Ripples: A Klaroline Fanfiction

20.

Minutes had slowly trickled by and the empty seat next to Klaus had started to deafeningly shout at him. No longer was he entranced by the story depicted in the movie, but he was rather staring at the entrance, waiting for Caroline to come back. Waiting for the woman who'd managed to sway his entire world to return, flashing that blinding smile as if the sword of Damocles did not constantly hang over their heads. As if he hadn't unconsciously lured her into a dangerous dance with death itself.

However, she was nowhere to be seen. In fact, as he'd gotten more and more restless, he'd started counting the seconds gone by in which Caroline had not returned. So far he'd gotten at 267.

Still no trace of Caroline.

He'd even tried to listen for any sign of an argument between the feisty blonde and either a person at the queue or the cashier that might explain her lateness, but the loud movie permitted no outer sound to penetrate the projection room.

Once 400 seconds had gone by, the gaping hole next to him had become impossible to ignore. Nor could he drown out the petty voice in his head screaming that something horrible was bound to have happened. Hastily standing up, Klaus all but ran out of the movie theatre throwing a murderous glare at a mother who'd dared complain about him blocking her child's view. Suffice it to say, the poor woman had been immediately silenced and he effectively exited the loud theatre, slamming the door with all of his might.

She had to be outside. She had to. The alternative was too sickening to consider.

With a sinking heart he noted that the cashier was squinting at his phone, taking advantage of the lack of customers. However that only meant that Caroline was not there.

Where could she be?

Maybe she'd felt unwell and gone to the bathroom.

Not wasting another second, he darted towards the bored young man, ripping the device from his hands. "Have you seen a blonde woman, about 25 years old, wavy hair and green eyes?" he all but shouted ignoring the angry protests as they slowly died down upon grasping the magnitude of the man's despair.

"Yeah, she was here a couple of minutes ago. Ordered a medium popcorn."

"Do you know where she went after that?"

The bathroom, it had to be the bathroom. Caroline would not be foolish enough to step foot outside, this late and alone. Not after all he'd told her. There was no way even she would be that foolhardy.

"Outside," the cashier tore whatever hope he'd dared harbor to tiny little shards. "I think she saw somebody she knew by the entrance and went to greet them."

Immediately mercury eyes drifted towards the glass door, only to find it shrouded in darkness and completely void of any sign of human life. The cinema employee apparently did the same, helplessly shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, man, but I did not see her afterwards. However…" he hesitated for a split second. "I think the guy she saw was a doctor or at least was wearing a white robe and he appeared quite upset, to be honest."

"Did you see his face?"

At the apologetic shake of the head, Klaus felt like the Earth had just opened and swallowed him whole. There was no pertinent reason why a medic would be lingering outside the door to the cinema this late into the night. Furthermore, there was no reason why Caroline would go with him and forget to let Klaus know. She was reckless, he knew that, but she was also not suicidal and highly intelligent. So Mikael had to have tricked her into accompanying him.

But how? And more importantly, how had he even gotten this close to her when Klaus was supposed to have been protecting her? Could it be that Mikael was destined to win every single confrontation between them? No, he couldn't afford his mindset to slip into defeat. Not while the war with his stepfather was still raging on. Not with Caroline's life on the line.