CHAPTER FIVE | ROSE
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
KLARA'S EYES FLUTTERED OPEN AS SHE LOOKED AROUND HER BEDROOM. The last thing she remembered was talking with Stefan on the couch until god knows when about everything and nothing. She didn't remember taking herself up to bed, unless he did. Her heard turned to her alarm clock that sat perfectly on her nightstand, indicating that she was going to be late for school.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Klara grunted. She pulled herself from the comfort of her duvet and let her feet drop onto the hardwood floor.
Picking an outfit wasn't a hard task, but it was one that required concentration. In her eyes, it had to be perfect. Once she had sifted through all of her shirts to find the perfect cropped jumper, she pared it with some dark-wash ripped jeans. With one quick brush of her hair followed by a natural make-up look, Klara was ready for her day.
"You know, I think it's kind of a dick-move that you didn't wait for me." Was the first thing that left Klara's lips when she walked into the high school corridor to see Stefan standing at his locker.
The Salvatore shrugged. "Figured you could do with the sleep."
"Ah. Sleep is for losers." Klara chuckled back lightly. Her face took a more serious expression as she watched him exhale deeply. "How're you doing today? Sill wallowing in self-pity?"
"Nope. I'm doing what you said. I'm giving Elena space." Stefan shot her a smile but Klara couldn't tell whether the smile was sincere or not. "Stop worrying, okay? I'm fine."
"Stefan." Jeremy Gilbert headed over toward the pair with a serious look on his face. "Look, Elena's gotta let me know if I'm supposed to cover for her. I mean, Jenna's cool with the two of you, but you guys are pushing it."
"Hold up." Klara awkwardly looked between Jeremy and Stefan. "What're you talking about, Jer?"
Jeremy just rolled his eyes. "Look. I'm glad you guys are back together, but if she's gonna sleepover, you—"
"Wait, wait." The Salvatore stepped in front of Jeremy and raised an eyebrow. "Hold on a minute. We're not back together."
"She didn't—she didn't stay at your place last night?"
Stefan shook his head, and so did Klara. "The last time I saw her was at the party. She spoke with Stefan by the lake, and then we headed home. She didn't stay with us."
"'Cause her bed hadn't been slept in, and Mrs. Lockwood said that her car was still in the driveway." Intrigue grew on the three faces at the disappearance of Elena Gilbert. "Where is she, then?"
It wasn't long before, Damon had met both Stefan and Klara in the parking lot of the high school. Stefan had informed his brother that Elena was in fact missing and nobody had seen her since the masquerade ball, which meant somebody had taken her.
"This has Katherine written all over it," Stefan spoke up. Klara was sitting on the table of a wooden bench while the Salvatore brothers remained on their feet.
"Katherine's in the bomb. Trust me, I'm the one that shut her in." Damon countered with an almost irritated tone.
"Are you sure you shut her in?" Klara looked between Stefan and Damon, who instantly looked at her with narrowed eyes. "I mean, did you—"
"Did I what, Klara?" The eldest of the two brothers sighed in the blonde's direction.
"Well, we know the hold Katherine has on you."
"She's in the tomb. Period. End of story!" Damon snapped again, but his face immediately fell. "But, she did say something to me right before I shut her in. I thought she was lying."
"What did she say?"
Damon's eyes locked with Stefan's. "Elena's in danger."
"Oh, you're kidding me." Klara groaned. Damon clearly felt guilty for not realizing the truth sooner. "Damon, did you ask her from who? I mean, come on."
"Everything she says is a lie. How am I supposed to know if she's gonna start spouting out the truth."
Stefan started to pace in front of the small wooden table that his best friend was sitting on. He frustratedly ran his hands through his hair before he turned back to Damon. "We have to go talk to her."
"No, no. Let me tell you how that's gonna do. We're gonna go ask for help. She's gonna negotiate her release, which we're gonna be dumb enough to give her, and then she's gonna get out and kill us." Damon listed off one he saw Klara sigh. "That's exactly what she wants."
"I don't really care."
"Stefan, he's got a point. I mean, the second Katherine gets out of that tomb she'll be out for blood." Klara jumped down from the bench and tried to reason with her friend.
"It's Elena." Stefan turned back to face them one more time before he hurried off in the opposite direction.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Instead of speaking with Katherine to get the information they needed, Bonnie agreed to help find the location of her friend. She was confident that she could do a locator spell to find Elena, using Jeremy's blood.
"Alright. Alaric said we gotta clear out of here within ten minutes." Stefan walked back into Alaric's classroom that they were using to perform the locator spell on Elena. "I got weapons. He stocked me up."
"Are you ready?" Bonnie cast her eyes up to Jeremy who stood the other side of a desk. Once he'd nodded, Bonnie leaned forwards and sliced the palm of his hand to let his blood trickle down onto the map laid on the desk.
"I hope to God this works." Klara breathed out. Bonnie's eyes started to close and Jeremy's blood that was on the map moved from Mystic Falls and straight to a town about three-hundred miles away from their home.
"There. There's there." Bonnie pointed.
Jeremy furrowed his brows at the location of his blood. "That's three-hundred miles away."
"No, Bonnie, we need a more exact location than that." Stefan sighed up toward the witch, who just struggled.
"That's as close as I can get."
"Okay. But, there's this crazy thing could aerial view. I mean, if you map it you could probably work out the area." Klara offered up the suggestion that caused a smile to light up the Salvatore's face.
"Perfect!" Stefan placed a thankful kiss on Klara's forehead before he lifted himself from the desk and over to the duffle bag of weapons. "Klara, call me with whatever you find."
"No. You can't go alone." The blonde instantly moved herself between Stefan Salvatore and the bag full of weapons Alaric had given him. "I won't let you go alone."
"I'm coming, too. Elena's my sister." Jeremy protested.
"No, neither of you are. Jeremy, you take Bonnie back to your place, just in case. Klara, go back to the house. I'll see you when I get home, I promise."
Klara shook her head again once Stefan moved her out of the way and grabbed the bag. "Stefan, you're not doing this alone!"
"He's not." The classroom door swung open to reveal Damon Salvatore standing in it. A sigh of relief escaped Klara's lips when she saw Damon. "Let's go."
"You're coming with me?" Stefan asked, almost thankful for his brother's help.
"It's Elena."
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Anxious did not being to cover the sea of emotions that ran through Klara's head. She had tried to keep herself busy the entire day after Stefan and Damon had left Mystic Falls to rescue her friend. Klara decided to take herself for a walk, something she had always done when she was fighting plenty of thoughts that threatened to consume her.
Her hands pushed away branches as she walked through the forest just a short walk away from the Boarding House. The blonde pulled her phone from her pocket when she heard the noise of her text tone.
Elena's safe. On our way back now.
The text from her best friend immediately set her mind at rest. Elena had a lot of people clearly after her. It was the curse of being a doppelganger— something Klara had never really managed to get her head around.
Retreating from delving further into the woods, Klara turned around and headed for home. Her eyes had turned toward a figure standing at the opening of the forest with arms folded across their chest and a hood protecting their identity.
That familiar feeling had returned. The skin or swim one that she and Stefan had spoken about the previous night and before she knew it, Klara was running as fast as she could. Branches threatened to bash her face, but she pushed them out of her way as much as she could.
She turned around, attempting to see if the hooded stalker was still at the opening but while her eyes were looking backward, she ran straight into the hold of a stranger. "No! Let go of me!"
"Klara. Klara, it's me!" The stranger held the trashing teenager in their hold. It was a man, and once he pulled the hood from his head his identity was revealed. "I didn't— I didn't mean to scare you."
The blonde had come face to face with the man that had walked out on her. Her father. "No. You can't be here." She vigorously shook her head, desperate not to accept the fact that he was back in Mystic Falls. "Why are you here?"
"I needed to find you." He simply replied once he let go of his daughter. Klara stepped away from him instantly with eyes containing tears but he grabbed her forearm, a little too hard. Once he realized his strength he let go for a second time. "Something inside of me told me that I needed to find you, Klara."
"That's real funny." She was furious at the thought of him assuming she would even give him the time of day. "You left me. You walked out because without any sort of explanation. You just packed up your crap and left me. So what the hell makes you think I'm going to care about whatever you've got going on."
"I didn't say you needed to care." Mick Adams' face instantly changed into something she recognized completely: he was a vampire. Klara gasped in horror and took a step backward again, but he just kept moving forward. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here for your friend, Elena Gilbert."
"You want Elena? Why?" Klara furrowed her brows. Unbeknownst to him, she was fumbling around with a large stick behind her back. She knew that if she staked him at just the right angle, she would injure him enough to make her escape.
"Because he wants her."
"Well, tough!" The blonde stabbed the large stick through her father's abandonment and began to run. She ran as fast as she could, but she knew the make-shift stake would only give her a few seconds head start. As she ran, all Klara was felt numbness. Branches slapped against her face and twigs found their way into her hair, but she didn't care. She just needed to getaway.
As she reached the clearing just down the driveway of the Salvatore House, she sighed in relief. Though, her father soon appeared in front of her. He grabbed her by the throat and squeezed. There was a look of complete detachment on his face as he stared at her.
"Dad—" Klara cried out breathlessly as she felt his grip tighten. "Please. Just let me go."
"I can't do that until you give me Elena Gilbert. I know she got away from Elijah thanks to your vampire friends. So, I'm here to finish the job." Her father's head tilted with a devilish smile on his face until he found himself being thrown away from Klara by an unknown force.
Mick's body was tossed across the driveway as both Damon and Stefan appeared beside the blonde. Klara hurried backward, beside Stefan, who moved her behind from out of protection while they all watched her father get back up to his feet.
"Stefan and Damon Salvatore." Mick taunted with a venomous glare. "I've heard all about you. The vampires that fall in love with the same girls, over and over again. Doesn't it get boring for you two?"
Stefan looked over his shoulder at his friend with furrowed brows. "Who the hell is this?"
"My dad. He said he's here for Elena because you guys stopped Elijah."
"Jeeze, Stef. And I thought our dad was a dick." Damon rolled his shoulders back and then sped straight toward Mick. Damon grabbed him in a choke-hold, the same as he did to Klara, and smirked. "Doesn't feel good, does it?"
"Elena is friends with your daughter." Stefan pulled his best friend into his embrace. He let his arm drape over Klara's shoulder as he looked toward the vampire in Damon's hold. "Surely that means something to you." Mick didn't respond with words, it was just a low chuckle through gritted teeth which caused Stefan to tilt his head. "He's turned his humanity off."
"What?" Klara's eyes widened as she looked between Stefan and her father.
"Makes sense. Only a complete dick would try and kill his own daughter." Damon eyed Mick up and down, a look of disgust on his face. "Oh, well. Time to die." He sang.
"No!" Something inside Klara wanted to believe her father was worth saving. He had abandoned his emotions the same way that he had abandoned her, but she had seen that it was easy to retrieve those lost feelings, you just had to want it. "Damon, no. Maybe we can help him. You know—"
Mick had suddenly snapped Damon's neck with one instant movement. Stefan and Klara watched Damon's body drop to the ground before he set his sights on Stefan until Klara stepped in the way.
"Stop. Just stop, okay?" She pleaded. She had hoped that maybe something inside of him still cared about her, maybe a small part of him was still her dad. "We can help you. Just please, let us help you."
"She's right, Mick." Stefan nodded in agreement as he watched Mick's eyes shift to him. "I know how to fix you. I can help you get your emotions back."
"I would—" Mick paused for a moment as if he were thinking his options over. His eyes fall on his daughter. The hopeful look in her eyes was enough to trigger something, but he couldn't let it. "—I would rather die!" He yelled and immediately yanked his daylight ring from his finger and tossed it into the bushes.
Klara screamed aloud as she watched her father's vampire body burst into flames right in front of her. Stefan had grabbed the blonde around her waist to try and stop her from running anywhere near the flames but she kicked and squirmed in his hold. "No, Stefan, no please!"
Eventually, all that remained was a pile of ashes where Mick Adams was once standing. Stefan set his eyes on Klara, who finally was silent. She had nothing left inside of her. No ability to scream, no nothing. She was numb.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───