ACHILLES' HEEL ▷ KOL MIKAELSON [2] [COMPLETED]

𝟏𝟒. 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐒

(CHAPTER FOURTEEN :
OUT OF THE WOODS)

✧࿐ ཾ✧

"CAROLINE . . . SCREAM . . . WOODS . . . FUCK." I strung out, hunched over near a tree so I could regain my breath. "I left the three of you alone for three, four minutes and the next thing you know, I heard her scream and I'm speeding back to an abandoned Boarding House." After a long pause, I managed to squeeze out a coherent sentence to the girl on the other line of the call. In my panic, I spent most of the night searching for the young Forbes, calling the group relentlessly. Hours later, Elena finally decided to return my calls.

Slamming and shuffling was audible from her side. "She's fine, Lottie. All of us are." She cemented to soothe my paranoia. "Klaus' hybrids kidnapped her to hurt Tyler. Don't worry, he dealt with it and right now, I bet she's in full Caroline Forbes freak out mode at the Winter Wonderland event." The brunette comforted, filling me on what I'd missed.

Initially, I was relieved by the news they were all safe, then I realised that I was stumbling around in the early morning mist, in search of a friend that was unharmed. "I've been out in the woods since last night." I complained, having chose to scour the woods after being unable to find the girls. At the time, it seemed logical because all suspicious things occurred in the woods. "Is it a Gilbert trait to be incredibly bad at answering your phones? Jeremy used to leave me on read all the time, and it took me seventeen phone calls to reach you — of which involved me tripped over many tree roots to find signal." I wrinkled my nose as I noticed some mud had tangled itself in my hair. Truthfully, I was annoyed that nobody thought to inform me of what happened. For a matter of fact, I hadn't even slept yet because I spent the entire night searching for Caroline, feeling guilty that I left the trio unprotected. I didn't doubt their combined abilities, but I was older and couldn't help but wonder if the hostage situation could have been prevented.

"It was a hectic night, I'm sorry." Elena apologised. "After the argument got so heated . . . I didn't think you would care." She wrongly assumed.

I scoffed, amazed at how little the Gilbert expected of me. "Then you don't know me all that well, Elena." I said on impulse. "I don't care that I argued with her because friends do that sometimes. No, I don't regret how I reacted since some of her comments were cruel, but I regret not staying to talk it out." I admitted to the vampire, thinking to how I've been known to run away from my problems too often. "I haven't always been the most social vampire over the centuries, so having friends now means a lot to me. No matter how out of hand the argument got, I would never abandon a friend like that. Friends stand by each other, they don't let them get hurt and if I was there, I could have fought of the hybrids, we'd all have been safe." I expressed the liability that weighed down on my conscious. Despite knowing the hybrids were stronger than me, I spewed an 'if' scenario that was useless to get caught up on