I entered the police station, hoping for answers as to where I was and what had happened, the idea that I had been violently kidnapped left my mind and was replaced with a curiosity as to how I had wound up on the set of vampire diaries. I didn't think it was such an extensive set, but towns have been built before for Hollywood movies so maybe vampire diaries had done the same. I walked up to the main desk, ready to ask for the producer or set director but before I could the woman spoke,
"You're moms in her office hunny, you can go right back, you know that" She looked at me curiously, taking in my disheveled appearance. "Is everything okay Caroline?"
I looked behind me, expecting to see her standing behind me. Seeing no one my eyes went back to the glass doors and were met with the reflected face of Caroline. I stepped back, ready to scream but my voice seemed to be stuck in my throat. I heard shuffling around me but all I could focus on was my face. Or more accurately, not my face. Even when someone grabbed me and tried to get me to look at them my eyes kept going back to the foreign reflection.
Once the reflection was out of view my mind started to function again, blinking rapidly I now took in the face of Mrs. Forbes who was standing inches from my own, concern etched into her expression as she bombarded me with questions. Seeing me as Caroline I could understand that she was worried for her daughter, but all i wanted to do was to scream at her to stop and leave me alone. I needed time and space to process and instead my mind was whirling like a tornado.
"Just stop" I didn't even recognize that words had slipped from my mouth, even after the fact it took me a moment to notice that it was me who spoke, not used to hearing a different voice than my own.
"What?" Her mother leaned back, as if slapped by my quick snap, making me realize I was harsher than Caroline might have been. It was difficult not to push her away and let my panic out, "Sorry just.. need a minute to breath, thought i saw someone and it freaked me out."
Surprisingly this was enough to switch the sheriff from alarmed to sympathetic, "Oh Honey, I'm sorry." Embracing me in a tight hug caught me off guard, I was immediately stiff. I awkwardly patted her, hoping to move on before she realized how odd it was to accept the vague reasoning i had given.
"I think i'd going to head back to the house, get a few more hours of sleep" I decided it was best to keep playing the part in order to escape the situation. It felt like i was in the middle of Inception just waiting for the characters to sense an intruder and attack. Problem was that this didn't seem to be a dream, after lucid dreaming as often as i did I could tell the difference.
"I'll drive you" She instantly went to grab her keys
"It's okay mom, you're working." I was hoping to shake her so I could finally take the deep breath I needed, but apparently I had entered the universe at a point where they were on good mother-daughter terms.
"Nothing is more important, I'm sure the town can handle me taking a quick drive." She smirked at me, as if reminding me that Mystic falls was a place that didn't have issues outside of minor incidents and animal attacks. Her smile grew, her eyes locked onto mine and her hand rested on my arm, all gestures of comfort that did nothing but make me want to squirm.
The drive home was awkward, I tried to poke through the stations of the radio instead of looking out the window like i had never seen the town in my life. A familiar song came on and I couldn't help but to pep up, after a few tracks I wondered if it was a 2000 flashback hour before it clicked, vampire diaries was early 2000's not 2017.
"You know you can talk to me, what your father did was wrong, he was wrong. You are an amazing, brilliant, kind woman, you showed me not all vampires were bad, and if you can do that you can do anything. I know you said you're okay but if its on your mind just come to me."
"What?"I gave her a blank stare, not sure what she was talking about before realizing how serious she was "no, i'm okay, I know that, i'm just figuring things out about myself, working through changes and such."
She gave me a long stare, likely trying to see if I was lying, instead of being able to keep a straight face I giggled, it was startling to hear Caroline's musical laugh and to feel such a mood swing "Imagine puberty times 10, but the changes are just inside not outside" I tried to make light, setting up myself to act weird for awhile, just chalk it up to vampire mood swings instead of unintentional body theft. By the way I switched from distressed to laughter I had to assume that I had adopted the erratic moods that came with a vampire body.
I waved goodbye to Caroline's mom who gave me one last long look before heading inside their home, I looked around to get familiar with the house and ended back in the room I woke up in. It was difficult not to feel out of place as I stared at the room, it was nothing like my own, nothing in the house was like my own. I slowly approached the vanity mirror in the corner of the room, knowing what I would see but fearing the reality. I stared, trying to make faces and smile, trying to find some glimpse of myself, but each movement looked unnatural.
Not able to bear looking any longer I turned away and back to focusing on figuring out at least what was happening in the show, best case there would be a clue as to why I was here, but a simple insight to how I should be acting would be a good start. Caroline seemed like the type to keep a diary, but as much as I looked around I couldn't find anything, didn't even find a laptop, just a house computer.
"Come on" I said to myself, in 2010 or whatever the fuck this was supposed to be even I had moved from Myspace to Facebook and had just gotten my own laptop and I was someone who was slow to update to new technology. Hell, in my universe I even still had a flip phone in 2017 because I didn't want to upgrade.
Feeling defeated I sat on the plush bed and ran through what I knew. Mrs Forbes had mentioned Caroline's dad being wrong in relation to vampires so it's probably around the time he tortured her, but even with that it was near impossible to remember how far that is compared to everything else in town. Had Klaus come? Was Elena with Damon or Stephan or in the limbo, was Stephan even around? Was Tyler's uncle still alive? Was Rick in the right state of mind? Did Bonnie meet her mom? Easy to remember that Tyler and Caroline are still dating based off him grabbing me this morning, but can't picture much else past that. Remembering events? Good at that, remembering timeline of events in relation to other events? Not so much.
After thinking for a long time I came to the conclusion that it must be after Stephan left with Klaus, but before they returned to live in-town with emotionless Stephan and Rebecca. It was too hard to be Caroline and I hadn't even gotten past the bedroom and police station, if Elena's birthday was coming up I had no idea how to plan that for her to stop everyone from being suspicious, but maybe I'd be lucky and it already past? Fuuuucccckkkkk. I should avoid everyone until figure out this whole body-thief thing, if they realize I'm not Caroline they could torture and not believe that I know nothing. On the flip side, if I avoid them and don't step up like Caroline always does they might get even more suspicious than if I act a little strange or moody. Maybe I could just run off, I am a vampire now apparently, compel my way across this 2010 world and see what happens, but if Caroline and I ever get back into our own bodies I don't want to have ruined her life, who knows if the story line would be okay without her. If I was in her body was she in mine? Did I exist here, would it be a young 2010 me? I didn't even want to think about it, so ignoring that stressful question I went back to thinking about the story line.
Tyler could be fully sired and kill someone or would Stephan go off the deep end in a few years without Carolines love? Who knows, not me. Geeze, I don't think I could handle all the bullshit that far into the future. One day at a time I guess, try to be Caroline and maybe hangout a lot with Klaus or Bonnie and maybe after time tell them the secret and see if they know any witchy things to fix everything. Maybe tell Klaus information in exchange for magic, if he doesn't think i'm a liar and kills me.
The sound of a phone ringing pulled me out of my thoughts, tracing it to the bedside drawer the ID flashed Tyler. Once it stopped I felt safe opening it, apparently I had missed multiple calls from him. I guess screaming in his face and running off wasn't a good start to acting normal. It raised a good question though, what should I do about romance. Tyler's cute and a good boyfriend now that he is with Caroline, but if someone took over my body I wouldn't want them fucking around with my boyfriend even if it was in my body. As much as I don't want to cause damage to the story line I don't really want to fake love and affection for Tyler and they don't end up together.
Maybe I can chalk everything up to my body's dad torturing her, "Hey, I don't want sex because daddy issues, please understand i'm healing" "Hey sorry i'm a blunt asshole to you now, Elena and everyone, getting tortured and not knowing if your dad will kill you really makes you have no time to waste" "Hey i'm a vampire I shouldn't have to worry about things like miss homecoming queen or proms or being the head of everything at a high school when I could be compelling my way through college or Iceland or stopping genocide or making the rich give their money to the poor" vampires in this universe really are all selfish assholes come to think of it.
The phone went off again after a few minute of silence, it was still Tyler, knowing i couldn't avoid him forever i took a deep breath and answered it.
"Hey" Caroline's voice came out timid
"That's it? What happened Caroline, where are you" I could feel his anger and concern through the phone, which didn't make it any easier to speak. Unlike Caroline, I wasn't good at emotional confrontation. If someone was being a dick I could call them out, but when it came to expressing deep emotions or dealing with relationship issues I froze up. My saving grace was that this wasn't someone I felt attached to, that this wasn't my life.
"I'm at my house, I went to see my mom and forgot my phone at home."
There was a thick silence, "Okay, and what about today? Where you screamed in my face and bolted, or are we not gonna talk about that?"
Shitty shit shit, "I'm sorry, I had a really bad dream and I just woke up from it and it felt so real and was just startled to see you is all."
There was another pause of silence where I sat biting my lip, hoping for him to let it go just like Mrs. Forbes had.
"Look, I'm on my way over, we can talk about it or we can go out and find a distraction, whatever you want. I just... don't scare me like that, Care" the undertone of desperation in his voice for my safety stung me a bit, he really loved Caroline and was being such a good guy, but after a few days he would definately notice my unease towards being too close.