I had asked countless times where Caroline was, frightened for my dear friend's life. The best case scenario was that they had kept her alive, but were experimenting on her just like they did to every other vampire.

The cage I was in made me weak, so weak that I could barely talk every time a worker walked past me. It seemed the cage itself was my experiment, since they weren't even talking to me.

One thing I knew for sure, the cure had worked. How did I know? Simple. My feelings were consuming me. Major guilt for the stuff I did with Klaus and Stefan that summer, anger against the Augustine's, and lastly but most surprisingly, grief for Liam.

Now that I actually had the time and capacity to process it, I realised he was dead. I had killed him. Well, technically, I wounded him greatly. But it was my fault that he was now dead. Should I have given him a second chance?

Could I have done something else that didn't end in his death?

I just knew that my mother would be ashamed of me. I don't even know how I would tell her if she were here.

"Don't blame yourself for this Lynie," I heard a sad voice say and I almost screamed in fright.

To my surprise, I saw my mother lightly floating outside of the cage. All these months and I had almost forgotten about her. Correction, I had actually completely forgotten about her! I hadn't even bothered to talk to her once my emotions were back.

"Mother," I cleared my throat of emotion. "I'm so royally screwed right now."

"Yes. You are," she huffed. "You've gotten yourself in quite the mess."

"Wow, you're helpful," I scowled.

"I won't be able to stay here for much longer right now," she explained, and at my questioning glance continued. "Lucifer's cage is weakening your state dramatically, it was a miracle you could even conjure me."

"A what cage?" I raised an eyebrow. "Lucifer?! Isn't that a show on Netflix?"

"What's Netflix," she looked puzzled, so I just shook my head. "Kaitlyn, this cage was specially designed to hold angels captive. It was invented millennia ago. And I'm sure you already know who gave this bit of information to the doctors."

"Liam. I'm so sorry about Liam," I avoided her knowing gaze. "I tried to find another way. I really did."

"I know," she said sincerely. "But I don't know if he is truly gone."

"What?!" I exploded, coughing heavily after that. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"I'm not sure. I have my suspicions. I think Liam may still be living. Barely, but alive."

"I-I saw him. I'm the one that wounded him," I stuttered. "There's no way."

"Whatever you say," she sighed. "That's not what I'm here for anyway. I want to tell you that it's okay to forgive yourself. What you did when you were under the influence of Hellcraft was not truly you."

"Yup. Got it," I said curtly.

"I mean it Kaitlyn," she said sternly. "You need to be lighter on yourself. You've already forgiven your friends for mistrusting you, even when you still hurt from it. You've always been to forgiving."

She was right. I remember the 1860s where I would let Liam hurt me, and then forgive him afterwards, not having the strength of holding a grudge.

Her aura was flickering, and I leaned forward, being careful not to touch the bars.

"Please don't go yet. I don't know what to do," I said frantically.

"Don't worry. Your friend is on the way," she reassured me, before disappearing completely.

"WHAT FRIEND!" I called after her miserably, slumping back down to the floor again.

∆ ∆ ∆

Approximately 34 minutes later, a nurse came walking towards me holding a clipboard.

"You're number 32942?" she asked boredly, but I refused to answer the question.

"Where's my friend?" I demanded. "The blonde vampire?"

"She's in good hands," the woman smirked. "Getting the best treatment in the house. Matter of fact, it's your turn to come with me now."

She unlocked the cage and I was impatiently, preparing to tackle her and maybe strangle her a little bit.

But as soon as I put myself into the motion, I basically just face-planted on the marble floor. I was so exhausted that I couldn't even stand up. She snickered quietly before pulling me up in a rough manner. She then promptly began hauling me down the corridor.

"What are you going to do?" I panted. "Surely you have better testing methods than you did 50 years ago?"

"Yeah, we do," she smirked. "They're more painful now."

I gulped as she pushed me into a room. With the remaining strength I had, I spun around and smacked her as hard as I could. She went flying into the back wall, sliding down to the floor with a cry. I then ran to the counter and started throwing all the equipment and liquids on the floor, creating an epic mess.

The nurse yelled for back up and pretty soon a whole team of security were throwing me on the small experimentation table, chaining my hands with metal cuffs.

"My friends will find me," I hissed. "I know they will."

"There's no way your friends could even find the location sweetie," the nurse picked herself up from the floor, brushing her hair back into a tidy bun. "And even if they did, they couldn't get past security."

"Then what do you have to say about this?" I heard a voice said confidently, and there was a sudden blur.

In seconds, the nurse was dead, her neck twisted violently. The security guards came back yelling, but they were just as easily dismantled and thrown to the ground, not ever waking up again. One of them managed to stick a syringe in her neck, and I was scared that my rescuer was done for, but she just pushed him off and pulled the needle out.

"Please," she scoffed. "The amount needs to be higher than that if you really want to get me."

She then strode over to me, a pile of dead human bodies behind her. Now that she was still, I could finally see who it was.

Katherine.

"Kat," I breathed out in shock. "How...how did you find me?"

"I came as soon as I got your voicemail," she said, unchaining me and helping me up. "I know how you think Lynie. You were going to do something incredibly stupid, and I knew I needed to get there in time."

"I'm so sorry," I choked back a sob, throwing my arms around her. "I didn't mean those awful things I said. I swear!"

"It's okay," she said, awkwardly patting my back. "I knew you weren't yourself. Now let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?" I asked, able to regain some of my strength now and walked after her.

"We're crashing a certain hybrid's party."

∆ ∆ ∆

"Wait, so who's Mikael again?" I asked after Katherine had finished explaining everything. "Sorry but there's a lot of characters in this story."

She was driving us to Mystic Falls again, and we had already stopped at a shop to buy dresses for ourselves. She had also told me the plan about her impersonating Elena and stopping Klaus.

"He's this psycho vampire-hunter who also turns out to be their father. A.k.a, he's the person the Mikaelsons fear the most," Katherine cleared up.

"So the end of the plan is to kill Mikael? Only him?" I asked suspiciously.

"You and Klaus have gotten pretty chummy right?" Katherine suddenly asked, confusing me a little bit.

"Um, not really..." I trailed off. "Well, I guess I tolerate him a lot better than I did a few months ago."

"Yeah, we are only planning on killing Mikael. You know what? You should probably get some rest. Dragging you to this party was a really bad idea anyway!" Katherine said quickly, her voice oddly a pitch higher than usual.

"That's actually probably for the best," I sighed. "I guess I'll whip out this dress at a different dance. The school seems to host tons of them."

"Wait, it was that easy for you to agree?" Katherine raised an eyebrow. "I thought I was going to have to negotiate. Kinda was looking forward to that actually."

"I'm not that difficult all the time," I laughed.

"Um, you are."

"Whatever."

Katherine dropped me off a few streets away from my apartment after I told her that I wanted to walk there and get some fresh air. It was also probably going to be the most exercise I had done in a few months.

Kind of embarrassing...

I was slowly strolling through the streets, but the unmistakable feeling that someone was following me would not leave. Finally, annoyed, I turned around randomly and saw a flash as someone hid behind a car.

"I'm not stupid," I called. "Well, maybe I'm a little stupid, but still, I can see you!"

With a sigh a woman slid out and walked to me. I didn't know her, but from what I could see she was black and had shortly cropped hair. She also sort of looked evil. Just a guess.

"Yeah we can't have you going home quite yet," she drawled, and I rolled my eyes, honestly just annoyed at the series of bad event that just wouldn't stop.

"Let me guess. Now you're going to kidnap me and use me as some kind of leverage or something," I deadpanned, and at their astonished expressions added, "Yeah, you villains are kind of getting predictable. Honestly, can't a girl get a break??"

She nodded at someone behind me who I hadn't noticed, and my arms were pinned behind my back as she walked towards me with some kind of sedative.

"I have been sedated enough already!" I yelled, kicking my foot like a donkey and knocking the guy behind me to the ground.

I was trying to remember the few training lessons I had with Stefan. It felt like it was years ago. Slowly, and like a shaky child I went through the motions and managed the roundhouse kick the one dude across the pavement and knock out one more guy.

But the woman was stronger than she looked. I didn't even know what supernatural she was, so I just assumed she was a vampire. My guess was then undermined when her eyes glowed amber in anger.

"Ummm, why are your eyes glowing like Klaus?" I questioned.

"I'm a hybrid now girl. One of the many Klaus has."

"And Klaus put you up to this?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "I mean, I know we aren't buddies or anything, but surely he wouldn't do this to me."

"We aren't working for Klaus at the moment," she said lowly. "We made a deal with his father."

"Wait, wh–" I began, but not before she zoomed towards me and everything went dark.

∆ ∆ ∆

"The big bad wolf. You haven't changed. Still hiding behind your playthings like a coward. You only forget. They may be sired by you, but they're still part vampire. And they can be compelled by me," I heard a growling British voice say in a condescending manner.

My eyes slowly opened to see that the woman from earlier was holding onto my upper arms with a vicious grip as she was waiting for that man to stop talking. It was someone I had never seen before, but as I craned my neck I saw that he was talking to Klaus, who looked positively frozen.

"Stay still," the woman hissed, jerking me back into the default position.

"Let go of me," I ordered, stomping on her foot, but she barely budged.

"Come out and face me Niklaus," the man said lowly. "Or she dies."

My head jerked up to see Elena being pushed towards the doorway. With my eyes widened, I quickly found something off about the situation. I got the feeling that the brunette being held by the man wasn't Elena.

Katherine?

But if it was my friend, then why was she dressed like Elena? I clenched my teeth in frustration as the puzzle pieces slowly came together. This was why she wanted me to go home and the man was probably Mikael, Klaus's father.

But weren't they trying to kill the guy? Why was Mikael threatening Klaus? I had absolutely no freaking clue what was going on.

"Go ahead. Kill her," Klaus muttered in defiance, and my stomach dropped.

"NO!" I yelled. "Don't you touch her!"

Klaus flicked his head towards me in surprise, not noticing me before hand. Mikael was merely grinning, motioning for the woman to hand me over.

"What about her boy!" he spat. "Would you care if I killed her?"

I practically laughed. "You were using me as bait for him?" I scoffed. "Well mister, you got the wrong girl. He doesn't give a crap about me!"

"You underestimate your allure girl," Mikael whispered, brandishing a knife and holding it before my neck.

"Mikael," Katherine pleaded. "This wasn't part of the plan."

"Quiet!" Mikael commanded, pressing the blade against my flesh and I just barely held in my groan.

Klaus flinched but looked away, obviously showing that he was going to allow this. Great, I was definitely not planning on dying today.

"I'm calling your bluff," he whispered.

"Your impulse, Niklaus. It has and will forever be the one thing that keeps you from truly being great," Mikael shook his head, before moving the knife and plunging it in my back, a low gasp emitting from my mouth as he carelessly tossed me aside.

I lay on the ground helplessly, the knife in my back rendering my ability to move, and heard an explosion and then Katherine running towards me.

"God Kaitlyn," she grunted as she lifted me so I was halfway on her lap. "Why do you always get yourself into these situations?"

"This is what I get for trying to get some exercise," I chuckled weakly. "No more extra walking for me."

She pulled the knife out of my back, and assured me that it would heal by the end of the day. I would just have to uncomfortably bleed for the time being.

Yay.

"What are they doing?" I asked, panic rising in me as I heard a loud cry come from Klaus. "Katherine what are they doing?"

"The plan was to kill Klaus," Katherine admitted, and I looked at her in shock.

"What? You can't do that!" I said, trying to pull myself up, but she pushed me back down gently.

"There's nothing you can do about it anymore," she said firmly. "And besides, he was ready to let you die!"

I gave up, taking in her very logical point. He had been ready to let me die... Honestly, was I expecting anything more? It wasn't as if we had any kind of relationship. We weren't friends, hell, we weren't didn't even like each other. What was wrong with me?

"Oh no.." Katherine whispered to herself, watching the scene unfold.

"What? What's happening?" I asked her.

"Stefan just ruined the plan," she told me angrily. "He saved Klaus."

"Oh," I said, feeling oddly happy and then mentally slapping myself for it. "That's..not good I guess."

"We should get out of here," Katherine said abruptly and helped me up. "C'mon, I'll drive you to your apartment."

∆ ∆ ∆

My balcony had been completely trashed ever since I came back from Chicago with Klaus and Stefan. I didn't have the energy to clean it up. Seems like some teenagers had thrown their beer bottles up to my balcony and it had knocked down all my plants.

Ugh. Teenagers were the worst.

Like Katherine told me, my wound was now almost all the way healed, but it still hurt as heck whenever I bent over for something. Damon had also called me on the way home, leaving me a concerned voicemail asking me where I had been for the past 2 days and what Augustine did to me.

I couldn't deal with it right now. What I wanted most in the world at the current moment was to be lying on a beach in Fiji with a cocktail in hand. Hearing the waves gently lap over the soft sand and be sunbathing in a warm rays.

But of course, I was stuck in Mystic Falls where everyday was a crazy new adventure where you tried not to die. They should really make a TV show out of our lives. I would totally watch it.

I heard a knock at the door, and slowly walked back into the apartment and opened it, not at all expecting the person on the other side.

"Hello love. May I come in?"

"Klaus," I cleared my throat, trying to hide the startled expression on my face. "Am I in danger of dying if I let you?"

"I'm sorry," he avoided my gaze. "I didn't want anything to happen to you."

"Right."

"I'm serious Kaitlyn. My father, he...he gets to me in ways that make me so furious I can barely think. He knows all my weak spots, knows exactly which buttons to press until I explode," he tried to explain. "I let him manipulate me once again. But he won't anymore."

"And how's that?" I crossed my arms expectantly.

"I killed him," the hybrid said emotionlessly. "He'll never be back to bother me again."

"I.." my voice trailed off, unsure if I should congratulate him or comfort him. "You can come in."

Klaus stepped past the threshold carefully, looking around at my small and cluttered living room.

"Welcome to my humble abode," I joked. "It's probably nothing like the palaces I'm sure you live in."

"Well actually, I am working on building a mansion in Mystic Falls at the moment. You're welcome to visit anytime," Klaus smiled lightly and I rolled my eyes.

"Why are you really here?"

"I came to apologise, and check to see if you were okay. Is your back healed?" he asked, tentatively turning me around with his hands on my shoulders.

"It's fine," I protested, but my breath hitched when I felt his cold fingers lift up my shirt to examine the damage.

"You were out of town for a few days," he hummed while applying pressure to the closing up stab wound.

"Yeah," I winced a little. "I was at a doctor's appointment."

"You silly girl," Klaus tutted. "You didn't listen to me at all did you?"

"Nope."

"What am I going to do with you," he chuckled lowly, lowering my shirt again and slowly walking in front of me.

I stayed quiet as he took slow and intimate steps towards me, his lashes lowered as his eyes flitted to my lips. I was trying to figure out what I wanted from this situation. Did I want him to kiss me? Should I make some excuse and tell him to leave?

I had no time to decide because his hand reached out to gently tuck a lock of my hair behind my ear, and the touch of his skin against mine made any coherent thoughts quickly shrink and go away. Goosebumps rose on my skin as his hand cupped my cheek, which fit like a puzzle piece, before he leaned in and touched his lips against mine.

It was a light brush at first, a mere second of our mouths connecting, before he detached himself to look back up to me intensely. He was waiting for my consent to go further. I was filled with sparks of heat and strange tingling of, desire.. was it?

With my stomach dancing with butterflies, my hands flew to the back of his neck and reattached his lips to mine, and this time, with much more heat.

∆ ∆ ∆