#bingo: let's walk through the graveyard at midnight she said what could go wrong she said

[honestgrins]

Slasher || Klaroween

There's a killer on the loose, and Caroline really needs better friends. (For Klaroween Bingo: "Let's walk through the graveyard at midnight, she said, what could go wrong, she said.")

"Thanks for driving me home, 'Lena," Caroline said, letting herself into the house. "It's a literal lifesaver since the mechanic won't let me pick up my car until daylight tomorrow. Stupid town curfew. Do you have plans for tonight? My mom has been super strict about the curfew, too, so she's been stocking up on food to keep me here. We can have a movie marathon…"

Checking her phone, Elena shrugged. "Sure, Stefan told me he and Damon got caught up in something and didn't want me to hang out tonight."

A little miffed at being a consolation prize, Caroline faked a smile. "Great! What do you want to watch?"

They bickered over options while they gathered chips and sweets, eventually settling on the couch to watch a Harry Potter marathon. Only an hour in, though, a news alert took over the screen. The anchorman's face looked grim.

"The serial slasher has once again struck Mystic Falls."

Caroline's gaze felt frozen on the TV, blindly reaching for the remote to turn up the volume as they cut to a field reporter.

"Another body was found in Mystic Falls tonight," the reporter said, her hair whipping in the wind. "Though still unidentified, the woman's remains were discovered by a pair of boys on the grounds of the old Fell's Church just north of town. Police refused to name the young men as they are minors, but Sheriff Forbes did disclose they were attempting to stage a Halloween prank in the abandoned ruins when they found the victim. Multiple sources believe this to be the work of the same killer that took the lives of Vicki Donovan, Sheila Bennett, and KVGN's own Andie Starr. It has been a week since authorities established a town curfew to protect the public, and when contacted for comment, Mayor Lockwood encouraged all residents to take extra safety precautions."

"Oh my god," Elena whispered. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she pressed a hand to her mouth in horror. She looked over to Caroline. "I don't think we should stay here by ourselves."

Frowning, Caroline couldn't look away from her mother's face as the reporter interviewed her. "Where else would we go? The house is locked up and we have guns. My mom will come home as soon as she can. We're as safe as we could be with a crazy murderer on the loose."

But Elena shook her head, frantic. "I want to go to Stefan's."

"That's clear across town!"

Elena shrugged, already reaching for her discarded purse to rifle for her keys. "I don't care, the boarding house is-"

Caroline raised her fingers point by point. "Creepy, isolated, a bajillion years old with who knows how many secret entrances for killers to get in," she listed. "Oh! And Damon is the worst, so no."

With an offended sniff, Elena stood anyway. For reasons Caroline didn't want to examine too closely, her friend always had a peculiar soft spot for Stefan's older brother. Having grown out of an ill-conceived crush over him herself, she was happy to recite his worst qualities on demand, but they'd long since stopped working on Elena. All the bad vibes he gave off did nothing to harden the girl's all too open heart against him. "I'm worried about them."

Her eyes rolled so hard Caroline thought she might have finally damaged them permanently. Seriously, Stefan had to be blind to miss the signs - and deaf, because Caroline had definitely pointed them out on several occasions. Still, she shoved herself off the couch to race Elena toward the front door. "You can't go by yourself."

"Then let's go." Elena plowed past her, pointing her key fob at the car sitting outside, only to frown when nothing happened. Caroline tried to keep her in the house, but she just kept walking. "The locks aren't working," she said, annoyed when Caroline seemed hesitant to follow.

Caroline gave a half-hearted shrug. "Maybe it's a sign we should stay here."

Sending a snotty look over the car, Elena manually unlocked her door. "Or maybe it's a sign I need a new battery for the keys. I'm going. Are you coming with me or not?"

Torn, Caroline glanced behind her and wondered if Elena would wait for her to grab one of the pistols from the safe. Her mom hadn't taken her to the range for nothing, and she had a really bad feeling in her gut. "Give me a sec-"

"Now, Caroline!" Elena snapped as she lowered herself into the driver's seat.

Caroline groaned, only taking the time to lock the door before running to the car, glad to at least have her phone with her. Elena reached across to unlock the passenger side so she could clamber inside, quickly locking it back. Annoyed and on edge, her bad feeling had only grown worse since leaving the house. "What are you waiting for? Start the car!"

As she turned the key in the ignition, over and over, Elena's breath started coming in shorter pants. "It's not working. Something's wrong."

Her gut twisted, and Caroline felt a spike of adrenaline as she forced herself out of the car. "We're going back inside."

"No!" Once Elena made it back onto solid ground, she started walking in the opposite direction from the house. "I need to make sure they're okay, even it means I have to run there myself."

"Hello, call them like a normal person!"

But Elena refused to listen and kept going. For a long moment, Caroline considered letting her go. At best, she would just be a nervous wreck until she heard from Elena or Stefan that she made it safely to the boarding house. At worst, her friend would be caught and killed by the serial- "I'm coming with you," she bit out as she chased her down the road. "I swear, if you get me murdered, I'm going to haunt you."

And so they traipsed around the ring of town, avoiding patrol cars and jumping at every noise. Caroline muttered at every decision Elena made along the way, her hair standing on end out of nerves when they crossed underneath the wrought-iron gate of the cemetery. "Let's walk through the graveyard at midnight, she said. What could go wrong, she said. You're nuts, you know that?"

"You're paranoid," Elena countered as they picked their way around headstones and crumbling memorials. "It's peaceful here."

"Yep, such a peaceful place to die." Leaves rustled, and Caroline's head whipped toward the sound. "Did you hear that?"

With a helpless shrug, Elena pushed on. "We're almost there, just-"

A twig snapped behind them. Barely holding back a shriek, Caroline shoved them both into a nearby crypt to hide in the shadows. Sure enough, footsteps weren't far behind. Slowly bending down, she picked up a hefty rock and waited. When the gravel crunched around the corner of the crypt, she raised her arm and jumped out - though a hand firmly took hold of her wrist before she could bring the rock down on the stranger's head.

"Caroline!"

Oh, not a stranger. "Klaus?!" Caroline clenched the rock, not quite willing to drop the handy weapon despite the familiar, incredulous face of her ex-boyfriend. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Klaus looked up to the see her tight fist, brow furrowing. "The dog ran away, I promised Henrik I'd find him." Glancing over to Elena, his expression hardened. It seemed he hadn't quite forgiven that it was her interference that led to Caroline breaking up with him. "What are you all doing here?"

Elena scoffed and continued walking. "That's none of your business. Come on, Caroline."

But Caroline hesitated, her hand lowering until she could safely drop the rock. "I'm sorry about Wolf. Still, there's some crazy killer on the loose. You shouldn't be out here."

"I could say the same for you, sweetheart. Let me guess, this begins and ends with Elena?"

Rolling her eyes, Caroline turned and headed after her friend. "Shut up," she spat as she stormed away.

So what if she cared what her friends thought? If she didn't give weight to their opinions, then she had no business calling them friends. When Elena pointed out that Caroline was spending a lot more time with Klaus, then, that she was considering changing her college plans after a decade of it being written in stone, she took the warning to heart. She didn't want to lose herself for some boy - if only it didn't mean losing Klaus instead. There was a deep longing that she fought down as she went about her life, ignoring his attempts to talk to her at every chance.

"No, I'm tired of shutting up," Klaus groaned, his heavy steps falling behind her as he followed. "Caroline, please. At least let me say my piece."

"What?" she asked, though she didn't break stride.

Sighing, Klaus seemed intent on keeping pace with her. "I don't know why you let Elena come between us, and I'm not sure I'm prepared to hear the exact words said against me. What I do know is that some part of you must have agreed, because the Caroline I l-" He cut himself off, and Caroline's breath caught at what he might have said. "Well, you're far too stubborn to let anyone tell you what to do."

The vicious retort she'd been keeping on the tip of her tongue died at the hint of reverence in his tone. She did always love how much he seemed to see her when others failed.

"Is that why you're defying your mother's curfew?" he continued, none the wiser as to her sudden doubts. "Hardly a smart decision, love."

"Shut up," she said again as she threw an elbow into his side. "You're out here, too."

Klaus shrugged. "At least Henrik will appreciate that I tried to find Wolf. Can you say the same for Elena?"

"Care!"

They hadn't noticed Elena slipping away from them as they argued through the woods, and Caroline's heart dropped at her pained cry. Almost automatically, her hand reached for Klaus as she ran forward, his fingers lacing tightly in hers as well. Breaking through the tree line, they found Elena sobbing on her knees. Caroline felt sure she'd found another body, perhaps Stefan was strewn across the lawn in a bloody mess. Maybe the killer had found her instead, and it'd be Elena getting carved up with them serving as unfortunate witnesses and next victims.

Caroline felt blindsided, then, when Elena's face appeared etched in shadows as blue and red lights flared too bright in the darkness, bouncing off the bricks of the Salvatore boarding house.

Police cars swarmed the driveway, their lights flashing. Deputies that were like a second family to her looked too grim, some disgusted. Caroline stared open-mouthed as her mother led Damon through the front door with his hands cuffed behind his back, her stony face damning when she tucked him into her car.

Liz caught her eye over the roof and called out to one of her officers before coming their way. "You're supposed to be at home," she told Caroline sternly, her brow furrowing as she looked down to where Klaus was still holding her hand.

"What's going on?" Elena asked, her voice frantic and choked by tears. "I don't- Where-"

With a deep and regretful sigh, Liz knelt down to meet Elena at eye level. "Stefan is okay," she assured. "A little beat up, but nothing an ice pack can't help."

Caroline blinked, wondering at the implications. "Did he do it? Damon?"

"Officially, I'm not at liberty to discuss an open investigation." But Liz pressed her lips together as she stood, reaching up to cradle Caroline's cheek. "I'll have one of my deputies take you all home. We can talk in the morning."

She didn't quite manage to let go of Klaus's hand until they were at his house, and even then, she didn't want to. "If you want some help looking for Wolf tomorrow-"

Klaus ran a tired hand through his hair. "Caroline, you don't have to-"

"I know," she said, silently hoping he wouldn't make her say it. "I'll see you tomorrow."

His lips quirked up in a small grin as he nodded. The deputy drove away before he made it inside, but Caroline looked back to make sure. Elena was still crying on the seat next to her, staring at the window. "Are you okay?"

"No," Elena answered miserably. Caroline pulled her into a hug, happy to remind her that Stefan was fine and life could get back to normal without the murder mystery hanging over the town. "I can't believe they arrested him, he must be so scared."

Cringing, Caroline pulled away in horror. "You can't be serious." If anything, Damon being the slasher made too much sense and she had little doubt he enjoyed every minute of the infamy. "He could have killed your boyfriend tonight!"

"He wouldn't do that." Elena's teary voice had turned fierce. "Stefan confronted him after Vicki died, and Damon didn't kill him then, even when he threatened to go to the police."

Caroline blinked. "Stefan knew? You knew?" And to think, she almost followed Elena right into the lion's den. She gulped at how close she might have been to dying; Damon probably didn't mind the others, but his secret wouldn't have been safe with her.

Suddenly, Elena looked scared and ready to cry again. "No, no! That's not what I meant. You can't tell- Caroline, you can't tell anyone!"

Eyes sliding to the deputy that was obviously listening to their every word, Caroline's expression turned incredulous as she stared at Elena's wide eyes. "Seriously?!"

She cuddled up on the couch, lifting Klaus's arm to make herself more comfortable as they watched the news. "Today, the district attorney announced that only Damon Salvatore would face charges linked to the serial slasher case. As the main suspect for the brutal killings of four women, Salvatore is likely the more prominent target for the state despite both his younger brother and the brother's girlfriend possessing some knowledge of his crimes."

"I can't believe Stefan didn't do anything," Klaus sighed. He once believed the world of his friend.

Caroline pressed a kiss into his shoulder. "I can't believe Elena is actually visiting Damon in jail," she scoffed. "Actually, yeah, I can."

Shrugging, Klaus tightened his hold to kiss her forehead. "At least she's proven her judgment isn't worth holding in high esteem," he pointed out. "Personally, I'm glad you don't listen to her anymore."

"Shut up," Caroline answered with a roll of her eyes - even if she agreed with him, privately.

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