Wicked Schemes

Chapter 5

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I don't know where you're going
But do you got room for one more troubled soul?
I don't know where I'm going but I don't think I'm coming home
And I said I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead
This is the road to ruin
And we're starting at the end
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Somewhere past the Virginia and North Carolina border, Caleb had fallen asleep. Caroline almost felt bad for him, wondering if he had gone from wherever he was from to Mystic Falls all in one go-she hadn't quite gotten that information yet but his accent hadn't been like his aunt's. She sometimes forgot that others actually needed sleep, considering she could go a day or so without it and still be full of energy. It had become somewhat normal to not get rest every night. Especially when the world had gone even crazier in her little town and she had stayed up late researching with Stefan, organizing herbs and spell books for Bonnie, and doing school work that had become decreasingly less important. But witch or not, Caleb was going to need actual rest and she made a mental note to try and remember that fact.

She'd taken the opportunity while he'd napped to reroute her calls from the car stereo to the Bluetooth in her ear instead. That way she could hopefully answer calls that came through and be allowed some measure of privacy. She had also changed their first destination, altering the route so that they weren't headed straight to Atlanta. Hopefully the boy beside her wouldn't mind too much, but it was her car and she was the driver so that meant her rules. That's how road tripping was supposed to go. Or so TV and movies had told her.

Caroline sang along to the radio, tapping a beat against the steering wheel as she drove with the traffic, and taking in the changing scenery as the route brought them past forests, farmlands, small towns and cities. Klaus' words from her birthday echoed in her mind as she passed them by, and it had been a random sign about one of the local beaches that had Caroline shifting where they were headed.

There's a whole world out there waiting for you.

A world she was no longer afraid of going out and seeing. She wanted to breathe it all in, capture each moment with perfect clarity to remember in the coming years. "Why are we on the 95?" Caleb asked, voice sounding groggy, and Caroline glanced over at him, watching the young man wipe the sleep from his eyes before turning to look at her. "We're supposed to be on the 85." He glanced around for the directions he had printed out and found them tossed onto the back seat.

Caroline shrugged. "I want to make a stop first."

"Because getting to Atlanta right away isn't important or anything." Caleb seemed ready to go into another long discussion on how she had duties she needed to learn, but she wasn't having any of it.

"My great grandma was allowed twenty years to figure things out. If I want to take a day to go and see the beach then I sure as hell am." She didn't care if she was acting petulant in that moment. Would it really hurt for them to take one small side trip to see the ocean? They didn't even have to stay for the whole day. Just an hour or two so she could let her toes slide into the wet sand. But Caroline figured she wasn't going to win Caleb over with whining. Maybe honesty would help.

"I've never been anywhere aside from Mystic Falls. And now New York City. I lived and died and came back to life only to be told a year or so later that I'm some sort of angel of death. So I figure if I want to soak my feet in the sand for an hour or two before heading off to find out more of my apparent destiny that the world can keep on spinning for a little bit. It did during every other big event in my life, so I doubt it will stop for something so mundane." She reached over and increased the volume on the radio. "Plus I'm driving so I get to make the route."