Special disclaimer: Some detailed, graphic imagery ahead not intended for those under 18. I apologize ahead of time if it offends anyone, but it goes with the context of this story.
Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.
This was sick! It was depraved and it was disgusting and for the life of her Bonnie couldn't look away. Not when tears pooled in the bottom of her eyes. Not when her hands shook with rage and fear. Not when she wanted to scream until her vocal cords were raw.
She was staring at an image of herself, bound and gagged in a sexual position that even a contortionist wouldn't be able to pull off not without having several bones removed. There were objects…what looked like a baseball bat…no it was a baseball bat had been shoved ruthlessly through the opening of her vagina and protruded through her midsection. Ten inch nails, the kind used in ancient Roman crucifixions had been pierced through her nipples, and attached to those nails was some kind of weight. Standing behind her seemingly massaging himself to full erection was her dead boyfriend.
To Bonnie…with all my love, Jeremy it read.
Crushing the parchment in her hand Bonnie looked down both ends of her street wondering if the culprit who thought this was a funny joke was lurking around. Her nostrils flared and already she felt the Expression magic within her bubbling and rising to the surface ready, and waiting to be summoned out.
She was going to hunt the sick fucker down and once she found the person they were going to suffer. Hell, she might just draw inspiration from that picture.
Staring at the misogynistic image made Bonnie question: Who would do something like this? After all the assholes she saved was this someone's twisted way of saving thank you? Or was one of Jeremy's friends trying to send her a message?
The front door flew open. Bonnie spun around hiding the drawing behind her back as she came face-to-face with her father. Bonnie didn't attempt to smile. Her facial muscles weren't working anyways because they had been too busy snarling.
"Good, you're home. Get inside. We need to talk."
Bonnie nodded and then quickly picked up the belongings she dropped. She shoved the drawing as deep into her bag as she could, surprised she hadn't punched a hole through it, and entered the house. Dumping her things next to the door, Bonnie rubbed her hands together and willed herself to take a deep breath. The lights flickered and she hoped her dad hadn't seen that. She knew he was weary of her and her magic and believed what Shane said about her having zero to little control over her powers. She had control damnit! If not, she would have pulled a Carrie ages ago, and made the town go up in flames.
"What's going on, dad?" Bonnie's voice quivered slightly. She felt ready to throw up. But Bonnie swallowed thickly and willed her heart to stop racing. Saliva pooled in the bottom of her mouth and her skin felt super heated. The floor tilted under her feet and Bonnie raced off to the bathroom.
She lifted the lid just in time. Her remnants from lunch splashed into the water waiting below. Bonnie purged until there was nothing left, nothing but dry heaves that racked her body.
Her father stood at the door—mouth agape.
"Bonnie…let me get you some water."
Flushing the toilet, Bonnie wiped her mouth with tissue and then rinsed with cold water. Her dad returned with a bottle of water to which Bonnie guzzled down.
"Ate something bad at lunch?"
"I guess so," Bonnie lied and sighed heavily. She wiped sweat off her forehead. "I'm okay."
"You sure? Maybe you should go lie down," Rudy suggested. It wasn't often Bonnie got sick. And the mayor tried not to jump to any conclusions. A green pallor tinted Bonnie's skin and her breathing was labored.
"I'm fine," Bonnie pushed away from the sink annoyed by her father's critical eyes being on her.
They left the bathroom with Bonnie headed to the living room, and Rudy off to the kitchen.
He joined her carrying a wooden box in his hands. Father and daughter took a seat on the couch.
Bonnie didn't think they were about to play a game. There were symbols engrained into the lid of the box some of which Bonnie recognized. She stared at her father askance.
"I know you came to the office today and spoke with Stu," Rudy opened up the dialogue. Bonnie didn't say anything. Rudy hadn't expected her too. "Bonnie…I'm not going to treat you like an idiot. You know about vampires, werewolves, hybrids and Originals. You're a witch. I've taken my head out of the sand to realize some truths I didn't want to validate."
"Okay," Bonnie hunched her shoulders. If he had a point she wished he'd reach it so she could go on a manhunt to find the sick bastard who sent her that drawing.
"That being said, yes, I'm being framed for murder."
Bonnie opened her mouth to retort but Rudy held up a hand.
"Liz and a few friends of hers in the state bureau's office are handling it. There's no physical evidence to tie me to the murder but…"
"But?" Bonnie prompted.
"I did know the deceased. Personally."
Bonnie closed her eyes and felt her stomach percolating again. She wanted to know where Klaus fit into all of this since he more than likely was the one to put that body in the trunk of her dad's car to begin with.
"I'm sure I'll be exonerated, but people will be watching my every move. So this brings us to our next topic." Pause. "I didn't open up our home to Klaus Mikaelson without having some way to make sure he couldn't enter again," Rudy continued.
Bonnie tilted her head to the side and lifted a brow. "Are you…are you trying to tell me you've found a way to rescind his invitation?"
Rudy hedged, "Not exactly," he opened the box and took out a clear bottle with a black stopper. There was some crushed red dirt inside. "It's brick dust. It's supposed to keep someone out who means you harm. Human, non-human doesn't matter. You pour it along all doors and window openings and the person can't cross."
Bonnie was impressed. She picked up the bottle and inspected it. "Only if they mean to harm you, right?"
"That's the catch. I also hung some mirrors along the walls so that we can see into the hallway from our beds. It'll give us a little bit of a head start to get out. Follow me."
Father and daughter rose from the couch and walked to the hallway which led to their rooms. Rudy held out an arm preventing Bonnie from taking another step. He pointed at a loose floorboard.
"If someone steps on that they'll get a nasty little surprise. I've rigged these lights with vervain powder. It'll be released if that floorboard is stepped on, slowing down an unwanted guest. Be mindful of it when you come and go."
Bonnie smiled and felt an immense sense of pride fill her heart and belly. Her father was no slouch and was taking the threat supernaturals posed seriously. She was a threat, too, but Bonnie would never hurt her father.
"When did you become MacGyver?" Bonnie teased.
A sort of bashful expression came over the Mayor's face. "I was in the Army Reserves. I learned more than how to make up a bed and scrub a toilet."
They entered Bonnie's room, and Rudy pulled up the hem to the bed sheet. Bonnie crouched down and saw salt.
"For added protection," Rudy said unnecessarily. Bonnie was an expert on what salt was used for and nope it wasn't always used for adding flavor to a dish.
"You've gone all out. I don't know what to say, dad."
"Just say that you'll be extra careful. I want you home by a reasonable time each night, and when you don't have to be out, come straight home after school. Or you can hangout with me down at the office."
Bonnie wasn't sure about hanging out with her dad at the office, and she wasn't too keen on having to be home way before the streetlights came on, either. For two years she ran the streets completely uninhibited. True, a large chunk of that time had been doing spells on the behest of Elena's boyfriends and unfortunately her enemies. It would be nice to run her own schedule, set her own itinerary for a change, but until she found some permanent way to run the vampires out of town she would be stuck in this cycle.
However this was her dad and he was the parent, the authority figure in charge.
"Okay, I'll try, but I can't make any promises," Bonnie said and dropped her weight on the edge of the bed.
Rudy stared down at his only child. Bonnie was young yet she wore the responsibilities of a person twice her age. Her eyes at been so youthful at one point, but when Rudy stared into them now all he saw was vexation, the early stages of depression, and exhaustion.
"Talk to me, Bonnie. Something is going on and I know it's not what's landed in my lap."
Bonnie immediately clammed up. She wasn't in the right frame of mind to try to have a heart-to-heart, to purge and cleanse herself. Yes, she should have been able to turn to her father and spill her guts and know he'd do what he could to protect her, but something inside just wouldn't let her bring the barriers down. She had to remain strong because her strength was the only thing that kept her standing upright on both feet. Without it her enemies would have crushed her and won.
"I'll be fine, dad. I'm a Bennett. It's kind of my job to…" Bonnie trailed off.
Rudy shook his head. "Being a Bennett means you're special and different but it doesn't mean you stop being human. You were staring at something out on the porch," the mayor tried to lead his daughter to open up.
"It's nothing. I have homework," Bonnie shot off the bed and walked back to the foyer to collect her messenger bag.
"I'll get dinner started," Rudy said and watched as Bonnie sped past him, avoided stepping on the rigged floorboard, before barricading herself in her room.
Taking a deep breath, Bonnie dug around in the bag and pulled out the drawing. Her heart began beating rapidly again, and her hands shook.
Just throw it away, her mind told her. Bonnie's eyes shifted to the waste basket by her desk before directing her gaze back to the drawing.
She studied the paper for a moment taking note it wasn't drawn on basic computer paper. It felt expensive, smelled expensive. One plus one equaled she was gonna gut an Original.
Lounging in his Whirlpool tub staring up at the ceiling, Klaus brought his flute of champagne up to his lips and drained the last of the golden liquid. The second the glass was empty he chucked it across the room where it burst into a shower of pieces.
Sighing, he was thinking that by now his little disagreement with Bonnie Bennett should no longer matter. Gads why was that little girl still on his mind? He had set his plans in motion so ideally all he had to do was sit back with a tub of popcorn of which he didn't eat and watch the show. But no, he had allowed her words to strike at the heart of him, and make him remember those human emotions of insecurity and inadequacy.
Mikael hated his guts because he was stuck looking into the face, the proof of his wife's infidelity. When his brother Henrik was killed by a werewolf Klaus found himself hated by every member of his family. No matter where he went, no matter what he did, it had never been enough. So he took the only route there was to take. He became a villainous serial killing motherfucker and he was unapologetic about it.
Groaning deep in his voice, Klaus lifted his head off the padded head rest of the tub at the same time the young lady who was cleaning his pole emerged from the water.
"Do it again, love," Klaus said and then reached blindly for the champagne bottle.
The woman pulled a face and blew water and bubbles from her nose, before taking a deep breath and diving back under the water. Klaus jerked a bit the minute the girl deep throated him.
"Now I see why you aren't tearing up the world looking for Katherine and the cure."
Cursing lowly, Klaus twisted his neck in the direction of the doorway and rolled his eyes. "As you can see I have far more important business to handle."
Rebekah narrowed her cornflower blue eyes as she stood, leaning against the doorframe. "So I guess it doesn't matter that if the Salvatore's find the cure, if they don't make the doppelbitch take it then they will shove it down your throat."
"And let us hope that if I become human than everyone in my bloodline becomes human as well, and then they just would have sentenced themselves to death. Would be rather poetic, don't you think, sister?"
"I suppose. I want the cure, Niklaus."
"Then go find it, Rebekah," the hybrid snapped and tapped the girl on the shoulder.
"You don't plan to stop me? Convince me I'll only be wasting my time…in wanting to be human again?"
Klaus rose out of the tub shamelessly naked. Rebekah kept her eyes above his neck. They were Vikings after all and nudity wasn't that big of a deal.
Grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist, Klaus faced his sister. "I don't understand why the hell you'd want to be human after all this time."
"It's because I never asked to become immortal!" Rebekah exploded. She took a breath and calmed herself. "I want to be married and have a family of my own and now that the chance to have it is here…I don't want to be stuck fighting the same people over the same stupid issues for all of eternity. You may want to live forever but what do you have to show for it? Hybrids? My mistake, they're all dead. Someone to love? No, impossible. The women of this town can't be compelled to fall madly in love with you, so you waste your time chasing a girl who's a gotdamn infant compared to you."
"That's enough!" Klaus roared. "If your point in coming here was to piss me off and snap your neck as a result of it, you are succeeding. Find Katherine, get the cure, and take it. Then leave me the hell alone. It's really that simple."
"Umm," said the girl in the tub. "Should I go?"
Without looking at her Klaus said, "You stay right there. I'm not done with you yet."
Rebekah knew that poor woman would be dead before the sun rose. Here was yet another reason why she no longer wanted to be a vampire. Killing was their solution to everything.
"Well, I guess this is good bye, brother."
"Farewell, sister."
The two Original siblings stared at one another before Rebekah vanished.
Bonnie gave up trying to have a restful night of sleep. No matter what she attempted to do she couldn't erase the image of that drawing out of her mind. She had been fully prepared to ignore it and not let it get to her and bring her down, but she couldn't help but feel exposed and vulnerable.
Whoever drew and sent that picture wasn't attacking her from a supernatural standpoint. She could deal with egotistical vampires and Originals who felt the world owed them something because the person they loved or fancied didn't love them back. Grow the fuck up, was what Bonnie wanted to say but had repeatedly bit her tongue not to say. But this was different. This person hadn't been trying to wound her pride in being a witch, but was coming at her from a sexually demeaning avenue.
No one in her circle or beyond looked at her or treated her like an object of desire, a trophy to win to put up on a shelf and occasionally dust off, or parade around others. Bonnie didn't want that but it would have been…nice. She wasn't that girl. She wasn't a gravitational force of energy that called boys from the north, the south, the east, and the west. Hell, making Stu sweat had been the closest she felt to being desirable in…in a ludicrously long time. But seeing herself bound like a slave with objects shoved inside of her was so far removed from sexy it was barbarous, and flayed her heart and self-esteem. She wasn't good enough for her boyfriend and now, through her interpretation of that drawing, she wasn't good enough to be cherished like a rare and precious gem. She was only good for someone to inflict pain on.
Bonnie shivered as she sat down on the porch and leaned against the column, and begun to think what her next move should be.
If she had any sense of self-preservation left she'd leave town and never look back. But she wasn't her mom. She didn't run from her responsibilities and left others to clean up her mess. Bonnie fought back and she'd fight back against this, too. She knew who was behind the drawing. Bonnie knew this was right up his alley.
Bonnie frowned. Was it raining? She looked down at her hands and saw droplets of water and then she realized she had been crying.
She was tired, but so long as there was still breath left in her body, she refused to stop doing what needed to be done.
A week later…
Chaperoning…was not what Damon had in mind when he said he wanted to go out. Funny how rapidly things can change when you see yourself seated in a diner in Bumblefuck, Pennsylvania chasing down a dead-end lead while the girl you loved tried to convince you to back off and leave her alone. Only her method to prove how fatally serious she was, was by breaking the neck of their waitress.
Damon could either be proud of Elena's ruthlessness or annoyed by it. Right now he was more annoyed than anything. Stefan said he wanted to find the cure for her, change her back into a real live girl and move on with his life. Damon admitted their thing was falling in love with the same chick no matter the century. So why try to deviate from that now? Why change what was broken because at the end of the day the both of them knew they'd only end up right back in this position, anyways. Tethered to Elena and forever holding her purse.
The Salvatore brothers were perpetually stuck in the same vicious cycle, and breaking free was a pipedream, Damon thought. He may have accepted his fate with the same enthusiasm as drinking gasoline, but honestly and sadly the only life he knew was fighting with Stefan over the affections of some woman.
Walking next to his brother, the both of them trailed after Elena as they crossed the lawn of the former Lockwood mansion. Damon didn't want to be here. He wasn't in high school, a part of the "in-crowd", but he had attended more teenaged social gatherings that it was simply pathetic. His reign of being sexy danger guy was over, and he was now known as "Eyeballs Magee who followed Elena Gilbert around like a lost puppy".
"What are we doing here?" Damon whined for the millionth time.
"I was tired of looking at the two of you and I wanted out. And since neither of you trust me to go anywhere alone although I'm more than capable of taking care of myself, you're tagging along to cock block and be a pair of kill joys. Did I leave anything out?" Elena looked at Damon over her shoulder.
Stefan sighed heavily and shook his head. He didn't want to be here anymore than Damon did but the risk of letting Elena roam free unattended was too high. She was trying to rack up a body count to rival his, and the part of him that still loved Elena intensely didn't want that to later weigh on her conscience should her humanity ever decide to trickle back in.
"We're just coming along to make sure everyone has a good time, and goes home in one piece," Stefan answered.
Elena smirked. "No, what you're trying to do is treat me like I'm your daughter," she swung around to face her ex, current, whatever paramours. "I guess in some twisted way I might be the fruit of your loins, but I'm done doing every little thing you say. I can think and speak for myself. Continue to fight me on this and well…" Elena trailed off and then deliberately began to track a young lady with her eyes. "We wouldn't want a repeat of what happened in Pennsylvania now do we?"
Neither brother spoke. Their silence was answer enough. Elena beamed, spun around and then tried to enter the wide open front door of Matt's new digs, and found herself bouncing against the vampire repellent barrier. She cursed.
"Matt!" she yelled over the noise of the crowd. "Hey, can someone find Matt?" she then spotted her ex-boyfriend walking towards her casually sipping from a red plastic cup. "Hi, Matt."
"Elena," Matt said dryly. "Stefan, Damon. What can I do for you?"
"You can let us in," Elena crooned and tossed her hair.
Matt shook his head. This had been dubbed a pre-prom party but really it was a vampire-free party, well with the minor exception of Caroline, but Matt trusted Caroline. The trio standing in front of him? Not so much.
The smile that was on Elena's face vanished. "Come on, Matt. After all the history we share now you want to act like there's a brain in that head of yours?"
"Look," Matt retorted sharply. "I wish I could trust you, but I don't, Elena. You're not the girl I've known since I was a kid. I can't let you in my house until you prove the girl I know is still in there somewhere. So until then…you're dead to me. Just like your brother Jeremy."
Matt waited to see if there would be some flicker of emotion on Elena's face. There was none. He didn't like being harsh with her, but after hearing from Caroline that Elena almost killed her, Matt knew he would be sitting in the front seat of the short yellow bus if he invited Elena into his house.
Just then Caroline walked by, arm-in-arm with a fellow cheerleader laughing and giggling.
"You let her in!" Elena shrieked incredulously.
"Yeah," Matt shrugged and felt he didn't need to explain why. The answer was more than obvious.
Elena balled her hand tightly into a fist. Damon and Stefan moved to flank her in case she did something stupid to lash out, but instead she smiled tightly and then walked away.
Matt shifted his attention to the Salvatore brothers and waited for them to get missing, or try to convince him to give Elena a shot because he owed her his life, allegiance, firstborn child as recompense for telling Stefan to save him first. His gratitude towards Elena probably ended some time after Stefan said he needed to earn his life.
"If you guys are thirsty there's a water hose out back," Matt told them and then walked away.
Damon looked at Stefan. "Have I thanked you enough for letting that little bastard live?"
"Come now, Damon. You know Stefan is the quintessential anti-hero looking for redemption between a pair of magical thighs."
Both Salvatore's groaned the second they heard Klaus' voice behind them. Reluctantly the siblings turned to face the Original.
"Or have you two traded places?" Klaus asked. "It's hard to keep up these days."
"Aren't you a little old to be crashing a high school party?" Damon ribbed.
A corner of Klaus' blood-red lips lifted in a smirk. "I could ask the same of you, mate, but that seems to be your thing. I'm merely here for one purpose and one purpose only."
"Oh, you have another drawing for Caroline? You've drawn her enough horses to fill a pasture."
Klaus laughed only because Damon mistook his humor for wit and it was anything but. "Didn't know you cared for Vampire Barbie. That is what you call her, right?"
"Seriously, Klaus what are you doing here?" Stefan decided to intervene.
However, Klaus was in no particular mood to answer once his eyes landed on the witch. Unintentionally an "ooh" expression came over his face that he quickly tried to cover up with a menacing one.
"There's someone here I'd like to have a word with. All I need do is fetch someone to get her, which unfortunately will be quite difficult since everyone here is tainted with the stench of vervain. There are some people here who are from the county over, though. How many homicides do you think it would take for Matt Donovan to invite a couple of hungry vampires in? Ten? Twenty? A hundred?"
Damon pinched the bridge of his nose. This was going to be a long night.
BKBKBKBKB
Bonnie swayed like a palm tree to the music. She might have been a touch inebriated. No she was inebriated. Anytime she opened her eyes she saw a psychedelic swirl of colors reminiscent of a LSD trip. Sweat pebbled along her skin. Her hair took flight each and every single time she spun around or threw her head back. She needed this. She needed to relax and put on the armor of being a teenager and take off the breastplate of being a witch.
Five more drawings had found their way to her mailbox. Each one more crude and disgusting than the last. Bonnie laughed wildly for a moment. Well, maybe she could look at it as a good thing that her existence finally made a blip on someone's radar. The only time people knocked on her door or called her was when their asses needed saving.
"Fuck 'em all!" she yelled out at no one in particular. Quite a few eyes flew in her direction, but Bonnie didn't care. She just tossed back another shot.
"You are in rare form tonight," Caroline remarked and polished off the rest of the beer in her cup.
She raked her cornflower blue eyes over her diminutive friend. Caroline wouldn't necessarily call Bonnie a conservative dresser, but she dressed weather appropriate. Though she wasn't known for wearing skirts—unless she was attending a school dance, and if she wore a low cut shirt best believe there'd be a cardigan thrown over it. What Bonnie was dressed in tonight was scandalous. For her.
Skin tight pants with leather patches on the front and a black suede vest sans bra and shirt paired with five inch patent leather platform stilettos was what her witchy friend decided to leave the house in. Caroline could say she highly approved and was tempted to ask Bonnie where she parked her Harley.
Bonnie draped her arms over Caroline's shoulders. The heels made them almost even in height since Caroline was wearing flats.
"How much have you had to drink?" Caroline asked.
"Enough," Bonnie replied in a sing song voice. "I'm hot so I think I'm going to take a breather outside."
"Okay. You want me to come with you? The triangle of doom is here."
Bonnie giggled and shook her head. "No, I'll be fine. Save me a dance."
"You know I will."
Making her way through the crowd, Bonnie turned several heads. One guy spilled his drink on a girl who was sitting down while another walked straight into a wall. That felt…refreshing and validating. Several guys tried to coax her into a dance, but Bonnie turned them all down or promised to meet up with them later. It was her whim.
She had reached the back of the house when she stumbled upon two people huddled in a corner in front of a window.
They stood so close together Bonnie couldn't differentiate one body from the next. She watched as the guy's finger grazed the slope of the girl's cheek. The young woman's eyes fluttered closed before she looked up at her boyfriend from under her lashes. A smile eclipsed her face before their heads drew closer together and they were kissing.
Bonnie touched a hand to her cheek feeling a phantom sensation. Jeremy had done that a few times, and when he did Bonnie felt vulnerable and open as if he vanquished her insecurities. Jeremy had a way of looking at her as if no one else existed in the world.
Quickly turning away from them Bonnie then retraced her steps through the house. She zoomed past Caroline who stared at her quizzically, and didn't stop walking until she stood in the front yard.
Damon caught sight of the witch. The sip of liquor he swallowed almost went down the wrong pipe the minute his eyes took inventory of her body. Holy Jesus she was…Damon shook his head. He didn't look at Bonnie that way but seeing her in black leather and suede was doing something interesting to the dead cells in his body. Damon gave both Stefan and Klaus sidelong glances to see if they, too, were ogling the witch.
Klaus wore an expression of…Damon didn't know what the hell it was to be quite honest, but he would say Klaus had never looked at Caroline that way, not even when she was her most dolled up. Stefan… looked like Stefan, worried and stuck.
He and Stefan and yes Klaus decided to hang around since apparently none one of them had anything else better to do. The dark-haired Salvatore always kept a bottle of liquor stashed in his car, so he had cracked it open sharing the bottle with Stefan while seated on the hood of the Camaro.
Drink forgotten Damon kept his cerulean gaze on Bonnie. Someone was approaching her who immediately had Damon on his feet, eyes narrowed. "What's he doing here?"
"Who?" Stefan asked and stood as erect as his brother.
"Professor Shady Shane."
Klaus cursed under his breath, but then counted this as luck. He could do away with two birds and one stone.
Bonnie blinked her eyes several times hoping to clear the picture she was seeing. Her lips formed to speak but her voice was absent. The man staring at her, Bonnie had never seen him before but she knew exactly who he was.
He was tall, standing at six feet and two inches with deep olive skin, jet black hair that reached his collarbone with eyes that matched. He had slightly thin lips, an aquiline nose all situated on a narrow albeit handsome face. He was wearing a rust colored tunic and leather sandals. On his right arm there was a tattoo of someone sort.
"Please…come…" the man said and held out a hand.
Bonnie felt her feet moving forward but she didn't give them the command to do so. Part of her was screaming she turn and run away, but the much more dominant part, the part of her ruled by her magic was telling her to draw closer to the man because he was a source of infinite power.
His hand was warm to the touch and Bonnie found herself in his arms feeling a vortex of emotions that made her dizzy. She felt connected to this man, this man whom she had never laid eyes on before until this moment. Yet she knew him as intimately as he knew her.
That's when the light bulb flashed over her head.
Bonnie stared up into those obsidian eyes and swallowed. She held her breath as the man brought her hand up and kissed her knuckles, and the next thing Bonnie felt was the wind against her cheek. The world stopped passing her by in warp speed and she was now walking towards the wooded property of the Lockwood estate, hand-in-hand with him.
The three vampires immediately sprinted into action. One minute Bonnie stood less than forty yards away and the next she was gone.
"That wasn't Shane," Stefan said, "that was Silas."
Two vampires and a hybrid gave chase and caught up with Bonnie and Silas wearing Shane as a meat suit deep in the woods.
"Bonnie!" all three men said in unison and tried hard not to look at each other.
The pair stopped walking but Bonnie had her eyes locked on Silas. She couldn't hear or see anything but him.
Damon regretted the fact he left all his toys in the trunk of his car. But he noticed he was still holding his bottle of whiskey. He grimaced. It was nice to see his priorities were in order.
Klaus would be the first to say that seeing Bonnie in Shane/Silas' arms was not a welcomed sight. He could feel their power. Taste it and take a bath in it. It was nearly crushing, bruising. It went without saying that Silas was both warlock and vampire. How he was able to retain his powers while being a bloodthirsty immortal was the real question that needed to be answered. Until this moment Klaus had been the only person to walk the planet existing as a vampire, werewolf, and man. Now he saw himself being usurped, eclipsed, and he didn't like it. Not. One. Bit.
And Bonnie looked way too comfortable siding with the man who wanted to bring about hell on earth. Klaus did, too, but only figuratively speaking.
"I don't know what you have planned, but you need to let her go," Damon spoke up.
Shane/Silas said nothing to him but directed his attention to Bonnie. He began to whisper in her ear but the immortals couldn't hear a word of what he was saying.
Bonnie turned to them and there was something in her gaze that unnerved them. Out of nowhere Rebekah entered the picture and so did Elena.
The vampires spread out and formed a circle around the witch and the first hybrid immortal. Damon stood at noon, Stefan at three o'clock, Elena at five, Rebekah at nine and Klaus at eleven.
"I guess we're going to have to do this the hard way, I'm afraid," Rebekah shrugged. She needed Silas and Bonnie out of the picture so that she would be free to take the cure.
"Can't believe I'm about to say this, but don't anyone make any hasty moves," Damon cautioned. He had underestimated Bonnie enough in the past. He knew what she was capable of, but with Shane/Silas as her backup it would be an act of God if they made it out of this coming showdown alive.
"That might be a little difficult, lad," Klaus kept his eyes on the witch. Bonnie's eyes looked vacant yet determined to do whatever it was that Shane/Silas told her to do. It didn't take a genius to figure out what her new assignment was.
I should have killed her when I had the chance, Klaus lamented.
Bonnie rose several feet in the air. Jaws dropped. When exactly did she learn to levitate herself? It was the collective thought coursing through several minds.
Hands lifted above her head, eyes on the sky, Bonnie said something in Latin and the next thing anyone knew poor Rebekah went up in flames.
"NOOOOOOO!" Klaus roared and watched in horror as his sister began flailing around screaming and crying to be put out. Logically he knew his sister wouldn't die, but being burned alive wasn't exactly fun, either. He furiously turned to Shane/Silas and declared, "I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU!"
"Holy shit!" Damon said excitedly and then brought his attention back to Bonnie. He wasn't sure who her next target might be but it wouldn't be him.
"Put her out before she ignites the whole forest!" Elena ordered.
Klaus had shrugged off his coat and tried to put his sister out, but this all seemed counterproductive.
Luckily for him Stefan volunteered to do the job. "I'll deal with her. Since you're the strongest out of us you find someway to stop Silas."
Klaus didn't like being ordered around but left Rebekah in Stefan's care. As he directed his aquamarine eyes heavenward Bonnie was still hovering. Out of his peripheral he saw Damon jumping from tree to tree to better reach Bonnie. The elder Salvatore, poised like Spider-Man, sprang from his crouch, arms extended towards the witch. He managed to lock his arms around Bonnie and the both of them were plummeting to the ground.
Damon stared down at Bonnie and shook her. She had to be under a trance. She would never do something like this of her own reconnaissance.
"Bonnie, wake up!" Damon practically shouted in her face.
"Leave her!" Shane/Silas said as he zoomed over to Damon and yanked him off of Bonnie.
Damon didn't exactly scream as he was hurtled several yards through the air, but he may have when he was introduced to the inside of a tree.
Klaus tried to get the upper hand by coming up from behind to punch his fist through Shane/Silas' back, and rip his heart out, but the immortal anticipated his move and with one shove, Klaus found himself sailing through the air unable to stop his momentum until it was stopped for him. His teeth chattered the second his shoulder was smashed into the bark of an ancient birch tree.
With Bonnie no longer airborne Elena tried to make her move. "Time for you to meet your ancestors, Bonnie. Remember to tell Grams I said hi." Fangs extended, eyes red-on-brown, she charged for Bonnie only to find herself stumbling to a stop and clutching her head.
Bonnie brought the raven-haired girl down to her knees and circled around her.
"…B-Bonnie…p-p-please…" Elena sputtered.
Now how did Damon do it? Bonnie wondered. Oh, right. One hand over the forehead the other below the chin and twist in different directions. She got herself into position behind Elena who was still moaning in pain and placed her hands where they were supposed to go.
A vicious snap caught Stefan's attention.
Elena hit the ground and landed in a heap of her long brown hair. Lovely. Bonnie held out a hand over Elena's body about to send her up in flames but then the annoyingly brooding one—Stefan—he was suddenly on top of her screaming, "NO!" as if he had a say. With the flick of her wrist Stefan went sailing through the air like the other two only this time Bonnie didn't release him with her power until he was impaled on a tree. Splendid. Vampires do make nice ornaments.
As viridian eyes looked around, Bonnie noticed that gray-white smoke billowed from what was left of Rebekah's clothing. Her skin was black with splotches of red and she lied so still on the ground Bonnie tilted her head in contemplation. Was she dead? No. She didn't think fire could kill an Original, incapacitate them—yes, but not kill. Pity.
Now, with Stefan otherwise occupied she could get to work on finishing off Elena. She'll have firsthand experience on what it felt like to be cremated. Like Jeremy. If she was fortunate she might actually stay unconscious long enough to where she wouldn't feel a thing.
"Bonnie, don't," Stefan croaked from high up.
Oh, Bonnie didn't feel she had much choice in the matter. So many bridges had been burned. Briefly, Bonnie looked at Silas. He was holding his own against Klaus and Damon which came as no surprise. He dodged punches and kicks and delivered blows that shattered bones.
Bringing her attention back to Elena, Bonnie wondered if she should take her time with this one. How many people lost their lives because of her? Went to a premature grave because two vampire brothers held her life above others? The young witch could own up to her part in doing whatever was necessary to keep the doppelganger alive, but as she looked down on Elena now…that girl, the girl she would have happily traded her life for, died way before she went off Wickery Bridge for the second time.
"Fire kills vampires," Bonnie said in a monotone voice. "Incen-,"
The incantation was cut off prematurely because of a pale white hand squeezing her neck. Bonnie didn't have much time to try to level the vampire standing behind her, holding her so tightly she was being suffocated. Soon her mouth was filling with thick, lukewarm blood, and Bonnie flung her head around to keep from swallowing. She bucked and jerked, twisted, and pulled, but there was no escaping, there was no stopping being fed Original vampire blood.
Klaus held his wrist over Bonnie's mouth, forcibly. He looked at Shane/Silas whose face was white with rage. "You stop whatever you're doing to her or I fucking end her life!"
Silas immediately released Damon who was bleeding from every possible orifice of his face.
Stefan could do nothing. He snapped off the end of the tree branch protruding from his stomach. Slowly he inched forward hoping not to catch any splinters in his organs, but knew it would be unavoidable.
"If one more drop of your blood enters her person, I promise you, you will be as dead as a doornail, my friend," Shane/Silas hissed.
Klaus was so enraged he was hard as a brick. He wanted to end Bonnie, end Silas, go to his sister, tear the world apart, but unfortunately he could only do one thing at a time. His number one priority, however, was getting Silas to stop mind-raping Bonnie right this second.
"I mean it," Klaus threatened. "She came to me wanting to die and I'll fulfill her wish and there won't be a damned thing you'll be able to do to stop me."
Shane/Silas' eyes volleyed between Bonnie and Klaus. Damon watched with his one good eye, because the other was sealed shut. He wanted to get to his feet but his legs were broken.
Seeing the Original Hybrid was being deadly serious about ending Bonnie's life, Silas looked at Bonnie and said slowly.
"You are in control." He repeated that phrase until Bonnie's eyes fluttered and she looked around.
Klaus lowered his wrist from Bonnie's mouth who coughed and tried to spit out his blood. She struggled against Klaus who refused to let her go.
"Are you in control, Bonnie?" Klaus asked, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear.
"Y-yes," she said, "and that's why I need you to do it. Finish it."
Damon's good eye bulged. "Bonnie don't be stupid."
"Don't you get it Damon I have to die. NOW! Do it, Klaus!"
Silas charged but found himself unable to move a muscle. She was binding him. "Bonnie, this isn't the way! Don't do this!"
"It has to be done," she refuted.
Klaus stood behind her conflicted and transfixed. He had killed and turned people so many times he lost count but now he felt something akin to performance anxiety. It had all been laid out like a gourmet meal that Bonnie Bennett was a huge fucking threat and needed to be eliminated, but…but she was so powerful and talented it felt like a crime and a waste to end her. Shit, he should have spent far more time trying to recruit her to his team, but there was no time for that now. He had a decision to make and he had better make it fast.
"I'm afraid I can't permit your extermination, Miss Bennett."
Several people froze, Klaus being one of them as one minute he was holding Bonnie in his arms, and the next, his body was hitting the ground—neck broken in three places.
Gasping, Bonnie turned around and saw none other than, "Elijah."
The debonair Original dressed to the nines, one hand in his pocket, stared at her. "You're needed alive for what's coming next."
Chapter end.
A/N: Oh, boy. Let me try to clean up any possible confusion. No one could see Silas' real identity except for Bonnie, and the person I envision playing him is Keanu Reeves. Now if Qetsiyah (sp?) spoke Aramaic and it was a Middle Eastern language, not sure how she ended up in Nova Scotia, so I'm not touching that, but if she and Silas were Middle Eastern, then Silas should look Middle Eastern. I'm using Keanu because he's part Lebanese, or so I've read. Don't know if you guys have seen who has been cast to play Silas, but dude is lily white with blue eyes. Maybe he'll get a tan and contacts by the time he shows up, but who knows.
I'm not exactly finished with Bonnie giving Elena the business so no worries, those two will be having it out possibly in the next update. I do apologize there wasn't much Klonnie this chapter, but I needed this pivotal moment to happen because there will be a shift in the tide. And though we've never seen anyone snap Klaus' neck, unfortunately, I'm assuming a fellow Original would have the strength necessary to do so. So go Elijah! Whoo-hoo. There's a ton more that I want to say, but this A/N is already long enough. But thank you guys so much for reading! And let me know what you think. Until next time, love you.
