"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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Klaus had been doing his best to wake Charlotte for at least fifteen minutes now. Normally she drifted awake a little before him. He'd feel her shifting in his arms and it was him who wouldn't let her loose and the day begin, but today it was her that was refusing. He'd been whispering and then talking to her, he tugged a braid of hers and even tried removing his arms and shaking her shoulders but all he'd received was groans and whines.
Klaus tried tugging Charlotte's braid again, "Stop," Charlotte whined out, shuffling down in the sheets with her eyes screwed up tightly.
"Come now, Rebekah wants to go shopping and if I have to deal with it you do too," Klaus pulled the blankets back away from her head laughing as her only response was to push her head somewhere between him and the bed itself.
"No," Charlotte was blunt again, "Nik, my head hurts I don't want to go shopping."
"Please tell me you're not scared of my sister."
"I'm not scared, my head hurts."
Klaus murmured in disbelief, "Darling, I'm so much worse than Rebekah."
Charlotte's head was still buried in the sheets as she spoke, "That's not helpful now I'm scared of both of you."
Klaus laughed at her reply. He knew she wasn't really scared of Rebekah, she had to know that nothing would happen to her, not at Rebekah's hand, and certainly not with him beside her. Standing up, Klaus sped to the end of the bed and pulled the sheets away leaving Charlotte cold.
"What's going on darling?" Klaus asked when Charlotte only pulled the pillow over her head.
"I don't know," Charlotte lied, "I couldn't sleep and 0my head hurts so much."
Charlotte hadn't fallen asleep easily the night before. Often she'd drift off first and Klaus listened as her heart slowed but last night it was him who'd drifted off first. Charlotte lying awake in his arms well into the evening and then the early hours.
She felt guilty laying in Klaus' arms as she knew the reason why his one goal to make more hybrids was failing.
She felt guilty knowing where the necklace his sister wanted and needed was when they didn't.
She was worried too about what would happen when the truth finally came out and Klaus and Rebekah realised Stefan and Charlotte's betrayal. She'd been up half the night thinking about what she and Stefan could do. They couldn't stop Klaus, Charlotte had only spent a summer with him but she knew he'd do whatever it took to make his plan succeed. If they couldn't stop him then all she could do was to try and protect her brother when the truth finally came out.
Charlottes head throbbed with anxiety and stress, sure the lack of sleep was only making the pounding worse. She sometimes had headaches like these as a child when she worried too much, headaches where the lights were too bright and the world too loud. All she wanted to do was shut her eyes and lay under the covers until the day was over and it was gone.
