Birthday Gallery (III).
It wasn't entirely awful, the party.
It seemed to be free of the select vampires on her 'absolutely not' list and full of people from school and her other social circles outside of her #1 supernatural buddies, people she liked, people who were a part of her life when she thought she was just a simple, human being. They were laughing and dancing, greeting Bonnie with long-time-no-sees, happy-birthdays, pleasant smiles, and many drinks.
It almost seemed normal.
At first, Bonnie couldn't be bothered to swallow down this need to be finicky, to pull for flaws. She wasn't in the mood to try and have fun, but Matt was smiling at her so warmly (his big, baby blues seemed to be smiling, too and she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen that in him) and she'd already had a few to drink so her limbs didn't feel so stiff anymore. He was tugging at her hands, trying to use his ever-so-charming influence to get her onto the floor, to let all her worries melt to music.
And it seemed like she caved without much of a fight, but.
It was Matt, one of the few remaining things that reminded her of what it was like to have a happy, normal life, and Bonnie could only force an uninterested look for so long. Before she knew it, Donovan's hands were around her waist and she was giggling in his arms as they danced, unrhythmically, to the music blaring overhead. She got lost, very quickly it seemed, in the music and in Matt.
Smiling, Bonnie laid her head against Matt's chest. "Ugh," She groaned. "I can't even remember the last time I actually felt like dancing."
Bonnie was staring off into the crowd, rested against her friend's torso, thoughts wandering off into the distance. The music had fallen to something more slow-paced and Matt simply swayed the two of them from side-to-side absentmindedly, but didn't respond. He couldn't remember, either.
That's when Bonnie felt it.
The atmosphere around the witch seemed to take on a new density. A long-limbed, slender woman with sun-kissed, olive skin and black, bushels of curls came into Bonnie's immediate view then. She stood there doused in confidence and a thick, white glow of sheer power. Bonnie made contact with her murky, deep green eyes and felt immediately, that she knew her. It was almost maternal warmth that flooded her.
"I'm gonna go get us drinks, okay, Bon?" Matt said, snapping Bonnie out of her trance.
She smiled up at him briefly and nodded, pulling herself from him. When she turned to face the woman she'd seen, she was gone. Bonnie looked in every direction, eyes scanning over the small crowd searching for that thick bush of hair again, but she'd completely disappeared.
Bonnie got chills. She couldn't deal with another Emily scenario.
"Witch," Damon's voice sounds behind her. She jumps a little and turns to find him smirking at her and nursing a glass of something, probably Bourbon, between his lips. "Jumpy, are we?"
Bonnie rolls her eyes then and sighs, already exhausted with dealing with him. "Stop creeping up behind me, ass. What are you even doing here?"
"Last time I checked, witch, this was my house."
Bonnie takes the glass out of his hand and throws back the dark liquid with slight disgust. "And the last time I checked, this was my party and you weren't invited."
"Yikes, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the cauldron this morning."
Bonnie fakes a laugh. "I don't think homicidal vampire is your calling after all, Damon. You should look into stand-up comedy."
Damon mocks a gross level of offense. "Put your claws away, kitty. I only came to say Happy Birthday and to tell you that dress is obviously your color, because poor Matt is only barely keeping the drool in his mouth."
"That's as close to a compliment I feel you can get. Thanks, goodbye now. "
And with that, Bonnie pushes past Damon to make her way back to Matt. As quickly as the fun settled into her bones, it also exhausted her mental state in the same time. She was already fed up of this and all it took was a second encounter with Damon in one day. Her tolerance level was a slippery slope these days. She just wanted to stand outside in the cool air, away from everyone else, underneath the moonlight.
It was a need that was slowly creating this thick sense of heaviness in her chest. Something was pulling her away from this house, away from these people, towards the moonlight. It was overpowering and she had no choice but to give into the demands of it. She abandoned her original destination, leaving Matt calling after her in confusion, but his voice was just a low hum in the back of Bonnie's mind.
Something was calling her out and she was coming.
Bonnie stumbled outside a moment later, unsure of how long it took to make it through all those people. The world around her had become an irrelevant blur. It was like she was on autopilot, her magic forcing her body to push her where it willed. It felt as though she had minimal control, but once she found herself standing in the direct line of the moonlight, she felt better, like she could breathe on her own again.
She stood there, completely still for a moment, the light of the moon causing little chills to shiver up her spine and tingles directly underneath the surface of her skin. Her magic was coming alive in her. She noticed that this tended to happen sometimes since embracing her witch-hood, a substantial source of energy calls out to her to recharge her being and restore her vitality.
After a moment, Bonnie took note of the gnawing sound coming from beside her. She looked over to see Stefan, teeth sunk deep into the bushy-haired woman with the long limbs and angled jaws that Bonnie had seen in the party. A strong sense of protectiveness flooded her and Bonnie marched towards Stefan, hands ready and magic building to take him down.
"Stefan!"
But just before Bonnie could make her move, she saw the woman's lips move quickly and in an instant, Stefan fell stiff to the ground at her feet. And she was smiling down at his lifeless frame. Bonnie took total notice of her then. She was tall, and her bones seemed to nearly pierce out of her skin. She wore nothing but a thin burlap-like cloth around her chest and another around her bottom.
She was barefoot with a bracelet around her left ankle that seemed to be made of sharp teeth. Intricate patterns of ink decorated her hands and up her feet, along her jaw, from between her eyes to down her nose. Two perfect teeth marks appeared on the side of her neck, two thin ribbons of her dark blood trailed down her creamy skin. She had a certain ethereal beauty that Bonnie couldn't fathom.
And she was taking long strides towards Bonnie.
Bonnie's eyes widened for a moment and she turned to run, but her entire sight was blinded by a brilliant light and then engulfed by total darkness. Her body went stiff then and fell to the ground a split second later.
Bonnie's eyes open to find herself, once again, bathing in the light of the moon. Somewhere around her, she hears a feminine voice mumbling to herself, over and over, in what sounds like nervousness or panic. Bonnie rolls to her side and pushes herself up into sitting position. She stares directly ahead at the woman sitting on the ground a few feet from her. Bonnie should be scared, should feel as though she's in danger.
But all she feels is honor and overwhelming curiosity.
"You must have questions." She says to Bonnie. "I have to use your voice for a moment then, I apologize."
The woman is beautiful and it seems to be catching Bonnie off guard. Her voice is velvety and warm, lulling to the ears. She speaks and Bonnie can't form the words to respond, just nods her head simply. There's a thin layer of calm that settles down over Bonnie when she speaks and she can't help but wonder what kind of magic this woman has to harbor in her to have such a strong influence over Bonnie's present state.
"I am no one. I have no name, no particular vessel, but I am everything that your magic identifies with." She says, looking Bonnie over with her own interest. "Not very many of you have the power it requires to call out to me, but you did. You must have mighty power. You must have little control."
Something like that.
"I am not very easily awakened, young one, understand." She continues on and Bonnie listens to her but doesn't utter a word. It doesn't feel as though she could if she wanted to. "You must be in very great distress to desire my assistance. Many of our blood experience immense suffering, but none so traumatizing they seek to me for correction."
How could I possibly call to you if I have no idea who you are to me?
The woman looks up to Bonnie with a smile. "I am you, but I am myself as well. You have no memory of me, but you know me. We share the same blood that courses in your veins. You should know that time is in a constant cycle of repeating itself. We have met before, I assure you. There is a connection to me deep in your core, but it takes great magic and will to lure me out."
What do you want from me?
Bonnie opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She could hear her own voice loud in her head as if she had spoken the words, but they hadn't left her lips.
"I came to aid you, of course."
Bonnie watched as her green eyes rolled into the back of her head and her sockets were filled with a ghostly white. Words left her lips in a low, inaudible chant. The ground beneath them began to shake violently. Bonnie sank her fingers into the dirt to keep herself down.
Bonnie kept her head down in her arms, waiting for the end to come. When it did, she was left sitting alone on the side of a road next to a dark forest with all-consuming silence to comfort her.
She looked around urgently, looking for the woman with no name. She stood to her feet and looked down at herself. Her birthday dress was gone and so was any rational explanation for what had just happened. She stood barefoot, clad in a black, over-sized t-shirt, on the side of the road in the middle of the night. She cursed under her breath and began to walk down next to the road.
She hugged herself closely to fight off the cold air of the night, but it nipped and bit at her exposed body. She looked around, taking in her surroundings. She was standing at one end of Wickery Bridge. Confused, she quickly looked around to make sure nothing was lurking, because her gut was telling her that something was terribly off. Something was wrong.
Just as the thought came, she noticed the headlights nearing in the distance. As they came closer, her eyes became too sensitive of the light too stand it and so she shielded them, not before she caught a glimpse of Elena's father, Grayson Gilbert, with a look of fear on his face.
It all happened in a blur then, very quickly. She heard the screeching of the car's tires as he had attempted to break and stop the vehicle, but it spiraled. Bonnie's eyes widened and her breath was caught in her throat as she watched the car topple off of the bridge and side-ways into the water below.
She just witnessed the death of her best friend's parents.
A whimper was all the sound that Bonnie could make, because she knew this was wrong. Stefan was supposed to save Elena. Stefan was supposed to come and he was supposed to get her out before she died along with her parents. Her mind in chaos and a cluster of nonsensical, backwards thoughts, Bonnie frantically looked around, screaming Stefan's name.
She then ran, but her knees were weak. Her whole body was shutting down. She ran with tears streaming down her face, screaming for him as if her own life depended on it.
"Stefan, where are you!?"
But he wasn't there. He wouldn't respond, because he wasn't there and this was a dream. All of this had to be a dream. The world around began to shake again and Bonnie's knees gave way and buckled under her. She fell to the ground, crumbled in on her own body, and tried to clutch to the Earth under her.
She felt herself slowly drifting back and before she could register the span of events, she was sat pin-straight up in bed, coughing and crying like she hadn't been able to breathe and her body was still rejecting air. She felt a warm pair of strong arms snake themselves securely around her waist – her nudewaist – while she sobbed and choked for breath.
"It was just a dream, Bon. It was just a dream. Breathe." Damon said soothingly in her ear – Damon.
Bonnie froze, her breathing still deep and trying to regain composure, but her entire body was suddenly stiff as Damon held her as close to him as he possibly could, kissing her temple, telling her over and over that it was just a bad dream, that he was there, that she was safe.
With him.
Damon.
"Are you okay?" He asked her, noticing that she was still and her breathing was slowly becoming calmer.
Bonnie turned her head slightly to catch a glimpse of him and the concerned look on his face. She was naked.
In bed.
With Damon fucking Salvatore.
She focused all of her power then and Damon's head filled with a swift rush of pain, causing him to fall back into bed, arching his back as it grew. Bonnie then jumped out of bed, taking his silk sheets with her, and wrapping them around her body.
"What the hell, Bonnie!" Damon yelled at her. "What was that for?"
"What the hell was it for?" She asked him incredulously. "How did I get here?" A beat of silence passed. Her mind was going a mile a minute. "Did Carolineput you up to this as some kind of sick birthday joke?" She asked angrily. Damon's face twisted up with both anger and confusion.
"What are you talking about, Bonnie?" Damon shouted. "You practically live here!"
Bonnie's blood was boiling. And Damon could see it in her face, the way she was flushed with red and her entire body was shaking. Her anxiety had reached an all time high. She held a sheet around her naked body with one hand and used the other to send Damon flying across the room into his dresser and then to the floor.
She could feel it in her whole body. She was about to erupt, right here in Damon's bedroom, and it wasn't going to end well for anyone.
"Tell me what's going on!" She snapped at Damon, even though he was rocking on the floor in pain that she'd inflicted on him.
That's when Stefan intervened, unable to endure the noise anymore. He walked in, no shirt, only pajama pants, and trailing behind him was a very confused, messy-haired Caroline who clung to his forearm in fear that she would be Bonnie's next target. She was dressed only in a button-up shirt that looked to belong to Stefan.
The sudden distraction in her thought pattern made Bonnie ease up on Damon, because she was now trying to figure out why Caroline was here.
"What the hell is going on in here?" Stefan asked angrily.
"She," Damon began as he picked himself up to his feet. "- woke up from a bad dream and went bat shit insane on me!" Damon exclaimed. "She used her little brain explosions on me. Me!"
The tone in his voice was shocked, confused and slightly pained.
"Who put me in his bed?" Bonnie just about growled.
"Uh, you did?" Caroline answered carefully. Damon was right. Bonnie was going bat shit crazy and none of them could understand why, but she wasn't in the mood to be tossed across the room this early in the morning. "You've been putting yourself there for a while."
"Caroline," Bonnie warned.
Caroline squeaked and Stefan placed himself protectively in front of her. That didn't go unnoticed by Bonnie, the way Stefan was letting her cling to him, the way Stefan looked almost murderous at the threatening tone in Bonnie's voice toward Caroline.
"You know what? Screw all of you." She muttered.
She grabbed a random pile of clothing off of Damon's floor and made her way into his bathroom, slamming the door behind her as hard as she could. It was enough to make the doorframe shake and the sounded echoed around the room for a moment. Three stunned faces stared at the door in utter horror. Stefan looked at Damon, his head cocked to the side in question.
"Fuck if I know." He answered, tossing his arms in the air exasperatedly, before Stefan even had the chance to ask.
(A|N) Hello again. Sorry for the wait. It takes me a while to get things done with my job schedule. You may recognize the end if you've read the previous version of this! It's probably the last time I'll use the old fic as reference. Anyhow, thank you for all the faves and follows and reviews! You lot are lush. I'll hopefully be able to get the next chapter out soon, fingers crossed.
(Disclaimer) Don't own it. CW and L. J. Smith do, though.
