Alone

                                    

                                          


                          
        A shrill ring echos through my ears. It's too loud to ignore. As my eyes flicker open, I realize that its the ringing of a phone. More specifically, my phone. With a groan, I lift myself to a sitting position. With the little energy I have, I stretch out my hand, blindly searching for my phone. Eventually, my fingers curve around the familiar object and I put it to my ear. Answering, I whisper pissed, "What?"
                          
        "Ouch, yeah. Stefan was right, you are not a morning person." Although I want to be angry at having been woken up, Caroline's friendly tone edges my anger.
                          
        "Care," I sigh, heavily. "Why are you calling me this early?"
                          
        "Early? Lily it's almost 10 in the morning."
                          
        "Point proven, Care. It's early. Now, what's up?" I ask, shifting into a more comfortable position. My back rests against the headboard as my body melts into the mattress. Damn, this bed is heaven!
                          
        "Well...I'm not sure how to exactly put this, but Stefan and I were talking and everything just started to add up and-"
                          
        "Get on with it care." I push her. I may not be as angry since it's her, but that doesn't mean that I'm in the mood to beat around the bush.
                          
        "We think Elena is sired to Damon." 
                          
        Her words catch me off guard as I rub my eyes. It's another second before I actually process them. Sired? Sired! Of course. It all makes sense now and...and Klaus knew. That bastard was hinting at it yesterday!
                          
        "Of course," I mutter to Caroline. "It makes sense. I mean, it's rare, but it happens. The blood bag incident, it makes sense."
                          
        Caroline sighs in what seems like relief from the other side of the line. She's probably just happy that she didn't have to convince me. Damon did tell me once that my stubbornness was hard to maneuver to believe any thought that wasn't my own. "Yeah, Stefan and I were talking and the idea dawned on me. Tyler has told me what it was like to be sired to Klaus, to want to do whatever it took to make him happy. It just all fits with Elena."
                          
        I scoff. "Tyler might have gave you the idea, but I should've figured it out sooner. It was...it was hinted to me that the sire bond might be the cause behind Elena's recent attitude."
                          
        "What?" Caroline's voice sounds with surprise as she gasps. "By who? When?"
                          
        "Klaus. Yesterday at the pageant. I was ranting about Elena and Damon and he said it would all make sense soon. He knew that Elena was sired to Damon, and that eventually we would figure it out."
                          
        Caroline falls silent. 
                          
        "Care? You still there?"
                          
        Another moment of silence. Then with hesitation she asks the question I've been dreading. "Lily, where exactly are you?" I suck in a breath. "I heard about the Elena thing and Stefan told me that you two are fighting, which you should've told me about yesterday, but that's beside the point, so I wouldn't expect you to come here when he's here. That leaves the question: if you're not at the Boarding House, not here, then...where?"
                          
        A long sigh drops from my lips. "Care, does it really matter? I-I..." My voice trails off. Then, knowing that she's probably already drawing her own conclusions, I huff. "Fine. I'm at Klaus's."
                          
        Another silence follows my confession. 
                          
        "Caroline?" I squeak.
                          
        "I just, wow...Klaus, really?"