Title: The Sound Of
Author: Eena
Disclaimer: TVD owned by Smith.
Characters: Caroline/Tyler
Spoilers: 2.07
Summary: She dances in and out of his line of his, always moving, always spinning, and always drinking . . .
Notes: I'm on a roll . . .
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She dances in and out of his line of sight, always moving, always spinning, and always drinking. She laughs at him, and it's always in a cruel way-a mocking way. It makes him angry; it makes him want to do something.
"Do what? You already killed me."
The funeral is the worst one he's ever been to, and that's including his dad's. Sarah's parents are grief-stricken, inconsolable, and he thinks he would do anything, give up everything, if he could bring her back for them. He wants to apologize, but they don't blame him. He's heard them talking with his mother, heard them berating themselves. She drank too much, they say, it's our fault. He wants to tell them it's not; he wants them to know that he's sorry.
But mostly he wants Sarah to leave him in peace.
"But what would be the fun in that?"
He's going crazy, or maybe the guilt is putting him through this. But at times she seems so real it's like he can touch her and the shame is too much to bear. He almost killed her before, by accident, and for a second he had wished he had, because he wanted it.
But Mason was right; it's not worth the price.
She laughs at him before spinning away, hopping over the open grave and clapping her hands like a delighted child.
"It's so dark in there! My own little dungeon."
A hand slips into his. He starts and turns his head sharply to the left. She's there, as she has been since it happened. Her blue eyes are trained on the grave and the ceremony just in front of it, but her hand is strong and firm in his own.
She's cool to the touch, but whatever her body temperature, her presence is enough to warm him.
"How long is that going to last? You'll drive her away; you drive them all away. Maybe you'll throw her away like you did with me."
His hand tightens around hers and he squeezes his eyes shut, desperate to block out that damned laughter.
Fingers brush across his jaw and he feels rather than sees Caroline move her lips close to his ear.
"I'm here," is what she says. It's short and quick, and whispered in the softest tones.
And yet it's deafening enough to drown out everyone else.
"Not everyone."
No, not everyone.
~0~