Hello, my lovely readers. It's Saturday so that must mean it's time for Dare Club. For those of you who miss Katherine, guess who's back? Oh, and who's looking forward to S6 of TVD and S2 of TO? Alaric and Damon (in some form) are back on Oct. 2. Happiness. On with the show…
Chapter 42: Scare Me and Dare Me
"Oh, ho, ha ha ha, I van to suck your blood," Damon called as he jumped out of the closet we shared.
"Damon's officially out of the closet," Enzo shouted and I laughed at Damon who sneered.
"When was he in?" Marcel quipped as he finished putting on the last layer of his zombie makeup.
"How could I stay straight with you around here, gorgeous?" Damon teased Marcel, wrapping his arms around the taller boy's neck and moving in for a kiss. Marcel moved backwards, tripping over the stool behind him. "Don't deny me, lover," Damon crooned as Marcel held him back.
"He's cheating on me already," someone exclaimed from the doorway and I grinned. Alaric was standing in the doorway in full cowboy regalia. "I'm here to lasso any stray cattle you might have," he announced as Damon got to his feet. "But a bi-curious vampire might have to do." Damon flipped his friend off before walking over and hugging Alaric.
"I missed you, too, buddy," Damon said, snuggling up to Ric.
"Get off my man," Jenna called as she appeared in an Annie Oakly costume. "This gun is full of wooden bullets."
"Jenna, you look hot," Damon exclaimed, whistling.
"Not as hot as I am," Katherine announced as she walked in in a costume that involved a corset, a pair of hose and not much else.
"What are you supposed to be?" Damon asked, looking Katherine over.
"Hot," Katherine said. "Or if you insist that it has to be a costume, I'm Miss July."
"O-kay," Damon replied as Elena came in dressed as a sad looking clown. "Now, that is scary."
Elena rolled her eyes as Elijah came in with a headless woman. "Bonjour. I am Louis and this is my wife, Marie. We do apologize for the placement of her head."
"How cute," Katherine muttered, rolling her eyes. "Mason," she shouted.
"Can we just go home," Mason called from the hallway.
"No, get you ass in here," Katherine shouted and Mason slowly entered the room with a forced smile. He was dressed in a robe. "Take that off," Katherine demanded and Mason winced as he pulled off the robe to reveal what looked like a pair of tiny underwear that barely covered anything.
"Oh, whoa," Andie giggled as she came in to stand beside Jenna. She was wearing a Catholic girl school uniform. "Mason. You look…"
"Just kill me," Mason muttered as Tyler came in in a werewolf costume.
"Didn't he wear that before," I whispered to Damon who shrugged.
"He likes werewolves," Damon answered as Matt came in wearing jeans and t-shirt that said. "I hate dead people."
"Don't you think that Lexi and Anna might take offense to that statement," I inquired and Matt shrugged.
"They're not here," he replied.
I nodded and looked toward the door as three little boy frogs came hopping into the room. One looked up at Damon who rolled his eyes at it. The second ran into Katherine's leg and got swatted on the shoulder and the third went ribitting up to "Louis" and "Marie" and then climbed under Marie's skirt causing her to laugh. "Kol, down. Very bad frog," Hayley called out and Elijah smiled at the headless costume.
My attention was drawn to the last two figures that entered our room. Or should I make that three. On the arm of a pirate was Cleopatra and on the other side was Tina Turner. "Rolling on the river," Bonnie sang and began to dance as they entered the room.
"Ahoy, mates. I found not so buried treasure on my way inland," Enzo called as Caroline's gaze swept the room and landed on me. She was like one of the snakes that took Cleo's life. Her gaze was hypnotizing.
"You're stunning," I told Caroline who smirked at me. "I am. Aren't I? And what are you?" she asked, looking me over.
"Spike from Buffy," I told her.
"He's hot," Caroline said with a giggle. I growled and gave her a menacing face as the others left the room to go down to the party that was raging downstairs. When no one else was left, I closed the door and pressed Caroline against the wood, sniffing her neck and pressing my lips to the tender flesh.
"Nik, we need to go to the party," Caroline said, giving me a little push away.
"I want to stay up here," I said. I had been thinking about the sex talk that Elijah and Rose had given us and I wanted to try some stuff.
"The party is downstairs," Caroline pointed out as I pulled her toward my bed.
"You remember when you wanted me to touch your boobs?" I asked.
"Yes, and that was stupid. Now, let's go," Caroline snapped before walking over to the door and opening it. Sighing, I followed her down the stairs. Why did she have to wear that outfit that was showing that her body which was changing, even if it was only a little bit and then tell me., "No?"
Rolling my eyes, I went downstairs and pulled Caroline onto the dance floor. We began to sway and my hands lowered until my hand went to her butt and Caroline yelped and slapped me. "Stop it, Nik," she yelled at me before she walked away. I felt annoyed as I walked over to hang with the guys. Now, I knew why the guys on TV said their girlfriends ran hot one minute, cold the next. This was truly irritating. Maybe I needed someone my own age. Or older? My gaze moved and I spotted Katherine.
"Hey, Kat," I called, making my way toward her. "Dance with me, Miss July?" Holding out my hand, I grinned when Katherine wrapped her arms around my neck even if she was looking at her date who was hiding in a corner trying to pull a curtain over his body.
"What a whus," Katherine muttered. "Tell me, Klaus, would you be embarrassed, if you were older and had a great body, to wear what Mason has on?"
I thought about my answer. In all honesty you could not catch me dead in that so-called costume… but if it made Kat happy. "I would wear if for you," I told her and she grinned.
"You'd probably look great in it in another five years," Katherine said with a sigh.
"Yeah, if only," I replied, leaning my head against her chest and smiling to myself as she absently stroked my hair.
"Why couldn't you be older?" Katherine asked, looking unhappily around the room. "So, many of the guys my age are lame. But the Mikaelson men just seem to have something about them."
"We do, don't we?" I replied. I ignored the startled look that Elijah had on his face as he went by us. Then there was Caroline who was dancing with Tyler. She looked really angry. Oh, well.
"Hey, Kat, I wanted to go get something to drink. Want to come with me?" I inquired innocently.
"Sure. Why not?" Katherine said, glowering at Mason. Taking my hand, she allowed me to pull her off the dance floor and down the hall. When we were walking, I pulled a closet door open. "Dare you to let me get to second base," I said quickly before I yanked Kat into the closet. Ten second later my face was tender from Kat slapping me, hard.
"Little pervert," Katherine muttered as she adjusted her costume.
However, I was still smiling as I walked out of the closet since that was the longest ten seconds of my limited experience. Then I turned to find Caroline glaring at me with her hands on her hips. "Is that all you boys can think about?" She yelled at me. "Sex. Sex. And more sex?"
"I'm a growing boy, Caroline," I replied, moving to walk past her when she grabbed the sleeve of my jacket.
"Yeah. So, let's see how this works. You want to just do it, wherever. However. Well, let's go," jerking me into the closet with more force than you would expect from a girl her size, Caroline threw me down. "Okay, you want it. Let's do this," Caroline said, pulling the door closed. She pulled up her skirt and straddled me. "What's wrong, Nik? I thought you were good to go?" She demanded placing her hand on the front of my jeans and I pulled it off. "Aren't I hot like an older girl? Or is it that you don't like me like that? What's your problem, huh?" she began to smack my shoulders as tears ran down her cheeks. "What in the hell is your problem?"
I laid on my back and gathered Caroline into my arms as her wig fell to the floor and I felt like I was six again. "Caroline, I'm sorry," I moaned.
"Screw you, Nik," Caroline muttered.
"Want to dance with me?" I asked.
"Want to stop acting like a jerk who pressures girls into doing stuff?" Caroline inquired, wiping tears away.
"Yes," I replied and pushed myself up as Caroline got to her feet. We walked out of the closet from our seven minutes in not heaven to find that our group was heading outside.
"Time for the dares to begin," Damon called with his arm draped around Elena's waist and the other around Stefan's shoulders.
"Dare Club," was being chanted as we headed out into the cool night breeze.
"Thank you for coming to this session of the dare club," Damon shouted to the sounds of clapping as I came to take my place by his side with Caroline following me. "Tonight is very special because we are so very far from home. But what says home like a little reminder." He whistled and the wind shifted to reveal Lexi and Anna.
"Oh, my God," Caroline squealed with joy.
"Anna," Jeremy shouted, running toward the vampire babysitter the best that he could in a frog costume that involved a lot of falling down before he reached her.
"I know that all of you have been through a lot lately," Lexi called out to the sound of silence from our little group. "And we wanted to tell you all that we're really sorry that we left. So, we're coming back. I will be joining our friends here are at the boarding school as their new English teacher while Anna will be teaching gym at Mystic Falls High."
"I will?" Anna looked skeptical. "I was thinking more art or history."
"Anyway," Lexi continued. "This is to make sure that no one ends up killing each other and your little club is getting a little large to be keeping track of, right?" I nodded in agreement. "Okay, have fun, be safe and let the daring begin!"
"I dare you tos," began to fill the air.
"Dare you to walk backwards on your hands," someone dared Damon who rolled his eyes and complied.
"Eat a rock," Stefan demanded of Tyler.
"Not going to happen," Lexi told Stefan who sighed.
"Eat that mushroom," Stefan said and Tyler obliged because Lexi had to speed off to stop Alaric who was crawling up a tree.
"That tasted good," Tyler said, looking for other mushrooms. "Hey, Matt. Jer. Dare you to eat these super, cool mushrooms."
"I dare you to drink water from your sock," Caroline called out and I turned to find her staring at me.
Sighing, I had to admit that I deserved whatever punishment she would like to bestow upon me. Striding toward the pond, I glanced over my shoulder to find Caroline following just as I knew she would be but she was focused on something up ahead. "Who's that?" she asked, pointing toward what I had come to think of as Genevieve's tree. And sure enough, there was the lonely ghost.
I tried to formulate a response when the red head looked up and spotted me. Looking around me, she noticed Caroline and she looked out at the water. After a moment, she walked into the pond until she was fully submerged. "Nik. Nik, do something," Caroline cried out, grabbing my arm and shaking me. "She's going to drown!"
Watching the dark pool of water, I could not seem to move a muscle when Caroline pulled her wig off and ran toward the water. She was on the edge of the bank when I grabbed her around the waist and held on tight. "Caroline, no. Don't! There is nothing that you can do for her," I said, holding on as she thrashed in my arms.
"What are you talking about?" Caroline asked me, turning in my arms and then freeing herself, she walked over to the base of the tree and slumped down. "I can't believe that you just stood back and watched that girl kill herself. How could you, Nik?" Caroline sobbed and my frustration mounted.
"She's not dead," I snapped and Caroline looked at me, her confusion evident. "Well, she is, but… She's the ghost."
"That's crazy," Caroline said, shaking her head in total denial.
"Really? We have vampire baby sitters and you call this insane?" I exclaimed as Caroline sniffled.
"Prove it," Caroline told me.
"How?" I demanded, raising my hands and arms above my head to display my frustration with Caroline's demand. I had no idea how to prove that Genevieve was a ghost. For the longest time I had not believed it. Part of me was like Caroline and would like to believe that the girl had just drowned. But I knew what I saw when the pebble went through her middle like she was made of air.
"I don't know how," Caroline snapped.
Looking at the water, I strode toward the bank, "Genevieve, I demand that you show yourself. Right now." Standing aside, I waited and felt uneasy and rather stupid. She was not going to appear because I commanded her to. She was not a genie in a forsaken lamp.
"Whatever," Genevieve called. "Why don't you just leave me alone?" she inquired, swimming toward the bank and I felt my heart skip a beat while she got out of the water and the moon shone off her pale skin.
"Because Caroline needs to know that's you're really a ghost," I told her.
Genevieve rolled her eyes, walking forward, she picked up a stick and jabbed it through her middle. Caroline gasped, looking like she might be sick but forced herself to her feet as the ghost withdrew the stick. "See. I'm still here," she said almost cheerfully.
"How did you do that?" Caroline murmured.
"What? Stick a stick through my body? Because I'm dead. And you're Nik's friend, Caroline, is it?" Caroline nodded. "It's nice to meet you," Genevieve told Caroline.
"How did you die?" Caroline asked and then looked embarrassed. "Sorry. I tend to blurt stuff."
"It's okay," the ghost replied. "I was drowned. Some nice boys a long time ago talked me into coming back to their school for late night pranks and such; then I found out the prank was on me. That's why I'm stuck here. They drowned me and somewhere in that pond is my body." She gestured toward the pond and Caroline bent over and vomited. "Not the reaction I was expecting but perfectly understandable." Genevieve said, wrinkling her nose. "Thank goodness I no longer have my sense of smell."
Caroline looked up at Genevieve in astonishment as she wiped her mouth with her hand. "How can you joke like that when you went through such an awful thing?" Caroline asked and the ghost shrugged with a melancholy grin.
"I've had a long time to make peace with what happened to me. I had a good life. My parents were nice. I had close friends. There weren't too many things that I can say that I missed out on," Genevieve informed Caroline.
Looking at the ghost skeptically, Caroline bit her lip and then spoke again. "But you look really young. You'll never get married or have babies or graduate from high school and go to college and get a job and…" She trailed off as Genevieve picked up a pebble and tossed it across the water.
"I died when I was fifteen," Genevieve told us. "And for everything that I lost or dreamed that I would have become one day I skip a stone and let it go."
"And how long have you been skipping stones?" Caroline asked her.
"About seventy years," Genevieve said, picking up another pebble and tossing across the water. "That one was for the great-great-great-grand kids that will never be born," she said with a smirk. "Now's it's your turn," she told Caroline, holding out a pebble.
"What should I let go of?" Caroline asked Genevieve who smiled.
"That you'll have to decide for yourself," she replied before tossing another one.
Caroline looked thoughtfully at the water and then tossed her stone. She watched it skip with a sad grin. "That is for my wish that my parents would get back together 'cause my dad is gay and that's never going to happen." Turning to me, Caroline looked around herself and picked up a pebble and handed it to me. "Youe turn, Nik."
I bounced my pebble in my hand thinking hard about what wish I had to let go of completely. Tossing the round little stone, I watched it bounce along the water before disappearing into its depths. "I'm letting go of my hating my father," I said and Caroline reached out and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I'm also letting go of pressuring my girlfriend for sex type activities because she's too young," I announced, tossing another pebble into the water. "And I'm letting go of my fear of dying," I said, throwing the last pebble I could find.
"No one lives forever," Genevieve said and Caroline nodded her agreement and then thought about it.
"Except for Lexi and Anna," Caroline amended. At that time neither Caroline nor I knew that she would be able to add herself to that list a lot sooner than either of us would have suspected nor would have wanted.
So, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter although I have no idea what most of you readers are thinking because, well, you're not telling me. I have no idea if that means that you don't like where you believe the story is headed or whether it's that people are really busy?
Ages of the MF Clubers:
Elijah, Kat, Hayley, Jenna, Rose and Andie are 15 going on 16 somewhere in the ten chapters.
Alaric, Finn and Mason: fourteen, almost fifteen.
Genevieve: forever fourteen.
Sage: thirteen, almost fourteen.
Klaus, Damon Marcel, Enzo, Diego and Thierry: ten going on eleven.
Caroline, Stefan, Elena, Bonnie, Matt, Tyler: eight, almost nine.
Kol: seven, almost eight.
Rebekah and Jeremy: six, almost seven.
Henerick: one. I think.
Couples: Sage and Finn (soul mates who will not be parted. They're the couple that Caroline looks up to.) Kat and Mason, (kind of. She's kind of using him). Elijah and Hayley (very off again, on again). Jenna and Alaric (happy for the time being). Everyone else is really too young at this point to be paired off. But Klaus pretty much believes that Caroline is his.
Answers to reviews:
Alexis2106: I wanted to change Katherine so she was someone that we could root for even when she does stupid things. As you could see in this chapter neither Kat nor Elijah are little angels about to sprout wings any time. Their story is very complicated and multi-layered. Neither of the two characters are very trusting of anyone, let alone each other. So the question becomes how do you bring two characters who can't trust anyone together? I mean we know that they get married but what leads to their path back to each other is still a mystery to me. Especially now that Elijah told Kat he wants nothing more to do with her. That really hurts her and makes her begin to reevaluate her game.
Not to give too much away I will say that Kat and Hayley both play major roles in Elijah's life in the beginning of "Dare Me" for different reasons. For one thing, Elijah is not focused on romance at the beginning of the new story. His primary focus is on family. And, oddly, Kat and Hayley will begin to build an actual friendship built on information that they learn about each and other moments that cause the two to bond.
Poor little Kol. He is really confused and not dealing well in this new setting. He's used to familiar surroundings but now everything has been turned upside down and inside out. He has no understanding of his place in this new setting and is not doing well with the homesickness. To top off everything he's in a sort of denial that he' going to be staying in this place, believing that Elijah will bring them all home. It's fun to write about Kol as the only one of the siblings that really has any faith because that's not really something that you expect from Kol.
Rose: Thank you. I know that some of these final chapters are kind of depressing. But wait until chapter 50 which is rather longer than all of the chapters because I wanted to get a ton of things in. It's kind of crazy because Klaus goes through every emotion that you can imagine. I will say that he gets everything he wants and does not want in the final chapter, all at the same time. It's all building toward the sequel which will have a ton of twists and turns. Kol is really not adjusting well to being at the boarding school because he misses his friends and family. He's more resistant to being in the new life than Klaus was. There will be changes in Kol's personality, shifting him toward the sequel but we won't see most of the changes in him until "Dare Me" begins.
CB4389: Hmmm… I still don't know what to say about Genevieve yet because although she appears in three chapters of this story she's still pretty underdeveloped overall. However, she will appear in the sequel and I want to say that she's rather grey. She's not really a "bad" character in this story or the next, she's more confused and depressed about wanting to pass over to join her family.
Kol is going through a problem where he isn't transitioning well into the new environment. You know how some plants or species of animal can't survive in certain areas but thrive in others. Let's just say that Kol thrives in Mystic Falls but the boarding school is not somewhere he should be. We'll see how this new experience changes his character in the next story.
Ah, killing Mikael. I'm thinking not so much… but I will say that there is something that happens with him that changes everyone's lives. But I can't tell you what it is because then I give away the end.
Peace,
Jessica