Ah, finally time to update. I got really busy with school. Thanks for the reviews and the follows!


Damon watched Sophia cut into his left wrist and started draining his blood into the ceramic bowl full of witchy ingredients. Would that would even close up since he was dead? He had a feeling he was going to wake up hungry.

He observed Caroline and a still haggard looking Stefan try to comfort Elena. How far would she have been willing to go to bring Bonnie back if it weren't for Damon? He had been doing everything himself.

If anyone deserved to survive it was Bonnie, but she had selflessly given her life up. Honestly, she could do better than Jeremy…than all of them. But she continued to stay, and if she left she always came back. Damon could appreciate that kind of loyalty. He spun on his heel and ran out of the cave to find Bonnie.

He could feel her in his gut; it was like a compass pointing him in the right direction. He jogged through the woods he used to frequent when he first came to Mystic Falls; they were always crawling with innocent young victims waiting to be drained of blood. The longer he ran, the darker and quieter the woods became; closer to the cave he could hear the creatures of the wood from beyond the veil, but it was as if everything was dead- er, alive?- the farther he ran to Bonnie. Damon came to a halt- panting- and looked behind him toward the cave. He could see a beam of light shining into the dark sky. The air shifted.

"Damon."

He swiveled around, unnerved that someone had snuck up on him. Emily stood before him; her hair was still bound in the tight bun she always used to wear and she was dressed in the thick white night gown she had died in. Her hands were folded against her front stiffly. She pursed her lips in ire and glared at Damon.

"Emily…"

"You said you would protect my descendants, Damon."

"Well, if you can't tell, I'm trying to right now."

"This is not the first time you have gone against your word. The last time I saw you, you almost killed her."

"You had destroyed what I had thought to be my only way to get Katherine out of the tomb! Where have you been the whole time she's been here? How about you stop berating me and actually help me find Bonnie?"

Emily shook her head and looked into the distance behind her. "I do not know where she is. The other witches have been hiding her away from the moment they had the chance."

"Why would they do that? How?"

"I am not sure…I cannot provide any answers for we share the same questions. You must hurry, Damon, she does not have much time." She offered him a small knife.

"What happens if we die here?"

"The body your soul manifests will disappear and you will cease to exist."

Damon gritted his teeth. Of course, he thought bitterly.

"Do not forget what you promised me before you watched me burn."

Damon watched her disappear after delivering her cryptic message with a clenched jaw.

Fucking useless witches and their riddles, he thought to himself. He rubbed his temples in irritation- keeping the uncomfortable roll of worry in the pits of his stomach- before he started running again.

Bonnie cracked her eyes open and was met with darkness. She let out a relieved sob but didn't let her guard down. She was sure that at any moment the hallucinations would return. How many times had she watched her grams die? How many times did she rewatch her father's neck split open?

Tears leaked from her eyes and made their way down her face toward her ears, as she lay sprawled on the hard floor of a dilapidated shack deep in the forest. When she had tried to run they had rendered her legs useless; they were now bent unnaturally and bloody from the teethed shackles they had put her in just in case she was strong enough to crawl away. Her feet were painfully rotated inward as if she was severely pigeon-toed.

She pressed the bottom of her palms into her eyes as quiet sobs started to make her body quake.

Please, she begged to a god she didn't believe in. Please make it stop.

The door to shack scraped unevenly against the floor. Bonnie's breath hitched in her throat at the sound. She peeked through her fingers to see who had entered- hoping deep, deep inside of her that it was one of her friends- but was greeted by the group of witches that had been torturing her since they had dragged her away. Her heart dropped even though it had already hit bottom the moment she died.

The group was made of witches of various sizes and ethnicities but all shared the feelings of animosity against Bonnie; none of them pitied her or blinked an eye at her suffering.

The leader of the group- a decrepit witch with jaundiced skin and thin gray hair- stepped into the shack, using the flame erupting from her hand to light a path; the group parted for her to pass through. She scrutinized Bonnie for a moment then nodded her head. Several witches with rope knelt beside Bonnie and sat her up.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie rasped as they began to tie her arms behind her back and wound the rest of the rope around her body.

They didn't answer Bonnie, but lifted her up and dragged her out of the shack. She tried to discreetly test the strength of the rope and found it too tight to break from. She struggled to keep her breathing steady. The moon shone throughout the woods as they walked through them until the trees stopped and they had reached a lake. The hag walked the group to the edge of the bank and turned to the gathering.

"A vampyr, one of the first abominations, comes to recover this witch." Her voice was deep and strong, unlike her appearance. It reverberated with the familiarity of command. "We must protect the balance. The only way, it seems, is to eviscerate her soul."

Bonnie stared wide-eyed at the old woman. She struggled to be free of the grips that held her as she was dragged closer to the river. Her skin was rubbed raw against the coarse rope. Two more witches broke from the pack to tie a large boulder to Bonnie's waist.

"You will become a wisp; energy with no thoughts nor voice. You will flow through this world and the last; that is how you can reunite with those left behind. Take solace in that." She raised her wrinkled face and closed her eyes. "Circle of seasons from dark into light," she started.

"No. No!" Bonnie cried. More tears spilled from her eyes. Would it do any good to beg? Had it ever?

"Remind us forever of the balance of life," the women finished.

They threw Bonnie into the lake.


Damon heard Bonnie's scream echo through the night air of the woods. A stab of fear went through him and he pushed himself to run faster through the thickness of leaves and wood.

He could feel her light, but it was fading. He tried to force the overwhelming dread for Bonnie to the back of his mind so it didn't paralyze him. He broke through the woods into a moonlit clearing; his eyes scanned the area and landed on the lake in the middle of the clearing. He automatically vaulted toward the lake and dove into the cold water.

He could see Bonnie somewhat far down below; her dark hair waved to him as she was dragged deeper and deeper into the inky abyss. He swam as quickly as he could to her sinking body and grabbed her arm- grunting when she was too heavy for him to swim back up with. If every damn thing involving witches wasn't so inconvenient he could have lifted her the hell out of there twenty seconds ago.

If he had his vampire abilities he could have made it to her before it had even gotten this far.

He swam down to her back and cut through the rope the boulder was connected to. The ropes unraveled and fell away from Bonnie's still body. Damon pulled her to his chest and kicked his way back to the surface. He crashed through the water, gasping for the much-needed oxygen his lungs burned for. He paddled back to shore as quickly as possible, look down at Bonnie every so often.

Shit, he thought to himself. Shit, shit!

Her face was sallow and her lips were tinged blue. She wasn't breathing.

Damon dragged them both onto shore- drenched and dripping- and dropped to his knees. He hurriedly placed Bonnie on the dirt floor and immediately started CPR.

"Come on, Bonnie. Come on. Come on," he pleaded.

He stopped compressions and breathed into her mouth. He sat back, searching for a change in her condition. There was no response. He started compressions again. He breathed for her again.

Still no response.

"No, no, no, no!"

He restarted compressions. He imagined her never waking up despite the pressure he desperately pressed onto her chest. He imagined her physical form slowly disappearing underneath his hands, forever lost behind the veil. Would he be able to leave this dark world empty handed? Would he even try?

"Dammit, Bonnie, breathe! Don't you dare leave me here…for fuck's sake, BREATHE!"

He slammed his fist onto her chest. Her body jolted upwards and water splattered out of her mouth; liquid continued to bubble out of her bloodless lips as she settled back onto the hard floor.

Damon let out an astonished exhale and swiped her bangs out of her eyes. He cradled Bonnie's face in his pale hands, watching her as her eyes fluttered open.

"…Damon…?" She managed to wrap her hand around his wrist. "I can feel you…"

"We're still behind the veil." He tucked a wet strand of hair sticking to her cheek behind her ear. "I came to take you home, Gretel," he answered softly.

Bonnie smiled weakly. "I don't think…breadcrumbs….are gonna cut it."

"Mmm its more of a bat signal situation leading us back." Bonnie's eyes started to drift close. "Hey. Bonnie stay with me." He shook her head gently but her hand dropped from his wrist and she lost consciousness.

"Fuck."

Damon looked up from the young witch to search for his guide back to the other side. He scooped her up and started heading toward the light.


Chapter 8 finished! The little thing the witches recite is the end of this one poem "Circle of Life" by Shelly Middleton. I just changed the "remind us forever of the circle of life" to balance of life.