"Prison World Shutcall"

The blinds wide open so he can

See you in the dark when you're sleeping

Naked body, fresh out the shower

You touch yourself after hours

Ain't no man allowed in your bedroom

You're sleeping alone in your bed

But check your window, he's at your window

-Tyler the Creator ft Frank Ocean; She

"Bonnie!" Damon cries as he and Alaric approach her.

"Thank god," she heaves in relief, smiling at their grim faces. Alaric steps up to her, eyeing her in concern. There is no time to waste, so before he can speak she grabs his shoulders and feels the break and release sensation as he fades away from the howling winds and dim grey forest. She hunches over slightly as fatigue hits her, but tries to hide it as she turns to Damon.

"Where's Elena?" he asks.

"She made it," Bonnie reassures him with a smile. He nods.

"Okay."

"Come on," she steps forward and he nods. Right as she reaches out to grab him, Damon steps back.

"What about you?" he inquires. "What happens to you when this place goes?"

Bonnie shrugs and sends him a crooked smile. "Dunno. But Grams said she made sure I would find peace, and I trust her."

Damon gazes at her for short moment, blue eyes limpid and sad. He nods.

"Okay," he said. He comes closer and instead of letting her grab him, he reaches out and envelopes her in tight hug.

"I'm so sorry," he mutters before he crosses over. Damon continues to hold her even when he's back over and Bonnie clings to him, even though it's Damon. She doesn't know if she'll ever hug or touch another person again, and Damon's willingness to comfort her before she reaches the gates of oblivion is a boon.

She stares out over his shoulder at the whistling abyss and he starts to feel farther and farther, even though she knows neither of them have moved. The sky on the collapsing other side lightens to an eerie white glow and absently she whispers, "I hope it doesn't hurt."

Damon squeezes her fading body harder and rubs a hand through her hair. "Me too," he murmurs.

And then Bonnie Bennett is no more.

-o0o-

It doesn't hurt at all. There's howling wind and a feeling of weightlessness and then Bonnie is standing alone in the woods, pretty much exactly where she was. She looks around, bewildered. Sunlight filters down through the trees, dappling her coat and the ground. The hush that surrounds her is unnatural; Bonnie can't hear a single chirp from a bird or buzzing of mosquitos. The air is heavier, warmer than it just was.

Something else is off though and she can't place it.

The young Bennett begins to head for the crypt, looking around for the large oak that usually stands as a proud marker of the gate. She's confused when the tree she finds is barely more than a sapling, but it's placement and shape - it's the same oak.

"What the hell?" Bonnie mutters to herself. She stares incredulously. The tree had to be at least 10 years younger than what she's used to seeing.

Cautiously, Bonnie makes her way through the woods back to the main road. It's eerily quiet; cars are parked, but none are moving. She tries knocking on several doors, even tries the doors a few times and peers into the windows. No one appears to be home, not in any of the houses she tries. A feeling of dread colonizes her gut. She wonders if there's some big event that everyone's run off to, but the lack of traffic and noise makes her doubt.

The former witch wanders into the downtown shopping strip and is surprised to find that all of the stores and restaurants are empty. She's also surprised to find that the place where her favorite boutique usually stands is an old Italian restaurant she remembered from her youth that had sold awful alfredo; the restaurant closed down because of bad business when she was four. The sense of dread that had settled in Bonnie's stomach suddenly grows, mutates, sprouts horns.

Right as Bonnie is gawking, the sky suddenly dims. Hand shielding her eyes, Bonnie looks up to take note of the completely blocked out sun.

"Okay, what the fuck?" Bonnie screeches out loud. The eclipse is pretty short, only lasting a few minutes, but Bonnie still squints up in disbelief before slowly looking back down. A newsstand catches her eye and she flounces over to check the headline.

The headline is something bizarre and uninteresting about mobile phones, but it's less that than the date that catches her attention.

May 10, 1994

Bonnie's brows quirk and an astonished look crosses her features. A wave of hysteria passes over her. "Oh my god," she murmurs. "I time travelled."

Wood cracks in the fireplace, but it fails to pull Damon out of the far-away place his mind has gone. He can hear Elena sobbing upstairs, her sniffles interspersed with low cries of Bonnie's name. His hand around the bourbon filled tumbler tightens.

He hates himself.

He keeps thinking - he should have found a better way. Should have checked and double checked when he had gone through hell with Qetsiyah and the ancient doppelgangers, exactly what it was he was getting Bonnie into. He'd fought so hard to bring Bonnie back, to make sure she was alive again, only to have left her more fucked over in the end than she was as a ghost.

Maybe if he had done a better job of protecting the Bennett line, like he had promised, Bonnie wouldn't have died the first time. Maybe she wouldn't be so lost now.

The crystal cracks in his hand.

The flow of bourbon dampening his hand finally calls his attention and Damon goes to grab a towel. His mind is made up. He may be the scummiest person he knows, but Bonnie isn't. He'll save her, bring her back. Because she deserves it.

The lights finally dim in the last window, but it takes him almost two hours before he moves from his perch in the tree just across the backyard. The late spring night is warmer in Virginia than in Portland and Kai would be less remiss of it had the incessant pull in his gut not resulted in such lurid discovery. The call to travel had never rattled him so harshly as it had three days ago - the feeling was violent and sickening. Kai thinks it might be how birds and crabs and bugs feel when they migrate, like the very earth was trying to jerk them about by the bowels.

Nearly three thousand miles later, he finds himself breaking into a quaint cottage style home in the middle of Mystic Falls, Virginia. The familiarity had caused recognition to light up his neurons with a name when he first drove past the city welcome sign. Sheila Bennett. The prolific surname of an old, powerful line of witches and the first name of the single witch responsible for throwing away the key on his particular jail cell.

Wandering around the small town, he had pondered what it was that called him here, what he missed his first few trips there, if some sort of shift had occurred outside of his prison world that turned the place into a beacon within it.

Perhaps Sheila had come to rectify things and the thought made Kai smile almost gleefully.

It's when he's wandering around the small grocery store looking for pork rinds when he heard footsteps echoing down the aisles. He'd fell immediately into paranoia and shifted subconsciously to a predatory gait, quietly making his way towards the sound and quickly hiding himself behind a crate of boxes when they started to head in his direction. That feeling, the flighty, scuttling, twitching feeling returned and settled warm in his lower belly and groin. The earth was pulling him by his very balls.

He watched between the gaps of the boxes as a young woman makes her way down the aisle, a small hand basket hanging from her arm as she grabbed a box of hot chocolate mix and turned away. The vision of her made the feeling rage. Go, it cried. Follow. Kai waited until the sounds of her footfalls faded and then headed down the direction she went, his heart tight behind his ribcage.

From a distance, he followed her around town that day and the next, trying to discern a pattern to her movements and habits. She mostly stuck around residential areas, travelling between a few houses that must have been familiar to her. Investigating, for the most part. She seemed particularly entranced by the eclipse.

This was the first move he's made to breach her space.

Now, sheets rustle softly as she turns over in the bed behind him and Kai throws a casual look over his shoulder, pausing in his perusal of her dresser top. He hadn't broached her yet, choosing to investigate her room while he was still trying to digest that there was someone else less than two yards away.

Carefully, he makes his way over to her side, keeping his tread light and quiet. He leans down, peering at her, the first person he's seen in nearly two decades. Her up close visage is glorious to him. A lone finger drags along the sheets covering her form, sliding up and up until it brushes against the bare skin of her neck. He knows when he reaches out for it, the instinctive way he always has, he just knows what will happen. But the muted rush of magic that hits him still makes his hand jolt back an inch and causes him to look down at her face in surprise.

The girl - he's sure she's a Bennett. She has magic that, even dulled and stifled, has the same trademark burning sensation he'd felt from the one time he'd been able to get close to Sheila and Abby Bennett during one of the former's consultations. But she's no Bennett he recognizes. She looks vaguely like Abby, but far prettier, her heart-shaped face relaxed in soft, sensual curve contrasted by the sharp frame of her short hair. The toffee skin that protected the flesh and power residing within it was supple with youth.

She shifts again, brushing his hand off and rolls over so that her back is facing him. She is still asleep, undisturbed from her slumber by his light probing. Leaning down until the tip of his nose just barely brushed her cheek, Kai breathes in her scent - like almond cookies and honeyed tea - and revels in the first rush of living, human magic he's felt in long time. It's been buried somehow, but just the slightest taste of it has Kai's mind swimming with machinations. He closes his eyes and relishes the tingle that travels through his body, exciting him out of the apathy that monotony has nurtured.

He pulls away and gazes down at the sleeping young woman. His voice, low and curious, whispers out for the first time in a few years.

"Just who are you, little girl?"

"How are you settling in?" Elena inquires into the phone.

"Fine," Alaric replies. He pauses. "I compelled myself Sheila Bennett's old job, they haven't been able to find a replacement." He scoffs. "Seems stupid, but I feel like it's the least I could do, you know?"

Elena stills momentarily, fighting back the stinging in her eyes with a scowl. She pulls herself together and briskly states, "Don't forget to check on Jeremy for me."

"Elena -"

"I have to go," the younger vampire interjects. She hangs up quickly and heads to the restroom.

Her reflection mocks her and Elena has to fight back the surge of fury lest she shatter the mirror. Instead, she fills a sink with water and dunks her face into the cool liquid for a few minutes. She wishes for moment that she was still human and could feel the burning of lungs denied air. That the pain in her chest could hurt for a reason that could be treated. Rising, she pats her face dry, drains the sink. Takes a breath.

She's been a god awful shit of a friend, but she's going to do better. Be better. She'll do what Bonnie would do; she'll help people and she'll actually do something instead of just saying she will. She'll be the hero for Bonnie. It's the only way Elena will be able to move on.

She goes and clocks in for her volunteer shift.

-o0o-

Elena sees Jeremy and Alaric in the waiting room and she nearly becomes human again she's so jarred. She rushes over.

"What the hell?" she shrills. Jeremy winces when her voice pitches. Alaric chuckles.

"Someone partied a little too hard, so I came to see if he could get checked out."

"Partying?" Elena turns narrow, accusing eyes on her brother. "Why would yo-"

"Elena?" A voice cuts in. The collegiate turns around and sees Dr. Laughlin.

"Jo," she greets. "Hey."

"What's up? Is your shift over all ready?"

"No, no," Elena gestures at the two men behind her. "I saw my brother, got concerned." Jo comes closer.

"What's wrong?" the physician asked. Elena opens her mouth, then closes it, realizing she doesn't know exactly why Alaric brought Jeremy in. She shrugs and turns back to Alaric, a questioning look on her face.

"He's been drinking a lot. Now, he seems dehydrated - dizzy, vomiting, can't drink anything."

The doctor nods. "Okay," she gets a nurse's attention. "Go ahead and check this young man in. Get him a drip and 25 milligrams of promethazine," she instructs. The nurse nods and goes to guide Jeremy away.

"And what about this one?" Jo faces Alaric. He smiles at her charmingly and stands.

"I'm just the D.D." he offers her a hand. "Alaric."

"Jo," the doctor grips his hand. The two remain there for a moment too long, gripping each other and staring. Elena stands nearby, awkwardly and wondering if this is how her PDA with Damon made others feel. She feels increasingly sorry for every kiss she's given him in front of others as she watches her former teacher and current overseer have a moment of...something.

"I'm going to get back to work," she announces and turns away. Elena is doubtful that they even heard her since she can hear the low, dulcet tones of horny flirting as she walks away.

He watches her every day for four months; he has nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, so getting to know his new prison mate from a distance seems like the most viable past time. Kai learns that her name is Bonnie and that she is disgustingly optimistic. Kai learns that Bonnie likes her coffee with pricey cinnamon-vanilla creamer, but no sugar. Kai learns that Bonnie talks in her sleep and the most common phrases she mutters are "No" and "I can do it" and "I'm sorry". Kai learns that her favorite flowers are daffodils because she always grabs a bundle from the floral section before she leaves the grocery store. Kai learns that Bonnie likes Janet Jackson and has a thing for Kevin Costner to the point that she will watch The Bodyguard on repeat a bajillion times in a row. Kai learns that Bonnie's best friends are named Caroline and Elena and that she has a boyfriend named Jeremy and he thinks that they all seem like shitty people.

Kai learns that she doesn't do well with the loneliness. Bonnie blasts music and the television when she tries to evoke her imprisoned magic, she talks to stuffed teddy bear she calls Miss Cuddles, and more often than not she will cry herself to sleep.

After Bonnie finds a recorder and starts keeping a video journal, he learns about her many adventures as witch (and is notably impressed), about how she dessicated an original vampire, brought someone back to life, killed an immortal witch and conquered Expression. Kai learns that Sheila Bennett is her grandmother and that she's dead and that Bonnie blames 'that asshole Damon' for it and that she secretly resents 'Stefan for giving a damn about a brother who wouldn't do the same'. Kai learns that Damon and Stefan are vampire brothers and he thinks that Bonnie must have some really convoluted feelings regarding Damon. He also thinks she's stupid for getting involved with vampires in the first place. He learns that she's died like three times and that Sheila was the one who sent her to his prison world in order to save her soul and give her yet another chance at life.

Mostly though, Kai learns that Bonnie Bennett is a sad, lonely, and pathetic little girl. And this gives him his opening to act.

Banging on the door jolts Caroline's attention away from the grimoire and textbooks in front of her and with an angry huff she gets up to answer the door. Her frown grows more pronounced when she sees the asshat standing on the porch.

"What?" she barks and crosses her arms. Damon smiles wryly and does his wild eyebrow thing.

"The sheriff around? I'm looking for a smart blonde."

Caroline gives him the sweetest smile she can muster. "She's not here. Why not do the smart thing and try the station - you know, the most logical place she would be on a Tuesday afternoon?"

She goes to slam the door, but Damon catches it with his foot before she could. His gaze is locked on something behind her.

"What?!" she snarls and tosses her hands up. "I don't have ti-"

"What is that? On the coffee table?"

"Why do you care?" she snaps.

"Is that one Bonnie's grimoire?"

"So what if it is?"

"Give it to me." Caroline looks at the dark-haired man and ponders the stupidity of her younger self for ever wanting him. He was trash.

"Go. Fuck. Yourself," this time she is successful in slamming the door in his face. She heads back to the couch and her notes and her endless determination to find her friend.

"I'm looking for Lucy Bennett," she hears Damon confess from the porch. "I got her name from Abby, but as far as anyone can tell, the woman's a ghost. Probably harder to find than Katherine." He sighs. "If you're looking for a way to save Bonnie, I want to help."

Caroline looks up from the papers spread out before her, gazes distantly across the room as she thinks about Bonnie's smile and her snark and her compassion and her odd, but cute fashion sense. Caroline feels like there's a rift she can't get past and knows the sensation won't dissipate until Bonnie Bennett is a person in this world again. Fingers tapping rapidly against the table, she rolls her eyes with a sigh and goes back to the front door.

Her sire looks up at her when she reappears, blue eyes clashing against bluer eyes. He smirks lightly and opens his mouth. Caroline interrupts before he can grate her ears with his voice.

"I call the shots, you hear? We do this together, but we do this the right way, the way Bonnie would want. No innocents get hurt. If we have to kill someone, they'd better earn it."

He grimaces, but nods. "I can work with that."

Caroline nods and braces herself for her next question. "Why do you want to?"

"What?"

"Why are you doing this?" Damon shrugs, obviously uncertain. He looks away from her intense gaze, then looks back. His eyes go wide and his eyebrows quirk. He looks insane.

"Does it matter? I want Bon-Bon back as much as you do."

"Yeah, but why? If it's so you can have her around to do magic for you again, then fuck right off - I'll stake myself before I let her go back to being treated that way again. I didn't stand up nearly enough for her before, but when she's back - never again."

The older vampire scowls. "That's not it," he snaps. She raises a questioning brow. "Look, I screwed her over okay? Making her the anchor…" he trails off.

"I just want to fix it, the way it should have been the first time," Damon finishes.

Caroline gazes steadily at him for a moment. She turns back inside, leaves the door open. "I'll call my mom, ask her if she can dig up anything on Lucy Bennett." The door shuts behind her and Damon claps his hands together.

"Alright, let's get cracking, Watson."

Caroline shoots him a dirty look and suppresses her shudder as she brings her cellphone to her ear. She decides to worry more about the breathy quality of her mom's voice when she answers than Damon's stupidity.

A routine develops over the next four months. Bonnie wakes up sometime around nine in the morning; first thing she does is go for a jog around the great, big, open world, then she comes back and showers. She heads down to her kitchen and makes a meal of French toast and chicken strips from her Grams' recipe book, working on a crossword while she eats. She tries not to mourn the loss of Google when she still can't solve 27 across. After brunch, she cracks open the grimoire, grabs some candles, and spends a few hours meditating, chanting, and fighting the urge to scream and punch something.

After that, she'll do yoga to calm the frustration thrumming through her. Then she'll read a real book or watch a movie or explore, then head to the grocery store to grab the ingredients for whatever dinner she decides to make that night after the sun starts to get a little too west-oriented. She'll come back and blast a CD, singing along until dinner is done. Then, like the crazy person she is slowly becoming, she has dinner with Miss Cuddles the way a little girl would have a tea party.

Now that she has the camera, she makes video journals, reciting her day or days before the world of Goundhog Day Galore. She cleans up, watches The Bodyguard, goes to bed, and if she cries a little, it's not like anyone else will know. She goes to sleep and wakes up to do it all again the next day.

Today, however is weird, and she immediately goes on the defensive.

The crossword is moved. Usually she drops it, folded, on the corner of the table, pen tucked into the fold, but today she finds it spread open on the kitchen counter, the pen thrown haphazardly on top of the newspaper. She goes over and looks down and immediately finds that 27 across has been solved.

Y-E-L-L-O-W-L-E-D-B-E-T-T-E-R

A thud sounds overhead, and Bonnie looks up with a small gasp. Heart racing, she goes over to the knife block and grabs the sharp meat cleaver she sliced her finger on when she made steak fajitas. The young witch makes her way upstairs with caution.

A flush of anxiety overcomes her body when she can hear the shower running in her Gram's bedroom. Her heart pounds and her hands feel clammy around the handle of the cleaver. There is someone in her house.

Oh god, she thinks, there's someone in my house!

A flood of excitement fills her, followed quickly by dread. She has no idea who this person is or how they could act. They might be dangerous.

The person starts whistling a familiar tune, but Bonnie can't quite place it until she hears a low male voice start to sing out.

"Give me a word, give me a sign. Show me where to look, tell me what will I find? What will I find?"

As silently as possible, Bonnie pushes open the bathroom door. Her heart pounds. Should she do this? The other person might have thought he was as alone as she did when he broke in. But again, what if he was dangerous? She may be pulling a Psycho, but at least she would have the upper hand.

"Lay me on the ground, or fly me in the sky. Show me where to look, tell me what will I find? What will I find?"

He could also be a decent person, she argues with herself. Bonnie hesitates for a moment longer, before making her decision.

"Whoa, heaven let your light shine down."

She raises the cleaver and draws back the curtain.

The IV had revived him and whatever medicine Elena's doctor friend prescribed had done well in banishing his nausea. Jeremy manages to slip away from both Alaric and Elena after he checks out, the former being too busy flirting with the same lady doctor from before and the latter trying to bury herself under the work of a good Samaritan.

Fuck them both.

Jeremy's ride is a pretty girl with chocolate skin and light eyes. She's a little too tall and willowy, and her eyes are more blue-hazel than the dark, silvery green that Bonnie's are, but the resemblance is more than uncanny. He runs his fingertips along her thigh and the woman next to him shoots him a cute, little grin.

Pulling into a garage, the girl - Tamara, he thinks - parks and leads him to her apartment. As soon as the door closes behind them, Jeremy's mouth finds hers, his hands roaming her body.

This void - he needs to fill it. The apathy and disillusionment that accompany him when his anger dissipates are worse than the bereavement and the rage. He feels dead again, hasn't been able to shake the feeling since the Other Side collapsed and took Bonnie with it. Since she lied about it and subsequently broke his heart.

The rush of adrenaline and hormones he feels when he's drinking or fucking or fighting are the closest he's come to feeling alive. He divests Tamara of her clothing, kisses his way down her smooth chest, sucks a breast into his mouth. He closes his eyes, imagines her shorter. She even wears the same perfume as Bonnie, so it's easier to pretend.

Bonnie, he thinks as he pushes inside her.

Bonnie, he thinks as she rides him.

Bonnie, he thinks, Bonnie, Bonnie, and Bonnie again. Why did she have to go?

He comes. He feels empty once more.

It's kind of funny, he thinks as he sings, how much he's anticipated this moment. Kai waits for her to make her next move, does his best to keep the excitement from his voice, forces himself not to yell at her to just come on already. He's invested too much time into this little fantasy.

Bonnie Bennett pulls back the curtain on him, literally, lays him bare, literally, and he has to bite back the grin that wants to bloom on his face. Instead, he jumps back with a yell, away from the petite girl with the meat cleaver in her hand and grabs a shampoo bottle, aiming it at her while he tries to catch his breath. It looks like his only defense.

"What the fuck?!" he snarls, eyes wide and shampoo readied for attack.

She pauses, thrown off by his reaction and takes a step back. "Who are you?" she inquires cautiously.

Kai's heart beat quickens. This is the first time in eighteen years someone has spoken to him. He's only half-faking when he aims big, tearful eyes on her.

"Who the hell are you?" he reiterates. He pushes himself more into the corner and lowers one hand to cover his crotch. The action has the intended effect. Bonnie takes another few steps back, embarrassed, and lowers the cleaver - her skin has a rosy hue. She looks up at the ceiling, but still keeps him in seeing range. Water from the running shower head dampens the floor.

"I asked first," she mutters. "And I'm the one with the knife."

"I asked second," he snaps. "And I'm the one who's naked and wet and being held hostage by a crazy girl with a knife."

She grimaces and concedes. "I'm Bonnie," she introduces herself. "I live here."

The man eyes her for a moment, allows her to conclude that he's nervous before he hesitantly offers his name.

"I'm Kai," he states. "Nice to meet you. I guess."

Kai allows himself to relax a little bit. He turns the shower off and slowly goes to step out of the tub. Bonnie takes another large step back. Her armed hand comes up slightly and Kai raises his own hands in a surrender position.

"I just want to get the towel," he comments. "Feeling kind of vulnerable."

"Yeah," she steps out into the bedroom. "I'll be -," she gestures behind her towards the bedroom.

"Yeah," he parrots and waits for her to leave. His eyes trace her form, and he shuts the bathroom door. His feet leave a wet trail from the puddle of water by the bathtub. Kai bites his lip.

Her voice is so much lovelier when it's directed at him and not the walls.

The siphon has spent so much time preparing for her, has reviewed his story and his schemes for her and planned this moment over and over again. He also spent a lot of time checking himself out recently, made sure he was still something worth looking at. Eighteen years of not aging and living for rushes of adrenaline just to make him feel normal have kept him pretty fit. He had been kind of nervous that he had lost his touch.

Based on the blush she sported, Kai thinks he left an impression on Bonnie.

He dries off and gets dressed, cleaning up the bathroom. When he opens the door, the other witch is gone, but he can hear her tinkering about in the kitchen, so he heads in that direction.

A plate of cookies sits on the countertop and Bonnie is stirring a pitcher of iced tea. She offers him a chagrined smile when he sees that he's joined her.

"Hey," she greets. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have -"

Kai shakes his head vigorously, smiling charmingly at her. "Don't sorry about it," he soothes. "I probably would have done the same. This place makes you crazy."

She nods. Bites her lip contemplatively. Kai can see her fighting with herself on how to proceed.

"How about we start over?" he offers. "Kai Parker, nice to meet you. You're actually the first person I've seen in eighteen years." He offers his right hand for her to shake. He doesn't want to offend her after all.

Bonnie eyes widen at the shared information and she hesitates for a moment. But it is a fleeting moment, because Bonnie is lonely and Kai is the first person she's seen in four months and he appears to be friendly and as lonely as she is.

It's half true.

She takes the offered extremity. Her hand is tiny and warm and slots perfectly into his larger one. Her grip is firm and he squeezes back ever-so-slightly, reveling in the contact.

"Bonnie Bennett," she supplies. "I've been here for four months and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Lust: Everyone has their desires. || Chastity: Not everyone holds them back