Shadows Within

SIX

The months that followed his brother's death were difficult. He wouldn't lie. Not to anyone. Not to himself. Some days he would wake up and call his brother's name only for Caroline to look at him softly the way his brother used to when things were less difficult, he would bury his head in the crook of her small neck and cry right there in the safety of her arms, shoulders shaking vividly as she spoke comforting words he didn't quite hear despite the fact he possessed a very sharp hearing. Some days he would go out to the town with Hope and the two of them would spend the days laughing like they had very few times before since that fateful day in July. Truth to be told, Klaus didn't think he was ever going to get over his brother's death. It simply wasn't something one got over just like that. But with each passing day and night, Klaus found himself hoping that he could learn to be better, to smile genuinely for the first time in the years and for people to actually believe him when he told them he was doing just fine. Klaus sighed deeply under his throat as he sat on the edge of the soft, comfortable looking loveseat in the corner of Caroline's rather colorful office if he were to say himself and lifted his head to look at the blond vampire with worrying eyes as Caroline watched him in a comfortable silence that neither of them wished to break, but had to nonetheless. They were meeting here for a reason, after all.

"Tell me, Caroline, what did she do now?"

Caroline slowly bit her lips anxiously, her blue eyes watching him carefully. "She used a dark magic."

Immediately, Klaus rose up from his feet to the ground, taking a long, antagonizing breath. "What do you mean she used a dark magic?" He shook his head in the denial as he paced around the floor, his arms rested comfortably on top of his hips. "No, she wouldn't dare. You must've seen wrong. Maybe it was somebody else. Maybe you mistook her for, I don't know, Penelope. Not my Hope. She wouldn't. Not after what happened last time she used a dark magic." But one look at Caroline's eyes proved that as much as he didn't wish to believe it was true, it had been Hope that had used the dark magic, had been the one to cast that spell. "Why?"

"From what I've heard from Emma, it was because of a boy." Klaus remembered the last time his daughter had been even vaguely interested in a boy. It had been two years ago. His name is Ryan, Hope had told him with a smile then, and I think I am in love with him. In that moment, not days after Hayley's death when Hope told him so, she looked happier than she had been in whole months and he had thought, maybe if only for the fact that the boy could make his daughter feel like that, maybe he would approve of him. But his daughter had come crying one night because Ryan had gone and left the town, leaving his daughter's already shattered, broken heart even more shattered. Since then, she hadn't been interested in anyone romantically because as far as Klaus knew, his daughter was still not over Ryan. So, he didn't know where this boy came from.

Finally, Klaus frowned questioningly at his love. "What boy?" he asked.

"His name is Landon. He came with the new student, Rafael. Apparently, they're brothers."

"Brothers?"

Caroline nodded her head. "That's right."

"But why would she use a dark magic because of this one boy? What makes this boy so special to Hope? Why would she do this?"

Caroline shrugged. "I think you are asking the wrong person that question, Klaus." She told him. "Go and ask your daughter." But before he could move to seek out his daughter and do exactly that, the whole building shook forcibly and a loud, antagonizing scream was heard echoing from the downstairs.

Klaus glanced at Caroline. "Go." She told him. "Help them." She smiled reassuringly at him in the comfort, taking his hand in her own for a brief second. "I would be fine. I am not that naïve little Caroline you've met all those years ago, remember? I can take care of myself."