Red Passion

Chapter 13

"Caroline!" Elena cries out, running the short length from the living room to the door as the blonde hesitantly enters the Boarding House.

"Where have you been?" she asks with a worried, almost scolding frown taking over her features. "You weren't supposed to–"

"What?" Caroline interrupts her, rolling her eyes as she walks right past her friend. "I wasn't supposed to breathe some fresh air for the first time in over a week?"

"You are not in control of yourself, Caroline. We were worried."

She spins around to face the doppelgänger, arms coming up to fold across her chest with a bit of an attitude.

"About me, or about possible unsuspecting villagers?"

Elena's scowl deepens at her friend's snappy tone.

"Caroline... why are you being like this?"

After a few moments of silent staring between the two girls, Caroline eventually sighs, her arms falling back down to her sides.

"I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean to scare you. I just felt so caged in here, I had to escape for a bit."

"You could have hurt somebody. You could have hurt yourself."

"But I didn't. I'm fine," she reassures her friend. "Everybody is fine, nothing happened."

Hesitating for a second and letting her gaze roam over the blonde in search of any hint—any possible drop of blood—that might reveal the untruthfulness of her words, Elena eventually nods, her eyes softening slightly.

"Never again, though; alright?"

Caroline smiles, nodding her head in a decisive manner.

"I promise. Where is everybody else?" she asks, looking around the spacious, empty room.

The brunette stills for a moment, looking nervous, unaware that Caroline knows.

"Uhm, somewhere. Do you want a blood bag?" she immediately tries to divert the blonde's attention elsewhere.

Caroline narrows her eyes, suspicious. For a moment, her heart gives away beneath her ribcage, because–

–what if it's too late, already?

But she quickly pushes the dreary thoughts away, to the very back of her mind. She needs to stay calm and focused right now.

"No, thanks. I'm fine," she answers with a somewhat forced smile, following her friend into the kitchen nonetheless.

One would think that Elena has gotten a lot better at lying, after all these times that she has been, for one reason or another, forced to; instead, the brunette looks just about ready to pass out as she gets herself a blood bag from the big, fancy fridge adorning one side of the Salvatore brothers' kitchen.

"Are you alright?" Caroline asks, partly also genuinely worried for her friend.

She knows that, in her head, Elena thinks that she is doing the right thing, trying to finally rid the world of the Originals. They have caused her nothing but grief and never-ending problems, after all. Not only have they killed Jenna, but they are responsible for her becoming a vampire as well, and like Caroline will never truly forgive Katherine, then Elena will never truly forgive Rebekah either—she can understand it, and even relate to that.

But, if the brunette has learned to look past all that Damon, and even Stefan (or any of them, really), has done, then maybe it is not so necessary for this whole situation to result in a war between them and the Originals—is it?