Author's note: Hope you're all having a great weekend! I've finally got past some midterms and a term paper, and before I have to get to the rest of them, here's an update! Thank you so much for your kind words and alerts, you're all lovely people, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nada.

You never know. Maybe when we're dreaming...we're more lucid than when we are awake

-Katherine Angela Yeboah

Sun streamed in through the window as Elena Gilbert pulled open the curtains in her boyfriend's bedroom. Said boyfriend could be heard making breakfast in the kitchen, and she could hear him bickering with her little brother. A small smile spread on her face, and she quickly got dressed, stopping just before she left the room to check her phone.

No texts. No missed calls. No voicemails. Nothing. It wasn't that she was too worried just yet. Out of the three people she had been hoping to hear from, two were vampires and the third a witch, there wasn't a lot that could happen to them, especially since their biggest obstacles had moved to New Orleans and been trapped in stone respectively Still, something nagged at her.

Elena could understand Stefan leaving. She shut her eyes against the wave of guilt that flooded through her, taking deep breaths. Stefan needed time and space – the least she could do was respect that. As for Bonnie, the witch had done so much for all of them that she over everybody deserved a rest. If Bonnie wasn't ready to call, that was fine – Elena hoped her friend was enjoying herself, whatever she was doing. She was worried, but she wasn't as concerned as Caroline.

That was the latest issue to crop up. Ever since Caroline had left two nights ago, she hadn't heard a word from the blonde. She assumed Caroline was trying to get back in touch with Tyler, or maybe packing for college, but it was odd of her to not pop up for two days, especially since Caroline had taken it upon herself to constantly check up on everybody and make sure they were okay. Elena knew Caroline felt like making sure her friends were alright was one of the last few things the blonde could do to maintain the control she craved, and after everything that had happened to them, Elena couldn't blame her.

"Morning sleepyhead," Elena was pulled from her thoughts by the sight of Damon leaning against the open doorframe, a lazy smirk on his face. She rolled her eyes but grinned back, flashing over to him to give him a quick kiss. "Now, is there any reason you decided to stay in here instead of getting breakfast? Little Gilbert thinks he can cook better eggs than me and I need you to take my side on this."

Elena just laughed and Damon wrapped an arm around her waist, leading her out of the bedroom and down the hallway. She seemed relaxed enough, but he didn't miss the nervous glances she kept shooting her the phone in her hand.

"Hey, relax, Stefan's probably fine," he said with a wave of his hand. "You know my brother, he's probably found a nice coffee shop somewhere and is writing out his hopes and dreams in a new journal."

Elena managed a smile but the uneasiness didn't go away. "It's not just Stefan I'm worried about," she admitted hesitantly. "I'm a little worried about Caroline, she's not taking my calls."

"Maybe Blondie's taking a 'me day'" Damon suggested.

Elena rolled her eyes, "Caroline always takes her calls, Damon. Plus, I'm starting to think she might've been right about Bonnie," she said as they both stepped into the Boarding House's spacious kitchen.

"What about Bonnie?" Jeremy asked, looking up from the stove. He looked a little nervous for some reason, and Elena noticed he couldn't meet her eyes. But, she reasoned he was as worried about Bonnie as the rest of them, after all he'd barely gotten to spend any time with her after he was brought back.

"Elena's just worried that witchy hasn't been answering her phone calls. What?!" he asked in response to the Gilberts' matching glares.

"Bonnie, is just… taking some time to relax," said Elena, trying to believe her own words. "You don't have to worry, Jer," she said, shooting a kind smile towards her brother. He nodded but remained silent, shifting his attention back to the stove.

"What about Blondie?" asked Damon through a mouthful of scrambled eggs. Elena sat down next to him at the island countertop and dug into a plate he set in front of her, thoughts drifting towards her bubbly friend.

"Caroline's probably designing our dorm room," said Elena, sounding much more convinced than she actually felt. "But I'll drive over to her house, check in – you know Caroline, when she gets in the zone the rest of the world disappears."

"I still think you're overreacting," said Damon, preparing for further snark but Elena's glare quickly changed his mind. "Did I say overreacting? I meant caring, very, very caring."

"Smooth," said Elena with a smirk, and the three of them finished their breakfast chatting about mundane matters, avoiding all the serious stuff that was hovering over them. Elena worried about her brother, there was no telling what the consequences were to being brought back to life the way he had been, and he seemed to be weirdly secretive about something all summer. She couldn't guess what it was, but she trusted that eventually, he'd tell her. Well, hopefully.

Once they were done, Elena grabbed her purse and gave Damon a quick peck on the lips goodbye. "Maybe you should try contacting Stefan?" she suggested. The younger Salvatore was the sore spot that neither of them talked about too much, but they had to talk about him sooner or later, it was inevitable. Besides, Damon was worried about him, even if he wouldn't admit it to anyone.

Damon gave a resigned sigh, but otherwise complied with her suggestion. "I'll give it a shot," he said, and Elena beamed at him in return, before zipping into her car and making her way across town. The Forbes residence proved no luck, no one answered the door and Elena couldn't make out any heartbeats, human or vampire.

That was fine. Caroline could be shopping. She could be taking a short trip out to Whitmore. It wouldn't explain why she hadn't answered the phone, but maybe she just wanted a bit of a break? Elena went over every possible explanation, but some part of her, the part that had learnt from every supernatural interference in her life that this was wrong. Well, if she couldn't find Caroline, she'd track down the next person who'd probably know where she was.

The Mystic Falls Police station was unusually busy for a Saturday morning, clerks were running folders between desks, coffee was being brewed by the liter and deputies were hastily conversing with each other over their computers. They hushed up as soon as they saw her walk in and a few gave her polite smiles, but it was clear that something was happening to worry them that they didn't want the public to know about.

Luckily, super hearing was a perk of being a vampire, so as innocently as she could, Elena shifted some of her hair behind her ear and pretended to play on her phone, listening carefully.

"We found another one near Highbury last night, same MO."

"That makes it what? Ten?"

"The one's that we found – what about the blood?"

"Elena? What are you doing here?"

Elena jerked her head up, that last comment coming from someone right in front of her. Liz Forbes looked haggard, her short blonde hair sticking up in odd angles, her uniform wrinkled, and the bags under her eyes were worryingly prominent. Elena was immediately on alert, something was clearly wrong for Liz to look this tired, but she hadn't heard anything on her end.

"Liz…what's going on?" asked Elena hesitantly.

Liz sighed, and took a large sip from the Styrofoam cup of coffee in her hand. "Listen, we're trying to keep this quiet but…" she trailed off, looking around at the chaos around her and took Elena's arm gently guiding her to her office, where she locked the door behind her.

"I was going to call Damon soon, but I might as well tell you now," she started, taking a seat behind her desk and gesturing for Elena to take one opposite her.

"You're scaring me, what's happening?" asked Elena.

"There have been bodies. Not here," she added quickly, seeing Elena's eyes widen in fear. "But in the towns around us – Ashfield, Meadowview, and last night, Highbury. They've been popping up and the sheriffs have alerted us – they think it's a serial killer, but the bodies…they've been drained of blood."

Elena froze in her seat. "Vampire?"

"Probably. The weird thing is, they're avoiding Mystic Falls. Which I guess we shouldn't complain about, but I'm worried.

Elena nodded, thinking the situation over. "If anything happens here, let Damon and me know right away, okay?" She shot Liz a reassuring smile and the older woman returned it gratefully.

"Thanks Elena, but you shouldn't be worrying about all of this. How's the prep for college going? Have you decided what to pack?"

"Not really, but I was hoping Caroline had a better idea," she replied with a light smile.

"Oh, how is she lately? I've been so busy I'm practically living here, I don't blame her for staying over at the boarding house. Elena? Is everything alright? "

But Elena had gone stock still, her blood turning cold. "Liz…when's the last time you saw Caroline?"

"A couple of days ago. I had stopped by the house for a shower and she was on her way out to spend the evening with you. Why? What's wrong."

Elena licked her lips nervously before deciding to tell Liz the truth. "Look, I haven't seen Caroline for two days – but I'm sure she's fine!"

Liz sat up further in her chair, worry for her daughter crashing over her in waves. "Elena, the bodies…if it's a vampire…"

"No! No way, Caroline has nothing to do with any of that!" said Elena quickly. Her anxiousness grew tenfold, she knew that Caroline had absolutely nothing to do with the dead bodies, but if something were attacking humans, she wouldn't put it past her friend to try and help and maybe get hurt in the process.

"Look, I'm sure she's fine," Elena said hurriedly as she stood up. "I'm going to head back to the boarding house and try her cell again, I'm sure she's fine, you focus on what's going on here – call Damon if you need him, okay?"

After getting Liz to agree to stay at the station, Elena peeled her car out of the station's parking lot and raced back to the boarding house, slamming to a halt in the Boarding House's driveway. She had flashed through the front door in a second, and ran into the living room where she could hear Jeremy talking to somebody. Weirdly enough, only Jeremy was in the room and he jumped when she came in.

"Elena! When did you get back?"

"Just now – Jer, who were you talking to?"

"Nobody! Just…thinking out loud," he said with a shrug, stuffing his hands in his pockets and rocking on his heels.

Normally, Elena would've pressed farther, but she was distracted by Caroline's apparent missing status. Damon walked into the room just then, and judging from the worried look on his face, he hadn't had much luck with Stefan. He tried to look neutral as quickly as he could, but Elena knew that they had two missing persons on their hand.

"No luck?" she asked.

Damon shook his head, "Nada. I'm still not that worried though, it's Stefan. He can take care of himself. I know he can." The last part was to convince himself more than Elena, but he wasn't sure how much he believed it.

Elena ran a frustrated hand through her hair, "It's not just Stefan-Liz hasn't seen Caroline in days, I'm worried about her too."

"Well where would she go? Have you checked the mall?"

"Damon!" she snapped back, tensing up. She relaxed a little when Jeremy came to stand next to her, squeezing her shoulder.

"Hey, relax. She's Caroline, she's probably-"

His words were cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing throughout the house.

"That's probably one of them right now," said Jeremy. Elena released a breath and zipped over to the front door, yanking it open.

It wasn't Stefan. It wasn't Caroline. The person standing on the other side of the door was the last person she ever thought she'd see here, and now. He gave her a small nod.

"Hello Elena – may I come in?"

"Su-sure," she said, a little disoriented. He walked past her and Elena shut the door, turning back to see Damon come out of the living room and stop dead in his tracks at the sight of their visitor.

"Elijah?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"We're dreaming?" Caroline asked incredulously. Her and Klaus remained in the woods, moonlight illuminating the small clearing that she had been attacked in. She leant against a tree on the edge of the clearing with Klaus standing in front of her, his eyes wide and darting around him, as if expecting his father to be back at any moment. And honestly, she didn't blame him, they didn't know the rules of whatever the hell this place was – they didn't know how dangerous things really were.

Caroline couldn't believe it, frankly, she didn't want to believe it. She was the ultimate control freak, and being a vampire didn't help that, what with the constant blood cravings, the heightened emotions and the frighteningly recurring impulse to just use her supernatural advantages to beat down anybody who got in her way. Her head was the one place she still had perfect control, where she knew exactly who she was. After what Damon had done to her, she had vowed to never let her mind be taken over again.

(Of course, being a vampire wasn't a guarantee that it would never happen.)

"It makes sense, think about it," Klaus said, his mind racing through everything that had happened to them. "We 'woke up' in this place where the impossible was happening. We saw dead family matters, we forgot where we were or the sense behind what we were doing-"

"We weren't paying attention!" interjected Caroline, finally catching up with his thinking. "I just accepted what was happening, but everything kept flipping around – and I knew that. I knew it but I still didn't question it." Her voice got progressively more bitter towards the end of her little revelation, and her irritation at herself rose. She should've figured it out ages earlier. She should've been smarter than this.

For his part, Klaus kept silent, his own frustration matching Caroline's. He understood that episode with their fathers now – when Caroline thought about her father, there he'd been. And as soon as his own thoughts had hit upon Mikael, the bastard had appeared. That was some relief at least; these nightmares weren't real.

'Weren't they?'

If they're dreaming, then all of this was on giant vivid hallucination (or so he hoped). Nothing should be able to hurt them, but then, he can still hear the echo of Caroline's scream as the stake entered her heart. There was no assuming their safety, not while they still had no idea where exactly they were and who had done this to them. Lucid dreams were hardly foreign to vampires, nor was the concept of shared dreaming. But to share a dream where neither party could remember initiating it...it wasn't just rare, it was impossible.

No, he refused to entertain the thought that Caroline had anything to do with this. She looked about as frazzled as he felt. This meant somebody else had a hand in the matter and when he found out just who it was, he was going to be taking his good sweet time exacting his revenge. For now though, they had to figure out the fastest way to wake up, and fast before they lost control and invited every manner of monster to come and chase them down.

Caroline lept to her feet and began to pace in front of him, racking her brain for everything and anything she had every learnt about dreams, which was unfortunately limited to one psychology class in senior year. At least she'd gotten an 'A' in it. "Right, dreams, dreams…" she muttered, more to herself than to Klaus, whom she could feel watching her warily.

"What do we know about dreams?" she asked out loud. She wanted to stamp her foot in frustration because if this were the real world, she'd be able to dig out her colour coordinated flashcards and go over everything she knew, but here, there was nothing that could help her. "I wish there was some way we could get information!" she said, stopping finally and facing Klaus. "This sucks, I can't do anything, I can't research or plan or-"

She stopped abruptly as she realized that once more, the world had changed around them. The forest had given way to the Mystic Falls High School library, empty except for the hybrid and the vampire. It was daytime again, and weak rays of sunshine filtered through the windows, illuminating the stacks of books piled on the table where they both sat. It reminded Caroline of cramming for exams with Bonnie and Elena, trying hard to concentrate but eventually ending up giggling over who liked who that week while the old librarian, Mrs. Pollard glared at them over her square glasses.

"Is this your high school library?" asked Klaus, eyebrows raised when she nodded in response. "What the bloody hell are we doing here?"

"I said I wanted to research – I guess now we research!" said Caroline, reaching for the nearest book and finding it to be a replica of her old psychology textbook. She never thought she had read it very thoroughly, but here it was, recreated from some part of her memory. Alright, this she could control. This she could work with. Flipping through the pages, she picked out passages, skimming everything and anything that could possibly help them.

"Okay….dreams are mental experiences during REM sleep…everybody dreams…dreams are wish fulfillment…blah, blah blah-ugh! There's nothing here that can help us!" Caroline flipped through the pages so fast she risked tearing them. Across from her Klaus leant back in his chair, enjoying seeing her so focused, in her element. If she put her mind to it, he had no doubt that she could take over the world in a heartbeat.

"I wouldn't discount that 'wish fufillment' part quite yet, there's still a chance we can enjoy each other's company," he said with a smirk which only widened upon seeing Caroline roll her eyes and scoff in response. Oddly, her little gesture of derision was incredibly endearing, not to mention a signal that she was recovering from her earlier panic. He didn't want her any more affected by this place than she had to be.

"Oh wait, here's something!" said Caroline suddenly. "During lucid dreams, people can often exert some control over the events unfolding." She dropped the book down on the table and met Klaus' gaze. "Maybe we just need to concentrate? If we think hard enough, we can wake ourselves up!" She was so intent on her plan that she paid no attention to Klaus chuckling to himself.

(Let him stay here if he wanted, she was damn well getting out of here."

Ignoring him, Caroline shut her eyes tightly. "I'm dreaming," she muttered to herself. "I'm dreaming and when I open my eyes, I'm going to wake up." With that, she snapped her eyes open, only to find that nothing had changed. Klaus sat across from her with that same infuriating smirk, and Caroline huffed in annoyance.

"Why isn't this working?" she asked, but didn't wait for his answer before she tried agin, clamping her eyes shut and gripping the edge of her seat. "I'm dreaming," she said to herself, anticipating some shift in the air, a change in the atmosphere…but nothing. She was going nowhere.

With a resigned sigh, she opened her eyes to find that Klaus had picked up a book from the pile closest to him, and was flipping through it with a great deal of interest. "I have to say love, I had no idea how committed you were to the betterment of your school."

Caroline was confused before she realized that the book he held in his hands was not a textbook, but an old edition of the Mystic Falls yearbook, from her sophomore year judging from the date on the cover. "And how is that helping?" she asked, slightly irritated, though trying to exude nonchalance. On the inside however, she was mentally going through everything she remembered from that yearbook, trying to remember if she looked good in all the pictures.

(Not that she cared about Klaus' opinion of her, right? That was definitely not the case.)

"I've always wanted to know more about you Caroline, as long as we're in each other's heads, I might as well take advantage of the fact." He stopped on one page for a moment, and Caroline swore she could see his pupils dilate just a little. When he looked back up at her, it was to shoot her a lascivious smirk.

"What?" she asked, slightly flustered under his suddenly intense gaze.

"Nothing love, I'm just admiring the sight of you in this cheerleading uniform…" His voice is just a little lower than usual, and if his roving gaze is any indication, he's imagining her in it right now. She'd be a little more indignant, but for some reason, his attention on her just send a rush of warmth through her. Still, she managed to snap herself out of it and flashed over to his side to his side of the table, snatching up the book.

"Seriously, Klaus?! How about instead of ogling me, we focus on – hey!"

But Klaus was paying her no attention, instead, he had found another yearbook, and was eagerly flipping through it. In fact, as Caroline closely she realized that all the books around him were yearbooks, and photo albums, and as she picked up the nearest one her suspicions were confirmed – they were all pictures of her.

"Are you seriously dreaming this up right now?" Caroline asked in disbelief.

"Honestly love, even I couldn't make all this up – I think you're playing a bigger role than you realize."

"Doesn't mean you have to go through all of it!" she said, perching herself on the table just in front of him and picking up an old album filled with childhood photos. "Why are you so interested in these old photos anyway?"

Klaus looked up from his yearbook and regarded her intently for a moment. "I've always wondered what you were like as a human, Caroline."

She just scoffed and leant back a little. "Seriously? You don't want to go down that path. I was shallow, insecure, neurotic, constantly trying too hard to get people to like me and competing with Elena…"

As she went on, Klaus frowned and looked back at the open page in his lap, a photo of Caroline during some old school dance where she was dressed in a poodle skirt, her hair pinned up. She had her arm around the Bennet witch and was smiling widely at the camera, her eyes bright with laughter. "I think you look radiant," he said firmly, interrupting her tirade. She stopped mid-sentence and looked down at him, slightly stunned. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, and she ducked her head slightly.

Klaus frowned, wondering why exactly she had such a poor opinion of her human self. Making a decision, he lifted a hand and laid it on her knee, squeezing it gently. "I would've like to have known you," he said quietly.

Caroline smiled sadly. "I doubt that. Besides, aren't you the one who's always going on about being 'strong' and 'ageless'? Believe me, if you had actually known me, you'd think that getting killed was the best thing that ever happened to-"

She stopped suddenly, sitting up straight. Klaus sighed and stood up, tired of hearing her self-deprecation. In fact, he'd go so far as to say that her view to her human self was disturbingly similar to his own. He hated the thought of the man he had once been…but he never would've guessed that sweet, strong Caroline could have such a derisive view of her human past.

(Maybe that's why they'd be so good for each other.)

"Caroline, you really shouldn't – Caroline? Love?"

Caroline's mind was racing a mile a minute before she snapped out of it, and turned to face Klaus, hopping off the table to stand in front of him. "Getting killed," she said, realization dawning.

"Come again?"

"Think about it Klaus – what's the one thing that always wakes you up? No matter what? Death."

There's something a little unnerving about hearing Caroline speak about death, which is why he suddenly feels incredibly on edge. "Caroline, what are you getting at."

"If we want to wake up, we have to find some way to die."

The Salvatore living room had seen its fair share of awkward encounters over the years, but this might have taken the cake. Damon and Elena sat next to each other on a sofa, Damon inched forward ever so slightly in front of his girlfriend, just in case. Across from them sat Elijah, looking immaculate in a well-tailored suit, who regarded them cooly. He hardly looked like he had popped in to say 'hi', but he didn't look like he was repressing rage either, which the two younger vampires took as a good sign.

"So…what brings you back to Mystic Falls?" asked Elena, rubbing her hands nervously.

"A slightly disconcerting matter – I'm looking for my brother," replied Elijah, watching them carefully for any sign of guilt or discomfort. If by some chance they had done anything to Niklaus, he would have to negotiate this quickly.

"Nope!" said Damon happily. For once, this was something they had absolutely nothing to do with any of this. "Haven't seen Papa Hybrid in weeks, and to be honest, we're trying to keep it that way. So I guess you can just-"

"Klaus is missing?" asked Elena in disbelief. She had spent enough time trying to avoid Klaus to know that if he was suddenly off the grid, there was a good chance he'd show up when you least expected it.

"I wouldn't say my brother is 'missing', exactly, said Elijah carefully, not wanting to show his hand. "But I haven't seen him a few days, and he's ceased all communication so…"

"So basically he's missing," said Damon, trying not to sound too gleeful. Granted, the chances that someone had managed to permanently put Klaus down were incredibly slim, but he could enjoy himself if he wanted to.

Elijah sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, and the three of them lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Elena twiddled her thumbs, before a thought occurred to her.

"Caroline's missing too," she blurted out, regretting the words as soon as she said them out loud. She knew Klaus had a thing for Caroline, but she didn't think he really do something to hurt her…but this was Klaus. You could never be sure.

"Caroline Forbes?" asked Elijah, confused. He had heard of the Forbes girl very briefly during his stay in Mystic Falls, though he recalled that his brother had taken a shine to her. She had accompanied him to their mother's ball, but Elijah had been distracted with everything else going on at the time, he'd never actually gotten a chance to ask his brother who the young blonde was.

Now though, he hoped his brother's impulsiveness hadn't caused some untold amount of trouble. "Has Bonnie tried tracking her?" he asked.

Elena shook her head, looking more worried than before. "Bonnie's out of town at the moment," she said, looking down at her hands. "She's not really ready…it's been a hard year for her. She needed the break."

Elijah nodded, but knew that it was now time to involve magic, be it Bonnie Bennet's or not. Swiftly, he stood up, his decision made. "If you'll excuse me, I believe it's time for me to return to New Orleans."

"What about Klaus?" asked Elena warily. If the hybrid did pop up in Mystic Falls for whatever reason, she wouldn't mind having Elijah as a buffer against him.

"I need to call in a favour from one the witches of the French Quarter," Elijah explained. "I had been hoping that my brother was simply causing trouble here, but seeing as how he is apparently nowhere to be found, it's time to turn to a locator spell. He was one his way towards the front door, but before he left, he turned back to Damon and Elena. "Your friend, Caroline…if I find out anything about her, I'll let you know immediately."

Elena nodded gratefully, and Elijah took his leave. As soon as they heard him get into a car and drive off, she turned towards Damon and took note of the worried look on his face. "You think it's connected?" she asked him quietly.

Damon nodded, taking Elena's hand and leading her back over to the couch. "It's too big a coincidence. Blondie and Papa Hybrid missing right at the same time? Besides, we all know he was obsessed with her – you think maybe he finally…"

"Finally snapped and did something to her?" finished Elena, an uneasy pit growing in her stomach. "I don't know Damon, why would he wait until now?"

"Hell if I know," said Damon, sounding tired as he flopped back against the cushions. "There's also…there's also Stefan."

Elena stiffened, "What about Stefan? I thought you said you weren't too worried about him?"

"I wasn't. But if there's a chance he's involved in this…"

"I'm sure Stefan's fine," said Elena, but this time, she sounded entirely unconvincing. "It's Stefan, he'd call if he needed help, or if anything went wrong…right?"

The two vampires knew how hollow the words were. Anything they said now would be meaningless, because as far as their friends were concerned, there was no telling what could've happened to them. Elena relaxed into the couch and Damon wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and together they sat in silence, their worries permeating the air.

"Caroline, are you sure about this?" asked Klaus. They still stood in the library, where Caroline had snapped off the leg of one of the large wooden tables and was now holding the makeshift stake over her heart. She had a white knuckle grip on it, as if afraid she was going to drop it because of her anxiety, but she still managed to summon a reassuring smile.

"Look, we have to try this. Dying is the surefire way to wake people up, so it can't hurt, right?" She winced at her choice of words. There was a good chance this was going to hurt , a lot.

Klaus was against this plan, if only because the sight of Caroline ready to attempt suicide sent ice through his veins, despite him knowing the circumstances. "You were already killed, Caroline, remember? Not half an hour ago, by your father, or have you already forgotten that stake the heart?"

Caroline sighed, knowing that was the one fact that didn't gel with her little theory. Still, she was verging on desperate. "Maybe it was because someone else was killing me?" she offered, knowing it made little sense. "Maybe because this is so lucid, you have to really want to die, so I should be able to-"

"For God's sake Caroline, do you realize the chance you're taking?!" Klaus snapped at her, his eyes drawn back to the stake in her hands. This fists clenched and unclenched, and he fought to keep control and not rip it away for her.

"We have to try this Klaus," she said firmly. Gulping, she took a long look at him, finding mostly anger in his gaze, but also…fear? He was scared for her. The thought is oddly pleasant, and she holds onto that pleasant feeling at she gripped the stake and pushed it into her own chest.

The pain blinding, she could feel every little wooden splinter pierce her heart. But instead of blissful blackness, she remained awake, completely conscious of her heart pumping furiously around the intrusive object. Although she was awake though, her strength had left her and she was vaguely aware of having crumpled to the ground, a pair of arms catching her and holding her upright. There was a voice, muffled, and she realized it was Klaus, calling her name. He sounded frantic, but he didn't need to be. She was well and truly alive.

'So much for that plan'

The wood scraped against her heart, but this time it was being pulled out and Caroline regained her clarity. Looking up, Klaus's face was close to hers, and she felt him brushing hair out of her face. His lips were moving and she found herself fascinated by them, watching them open and close as he formed words, though it took her a moment to realize what he was saying.

"Caroline? Caroline, sweetheart, are you alright?" She was weak and muddled, he could tell, but quickly regaining her strength. At the very least, she hadn't died, though he wondered if her heightened awareness of what she was doing was what enabled her to keep conscious instead of blacking out like usual.

"We need…a Plan B," she said weakly, trying to sit upright, which Klaus let her do.

"You're not going through that again," Klaus said firmly, not caring that in addition to being trapped in a dream, he might have to put Caroline on suicide watch. "You've proven that death is no reprieve from this, and I'm not letting you put your life in danger like that again. Save your strength, we don't know what else could be coming after us."

He was right, Caroline realized. It had been a sound plan, or at least something they needed to try…but if that didn't save them, what would? "So what now?" asked Caroline wearily. Klaus pulled her to her feet, trying to ignore the patch of blood that stained the front of her shirt.

"We have to take control," he said firmly. "You said it yourself, we should have some measure of control over what's happening, so that's what we need to work on. To be honest love," he said, looking around the dusty library, "this doesn't feel like an ordinary dream. Nothing about this is typical. Somebody is using some very powerful magic and if that's the case, then we might be here for a while."

Yeah, they're definitely going to be there for a while. Those lines from the textbook are from an old Psych textbook of mine, but this is really more magic than science based, so if there are any actual Psych students reading this, I hope you'll allow me some creative license! I hope you liked the chapter, and please leave your thoughts, let me know what you think! I'd like to say I'm going to work on my term papers, but really, I'm going to watch Thor 2. Have a great weekend!

(Feel free to follow me on Tumblr at hummingbirds-and-champagne)