𝟒𝟑

a/n: Charlotte's outfit is the same as the last two chapters!

go get a tissue box, fair warning!

☆═━ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄━═☆

"It's been two days...two whole days," Charlotte repeated over, pacing around in the living room, "Paulina didn't come back, and neither did Klaus...what could have happened?"

"I don't know and I don't care," Katherine rolled her eyes, downing a glass of bourbon.

The Bernard raised her eyebrows, suggesting, "Maybe the ritual didn't work? It's possible, right?"

"If it were, knowing Klaus' impulsiveness, Mystic Falls would be raining blood by now," The doppelganger shrugged her shoulders.

Charlotte shook her head disapprovingly, "That's not helping,"

"I never said I was helping you."

"But...," She shook her head, holding back a sigh. She turned to look at the door, finding Stefan walking in, ever so casually, "Stefan, what happened? Shouldn't Klaus be dead by now?"

"Yes, he should," Katherine got up, emphasizing as she looked at Stefan, "I'm supposed to be free of Klaus' compulsion by now. He's supposed to be dead!"

"We ran into...complications."

She raised her eyebrows, "Complications?"

"Doesn't really matter," Stefan shook his head, brushing it off, "I just need to find him. Do you have any idea where he might be?"

"What about Elena? Is she okay?"

He didn't get to respond as Katherine pushed him against the wall and motioned for him to be quiet. Klaus, Paulina, and Elijah walked through the door as she greeted, "Oh, you're back. Look who decided to come for a visit."

Klaus looked at Stefan, rolling his eyes, "You just keep popping up, don't you?"

Charlotte sucked in a deep breath before walking up to Klaus, "You compelled me to stay in here until the ritual is over and it is. I need to leave."

"Oh, you will. We all will, tonight," He assured, shrugging his shoulders, "This town is boring as it is."

"I need to go home, get a change of clothes. Shower, normal people things," Charlotte folded her arms together, stating.

Klaus chuckled, pointing at the door, "Well, go on."

Paulina raised her eyebrows, "What?" Klaus shrugged when she looked at him, "Charlotte, wait."

The brunette Bernard shook her head, walking out the door. She practically ran down the stairs, almost not believing that she was actually outside.

✵ ✵ ✵

Charlotte felt like drums were playing in her ears as soon as she got on the streets, side effects of not drinking blood for days, so it seemed. She could hear the humans' loud heartbeats as their hearts pumped blood throughout their bodies. She was thirsty for blood.

She kept walking through the streets, barely holding herself together when she passed by a crowded pathway. The brunette needed to get to the Salvatore Boarding House as fast as she could, without losing any bit of control she had.

Charlotte passed by the street of Serena's house, walking forward before someone called her over, "Charlotte!"

She turned around, gulping before she recognized the boy to be Oliver, "Oliver...this is really not a good time to talk."

He shook his head, sighing as he slipped his phone into his back pocket, "Hey, I was so worried about you...You didn't get back to me at the party and you weren't answering any of my texts."

Oliver's mouth kept moving as the words left it but all she could hear was his heartbeat, loud and clear, "Charlotte...can you hear me?"

She nodded, almost losing her balance before Oliver caught her, "Woah...woah, are you okay?"

Charlotte shook her head, looking up. Her eyes were zeroing on his neck as she said, "No...no, I am not. You should go."

"What? No, Charlotte you need to go to a hospital—"

She interjected aloud, "What I need is for you to go, leave me alone!"

Oliver frowned, looking down at her, "What is wrong with you? Did something happen at school? With your family? Look, if you need to talk—"

Charlotte lost it. Veins grew underneath her eyes before her fangs were put out on display, she held onto Oliver, sinking her fangs into his neck. He screamed out but she couldn't stop. She kept drinking, drinking, and drinking as his heartbeat echoed in her ears before it stopped...his body dropped to the ground, dead.

She stepped back, taking a look at what she had done before Charlotte could think of a way to fix this, she looked ahead of her, spotting Cassie. She was terrified.

"Cassie...I—"

She didn't continue before Cassie screamed, running across the street.

"No!"

It all happened so fast. One second Cassie was standing on the sidewalk, scared out of her mind and the next, she was on the road, getting hit by a car. Charlotte ran across the road after the car stopped, kneeling beside her niece. She bit her wrist before placing it to her mouth but it was too late.

"No, Cassie, wake up," She held her up, calling over, "Cassie...I am sorry, please, just drink this," Charlotte held her wrist to her mouth and when she listened for a heartbeat, there wasn't.

Charlotte shook her head, holding her niece, "No, no, no...I didn't mean to...I just," She looked over at Cassie's face, her mouth bleeding and her eyes closed, "Just wake up, please...I am sorry."

"Cass, that's enough playing outside? Don't you think?" Serena's voice called out before she swung her house's door open. It took her seconds to recognize her sister's body in Charlotte's arms in the middle of the road, "Cassie?"

She ran up to her, freezing in her place when she saw the tears on Charlotte's face, "What did you to do to her?!"

"I...," Charlotte didn't know what to say before Serena shoved her aside, taking Cassie in her arms.

"Cassie," She shook her sister, "Cassie, c'mon, wake up..."

Charlotte stood up, placing her hand to her mouth as Serena called over, "Don't do this to me, okay? I will do whatever you want...I will take you out on school nights. I will stop working at the Grill and spend more time with you but don't leave me, please."

Serena placed her head to her sister's chest, checking for a pulse before she cried out, "No, no, no, please don't leave me. Not you, too...Cass, you are all I have."

Charlotte took a step back, looking over at Oliver's dead body and Cassie's before she vamp-sped away.

✵ ✵ ✵

Charlotte had never felt so much pain in her life. She killed Oliver, she was the reason Cassie is dead. Cassie. Her niece, the one who saw her like a mother. The only person she wanted to be better for was dead and it was her fault.

She didn't know how but her legs took her back to Alaric's apartment where she saw Paulina getting out with tears on her cheeks. Maybe she would have asked another time why but then, all she could see was Cassie's body on the floor in her hands and Cassie's blood all over her clothes.

"Charlotte?" Paulina called out, walking up to her as she looked over her clothes, "What happened to you?"

"I killed her, Lina."

The Gilbert furrowed her eyebrows together, "What? Who are you talking about?"

"I killed her," She repeated, placing a hand to her mouth, "I killed Cassie...," Charlotte cried out as Paulina's lips parted, "She is dead...she is dead," She sobbed out, repeating over and over again as Paulina embraced her.

"Hey, hey, just calm down," Paulina held onto her as Charlotte cried out, "It will be fine...you didn't mean it, you couldn't have."

"I killed her...I killed her."

✵ ✵ ✵

Paulina gave Charlotte a change of clothes and sat beside her on the couch in Alaric's apartment. Stefan was drinking through dozens of empty blood bags to seal his deal with Klaus, as the hybrid's blood happened to be the only cure for Damon's bite.

Klaus threw him another blood bag, "Again," Stefan drank as Klaus commented, "You're very cooperative. It's almost as if you're enjoying it."

He threw another blood bag on the floor next to him before Stefan shook his head, "No more. Not until you give me the cure."

Klaus shook his head, "Not until we make a deal. It's your choice, Stefan. You can either remain here living your life in Mystic Falls, or you can embrace what you truly are, leave town with me, and save your brother's life."

He crouched down, picked the blood bag up, and offered it to Stefan who snatched it and drank vigorously, "That's the spirit."

Charlotte looked over at him, grimacing as she remembered what had happened just mere hours ago. Klaus took the vial of his blood and looked at Katherine, "Sweetheart...," He started compelling, "Take this over to Damon and come right back."

Katherine raised her eyebrow, emphasizing, "You want me to leave?"

"No!"

"Yes, and if I were you...," Klaus said before Katherine took the vial and rushed out the door at vampire speed, "I'd hurry."

"She'll never take it to him....," Stefan said as Klaus cocked his head in a gesture of indifference, "She'll never take it to him," He whispered to himself.

✵ ✵ ✵

Elijah was lying in a coffin. Klaus and Paulina looking at him before she spoke up, "The only reason I am coming with you is that I can't leave Charlotte here and I have no idea where to go."

"Or part of you is trusting that I will free him in time, isn't it?" Klaus raised an eyebrow, asking her.

"I don't trust you, not anymore," She replied, folding her arms together before turning her back at him.

Charlotte stood with Stefan outside right in front of the warehouse as she asked, "Is Elena really dead...?"

He crossed his arms together, answering hesitantly, "Yes, she is. I am sorry...I couldn't do anything."

Within a few minutes and after Klaus had another conversation with Stefan. They got in the car. Paulina sat in the passenger seat with Klaus driving and Stefan and Charlotte in the backseat.

Cassie is dead.

Elena is dead.

Charlotte couldn't function, everything hurt so much. She was so sick of crying but every time she stopped, she remembered why she was doing it in their first place.

She just needed the pain to be gone.

Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut as another tear rolled down her cheek, it hurt so bad but then...it didn't.

She didn't feel anything.

✵ ✵ ✵