Gone (A Klaus and Caroline Fanfiction)

Breathless

"I can't believe this," I said, trying without success to pull out of Klaus's grip as he lassoed my hands together, the chained metal biting into my wrists. Evening was fast-approaching, painting the night sky in a bruised purple. Crisp air nipped at my arms and tugged playfully at my hair, much too lively and carefree for the strained atmosphere. Off to my side and down below the old bridge I stood on, glistened a river, undulated waves capped in silver lining. In the dying sun, the currents looked like drifting shadows, patient and uninviting.

Klaus pulled the chains tighter, effectively yanking my body closer to his."You best start believing in a hurry, then. I'm not particularly fond of this idea either, but in such a dire situation, I'm forced to expand my methods."

"By drowning me." It wasn't a question.

"It's your choice in that matter. I don't wish to cause you pain, Caroline," he said, tone serious. He glanced at me once before winding the chain around my back and looping a lock between the two, one of the big kinds you'd only find on a storage locker. I heard it click.

"I just want you back to your flamboyant and over-achieving self and since that won't return with nothing but time, I reason we'd better get a jump on things now."

I wondered if that pun was intended, but didn't bother to ask as my gaze returned to the water. I tried to imagine being buried far beneath it, and wondered how Stefan must have felt as he drowned. Again. And again.

And again.

"Are you ready?" Klaus asked me.

A scoff escaped my lips. "Sure, why wouldn't I be? 'Hey, Caroline, do you have a plot reserved already? Well, no need. Here's a watery grave prepared for you instead.'"

He narrowed his eyes, weighing what he saw there on a very sensitive scale. "Are you afraid, Love?"

Against my better judgement, I thought about that night in the hospital; that feeling of trying to breathe around a mouthful of pillow. When I started thinking of death just moments before it came.

I smiled at him; I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of anything less. No, I wanted to revel in whatever victory I could get.

So without warning, and without thought, I bent my knees and launched myself over the bridge.

The water rushed up to greet me in a blast of ice and needling handshakes. It struck my skin in a million tiny slaps that cut across my body as the sun faded and the murky water grew thicker and thicker the farther I drifted. I held in my reserve of air, looking up to see back to the surface. Tiny fragments of light played above the top, as if the water itself were mocking me. Laughing at me. But they quickly grew smaller and smaller, until they blinked out of existence one by one and I was left in the dark.

The toe of my shoes skimmed something solid and I felt silt shift beneath my feet as the drifting ceased. I released a few air bubbles and refused to watch as they skipped up to the surface. Instead, I turned my focus to pulling on the chains, straining against the finality of them as I tried not to think of air or breathing.

Even if I died, it wouldn't matter. It wasn't permanent. I'd breathe in water and it'd be done. Seconds. It would just take seconds.

Unless Klaus decides to leave me here indefinitely.

That thought drew me up short.

I felt it then. It was just a twinge; a tiny, imperceptible moment of uncertainty, and I remembered what it was like to be afraid. As my body started to crave breath, I pushed the feeling of fear away, into some abyss in my mind where I kept everything else. I wouldn't cave. I wouldn't. I wouldn't.