coming to the carnival had been a bad idea. why had she ever listened to elena? especially after she'd drugged her smothered her with a pillow? like seriously, what the fuck was that? and why the hell had she called herself katherine? the thoughts played on a loop in her head, an unwelcome backtrack to the throbbing migraine the too bright carnival lights were causing. and then there was the hunger. thirst? it was somewhere in the middle, and unlike any she'd felt before. it was like she hadn't eaten a bite in months, her throat beginning to feel like sandpaper with the need for something. no, not something. she needed blood. a thought that had caroline cringing in on herself. god, had she really bitten that poor nurse at the hospital? and how had she made her do exactly as she'd said? that part at least seemed kind of cool.
the metallic scent tinging the air had her head snapping in the direction of the parking lot. someone was hurt. someone was bleeding. god, she was hungry. so fucking hungry. it felt like all she took was two steps, maybe three, and she was standing before one of the carnival workers. he was cute, sure, but it was the cut on his hand that held caroline's attention. there's a murmured apology from the blonde, and a questioned response from the guy that goes in one ear and out the other. but she can't hear him. she can't hear anything except the blood rushing through his veins. the blood she so desperately craved. "don't scream."
she didn't know when she'd dropped his hand from her mouth. didn't even remember the moment she'd first made contact. all she knew was that her lips were on his neck, fangs driven deep into the vein as she drank from him. there were no words to describe the feeling of feeding. the closest would probably be ecstasy. like finally scratching the world's worst itch after suffering it for like a week without success. she should stop. she knew she should stop. needed to stop. and yet caroline continued to drink. to take her fill and more from the slowly fading man beneath her. it was only when she felt him go limp that she pulled away. there was a soft thump as the body fell back onto the truck bed. the body. because that's all he was now. not a living, breathing person, but a very dead body.
"no." it should have been impossible to convey such horror in such a small, simple word. just two letters, and it held every last bit of the pain, regret, shame, panic, and everything else caroline felt as she looked over the man she'd just killed. the man she'd just killed. she had killed someone. "what have i done?" but she already knew. she, caroline forbes, the cheerleading captain, miss mystic falls, daughter of the mystic falls police chief, was now a murderer. a monster.
dropping to her knees beside the body, she gently reached out to close his eyes. whether it was because it was what she'd always seen people do in movies or simply to stop that vacant stare from boring into her she couldn't say. perhaps both. a low sob escapes the young woman, harsh enough to shake her entire frame before she can stifle any further with a hand to her mouth. she should call her mom. try to explain everything to her as best she could. that elena had told her to go to the carnival before drugging and suffocating her, that she'd called herself katherine, that caroline had been starving and needed blood because of the drugs, and that she'd then accidentally killed someone. yeah. no. no, no, no! even to caroline that all sounded far too insane to believe, and she'd just lived it! why was this happening to her?
and then, as if the universe still had more laughing at her to do, caroline realized she was no longer alone. slowly, she raised her head, swiping the back of her hand across her blood covered chin in an attempt to hide what she'd done. "elena." her eyes narrowed, her tears growing from fear to angry. "why? what did i ever do to you? i thought you were my friend."
