Author Note: Finally! Anytime I hear this song I always picture this scene. And oddly enough, I'll be seeing these guys in concert today.
Also thank you, everyone, for following, favoriting, and reviewing. It's still so cool to get feedback. We're at 150 Follows, 69 favs (heh) and 59 reviews- that's crazy to me! Ok well end note thingy, I'll try and update soon. As I have yet more surprises in store!
Big Bad Wolf
Everywhere I go, you go along with me (she said)
Everything you get, is all because of me (I said)
Everything I do, you do along with me (she said)
No matter where you run, you cannot hide from me
She's got a hold on me
Maybe she is just what they want me to be
Even in these chains, you can't stop me.
Even in these chains, you can't stop me!
-In this Moment
Stefan and Elena had made good progress once the door to the facility was open. They had to move fast to find Caroline and make it out of there in one piece. Turn after turn, hall after hall, everything started to look the same. Stefan didn't let go of Elena's hand as they moved further into the structure.
"This place is a maze," Elena whispered to him, her voice low and urgent. They couldn't see each other.
"I know, we just have to find something that will help us. We have to find Caroline." He squeezed her hand and moved further into the current hallway.
They passed too many doors, each one no different than the last. Each hallway looking the same as the last.
"How are we supposed to find anything in here?" Elena whispered.
"I don't know, we just have to keep looking." They turned another corner and stopped, it was a dead end with only two doors side by side at the end of it. As they turned around they hear voices and feet coming towards the hallway they had just turned down. "We'll have to hide in one of those rooms." He ran down the hall, Elena in tow, without a sound. He opened one of the doors and moved to the farthest corner at the other side of the room, Elena at his back.
They had found themselves in what looked to be an investigation room. With a sinking feeling, he realized they must be in the opposite room that Caroline had been 'interrogated' in. The two-way mirror looked into the same set up as the video they watched. A chair was in the middle. Long, blood chains were attached to the floor and looped through metal holes in the chair. Suddenly the door to their room opened. A man in a lab coat opened the door, allowing another coated figure to step through the doorway. He forced himself to remain still, as he waited, sure that they would somehow know he was in here with them. The first man moved to stand next to the woman who stationed herself in the middle of the room. They looked out of the glass expectantly.
"Everything is ready Doctor." The man sounded nervous.
The doctor turned her head a fraction, "Good, she should be her shortly. Is the newest batch ready? I don't want to waste any time."
"Ye-Yes, Doctor, but are you sure we shouldn't run some more tes-"
"Be quiet," she placed her hands on her back and looked back out at the room in front of them. "I didn't bring you on to question all of my motives. Your idea to release Subject 035-HX was very useful, it was a shame to see her go, but I suppose sometimes you have to sacrifice a Queen to get the King." She glanced at him, "Pray I do not sacrifice my pawns, as well." There was silence in the room for a long time, nothing but the shallow breathing of the man and the even breaths of the woman.
Then the door to the other room opened.
Where am I? Why can't a move? Vaguely, Caroline realized that she was being carried into the room again. The room was a promise that there would be pain and an odd lack of memory for her. She could never remember what happened in the room, but she remembered it hurt to be in it. She fought to control her body, fought to have some form of fight in her. If the Klaus in her cell was real, and she wasn't entirely sure he was, she needed to fight. Needed to find a way to get herself out of here, or get him out of here at least. She wasn't really sure she'd make it out if she was honest with herself.
The chains rattled as she was placed in the chair, like a rag doll. Head lolling back she laughed at it all, biting her tongue to try and silence herself. Everything felt like a dream, a horrible nightmare that she wouldn't wake up from. A guard pushed her head to the side as if annoyed by her sudden snap out of reality. She rolled her head forward, watching them chain her to the chair. Her eyes wandered to the shackles on her wrists that she was never strong enough to break. Then at her feet, anywhere but her own reflection. She didn't have the heart to see how bad she looked this time. She was relieved to see that the guards left, presumably waiting outside or in the room behind the mirror.
A sharp pain hit her neck again, another shot of who knew what. It rushed through her veins as she slumped forward again. There's something different this time, she thought. This time is different.
"Subject 037-HX, how are you feeling?" The emotionless voice she had grown to loathe sounded from the ceiling.
Caroline's head rolled back against the chair. She caught her reflection. Shocked at just how bad she looked. Her hair was no longer bright and shiny, it looked pale and slightly greasy. Her skin was so pale she thought she might be a ghost and this was her personal hell, which it was. And her eyes looked wide and crazed. She blinked a few times.
"Again, would you tell me how you are feeling right now?"
"No." She should have someone put 'stubborn bitch' on her tombstone, she made a mental note to haunt Damon till he did. He seemed like a good choice to trust in that, and he owed her.
A sudden pain seized her chest, the drug must have reached her heart. She gripped the chair as she hunched over her legs. She felt like heaving, like every bone in her body was going to break at once. She gasped at it, the all-consuming feeling of her body trying to reject what was happening. Her breath heaved in and out as she tried to focus on anything but the agonizing pain. As fast as it appeared it was gone. She blinked. Waiting for it to start up again.
When it didn't, she flexed her hands, releasing their death grip from the metal chair. Quizzically, she noticed small indents in the metal where her fingers had just been. If she had been at her usual strength the arms of the chair would've been crushed. That didn't matter now, what did was the idea that she was regaining some of her strength somehow. She rolled her shoulders, noting how she had started to feel even stronger. The pace was slow but it was there nonetheless.
She cocked her head to the side, a half-crazed grin spread across her face. She felt drunk on it. Head rolling back to look at herself in the glass. Her eyes were growing darker, the telltale veins creeping around her eyes. The whites were no longer white but black.
"Subject 037-HX what ar-"
"What did you give me?" Her voice sounded odd to her like she was happy with this. And sure enough, there was a smile on her face. That's right, this is all a dream isn't it? Well, let's go down the rabbit hole, then? "And my name is Caroline Forbes. I think I'll leave now." She smiled at the reflection, in on a joke the other hadn't caught on yet. Whatever they gave her, was making her different. Stronger than they probably realized.
"I find that unlikely, 037."
Caroline laughed, which sounded harsher to her ears than she meant. She pulled her fists up, the metal starting to weaken at her attempt. "Even with these shackles," she snapped one length of chain free from the chair's arm. "And all your drugs," the other chain popped off the chair.
She was still attached to the floor, though. A wave of dizziness hit her. Something else was happening, something she's never felt before. Shaking her head, she stood up and pulled at the chains on the ground, breaking them in half. A short length of chain dangled from her wrists. "And your mutant guards," she walked out of her ankle braces like they were tissue paper, pulling the metal around her wrists in the same manner.
She walked straight to the mirror, "You can't stop me."
The door to the room started to open. She looked at it briefly before looking back at the mirror. She raised her fist and slammed it into the glass, a long fissure cracked the mirror, whatever it was made out of was tougher than she had thought. Her reflection, split and grinning, set her heart in a frantic beat of fear and excitement. God, am I going mad? Have I finally snapped?
The dizzy spell returned and she hunched over herself. Bones cracking and vision blurring, but she was stronger than she had ever felt before. Her body was shifting into something she wasn't sure of. Her fingers felt like spindly claws, dark and foreboding. Her nails seemed to grow at an alarming rate, into talons. Or maybe they had given her more hallucinogens and she was already passed out in the chair. But the power she felt called to her like a lost sailor to a shore. And she grabbed at it, willing herself to use it to her advantage.
"Put the facility in lockdown, it seems you may have been right, Maxfield." The doctor turned to her colleague. The man nodded and hurriedly left the room.
Stefan felt Elena push him aside, he couldn't see where she went but knew she must have followed Maxfield. Inwardly, he cursed. The doctor left before the guards made it into the other room.
Without being able to look away, Stefan watched as Caroline was surrounded. He stepped towards the door to help her, fight his way to her if he had to. Then she was on one of the guards before anyone thought to do anything.
The blonde in the other room was like an animal. Eyes wide at what he was seeing. The gunfire was sporadic, hitting the walls and the two-way mirror, one or twice he saw Caroline flinch as it made contact with her. She was on victim number three, though, tearing through the guards in seconds. The light must have played tricks on him but he could swear that her appearance had started to alter. She looked feral in a way.
A chill ran up his spine as her dark eyes and blood soaked face looked at him, or at her own reflection, he wasn't sure which. She had flashed to the still open door, looking inside of the room. She didn't wait long before she left. He couldn't even follow her movement down the hall. She was faster than anything he'd seen before. He silently thanked Bonnie for the charms she provided. He let out a shaky breath. He needed to find Elena. They needed a new plan.
Stefan stepped out into the hall. A loud, almost defining alarm filled the air. Stefan winced at it, covering his ears to muffle the noise. A voice followed the alarm, "Emergency, immediate evacuation process started. Please find the nearest exit."
The siren began again, this time at a more bearable decibel. Stefan ripped off his charm and ran. Turning down hallway after hallway. Everything looked the same. How was he supposed to find any way out of there? He flashed down another hall only to collide with an invisible force. Arms shooting out he found shoulders and a brush of hair. "Elena?"
Suddenly she came into view, as if she appeared from thin air, which he supposed was true at the moment. "Stefan!"
"We need to get out of here."
"We have to take two more lefts and a right and we'll be right by the exit."
"How do you-"
"I followed that Maxfield guy," she started pulling him along, "he went straight to the nerve center or control room, whatever it's called. Before he could do anything I tried to compel him, turns out they have vervain in their diet. So I snapped his neck. I ended up finding the evacuation manual in a cabinet along with a map out of this place. But I just released everything in this place, too. So we need to move."
They reached the final hallway when they heard loud thuds from behind them. At the end, was a large wolf creature, one that neither of them had ever seen before. The massive creature stalked towards them, it's paws more like hands. The creature resembled something from a horror movie or story. Large torso, golden eyes that pierced you to the spot, and a jaw that looked deadly.
"Run," Stefan grabbed Elena's hand and sped out of the building and through the forest. Trees flashed around them as they ran, the sounds of broken tree limbs and crushed undergrowth fast approaching them.
Suddenly the sound stopped, in its place was the haunting howl that set their teeth on edge. The moon was still high in the sky as they ran to their friends.
