Elena Salvatore (staywhoyouare) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-01-02 19:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, beth greene, caroline forbes |
Who: Beth Greene & Caroline Forbes
Where: Caroline's apartment
When: Backdated to mid-December 2014.
What: Caroline has a secret to tell Beth. Beth discovers that some dreams are real.
Status: Logged & Complete
Final exams seemed like a never-ending ordeal. She felt as though she'd been studying for the past month, only to have no idea what she was doing in any of her classes. Luckily, statistics was her last final, and she'd managed to cram as many awful equations into her brain as she thought might fit. She was surprised that she'd even managed to keep studying, considering her brain was still filled with psychological theories and historical dates and, basically, nothing that had anything to do with math. With all of this in mind, she'd grabbed her notes and textbook for a last minute study session with Caroline. It was lucky that she'd made a friend in the class; even if she thought they were both hopelessly lost, she at least had someone to turn to in her confusion. It wasn't too hard to find where Caroline lived, and it wasn't long before she arrived at her friend's apartment door. She rang the bell to the apartment, stubbing the toes of her Converse against the carpet as she waited. She looked for all the world as though she'd spent the past week living in the library, which was actually a pretty accurate description of her week. Caroline was in full on study gear, which was pretty much sweatpants and a tank top. Her hair in a messy ponytail. Her room had textbooks scattered all over her bed as well as a few open notebooks, her laptop open on her desk with numerous different research sites on her browser. Lexi and Katherine had left her alone to study for the most part, although Katherine often tried to tempt her to going out with her at night. Caroline had done that enough over the course of the semester, now it was time to buckle down and get all her studying done. She heard the doorbell ring and jumped up from her cross legged position on the bed. Maybe Beth would be able to help her figure out some of these stupid equations. Although she kind of doubted it, they both seemed equally lost in that class. But it would be nice to have some company. With someone who had the same basic goal as her, studying, so she wouldn’t be too much of a distraction. “Hey,” Caroline greeted when she opened the door. Once Beth was inside she shut the door behind her friend leading her to her bedroom. “Is stats making you as crazy as it’s making me? I’m surprised I haven’t torn all my hair out yet.” She sigh dramatically plopping down on her bed, there was enough space for Beth to sit as well. A little over an hour later Caroline was in need of a break. A girl could only take so much statistics after all. “Break time,” she declared placing her pencil down inside her textbook so she wouldn’t lose her place before she shut the book. Beth abandoned her dirty, snow-covered shoes at the front door and followed Caroline into the bedroom. She was really glad that she'd gone out of her way to bring her sweaters and thick socks back from home, particularly now as the entire OC seemed to be covered in a layer of cold, fluffy white snow. "I do feel about five years older," she admitted, setting her books and notes on the bed. She took a seat, tucking her feet under her, as she started to go back over her study guide. Caroline's announcement of 'break time' couldn't have come soon enough. Beth sighed, shutting her own set of books. "Oh, thank God," she said, "I think my brain has turned to mush." She didn't know how she was going to survive this exam, except maybe through sheer willpower. "We should ask our professor if we can just build snowmen instead…Like, with factorial hats and standard deviation..." “Oh my god! We should so build a snowman. I have never done that before.” Caroline had lived in Orange County pretty much her whole life, except for her semester in San Francisco, the blonde hadn’t really traveled too much either. So snow was pretty new to her. “But no more math talk,” she said wrinkling her nose. “Not during break time,” she added. “You want something to eat?” Caroline was hungry herself, but she couldn’t exactly pull out a blood bag with Beth around. Not without telling her. Which she probably should at some point. If their friendship was going to continue with how it had been going so far. “I mean after all you can’t study without some junk food.” Truthfully, Beth had never built a snowman before either, but it seemed like a better idea than sitting a final. It had to be. Little kids didn't sing Christmas carols about magic snowmen just because they hated them. And, okay, maybe her brain had turned to mush if she was contemplating the pros and cons of Frosty the Snowman. She was glad when Caroline brought up the distraction of food. "Yes, please," she said. She glanced at their closed textbooks and made a face. "I'm pretty sure we earned it." They definitely earned it. Caroline already had a few bags of chips in her room. That was like her go to study snack. That and pizza. She grabbed a bag of doritos off her nightstand tossing it to Beth before picking up some cheetos for herself. “We can always order a pizza too. Or maybe Chinese?” Maybe if Caroline ate enough human food it would help her hunger. Although she doubted it, but while they were taking a break she could tell Beth right? And then grab a blood bag. Caroline had had the conversation a few times before, but it was still difficult and weird to bring up. Beth caught the bag of Doritos and opened it. "Oh, pizza?" she said, taking a chip. "Do pizza boys deliver in blizzards?" She was from California, any aspect of winter weather qualified as a blizzard. "Hm…" She dug through her backpack for a moment. "I think I have enough tip money from work that I could convince anyone it'd be well worth it to bring us something… Plus the roads weren't super bad when I was on them…" Beth wasn't really paying attention to whether or not Caroline seemed preoccupied with something else, mostly because her brain was pretty fried from all the studying that she'd done in the last week. Caroline hadn’t even really thought of that. The whole snowing thing was new to her. “Doesn’t hurt to try,” she shrugged opening grabbing her phone to place an order. Best to do that before she got cheeto residue all over her fingers. “What kind do you like?” she asked as she punched in the number. "Well, someone has to be open," she agreed. The people of the OC needed their delivery, after all, and it wasn't as though they were snowed in. "I'm down for anything. Except pineapple?" Pineapples didn't belong on pizza. "Cheese? Mushrooms?" She looked over at Caroline. "It's really up to you." Caroline wrinkled her nose at the thought of pineapple. She was with Beth on that one, definitely did not belong on pizza. She ordered a classic combination. “We’re in luck, looks like they will deliver,” she said as she hung up the phone. Now that she was off the phone Caroline opened up her bag of chips popping a few in her mouth. They weren’t really doing anything to satisfy her hunger though. She sighed. She knew they wouldn’t. “So, how have you been doing with the dreams?” She knew Beth had mentioned something about strange dreams, but she wasn’t sure if her friend believed them yet or not. When Caroline brought up the dreams, Beth was surprised. She'd been so busy with work and school and, well, pretending that she wasn't going crazy that she hadn't even thought about the so-called dream phenomenon of OC. "I don't know," she said, honestly. "I think I've just learned to sublimate them… Is that even the right word?" She smiled, a little bit sadder than her usual smile. "Please tell me you haven't been having dreams about zombie barns, too. I'm not sure I can manage that and a freak snow storm." “Nope, no zombie barns,” Caroline assured her. She wasn’t even sure what that meant. “No zombies in my dreams at all, but there are vampires.” She broached the subject a bit warily. If Beth didn’t believe in the dreams or what they could do how the hell was Caroline supposed to tell her she’s a vampire. It’s hard enough telling people from her dreamworld that have seen it. Beth hesitated. "Vampires?" She knew that the dreams here were weird. But vampires? Walker-zombies? If she hadn't known better, she'd have thought these dreams were lines from a bad horror movie. But her dreams had seemed too real for that, and she suspected Caroline's were the same. "Are they trying to attack you? When I'm in the dreams, it just seems…" Like she had been to all the places that she dreamed about, but that was crazy. "It just seems really real." “Right? It’s like another life or something.” Caroline hadn’t really believed the whole dream thing at first, but now it was just a part of life. So fucked up that she had come to accept the dreams and the fact that she is a vampire. “Not really, well one did.” She frowned at the memory of being Damon’s personal chew toy. “But then I sort of became one,” she sighed. “Do the zombies attack you? That must be different, they don’t have like brains or personality right? Vampires are still kind of human, at least in my dreams, some hold on to their humanity better than others.” In Buffy’s dream world they didn’t have a soul or something like that. It was strange to her how the vampires varied in different dream worlds. Beth chewed her lip, trying to remember if any of the zombies had tried to attack her. Most of her dreams were focused on a barn, and a boy who had been a shot, a boy who bore an awfully close resemble to her boss' brother-in-law's son (and wasn't that a weird enough connection?). But then Caroline said something about becoming a vampire, and Beth looked up. "You became a vampire in your dreams?" Her voice was concerned, and maybe a little bit fearful. She wasn't afraid of vampires (they were only dreams, right?) more than she was afraid of what might happen if she became a zombie. It was bad enough that her mom and Shawn were one. "That sounds terrifying." “Yeah,” Caroline confirmed about the dreams. “It kind of was, I had no idea what vampires were or what was happening to me. I was conveniently left out of the loop,” she couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Have you ever heard of how the dreams can like bring items and things here?” she asked curiously. Caroline honestly couldn’t imagine what it would be like if zombies started showing up in Orange County. "Yea, I'd say," agreed Beth. "But if anyone had told me that I'd be dreaming about… this stuff…" And here she made a vague hand gesture to indicate all of the crazy things that seemed to happen inside her head. "I don't think I'd believe it. I don't even believe the rumors now, and I've seen them. Like, you meet people from there, stuff gets brought to you… That these dreams are somehow a part of reality? But that's not… My mom didn't die in the apocalypse." She said this with such conviction that she almost believed it. "I know none of these things have happened, and yet… what if everyone else is right, and they did?" The more she went over the scenes in her head, the more she seemed to see the line between her reality and the dream reality blur, and that was more terrifying than zombies and vampires combined. “Yeah I didn’t really believe anything people were saying until I actually started dreaming myself. It really does all sound crazy, but I guess it’s no crazier than snow in sunny California,” what a strange place they lived in. “I’m sorry about your mom,” she added with a sympathetic smile. Even if it was just her dream mother Caroline knew how real the death of a parent in the dreams could feel. Hell she didn’t even like her dream or real father and yet when he died in the dreams it still upset her. “Like happened in a past life? I don’t really know,” she had no idea where the dreams came from or what they were supposed to represent. They really did feel like another life though. “But yeah, items, abilities, they can come from the dreams,” the abilities part was the hint, she wasn’t sure if Beth would fully catch it, but she was testing the waters a bit. She'd never believed in past lives, or alternative realities, or anything like that. That just wasn't her. But the dreams made it difficult sometimes to determine what was crazy and what was, well, slightly less crazy. "Abilities?" she said, picking up on the train of thought. "So, you're saying when the zombie apocalypse hits here, I'll be ready?" This was such a ridiculous idea that she smiled. She couldn't imagine herself fending off dead people. "And you'll… what? Be the next Van Helsing?" It didn't fit, exactly. She was just a student, not a badass monster killer. But maybe, in the dreams, she became one, and maybe that counted for something. “I guess so. Maybe you could give me some tips,” Caroline only half joked with a laugh. Really she had no clue what would happen if Beth’s dreams started coming to life here. She knew nothing about zombies or about how vampires and zombies would react to each other. She had a feeling she would win in a fight though. “More like Dracula,” she wrinkled her nose at the comparison. “Only not a killer.” "Oh." She didn't know what to say. She thought that Caroline was trying to tell her something, except what she seemed to be telling her didn't make any sense. How could Caroline be like Dracula? He was fictional and a total creep and fictional. Maybe Caroline was a vampire in the dreams, which were weird enough, but the dreams didn't translate to reality. She had nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she was very, very wrong about that last part. "But you're not… You're not a vampire." Here it was. The moment of truth. “Actually I am,” she admitted. “I’ve been dreaming for awhile now and I kind of um, woke up one.” Well more like she died in her sleep and came back a vampire but close enough. “I don’t hurt people though,” she assured Beth, like that would make everything better and alright. She knew it was a shock hearing she was a vampire. Hopefully Beth wouldn’t be too terrified of her, and if she was then Caroline would just have to figure something out. She stared at Caroline, wide-eyed and confused. "You're a… a vampire?" It was strange. Here they were in an ordinary apartment, studying for ordinary exams, and her friend was telling her something completely not ordinary. Her pulse was beating faster than it should have been, but she didn't know if that was fear, or if it was just the complete insanity of it all. "But… How does that work? Vampires aren't real. They're just… fairytales. Like, snow faeries, and little mermaids, and things that go bump in the night..." Well Beth was taking it better than she expected. Sure she was in shock, but at least she didn’t seem terrified of Caroline. “That’s what I thought too,” honestly who wouldn’t think that? People who had been in this place too damn long, that’s who. “I don’t really know how it works. I just know I dreamed about it for awhile and then one day I just was one.” Caroline didn’t exactly know how to explain it. The thought of showing Beth her fangs occurred to her, but she didn’t want to frighten her friend. Honestly, Beth didn't know whether to run in the other direction or simply accept that her friend was a real, honest-to-god vampire. She was feeling a little bit out of her depth. As though she were out in the ocean, and the tide had come in, and she hadn't quite got her bearings yet. "Should I be worried?" she asked. "I mean, if you're a vampire, don't you… don't you drink people's blood and stuff?" She wrinkled her nose. That sounded disgusting. “You shouldn’t be worried,” she assured her before going on to explain more. “I mean I do drink blood. But I have this magical cup that refills whenever it is almost empty, and I have blood bags too,” she said it like that was totally a normal thing. “I don’t bite humans.” Or well she tried not to. Now was not the best time to admit she had slip ups in the past, but at least they weren’t bad enough to actually hurt anyone. It was unbelievable, and yet not. She looked at Caroline, and then down at her books. She seemed to be considering the implications of what it meant that vampires, and magic, and blood drinking were all things that were just normal to the other girl. And then it occurred to her that this all went back to the dreams, and that she had had similar dreams. Well, maybe not similar. But there were things in those dreams that didn't exist here, and what if they did? She got the sick feeling that she didn't want to see the OC overrun with a walker hoarde. "I mean, I don't know. That's still pretty crazy. And doesn't that mean that the dreams are real? All of them?" She chewed her lip, thinking. "Even mine?" And for the first time that evening, she felt really and truly scared. If Caroline was a vampire, well, that was just weird. But if what she dreamed about was real? That was terrifying. Caroline could tell Beth was scared. But she didn’t really think it was because she was a vampire. Beth seemed more fixated on the fact that the dreams were real. Caroline couldn’t blame her, that was a pretty damn scary thing to realize. “Yeah, they are real, it’s like another life we had or alternate universe or something,” she didn’t quite understand what the dreams were. “But stuff can bleed over here,” she sighed a frown forming on her face. Just then the doorbell rang. “Oh that must be the pizza! Can you get it?” Caroline needed so get a quick snack of blood, it probably was best to not do that in front of Beth. That didn’t mean she would leave the girl stranded with the bill though, she grabbed her wallet handing over some cash to Beth. The arrival of pizza man brought Beth back to reality. So, the dreams were an alternate reality of this one. Well, she'd have probably figured that out eventually, and she thought it was better just to know than speculate. She just hoped that whatever bled through from her world was something she could handle. "Oh, absolutely," she said, grabbing her own wallet and the cash from Caroline. She paused about halfway to the door, thinking. "You know, I don't know how to say this. But I am really glad we're friends, even with all the -- crazy." She smiled. "It just makes things easier." Well that was a relief. One less person Caroline was keeping a secret from and she seemed understanding. “Me too,” she replied with a genuine smile glad she hadn’t lost a friend. |