…
She doesn't quite know how or when these guys got the upper hand on her, but at some point, Bonnie finds herself with her hands in the rough grip of a large and too pale bald man, his grim expression making the lump in her throat grow as she keeps fighting against him, to no avail. There's not a chance she can escape him, and when he leans down until his thick lips almost touch her ear, she cringes away, reluctantly listening as he says, "If you don't stop fighting, I'm gonna have to off dear Gramma and momma over there, too. You want that?"
No, she doesn't want that. She doesn't want any of this! Peering out from behind the man's bulky stature, she sees Caroline cease to struggle against another big man as her mom and Bonnie's Grams stalk over to the car with an odd calm.
"Grams!" she can't help but call out and the gruff man shakes her hard for the outburst, glaring down.
"They'll be safe - if you stop with the attitude."
Attitude? Bonnie's anger is growing by the second, even though she knows she should probably rather be afraid. She's just not used to being kidnapped or whatever the hell it is that is happening here.
"Stay quiet and come with me, and the two older ladies get to go home now. Keep fighting me, and…"
"What about Caroline?!"
She tugs and pulls at her arm, staring daggers at the man that's holding her, but it's no use. He's so strong, squeezing her arm with ease, his large hand wrapping around most of her upper arm.
Huffing, he rolls his eyes. "She'll have to come."
"Why?" Suspicious, Bonnie squints up at him, her fear becoming more prevalent again. "What do you want from us? What did we do?"
They're going to kill them, aren't they? Is that it? But why? Is it because of anything they did or saw? But what could that have been? Whatever it is, one thing is almost certain. It must have something to do with Damon Salvatore.
Apparently everything has something to do with him lately…
"Quiet," is all the answer she gets before the man pulls her with him, nodding over to his companion briefly, who is carrying a yelling Caroline across his shoulders, fireman style, while she keeps trying to hit him.
And Bonnie freezes in her tracks. If her best friend hasn't given up the fight, maybe she shouldn't either. Torn between doing what it takes to protect her Grams and Caroline's mom or her own safety, she makes her decision. Digging her heels into the ground as best as she can, she puts all her strength into resisting her attacker, who turns around to look at her with a rather weary expression.
"I'm not doing this because I want to, lady. But the king has commanded it, so we follow."
"There's no freaking king in the whole damn US of A!"
"Yeah? Well, it's not the kingdom I'm talking about…"
Before she can even continue this ridiculous conversation, he picks her up so abruptly that she loses her momentum, and just like that, he walks after his friend, with her on his shoulders. And no one seems to be there to hear her goddamn screams.
...
By the time they reach a sinister looking corner of town - all dark alley and sparse streetlights - there are only hints of red and orange left in the otherwise dark sky, and Bonnie is feeling a new chill creeping into her.
This might be where these guys are going to… execute her and Caroline, if they don't manage to get away. Now is their last chance…
Then she sees him again: Damon, bloodied and bruised, but with a smile making his eyes shine, his expression so unfitting that she wants to laugh.
"You?!"
A nonchalant shoulder shrug of his later she's ready to interrogate him about what the hell is going on here, but before she can do so, she finds herself getting shoved into his arms. Cheeks blushing even now, under these circumstances, she tries to scramble off of him as fast as she can, his breath warm against her skin, the strange scent of something earthen - no, something damp, deep, fresh - clinging to him and making her feel the smallest bit calmer.
Seconds pass, maybe a minute, before she finds her words again, relieved that he doesn't seem to have noticed how flustered she is. Relieved, too, that her kidnappers seem to be leaving her alone for now - if she can call it that when they keep glaring over at her and Care and these two strange men, large long guns in their arms. (Not guns, though… She blinks, frowning in confusion. It's as if an image lays itself over what she is seeing, two things blending together. Guns… But these things, for a split second she could have sworn they looked like harpoons.)
Damon is clicking his tongue, making some offhand remark, and she jolts back, glaring at him, asking her questions.
"Who the hell are you - or should I say, what? What is going on here?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he says way too chirpily, using that endearment again that she hates, "I'll explain in a minute."
And then he does. Finally he begins telling her the truth about how they really met. They're sitting close together, their sides almost touching, and she doesn't dare look at him as he speaks - not so much because of him, but because of the dark figures looming over them. For some reason, these men haven't killed them yet even though Damon seems to think that's why they're here, what they want to do. According to him, they have been sent by his father. - But - also according to him - said father is something like a king of an underwater realm, and now that really doesn't make any sense.
"I swear," he says with a wide and open grin, "I know it sounds ridiculous-"
"You're the son of a king," she interrupts him, scoffing. "You don't look like a prince."
Nudging her side as if they've been friends forever, he shows her his too nice looking teeth.
"Not a prince. That's not how it works in the below, sweetheart."
"Okay, stop." Sitting up straighter, she lifts a hand, glaring at him, only shrinking back when one of the creepy giants steps out of the shadows to point his weapon at her. A lot quieter, she says, "Don't call me sweetheart."
"Aw. I see the lady doesn't like my term of endearment. How about… Bon-"
"Bonnie is just fine. It's my name…" She hopes he reads her annoyance and can take the hint. But no such luck.
"BonBon." His eyes light up. "Has a nice ring to it. - So, BonBon, I think we pretty much covered it all, right? Your car crashed into the ocean; me and Enzo over there just so happened to be around to get you girls to dry land, and due to the slight, uh, unusualness of our nature, we tried to stay out of your lives and keep to ourselves."
Yup, that about summed it up - and more - and if she was being honest, she couldn't fault him for trying to keep his distance, because this was simply-
"Bullshit. You think I'm stupid?"
"Not at all. I know what this sounds like, but you can ask Enzo, he'll corroborate-"
A harsh scoff escapes her as she exchanges a glance with Caroline, who is sitting wedged between Bonnie on one side and Damon's friend on the other, looking crestfallen.
"So you think we'd fall for your ridiculous mermen story? What is this? Storybrooke?"
There's a brief flicker of puzzlement crossing his face that makes Bonnie realize he doesn't get the TV reference, but that alone doesn't make his story more plausible. You didn't need to be a… a frigging merman to not have watched Once upon a Time. She never managed to get her ex to watch the show with her either, so…
Rolling her eyes, she forces herself to stop right there. She needs to focus. They're still held at gunpoint, by scary looking dudes that Damon rather casually introduced as part of his father's royal guard.
Royal guard! She rolls her eyes.
"Cut the crap, okay?" she continues then. "What is this? What have you gotten us into?"
With a sigh, Damon runs his hand over his face, grimacing as he touches his bleeding lip.
"I wish I was joking, but I'm not. These guys are here to - what, kill us? Are those father's latest orders?" he addresses one of the men, who shakes his head at him.
"Had the order to kill the girls, yeah."
"Had? Past tense?"
"Order got rescinded a few minutes ago."
"Huh." Damon looks genuinely surprised, and Bonnie can't say it makes her feel any better. Shooting him a glance, she lightly slaps his chest when he doesn't clue her in on whatever is going on in his mind.
"What?"
"Sorry, BonBon. Was just trying to contact dear daddy, and when he didn't reply, my brother."
What? She's unaware that the word never passes her lips, the bewilderment so strong that she has trouble following anymore. Is he saying he just somehow talked to his brother? How?
Oblivious to any of her inner struggles, Damon turns to look at his friend, who's leaning a little too casually against the wall behind them.
"Stef says it's true. The old man is giving us one last chance."
Enzo raises an eyebrow in response.
"Hard to believe."
"But apparently true." Damon shrugs. "Now we only need to make sure that you, Bonnie Bennett, and your friend stay away from the ocean, and this should soon be over."
"You sound insane." Bonnie shakes her head, trying to process his words. Stay away from the ocean…
Scoffing, she rolls her eyes over at Caroline, then moves to get to her feet, shooting the goons a cautious look before motioning to her friend to do the same.
"Well, this was… interesting. But I guess this is our cue. Caroline?"
"Yeah, coming." Her friend hurries to get up, too, stumbling a bit on her sore ankle, and Bonnie quickly grips her by the arm.
"Let's get the hell away from here," she hisses, and she doesn't need to say it twice.
Stay away from the ocean… Why?
Caroline has grabbed her hand, the curious way she looks down on Enzo not lost on Bonnie, but she has no time to worry about that now, because Damon's words are still ringing in her ears, and not just the part about where he seems to be some weird creature of the sea, the son of the king of an underwater realm.
Underwater realm! She wants to laugh out loud.
They have stalked off a little, both a bit shaky, Caroline still limping, when Bonnie stops in her tracks, looking back to where the two "mermen" of sorts are now standing, too, the two creepy large dudes not far from them.
"What is that supposed to mean," she calls out, deep creases furrowing her brow. "'Make sure I stay away from the ocean'?"
Damon's long exhalation, the way he looks down on the ground before meeting her gaze shows an exhaustion she hasn't noticed in him before and it makes her strangely uneasy.
"It means, BonBon, that you and I will have to spend a little more time together. Because in my effort to try and save you, I may have inadvertently managed to… turn you into one of us."
"Turn me into…"
"A mermaid. Just an expression of course, but yeah. There's a chance you could become an ocean dweller like us - but don't worry, darling. As long as you don't go anywhere near the ocean and immerse yourself in the water until roughly… thirty days from now, you should be fine. And I'm here to make sure of that. Which does mean I can't let you go alone, though."
The grin is back, almost mischievous, and she can't but glare at him. He doesn't honestly think she believes any of his tall tales, does he? That she would fall for his lame attempt to tag along and… and do what? Hang out with her? Could this be some elaborate plan of his to woo her? To ask her on a date? Surely that can't be it…
Mermaid.
Shaking her head, she tries to focus, to stay on top of this bizarre mess, thankful when Caroline's squeeze of her hand reassures her a bit.
"We gotta find your Grams and my mom," Care mutters, and Bonnie has barely nodded her head when Damon nonchalantly waves his hand.
"Oh, don't worry about them. These guys compelled them to forget about all this and head home. They think you two are on a month-long study retreat."
Swallowing, Bonnie glares at him.
"Excuse me?" she presses out, her anger rising again. But Damon merely grins, wiping away more traces of blood on his face as he swaggers over, his shadowy friend in tow.
"Another one of those merpeople things," he waves her off, and the way he keeps smiling makes her blood boil. "Don't worry, ladies. Enzo and I will stay on the sidelines. We're just here to make sure my dear father keeps his hands off you and you stay away from the ocean. I promise."
"Yeah, I'm not buying any of that bullshit you were trying to feed us. So, do us a favor? Leave us the hell alone!"
She begins to stomp away, her boots feeling heavy and restraining on her feet, and she grits her teeth against the weird feeling, against her anger at the world and Damon in particular.
"Come on, Care."
Out of nowhere, Damon appears in front of her - no more than a few inches away - and she startles, gasping. Turning back, she looks behind her, into the alley, only seeing the two dark giants hulking in the shadows. It's almost as if Damon… apparated in front of her, like a damn Harry Potter character. Was he a wizard now, too? Could this get any more ridiculous?
When she turns to look at him, she notices that his annoying friend is there now, too, standing next to him, gaze trained on Caroline.
"I believe you have something of mine," he says, and Bonnie feels Caroline's grip on her tighten, before she reluctantly extends a hand to hold out the button.
"Thanks, gorgeous," he says, smirking at her as he takes the button and replaces it with Caroline's phone - just as Bonnie feels the cool metal of her own phone being pushed into her hand by Damon.
"Our turn to return what's yours," Damon says, his blue eyes making her break out in a bout of shivers as he stares at her. When she doesn't move or say anything, he jerks his chin - still smiling. "You can call your Grams if you want, make sure she's okay."
She doesn't need to be told twice. Never taking her eyes off him, she dials, waiting for her Grams to pick up the phone.
"We barely dropped you two off, babygirl! Elizabeth and I haven't even quite made it home yet and you are already calling? You girls homesick already?"
The old woman's chuckle makes Bonnie's heart ache with love and relief, and she shoots Caroline a glance, who is also muttering into her phone.
"Just wanted to check in," Bonnie says as if she's following a script, unsure why she's going with this story, why she's not trying to tell her grandmother that something strange is going on.
She stands like that for a few minutes, just chatting with Sheila, before finally disconnecting the call, then taking a deep breath. Raising her head, stiffening her shoulders, she stares hard at Damon.
"Okay, fine. You were right. They're okay and they clearly seem to think that so are we. Now what?"
"Now we'll set you two up in a nice-"
There's an abrupt vacuum of sound, complete silence enveloping them for a moment, before the world seems to be swallowed in a booming rush of… water? - and before Bonnie quite knows what's going on, she feels herself being pulled away by Damon, his face a wide-eyed mask of fear or worry as he keeps yelling something, yelling something she has trouble understanding, yet it slowly fades into her conscience more and more with an odd delay.
"He broke his word, goddammit!"
"And you're surprised by that? The man is a bloody monster!" Enzo hollers back, making a face as he picks up a struggling Caroline, hoisting her over his shoulders.
"Hey!"
Bonnie stares as if in a trance, running along, not understanding, until abruptly they stop, and she faces…
… the cliff where her car went into the water. Her throat closes, and she's shaking.
How did they make it here so fast?
"Do you trust me, Bonnie?"
Frowning, she shakes her head, trying to focus on Damon's open face.
"No," she allows, honest, and he smiles at that, if just for a brief moment.
"Can't blame you, of course. - Listen."
He's holding her hand, his touch strangely tender now, and she stares at his fingers, so pale against hers… Then she lifts her gaze up again, his eyes looking like the water underneath.
"My dear father is a genuine asshole, and he just tried to send out a tsunami to try and force your transformation, which can only mean one thing: no matter how this month goes, he's going to kill you anyway."
She can only scoff. Because what else is there to do when she's with a crazy person taking about mermaids and tsunamis and someone out to kill her?
"The good thing is," he continues, as if there can be any good in all this craziness. "There's one place where he won't be able to find you. - The bad thing… it involves taking a bit of a dive. So… Are you ready to jump with me, Bonnie Bennett?"
"What?" She peeks over his shoulder, the wind picking up around her as the uncomfortable roaring feeling comes back to fill her ears. "You wanna jump down there. With me. - You just said I need to stay away from the damn ocean, and now you want me to jump right in there with you? Hell no!"
"It's either that or you die."
Blinking, she looks from Damon to Caroline, who is shivering in her too thin dress.
"We need to go now, Damon," Enzo urges, his dark gaze meeting Damon's, and all Bonnie can think is that this is insane.
"Bonnie…"
"Okay. Okay!"
Before she has a chance to think it over, Damon jerks his hand and pulls her with him, and then she falls.
…
I'm sorry about yet another cliffhanger, Kamille!
Guest: hahaha, your review made me laugh. You're very right about Guiseppe. He deserves the sea turning on him. We shall see whether it does...
This was a bit of a tough chapter to write, but as you can see, it brings us a big leap further in the story.
Thanks for your kind support so far!
