Part 2
It occurs to her while she's sleeping for some strange reason that she doesn't know where the door to the tower is, how was 'he' getting in and out? Even more strange, that all this never occurred to her while she was rushing around trying to find a way to get out of her prison.
She wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a door at all. It was just the kind of madness inducing thing she expected from him. The night was deep in it's own gloom when she woke again. The first thing she noticed was the painful throbbing in her hand, which woke her, she noticed the very clean bandage wrapped around it and the tweezers by her bed, any splinters from her fingers were gone.
What she noticed the most was the bed, it felt a bit heavier than usual as if someone else was there with her, when her eyes finally adjusted to the dark she realised why. 'He' was sitting on her bed silently not too close to her but just not far enough for her. She might have tried to scream but her throat was too hoarse to manage the feat.
He's never really been this close to her before tonight it was bound to scare the living hell out of her.
Caroline tries to remind him of it using rudimentary hand signals. He reassures her he's well aware of how close he is. 'You broke my chair...' He says simply, as a way of justifying his close physical proximity to her, how very silly of her to think otherwise.
She feels too ashamed and numb with pain to apologize to him for the chair because he told her at an earlier point about the chair being an antique and she suddenly notices her clothes are different again, she's wearing an oversized dark coloured shirt and it smells curiously like him with a few select buttons undone, there isn't much else underneath.
Perfumes and smoke from the outside world. She wants to be sick, or tell him that she feels sick but she doubted it'll bother him. The bed was obviously in one piece again and everything was back in its place.
He probably knew she would attempt at least one escape which would mentally and physically kick her out of her depth.
He seems so unconcerned about the whole incident that Caroline tries to imagine it was a dream. But it wasn't because he was sitting too close for comfort and studying her intently, that and her hand hurt like a bitch.
'Got it out of your system?...' She isn't sure what he's referring to? The shrieking fit after he dragged her to her room or the pent up anger and frustration she let out on his chair and the rest of the place or just the idea of escape, whether it was still an option.
She doesn't really have much to say for herself, thankfully he doesn't push it.
Looks pretty clear to her that escape was not much of an option worth considering right at this point of time if she wanted to get out of this alive. So she let the tightening of her jaw do all the talking; she has too much pride to admit stupidity in the first degree and besides this was all his fault anyway what did he expect her to do, sit and wait for him to drain her dry on one of his bad days?
Probably did.
'Was there any anniversary trip or did you just make it up?...' She wouldn't put it past him at this point he was into mind games after all.
He shakes his head at her tartness, like she's a silly girl full of naive assumptions about him, she had more than just assumptions about him and his malevolence, the way he viciously dragged her into darkness of her room from the broken window still echoed silent brutal images in her mind somewhere.
'Why, are you jealous?'
She is no such thing, just before she can answer she feels him slide slightly closer with uncontained anticipation, the fabric barely rustled at this movement. Anger was still in her simmering, bursting to be let out in a full display of fieriness, even as she tried to suppress the urge to claw at him, it's not going to do him any damage but she might end up with a broken arm or worse.
'No not jealous, just wondering whether Elena knows what a great stand up vampire boyfriend she has, does she know where you go to at nights?'
He enjoyed some lip from her from time to time, because her insult which is meant as an insult doesn't faze him at all. Caroline tried to move away just a bit, but the headboard was already digging into her back, and there wasn't much room to go anywhere else, she feels dizzy with the blood loss.
Maybe he feels sorry for because he ignored her serious insult and looked away from her probing gaze 'There really was a anniversary trip, Elena and me are good together these days...she's trusting me again' a small pause ' But i know you Caroline, i knew you would try to run...it was in your eyes the night i left'
She chooses then not to express how she felt Elena about trusting him at all or about him reading her and instead asked him whether he was disappointed with her attempt because he didn't seem a whole lot of upset over it.
His deliberately slow sigh is a palpable sign of something more than usual on his mind, something disturbing she did not think she would like to be privy to any time soon 'Oh, I'm all kinds of upset Caroline, you've been lying here and bleeding all over the place for the last 40 minutes while I cleaned up the mess you made, pulled out twenty odd splinters from your fingers, i even managed to bandage your wound without tasting any of the...'
Oh shit the blood, her clothes.
'It was hard for me...to touch you...' he confides in her softly even though she is hardly listening to him.
She feels cold suddenly, her legs feel a bit like the stone her prison is made of and her hand subconsciously tugged at the covers trying to cover herself more, he senses the sudden change her mood for the worse and is sympathetic. 'You were just covered in your blood Caroline, I had to ...clean you up, don't get upset'
She wants to tell him that he can't actually be telling her how to feel but is distracted by the number of times he's used the 'B' word in his sentences.
All this talk of blood couldn't be good for either of them, she thought about snapping him out of it by giving him a slap but then considered the adverse side effects his anger might have on her. Probably not the best idea.
Maybe she should tell him to go home and sleep it off. That might even get a smile out of him.
Just as she opens her mouth to say it, he tells her there's something they need to 'talk' about
Something important, with sling shot emphasis on the 'important'.
It was just a vibe, a horrible eerie, bugs crawling on her bed kind of vibe that something about him sitting on her bed so full of ease wasn't just to do with the damn chair of his. When he spoke again she wished he didn't, because their conversation was going into a much more serious territory then she knew how to handle.
And he knew it 'It's ok...don't be alarmed...'
She starts to argue because he's taking far too much time but figured there isn't much of a point in fighting him, she's about to faint again anyhow and since he noticed she was about as comfortable as she was going to get rigidly pressed against the headboard of the bed, he continued trying to ease her into it 'You know how when i decided to go to that trip with Elena it probably occurred to you that my going away for a while is a opportunity to break out of here...'
Caroline hated to admit it, but she could almost read his mind right now, because he had faith in her to do try and escape she shouldn't automatically rule out that it was a good will gesture on his part to just let her go unpunished or just laugh at her indiscretions to rules he clearly cited to her for a reason in the beginning. This was him gearing up to punish her. It was just like him to try and make it seem as simple as washing a wound with iodine solution when he meant to cut her up further and then expect her to be completely calm about it. Maybe she should have taken that fall out of the window, who knows she might have survived enough to make it.
Too late for that.
He tries to distract her with patterns he keeps making on the bed and the random talk about how opportunities should be treated as a sign of fate. And how proud he is of her attempt of taking that to the max but he already knew she wouldn't be able to escape the tower.
It wasn't possible. What a smug son of b*tch he was. 'It made me realise something when you were bleeding to death that i have an opportunity to take the help you offered me before...do you remember telling me you wanted to help me?'
She remains silent unsure of where he's taking this and he treats her silence as an affirmation to his cause. It's not like she could tell him otherwise. She only tells him she doesn't understand. He nodded aware of the cryptic nature of his request and asked her to be patient a while longer.
'I think we can help each other...'
'You mean, you're ready to let me go...?' Well that was the only kind of logical help she remembered extending to him, to let her go home so she can find him someone who's willing to help him with his issues, like a one of a kind exclusive vampire shrink or something similar. He paused a bit longer than necessary and her heart sank lower with more than just a flat kind of disappointment, there was a renewed fear in her of where this is going,
She's too scared to look at him when he tells her 'No, not yet...but soon'
'But then...I don't understand...' She stuttered uncomprehending and didn't realise but while she was busy indulging in her own web of seminal fear his hand had come to a rest on her bandaged one, She tried to pull away as reflex but his hold was firm, the pain was unbearable suddenly.
'You will Caroline, don't worry...'
She is already protesting as he removes the bandage with a slightly vicious edge to it and displays the wound she sustained trying to escape like a trophy. It was ugly and still very much open, the blood had coagulated a little but the pain shooting up her arm because of it told her something was wrong with it.
'As we're talking your wound is becoming infected'
Caroline followed his eyes over her wound, the sinking feeling in her stomach growing fonder with the first bouts of regret over the escape attempt. She really should have tried to be more practical about it. 'He' tells her the wound on her hand needs proper disinfectant, stitches, and she needs a tetanus shot but how none of these things he feels there is a need for because he can take care of the wound himself easily... if she agrees to not disagree to something he needs from her in return.
She wants to whoop with laughter or ask him if he's insane but neither seemed like an acceptably safe option so she remains neutral for a while longer watching her hand rest on his like a pained sentence. There's a wild silence full of unsaid promises and of violent lust brewing in the room around her, creeping over her like the ray of cold moonlight that illuminates nothing she wants to see, but she fears it's not her choice to make and he isn't here to exactly make it any easier for her.
'Don't worry...'
His smile is only reassuringly while she shivers regretfully.
The stars might be bright with disapproval of her unwillingness to get out of bed but it hasn't deterred her from lying comatose for the last 24 hours, her body aches with new unseen bruises, maybe there just in her mind, nevertheless they block any movement she thinks she should make to get the glass of water by her bed.
Emptiness in the tower echoed silent gentle waves of nothing. He wasn't here tonight, because there was always a heavy undead energy that weighed her down physically whenever he arrived, she was used to the feel of his presence, it stayed with her till she usually fell asleep. Tonight she was alone and sleep bothered her because of nightmares she knew would ensue, she tipped the glass of water and let it shatter into pieces just to be sure she was alone.
The hot shower felt good, it massaged the aching muscles of her arms and back, the bite on her neck felt strangely unfeeling. She touched it once, just to remind herself of how it came to be. Yes, it was his fang marks on her neck that had spread a lovely purple orange bruise around most of her neck.
She was not the revelling in defeats and pain kind of girl but tonight was special, tonight she realized if she died here no one would ever know what happened to her, and that was something she couldn't take lying down.
He had offered her his blood in exchange for a taste of hers. Simple, but not quite, It's not that he asked her for it outright, in fact when he offered her his blood his eyes and body language gave away nothing of his true intentions for her. She didn't immediately accept his offer because she did not trust his closeness to her for a minute, and because he became silent every time she tried to gauge what it was he wanted from her in return.
The little or no clothing she wore spoke volumes to her and frankly distracted her from the pain in her hand. He coaxed her gently to 'trust him', he needn't come close but she could take his wrist and drink at a distance she desired if the whole setting bothered her too much.
Somehow she agreed, partly because she did not want to know what would happen if she didn't accept his blood and partly because she wanted to try and appease the monster in him by trying to be comfortable with a situation that was wildly frightening and uncomfortable for her in the first place and because some small part of her was sorry for trying to escape, and not making it out.
She only realized after she had latched onto his wrist which he tore open with his own teeth, that he was distracting her from his actual purpose for her, at first there were the first soft caresses on her neck while the pain of her infected wound slowly vanished, her hair was being gently tucked behind her ear, and then she felt him closer than she agreed to let him be, he was sliding her down on her pillow so easily that she knew panic was just around the corner. The small sounds of struggle from her were inevitable, he knew it, this is why when he slammed her down and ...bit her while she screamed muffled curses into his hand between her teeth she almost believed it was the end. She couldn't ask and he didn't stop to tell her otherwise.
It was quick, easy and brutal.
The violent shadows her wild struggle under the sheets and his brazen viciousness as a vampire made on the opposite wall gave her a fright so powerful she doesn't think she can get over it if she ever tried. Her sobs were like screams after he came back to himself and stopped, she thinks she wouldn't have stopped crying if he hadn't held her arms firmly and told her to 'calm down' or he won't let go. That made her immediately water down the sobs to inaudible ones, until she fell asleep trying to fight her way out of his arms.
The shower does very little to erase any of these memories instead she feels tingly with the images of his crimson lips and fangs covered with her blood immortalized in her mind and haunt her in complete silence like a gnawing pain. The water washes away the dried blood on her and on the shirt of his ...she still has it on. With a start, she rips the shirt off and flings it away, it makes a wet unyielding thud in the darkness somewhere and she screams and screams until the water runs cold and she knows she has to come out.
Thankfully 'He' doesn't come in for a few nights after the 'night'. She doesn't think she can stand the sight of him if he decided to appear. His shirt hangs drying in the bathroom next to the shower, the wet mess it made in her room bothered her too much.
She fights with his image in her mind, screams and yells at the empty space from time to time, it's an unstable and manic excuse for a confrontation with her courteously callous attacker but the venting for hours at a day deflate her anger marginally and exhaust all of her energy till she needs to eat or rest.
It's then that the denial and rationalizing sets in slowly angering her.
She tells herself at least she is still alive and his blood did heal her otherwise infected form. And if he took a taste in return without any sort of consent from her...so what, it was just a taste, the brutal invasion of space only lasted for a few minutes at the most.
Only for a few minutes...
Caroline touched his shirt that she neatly folded at one point and wondered out loud whether 'he' would come back.
A/N: I decided to make it slightly longer so another chapter will be coming up and im not sure im happy with this chapter might re-write. Thankyou all for the reviews in the mean time!
R