A/N- Hey, guys! So I have another update... and again sorry for the extremely late update! (School keeps me busy) Thank you to everyone who continues to put up with me and my bad updating habits and to everyone who has fave, alerted, and reviewed this fic!
I hope you enjoy! :)
Katherine stretched her back as her eyes slowly fluttered open, her vision blurry at first before the world became clear once again. Her eyes widened when she turned her head to the side to see that Caroline had left her alone in the bed, but to her dismay she was still tied to the bed by these uncomfortably tight bed sheets.
She looked across the room where the sound of the running water in the shower was coming from. Caroline was in the shower which meant that this was her one chance to make a break for it.
Katherine sat up and turned to face the headboard of the bed, yanking as hard as she could in an attempt to free herself. She had to give props to Caroline for not only making these bed sheets so tight but for using such a good knot, although it was annoyingly inconvenient for Katherine at the moment.
Katherine took a deep breath after spending some time trying to free herself from her bonds with no luck. You can do this. You're a survivor. Katherine thought. If there was one thing five hundred years of running had taught her, it was that there was always a way out. The only question was, what or who were you willing to sacrifice? That's the difference between Katherine and the dead, Katherine always made the smart choice.
Katherine bit down on the bed sheets that were coiled around her wrists, fiercely pulling on it with her human teeth while simultaneously squirming her wrists free. Katherine hissed, feeling the burn from her restraints as she forced her wrists free. She shook her now reddened wrists out as the burning sensation began to dissipate.
She whipped her head around to check that Caroline was still in the bathroom and once she had confirmation, she grabbed her heels from the ground and charged in the direction of the door. She wrapped her hand around the the silver handle before flinging the door wide open. Taking one step out the door, her heart jumped when the blonde vampire appeared an inch away from her with a smirk placed on her lips.
"Going somewhere?"
"Caroline!" Katherine feigned enthusiasm. "There you are! I was just about to go get you breakfast in bed. I'll go do that right now." Katherine tried to side step past Caroline, but Caroline was not buying her story one bit.
Caroline crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't worry about getting me breakfast because I already had my own and I went through the drive through of the nearest fast food joint so I've got you covered as well. You'll eat in the car." She grabbed Katherine's wrist and began dragging her down the hall.
"Wait a second! You're hair isn't even wet. Did you even take a shower just now?" Katherine prodded.
Caroline smiled at her proudly. "Oh, please. I took a shower, checked out of this motel, raided the nearest hospital for some blood bags, waited in an unreasonably long line to get you food, and blow dried my hair this morning."
Katherine's mouth hung open. "What are you?"
"I would list them all to you but then we'd be here all day," Caroline giggled, pulling Katherine around the corner with her.
Caroline pulled the gear shift to park the car in the gas station before she and Katherine unbuckled their seatbelts to get out of the car.
Caroline grasped Katherine's wrist once they were out of the car. "One false move and I will take out those handcuffs in the glove compartment."
Katherine raised her brows. "Oh my, Caroline. You carry handcuffs with you everywhere you go? I always knew you were kinky like that." She winked.
Caroline slightly tightened her grip on Katherine's wrist as she flashed the brunette a tight-lipped smile. "My mother is a sheriff and she bought me this car."
"Still doesn't refute the idea that you're a freak in the bedroom. At least Klaus has taste."
Caroline ignored Katherine's last comments, dragging her into the convenience store.
Once inside, both girls scanned the area, noticing that the store was almost completely devoid of people except for the one clerk behind the cash register. They looked to the ceiling to see that the place was in need of an electrician. One of the lights only flickered, setting an eerie feeling throughout the store.
Katherine and Caroline exchanged a nervous look after analyzing the disoriented shelves and the glassy look behind the clerk's eyes.
"So... you said you had to use the restroom, right?" Caroline asked, not making eye contact with Katherine.
Katherine nodded. "The urge has passed."
Caroline turned back to Katherine. "Wait. When you say 'the urge has passed...' do you mean... did you just-"
"Ew! No! Do I look like Damon to you?" Katherine grimaced. Caroline raised her hands up in surrender. "The urge will return when I find a place that will pass sanitary standards."
"Agreed." Caroline took a few steps back before she turned on her heel, leading Katherine toward the exit. She pulled on the handle of the door to find that it was stuck, sending both girls' heart beats into a rapid pounding motion.
"Leaving so soon, ladies? When you haven't even bought a thing?" The aging clerk rose from the stool he was sitting on.
Katherine and Caroline could feel the hairs on the back of their neck stand up when they saw the empty look in the old man's eyes; it was as if he didn't own a soul anymore...
"Silas will be expecting you," the man taunted, creeping closer.
Using her vampire strength, Caroline clasped both hands around the antique handle until she ripped it off the door and kicked the door open.
Two men wearing menacing grins on their faces appeared before them straight after the door flew open. They had the exact same look in their eyes as the clerk, and seeing it up close only sent chills down the girls' backs.
Katherine and Caroline raised their hands up above their head when they heard the click of the safety of a gun being unlocked. From the corner of their eye, they saw the clerk walking towards them with a shot gun in hand, no doubt fully loaded with wooden bullets. The girls backed away when the two younger men in front of them began pulling sharp pocket knives out of their leather jackets.
Katherine turned to Caroline. "Hey, vampire-in-the-room, do something!"
"Get behind me!" Caroline ordered. Katherine jumped behind the blonde without hesitation, and Caroline grasped the two grown men by the throat, lifting them off the ground and slamming them into the windows. The men screamed in agony after their bodies pierced the windows of the store, shattered glass shards exploding from the impact.
Caroline pushed Katherine to the ground, shielding the human's vulnerable body with her own. The vampire squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the shards of glass scrape against her skin, waiting for the danger to pass. Whatever happened to her didn't matter. She would heal, but even if she wouldn't, Katherine's life was the only thing she cared about. After Caroline heard the last fragment of glass fall to the ground, she opened her eyes to look down into Katherine's shocked eyes.
Caroline rolled off of Katherine to examine the brunette's body for any serious injuries. With Katherine's body rejecting vampire blood, they couldn't afford any accidents. She only noticed a few cuts and scrapes from the broken glass. Sighing in relief, Caroline ran her hand over her forehead, wiping away the bit of sweat that had formed.
Katherine could feel her heart palpitate as she pushed herself off of her back and onto her forearms. She turned her head to scan her surroundings, seeing a setting that she would only expect to find during the apocalypse. It appeared as if she were laying in a pool of broken glass with drops of blood sprinkled on the rusty tiles. The windows Caroline had thrown the men in were gone, allowing the outside breeze to seep in. Food spilling over the shelves sent the feeling of abandonment through the store.
She turned to Caroline, nodding in gratitude for saving her from the broken glass.
Caroline returned it and used her shoes to clear away some of the glass on the floor so that she could crawl over to where Katherine was laying. She extended a hand to Katherine with a small smile on her face. Katherine looked into Caroline's comforting blue eyes, inhaling a deep breath before accepting it.
"You have to get us out of here," Katherine whispered.
"I'm working on it," Caroline replied.
"Good. Here's the plan: you kill every last one of them. Anyone who gets in your way gets their head snapped. Understand?" Katherine said darkly.
Caroline gave her a hard stare. "I can't just kill them. They are innocent and they are people."
"I have a hard time believing people who point guns at you are completely innocent."
"They're also under Silas's influence. I won't kill someone because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time," Caroline stated.
Katherine furrowed her eyebrows. "Well then, what now, genius? Are you gonna call Klaus to come and save us? Because that seems to be a pattern for you."
"Katherine, now is not the time for you to express your contempt for Klaus. I will take care of this-"
Food and glass exploded all around them when the sound of gun shots rang through the store, causing the girls to take cover under a nearby table by an aisle. They covered their heads with their hands, anticipating the next round of bullets to pierce the air, the sound causing their eardrums to pop.
"Stay here." Caroline squeezed Katherine's shoulder before moving away from the table.
Katherine grabbed onto Caroline's wrist, stopping her. "Wait... be careful... you'll come back." Katherine said the last line as if she were trying to convince herself more than Caroline.
Caroline flashed Katherine a heartfelt smile before pulling away to leave.
Caroline cautiously walked down one of the aisles, using her supernatural hearing to locate where the armed man was. She could hear the heartbeat of the old man, a strong pounding rhythm despite being weakened by his age. He came closer with every beat that passed. She could almost feel the loaded gun in his hands. Caroline stood her ground, already knowing which direction he would come in. She was the vampire. She had the power. She was in control.
Caroline felt her heart skip a beat when the armed man appeared at the end of the aisle.
The man pointed the gun directly at the vampire. "You must be suicidal. At least it makes my job easier." He fired his gun several times, blindly shooting in her direction.
Not this time. Caroline thought.
Easily dodging the bullets- due to the old man's poor aim- she appeared in front of the clerk and twisted his arms around so that the nozzle of the gun was placed inside his mouth.
The man's eyes widened as he saw his life flash before his eyes, staring into Caroline's threatening ones. All he could hear was his own muffled screams along with the sound of his heartbeat pounding against his ears. He desperately tried to break away from her hold, but his strength was no match for hers.
Caroline stared down into those wise eyes for a moment, hearing Katherine's words echo through her mind.
Kill every last one of them...
Caroline knew that Katherine was smart when it came to surviving, and thanks to Silas, these humans wouldn't stop until they had Katherine in their possession. She was fully aware that the risk she would be taking, if she allowed them to live, could cost her her best friend, but does that justify stripping herself of her humanity as well?
Caroline shut her eyes tightly as she impulsively rammed the back of the shot gun against the back of the man's skull. After hearing a loud crack from the impact, the man's limp body fell to the ground. Caroline froze in place, staring down at the seemingly lifeless body. All she could do was stare. She couldn't bring herself to check for a pulse.
Suddenly, Caroline was snapped out of her daze by Katherine's scream.
"Katherine!"
Using her vampire speed, Caroline raced over to the area where she heard Katherine's screams emitting from- which was not where she left her. She gasped when she spotted a dead body laying face down on the ground with a knife plunged into the center of his body, surrounded by a pool of blood.
Her head snapped up when she heard painful groans, followed by the sound of a shattering lamp. She looked straight ahead to see Katherine struggling to fend off the other man who she had previously thrown through the window, pieces of glass still clinging to his jacket and severe cuts and bruises adorned his entire form. It must have been extremely painful for Katherine to have to look straight at the man with the blood still rolling down his chin.
Caroline was impressed though, even as a human, Katherine was abnormally strong. Either that or she knew some of the best self-defense techniques Caroline had ever witnessed.
The man had his knife pointed in Katherine's direction, prepared to stab her in the chest, but Katherine was doing an exceptional job- considering the difference in their weight- at deflecting the knife by twisting his wrists to aim it towards the ceiling. It seemed as if Katherine was a natural born fighter; even with all the pressure put on her, she was not allowing her opponent to back her into a corner.
"Get away from her!" Caroline jumped in between the two struggling figures and slammed the male into a nearby wall, hearing the steel knife fall to the ground. She turned back to place a hand on Katherine's shoulder, scanning her body for any mortal injuries once again. "Are you okay? Did he get you?"
"I'm fine. I can take care of myself, remember?" Katherine answered, panting.
Caroline flashed her a relieved smile before exploding on the doppelganger. "I thought I told you to stay!"
"You did. I just chose to ignore you," Katherine smiled sweetly.
Caroline was appalled. "Why?! Why couldn't you just listen to me? It could have prevented that guy's death." Caroline pointed to the corpse that was surrounded in blood.
Katherine crossed her arms. "Because, little-miss-perfect... I was protecting you." Katherine refused to look Caroline in the eye.
"Me?"
"Yes."
"How?"
Katherine sighed. "While you were taking your sweet time deciding whether or not you were going to kill the old geezer, those guys you sent through the window were not very happy with you and of course Silas made sure they had stakes ready. They were gonna take you by surprise and stab you from behind. But the joke was on them," Katherine giggled. "I stabbed one of them from behind before they could do it to you. Then, his friend got pretty pissed that I killed him, so that's how I ended up in hand to knife combat with him."
Caroline could hardly believe the words that were coming out of Katherine's mouth, although it's not like she didn't have reason to doubt her. "You did that for me? Why? You're Katherine Pierce. You only care about yourself. You kill people-"
"When it suits my needs," Katherine finished. "And maybe... maybe I need you, Caroline."
Caroline's face softened. "I need you too, Kat."
"For Bonnie," Katherine stated, acting as if she knew exactly what was going on inside Caroline's head.
Caroline hesitated before nodding. "We should go before Silas sends in more of his henchmen."
Katherine cleared her throat before brushing past Caroline in the direction of the door.
From the corner of her eye, Caroline saw that the man with the knife had risen back to his feet and only needed the sight of his crazed eyes to know his intentions.
"Katherine! Duck!"
The man swung the knife horizontally, the sharp blade slicing through the air as he tried to cut off her head. On instinct, Katherine dropped to the floor, protecting her head with her hands.
Before Caroline knew what was happening, her overly protective extincts were triggered when she saw how narrowly Katherine had dodged the knife. She pushed the male human into the wall behind him, driving the knife in his hand into his own heart and pierced the wall, pinning him there.
Caroline slowly backed away from the body that was getting colder by the second, with her mouth hanging open. She felt her heart fiercely pounding against her chest at the realization that she'd done it again. She killed an innocent.
After the silence settled in, Katherine peeked her head up from her position on the floor to see what had caused it. She gasped slightly at the sight of the corpse that was hung on the wall. She looked back and forth between the body and Caroline's grief stricken face. She needed a minute to process the fact that Caroline had just killed someone. Not only that but Caroline had killed someone to save her... again.
Katherine rose back to her feet and slowly approached Caroline from behind. Katherine was never one for comforting, but she did know a thing or two about knowing the right things to say. "Don't hate yourself."
Caroline slowly turned around. "Then who should I hate? You? I like that plan better."
"Killing someone who was putting your friend's life in danger does not make you a bad person. Trust me, I would know."
"Trust you?" Caroline scoffed. "That's rich coming from someone who doesn't listen to a word I say. Anything I say is just an illusion that my brain conjured up because it doesn't seem logical to Katherine Pierce."
"Oh, I see. This is about Klaus. Well, I am sorry, Caroline. I am sorry that I find it hard to believe that a man who slaughtered my family and tormented me for five hundred years actually cares about a baby vampire in any way. I am sorry that I brought this burden called my life on your shoulders. I am sorry that you feel guilty for protecting me."
Caroline let out an exasperated breath. "He's dead, Katherine." Caroline's eyes darted back over to the rotting body pinned to the wall. "I killed him without meaning to- I mean, I didn't want to but it happened anyway. I just don't want to turn out like..."
"Me?" Katherine questioned.
"I'm not... I-"
"It's okay," Katherine stated. "You can say it. You don't want to turn out to be an evil bitch like me. Fortunately for you, it's never gonna happen- at least not at the pace you're going."
"What?"
"Caroline, evil isn't born; it doesn't happen overnight. You build on it over a period of time which means that you allow it to build, to fester, to harbor, to latch onto your last breath of hope. As long as you're Caroline Forbes, that insecure, neurotic, annoying overachiever then you're safe." Katherine placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder.
"Thank you." Caroline gave the human a look of gratitude.
"Besides, in my book, there's nothing on this Earth that you could do that would make you worse than Elena Gilbert."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Thanks... I think. Um. I don't know about you but I've never missed sitting in my car during a road trip so much. We should go."
"Wait." Katherine walked over to the shelf to retrieve an object.
"Katherine, now is not the time to rob a convenience store- even though the service was terrible! We don't have time for this."
Katherine turned around, holding up a black leather jacket that looked a little large for her. "Put this on." She threw the article of clothing at Caroline.
Caroline caught it and looked up at Katherine, confused. She watched Katherine hold up an identical jacket to the one she just threw to Caroline. "What are you doing?"
"I don't know if you've taken a look in the mirror but when you let those glass shards graze your back when you were protecting me, it kind of tore up the back of your shirt and there's blood. Another important rule to survival: don't draw attention. And having blood covering your back definitely raises a few red flag to most humans, I'm assuming."
"Right." Caroline slipped on her jacket followed by Katherine. "Thank you for this."
"Save the gratitude for when we get as far away from this place as possible." Katherine briskly walked over to the door with Caroline close behind.
Once Katherine and Caroline were buckled back inside the car, Caroline stepped on the gas and rushed to get back on the route they were heading in.
"Caroline?"
"Yeah?"
"Before we get to New Orleans... I want you to know something," Katherine confessed.
"What's that?" Caroline turned to the other girl.
"Klaus pretended to be my friend so that he could use my death to break the curse, he murdered my entire family, and he hunted me for over five hundred years. I want to trust you when you say that you'll protect me from him, but... five hundred years of constant paranoia have taught me otherwise."
"I know that I can't even begin to imagine what the last five hundred years of your life has been like and I'm sorry that you had to live like that because you didn't deserve that. I know that he's done terrible things and caring for him is probably a sin but-"
"I don't hate you for feeling something for Klaus. I have no room to judge. But for the entire summer, I was free of Klaus. I don't want to lose that, Caroline. All I want is my life back."
Caroline squeezed Katherine's wrist. "I know Klaus. He has priorities and I'm certain that you're not the first one on his list. Besides, even though he'll never admit it, he needs as many friends as he can get."
"Friends?" Katherine raised a brow.
Caroline rolled her eyes. "People he can trust. Think of it this way: if you're on Klaus's side, what's to stand in between you and Elijah?"
"Rebekah."
"Pfft. One measly Original. You've survived worse," Caroline retorted.
Katherine looked down to the ground. "You're a really good friend, Caroline... to Bonnie."
Caroline wasn't sure why she felt a bit disappointed to hear that Katherine wasn't talking about herself for once. "Yeah, well... what are friends for? I've stuck by your side because I would do anything for my friend. I have never lied to you, Kat- not since Damon dragged you into my dorm. And I'd like to think that you would do the same for me."
Katherine feigned a smile. "Caroline, I swear to you, I haven't told you a lie since Damon forced me to stay with you."
"Thanks, Kat."
Caroline beamed at Katherine, making the doppelganger's stomach turn upside down.
Katherine slumped in her seat, remaining quiet the rest of the way until they reached New Orleans.
Thanks for reading!
So yeah... they'll be in NOLA... for people who have been missing Klaus(and by that, I am definitely referring to TVD Klaus) then, you'll be in luck for the next chapter :)
Let me know your thoughts in a review! :)