Edgewalkers

Business as usual

Elijah and I spent the entire night trying to figure out how to get hold of Katherine. There were several possibilities like finding her through her blog, but I doubted that we would have much luck this way. Tracing someone through the internet was always tricky. We would have better chances of getting to her using more personal means. While we did not know where she was right now, we knew her previous residence. Elijah would take on the search, as he knew her better than I ever could. I was certain, he would take the best possible precautions.

I myself had other things to do. After having concluded with Elijah, I had planned to get some sleep. However, I was not granted my much-needed rest. A loyal informant of our family had notified me of some “trouble” going on at college. It seemed I had no other choice but to abandon my plan and solve this issue, whatever it was, as fast as possible.

While Marcel mostly took care of arising problems at school, I tended to ill will around town and, as I already said, college. I was almost never at any of my classes since I didn’t much care for them. My father had signed me up without my consent, but to deny him would most certainly have been a death sentence.

So, I had obliged and gone to college during his stay with us. Whenever he left for a business trip, I’d skip classes. It was only in cases like this one that I went back to campus.

Taking a coffee with me, I left the house. I didn’t feel like driving, which is why I employed one of our drivers to take me there. At least I could relax a bit in the back seat, taking out my phone to give Caroline a call. I had not yet talked to the blonde since she’d returned home sick.

When she answered, her voice was sore and weak. My heart wept when hearing her in such a state.

“Caroline, hello, it’s Klaus here.”, I said, keeping my voice calm and steady to sound as uplifting as I possibly could.
“Oh, hi, Klaus.”, she answered. It was like I could hear a slight smile through the phone. Was she happy to hear from me?

“I hope you are better than me?”
“I’m well.”, I confirmed. “You will hopefully recover soon enough too.”, I then added sighing.
“There is nothing I’d like more.”, she giggled, though it quickly turned into a cough.

“I’d hate to miss our meeting.”
“Me too.” I wanted to talk to her more, hear her voice, get to know her better. But she sounded exhausted, and I was almost there. “Is there anything I can do for you? Cookies? Tea?”
“Oh, that’s so sweet, but no, thank you. I think I’ll just sleep for a bit. You go do your important stuff. I wish I had such things to do, yet I am stuck at home, sick.”, she sounded down now.

“Sweetheart, don’t sweat, you will be better in no time, you’ll see.”, I tried to uplift her. She answered with a grumble.
“Take care, Caroline.”
“You too, Klaus.”

With that, she hung up. Just in time because the driver pulled up to campus. Telling my driver not to wait for me, I jumped out the car.

Oh, how I detested the sight of this place. I could almost feel the air pressing me down and my father’s voice whispering in my ear about what a failure I was.

“Well, if it isn’t Klaus Mikaelson.”, another familiar blonde greeted me after I’d passed through the gate. “I thought you didn’t go to college when you father’s not home. Or is he back?”, she worried.
“I would not be walking straight if he was.”, I gave back, thinking about all the times I limped in here. “What about you?”

Camille, my friend slash ex-girlfriend, smiled.
“I am here to pick something up.”, she answered. “So, you’re okay?”
“More or less.”, I confirmed.

The young woman had been one of the only ones I had ever opened up to outside of my family in years. And even though we were broken up, we still shared a close bond. After all, we’d both decided we did not work out as a couple anymore. It had been no one’s fault. Sometimes, relationships ended due to circumstances. We both still had a lot of love for each other; however, it was just in a platonic way.