Caroline stood outside the boardinghouse, her arms folded as the gentle breeze played with strands of her hair. She could hear the murmured conversation from inside, knew at least one of them was watching her and all she wanted to do was get into her car, drive back out of the state and pretend none of this had ever happened.

"Do you think he knows?" Her ears sharpened at the quiet, almost worried question spoken in a soft female voice and Caroline wondered who this "he" they kept talking about was. It seemed like they were deliberately holding back a name from her, like they were afraid she'd run or something. Truth was, two hours ago she would have, but now... now she was even more desperate for answers and vampires or not, her new companions seemed to have some of the knowledge she was looking for and she needed to know.

Blocking out the hushed conversation from inside the house, her mind jumped back to the conversation with Elijah and what he'd revealed about her and the necklace, her hand wrapping around it unconciously as she replayed the conversation in her mind.

"Caroline, have you ever accidentally or purposely taken a life?" The way he'd said it, as if he already knew what she'd done. The memory of that night haunted her dreams for the longest time, it had taken her years to forgive herself and even then she never went long without thinking about it.
Caroline realized her silence had given her away, Elijah's eyes were compassionate as he watched her, Rebekah was more suspicious and Stefan just seemed slightly confused. Obviously, this new discovery hadn't been anything they'd been expecting, but to be fair, she wasn't exactly exstatic about the whole thing either.

Her entire life she'd lived under the belief that she was a perfectly normal human girl, then she was suddenly playing the lead character in "a series of unfortunate incidents" and adding a small twist here and another twist there, and all of a sudden she wasn't even a normal unlucky human anymore. Werewolf.

What the hell did that even mean?!

If she took of the necklace, was she going to suddenly sprout a tail and paws and run around marking her territory by peeing all over the place?
"Caroline?" Elijah's voice snapped her out of her inner musings and she swallowed and avoided his gaze, her hands fisted in her lap as she sucked in a deep breath, preparing to talk about something she'd been trying to forget for years.
"It was an accident," she murmured quietly and reached up to tuck a stray curl behind her ear, the other hand wrapping around the amulet again.
"It was my high school graduation and a bunch of us were going to a lake nearby to celebrate. There was this guy, Derek, we'd been messing around a couple of times and that night he pulled me away from the larger crowd and up to one of the cliffs that we used to jump from. It was weird, maybe it was the alcohol, but something about that night never really felt right to me, like something was seriously wrong with him. Derek was the school's quarterback with the arrogance to go with the position, but he was always a nice guy, you know? But that night... he wouldn't take no for answer and everytime I told him to stop or back off he just got that much more aggressive."

Pausing she looked up to see the three vampires exchange cautious glances, but she didn't have time to worry about that now, and the part of her brain that was telling her to shut up because she didn't want them to judge her, she smothered. These people were vampires, they couldn't judge her for shit.

"I tried to walk away when he grabbed me and wrestled me to the ground, I fought him so hard, but when I looked into his eyes it was like there was nothing there. No life, no conciens, nothing of Derek and I panicked when he used one hand to push my dress up, managing to free one of my hands I slashed out and scratched his face and he recoiled. I used the moment of freedom to wiggle out from beneath him and grabbed a jagged rock, so when he came for me again I swung the rock and it connected with the side of his head. He was bleeding, his eyes huge as he stumbled back and then he disappeared down the edge of the cliff." The police had ruled his death a tragic mix between self-defense and accident, when he'd hit the water he'd smashed his head into another rock and with the alcohol in his system it hadn't taken him long to drown.

Caroline reached up to wipe a stray tear as she shoved the horrible memory to the back of her mind. That day had nearly destroyed her, the guilt had come close to eating her alive, Derek had been one of her best friends before that night and she had no idea what had gotten into him. She'd seen him drunk before and he never had a habit of forcing himself on unwilling girls; the worst part was that if he hadn't pushed the way he did, she might have slept with him that night. She'd been in love with him, had wanted to be in a relationship with him, but then it was like he'd become some kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and part of her life had been forever destroyed as his was lost.

"If I know our brother, judging from what Caroline shared, I'd say he more than knows Rebekah" Caroline frowned at Elijah's words, as if his brother had anything to do with that night. He couldn't have, could he? Turning on her heel she walked back into the house and found Elijah and Rebekah in the main room, Elijah leaning by the fireplace and Rebekah seated on the sofa. Stefan stood by the window and the still unconcious Damon was slumped over in a chair next to his brother.
"What do you mean, "your brother more than knows"?" Rebekah looked to Elijah who shook his head subtly, but she caught the move and narrowed her eyes.
"What are you not telling me? And what exactly is it you need from me?" Rebekah flipped her hear over her shoulder and glanced down at her nails in a classic mean-girl move that made Caroline want to roll her eyes, but she was too focused on the silent conversation going on around her to even bother.
"What makes you think we need something from you?" Caroline arched a brow at the superior note in Rebekah's voice and folded arms in a defensive move.
"Apparently I'm a werewolf, you're a vampire, if you didn't need me for something you would have killed me already. I shot, pushed and broke Damon's neck without any of you making a move against me, and you stitched me up before I could bleed to death. Obviously you need me alive, and by the way your talking about me behind my back I'd say that's all the proof I need that you're keeping something from me and I want to know what."

Everyone went quiet, cautious looks being exchanged by Rebekah and Elijah - whom Caroline had deduced was in charge - and Caroline felt her frustration build to a dangerously high level.
"You know what, screw all of this and screw you guys. Whatever it is you're not telling me, I'll find out sooner or later, but if you won't let me know what the hell is going on I have other things to do today." She didn't even wait to let them respond before she turned around and headed for the front door, only for Elijah to appear in front of her out of nowhere, blocking her exit and forcing her to retrace a few of her steps.
"I can assure you Caroline, it is not wise of you to venture alone at the moment. It is best for you to stay here with us, where we can protect you, I do not want to keep you against your will, but I must do what is necessary to save us all."
"Then stop being so secretive and just tell me what the hell this is all about?! And can someone please tell me why it's so damn important for everyone that I "stay safe"?" she made airquotations with her fingers and spun back around to face Rebekah and Stefan too, glancing over at Damon when he groaned and straightened in the chair he was in.

Her body tensed, preparing for an attack, even as Elijah moved to put himself between them. Caroline didn't know the first thing about these people, apart from the fact that they were all vampires and for some reason, they needed her and apparently they knew more about her than she did, which wasn't disconcerting at all.

"Ow," Peeking around Elijah's shoulder, Caroline watched Damon crane his neck, his eyes flashing with violence as he zeroed in on her. Nostrils flaring, fangs on display, Damon was out of the chair and across the room so fast she didn't have time to blink. It was instinct to back up, her mind screaming at her to run, but before Damon could get withing reaching distance of her, Elijah had him in a chokehold and she sucked in a breath as she watched the older vampire fling him across the room as if he weighed nothing.

"Calm yourself Damon," Straightening his jacket, Elijah kept his eyes on Damon and Caroline stayed quiet as she watched the altercation transpire.
"Calm myself? The bitch snapped my neck!" Narrowing her eyes, Caroline could feel her temper flare, wanting to lash out in violence she reigned herself in by clenching her jaw and planting her feet to the floor.

"Yes, and you tried to kill her, I'd say Caroline was justified in her actions," She found it so strange, how incredibly calm Elijah was being, even with Damon ready to cause bloody mayhem.

"Ugh, screw this, I need a drink," Shooting her one last withering look, Damon turned his back and disappeared out of the room and Caroline instantly relaxed. She didn't know what it was about Damon that had her so on edge, but one thing Caroline knew for sure, she did not like him. Apart from being a complete asshole douchebag, he just struck her as a really horrible person, she pitied the people in his life that was stuck with him. She couldn't even wrap her mind around the fact that he was Stefan's brother, they were so completely different it didn't make any sense. Even though she didn't know Stefan, there was just something about him, he seemed like a genuinely good person, it was all just very confusing.

Sighing, she walked around Elijah to the chair Damon had been in, slumping down she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"Look, I'm all kinds of confused and tired right now, can somebody please just tell me what's going on?" When Elijah spoke up she wasn't surprised, it seemed like everyone was taking their cues from him, and he was probably the most sensible person in the room.

"I will tell you everything in due time, miss Forbes. Right now, I'm asking you to trust me, and allow us to keep you safe for the time being,"

Every fiber of her being wanted to argue, to demand the information they were keeping from her, but she knew it wouldn't lead to anything. Elijah seemed determined to keep her out of the loop, and it was clear he wasn't going to budge anytime soon, so she kept her mouth shut and relented with a regretful nod.

Elena Gilbert put the teddybear and burning candle on the ground, a tear sliding down her cheek as she remembered all the good times she'd spent with Melanie Jameson, she still couldn't believe she was really gone.

The police was still looking for her, Melanie and all the other girls that had gone missing the last month, but somehow Elena knew they were all dead. It wasn't something she could explain, but all her life she had been able to feel things, sense things, that other people couldn't. Bonnie thought she might be a little psychic, but it didn't feel like that, she just felt... different.

"Elena," turning around, she managed a smile as Bonnie walked across the parkinglot, a candle and framed photograph in her hands. They were having a sleepover at Elena's house later, but they'd both decided to visit the memorial outside the high school first, just to show their respect and thoughts for the missing girls.

"Hey Bon,"

Bonnie put the candle on the ground next to her, borrowing Elena's lighter to light the flame, before standing and wrapping one arm around Elena's waist.

"I can't believe none of them have been found yet," It was the talk of the town, the parent of every teenage girl was being overly protective, hers included and the Sheriff had initiated a nine o'clock curfew.

"I know, my parents barely let me out of the door today. This whole thing seems so surreal," Bonnie sighed and looked down at the pictureframe, and Elena felt emotion clogg her throat. It was a picture of the three of them, her, Bonnie and Melanie. Mel was blonde in the picture, her smile vibrant as she stood on Elena's porch, all three of them dressed up in ballgowns for the annual founders ball, that was less than a year ago. It wasn't until recently that Mel had dyed her hair brown, wanting to "expand her horizons" and Elena remembered standing in Mel's bathroom and helping her apply the color with Bonnie laughing as she got the dye all over her clothes in the process.

"I hear the sheriff has called in the FBI, they think it might be a serial killer," It made sense, with four girls missing and no leads, this wasn't something that had happened before.
"I just hope they turn up soon, I want all of this to be over," Bonnie said nothing, just rubbed the picture affectionately with her thumb before placing it in front of the candles next to the teddy bear.
"We should go before your parents freak out," With one last look at the memorial, they made their way to Elena's car across the lot, both of them unaware of the dark figure watching them from the shadows.