In the Corners

"If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself."

― George Orwell, 1984

Where was he? He was decidedly not in the place he was supposed to be- well, he wasn't where she wanted him to be in any case. She wanted him to be there so she could use the guise of returning the dress to have a chance to talk to him again. Caroline didn't know what this was, this sudden desire to seek him out, to see him. All she knew was that it seemed useless to deny herself that. And he wasn't here.

When she had first walked into his house, she had thought that he was ignoring her again, like he had when she had gotten the dress from him. But the house was deserted, no sign of her own personal menace anywhere, and he wasn't answering his phone. She signed, wondering where in the world Klaus could have possibly gone- for a moment her heart clenched in fear. What if he knew? What if he knew that Tyler had been there? She had taken the dress to four different dry cleaners trying to get the smell of Tyler off of it so that Klaus wouldn't know- though if she was being completely honest, she also didn't want to hurt Klaus, and she knew that it would hurt him even if he tried to hide it; and even after everything, maybe especially after everything they had gone through, she didn't want the one to hurt him anymore. But what if her efforts had been in vain? What if Klaus had somehow found out- no, she couldn't do that. She wouldn't let herself think of Tyler as being dead, and she had to try to trust Klaus. She was going to try this friendship thing with him, and she knew she had to put in an effort.

"What are you doing here Caroline?" She whirled at his voice, surprised both by his sudden appearance and the clear anger that laced his voice.

"I came to return the dress." She answered, holding the bag out to him.

He scoffed. "How very like you. You just think you can show up here without any word? Concerned with your dresses and your teenage drama? I don't care about it Caroline, and quite frankly I'm sick of having to deal with your problems."

With anyone else Caroline would have simpered, taken his words, left and believed them. And a part of her did believe them, but a greater part was angry, and she wouldn't let him get away with that. "What the hell Klaus? I just came to give you back your dress and thank you for it, but if you're going to be a jerk-" While she had been yelling she had moved to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm; in sharp contrast to the last time this had happened, he kept his hold on her, tightening his grip as he dragged her back in front of him, taking the bag out of her hand and tossing it onto the sofa.

"What is it you want from me? You say that you hate me, and yet here you are again after last night. You think I didn't know Tyler was back in town? Did you think that I would let him go?" She gasped at those words, angry tears welling in her eyes as she tried her best to pull away from him. "Did you really think that I would let him live, for you? You are not worth more than my revenge. In fact, you're not worth much to me at all."

Silent tears fell down her cheeks, and she honestly couldn't say that she knew why she was crying. Anger at him, the loss of Tyler, or that he apparently didn't care for her half as much as she thought he had. She took a deep breath, again trying to loosen his grip on her arm, when her brain reached several conclusions all at once. Even when he was angry with her, he was never that cruel with his words, never hitting her insecurities right on the head like that. He had never looked at her with such loathing in his gaze. And the thing that did him in was the lack of any sort of chain around his neck. "Silas." She breathed, not really wanting to speak the name but finding it falling from her lips anyway, trying more frantically to pull away now.

A moment, a mere second, later she found herself pushed against the wall, a stinging pain in the back of her head from where it had connected with the stone, and a hand wrapped around her throat, even as her hands rose instinctively to push the hand away. "You know, you're smarter than your friends give you credit for. The only one who figured it out faster than you was your dear Klaus." He smashed her head against the wall again, and she let out a cry of pain. "It's interesting, your mind. I can only appear to people in the form of the person that they love most. For Klaus it was you, for your friend Bonnie it was Jeremy, and the Salvatore brothers saw each other. And you. I was sure from Klaus' mind and yours that I would turn into Tyler. Imagine my surprise when I found myself in Klaus' form instead."

Another sharp tug at her throat and she heard, but she didn't feel it this time, the sharp crack of her skull against the stone, and then she felt Klaus'- Silas' nose trace a path down her cheek before pulling away abruptly. "Do you know how I change forms? It's your fears. It fuels the magic required. Klaus was afraid of you, what his feelings for you would do to him, that they would make him weak. Bonnie, dear Bonnie, was afraid that she would never see Jeremy again. Damon and Stefan were afraid that their feud over Elena had permanently damaged their relationship. It's so easy to prey on your fears. Do you know what you were afraid of? What I sensed in the back of your pretty little mind? So tucked away that you won't even admit it to yourself? You are afraid, even right now, that Klaus will wake up and realize that you're nothing but a baby vampire. That he doesn't want you, and that will be the day that you finally admit to yourself that slowly you've fallen for him. Or that he'll kill your precious Tyler and then you won't be able to justify being with Klaus ever. And you want to be. I wonder what Tyler would say if he found out; he risked his life coming back here. Klaus did catch him you know. But he let him go for you."

Silas brushed her hair back from her face, and she cringed back, knowing that this wasn't Klaus. That this, this man that had taken Klaus' form was more of a monster than Klaus had ever been. "It's no wonder that he does love you though. Such strength in you."

"Why are you doing this?" She choked out, desperate for him to let her go.

He moved his face closer to hers. "I like your fear. I enjoy watching you all in torment. You're all so easy to play with, to break. And I like being the most powerful. Klaus is a challenge to that. If I'm going to join the other side and be with my true love, I'd like for him to know first that he left you vulnerable, open to attack; that he couldn't do anything to save you in the end."

Very real fear gripped her. She had been afraid before, but she thought he was just messing with her mind, she didn't think he was going to kill her. And he had basically confirmed that he was going to.

Silas smirked sinisterly at her. "Dying by the hand of a man that bears the face of the man you love, who doesn't know you love him, who'll come back and find you dead thinking that you still loved Tyler. It's almost poetic, isn't it?"

"I thought you had the cure." She said, trying to distract him, to buy herself some more time. For what, she wasn't really sure, but she just knew that she needed more time. "Why are you still trying to hurt him?"

"Oh, how sweet. You don't want him hurt? Well, he should have gotten me the cure when I first asked for it, and then maybe I wouldn't have had to do this. It's been a pleasure Caroline. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other on the other side."

Caroline closed her eyes, bracing herself for however he was planning on killing her, when the pressure at her throat left, and she heard the unmistakable sounds of a fight. Her eyes opened in time to see her Klaus, she knew he was her Klaus, break Silas' neck. She rushed to him then, launching herself into his arms. He caught her, tugging her close against him, even as his hands went to the back of her head, feeling the skin knit back together she was sure. "Are you alright Caroline?"

She nodded against his shirt, clutching the fabric in her hands as she cried. He pushed her away from him slightly. "Are you alright Caroline?"

Her face crumpled. No, no she wasn't all right. She was confused and hurt, but she was alright. Because he was there now. "I thought it was you." She whispered. "I thought he was you. I thought that you never really liked me." He tugged her forward gently, clutching her to him again.

"Shh love, I like you. Trust me." She smiled slightly through her tears, letting out a small laugh.

"Where'd you go?" She murmured, sometime later as they sat on his couch, she still in his arms, Stefan having come to take Silas body away. There wasn't really very much they could do against him, but they could get him a distance from Mystic Falls for the time being.

"I had business in New Orleans. I should have known better than to leave you here alone."

She sighed, wanting to yell at him and say that she had had things in hand. But she hadn't, had she? She had almost gotten herself killed, and out of all the events of the past year, she had never felt so powerless or so afraid. "Thank you for saving me." His only response was to hold her tighter against his form, and for now that was all she needed.

"Secrets have a way of making themselves felt, even before you know there's a secret."

― Jean Ferris, Once Upon a Marigold