II
-oOo-
Bennett closes his notebook computer, sits back in his chair and rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands. He's about to pour himself another cup of coffee when the phone whirrs and rings on his nightstand. He swivels his chair in the direction of the tune, Mozart's string vibrato filling the room. He remembers how Damien hated that classic sound, how she called it nursing-home music before he reaches for the mobile. A quick glance of the screen makes him wince and he kills Mozart's wailing cords.
"Rudy, "he greets, because both of them know that calling him father or dad will never happen, not under the circumstances. He was a stranger when he decided to walk out of his son's life and he's still a stranger. He's missed birthdays, first dates and he's even missed his high school graduation. What they have now are awkward silences, where they both brood over what could have been. Bennett doesn't owe him anything even though his grams would argue with that. She'd call him out on his emotional defensiveness and he knows there's a term for whatever he feels towards his father but he's in no mood to label their relationship or his feelings toward it.
"How's college, everything ok?" Rudy asks after an uncomfortable silence.
"Yes. Fine" Bennett's voice is clipped as he tries to search his mind as to the reason for his father's phone call. They don't exactly have the type of relationship that warrants an occasional chit chat about life in general. Ever since his gram's death last spring, Rudy's been more present and more passionate in his pursuit to repair their relationship.
At last Rudy clears his throat and announces, "I found some stuff that Sheila left for you"
"Grams left some things-?" his voice breaks, his hand clutching the mobile so tight that he's sure it will leave an imprint on his palm.
"Nothing much, just a few books, I thought I could courier them to you"
"Yeah, sure-whatever" he nods, clenching his eyes shut.
Rudy Hopkins isn't really part of his problems anymore. Bennett stopped caring sometime between high school and his gram's passing.
"Son…" Rudy's voice softens after another long pause and Bennett licks his bottom lip, a hand pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Hey, you ready?"
Bennett's head jerks towards the front door to find Stefan leaning against it, a dark leather jacket thrown over his shoulder.
"Yeah, let me get my jacket" he replies, then shrugs the surprise off his shoulders before he hangs up on Rudy.
-oOo-
Snow pelts their heads, stinging their faces as they weave between the silent graves. Bennett can almost hear the sighing bones, brittle beneath their feet. If he listens hard enough, he can catch them murmur to each other about the secrets of their past lives and the horror of becoming their unbecoming. The air is thick, rancid with spirits that cling to him like cobwebs that he needs to shake off. He doesn't know why he still comes here with Stefan because he knows that Damien is not here. She's too alive, too spirited, and too mad to stay in one place for too long. She would never be a pile of bones for tourists to trample over and this thought makes him smile.
"Well this is not creepy at all" Caroline blathers as she points her flashlight at the gravestones, "We just broke into a graveyard…really-not-creepy-at all"
Bennett groans and gives her a side-long glare, wondering why Stefan has dragged her along. Sure, she and Damien were amiable to each other but barely.
"Holy crap, I'd hate to be that girl you know, that screamer chick but this is as creepy as-"
"No one forced you to come!" Bennett yells, grasping his own flashlight a little tighter making his leather gloves squeak. He directs a beam of light towards Caroline's wind-whipped face and watches as she cringes, a hand lifting to shield her eyes from the glare.
"Come on, relax." Stefan interjects, his own beam blinding Bennett. When he finally swings it off his face, Bennett realizes that they are standing right on top of Damien's grave and they're facing the headstone. It looks strange with the moonlight slanting over the stone. Fat flakes fall in earnest, covering the yard, clinging to the angel statue over her grave. Bennett lights the candles, his hand covering the flickering flames everytime he sparks a new match. A candle flares, its wax dripping over his fingers and he shakes the matchstick to put out the fire. The wind seems to pick up, rifling the tree tops and they glance up as if to check for an oncoming storm.
"You ready?" he motions to Stefan then shoves his hands deep in his pockets and bows his head. Stefan flips a page and begins to read a stanza from Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven.
"…I remember it was a bleak December, and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor….darkness there, and nothing more"
-oOo-
Klaus Mikaelson pulls out a long sheet of paper to study his sleep cycles. As he traces a finger along his brain waves, he sighs when he arrives at the spikes that reflect his REM sleep. The spikes are erratic and end abruptly and he gathers this to be the reason why he faded from yet another lucid dream. He's been tracking his sleep patterns ever since he found out about Lucid dreaming on his last trip to Tibet with his father. He's been frantic about the allure of lucid dreaming since he discovered the link between lucidness and coma patients. He checks his watch and makes a mental note not to forget the visiting hours at the hospital.
"Niklaus"
She taps her foot on the mosaic marble floor, swinging her bag over her shoulder.
"Rebekah" he mumbles, not bothering to turn around and acknowledge her presence. She strides in nonetheless, her blonde hair swinging around her shoulders. She scans the monitors and rolls her eyes before they dart back to him.
"You're at it again, brother. Trying to resurrect the dead" she says coolly before he tears the sheet from her.
"It's rather early for visiting hours at the hospital, isn't it?"
"I'm not seeing Kol tonight, "she pouts, "it's becoming too depressing."
"Visiting your comatose brother is becoming depressing"
"Don't judge, brother." She kisses his cheek, "Don't wait up"
-oOo-
When Bennett gets back to his dorm, there's a girl waiting for him outside his room. She's leaning against the wall, arms crossed against her chest with a satchel over her slim body.
"May I help you?" he asks, brows furrowed as he scans her face. She flips back her dark hair, her brown eyes dazzling under a fringe of long eyelashes.
"You must be Bennett…the boyfriend" she smiles, giving him a once over and a flush warms his cheeks.
"Apparently that's what I go by nowadays" Bennett shrugs and shakes his head but his eyes are still intently fixed on her.
"I have something for you" she announces as she opens her bag and pulls out a couple of DVD's. She looks suspiciously over her shoulder before she hands them to him.
"And you are?" he arches an eyebrow, looking at the blank covers of the DVD's.
"Elena, I was a friend of Damien's"
"Funny she never mentioned you"
"We were in the same film studies class" she explains, her fingers trailing the strap of her bag. Bennett tries to read her face beyond the nervous trace in her brilliant eyes.
"You wanna come in?" he asks over his shoulder as he fingers his pocket for the key.
"It's okay. It's late" she shakes her head as she steps back, "I just thought you might like to have those, you know" she gestures to the DVD's and he hold them up with a solemn,
"Thanks"
After the stranger leaves, he makes himself a turkey sandwich and sits at his desk just starring at the DVD's that Damien supposedly made. He peels open a book on the neuroscience of dreams when the music starts, the thumps shooting through his floor and hammering inside his head. Springing to his feet, he bolts for the door because he's really not in the mood tonight.
-oOo-
Kai pads around her dorm room in her socks playing air guitar to the pounding music. She grabs a cold soda from the bar fridge and strains her ears to hear the knock on the door.
"You!" is what he says the minute she swings her door open.
"He, bright eyes" she smiles taking a swig from her soda.
"I should have known it was you, seems wherever you go, trouble follows"
"Why, thank you"
"You mind shutting that thing off" he motions behind her and Kai shrugs her shoulders and rolls her eyes.
"It helps me sleep" she says.
"That racket helps you sleep?" he scoffs, craning his neck to see into the room.
"Oh yeah, it's sort of like my meditation tape. You should try it"
"I sleep just fine, thank you"
"Yeah, even after you know…" she cocks her head, looking at him through a fringe of eyelashes. When his jaw muscle jumps she knows she's hit a raw nerve but she sort of likes riling him up for whatever reason. She likes to peeve this emotionless creature who always seems to have his head together, this blank thing who never fell apart when his girlfriend died. She'd like to know how he does it, how he vents because she knows her outlet and it evident in her scars.
"You should try alcohol or sex like the rest of the idiots around campus. I hear it helps" he blurts out eliciting a blush from her. She hadn't expected that from Bright Eyes.
"You're volunteering?" she lifts an eyebrow, her thumb tracing the rim of her can.
"Good-night" Bennett says, a smirk teasing the corners of his lips.
"It sure would be!" Kai yells as he walks off.
-oOo-