The One You Once Were

I don't want to go, I don't...

"Your brother? You mean the one Caroline is so obsessed with?", Elena scoffed. She was entirely ruining the moment right here.
"Shut up.", I told her off and walked over to Klaus in disbelief. "Is it really you? How did you find me? How did you get here?"
He chuckled to himself and his long hair covered his face. "I know you well enough to figure out where you've been."
"But why did you decide to come and see me?", I wanted to know. A bit taken aback, I put my hands on his cheeks, feeling his warmth on my fingers. Was he real? Or my imagination? His facial features felt soft and I slowly moved along his cheekbones, his hair tickling my hands as I reached his lips. Suddenly, he stopped me, taking my hands in his and gently pushing them away from his face.
"I'm still mad at you, Caroline.", he spoke in a quiet manner. "This doesn't change that."
My eyes wandered to the ground, ashamed of myself for thinking that topic would go unnoticed.
"Your witch friends called me here. I have no idea how they knew where I was but I thought if you are to die, I should come see you.", he answered my previous question. Carefully, I looked up to him again. Were there tears in his eyes?
"How nice of you."
He rolled his eyes. "You don't have to be so sarcastic."
"I'm not."
Our eyes met and for a second it felt like we had never fought. But then, the usual evildoer had to crash and ruin the moment again.
"Seriously, can someone tell me what's going on? Why is this Klaus dude here in those weird clothes?", Elena asked. This girl was really pushing me to the brink of losing my mind. Klaus noticed my annoyed face and chuckled amused.
"I would like to know the same actually. Brother, how are you here? I do not quite understand.", Elijah spoke. His brother turned his gaze away from me and towards the noble one. Then he started to laugh.
"What are you wearing?", he grinned. "You look ridiculous."
The other siblings exhanged looks. By now, I was really confused as to what was the truth of this situation. If my surroundings were an illusion, they seemed damn real but Klaus was so realistic as well.
"I actually came here to make sure Caroline would wake up from possible nightmares but this is way more interesting. I'm more curious to see where this is going now.", my boyfriend stated, a big smirk on his lips.
"This isn't a nightmare, Care-mare is the nightmare herself.", Damon tried bringing his previous joke back. Immediately, Klaus' smile disappeared and the deadly glare he shot Damon even sent shivers down my spine.
"Say that again and I will rip your heart out.", he growled.
"Great, another psycho. I can see why they're made for each other.", Elena couldn't hold back her pesky comment. Klaus' gaze turned to her and I could see her face switch to fearful in only a second.
"Ignore them.", Rebekah spoke up. "Just explain how you're here, Nik."
"Oh, my dear, weirdly dressed, sister.", he smiled. "It took some time but I was able to finally get into this one's head." He gently poked my head when saying that and I could hardly hold back a chuckle. I didn't even care he supposingly was in my head, I was just happy to see him.
"What I don't get", I started. "is what made you change your mind of trying to forget me."
He squeezed my hand, which he had never let go of after pushing it away from him before. "I'm pissed off at you but that doesn't mean I wish for you to die. More the opposite."
I curiously tilted my head. "The opposite? So, you wanted to forget me but still care for my life and thus, my well-being. But if you want to forget I even exsist, you wouldn't know if I die. I could have died and you wouldn't know. You're only here because Heather and Kilian contacted you."
His logic seemed faulted to me, which indicated he wasn't real. But damn, I really wished he was.
"Does it matter why I decided to drop by? I'm here, aren't I?", he shook his head to my claims and let go of my hand. "And I'm not the one keeping secrets of the both of us, am I now?"
"You're keeping the secret why you're here.", I grinned. He sighed.
"Secrets?", Rebekah intervened in our discussion. "What secrets? And can someone finally explain why our brother, who has been-"
"Rebekah!", I stopped her from saying anything further. If this was really Klaus, information regarding his death could be very damaging.
"What have I been?", Klaus of course asked but I shook my head, signaling to my friend to keep her mouth shut. Luckily, she did.
"Whatever the case, you can confirm that this is the same Caroline who was with us back when we were turned into vampires?", Elijah shifted the focus.
Klaus eyed his brother. "Of course she is. Why wouldn't she be? And why do you speak of that event as if it has been ages since then?"
This terrain was getting dangerous. The siblings would probably keep asking questions like this and there was no way, I could explain all of them as being just hallucinations.
"Seriously, I think, Caroline is just having that witch create an image of Klaus to prove her story. She's still lying, as always. He's surely not here.", Elena made her stupid opinion known.
"Why could I not be here?", Klaus interested himself in the girl.
"Well because-", she started but I couldn't let her finish.
"Stop!", I yelled. "Just everyone stop! You're not real! You're all illusions! That isn't how I want to die!"
Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and covered my ears. I wanted this illusion to end, to disappear. A few minutes passed, then I felt someone tap on my shoulder. Carefully, I opened my eyes. Elena's living room was gone, instead I was sitting on a hill. I recognized it as Klaus' favorite spot and a happy smile spread across my face.
"Funny you want to spend your last time here.", Klaus sat down next to me. He was still here? So perhaps not an imagination then?
"There are a million places I would like to be right now. At home, with my mother, my real friends."
With future you.
"Why weren't you more careful when dealing with that werewolf? You could have avoided all this.", he said, his voice calm and if I was hearing it correctly even a bit hurt.
"I wanted to protect Heather and her baby. In that moment, I didn't care about anything else.", a sad smile crossed my lips. "I don't regret it."
Wind moved the trees and grass around us. His hair danced around his face as he looked at me with compassion. "You just want to accept your fate then?", he wanted to know.
A laugh escaped my mouth. I turned my head to the sky as the chuckle grew a bit louder. Soon after, tears were streaming down my face and sobbing, I ruffled through my locks.
"I had so much more to do, to see. You wanted to take me around the world. Some day, we could have been happy, with all the things the future had in store for us.", I cried. "We would have proved to everyone how great you could be and Silas would have been beaten."
"Who is Silas?", Klaus asked but I didn't answer.
"If only, I had some blood. If only, he was here."
"Who?"
I completely broke down now. "I'm never going to meet Heather's baby or Hayley's daughter." That was also Klaus' kid but I restrained myself from mentioning his future version. "My mother will be heartbroken, she won't even have a body to burry."
My limbs started shaking and I hid my face in my hands.
"There there, love, don't cry. I'm here.", Klaus whispered and embraced me closely.
"You haven't called me love in forever.", I chuckled and let my head rest on his chest beneath his long hair. His hand gently stroke my back.
"I know.", he smiled. "I'm sorry."
"Me too. For not telling you everything. I would do it in an instance but you have to understand, I can't. It's not up to me.", I apologized.
"Don't mention it. Not now.", he shook his head. "I still love you, you know that, right?"
I nodded. "I love you too. Always have, always will. No matter if I'm alive or not."
He shook his head. "Don't say that. Please don't."
I looked up at him. His eyes were filled with tears but he didn't avoid my gaze to hide it from me. It seemed like he really didn't want to lie to me anymore.
We both leaned in for a final kiss. If I was to die, I at least wanted to do this one last time. We were consumed by the moment and so it took me a while until I noticed a growing pain again. I moved away, clinging my arm. The wound had returned even in my mind now. It looked bad, black around the edges and very venomous throughout. "Love, what is that in your pocket of that weird trouser of yours?", Klaus asked.
"I don't know.", I forced myself to say. My body heated up and it was like fire spread on my skin. Shaking, I forced back a painful yell. Around me, everything seemed to vanish, leaving nothing but darkness behind. Klaus let go of me and a second later disappeared with the hill. I was alone.
Voices echoed through the dark.
"Check the pocket of that piece of clothing!"
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
Who was talking? I couldn't make out the people behind the sentences.
"Oh my god. Is that maybe what she was talking about?"
"There's a letter."
"Don't mind that, give it to her!"
Give what to who?
"Love, hey, you need to open your mouth, okay?"
My mouth? But my body was completely numb, I couldn't move any muscle.
"Damn it! Give me a second."
A touch vibrated on my lips. Then, liquid entered my body. It tasted good, familiar. With a gulp, I swallowed.
Nothing changed.
"It's not working."
"Are we too late?"
Something crashed and broke.
"Caroline?"
"Do you hear us?"
A void covered me and the sound was sucked away until it was one quiet space.
So this was it. The end. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to...

Wow, okay. I can't believe how well received the last chapter was. So many of you commented on how you loved it but were confused at the same time, I just had a blast reading all your comments. Now, we have a few more things ahead of us and I will not apologize for this cliffhanger btw but since we've just reached 40K reads, I wanted to briefly thank you once again for all the support. It's unbelievable how many are following this story now and that you're still excited for new chapters. If it weren't for all of you, I don't know if the story would have progressed as far as it has so thank you all so much, I really mean it.
Have a wonderful week and until next time.