A/N: A huge thank you to everyone that read, reviewed and put this story to their favorites and their alerts!
"I don't think that we're meant to understand it all the time. I think that sometimes we just have to have faith."
― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember
They say pain should be a feeling welcomed for it shows you that you are alive. Well if that was the case then Caroline was sure to be more alive than ever since pain seemed to be a constant companion of hers ever since she dug herself out of her grave.
Especially now that it seemed as if that everlasting intensifying pain had evaded even the last cell of her body.
She groaned and sat up on the couch feeling lost, disoriented and weak. She looked into the blue eyes that stared at her with amazement and concern and she blinked when she took in Klaus's scent. A scent so familiar that made her lips curl into a resemblance of a smile.
She then realized that Klaus held her hand and she grimaced before she could control herself. His touch resembled the nearest thing to a "human" contact and it seemed as if she had forgotten how that actually felt like. It was an alien emotion to her now. Unfamiliar and strange and so weird that it nearly made her actually feel alive again. Alive-ish anyway.
Unfortunately, Klaus noticed her expression and must have misjudged it because his tender look turned hostile and he immediately stood up and took a step back.
His eyes scrutinized her and his gaze changed. It turned hard and suspicious.
"Who are you?" he interrogated, squinting his eyes at her.
Caroline looked at him confused and took a deep breath before she picked herself up with trembling legs. She also noticed the skepticism that was clearly pictured on Elijah's face.
"It's me, Klaus," she affirmed with a small smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Before she could even blink Klaus had grabbed her by the neck and held her in a choking grip. Her feet barely touched the ground.
"Caroline died a year ago!" he growled at her and he gripped her neck harder.
Caroline wasn't even fazed by his reaction but instead, she raised her hand and her palm cupped his cheek as she looked at him intently.
Klaus immediately let her go as if her touch was made of fire.
"It is me, Klaus," she insisted.
Klaus took a step back shaking his head unconvinced. Uncertainty had settled in his eyes and it wasn't going away. He didn't trust her.
"If this is another trick from the witches I swear I'll-"
"Brother it would be best if we would first hear…Miss Forbes out," Elijah intervened placing his hand on Klaus's shoulder.
Caroline nodded and cast a fading smile at Klaus before she seriously looked at Elijah again.
"You mention my brother Kol," Elijah reminded her and she nodded yet again.
"I need to find him," she urgently said and touched her forearm.
"He is dead sweetheart and if you were really Caroline you would have known," Klaus argued with an angry tone that implied that if she was not going to convince him of her real identity anytime soon he would attack her again and this time he would not show any mercy.
Caroline grunted and then huffed and stomped her foot.
She pointed an angry finger at Klaus and he looked surprised at her audacity.
But seriously! She was never afraid of him and she would certainly not start now!
"Do you know what? I have had enough! I have died which FYI let me tell you that it really sucked! I have been literally to hell and back and look at me! Just look at me!" she spat at Klaus hysterically. "I am looking like a gross homeless mess! I am exhausted, starving and running out of time so I am done with you being an ass because you have trust issues! It is me! And I do not care what you think or feel about me being here but I've had it!" she yelled at him and Klaus looked stunned for a moment before his eyes turned amber.
However, Caroline didn't retreat or even showed any sign of fear. She looked more as if she was annoyed with Klaus than being actually afraid of him.
Elijah went between them and looked at Caroline with a pensive look.
"Miss Caroline, if I may?" he politely asked her.
Caroline took a shaky breath but didn't avert her eyes from Klaus' before she eventually turned her gaze to Elijah.
"It's just Caroline," she boldly dismissed and Elijah nodded with a small smile.
"Caroline then," he said and Klaus huffed and went to get a drink.
Caroline rolled her eyes at Klaus's antics and she crossed her hands in front of her chest defensively and looked at Elijah again. The pain in her arm was increasing. She didn't have time for this.
"You have to excuse out mistrust but to our knowledge, Miss Forbes has been dead for a little less than a year now and suddenly you appear out of nowhere in our home," Elijah diplomatically said.
He failed to inform Caroline how Klaus had lost control over her death. How it rained blood in the streets of New Orleans for days and nights after he had learned about the girl's death. How people thought that he was avenging the supposed death of his daughter when in reality he was creating havoc in Caroline's memory.
"A year? Somehow it seemed more to me," Caroline whispered cynically mostly to herself before she turned her attention back to the older Original.
"Well, I am from Mystic Falls and you should know by now that no one stays dead for long there. So here I am," she said half seriously half mockingly.
"How convenient," Klaus's irony reached her ears before she threw at him a defiant glare.
"To our knowledge, the other side has dissolved," Elijah told her and Caroline sighed.
"It has," she said and her eyes became haunted by memories.
A year ago.
Purgatory.
Caroline looked around her feeling terrified but she managed to keep her attention on the figure that was walking in front of her.
Kol was leading her further into the dark woods and she didn't know why but she was chasing him.
She stumbled at some rocks and looked around to notice with panic that red eyes lurked in the shadows and followed her every step.
She ran closer to Kol while he kept walking fast in front of her. She could barely match his strides.
She grabbed him by his upper arm and tried to stop him.
"Wait!" she breathlessly pled with him while frantically looking all around. She quivered when she stared the black blood that stained the blade he was holding.
"If you want to live baby vampire I suggest you keep up," Kol simply said and wrenched his arm away from her reach before he resumed his walking.
She noticed that he jumped over a small cliff and then he sped up and she ran after him. She could barely follow him now. He seemed more like a blur and she could focus more on the shine of the blade he was carrying than his own blurry shadow.
"Will you please wait?" she breathlessly yelled at him as she looked up at the gaping hole that covered the absence of the sky.
"No."
Caroline gritted her teeth and stopped.
"Fine then go ahead," she whispered and stood her ground as she fearfully looked around at the darkness.
To her surprise, Kol Mikaelson actually stopped and turned around. He was now looking at her with dark eyes full of warning.
Caroline smiled smugly at that and took a step forward.
"You saved me back there and as sure as hell didn't do it out of the goodness of your heart. So I won't go anywhere with you before I get some answers," she defiantly declared and cringed at the smirk that appeared on his face.
It wasn't the same one his brother had when he was teasing her. Klaus was cocky and smug and dangerous but Kol seemed different. His expression sent chills down her spine.
Kol was standing still as if he was an ice statue. He looked around and then back at her.
She tried to cover her fear and tried to find comfort in the fact that at least he took the bait and didn't leave her alone here to rot. She didn't know if what she was saying was true and if he had another purpose for helping her but she was risking it.
She had nothing to lose anyway. She was already dead. Although she really didn't want to know what would happen if someone…or something… would get her in this place.
"Where am I? What is this place?" she broke the silence and their gaze challenge.
"Not heaven that's for sure," Kol replied with a bigger smirk.
"I've noticed, so what? This is Hell?" she angrily asked.
Kol looked at her with a big smile and raised an eyebrow at her.
He brought his blade in front of him and examined the blood on the surface as if he was intoxicated by the sight.
"More like Hell for monsters," he said and prowled towards her.
Caroline gulped and kept her eyes on the blade. When Kol came to stand in front of her she raised her gaze to his.
"You see darling humans go to heaven or hell or whatever else those places are called and eventually their souls move on. However we are not human so after the other side crumbled we were sent where we belong," he told her with a low mocking voice.
Caroline looked at him still confused and still afraid but something in the way he moved seemed almost hypnotic.
"Our personal private monster hell. Or else… Purgatory," he whispered and raised his blade.
She screamed in terror as his blade cut through the air and blood splattered and covered her from head to toe.
Caroline's eyes turned dark and she looked at Elijah with no fear. She then looked at Klaus but he had turned his back on her.
"When the other side fell everyone moved on. The thing is that vampires have a special place they get to go when they die and as much as I would like to give you all the gory details about the afterlife I do not have the time!" she yelled but Elijah didn't even blink.
Caroline bit her lip and stared at him with blazing eyes.
"So this is it? You are going to let your brother down again?" she challenged them as Kol's words echoed in her mind and she noticed with satisfaction Elijah's perfect armor cracking and him watching her with something akin to guilt. Even if it was for a split second it was there.
However, it was not Elijah's reaction that almost made her wince.
Klaus furiously turned around and threw his glass at the wall behind her in rage. Shards of glass and splashes of alcohol rained down on her.
"Dare to say this again!" Klaus roared and Elijah sped in front of her to protect her but Caroline just moved passed him and steeled herself.
"Are you going to let your brother down again?" Caroline provoked Klaus again showing him that she wasn't afraid of him and before she could even comprehend what was happening Klaus was snarling in her face and he was gripping her shoulders so hard that her bones almost cracked. His fangs had descended and he was ready to bite her head off.
Her gaze also changed. All her instincts went into overdrive and her body took charge.
She ignored the pain and slid her arms underneath his elbows and pulled them up so she could get hold of the back of his neck and break his own hold on her shoulders.
In less than seconds, she had found the right opening, pushed her feet behind his and rotated her whole body making sure to use her hands and her back to support herself against him. Before Klaus could even react she threw her whole body weight against him making him lose his balance. The hold on his neck gave her the opportunity to manipulate and swift his own body at her will. All her movements were calculated and planned out. She did everything so fast that her opponent could even process what she was doing; not even a split second later Klaus found himself flying back. Before he could even react Caroline had thrown him to the other side of the room without even blinking.
Elijah raised his eyebrow as Klaus landed on the carpet with a thud. A weak starving vampire getting the upper hand in a fight with an Original was not something someone could easily witness. How much more when the Original in question was Klaus.
Caroline still kept her fighting stance and was in defensive mode as the veins underneath her eyes erratically danced.
Klaus, on the other hand, looked at Caroline startled from the floor with wide eyes.
Caroline simply shook her head and willed her fangs to disappear. It was so hard though. Her hunger was so demanding that she had to use all her control in order to restrain herself.
She turned her gaze back to Elijah and rolled her sleeve over. She showed her arm to them and noticed that Elijah immediately moved closer to her.
Klaus tried to pick himself up when he looked at the glowing skin of her arm speechless.
"This is Kol's soul," she said and didn't pay any attention to their gasps.
She completely ignored their shocked faces and extended her hand more so they could take a better look at it.
Underneath the skin of her forearm, a bright golden light was glowing. The veins of her arm looked like rivulets and tree branches made out of sparkling lava. Her whole flesh was throbbing and moving and the light was looking bright for some moments before it seemed to tone down only to flash brighter again.
Klaus stood up and looked at her hand and then at her face in awe. His face turned back to human immediately.
"I can't hold on to him for much longer. I have to get his soul back into his body. And I need to do it now. You have him, you must have him, I know you do. At first, I thought he was in Mystic Falls but I am sure that one of you took him from there," she rumbled.
She looked at Elijah pleadingly.
"Please, you need to take me to him. I can bring him back but I need to get to his body now!" she basically begged them but their silence was enough to make her feel as if she was suffocating.
Their mistrust was still there but she had to make them realize what was at stake here. Time was literally running out.
Caroline sighed and went closer to Klaus.
"I don't have much time, I know you don't trust me and maybe you are right not to but maybe it is time for you to take a chance," she challenged him and approached him with certain steps.
"I dare you," she said with a weak smile and she heard his breath hitch.
She stood right in front of him taking a deep breath.
"I know how all these must sound to you and I know that I do not look like myself; I must look like hell which actually is quite ironic because this is exactly where I have been for a very long time but I am here now. I will explain everything to you but right now I have to get to Kol's body. The more his soul stays inside me the more he drains me and I am not an Original. My body cannot handle this and no body can carry two souls. The only reason I haven't broken down yet is that I am a vampire but even like this… this is too much. It is literally tearing me apart and I could end up dead all over again and everything would have been for nothing," she told Klaus; her voice conveying all the pent-up emotion she was holding in and she took a deep breath when Klaus's hand gently grasped her arm and examined it closely.
"Please Klaus, I know you, you care for your family…for Kol… and you care for me… or at least you used to; please…please help me…just this once I need you to trust me" she implored with a voice that revealed her own emotional vulnerability.
Klaus's intent gaze moved from her hand and locked with hers. His need and his hope were rolling out of him in waves. She could tell that he was craving for this to be true.
Caroline invaded his personal space and he stood absolutely still.
"Look at my eyes and tell me that is not me you are looking at," she asked him with a demanding voice as her fingers wrapped around his hand.
Her touch gave such warmth to him that without understanding it he firmly held her hand in his own.
Klaus looked at her bright eyes. Something was not the same but underneath all this fatigue and all that pain, he could still see her. This could not be a trick. No spell in the world would ever replicate Caroline's genuine look. Those were still her eyes. Defiant, challenging and full of the same bright scorching light that had turned his whole world upside down.
She was still in there. Inside those depths that seemed somewhat darker Caroline was there.
He could feel his heart pounding in relief and elation.
She was here, she was alive. He didn't know how but he could tell that this was real. His Caroline was back. He had her in his arms.
"Caroline…"
Elijah looked at the scene in front of him speechless. He raised his hand warningly towards Klaus but let it fall because it was obvious that Klaus would not react to anything he would tell him now.
He didn't like what he was seeing. It only took a few minutes and his brother was completely enthralled and captivated by this girl while they could not be certain if she was honest with them at all. He wanted her to be truthful too and get their brother back but she was not family. She could not be trusted and especially not now while all their enemies plotted against them.
Not to mention that this girl had also managed to momentarily take down Niklaus.
And yet Klaus seemed to be putting down his walls in front of her in a way he had never seen before. He could not really believe that only in a few minutes this girl could penetrate his brother's impenetrable to all others –including him– defenses. He was amazed to see it but also afraid of the repercussions in case this was one more plot against them orchestrated from the witches or from any other enemy they had.
"Brother-" Elijah tried to reach Klaus but his voice fell on deaf ears since Klaus's eyes could only see the green shade he had missed so much.
"Please Klaus," Caroline's frantic voice echoed around the Originals as she reached for Klaus and gripped his hands pleading him with her eyes.
How could he not see her? How could he be so blind? In Mystic Falls his eyes seemed to see right through her and she was always afraid of the way he looked at her. It was as if he could reach down her soul sometimes. It was so intense and eerie and she always felt as if Klaus could look at her and translate all the forbidden desire her eyes held for him.
How could he not recognize her now? How could he not trust what he was seeing? Had she changed so much?
The pain she was trying to ignore came back with a vengeance and she let go of Klaus's hands and she would have definitely fallen down if it wasn't for Klaus immediately reaching out and holding her waist.
He supported her and she inhaled deeply when she realized that he now looked at her with the same look as before. As if time hadn't passed them by and as if they were back in her graduation ceremony.
He was still somewhat guarded but she could see that he was looking at her with the same gaze he used back in Mystic Falls. The one that always made the world stand still and furiously spin all at the same time.
"I have him in a spelled crypt underneath the compound," he gently told her and she looked at him with hope.
"Take me to him please," she urgently requested again but this time she felt safe in the knowledge that Klaus seemed more willing to trust her.
"We need a witch to take down the spell," he revealed.
"And to assure us that you are who you claim to be," Elijah intervened and Klaus looked at her again with piercing eyes.
"Fine, but we need to hurry, we don't have much time," she grunted and felt her eyes closing; she let go and rested her head on Klaus's chest.
"I… don't have time," she weakly muttered in a broken whisper as she felt the world spinning around her and involuntarily nestled her body more into Klaus's embrace.
"Bring a witch here NOW!" Klaus snarled to Elijah before he picked Caroline to his hands and sped towards the crypt.
