entrancelogs | + Your imagination can't hurt you! +

She nods her head a bit.

"There was a dungeon. Vervain on the bars. He said they kept the vampires weak, did experiments, paraded them around at parties. There was an exam room and a scalpel and..."

Her voice shakes a little as she trails off, but she finally shakes her head.

"No, not really. Nothing that I couldn't heal in a couple seconds, other than the vervain burns. But Damon..."

She's silent for a moment, reaching over to the nightstand for the still open bottle, taking a long sip out of it.

"...there was a fire and I was trapped. He was going on and on about not leaving me like some other person. Whatever he did, it got me out of there, but I don't know if he burned up or not. It took him longer to get out of there and the fire was everywhere."

Her heart climbs up to her throat.

Damon burned.

Don't ask how she knows with such certainty, but she does. Their entire conversation makes more sense now; the way he kept looking at the fireplace, like he wanted to jump out of his own skin. Elena doesn't confirm or deny. Caroline doesn't need more to worry about, and Damon is a sensitive topic as it is. (The thought of both of them there still makes her feel sick.)

"He made a friend there. His cellmate, I think. Their plan was to escape together, but Damon had to leave him behind and ..."

It's the first time he ever turned his humanity off. Elena didn't know that. She's only starting to realize how much she doesn't know. Shaking her head, she blinks through warm tears. Settles her hand on top of Caroline's. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"Well, he didn't leave me behind, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about that."

At first, she's tempted to tell Elena to just leave her alone. That she doesn't deserve her comfort for the things she's said, that she still doesn't want her to be with someone as destructive as Damon, and that it doesn't just have to do with her.

But it's not up to her, and he did save her. Even if it was for selfish reasons, it wasn't for him.

Her hand turns over so that her fingers can interlock with her friend's.

"I'm not." That much is clear by the confusion and unsettled emotions in her brain. She might be okay physically, but that was...a lot to take in at once. "But I will be."

Elena is smart enough to not tell Caroline how she should feel about it. Only Caroline can define that for herself. And she'd known Caroline had been lying when she said she was fine; Elena is the queen of saying it regardless of whether it's true or it isn't.

"I know."

Caroline is stronger than she realizes.

"And I know I'm ... probably the last person you want to see right now, but I had to check in on you. I haven't been there for you." It doesn't matter Caroline was angry at her. Wonderland is new for her, and Elena is aware of just how hard the adjustment can be. Elena yearns to make it right, for Caroline and for everybody, but it's not that simple. "I don't want it to be like this. I don't want this to be us, you know?"

Edited 2016-11-18 21:26 (UTC)

Caroline is a much worse liar than Elena. Some might think that's a good thing, but sometimes she isn't so sure. It would be nice to fool people once in awhile.

"No, it's not that."

Elena has been there for her. She was the first one to notice something was wrong back when things first started going crazy. She saved her even after she killed someone. She never really looked at her like anything other than the person she still was, even after she'd changed, not once.

"Yeah, I know. I just look at him and I get so mad it makes me crazy. I don't want him to hurt you too."

And he already has. Maybe not in the same ways, but Caroline just doesn't trust him not to flip out and do something terrible the moment things aren't going his way.

Elena could never turn her back on Caroline, human or vampire. They've known each other from the sandbox, and that will always mean something incredibly important to her. She would intercept a stake for Caroline again in a heartbeat. And Wonderland — they've never faced anything like Wonderland before. If they're going to survive it, they need to stick together.

"... Well, you won't have to worry about that anymore."

Elena presses her lips into a thin line. "Because he agrees with you, so we're done."

Before it even began. How awkward.

Once Caroline is feeling better, she can gloat and say I told you so as many times as she wants.

...It looks like her worries about Elena getting hurt were completely legitimate since he already did it, apparently.

She rolls her eyes and groans audibly.

"Of course he does. It figures that the one time he agrees with me it has the side effect of doing the one thing I didn't want him to do."

Conflicted emotions roll through her and she sighs, shaking her head.

"Sorry, that wasn't very sympathetic, was it? How did everything turn into such a hot mess so fast?"

... No, it wasn't very sympathetic, but it was so very Caroline that Elena can't help but laugh, however feeble.

She squeezes Caroline's hand again.

"Tell you what. I'm done talking about Damon."

And she is extra done with people telling her what is good slash best for her. Maybe he is right and they wouldn't work. She can't be with someone who will cut her out or lash out whenever something goes wrong. No matter what she feels. "So why don't we focus on distracting you for the rest of the night. I'll... even watch the Notebook?" Elena asks, trying not to cringe outwardly.

Caroline sure isn't going to argue with that.

"For once, I'll pass on the Notebook. I've done enough crying today. I think today calls for comedies, ice cream, and pedicures."

She wriggles free from their position on the couch and pushes up to grab said items. "Maybe I'll even tell you about this cute boy I met in the library."

"Cute boy?" Elena echoes after her, curiosity officially piqued.

Wonderland is in possession of a lot of things, but cute boys are scarce. ... It's either that or Elena has failed to pay attention, single-minded that she can be. Her heart is pretty taken. Her stupid, reckless heart. "What cute boy?"

"Dirty blonde, smiles a lot, and one hell of a British accent."

Her smile is wide as she glances up at the ceiling as if remembering a rather pleasant memory.

"He helped me find some books that I...haven't actually read yet."

Elena's curiosity grinds to a halt.

... No. There's no way.

But Caroline — what was the last thing Caroline remembers from home? Right, the sacrifice. No, it's not possible. He wouldn't ... ?

Gulp. "Did he give you a name?"

"He told me I should call him 'Nick.' No last name or anything."

She practically giggles.

"I think he's just trying to be mysterious."

Do you hear that?

That's the sound of Elena's blood going cold.

How could she have possibly forgotten Caroline wouldn't know what he looks like? Elena grasps Caroline's hands, face a sober contrast to her cute giggling. "No, he was trying to get you not to hate him at first glance. Niklaus. Caroline, you met Klaus."

Edited (ugh GRAMMAR) 2016-11-23 23:05 (UTC)

Hold on. Give her a moment.

"Oh my god." Okay, maybe a few more moments. "I think I might actually get sick."

Horror gives way to embarrassment, which quickly morphs into anger, each of the emotions gracing her features in quick succession before she pulls her hands away from Elena's and reaches for the pile of books on her end table before plastering a fake smile on her face.

"I'm sorry, there's something I need to go do real quick, alright?"

"But — "

Oh.

She's gone.

"The ice cream..."

Elena looks down at it with a pouty sort of expression. This isn't going to end well, is it?

Nope. Probably not. Spoilers.

Their last encounter provided Caroline with his the floor location of his room, at least, and her enhanced hearing helps her pick up the sound of his voice as he's ending a phone call.

Good. She's pissed enough that she wants his full attention, and if he really wanted to kill her, he could have just done it when they met the first time. There's some solid logic right there. But, honestly? She's just sick of people screwing with her.

"Knock knock!"

The words ring out in the hallways before she steps up to his door and...kicks it open. This is fine.

To say he wasn't expecting a notable and eventual confrontation with Caroline would be a lie. In point of fact, he was expecting one of her group to fill her in sooner or later. He deceived her, after all, and despite whatever was genuine during that memorable meeting, it was bound to provoke her ire.

(He meant to. He meant to make her angry, for her sake; she already is. She already hates him. He meant to plant that seed of doubt, for his own selfish purposes.

To simply spend time with her.)

What Klaus was not expecting was the dramatic destruction of his property. Though his only response, from where he's standing in his sitting room, a glass in one hand and his phone in the other, is the lifting of his brows. He gestures inside, the nonchalance an unfortunate result of his weariness from the day's traumas. "Well, do come in."

Edited 2016-11-26 18:17 (UTC)

That...is not the reaction she was expecting.

He doesn't move. He doesn't even look mad or...really anything. Resigned, defeated, tired. To be fair, she might not have even had quite this explosive of a reaction had she not just dealt with Damon's horror mindscape and all the accompanying complicated feelings that came from that whole encounter, but it's easier to take everything out on freaking Klaus of all people.

Or it would be if he seemed to have any intention of doing anything except sit there and take it.

The books that she was originally going to chuck at his head get dumped on the floor instead as she crosses the threshold, stepping over them in heeled boots.

"What is wrong with you!?"

It's the only thing she can even think of to say. Clearly he's a psycho, unhinged and dangerous, so there's plenty wrong with him. But manipulating her into thinking he could be her friend? That's just lower than low. ~~Especially since she feels like she lost something.~~

He would stand it. Of course he would, to a point: she has every right to do so, and he's sure each and every insult and criticism would be both creative and accurate, save one.

Between one breath of her anger and the next, perhaps that heaviness she's noticed matters a little less, for she does hesitate. There is so much she doesn't know: between them, about him, and not all of it confined to that small space of time, those pockets in which they knew each other; trusted themselves and each other enough to do so.

What he feels for Caroline is a link, a rope which ties him to what it is to care unheeded and to want without shame, and even now he feels it, whether she is cognizant of it or not. He exhales and glances away, the sound heavy even compared to the strength of her accusation. There is a tremble to it; a spark of agitation at his own inability darkens his eyes. It's fallible, the forcefulness of his reply. It falters. "While I'm certain you have a list not unlike many I've heard before-"

He steps forward to sets his phone and drink on the table if only to take the time to gather himself. To search for the righteousness he cannot fake nor does he wants to. He breathes shakily again, his eyes lifting; it is honest and beseeching, the look in his gaze. His words, an admission. "From you."

Edited 2016-11-26 19:18 (UTC)

Caroline swallows past a seemingly impossible knot in her throat. She doesn't like the way he's looking at her, the way he seems to want some kind of recognition from her beyond anger and hate, and it makes her distinctly uncomfortable. She shifts back and forth on her feet, realizing belatedly that maybe should shouldn't have come here at all. Katherine Pierce and her direct threats were easier than this.

Finally, she finds her voice, though it lacks the strong conviction that should lace every word.

"Let me guess, you're ahead of me too? How many more things are you going to add to that list?"

She crosses her arms over her chest, watching him expectantly, but there's a cautious tremble in her eyes, as if she's afraid he's going to do something even more unexpected and having no idea what it might be.

Edited 2016-11-26 21:06 (UTC)

There is a knot in his throat too. Impassable and debilitating, stealing his breath in the quiet. He doesn't know what he expects, not from her, not from when she's from, not when he lacks the advantage of being known by her, but it's still a release when she does react: not with disgust and rejection, but with something else. Something touched and uncertain; something that soothes the terror and tension in him.

He breathes again and glances away, his fingers trembling as he reaches to touch the top of the armchair nearest to him. Perhaps he needs the solidity of it beneath his fingers; perhaps he must do something with them. When he looks back at her, there's a lightness that wasn't there before, a shadow of the playfulness she had met before she knew who he was. "Well, aside from unlikeable and annoying... and perfect..." She did say that, once. He remembers, just as he remembers her goodbye, honest and rough and tender. He stops, lashes fluttering.

The lilting humor in his voice dies; the smile in his eyes does as well. The affection lingers. "You did call me a friend. Once."

It seems her worries were completely founded, as that is not something she can even fathom, let alone accept. The list of his crimes against her and her loved ones was already long and she hasn't even met him face to face until getting pulled here.

And then, the very first thing he does upon meeting her, was lie. Caroline thinks back to their conversation in the tea room and the library, recalls it with the context that he knew exactly who he was talking to and what he was doing the entire time, and her stomach rolls inside of her.

Her chin lifts as she looks down at him, hands balled into fists. "And why should I believe anything you say to me?

Yes, it would disgust her now, their first meeting. Klaus' eyes darken at her challenge, for as much as it would, he also knows there was much more than disgust that lingered during and after that day. He might have deceived and lied, but he meant every word. "I don't assume you would." Which is more honest, ironically, than answering her question: he's given her no reason to believe him, to trust him. No reason besides his genuine confessions now, the plainness of his attentions and interest then.

And she's given away more than enough to know she does sense the truth: in her hesitations now. "But I think you know it's true." Hasn't it always been, no matter how fervently she denied him? (And hasn't she, denied him? There is a waver in his pride: Caroline made her choices clear, despite it all.) He is not certain, but he says it, because he suspects it well enough, and there is something hurt and plaintive in him that needs her to believe him: "And I'm certain Elena can confirm at least part of it."

She did disappear, didn't she? She knows more than she lets on.

Edited 2016-11-28 03:59 (UTC)

He's not wrong. Thinking back to their meeting, it felt real, this weird connection she'd had with this stranger, the easy way they spoke and how welcomed she felt.

But she couldn't let herself believe in that. It was a lie, something he tricked her into believing. She wasn't that kind of friend, who would make nice with the person who literally killed several of the people close to her, who tried to sacrifice her as well for a creepy, selfish ritual.

She doesn't want to think she's capable of that. Unfortunately, her hesitance gives away the fact that she's fighting it.

"What I think is that I'm sick and tired of people trying to manipulate me into feeling whatever it is that they think I should feel."

Matt, Tyler, Damon, Klaus. The list seemed to never end, even if some of it might have been well-intentioned because it sure didn't feel like it.

+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

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