⸝⸝₊ ┊say don't go
♰ chapter zero ♰ ‧₊˚ ⋅⩩

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⁰︎⁰︎ °. THE SOUND OF boots thudding against the old creaky hallway had filled the room as he walked through. It was almost dreadful. It had rattled around her head like there was marbles on the loose, each step another marble had banged relentlessly against her throbbing skull.

Someone needs to find her gun and put her out of her misery.

"Get up," Bill was knocking at the door not even a second later as she moved her arm away from her face. The light from the ceiling fan blinding her as she watched it spin endlessly. Around and around it went. "We gotta go." Caroline made no effort to move as the door creaked open louder. He wasn't against dragging her out of the bed, and in all honesty...she would probably let him. As long as she didn't have to get up. "Care, come on."

"Why?" She finally complained.

"Because you're just gotta lay around and rot in bed all day. Get up," he placed a glass of water beside her with the same three white pills she had practically been living off the last three weeks. Advil.

It was an effort to even sit up at this point. These migraines have only gotten increasingly worse and as far as Bill was concerned, she would end up in the hospital by the end of the week whether she liked it or not. Her brain had felt too big for her head. Each movement had her one step closer to teetering over the edge towards full on insanity. It had only taken 23 years, maybe her time had finally come.

"Bobby called," Bill started to throw her a cleaned hoodie of his as it hit her in the face before falling into her lap as she stared at it tiredly, "says he's got a case a few towns over from us."

"Uncle Bobby called you in the middle of the night to talk about a case?" She questioned incredulously as she finally reached over for the glass of water and pills beside her. "Doesn't he ever sleep?"

"You're the only one in this family who sleeps as much as you do. You've been out 14 hours."

"What?" She seemed shocked by that. No way she had slept that much. It barely felt like she slept half an hour. Her eyes had caught a glimpse of the digital clock across the room that read the time. 2:39 am. She shook her head shortly before she was yawning and Bill was walking across the room for the bags they had shoved in the closet. 14 hours of sleep and she was still tired.

Okay, the amount of sleep was a little concerning. Especially for a hunter. But there was only so much she could do with a raging migraine anyway. She was no use on any sort of hunt, so why Bill was dragging her to a hunt to god knows where, she didn't even want to try and think about it.

The hoodie Bill had thrown on her got put on slowly, a quiet groan leaving her at her aching body before she was rubbing her forehead and pinching the bridge of her nose. Everything just hurt. The only comfort she had was the giant hood over head blocking out most of the light.

"Let's go!" Bill shouted one more time from the hallway. Caroline groaned as her hand finally fell to her lap in frustration before she was grabbing the pack of gum she had on the table and shoving it into her pocket. The old worn slippers she had lying haphazardly by the door before she slipped them on and snuck out of the room quietly.

An oversized hoodie, sweatpants that had too many rips to count and a frayed string swinging around, you'd think Caroline didn't have any other clothes. She did. That was a lot of effort to try and change if she was going to be sitting in a truck for 8 hours anyway.

If there was one thing the Clarke's knew how to do, it was make sure they weren't inconveniencing themselves.

Rain had just started to pick up outside when she reached the lobby of the hotel. The sound of it hitting the pavement echoing through the doors as Bill's truck rolled to a stop on front of the doors. He definitely would've stayed parked out in the rain and made her walk through it, but he was already on a time crunch and he didn't have time to sit there and listen to her complain that she was soaking wet.

As soon as she was in the truck she was reaching over to turn down the radio. The noise was rattling the doors before it faded into nothing more than a low hum.

"You keep this up, I'm just gonna drop you off at the hospital," Bill joked shortly, the joke dying off when he saw her just rest her head against the cold window. He shook his head shortly before pulling out of the parking lot finally, the wiper's working overtime to clear the rain from his view.

Caroline just needed to be left alone. One day. That's all she asked.

"Why did we have to rush out for a case at 2 in the morning?" She finally complained about something. If someone had asked Bill, he'd say that all the girl did was complain. But the last few weeks it had been quiet.

"Because," was his only answer.

Caroline rolled her eyes slightly as she took a short breath before looking out the window beside her. She couldn't see anything anyway besides the few street lamps that had been placed around the street. 

"So helpful. Thank you," she grumbled to herself quietly, rubbing at her eye carefully before putting her head back down.

Silence had finally overtook the truck as Caroline was about to doze off again before she heard him muttering something beside her.

Always starts talking when she gets comfortable.

"He's coming."

"What?" She snipped as she looked over at him slowly while he gave her a quick double take before looking back at the road.

"What?" He was just as confused as she was.

"What'd you say?"

"I didn't say nothin'."

He could see her brows furrow slightly before she was resting her head back against her palm to watch out the front window. It was the stupid voice again. It never left. It felt like it was always just in the back of her mind whispering things to her before coming out at the most inconvenient of times.

Because who was coming? That's all they had told her the last few weeks and it had seemingly gotten worse. The closer they got to something, the more insistent the words were spoken. Soon enough, it would be a solid chant inside her head. And once the chant started, she knew there was no going back.

Maybe one day the voices would stop. The voices would finally leave her alone and give her a moment of peace, or maybe she was cursed forever.

She hadn't even remembered a time she didn't have someone whispering in her ear going on and on about someone coming to her. She was almost scared to experience life without it. If the voices were gone did that mean she was dead? That could be the one explanation.

And if there was one thing Caroline was not going to do, was let them kill her.

She had barely managed to catch a glimpse of something in the middle of the road before she was sitting up. Someone was standing in the middle of the road. In this weather? Were they insane?

"Bill!"

He hit the brakes as fast as he could but the slippery roads, it only made him swerve off to the side of the road. The bed of the truck slammed into a tree that had shook the truck and sending them forward before their seatbelts locked up.

The last thing she had seen before her head hit the dashboard, were yellow eyes staring straight back at her.

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gracie's getaway //
who's ready for emotional damage
these next few chapters 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️

anyway

don't forget to vote and comment <333

bye byeee

— gracie x