Don't Hold This War Inside

5 Months Later....

Caroline had not had a dream in five months, ever since she'd been poisoned. She had come to the conclusion that Charles had been the one who poisoned her.

She didn't care, though. After she analyzed every one of her dreams, analyzed every detail, she wondered how she hadn't been able to tell it was him in the first place.

She had not told Carlisle that ti was Charles who poisoned her. She didn't want to.

"Madame Caroline, Carlisle would like to speak with you." Lucy said, poking her head in the door.

Caroline turned from her vanity and nodded. "I'll be right down."

Lucy nodded and left the room.

Caroline turned back to look at her reflection in the mirror.

She looked like death.

There was an emotional exhaustion in her eyes and her hair still looked as dull as it was when she first arrived in London.

She got up and made her way downstairs to Carlisle's study. He was sitting at his desk, writing.

"You wished to see me?" Caroline said as she stood in the doorway of the office.

Carlisle looked up from the letter he was writing. "Yes. I wanted to tell you that I will be leaving later tonight on business."

Caroline nodded. "Are you going hunting?" she asked.

Carlisle froze and looked at her. "Excuse me?"

She sighed and sat down in one of the arm chairs in front of his desk. "I know you are not human, Carlisle. I do not know exactly what you are but I am comfortable knowing that whatever you are, you will not harm me"

Carlisle felt his insides freeze and break. How could he have been so careless? But then, she was bound to know at some point, wasn't she?

"Yes, well, I just wished you to know that I won't be back for a few days. I would have hated to leave without telling you." Carlisle said.

"Of course. I will be fine here." Caroline replied before heading up to her room.

Two nights later Charles came to call on Caroline. He had become something more than a friend to Caroline in the last five months.

The two were sitting in the library reading. It had been quiet between them for the last hour or so. Finally, Charles broke the silence.

"There is something I wish to ask you."

"Ask away, Charles." Caroline said semidetached.

"Will you marry me?"

"No." Caroline answered immediately.

Charles face screwed up in anger and confusion. "Excuse me?"

"If you are hard of hearing, Charles, I will repeat this again. I said no. I have already married once and I refuse to give my heart to another." Caroline explained.

She stood and waled tot he large window and stared outside. It was raining horribly. Thunder practically shook the apartment and lightening lit up the London skyline.

As she stared out the window, Charles began to speak again.

"You know, when Jasper first showed me a picture of you, I knew you were a beauty, just as he said. And I knew I had to make him suffer for taking Maria from me. That was the reason I plotted his death." Charles said, almost as if he were talking about the weather.

Caroline felt her insides go numb.

So that was what the letter in her dream meant.

"And now you are going to kill me. I've known for quite some time now it would end this way." Caroline said in a detached empty voice.

Just then she was hit with a vision.

The cabin was lit by candle.

Jasper stood at the window, watching as rain crashed around outside. His face was stoic as he thought of his human life, of Caroline.

She was nothing more to him now than a distant memory, something stolen from him that he could never have returned.

"Something troubles you, my dear." a sweet and somehow deadly voice said from behind him.

Jasper turned and saw Maria standing there, looking up at him. Maria was only a few inches shorter than him.

"Nothing, Maria. I was only thinking of my human life. It is a life I sometimes wish to forget, yet it is a life I want nothing more than to return to." Jasper replied quietly.

"Well, then, Jasper, allow me to help you forget." Maria whispered sweetly, her voice reeking of danger.

Her hands traveled up and down Jasper's chest before they finally lingered on his neck. he found himself entranced by her beautiful darkness as she brought herself closer to him.Caroline, he thought. Remember Caroline.

But he couldn't.

There was no way he could do such a thing with Maria in his presence.

She made him forget everything.

She made him forget he belonged to another.

She made him forget that the life, or existence rather, that he was leading was not a good one.

She made him forget he was Jasper Whitlock of Houston, Texas.

She made him forget.

He soon felt Maria's soft, cool lips on his and all thoughts of Caroline burst from his mind. What did it matter? Caroline no longer existed to him. For all he knew, she could have married another, perhaps already have children.

Caroline no longer mattered.

All that mattered was Maria.

The two kissed for a few moments, the heat building between them, making Jasper feel like he was standing in a furnace. He wasn't sure how much more he could take.

But he knew one thing for certain: Caroline was gone and was now replaced with Maria.Goodbye, Caroline. his thoughts echoed Goodbye.

"And none of it matters, Charles," Caroline said softly, tears coming to her eyes. "I have lost him...forever."

Just then, Caroline felt a white hot pain in her neck that began to spread all over her body. She knew Charles had done it.

Pain spread through every part of her and she didn't beg him to stop. None of it mattered. Life was not worth living if she couldn't live it the right way.

"My life was short," she choked out. "From the start."

Charles cackled evilly as he broke away from her neck before he vanished without another word.

And this what it had all come to.

Somehow, Caroline thought that she would die surrounded by family and friends, when she was old. Yet amazingly it had come to this.

How?

How could she die this way? But she wouldn't question it. Fate was no kind friend to Caroline.

As she lay there, white hot pain searing her from the inside out, she thought of all her memories. She thought of Jasper, who she knew now was truly gone forever.

had the war been a lie? Had he really just left her for someone else?

It didn't matter now.

She was going to die on the floor, alone, int he worst way possible, in a place she had been forced to call home for the past 2 years.