Shadows Within

SEVEN

Caroline Forbes awoke in the middle of a night to the sound of somebody moving frantically by her side, as if they were having a very antagonizing nightmare they couldn't awake from. Slowly reaching to shake her lover by the shoulders, Caroline whispered. "Klaus, wake up." But he still whimpered in his sleep, like a child that was having a nightmare for the very first time. "Klaus." She shook him once again and this time he awoke with a start, gasping for a breath as he sat upright so sudden that she almost jumped off in the surprise.

"Caroline, where's Elijah?" Klaus was looking at her softly and as if he suddenly remembered that awful thing that happened, he fell onto her lap with a sudden shake of his shoulders and cried. "My brother — he's gone, Caroline. My brother."

Caroline could only pat him gently on the back. "I know, honey." She whispered, her throat suddenly going dry at the sensation. "I know." Truthfully, Caroline didn't know Elijah very well. It was Elena who had known him so well. Not Caroline. But seeing Klaus this way over somebody she never knew, Caroline felt herself wishing she had spent a time in getting to know the vampire. It broke her heart to see him like this. "Someday, it's going to be fine, love." Until then, she would hold tight to him and never let go.

"They've slept together." It was the first word Lizzie had told her when they sat down in the auditorium to listen to Alaric make his announcement.

Hope gazed at her scandalously, widening her eyes at the blonde in a disbelief. "Lizzie!"

Lizzie rolled her eyes dramatically at Hope as if she couldn't understand why she was acting so scandalized. "I am just saying — look at them! They're practically glowing." Lizzie signaled her head towards them where they were standing side by the side bearing almost identical grins. "It's pretty disturbing, actually." Lizzie frowned in a slight disgust.

"If you ask me, I think it's rather wonderful." Josie commented with a satisfied smile. "At the very least, I don't have to lock them in a closet together like I was intending to by the end of the term."

Lizzie had a mischievous grin on her face. "We can still lock them up in a closet together."

Josie gazed at Lizzie, shaking her head somewhat amusingly at her twin. "Lizzie, that's not a very nice thing to do."

Lizzie snorted. "I don't care about nice."

"Please don't actually do that." Hope begged, because one never knew what she was going to do. One time, after Penelope had dumped Josie, Lizzie had sent Penelope flying in the air with no way to stop until Emma came to the rescue.

Hope may have helped. But there wasn't anybody to prove that. So, she might as well be completely uninvolved. "I am begging you. We won't hear the end of a lecture until who knows when."

Look, Hope loved Caroline like a second mother, but once she was angered, she was far scarier than her father could be — her father refused to do anything during those moments and merely just watched as Caroline went on and on about responsibilities and school rules that were created to be obeyed, not broken. Which Lizzie would try to argue, but would stop short at the look on her mother's face.

"Believe me, Mikaelson, I don't have a death wish." Lizzie seemed to be remembering all the times they've gotten in a trouble with Caroline throughout the years.

"Is that uncle Matt?" Josie's eyes widened in a surprise. "What is he doing here?"

Hope turned her head to where Matt Donovan was standing, talking about the missing girls and looking quite like he was genuinely worried for their welfare. "Well, you know what they say." Lizzie smirked. "Karma is a bitch."

Hope nodded her head in an agreement. "How much are you going to bet that she just took off with a boyfriend and never bothered to call her parents back?"