Who: Tyler and Caroline What: After killing a bunch of people, Tyler goes to Caroline's house When: Immediately after this log Where: Caroline's place Ratings/Warnings: Low/none. Some talk of killing people Status: Complete
The worst part of everything that had happened that night was how much Tyler had enjoyed it. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew he should be disgusted that he had Klaus had just gone and painted the town red, literally. He’d never killed someone, not someone innocent, not in the dreams or real life. Not since Sarah at least, the girl whose death had turned him into a werewolf in the dreams, but even she had been compelled by Katherine to keep coming after Tyler until he finally killed her.
But now… now he had the blood of a dozen women on his hands. And he had enjoyed it. He’d been hesitant at first, but by the end he had revelled in the kills. Reveled in the strength each life gave him, at the taste of blood, at the feeling of them going limp in his arms.
He felt sick. He felt sick and dirty and evil in a way that he couldn’t quite shake. He needed a shower, desperately. The blood of his victims stained the front of his shirt, and the cloying smell of their blood clung to him, making his mouth water and his stomach churn.
Klaus had taken Tyler’s apartment, and while Tyler probably could have convinced him to at least use the shower, Tyler had needed to get as far away from Klaus as he possibly could. It had been Klaus’s fault, his and the sire bond that connected the two of them.
He only had one other place he could go like this, though he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. He didn’t want to see how she would look at him when she saw his bloodsoaked shirt and heard what he had done. She was already close to the edge of hating him after everything else.
But he took a breath, and rang the doorbell.
After her phone call with Tyler Caroline couldn’t turn her mind off. Was he seeing someone else already? Yeah Caroline had told him there was no us after she turned, but he had also rejected her quite a few times. But still after they slept together she thought he might want her too. She didn’t think he would be moving on to someone else so soon. Maybe it wasn’t that he needed to get over his ex still. He just didn’t want her. The thought brought tears to her eyes. And before she knew it she has cried herself back to sleep.
Not long after Caroline had fallen back to sleep she was woken up by the sound of the doorbell. Who the hell was coming over at this time? Running her eyes Caroline climbed out of bed and went to answer the door.
She wasn’t expecting to see Tyler on the other side. Even though she was pissed and hurt for the way he hung up on her, the second she saw the blood on his shirt and the look on his face, her own face softened. “Come on in,” she told Tyler stepping back to let him inside.
Tyler hesitated, and then walked into Caroline’s house, wondering if he’d made a mistake. Caroline was too good, too pure to get mixed up in his business with Klaus. Really, he should keep her as far from that powder kegs as possible, even if it meant not seeing her again.
But the idea of not seeing her again was almost too much to bear. “Caroline…” he said haltingly. “Caroline, I messed up.”
Caroline knew something horrible had happened. Even if he wasn’t covered in blood, the look on his face said it all. She shut the door behind him and without hesitating embraced him in a hug, getting some blood on her pajamas but that didn’t matter. She felt like Tyler needed it. And no matter how much he had hurt her, she wouldn’t turn her back on him. She’d do everything she could to help.
“What happened?” she asked pulling away from the hug. “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay.” She didn’t want to force him to. But the fact that he brought up messing updid make it seem like he wanted to talk about it.
He didn’t want to talk about it, not at all. But he had to. When news of all the bodies broke, Caroline would no doubt put two and two together. “I… I killed them,” he said after a moment. “All those people. I killed… I don’t even know how many people Caroline. A dozen?”
There was a brief look of horror on Caroline’s face. He killed people? A dozen people?! How could he? But she knew snapping at Tyler right now wasn’t a good idea. Instead she went into the kitchen, grabbed two glasses and a bottle of whiskey pouring them each a drink. After a long gulp she responded. “What people?” she asked trying her best to sound calm.
“I don’t know,” Tyler admitted. “I had never met any of them before. Klaus picked them all out.” Why did it feel like he was ratting Klaus out right now? To be fair, Klaus had never said that he wasn’t allowed to tell other people what had happened, but it didn’t feel right to lay all the blame at Klaus’ feet. Tyler had been there too, even if he didn’t necessarily have a choice in the matter.
Caroline furrowed her brow in confusion. “Klaus picked them out?” She barely even knew who that guy was. It took her a minute to remember how he showed up at Tyler’s party without an RSVP and then Tyler went to his gallery or something. But still even if Tyler was friends with that asshole it didn’t explain why he was killing people that Klaus picked out. How could Tyler kill people at all? He certainly wasn’t the man she thought he was. The man she fell in love with.
“Let me get this straight,” Caroline added as she processed the information. “Klaus just picked out people for you to kill, so you did?!”
Tyler didn’t want to have to explain the sire bond to Caroline, but he knew he had no choice. Truthfully, he should have told her about it as soon as she became a vampire. She was at risk if she didn’t know about it. But it wasn’t his proudest confession.
“In the dreams…” he started. “In the dreams, Klaus turned me into a hybrid. A side effect of that was that I became sired to him.” He took a breath. “That means that whatever Klaus wants me to do, I have to do. No, not just have to do it. I want to do it. When Klaus tells me to do something, there’s nothing I want more than to please him. I can’t fight against it.” Not that he had tried very hard with the commands from tonight.
“So basically,” Caroline began still processing everything out loud. “Klaus made you kill all those people?” This sire bond thing kind of sounded like compulsion. Which made her wonder how Tyler could compel her if he knew what it was like to be on the other side of it. “Like compulsion?” She wasn’t going to bring up what he had done to her. Now wasn’t the time. But she was trying to understand the sire bond.
“I mean, kind of, but it’s not compulsion,” Tyler said. He sat down on Caroline’s couch, elbows on his knees as he ran his hands down his face. “Compulsion, it just works the once. You have to keep doing it if you want someone to do something. And when someone’s under compulsion, well, they’re just compelled to do things. You have to be specific when you’re compelling someone. And the person doesn’t have to want to do something, they’re just compelled to do it.
“With a sire bond, you want to do it. There’s nothing more important than making your sire happy. So whether it’s a direct or an indirect order, you have to do it. He can do it through the phone or in person, and all I want to do is make him happy.”
Caroline wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do here. She didn’t approve of what Tyler did. She was horrified by it honestly. But was it really his fault? Would he have killed a dozen people if Klaus hadn’t told him to? Hadn’t wanted him to?
Caroline sat down on the couch next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “I killed someone, in the dreams.” Not here, obviously. “It wasn’t a sire bond. It was right after I turned. But I remember wanting to. Needing to get to that blood and enjoying killing that innocent man.” She paused trying to think of how to say what she wanted to. “You didn’t have control. I know that’s not really who you are.” But still she wasn’t sure if she could get past what he did. Right now though she knew she just needed put her morals aside and be there for him.
As the dreams progressed, putting aside her morals would be something that Caroline no doubt got very used to very quickly. “I think most new vampires have a slip up like that,” Tyler said. He’d never had one though. In fact, he didn’t know of any hybrids who had accidentally killed someone after turning. Most of them hadn’t lived long enough to get the chance, but he wondered if hybrids somehow had more control than vampires. It would make sense, given that most of them had to learn how to control being a werewolf long before they also joined the ranks of the blood-sucking dead. “But I’ve never… and now suddenly, there’s just…” He didn’t know how to go on.
“I know,” Caroline said softly rubbing his back with her hand. “I know,” she repeated. “It wasn’t your fault,” she reminded him even though she still wasn’t entirely sure she understood the sire bond. “You had to do what he wanted.”
“I thought I could handle it this time,” Tyler said, anguished. “I thought Klaus was different than the murdering psychopath he is in the dreams. I should have known better.” He really should have known better. There was a reason that Klaus was his most hated person in the dreams. And even if Klaus here was only half as evil as he was there, he’d still be the most evil person that Tyler had ever met. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Can you stay away from him?” Caroline questioned. “I know you said he can make you do things through the phone. But maybe you could block his number or something?” That’s what she did when she didn’t want to hear from someone. But then she wasn’t sure if that would work for Tyler. She really had no idea how to help him right now. And even though he had spent the evening killing people, something Caroline was repulsed by, she still wanted to help him. Seeing him like this made her own heart hurt. All she wanted to do was make it better.
“I can try,” Tyler said, hesitantly. “If he wants me, he’ll find me though.” Of that, Tyler had no doubt. But there was no reason why Tyler had to seek him out, or make it easy on him. He hadn’t even considered blocking Klaus’s number, but that was why Caroline was clearly the brains out of the two of them. “Maybe he’ll forget about me,” he added, a little bitterly. After all, the Klaus in his dreams seemed to have no problem doing just that.
Hopefully this Klaus asshole would be too busy with his own problems - because clearly he had them - to think about Tyler. But Caroline honestly had no idea. She didn’t know the man. Not in the dreams and not here, other than in passing at Tyler’s party. And she hoped to never meet him again, in either world.
“I hope he does,” Caroline replied, arm still around Tyler. “Even if you are pretty unforgettable,” she added softly. It was the truth though. Even in their five years apart he was always in the back of Caroline’s mind. She could never forget him. “For now though, just do your best to avoid him. If he finds you, we’ll figure something out. Together.”
Tyler reached for Caroline’s hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze, drawing strength and comfort from her touch. He didn’t know what he would do if Caroline wasn’t here. In the short time she’d been back, she’d regained her position as his best friend and confidant, and even if she wasn’t interested in being with him anymore, at least she was still there for him.
“Together,” he repeated after her. Because facing Klaus wasn’t nearly as scary with her at his side.