â20 BONNIE AND CLYDE; she gets Carrie fever, but as soon as the shows over sheâs right back to being my soldier âcause mamaâs a rider and Iâm a roller, put us together how they gonâ stop both us
They walked among the decay of what her world was doing their best to ignore the black smoke rising from the debris of what it was now. It was all falling a part right before her eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Humans knew what they were and they wanted their world back, theyâd burn it to the ground, if it meant they could rebuild it afterwards without supernatural beings in it. Vampires, Werewolves, witches, all of them, were forced to retreat, find shelter, and reclaim what was theirs if they could: ANONYMITY.Â
On a dirt floor in an abandoned shed somewhere in the distance of a tucked away farm just a hundred miles out from Mystic Falls, Caroline Forbes rolled over to her side, pinned to the patch of earth in a paralyzing pain that shot through her tendons like ice water. There was still splintered wood from the day before in her lungs that hadnât healed yet. The blonde vampire needed blood, her eyes flickered over the herd of students her and Ric had managed to protect thus far, none of them could help her. She didnât just need a snack, she needed a meal. With a labored breath, Caroline exhaled, a cold cloud of her frustration releasing into the air.Â
 âStill hurts, â Ricâs whisper reached out to her curiously in the early dawn, somewhere between darkness and first light, his amber hues half open, half closed, with sleep still in his eyes. âMhm, â Caroline groaned in affirmation, shifting uncomfortably, the hunger palpable.
The attack had done more than just left her wounded, it had decimated a fourth of their protection, teachers laid down their lives, providing a barrier between the students and the hunters that launched an assault on them in the woods. âI can give you some of my blood, â the sound of his voice was inaudible even to Caroline. It was a sincere offer laced with fear because Ric knew as deeply as Caroline felt it, if she were to begin feeding, she may never stop. The blood lust was real, sheâd gone dry for almost three weeks, conserving what little blood theyâd manage to loot from abandoned hospitals, blood banks, or drained from the rare singular human sighting, for the children.Â
Caroline shook her head hard, dismissing the offer. âI think I saw a deer last night as we were putting the kids to bed, â she coughed thick liquid, taking the back of knuckle to her lips to brush the blood splatter from her throat, she swiped her tongue across the digit till it was clean ignoring the slight contortion of Ricâs expression in response. The blonde vampire could feel the black veins beneath the circles under her eyes pulse. Adjacent to them was their daughter, a blank slated expression over her fair features. âWhat is the merge, â Lizzie inquired, pulling everyoneâs attention to her. Ric was the first to his feet, stubbornly she shoved him away, pushing him off, but in her unstable state, accidentally sent him flying across the shed. A good amount of fear and shock expanded in the widening pale blue hues of Caroline Forbes. âYou need to calm down, â Caroline instructed, narrowing her sight on just her now. She spoke in a flat tone, in attempt to pacify the jitters threading through her daughter. âDonât tell me to calm down,â Lizzie bellowed, shaking the broken wood panels of the shed with her anger.Â
When she looks at Lizzie she doesnât see her daughter anymore, the sweet honeycomb child she raised, the tiny apple seed that grew inside her, she seeâs her worst NIGHTMARE: she seeâs Kai Parker working from within her. âLizzie, ââCaroline warned, her eyes drifting to the walls of their enclosure anxiously. The wood bent inward, threatening to snap. Dirt raised from the ground floating in the air, âWhat is the merge, â Lizzie repeated, her tone blowing the rooftop off from the shed, with its potent outrage.
 âGet. Everyone. Out, â Caroline ordered now, speaking to MG and Kaleb, the only two capable of moving with the type of supernatural speed necessary to put distance between everyone and Lizzie, but her gaze never broke from Lizzie, not even for a second. Her icey blue hues locked onto her daughter, willing her to stop.Â
Everyone was almost in the clear, the boys managed to whoosh the rest out, except for Josie, who stood adamantly dead center between Lizzie and her father who was still slumped to the dirt from Lizzies unintentional outburst.  âIâll ask again, â through clenched teeth, Lizzie cautioned her and Ric not to lie again. Farm tools hovered above their place, rattling against the surface of their home. âJOSIE NO, â Penelopeâs strangled cries could be heard from the woods. Carolineâs head snapped in the direction of it, seeing Kaleb hold her back, missing the pitchfork soaring through the air and piercing Josie through the chest, until it was too late. It was only a second, a second she had taken her eyes off her daughters, and in that fraction of a moment, sheâd lost everything.
A moment of stillness passes, the thumping of Carolineâs undead heart is the only sound in the shed now. âNo, â Caroline sucked in air. âNo, â she repeats breathlessly. âNo, â she says it again, this time with her hands over her mouth in horror. âJosie, â Ric sobs, soundlessly, and itâs the most heart wrenching sound Caroline Forbes has ever heard, and she hears it in her heart, itâs so heavy it pulls her knees to the ground, so all she can do is crawl to her fallen daughter. âNo. No. No, â she weeps, cradling her daughter. âYou need to take it out Caroline, â he pleads, suspended by his fears, so that he canât even move. âYou need to take it out and give her your blood. â âHEAL HER DAMN IT, â he screams, because he canât hear what she hears, he canât hear the swooping silence and the complete absence of hope in their daughters chest. There is just emptiness where there was life. âHeal her, heal her, â his teeth rattle together, his whole body shivering with despair.Â
Into his hands, Ric hid his crumbled sobs while Caroline clung onto Josie. Caroline tenderly brushed the loose locks of chestnut hair sprawled across her daughters face, rocking her gently in her arms. âShh, shhh, â she murmurs down at Josie, the sound trembling off her cold lips. âIâm here, Iâm right here, â she sings off key, from a mantra she once comforted the girls with when they were little, and awoke from a bad nightmare. In agony Caroline discovers there is something worse than death, there is numbness, nothingness.
And there is only one other person who knows the weight of that loss â Klaus Mikaelson, itâs a name that whispers in her thoughts, day after day, the name of the only person who can truly understand, more than Ric, more than anyone â how they will live with this darkness for ETERNITY. This heartbreak will span over multiple lifetimes, itâs a death she canât swallow, but is forced to choke on. âI canât do this anymore, Iâm sorry, â she mumbled nimbly to Ric, their eyes meeting for just a brief second before she turns it all off, and wooshes into the darkness, letting it absorb her, wash over her, and she doesnât stop moving until she reaches New Orleans, until she reaches him.
Here, wherever they go, she knows he will let her be whomever she needs to be to escape this grief. The Mikaelson compound is nothing like she remembers, itâs tall walls now partly tore down, and thereâs a path of rubble to the inside quarters. Itâs ridiculous to think he may still be there, in his castles ruin. Itâs with a fools heart, and a blood thirst she hopes he still may be, someone she can lean on, someone she can run with, as wild as her, as grief stricken, and angry.