It had been hard. Being open, being truthful, being the one to break Stefan's heart but it was right, if they were to have this friendship there had to be trust. Trust was open-ness, trust was honesty, even if it hurt like hell. Walking down the streets, she rubbed her arms over her cashmere cardigan, the feeling of goose bumps still present upon her skin after seeing Stefan destroy the parlor of the Salvatore Boarding School in a fit of rage. Taking a shaky breath she tried to escape the pain in his eyes that haunted her. Looking up into the night's sky she blinked back tears as she starred up at the stars that seemed so few and far between on such a clear night.

It was meant to be perfect. A night full of Christmas cheer. A real winter wonderland yet all the evening had captured was the coldness of the season, standing in the middle of the deserted road she felt as lonely as Klaus' snowflake painting. Sighing deeply into the silent night she shook her head and continued her walk back to her house, where Tyler had told her he would meet her, when all had been done. She tried to force a smile at the thought of being able to spend the night content in his arms, with their problems finally set a side but the guilt she shared with Stefan still remained and it ate away at her stomach, tearing and ripping its way up to her lungs, to her heart.

Wrapping her arms around herself tighter, growing colder at the thought, she let her teeth slice into her pink glossed lip and destroy the skin. Why did she feel this way? Why did he have to affect her so? Why couldn't it be simple? He was the bad guy, but why couldn't she hate him, want him dead and gone like the others? Licking at her now bleeding lip she twinged at the taste of her own blood, reminding her of Stefan's words. Of how they had all done terrible things but had family to love and trust. To feel alone and to be alone for eternity was a thought that could drive a man mad, and perhaps it had.

Hearing the sound of footsteps in the distance she peered into the darkness making out stumbling figure, with a bottle swinging by their side. Rolling her eyes at the drunkard she simply strode with the confidence that vampirism had given her. There was a time when she would have crossed the street to the other side, pretended to be on her phone, perhaps even taken another route so not to be alone in situation that could turn sticky. Now things were different. She was the potential monster with the ability to destroy lives.

As the figure grew closer, stepping in and out of the shadows as they stumbled under the street lamps she could make out the form was male, the large bottle swinging back and forth to his lips. Shaking her head in disgust at the disheveled form she went to make remark beneath her breath until she saw the suit and smelt it. Her eyes widened as her senses went awol over the smell of blood. Not just one persons blood but a whole array. It made her throat clench and taste buds tingle, thirsty to the extent that she could feel the threat of veins flutter across her face.

"Block it out, Caroline." she whispered to herself. "Let it go." She told herself that the man must have been in an accident, hit and run from drinking and driving. He was probably hurt and bleeding and in a state of confusion. She should help. Be a good citizen in a time of need. Yet the closer she got the less convinced she felt as the features marred by blood became clearer. Her heart stopped and her mind went blank, she knew that figure, in all forms. The one person she couldn't bare to see, just a few paces in front, blue eyes blaring, cold and heartless they starred at her with something worse than hatred, disappointment.

Caroline let her own eyes scan over him, her mouth dry at the sight of Klaus before her. Death coated him in all of its harrowing glory. It screamed out against the snow whiteness of his skin and shirt, barely shadowed by the suit jacket that hung heavily off slumped shoulders. Edging closer she could see the streams of blood that seeped across his face like tears. He barely flinched, unaffected by their presence which only disturbed her further as she watched him press the champagne bottle to his dry, cracked lips.

She tried to side step, to skirt around him, keep her head down and bury all of it. She didn't want to know. She couldn't know. She didn't think she could handle it - the horror of it all, the horror of him. How could only minutes early she find it hard to remember his capabilities and now they were splattered across his being for all to see. No, this couldn't be real. Her fingers pinched deep into her skin and she wanted to yelp with the pain that she felt as her nails pressed through the material of her cardigan, her lips wavering as his upturned into that familiar smirk.

Circling each other, his eyes seemed to pin her down, root her to the spot as if she had stepped into a block of concrete.

"What's the matter, love? Cat got your tongue?" he slurred with a sharpness to his tongue that made her breath hitch in her throat, her chest constrict. Yes, she thought bitterly, he had it, along with her life wrapped tightly in his marred hands. Paling at the thought she starred anxiously at the floor, picking out the remains of fake snow stuck to the soles of his shoes. Tiny, crumpled flakes.

"You're meant to be," she began uneasily, her body shaking at the chill of his breath as he leaned in close, surveying her like his next prey, eyes wolfish, still hung on the chase. Closing her eyes as his lips pressed against her ear, stubble grazing her cheek she froze like ice as he spat one single word

"Dead?"

The chill of the nights air brushed past her alerting her that he had stepped away and when she opened her eyes she found that he was sat on the curb, feet and bottle in the gutter, hands buried furiously into the curls on his head with such ferocity that his knuckles had turned as white as her dress. Gingerly she let her fingers dance across her cheek where his stubble had pressed against her, leaving her face oddly warm.

"Where's Tyler?" she found herself asking, or rather pleading, her hand trembling against her skin, sending frantic vibrations past her heart and into the pit of her stomach. His head shook and one hand slipped down back to the bottle, before crushing it into shards that scattered towards her shoes. She watched helplessly as blood poured from his palm into a puddle beside him, staining his spot on the sidewalk. "Please?" she tried again, her voice breaking with fear and uncertainty but he remained solid and still.

Even with her vampire hearing she could only just make out the briefest incoherent mutterings of self-musing from his lips, head still down turned, eyes roaming over his own blood that now ran like a stream down along the gutter, glistening upon the glass in an almost mocking manner. He could bleed and entire ocean and still open his eyes to see the next sunrise.

Caroline clenched her fists as she stepped closer, not in anger but in anxiety. The fear that he had conjured in her was overwhelming and yet she was pulled to him like a magnet for all kind of answers, for all sorts of questions. "Klaus?" she pressed, his name the softest whisper as it fell from her lips.

"You're in luck. I've not seen Lockwood." he paused allowing her to swallow, to regain her breathing, to process before raising his stare from the street to her eyes and adding an impending "Yet." The low, harsh growl sent a shiver through her spine but she let out a soft sigh of relief knowing that for now Tyler was ok. Nodding slowly she let her blonde curls shield her face as her eyes darted around him, unsure of where to look, his present condition still of a disturbance to her. "Do you have a death wish Caroline?" His voice erupted low, slow, and resounding from his chest.

Caroline met his eyes, a dark shade of grey, bleak and hollow. Biting her bottom lip she found herself forced to look away unable to take the intensity of his stare. "I think you have forgotten who you've been messing with my dear. "

"I, I didn't," she began but found herself stuttering her words getting lost around her tongue and the cold air. Through gritted teeth he took a sharp breath.

"If you have any sense left in that pretty little head of yours, you'd shut your mouth and start walking." Her eyebrows rose in shock, her lips pursing in annoyance in being spoken to in such a way, though it seemed silly, she thought as she looked at the blood stain crumple of a monster in front of her that she was saddened and hurt by words when he had received so much worse.

"I was part of it but I didn't agree with it." she found herself admitting softly.

She hadn't realised how much she had compromised herself until she had said it out loud.

"It's complicated but I never wanted you to..."her words trailed off at her own stupidity. Klaus was right she should have shut her mouth and started walking. Turning on her heels she did as she was instructed trying to forget the whole evening.

"I killed tonight." Klaus words caused her to freeze, the wind blowing them cruelly and cold across her face. "I killed tonight, you've seen the blood upon my skin and yet you've not asked one single question." footsteps paced behind her, the sound of shards of glass crushing beneath their soles. "Why?" Caroline could feel him there, his presence making her cower slightly in his shadow.

"I..."inhaling deeply she closed her eyes and started again, her fists clenching as she tried to keep her cool. "I don't hate you. Like I should. I should hate you, I should despise you. Knowing and accepting that is hard enough." He was in front of her now, quiet and still, his face twisted in some sense of shock and confusion, allowing her to continue. "I can't deal with anything more tonight than the fact that I like you." She whispered her confession with water to her blue eyes as they exhaled and inhaled the same air. She could hear the uneasy quiver to his breathing as his jaw tensed. The space between them seemed to narrow so much so that she thought that all the oxygen around them might disperse.

"I killed Carol Lockwood," Klaus stated emotionless. "How do you like me now?"