Hello, my lovely readers. We're going to see another major twist in this story that will take us to the end and, possibly, into a sequel. On with the show…
Chapter 34: Kept in the Dark
Klaus kept walking around outside while Caroline stood inside the invisible barrier, locked in with Enzo. She could tell that the presence of another male in her temporary prison—she hoped it was only temporary—had set Klaus' nerves on edge. She wanted to reassure him, to remind him that it was Klaus she loved, not some guy she met all of two minutes ago but she didn't think Klaus wanted to hear it.
"Are you even trying to get us out of here?" Caroline demanded, glaring at Liv who stood just outside the barrier.
Klaus turned his sights and his anger on the witch. "Yes, what is taking so long? Having a witchy crisis?" he snapped at the girl.
Bonnie jumped in. "Hey, back off. Liv's doing the best she can."
The group had come to realize that Liv's powers were superior to Bonnie's and she was still struggling to take the barrier down again. "Thanks, Bonnie," Liv muttered, rolling her eyes and refocusing on the barrier. "It would help if at least two members of the Trio could—I don't know—get the hell out of here instead of drawing this huge target on all of our heads!" she snarled, her eyes glowing with fervor.
"What trio?" Caroline snapped, punching the barrier and then wincing. It felt like hitting a brick wall reinforced with titanium. "Ouch!"
"I'm with Caroline, what the bloody hell are you going on about?" Rebekah demanded, staring at Liv, her eyes hard.
"Did no one tell you anything?" Liv groaned, stopping her work, again. She ran a hand through her hair. "Whatever. It's not really my job. I'm not The Protector."
"Again, with another freakin' weird code word?" Hayley joined in, placing her hands on her hips.
Liv closed her eyes. "Can you," she pointed at Hayley, without looking at her. "And the other one, please, go away. The three of you being in this space is seriously screwing with my ability to concentrate."
"Which one?" Klaus demanded when Liv opened her eyes to stare at Rebekah.
"What did I bloody well, do?" Rebekah cried.
"Nothing. Yet. Just go away and do find some place—a safe place—to be without, that one." Again, Liv pointed at a startled Hayley. "It's not safe, right now, and you three, being together, is just making it worse."
Hayley and Rebekah looked at each other and then at Caroline. "Go! I'll be fine. Klaus, go with your sister. She needs your protection. Elijah, I know you won't let Hayley out of your sight but take Bonnie and Kol with you."
"No! I need to help Liv get you out of there," Bonnie protested, staring at Caroline with a hurt expression. They both knew the truth. Bonnie's magic wasn't strong enough at the moment. It had taken too much out of her to pull the barrier down in the first place and she wouldn't have been able to do that if Liv hadn't already chipped away at it.
"Bonnie, thank you for caring. You are a great friend, but I need you to go and help the others. Rebekah, you should go to your parents, they'll be able to protect you. Elijah, get Elena and Damon to help you. There's strength in numbers." Caroline felt tired as her friends began to leave, one by one.
"We'll get you out of there," Hayley promised. "Even if we have to come back and risk our lives."
"No, you will not risk yourself and our child!" Elijah argued.
Rebekah placed a hand against the barrier, not speaking but waiting. Caroline pressed her hand to the barrier, staring back at the half-witch, half-wolf girl. Be safe, Caroline thought and Rebekah smiled like she could hear her before she left with the others.
Klaus stood in front of the barrier. "I'm not leaving you," he said stubbornly.
"Klaus, I love you but if you don't go keep your sister safe, when I get out of here, I will kick your ass from one side of town to the other."
"Fine," Klaus snapped. He leaned forward, pressing his lips to the barrier and Caroline pressed her own to it. She closed her eyes and for a moment she could feel their lips pressed together in a kiss that held the promise of everything they would be—once everything calmed down.
"I love you, Niklaus Mikaelson, now go!" Caroline refused to cry until he was gone and then she slid to the floor, tears running down her cheeks in silent waves, crushing her under their weight.
"It's okay," Enzo said, coming over and pressing his hand to her shoulder.
"No, no it's not," Caroline shook her head. "Something is coming for me and my friends, my sisters. And I don't know how to stop it!" She choked on a frustrated sob. She felt Enzo's arms curl around her. Pressing her wet cheek into his shoulder, she allowed him to comfort her, knowing that Klaus wouldn't freak out since he had left. "Liv, here, is going to get us out of this prison and then we're going to track down your enemy and roast him over an open spit," Enzo promised.
Caroline let out a shocked laugh. She had become accustomed to violence but some part of her was still adjusting to her supernatural life. Even after having killed a man. Even after seeing her friends die in horrific ways. Even after fighting and drinking blood and the whole horror show theme, she still felt a little shock whenever a new act of supernaturally induced violence came into her life.
"In the meantime, why don't you enlighten us as to what this little Trio thing is, love?" Enzo inquired, his gaze on Liv.
Liv's eyebrows rose and she stopped chanting. "I don't know much. Just stuff other people in my family told me. I thought it was a fairy tale, to scare us into going to bed at night but I saw the paintings. I knew what you looked like. And the other ones." Liv looked at Caroline but her eyes were glazed.
"So, tell us what you know," Caroline said quietly, calmly although she felt anything but calm.
"Like a trillion years ago, there were these girls that were born in the light of the full moon. One came from the East. One came from the West. And one came from the North. You, Caroline, you're the North. These girls were connected by magic and represent the most powerful creatures ever born in the supernatural world. The wolf, the witch and the vampire. But only one of you would be all three and it changed over time. Sometimes it was the East. Sometimes the West. Sometimes the North. And your children would be even more powerful than you: they would be unstoppable as their powers grew, unrestrained by our world. They would grow to rule the supernatural community. No one knows if they would bring about chaos and death or whether they would bring light and peace; when the world was at its darkest time."
"That's why whatever is hunting you three wants you. It wants your children. It wants to harness that power for its own whims and something tell me it's not to bring about world peace." Liv paused, shaking her head. "I'm glad I'm not you."
"What happened to the original girls from the North, West and East and their babies?" Caroline asked Liv. Some part of her felt afraid to ask the question. The look on Liv's face made her want to say she didn't want to know. Just stop talking. Never mind, I'm sorry I asked. But she kept her mouth shut.
"They died," Liv replied. "They died before their children could be born. He came for them and tried to take their power while their children were still growing in their wombs. They died, screaming, according to legend although that might have been a tale trying to teach teens to not have sex." Shrugging, Liv continued, "Twenty years later, the girl of the North showed up again. This time she was stronger. And she had heard the tale of what happened to her and her sisters. When she fell in love with a young village boy and became pregnant with their child, she went to the top of a mountain. She threw herself off, killing them both."
Caroline felt her heart constrict at the thought of sacrificing herself and her child. "And then?"
"Then the girl in the West woke one day to find the child she had conceived with her love coming far too soon. She died in great pain. The girl in the East, she gave birth a day later, to a beautiful baby girl who never took a breath. After this, the girls tried to stay alive. Tried to keep their children alive. Ran to the ends of the earth to have the story play out the same way, again and again and again. They died. Their children died. No matter where they went. He came for them. For five hundred years, they ran until witches did a spell and created The Protector. His only duty on this plane of existence was to keep the girls alive. When he failed, time and time again, he took his life."
"So who is this Protector anyway because I have yet to meet him," Caroline folded her arms over her chest.
"I don't know. No one knows. Maybe he's just a myth. But you're real. So, I guess he might be, too." Liv refocused on the barrier.
"Who are the girls from the West and East?" Caroline thought she already knew the answer to this question.
"Hayley is the girl from the East. And Rebekah is the girl from the West." Liv filled in.
"Well, there is a tiny problem with your story. I'm a vampire. I can't have a baby," Caroline pointed out. "And Rebekah's boyfriend, Marcel, he's a vampire, so they're definitely not going to be in the family way anytime soon."
Liv rolled her eyes. "Hey, I don't know all the details. I told you, this story was handed down through my family for years and who knows what kind of craziness got thrown in for fun."
Caroline huffed, getting to her feet and pacing. "Hayley's pregnant," she said, looking at the wall opposite her. "Does that mean that if Rebekah and I don't fulfill our end, she dies?" she demanded, turning to glare at Liv.
"Again, I had nothing to do with this…curse or whatever you want to call it. Don't kill the messenger. Now, do you want to get out or not?" Liv glared back at Caroline, hand on her hip.
Caroline nodded. Now more than ever. She sat down beside Enzo and he looked at her and she could see his pity. "Stop that," she grumbled, folding her arms over her knees and drawing them beneath her chin.
"Stop what, love?" Enzo replied, giving her a look like he hadn't done anything.
"You know what," Caroline snapped, feeling irritable.
"You mean wondering if you're going to be a mummy-to-be, who might bring on the end of the world?" Enzo teased. "Please. I have heard my share of old wive's tales. Some are true. Some are not. But that sounds like a load of bullocks to me."
Rolling her eyes, Caroline looked away from Enzo. She didn't know what she believed anymore. She did know that she couldn't have a baby. It was impossible. She died and came back as a vampire. And Marcel became a vampire, so there was no way that Rebekah was pregnant or would be becoming pregnant; unless she slept with someone else. But that wouldn't change Caroline's inability to produce life. So Hayley would die and there was nothing she could to stop it.
Tears welled in Caroline's eyes at the idea of losing one of her two best friends. They were a family. And if Liv was correct, they were mystically connected, and had been for, like, forever. Her body began to shake and Enzo gathered her into his arms; rocking her gently. Caroline felt sleep dragging her under and her thoughts went to a day in which they did not have a ton of drama dragging them all down.
"You are such a weirdo," Hayley said as she exited the bathroom, giving Damon a look as he flipped through a magazine on her bed. "Don't you have a life or someone else to hassle with your crazy?" she demanded.
Caroline sat on her bed, trying to study but her friends wouldn't let up. Kol sat on Hayley's bed, popping Lucky Charms into his mouth. Rebekah was trying to find a dress for a date with Marcel. Elena sat beside Damon on Rebekah's bed with a copy of Hamlet. The others had other things going on that day.
"I am not a weirdo," Damon snapped at Hayley who scoffed.
"Yes, you are. You're old and you should have a job, not be lurking in the dorm rooms of a bunch of college coeds." Hayley snapped at Damon.
Damon tossed the magazine, hitting Kol in the head with it. "Hey!" Kol cried, rubbing his head.
Rebekah turned around to watch Kol toss the magazine on the floor. "That is mine, keep your grubby hands off of it!" she warned her brother, pointing a hanger at him.
"Why do you plan on hanging me in your closet as revenge?" Kol retorted, getting to his feet. "I'm hungry!"
Damon strode toward Hayley and placed his hands on her shoulders. "If I wanted to, I would make you dance all around this campus, without the benefit of this piece of fabric!" He tugged on her towel.
Hayley let out an angry snarl, grabbing the towel before Damon ripped it off of her. "I'm going to bite you!" she hissed, showing her fangs.
"I'm scared. The doggy's going to give me a bite. Maybe I'll have to go get my rabies shot updated." Damon taunted.
Elena sat up. "Hey, cut it out!" she cried. "Damon, stop harassing Hayley."
"You call it harassment, I call it entertainment," Damon retorted. Turning, he wrapped an arm around Hayley's shoulders. "You know what's wrong with these girls," he grinned, eyeing Hayley, Rebekah and Caroline, who tried to ignore him. "They have no respect. Way back when, women weren't so mean to guys who protected them."
"You are such a sexist pig!" Hayley snapped, shrugging Damon off.
"It's a bygone era, ladies," Damon said, moving to sit back down with Elena. "Man, I'm feeling nostalgic, who wants to go on a horse and buggy ride?" he laughed when everyone in the room gave him funny looks. "Sorry, just remembering something you wouldn't believe if I told you." His eyes moved back to Hayley for a split second before coming to rest on Elena with fondness that made Caroline want to call Klaus.
"Let's go get something to eat," Kol yelled, startling everyone.
"I'm starving," Hayley announced.
Caroline gave up, setting her book aside on her nightstand. Hayley went into the bathroom with an arm full of clothes and came back out, minutes later. Rebekah slipped on a pair of heels and Kol led the way out the door. Damon followed them, his arm around Elena and he winked at Caroline. For a second, Caroline paused, not knowing what he was trying to tell her but then the group was outside and arguing about who would drive.
"It's a bygone era, ladies," Caroline muttered in her sleep.
"What was that, Gorgeous?" Enzo's voice broke her out of her sleep.
Sitting up, Caroline saw that Liv no longer stood outside their invisible prison. "What?" she felt confused that way you do when you're half-in, half-out of a dream.
"You said something odd just as you woke," Enzo informed her.
Caroline looked at the barrier again. "Where's Liv?" she asked, getting to her feet.
"Looks like she needed to recharge her magic battery or some such nonsense." Leaning back against the wall behind him, Enzo looked back at her, his gaze steady. "You don't remember what you were saying just now?"
"Was I talking in my sleep?" Caroline felt confused. She did not remember Klaus ever telling her that she did that.
"Yes. You said 'It's a bygone time, ladies.' That mean anything special to you?" Enzo watched her and Caroline shook her head.
Turning back to the invisible wall, Caroline stared at it. "What if that wasn't really Liv?" she asked him, feeling uneasy.
"What do you mean: 'What if that wasn't really Liv?'" Enzo got to his feet to stand beside Caroline.
"I mean, what if this person, who's after me and my friends, what if they can do some kind of spell to make themselves look anyway they want?" Caroline asked Enzo. His expression turned serious.
"That would be a rather neat trick but then you'd have to think to yourself, it could be anyone, it could be me, given that logic." Caroline's eyes narrowed, her fists balling at her sides when Enzo held up his hands. "And if it were, don't you think I'd be doing much more than having a talk with you?" he questioned her.
Shaking her head, Caroline looked away. "Probably," she sighed. "Okay. We should try to see if there is another way out of here. I bet there is some sort of secret passageway or something that will lead us either into the Lockwood home or somewhere else in town. All I know is that we're not safe just sitting here, waiting for whatever it is that's after me." Caroline placed her hand on a wall and began to run her hand over it. Enzo did the same.
Caroline lost track of time when Enzo found something. "Here. This piece does not fit right." He pulled out a piece of stone and then moved backward, quickly. Caroline watched a door emerge and she looked inside. She felt Enzo behind her. "Lady's first," he said, waving for her to go inside.
"It's a good thing I used to be blind," Caroline told him with a grin.
Enzo's eyebrows rose. "Really? Would have never noticed." He smiled at her as she closed her eyes and entered the tunnels. If any of Liv's story was true, then Caroline had spent her entire life blind to lives she had lived and did not remember. Could she trigger her memories somehow? Would they help? What about Rebekah's and Hayley's memories? Should she tell them what she knew? She knew that keeping them in the dark could cost her their trust but Hayley was already nervous as hell. What if telling her and forcing her to remember, endangered her child and Rebekah's and Caroline's? Not that Bekah and Caroline would have kids…still…
And what role did Damon play in all of this? Was he the mysterious Protector or was he the man who had hunted them down, through life after life? What would he do if she confronted him? Kill them all and wait for another opportunity? Caroline had no idea what do with this new complication to their tale and no one to talk to about it. But she had to make up her mind soon. Hayley would be giving birth in less than five months, and then all hell might, literally, break loose.
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