Past dilemmas

I woke up with tired eyes. My mouth felt parched, and throat felt like sandpaper when I swallowed. My head felt like someone had just bashed it with a baseball bat. Dizziness overcame me for a few minutes, till I managed to compose myself.

I sat up and looked for Caroline immediately, worried she had ended up in a different time. I really should have prepared more. Anything could have happened to us during the spell. We could have been separated and sent to wrong places, or disappear for good.

I was happy when I heard her groan. I looked over to find her in the far corner of the dusty old room we were in. She threw off a bunch of old wooden boxes that were on top of her, coughing as a tornado of dust covered us both.

"What the hell, this doesn't look like the nineties," she coughed out.

I looked around, she was very right. It did not look like the nineties at all. It looked like an old store room of an antique shop, with very old furniture and bits covering the room. Felt more like something out of 1920's, than our destination - before 1994. That was before Kai would have killed his siblings, giving us the opportunity to stop him and change the events.

This was definitely not the nineties from the looks of it. It had an old feel to it, and I could feel this was the wrong time we were in. Even more so with the old jazz piano music we heard blasting from outside the room. There were loud sounds of people clapping and talking, while the music continued to play loudly.

We looked at each other, wondering if someone was having some kind of fancy party. Maybe that was what this was?

"I will go check it out." Caroline vampire-rushed over to the door.

I was glad she did. I had to be careful, considering even with powers I was not immortal like Caroline. If I died here, I died for good. While I was indulged in my worry, I did not notice Caroline's concerned face before she gasped.

"What the hell kind of party is this!?" She gasped in surprise.

Wondering what she was talking about, I headed to where she stood. My own gasp came out when I looked out of the slightly open door. We had it partly closed to make sure no one could see us, but we could see everything. It was a big ballroom, filled with people in old style flannel costumes and clothes of the - I would say 1920's era. I looked at Caroline, hoping with her fashion experience she could confirm this.

"Okay, with my fashion studies experience, I can definitely say that is 1920's style clothing. Clearly nothing from the nineties." She looked puzzled.

I felt equally perplexed.

"Maybe it's a fancy costume party? I mean we have them in mystic falls all the time," I suggested.

"But Bonnie, I don't think this is mystic falls," she whispered.

She pointed to a sign above the heads of a couple and a waiter serving them drinks. There was a big sign saying:

Annual Chicago party: 1922

That surprised me. What the hell as going on? How were we in Chicago? In 1922 of all time periods!

"Oh my gosh Bonnie!" Caroline was almost screeching in whispers, pulling my arm.

"What?" I was still too dazed to pay attention to her concerns.

"That looks like Stefan! Over there!" She pointed a shaky finger in the direction of the bar.

There sat a man that resembled Stefan. If it wasn't, he could be his twin. He was in a old fashion penguin tux, talking to a blonde man at the bar. Even though it was Stefan, his was different. He had this sinister look to him. His smile, the one he was giving the man, was mischievous and the glint in his eye seemed evil. This was definitely not the Stefan I knew. Oh wow, it hit me, this had to be ripper Stefan. Of course! I had forgotten all about his diaries, telling us of his time in Chicago around this time period. Damon had felt the need to be a jerk in the prison world, reading Stefan's diaries to me as a bedtime story. Even when I refused, saying he should respect his brother's privacy. Of course it was hard for Damon to ever really respect anyone when he felt like being selfish. Which was most of the time.

I wondered how the hell we ended up in Stefan's time period in history. I remembered I had some of his journals in my basement, that were there when we did the spell. That must have been it! I forgot he had given them to me for safe keeping, as the heretics tried to burn down the Salvatore house in vengeance against our interference. It must have confused the spell when I had repeated in my mind the time period I wanted to go to. Or maybe because Caroline was with me, and she was worried about Stefan - that triggered the spell along with his diaries that carried his emotional memories.

"That is Stefan," I was surprised at how calm I sounded.

Caroline's doe-eyes became even bigger as she looked at me. Her face forming a 'you have to be kidding?' expression, before turning back to look at older-version of Stefan.

"I can't believe it's him, he seems so different. Hot in those clothes though." She grinned, checking him out.

I hit her arm playfully.

"Caroline this is serious! Focus please." Although I was also intrigued by this version of Stefan.

It was strange seeing how he used to be. Caroline began hitting my arm again, and I looked at her in question.

"That blonde guy in a white suit looks familiar too, doesn't he?" she asked.

I looked at the guy sat next to Stefan. He did look very familiar, but we could not see him properly as Stefan's body was in the way. That was until Stefan leaned over the bar laughing, grabbing another drink. The blonde guy was suddenly in our view, causing Caroline and I to gasp in shock.

"Holy shit! It's Klaus!" Caroline whispered more loudly.

Klaus and Stefan both looked up like they heard someone call their name. Shit, I forgot they obviously had super vampire hearing. They faced our direction, causing Caroline and I to jump in fear. She quickly slammed the door shut, standing in front of it to keep it closed.

I tried to catch my breath, as I looked for the grimoire. Thank goodness we had brought it with us to this time period. I grabbed it and began to whisper the spell, when there was loud knocking and voices outside the door.

"You sure they're in there, buddy?" Klaus's smug voice spoke over the loud piano music.

"Yeah, i'm positive. Two lovely looking ladies were peeking at us, and are in this room." That was Stefan. Well, ripper Stefan.

He knocked the door, causing Caroline to jump. She looked like a nervous animal ready to run away. I didn't blame her, the situation we were in was critical. They could not see us, or it would mess up our whole future.

"Caroline, they can't come in here!" I whispered in fear.

She nodded, keeping her back against the door. Her vampire strength keeping it locked as we heard them try to push it open.

"What the hell have they put against this bloody door? My strength should have opened it by now." Klaus sounded pissed off, just like his future self.

I heard Stefan laugh.

"Oh come on king, use some of that charm of yours to get us in there. Look, allow me." Stefan was now the one knocking at the door.

"Hello in there, we just want to introduce ourselves to you lovely ladies. Do you mind opening the door?" he used his most persuasive tone.

"No, go away!" Caroline shouted back.

I tried to concentrate on the long spell in front of me, getting the words right as I began to whisper them. Praying we could get out of here fast before they caught us.

"Come on love, we don't bite. Much." Klaus and Stefan laughed at their little joke.

"Yeah right," Caroline mumbled back.

"I like this one! She sure has some fire, I bet she is foxy. I'm informing you that she is mine Stefan. You may have the other one though." Klaus discussed us like he was talking about horses to buy.

Caroline was now seething, but she remained calm as she guarded the door.

"That's if we can convince them to let us in, first, tough guy; then you can have her." That was Stefan, and he was now pushing at the door again.

Caroline looked nervous as she tried to push it back in place. I was losing concentration as I looked at her, seeing her almost sweat with nerves. She looked panicked. I knew she would not be able to hold off two strong vampires wanting to get into the room.

"Bonnie, hurry up!" she whispered in panic.

I went back to whispering the words, as I heard Stefan and Klaus argue outside over how they should just break down the door.

"Okay then love. I guess we will huff, and puff, and blow this little door down," Klaus declared.

Stefan laughed, and they both started to push hard at the door. It almost knocked Caroline over, but she stood firm against it. I was so proud of her strength, as I watched her struggle.

I rushed through the spell-words, trying to hurry it up as much as possible. The banging on the door grew louder till Caroline was shoving it back in place just to keep them from getting in.

The spell had finished. The room was filling up with bright light. Stefan and Klaus had managed to burst in, but they were blinded by the brightness. I looked at Caroline, both of us staring in fear before we disappeared into what felt like blissful energy.

We had both woken up faced down in dirt. Caroline yelled out loud as she wiped the dirt from her pretty summer dress, cursing at the mud stains it left. I got up and looked around, feeling more dizzy than before. The spell certainly took a lot out of me. Who knew time traveling could be so exhausting.

Looking around, it seemed we were in a forest - covered by many trees and no sign of any houses. After inspection, I recognized the forest instantly. It was the one I had followed Kai into, back in 1994. When he was showing Damon and I where the eclipse would take place.

I remember glaring at him in suspicion, when he had left and returned with his stuff to take with us. The feel of his fingers when he had taken by magic, after I called his bluff about not knowing the spell. I felt the ghost of his fingers on my arm. Remembering the pain and sensation of having my magic sucked out of me. The look in his eyes when he did it, like he enjoyed me challenging him. The look of pleasure he had when he stopped, like he was coming back from a high. Trying to remember how to breath, as felt my adrenaline had been spiked. Looking into those questioning eyes of his, before I had ended his life for the first time.

Caroline luckily snapped me out of those memories

"Bonnie are you okay? The spell didn't hurt you, right?" She sounded concerned.

I smile and shook my head, looking around us.

"No don't worry, I'm fine. This is it Caroline. We made it." I gestured to the forest around us.

"Wait, we are in mystic falls! I remember this forest. We're in the nineties?" She asked, looking around her in surprise.

I honestly didn't know how I knew we were in the nineties, considering we were in mystic falls. The spell could have just taken us back to our current time period. Yet I knew from my witchy intuition this was it. I used my magical senses to gain a feel of the time period, and it felt only slightly earlier than 1993 flashed in my mind, which meant we were a good year earlier than the previous trip I had made to that time period. I would never forget what that year felt like. Being stuck in that repeating day prison world - had scarred me for life.

I let Caroline know what time period it was. She was happy that we at least were away from Stefan's past, which I was thankful for too. Still, I felt so nervous being back in the nineties around the time Kai was around. My heart was beating faster than usual, as I remembered being stuck here before in the same forest. All those painful memories I wanted to erase of my time spent in 1994 prison world. The feeling of claustrophobia taking over, like I was confined in a small space instead of big forest. It made me feel like the mental walls I had built to block the painful memories of seclusion, all came rushing back.

I was back in the time period from hell again. I just hoped this time I could escape.