AN: New chapter all. Please enjoy.
Seven. Help, I'm Alive
"I tremble. They're gonna eat me alive. If I stumble. They're gonna eat me alive." ~Help, I'm Alive, Metric
Caroline felt some surprise when Rebekah accompanied her to the Forbes residence. She had expected it to be Klaus, even Elijah, over the sister. Her relationship with Rebekah had always been tumultuous at best, with the two girls being too alike to ever really get along. Now that Caroline had killed Matt, she'd thought that the best case scenario would be Rebekah ignoring her, and worst case would be Klaus actively having to prevent Rebekah tearing Caroline's head off.
"Why haven't you tried to kill me yet?"
"You're quite blunt, aren't you?" Rebekah drawled as she steered the SUV down the streets that were so familiar to Caroline.
"I killed Matt. You had a thing for him. Unless you're over that? Only, you still want the cure for yourself, and part of you has to want Matt to be part of those human dreams of yours. So… why haven't you tried to kill me yet?"
Rebekah pulled into the driveway of Caroline's house without speaking. She turned off the van and still remained silent. Caroline had begun to give up hope of getting an answer and was reaching for the door handle when Rebekah finally spoke.
"It was what you said about him being your first love, and how you never really get over that. You can act as cold and as distant as you want, but even without your humanity on, in that moment you mourned him. Perhaps it's because your mind is broken, and it won't let you flip that switch, not completely, but you mourned him. And I don't think I could hate you as much as you hated yourself at that moment in time. So I won't try to kill you, and I will actively keep you alive. Not because Nik cares for you, though that may play some part, but because that will be your punishment. Matt will be dead, and you will have to live on. There may come a time when you will feel death would have been kinder."
Rebekah opened her door and stepped out. Caroline sat utterly still in her seat, staring at the empty space that Rebekah had occupied. Her entire body felt frozen, as if every cell had lost its ability to function. Never had Caroline heard Rebekah sound so honest, or so vindictive. It was Rebekah tapping on the hood of the SUV for Caroline's attention that finally snapped her out of her stasis. Caroline opened the door and followed the other girl inside of the house. She felt a brief jolt, when Rebekah was able to enter the house without an invitation. Liz had no relatives left, just Caroline, and a house deed passed to a dead girl couldn't keep vampires out.
"Have you ever flipped the switch?" Caroline asked Rebekah, as she led the other girl up the steps.
"Never. At first, we didn't know we could. By the time we figured it out, I never felt the need. I had lost so much of my humanity, I didn't wish to lose my ability to feel as well."
"You all think I'm crazy, don't you?" Caroline asked, opening Liz's closet and looking at the clothes inside. It was a sparse selection. Liz had never been the dress up type, nothing at all like Caroline, who had been all about glitz and glam and make up and layering in just the right shades. Liz had a few pant suits and one modest black dress that was reserved for funerals and weddings. Caroline could remember helping Liz pick that out, when she was fifteen and telling her mom that pant suits were so last year, and she needed something functional and pretty for special occasions.
"Are you going to deny it?" Rebekah replied.
"I think my switch is faulty," Caroline responded softly, as if admitting to some great evil. She reached out and ran her fingers over the dress, memories still bombarding her. "One minute, I feel numb and empty, and the next it's as if the emotions won't go away. I'll feel nothing but disdain for Silas, then the memories will surface and I'll feel terrified that he might appear again. One minute, I can forget that Mom and Matt are dead, and the next…"
Caroline grabbed the dress off its hanger and tore it apart, ripping at the seams, and even bringing her fangs into play, trying to do as much damage to the garment as she possibly could. Rebekah stood back, watching as Caroline completely destroyed the garment that carried so many memories. Just when Caroline thought she was going to crack, that that was it, and she really sucked at keeping that switch flipped, the calm settled over her. Her mind emptied of the grief, and the dress in her hands became nothing more than some ruined fabric, and she thought to herself that it was so incredibly foolish, to let something as small as a dress get under skin like that.
"We'll need a garbage bag," Caroline said, and her voice sounded empty, almost robotic, even to her own ears. Rebekah had taken a step back at the incredible transition between emotions, and Caroline thought that it was almost amusing, how the big bad original looked almost scared of the baby vampire. When Rebekah didn't move to get the garbage bag requested, Caroline shrugged and left the room. She went downstairs. She could hear Rebekah finally begin to move back in Liz's room, and heard her murmuring something in a low voice, probably talking to Klaus.
Caroline grabbed a box of garbage bags and began to make her way back to Liz's room when she glanced to her left, and her gaze caught on the gun case. Liz kept it locked and the key hidden away in her room even though Caroline was long past the age where she would play with guns. Caroline stared through the glass front of the case. There was a semi-automatic rifle and two hand guns, both automatics, held inside. Caroline could remember weekends spent at the shooting range when she'd rather be shopping with her friends learning how to shoot those guns. Caroline had hated the lessons and she had never told anyone, not even Elena and Bonnie about it.
But dammit, she had become a spectacular shot. By the time Liz had deemed her proficient enough with the guns to keep herself safe, Caroline had hit the bullseye of her target every time. She had excelled particularly at head shots.
Caroline reached out and grasped the front of the case in her hands and neatly ripped it off. She ignored the rifle, too large and obvious for her purposes, but she took both handguns. After making sure the safety was on for both, she hid one in the waist band of her pants and the other went in her boot. Then, she lifted the hidden bottom of the cabinet, pulling out Liz's hidden supply of wooden bullets.
The next time Silas came anywhere near her, he would get an unpleasant surprise.
STILL-DOLL
Rebekah's phone call had been alarming.
Elijah had listened closely as Rebekah had explained Caroline Forbes' apparent mood swings. From wild and grieving to cold and distant in under five seconds was how Rebekah had described it. Elijah didn't know the Forbes girl well, could not even recall having spoken to her before, but he knew enough of the famed humanity switch to know that Caroline was not acting the way she should.
"She may become a liability," Elijah said softly once Niklaus had hung up the cell.
"If you are even suggesting that we kill Caroline, I suggest you reconsider, brother," Niklaus responded coldly. "If Caroline dies, Katerina can say good-bye to any leniency I may have granted her. I will make it my life's mission to find her and rip her heart out, just so you can see. Are we clear?"
Elijah looked at his brother with narrowed eyes. The threat angered Elijah, but it was expected… only Elijah had thought it would take a suggestion of a truce with the Salvatores, or the suggestion that Rebekah receive the cure to bring it out. A blonde cheerleader with mental issues being the cause of Niklaus' threats of violence? That was unexpected.
Unless…
"You love her," Elijah said, but the words came out in a low, choked whisper. In a thousand years, Elijah had only ever seen Niklaus in love once, and that had been when they were still human. Elijah had come to doubt that his brother was capable of such an emotion now, but… "How on Earth did that happen?"
"She will not die," Niklaus responded coldly, not answering the question and getting up from his seat, the same seat Caroline had sat in less than an hour earlier. "Not by your hand, and certainly not by Silas'. Find me a way to outsmart him, brother. To kill him. Do that, and not only will I pardon Katerina, but I will even welcome her into our family as sister, if that is what you wish."
STILL-DOLL
You need to wake up.
Bonnie snapped up. She had been dreaming of Jeremy; of seeing his smile, of holding his hand one last time. Getting to say good-bye. Then he had told her frantically to wake up.
And Bonnie awoke, surrounded by flame and smoke.
She gave a small shriek and grasped onto her magic, using it to put the flames out. She hastily shoved her blankets off of her and looked at her legs, searching for any burns. There were none, and she gave a sigh of relief. The last thing anyone needed was a handicapped witch.
"That's different. It can't be good for you, to go all Carrie in your sleep."
"Care!" Bonnie gasped out startled. Her blonde friend sat on a chair next to her, filing her nails as if she didn't have a care in the world. Stefan had told Bonnie that Caroline had turned her humanity off; that she was as unfeeling as Elena. Bonnie hadn't wanted to believe him, but the blonde looked bored. The Caroline Bonnie knew would have been frantic if she found her best friend setting fires in her sleep. "What are you doing here?"
"I need your help," Caroline replied, putting her file away and leaning towards Bonnie. "There may be a spell that can break the bloodlines, but it requires a certain level of power. Expression power. One spell, and we're all free from Klaus."
Alarm bells went off in Bonnie's mind.
"I thought you'd be more worried about Silas," she said slowly. "You know, since he tortured you and killed your mom and everything."
"Silas didn't kill my mom," Caroline bit out in a stilted voice. "That was Matt. And now he's dead, so life goes on."
On the surface, everything seemed right when you considered the situation. Caroline was without her humanity; why would she care about Matt or Liz if she was without her humanity? Elena certainly didn't care about anything or anyone. Except maybe her Tumblr page, but that was disturbing on so many levels that Bonnie was trying to block thoughts of Elena's new hobby.
Yes, the Caroline in front of her fit everything you should expect from someone without humanity. The eyes were cold and distant, the demeanour uncaring, but…
If there was one person in the world Bonnie Bennett knew, it was Caroline Forbes. Caroline who had always been an open book, even when she was trying to hide her pain and help others. Caroline, whose greatest joy came from planning the perfect party.
Those alarm bells rang louder, more insistent. And Bonnie hadn't survived this long in Mystic Falls without learning to listen to her instincts.
"Where's Klaus?" Bonnie asked. "I mean, how did you get away from him. Stefan told me that he seemed pretty insistent that you stick close to him. So how did you get away from him? And are you sure plotting against him right now is such a good idea?"
As she spoke, Bonnie had carefully extricated herself from the couch and moved around it, so the peace furniture was between her and Caroline.
Caroline sighed.
"Those pesky witch senses. You really shouldn't have questioned me, Bonnie. Now you've made everything so much more difficult."
The Caroline impersonator stood, and Bonnie turned and ran for the door. She came to a jolting halt when someone stepped in front of her.
Jeremy.
"Would you be more accommodating if I look like this? Will your beloved Jeremy get you to stop you running and behave?"
Bonnie glared at the figure of Jeremy, only it wasn't Jeremy, of course. Only one person had the ability to shift forms like this.
Silas.
"Haven't you done enough?" Bonnie demanded. "You killed Liz, and Matt. You destroyed Caroline. What more do you want?"
"From you? I merely want you're cooperation. I have two spells I need performed and several witches whose power you can channel to perform them. However, you must be the one to do it. You Bennett witches. It's really your own fault, you know. If you stopped letting yourselves get caught up with vampires, maybe you wouldn't be forced to forever save the day. It's your curse, really."
As he spoke, Silas-Jeremy paced ever closer to Bonnie, who backed up at the same pace.
"You want me to perform your spells, I get that. What more do you want from Caroline? Haven't you done enough to her?" Bonnie hissed as she hit the back of the couch and could move no further. Silas kept walking to her until their toes were touching.
"Caroline? I haven't even begun with Caroline yet, Bonnie. But don't worry, she'll realize her true potential yet. Soon, with your help, I'll have all eternity uninterrupted to make her see it."
"Fuck you!" Bonnie spat out, using her powers to set off aneurisms in Silas' brain. She felt a pang when he groaned in pain in Jeremy's voice, but Bonnie didn't allow herself time to think about that. Instead, she ran for the door with all she had. She had opened it, was prepared to step outside and run for safety, when it slammed shut again under her fingers.
"That's not very nice, Bonnie," Silas hissed. He grasped Bonnie by the throat and Bonnie scrambled with her nails against his grip. It was incredibly strong, unbreakable, and it was cutting off her air. Bonnie tried to give Silas another aneurism, but Silas merely winced. "That's enough of that, little witch."
Then, with a deft flick of Silas' wrist, Bonnie's head met the hard wood of the door, and she knew nothing but darkness.
AN: The plot: thickens. Bennett witches cast all the spells, and it comes back to bite poor Bonnie on the ass. As you can see, Caroline is unstable, and now that Bonnie is in Silas' hands things may get messy. As always, please review.
And let me know what you thought of that finale. Personally, I was both pleased and disappointed. The twists were good, and I actually loved the Klaroline good-bye, but why bring back all those dead characters if they were going to be so underused. I wanted more Vaughn, and what purpose did Connor and Alexander even serve? What did you think?
Updates may be a little slower these days because I've started my summer job, and it's farmer's hours. That means 7:30 mornings and 11:30 nights. Not much time for writing in there. But please be patient, because I still have inspiration for this story and plan on continuing it.