Warning: In this chapter it is revealed that one of the characters has been through a traumatic experience. I just wanted to make readers aware of this before they read. Thank you for tuning in and I will see you at the bottom.
Chapter 20: We are Fools
Jumping off the private plane Caroline had had to procure to get from New Orleans to Mystic Falls, she was in a horrible mood when she saw Klaus standing by his car. He had texted her during the flight to ask where he should pick her up. Now, she was glaring at him. "What the hell did you do?" She snapped at him as she approached.
"Nice to see you, too, love," Klaus snapped back with his fingers laced behind his back. The smirk on his face would make most people think he found the whole scene amusing but the dark circles under his eyes said something else.
"It wasn't his fault," Stefan called. He was standing beside the car, waiting for the couple to get in.
"I'm sure," Caroline replied sarcastically. When Stefan and Klaus got in the front of the car she eyed the way that they were moving without having to speak to the other. "I'm so glad you two decided to bond in my absence," she told them, leaning forward to glare at both the men in her life. "Does someone want to explain how Rebekah triggered the curse?"
Klaus avoided looking at her. But his hand tightened on the steering wheel. "It's not my tale to tell. You'll have to ask her after she shifts back."
Stefan simply shrugged. "I agree with Klaus. You'll need to ask Rebekah."
"Unbelievable," Caroline huffed, flopping back on the back seat. "Is there anything you can tell me?"
Stefan turned and grinned at her. "We're thrilled you back."
Klaus growled, staring out the windshield. "Stupid girl," he muttered.
"I'm sorry. What was that?" Caroline asked, cupping her ear.
Klaus glared at her in the rearview mirror. "If you had stayed, this would not have happened."
"If you would tell me what happened then I could decide if you're right." Caroline told him hoping he would blurt out the information in a fit of anger.
Slowing down and parking in a parking lot close to the school, Klaus turned to stare at Caroline. "Nice try, sweetheart, but I'm not that stupid." Getting out of the car, Klaus began to walk away.
Jumping out of the car, Caroline was by Klaus' side in an instant. She felt the air shift and knew that Stefan was on her other side as they approached the area in which they had locked Hayley up for her first transition on Whitmore grounds.
Fully aware of everything around her, Caroline was the first to descend the steps. Outside the locked door where two werewolves paced around were several more friends. Bonnie, Damon and Elijah looked up. Before anyone else could move Damon swept Caroline off her feet. "Stupid. Freakin' hell, Caroline, you are so stupid. I should rip your heart out for how freakin' stupid you are," Damon murmured, squeezing Caroline tightly.
When Damon let go of Caroline, Bonnie came over to embrace her. "Welcome back, Care. You are back, right?" Bonnie asked, pulling back and staring at Caroline who nodded. "Good, because Kol is going to be so happy to see you."
Caroline smiled and turned to look at Elijah, who looked worse than Klaus. He hadn't shaved and had a full beard. His eyes were bloodshot and Caroline caught a whiff of stale beer. "Elijah, I'm so sorry about what happened. If I had known I would have come back. We can still fix this. I WILL fix this." Caroline told the human man who ran a hand through his hair.
"Caroline, I do not need you to go and compel my job back for me," Elijah replied, his voice coming out rough and then his look softened when he saw Caroline's look of dismay. "It was probably not what I should be doing with my life given all these supernatural events. I'm sure I will find something to do with my life."
"You can be out personal supernatural history researcher," Damon declared. "We can pay you with Stefan's money. What little there is with the amount of money he spends on hair products and all."
Stefan sighed, "Damon, I really don't think this is the time for your jokes."
Placing a hand over his heart, Damon looked around him. "Oh, Brother, you wound me deeply. I thought anytime is a good time for my jokes. You really need to find your funny bone. Although it might be lodged up your new boyfriend's as-"
"Enough," Elijah snapped. "Can we, please, have just one or two moments of silence around here before dawn?"
Looking at his wrist, Damon tapped the watch that wasn't there. "Time's up. Where was I? Oh, yeah, Stefan's funny bone is up Klaus' ass. I mean, seriously, you two need to hang out with other people. There may be rumors spreading about you."
"Shut UP!" Elijah roared and everyone stared at him.
"What is up your ass?" Damon asked just as Elijah turned around and slugged him. "Oh, I know you dumped your little wolfy girl and now you don't know what to do with all that extra energy. Get over it! Find another girl. It's easy. This campus is full of them. Hell, you can ask Elena out. I'm getting tired of her incessant whining about whether the laundry hits the hamper and why I smell like some other girl's cheap perfume. Here's a guess: started B and ends with D. Tastes real good when you can't bite your girl but she smells so darn good."
Elijah punched Damon again and Caroline wondered what had happened while she was gone. "Hey, guys, I suggest you knock it off. Or I will knock both of you out," Caroline warned, staring at them both. There was silence in the room for the next two hours. When the two freshmen began to shift back, the males turned their backs as Caroline opened the cage and walked inside. "Hey!" Caroline called
Hayley looked thrilled to see Caroline and started to try to hug her when she remembered she was naked and chained to a wall. "Oops. One moment."
Rebekah simply stared at Caroline with barely contained rage as she slid her dress on and then her underwear. "So happy you're back," she said stiffly before brushing past Caroline to leave.
"Don't mind her. She just hates this life," Hayley told Caroline conversationally. "So, tell me you went to Paris. I always wanted to go there. And Milan."
"How did this happen?" Caroline asked as they left.
"You'll have to ask Bekah," Hayley told Caroline, her mouth pursed.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Caroline asked, feeling frustrated as they walked outside to join the others.
Hayley leaned closer and whispered into Caroline's ear. "She won't tell us what happened."
Caroline stared at Rebekah whose head was held high as she walked along. There was something about the way she walked that was off though. It was like she was moving with less than her usual swagger. Like she felt less confident and when an owl hooted, she froze.
The group headed back to the dorm. Hayley, Rebekah and Caroline walked into their room. Actually, it was Hayley and Rebekah's room now. When the others left Caroline sat down at the end of Rebekah's bed while the other blonde cleaned up for bed. When Rebekah came out she. Glared at Caroline.
"I know it's been a while but your bed is over there," Rebekah stated icily.
Caroline looked at her bed. "Yeah, it is. We could sit on Hayley's bed. There might be Lucky Charms under there. Or Kol."
Hayley looked under her bed and shook it. "Nope. But we do have box of Lucky Charms." She got up and grabbed the cereal before sitting down on Rebekah's bed.
"You're going to tell us what happened. Or do I have to compel it out of you?" Caroline asked as Rebekah glared at her.
"It doesn't matter. It happened. And now it is over. Now, kindly get the bloody hell out of my bed," Rebekah snapped.
"She stopped talking to Marcel and would barely eat. I had to do her makeup and force her to go to class. She would jump at the tiniest sound." Hayley informed Caroline while Rebekah glared at her.
"It is not her business. She was not here," Rebekah snarled at Hayley. "She doesn't care about us."
"Yes, I do," Caroline told Rebekah, reaching out and taking Rebekah's hand, when Rebekah jerked away, shaking slightly. "Don't touch me."
"She doesn't like to be touched," Hayley noted. "The other day Kol tried to hug her and she started screaming. Really loudly."
"So what? There are plenty of people who don't like to be touched," Rebekah snapped.
"I was the first who saw her after," Hayley said, staring at Rebekah. "She had bruises."
"Shut up," Rebekah snapped, balling her fists.
"She doesn't know but I went to check on her when she was changing because she was covered in dirt and blood. I thought it was the other person's blood," Hayley continued.
"Shut up," Rebekah repeated, her eyes filling with tears and she bared her teeth as Hayley continued.
"I saw the bruises on your legs, Bekah. I saw the bruises on your arms. They were all over your body. I saw that you were bleeding. I saw your clothes. I saw your underwear. Bekah, I know what he did to you," Hayley told her.
"SHUT UP," Rebekah screamed, pouncing on Hayley and beginning to pound on her.
Hayley grabbed Rebekah by her wrists and crossed them over her chest. "It wasn't you fault, Bekah. He was an asshole and he got what he deserved."
Caroline was crying, too, staring at Rebekah who was always so strong, who had gone through something so horrible and one of best friends had just taken off. Wrapping her arms around Rebekah, Caroline pressed her face against her friend's back.
When they stopped crying, Rebekah sat up and brushed her tears away. "I met this guy about a month ago. His name was George and he was from England. That's where we're from originally and he was so very sweet. He took me out for coffee on our first date and brought me a flower. Very well dressed, too. His family had money. So, Father would approve. We went out to lunch for our first date. Then to the movies for the second. He would always bring flowers and was just so sweet. Always with the compliments. Then came our third date. You know that date. So, he took me to an expensive restaurant and everything was lovely."
"He asked me to come back to his place for a drink and I said I had class the next morning. However, he coaxed me in to coming inside for just the littlest of after dinner drinks. After ten minutes I said I needed to go and he asked me for one little kiss before I left. I went ahead and kissed him. When I tried to pull away, he acted offended. He began to tell me that I was a tease. He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me into the bedroom and threw me on top of the bed. Then… then he began to beat me. He just kept hitting me until I stopped moving and then he took his pant off…"
"When it was over I got up. I could barely stand and I went into his living room. There was this beautiful statue of a ballerina. Cut glass and heavy, too. Picking it up, I placed it behind my back. My arms were shaking, I could hardly carry it. Walking back into the bedroom, I found George laying on his back with this wide grin. He sat up and smiled at me. 'Ready for another round?' He asked me and I smiled back at him as he got up." "When he got close enough I pulled the statue out and he began to laugh at me. 'What are you going to do with that? Watch it, Bekah. It's expensive.' Bloody bastard was taunting me. That's when I saw red and hit him. He fell to his knees and I hit him again. I just kept hitting him over and over again. All I could see was his grin and I wanted to make him stop grinning. I never wanted him to grin or to touch me, or any other woman, again. And he won't. When it was over I felt the change begin. But it stopped.
"When I was sure I could move, I wrapped George in his most expensive rug and dragged his evil ass out to his car. I buried his body out in the woods and hoped an animal would dig him up and eat him. Something should be able to get some use of his useless carcass. Nik took care of his car without question. I half expect it to pop up again. So far no one has come to me with questions but I expect it any day now. After all, it's been about three weeks now."
"Can we dig him up and kill him again?" Hayley asked, rubbing Rebekah's back, who hiccupped and smiled.
"Let's not do that. Shall we?" Rebekah said, shaking her head and shivering.
Caroline took Rebekah's hand. "That's the thing. We're all so used to dealing with monsters with fangs, we forget about the human monsters in our midst."
Sucking in a shaky breath, Rebekah nodded. "One thing is for sure. No human will ever hurt me like that again. I'll just bite his bloody head off."
Hayley began to laugh and handed Rebekah the Lucky Charms, who stared at them in disgust before she took a handful and began to eat. "I missed you, Caroline," she said through a mouthful of cereal.
"I'm sorry. What was that?" Caroline asked and Rebekah threw a handful of cereal at her.
"Uh oh! Now we're going to have Lucky Charm bugs. Or maybe that's just Kol," Hayley said and Rebekah threw cereal at her, too. They became engaged in a Lucky Charms war, picking cereal off the floor and throwing it at each other. They were running around the room and shouting at each other in delight.
After they settled down, they all climbed into Caroline's bed. "You do know you've been kicked out, right?" Rebekah told Caroline, who heaved a sigh.
"Yeah, I'm going to get that fixed tomorrow morning." Caroline told her.
"Do you want us to come with you?" Hayley asked from Caroline's other side.
"If you have nothing better to do," Caroline told them.
"Trust me, we don't," Rebekah replied. "We have nothing to do but grow old and study."
"I guess you did get boring while I was gone," Caroline teased and Rebekah poked her in the stomach.
"Ow! You dead people are hard," Rebekah groaned, rubbing at her sore finger.
Caroline laughed. "Yes, and we're cold, too. Now, roll over. Between you and Hales, I barely have any room."
Rebekah rolled onto her side with a yawn. Caroline threw an arm over her, making her groan. "You're like a human popsicle, Forbes."
"And you're like one of those warming blankets," Caroline replied contentedly, resting her face against Rebekah's back, who began to mutter about pneumonia.
Hayley threw an arm and a leg over Caroline resting her foot on top of Rebekah's leg. "Is that better?" She called to Rebekah.
"Much," Rebekah called to Hayley, her own voice heavy with sleep and resentment. "You will clean my bed tomorrow."
"Sure," Hayley replied, her tone layered with sarcasm.
"It's good to be back," Caroline murmured.
Okay, so that is the end of the chapter and I will not say I hope that you liked it because this is so not a chapter that I would necessarily use the word like on. This was one of the chapters that was hard to write and it will probably be difficult to read. So, let me know what you think…
And don't worry about this chapter being updated until chapter 30 which I have yet to finish.
Thank you for faving, following, reading and reviewing: Alexis2106, bexandcall, Klaroline-lovegames, lanibapt, redbudrose and pleasesaycaroline.
Bexandcall: I'm happy that you're still enjoying the story although I was unable to fulfill your request.
Klaroline-lovegames: Caroline left because she was confused and scared about what she was becoming. Part of this part of the story is about Caroline being an eighteen year old girl who is still growing up and she ran because she was overwhelmed by all of the events that had happened in the past months. I mean she gained her eyesight, she became a vampire and a werewolf and started her first relationship with a guy that was not all about being someone's friend. She also found out that her best friend was in love with her who also turned out to be a vampire. So, basically it was far too much to take in at once.
Lanibapt: Thank you.
Redbudrose: The unfortunate thing about Caroline leaving her friends for so long was that she wanted space and was trying to figure out what all of these experiences that she had been through. It might seem excessive for her to disappear for three months without letting anyone know where she was but part of that is that she thought she might she might be a danger to the people that she cared for so she needed to find out more about what she was. And there was a part of her that was considering not coming back. However, the title of the chapter was my way of pointing out that she finds out that there are consequences to running away.
Peace,
Jessica