"Nothing is with me now but a sound,
A heart's rhythm, a sense of stars"
- W. H. Auden, Compline
In which Charlotte Salvatore wakes after a 145 year slumber and is thrust into a supernatural world before she can cope with the modern one.
(THE VAM...
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They drove for two full days before they stopped again for anything other than a meal or a bathroom break. Charlotte felt disgusting and her head hurt. They'd take a detour into towns once or twice in a day, for ripper Stefan and his blood.
Charlotte wasn't dumb enough to slip away again, Klaus had let it slide last time, but she didn't think he'd be quite so generous again.
She sat with Klaus in a diner, waiting for her food to arrive. Stefan had slipped away from them as the car was parked and Charlotte watched him leave gloomily. It was like this a lot now.
She understood why Stefan acted this way, it wasn't just the ripper in him causing him to push her away, he was keeping his distance to protect her. Klaus clearly had a master plan that included Stefans demise and if he showed he was too focused on Charlotte neither of them would put it past Klaus to force Stefans hand into some greater punishment.
Charlotte understood, but that didn't necessarily make it easier.
She'd been stuck alone for a century and a half and now she was back it hurt that she was torn from one brother and forced to watch the other pushed into self destruction. Each time Stefan slid away from them to find someone to feed on she could feel Klaus' grin grow. She didn't like the cruelty he seemed to enjoy causing and she felt so lonely without her brothers it sometime was almost worse than the Other Side.
On the other hand, Charlotte at least now had restaurants and diners down pat.
She still didn't always know what everything was, but at least she could order by herself now without melting into panic. It was a little hit and miss, she mostly just guessed what she wanted, but she'd tried some good things and was well acquainted with fried food now.
"So tell me, love," Klaus was watching her as she fiddled with the straw in her drink, "Why exactly are you so opposed to becoming like your brother and I?"
"I don't want to die," she answered easily, keeping her eyes averted as she answered, studying the straw in front of her.
It wasn't the full truth, but it could be.
Klaus narrowed his eyes, "You dont lie particularly well, have you been told that before?"
Charlotte had been told that before, many times in fact. Klaus hadn't even needed to rely on the fact that her eyes skidded from his as she answered nor at the way her fingers froze, instead he heard the skip of her heart.
"Look, Klaus, I'm your hostage," Charlotte replied bluntly frustrated with his prying as though they were friends, "You're the one who took me without letting me say goodbye to my dying brother. You're the one keeping Stefan and I here. Is there an actual reason why you care?"
The food arrived, the waitress awkwardly placing it between the fighting couple and Charlotte tore into it, starved after a day of only gas station snacks. She could feel Klaus' eyes on her as she ate and she ignored him, it wasn't any of his business why she didn't want to be a vampire.
