October 10th 2003- Mystic Falls

She couldn't understand what was happening. Why did it have to hurt so much? Everything was going really great. Her birthday parties were usually the single most talked about thing at school. Everyone looked forward to it. Caroline's 11th birthday was no different. The entire mansion was decorated just the way she wanted with streamers and balloons. Her father had even gotten her a few bouquets of yellow and white lilies. Lilies were her favourite flowers. Her birthday cake was the exact two tiered Disney Beauty and the Beast cake she had seen in one of her mother's glossy magazines. Her mother had even gotten her made a yellow dress like the one Belle wore. All her friends were here.

She had been running around playing hide and go seek. Tyler didn't mean to push her. He wouldn't dare. But she fell anyway and she felt this sharp pain in her lower tummy.

She told her mother about the blood. She knew what it mean't. Her mother had talked to her about it and she had learned about the menstrual cycle in school. But what she couldn't understand was why her father told everyone to go home and that the party had come to an end because Caroline wasn't feeling well. She was feeling fine. She didn't want the party to end. When her mother started pacing, Caroline became nervous. But she wasn't afraid. She wouldn't be afraid of a little bit of blood. She knew what it mean't. She was a big girl now.

The idea of being a big girl made her happy.

Until the pain started.

The pain was excruciating. A devastating kind of pain. Utter torment as convulsions wracked her small frame. It felt like every single bone in her body was breaking and being crushed. She felt like her insides were being skewered. Her vision became blurred with her tears and her screams only stopped when she lost her voice. She looked to her mother with pleading eyes and she could see the sympathy there. Her mother's eyes were filled with unshed tears as she leaned over her daughter, holding her tightly as Caroline lay on the cold hard dirty floor of the cellar. Whilst her father stood silently watching from a short distance away.

Time stood still, and as the seconds ticked by, the pain grew worse. Caroline idly noticed other members of her father's pack standing by her father. "Perhaps it's time" Tyler's father said. "The transformation is almost complete."

"No" Caroline's mother practically screeched. "I will not chain my daughter to the wall like a common beast."

"Liz" Bill said patiently, "Caroline may be just a little girl, but she's an alpha. She's strong. If we allow her to roam free there will be consequences" he explained not unkindly, allowing emotion to show on his face for the first time since that morning when Caroline bled for the first time.

Her senses were becoming sharper, she realised. Despite the excruciating pain, Caroline was not numb to everything else. She was well aware of her surroundings. She began to pick up on her mother's distinct scent, her father's, Mr and Mrs. Lockwood, Miss Sheila and Mrs. Gilbert. Caroline lifted her head to look at them and her vision was no longer blurred. She saw clearly. She tried to push the pain to the back of her mind, and ground her teeth together as a fresh onslaught of pain began. She was no longer in control of her limbs. She felt as though her arms and legs were being crushed, twisted and broken apart all at the same time.

"Mommy" Caroline choked out, unable to take it any more. It was her birthday. Birthday's were supposed to be good happy days. What did she ever do to deserve being in so much pain?

"SShhh" Liz said, holding onto Caroline tighter, as if trying to physically hold her together. "It's okay baby... you're okay" she chanted over and over, resting her cheek against Caroline's cheek. Caroline could feel her mother's tears on her face. She could almost smell the salty tears, taste them. There was a pounding in Caroline's head... the strong steady beat of her mother's heart so close to her ear. Caroline focused on that sound.

"My sweet little baby girl" Liz practically cooed. "This pain... it'll all go away soon and then you'll be free baby. One day you're going to be queen and this pain... this pain is your strength Caroline. This suffering is your pride and glory. Your tears are your loyalty, your compassion, your greatness. Don't be afraid."

"Liz" Bill tried again.

"I said no" Liz practically snarled.

"Liz" Miranda piped up.

"The boy scouts are setting up camp tonight, if you let Caroline go, she'll tear them apart" Miss Sheila said plainly, but glancing at mother and daughter with a pained expression.

"I don't care" Liz said, her voice barely above a whisper. But by the way Mrs. Gilbert and Miss Sheila flinched, Caroline was sure everyone heard what her mother had said. "They're humans" Liz continued, her voice barely containing the misery she felt over having to watch her young daughter go through such a painful transformation. "Their lives mean nothing."

Caroline cried out, as she felt her head was about to explode. Her body trashed around and she clawed on the ground. She vaguely registered the long deep claw marks on the concrete floor, but didn't have time to react to it as she felt something happening to her jaw. Her entire mouth felt aflame, as though all her teeth were being pulled out at the same time.

"Are you sure Liz" Bill asked his wife one more time. The alpha would do anything to appease his mate.

Caroline looked up at her mother, who was getting up and leaving her. She opened her mouth to say something. Anything. She needed her mother to hold on to. She needed something to anchor herself to... so that the pain would not consume her. But instead of words, a low menacing growl rumbled through the air.

In an instant, the pain was gone.

Her mother was right. Caroline was free.

October 10th 2003- London

With a deep growl, he stumbled off the bed, falling to his knees, grasping his head in pain. The pain was excruciating. Far worse than anything he had ever endured in his rather long existence. It stifled him. Clawed at his heart. He felt like his body was being broken and battered, ripped apart into shreds. That was not unusual. He had been tortured before. He knew the flavour of every kind of torment that existed. He endured it all. But this was different. What completely caught him off guard was the pain he felt in his very soul. He felt like his soul was being set on fire, burning him from the inside out.

His latest victims, were no longer sprawled out on the bed, but perching at the edge, looking at him in utter fear. One of the women screamed, gathering up the sheets to cover herself naked body with. But the other woman seemed frozen in place.

"Leave" he snarled, making no effort to stop his hybrid features from appearing. His eyes flashed yellow, specks of gold tingeing his irises. He felt his sharp double fangs piercing the inside of his mouth. He tasted his own blood.

"Leave" he shouted, gathering his strength to grab the woman who sat unmoving. He roughly tugged on her arm, barely realising that she was in a state of shock, her expression blank but her body trembling in fear. The other woman had already run off with the sheet wrapped around her body, not even bothering to put her clothes back on.

His grip tightened on the petrified woman, as his vision became blurred. He fell to his knees once again, bringing the woman down with him. At some point, her senses must have come back to her because she started to struggle, trying in vein to wrench her arm out of his grasp. Images flashed through Klaus' mind, he groaned, letting the woman go and grabbing his head. He tugged roughly on his hair, as wave after wave of pain wracked his body. An all too familiar animalistic urge took over, and before the woman could make it to the door, Klaus flashed over to her and sunk his fangs into her neck. As he drank, listening to her heart beat slow, he felt an unfamiliar warmth in his chest.

It was not a comforting feeling. There was a sense of longing, emptiness, loneliness... need. Where he had felt invincible, unstoppable, a force to be reckoned with before. Now he felt...

Incomplete.