I'm alive! Yes, it's been a year. More than a year in fact. I apologize. I kind of stopped watching TVD and even stopped watching the Originals, so that sort of made me lose my inspiration to write. I opened up the story yesterday and actually came up with this chapter. It's not much. It probably sucks, but hey points for putting out something right? No promises that I'm out of my funk just yet. I know how I want to end this it's just GETTING it there. It's going to be brutal and if I haven't lost all of you yet, I hope that you will be patient with me. The life a teacher is pretty chaotic and my mind is always on school. I hope the update was somewhat worth the LOOOOOOOONG wait.

The Massacre

The next morning, Claire found herself slowly being awoken by the softest of touches. The touch began between her shoulder blades and traveled downward tracing her spine.

A small smile formed upon her lips as she murmured, "Good morning."

She heard him chuckle before she felt the bed shift and his lips press against the crown of her head.

Rolling over onto her side, she cuddled up against his hard chest, breathing him in. "Let's never leave this bed," she requested, contently. "Let's forget about everything – just stay here and make love until our bodies are spent."

She giggled when he swiftly pinned her beneath him and he responded, "That would be fantastic, love, if only the world could cease to exist." He lowered his lips to her and kissed her deeply before the moment was ruined by the ringing of his cell phone, resting on the nightstand.

She groaned against his lips as he pulled away to glance in its direction. "The world will never cease to exist," she huffed as he reached for the bothersome device.

Glancing at the flashing screen, he raised a brow and turned it over so that she could view it as well. When she read the name Stefan Salvatore, her eyes met his immediately.

"Why the hell is Stefan calling you," she asked in suspicion.

"He must be in a bind," he stated lightly before pressing the phone to his ear. "Stefan," he greeted jovially as he propped himself up on one elbow. "What do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

"I need your help," the other man stated simply, though his tone seemed to be filled with detest.

"Well, that much I figured would be obvious," Klaus teased, earning an elbow from Claire.

When he rolled his eyes at her, she shook her head and slid out from beneath the covers to get dressed much to his dismay.

"Look, as much as it pains me to even have to call you, but we have a serious problem. You two need to get over here – I believe Silas is in Mystic Falls."

Claire stopped in the middle of pulling on some pajama shorts when Stefan shared that particular information. Glancing over her shoulder at Klaus, she gave him a wide-eyed, fearful look.

Klaus' own face seemed to change from carefree to serious immediately by the sound of that name. "And you're certain?"

"Not absolute," Stefan answered. "But all signs are pointing to yes. So can you come?"

When Klaus looked like he was going say something snarky, Claire grabbed the phone from him and answered, "Yes, we'll come. See you in a bit."

She ended the call and tossed the phone onto the bed then continued getting dressed, but was doing so in a more exasperated way which caused him to questioned, "Care to share what's on your mind?"

"I would just love for one day to be somewhat normal, but no. I can't have that because there is always going to be something to ruin it. It's either Silas along with this damn cure or it's the situation with my brothers. I would love to get away from this town, but I keep getting sucked back in here."

With a frown, he kicked off the sheets, climbed to his feet, and went to the closet to begin dressing as well. "I suppose that I am to blame for that?" he called out to her bitterly.

At his tone, she paused and stared guiltily at the closet door.

"It's okay," he stated softly, obviously feeling her guilt. "I am for the most part to blame." He appeared at the door in a hunter green t-shirt and in the middle of slipping on a jacket of the same color. "You're frustrated. You have every right to be. Someone like you doesn't deserve to be in the middle of all of this."

She snorted, "Yet here I am." She turned away and headed into the bathroom to fix her hair which consisted of shoving her dark locks into a tight ponytail. Her eyes lifted as she stared into the mirror and found him leaning against the doorframe watching her.

"You're still here because unlike many others, you refuse to abandon those that you love which happen to be what I've always admired most about you, Claire."

"Oh, you mean my naïve notion that things are just going to be easily fixable, but everything ends up just blowing up in my face? You admire that?"

He rolled his eyes which caused her to narrow her own. "I'm not making fun," he quickly assured as he slowly approached her. "I just find your opinion of yourself to be very inaccurate." He wrapped his arms around her from behind, firmly. "I promise the moment things die down that we'll go anywhere that you wish and never return."

She frowned, "Not before I can make things right with Damon and Stefan."

He wasn't surprised at all at her declaration. "Whatever you feel is necessary," he told her, gently.

She nodded slowly and gave him a small smile. "I guess we should head on over to the boarding house."

With a sigh, he nodded, "I guess we should."

Minutes later, the two entered through the front door to find it still trashed after the huge party last night given by the out of control Elena Gilbert.

When they stepped into the foyer, they saw Caroline with a trash bag in hand taking a sip from a red SOLO cup.

"That can't be sanitary," Klaus commented, earning a glare from the young blonde.

"What are you two doing here," she asked, edgily.

"Stefan called us," Claire answered simply, staring over at the staircase. She turned to glance over at Klaus and stated, "I'm going to go and find Stefan. Be nice."

Lightly chuckling, he glanced over at the annoyed young vampire before he promised, "I'll be on my best behavior."

Shaking her head, she trotted up the stairs looking for Stefan. As she walked down the hallway, she paused at her bedroom door. Her mind told her to just keep walking, but she couldn't help but push open the wooden door and glanced inside.

She had hoped that it had been the way that she had left it a short time ago. Instead her eyes took in her old room with a frown upon her face. Boxes with the words Claire's Crap were scattered throughout the room. However, she couldn't focus on that. With sadness filling them, her eyes focused on the area where her grand piano had once sat. In its place were its shattered remains. It looked as if someone had taken a sledge hammer to it.

Pain tugged at her heart. It was much more than just some piano from her previous life. It had been her mother's – their mother's.

"Damon had a bit too much to drink one night," a voice explained behind her.

"So, he just decided to destroy one of the last things that I have that belonged to our mother," she asked, her voice thick with emotion.

Stefan sighed, "He feels betrayed by you."

Turning around to face him, she snorted, "I'm so sick of feeling like I'm the only one to blame."

"Claire," Stefan replied, shaking his head. "We have bigger things to deal with. Let's save our family drama for another date, okay? Please?"

Eying him, she nodded, "Fine. Nik's downstairs with Caroline. I guess we should join them so that we can figure out this whole Silas thing."

Nodding, he motioned her to leave the room first before following.

"Where is our piano-smashing brother," she questioned as they headed for the stairs.

She quickly took note of the sudden change of his face. It had gone from impassive to annoyed in nanoseconds.

"He's in New York City with Elena," he responded tightly.

Claire stared at him disbelief. "Let me try to get this straight. We're here having to deal with the Silas problem while he and your ex, the currently out of control newbie vamp, is gallivanting in the Big Apple?"

"He has ulterior motives," he explained as they paused at the top of the stairs.

"Let me venture a guess – he's looking for the cure and he's hoping that the moment that he recovers it that he'll be able to force Elena to take it." She didn't miss the shocked expression from big brother. "You seem to forget how much I know about my own brothers."

"He's thinking that he's on Katherine's trail, but we still have the whole Silas issue to worry about, so I'm trusting Damon with this task for now."

"You trusting Damon with Elena – that's a first," she commented, dryly.

"We have pressing matters here, so yeah I'm going to put my faith on our brother."

"And if he found out that you're seeking not only my help, but Nik's as well?"

"He doesn't need to know the particulars," Stefan remarked, shrugging. "I wasn't exactly informed when he decided to rush off to NYC with Elena." Shaking his head, he motioned with hand, "Now, let's go downstairs and talk about how we're going to deal with our current problem."

Minutes later, Claire watched as Klaus poured himself a glass of bourbon as he pondered over what Stefan had just revealed. Stefan stood over near the entryway leading into the den while Caroline sat perched on the arm of a nearby couch while Claire observed over by the window.

Once his drink had been poured, Klaus turned around, "So some blood has gone missing from a few hospitals. What about the young Elena? I mean it seems like if I were an out of control, young vampire with my humanity turned off that I'd overindulge in human blood. I mean isn't that what you did, Stefan?"

Inwardly, Claire groaned at his small poke at her brother and she saw Stefan's jaw clench as he answered, "It's not Elena."

"How can you be so sure," she questioned.

"Because like your boyfriend stated," Stefan pointed out. "She's young, out of control with no humanity stopping her, so she wouldn't bother downing a bunch of blood bags. She's go straight for the vein."

"Fine," Klaus commented, briefly. "Let's say for a moment that it was Silas. I'm not seeing how this affects me."

Caroline scoffed, but said nothing.

Stefan's eyes glared at hybrid as he plopped down in the small couch nearby. "Look, Silas wants to die and be reunited with his one true love, but he's supernatural. If he takes the cure and dies, he just gets stuck on the Other Side."

Klaus smirked, "How Shakespearian."

"However if he destroys the Other Side altogether, he can take the cure, die, and pass on," Stefan continued to explain then paused.

"I'm sensing a but to all this," Claire sighed in dread.

"If he succeeds in destroying it then every dead supernatural being will return to our side."

"That means every werewolf, every witch, and every vampire," Caroline stated eyes narrowing at Klaus.

Claire flashed a worried look over at Klaus, "I can only imagine that the majority of those were killed by your hands? I'm going to need for you to care just a bit more."

"No worries, love," he assured then he returned his gaze to the other Salvatore. "Well, my interest is piqued. How do you propose that we stop him?"

"Well, according to Bonnie, he needs to complete 3 massacres to do this spell. Before he died, Professor Shane convinced the pastor to blow up the council. Then he had you kill your hybrids, and now he just needs one more massacre. So, if he's here then that's what he's doing."

"We need to find him," Claire said immediately. "The last thing any of us need is anything supernatural to return to our side."

"Especially since they will be after your boyfriend," Caroline pointed out, edgily.

"Forbes, I'm not in the mood," Claire warned, her eyes blazing.

While Klaus chuckled, Stefan took a step between the two even though neither of them moved from their spots in the room. "We really don't need this right now. We need to work together to find Silas."

"Young Stefan is right," Klaus spoke up, placing his drink down on the side table then swiftly hopped to his feet. He made his way over to where his beloved was standing, hugging arms around herself. Naturally, she was troubled as usual. He pulled her to him with an arm, whispering. "I won't let anything happen to you, love."

"When are you going to learn that it's not me I'm concerned about?"

His eyes softened and he turned to face Stefan again. "So, what's the plan?"

Stefan blinked, obviously having been watching their exchange closely. He cleared his throat. "Well, since Shane seemed to know quite a bit about Silas, maybe we should start with his office at Whitmore."

Hours later with the sun going down, the foursome entered Shane's office trying to find something to help them out with the current dilemma.

"What are we even looking for," Caroline questioned as she stared around the room.

"Well, if Shane was really working with Silas then chances are that he was helping plan his next move," Stefan answered while Klaus and Claire walked over to the filing cabinets.

Caroline snorted and asked, "Where, on his evil villain, to-do list? Steal blood, perform three massacres, pick up dry-cleaning..."

"Actually," Klaus chimed in. "Not to nit-pick, but us evil villains tend usually use our little minions for tedious jobs like picking up our dry-cleaning."

As Claire bit back an amused grin, Caroline glanced over at Stefan incredulously, "Why is he necessary again?"

"Well, we don't know what Silas is capable of," he explained to her simply. "If we go head-to-head with him, having an Original hybrid who can't die might come in handy."

"Besides," Klaus spoke up, delightfully. "Stefan and I work well together at least we did back in the twenties."

"Well, granted my emotions were turned off," Stefan defended in mild amusement as Klaus walked around behind Shane's desk and plopped down in the desk chair.

"That's why you were more fun back then," he chuckled. With his fingers linked, he smirked, "Not to be too unkind, but I'm sure Damon is relishing in Elena's emotionless company in New York."

With tight lips, Stefan remarked lowly, "My brother knows what he's doing."

"Does he," Klaus countered. He pointed a finger at him thoughtfully, "Don't underestimate the allure of darkness, Stefan." His eyes darted over to Claire who was staring at him disapprovingly. "Even the purest hearts are drawn to it. Isn't that right, love?"

Stefan snorted softly.

"Still," Klaus went on. "I'm sure it all will be fine."

"We're wasting time," Claire pointed out. "Let's keep focus, yeah?"

From her place at the bookcase, Caroline spoke up, "I think I found something." With a dusty book in her hands, she approached where Stefan and Klaus were and Claire quickly made her way over. "Symbolic Figures of the Dark Arts," she read before laying the book onto the desk opened up. "Didn't Bonnie talk about Expression triangles?" She pointed at the large, intricate picture on the page. "Here."

Stefan bent over the desk to read a paragraph from the page describing exactly what was required in creating an Expression Triangle.

"Looks like two of the three have been completed," Claire stated, softly.

Nodding, Caroline pointed to a symbol at the top of the triangle. "Humans...that was the Council Fire. Demons, also known as, Klaus' hybrid failure," she added tersely.

"Oh I wouldn't call them failures, young Caroline," Klaus grinned. "What's the third?"

Claire's index finger brushed across the other symbol and whispered, "Witches."

Beside her, Caroline's eyes widened and brings clasped hands up to her mouth, "Oh no."

After determining that there was two possible locations where the massacre would take place along with finding out just who Silas was impersonating, the foursome had headed out to stop anything from happening..

Deciding that it was smarter to split up, Claire found herself surprise when Caroline insisted that she should go with Klaus. "What," she had questioned when Stefan and Claire both gave her a surprised look. "I'm not going to leave Bonnie's life in his hands."

"He wouldn't," Claire started to argue, but stopped herself obviously unable to really be confident in that.

Caroline smirked, "Yeah. That's what I thought."

Claire flashed a look to Klaus who shrugged slightly beside her. "Well, I wouldn't let anything happen to your friend."

"I can't trust your judgment either, Claire. I'm sorry."

"Fine," Klaus interjected before Claire could further argue. "I'll go with young Caroline and the Salvatore's can go together."

Biting her bottom lip, Claire nodded, "Be careful...both of you."

With a small smile, Klaus dropped a kiss upon her lips. "You too, love." His eyes moved to Stefan. "I trust you'll look after your sister for me, mate?"

"We're wasting time," Stefan remarked, ignoring request.

When her brother made a move past, Klaus stuck a hand out, stopping him. Firmer, he repeated, "I trust that you will be looking after your sister."

The two men glared and Claire sighed, "Okay, stop it. Stefan's right we don't have time for this." To Klaus, she added firmly, "I'll be fine. Now go!"

Klaus' blue eyes shifted to meet hers and he nodded. He motioned to Caroline and the two disappeared, heading north.

"Let's go," Stefan beckoned and Claire followed him in the opposite direction, heading to the southern part of Mystic Falls.

"Can you even read a map," Caroline asked causing Klaus to grit his teeth as they walked through the woods.

"Quite well in fact," he answered tightly. "And do you know who taught me? My friend Magellan." Shaking his head, he pocketed the phone.

"Wow! You had a friend," she mocked. She snorted. "Was he drawn to your darkness too?"

"Did my point about Damon and Elena strike a chord with you," he wondered as they kept trekking onward.

"It's because it's not true," she argued. "There is no allure to darkness."

This caused him to stop and turn around, halting her movements. "Oh really? I have feeling that this has something to do with Claire and me. What is it that makes it so hard for you to believe? It is so hard that she has this attraction for someone who's capable of doing terrible things, but for some reason cares only about her? It should be abundantly clear, Caroline, that I love her yet everyone seems think – myself included – that she deserves better."

"It's because she does," she bellowed. "She may think that you're worth it, but some people can't be fixed. People who do terrible things are just terrible people. It's plain as that. You're fooling yourself."

He felt himself reacting to that.

"Claire is a good person. I don't doubt that you love her." Shaking her head, she chuckled lightly. "It's obvious. You'd die for her." Her lips formed a straight line as she stared at the Original with a sharp gaze. "You can't change who you are. And you are going to get her killed."

As her words sunk in, he saw the young vampire starting to lose her confidence a bit as she started to look a bit nervous when he did not respond.

Not wanting to continue on with the topic, Klaus cleared his throat. "We're here," he replied indicating that they had arrived at their destination. "Gathering by the lack of witches, here isn't the right place."

Meanwhile, Claire followed behind Stefan quietly. Neither had spoken when the two search parties had been selected.

"She'll be fine," Claire spoke up.

"We don't know that," Stefan disagreed with a shake of his head before ducking under a limb. "If Silas has Bonnie convinced that she's doing the right thing..."

"I'm not talking about Bonnie," Claire interrupted. "I'm talking about Elena."

His shoulders stiffened, but he ventured on. "Like you care," he muttered.

"Contrary to what has been happening lately between our family and Elena, I don't hate the girl, Stef. If I know one thing about Elena Gilbert it is this, she'll find some way of getting through this. She always does. You just have to help her figure it out and be there when she does. I don't wish bad things upon Elena. I just hate that Damon and you pretty much chose her over me."

"Like you chose him over us," Stefan wondered, stopping and turning around.

"I just followed my heart," she pointed out simply. "I've never claimed that he was perfect. I know he's done horrible things, but I know that there is and have seen the good in him! But let's get one thing straight, Stefan, I never chose him over my family. It's killing me that this is what we've become! I know that the easiest thing to do to repair this," she motioned to each of them, "is that I would have to let him go, but I can't." As unshed tears occupied her eyes, she let out a breath, "I'm not asking for you or Damon to choose me over Elena. I just don't want you two to write me out of your lives because I am in love with him. It's not fair. You may not like him, but you have to know that I wouldn't just jump into anything if I didn't believe in my heart that he's worth it."

"Worth dying for," he questioned heatedly.

Not faltering, she nodded as the tears spilled down her cheeks, "Yes. If it saved him, then yes, I would die for him. Just like he would die for me. Just like you and Damon would die for her," she swallowed. "It's that kind of connection that makes our love real, Stefan. You can't hate me for believing so strongly about this."

He stared at her for what seemed like forever. "We really need to keep going."

"I agree," she nodded watching as he turned around.

Minutes later, he asked, "Do you hear that?"

She nodded, "Sounds like chanting." Before another word could be spoken, the two vamp-sped toward that direction soon seeing light from the torches and fire.

"Stop it," Stefan called out, halting near the witch who had Bonnie's head in her hands. "It's not what you think."

"This is no place for a vampire," the woman growled.

"She's working for Silas," Claire tried. "She doesn't know what she's doing."

The witch's face looked frightened by the mere mention of his name, "Silas?"

"He brainwashed her to kill you," Stefan told her.

The woman pulled out a dagger from her jacket while Bonnie whimpered on the ground.

"Wait," Stefan ordered cautiously. "What are you doing?"

"If Silas has her," the woman spoke calmly. "She is lost. We can't save her."

"Wait," Stefan argued advancing and the witch swung up an arm, stopping him in his tracks and causing him to drop to his knees from immense pain from the spell she cast upon him.

"Stop," Claire scowled, stepping forward, but found herself in the same position as Stefan.

"I have the power of twelve witches," the dark-skinned woman proclaimed. "Neither of you stand a chance!"

Stefan snatched up Claire and dragged her away quickly outside the circle to avoid any further complications with the witches' spell. Both groaned in pain as Stefan leaned against a tree and Claire fell to her knees again.

As the witches continued chanting, they were quickly joined by Klaus and Caroline.

Klaus helped Claire to her feet and held onto her. "What's going on," he questioned immediately.

"They're linked," Stefan filled in. "Bonnie's going to kill them."

"Not if the witches don't kill her first," Klaus retorted before releasing Claire and rushing toward Stefan, shoving him into a nearby tree.

"Klaus, we need to save her," Caroline shouted.

"How? The only way to stop the witches is to kill them, and then Silas wins," he reported, keeping Stefan at bay.

"He's right," Claire agreed. Her eyes went sadly to Caroline.

From the circle, the black witch called out, "Spirits, take her soul. Free her from darkness!" She held the dagger over Bonnie as Bonnie screamed in pain.

Suddenly Caroline has vamp-ran into the circle and jerks the dagger from the woman's hand, and stabbed her in the chest, killing her.

Stefan, Klaus, and Claire could only stare as the blonde vampire watches in horror as the witches surrounding the circle dropped dead one by one and the flames burn out. Looking around, she is shocked at what she has done, but realizes why when she stares down at Bonnie.

Shaking his head, Klaus growled, "Stupid girl."

"It's done," Claire replied solemnly. "We have bigger issues to prepare for. Silas has everything he needs."

"Not everything," Stefan spoke up.

He still didn't have the cure.

Please Review!