❝𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘪 𝘤𝘢𝘯 (𝘯𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵)❞

"CAROLINE SEEMS TO THINK THAT ELENA'S LITTLE WITCH FRIEND IS ALIVE."

Damon winces when he hears Klaus, but tenses when his words process. "Bonnie's alive? How?"

"Apparently she had a plan of her own," Klaus rolls his eyes, standing across from Damon in the living room of the Boarding House. "I told Caroline not to seek her out, we have too much riding on the line for tonight."

"Bad idea,"

"Excuse me?"

Damon rolls his eyes at the hybrid. "Here's a tip for future reference; never tell Caroline Forbes she can't do something, because she will absolutely do it out of spite."

"You know, I think I like her a lot,"

Both of the men look over at Rosemary, who's been lounging silently through their entire conversation. Truth be told, she'd gotten bored quickly once Elijah and Rose left to do whatever it is they got up to on their own, and Katherine retreated to her bedroom after Stefan showed up.

"That's very helpful input, Rosemary, thank you," Klaus glares at her, and she huffs a laugh.

"Just doing my part, Nik,"

He grumbles unintelligibly under his breath and turns his attention back to Damon. "You think Caroline's gone to find Bonnie, then? Where could she be?"

"I don't know. Stefan isn't staying at Elena's anymore, but there's no way he's hiding Bonnie out somewhere, they only speak to one another because of Elena."

Klaus runs a hand over his face. "If she goes after Bonnie, she'll end up dead. She's not as powerful as I am,"

"Careful, Klaus, you're starting to sound like you care," Rosemary looked at him curiously, storing the defensive look he sent her way for later.

"I care when she plays an integral part in breaking my curse. It'd be useless to let her walk into a death trap."

"Caroline's in trouble? How?" Katherine appeared in the living room in a blur, her eyes wide with worry.

Rosemary sits up, figuring the conversation is only going to escalate and there's no point in her trying to relax any longer.

"She told Klaus she thinks Bonnie is alive," Damon informs the brunette, watching her eyes widen with realization. "Yeah, and Klaus here told Caroline she couldn't go after her, and now none of us can find her."

Katherine looks in between the three of them, her eyes darting around rapidly. "So what are we gonna do? We can't let Caroline die after everything she's done for m– for us. After everything she's done for us."

Luckily, they're too distracted to notice Katherine's sentimental slip up.

"We've ruled out the possibility that Bonnie could be with Stefan, so that leaves what?"

"Her house?" Rosemary furrowed her eyebrows, spouting the obvious.

"She'd be too weak still to hide in plain sight like that. She'd need to go somewhere she could hide, and heal." Damon shakes his head, sighing frustratedly.

It's silent for a moment before Katherine gasps, drawing all eyes to her. She leans over the arm of the couch Damon's standing in front of and hits his arm, a look of determination in her eyes. "What about the massacre sight? Where Emily died? Her ancestors would help heal her after all of that, especially since they're the ones she channeled to kill Klaus."

"You're right," Rosemary stands, looking between Damon and Klaus. "You two go find her, and make sure she's alright. Katherine and I will go find Elijah and Rose, and we'll meet back here in an hour, alright?"

Klaus and Damon nod in agreement, and Katherine does too, albeit hesitant at the thought of being left alone with Rosemary. She figured it was the woman's way of eliminating her without causing any problem, isolate her and then take her out before anyone else finds out. It's what Katherine would've done if she were in Rosemary's position.

Damon grabs his jacket and leans over the coffee table, giving Rosemary a quick kiss that she smiles into, as brief as it is. His blue eyes dart between Katherine and Rosemary, and he lingers on Katherine with a slight, reassuring nod. "Be safe,"

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Caroline pushes in the door of the old house with ease, a glare on her face as she walks into the creaky house.

She clenches her fist at her side, and tilts her head to listen for a heartbeat. She smirks victoriously when she hears two pulses in her ears, and follows them until they're like a thundering drum in her ears.

She disappears from the spot she'd been standing in, and appears right behind Jeremy, who's standing before Bonnie obliviously.

Bonnie's dark brown eyes are already on her, wide in shock as Caroline cradles Jeremy's jaw in her hands and twists his head with a sickening crack. Bonnie cries out as Jeremy falls to the ground, her eyes darting back up to Caroline, enraged. "What are you doing, Caroline?!"

"I'm tying up the loose ends," She takes a step towards Bonnie, but is stopped when a crippling pain shoots through her head. Caroline cries out, cradling her skull as her brain pulses and aches. Her watery eyes shoot up, and she watches as Bonnie twists her trembling hand, making Caroline cry out again and fall to her knees.

"You can't do this, Caroline!"

She rolls her eyes, laughing through the sharp pains in her head. "Yes, I can,"

"I don't want to hurt you, Caroline. Just stop fighting me."

Caroline's eyes roll back in her head and she feels a trail of blood trickle down from her nostril as she drags herself towards Bonnie. "That's too bad," She pants out, feeling a barely there prick of nausea in her stomach. "Because I want to hurt you. Really, really bad." She shoots her clenched fist out and slams it into Bonnie's exposed shin, hearing the crack of the bones beneath the force of her fist. 

Bonnie cries out in pain, and as soon as she does, something cracks in Caroline's chest and she screams, falling to the floor completely. Caroline scratches at her chest, the burning too much to bear. It feels like a hand is wrapped around her heart, slowly pulling it out of her chest.

She jerks around, unable to contain it as her body seizes through the inflicted pain, her eyes dart around worriedly when she realizes Bonnie and Jeremy have disappeared, but she can't move.

She's paralyzed from the pain wrapping around her insides, and she chokes, coughing up blood that pours out of her mouth and stains her pale skin. She forces a hand up to wipe away the tears streaming down her face, but pulls her hand back horrified when she feels the unfamiliar warmth beneath her eyes.

Her eyes widen in horror as she sees the blood on her hand, and when she cranes her neck to look at her reflection in a decade-old piece of broken glass, the pain sharpens once more inside her chest, and it makes her brain ache again, and Caroline lets out a shrill scream that dies flatly in the emptiness of the woods surrounding her.

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Damon doesn't hesitate to run into the house when he and Klaus get there. He runs through the mess of the broken floorboards and overgrown weeds that have sprouted into the foundation cracks, and stumbles to a stop when he sees the unconscious blonde laying on the floor, surrounded by dying flames lit on candles, with dried blood coming from her eyes, nose, and mouth.

It's a scene that makes his heart drop, and he kneels down beside her, brushing her sweat-matted hair away from her face.

Klaus isn't far behind, and Damon doesn't miss the concern that flashes in between the anger that quickly turns to rage on the hybrid's face. "I told her,"

"Now's not the time for life lessons. She thought she was doing the right thing."

Klaus sighs, but stays silent otherwise. His blue eyes shift around the room, and he narrows them suspiciously. "The witch was here. Caroline was right."

Damon looks up at the building, his eyebrows furrowing. "If the souls of 100 dead witches are here, why aren't they killing us right now?"

"Maybe they think we're doing something right,"

Damon doesn't respond as he pushes himself to his feet. "I'm gonna see if I can find any sign of Bonnie. She couldn't have gotten far on foot,"

Klaus waves him off without taking his eyes off Caroline, instead leaning over her to examine her face that's been stained with the proof of her pain. He eyes her unconscious form warily, and with a heaving sigh, he rips a strip off the bottom of his shirt, bringing it up to her face to wipe off the blood that's yet to dry.

"I told you not to do this, Caroline," He speaks quietly to himself, careful of Damon's close proximity.

As he wipes the blood away from her eyes, she inhales deeply, her closed eyes fluttering and moving her dark eyelashes across her cheeks.

Klaus inhales sharply when bright eyes stare at him hazily, but he staves the feeling away as she comes to her senses.

Caroline groans, bringing a tired hand up to her throbbing head. "Klaus? What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you don't die," He gives her a scolding look she has the humility to flush at, but her eyes don't leave his. "I specifically told you not to seek out the witch, and you didn't listen."

She scoffs, though it's weak. "I'm not some child you can scold, Klaus– and I was right, wasn't I? Bonnie's alive, she's probably coming up with some way to keep Elena alive."

Klaus's eyes search her face, and he sighs as he settles on her fluttering gaze again. "Whatever Bonnie may or may not be planning isn't worth the risk of losing you. Katherine might as well have cried with how worried she was."

She rolls her eyes, though he doesn't miss the emotion that flickers through them. "I'm not that important, Klaus. I just try to help where I'm wanted."

"And who says you're not important?"

She shakes her head, staring up at him sadly. "No one ever picks me. It's always Elena, or Stefan, or a crazy werewolf that shot me in the head."

Klaus's eyes narrow with rage and he offers her his hand when he sees her struggling to sit up. He pulls her upright quickly, and she falls forward against his chest, an action that takes both of their breaths from them.

Klaus still has her hand in his when she stares up at him with bright, blue-green eyes, and he drags his thumb across her pulse point just to feel it stutter under his touch. He searches her face for hatred, for disgust, but sees none, and is soothed by the thought. "I'd pick you, Caroline. Over any of them."

Her lips part in disbelief, but before she has a chance to respond, Damon's stalking back into the house with his lips pressed in a disappointed frown.

"Wherever she went, she went fast. All I could find was a trail of blood that disappeared into the trees," Damon rolls his eyes, and they land on Klaus and Caroline. He finally notices their close proximity, and he narrows his eyes accusingly at them as they stand from the floor, and put a few feet of distance between each other.

"So," He drawls out, eyes darting between them. "We need to get back to the house. Rosemary and Katherine are waiting on us."

"Right, of course," Caroline nods, and takes a stumbling step past Damon that she quickly recovers from, and Klaus follows after her, leaving Damon behind them.

He watches as Caroline glances over her shoulder and meets Klaus's eye, only to flush red and turn away just as quickly as she'd looked.

He huffs out a small, confused noise, and shakes his confusion off as he follows the two vampires out of the old house, and into the woods once again.

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author's note; i was listening to Spaces by 1D while i wrote the last part of this chapter with klaus and caroline, so we can blame that on why i got so Emotional™️

edited and published; 12.4.23.

- liz !