"Rebekah" Caroline growled.
"We have unfinished business to settle, I believe" Rebekah said before driving a wooden pencil into Caroline's shoulder, making the young vampire yell out in pain.
"Consider this as payback for your little improvised attack in the cellar the other day" she whispered close to Caroline's ear.
The young vampire tried her best to hold back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. Blood had splattered on the wall in front of her, miraculously sparing her dress.
"You and I are going to have some fun tonight" the Original said before twisting both Caroline's wrists in agonizing angles, making her wail in pain.
Suddenly the fire alarm went out.
Caroline used her heightened vampire earing to find out what was going on in the other parts of the school, and she heard Bonnie tell her father to get everyone off the school ground as soon as possible. After a short argument, the Mayor communicated the information to the other Prom chaperones who directed the students to the gym's emergency exit.
"I guess your friends heard your distress call" Rebekah said with a sneer. "Good, I could use some entertainment."
Caroline shivered at the other blond's comment.
"Matt, honey, go in the car and wait for me." Rebekah called out.
Matt, turned his gaze on both of them, before leaving through a side door.
"Good" Rebekah said. "I like Matt, I wouldn't want him to get caught in the crossfire of tonight's events."
"You compelled him!" Caroline exclaimed. She realized Rebekah must have been the "cheerleader" who had invited Matt to Prom, and she must have compelled him to keep the information a secret from his friends, so they wouldn't know of the bitch's plan to ruin the night.
"Obviously" Rebekah said. "It's a shame he didn't chose my side of his own free will, but he'll see I am the right choice for him, in time. I'll be patient. Now, enough with this jibber-jabber, darling"
The Original vampire took out a syringe from her back pocket, before trusting it into Caroline's neck. The young vampire felt a stinging sensation before the vervain penetrated her body, filling her veins with the vampire poison. She was automatically affected by it, feeling her strengths leave her, and an excruciating feeling of thirst burning at her throat.
She could feel splinters from the pencil sticking out of her shoulder, scorching her flesh. Her blood, now tinted with vervain, was burning the skin around her wound. She needed to stay concentrated and push away her sufferings, as she could now hear her friends' worried voices approaching.
They turned the corner of the hallway, leading to the two vampires, started running towards them to Caroline's rescue, before Kol, coming from nowhere, blocked their way.
Stepping in front of Elena, he plunged his hand at super speed into her chest, tightening his grip around the young vampire's heart.
"Elena!" Caroline and Bonnie both cried out.
Elena's eyes were wide opened in shock, her arms spread on each side of her body. She could not move a muscle.
"Make one witchy move Bonnie, and I'll rip her heart out" Kol said.
"What do you want? Why are you doing this?" Bonnie asked, trying to keep her powers from bursting out of her every pore.
Caroline could see her witch friend struggling to remain calm, as they both knew a loss of control on her powers would result in Elena's death.
Kol was not helping the matter, and his sadistic smile proved he knew fully well the effects his next uttered words would have on the young witch.
"What we want" he said winking at his sister "is to have some fun".
Rebekah laughed before seizing the tip of the pencil in Caroline's shoulder, easily snapping it in two with her fingers, and using the second half to pierce the delicate skin of her neck. The sudden attack drew a heartbreaking scream from Caroline.
Combined with the vervain in her systems, the pain was too much to bear and she felt her knees gave in, before she fell on the ground. Rebekah still maintained a tight grip on her wrists to keep her upright. Tears now ran down freely on Caroline's cheeks, making the Original blond chuckle with delight.
"Stop it!" Bonnie yelled out. "Stop hurting them."
Prom posters started flying and twirling around the group, lockers doors were flapping behind Bonnie's back, and Caroline knew her friend was starting to lose her internal battle.
"Bonnie! Calm down" Caroline warned her.
She saw her friend's shoulders relax a bit and hoped it would be enough to prevent the Originals from acting on their previous threat.
Kol smiled at Bonnie viciously, "I will stop hurting Elena here, if you promise to leave the school with her, without trying anything foolish. You do not follow this simple rule, and I will rip Caroline's beautiful head off and feed her body to the wolves". He sneered as if he was in on some joke only he knew about.
"What do you want with Caroline?"
The young blond vampire was asking herself the same question, but she knew the answer did not matter. Elena's life was in jeopardy and she would not hesitate to give her life for her friend's safety.
"That's for us to know and for you to eventually find out" Kol answered evasively.
He gently tossed a curl of brown hair that had stuck to Elena's sweaty forehead. "Such a pretty face… just like Tatia's. It's a shame she preferred Nick and Elejah over me, really. With her good looks and my gorgeousness, we would have been the talk of the village. You know, you doppelgangers have good genes" he added, smirking.
"Tatia was a whore, Kol. Just like all doppelgangers, it seems they can't settle for just one man at a time" Rebekah spat out.
"Jealous are we?" Kol teased her.
As the two Originals argued, Caroline noticed Elena's face grow greyer by the second, they needed to get her out quickly.
"Bonnie, it's okay" she said. "Go. Take Elena and leave, Bonnie".
Bonnie hesitated for a moment debating what to do, save one friend , but leave another one behind. But when her eyes fell on Elena's face she nodded in Kol's direction, giving her consent to the deal.
"Good girl" Kol said, smiling. He released his grip on Elena's heart and pushed her limp body in Bonnie's way. The young witch was barely able to catch Elena by the shoulders, before the baby vampire hit her head on the floor. Her blue dress was now stained with her blood, the whole in her chest slowly starting to heal. Bonnie gave Kol a look full of resentment.
"Oh, poor thing, she's exhausted" Rebekah mocked.
Both Originals laughed cruelly as they watched Bonnie's eyes fill with tears, calling out Elena's name, but their friend remained unconscious.
Kol joined his sister's side, before pulling Caroline up on her feet. He took her arm in a tight grasp and whispered in her ear "You look ravishing, dear".
She almost threw up in his face.
A phone ring pierced through Bonnie's mumbling, bringing Caroline back to reality. Rebekah pulled her phone out her back pocket and smiled triumphantly at her brother.
"He's here".
"Good let's go then, I'm getting bored" Kol said, before looking at Bonnie's murderous glare.
"Well if looks could kill…" he mocked. "Listen to me carefully Bennett witch, when Elena wakes up, you two are going to head as far away from this building as possible. If I hear you two coming near Caroline, and believe me I will be listening, your blond friend will be dead before you have a chance to call out her name. Am I being clear?"
The vervain was starting to make her head turn and Caroline slowly drifted into oblivion. The last thing she saw was Bonnie's defeated expression, as Kol and Rebekah dragged her unresponsive body, away from her friends.
Caroline woke up sitting in a wooden chair, her hands strapped in her back. She could still feel the vervain weakening her strength, keeping her from freeing herself, but at least her head was getting clearer.
She lifted her head and looked around at her surroundings, and realized she was in the gym and seemingly alone, as Rebekah and Kol were nowhere in sight. She was in the middle of the room, Prom decorations scattered on the floor all around her.
She suddenly heard movements in the stands on her right, before a familiar deep voice called her name out.
"Hello Caroline".
She turned her head quickly, and was now able to make out his figure, sitting in the stands. Caroline could feel his eyes on her, studying her shocked expression. She noticed he was holding his cellphone in his hands, flipping it open, before closing it and flipping it back open again.
"Tyler?" she asked in a weak voice. She wondered if she was hallucinating. Vervain never had that effect on her before, but she couldn't believe he was here, back in Mystic Falls. He said he wouldn't come back until he'd be ready to take his revenge on Klaus… and until he found a way around the bloodline issue. "What are you doing here?"
She had missed him so much, and yet seeing him now did not make her feel less vulnerable. Something was definitely wrong.
"Tyler, quick, untie me before they come back" she hurried him, trying to move her hands to the side so he'd have a better angle on the knots.
Why wasn't he doing anything? Why was he looking at her with such sad eyes?
"They are not coming back for you Care, they brought you to me. I think you and I need to have a little talk" he said, looking serious.
She looked at him confused. Did he just confess to being the one orchestrating the attack on her and her friends earlier? He must have been compelled, because this was not the Tyler she knew. He'd never let anyone hurt her, or her friends.
"Sure, let's talk, but why don't you take these ropes off of me first?" She didn't like the idea of a hand-to-hand combat against Tyler, but she thought that if she was to defend herself, she'd at least need to be able to move freely. Yet with the vervain slowing down her senses, she didn't give much hope to having the upper hand in the upcoming fight.
"No, I can't do that Caroline" he said. He finally stood up from his spot and made his way towards her.
"Why not? I was vervained, you know I can't get away…" she said. He was close enough now for her to notice he looked completely normal… okay, so maybe he wasn't compelled? Why was he acting like this?
"Tyler? Why do I have a feeling that you're one of the bad guys now?"
Tyler scoffed at her question. "Ah yes, the bad guys… What's wrong with that, I thought that it was your new turn on, nowadays" he said.
Caroline's brows furrowed in confusion.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"I'm talking about this" he said putting his cellphone a few inches from her face.
She was now staring at pictures of both Klaus and herself. They were close to one another, staring at each other right in the eyes. Tyler was scrolling down the list of pictures, all of them displaying an undeniable closeness between the blond vampire and the Original Hybrid. The last picture from the list was of Caroline grasping Klaus' chin, forcing his face close to hers, undoubtedly taken two weeks ago in Klaus' study.
"How did you…"
"Rebekah's been keeping me posted on your relationship with my mother's killer. I couldn't believe you could do that to me Caroline. I thought you loved me. At first I didn't want to believe her. I thought she was working for Klaus, trying to lure me back to Mystic Falls. But then she told me she was tired of putting up with Klaus' schemes and she heard about what happened on the Winter Wonderland's night. She offered me the best chance I could have at revenge against the bastard, without dying in the process."
"Tyler…"
"You know what that brilliant idea was? She told me the craziest story ever, about you being Klaus' biggest weakness. That no matter how hard he tried to lie to her about the way he felt about you, he'd always give up some pointers that he'd never stop having feelings for you… no matter how many times you betrayed him. And then she started sending me these pictures of you two… and then I saw it."
"It?" Caroline asked, perplexed.
"The look in your eyes when you look at him, Caroline. The kind of look I thought you only saved for me…" he scoffed. "You have feelings for him Caroline, and don't insult me by denying it".
Caroline opened her mouth to tell him he was wrong, but she found the words did not want to come out of her mouth.
"I… I never meant for this to happen Tyler" she said tears falling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry…"
He dropped his gaze and she heard him let out a small breath. She realized he must have still been holding on some small piece of hope that it had all been misinterpreted by Rebekah, but Caroline brought him crashing down on reality.
"Tyler, I … I don't know why it happened okay? I was mad at him for what he did to your mother but…"
"But somehow you forgave him" he snapped his head back up and she noticed his eyes had a golden glow to them, and his two sets of fangs were starting to show. "Rebekah had warned me. Still I hoped she was lying. I should have known. He's been lurking around you for months, and I've let him do it… he finally won you over."
"It wasn't like that, Tyler" she tried to calm him down.
"Here's what's going to happen now. I am going to take something important away from Klaus' life, the way he did to me. As we say, an Eye for an Eye… Tell me Caroline, can you guess what that important thing is?"
He turned his back on her before facing her again, and slamming his fists on the chair's arms, breaking her seat in the process and sending Caroline crashing down on the floor.
"TYLER!" she yelled in shock.
She got back on her feet, picking up a piece of wood from the ground in the process, and hid it in the back of her dress.
"Run Caroline. You are dead to me. Run as fast as you can, or I swear on my mother's grave you will be joining her very shortly".
He knelt on the ground and she clearly heard one of Tyler's bone snap. She quickly realized he was turning, shifting into his wolf form.
And then she ran.
Klaus was enjoying a glass of his most expensive bourbon, contemplating the rich brown color as he made it twirl in his favorite crystal glass.
Matt had come to pick Rebekah up a few hours ago, and he could not help himself from asking the human boy where he was taking his sister to.
"Prom of course. Didn't Caroline ask you to be her date? Oh, of course, you turned her down so, you wouldn't know it was tonight, right?" Matt had answered, defending his ex-girlfriend's honor.
Klaus had been taken aback by this announcement. Caroline had been here two weeks ago to ask him to be her Prom date? He knew Caroline made a great deal of her human life and everything that revolved around it. Inviting him to be her Prom date was something big, even he could understand that… He wandered if she'd been willing to ruin such an important part of her high school life, just to comply with her friends' never ending plans to kill him.
He wasn't so sure about it anymore.
He'd been deep in his thoughts when Rebekah had passed by him without saying goodbye, closing the front door behind her. He'd noticed she had only been wearing a simple black dress, which was odd he thought, as his sister would have normally vandalized all the boutiques in the nearby towns to ensure she'd be wearing the most gorgeous and expensive gown out there for this trivial event.
As for Kol, his younger brother was nowhere to be found. Probably Caroline's backup plan for the night, he bitterly thought.
He drowned the remaining drops of fluid from his glass and threw it into the fireplace. The glass exploded, sending shards flying everywhere in the room, but he couldn't care less.
What was wrong with him? The young blond vampire was always bringing out his possessive and over-protective self. He wanted to protect her, to be the only one she would care about. Those very thoughts put him in a very vulnerable situation, and he didn't like it one bit.
The front door opened and he heard Rebekah and Kol's voices coming towards the living room.
"Sister, Prom finished early tonight. How about you brother, were you off dancing with the town's teenagers again?" he smirked.
Rebekah looked around the room and spotted the shards of glass on the floor.
"You okay Nick?" smiling sweetly at him.
"Never better, love" he said making his way to his mini-bar again to get another glass out and pour himself another generous amount of bourbon.
Rebekah and Kol suddenly flashed to his side and pinned him against the wall making Klaus drop his second glass on the ground. The two younger Originals joined their forces to keep their older brother glued against the wall. Rebekah pulled out a silver dagger from her bag and inserted it into Klaus' stomach, making the Hybrid double back and scream in pain.
"What are you doing, let go of me right this instant!" he yelled at them.
Klaus then realized he'd been missing out on something, something important. He could now smell a small trace of Caroline's perfume in the air, mixed with the unmistakable scent of her blood.
"What have you done?" he asked, eyebrows knitted, barely able to keep the menace from his voice. If they had hurt Caroline…
"Well brother, we had some fun at the Prom, the way we Mikaelsons usually do…" Kol started.
With renewed forces Klaus pushed his assailants away, easily throwing Rebekah across the room. He pulled his brother by his collar and slammed him repeatedly against the opposite wall, bellowing "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" his face an inch away from Kol's. "Where is Caroline?"
Kol smiled nonchalantly back at him, apparently amused by his rage.
Rebekah got back on her feet and sniggered.
"There it is, the source of your affection… or should I say of your weakness. Did you really think you could fool me in believing you had no feelings for her, Nick? I'm your sister, I've known you since forever, and I've never seen you act the way you do around her. You should know better, you know I can detect it when someone lies to me. You use to call it borderline supernatural. And yet you persist on trying to fool me."
Klaus snapped Kol's neck, leaving his limp body hit the floor hard, and walked up to Rebekah who was waiting in the middle of the room, arms crossed.
He grabbed her by her arms and started shaking her violently.
"Tell me what you did!" he yelled at her. "Where's Caroline?"
Rebekah simply smiled, unaffected by his outburst.
"She's at school, with Tyler."
Her words at the desired effect. Klaus let go of her as if her words had burned him.
"Tyler" he spat the name out. Had the two lovers finally reunited?
"Yes, Tyler. He's not very happy of her new "friendship" with you. I'd even say he is extremely angry at her. A real black fury. They've probably started their representation of The Little Red Riding Hood with a little twist to it, I bet."
"You've left Caroline with Tyler… for him to kill her?" he asked bewildered. "Why would you do that? What did you think you could achieve by doing such a reckless thing?"
"Revenge" she said simply. "You've killed, and taken away all the men I loved in my life Nick. I think it was only fair for me to give you a taste of your own medicine."
Klaus snapped her neck, effectively silencing her, and took out the silver dagger from his stomach before sinking it into Rebekah's chest, without blinking.
He quickly ran to his study, pulled out a second silver dagger which he dipped in the white oak tree's ashes, before returning to the living room and dragging it into his other sibling's heart.
Now that they were taken care of, he needed to hurry to Caroline's help.
It was finally time for him to take down the black wolf, once and for all.