caroline elizabeth forbes

“you can’t go back and change it, no one can, it happen; it’s done.” luke’s mouth enunciated the words as if they were sour, as though he had just bit a lemon before speaking. they hurt. words usually do. but he was strong; he’d got this far. “but it’s also in the past.” he added, although there was a touch of resentment in his voice. Caroline got to live happily with her daughters all of these years – he was lying dead, cold, stiff. he wondered how many times she, or anyone else for that matter, had spared a thought for him – what had happened to him. 

“they’re my family too.” he protested, he had been dead for eighteen years, but he wasn’t about to be passed over in the family help department. “we’ll find her – you just need to trust me.” he was earnest. he held out his hands and waited for caroline to place hers in his. “I can do a spell so that you can see through Josie’s eyes, see if you can tell where she is.” he declared with intent. he started chanting before caroline took his hands.

“Phesmatos Physium Calva… Phesmatos Physium Calva… Phesmatos Physium Calva… Phesmatos Physium Calva…”

As he spoke the words, she took his hands and felt the magic surging through her. It was a strange feeling, whatever the spell was wasn’t something she’d had much experience with before. She tended to leave the magical teachings to Emma and the other witches at school, and in her time away she hadn’t been around much magic.

Suddenly the edges of her vision were blurring, turning black as Luke’s face faded from her sight. In its stead was a murky vision. It was like she was trying to squint through muddy water, and for a few moments she was confused...then she realised that was just the difference of seeing through witch’s eyes compared to a vampire’s. Had her vision been this bad when she was human? It seemed so long ago now she could hardly remember. 

“I don’t...” It was a forest, that much was clear. Sat on a rock, reading pages from a book. “She’s somewhere in the woods...” Caroline watched on as Josie created a fireball, manipulating it. She’d not seen a witch with this much power and control since Bonnie. “She’s doing magic...”

She raised an eyebrow not sure if that was the best idea but she chose not to say anything about it. But she was relieved to hear that the girls were fine. “Well thats good to hear.” A soft sigh escaped her lips. She knew that Caroline was better at the supernatural stuff than she was but she was still worried about Josie. “If you are sure about that.”

Nodding, he started walking towards her, eyes never leaving hers as he made his way across the lawn.  "Yeah, it’s real,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her.  “Caroline, I’m sorry.”  For doing what he did to ensure that Katherine would be gone for good.  For leaving her alone.  For the fact that they were now trapped in a prison world, which he didn’t even have any control over but he was still sorry for anyways.

As he held her, her arms stayed limp at her sides...still frozen in shock. After a few moments of breathing in his smell, feeling the warmth of his embrace and the sound of his heartbeat she quickly brought her arms up, holding so tight -- never wanting to let go. “It’s okay...I’ve always meant what I said that night....I understood then and I understand now,” She looked up at him, tears in her eyes as she cried through a laugh. “This doesn’t feel real.” How many nights she’d dreamed of reuniting with him, waking up to find her cheeks stained with tears. If it wasn’t for the girls and the school, she would have turned her humanity off years ago. But now the years of grieving and pain, they just faded away.

“I don’t know; after we find Josie, look for him. everyone else is here, he probably is.” her blunt tone wasn’t that often used on her mom but truthfully, Lizzie didn’t care about Vardermous or his plan; she was only focused on Josie and finding her. 

               she felt like she was at breaking point, that everyone had been telling her how okay everything would be, but no one was doing anything. and it was terrifying for her, having a part of her so missing, not knowing where to even start to look for Josie, because they were in a new place. “she wasn’t there?” her heart sunk at the thought of Josie being lost somewhere. 

“what about your house? or —– no, never mind; aunt Bon’s shop wouldn’t be here.” hands dragging through her hair, tugging at it from the root until she could think clearly again. why didn’t she know her twin? “the grill? or she’s with Hope or Landon.” 

Caroline knew Lizzie well, and she could tell when the witch was heading towards a breakdown. All of the signs were there, the way she dragged her hands through her hair, the rapid thought process darting all over the place.

“Lizzie...breathe,” She rested her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, looking into her eyes. “Just stop for a second and breathe, sweetie.” Caroline herself took deep breaths, hoping that Lizzie would follow suit. 

“Let’s go inside, okay?” Of course there was danger, and Josie was out there...but they’d be no hope searching if they were both distracted. Lizzie by her emotional state and Caroline worrying about Lizzie. “We’ll sit and collect our thoughts, and then make plan?”

“somethings, but we don’t really talk…” her voice trailed off, a smirk curling up onto her lips. “he’s more fun to hunt, and find new ways to kill.” 

           “that tone might’ve once gave some authority, but now it’s just laughable. you think I’ll be a good little student for you, and follow your orders? what are you going to do if I DON’T? throw me into another prison world?” she pushed, her words full of the venomous bitter tone seeing the blonde; seeing a lot of people she had linked with the school; had brought out in her. “I don’t need your help. I’m fine the way I am. I DON’T NEED TO BE SAVED.”

“That’s sick.” She grimaced at the thought of the hunting eachother down, only to be resurrected when the day reset itself.

“Fine, you don’t need to be saved. But my daughter Josie does.” Caroline reached out, trying her best to find some kind of crack in the humanity-less shell. “You remember her? Well she’s been consumed with dark magic and if we don’t find her before Kai does, we’ll all be in danger. I’m sure even you don’t want to be left desiccating here forever. Or worse.”

it was obvious where his attention, where HIS PRIORITY fell. and it was Liv. “so you know where she is? thank god. is she safe? where is she Care?” he wasn’t going to leave her alone, especially not with Kai running around.

“Um...We kinda had a bit of an argument and went our separate ways pretty quickly.” More like Caroline had been completely irrational and exploded at the witch - who had every right to be as angry as she was. “The last I saw her was at my old house.”

First he had unexpectedly come back to life and now he, along with the whole town, had been sent into a prison world. The hybrid almost didn’t care. He was used to weird things happening. He was walking the town, the town of 2018. It still mostly looked the same. He saw the blonde from a block away and made his way to say hello. “You know, I think life made more sense while I was dead.” He said jokingly.

Caroline stared in complete disbelief as the hybrid made his way towards her. The last time she’d seen him was when she’d left him in New Orleans, heart too heavy to turn around and say goodbye to one of her oldest companions. “I should have known even death wouldn’t keep you occupied for long?” A smile crossed her face, a little laugh of happiness mixed with shock.

After figuring out she was thrown into a 2018 prison world Josie felt compelled to go to her old home. She saw her mom and the toys around the yard. Even though the darkness inside her she felt a spark of happiness at seeing her old favorite toys. She cleared her throat. “Hey, mom.” She said walking over. “Feeling sentimental?”

Seeing Josie, Caroline froze. The black hair, the dark veins that crawled their way up her skin. Whatever Black Magic had been kept in the sandclock had definitely taken root deep. “Josie!” She snapped into action, reaching out and pulling her daughter into a tight hug. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“There’s no one more equipped to deal with this than you, Care. We’ve been through hell and back together. No one’s going to take our daughters from us. Not even Kai Parker.” Alaric had come to know Caroline like the back of his hand, parenting really brought out the best and worst in people and for a few years, they were each other’s closest companion. So it wasn’t lost on him that her primary emotion right now was worrying. But there was only one thing stronger than Caroline’s fear and it was her fury. They’d need it to get through this. “If I need to use myself as their bait, I will. Away from the kids and the girls.” The only thing he worried about was one of them using the kids against him because pain had been lost to Alaric years ago. “I’m fine. I have more things to worry about than my wedding right now.” He dismisses begrudgingly. “Let’s go. We can check the bar we left the bastard in.” 

“I just know how vulnerable Josie will be right now, if he got to her before we--” She couldn’t even bare the thought of it. Hearing Alaric talk that was always made her smile. He was ready to risk everything for the kids, whether they were his own or strangers. “There’s no point...I already saw Jade and she said they let him go. That they’ve been playing games for the past 10 years.” She bit her lip, “Did you know that she’d shut off her humanity before locking her away?” She prayed for the answer she wanted to hear. 

her head tilted, letting a look of confusion cross over her features, “kai? — who’s kai?” she smirked, already knowing she had given herself away. “did you honestly think we’d LEAVE HIM LOCKED UP? we’re not you guys, fuck you guys.” a quick raise of her eyebrows while she leant forward as if to tell a secret. “plus he’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”

                 “maybe I WANTED your help once, but not anymore. I’ve learned to embrace my ripper side, and no humanity is cool.” she was close enough that her breath fanned against the blonde, close enough to touch, but she didn’t. it was like a game. “your hubby was a ripper, right? too bad you could save him, but not your poor innocent student, who had no idea what she was capable of when she killed her long-time crush.” a humourless laugh passed her lips. “things worked out though, didn’t they?”

So that was how he’d escaped. Well, not escaped, he’d been let out. “Do you know the things he’s done?” Caroline’s own voice was a whisper. It wasn’t as though it would make a difference to Jade whether she knew or not.

“Don’t you dare speak about Stefan like that,” her fists clenched at her sides, heart breaking slightly. “The only way Stefan stopped being a ripper was by becoming human -- we couldn’t save him. Which is why I’m going to save you.” Her sad eyes looked across at the blonde, heart aching. “I’m gonna fix this. Please let me help you, Jade.”

“I don’t know mom, from how Jo described it —- I think he wanted her to use the dark magic.” she HATED herself for not asking more questions, for being so occupied with herself rather than looking after Josie. after all, JOSIE ALWAYS MADE A POINT OF HOW MUCH SHE LOOKED AFTER LIZZIE. why hadn’t the blonde been able to do the same?

              she was never going to forgive herself if anything happened to Josie.

“how can it be okay?” she didn’t want to move away from Caroline, but she knew she would have too; this was about Josie. for once it was not about her. so she did, slowly and reluctantly pulling away, swaying on her feet as her head spun even from the small movement. “we need to find her now, aunt bon said she’d be dangerous but, she’s Josie; so we need to find her before —-” words breaking, eyes watering once more. “BEFORE KAI DOES. because it won’t be.. he can’t.” swallowing against the lump that had risen in her throat. head shaking unable to finish anything she had been trying to say.

              “she’d go to the school? our room? maybe she’s with hope.”

“Why would he have wanted her to use dark magic? He seemed completely in line with all the rules of magic usage at the school.” Sure he’d been a bit more for teaching the student offensive magic as well as defensive, but that wasn’t black magic. 

“I don’t know, Sweetie. But we’re going to figure this out, okay?” How could it be okay? Here she was promising so much to so many, with no idea how to achieve any of it. The thought of Kai finding Josie in her current state made Caroline feel physically sick. This was all of her worst fears realised in one big pile of crap. “I came from the school...there weren’t any signs of her there. This is before we renovated so most of the school isn’t the same.” 

“Is there anyone else you think she could have gone?”

Her eyes widened when she heard where there were. “How?” Was the first question that popped into her head. Her thoughts quickly changed to Bonnie and the twins. She knew that Bonnie had been stuck here before she died. “Where are the girls and Bonnie?”

luke could feel the tension, he knew it was there and how could it not be? after everything that had happened. he had DIED. technically, caroline had died too – his was more permanent. “you let her walk off on her own?” luke questioned, even if it was unfair – his concern for his sister was all he could think of. “we DIED caroline, it wasn’t like someone ignored us, or didn’t reply to our text – we were DEAD.” he sounded angry, he was. “we need to find a way to put this behind us, it’s not useful, especially now.” 

“it’s time to put your money where your mouth is – we need to stick together in here. we’re better off hiding.” he pointed to a nearby house. “in there – until we make a plan, and I can do a decent locator spell.” he rolled his eyes. “unless you have any suggestions?”

“I know.” She’d not had much of a sense of death other than her Dad when everything had gone down. But since then she’d faced her grief of her Mom, Tyler, Stefan, Klaus and Elena. She understood more now what she’d put Liv through. “If I could go back and change it I would, but all I can do is apologise and do everything in my power to help.” It wasn’t completely out of guilt, she cared about them both. Even Liv...for Tyler’s sake more than anything.

“I can’t do anything right now. I have to find Josie.” Her heart was heavy, and now she knew Lizzie was safe (as was possible in the Prison World), she needed to find her other daughter. “Lizzie said she’s been consumed by dark magic.”

“Sort of, she’s gonna have a mission, the reason she keeps using black magic. There had to be an end goal and if anyone threatens that she will lash out.” Bonnie hated that she knew this, she hated that Josie was going to be going through it but at least they had an idea. “It might not even be here, the one we used was for the other world and if it is, it could be cloaked. We could try remaking it but I would need Lizzie and Josie for that to work. It would have to be done the same way we did it when they were little.”

“It’s got something to do with Vardemus,” Caroline just couldn’t put her finger on it. It didn’t make any sense. “I can’t work out why he’d give Josie the hourglass in the first place. I interviewed him myself as Ric’s replacement and he was an incredible guy.” She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, sighing. “And there’s no way we’re gonna get Josie to agree...even if we can find her.”

“I’m not even sure what this is?” She replied happy to see that Caroline was  okay. “I mean it looks and feels exactly like Mystic Falls but then it doesn’t. The house doesn’t matter right now. You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m fine. Just a bit confused. ”

“I haven’t met him yet. But I don’t like that he let her think she was imagining him. Lizzie reminds me of me when I was her age. The scary British ancient vampire is an inexplicably attractive thing to a teenage girl.”

“We were just doing what we thought the best alternative at the time. They were dangerous to everyone, including themselves.”