The air had a slight chill to it as I ran through the woods. The darkness that comes at night would've made it hard for any normal person to see, but my supernaturally enhanced senses allowed me to see as if it were day.

Quite a lot of things had happened today, and I was in the background of it all. I had watched as Hayley betrayed her alliance with Tyler, and thus sacrificed twelve hybrids to raise some evil wizard from the dead. Of course I didn't interfere, it's not my job to after all.

The point of me running through the forest was to relieve the stress of the day and continue on with my life. But unfortunately, fate apparently had different plans. Suddenly I found myself in the middle of twelve mutilated bodies. Oops, looks like I accidently stumbled upon the failed plan of Tyler's hybrids.

What really caught my attention was the whimpering of the hybrid Kim nearby. Following the sounds of begging, I ended up in the old Lockwood cellar just as Klaus chopped off her head. Ouch, that looks like it hurt.

"Have you come to ensure my demise?" Klaus spoke softly, his back turned to me. "Were you apart of this plan too? If they failed at killing me, were you to step up and finish the job?"

"Of course not," I replied, leaning up against the wall. "I knew about it, but I had no part of their plan. In fact, I knew they would fail."

"Then, why are you here?" He finally turned to face me, his shirt collar and jacket dripping with blood, his face utterly broken.

"I was running nearby when I heard that-" I pointed to the corpse laying next to Klaus' feet. "-whimpering like the pathetic wimp she was."

"So you came to witness another one of my hybrids' death. You know, you might be even more insane than I am." His voice was even, but I could see through the cracks in his armor. Klaus was destroyed. His hybrids were supposed to be a surrogate family, and now he had to kill them. Much like he daggers his real siblings.

I shrugged, "Maybe I am." He tried walking past me, but I stepped in front of him.
"Can't have you doing and killing the whole town now, can I?"

"Get out of my way Ashley," Klaus practically growled, a dark look in his eyes. "I'm not in a mood to deal with your plots." He once again tried to go past me but I put my hand on his chest to stop him.

"Good, because I'm not plotting anything, well, at the moment. I just can't have a crazed original hybrid running around the place killing things. The town population is already low."

"Let me past." He snarled.

"No, not until you calm down." I commanded in my no-nonsense voice.

Klaus straightened up, and I thought for a second he was going to fight me, but then he sagged forward into my arms. Gently, I lowered him down onto the floor, placing his back against my front and leaning on the wall. This was something that I had done many times with Jeremy, and although I'm opposed to touch, I knew that he needed comforting.

"They'll all dead." His voice trembled, and even though I couldn't see his face I knew he was crying silent tears.
"I killed every last one of them."

I didn't say anything, only brought him tighter into my grip.
"All except that urchin Tyler." Menace was heard plainly as he spoke the name.

"I'm going to kill him and everyone he's ever met." Klaus threatened, and I resisted the urge to reply with, "everyone except Caroline." I'm not stupid, he clearly cares for her. I bit my tongue and rocked him very gently in my arms.  He stiffened and questioned,
"How do you do this so well? You've told me many times you hate any contact."

Thinking on my answer, I carefully responded. "After our parents died, Jeremy had a lot of restless nights. Sometimes he would come into my room and I would rock him to sleep while he cried. Elena was too caught up in her own self-pity to notice how depressed he really was. So that left me as his only safe confidante."

Klaus didn't respond, only nodded his head slightly. After a few more minutes, he composed himself and got up off me and the ground. Before he exited though, I called out to him,

"Don't chase Tyler, it would be better for him to live his days in terror, always fearing that you are right behind him. Instead, go after what he cares about, it will leave a much more permanent mark on him than death."

He stopped, his back stilled turned to me, and whispered so low, only someone with supernatural hearing could hear it. "Thank you." And with that, he was gone.

~~~~~

Looking from a distance, I watched as Klaus drowned Carol Lockwood. Some might call me heartless, but I know this is the safest way for him to get rid of some anger. Better for him to have a little feeling of satisfaction at causing Tyler pain than to inflict it on many others.

Returning to Retreat, I played today's excitements over in my head. Caroline and Stefan finally figured out that Elena is sired to Damon, it was literally so obvious. Elena kinda cheated on Stefan, and Jeremy is finding control over his hunter self.

Oh yeah, it's all coming together.

~~~~~

Third PoV:

After washing off, Klaus started painting a canvas. It helped him relax his mind. His brain was swirling with many emotions and questions. Mainly about Ashley. How she reserved touch only for him, how she so easily comforted him when he needed it, and how she suggested a different means of revenge on Tyler.

She is an enigma wrapped in a mystery, the only person privy to her thoughts was herself. But by the gods was he enraptured by her presence. Her hands always somewhere between hot and cold, her face always an emotionless mask, no one knowing what really went behind those light gray eyes.

Klaus found himself wondering what her vampire face was like, was she like him? Did she have the veins of a vampire but the eyes of a werewolf? Were her eyes like her own wolf's eyes, that blood orange that's so uniquely rare. He wanted to see them,  he wanted to bring out the monster in her.

Klaus wanted to see in drenched in blood, the bodies of her victims around her while he stood beside her. The tips of her hair completely red, and her face the mask she always wore. When he finally had her, they would be unstoppable, a killing force that the whole world would fear.

And after, he would take her to see the world. Great waterfalls and mountains practically screamed her name, he would show her nature at it's finest. Smiling for the first time in hours, he gazed down at the painting he had created. A swirling snowflake, almost completely black stood out against the white backdrop.

It was a complete contrast to the one he had done earlier for the Winter Wonderland festival. But they somehow went with each other, the white snowflake against black, and a black snowflake against white. Both emitted a certain loneliness and longing.

Sighing, Klaus covered the painting with a sheet and went off to bed. The last thing on his mind was Ashley's arms around him as comforted him...