AN: So sorry about the short chapter and long break! I've been dealing with some family problems as well as school. Also, the other stories that I've been working on. So far, I do have plans to finish this story. Once again, it may take time. I want to get it perfect. Thanks for the support and patience!
PS i've updated and added things into the previous chapters, so I suggest you re-read them before this one.
xoxo
CHAPTER 4:
Instead of getting to Seattle by foot, Damon, Stefan, Caroline and I have decided to hitch a ride on a cargo train. We've been traveling for about eight hours, and we should be in Seattle by tomorrow evening. I have no idea what we're going to do when we get there, but Stefan seems to want to seek out some witch he knew back in the twenties. It's not much, but it's a lead.
Caroline is watching after me while Damon and Stefan are out hunting nearby. The train car rattles as we pass over a river on the rickety tracks. The landscape outside smears by as I glance out of the entrance. I'm leaning against one of the walls as the moonlight streak pierces my eyes every once and a while. The silhouettes of the trees pass by in blurs, and I wonder what this scene would look like in the daytime.
"Caroline," I whisper. Immediately, her eyes pop open, and she recomposes herself.
"Sorry," She says. "What did you want?"
"Can I ask you something?" I wonder softly. I don't know how she'll respond.
"I guess," she sighs.
"How do you know so much?" I chuckle softly. Caroline sighs.
"I grew up around a very prestigious family who devoted themselves to the sciences. My father in particular had an extreme fascination with the supernatural, especially vampires. When I was turned, I sort of found myself with a Coven similar to my family. They were the supernatural almanacs. They knew practically everything about everything. I was the only one who wasn't as knowledgeable as them because I was the new girl. I was also significantly younger, so they treated me that way."
"One day, I had had enough, and I left the coven. I was on my own for a few days until they captured me. " She closes her eyes, and I suspect there's a darker history to Caroline than I thought.
"Who?" I ask.
"The Explorers. Witches who practiced Dark Magic. They recruited supernatural beings to be experimented on. Mainly vampires, though." She sighs. "They test all sorts of things. From types of blood consumptions, speed, diet. There, I learned more about different types of vampires. The blood-hungry, the rabid, the fearful, the vegetarian, you name it. However, the have a sole purpose: to: redesign and reeducate the vampire species. Although, it was there that I met Charlotte's brother. He was being experimented on, and it was because of the Explorers that he went rabid for hunger."
"I'm sorry," I say, sympathy looming over me towards Caroline.
"It's fine," she dismisses, but I shake my head.
"You lost a friend in a traumatic experience." I say. "It's not fine."
"Thank you," Caroline softly smiles, and I return the favor. As I lean back against the wall, I wonder what tortures and horrors that Caroline had to endure or bear witness to while with the Explorers.
"I drank vervain," She suddenly says, and I look over at her in confusion.
"The night of the sacrifice," she reminds me. "When Kol compelled me and I said those things to you about Damon. I was faking it all. He didn't know that I had drank vervain."
"Wait," I say slowly, sitting up. "So, you were never actually going to kill him?"
Caroline shakes her head. "No,"
"Now," Caroline clears her throat. "My turn."
As I see her regard me curiously, I realize it's my turn to be interviewed.
"How can you be so forgiving of what we've done to you?" She asks softly, and in her eyes, I see not curiosity, but astonishment.
"I know that
Suddenly, the train screeches, and Caroline and I are thrown into the air as the train rams into something. My face meets the cold, hard floor, and I feel a thousand tiny pricks against my flesh as the wood floor runs into my skin.
"What the hell was that?" Caroline whimpers as we struggle to sit up.
"Hello, sweethearts," a cold voice sneers.
As I turn my head toward the entrance, I lift my head up to see a pair of black boots standing in front of me.
And when I muster the strength to glance upward, a brunette woman stares me in the face.
And all goes black.
"Where are they?" Damon hissed as he ran through and searched every box. He had searched the same one -the one that had occupied Elena and Caroline- a thousand times over. He just wanted to return to the box one time to find them, but he knew he was just kidding himself.
"I don't know," Stefan said. "Whoever took them killed the conductor, though,"
Damon rushed over to where Stefan was. "Wait a minute."
He saw it.
Right there.
"What is it?" Stefan frowned as he watched Damon bend down.
"The marking," Damon says as he took the man's face in his hands. On his forehead lay an outline of a moon with some sort of symbol that looked like a rendition of the infinity sign. "Only one kind of person could've made it."
"An Original?" Stefan wondered as he bent down beside Damon.
"No," Damon shook his head as he tilted the man's head toward Stefan before letting it droop as he rose to his feet.
"Then what?" Stefan asked cautiously.
Damon took a deep breath.
"An Explorer."
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