CHAPTER TWO | BRAVE NEW WORLD

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EDEN HAD HEARD THAT CAROLINE HAD BEEN DOING A LOT BETTER SINCE DAMON FED HER HIS BLOOD. But, once Eden entered Caroline's hospital room, she frowned at the fact the blonde girl was sat upright in her bed in complete and utter darkness. The girl's eyes darted to the curtains that were closed, and her untouched food. 

"Still not eating, huh?" Eden raised an eyebrow.

Caroline vigorously shook her head. "It's gross."

"Obviously. Hospital food isn't suppose to be nice, Care." The Gilbert girl chuckled. "Hey, so, I heard from your Mom that they're releasing you tomorrow morning. I figured maybe you and I could come over, or—"

"—Morning?" Caroline echoed with a panicked look on her face. "I need to get out tonight."

"Right, because of the carnival?" Eden chuckled once again, knowing Caroline all too well. "Yeah, I heard all about it from Jeremy this morning. Relax. Elena's the one organising it whilst you're in here, so it'll be fine."

"No, Eden, it's not about the carnival, okay? it's just that this place is just really depressing." Caroline nervously fiddled with her fingers.

"Yup. 'Cause you're sitting here in the dark. But, lucky for you, I can fix that." Eden walked toward the curtains in an attempt to open them.

"No, don't!" Caroline exclaimed as soon as Eden thrust the curtains open. The Gilbert girl turned around to notice Caroline was leaned against the wall in an attempt to resist the sunlight. "Just close it, please."

"It's only sunlight, Caroline. I—"

"—Close it." The blonde snapped in a slightly harsher tone that caused Eden to comply. She closed the curtains and heard a sigh of relief leave Caroline's lips. "Thank you."

Eden eyed up the girl. She had never seen Caroline react in such a way. "Caroline, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I— I'm just tired." The Forbes girl clambered back onto the hospital bed and tugged the blankets over her. "You know, I think I'm just gonna get some rest."

"Rest?" Eden echoed in confusion. "You've only just woken up."

"And, now I want to sleep again. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No." Eden nodded slowly as she backed up toward the door, her eyes scanned her best friend once more. "Look, I'll check back up on you later, okay? Get some rest."

"Thanks." Caroline muttered quietly as she lifted her head back up to smile at the Gilbert. "Bye, Eden." She sighed once she watched Eden shut the door behind her.

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Eden had never been to a carnival before, but if one thing was for certain, she loved the atmosphere. Though, her thoughts kept drifting back to Caroline as she made her way around the different event stands and rides. There was something wrong— she cowered at the thought of sunlight, she was unusually aggressive and refused to eat. 

"You came." Elena's voice echoed from behind her sister, almost as if she were shocked that Eden had even come. "I wasn't sure this would be your kinda place."

"I wanted to come admire your handy-work." The Gilbert girl chuckled slightly, eyeing up the stalls around. "This is awesome."

"Thanks. I mean, I can't take all the credit, Bonnie helped, too." Elena tucked her hair behind her ear as the two slowly began to walk through the carnival. "Did you see Caroline this morning? How's she doing?"

"Uh, honestly? She freaked me out a little."

"Why?" Elena blinked in confusion.

"She was just really snippy, and she when I got there she was literally sat in the dark. She said she was just tired, but I'm not sure I believe that." Eden shrugged. "She's getting released tomorrow morning, though."

"Well, that's something." Elena thankfully exhaled, with her clipboard in hand. "Hey, I need to go restock the Jacob Tee's. I'll meet back up with you in a little while?"

"Sure." Eden smiled. She wandered through the carnival, her eyes scanning every booth until she saw Jeremy being put in a headlock by Damon. "Damon, leave him alone!" The girl shouted, causing the Damon to immediately shove Jeremy away from him.

"It's fine, Eden." Jeremy exhaled whilst his hand travelled up to his neck. "He was just—"

The brunette female furrowed her brows and turned her attention to Damon, who stood with a smirk on his face. "After last night, I don't really want you anywhere near my brother. Leave him alone, or I swear to God, I will cut off your dick, and feed it to you." The Gilbert girl stepped closer to Damon, as if she were challenging him. Their eye contact was strong, unmoving. "Got it?"

"Ooh. Tough girl." Damon chuckled to himself as he watched Eden turn on her heels and walk away from him. "Laters, Eden."

"Hey!" Caroline's voice called out to the brunette as she hurried over, causing Eden to gasp. "They discharged me early. I'm all better."

"Oh, my God, Caroline. That's amazing!" Eden gripped hold of her friend's hands and smiled. "How'd you feel?"

Caroline nodded. "I feel pretty good."

"Are you sure? Earlier had me really worried about—"

"—I'm all better." The Forbes girl nodded again before their attention turned to the ring toss stand that was to their left. "Oh, I love the ring toss!"

"Okay, but are you better than me?" Eden challenging with a pointed look and a giggle. She handed Caroline one of the rings and watched her friend smirk.

Caroline took a deep breath to compose herself before she gently tossed the ring toward the bottles, completely smashing every single one that the ring hit. "Uh, they must've already been broken." Caroline quickly defended herself.

"Excuses, excuses. My turn." Eden smirked. As she grabbed the ring and focused on her shot, Caroline couldn't seem to escape the scent of Eden's blood. Her mouth began to salivate hungrily, and the veins underneath her eyes began to crawl up.

"I gotta go." Caroline quickly spoke once she attempted to breathe away the cravings, though they didn't stop. "I need to go." The blonde immediately rushed away from Eden, once again leaving the Gilbert girl alone with her thoughts. 

"Hey." Elena and Stefan ran straight over to Eden with panicked looks. "Please tell me you've seen Caroline?" 

"Just. I mean, she ran off. Why?"

"We need to find her before Damon does." Stefan urged the two Gilbert girls as they ran out of the building. "If he gets to her first—"

"—Why? What's happened to her?" The younger of the two Gilbert girls began to panic as she looked to her sister. "Elena, tell me!"

"Katherine turned her." As soon as the words left Elena's lips, Eden's face went white as a sheet. "Caroline's a vampire, and Damon thinks she's better off dead, so we should really—"

Stefan noticed Damon and Caroline in the distance. He sped straight over and yanked the stake from his brothers hand and pushed him away from Caroline, whilst Eden and Elena dealt with Caroline.

"Get away from me, both of you!" Caroline swatted the Gilbert's away whilst the dried blood all over her mouth took their attention. "You— you killed me!"

"No. No, Caroline, that wasn't me. It was Katherine." Eden held her hands out in front of her as if she were surrendering. "God. I'm getting sick of this bitch pretending to be me."

"No! Then, why did she look like you? And, why— why did she do this to me?!" The newly-turned vampire was hysterical. 

"Stefan, we've gotta get her inside." 

Stefan backed up from his brother and headed to the blonde. "It's alright, Caroline, come with me. 

"She will die. It's only a matter of time." Damon smirked.

"Shut up, Damon." Eden snapped viciously as soon as Stefan ushered Caroline toward the bathroom. 

"Caroline?" Almost as soon as they headed over to the building, Bonnie stepped out. There was a look of horror as the Bennett witch pieced everything together: the blood on her face, the stake that Damon held, the screaming— Caroline was a vampire. "No. You're not. You can't— you can't be."

Bonnie hurried over to Caroline and grabbed her forearm but that's when everything was confirmed for her. "Bonnie?" The blonde softly whispered but Bonnie shook her head.

"I got this." Eden whispered to her sister as she shoved her in the direction of Stefan and Caroline. "Bonnie, it's okay. It's gonna be okay, come here." Eden wrapped her arms around her best friend.

"I can't believe this is happening."

"Come on, don't pout about it." The Salvatore stepped back over to the Caroline's victim, this time, with a shovel over his shoulder. "We got a body to bury." He chuckled to himself. "Sucks to be you, buddy."

An agonising scream left Damon's lips as he doubled-over in pain, clutching his head. As soon as Damon had dropped to the ground, a nearby hosepipe turned itself on and sprayed the entire ground around him. Eden looked toward Bonnie and realised that she was the one doing it. 

"I told you what would happen if anyone else got hurt." The Bennett girl confident spoke as Damon writhed in pain at her feet.

"I didn't do it!"

"No, Bon, for once, he's right. This— this wasn't Damon. It was Katherine." 

"Everything that happens is his fault, Eden." She declared as the water around Damon began to catch fire. She was going to kill him for messing with her friends, and as much as Eden wanted that, she couldn't let that happen. 

"Bonnie! Bonnie, stop!" Eden screamed as she frantically began to shake her best friend out of the trance she had seemed to fall into. The flames disappeared and Bonnie blinked. 

"Why did you stop me?!" Bonnie swatted Eden away.

"Because we're better than this!"

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