Clair de Lune - K.M.

c h a p t e r f o u r

I wake up with a gasp, a violent pain ripping through my entire body. I groan and roll sideways, sliding off the lab table that I was placed on and lowering myself down to sit on the floor.

"Stella? Are you okay?"

I hear Caroline's voice and open my eyes, looking around me. She's crouching in front of me, holding onto my shoulders attempting to look into my eyes.

"Caroline?" I say, my eyes struggling to focus on her face. My brain feels like its going 100 miles a minute. "What happened? What's-"

"Hey, Stella, just breathe," she says as I start to panic. "It's going to be okay."

I look around frantially, taking in my surroundings. I'm on the floor of one of the science classrooms in the school. Rebekah, Klaus's sister, is sitting in a chair across the room and laying unconscious on the table next to me is...

"Tyler?"

I stand as quickly as I'm able and rush over to my brother.

"Tyler! Tyler, wake up!" I say, shaking his shoulder.

"I don't think he can hear you," Rebekah says in a bored voice from across the room.

"He took Tyler too?" I ask Caroline, ignoring the other vampire. Everything starts to come together in my brain as I remember what happened, remember why my brother is laying unconscious in front of me. Tears begin to form in my eyes and I can feel my breathing becoming uneven. "Why did he do this? He doesn't need both of us to know if it works!"

"I don't know," she says, walking over to me and wrapping her arms around me. "I don't know."

Tyler jerks awake suddenly, gasping and coughing. Caroline lets go of me and reaches for him, smoothing his hair and comforting him as he comes to.

"Where am I?" he asks, looking around at us. "What happened?"

"Tyler..."

"Don't be shy about it," Rebekah says from her position across the room, offering us a fake polite grin. "They're both awake, now is as good of a time as any to tell them."

"Klaus is turning the two of you into vampires," Caroline says slowly. "Hybrids. You're in transition."

"Both of us..."

He looks at me and I close my eyes, backing away from him and sliding down the wall.

This can't be happening. This can't be real.

"Don't leave out the hard part, darling," Rebekah says. "The two of you will only survive if your witch is successful. If not, you're pretty much dead."

"You're going to be okay," Caroline says, placing her hand on his cheek and turning his head away from the girl across the room to look at her. "You both are going to be just fine. Bonnie is going to figure something out."

"I wonder how she's doing," Rebekah says, turning her phone to show us a timer with two minutes left on it. "Tik-tok goes the gym clock."

Tyler pushes himself off the table, walking around Caroline and over to me. I'm still sitting against the wall, staring straight ahead. My body is shaking and my head is pounding, and I flinch as my brother crouches beside me.

"Stella? Are you okay?"

I shake my head and he sighs, sitting next to me.

"How do you feel?"

"Horrible," I say in a softly, my voice hoarse. "I feel like my body is trying to start it's transition but it can't. Like it's going to rip me in half trying. What about you?"