Ward D

Twelve days.

Kai had been in that fucking institution for twelve days. And how long had it taken for him to get sent to the ward for dangerous patients? One day. No, not even that, it was more like twenty-two freaking hours and he was already transferred to another ward.

And it wasn't even his fault. It was Bonnie's. Kai didn't want to lie; he was honest with all of them in the first session, but with her the most. She seemed interested in him, or at least a little curious, so Kai thought they could… Well, he didn't know what he thought, but there was something about her that attracted him to her, like a bug to a light. So after the first day, in the recreation room, when he saw Bonnie with her nose buried in that damn book, her emerald eyes flicking quickly over every word, her hair framing her face, her teeth digging into her lower lip, he felt something spark within him that he had never felt before. He didn't know what it was, whether it was a fascination, a curiosity, or just a morbid interest in seeing what her insides looked like. Kai had no idea. He was drawn to her. And so he went to her. He was civil and truthful and himself, trying to figure out what it was about her that he couldn't resist, and what did she do in return?

She screamed.

Just like everyone else. Except the difference between Bonnie and everyone else was that he couldn't and wasn't going to give up on her so easily. After all, he had all the time in the world, didn't he? He was going to terrorize them all, but Bonnie the most. She was fun. She made him feel stuff that he had never felt before, and it was amazing.

But, first, he had to overcome the obstacle that was being in ward D. It wasn't like the ward was so bad, he had been to much worse places, it's just that he couldn't get anything done when he spent 85% of his day strapped to a bed in a padded room by himself. However there were at least other people he met during eating times that wanted to get out of there as much as he did.

"And then I said, 'we both know I could rip you to shreds with my nails, with or without these restraints on'." Katherine, the girl who bore a striking and almost eerie resemblance to Elena Gilbert but had 200 times more personality, drawled as she poked at the food on her plate with her fork. "Do you know what the bastard did?"

Mary Louise rolled her blue eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "For the third time today Katherine, no one cares." The blonde shot back, her voice bitter as she resumed gnawing on her lower lip, staring down her her food sullenly. She was rude and her social skills were a little rough, but Kai understood her, as she had spent the previous week in isolation from all other patients, so it was understandable that she was irritable.

"He stuck a needle in my neck!" Katherine continued on shrilly, ignoring Mary Louise and looking to Kai with an expression of indignation on her features. "When I woke up, my nails looked like this." Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she held up her hand in his face to show him her raw looking finger tips, her nails cut down so far that he could see dried blood edged around them.

Kai raised his eyebrows and cringed. "Ouch."

Katherine nodded, retracting her hand and holding it up in front of her own eyes, disgust painting her fine features as she stared at it. "I just can't stand the thought of his grubby hands on me." She responded, shuddering slightly. "Noah is one of the worst things about this place."

"That, and also being tied up to a bed for most of the day, other than when we're eating and talking about our thoughts and feelings." Mary Louise butted in resentfully, attempting to make a point, but Katherine just scoffed and narrowed her eyes at the woman beside her.

Pursing her lips, Katherine crossed her arms, and titled her head. "I thought you didn't care." The thing about Katherine that Kai had learned in the past eleven days was that she could stare someone down for a very long time without so much as blinking. She had an unwavering stare, the kind that cut through even him, and he knew it could be extremely unnerving. He didn't actually know much about her, just that he wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her. They were both very similar to each other, which was why they got along so well.

Mary Louise shot to her feet, grabbed her tray, and stormed off without a word.

With a triumphant and biting smile, Katherine turned to Kai and stuffed a forkful of the grey meat into her mouth.

Kai smirked as he drummed his fingers against the table. "You know Kitty-Kat, I'm not really one to give advice, but if you ever plan on getting out of this ward, you should probably stop with the threats." He offered, but Katherine let out a humorless laugh, letting her fork clatter to her plate loudly.

"Oh Kai. I'm twenty-six, I've been in ward D for nine years. I'm never getting out of here." She replied, a grin on her lips but he could hear the resentment in her voice. She ran her hand through her waves, and stared down at her lap, her lip curling up. "Little do you know, I was shoved in here at the fruitful age of sixteen by my so called family. Apparently I have a little something called hyper sexuality. They don't like that here, and after they had to abort my third pregnancy, they gave me a choice; be sterilized or go to ward D. I chose the latter, and they locked me in here, never to see the light of day again."

Rubbing at the purple bruises around his wrists, Kai nodded, the cogs in his mind already spinning. "I get why you might think that, but I believe we can help each other get out of here and back into ward A." He prompted, watching her carefully for a reaction.

She scoffed.

"Ask to move to my group."

This time, Katherine didn't scoff, and instead looked up at him, curiosity sparking in her eyes.

"Whose group are you currently in?"

"I've been in Dr. Fell's group since the beginning."

"Are you're still in here?" He asked, not expecting an answer. Shaking his head dolefully, Kai pushed his tray away, rested his elbows on his table and threaded his fingers together. "You haven't made any progress, she's clearly not helping you at all with your nymphomania if you're still in the ward for the psychos. You've been here and in the same group for ten years and now you want a fresh start. Say that you need a change of therapist, a change of scenery, to an environment that's more... stimulating. Say you want to go to your beloved friend Kai's group, the one lead by Matt Donovan."

Tilting her head to the side, a skeptical expression overtook her features, and she sniffed. "And why would I do that, my beloved friend Kai?" She questioned mistrustfully, just as he had expected.

Kai grinned at her. "Because Matt Donovan is neither a doctor or competent, and with your manipulation skills you could easily and quickly convince him within one session that you are getting better. He'd move you to ward A in a heartbeat because he's got this kind of 'believe the best in people' thing going on." He said the last sentence with a hint of revulsion in his voice, because the guy's hope was a little sickening, but at least Kai could use it to his own advantage.

Katherine seemed to consider this. "Dr. Fell does hate me, she'd take any opportunity possible to get rid of me…" She pondered with a thoughtful look into the distance, and then sharply whipped her eyes to him. "And what do you get out of this?"

Giving a little shrug, Kai cracked his neck to the side. "Just say that you're not going back to ward A without me." It was simple enough, he knew that the only way he would get back into ward A was if someone else vouched for him. And right now, Katherine was the only person who could and would do that.

Letting out a dramatic sigh, she nodded. "Fine, I'll do it. But only because you asked so nicely." She discreetly reached across the table and brushed her fingers over his, a flirtatious glint in her brown eyes, but he didn't react to her touch. Instead, he was lost in his thoughts, thinking about what he'd say to Bonnie when he saw her again. He couldn't wait to see the fearing glint in her eyes when she saw him again, to see the way her body shook, and to see how her breathing quickened. It was everything he had seen when they last interacted and he loved that he already had that affect on her, no matter how much she tried to fight it, she couldn't.

Katherine stood up after a few moments of Kai being unfeeling to her affection, and grabbed her tray. This snapped Kai out of his trance. "Where're you going?" He examined.

She widened her eyes at him and gave him a little shake of her head. "Well, if I'm going to transfer groups, I should probably show up to this weeks one-on-one therapist session with Dr. Fell to, you know, talk to her about it." Katherine responded slowly and sarcastically, then gave him a thoughtful look. "Wow, you really are just a pretty face, aren't you?"

Kai smirked at up her insult. "Yep, the fairest of them all."

Katherine let out a reluctant smile as she scoffed, then turned away and sashayed off, leaving Kai sitting by himself in the room full of the other crazier, less talkative patients. He left soon after her, not wanting to get caught up in a conversation with Oscar, who always tried to bite him. He kept quiet as Genevieve escorted him back to his room. Kai didn't want to annoy her, choosing to behave himself and create the appearance of docility, thus making it more believable that he was better and eligible to be back in ward A. He could see from the corner of his eye she was peering at him nervously, but he just flashed her a friendly smile as she unlocked the door to his room.

"See you at dinner." He sang out at her, lifting his hand into a wave, happy as she slammed the door in his face, because it meant that he wasn't going to be put into his bed restraints. At the sound of the lock clicking on the other side of the door, Kai turned around, and hardly suppressed his laughter at the sight that met his eyes.

Tyler Lockwood. On the previously empty bed that was adjacent to his. Tightened in restraints. His knuckles were bruised purple and his face was knocked up, he had stitches on his lip and forehead, grazes across his cheek and chin, a black eye, and was jerking his body around on the bed, staring at Kai with flames of fury and horror bright in his eyes.

"Oh, this is rich." Kai chortled, wiping away the tear that pricked his eye, and he almost thought he hear Tyler growl as he seemed to struggle against the leather around his wrists and ankles. Watching the man for several moments, Kai let out another laugh, still amused. "You look like a dog pulling against their leash because they want to chase after a car or something. Look! Look at that hungry spark in your eyes. Gosh, Ty, if you could see yourself. If only I had a mirror, unfortunately they don't let any kind of potentially sharp objects in here, but if only!"

Jumping onto his bed, Kai rested his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling, a shit-eating grin still splitting his face in two. Tyler, like the dog he was, still continued to writhe in his bed, seemingly thinking that he could break the ties around his wrists, and Kai almost wanted him to. He was curious what would happen if the man got his paws on him.

"So…" Kai began, turning onto his side and looking at Tyler, who glared back at him. "What got you in good old ward D?" It was a rhetorical question that Kai already knew the answer to, because, duh. Look at the guy, he looked like he had been beaten to a pulp, but by the looks of his knuckles, his opponent must've gotten pretty roughed up as well.

However, Tyler being as thick headed as he was didn't realize Kai was being sarcastic. "I got into a fight." He muttered harshly, finally giving up getting out of the restraints out of frustration, exhaustion, or both.

Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Kai perked his brows up at the man across from him and gave him a dimpled grin. "Well, lucky for you, we get to be roomies!" He exclaimed excitedly, sitting up and clapping his hands.

Tyler looked at him with loathing. "I know what you did." He snarled abruptly, baring his teeth with fire in his beady eyes.

Kai sighed, plopping back onto his bed. "Okay, okay. I'll admit it." He admitted. "I took one of your pillows, but that was when the bed was unoccupied. Sorry not sorry, I'm not giving it back. These beds are so damn uncomfortable and-"

"-I KNOW YOU TRIED TO KILL YOUR FAMILY!" Tyler screamed savagely out in the middle of Kai's sentence, shaking in rage, and then it suddenly all made sense; Tyler's apparent hate for him despite Kai actually never having spoken to him before that day. Tyler knew what Kai had attempted, and probably thought it was, wrong, or something. But Kai didn't actually care.

"Cool." He responded, clicking his tongue. "But I'm still not giving you back the pillow."

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE FUCKING PILLOW!" The raven-haired man continued on with his shrieking, and this time Kai did roll his eyes, already tired of Tyler's whining. "YOU DON'T BELONG HERE! YOU'RE A CRIMINAL AND ATTEMPTED MURDERER AND I WANT YOU GONE! WE ALL DO! THAT'S WHY I'M HERE! I PURPOSELY GOT INTO A FIGHT SO I COULD TELL YOU THAT YOU NEED TO GO…"

Kai tuned out the man as he continued on rambling, just like he used to do with his siblings. It was hopeless; Kai couldn't leave whether he wanted to or not. And boy, did he want to, but it wasn't his choice to make. His family locked him up there the minute he was released from jail. He knew he would he would be in that place for the rest of his life, unless he broke out of there and lived as a fugitive, which he wasn't completely against… But that would be a lot of work, and it was so much more fun to watch people (Tyler) squirm around him.

Tyler was clearly uncomfortable sharing the same breathing space as an attempted murderer and former juvenile delinquent. Kai understood that some people had morals and thought murder and hurting others was wrong. However that didn't mean he cared. Tyler had purposely got himself into ward D in a useless attempt to tell Kai to leave the institution. But it was just that; useless, he achieved absolutely nothing by doing it, and he would probably be there for at least a few weeks before he was moved back to ward A. If Kai actually had the ability to feel empathy, he would've felt it towards Tyler in that moment, because he went through a lot of effort for nothing.

However, that wasn't the case, and in in all actuality, Kai found it quite amusing. Tyler thrashed around on the bed, his face red hot, a vein popping out in his neck, yelling out at the top of his lungs so loudly that Kai was surprised a nurse had come in to sedate him yet. The man looked completely ridiculous.

"…AND BONNIE! AFTER SHE FOUND OUT THAT-"

"-Wait what?" Perking up at the mention of Bonnie's name, Kai looked over to Tyler who stared back at him with incredulous, wild eyes as he heaved every breath. "What about Bonnie?" He asked again when Tyler didn't respond, more urgency to his voice because Bonnie was actually someone he had a curiosity about.

Lifting himself to his elbows, Tyler leaned as far forward as possible towards Kai, and through gritted teeth, hissed, "She is hell bent on getting you the fuck out of here and away from us. We both are. This was all my idea."

Kai knew he should've been disheartened at that. But that just made him all the more intent on getting to her. He felt his lips twitch, and he swallowed, his mind ticking as he thought of what he would say and do to her when he finally got back to ward A. The thought made his skin tingle and his heart hammer against his ribs in a way it never had before. It was exhilarating.

"You make her sick."

His lips twisted into a smile, and Kai turned to his roommate. "Perfect, that'll make it all the more satisfying once I finally get to her."

Tyler gasped loudly, his face being overtaken by pure and burning rage as he jerked himself about in the bed. "YOU'RE MEANT TO BE LEAVING! I'LL TELL THEM WHAT YOU TRIED TO DO! I'LL TELL THEM YOU'RE A FELON! THIS ISN'T A PRISON FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE! IT'S A MENTAL RECOVERY CENTER!" The man resumed his screaming, and Kai just let out a sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Listen Tyler- Tyler? Ty, Ty, Ty? Ohhhhh Ty-ler? TYLER LOCKWOOD!"

With horror in his eyes at the uttering of his full name, Tyler stopped and stared at Kai.

"Well, first things first, I've served my time, and they already know about my past, you idiot. Why else do you think I arrived here in a straitjacket?" Kai snorted as he shook his head at the memory. "Second, the reason why I arrived here like that is because I wasn't admitted here voluntarily-"

"-I already know that, you idiot." Tyler hissed back childishly.

"Then what made you think coming here and telling me to leave would do any good?" Kai asked the genuine question that had been irking him. Did Tyler have other motives, or was he really that stupid that he thought he would come to ward D as a 'double agent', or whatever the fuck he thought he was doing, and tell Kai to 'be gone'… Frankly, it wasn't much of a question, because from the look of realization on the man's face to Kai's general knowledge of him, it was clearly the latter. "Jesus, you really are stupid."

Kai knew that Tyler knew he had really screwed up when he didn't respond.

"I can't leave even if I want to, which I do. But I hate to break it to you- well, actually, I don't… Anyways, I'm not going anywhere, Ty." The man snarled at the nickname, which only made Kai vow to use it more often. "So you kinda just jumped, not fell, jumped, into an bottomless hole by getting yourself into this ward."

"I thought you hated metaphors." Tyler muttered petulantly, staring up at the ceiling, still.

Kai held his hand to his chest, a flattered expression on his features. "Oh, Ty, I'm so heart warmed by your attention to details about me. And you're right. I don't like metaphors… When other people use them. It's confusing. But I use them all the time."

"You're a hypocrite."

"I attempted to murder my family, do you really think I of all people care about being a hypocrite?"

Tyler was unresponsive.

"Anyhoo, you're going to be stuck here for at least two to three weeks. I, however, with the help of my friend Katherine, am going to get out of ward D and into A within a couple of days. So, in reality, you're kinda screwed, because, now everyone else, especially Bonnie, will be completely defenseless with you and your martyr-ism gone."

Tyler was silently fuming, and it made the next words Kai was about to say all that much more sweet.

"I always win. No one can match me. Not even the people who know me best, and that's why I'm here, and you're stuck with me."

I can't say thank you enough for reading! I hope that I wrote Kai alright and did his character justice, and I hope that you liked Mary Louise but also Katherine in particular, because as you can see, she's going to show up in a lot of future chapters. I wasn't sure whether to write this chapter as having Kol or Tyler in ward D, but in the end I decided upon Tyler as he was the one that instigated the fight, his stupidity makes for more of Kai mocking him (which is fun to write), and it gives me a reason to sideline him a bit so I can focus on other characters and relationships more.

Please if you have the time, review and tell me what you think of this chapter and the story so far! Readers opinions are really important for me moving forward. I appreciate every single comment people have left so far on this story as they help and inspire me push on and work through any troubles I have when writing. They mean so much to me. Follow and/or favorite if you want to know about future updates! Once again thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. X

Next Chapter - Will be the familial visits focusing on various different characters as they are reunited with the ones they love. Some familiar faces will show up.