're dead, Caroline. Your boyfriend broke your heart…literally."
That's when everything came rushing back in full force. Caroline stumbled back a bit, trying to wrap her mind around what Kol had just told her. Flashes of the night before replayed in her head like a movie. The memory of Tyler's hands plunging the white oak stake in to her chest left her mind baffled.
What was most surprising about the whole situation was that she had died protecting Klaus of all people.
"If I'm dead…does that mean I'm in heaven?" Caroline wasn't particularly religious, but she did believe there was a God out there and some sort of afterlife besides the other side.
"Not exactly," Kol eluded.
"So you're here to welcome me to the other side?" Questions flooded her mind. Like where were all the other supernatural people who had died? How long was she really going to have to be around Kol?
"You could say that," Kol said with a smile. "But we aren't really on the other side per say, this is more like limbo. We still have our vampire abilities, minus the whole burning-in-the-sun thing since this is all from your imagination." He waved his hand around the lake view.
Caroline frowned unsatisfied with his answer. She huffed out a hot breath crossing her arms over her chest. "Will you just cut the crap and tell me what's going on? Why am I stuck in limbo…with you?"
Kol sighed. "You are wound so tight, darling. You were always a feisty one. Too bad my brother never got the chance to ruffle those feathers."
Caroline had enough of his games and quite frankly was going to completely ignore his comment about Klaus. "If you're not going to help me and this is just a waste of time, I am going to go enjoy the lake." She turned away from him taking a few steps back towards the shore, but he was faster than her. He appeared in front of her, blocking her way.
The pupils of his dark eyes dilated. "Stop and calm down."
His command resonated through her brain, forcing her to do his bidding. She hated being compelled, so while her body was forced to stop, her mind was seething.
Kol wasn't done with her yet though. "Now strip."
Bewildered by his request, a scowl appeared on her lips. Planning to draw this out as long as possible, she first reached for her socks. Words can't express how frustrated she was with him.
He still had not stopped her as she popped the button to her jeans. She hesitated for just a moment before sliding her thumbs into the belt loops, ready to pull the tight jeans down her legs.
"Oh, I'm only joshing you," he laughed. "Though I would love for you to continue, I have a feeling my big brother would find a way to punish me for it even in the afterlife, so please keep your pants on." He lowered himself down to sit on the dock, gesturing for her to join him.
Caroline sighed in relief. The last thing she wanted to be reduced to was some flighty Original vampire's personal stripper.
"Why am I here?" She asked one last time, trying to finally get some answers.
She watched as Kol's earlier mischievous demeanor faded into seriousness and what she thought might be dread. Caroline's interest was piqued as to what could cause Kol to put on such an expression.
"As I said before, you haven't passed on to the other side yet. The Gate Keepers are holding you here and sent me as a sort of messenger." He said looking over the view of the lake.
"There's more to it than you're letting on. Why are they holding me here?"
Kol was not known for being sincere about anything, but he had a job to do. There was no way to softening the blow. "You didn't just die by some random chance, darling. Your death was a part of a greater plan."
"What are you talking about?" Caroline questioned. She was more confused now than before. She couldn't fathom how she could be part of a plan set in motion by the supernatural spirits, or why she had to die for this plan to work. "What plan and who are the Gate Keepers?"
"The Gate Keepers are a sort of counsel for the Other Side. They act as watchers for the supernatural beings that are still living and when something bad is about to happen on Earth, they intervene to save humanity." Kol had only been dead for a day longer than Caroline, but since he was delivering this message to Caroline, he had been briefed on the counsel. "As for the 'greater plan', your guess is as good as mine."
Caroline huffed. "So basically they sent you here to tell me nothing."
Being the easy going guy he was, Kol let her remark roll off his back. "I'm not completely useless," he smirked. "Have you ever heard of Silas?"
"I've heard the name mentioned with all the cure talk, and Rebekah has his tombstone, but that is as far as my knowledge goes." Since she had not been included in all of the plans to find the cure, she didn't know the whole story behind Silas.
"You talk as if he is just another supernatural, but as I tried to warn your wretched doppelganger friend, he is not. Silas makes Niklaus look like the Easter bunny." He paused, letting what he just said sink in. "I told everyone that he is not someone to be trifled with, even for the cure. He is better left alone, and because I cared enough about not only myself, but also my family, I am dead for expressing the well warranted fear I have for him."
Caroline became even angrier with her friends for killing Kol. She also felt that if her friends would have heeded his warning and dropped the search for Silas and the cure, she would still be alive right now. She didn't express any of this though, just sat quietly, hoping that Kol could continue.
"Let me explain. Silas was a witch, an immortal witch. He lived over two thousand years ago, and teamed up with another witch named Qetsiyah, who is of the Bennett line if I may add. You see, Qetsiyah had a thing for Silas, but he had his eyes on another woman. When Silas intended to perform the immortality spell on his lover and not Qetsiyah, the witch became enraged and jealous. Qetsiyah killed the human woman and entombed Silas. This was a twofold betrayal for if Silas did ever die, he would go to the Other Side while his lover went to heaven, so even in death they could never be reunited. That is where the cure comes in." Kol took a deep breath and made sure that Caroline was keeping up with his story.
"If your idiotic friends and my psychotic brother keep down the path to find the cure they will for certain and release Silas from his desecrated sleep. There will be hell on Earth if that happens, hence why I was so against it from the start. I for one wanted to keep living, but look how that turned out."
At that moment Caroline's thoughts slid back to Klaus. She was trying to hold herself together after hearing this information and all she could think about was being comforted by his warm embrace. She wouldn't admit this to anyone, but she liked it when he held her. The way he touched her. His hands holding her firmly yet gentle at the same time, and the look of utter desperation in his eyes as she faded. It had made her to the point of almost wanting for more.
She shook her head trying in vain to elevate those thoughts. Her friends wouldn't understand her need for his gentle touch and would be disappointed that she had an almost caring feeling towards him; but then again, she was dead because of them and she vowed to not think of them anymore.
"I watched you," he said simply, out of the blue.
A look of confusion settled in her face. "Excuse me?" She asked in an accusing tone. She knew that Bonnie's Grams was also watching over her so it wasn't a shock that the dead were still presence in their lives, but Kol watching her just gave her the creeps.
"Not in that way! No Caroline, I may be a scoundrel at times, but I'm not that lowly or hard up." He finished by waging his eyebrows at her. "I meant that I saw what you did, how you died. You saved Niklaus."
Caroline glanced away from him, trying to hide her face with her hair. She uncomfortably tucked a piece of her golden locks behind her ear. Unwanted feelings and memories were starting to make their way back up, and she didn't want to go back to that. It would be too much for her.
"What you did for him was more telling of your true character than anything I have seen from those people you associate yourself with. As much as it makes me cringe that I'm agreeing with him, but my brother is right. You don't deserve them, darling," Kol started, having overheard the conversation between Caroline and Klaus shortly before her death.
She hated that both Kol and Klaus took it upon themselves to tell her that the people she has considered her closest friends since primary school, took her for granted. The fact that she still loved them and would do anything for them made her seem pathetic.
"I don't recall asking for your opinion on the matter so how about you keep them to yourself and tell me more about why I am here."
Comfort, at least in a platonic fashion, was never Kol's forte. However, he sensed her distress and gripped her hand in his, gently squeezing it for reassurance.
Caroline was so exhausted. Just when she thought her troubles was done and gone, they come back to haunt her. She would bet that her friends wouldn't even miss her. She turned her face, looking directly into Kol's dark orbs. He was silent, but she could tell that he was trying and that's all she ever wanted. For someone to be there and try just for her.
Kol looked to the horizon seeing the sun started to set. His eyes widened knowing they were running short on time.
"Caroline, you need get up now." He released her from his compulsion. "We have to move fast if you are going to make it."
She relished in the feeling of once again having control over herself. It was refreshing, and she was thankful, but didn't know what the big hurry was.
"What's wrong?"
"There's no time to explain. It will all be revealed in due time. At least I hope that it bloody will, those witches are secretive litter buggers." Kol complained. "I'm sorry to do this, and I hope you wouldn't be pissed at me…"
"What the…" Kol cut her off before she could finish her sentence.
"You need to go, darling. This is your ride. Good luck, Caroline. I have a feeling you are going to need all the luck you can get." With a sudden push, Caroline was sent into the cool water of the lake.
She went numb again once her body was fully submerged in the water. She tried to maneuver her way back up the surface, but found that she couldn't move. Caroline felt the need to breath, but didn't want to such in the lake water, but before long the familiar darkness came over her again. She felt like she was drifting away.
Eventually, she was able to open her eyes again as the darkness lifting and the fog lifted from her mind. The ground under her body felt cold and wet, not what she was expecting after being in the lake.
Trying to figure out where she was, she focused her hearing to pick up any sounds that would help pinpoint her location, but everything was foreign to her. Then, after quite a few minutes of just listening, a sound, or song rather, drifted over to where she lay.
The music sounded restless like it refused to stay put and it never would. It was never ending, always one beat after the next, emphasizing the rich rhythm. Letting the music relax her, she looked up to the sky, gazing at the white glowing moon above her.
That was when someone grabbed her shoulders, pulling her up from the ground, and turning her to face her attacker. Caroline withdrew from the man. She didn't have all of her strength back yet and didn't know if he was a friend or foe.
"It would do you some good to leave me alone," she stated, standing tall as to not seem intimidated by meeting a strange man out in the woods at night.
"Well, aren't you just something else, darling? I do love little things with sharp tongues," a male voice purred to her. He stepped into the moonlight showing his features to Caroline.
Caroline's eyes enlarged in disbelief, taking a second peek at the young man in front of her. This was beginning to get annoying.
"Kol…you son of a bitch," she muttered to herself as she backed up into a tree.
"So you've heard of me. It isn't fair though that you know who I am but I don't have the slightest clue who you are." He stepped closer to her, placing one of her blonde ringlets over her shoulder, "I say we fix that and get better acquainted."
Caroline didn't care for his advances, so she shoved him away from her before turning to run. This wasn't the same Kol that had met her by the lake; this Kol seemed almost dangerous.
Kol laughed at her attempt to escape. "Running was not smart."
He was on her within seconds. She was fast, but it seemed like there was something holding her back.
Before Caroline could blink, she felt his strong hands grab her around the neck. She knew what was coming next and braced herself for darkness again. However, before he snapped her neck, she saw him smirk and heard his last words. "Welcome to New Orleans, darling."