"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'd arrived in Mystic falls late in the afternoon, by the time they did, Klaus had a fairly good idea that what the Salvatore's were hiding was a doppelgänger. Once he'd actually spent more than five minutes in the town he knew it too.
Charlotte felt terrified from the moment they entered the city limits but Klaus liked to play with his food before he ate it and he was still red with Charlotte and Stefan's betrayal. As a result, instead of capturing Elena in the day, he'd devised a plan to follow the students in the evening rather than as soon as they arrived back in town.
Stefan was trapped in the truck with Rebekah snapping his neck every time he woke up and Charlotte was stuck with Klaus. She hadn't spoken to him since they argued and Klaus was feeling less apologetic and more annoyed by her stubbornness.
Despite his frustrations, Klaus figured the easiest place for them to wait was in a hotel room where she could at least rest and shower if she wanted.
Charlotte wasn't exactly pleased to spend the day in a hotel room with Klaus alone, remembering how it'd been when they were last together, but she didn't want to talk to him even to complain. Things were so fractured between them that when they'd pulled up to the hotel and he'd held out his hand to her as he opened her door she couldn't even look at him. Later when he'd tugged her softly towards him as they turned from the elevator towards their room she flinched away instinctively.
He told Rebekah he'd needed the hotel to prepare things for the evening but really he'd only gotten the room for Charlotte. He knew she hadn't slept at all while they drove through the night nor the night before while they were still in Chicago and although he didn't want to admit it, he was worried about her. He knew from experience that her body was less resilient than his and without sleep or proper food he worried how she might suffer.
Sometimes the fragility of her frightened him, he'd realised throughout their journey how frail a human life could be, how easy it was for her body to buckle under emotion or lack of food or too much liquor.
Charlotte still felt betrayed by Klaus, his actions hurt her and she wasn't willing to bury the hatchet and forgive him after how easy it had been for him to act violently. In time she might've forgiven Klaus for snapping Stefans neck, knowing it was in an act of blind rage and knowing how poorly he reacted to betrayals and secrets. Charlotte might've been able to forgive him once Stefan had recovered but then Klaus kept pushing her, he kept pushing her and then he fed her his blood.
Charlotte was done.
How could he do the one thing she'd only hours earlier told him she didn't ever want, that she'd rather die than risk. Klaus had fed her his blood for the sole purpose of hurting her, as punishment for keeping Stefans secrets. Charlotte felt so terrified with his blood in her, terrified that something would happen and he'd snap her neck like Stefans and then she'd be forced to transition too.
