It was glorious… watching her burn. The wicked smiles on their faces only mirrored the twisted images filling their minds. Bonnie and Damon were at one in moments like these. She slowly floated to the floor as the lady ran around the room, screaming in pain. They both watched, Bonnie conjuring up herself some popcorn and sitting by Damon. He reached his hand in the bowl.
"What do you think she's going to do next?" Damon asked, throwing some popcorn into his mouth. Bonnie grabbed a handful of popcorn.
"Probably going to run into the wall again," Bonnie replied. And she did. She ran into a wall and fell flat on her back. She didn't move another muscle then.
Bonnie tossed popcorn into the air and caught it with her mouth. Damon's fingers ran down the back of her head. She turns to see his eyes all wide.
"Love the new do, Bon," He said, running his fingers deeper into her scalp. Bonnie's eyes close.
"Oh, don't stop," She told him. "That feels amazing, actually."
Damon bites his lip while taking his hand around to her cheek. Bonnie's face was always so soft to him. Her cheek, he described it, was a soft, but angry throw pillow. He pinched it. Bonnie pushed his hand away. It hurt, and although he acted innocent when she stormed off to the other side of the living room, he knew that he pinched it a bit too hard.
The bookcase opened a bit wider. Two kids walked out. A young one. He couldn't have been older than ten. His hair was dark and messy. The white dress shirt he was wearing was torn at the collar, streaks of blood on the front. An educated guess would make his older sister the one standing next to him. She was protective of him. Bonnie took note of that quick as she approached them like some kind of God. The girl was a teenager. Bonnie read that. Though she easily could pass as an adult. Her hair was in a messy knot atop her head, black strands messily drenched about her face. The look on it was a mass of confusion. She looked at Bonnie, then to Damon, swallowed, then back to Bonnie again. It didn't help that Damon looked at her like she was his next meal. It didn't help that Bonnie stared at them like she would make them implode.
The boy looked away and started bawling. He saw his mom. He whisked past Bonnie and onto his mother's dead, burned body. The boy cried for his mom, and the sister cried for him. For a minute there, Bonnie felt a dreadful mourn. It sobbed out to her, masking the voice of the boy. Something in the back of her head, holding her hostage and putting her into some daze. When she turned to look at Damon, it was like everything was in slow motion. When he waved to her he moved so slowly, so gracefully. And then, she turned to look back at the boy crying over his mother. It was delusion. Delusion, was what she was now suffering from. The delusion that what he felt was because of her, when the truth wasn't as plain as that. What he felt was because of what came before Bonnie. The boy didn't cry because Bonnie fried his mother, the boy cried because he saw his mother… dead.
The girl called out to her brother, not wanting to move. Her eyes would dart to Bonnie every so often. She was watching Bonnie and Bonnie was watching her.
Bonnie thought she heard Damon mimicking the boy's cries. She turned around and was right. She chuckled.
"You think this is funny?" The girl finally spoke. She spoke with such an edge in her voice, it almost split Bonnie's mind in two. For her to even talk to Bonnie in that way shows how ignorant she is to Bonnie. And what she's capable of. Bonnie thought about going the talking route and telling her exactly what she can do. There's no fun in that though. So, she did a simple muting spell and the boy's voice was gone. He was still bawling over his mother. Tears spilling over her, probably cooling down her steaming body.
When the girl realized what Bonnie did, she runs to her brother and grabs him. She pulls him away from the body, back to the entrance at the bookcase. The boy was now crying in his sister's arms. She shook her head.
"Change him back," She pleaded. The edge in her voice was gone. It was replaced with fear. The girl didn't know what Bonnie was or what she could do, but this was enough for her to not want to bother her anymore.
Bonnie's mind was made up. She wasn't giving him his voice back. And her plan was far from over.
Things only got darker when Damon stood up. His face was in full vampire mode as he crept over. He placed an arm around Bonnie.
"Please," The girl begged. "He's my brother."
Bonnie and Damon glanced at one another. The corners of their mouths stretched at the same time. In sync, they turned and looked at the siblings. Damon leaning in a little closer, a big, creepy smile on his face.
He grabbed the girl's neck and Bonnie snatched the little boy from her. Damon took her down into the secret basement, while Bonnie moved the bookcase back. She sealed it shut with her magic as the boy fought his way from Bonnie's arms. She let him go.
When she finished sealing the bookcase shut, her watchful eyes peered over at the boy. There he was again, next to his dead mother's body. He was sitting there. Looking at it. There were no tears, no sobbing or whining. No action. He just sat there with a blank stare. Bonnie walked around and sat on the sofa. It was ripped with some of the cushion gushing out. She poked and prodded it, then looked back at the boy. He didn't move a muscle.
Bonnie was so familiar with that blank stare. It was the same stare she had when so many of the ones she loved around her continued to die. It was only when she embraced the darkness that she didn't care anymore. Except for that time, in the forest, when she harnessed the magic of the Bennett line. That one time was a break into her humanity, because she had to kill her Grams. It was worth it. She would do it all over again if given the chance.
Bonnie wondered what exactly the boy was thinking. She decided to do a mind intrusion spell. It was a little complicated at first. Reading someone's mind was a simple thing to do, but it was difficult to stay inside. Looking into someone's mind was also a blur because it didn't last long. It was like trying to see the world without your glasses. In this case, the glasses would be the person's blood. Bonnie would need his blood if she wanted to really take a peek into his mind.
She folded her hands in her lap and observed him. He was frozen and in some kind of catatonia. But, then he moved. He inched to his mother's side on his knees and started rolling her over onto her back. His mouth moved. He said something, but he was still muted. He hadn't even noticed it yet.
Bonnie stood and the boy, not facing her, held up his hand at her. It was like he knew she was walking over. Maybe, he did know that he was muted. Bonnie contemplated if the boy was smarter than he led on. It would make sense to her. His tears dried up. The sobbing looks dissipated. The things that once shook his core emotionally were fading. It was just him. No emotions. No vulnerabilities. It was just him and Bonnie.
The boy pulled a knife from his side and raised it in the air above his mother's body. Bonnie was intrigued. What could the little mourning boy be up to now?
The knife looked sharp. It was clean steel, with a curved tip. Below the tip were three serrated cuts into the steel. Bonnie's eyes winced. A glare lit on the handle of the blade. It was bright and yellow, only lasting second. Bonnie shielded her eyes, and when she looked again, the boy was tearing the knife through his mother's chest.
As this happened, Bonnie flicked her fingers and a cut appeared on the boy's neck. He didn't even jump. As blood spilled, Bonnie lifted three droplets of it into the air. It floated through the living room and into her palm. This was how she would get a vivid view of the boy's mind. Bonnie had not a clue why she wanted to know about him, but this knife thing he was doing… it interested her more.
The boy was cutting around her heart. He reached his hand into her chest and Bonnie closed her eyes.
If we die, I want you to preserve our hearts using the method I taught you. It's what I want you to do, Lucas. It's what I need you to do. It's what they need me to do. It's what I'm supposed to do!
Bonnie opens her eyes. She was standing in the little boy's living room, but it was different. The furniture wasn't destroyed and broken. It was spotless of blood. No sign of the mother's burnt body. Or the father's. Something was weird.
"I don't have a good feeling about this…" Bonnie said to herself. She smelled lilacs. The room smelled of lilacs. She followed the scent into the kitchen. Rays of light shined through the window above the sink. And that's where Bonnie saw a candle. She walked over, stopping to look at it and standing in the middle of the sun's rays. It was on the blue counter, lit. Lilac scented. Bonnie walked closer to it, leaning down and blowing it out. "Let's try something here…" Bonnie tried to light the scented candle with her magic, but nothing happened. She tried it again, but still, nothing. She slammed her hand on the counter, or at least she tried to because her hand just goes right through it. It was like she was a ghost.
But she kept hearing that same thought. The boy's thoughts that she had previously heard when she entered his mind. His voice was so loud that Bonnie wondered if there were speakers nearby. She quickly walked back into the living room and looked at the bookcase. If Damon was still down there, then maybe Bonnie wasn't someplace else.
She ran over to the bookcase and tried to pull it open, but she couldn't touch it. There was nothing to grip. Bonnie tried harder. But nothing.
She went and stood in front of the fireplace, dropping to the floor. Her knees pulled into her chest and her eyes beamed at the fireplace. Giving up wasn't an option, but none of her magic was working. So, Bonnie didn't know what to do. But also, she was so powerful. She was fueled by Bennett power that she took herself. It was always an overwhelming feeling of energy to extract someone's magic. To take it from a person without their consent. It damaged her from time to time, to think about it, but she was still overtly arrogant about it. It was hers now. And here she sat, trapped in a somewhere world, without a clue of what to do.
Bonnie's head hung lower. The boy's kept repeating. She brought her knees in closer, or she tried, because they weren't getting any closer. The only hope she had of getting out was Damon. If he somehow felt them drifting, then he could do something about it. Bonnie just wasn't sure what because if she didn't know where the hell she was, how could Damon?
"You look like her," Damon said to the girl. He reached up to touch her face, but stopped inches before it. His eyes analyze it. "You look just like her…" Damon was talking about Elena. But, he was just hungry. The girl looked nothing like Elena. Damon's cravings, since the darkness, are more ravenous than before. They affect his physical being, but they are detrimental to his mental being. And sometimes, in some cases, when he gets irreversibly ravenous… he sees things. And this time he saw Elena. "Everything about you…" He continued. He brushed his finger tips on her cheek.
"Who is Elena?" The girl asked. She was scared. Damon hadn't sucked her blood yet, because a part of him wanted her to run first so he could chase her. When they had first entered the basement together, a man shot Damon with a gun. They were just regular bullets and Damon took him down quick. The girl was completely stuck in one position. Maybe she just guessed Damon would die at that moment. Instead, she witnessed just how irate and uncouth Damon Salvatore to be. He was monstrous, but had direction. He even made her watch as he tore the other man a part. "I can't be her because I don't even know…" The girl swallowed and nervously put her hands in her lap. "…who she is."
The basement was cold for both of them. They sat on a dirty, spotted mattress atop grey concrete. In the corner, there was a light with a washer and dryer next to it. Damon saw a chest full of stakes, guns, vervain, and other weapons to murder vampires. And there were many hiding places. There was one beside the washer. One could hide beneath the stairs, and further from that there was a dark corner to blend into. This was why this family was full of surprises and Damon so full of weak spots. Then again, Damon doesn't always have a plan when he's hungry. And now that his hunger is accelerated and magnified times twenty, there is no such thing as planning. There was only the feed. Damon looked at the girl, and he did see Elena, and he did see a feed. His head tilted up to the low ceiling. He thought that maybe he'd always just wanted to feed on Elena. He had once or twice, but not for very long. Then, he thought about the many times he's fed on Bonnie and how willing she was. He licked his lips, sucking in a deep breath.
"Oh, fuck, I'm so hungry," He said, getting closer to the girl. She turned her head and cried when she saw his veins show from his eyes. He puts his hands on her neck and forces her to look at him. "Why do you look like her?" There was a pause, then Damon started laughing. Cackling, even. He slapped the mattress and gave the girl a strange look, his brow curling up. "Got you." He snickered a little. "I know you don't look like her!"
And she didn't. Her face was less plum, eyes more mature, and chin more chiseled. She didn't have the innocence that Elena conveyed physically, she had it emotionally, but her physicality proved her older. It reflected Damon's. Damon's face was very chiseled and sharp, a bone structure that resembled maturity. Off one look Bonnie thought of him older. Way older. He looked older, as did the girl. It made Damon hungrier to imagine one's he once loved or hated. It was weird. But it didn't matter how he felt about them, once he pictured them, his hunger intensified. And it was easier to do so, instead of fighting it.
Damon tried compelling the girl to run. But it didn't work. She must've had vervain in her system.
"You know, I always found it funny how I don't need permission to enter people's homes, yet I can't compel anyone I want. This… whatever this is inside of me, is a funny type of demon."
The girl's lips trembled. "Demon?"
Damon's fangs elongated and he launched at her neck. He pricked it and she sobbed. He looked up at her.
"I'd run if I were you."
The girl pushed Damon away and ran to the staircase. She sprinted up the stairs. Damon quickly stood under the wooden steps and thrusted his fist through one of the steps. The girl's foot drops straight through and she falls. Her chin busts on a step higher above and she tries to pick herself back up, blood curdling from her mouth. Hands trying to find traction on something. She screamed out for help when suddenly Damon snatches her through the staircase.
"Damon!" Damon could tell that was Stefan's voice. He threw the girl at the wall and walked around to the bottom of the stairs. Stefan stood there.
"I thought Bonnie sealed that!" Damon yelled.
"Looks like she didn't." Stefan held up a small dart gun and shot it at Damon. It landed in his chest. "Courtesy of Sammy."
"Great. Is there any reason to fight?" Damon said. He knew that with whatever serum Sammy had Stefan was using, he wasn't going to win. It would just slowly deplete his strength. Stefan came down the stairs throwing punch after punch at Damon.
"Ouch. That really hurt," Damon said, sarcastically. Stefan jawed him and Damon fell to the floor. "Like a train, Stefan!" Damon's sarcasm continued until a large gash formed, starting from his wrist to his upper arm. He started screaming loudly. Stefan instantly stopped punching him, backing away.
"Damon?" Stefan asked.
"It's Bonnie!" Damon screamed. "She's in trouble! I have to find her!"
Damon pushed off the floor and stood to choke Stefan. He was doing it, forcing Stefan to the floor. But, he was getting weaker. Sammy's serum was doing its job. Stefan began to easily overpower Damon. Another gash formed on his other arm.
"Where's Bonnie?!" Damon said, right before Stefan snapped his neck.
"We'll find her, but we have to fix you first."
