"Nothing is with me now but a sound,
A heart's rhythm, a sense of stars"
- W. H. Auden, Compline
In which Charlotte Salvatore wakes after a 145 year slumber and is thrust into a supernatural world before she can cope with the modern one.
(THE VAM...
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They were standing in a warehouse now. Well, Klaus and Stefan were standing, Charlotte was sitting on a crate by the wall. Her head was down and her eyes screwed shut while she did her best to ignore the sounds of a woman crying in pain as Stefan chased and then fed on her.
The woman had been a gift from Klaus to Stefan. His eyes had glinted in amusement when Charlotte realised what he was doin and had let out a scoff of disgust, and then a grin formed when Stefan hesitated and tried to not feed on her.
When Stefan hadn't immediately hunted the girl like Klaus wanted he was more than happy to remind Stefan he wasn't in charge. At Stefans hesitation Klaus abandoned the girl and grabbed Charlotte, he hadn't even had to do more than bare his fangs before Stefan had leapt at the girl Klaus wanted him to feed on.
Klaus let Charlotte pull away once Stefan took off after the girl and Charlotte had moved as far away as she thought Klaus would allow.
They all knew the girl wasn't a gift, she was really just another way for Klaus to prove that he was in charge. Charlotte felt her heart clench with guilt knowing Stefan had no choice to obey, knowing he was doing it partly to keep her safe.
Charlotte knew ripper Stefan. She'd watched him before but it was different now. Being here as he fed, knowing she should be able to help him, to stop him but that she had to hold herself back. She'd thought it was bad watching the world go by on the other side but this was so much much worse. Now she was sitting here listening to the woman's cries, knowing if she moved to stop it she'd been tugged back, forced to open her eyes and watch the destruction.
Damon was alive at least.
Stefan had gotten a text from him earlier. He'd passed the phone to her to read whilst Klaus was monologuing and watching his family loaded onto a truck, each individually wrapped in their own special coffin.
They found out that Klaus knew that Katherine was on vervain too, he knew that she mightn't give him the cure. He knew it all, it was only in a fit of compassion that she had done the right thing and saved Damon.
Looking up Charlotte saw that Klaus stood in front of her, watching her with amusement as she pretended she couldn't hear her brother.
"Isn't it beautiful," he gestured to Stefan, now holding the woman up, all the fight gone from her body, slowly dying as Stefan drained her. Charlotte screwed up her nose in disgust, shifting away from Klaus as he sat down beside her.
"Now, I have big plans for your baby brother. I'm sure he'll do all that I say," Charlotte rolled her eyes at this, "I trust I needn't explain what will happen if you see fit to make things difficult."
"Why am I here Klaus?"
"My dear Charlotte, you lack faith in the quality of your company," Klaus said, his tone light and mocking, before he leaned in close, his mouth to her ear. "Your brother tried to take it all away, he turned my blood against me, he took my vampire, my wolf, and he tried to take my doppelgänger. He tried to take from me, so I took from him. We're teaching him a lesson."
