The One You Once Were

Hayley and I have a serious girls talk

Trying to remain calm, I soflty breathed in.
"Caroline, are you alright?", Jer asked through the phone. My fingers began to shake.
"I'm fine.", I whispered. "Thank you for the info, I gotta go, bye."
"Wait Caroline, there's one more-"
I hung up before he could finish. My hand felt numb and the phone just slipped through my fingers and crashed onto the ground.
Some of the images made their way into my mind. Bad ones and good ones. Klaus hugging me, Rebekah and I having fun helping Esther prepare dinner. Mikael killing the siblings off, Klaus heart in front of me. All that had actually happened. I had really met their human forms. Klaus' soft voice back when he was human, his smirk, him being close to me. All of that had been real. That was a lot to take in at once. My body began to shake and I grabbed my head in slight pain.
A bit further away, I heard the door opening. Someome stepped in.
"Caroline? I'm back."
It was Rebekah's voice, thank god, she was here.
"RB?", I shouted, almost crying out for help. Immediately, she rushed to my side.
"Oh god, what's going on? You don't look well, you're so pale!", she panicked. Meanwhile, I tried to calm myself once again, which wasn't quite easy considering she was also freaking out.
"Nik!", my friend called out. "Gosh, seriously, that no-good-brother of mine is never there when you need him!"
She quickly got her phone out while I attempted to stop shaking. It was like I had lost control over my body and was trying to gain it back.
"Hey? Nik, yeah it's me.", Rebekah had dialed her brother's number and was almost yelling into her device.
I heard his voice on the other end of the phone and my hands started shaking more again, the images trying to make their way back into my brain.
"I don't care what matters you have to discuss with Marcel right now and what kind of disagreement you two have going on! Caroline is freaking out, I don't know why. She needs you.", Rebekah yelled while I felt tears rising in my eyes. I heard Klaus just hanging up on the other line and I was already scared, he didn't care but almost a second later, he arrived, worry on his face.
By now, I really felt sick to my stomach. All the doubt, or more like the hope, I'd had of it just being weird dreams or something, had been shattered. My vision blurred.
"Love, what's going on? Anything I can do to help?", the hybrid didn't really know what to do.
"Water.", I croaked. "Get me some, please?"
I took deep breaths and sat down on the nearest chair I could find.
Breath in. Breath out.
Rebekah returned with the water.
"There you go."
I took a sip. My throat felt sore.
Breath in. Breath out.
Klaus started to panick now. "Tell me what to do, Caroline!"
"Nothing. Give me a short time. Just stay by my side.", I forced myself to say.
Breath in. Breath out.
Slowly, my imaginary pulse calmed down again. My mind settled as I tried to focus on anything but the images. Klaus kneeled down before me, putting a hand on my leg.
"Are you feeling better?"
My voice wouldn't listen to me so I just put my hands on his to feel his presence more clearly.
Hayley entered the house. When she saw me, her facial expression changed to utterly confused.
"Caroline? You don't look so good."
I tried to bring out a slight laughter. It didn't work that well.
For five minutes, I just sat there, drinking water and calming down. Everyone kept quiet in the meantime, waiting for me to speak. Finally, my vocal cords worked again.
"Sorry for that. Bad news from home, had to deal with them for a second there.", I sighed.
"What kind of bad news?", Klaus asked, his jaw tightening.
"Don't want to talk about it, honestly."
"Then we shall let it go.", Rebekah said, her eyes on Klaus to make it clear to him. "You should rest now. This had you stressed and probably exhausted. Besides, it's sundown now anyways."
Already? Time had passed rather quickly.
"Now, what is going on here?", a familiar voice disturbed us. "I expected a happy welcome home and instead, I find everyone in complete turmoil."
"Elijah!", Rebekah said, more than happy about her brother's arrival.
"You're back!"
Klaus didn't say anything, he just stared at his brother a bit mad. Hayley only smiled at the Original and left the room. Immidiently, Elijah excused himself and followed. I'd noticed this once before but I had the feeling those two shared a special connection. I'd have to ask the girl about this later on. My blonde friend turned back to me.
"Why are you still here? Didn't we tell you to rest? Hurry up!"
As ordered, I made my way to my room. But I didn't rest. I was too scared of the images in my mind. The bed was comfortable, my body rested on it but my eyes stayed wide open for hours. At 12 AM, when everyone seemed to have disappeared into their chambers, I made my way to the door and stepped outside into the fresh air. The cold breeze helped cooling my head. All this was too much for me. A lot more than I could take. Silently, I went back inside and into the kitchen for some blood. Surprisingly, Hayley was there too.
"Hey.", she greeted me quietly. "Can't sleep?"
"Mhm.", I gave back. "You neihter?"
"Yeah. Have to think about some stuff."
My questions from before came back to me.
"Since we're here alone right now... what is going on between you and Elijah? I saw how he instantly followed you before.", I grinned while getting a bloodbag.
"Nothing.", she denied. "Why do you ask?"
"There is clearly a connection."
"Well, so is between you and Klaus but you don't seem to acknowledge it.", she fired back.
"Don't make this about me!", I conplained.
"You started it.", she chuckled.
"But I asked first.", I whispered.
"And I said nothing. Why do you think, I'm sitting here at night?"
"Ohh.", I went silent and finished drinking.
"It's complicated."
"Isn't everything?", I sighed and she nodded. "Well, this just got awkward real fast. I should go back and try to rest." I threw away the bag and headed for the door.
"Caroline?"
"What?"
"Stop lying to yourself. You like him, I can see it. And that's okay. Honestly, I'd be happy for you both. He deserves it. I know what it feels like to not get who you love. Don't mess this up for the two of you. Go get him before it's too late.", she told me in a low voice.
I left the kitchen. She had clearly been talking about Tyler with that comment. I didn't care. Tyler was in the past. Who was in the future? Good question, which, sadly, I didn't know the answer to. Or did I?
As I was on the way to my room, I crossed Klaus' door. With him, there would probably be no nightmares, whyever that was. Should I...?
Without discussing further, I opened up the door.

Hey everyone!
I don't have much to say this week, only that I'll be off taking a break from school (vacation haha) and I hope you enjoyed this week's chapter!
Have a great week and I'll see you next Monday!