Hey, guys!

Okay, first, I know some of guys probably hate me for not updating in like forever and I would hate me too. Again. Sorry! I would update every day if I had the time but unfortunately I don't have that luxury. I'm on winter break and thought I would give you guys a belated Christmas present! And wish you guys a belated Merry Christmas and for those of you who don't celebrate Christmas Happy Holidays!

And wow! Thank you to everyone who faved, followed, and reviewed this story! Seriously, guys. I love you all. Thank you to everyone who puts up with me and my slow updates. I promise to do everything I can to do this story justice because you guys are just that awesome and you deserve it and this story deserves it.

Also, this is probably gonna be my last update for the year so I guess my New Year's resolution would probably be to either update this story more frequently or finish one of my three stories at least. Lol.

And did you guys notice the new cover? If you love it as much as I do, you can thank the lovely Klaroline-fantasies! Thanks, Cindy!

So I hope you guys enjoy!

Warning: brace yourselves ;)

Caroline nearly ran like a track runner to get to her next class after the late bell rung. Her heels echoed through the halls as the silence settled in. She barely noticed the lights dim, racing past classrooms. Was it always this deadly silent once classes had begun? Even though there wasn't a person in sight, she couldn't shake the eerie feeling that was coursing through her bloodstream.

She finally allowed herself to catch her breath when her hand wrapped around the cool bronze door handle, pushing it open.

"Sorry I'm late-"

Caroline's toned body went stiff when she felt all eyes on her- and these eyes didn't radiate any kind of warm. Even the teacher's eyes merely glazed over her like she was roadkill that he'd just run over with his car. She could visibly see the adolescents split into their own individual groups, not much differentiation from this morning. She rubbed her palms against her expensive skirt as she felt them begin to sweat. Her eyes carefully analyzed each face and her heart skipped a beat every time she recognized the cruel intentions behind their cold eyes.

"You're late."

Caroline flinched when she saw her new teacher take a step toward her. He was a graying old man with a bushy silver mustache located on his upper lip. The way he was eying her sent chills down her spine, his countenance causing her to think of a pedophile.

"I- I'm-"

"Pass?" the older man held out his hand.

Caroline looked down at his rough, wrinkled hand and met his ominous blue eyes. "I- I don't have a pass."

The middle-aged teacher flashed the blonde a tight-lipped smile that was far too emotionless to be considered human.

"Take a seat, Miss...?

"Forbes," Caroline finished. "Caroline Forbes."

"I don't take kindly to tardiness, Miss Forbes," he sneered. "Let this happen again and I will deliver whatever punishment I see fit."

Caroline nodded and averted her eyes from the students' as she made her way to the very back of the room for a desk. She felt her cheeks turn a light shade of pink when she heard snickering echo throughout the room. It was only second period and she'd managed to humiliate herself in front of her entire class. All she wanted right now was to have Elena by her side so she didn't feel like a complete idiot.

"Ahem." The menacing man standing at the front of the room cleared his throat. "Now that you've all had your fun it's time to get back to school. My name is Mr. Edwards. You will refer to me as Mr. Edwards and nothing less. Welcome to study hall, you demons, thugs, lunatics, or whatever else is wrong with you. I am not your babysitter. You need to take a piss. You get off your ass, take the pass and take a piss in the toilet or the urinary. The only reason you bother me is if there is a fire or someone is trying to kill Mr. Edwards. Otherwise, I don't want to see any of your ugly faces."

Caroline gulped as she watched her frightening teacher sit back into the comfy chair behind his desk and pull out a pillow. Then he placed his head on the pillow as he shut his eyes, dosing off into a deep slumber. You have got to be kidding me. She thought.

She just narrowly escaped a brutal beating from Rebekah Mikaelson and now her creepy teacher doesn't give a shit whether anyone lives or dies except for himself. This is especially inconvenient for her since the people in this room seem even less friendly than the students from her first period, or maybe her last class wasn't as bad because she had Elena. She didn't know a single person in this room and she had no intention of getting to know any of them.

Everything was going to be fine. She would live for another hour as long as she listened to Elena's advice. Keep her head down and don't make any enemies. She's survived worse...

Caroline's body suddenly went taut as she felt a spike in her blood pressure. She didn't see a flash but she'd been through enough drama in her high school life to recognize when someone was obviously trying to take a picture of you. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a large group of pretty girls holding their phones up and laughing maliciously. Those girls were exactly the type to be Rebekah's minions so it wouldn't sound completely conceited if Caroline assumed they were taking pictures of her.

She gritted her teeth and dragged her perfectly manicured nails down her wooden desk in an attempt to prevent herself from exploding with fury and ripping their extensions out. Caroline closed her eyes as she tried to breathe the anger out. She opened her eyes and stood up with her head held high, walking to front of the room. She wasn't about to let those bitches get the satisfaction of knowing they had gotten to her.

Caroline approached her teacher's desk and opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it, remembering the speech he had given earlier. She turned sharply in the direction of the hallway, grabbing the orange pass by the door before she passed the doorway.

Caroline whipped her head around every so often as she rapidly walked down the dimly lit hallway. She didn't know why she was acting so paranoid, maybe had something to do with the fact that she was aware that a bunch of psychotic girls were out to get her. Not to mention that she just escaped a room filled with potentially lethal teenagers whose hormones were all over the place. She felt her heartbeat gradually build into a loud drumming rhythm that echoed through her ears, causing her nerves to stand on end.

Caroline shuddered when she noticed how unsettling the school looked when the lights were off. The shadows and the way the doors creaked could've fooled someone into thinking they had walked into a haunted house instead.

She abruptly halted when she hit a dead end, realizing that Elena had forgotten to show her where the bathroom was on this floor. She turned her head around to see that she didn't recognize the walls or rooms surrounding her. Okay, Caroline. Don't panic. Just remember that you're not alone. Elena can help you find your way back. Caroline thought.

Trying her best to keep her cool, Caroline reached her hand into her jacket pocket in search of her phone but felt nothing. Her eyes widened as her hands dove into both pockets desperately praying for her mobile device to appear out of thin air. This was not happening. She was alone in the dark in a school filled with dangerous criminals without a phone. This was just not her day.

"Looking for something?"

Caroline froze in place as if the voice wouldn't be real if she stayed like that. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as the pounding of her heart rang in her ear.

"Caroline, isn't it?"

Caroline reluctantly turned around to face- just as she expected- the same malicious feminine faces that she'd seen huddled in that corner of the room except there were only three this time. Her eyes landed on the sleek white smart phone in the lead girl's hand, being held by two manicured fingers like she was holding a treat for a dog so it would jump.

The brunette had almost black eyes that made her look like she was Satan's daughter and the way she cackled could make a grim reaper seem like Santa Claus. Her two friends at her side further supported Caroline's theory that this girl was from hell and those two girls had sold their souls.

"Give me my phone," Caroline snarled.

"Give me my boyfriend," the girl holding Caroline's phone threatened.

"What?" Caroline asked, confused. "I don't have your boyfriend."

"I saw you talking to him."

"Who?"

"Klaus."

"Klaus?! Klaus is your boyfriend?" Caroline said with disbelief.

"You don't believe me?" the girl accused.

"No. No. It's just that... I don't think you fully understand the concept of a 'boyfriend," Caroline snickered.

The brunette clenched her fists as she took a step forward.

"Stay away from him."

Caroline could feel the danger present in the atmosphere but she refused to back down.

"I'm not gonna do anything you tell me to. From my experience, if you need to force a guy away from another girl in order to get five seconds of his attention, he's probably not that into you."

The mean spirited girl cocked her head at Caroline. "Well, that just proves how little you know about our relationship. Klaus will be mine whether you like it or not-"

"Will be?" Caroline scoffed. "As in, he was never yours to begin with-"

"Not yet. Rebekah will make sure I get my chance with him."

"Rebekah?" Caroline raised her brows. "You think just because a girl like Rebekah says something that she'll follow through? Are you really that naïve or are you just plain stupid?"

A cold, steely look glazed over the hostile teenager's dark eyes as she motioned for her two friends to step forward.

Caroline's back hit the cold, stone wall when she saw the two girls approach her. Their smirks already painted a very good picture of their intentions and each of them grasped one of her arms in a vice grip. Caroline used all her might to break free of their hold, but they only twisted her arms further behind her back.

"Let me go-"

The girl holding her phone grasped her jaw, feeling her sharp nails lightly scrape against her skin.

"Shut the fuck up before I start to get angry."

The way she whispered to Caroline in that threatening tone made it seem so effortless, like she'd done it over a million times. This was not some regular high school girl who was worried about boys and was insecure, she was staring into the face of pure evil.

Caroline watched the girl lean her head back against the opposite wall and scroll through her phone.

"What are you doing?"

The girl continued to scroll, refusing to look back up at Caroline.

"Well, you're not completely hideous so there must be someone out there for you." She lifted her eyes back at Caroline and looked back down at the phone. "Who's this?"

Caroline's heart sank when the girl turned the phone around to show her a picture of herself as a cheerleader and a handsome blonde boy with deep blue eyes wearing a football jersey. She felt a pang in her heart, remembering the sadness behind that bright smile.

Caroline groaned loudly when she felt one of the girls holding her down yank her hair by the roots.

"Answer her," one of the minions commanded.

Caroline narrowed her eyes at the girl standing in front of her. "No."

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"I don't care if Klaus dumps your body in the Bermuda triangle because if not there, you'll probably end up in the North sea, you crazy bitch."

The girl chuckled darkly and paced back and forth as if she were a mental patient before grinning from ear to ear, staring at Caroline. Her humorless smile suddenly faltered and struck Caroline across the cheek with the back of her hand. A loud crack resonated throughout the hall as Caroline's head snapped to the side.

Caroline's golden locks fell over her face as she tried to catch her breath from the stinging sensation on her now red cheek. She lifted her head back up to meet the other girl's glare. It may have went against everything Elena told her but she would not cower to anyone.

"Are you going to kill me now?"

The vicious girl leaned her head even closer so that her nose was nearly touching Caroline's.

"Well, it seems that you've left me no other choice."

Caroline's eyes widened when she watched the girl reach inside her jacket for a weapon- weather it was a gun or a pocket knife didn't matter to Caroline- she wasn't about to stay to find out. She butted her head against the other girl's, setting her off balance and going into a daze. Then, she took the temporary distraction to yank her arms forward and cross them, causing the other girls' heads to crash into each other. She kicked them both to the ground, using her heels. She watched them both fall over the girl with the weapon and couldn't help but smile when they screamed.

Caroline picked her phone up off the ground and bolted as fast as her legs could carry her. Now was one of the times she was grateful that her mom forced her to enter in all those beauty pageants because in unlikely scenarios of having to run in heels from psychotic teenagers, she was more than prepared.

She skidded to a stop when she came to a fork in the road: she could take a turn down the dark hallway where there was barely any lights or the one illuminated by florescent light bulbs. She barely had time to think before she heard angry feminine voices rapidly gaining speed behind her and caught a glimpse of large shadows appearing in the illuminated hallway. Unfortunately, those shadows could belong to far worse people than the girls who were chasing her.

Caroline took a huge gulp and forced herself to run into the obscure hallway at full speed.

"Caroline!"

Caroline flattened her back against the wall as she heard the familiar ill-natured voice. She tried to steady her breathing as much as she could considering it felt like she just ran a mile and she's terrified out of her mind that each breath could be her last. Her breath caught when she heard the girls enter the hallway and closed her eyes as she prayed that they wouldn't find her.

"THERE SHE IS!"

Caroline's eyes shot open to see the lead girl shining the flashlight app on her with her phone. She scrambled out of there like a kitten being chased by a rottweiler with rabies. She's never felt her cardiovascular muscles work so hard in her life; now she wishes she'd taken the running unit in gym more seriously.

The anxiety slowly escalated as she heard them getting closer and closer. She was never a runner and her speed couldn't have reached it's maximum point with these heels on. It was no use. She was going to die. The thumping of her heartbeat ringing in her ears was only driving her mad, like the ticking of a clock telling her that her time was running out.

Caroline crashed face first into a hard wall, causing her to release a deafening moan. She landed on her ass, her elbows falling on the cold tiles. She felt the soreness of knocking into the wall and realized that she'd ventured so deep into the hall that there were no lights at all in this part. She reached for her phone, pressing the power button to shed light on her location.

A frightening face appeared a few inches before her, causing her to cry out and drop her phone. She covered her mouth as she attempted to slide backwards against the smooth tiles.

Another light emitting from a different cellular device lit up and showed the same face to her except this time it was a bit closer than it had been before.

Caroline screamed again and tried to get up but a strong hand held her in place.

"Caroline, it's me."

"Klaus?"

Caroline's heavy breathing assuaged as she recognized his face in the light, but as soon as the immediate panic began to dissipate, it was replaced with suspicion just as easily.

"Klaus, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question, love."

Caroline whipped her head around to see if she could see any other figures in the darkness.

"I- I was... looking for the bathroom."

"Do you always make it a priority to act like a girl in a horror movie when you search for the loo?" Klaus chuckled.

Caroline smiled shyly. "I- I can explain that-"

"Don't bother. Besides, there are much more appealing topics to talk about, such as yourself."

"Klaus... I think I should be going back." Caroline pointed to the darkness.

"By all means, love, you're free to leave anytime you like." Klaus gestured to the pit of darkness behind Caroline where she narrowly escaped getting mauled by three mean girls with deadly manicures.

Caroline looked back and forth between the handsome male and the darkness. "You... you didn't happen to see anyone following me, did you?"

"I'm afraid not, but you should be cautious around these parts. They say the school is haunted by tortured souls... that this school was built by the dead and the dead would rise again to wreak havoc on any mortal within these walls, plucking them one by one until only a few remained. Then they would store those who remained into one large room as they set the school ablaze into a fiery inferno."

Caroline tried to keep her face calm as she studied the wickedness behind Klaus's smile. "What?"

Klaus chortled. "It's just an Urban Legend, sweetheart. Nothing to fear." Caroline let out a sigh of relief. "But it would still be unwise for someone to wander about without having any idea of where they're destination is or how to get there." Caroline's eyes shifted from side to side as if she were guilty of a crime. "You do know your way around these parts, don't you?"

Caroline's mouth hung open slightly. "Would you be willing to... tell me where my class is? I don't know my way back or out of here for that matter." She gestured to the nearly pitch-black hallway.

Klaus leaned his head down so close Caroline could feel Klaus's hot breath touch her lips. If she thought that he was gorgeous before from afar, he was absolutely breathtaking up close with the light reflecting solely off of his face. Although, beautiful or not, Caroline would be damned if she let a serial killer beguile her into trusting him.

"I'll take you back," Klaus spoke softly. "Once I feel the time is right."

"What?"

"We've still got half an hour before the bell rings. You can either follow me out of here or you can stay here by yourself and hope and pray that someone comes to rescue you or perhaps you can leave the way you came. The choice is yours."

Klaus turned on his heel and walked in the opposite direction like he owned the place- which wasn't much of a stretch- leaving Caroline in the darkness.

Caroline looked back and forth at each direction, weighing her options. She could risk running into those girls who practically kidnapped her, she could stay here and risk stumbling into an entirely different kind of danger, or she could follow Klaus and be certain that she would be in the presence of a dangerous killer. Should she trust him with her life?

"Klaus? Klaus!"

The lack of response told her that he was either already too far ahead or he was simply ignoring her. Elena was certain that he was pure evil but Caroline knew for a fact that what she saw in the main girl's eyes could only be found in the depths of hell. Conveniently running into Klaus did not completely go over her head, especially with that story he just told her. She knew that Klaus was no hero and you should never trust a guy who lurks in the shadows, but that didn't change her situation. If she was going to die, she didn't want to die alone nor did she want to give those girls the satisfaction of knowing they had killed her. She needed a way out and if she had to manipulate a psychopath then so be it. She quickly made a decision and blindly searched for her phone on the ground. It felt like ages had passed until her hands wrapped around the smooth edges of the device and ran in the direction Klaus left in.

Thanks for reading, guys!

And before you curse me out for leaving you there when you know there will be loads of Klaroline scenes up ahead, I'M SORRY! I really am! I'm very excited to move forward with this story and just really love it. If only my schedule allowed me to update more frequently. Sigh.

I hope I didn't scare you guys too much during this chapter. I'll be honest, I started to scare myself as I wrote this.

Let me know your thoughts in a review :)