"These violent delights have violent ends."
― Shakespeare
The first thing that assaulted her senses was the smell of jasmine and the next was the scent of blood.
Pain followed.
Caroline inhaled sharply as she slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She sucked in the groan that almost escaped her lips as she sat up on the bed Klaus had put her on. She was alone and back in the compound. In the opulent room, Klaus kept for her here.
Caroline's hand flew up to her sore neck. She knew the sensation all too well. She held back the curse that reached her lips.
Son of a bitch! Twice today!
Her neck was broken twice today and the second time was by Klaus' hands.
Her throat felt raw and the uncomfortable sensation lingered. She instinctively followed the overwhelming scent of blood realizing that Klaus had left a glass full of blood on her nightstand.
She rolled her eyes and reached for the glass. Despite her thirst, she sniffed it. She could not detect any traces of vervain, magic, or anything else than the rich fragrance of B positive she always loved.
She licked her lips and downed the contents of the glass letting the blood rejuvenate her. She would heal faster and she needed to be alert for what would follow.
Her eyes scanned the room.
It was still night. A small fire was lit in the fireplace and cast a soft glow in the room battling the darkness casting shadows and hues of gold and orange all around.
She got up from the bed, rolled her shoulders first, and then her neck from side to side. She could not believe this! Klaus Mikaelson had actually broken her neck! She closed her eyes and started counting backward! Klaus was lucky he could not die because if he could she would kill him!
She kept on her toes as she reached for the balcony doors. Careful to not make a sound she opened them letting the breeze caress her face. She extended her arm and let out a sigh of relief. No barrier of magic to keep her locked in.
She half considered jumping and run but she knew it would be pointless. She wouldn't get far. The fact that her room didn't seem to be blocked didn't mean Klaus had not established any magic barrier around the premises of the Abattoir. Caroline bit her lip thoughtfully. Something told her he hadn't done that either. It was not like the night he had trapped her with him in this room using his fancy coin trick.
No, this was not a game. This time he would be the one to keep her bound to this place and that was far more dangerous and permanent than any binding magic.
She closed the balcony doors and gripped the knobs hard almost breaking them in her palms.
He put her in a prison! She felt as if she was about to suffocate but she had to be smart about this. If she pushed him too hard in the wrong direction she would not be able to leave this place. Hell, she wouldn't be able to leave his side either. She had seen it in his eyes. He had embraced the madness fully.
Caroline felt her own temper rising. Klaus had told her to choose his side but that didn't mean he would let her choose another. Her jaw tightened.
This wouldn't do. This wouldn't do at all.
She turned around and went towards the door and as she expected it was not locked either. She opened it and stepped outside the bedroom.
Time for round two.
She followed his scent and found him in his study.
He was standing in front of the fireplace toying with a glass filled with bourbon as he gazed into the fire. He had taken a shower and changed his clothes but the faint scent of blood still lingered.
What had he done? Were Marcel and Josh alive?
Caroline stepped in closing the door behind her. The last time she was in here they had blood shared. It felt like a century had passed. She remembered the feeling, the connection. She remembered how they connected afterward. Those moments were gone.
She rested her back against the door. Klaus didn't turn around to look at her.
"Have you followed your mother's footsteps to lock me in?"
She saw him tense before he took a sip from his drink.
"No magic. Only me," he told her, his voice distant and cold. It confirmed her thoughts. Klaus was more effective than magic and far more lethal. He was beyond capable of keeping her by his side either by temptation, manipulation, or force. Maybe by using a combination of all the above.
"How are you imagining this will go Klaus?" she asked him, genuine curiosity coating her words.
Klaus finished his drink and left the glass on top of the fireplace before he turned and assessed her with cold eyes.
"You should go take a shower and change clothes," he simply said and Caroline felt the need to go at him and knee him in the groin. Instead, she took a deep breath.
"I will," she agreed knowing how she looked after the day she had. She gave Klaus a sharp look before she added purposefully, "at my place."
"You have left a few clothes in your wardrobe and in the morning Aaron can go get everything you need from your old apartment."
"I am not staying here Klaus."
"Are you hungry? The kitchen is stocked. Your favorite blood type and ice cream are both in the freezer."
"Mint chocolate chip?" Caroline beamed at him sweetly.
"With marshmallow crème."
"Great! I'll have one for the road."
Klaus smirked at her overly saccharine tone.
"I'd rather if you stayed in your own will love," he confessed with a hint of longing in his eyes before he sighed, "but either way it does not matter if you do."
Fury blazed in her gaze.
"I didn't want to do this Caroline," Klaus admitted but angled his head in a way that gave Caroline chills. She was facing the predator now. The calm surface could not hide the monster underneath. The one she had provoked. The one that had left its cage and now roamed free ready to claw its way into her flesh and tear her apart piece by piece if it meant he would be the one to pick up the pieces and mend them back together. He just didn't care about the jigsaw puzzle he would end up with.
"However you forced my hand," he said, the shadows in his eyes turning wholly dark.
"Said every abuser in history," she countered bitterly crossing her arms in front of her.
"Caroline," Klaus sighed tiredly and came closer at her. Fear spiked her senses and her heart started hammering. She was facing the monster now and along with the terror desire also streamed in her veins, melted and potent, like lava.
"Despite what you think of me I am invested in keeping you safe," he reminded her, "and I will do just that even if I have to go against you and your stubbornness to do so."
"Free will is not stubbornness!"
Klaus bared his teeth at her.
"It is if it gets you killed."
"This is what this is about?" she scoffed, "keeping me safe?" she challenged him and Klaus narrowed his eyes.
She straightened her spine and reached him getting straight into his face. She let him see her anger, her pain, and most of all her disappointment.
"This is about me defying you Klaus," she saw right through him, "this is about me choosing another side than yours when I have told you that the only side I am going to pick is mine."
Klaus's lips twisted in an angry line as he leaned even closer. Caroline sucked in a breath when his nose trailed the side of her face taking in her scent as if he was addicted to it.
"And I told you I don't have the luxury to treat you with soft gloves anymore," he purred making goosebumps rise on her skin. He didn't even bother contradicting her words. Despite his declarations of wanting to keep her safe he also wanted to make sure she would not get into his way. He wanted to ensure she would not be standing on opposite sides on the battlefield.
She pushed him back just as his lips grazed her ear.
"So I am your enemy then?" she tossed back defiantly and Klaus chuckled.
"I am not one to keep my enemies alive, sweetheart."
"No? And here I thought you are one to promise eternal torture to those that defy you. How was it?" she pretended she couldn't remember, "ah yes," she exclaimed as if she had an epiphany before her expression turned stony, "a long life indeed," she repeated the words he had given Forbin before he chose to shroud whatever truths laid underneath this mystery with lies. Klaus had intended to avenge her death by torturing her murderer but then Forbin's death brought him only relief. Caroline could swear that Klaus became grateful for the hex that deprived Forbin of his life and her from whatever truth Klaus and his siblings hid from her.
Klaus' face darkened but he quickly regained his nonchalant composure.
"You don't need to worry about such things love," he dismissed her condescendingly making her whole body go taut with rage, "in comparison to those beneath you I have no other intentions than ensuring your comfort and safety," he promised.
"I honestly fail to see the comfortable part Klaus," she snorted.
"At least you see the safe one."
"Bullshit!"
Klaus pressed his lips and despite being at the receiving end of her fury he gleaned her reaction in a way that told her he was trying to decide how to handle her.
"Maybe my methods seem unconventional," he amended and Caroline threw her hands in the air.
"You snapped my neck and kidnapped me!"
"I apologize for that," he shrugged and Caroline could not help but gape incredulously at him.
"Seriously?" she huffed.
"Seriously."
His blaze tone set her off even more. He was completely remorseless.
"If so," she played along flippantly and turned around to leave.
Well, she tried but just as she pulled the door open Klaus' palm slammed it shut.
Caroline closed her eyes, her whole body tensing at Klaus' proximity. His body was pressed against her back trapping her between him and the door.
He breathed her in, his nose tracing her hair.
"Stay," he whispered and the velvety tone of his voice set her whole body on fire.
She turned around and leaned against the door trying to put some distance between them. Klaus pressed his palms against the surface of the door at each side of her head, lust blazing into his eyes along with yearning. It was as if she was something he coveted and he could not have but would do anything in his power to possess.
"No," she whispered back afraid that if she spoke any louder her voice would tremble.
The softness evaporated from Klaus' eyes leaving in its wake disappointment at her rejection.
"I have never begged anyone to stay by my side," he coldly told her as he straightened.
"No, you only force them," she shot back and Klaus lifted his shoulders in acceptance before he took her by the arm and pulled her further into his study and away from the door.
He wasn't using force but Caroline knew he didn't have to. They both knew he was physically stronger. She yanked her arm away and faced him crossing her arms in front of her chest again.
"I know you believe yourself to be all-powerful after surviving Purgatory and I am sure whatever lessons my psychotic brother taught you gave you an edge that makes you feel more comfortable when it comes to your fighting skills but my mother is way out of your wheelhouse of expertise Caroline," Klaus reasoned and Caroline could not have resented him more.
His patronizing behavior made it clear that he was underplaying what she went through and that burned her until the ache inside her felt hollow.
"You have taken away my choice," she said thickly, "you feel no remorse for putting me in a prison, as fancy as it may be, while you believe this to be for my own protection," she exclaimed in disbelief, "do you really think I will see this as a romantic attempt to keep me safe and be grateful? Newsflash you are being delusional!" she cried out, "again!"
Klaus' lips compressed into a thin line.
"None of which makes the reality any less real. You can't go up against my mother," he admonished her, his voice sharpening with a hard cadence that almost made her flinch, "not on your own and not by choosing even weaker allies that have no interest in helping you unless it's convenient for them. Marcellus can very well throw you under the bus and ally himself with Esther just as easily as he is pretending to care for the fact that you are one more vampire in his ranks. You are expendable to him Caroline. He only cares because I can't help myself around you!"
"You can't help yourself in general it seems," she muttered turning her back at him.
"This is not a joke Caroline." Klaus lashed out, "I showed my hand where you are concerned. A mistake I have not made in a thousand years of existence. I showed my concern and my worry for someone outside my family and in the eyes of my enemies that makes you a weakness they think they can use against me!"
Caroline whirled around as the meaning of his words sank in.
"This is what this is about?" she ground out, "you brought me because I make you look weak? You caught on feelings somehow and you take me out of the picture so to wage your war more comfortably?"
"To keep you alive damn it!" Klaus exploded but Caroline didn't miss the way he didn't truly deny her accusation.
Her stomach plummeted.
"Which somehow I am incapable of doing on my own and in your mind this excuses your atrocious behavior," she realized and she started pacing back and forth. She couldn't even look at him, "I am really in awe Klaus. Really though. I am stunned," she rambled feeling as if she was breathing in poison and could not help but spit it out, "I can't believe that you can't see how hurting me like this is wrong in so many levels. And I don't know if I am to get angry by your utter lack of faith in me or by the fact that you believe me to be a naïve if not a stupid little girl that will come to terms with your bullshit eventually."
Klaus ran his hand through his hair. His eyes betrayed his worst fear.
"I can't go through losing you again," Klaus' voice broke, "I can't."
She laughed at that and Klaus was taken aback by her reaction.
"I died Klaus," she reminded him, "I died not you."
"Caroline-"
Her gaze turned dark.
"No!" her sharp voice echoed between them like the crack of a whip, "this is not about you," she hissed, "this is not about how my death affected you! You can't take everything I went through and make it all about you. I won't let you or anyone do this."
She advanced at him. Unwaveringly. Giving him no room to question or defy her on this.
"Yes," she bit out, the word barely getting out before she raised her chin and repeated the same word clearly, harshly, "Yes."
Caroline took in a deep breath. The same breath she used to take in Purgatory when she was trying to still her mind and her heart. When she was a second away from battling her demons either those were the inner ones or those that prowled in that hell.
"I survived Purgatory," she let out the breath she held in and armed herself against the pain, "and yes, it means something," she admitted and resented Klaus even more because she was flaying herself open to make him understand. To defend her right to freedom and choice. She was saying words she had swore she would never say, she was reliving the horror. All because of Klaus. "It made me tough. Tougher than you can imagine and I am survivor either you want to admit it or not and through all that I am still terrified by your mother and I know what is at stake here," she confessed allowing Klaus to see her fear and her worry, "But like it or not this is still my life we are talking about. And here you are taking my life away without bothering to see, to understand, or even to care," she accused him, "what this is doing to me."
She gestured all around them.
"You are ready to bury me inside these walls, to have me stop living after knowing what happened to me," she glared at him, "only because of your ego, your fears, and your need to control everything and everyone around you."
Caroline went and stood in front of the fireplace he had stood only moments before and stared at the flickering flames. She could not feel the warmth, her skin had gone cold. The cold was deep. Soul deep.
"You have this distorted notion of mercy, of protection, and you fail to see the bigger picture," she mumbled breathlessly as if she had run miles.
"Which is?"
Klaus sounded hurt but she could not feel pity. She could not accept his guilt. Not when that guilt did not stop him from hurting everyone around him. It was not stopping him from hurting her.
She looked over her shoulder, her eyes meeting his.
"Your mother, much like you are doing now, trapped me in this city just as I escaped another cage," she called him out before she lowered her gaze and turned it back to the fire, "Purgatory was a prison in which I had to endure unimaginable things and the fact that you don't care for that, that you are ready to hurt me like this shows me that deep down you don't care for me," her voice was so low that if they were not vampires the words would have been lost. Instead, their sound was deafening. "Not really."
She didn't have to see him to see the agony that washed over his features and she barely reacted when he abruptly turned her forcing her to face him.
The torment in his gaze made his eyes glint darkly almost as if they had swallowed the night.
"In this room. Right in here," Klaus breathed, his face tight, "we blood shared," his grip became harsh, punishing, "you were in my blood, you sang in my veins and I became part of you," he rasped and they both heaved.
The memory still blazed. It taunted and tempted both of them. Caroline felt her blood heating up inside her, she could hear her heartbeat throbbing in her ears and worse was that she could hear the erratic sound of Klaus' heart racing. The memory and his presence, both were like a drug.
Klaus brought her even closer. Her mouth salivated at the vein that was beating in his neck. Calling her closer, making her lose her nerve, her grip with reality.
"I don't need to tell you, to explain in words what I feel for you," Klaus softly said, his forehead touching hers, "you know what I feel for you deep down. You are the only person in a thousand years that can see that. That I allowed to see that."
His grip loosened, his hands fell to the side but their foreheads still touched.
"I do care Caroline."
Klaus spoke the words as if they were a curse. His expression was pained and she closed her eyes.
"I wish I didn't," he sighed, "But I do."
She opened her eyes and couldn't help herself from reaching and cupping his cheek. Klaus leaned into her touch as if he was starving for it.
Her eyes pled with his.
"Then let me go."
Klaus covered her hand keeping her touch on his face. His eyes begged her to understand.
"I can't."
She pulled her hand away abruptly.
"Then you are no better than your mother."
Klaus reeled back as if he was hit.
His shock was enough for her to get the upper hand. She ran leaving a gust of wind behind her but no matter how fast she was she only managed to get as far as the compound's courtyard before she crashed on his body.
Caroline shoved him back with both her hands. Rage blazing inside brighter than ever.
"I am not one of your siblings Klaus," she yelled at him hating how he was blocking her exit once more, "you can't dagger me and think I will wake up and forgive you with time. It does not work that way. I told you already. You do this and I will never forgive you."
Her promise was not a lie. He knew it wasn't.
"Then don't," he accepted his voice dropping low, "don't forgive me. Hate me forever. Always," he uttered hoarsely, "as long as you have an always I am ready to endure your hate and even… your absence."
Klaus paused and stared at her with a deep look that unsettled her. It felt like a farewell.
"Once I deal with my mother I will let you go," he vowed, "you have my word. You can leave and never look back," his eyes became hooded before they regained their uncompromising shine, "but not before."
Caroline appraised him and her throat tightened at the way he looked. He would not back down from this. She could not reach him. She could not appeal to his logic, to his feelings, to his mercy. He would not relent, he would not compromise.
"I haven't used magic to confine you here," he conceded and gave her a deep look of heartbreak, " I hoped, I still do," he corrected himself hopefully, "that you will understand why you must stay here but if you don't-" he trailed off and she sized him up warily.
"If I don't?" she pressed, demanding him to finish his threat.
"Then I am ready to take any measures I deem appropriate to ensure you stay in the Abattoir," he halted before he concluded without missing a beat, "even if I have to wait until vervain leaves your system."
She froze.
The threat was clear. He hadn't used magic because he didn't have to. There were other alternatives and he was biding his time. He would compel her.
He would compel her to stay. Maybe even to not care about staying. He could take the pain and her free will with it.
When she had lived with him here, in one of her panic attacks Klaus had offered to compel the pain away.
"I could compel away everything that hurts you, Caroline. You only have to ask."
She had denied his offer and he had respected her wish making her trust him. Only this time it would not be an offer. The possibility alone felt so evasive that it woke up old memories she hadn't been able to forget.
Damon's face came to mind. The way his eyes would dilate. The way his compulsion would turn her into a victim. She had been his chew toy, his plaything. He had raped her mind and body and she been unable to fight back.
Sometimes it felt as if her whole life was a slide-show of horror events that would not end. The memories of Damon's abuse resurfaced stronger than ever. Purgatory had not dulled them. If anything Purgatory had ignited them more. She had spent endless time in that hell dreaming of exacting revenge. She had longed for vengeance as much as she had longed for life. Purgatory had its way of making you darker, of making you regret all the things you didn't do when you had the chance and the time.
In Purgatory, while enduring every painful lesson Kol had to give, she became angrier. She starved for retribution and many times in her dreams she had killed Damon Salvatore a thousand times over hating how she was the one dead and he was still alive. She dreamed of tearing him apart. He would be just like the beasts in Purgatory. One more monster for her to slay.
When her bloodlust was rising, even now, she many times allowed herself to daydream of how it would be to kill Damon and how it would be to make it hurt. How it would be to make him beg like she used to beg in her mind when he was compelling her.
But she knew that even if she was given the chance she would not do it. She couldn't do this to Elena. She could not do this when she had made Kol swear not to hurt her friends for killing him and she had included Damon into their deal. She had not told Kol what Damon had done to her exactly for this reason. Because she didn't want Kol to do what she would not do. What she could not do since she was unable to even return to Mystic Falls. Even before Esther trapped her in this city she hadn't planned on returning home.
And now Klaus was taking all this suffering, all this pain, all this regret and was turning it all against her.
In comparison to Kol, Klaus knew. She knew he knew what Damon had done to her. He had searched her past. She could tell he knew. And even if he hadn't known before he must have seen it all when she let him in. When she opened her mind to him when they blood shared. She had let him in, she had shown him her fears and her hurt, and he was ready to use all that against her. Even if he would not compel her he was now using that horror as a manipulation tool. To scare her into submission.
She looked at him as if she had never seen him before. And she had not. Not this side of his. At least not with her. She had foolishly believed this would be the one thing he would never do to her.
If she had felt betrayed by him before nothing compared to this moment.
Pain and horror intertwined.
She was such an idiot for ever trusting him. For forgetting who Klaus Mikaelson truly was.
He was no better than Damon Salvatore. He was no better than any of the monsters creatures like them harbored inside.
"Don't make me do this Caroline," Klaus begged her and she could tell that every thought she had he could read. He knew he had stepped over a line he shouldn't have. There was no return from that.
"Make you?" she repeated, her tone and eyes equally vacant.
Something shuttered in Klaus' face.
This time she didn't try to run. This time she walked and found herself pinned against the railing of the staircase.
She didn't struggle. She only stared at him and gave him a sad smile.
"What are you going to do Klaus?" she wondered softly, "snap my neck? Bite me?" he winced at that and she smiled sadly, "Compel me?"
Klaus's throat bobbed and when she shook his hands away he didn't resist.
Caroline went and sat at the bottom of the stairs. Klaus only watched her as she hugged her knees and looked ahead for several minutes.
She inhaled deeply allowing her mind to come to a still. The loud voices stopped and she embraced the silence. The icy sensation she felt would not abate.
She let her mind drift and she knew that if she wanted to leave this place she had to play her cards right.
She had to not let her emotions blind her judgment. Klaus was her enemy now and she could have the advantage. She knew him. She knew sides of him no one else did and he was right. He had shown his hand where she was concerned.
This time she didn't only face Klaus that was in love with her. She also faced the Original. The menace everyone feared was quick to anger and even quicker to punishing both his enemies and loved ones.
This Klaus during the night of the ball had locked them both inside a room and threatened to keep her imprisoned there forever. Long before she came here, long before she had died Klaus had created a room meant to become a gilded cage for her. He had tried to keep her in it when she was trying to find a new apartment and a job. He had used manipulation and honeyed words, temptation and force. He had compelled others and tried to make money an issue for her.
Now he planned to step up his game and turn the whole Abattoir to the equivalent of what the coffins he kept in the basement were for his siblings.
What did she expect from the man who daggered his siblings, kept them in caskets, and carted them around in deathly slumber for centuries? From the man who called this obsession and madness love and protection instead of punishment.
Caroline pressed her face against the top of her knees.
She didn't want to think what this meant. She didn't want to analyze the fact that somehow Klaus equated what he felt for her with what he felt for his siblings and he was ready to treat her similarly. His care and his love equaled imprisonment and to soothe his worries and his fear he was ready to ensure her hate. He would keep her safe from everyone but no one would be able to keep her safe from him. He would break her in pieces if he meant he could keep those pieces 'safe'.
It didn't matter.
It didn't matter what Klaus would do. What he thought. What he felt or what he believed.
She would not let anyone treat her like this.
She might not be a Mikaelson but she was Caroline Forbes and that meant something too.
She had survived the Originals. She had survived Mystic Falls. She had survived death and Purgatory. She had outlived her executioner too.
It was time for Klaus and everyone to understand what that meant.
She picked up her head and locked her eyes with Klaus'.
Blood ran cold inside her. It ran even colder between them.
Klaus Mikaelson was a monster.
Once upon a time she had been afraid of nightmares. No longer.
She was Caroline Forbes.
She was the nightmare monsters feared and she could not be caged.
Caroline took a steadying breath, got up, and armed herself.
Klaus' eyes followed her every move as if he expected her to try to escape at any moment now.
She didn't have to. She knew it would be a waste of time and energy but what Klaus could not see was that she could be just a calculating as him if the need arose. Kol might have taught her many things, strategy included, but some things could not be taught. There was a part of her that always enjoyed mind games even before she had been turned into a vampire. As a human, she had wasted that talent in trivial things but after her transition, that lovely trait of hers got magnified as everything else did. Along with her insecurities of course that used to stifle her ability to use without remorse the darker side of her talents. Ironically enough it was Klaus that made her embrace that manipulative side of hers the most. Their pull and push game made her seek that side of hers more and she had found it quite enjoyable, not that she would have admitted that to herself or him back then.
There were times when force, violence, and combat were unavoidable but for the most part shrewdness, cunningness, and lying in wait only to emotionally strike were far more efficient solutions.
She knew the way out. It wasn't by force. It was by strategy.
She looked at Klaus that was now gleaning her reaction. He was perceptive so she had to be smart about this.
She let her eyes drink him in slowly before she dragged her attention from him and took in her surroundings knowing that she was giving Klaus the impression that she was trying to find a way out by buying time and checking which exit she could reach faster.
It was disturbing how easily she could get into his head because on a primal level his mind worked very similarly to hers.
This was why she knew not being the first choice was one of his worst fears too. Being a failure was another.
This was why she knew she could blind him by handling a blow not to his body or even his ego but straight into his heart. Into his most vulnerable parts.
He kept saying that he couldn't let her die. He kept saying that he couldn't relive her death but she could see the wound that was still bleeding. Klaus had faced a loss that could not compete with losing her. He lost his daughter. And that now defined him. He could not lose anything else and he projected those feelings onto her. In many ways she pitied him, in others she understood him but it made no difference now. This was a window of opportunity for her because the solution was not to make Klaus let her go. It was to make him give up on her.
And she knew exactly how to do that. She had to hit him where it hurt the most and she knew the exact spot.
"So how did you think this was going to work?" Caroline asked him making sure to sound as petulant and snarky as possible, "that I will come and live with you and Hayley? Like a big happy family?" she mocked Klaus that gave her a quizzical look not expecting that objection from her.
"Is this what this has been all about?" he mused out loud, surprise reflecting in his tone, "Hayley has left."
Caroline glared at him before she glanced around as if this whole situation and the whole place, in general, were beneath her.
"I don't care."
Klaus pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.
"Caroline-"
Caroline plowed ahead and gave him a scathing look.
"Years ago when you first came to New Orleans you left a message on my phone telling me how much you would have liked to show me the city," she reminded him and she knew she had his undivided attention.
She turned around and marched back into the house knowing Klaus would follow her. "At my graduation, you insinuated that should I have wanted you would have given me a first-class ticket for New Orleans," she reminisced as she finally reached the doors that led to the dining room and entered. Without bothering to spare Klaus a glance she went to the wine rack on the wall and her eyes started checking out the bottles, "hell, you even made a room for me in your house," she scoffed as she reached for a bottle of 1951 Penfolds Grange.
She deliberately chose one of the wine bottles that she knew would make Elijah if not Klaus freak out for wasting it.
She uncorked it and poured a generous amount in one of the crystal glasses on the table before she settled on the chair at the head of the table keeping the bottle close.
She pointed at the chair to the opposite side of the table as she tasted the fruity sweetness of the expensive red wine. If he wanted Klaus could get his own damn drink. And since he kept her prisoner here she could ruin his precious collection and indulge herself.
"How did you think that would have worked out Klaus?" she wondered, completely unfazed by his intense scrutiny. She let the wine swirl in her tongue before she let it wash down her throat slowly. She fixed Klaus a saccharine gaze, "you would have Hayley pregnant in the one room and me in the other? Is that what you really dreamed of?" she taunted him her insinuation ringing as something vulgar.
Klaus pulled the chair at the other end of the table and took a seat, his face was set in sharp lines that were not masking his crestfallen expression.
"I didn't know the existence of my child would have been such a burden to you."
Caroline bit the inside of her cheek. He sounded as if she had let him down in a despicable way that brought him only sorrow and anger.
She eyed the wine before she reached for the delicate crystal stem of the flute and slowly twisted it. Such luxuries didn't exist in Purgatory and with her mother's salary, they couldn't afford such things in Mystic Falls as she was growing up either.
"It wouldn't have been," she mumbled, her throat tightening. She downed her drink before she poured herself another, "if you had been honest about it, it wouldn't have been."
Her lips twisted in a nasty smirk.
"But then again why tell me about it and lose the chance to get into my pants right?"
Klaus blinked at that.
"What?"
"You know perfectly well what I am talking about," Caroline held his gaze but kept the rest of her senses dulled. She let the scent of the wine fill her senses. She needed the diversion because she needed to give her best performance.
After all, she excelled at being a distraction and why change what already worked so well?
"Do you honestly think I would have had sex with you had I known that you were having a baby?" she exasperated before she added pointedly, "and with Hayley on top of that?"
She leveled Klaus an insolent gaze filled with irony.
Klaus' face became tight and Caroline could tell he was trying to keep his volatile nature in check.
He was getting pissed. Good.
"What difference would have made?" he asked, voice quiet but borderline accusatory.
Caroline threw her head back and laughed.
"You can't be serious right now! You lied to me!"
Klaus' hand balled into a fist over the fine tablecloth.
"I never lied to you, Caroline!"
She snorted.
"By omission you did."
Klaus' breath sharpened.
"I am not going to apologize for my daughter's existence," he declared in a steely voice, and Caroline's gut squeezed. She gripped her glass. Her control was slipping and she would not allow this. Not now. Not when she was so close.
She played a dangerous game. She knew that. This could very well backfire and Klaus could retaliate by chaining her just to give her a lesson and so to hurt her in answer to the way she was hurting him. She still had to have the moral advantage here.
Which meant that she had to stick to the truth and bend it to her advantage and for that she had to dig deep inside in parts of her that were true but still hurt. Still bleed.
"If this is what you think I am doing here then you don't know me at all," she fired back.
"We were not together!" Klaus lashed out, his fist hitting the table sending the vibration straight to her end. She picked up the glass and the bottle to save the wine as everything else on the table rattled.
"You hated having feelings for me!" Klaus reminded her, "you admitted it yourself! So what? I should pine away for you and be faithful to you while you scorned and rejected me at every chance you got?"
Caroline narrowed her eyes. She started getting angry too. She knew deep down that him choosing to sleep with that werewolf especially in the timeframe it happened was a sort of revenge directed at her. It shouldn't have mattered but deep down they both knew it did.
Even if he never planned for her to ever learn about it he knew how she felt about Hayley back then. Tyler was on the run but Hayley was not and while Tyler lost his mother Hayley Marshall was rewarded with her life and a much better treatment. She could tell Klaus had been petty about it. If he couldn't have her back then he would choose the one that would give him the sick kind of satisfaction of getting even with her in a way that would scorn her rejection.
He was a sadistic prick.
Not that it mattered. Or so she kept saying to herself ever since Kol spilled the beans in Purgatory. He had seen his brother and Hayley from the other side and couldn't help but share that information with her.
Caroline glowered at Klaus. No, she had not expected him to be faithful to her when they were not together and they had never been together. She didn't know what she had expected from him. Some decency back then and right now would have been nice, however.
"This is not about this," she replied coldly and Klaus leaned forward.
"What the hell is it about Caroline?"
Caroline said nothing and he let out a frustrated sigh before he sat back eyeing her like a hawk.
"From where I am standing it seems you want everything without giving anything in return," he primly said, "That's quite hypocritical if you ask me."
Caroline shook her head making a special effort to not get sidetracked. She had to keep her own anger in check.
"You are unbelievable," she indignantly said but under the table, her hands curled at the edges of the armrests of her chair.
The wood groaned and she knew Klaus heard it so she placed her hands over the table and tapped her fingers in a deliberate lazily tempo. Each tap counted a second and the clock between them turned and turned.
She finally forced the words out and a part of hers meant every word. "So I just have to look away to the fact that you lied to me so you could get a quickie on the woods, right Klaus?"
Klaus' lips flattened into a grimace.
"It wasn't like that!" he objected appearing insulted as if the idea alone was abhorrent to him, "you wanted it as much I did."
Caroline's stomach twisted and something fierce coiled inside her.
"I did," she agreed but tilted her head to the side in provocation, "but can you honestly tell me you didn't know what my reaction would be should I have known what was expecting you here?"
Klaus pressed his lips shut and she let out an undignified snort lifting her glass in a mockery of a toast.
"You knew perfectly well but didn't care," she said letting the acerbic taste she felt deep inside mingle with the wine and slide into her tongue, "you just went along with it and got what you wanted. I gave you my confession but you never intended to give me yours."
"What the hell is it that you want from me?" Klaus exploded, getting up in rage. His movement threw the chair to the other side of the room breaking it in half. Caroline remained unmoved by his dramatic outburst, "I am always trying with you and everything I do is wrong!"
"Trying?" Caroline almost choked with her drink and gave Klaus an exasperated look, "You call this trying? Seriously?"
Klaus slanted his head to the side, giving her a strange look.
"Jealousy does not suit you, sweetheart."
Caroline stared at him unblinkingly before she burst out laughing.
"You think I am like this because I am jealous? Please!" she tossed back sardonically, "you freaking snapped my neck and you are trying to lock me away. Again!" she bit out, and before Klaus could say anything she got up but not before making a show of letting the obscenely expensive bottle fall to the floor.
She stepped over the broken glass and approached Klaus that was giving her a stormy look.
"You are still hiding things from me," she accused him keeping her eyes trained on him.
"Things you know I have every right to know! You are putting obstacles in my way in every turn," she blamed him, "I deserve the truth and you are getting in my way because you get to decide what's best for me?"
She glanced heavenwards before she honed in her attention on him.
Who the hell do you think you are? And you think this is me being jealous? This is about honesty," she pointed out vehemently, "you really want to know what this is about? This is me holding you accountable and not just you but also me. Because despite everything that had happened between you and me, I was foolish enough to believe that I could count on you, to be honest. Brutally honest despite all the odds even."
Her eyes followed his tense posture, from head to toe. She let her fury and most of all her revulsion slide in her gaze.
"But I should have known better!" she belittled herself before she gestured between them, "this! You've been doing this to me from the start!"
"What have I been doing to you, Caroline?" Klaus questioned her mimicking her haughty tone, "waiting for you to grow up? To see that you are not so different from me? What have I been doing that is so despicable when I kept chasing you around like a weakling!" he hollered.
"You run Tyler out of town! You killed his mother!" she cried out feeling nauseous as the memories came back reminding her with whom she was dealing with, "you massacred all your Hybrids because of their treason but somehow Hayley got out of the equation when she orchestrated the whole thing with Shane," she snapped letting every frustration and bottled up feeling she had over this come to the surface and overlay every other emotion but the venomous resentment, "consequences did not matter for her or you but they mattered for the people I cared for! They mattered for me!"
Her skin crawled as she felt the ghost of his hybrid teeth breaking her skin in wrath and hate. He had attacked even her. He hurt her, he hurt those she cared for but Hayley had walked unscathed while she had been left behind to pick up the pieces. Klaus had ruined her relationship with Tyler and filled her with shame for the fact that despite it all a part of hers wanted him and cared for him.
Her eyes burned but she pushed away the tears.
"And despite all that I gave you the confession you wanted and much more than that when you conveniently kept your little secrets," she laughed bitterly not missing the irony of history repeating itself. Klaus always kept her in the dark. "Secrets that knew that would make me act differently but you did not care for that. As you do not care for the damage you are doing to me with the secrets you still keep from me," she said letting him see how this was vastly worse now, "as you do not care for breaking my neck and keeping me hostage just like your mother does with this stupid city barrier!"
Klaus tensed and his eyes turned yellow. The air around them filled with such foreboding that Caroline felt as if it was hard to breathe.
"I am nothing like Esther."
There was warning in his lethal whisper and her skin crawled.
"You are worse!" she burst out, "because you supposedly claim to care for me when you are abusing me out of what? Love?" she spat the word with revulsion, "and here you are now standing and trying to dictate how I should feel and how I should react," she scorned him, "you don't get to do that. No one does. I had the right to be upset back then and I still do and you know it!"
The gaze he was giving her was disturbing. It seemed that comparing him to Esther was one of the worst insults she could conjure.
"Back then is long gone," Klaus cruelly derided, "How about we focus on the now Caroline."
"Now?" she exhaled angrily, "now you have no right to force me into anything," she claimed, "where I should live or how to live."
"I do when you run around with a death wish!"
"Even if I did, which I don't," she objected, "this is not how it goes. You have no right to treat me like this."
"And you have no right to judge me for what I did when you were scorning me in every way possible," Klaus argued.
So much for the past being long gone Caroline thought.
"And with good reason. I cannot trust you," she stressed out, "you claim to have been honest with me but here we are. Even now you want me to follow your commands and do what you want when you are hiding so much from me."
She moved closer and studied him contemplatively.
"I have been trying to find a way to get out of this damned city and I hit dead end after dead end," she let her teeth grind, "and then my murderer comes along and you know nothing," she sarcastically drawled, "Kol tried to snatch his necklace from his dead body right in front of me and you thought I wouldn't notice?" she scoffed, "as I wouldn't notice you lying straight to my face?"
Her nails dug into her palms.
"And nothing can't convince me you and Kol aren't together on this. You fight each other like rabid dogs but when it comes to this you come together to get in my way! Why?" she frustratingly questioned him knowing all too well that she could not force the answer she wanted right now, not like this anyway, but she could not keep the sense of injustice under control.
"You are being irrational Caroline," Klaus grimly rejected her observation and her lips curled to an acerbic smirk.
"Am I?" she asked silkily, "what of the one shaman that could actually save me that was burned in the bayou? Come now Klaus, you did not even bother to hide your tracks," she tsked.
Klaus' face twisted in a mask of bewilderment just for a flicker of a second but it was enough. He had not been expecting for her to have traced him but he missed the part of how Purgatory had turned her into an excellent tracker.
"Whispers keep saying about how this was one more retaliation for your daughter's death but it wasn't, was it?" she concluded trying not to duel on how Klaus' pain was so transparent every time his daughter was mentioned.
"It was about me," she realized and he did not deny it, "and you did not even bother including me in this," she sighed as if she was not expecting anything better.
"Why did you kill the shaman Klaus?" she hounded him, "what did you find out? What happened?"
She waited and a foolish part of hers hoped beyond hope that he would open up to her and an even more foolish one was ready to surrender and even stay here with him if only he would be honest with her. Even they could truly become a team.
Her mind seemed to be screaming at him. She could hear her voice echoing inside her head.
…Give me something, anything, show me I can still trust you, even a glimpse of honesty would be enough…
Klaus said nothing and the undercurrent of disappointment swept that traitorous voice in her head away.
"What about the hunter that killed me?" she emphasized, "are you completely honest about it too?"
Klaus stayed silent but the slightest tremor shook his body. It was hard to detect but it was there and it was enough.
"I see," she quietly said, her shoulders slumping.
Caroline turned her back on him and threaded her fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes and reluctantly realized that she and Klaus no matter how drawn they were to each other in the end they were incompatible and that wouldn't change.
"You ask and ask and demand and you give nothing back," she whispered and turned around to face him again, "superficially yes. But you do not connect with people. Not where it matters," she grimly stated, "not where you have to be honest and take risks but somehow you expect me to do it. And to do it… for you," she added listlessly, "I am not your emotional crunch and I won't be one more doll to hide away in your castle. I am not one of your siblings that you can dagger and throw away the coffin."
"You are twisting everything," Klaus muttered aghast but she let a noncommittal sound at that. Maybe he truly believed that. Maybe he believed that his intentions were coming from a good place but the result was still the same and it was twisted at hell.
"I won't be your pawn, Klaus," she rejected him, "you can do that with the mother of your daughter," her voice caught on the last word, "or anyone else but not me."
"You need to stop," Klaus urged. His eyes shone with a feeling so destructive that kept building and at the same time there was something vacant in his gaze that made Caroline ache for him.
He didn't have to spell it out to her. She knew what he meant. He wanted her to stop mentioning Hayley and his daughter. Most importantly his daughter.
Klaus finally had something in life that he could love unconditionally. Something pure that was taken away from him brutally. A thousand years of depraved malevolence would not allow him a happy ending it would seem. He paid the price of the fate he forced upon himself with every malicious deed he ever did and those deeds seemed to be countless. He was beyond redemption and any child of his would suffer the same destiny and Klaus knew it.
This was a bleeding wound for him and he wanted her to stop rubbing salt in it but she had finally got him where she wanted.
This was emotional warfare and she could only win this out on this level since she could not match him physically in direct combat. Even if she could he was an Original and without a white stake, any victory against him would be temporary.
She had to aim at his heart differently. She had to make it hurt, to rip into his bleeding wound and make him bleed more. To bleed so much to the point of becoming blind to the truth.
And the truth was that she would not let him destroy her by keeping her against her will. The truth was that he couldn't keep her. But for leaving this place she had to find the right opening and that was to make him detest what he felt for her. Enough to not care. She had to injury his pride and all that he held dear because the key to escaping him was his pain. The same pain that led him to snap her neck and bring her here. She would have to use that pain against him now and for that, she had to use a truth.
A truth he hated. The kind of honesty that would break him and she had to be genuine because nothing else would work.
He was begging her to stop.
She could not.
She opened her mouth to deliver the last blow that she knew would break them apart but she never managed to form a sound because Camille O'Connell barged in.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Cami yelled at Klaus as she marched inside the dining room, anger coming out of her in waves.
Klaus remained unexpressive and Caroline actually stepped between them and held Cami back just as she was about to attack Klaus.
Caroline kept her eyes at Klaus that didn't react at all.
"Hey. I need you to calm down now," Caroline urged Cami with a soothing voice.
Cami struggled against her hold but Caroline knew this was not wise. Klaus cared for Cami but during the last hour, Caroline knew she had brought him to the end of his patience. He was volatile and his control was slipping and Cami was only a human. This would not end well if she was caught between Klaus and his temper tantrums.
"He bit Marcel when he tried to stop him from taking you!" Cami told her and Caroline's breath hitched.
"He what?"
The question was rhetorical though. Caroline didn't have to even look at Klaus to know it was true. She kept her hold on Cami without removing her attention from Klaus that only deigned to give both of them an unreadable look.
"He broke Josh's spine in half and maimed two more vampires!"
Cami sounded affronted but Caroline was not surprised. At least he hadn't killed anyone.
"How could you do this? Any of this? To Marcel! To Caroline," Cami burst out and when Klaus' features turned to a sinister mask Caroline pulled Cami behind her body giving Klaus a warning glare.
Klaus gave Caroline a mocking look before he went to the cellarette and took a crystal whiskey tumbler.
Caroline watched him as his face transformed. His eyes shone gold and his fangs elongated. He bit into his wrist and let his blood pour into the glass.
"Marcel already has vials of my blood saved but if this is so important for you," Klaus said as he approached them, his eyes now fixed on Cami.
Klaus extended his hand offering his blood to Cami and Caroline carefully took a step to the side when Cami's hand squeezed her arm gently showing her that she had calmed down and didn't need her to be her shield.
Caroline watched their interaction closely assessing them both. Cami's eyes were flickering back and forth between Klaus' face and the glass of blood he was holding out for her. She still glowered at him but she reached for the cure.
Klaus gave her a nod and Caroline couldn't help but feel the jolt of surprise that passed through her. Klaus relented for Cami. It didn't mean much since according to him Marcel already had his blood but at the same time, it meant something. Something singularly important.
Caroline felt her heart hammering against her ribcage. Klaus actually felt something for Cami and from the charged look Cami was giving him, despite her obvious anger, she reciprocated those feelings.
Caroline almost looked away as a painful pang passed through her heart.
She was suffocating.
Klaus threw her a glance and when he gave her a knowing smirk she bit her tongue so hard she felt the taste of blood in her mouth.
Klaus slanted his eyes back to Cami and Caroline tensed when his gaze thinned.
Cami bravely stared back at him as he literally got into her face.
"Now leave," he ordered Cami with a stern voice.
"Not without Caroline," Cami insisted protectively.
"This matter does not concern you, Camille," Klaus shut her down, and before Cami could say anything else that would probably not end well for any of them Caroline intervened and held her hand gently pulling her away just as Klaus was about to lose it.
"Klaus is right," Caroline said earning an exasperated look from Cami and a lifted eyebrow from Klaus.
Caroline gave Klaus a dirty look but saved a reassuring one for Cami.
"Me and Klaus have a few things to settle but those issues are between me and him," Caroline explained before she pointed at the glass of blood Cami was still holding, "you should go to Marcel. I will come later too," she promised Cami.
Klaus' expression darkened at what she said and Cami saw it too. Caroline didn't fail to notice the fear that clouded her friend's face. Cami was awfully perceptive and could read between the lines and from the looks of it she also knew Klaus very well.
"Are you sure?" Cami asked her, her voice barely above a whisper even though they all knew that Klaus could hear her. Caroline was moved by Cami's concern and nodded.
"Don't worry about me," she mollified Cami calmly, "I'll be fine," she gave Klaus a sidelong glare before she confidently faced Cami again, "there's nothing here I can't handle."
"I am not sure if this is a good idea," Cami reluctantly mumbled looking between her and Klaus with uncertainty.
Caroline smiled.
"Trust me Cami."
Caroline blinked when Cami spontaneously hugged her. Caroline breathed in. She hadn't realized how much she had missed this kind of physical contact. Her heart clenched and expanded at the same time. She slowly wrapped her arms around Cami.
"I won't leave you here," Cami swore, her voice warm in her ear, "if I don't see you or hear from you in a few hours I am coming back."
Cami took a step back and her eyes promised what she just told her.
"You won't have to," Caroline assured her.
"A couple of hours," Cami repeated.
"It's a date," Caroline winked at her.
Cami sighed but then faced Klaus with eyes that shone with pity and disappointment.
"If you keep treating people like this you'll have no one else to blame for always ending up alone."
Caroline lowered her head. For some reason, Cami's words cut into her deep because she knew them to be true and Klaus knew it too.
With those parting words, Camille left them alone until the echo of her steps eventually faded in the distance.
Caroline pushed her hair out of her face and tried to find her bearings again.
She had goaded Klaus and she was ready to deliver the final blow to get him where she wanted but Cami somehow made her feel disillusioned.
The effect Camille had on Klaus was obvious and Klaus seemed to be failing everyone that ever saw any good in him and that was breaking him. She could see it. She could feel it and she hated it.
He was at his worst right now she this shouldn't matter to her but somehow it did. It did every time because even when Klaus was being his horrible terrible self Caroline could connect with that human part of his heart and Camille was the evidence that this part in Klaus existed.
Klaus grew to care for Camille O'Connell. A human girl. One that in the past he would have devoured with sharp claws and teeth.
But Cami touched a part in him that Caroline had seen a long time ago. A part that Klaus rarely allowed to come to the surface and Caroline wondered how Cami could have brought this out in him so easily.
Caroline hated that there a part inside her that resented what she saw between the human therapist and Klaus. She didn't know why this kept happening to her. This was just not normal.
Klaus' words from earlier echoed in her mind.
'Jealousy does not suit you. sweetheart.'
Hell no. This could not be happening to her. Not with Klaus of all people.
Damn it! Damn him!
She had not survived Purgatory to get into a love triangle. Especially one where Klaus was using Cami against her.
No. She deserved better than that.
Caroline pushed any latent feelings of jealousy aside and focused on what Cami had told Klaus.
He always ended up alone and this was not a narrative that was about to change. Caroline saw the pain in Klaus when Cami had said that and Caroline knew that deep down there was nothing that Klaus feared and hated more than the loneliness he always felt deep inside.
Only he was the maker of his own prison and she couldn't let him drag her into that.
"She is right you know," Caroline calmly said to Klaus and in response, he let out a noncommittal sound.
"Cami has the tendency to turn every moment into a therapy session," Klaus murmured sarcastically, "I should know I pay her by the hour."
Caroline rolled her eyes at that.
"And obviously it's wasted money."
She sighed. It was about time for her to end this.
"This," she waved between them, "is getting us nowhere."
"Is it?" he wondered, voice pitched low, "if there is anything my thousand years in this earth have taught me is that there are no dead ends for those that have mastered patience," he countered her words, "and love, I have."
"Your point?"
"Even if this is getting us nowhere somewhere in time there is another path that will lead us somewhere."
Caroline weighed his words and said nothing. In her mind, the clock was running. Backward. Towards detonation.
"I am willing to wait this out."
"Just so we are clear," Caroline frowned, "this is you locking me in a cage."
"Shelter" Klaus corrected her and she scoffed at that but he continued with determination, "this is a means to an end, nothing more. The end being your well being. Your survival."
Caroline's lips curved upward.
"I have learned a few things about patience too Klaus. I know how to wait this out too. It is not as if I haven't been thrown in a hellhole," she pressed on the word because Klaus could take his 'shelter' crap and shove it straight up his ass, "before. You aren't being that unique."
"It doesn't have to be like this. If you just gave this…us…a chance-"
"Us?" she echoed and sighed, "are you so out of touch with reality that you can't see that by doing this you just threw away even the possibility of us? Even if I were to walk away right now, all of this would still remain unforgivable. Every second counting between us now is doing us irreversible damage."
A muscle in Klaus' face ticked.
"Let me go, Klaus," she appealed to his common sense for the last time, "you and I…we just don't work. We never did and we never will," she said simply, "We may be the same but we are not compatible."
"Don't say that."
His distraught voice made her breathing harder.
"What should I say then?" she asked him unable to keep the pity and the defeat she felt at bay, "We don't communicate. We go in circles. You are not being honest with me."
Klaus ran his fingers through his hair leaving an unruly mess behind.
"You asked for my honesty. For my hidden secrets," he rasped, "Is this what you want? Honesty or an apology?
"An apology would be nice sure but I am not shooting for the stars here," she demurred, "We both know you are incapable of apologizing."
Klaus' eyes became a pool of something so deep that Caroline felt as if she would drown in it.
"What do you want me to apologize for Caroline?"
"The list keeps on growing."
Her sarcasm didn't win over his inquisitive disposition.
"This is what you want?" he questioned again, "an apology for my slights against you and your friends or me to ask your forgiveness for Hayley…for Hope?"
Caroline swallowed harshly.
He had never spoken his daughter's name before.
And now that he did he spoke it with so much grief, guilt, and…love. So much love.
He wasn't incapable of it.
"To be honest and somehow achieve the kind of perfection that no one ever could?" Klaus retaliated and Caroline watched him closely now.
His control was slipping.
The countdown was starting to speed up in her head.
The one thing he would not be able to overlook. The one thing he would not be able to tolerate or forget. Not from anyone, not even her.
It was so close. In her grasp, if she only reached for it.
Why couldn't she find the words then?
"Are you sharing your honesty with me, love? Your hidden secrets?" Klaus asked her aiming to hurt her where it hurt the most and she knew she would have to repay the favor soon, "Those that hurt and bleed?"
Caroline remained distant letting his words wash over her and strengthen her resolve.
What hurt and what bled. No, she had not given him that part of herself. Not completely. Maybe she never would but it made no difference now. Now that she would have to go after that part of his if she wanted her freedom.
"Even before your death," Klaus paused for a moment as if the word alone burned him but then his eyes shone with anger, "you never opened up to me," he accused her, "You were playing hide and seek most of the time pretending that you did not feel anything for me."
"What did you expect?" she queried, dressing her voice with disbelief, "You were my enemy."
"I was never YOUR enemy!" Klaus barked.
"Right!" she exclaimed, "so you thought that you would dash around kill, maim and terrorize the people I loved and I would look the other away because of your charm and flirting?" she defied him as she rehashed every part of their past that still existed in those blurred lines that were the very same reason as to why they were constantly pushed in different directions instead of coming closer while at the same time beyond reason they were being pulled together instead of being pushed apart. It was perpetual and contradicting and everything that made them…them.
"You are delusional," she threw at him and before he could say anything else marched towards him with every intention of throttling him.
"You hurt me too Klaus," she told him furiously, "I got bitten twice because of you and the second time was by your teeth. You gambled my life and almost left me there to die!"
"And you manipulated me into saving you," he reminded her, poised against her accusations with something that reflected deep hurt, "with declarations of how I am capable to be saved because of my love for you," he copied her words from the past, "Was that completely honest love?"
"Am I meant to apologize for wanting to survive?" she defended herself and Klaus dared to look at her as if he was the one wronged here. As if she had played with his feelings and as if he hadn't been the one that had let her linger inches away from death.
As if she should feel guilty for wanting to live. As if she should feel guilty right now for doing exactly the same in order to escape and be free.
"Ah yes...survival," Klaus drawled and something fierce and wicked laced his accent, "since you expect me to be open to you about everything how about you return the favor?" he provoked her and Caroline stiffened.
"How was it in Purgatory sweetheart?"
She couldn't help it. She had expected it but the blow still left her breathless and she stumbled back as if she was hit.
The lines blurred again. Honesty and truth with lies and distraction.
"Stop," she whispered but she didn't know if she was pleading with him or herself.
"Did it hurt when you died?" Klaus kept pushing and her eyes burned. They burned so much. Why did it have to hurt like this? As if she was being flayed alive? "Were you scared? What was your last thought?" Klaus demanded and Caroline felt something inside her crack.
She still remembered her last thought before she died. She did.
It had been his voice.
And ever since then she had died a thousand times. And she still heard his voice.
"Really I want to know!" Klaus lashed out wanting to hurt her as much as she was hurting him, "Come on. Be honest with me," he mocked her being petty and vicious at the same time.
Caroline felt as if ashes had gathered in her mouth. She tasted sulfur.
"You seem to expect perfection for me and to be altruistic and fall in line with your rules of right and wrong," Klaus sneered, "How about you do the same?"
The burn in her eyes intensified until Klaus' vengeful image blurred but she swallowed the burn and the saltiness.
She had done it before after all. She knew how to shut down the pain without turning off her humanity. She knew how to lose herself until there was nothing left but cruelty. Until there would be no mercy left.
Only the kill.
"I will open all my cards once you open yours," Klaus kept pushing.
Pushing and pushing. Straight up calling her a hypocrite and maybe he was not wrong.
"How did you survive in Purgatory? Did you starve? Did you kill? Were you hurt? Were you alone?" he charged at her and then his voice took a mocking turn of sympathy, "Were you in pain? Desperate?"
Caroline stood firm as Klaus kept pushing against the tide.
"How many of your bones did Kol break before he turned you into…this," he spat with so much contempt and distaste.
There was knowledge in his words because he knew how Kol trained his students and she was exactly that. Kol's student.
Something Kol Mikaelson broke and then stitched back but the pieces didn't quite fit and the result was grotesque and in Klaus' eyes this was her fault as much as was Kol's because her precious light was erased and gone and what was left seemed unnatural even to Klaus Mikaelson, nature's worst abomination yet.
Caroline didn't even flinch when Klaus skimmed her hair gently with his knuckles.
The gleam in Klaus' eyes showed her he believed he was winning this round. He believed her silence to be a weakness.
"Go on," he encouraged her fondly, "tell me everything even though we are not together. Even when you keep stepping over me every time I try to reach out to you," he blamed her desperately and pushed the knife deeper inside the wound he was causing, "I really want to know because honesty should not include secrets and lies by omission."
Caroline pushed his hand away and took a step back.
The count of the clock came to a halt.
No more counting.
"You want to know?" she calmly asked, her heart now encased in ice, "Fine I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything," she agreed. Mimicking his tone of fake sympathy making him narrow his eyes at her.
The clock shuttered.
"Every gory detail," she crooned.
There was no more time to lose, to waste, to cheat.
She smiled.
Sometimes what hurt the most was a game of words. The most effective, the most hurtful, the most potent venom. Poison on the lips.
"But only after you tell me everything yourself too."
Klaus' eyes darkened.
Her smile grew wider and she took the plunge.
Straight past the point of no return.
"How did your daughter die?"
Klaus stopped breathing. He became something dead. Unnatural.
She had warned him.
A long time ago.
Terrible people do terrible things.
She now was one of those terrible people just like him.
Him that tried to hurt her because he could. Because he knew how. Because he was the only one that could.
She was just like him and she knew she would have to sacrifice something to gain something else. Something beautiful to gain something terrible.
"How did you lose her Klaus?"
Something tempestuous was born in Klaus' gaze.
This was his heartbreak, his rage, all his humanity; his guilt and his monstrosity wrapped in one emotion targeted at her.
If he wanted to keep her inside his cage she would make him suffer until he would have to decide between his sanity and her. Until he would not be able to keep her from slipping through the cracks.
The cracks she was forging now. Opening them wider and wider. Her every word was laced with poison that would now find its target. Would be the key to the lock that kept her in.
His hurt for her freedom. The one thing that she would have to sacrifice. The last innocence between them.
"Did it hurt?" she repeated his taunting words, "are you still having nightmares hearing her cries?" she mocked him and tilted her head to the side. A predator smelling at its prey's weakness.
Klaus staggered back but she didn't stop.
"How?" she purred doing what Kol had taught her to do best. Landing blow after blow and taking pleasure in the kill, in the terror, in playing with your food before you tear it apart.
Klaus took a step back as she took a step closer. She was treading a dangerous line. One wrong step and her heart would be ripped off her chest as she crushed his.
She took the wrong step anyway.
"How did you fail her?"
Klaus went deadly still. Gold shimmered in his eyes.
Gold and cold and dead.
"How did you turn into this?"
She reflected his words with the same distaste as she accused him of being something just as macabre, a creature just as broken, just as damaged.
Kol Mikaelson made her but Klaus Mikaelson was made by-
"When did you turn into Mikael?"
Time ran out.
The gold shimmered and flickered out.
Klaus' gaze changed. Like a star that died, eaten by a black hole.
Caroline watched it unfold. The utter lack of feeling.
He had never watched her like this before. Devoid of all feeling, of all fear, of all rage and pain. Devoid of all care, of all longing, of all…love.
Klaus gave her one last look before he turned around and walked away, his words fading away along with his footsteps.
"Get out. We are done."
And just like that she was free.
