AN: Chapter changes POVs multiple times.
It wasn't a bad song, Bonnie conceded as she lay there, weak and limp under the bed sheets, snuggled up warm and tight against the hybrid. Every bone in her body hurt. Her face hurt. Her back hurt. Every inch of her sore as if she'd been in a hit and run with a Mack truck.
And she was cold. As is there was ice inside her. As if her blood had turned to liquid nitrogen. As if she'd never be truly warm again. As if she was some kind of lizard, incapable of generating its own heat.
All the stars are coming out tonight,
They're lighting up the sky tonight,
For you...
Klaus and his nonsensical fascination in grown men singing about balls of gas millions of miles away...
Despite the abundance of throw pillows, her head rested comfortably on the bicep of his arm... She lay there watching the fine golden hairs move with her breath, in and out. In and out. Inhaling his soothing aura of controlled anarchy. He smelt like musky cologne, blood and apples...
Why apples, she wondered. The scent was all over him, as if he'd had a bath in cider.
It wouldn't surprise her if he did.
"You smell like apples." It was only when she spoke that she realized she was still crying. She could smell the blood, taste it on her lips... Why she was crying? She didn't know. Only humans were supposed to cry. Only the weak.
"Oh, you didn't know?" His voice was so soft. So near. Reminding her of how her grams would whisper evening prayers to her while she slept.
Now I lay me down to sleep...
Except he wasn't the kindly old grandmother. He was the wolf, wasn't he? She could feel his mischievous smile as his lips came within millimeters of her ear, "Hybrids only eat apples."
"Apples and little girls," she amended.
"True. But you've got nothing to fear sweetheart, you're all bone and gristle. Wings and all that? Too much trouble." And his arm tightened around her, comfortably... Comforting.
She wanted to say that she wasn't a little girl anymore. To remind him that she was a monster now, but she didn't want to start an argument. She just wanted to lie there, and feel the thud of his heart reverberate through her frame.
How did it come to this?
That she, Bonnie Bennett, the last of her line and an abomination in her own right now should seek his solace. That she should retreat into his arms.
He, Klaus.
One of his arms under her head, the other, under her breasts pulling her back flush against his chest, his warm legs wrapped up with her cold ones, trying to keep the frostbite off her toes.
As much as he was the scum of the world, she had to concede, it wasn't the worst thing imaginable to be this close to him, wrapped up in his cocoon...
The next time she woke, the sun was up, bright and hot and shining down on her because some asshole had drawn the drapes back and thrown open the windows...
And it burnt a little bit.
The sun.
The big bright yellow sun she used to live and breathe under. She didn't like it anymore…
It was… irritating.
The air was rank and putrid with all the carcasses of her rampage a week ago. Her slain.
Amazing that no one had cleaned the mess up, really. But she supposed she may have killed whoever's job it had been to sweep dead bodies off the street. She'd killed the sheriff's department, the fire department, most of the people of the city hall... Daddy Mayor.
And more irritatingly, Klaus was gone. His warmth. The bed sheets had gone cold and even his impression on the mattress was gone. Not even a wrinkle remained...
The cocoon shattered...
There was annoying music playing downstairs. Loud, alternative pop... The kind of noise she used to like when she'd been human. Whenever that had been…
Kings of Leon.
Taper Jean Girl.
She and Jeremy had danced to that song for her senior prom. His hands always finding some reason to touch her, his constantly smiling face and stupid brown hair done up with too much gel...
There was a rack of clothes in the middle of the bedroom. And a pile of underwear, panties, bras, and things she couldn't recognize in one of the chairs.
Klaus.
She picked out a pair of black boy shorts, a thin strapped black push-up bra that made her B cup body look like a C cup.
Ribs were visible, she noticed when she studied herself in the mirror. And the elf ears were gone. The claws were gone. The white hair... was still white, but Klaus she supposed had cut it shorter, back to its original length. He'd even given her back some bangs.
How fucking thoughtful.
And the clothes.
Everything designer. Things she would never have been able to afford on the meagre allowance her father would donate when he was alive. Things she would have highlighted in the magazines and put on her Christmas wish list. Pretty clothes, perfect for a normal human girl...
She took a white chiffon shirt off a hanger, pushed her hands through the sleeves then began to work on the buttons...
Humans wore clothes. And just because she wasn't human anymore, or rather just because she knew she wasn't human anymore, didn't mean she had to go around like an animal... Down on all fours like a beast the way Silas had wanted her. Mindless. Rabid. Servile... Like a diseased pitbull. His bitch...
Pants... She didn't really need it; the shirt fit her like a small dress.
All the money he'd spent on clothes... Like she was some plastic doll he could play dress up with.
Fuck pants.
And fuck the fancy shoes. She slid her feet into a pair of thin-soled slippers...
"See what I mean?" Kol intoned as he cut a slice of black forest cake onto a saucer. "You want to kill her, he throws her a birthday party."
"Hmm..." the Nun committed. One way or the other, one of the abominations had to die. Silas or Bonnie, didn't really matter much to her. All she was saying is that it would be easier to do away with the new girl instead of Silas the self-declared Skyfather... but if Klaus wanted to do it the hard way and go up against the dark tyrant, who was she to oppose? She had one job. To feed the book. The helpful suggestions were just a bonus... for Kol's sake. What did she care really?
The Nun surveyed the display of sweet confectionery... This was something new. Something she had no opinions on whatsoever. Sugar didn't exist at the Ledger house. They survived on the pure water of the earth and the flower petals that came to them on the wind.
Ice cream. With cookies in it.
Ice cream. With strawberries...
She unwrapped a plastic fork and took a taste of Kol's slice.
A forkful of magic...
Kol surveyed the confusion his brother had created in the Lockwood house, all in the matter of an hour, two tops. Helium filled balloons covering the entire ceiling. Cakes. A gigantic banner reading "Happy Birthday Bonnie", with "even though it was yesterday" scribbled in underneath. Crayon drawings of butterflies, chubby bumble bees and skinny bats with blood dripping from their fangs...Buckets and buckets of ice cream. Confetti, and white baby rabbits with cute red bows tied around their necks... A bubble machine… because those still existed. And Gloria's jukebox… Butterflies all over the place dripping pollen...
...And three vampires.
And one Hunter.
Cake crumbs went down Kol's trachea as he watched the Salvatores, the Katherine Clone and his best friend, the Vampire Hunter.
Jeremy.
The little uppity human bastard that he'd tried time and time again to kill, with no avail.
The little shit who had tried to kill him.
The fucker who had done away with Elijah...
Elijah, missing since the New Spring Ball, last seen in conversation with the fair princess Elena and her adorable little baby brother... baby cousin.
There was no doubt in Kol's mind what had become of his big brother. He, and every vampire he had sired, had been sacrificed by those vapid cocksuckers all in the name of extending the tattoo, all in the name of turning Elena mortal again, all in the hopes of breaking the sire bond, all to determine truly and irrevocably which of the Salvatore brothers she loved best.
Oh what he wouldn't give to wring their little necks one by one. To rip their hearts out slowly. Glacier slow…
One by one, they entered the majestic Lockwood Manor. All bright eyes and smiles. As if they hadn't spent a week and a half taking up refuge in the church. What insanity had possessed them, he wondered, to come out of hiding and furthermore, to walk into the den of the dragon.
They were carrying gifts, even. Big boxes, gift wrapped with big fairy bows. Elena held a mewling black kitten in a Dorothy Basket...
And Klaus... Following them in, carrying three cases of beer... Dressed up like some eccentric European footballer who just discovered linen, replete with all his necklaces, beads and choker. The bastard had even gotten a haircut. Very low, very suave... and wild in a vague sort of way.
Ohhh… Kol stuffed a forkful of chocolaty goodness into his mouth, barely containing the laughter that was just ready to burst out.
And Bonnie... She was awake. He could feel her bad mood passing through him from the nape of his neck right down into his bladder. He could hear her pitter patter footsteps coming down the stairs.
The Nun's eyes went wide, and she froze, tense as a stretched out rubber band. Kol chuckled, cake crumbs going down the wrong way again…
This was going to be fun.
"Hey guys," Bonnie greeted them sheepishly, voice hoarse, as she came down the stairs. Eyes all downcast and sad looking.
'Hey guys,' his ass.
Damon tightened his grip on Elena's hand.
He had had a good life. More or less.
Yes, he'd been on the wrong side of the civil war; yes, Katherine had played him for an ass; yes, his father had shot him through the heart; yes, he was technically a serial killer; yes, he was most likely going to hell when he died; but he'd had a good life… coming towards the end.
Sire bond or no, he'd won the girl. Maybe not the original girl, but the clone was serving just fine. She loved him, (sire-bond induced or otherwise) and that was enough.
He'd won. Stefan had lost.
Amen.
Deliver us from evil, he whispered mentally as Bonnie reached the bottom of the stairs. Her murderous aura filling the foyer like a thick, stifling smog.
If she'd been powerful before, he didn't know how to describe her now. More powerful. Like Tartarus made flesh... But at the same time, less. Like Discord in chains. Aphrodite, in chains. Some goddess or the other, but in chains...
She'd been crying apparently, the witch-girl cannibal, Bonnie. Crying tears of blood. He could see the dried tracks down her face. And some part of him wanted to lick her clean... like a mother cat licking the afterbirth off its litter.
She's still Bonnie, Klaus had said, she's just been adapting to a new power. We've all gone on benders from time to time. You're Damon, the Demon of the Mississippi. Your brother's the Ripper, and me… well, I'm Klaus. So let's give the girl a chance. She's only human…
Only human his ass, but Elena had wanted to go. Because they were sisters. And soft-hearted Stefan was an idiot, and Jeremy had an IQ of zero, so there they were, trying to pretend that the girl hadn't turned into a cannibal elf that ate, ate, repeat ate, the population of Mystic Falls, most notably Caroline and Tyler.
They were all going to die.
Wait and see.
Elena shook free of his grip and rushed up to embrace the demon girl Bonnie. "Oh God, Bonnie!" I knew it wasn't really you. It was Silas. Silas hypnotized you into doing what you did. It wasn't your fault!"
Bonnie returned the embrace, tightened it. "I'm so sorry."
Was she?
"It's not your fault!"
"I should have been stronger…" Bonnie said, blood tears bursting the dam once more. "I should have known."
"You couldn't know," Elena continued, the two girls swaying in each other's arms. "It's all right. Everything's all right now."
Nothing was ever going to be all right again, but maybe that was him just being cynical and pessimistic. He left the two girls reconciling on the couch - Elena trying to cheer Bonnie up, Bonnie, running out of tissues to keep her face dry.
In truth, he felt a twinge of pity for the girl.
When he had first changed, he'd… he'd done so many despicable things. There'd been days when he hadn't known himself. Days when he'd wake up surrounded by pools of blood and dead bodies. He'd killed men. He'd killed women. And hell, when he was hungry enough, he'd killed his fair share of children.
He'd never eaten a baby, but he could relate to the chaos that results when you flip the switch.
And he felt a little sad for her. Just the way he felt a little sad for himself.
People like him and Klaus and Stefan could live with being monsters. They were accustomed to it. A small part of them took pride in it. That's what set them apart from all the sheep in the world. But poor Bonnie Bennett had only ever wanted to be one of the sheep. She'd only ever wanted to be good, and pure… To stay near the shepherd.
And they'd all turned their backs on her and left her alone in the darkness.
He strolled over to the bar, let Klaus pour him a jug of vodka and lime. "Well, she's making progress."
Klaus shrugged. "One day at a time."
"And the birthday party, that was all you?"
"Why?"
Damon shrugged, "Well, seeing as she killed and ate all her friends excepting us… I hope you're not planning on more people showing up, because, hint, hint, wink, wink, their rotting maggot-riddled corpses are liquefying on the asphalt as we speak."
"That explains the scent then. I thought somebody'd farted." Kol slid onto the bar-stool next to him with a cherry smile. "Cake?"
Why not? Really, why not? Damon took the offered saucer. Took the cherry, twirled it around in his mouth wishing it was a nipple instead. Elena's, preferably. Or anybody else's, to tell the truth. He'd rather be sucking on a guy's nipples than playing fairy dollhouse with psycho-cannibal Bonnie and psycho-jackass Klaus and general-psycho Kol.
Val Kilmer's nipples…
The he noticed the nun.
Of course there'd be a nun at the cannibal's birthday party. Maybe there was a unicorn out back… that she'd eat when she was finished with the cake.
She was pretty, though, the nun, for a blind girl. Young. Nymphy…
Any other day when his life wasn't in danger, he'd make a pass at that. Instead, he took another fork of cake - a large mouthful. Spitting crumbs all over the counter, talking over the heinous blasting 'Itchin on a Photograph', "You guys got her back to normal, kudos!"
Kol smirked, "That's all Klaus. I'm just a spectator in this madness." A small chuckle. "Same as you."
Damon doubted, really doubted that.
"Ooh," Bonnie squealed as she unwrapped Stefan's gift. "It's so beautiful."
It wasn't all that beautiful. Just some random heirloom that Stefan had kept hoarded up in his chamber of secrets. Their mother's Nouveau Cherubs Jewellery Case that he'd dusted off and polished up. Worth about two hundred bucks on the antique market. Definitely wasn't worth all the gushing and fawning.
Damon sat uncomfortably on the arm of an armchair watching the cannibal hug his little brother.
Fifty bucks, she rips his throat out…
After all, she had killed Caroline. And eaten Tyler.
That had happened.
It would be recorded in the annals of history that Bonnie had killed and eaten the entire population of Mystic Falls.
Or maybe it was all in his mind, the way Stefan was stroking the girl's hair, patting her back… So consoling. Always Stefan, the good understanding brother.
And maybe he did understand.
The sickening thud Andie had made when she hit the floor resounded in Damon's ears, and brought a little bile up in his throat.
Of course, Stefan would understand. He had a PhD in senseless violence. A masters in coming out a shitstorm sunny side up. He could maybe tutor Bonnie right back into being her hypocritical, almighty, righteous, judgemental self. So what if you murdered a couple people? You're a good person. You have to believe that. Believe in yourself. Never mind all the people who call you cannibal. They're just trying to bring you down. You're a good girl. You're a good girl, Bonnie.
Bonnie wiped her face in Stefan's shirt, staining it with her blood. "Oh, Stefan," her voice all choked up. "I screwed up so bad."
"It's okay, Bonnie. We're still here for you."
She sank into his arms again, holding on to him for dear life. "I killed my friends…"
"It's okay."
Damon vomited a little in his throat. Okay, his ass.
She sniffled snot back up her nostrils, that was kinda of cute but mostly irritating to Damon. Psycho cannibals shouldn't get to have a good cry and a happy birthday party. They shouldn't be forgiven. They shouldn't be consoled. They should be put down. ASAP.
"I don't even know how–" she shrugged out of Stefan's arms. "I can't even understand you guys being able to look at me and without being utterly disgusted."
He wouldn't say disgusted...
A– Because she was basically in her underwear. The shirt was thin as cobweb and it seemed as though she'd started at the bottom, made her way two buttons up, then decided, fuck it.
B– She'd said fuck it to pants as well and he could see at least half her ass. Which he wasn't complaining about, just mentioning...
And C– She had a decent body, he'd admit grudgingly. Exceptional thighs, exceptional cleavage. A belly he just wanted to lick the sweat off of. A neck he just wanted to bite.
So no, he was not utterly disgusted. Just a little bit pissed off. And a little bit confused as to what the general fuck was going on. Klaus and Kol and the cannibal were now living in the Lockwood house? With a nun? They weren't working on a master plan to kill her anymore? Were they all going to pretend her chainsaw massacre hadn't just happened last week? Had she or had she not had elf ears and fangs? Because he could swear, the last time he saw her she was more beast than girl, snarling for Jeremy's guts. His literal guts.
Jeremy was next up. And he put Stefan to shame. Petting, cuddling, soothing… You'd hardly remember that he'd cheated on her with a ghost. You'd hardly think that he had volunteered to be the chief executor of the "Emergency Kill Bonnie" plan. He didn't skip a beat into falling back into Best Boyfriend mode. Peppering her face with the most disgusting display of affection Damon had ever born witness to.
Yeah, just go ahead and make out with the cannibal.
Jeremy's gift. A framed photo of the two of them taken from their prom night. Both of them dressed to kill, posing midair as they'd bounced on the trampoline Caroline had stated was absolutely necessary in any serious senior prom.
Oh sweet airheaded Barbie girl… He kinda missed her.
She would have just loved Klaus' and Kol's birthday bash. All the balloons. The confetti. God, the freaking bubble machine…
Remember Caroline, Damon wanted to scream. Remember when Mystic Falls used to have living people in it?
Damon's gift was next. A huge, big box with a bow on top.
The girl stared at it, then at him, squinting her eyes a little… As if he was the suspicious one in the room.
Then she unwrapped it.
A teddy polar bear. With red corn syrup strategically splattered over it. And a placard in its hand, "Please don't eat me."
No one laughed.
"It's a joke," Damon explained, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "They're endangered," he chuckled. "Melting ice caps… Not that it's begging you not to eat it. Not like you've ever eaten a polar bear before. Cats, babies, puppies, raccoons, frogs, the old people in the hospice, and the actual mountain lion we had that never actually killed anyone," he paused for a breath "Caroline, the jock, Meredith, everybody else at the hospital, everybody at the Grill plus or minus Matt, your dad, Lucy, April and the rest of Rebekah's morbid gossip girl clique, everybody at your high school, and basically every human in Mystic Falls, except for the Sheriff who Klaus handled for you." He cut her a smirk, "But you didn't kill any polar bears, did you? I mean, between hiding out in the church and gift shopping for your Sweet Eighteen, I haven't had the chance to check the zoo manifest, but I'm just assuming that with all the fur–"
"No Damon, let not your heart be troubled," Klaus cut in with his smirking, happy face, "The polar bear community is intact and thriving."
"Nice to know."
And the tears were starting again. Big drops of heavy red blood trickling down her cheeks. "So this is what it feels like, huh? Having the shoe on the other foot? Yes, Damon, my death toll is higher than yours. Go on, judge. Your turn."
Okay? So somehow he was the asshole?
Seriously?
Klaus swivelled around and came to lean on the back of the couch where Bonnie and Elena were sitting. "Now, let's not spoil the fun, love–"
Fun?
"No, he's right," Bonnie wiped at her eyes. "I can make all the excuses in the world. I was tricked. I was hypnotized. I was brainwashed. I was compelled. I was a gullible fool, and I made everybody that I love suffer. I don't get to have a party and eat ice-cream like it's no biggie. I fucked up. I can admit that. I fucked up on an epic scale, and even if you guys say that you forgive me, and I know that deep down in your hearts you might really want to, there's no way you're ever really going to forget what I've done."
Damon huffed. For one thing, he didn't like the way Klaus was hovering over his girl (sire-bonded or otherwise).
And the second thing, he could almost taste the murder in the air. The girl was reeking murder.
Third, he really wasn't liking Elena reaching out to grab the girl's hand.
This is not going to end well.
Pretty, doe-brown eyes brimmed up dispelling the tension in the room and making Damon feel like an ass-hat. "Bonnie, it's okay. You're a witch."
Ahem, he'd known over a hundred witches and none of them had ever gone cannibal. In fact, most were vegetarians.
"You're not in control of everything you do," Elena continued her spiel of sympathy, which to Damon was undeserved. If you asked him, Bonnie actually seemed to be annoyed by it. She was doing that thing she did with her eyes when she was annoyed.
Fuck the tears and the whole 'Woe is Me' act.
Cannibal is a cannibal is a cannibal.
The queen of naivety would not stop. "There's always the spirits trying to get you to do what they want. And all the forces of nature, and then Silas. Us. All of this… We all had it coming. We put so much pressure on you. You've done so much for each and every one of us. I made you kill my uncle John in order to keep me alive, and half a year later, guess what? I still died. You died! You actually killed yourself to keep me from turning into a vampire, and guess what? But you never stopped trying, because you're Bonnie." Big brown eyes met bloody green ones. "You're my sister. And sisters look out for each other. Sisters watch each other's backs." She smiled happily, truly believing, in whatever world that she lived in, whichever planet, whichever realm of existence, which ever cloud, whichever rainbow, that the Bonnie in front of her was the Bonnie that they used to know.
"I'm with you, Bonnie, even if you're an evil witch. Even if you grow warts and start riding a broomstick. See," she brought forth the basket with the black kitten in it. "I got you a familiar, to help you channel your power. You're a badass witch who was meant to do great things. You've already done great things. One bad deed doesn't cancel out who you are."
One bad deed? Killing Mystic Falls counted as one bad deed?
"One bad week doesn't negate an entire lifetime of selflessness. And goodness. And purity. You have a destiny ahead of you that's more important than Mystic Falls. And I loved Caroline, but if I had to choose between the two of you, I'd always pick you. There's nothing you can do, nobody you can kill, to make me hate you. You might have scared the shit out of me, but I can't hate you. I love you. I can't repeat it enough, might as well make you a mixed tape. Like we used to do when I slept over at your grams and she let us play with the microphones. I just want you to know that no matter what, I'm with you, okay? Everybody in the house loves you. Unconditionally. Every single one of us, we all owe our lives to you."
Bonnie nodded, wiping furiously at her tears. She took a deep breath, and sighed. Matched Elena's smile with one of her own… A smile that was just shy of deranged. "I love you, Elena."
Elena handed her the basket. "I love you, too. Forever. No matter what."
Bonnie plucked up the little kitten, stroking its fur… Shiny glossy black fur, cute soft pink-padded feet. No real thought had gone into it, despite Elena's oration. There'd been a litter behind the boarding house that he'd been meaning to leave at some kid's doorstep. Klaus hadn't given them much time to go shopping for the birthday bitch, so he'd convinced Elena that nothing said "I love you" better than furry newborn animals.
Yeah...
Bonnie held it up, inspecting it... For fleas? Mites...
And then, out of the blue, but not really, quick as a rattlesnake high on cocaine and Gatorade, she broke the thing's neck.
Not just broke it, but wrung it around. All the way around until it faced the other direction.
Then she tossed the furry, disfigured carcass over her shoulder and frowned. "I'm not really a cat person, Elena."
As he'd expected.
Damon swallowed and even the sound of the saliva moving down his throat was audible in the eerie, unnerving silence that descended suddenly and filled the house like a gas bomb. Yup. They were all going to die.
"Lol," Kol drawled from his stool at the bar, sipping alcohol from an ice cream cone. Smirk, well in place. Eyes, crinkled up in delight.
Just for the sake of it, Damon decided to make a run for the door.
Of course there would be a magical barrier preventing his escape, but he still had to try. As a self-respecting, decent, near two hundred year old vampire with common sense and an intact adrenaline response system, he had to try.
And, of course, he ran smack into her invisible wall.
"Really?" Bonnie twisted her face in disbelief, "Come on Damon, you know me better than that. I'm diligent, remember?"
God, despite going crazy, she had good memory. How many months ago had he teased her about being more diligent? Getting her magic back to open the tomb of Silas. Told her that candle-lighting wouldn't cut it anymore…
Damon straightened his shirt. Checked his five hundred dollar Rolex watch. Time of death…
Stefan, always one step behind, made his move. Always the pacifist, (except when in Ripper mode), he attacked her with words.
Always effective, rationalizing with evil psycho bitch demons. Yeah, Stefan, you go for it.
"Bonnie, what's going on?" Stefan got off the coffee table he'd perched his ass on, shifting from casual to pensive guru mode in under ten seconds. The eyes became soul-searching. The forehead became creased with concern. His voice went all smoky seductive. "Bonnie, what are you doing?"
What do you fucking think?
Bonnie jumped off the couch as if it was in fire. She wavered a little bit on her feet though.
Noticed by Klaus, as well.
Kol too.
She compensated the gaff with a snotty smirk and dusted herself off, free of any imaginary pollutants the innocent baby cat had soiled her with.
Elena stared deer-eyed at the girl who used to be her sister. "You don't have to do this, Bonnie, whatever you're thinking about."
Bonnie twisted a curl out of her snow white hair, "Whatever I'm thinking about... That's a euphemism if I ever heard one, but I only passed English because Shane hypnotized Kubrick into giving me an A, so I might not be using the word right." Enunciating as if she had really never used the word before, "Euphemism...", she said, then raked her fingers through her hair, sighing, "Any fucking how you look at it, I'm going to kill one of you guys. Or all of you. It's my birthday after all and I can kill who I want, can't I?" She smiled something sweet and twisted.
The way he'd smile sometimes at a pulsing pretty girl in the Grill.
"You don't want to this, Bonnie," Stefan preached. "I understand what you're going through. I know what you're trying to accomplish with this." Stefan's hands went out toward the girl as if he was Mother Theresa and she was some street urchin who needed you to donate a dollar a day. "I've been exactly where you are right now. You feel as if you've fallen so far down the hole that maybe it's best that you just keep digging away at it. That maybe you'll come out on the other side of the world where everything and everyone is upside down just like you. You feel there's no way you could ever go back to being the person you used to be. You don't even remember what she was like. She's just some obsolete version. Like Windows 95. You're Windows 8.5 and you think that we'd never be able to understand anything about you. The new you thinks that you don't have a place in our lives anymore. But that's not true. You're one of us Bonnie. No matter what."
"No matter what," Elena echoed.
"We love you, Bonnie." Jeremy's contribution. "I love you. I'd die for you. You know that! We-"
Klaus put a finger on the boy's lips, in that ambiguously gay way of his, silencing the Mighty Hunter that Damon had spent a shitload of hours training. The Mighty Hunter that had sneak-attacked Elijah. The Mighty Hunter who was always getting by with a little help from his friends. And people who tolerated his existence for Elena's sake.
"As much as I love open-hearted confessions of love, now's not the time, darling." Ever the English gentleman, Klaus. "Rather, you should be thinking about last words. Something poignant to put on your tombstone, hmm?" Pause. "Assuming there's enough of you left for a burial. And assuming that there'll be someone left standing who cares enough to bury you."
The fucking Klaus.
"Let's give the girl a chance," he'd said.
"She's only human," he'd said.
The fucking sadist had led them out of the stables and into the abattoir, and they had followed, wagging their stub tails behind them like blind sheep with Down's Syndrome.
They had left the one place where they knew they were safe to come to the one place where he knew they were not safe.
What happens when you surround yourself with idiots… he supposed. Stefan had always been an idiot. Jeremy had always been a useless dick. And Elena… What was she other than a girl who looked like someone he'd loved for a century and a half? It wasn't her brains and keen intellect that had made him want to fuck her. Just her face really…
And now he was going to die. Like a pussy-whipped retard.
Outplayed by Klaus, the most epic, treacherous jackass under the sun, and Bonnie the Inept, who he'd known from Day One was a bitch in witch clothing.
"Fine," Damon slumped into the armchair carelessly. "Can you get this over with and kill me first? This party sucks ass. The music. The company…"
Honestly, he admired whoever came up with the playlist. If his death had to be set to music, he didn't mind a little Seal.
"But we're never gonna survive, unless
We get a little crazy
No we're never gonna survive, unless
We are a little crazy…"
Talk about crazy. Judge Dread Bitch was just a big bagful of crazy, with her crazy-ass tears of blood, and that smile… and the semi-see-through shirt…
She blotted her eyes for the umpteenth time in the shirt that used to be white, then threw her hands up in frustration "I'm so confused-"
Stefan, "It's okay, we–"
"-as to how to kill you," she finished. "I never really got to make any of the life and death decisions. You guys usually handled that… so I'm a little inexperienced when it comes to choosing who gets to live and who gets to die…"
Kol retrieved a fresh cone, filled it with whip cream and threw some sprinkles on top. He offered the Nun a bite, and she took a small lick at it with her cute pink squirrel tongue.
God, she was cute.
As innocent as Bonnie's little bow-tied baby rabbits.
And Bonnie, he couldn't keep his face serious for the life of him. When he'd first met her, she really hadn't been anything much. Just another girl in earth tones with a bad hairstyle and a weird face.
Now… He couldn't imagine a prettier, sexier, psycho killer. He liked the weirdness of her face that made her look like she was always smirking. Always pissed off. Always ready to kill.
So much fun!
She was better at mass murder than anyone he'd ever met. Better than Rebekah, for certain. Better than him, even. Maybe.
On some random day, he'd like to challenge her to a massacre competition. One person take New York, the other LA, and see between the two of them which story made Breaking News and who ended up relegated to the "And in other news tonight…" section.
Poor little southern black girl who'd been mentally enslaved by her white vampire friends… They made movies about shit like that. Stories about people making breakthroughs when the odds were against them.
He'd like to see Bonnie's movie. From Handmaiden to Demon, based on real events.
Rated MA. Of course. For the violence.
And maybe throw in a couple graphic sex scenes…
Hmm… His mind started wandering down a different road altogether.
It occurred to him, that he'd never in his life done the dirty with a witch before.
Which was odd.
"So here's how we're going to do it," Klaus announced like a schoolteacher to Elena and her two estranged lovers. Jeremy was by his lonesome, reduced to being a silent spectator in the party games for the moment, duct taped to a wicker chair. (When you can't compel? Brute force and duct tape always get it done). "We're going to have a vote,
How many centuries had it been since he'd actually taught a class… Too long.
Bonnie lounged on the settee sliding into her Lady Voldemort persona easily, watching on while he entertained her. He could see the fatigue in her eyes. See it in the way she was propped in the chair and the way her leg hung off it limp. See the tips of her toes gone blue.
"It's simple. You have two options for every question. If it's a yes, raise your hand. Simple as that. Majority wins. Understand?"
They all nodded.
"Alright, first question, and remember you've been sworn to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. Here we are then, question number one. 'Do you want to all die together, in each other's arms maybe?"
Nothing. Not a single vote for that option. Pity.
"Would you prefer if only one of you died, and the other two got to live out the rest of their eternal vampiric days in relative peace? Where I use the term 'relative peace' rather loosely?"
Damon's hand shot up into the air… followed slowly by Stefan's. Klaus nodded, happy as a cat in a canary store. A cat actually owning a canary story couldn't be happier, Klaus imagined. "Two to one," he drawled, savoring the goodness of the moment. "So there we have it, one of the three of you is going to die today. Here in this house. But who…" he crinkled up his eyes at his former best drinking buddy, the good old Ripper. "All for killing Stefan, hand's up."
Nothing.
And strangely enough he felt just the tiniest smidgen of relief. Stefan got to live to see another day… Why he should care – unknown. He'd only ever be a thorn in his side. Why he could never bring himself to pluck the thorn out and toss it away, was beyond him. Maybe something to do with his mind-numbing loneliness and irrational need to be surrounded by people even if said people wanted him dead. "All for Damon Salvatore, let's see some hands."
Stefan's hand went up slowly.
So much for putting bros before hoes. "One vote for Damon, what say you, Elena? What about your blue-eyed lover and his born to be bad self?"
Elena spat at him. In his general direction at least. He got that she didn't do it a lot, spit at people. The trajectory was all off. And it was all saliva, no mucous to hold it together, give it body and momentum... "Damon," he turned with a smile to address the Salvatore he had never given much of an iota about. "It would appear that you are safe… But with Stefan safe as well, that just leaves Elena, and before we vote you have to keep in mind that if we can't resolve this democratically, I'm going to kill all of you… By default. So let's have it, shall we? All for the fair Elena! Show of hands."
He'd be lying if he said he didn't think twice about it.
First off, the first reason to pop into his mind – she wasn't Katherine. She didn't have a fucked up history involving running around the wilds of Bulgaria surviving anyway she could. She didn't have any of Katherine savvy, her wiles, her intellect, her sense of self-preservation... She didn't even fuck like Katherine. She was all about the receiving… They'd never played croquet together. They'd never gone on any walks through any garden, just looking at stars and being rebellious. She was just a seventeen year old girl who happened to look like the bitch he'd devoted his life to.
Second, she was only with him because she was sired to him. Nothing was real. They were just playing at being a couple. Playing at loving each other. It wasn't real.
That's when his hand went up.
Third, there'd be another one hopefully, somewhere out there in the world. Some other doppelganger he could seduce and fuck. And even if he couldn't find an exact clone, he could always find someone with a close resemblance.
Fourth. He wanted to live.
Fifth. He'd had it up to his fucking eyeballs with keeping Elena alive.
Sixth. They were only in this House of Horrors because of her, and her nonsense talk of sisters and good hearts and forgiveness.
Seventh. She was sired to him, and she'd raise her hand and make it two to one in favour of her dying, leaving him and his brother alive. If he had to choose, say a cannibal and two Originals had compelled him to choose between Elena and his brother... he'd have to go with Stefan. Albeit he was a brooding, sad, immoral fucking hypocrite, but family was family...
"Well, wonders never cease," Klaus whispered, more to himself than anyone else. If it hadn't been for the years he'd spent studying psychiatry, he'd have been stumped. The idea of it ever happening might have driven him insane. If he wasn't such an experienced master at back-stabbing and being back-stabbed, he really would have been sincerely stumped.
After all the sacrifices, after all the mayhem and death... They'd killed Gloria for the girl. Greta, Maddox, Mindy... Bonnie's grandmother... Bonnie's mother...
And yet, there he had it. Two hands in the air. One of them Damon's. One of them Stefan's.
Way to cut your losses...
Kol was cackling like a jacked up hyena.
He would have laughed too if it wasn't so utterly sad. "Looks like it's settled, darling,"
A solemn silence hung in the air, as it slowly began to dawn on Elena that her two lovers, the past one and the current one, had nominated her for the death sentence.
"Bonnie," was all the girl said, trying Stefan's tactic. "Take off the compulsion. Please. Don't make them do this!" Big brown eyes pleading with the girl who used to be her sister.
Little did she know that that girl never really existed at all. The Bonnie she used to know was just the trial version. Limited features. Limited capabilities. A limited capacity.
This new Bonnie was soft, but only on the inside. Silas had turned her inside out. Brought out the demon and put away the angel.
Bonnie shrugged her shoulders, face stoically hard with only a sad smile painted on. "Don't blame me, Elena. This is what they decided. I've never pretended to understand how their process works, we just have to abide. Don't we? I mean, shit happens, right? Somebody has to draw the short straw at some point in time, turns out it's just your turn today. Klaus?"
"Yes, love?"
"Get on with it, yeah?"
"Oh, I was thinking we could have a little more fun."
Really?
Damon stared at the coin and then back to the laughing eyes of the hybrid.
He'd never really had much of a grasp on what happened behind those icy blue eyes, but he was starting to glean a little more about how those gears worked now. The man enjoyed chaos. He loved the smell of smoke and blood in the air. He was something old. Something that had never really been human. Something that couldn't quite comprehend the core concept of good and evil. Something that didn't understand the difference between right and wrong. Understood the meaning of the words, maybe, the idea behind them, maybe, but not the core concept.
He was the moth that flew into the fire just to feel the heat on its wings. The type who'd enjoy an actual blood bath. The type who couldn't rest easy unless something was burning down, unless someone was screaming.
And maybe at some point he'd been something that could pass as a living human thing, but after a thousand years, he was all monster.
"Heads or tails, sweetheart?" Klaus asked him again.
Damon turned his gaze on the cannibal girl that used to be Bonnie.
Yes, he and Stefan had flipped a coin over which one of them was going to kill her.
But he'd never told her about it. He and Stefan had never spoken about that little event, and in the end, he'd made the right call and killed the wayward mother instead.
Bitch ought to be grateful, the way he figured.
Bitch ought to suck on a dick until she choked on it.
"Your dick's too small to pull something like that off," she said, blowing a raspberry like a twelve year old who didn't get the memo that Halloween was over. "Heads or tails, Salvatore? Fucking choose already. It took you just a couple of seconds to call it when it was my life on the line... And I know Elena's special and you love her more than life itself but I don't have all day."
"Heads," Stefan murmured, eyes downcast. Voice defeated.
Tired.
Kol watched the coin as it sailed through the air in slow motion. Heads... Tails... However will it land...
His brother caught it.
Covered it.
And slowly...
There was a God indeed, Klaus realised as the coin came down tails.
The only sad thing about it was that he'd not be making any more hybrids anytime soon, but it'd be many a year before he forgot the look of pure horror on Damon's face.
He'd make a sketch when he got time...
He turned to the birthday girl, "Any special way you had in mind, or a good old heart-yanking?"
"You could bash her brains in with a big red brick, but that'll leave a mess, and there's already enough of a mess outside. No need for blood and guts on this carpet." Bonnie yawned, looking a little bored now, in addition to fatigued. "Let's..." she stretched, then she perked up suddenly, eyes bright and shining like stars. She smiled, grinning from ear to ear, and Klaus found himself smiling too, just because… "Oh, I know, let's tie her to a stake in the yard, and then, Damon, you'll douse her down with gasoline, light a match and set her on fire."
The blood drained from Damon's face.
"Remember?" Bonnie twinkled, "Like how they killed Emily? Your slave witch? The one who made your daywalker rings? Whose descendants you promised to protect? Descendants like Bree? And me?" she waited for an answer to her rhetorical question for a moment, then nodded, "Yeah, let's have a Southern bonfire, it'll be fun. For me, at least. And Kol."
"I live for bonfires, darling" the original toasted with a flute of champagne from his swivelling stool at the bar, the Nun perched right next to him.
Bonnie clapped her hands together, "There we have it. Settled then."
He'd had been at his fair share of bonfires, but there'd been something special about Elena's.
Bearing witness to the girl going up in a screaming burst of ash and smoke. Priceless.
The only sad thing, was that it was over all too soon.
Elena died… and then nothing happened. The disappointment was etched onto everyone's face. Bonnie's. Kol's. His…
He'd tried to imagine that it was Sweet Katerina who was screaming her lungs out over the roar of the flame, but he couldn't really get off on it, and in the end all that remained was a pile of hot debris and a sooty front lawn.
Sigh.
Stefan had taken it rather well. Klaus had expected the full range of waterworks and angsty brooding. Rage at least, but more than anything, Stefan just seemed exhausted.
Damon had tossed the lighter at the girl without a single tear in his eye. Kudos for him, he hadn't looked away. Not for a moment. He'd just stood there, watching the so-called love of his life go up in flames.
Which was just tragic for Klaus. He and Kol had had a little side bet running that Old Bright Eyes would jump into the fire after Elena…
He'd have to hand over the keys to his new Bugatti. Bummer, that.
And Jeremy…
He wasn't exactly sure what the boy had said or done or thought to offend Bonnie, but one minute he was there, right as rain, strapped down tight on his wicker chair... and the next, he was an explosion of blood, guts and brain. And Wicker.
And duct tape.
So there it was that they were all sitting on the porch steps, watching the embers fade to nothing, watching the ashes of Elena blow away to cover the streets of Mystic Falls, watching the remnants of Jeremy drip off the bird bath… when he thought that as far as birthdays and birthday parties went, he'd done a hell of a job. No complaints from Bonnie. She didn't seem as happy as he'd anticipated, but she was sitting next to him and he could tell that he'd helped chip away a little of that burden she'd been shouldering.
"What now?" Stefan asked, voice heavy.
"Go lock yourselves in the basement." He'd deal with the two of them after. Silas, by reputation could raise the dead. The possibility of Elena being raised back to life ought to be incentive enough to keep them on good behaviour...
But he'd negotiate that later. In the meanwhile, he just wanted them out of the way.
So there it was that he and his baby brother and a mystical Nun and Bonnie Bennett were sitting on the porch steps, watching the embers fade to nothing, watching the ashes of Elena blow away to cover the streets of Mystic Falls, watching the remnants of Jeremy drip off the bird bath…
"What now?" Bonnie asked, voice light, but with a little tremble to it. Cold.
Frosty.
She nudged Klaus with her shoulder, "Want to finish the night off with a round of good hard fucking?"
Kol coughed on his beer.
Klaus paused. He really had to think about it this time. Napoleon had said that men were moved by only two levers. Fear and self-interest. How right he'd been.
He ruffled her snow white hair playfully, wanting to run his fingers along her scalp and trace the shape of her face under his fingertips. "If first things come first, second things must follow. How about we go fuck Silas instead?"
Bonnie chuckled grimly. "Technically, I've already done that, but okay. That'll work."
"Ready to go inside?" he asked.
She took a final look at the smoke and ash in the air. Inhaling the remnants of their havoc. "Carry me?"
